NOVENA A SANTA TERESITA DEL NIÑO JESUS SEGUNDO DÍA.

Novena to St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Second Day.

I'm late to the novena, but as I always say, so were the workers in the Gospel who were hired late in the day but got the same pay as the workers hired first thing in the morning. So it is with novenas - start late, miss a day - it's all fine - especially with Therese - she is all about confidence and love and expecting what you get, and maybe even more than you hoped for: graces packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap! St. Therese pray for us... and thank you ahead of time!

O Lord, Who has said: Unless you become as little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; grant us, we beseech Thee, so to follow in humility and simplicity of heart the footsteps of St. Therese, the virgin, that we may obtain everlasting rewards. Who lives and reigns forever. Amen.

I'm as interested in the signs and omens as the next person, but ...

Where are the authorities on this?

I'm not talking about authors, seers, mystics and locutionists either.

It's like everyone seems preoccupied with this guy and that guy, and/or some 'anonymous' locutionist, except for those who maybe should be.

And who is that, you ask?

The Cardinals and the Bishops, and the Pope.  The Magisterium of the Church, you know?  I mean if we are that close to the brink, the end of the world as we know it, and expecting fire to fall from the sky within the next month, while the earth is shifting due to calamitous earthquakes and volcanic activity, and expecting at least one tsunami to wipe out the East coast, yet not one official in the Church says anything about preparing for complete annihilation, and/or calling for fasting and prayers to avert or mitigate such disasters?

Even I have been posting on Facebook curious stories concerning Eskimos claiming the axis of the earth has shifted, which made some sense considering the Indian Ocean quake of 2004 caused the earth to wobble slightly: Which BTW also seems to fit Sr. Lucia's vision of the angel striking the earths axis.  I of course do not claim any locutions or revelations.  However, such events did not go by unnoticed by those who do.  For example, Mark Mallet has already posted on the great shaking thing, corroborated by a few other mystics and blogger followers alike.

But they are the only ones.  The Church, the Government, the Military, NASA - none of them are issuing warnings.  Although there were hurricane warnings.  After the Mexico City earthquake, California may have issued earthquake warnings, and as we all know, North Korea is making a lot of threats.  But that's it.

Other than that, everything seems to be business as usual.

Cardinal Burke continues giving interviews, warning the correction of the Pope is imminent - but not a word on any sort of imminent chastisement and the end of days thing.  (Maybe because he thinks the Pope would just ignore him on that as well?)  When it comes to the Church in the United States, the huge issue these days revolves around making Fr. Martin's book, Building Bridges the biggest best seller of the century.  That, along with the daily attacks on the Pope seems to attract all the attention of Church leaders in the U.S..  Oh, and the immigrants, the wall, and politics.  Not a word about the chastisement.  Not a peep about the coming apocalypse?

I'm confused.

Monarchial splendor ...

Pope St. John XXIII

1960

King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena

presented at the Vatican

Pio XII

Gloria Princess of Thurn and Taxis and Cardinal Gerhard Müller

The Cardinal and the Princess.

Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis invited Müller to present his new book.

The Vatican’s former doctrine chief has criticised Francis’ papacy for lacking theological rigour, while suggesting he is ready to make a comeback and work in the Roman Curia.

During a book presentation in Germany last Friday, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, dismissed from his job by the Pope in July, recalled how the Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) told Pope Clement VIII that he did not understand anything about theology.

According to reports of the event in Mannheim the German cardinal then pointed out that Bellarmine was sacked from the Curia three times. Muller added he thought it possible he could return to the curia - a suggestion which was greeted with great applause.

In Mannheim, the cardinal criticised Latin American approach to theology, in what was a thinly veiled critique of the Argentinian Pope and his theological advisers from the continent.

“In Europe, theologians immediately have to have the exact council text ready when words like ‘faith’ or ‘mercy’ are used. This kind of theology with which we are familiar doesn’t exist in Latin America. They are more intuitive there,” Cardinal Muller said during a presentation of his new book 'The Pope - Mission and Task' at the Reiss-Engelholm-Museum at Mannheim.

“They look at a text without considering it as part of a whole. We must somehow respect and accept this style. But I nevertheless wish that as far as teaching documents are concerned clear theological preparation must take place.”

Princess Gloria of Thurn and Taxis invited Müller to present his new book at the museum where there is an exhibition on the Papacy. - Source

I find this story interesting since - from what I understand, the German church is quite rich.  I won't take time to back that up with statistics and anecdotes, but I just remember the so-called Bishop of Bling and other stories associated the wealth of the Church in Germany.  I immediately thought of the rebukes Pope Francis has made against cardinals acting like Princes of the Church, declaring, "one who considers himself a prince has a ‘clericalist attitude’ – that is, hypocritical."

