Today begins the novena to Our Lady of La Salette

September 19

Remember, Our Lady of La Salette, true Mother of Sorrows, the tears which thou did shed for me on Calvary. Be mindful also of the unceasing care which thou does exercise to screen me from the Justice of God, and consider whether thou can now abandon thy child, for whom thou hast done so much. Inspired by this consoling thought, I come to cast myself at thy feet, in spite of my infidelities and ingratitude...

Mention your intentions here:

Reject not my prayer, O Virgin of reconciliation, convert me, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ above all things and to console thee too by living a holy life, in order that one day I may be able to see thee in Heaven. Amen

I think devotion to Our Lady of La Salette is very much needed today ... Mother of Sorrows, Mother of Conversion - Virgin of Reconciliation, pray for us.




h/t dxv 515

Country Church Fair

The Seventh Day Adventist church across the street ...

They are having some sort of fair today.  They have a band - electric piano, guitars and synthesizer.  They are playing country music and hymns.  Loud.  It's torture.  They play the same hymns Catholics do - that Haas - Gather Us In crap.  Mixed in with Grand ole-ole-ole Opry style songs, like Minnie Pearl would sing.

Horn!  Horn!  HORN!

Whatever works...

I guess.

Always something there to disappoint you ...

Second thoughts on the Vatican's sex-ed program ...

Illustration from The Meeting Point

Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to a LifeSite article, which I unquestionably linked to, and later did a stupid humor post on the Vatican Project,  'The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual Education for Young People' using gifs from the film Airplane which were tasteless.  I apologize.

That said - I'm no expert on how or what to teach kids regarding sexuality and marriage - I have an idea, but I'm not involved in education, and I have never been a parent.

I just want to say that a certain degree of explicitness and candor - age appropriate of course - would not be inappropriate in any sex-ed program.  Especially for teens - who know more today than I ever did at their age.

I'll tell you why I think that.  In the early 1980's I watched a NOVA documentary called the The Miracle of Life on PBS.  It was magnificent.  How it was filmed, inside the body, seemed absolutely miraculous.  It graphically explained the man's parts as well as the woman's parts and how they fit together, if you will.  It explicitly depicts the moment of ejaculation inside the woman and follows the sperm to implantation and the development of the embryo, and so on.  From conception to birth: The Miracle of Life ... to be sure.  When I first watched it, for me it was a profound, awe-inspiring revelation.  It completely changed my thinking regarding contraception, abortion, as well as homosexual acts.

Man's best friend ...

Gay Network in the Church - forming again?

I couldn't see the lobby from my window,

so I moved into the hotel...

A couple of websites claim Benedict XVI thinks so.

Evidently the retired Holy Father said as much in his last interview with Seewald in his latest book, Final Conversations.  Pope Benedict has said he broke up a small 'gay lobby' of four or five before his retirement.  Today some sites are leading with the claim, "Benedict thinks the gay network may have reassembled under Francis."  That's misleading.

Evidently what was really said was: "Whether it forms again, I do not know."

People will know for sure what the retired Holy Father said, if and when they read the book.

I just have a couple of comments for those jumping to conclusions.

First, 'network' is a more appropriate term rather than 'gay mafia' or 'gay lobby'.  A network is as Crux describes it: "a network of gay clergy who protect one another’s secrets and try to help one another inside the system."  Quietly.

Pope Benedict may have succeeded in breaking up some sort of faction within the system, but he probably did little else but send them back into a closet.  Unless of course they were removed from the priesthood all together, which I doubt.  Gay clergy won't go away.  SSA men who are ordained as priests help fellow priests out, no matter what their sexual orientation may be.  SSA or gay?  We know there are gay priests who believe homosexuality is just fine - and there are SSA priests who disagree of course - but they agree to disagree, if you know what I mean.  And many of you do.

Just saying.

All the priests I know are definitely not gay or SSA.  Yet they are more than willing to help anyone - straight or gay - to reform one's life and follow Christ in the way of perfection.  Even a brother priest who struggles to be faithful - they are there to help with the sacraments and good counsel.  That is the right kind of network.

That said, there are priests and lay people who approve of homosexual activity and same sex marriage, as well as adoption by homosexuals.  Religious-ed and youth ministers and others in parishes currently believe that Church teaching can and will change, and therefore they promote, support, and encourage acceptance and approval of homosexuality - quietly and discreetly.  They protect one another's secrets and try to help one another inside the system - be it the parish, the diocese and it's ministries, or the Vatican.  No one seems to be able to break that up - since in many places, there is also parental (lay) approval.

No one will be successful in breaking that up, especially when we have bishops suggesting homosexuality is good, and when priests and religious accept and receive awards from gay groups in gratitude for their support and encouragement to gay causes and/or the organizations which either approve of or promote homosexuality.

So.

Thank God for Pope Benedict and Pope Francis and their safeguarding the deposit of Faith - but the gay network is probably just as strong as it ever was - because there have always been gay priests.

Pundits and news-sites writing headline copy need to stop twisting what the Pope(s) say and face reality.  Trad or not - people network.

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, 

proclaims joy to the whole world,

 for from you arose the glorious Sun of Justice, 

Christ our God; 

He freed us from the age-old curse and filled us with holiness; 

he destroyed death and gave us eternal life.

+

Sweet Child Mary, destined to be the Mother of God and our sovereign and loving Mother, by the prodigies of grace you lavish upon us, mercifully listen to my humble supplications. In the needs which press upon me from every side and especially in my present tribulation, I place all my trust in you.

+

I am all thine, and all that I have is thine, O most loving Jesus,

through Mary Thy most holy and Immaculate Mother.

Holy Child Mary of the royal house of David, 

Queen of the angels, 

Mother of grace and love, 

I greet you with all my heart. 

Obtain for me the grace to love the Lord faithfully 

during all the days of my life. 

Obtain for me, too, a true devotion to you, 

O mystical dawn, 

house of God,

gate of heaven.

Hail Mary, full of grace!

Our Lady's Eve ...

I'm not an avid reader of Bl. Anna Catherine Emmerich, but I find the narration of Our Lady's Nativity to be charming and edifying - especially aspects related to the eve of Our Lady's birth - which also may help explain the Order of Carmel's special devotion to Our Lady's Nativity.

EVE OF MARY'S BIRTH

What gladness throughout all nature! Birds are singing, lambs and kids are gamboling, and swarms of doves are fluttering with joy around the spot upon which once stood Anne's abode. I see only a wilderness there at the present day. But I had a vision of pilgrims in the far-off times who, girded and with long staves in their hands, wended their way through the country to Mount Carmel. On their head they wore a covering wound around like a turban. They too participated in the joy of nature. And when in their astonishment they asked the hermits that dwelt in the neighborhood the cause of this remarkable exultation, they received for answer, that such manifestations of gladness were customary. They were always observed upon the eve of the anniversary of Mary's birth around that spot where once stood Anne's house. The hermits told them of a holy man of the early times who had been the first to notice these wonders in nature. His account gave rise to the celebration of the feast of Mary's Nativity which soon became general throughout the Church. And now I too beheld how this came to pass. 

I saw a pious pilgrim, two hundred and fifty years after Mary's death, traversing the Holy Land, visiting and venerating all places connected with the actions of Jesus while on earth. He was supernaturally guided. Sometimes he tarried several days together in certain places in which he tasted extraordinary consolation. There he prayed and meditated, and there also he received revelations from On High. For several years he had, from the 7th to the 8th of September, noticed a great jubilation in nature and heard angelic voices singing in the air. He prayed earnestly to know the meaning of all this, and it was made known to him in a vision that that was the birthnight of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was on his way to Mount Sinai when he had this vision. In it he was informed also of the existence of a chapel built in Mary's honor in a cave of the Prophet Elias. 

I saw him again when he arrived at the mount. Where the convent now stands there dwelt even at that early period, hermits scattered here and there. It was then as inaccessible from the valley as it is now. To reach the top of the mountain from that side, hoisting machines were used. I saw that in consequence of the pilgrim's communication, the 8th of September was here first celebrated in the year 250, and that later it was introduced into other parts of the Church.

I learned from St. Bridget that if pregnant women fast on the eve of Mary's birth and say fervently nine Hail Mary's to honor the nine months she passed in Anne's womb; if they frequently repeat these prayers during their pregnancy, and especially on the eve of their delivery, receiving then the holy Sacraments devoutly, she will offer their prayer to God herself and bring them through even very critical circumstances to a happy delivery.

I saw the Blessed Virgin on the eve of her nativity. She said to me: "Whoever says this evening" (Sept. 7th) "nine times the Hail Mary lovingly and devoutly to honor the nine months spent in my mother's womb as also my birth, and continues the same devotion for nine consecutive days, daily gives to the angels nine flowers for a bouquet. This bouquet they bear to heaven and offer to the Most Holy Trinity to obtain some favor for the one that prays." - Source

Just days before the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, A terrorist plot uncovered outside Notre Dame de Paris

A car belonging to a person on a terror watchlist was found close to Notre Dame Cathedral stashed with gas cylinders. 

The car, a Peugot 607 with no licence plate, was found on Sunday morning close to the famous cathedral in Paris. 

It was parked on the Quai de Montebello in the fifth arrondissement of Paris - a narrow stretch of water away from the cathedral. 

Inside were at least six gas cylinders - although the tanks are not thought to have been connected to a detonator - and a book in Arabic writing. 

Two people have been arrested, according to reports. 

Anti-terror police revealed the find this morning and also said they believe the vehicle belonged to someone on their intelligence watchlist. 

It was found abandoned and with its lights on, but forensics teams have since examined the vehicle and declared it safe. 

The news comes at a time of heightened tensions in France following a number of high profile terror attacks by ISIS murderers. - Source

H/T Fr. P 

"I want to say 'Jacob, I'm so sorry.'" - Jacob Wetterling's Mom

"What did I do wrong?" 

The boy asked before his sexual assault and execution. 

Song for Jacob here.

Jacob Wetterling's killer confessed today.

+Jacob Wetterling+

Martyr for purity.

Today, the man who sexually assaulted him and murdered him told the court what happened to the boy:

He handcuffed Jacob behind his back and drove away as Jacob asked, "What did I do wrong?"

He admitted sexually abusing Jacob.  After the assault, Jacob asked to go home and cried when told he couldn't.  The perpetrator later had Jacob turn around, then he shot him in the head.  Jacob was still standing after the first shot, and fell dead, after the second shot.  For more information go here.

It is a crime which cries to heaven for vengeance.

Please pray for Jacob's mom and dad and their family who until last week believed Jacob would return home alive.  Pray very much for the Wetterlings and the other victims whose lives have been irreparably harmed, interrupted and grievously injured by the perpetrator-murderer. 

In odium fidei: The attack against an 81 year old Bolivian nun.

-photo credit-

This story is odious ...

I came across the story late last night.  It was extremely upsetting to read.  My night prayer turned into anguish:  "Lord, make it stop!"  "Lord, why?"

It is sheer evil, hatred, hatred for the Church.

ROME- An 81-year old nun was kidnapped and raped by four men on Tuesday night near Bolivia’s largest city, after assailants intercepted her car as she was coming back from a pastoral meeting.

The attack comes against the backdrop of several other recent cases of violence against religious sisters.

In a statement released by the Bolivian bishop’s conference and the diocese of Coroico, some 60 miles from La Paz, two of the men who raped the religious sister were wearing police clothes. After assaulting her, they took her truck, using the excuse that it was implicated in a drug trafficking case.

According to the statement, the attack on the elderly sister was “cold and calculated,” perpetrated by gangs related to organized crime who want to take over some Church-owned lands. - Crux

This is not the only the only incident of this sort, as the Crux article points out.  Last year a 72 year old nun in India was gang raped by Muslims.

Perhaps the most disgusting crime against the person - against women and children, is rape.  (Even men are raped.)  It is heinous and demeaning and disgusting beyond description.  It is the oldest form of oppression and shaming and breaking a person.  It is diabolical.  It is a crime against humanity.

St. Eulogius of Cordova, in his Exhortation to Martyrdom to St.s Flora and Mary, who were threatened with rape and to be sold into prostitution, encouraged them, writing: "They threaten you with a shameful slavery, but do not fear: no harm can touch your souls whatever infamy is inflicted on your bodies."

[Of course the worst, most diabolical crime against humanity is abortion and infanticide.]

Arise O Lord and let your enemies

be scattered,

and let those who hate you,

flee before your Holy Face!

A song for Labor Day ... end of the season.

If only she wore a habit ...

"Don't ever think for an instant, Sister, that your habit will protect you." 

- Mother Mathilde’s warning to Sr. Luke - The Nun’s Story 

Hindu Holy Men Walk Through Fire ... St. Teresa of Calcutta Did Too

Mother Teresa talks to one of the 37 children 

she evacuated from West Beirut at the Missionaries of Charity school

 in East Beirut on Aug. 15, 1982. (Photo: Alexis Duclos, AP)

Mother Teresa walked through War Zones.

I was thinking about how Hindus and some neo-pagan, New Age groups walk through fire - to demonstrate holiness, or mind over matter; used as a self-empowering activity or as a rite of initiation, yet the feat is little more than a show.

In contrast, Mother Teresa walked through active war zones - perhaps in a brief ceasefire - but it was 'hot', nonetheless.  She didn't do what she did for show or to prove her holiness, she did everything out of charity - love - authentic love of God.  As Pope Francis pointed out in his homily for the Canonization:  "There is no alternative to charity: those who put themselves at the service of others, even when they don’t know it, are those who love God."  That is authentic holiness - saintliness.

So when did Mother walk through fire?

The most famous, even miraculous incident happened in 1982.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 14— Mother Teresa of Calcutta helped evacuate 37 retarded and handicapped children today from a mental hospital in the Sabra refugee camp. 

Her wrinkled face broke into a broad grin as she entered the Dar al-Ajaza al-Islamia Mental Hospital and began embracing the children, huddled in a group on the floor.

In her blue-fringed white habit, the 72-year-old nun, who won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, moved quietly through the knot of children, ranging in age from 7 to 21, giving a handshake to one of the older ones.

Most of the children seemed unaware of what was happening. Some began to cry. The nun tried to comfort them. Then, one by one, International Red Cross workers, hospital employees and Mother Teresa herself began picking up the children, many of them deformed. A few of the older ones, though retarded as well, were being taken along to help care for the younger ones. 

Children Taken to East Beirut.

They were put into four Red Cross vehicles and taken across the green line to the Spring School in east Beirut, an institution founded by Mother Teresa two years ago.

Asked about her impressions, Mother Teresa said: ''I have never been in a war before, but I have seen famine and death. I was asking myself, what do they feel when they do this. I don't understand it. They are all the children of God. Why do they do it, I don't understand.''

''She asked us what our most serious problem was,'' said John de Salis, head of the Red Cross mission in west Beirut. ''We told her, you must come and see these children. She came, she saw them, and said: 'I'll take them.' '' - NYT

The spirituality of St. Therese in modern times.

There is so much St. Teresa of Calcutta can teach us about authentic holiness, about charity, about kindness, about prayer.   She always said, “Do small things with great love.”  I think Mother Teresa epitomizes the "Little Way of St. Therese" - her life lived not only sharing, but serving at the table of the outcast.

Not long ago, many Catholic writers online wrote extensively about kindness - what it is and what it is not, and more pointedly, that kindness is not enough.  Mother wasn't like that.  I posted the following some time ago, something Mother wrote to her sisters about kindness ...

"I prefer you to make mistakes in kindness than to work a miracle in unkindness," Mother Teresa wrote to her sisters. This was a principle she herself followed. It was precisely this attitude of being kindly disposed that led her to look at others' actions in a favorable light, to give them the benefit of the doubt or to overlook a mistake. This kindness made her approachable and sought after even by people whose opinions were opposed to hers. Such kindness that communicates love was what she demanded of her sisters: "Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting. In the slums we are the light of God's kindness to the poor." - Source

St. Teresa, pray for us!

The Spanish Missionary Shot In Haiti: Sr. Isabelle Sola Matas

At Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the Rev. Hans Alexandre 

described Sola as a "tireless servant of God" 

who helped build houses, worked as a nurse, fed the hungry 

and created a workshop where prosthetic limbs were made 

for amputees injured in Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.

Full story here.

Pope Francis mentioned her today in one of his messages for the canonization of Mother Teresa.

St. Teresa of Calcutta and Hillary Clinton ... a special friendship.

Many Catholics condemn Hillary Clinton for any number of reasons, but chiefly because of her pro-abortion politics and reputation of lying. We have a tendency to demonize people.  Even today, on day of Mother Teresa’s canonization, a well known priest online referred to Hillary and her husband as the “odious Clintons” - Mother Teresa never, ever did that kind of thing.  She never, ever described the President and First Lady as "odious".

Here is an excerpt from an article which recalled Mother’s address in 1994 at The National Prayer Breakfast where President Clinton and First Lady Mrs. Clinton were present.

“Mrs. Clinton noted the pointed nature of the nun’s words. “Mother Teresa was unerringly direct,” the First Lady recounted. “She disagreed with my views on a woman’s right to choose and told me so.” Tell her so she did; but though she was direct in her disagreement, she also offered something that Mrs. Clinton could applaud. Although Hillary Clinton was, and remains, a supporter of legalized abortion, she agreed with Mother Teresa that adoption was a preferable alternative. Speaking to her afterwards, Mother Teresa told Mrs. Clinton of her desire to continue her mission to find homes and families for orphaned, abandoned, and unwanted children by founding an adoption center in Washington, DC. She invited the First Lady to assist her in this endeavor, and brought Mrs. Clinton to India with her to witness her work firsthand.

Mother Teresa’s motions were not wasted. When Hillary Clinton returned to Washington, she took up Mother Teresa’s request with a will. Keeping in contact with the saint who called her regularly to receive updates on her “center for babies,” Hillary Clinton did the necessary legwork and succeeded in opening The Mother Teresa Home for Infant Children in 1995 in an affluent section of Washington, DC. Mother Teresa joined her for the opening, and two years later passed into the arms of her Lord. But she left a bright mark on the career of Hillary Clinton, who saw something remarkable in the tiny nun, and chose to do her bidding to help save lives. Mother Teresa inspired Mrs. Clinton to do a truly good work in spite of her dedicated promotion of Planned Parenthood’s agenda for “safe and legal” abortions. 

The center was quietly and unfortunately closed in 2002.” -  Sean Fitzpatrick for Crisis

As Catholics we need to stop condemning others.  I know I have to.  Pope Francis demonstrates for us how to do this.  Just as St. Teresa of Calcutta and her Missionaries of Charity have done and continue to do.  They are the real deal.

Imagine - Our Lord himself requested, instructed Mother Teresa to found a new religious order which would go out into the streets, to the peripheries, long before Pope Francis came along teaching the same message of mercy.

Holy Mother, St. Teresa of Calcutta, Star of this Pontificate, guide us upon the way, be our light in this dark night of the Church.  Help us to fix our eyes upon Jesus and him crucified.

The real deal: St. Teresa of Calcutta

St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.