The Centurion and the beloved servant.

Did Jesus approve a same sex relationship?

That's how Today's Gospel has been interpreted in contemporary gay exegesis, based upon translations and meanings of the original Greek words, pais and doulos - used for servant or slave in different accounts - which can have a sexual connotation.  A Roman might have a slave used for sex, or a young male concubine.  The interpretation makes sense, but I'm not sure the Fathers would have understood it exactly in that way.  Even if they had, homosexual acts can never be approved, therefore it could never be interpreted as approval of a gay union.

Regardless of how it is understood, it's absurd to imagine Jesus giving his blessing upon a same sex relationship in either account from Luke or Matthew.  The Centurion prayed for a cure for a beloved servant-slave, no mention is made of their relationship or domestic situation.  Some suggest that the Centurion didn't want Jesus to enter under his roof because he was afraid the young servant would fall in love with Jesus and leave him.  Where do people get this?

When Christ said he would come and heal the servant,

The centurion said in reply,

"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed."

We say that before the reception of Holy Communion.  

It is an acknowledgement that we are unworthy to Have Jesus enter under our roof, our soul.  It is an act of faith, a sort of confession of sin, and/or of our unworthiness.  It can't be a pretense or something to hide behind to feign humility.  The faith of the Centurion in the power of Christ is detailed by the soldier as he describes how he commands those subject to him and attributes the same power of command to Christ.   Our Lord healed the servant because of the Centurion's faith.  What their relationship was is never part of the narrative.  Perhaps it was a homosexual relationship - how would anyone believe from the narrative that Jesus approved of it?  In the case of the Samaritan woman, he didn't show approval for her relationship with a man who wasn't her husband.  neither did he approve of the sins of the woman caught in adultery - he told her to go and sin no more.

If anything, Today's Gospel demonstrates that salvation is available to the Gentiles, even those in sinful relationships, and Jesus shows us once again that His mercy is for everyone.  Perhaps the Centurion didn't want Jesus to come to his house simply because he was ashamed?  Maybe he really meant what he said, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof."  Maybe when he returned home and found the servant healed, they both became followers of Christ?  That's a more reasonable interpretation. So imagine what you will, Christ came to call sinners, so it doesn't matter if the Centurion and his servant were straight or gay.  When we follow Christ, we leave behind our former way of life, we repent of our sins.

Anyway.  Today concludes gay-pride month, and I want to try and make this my last post on the subject.  I think I have become more and more irrelevant on this and many other subjects and I need to leave it be.    

The overly suspicious hermeneutic of a conspiracy theorist.

I came across that line on another blog.

It just fits many people online today so well.  It's an attitude spiritual masters warn about.  Teresa of Avila often expressed exasperation with such a morbid spirituality, says she feared those who saw the devil behind every undertaking than the devil himself. 

It's good to know there are still healthy Catholics online.  The problem with many tradsters, as well as locution and private revelation junkies, is they live in a little Catholic bubble of sorts.  In turn, they judge and relegate their opponents into other little bubbles of identity, heresy, or whatever disqualifies them from communion with their perfectionist version of Catholicism.

There has been a parallel Church in existence, since the Council, which, according to the newest generation of devotee is spreading - especially among younger people.  I'd say trending, as opposed to spreading.  There is nothing wrong with that, except the more vocal among their online spokesman view everything through the lens of an overly suspicious hermeneutic of a conspiracy theorist.  They feel persecuted and sidelined, while on another level they reject anything to do with the post-Conciliar Church.  Especially Pope Francis.

(Art: Andrew Hunt)

I know I always write about this stuff and I am tired of doing so.  Yet Catholics online keep feeding this monster of misinformation and lies.  I just ran across a friend speculating on details of the Third Secret again.  The fake messages continue to be promulgated.  Feeding morbid curiosity and suspicion, adding to the confusion so many complain about in the Church.

Even priests and bishops can fall into this trap.  Some are misled by these Catholic conspiracy theories which spread  online.  The worst deception may be perpetrated by the locutionists they so easily give credence to, based upon some respected monsignor's claims about this one or that one.  If reading a horoscope, or doing yoga can open one to the occult, just imagine how following the locutions or private revelations of a dubious mystic or apparition can open one to delusion.  Is there no stable cardinal, bishop or priest to make the faithful understand this?  Aren't the fallen priests over the past few decades warning enough about these dangers?

Morbid fascination with apparitions and visionaries can lead one into error and away from the Church, which is why the Church has rules governing discernment of private revelations, in order to guard the faithful from error. Naturally, I'm thinking of the 'consecrate Russia' and everything will be fine theories, as well as blame the apostasy on the bad council/bad liturgy groups who are engaged in a war against so-called Catholic 'leftists' who support the Pope.

"Since the devil apes divine works, diabolical phenomena are known to occur at times among the mystics." (All quotations from Tanquerey.) "A revelation may be true in the main and yet contain some incidental errors." Thus, in private revelations the errors of the times as regards physical or historical science may get included in the interpretation of the revelations. So too the prejudices and training of the spiritual directors of the seers can affect the message. Details involving historical errors may also be introduced, sometimes arising from the seer's meditation or intelligence, often contradicting historical documents or revelations of the saints.

Private revelations may not only be wrongly interpreted, they "may be unwittingly altered by the seer himself as he attempts to explain, transcribe, record, or dictate the experiences to another. St. Brigid realized herself that at times she retouched her revelations, the better to explain them; such added explanations are not always free from errors. It is acknowledged today that the scribes who wrote the revelations of Mary of Agreda and Catherine Emmerich modified them to an extent difficult to determine." (Spiritual Life, Tanquerey, Book III, Chapter III.)

Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes. - 1 Timothy 

What?

Saturday detention: Posting on Facebook and something about Vincenzo Paglia

Editor's note: Posting on FB is easier than posting to the blog.  I can just link to an article or share another post and add a brief comment or two.  On Blogger I have more to format.  Anyway - that's probably why I haven't been blogging as much.

Today's controversy centers around Archbishop Paglia once again.  Even Janet Smith's mouth dropped over the LifeSite article which comes close to accusing the Archbishop of heresy.  These people are biased against Paglia (and of course Pope Francis) and LifeSite feeds into that bias.

They are apparently scandalized by the following remarks which LifeSite suggests is at variance with Catholic teaching:

According to Paglia, there is only a “domestic church” through unity with other families within the Church. 

“You are a domestic church by uniting yourself to other families,” said Paglia, who added that the family shouldn’t have “one center,” and “for this purpose, it’s better to have two centers: the parish and the family.” 

“This is of decisive importance for me,” said Paglia. “For example, what do you do with a believer who is alone? Is he excluded? No, he’s not excluded,” because he has the “family of Sunday.”

“Those who aren’t married? My family isn’t that of my mother and father . . . the true family is the family of the Church. Those among the elderly who are alone, they cannot remain alone in our houses. On Sunday they have to come to the Church, to the Mass of the community,” he continued. - LifeSite

To insure the character assassination is complete, the author concludes the article by noting the 'homosexual'  influence in the mural commissioned for his diocese.

While he was archbishop of the Italian diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia, Paglia oversaw the creation of an “erotic” mural for his cathedral church that former members of the Pontifical Academy for Life called “blasphemous,” and even “demonic.” - LF

Cardinal Burke's words certainly could be better applied to LifeSiteNews as well:  They're part of the problem when it comes to “increasing the confusion” on the “most fundamental and important issues.”

Remember When? Taki Theodoracopulos claimed Prince Albert of Monaco kidnapped and drugged the woman he supposedly forced into marriage.

Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco 

and H.H. Pope Francis of Rome

Talk about conspiracy theories and fake news and, and, and ...

Today the Prince and Princess remain happily married, but in 2011 a story went around claiming Albert was pretty much a current day Marquis De Sade, who 'kidnapped, drugged, and then forced fiancee Charlene Wittstock, to abide by the agreement she had signed with the Principality of Monaco.'  Oh, her dad was supposedly held hostage at the time as well.  (Story here.)

I posted about the story after it was posted on a blog by someone I lost track of.  It's amazing how little things have changed online, in fact, how much worse things have become.  People skirmishing about the same issues, though the principals may have changed - yet conservative conspiracy enthusiasts still fall for every sensationalist rumor that pops up in their feed.  I wrote the following at the time the story broke:

I came across a post on Prince Albert of Monaco claiming the Prince kidnapped and drugged the woman he supposedly forced into marriage. (Grounds for annulment!) Taki Theodoracopulos, a Greek socialite - or former playboy-sportsman turned conservative pundit/journalist, thus making himself appealing to the 'always right' wing, who supposedly makes a living denouncing vulgarity among the rich and famous, claims to have intimate knowledge on what goes on in the Court of Monaco. Maybe he does, since he appears to suggest the Prince is some sort of latter day Marquis De Sade with rumors that he plays around - quite roughly - with male and female sex partners - in groups. How very French. So how is it that such a story isn't red hot news all over the MSM/Hollywood gossip circuit? He drugged his wife and forced her to marry him in a ceremony broadcast on TV? C'mon! That's a Dynasty script.

Maybe the reason no one takes the story seriously is because few people care or follow anything Greek in these days of economic collapse, and maybe because what goes on in the Las Vegas-style Principality of Monaco stays in Monaco. - Court Gossip

It's a good reminder to 'document' the fake news cycle and rumor mongering - to some degree - in order to replay it to remind people that a great deal one reads online is made up and scandal inducing, to distract people from the truth.  I think it's safe to say much of the court gossip in the Vatican is just as unverifiable as the Prince Albert and Princess Charlene story.  Unless she's still drugged...  Just remember, there are sources online deliberately manipulating opinion with fake news and rumors to divide and anger people.  Especially those Catholics who never quite graduated from debate class and view everything through an academic/post-graduate-degree lens, as if they are writing and revising some sort of perpetual  dissertation.  (I think there is a priest who has been doing that for well over a decade now.)

They look very happy to me.

Working on a project that will never be finished.

I'm finishing a retablo of a saint.  It's a little painting, acrylic on craft shop board which I gessoed.  I like these because it has a laser cut frame to it which reminds me of Mexican retablo frames.  Anyway, I've been doing small paintings again - but they take me longer than they used to.  I'll put them on Etsy as a collection in the next week or so.  I'll be increasing my pricing a little to account for time spent.  Over Christmas I reduced pricing - but since things didn't sell for cheap, I may as well put them back at a fair trade price point.  I think I cheat myself otherwise.

Isn't that interesting?

I know.  I don't have a lot to say.

When I do, I'm usually mistaken or out of step with everyone else.

That's not a bad thing, however.

As a meditation from Madeleine Delbrel reminded me:

 Not only that he will not be valued by others but that even in his own eyes he will seem to have no value.

Not only that he will put all his energy into a task, but he will not know the point of the task; not only will he be unaware of who started the job and who will finish it but he will know nothing of the work of God in which it plays a part.

Not only does he fight but he is also peaceable, for it will always be God—all powerful, all loving as he is—who will complete with his power and his love what he has begun and is continuing. He awaits from God with a boundless confidence that for which he is working with all the powers at his command and which his own power is unable to achieve. It is from God that he asks that his will may be done; it is from God that he expects his kingdom may come; prayer is for him the energy of his deeds. - Madeleine Delbrel

Song for this post here.

A day in the life of the Church

Pope Francis prays before the Virgin

of the Gate or La Puerta

today.

The Pope is in Peru, it is the feast day of Our Lady of the Miracle, and the feast of St. Sebastian ...

I've been following the Holy Father on television - I love seeing him interact with people.  I noted a photo of one of the Mass celebration which appeared to be sparsely attended - I'm not sure if it was an aerial view after the event, before, or during.  From chatter online I believe it was meant to demonstrate that the Holy Father is not 'popular'.  It doesn't matter at all to me, nor to those who are following the Pope - they seem overjoyed to meet him.

Liturgically today is the feast of St. Sebastian and the first reading today is about the death of Saul and Johnathan, and the love expressed by David for Johnathan when he said, "... more precious have I held love for you than love for women."  Both the cult of S. Sebastian and the friendship of David and Johnathan have been embraced by gay people as signifying same sex love and eroticism.  Which makes today a sort of gay feast day, I suppose.  I'm against it.  It's revisionist.

Nevertheless, the friendship of David and Johnathan, loyal and true, is a good, healthy model of friendship.  It is edifying.  Devotion to S. Sebastian is an example of courage and faith, in the face of martyrdom.  As legend has it, he was martyred 'twice' - first left for dead after shot with arrows.  Second, after being nursed to health, he continued his witness and was bludgeoned to death.  To be devoted to him based upon how he is depicted in art has nothing to do with his heroic witness and virtue, and is simply vain and fleeting.  Just as much as the sentimentalizing of the friendship of David and Johnathan.  Today we limit ourselves by such self indulgent interpretations, and we tie up all these loose threads into a tapestry of knots.

Which brings me to Our Lady of the Miracle - Our Lady of Light.

Above is shown a commemorative holy card of the Madonna of the Miracle in the basilica of San Andrea del Fratte in Rome.The Madonna is depicted in the manner she appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne, an athiest Jew who was converted by the vision of Our Lady, after wearing the Miraculous Medal given to him by a friend, who also prayed for his conversion. (Ratisbonne agreed to wear it to prove to his friend such things were superstitious, although he also agreed to recite the Memorare each day as well, he did not believe.) Within minutes, during the apparition he instantly understood all the truths of the Catholic faith. "Our Lady presented to him the glories of the Faith and instantly educated him in its sacred truths. Ratisbonne stated:

"It is well known that I never opened a religious book and had never read a page of the Bible, and that the dogma of Original Sin, which it is either denied or forgotten by modern Jews, had never for a single moment occupied my thoughts—indeed, I doubt I had ever heard its name. How did I arrive at a knowledge of it? I know not. All I know is that when I entered that church I was profoundly ignorant of everything, and that when I came out I saw everything clearly and distinctly."

On my very first trip to Rome, as soon as I dropped my bags in my room, I wandered alone, a block away from the hotel, and entered S. Andrea through the exact same entrance Ratisbonne used, and entering, I saw the magnificent portrait of Our Lady, splendidly lighted, and I knelt in prayer. It was almost like experiencing a vision myself. Then Mass began, and I was able to receive Communion - my first night in Rome.

Today is Our Lady's feast day. Be sure to wear her medal and cling to her devoutly. She not only teaches us everything, she corrects our conscience, she sees to our every need, untying every knot, removing every obstacle to our salvation. She never refuses to come to the aid of those who ask her - she is a Mother who never ceases to help all of her children, because she is always moved by the loving kindness burning in her Immaculate Heart.

St. Sebastian, pray for us.

My disgust over sectarianism and radical heresies ...

Dave Armstrong has a timely article on Luther's disgust over Protestant sectarianism ...

It's weird, but I was thinking along these lines myself.  I was thinking the division on Catholic social media and among traditionalist Catholics is veering close to a similar sectarianism and buffet of claimed 'heresies' which ultimately reject infallible authority.  Armstrong doesn't make such a comparison in his article, although I wonder if he may have had it in mind?

Protestant founder Martin Luther's radical change of the rule of faith from an infallible Bible and Church and tradition to private judgment and sola Scriptura (Scripture as the only infallible authority) and comments about plowboys being able to interpret Scripture without the checks and balances of that Church and tradition, naturally led to excesses of individuality and sectarianism.

People reasoned (consciously or not) that since Luther felt free to break away from Catholicism and gave the example of an ongoing smear campaign of propaganda and calumny against the existing Church, that there was little reason why they could not reject both the Catholic Church and him. - Dave Armstrong

Seems to me we have a lot of protestant Catholics vigorously critiquing other protestant Catholics these days.

Bunch of flamers.

Saturday Detention: Erotic Art in the Cathedral.

Fresco in Cathedral church of the Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia

depicts Jesus lifting nets full of prostitutes, 

homosexuals, and other lascivious characters, into heaven.

Theology of the Body Studies.

The work is incredible - I like it very much - but of course, I paint, and I'm a bit more open to such things.  That said, it's pretty gay, and I expect many will be disturbed by the content.  "Erotic" content, as the artist pointed out: “In this case, there was not – in this sense – a sexual intention, but erotic, yes,” said Cinalli. “I think that the erotic aspect is the most notable among the people inside the nets.”

The Lifesite article pretty much emphasizes the homosexuality of the Argentine artist Ricardo Cinalli commissioned by Bishop Paglia and Fr. Fabio Leonardis to do the mural.  Cinalli explains that he was guided at every step by the two priests, saying: “There was no detail that was done freely, at random. Everything was analyzed. Everything was discussed. They never allowed me to work on my own.”

That would drive me nuts.  The artist deserves time off purgatory for having endured that.

Detail

The angels are kind of skinhead looking.

Lifesite also seems to suggest something queer about Paglia and Leonardis.  I can see why, yet the composition is nonetheless very compelling - Christ rescuing sinners - as Today's Gospel of the call of Matthew reminds us, "I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners."  The fresco is on the inner wall of the Cathedral's facade, so in some sense, one is leaving that sinful life behind as one approaches the sacraments.  Christ, the fisher of men, pulls in the nets of salvation - filled with sinners, including the bishop and the priest.  It's a stunning allegory, very much in accord with the concept of mercy, going out to the peripheries, as proclaimed by the Franciscan papacy.

I don't see it as something scandalous, though I can understand while some who believe the Church is being undermined by homosexuals, modernists, and liberals would be.  I think of the scandal the Sistine Chapel caused when it was first completed, because of the nudity and the churchmen depicted in hell, and so on.  I'm not sure that there is anything ideologically subversive in the Terni fresco, albeit disturbing for the 'erotic' content - not explicit of course - more at intent.  In Italian art there is a great deal of nudity, much of it in churches.  It too can be considered erotic.

Knowing a bit about art history might quell the fears of some who appear to be scandalized by the work.  The nudity in the work of Luca Signorelli's Orvieto frescoes comes to mind.  Critics point out that the model for Christ in the Terni fresco was a gay hairdresser.  So what?  Throughout history artists have used models of 'ill repute', therefore I don't understand the problem.  And who knows, maybe the gay hairdresser is a former homo - living a chaste and celibate life now?  The critics are also scandalized that 'Christ's private parts' can be seen through his clothing.  It's not as if we've never seen it before.  Fra Angelico did that too, along with many other painters throughout history.  In art, on one level at least, it demonstrates that Christ was truly man and truly God.

So anyway - I like the work - but it is a bit queer... not that there is anything wrong with that.

The only Catholic thing lacking is any reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

That's Fr. Fabio with the heart on.

H/T Dad29

What happened last night?

I digress ...

As of this writing I have seen nothing online documenting any type of Walpurgisnacht-style celebrations occurring last night to take down Trump and the administration.  If curses were flying, nothing happened.

It made me wonder, however.

Many think Trump is evil - so what does that say about evil curses against him, by so-called witches?  Judeo-Christian tradition condemns witchcraft - hence my associating it with evil.  I do not like the occult and link it to the devil - so I do not even like to write about it.  But if he's evil, and witches cast spells - how does that make sense?  A house divided cannot stand ...

That said, many critics of Trump think of him in terms of a dictator, such as Hitler.  Supposedly Hitler was into the occult, yet I discovered that is most likely not the case.  I mention this because of all the weirdness related to the witches curse on Trump - who professes to be a devout Christian, yet some consider him fundamentally anti-Christian.  Don't respond to those contentions here, because it isn't my point, and it's not necessarily my opinion either.

The interesting thing to me goes back to whether or not Hitler was an occultist, or just a dangerous politician.  An evil man, no doubt.  Today, people love to blame everything on the devil, they associate everyone they don't like - or those they fear - with Satan and/or the Anti-Christ, suggesting all sorts of weird mystical influences.  I don't deny these things, but when we call out names and causes like that, we are missing the fact that human beings are capable of error, sin, and perpetrating great evil.  Fallen human nature is capable of committing atrocities and are the sole agents responsible for spreading errors throughout the world, causing wars, and persecutions, and so on.  All by themselves.

So anyway - I came across something in my search regarding today's date, wondering if there was any special association with the occult - e.g. because of last night's witches curse - and also because today is the feast of another St. Walburga, I searched for Walpurgisnacht.  It's a different event, taking place on April 30/May 1.  While I knew there was some connection to Hitler, I couldn't recall what it was.  Turns out Hitler died on Walpurgisnacht.

So, if you can follow all of that, I came across a site discussing the stories surrounding Hitler's occult connections.  The author, Sean Munger, about whom I know little more than what he says on his website, dismisses the stories as myth.  What impressed me about that is his assertion that the evil perpetrated by the Third Reich "was not an act of “black magic” or some sort of brainwashing trick, (but) a very tragic example of politics gone wrong."

Hitler was a politician and a nationalist. He wanted to advance his vision of Germany, of course; but it’s simply false to project occultist motives onto his behavior.

It is interesting that, despite the profusion of Nazi occultism books, real scholarly works about Hitler and the Third Reich–the ones that are based on primary sources—do not mention occultism at all. The topic never once comes up in the 1600 pages of William L. Shirer’s mammoth 1965 work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, nor is it mentioned at all in Alan Bullock’s seminal biography Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. I consulted both books before writing this article. I’m certainly not a scholar of the Nazi period, but I’ve taken and been involved with several university-level courses that deal with it, and occultism never seems to come up there either.

Indeed, the mythology of Nazi occultism is a dangerous distortion of history. As argued by Swedish scholar Mattias Gardell, the view that the Third Reich was heavily motivated by or used occult themes and practices tends to paint Hitler and the Nazis as a band of “evil sorcerers” who attained power by casting some sort of mystic spell over the German people, who followed them out of compulsion. This is not what happened at all. Millions of ordinary Germans, the vast majority of them rational and in their right minds, supported the Nazis for years, or at least did not oppose them. Casting Hitler as a sort of Svengali, using witchcraft and black magic to entrance the German people, is utterly false and leads to an “it can’t happen here” kind of complacency. It’s a convenient shortcut that absolves us of trying to understand a difficult and dark episode in recent history. - Source

Having said all of that, that's my point in this post - or what I'd like to say and help convince religious people who are so quick to think the devil is doing this or that, or this or that happened as a direct intervention of supernatural powers - to get a grip.  Wake up.  Avoid complacency, scapegoating, playing the 'devil made me do it' excuses, or spreading warnings and locutions all over, assuming some sort of rescue or rapture is going to deliver us from the duties of our state in life and our responsibilities.

Snap out of it.

Correction:

It's interesting, one finds a couple of paragraphs which seem to confirm one's thoughts on a certain subject and then inserts them in a post to substantiate one's point.  Pay no attention - ever - to me.

This morning a friend sent me a wealth of information on Hitler and the Third Reich's association with the occult.  I stand corrected.  Click on the links below if you are interested:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3498908/Heinrich-Himmler-s-stash-books-witchcraft-discovered-Czech-library-hidden-50-years.html

http://www.guiltandpleasure.com/index.php?site=rebootgp&page=gp_article&id=101

http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Ariosophy

Sometimes the Holy Father reminds me of Meister Eckhart ...

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.” - Meister Eckhart

“God, who is faithful, allows his friends to fall frequently into weakness only in order to remove from them any prop on which they might lean. For a loving person it would be a great joy to be able to achieve many great feats, whether keeping vigils, fasting, performing other ascetical practices or doing major, difficult and unusual works. For them this is a great joy, support and source of hope so that their works become a product and a support upon which they can lean. But it is precisely this which our Lord wishes to take from them so that he alone will be their help and support . . . in no way do our works serve to make God give us anything or do anything for us. Our Lord wishes his friends to be freed from such an attitude, and thus he removes their support from them so that they must henceforth find their support only in him.” - Meister Eckhart

“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.” - Meister Eckhart


This just in ... Overnight Rome has been papered with anti-papist posters.

"Oi Frankie, you have emasculated Congregations, 

suspended priests, decapitated the Order of Malta 

and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals...

But where is your mercy?" - Source

Somehow, this isn't such a bad thing - for me.  It's kind of exciting - very medieval and intriguing on some level - and so much like a Dan Brown novel I could spit!  It's not the end of the world, and it will never be the end of the Church - but it is an extremely exciting development and period in Church history.  Sorry, I just love drama.  I grew up with alcoholics and dysfunctional family was my normal.

Carnival appears to be in full swing in Roma!

Try not to think ill of anybody ...

I thought of that today.

This morning actually, while clearing snow.  It's easy to say when one is rejoicing, but when one is sad or feeling embittered, it is more difficult.  But only if you let it be.