Indeed, Latin American theology may be more intuitive, just as the papacy of Pope Francis is more populist.  Perhaps Müller's remarks shed more light on why he was dismissed than anything Catholics online might come up with to condemn the Pope?  As Pope Francis explained:

Jesus served the people, He explained things because the people understood well: He was at the service of the people. He had an attitude of a servant, and this gave authority. On the other hand, these doctors of the law that the people… yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them; these had a psychology of princes: ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey.’ And Jesus never passed Himself off like a prince: He was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority. - Pope Francis

Hmmm.

Bonus photos of the Princess

The Princess and the Cardinal.

Family portrait.

The Princess with interior designer to the rich

and famous, Peter Marino,  Marino at her right. 

The Princess at the dedication of a boat.

For more information on the 'Punk Princess' go here.

I won't hear of it!

San Gennaro 2017, si scioglie il sangue del patrono di Napoli

Looking good - it liquefied!  Applause in church.  Loud cheers in church.  

Our Lady of La Salette

Our Lady of La Salette, Reconciler of sinners, 

pray without ceasing for us who have recourse to thee.

On 19 September 1851, Pope Pius IX formally approved the public devotion and prayers to Our Lady of La Salette, referring to the messages of the apparition as "secrets".

The Fr. Martin, S.J. defense vs. the Catholic cyber-militia.

They're going after Fr. Z and Church Militant.

Fr. Z proclaims his innocence - he did not instruct readers to voice complaints - he just called out Fr. martin as a homosexualist.  (I didn't see him issue an 'action alert' on this, so I agree he didn't call up the troops to protest.)  But he is definitely being blamed.  I think his status is being questioned, since the LaCroix article identifies him as an "American priest known as “Fr Z” who, strangely enough, is incardinated (that is, belongs to) an Italian diocese, but lives in the United States."

This sort of vitriol is profoundly changing the communion of the Catholic Church. And not just in its ethos, but also in the way it functions. It signals a new kind of censorship that uses verbal violence to intimidate individual Catholics, as well as institutions within the Church – institutions that exist (also) to protect the rights of Catholics. 

The small groups that are behind the campaign that persuaded a prestigious Catholic seminary in the US capital to rescind its invitation to Fr Martin have grown over the last few years. They make up a Catholic cyber-militia that include “news” organizations like the Detroit-based “Church Militant” and bloggers such as Fr John Zuhlsdorf, an American priest known as “Fr Z” who, strangely enough, is incardinated (that is, belongs to) an Italian diocese, but lives in the United States. - LaCroix

Fr. Z is not scared.  I'm sure complaints about him pile up in Rome, but he appears to be safe under Bishop Morlino.  I think the most offensive thing Fr. Z ever does is call out people using labels which often denigrate their authority or identify them with liberal ideologies.  Sometimes he calls for 'action alerts' - and some time ago he used to ask for donors to donate to him instead of donating to NCR.

"I think a good way to show what you think of the NCR would be, first, to talk someone out of a subscription and, then, a spiffy donation to WDTPRS using the donation button below. If every reader here would pitch in $5, that would make a statement, given the number of readers we have." - WDTPRS

 One can't forget his feud with Phyllis Zagano and The NCR which he dubbed the 'fishwrap' and later National Sodomite Reporter a few years back.  Google Zagano and Fr. Z and you get: "I am told that Phyllis Zagano, who works for the National Catholic Reporter, is still calling around in order to make trouble for me and harm my reputation."  Therefore, I think it safe to say, one may assume that kind of thing is most likely happening right now in the wake of the Fr. Martin 'dust-up'.

So as we pray for Fr. Martin, let's keep praying for Fr. Z as well.

The Catholic blogosphere seems to be turning into the vestibule of hell.

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate

A Franciscan and a Dominican Saint for September 18

St. Joseph Cupertino, pray for the unwanted.

I like St. Joseph Cupertino for so much more than his miracles and wonders.  In the account of his life it is noted that even as a child, "nobody wanted Joseph; even his mother did not want him; Joseph learnt this lesson very early and accepted it." - Read more on his life here.

St. John Macias, pray for the simple.

"Rays of light streamed from the blessed's face as he taught the catechism to the poor, or prayed by himself in the gatehouse. He said an amazing number of rosaries and made no less than twenty daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament. He is said to have liberated more than a million souls from purgatory, many of whom came back, while he was at prayer, to thank him for his help." - More on his life here.

September 17 - The Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis