Feast of St. Clare

St. Clare - J.R. Howley

Clarissa.

Chiara. 

Clare.

lovely Clare,
so pure,
so clear,
so poor,
so simple,
so aflame,
so lovely,
so a'love,
... love.

Archbishop Burke was on Raymundo Live...

 I noticed in a video, Arroyo has a new set.  Nice.

The Cardinal addressed the LCWR issue.

Darn, I missed it.  I used to watch EWTN World Over Live every Friday night, but since it switched to Thursday nights, I always miss it now.  It conflicts with Big Bang Theory and 30 Rock.

Last night Cardinal Burke was on.  He is so kind - and he obviously doesn't think the controversy is a joke, but a very serious problem, stating: "If it (LCWR) can't be reformed, it doesn't have a right to continue."  And he said that because the Holy See is the reason for their existence, and if they do not cooperate with the Holy See - that's it.  I agree - but what are they going to do about all the bad seeds they sowed?

Too bad Cardinal Burke wasn't the man to address the conference instead of Archbishop Carlson.

TGIF

Archive photo: 

Cathy passed out in the back of

the squad car after

Ray was stopped for a DUI - by Adoro

 when she was a cop

 - that's how they all met -

Ray's in the background

doing the sober walk

for the other officer. 

Thank God It's Friday... reflective, glow in the dark, thoughts.

• Years ago I had friends who began drinking right after work on Friday and drank through to Sunday afternoon.  When they got older - like into their late 50's, they stopped drinking, just like that.   Some would say they were alcoholics, but I never thought they were.  What's my point?  I don't have one.

• I was up late last night looking for St. Lawrence's tears but could barely see the stars in the clear sky, which reminded me that I'm going blind.

• Years ago my friends and I laid on our backs on the eve of the saint, after dropping mescaline, and watched St. Lawrence's tears shooting through the star studded sky above a remote hill in a place called Eden Prairie.  We didn't know at the time that it was a meteor shower. 

• This morning I was reading about St. Martin of Breve-La-Gaillarde, + c. 407.  He fled Spain and went on pilgrimage, ending up in the town that is his namesake, and proceeded to evangelize the pagan inhabitants.  When he overthrew one of their idols, the townsfolk stoned him to death.  Imagine that today.  Imagine going into a pagan temple and overthrowing an image of Ganesha.  Or imagine going to a Sikh temple to evangelize.  I know.

• Did you know St. Monica was not an alcoholic?  She is just the patron of alcoholics.  Her maid scolded her for sneaking wine - which she enjoyed.  She just stopped drinking because her maid called her on it.  She never went to treatment, never did the 12 steps, never got a DUI, never drove into a 7-11, never danced on tables, never slept around, never wrote a blog about it, - she like the wine however.

Things have changed, haven't they.  Not a question - simply an observation.

I don't get into TGIF stuff any longer BTW.

What point are you trying to make here Terry?   

Just reflecting ... and observing ... behavior.

The next planet was inhabited by a tippler. This was a very short visit, but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.

"What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, whom he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.

"I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.

"Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.

"So that I may forget," replied the tippler.

"Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.

"Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.

"Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.

"Ashamed of drinking!" The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.

And the little prince went away, puzzled.

"The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey. - The Little Prince

Disclaimer:  This is just a random post - it is not directed at any one - and no - I am not going to pursue my lifelong ambition to become an alcoholic, and I am not drinking anything but Dr. Pepper.  I only thought of this because I remembered my weekend friends, Angelo and Eddie, as well as the accusations that Monica was an alcoholic.  She wasn't.

Bonus:  When I was younger - in my late teens early twenties, most of the homosexuals who befriended me were heavy, heavy drinkers - nightly - but cocktail hour never began before 5PM.  Alcoholism was/is considered a major problem amongst homosexuals.  When it became fashionable to go into treatment - ala Betty Ford, Elizabeth Taylor, Murphy Brown - many gay people sobered up to get rid of the puffiness.  Suprisingly, treatment helped them to accept being gay - hence the drinking was discovered to be only a symptom - of depression.  Today, most homosexuals I know are on some form of anti-depressant - or a combination of meds to balance them out.  I suppose in many cases, they are just treating the symptoms...

Again, St. Monica was not an alcoholic - she just liked to drink.

Feast of St. Lawrence

Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, Giotto

What a hoot!  Huh?

They say he joked while being roasted alive and told the executioners they could turn him over because he was done on that side.  Maybe.

That stuff works for religious people when they want to make light of otherwise serious situations.  Cardinal Dolan likes a good joke - so does Fr. James Martin S.J. and Stephen Colbert.  Oh hell, who doesn't?  Dolan and Martin and Colbert have a show coming up, don't they?  So cool!  “This is just what the Catholic Church needs,” said Martin, who has been on “The Colbert Report” so many times that he is called the official chaplain of the Emmy-winning news parody program. “Being joyful does not mean that you overlook suffering or pain or even scandal.”

Oh man!  I can't wait.  And I think Dolan even invited Obama and the Mormon guy to a big dinner, or is it a roast?  (Canned laughter!)

Back-slapping, rib-nudging, good humor - works for me too.

Bring back those nuns playing baseball in their habits, and cigar chomping, cocktail swilling prelates, 1950's Deborah Kerr Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison kind of American Catholicism any day! 

Lighten up folks!

What?  I'm being positive.

A beautiful tribute to Fr. James Martin, S. J.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Sister-tistics - Up-dated.


and...


Mea Maxima Culpa: An Upstart Blogger Eats Crow


Joanne K. McPortland even captured Fr. Z's admiration...


Love this title - love this title - love this title –  Egregious Twaddle 

That's just beautiful.

I think we are all coming together after this... we're all Catholics - we're on the same side - we're a big Church people! 

Remember bloggers, people make mistakes.


There But For The Grace of God.

The need to be more sensitive online.

Mental illness.

Yesterday I lifted a term from a blog for a post I composed, which was really used as part of my running commentary on blogs, popularity and status in the 'blogosphere'.  I must confess, I did not read the entire post and had no idea that the author linked to another woman's post dealing with mental illness.  I left a comment in the com box of my post explaining what happened and killed the link to the original post.  I have to admit I don't really read a lot of bloggers, and those I do, I often skim their posts.  Sorry.  I'm a bad man.

Very seriously, mental illness in the blogosphere - diagnosed or undiagnosed, in the closet or out of the closet - is a fact.  Personally, I think it accounts for a lot of snark and mean spirited comments in com boxes, misunderstandings, jealousy and envy, as well as some of the great humor.  No doubt, mental illness is indeed an illness, and a terrible suffering.  There are many degrees and a whole lot that I don't understand about it - nor do the professionals.  Though I went through a period in my life struggling with mild depression and panic attacks, I've never had serious difficulties, and though I did some therapy for a time hoping to 'straighten' out some sexual 'addiction' issues, I've never been diagnosed with anything other than mild depression and panic disorder.  All good now, thanks be to God.  In my case, confession did more than therapy.  I stopped therapy when the therapist told me my main problem was being a Roman Catholic.  I should write about it some day.

That said, I've always been fascinated with mental illness, and the mentally ill.  Perhaps it's because my parents were so nuts.  In their case it was exasperated by childhood abuse, serious moral difficulties and alcoholism.  Likewise it could be related to my use of psychedelics in the late 1960's.  I've also worked with people who were mentally ill, and actually became friends with religious people whom I later discovered were mentally ill.  As I've mentioned before, I particularly enjoyed my bi-polar friends in their manic stages, and of course, the alcoholics were delightful drinking buddies.  My experience with these friends helped me to understand to some extent, strange behavior much better than I ever could have otherwise, as well as an ability to see humor in the absurd and life's most difficult circumstances; although much more deeply, to recognize that compassion enables us to share in one anothers sufferings - after all, we are all human. 

Benedicta a Crux - Blessed by the Cross.

I came across two very interesting posts today:  One by a man who suffers from mental illness, and the other, by a guy who was raised by lesbian mothers.  I will reprint an excerpt or two from both - the accounts struck me, I'm not sure if they will you - but I reprint them nonetheless.  

From Catholic Lane:  "I have been struggling with my illness for 16 years, and on medication for 13. Apart from my Catholic faith and my relationship with Jesus I am certain I would be dead. It’s as simple as that. Whether from a bullet from a prison guard or by my own hand, I’m not sure, but the world would be getting along without me. And no one can suffer mental illness without wondering if he’d be better off dead anyway. It’s hard to imagine a cross harder to bear, or heavier, or more laden with shame. But through it all Jesus has given me hope, strength, and indefatigable peace. He has not saved me from suffering; rather, he has given me a much greater gift: he has saved me through suffering. My suffering, my weakness, is a badge of honor, and not a scarlet letter.

My Catholic faith gets me through everything. I know that I am a human person who has value, despite consistently under performing in almost every job I’ve had in the last 13 years, and there have been many. I am not a “mentally-ill person” or a “schizophrenic”; I am a human person who struggles with mental illness. My illness does not define me; my relationship with Jesus does. And Jesus, in our relationship, looks out for me." - Anthony Schefter

Crazy home life and gay parents... its effect on a kid.

I kind of get this - coming from the background I come from.  Disordered and dysfunctional homes disorient a kid. The following from a man raised by lesbian mothers.

From The Public Discourse:  "Quite simply, growing up with gay parents was very difficult, and not because of prejudice from neighbors. [...] When your home life is so drastically different from everyone around you, in a fundamental way striking at basic physical relations, you grow up weird. I have no mental health disorders or biological conditions. I just grew up in a house so unusual that I was destined to exist as a social outcast.

My home life was not traditional nor conventional. I suffered because of it, in ways that are difficult for sociologists to index. Both nervous and yet blunt, I would later seem strange even in the eyes of gay and bisexual adults who had little patience for someone like me. I was just as odd to them as I was to straight people.

Life is hard when you are strange. Even now, I have very few friends and often feel as though I do not understand people because of the unspoken gender cues that everyone around me, even gays raised in traditional homes, takes for granted. Though I am hard-working and a quick learner, I have trouble in professional settings because co-workers find me bizarre." - Robert Lopez

Fascinating stuff, if you ask me.

St. Benedict Joseph Labre,

pray for us.

The LCWR Seed Bed: Mothers of Conscious Evolution...

How they've evolved...

These women still have real jobs in the Church.

Many online Catholics are making fun of the LCWR, dismissing them as useless old ladies on their way to extinction - and there are a few who make no secret of an eager anticipation for the 'biological solution'.  Nice Catholic thought.  Anyway - as I mentioned in a comment on another post - these women still work, they remain Catholic women religious - they remain active sisters.  Most still have jobs, some as spiritual directors, some as retreat masters, hospital administrators, others work in parishes and chanceries - and if they themselves are not actively employed in those positions, there remain other sisters in their 'dwindling' communities* who still work.  Archbishop Carlson addressed the assembly, therefore it's not as if they are a group of unemployed church ladies on a North Shore camp out.

Never underestimate the resolve and determination of a nun.

Their keynote speaker, Barbara Marx Hubbard applauded the assembly proclaiming them as the 'seed bed' for evolutionary change in the Catholic Church.  These women simply didn't suddenly materialize this past week, their New Age ideology wasn't just conceived this past week - these women have been cultivating their 'doctrine' for many years.  They have been active participants in the Church, working for a very long time.  Some of them have probably been vocation directors and formation partners in seminaries.  Hence, BMH wasn't so much making a prediction as she was recognizing a fact.  Indeed, she addressed the 'seed bed' which has influenced even the bishops who should have been the ones doing the teaching.  Wake up - the damage is done.

And one of the best hopes for the continuation of humanity, said Barbara Marx Hubbard, are the women religious themselves.

"You are the best seed bed I know for evolving the church and the world in the 21st century," Hubbard, an author known for her advancement of a worldview called "conscious evolution," told the crowd at the annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

"That may be a surprise for the world, but new things always happen from unexpected places. Let's think of it … that God has given a seed bed that is capable of helping to evolve the world and the church of the 21st century. Why not? Where else would it come from? It has to come from the women." - NCR

Unlike bishops and priests, nuns rarely retire until they're at least 90.  So don't laugh too hard.

Links:

 

Link to National Catholic Register coverage.

*Link to Catholic Culture:  "Claims that liberal women’s religious orders are dying out “are not based in fact,” according to an analysis by two women religious in America magazine."

And then there is this: Lies, Damned Lies and I had to tone down my rhetoric because I - fill in the blank.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Something to think about...

"If we love to be nothing, to accept contempt, and not only accept it, but end by loving it, we shall make great progress in prayer; we shall be loaded ... Former pride disappears when a man no longer finds in himself anything that might cause him to look down on others." - St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Art source Teresa Satola

Wasted

Today I was going to stay off line completely.  And I posted repeatedly.

Mrs. Obama don't get paid.

"I just wanna get paid!"

President Obama spoke to women supporters today at a Denver event. 

"...I wanna make sure that when she's working she is getting paid the same as men, I gotta say that First Ladies right now don't, even though that's a tough job!" - Source

Really?  Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura complained about the same thing when he explained why his wife didn't do anything for the state. 

What?

Archbishop Hart blasts Melbourne Newspaper for publishing sacrilegious dog story.

I'm glad I didn't make a tweet, do a post, or write on anyone's wall making fun of it.

Story here...

Randy... Randy Travis.

A guy walks in to a convenience store naked, asking to buy cigarettes.  The clerk says, "Didn't you see the sign?  'No clothes, No service!'  Now get the hell outtta here!"

He can't be an addict, according to Damien Thompson, that is just a crutch...

There is no medical test for addiction: no brain scan or blood screening that enables a doctor to detect its presence.

And the disease model doesn’t just fail to meet scientific criteria: it doesn’t pass the common sense test, either. - Damien Thompson

So maybe Travis is just randy?

A-list Bloggers?

Really?

Are there really A-list bloggers?  A-list speakers?

Really?

Is there a wealthy donor out there

who could send money for

a trip to London?

So anyway - I watched the video of Barbara Marx Hubbard and...

I wrote the following in an email reply to a friend on the subject...

"I know about Theosophy too - I dabbled in the occult before my conversion - that stuff sticks to you like pitch - while listening to the tape of Barbara Marx Hubbard I felt an interior rush - an artificial feeling of bliss - almost like the threshold of feeling high - hard to explain.  A bad spirit, to be sure.  Anyway - Hubbard is filling a spiritual void in these fallen angels/sisters of the LCWR."

Which is precisely why I do not find the gathering in St. Louis amusing.

Once, the author Michael O'Brien told me I should not have my astrological sign available in my profile - explaining how even that connection to the occult can be bad.  I don't necessarily agree with that, however, if people think charms, images, and occult references are dangerous and open one to demonic influences, why on earth do they mockingly dismiss what the LCWR is doing by inviting actual occultists to address their conferences?  Especially when these same women continue to influence the Church in the United States.

It is no laughing matter.

Funny bloggers.

Duane

Fr. Longenecker.

I don't read everything he posts, but the fact that he invents all of these blogger personalities makes me laugh.

Remember how Jeffrey always called him Dwight in the com box discussions?  I miss Jeffie.

Memorial of St. Dominic

Image source and anecdote from the Saint's life.

Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth;

keep watch at the door of my lips!

What?

Pope Benedict XVI and 'modern evolutionary world view'.

Consciously evolved and loving it.

"The great vision of Teilhard de Chardin"

Toward the end of a reflection upon the Letter to the Romans, in which St. Paul writes that the world itself will one day become a form of living worship, the pope said, "It's the great vision that later Teilhard de Chardin also had: At the end we will have a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host.  "Let's pray to the Lord that he help us be priests in this sense," the pope said, "to help in the transformation of the world in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves." - Source

That's interesting, isn't it.  I'm not asking a question.  Perhaps that helps explain the Barbara Marx Hubbard  invite to the LCWR conference in St. Louis - considering she too is an admirer of de Chardin?     Maybe not. 

As Cardinal Ratzinger, the Holy Father referenced de Cardin in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, specifically mentioning the Noosphere.

"For example, against the background of the modern evolutionary world view, Teilhard de Chardin depicted the cosmos as a process of ascent, a series of unions.  From very simple beginnings the path leads to ever greater and more complex unities, in which multiplicity is not abolished but merged into a growing synthesis, leading to the 'Noosphere', in which the spirit and its understanding embrace the whole and are blended into a kind of living organism.  Invoking the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, Teilhard looks on Christ as the energy that strives for the Noosphere and finally incorporates everything in its 'fullness'.  From here Teilhard went on to give a new meaning to Christian worship: the transubstantiated Host is the anticipation of the transformation and divinization of matter in the christological 'fullness'.  In his view, the Eucharist provides the movement of the cosmos with its direction; it anticipates its goal and at the same time urges it on." - The Spirit of the Liturgy

Maybe the LCWR is orthodox then?  Somehow I don't see the same understanding in the evolved thought of Barbara Marx Hubbard and the LCWR...

Cosmic girl.

“Here we are in 2012, we now have a noosphere: It’s Facebook, it’s Twitter, it’s the 5.7 billion cell phones, texting,” Hubbard said. “The planet has grown a new nervous system in the last 50 years, and this nervous system connects us.”

Catholic theologians familiar with Hubbard and her writing on “conscious evolution” say there is, indeed, a link between her work and Teilhard’s.

Though Teilhard’s writing was not without critics in the Vatican, it had a significant impact on the Second Vatican Council, said John Haught, senior fellow in science and religion at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center in Washington.

“Teilhard would find in Barbara a kindred spirit,” Haught said. “He thought that the basic division in humanity is not between believers and nonbelievers, but between those who hope and those who do not.”

Franciscan Sr. Ilia Delio, a senior research fellow in science and religion at Woodstock Theological Center, said Hubbard is a “forward thinker” who, during the LCWR meeting, may call on women religious “to be more creative and engaging in our life and the way we think about God and creation.”

“I think she might say that we are in a new age, knowing ourselves to be in evolution, and certainly for religious women, this is a very different awareness than where religious life evolved in a static universe, and developed within the parameters of a static universe,” Delio said. “And we no longer live in that universe, we live in an evolutionary one.” - NCR

Really?

There is a gay-Catholic connection here as well... wouldn't you know I'd find that connection?  A sort of gay-fusion, synergy perhaps ...

Evolution is speeding up in the universe, and we are moving into a new level of religious consciousness that is more global and pluralistic in nature. Does Christianity have something distinct to offer, or are we too worn out by internal divisions and complex theological traditions? Do we long at times for the old fixed universe?

We are called to be whole-makers, to evolve by uniting, growing and becoming more complex. We are not to seek the living among the dead. Rather, we are to forge a new future, a new hope, a new life that begins with our own lives. - Sr. Ilia Delio Source 

What is Barbara Marx Hubbard doing at the LCWR?

Editor's note:  Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who has been charged by the Vatican with responsibility for supervising a reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), has been told by the group’s leaders that his presence “would not be helpful” at the LCWR’s annual assembly this week.

What does the Catholic Church have in common with the New Age?

Marx Hubbard is New Age.  Marx Hubbard is a Theosophist.  Marx Hubbard is an agent for change.  One doesn't have to depend on documentation from anti-Catholic Protestant Fundamentalist sites to know that.  One doesn't have to be an occultist to know it either.  Just read anything from Barbara Marx Hubbard, visit the website, connect the dots of her references.   Spiritualists such as Marianne Williamson, a New Age author many Catholics - religious and laity - enjoy reading, is also what I would call a co-agent for change, admired by Marx Hubbard.  If this isn't evidence that inclusive-minded, dissident, women religious and dissident Catholics have embraced heretical teaching - I don't know what is. 

I will post a few sections with familiar buzz words - signal expressions common in many parishes and religious ed programs these days - all from Hubbard's web site:

Synergetic Community. In the developmental path it is soon obvious that one cannot fully express and manifest unique creativity in chosen work in a world that is dissonant and unreceptive to our vocations. We cannot change large systems, or fix dysfunctional systems. We do what Bela H. Banathy calls for, “transcend and create” through the visioning of the ideal state and then creating design spaces to work toward that state, realizing new potential by building upon unfolded potential.

 “The evolutionary quantum jump, the big change, will happen in our myriads of communities, living and acting all over the evolutionary landscape. They will become the forces of conscious evolution”

Key words: co- evolution, co-creation, community, synergy, vision.

Conscious Evolution - agents for change.

I’ve realized that the psycho-spiritual evolution of the individual is going much faster than the societal transformation is able to keep up. Though we have many wonderful initiatives in terms of transforming society as a whole, it’s still quite embryonic.

You will be like gods:   

As we become aware as a species that we have tapped into these “powers of the gods” we realize we can guide these powers, and we must ask ourselves: toward what? What is the meaning of our new powers? In our existing religions, there’s really no social vision or developmental path to direct these powers. This is not to diminish the role religions have played, for they have provided us a transcendent potential toward which we can move; whereas our secular liberalism offers no such transcendent potential or vision. It’s basically a humanitarian ideal of comfort for everyone. But while we need to attend to these humanitarian needs, the human spirit will never be satisfied by simply being fed, housed and clothed.

There are theories suggesting that Gaia, this living system, is itself intelligent.

We can apply these ideas to ourselves. To consciously participate in this experience rather than merely being a passive witness, we can identify ourselves with the conscious Force seeking to manifest through evolution, developing our untapped cocreative potential. In my own efforts at self-evolution, I hold three aspects of consciousness in my heart simultaneously: I am an expression of the Whole Story of Creation; I am a vital participant in expressing my creativity to serve that Evolution and my own evolution; and thirdly, I am one with Source. This is Evolutionary Consciousness.

The quality that distinguishes evolutionary consciousness is that you feel the emergent potential within yourself and you are driven with a passion as great as the desire for self-preservation and self-reproduction, but turned now toward self-evolution and self-expression for the sake of yourself and the world. - Foundation for Conscious Evolution

 I think it is telling that a major Roman Catholic organization is publicly hosting an occultist to address its assembly.  It is really just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as to how deeply the Catholic Church in the United States is infected by New Age spirituality - typically based upon evolved anthropological/psychological/spiritual consciousness. 

This stuff is nothing to joke about or make fun of.  It is serious precisely because it is epic delusion, and the salvation of many souls are at stake.

Addendum:  What does Marx-Hubbard think of the Catholic Church?

Asked if she has seen a paradigm shift in Catholic theological circles:

"I'll never forget when I was staying with a group of nuns in South Bend, Indiana, during a Fourth of July weekend. I was there at the same time that WorldCom and Enron were falling. And there was a Catholic priest there named Diarmuid O'Murchu who wrote a book called Quantum Theology. Anyway, he got up and he said, "Evolution was working for billions of years before organized religion, and it will be working for billions of years after organized religion." And then, as a Catholic priest speaking to a group of nuns, he said, "The Catholic Church will not hold, because not only is the story wrong but the hierarchy is wrong. The structure is wrong. The whole thing is wrong." And the nuns all stood up and cheered! Now, they loved Jesus. It had nothing to do with not loving Jesus. And I suddenly thought, "Maybe this is the way it has to happen. Hierarchical, mechanistic structures are not adequate for an interactive, conscious, evolutionary world." And those structures are going. What we hope is that they don't collapse too fast and lead to complete chaos.

Incidentally, I think that all the major world religions were founded in an earlier phase of human evolution by people whose consciousness clearly was way beyond the ordinary  - Source

Catholic news stories are beginning to sound like blogger-parodies...

Agents of Conscious Evolution

Truth is stranger than bad writing.

I just read a story about a really bad Jesuit:

A Jesuit priest is encouraging al-Qaeda terrorists, financed by President Barack Obama, to bomb Catholic Churches in Syria for “ethnic cleansing” purposes, as revenge against Syrian President Bashar Assad for expelling him from the country.

According to the Star, “a Jesuit thrown out of Syria for criticizing Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy forces is visiting North America and will be in Toronto Friday and Saturday. He’s bring a message to fellow Christians and others: ‘it’s un-Christian and immoral to be fretting only or mostly about the possible plight of the Christian minority in post-Assad Syria, while doing little to save the overwhelming majority of Syrians being massacred by the Assad regime.”

Rev. Paolo Da’ll’ Oglio is calling Syrian Christians Bosnian-style “war criminals” and accuses them of “sowing sectarian divisions.” He’s hoping that Obama deploys the US military to launch a terror campaign against innocent Syrian Christian civilians. - Source

Then there is the LCWR story du jour: Crackpots of the Noosphere:

Barbara Marx Hubbard, an evolutionary thinker who is to speak this week before the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, is not Catholic or part of any mainstream religion. But she says she has faith in the future.

She will bring this message of hope to LCWR when she delivers the keynote address at the organization’s annual meeting Tuesday through Friday in St. Louis. The audience is likely to still be reeling from the criticism in a Vatican assessment that has shaken communities of sisters throughout the country.

“It’s a message of hope, of cooperation and alignment,” Hubbard said of the ideas she will explore in her speech. “How can we align that impulse to the deeper impulse of Christ in evolution, of God in evolution?”

Not that it makes any difference ...

Part of the Vatican order to LCWR calls for a review of the speakers to the group’s annual conferences. The Vatican’s doctrinal assessment found that “Addresses given during LCWR annual Assemblies manifest problematic statements and serious theological, even doctrinal errors.” - Source

Really?  Anybody wonder why the Vatican should be worried about the LCWR?

Hold onto your donut-cushions Sisters, Barbara Marx Hubbard isn't just a "theologian", she's a Theosophist - her idea of evolution aligns quite well with the Jesuit priest's 'peace-plan' to cleanse Syria of its Christian minority.  What follows is a bit of Barbara Marx Hubbard's theology, philosphy, err, theosophy:

"The destructive one fourth must be eliminated from the social body."

“Out of the full spectrum of human personality, one-forth is electing to transcend…One-forth is resistant to election. They are unattracted by life ever-evolving. Now, as we approach the quantum shift from creature-human to co-creative human the destructive one-forth must be eliminated from the social body…Fortunately you, dearly beloveds, are not responsible for this act. We are. We are in charge of God’s selection process for planet Earth. He selects, we destroy. We are the riders of the pale horse, Death.”    Barbara Marx Hubbard

“…people will either change or die,” for “that is the choice.” According to those who would concur with Hubbard, Christians will need to be more open minded so they too can receive the mark of the Antichrist. If they will not join with the global community and its agenda, they will be killed by the “opened minded” New Agers. She states that, “This act is as horrible as killing a cancer cell. It must be done (or the sake of the future of the whole. So be it; be prepared for the selection process which is now beginning. We, the elders, have been patiently waiting until the very last moment before the quantum transformation, to take action to cut out this corrupted and corrupting element in the body of humanity. It is like watching a cancer grow; something must be done before the whole body is destroyed…. The destructive one fourth must be eliminated from the social body.”  - Barbara Marx Hubbard. 

Remembering the victims of the Sikh Temple shooting.

Americans murdered at their place of worship.  Story here.

Prayers for the victims and their families.


At least Deacon Kandra posts about the tragedy.

Ah! Look at this!

"O Jesus, King of Love,

I put my trust in thy

 merciful goodness."

Jesus King of Love.

Dom Mark of Silverstream Priory, Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland, writes of the devotion to the Child Jesus, King of Love.  The new Benedictine priory recently received a wood carving of the Little King from a generous benefactor and friend of the monastery.  Fr. Mark summarizes the history of the devotion here:

The image of Jesus, King of Love is linked to the little invocation given by Our Lord to Yvonne Beauvais on 17 August 1922. Yvonne was sojourning at the Augustinian Monastery of Malestroit when Our Lord manifested Himself to her, and : "Say morning and evening, O Jésus, Roi d'Amour, j'ai confiance en votre miséricordieuse bonté. -- O Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in Thy merciful goodness."

On 28 August 1922, the feast of Saint Augustine, the Doctor of Charity, the Superioress of the Monastery of Malestroit, at Yvonne's request, introduced the practice of reciting the little invocation every morning and evening. She did this without revealing the origin of the prayer and without mentioning Yvonne.

At first, the little invocation spread by word of mouth. In 1927 modest bookmarks bearing an image of the Sacred Heart were printed to promote the recitation of the prayer. In 1932 the Bishop of Vannes, France, approved the invocation for his diocese. The following year, Pope Pius XI indulgenced the prayer for the Augustinian Canonesses of the Mercy of Jesus, for their sick and for those hospitalized in their institutions. Pope Pius XII renewed the favour and, on December 6, 1958, Blessed John XXIII extended it to the universal Church. - Vultus Christi

Fr. Mark composed a consecration prayer, part of which I share here:

O JESUS, KING OF LOVE,
WITH TRUST IN THY MERCIFUL GOODNESS,we consecrate ourselves to Thee;
and offer to Thy Sacred Heart
all that we have received from Thee:
our life itself,
our strength, and our talents,
our desires, our works, and our humble efforts.
At the same time we offer Thee
our weaknesses and our inconsistencies,
our fears, our failures, and even our sins,
for there is nothing of ours
that Thy merciful love cannot redeem, and heal,
restore, and turn to Thy Father's glory. - Consecration 

I have found that devotion to the Sacred Humanity of Christ, particularly to his infancy and childhood can be efficacious for healing the seemingly incurable wound of sexual abuse, sexual disorder, and obstacles related to arrested emotional development.  The Child Jesus inspires confidence and love, and bestows counsel and fortitude, he quickly stills the most violent storms and passions.  Below, I added a couple of verses to Dom Marco's beautiful consecration prayer:

It is your Sacred Heart, O Jesus, King of Love, 

which is hospital for the healing of sick souls, 

a safe refuge for fearful and anxious souls, 

a school for the confounded and discouraged, 

a welcoming home for poor and restless souls, 

O Jesus, King of love, I put my trust

in thy merciful goodness.

 Link to an earlier post I wrote on Devotion to the Child Jesus.

What did Moses and Elijah discuss with Jesus during the Transfiguration?

Death and Transfiguration - Terence Davies Trilogy

"They appeared in glory and spoke of his passage, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem." - Luke 9:31

In other words, his passion, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem.  In Matthew, Christ's prophecy of his passion, as well as his exposition of the doctrine of the cross, precedes the event. [Matt. 16:21-28]  As they descended the mountain, he repeated the prophecy, "The Son of Man will suffer..." [Mt. 17:12]

Take courage.

Triggers

Always there to remind me.

It seems to me that some people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse can experience a sort of post-traumatic-stress-disorder, even long after they assume they have already resolved and come to terms with issues related to the abuse and early sexualization, which happened to them so long ago.  Sometimes, the most obscure incident can act as a trigger, resurrecting memories of particular incidents.  Something as simple as a scent can initiate a flash back.  It still happens to me of course, but I'm more or less accustomed to the experience and seem to be able to handle it better than I used to do.

In the post immediately before this one, I mentioned the details of a specific incident which triggered one such memory.  When we were little - people who have gone through sexual abuse that is - we were usually not permitted to speak about it.  In fact, not only did we blame ourselves for those sins, anyone who ever found out about what happened, blamed us as well.  Hence we were always wrong about happened, how we felt, what we said, what we did, and so on. 

Believe me, I know what abuse is - in all of its forms.  I know what scandal is.  I know what post-traumatic-stress is.  I know what harm adult misbehavior and bad example does to kids.  I know how self-interested people try to stifle, or twist the  truth to fit their agenda or cover-up their crimes.  I know what it is like to have bad parents.  I know about the lives of gay men.  I know about repressed memories.  I know about implantation of memories by therapists.  I also know about being falsely accused.

Remember, what you do to kids, what you show to kids, what you do in front of kids, remains in their defenseless heart...  

I would rather have a millstone around my neck than be responsible for scandalizing a kid.

 

Kissing and Kiss-ins: Ruffling feathers at Chick-fil-A

So queer!

That was how we said things back when I was in high shool.  "So queer!"  It meant something was 'lame', 'dumb', 'gay', all meaning, 'so-not-cool', back in the olden days.  And I think the expression  works quite well for the Chick-fil-A kiss-in-fail.  I came across a couple of videos which showed a few same sex couples chomping at each other's mouths in a staged kiss - it was so dumb.  Probably really gross to any kid who might have seen it.  Yet, maybe there is no shock factor any longer?  So why do something so immature? 

The staged event reminded me of one of my 'first kisses' when I was just a little, stupid kid.  One of the men who molested me tried to kiss me, sticking his tongue down my throat.  I choked, but he was intent upon 'making-out' - kissing and hugging me.  I distinctly remember how I kept squirming, protesting, "Men don't kiss each other!"  But I was a kid - it didn't matter to that guy.

It's an ugly thing to corrupt the morals of a child.  An awful, terrible sin.

"See, here you have passed by a small child, passed by in anger, with a foul word, with a wrathful soul; you perhaps did not notice the child, but he saw you, and your unsightly impious image, has remained in his defenseless heart. You did not know it, but you may have thereby planted a bad seed in him, and it may grow, all because you did not restrain yourself before the child, because you did not nurture in yourself a heedful, active love." - Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov; Talks and Homilies

These people circle the earth and the sea in order to train their children, and they make them children of perdition twofold more than they themselves are. [Mt: 23:15]

Mass Chat: Mantilla sighting at my parish.

Charlene Wittstock, Princess of Monaco*

Looking good in a mantilla.

Third Sunday in a row - the woman in the mantilla. 

Recently our parish merged with another parish - and since the 'unification' Mass I've noticed several strangers at Mass.  One, an older woman, wears a mantilla, although she stands to greet those around her before Mass begins, applauds on key, and extends her hand for the sign of peace.  It's all good though.  It doesn't matter - I mean, look how beautiful the princess of Monaco looks in a mantilla - nothing wrong with wearing one if a woman feels so inclined.  I'm only mentioning the head covering because Fr. Z just did a post on women and mantillas - again.  Lots of mileage on that subject.

I noticed one commenter, obviously interested in starting another thread, mentioned women in pants - like it's a bad thing.  This stuff never gets old for some people, does it. 

Anyway - Speaking of trousers on women, I came across a really cool Armani ad: stunning model, dressed in one of his suits for women.  I like the look.  Which is why I scanned and posted the ad for Mass Chat.  Something different to discuss at Donutz and coffee for a change.

Here's another thought:

"Feminism can only occur in societies where men allow it." - Author unknown.

*Remember the Taki Magazine story claiming the Princess was drugged and forced to marry Prince Albert?  Apparently she's still there, married to the wicked Prince - and she loves mantillas.

After living alone for so many years...

Yeah, so - once there was a way to get back home...