St. Therese taught that if you already have those thoughts in your heart before you encounter difficult people, you are going to respond negatively - because your heart harbored ill thoughts beforehand.  I probably didn't say that very well, but you know what I mean, "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

I came across something yesterday about Pope Francis which contradicts all of his critics who claim he doesn't like priests.  He loves them.  He spent a great deal of time with his priests when he was Archbishop, I learned that after looking up Fr. Pepe, a priest the Pope is friends with, who works among the poor.  I felt badly because I also came across a negative post of someone speculating whether or not these priests abused the poor they served.  That became my impetus for meditating upon the maxim, "never think ill of anyone."

As we get close to Christmas, the joy is palpable - even amid sadness and suffering and difficulties - even when fully conscious of one's sins - Christ is there - standing, gazing at us through the lattice of all that distracts us, waiting for us to look, to see him there.

So let's stop thinking negatively of the pope, the president, the gays, priests and bishops, divorced and unmarried and whatever, the liberals or conservatives, and so on.  Let's stop projecting or predicting this or that evil to come - as if we are meteorologists predicting severe storms.  Let's quit denigrating others and their families and their simple existence, as if anyone different from us is fair game to mock and scorn and condemn and hate.  Or at least give people a break during the holidays.

You can't keep Christmas well when you harbor uncharitable thoughts - even though you think you are doing so to save souls.  Think how strange that sounds - sort of Jihadist, don't you agree?

Pray for joy, not vain joy in things or status or accomplishment or virtue - but that joy that is deep and pure and freeing - the joy of the Holy Spirit.  Freedom of spirit.

Live and let live.  Be holy and everything else will fall in place.  Even if they kill you for it.

Ever concerned about the environment, in the spirit of Amoris Letitia, Pope Francis warns new Cardinals about 'polarization'.

Along with the red hat, Cardinals were given 

polarized sunglasses.

Card. Timmy is credited for the change, 

since he anticipated the mandatory 

addition to the cardinal's vestry

several years ago.

Others insist the change 

is by divine intervention ...

those without this protection 

will all perish.

All told, about a third of humanity.

Song for this post here.

The Omen ... remember that story?

Song for this post here.

The Pope is just like my mother: "What are you trying to hide?!"

What's under that cappa?

I laughed out loud when I read what Pope Francis had to say about young people, who were not raised with the traditional Latin Mass, yet prefer it to the Ordinary Form of Mass and said:

“And I ask myself: Why so much rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something, insecurity or even something else. Rigidity is defensive. True love is not rigid.” - Source

I bet they're homosexuals - and I'll explain why.

When my mother said, "What are you trying to hide?!"  She followed that up with a seething, "You little homosexual" - before I even knew what the word meant.  She was very suspicious, just like the pope.

So it just follows ... right?  I mean all that satin and lace, matching gloves and bushkins.

What?

I'm so just kidding.

No, really.

Get down to the 'lobby' right away,

they're hiding something!

What?

It's time to come to grips with reality ...

It's OK To Vote For Trump Now ...

 (INFUSNY-160/ELDER ORDONEZ/INFPHOTO.COM)

Trump leaving Cardinal's residence at St. Patrick's NYC.

[I bet he went to confession and maybe even had his third marriage blessed.]

What?

Crazy Catholic stuff online ...

"Don't you dare try to tell me..."

I've been fascinated with devout Catholic crackpots all of my life.

I really have.  Like the Fatima group organizer from Boston in the early 1970's - a big redhead woman named Barbara - she practically did a background check on anyone who was asked to lead the rosary during the monthly all-night vigil.  She was a big mouth who sounded a lot like some of the whistle-blower types currently harassing the Boston Archdiocese today.  Not that anything is wrong with that.

 
To be fair, she was right about a lot of things that were wrong, but she was just so arrogant and self-righteous - even fanatic in the way she exploded in the listener's face - especially about Fatima:   "Don't you dare try to tell me...".  It was rather off-putting to ordinary Catholics and parish priests especially, and the behavior carried over into all of her relationships.  Mention her name and parish priests rolled their eyes.

“Portuguese, a very complicated language, darling. Four thousand irregular verbs.”

Barnhardt thinks one of the Soros boys could be the Antichrist.

George Soros is the largest single landowner in Argentina, 

owning over 1.2 million acres, and over 150,000 head of cattle. 

 Yore also reports that Soros has massive financial holdings in Argentina as well. 

 Given this, it would be naive to think that Soros and Bergoglio’s 

relationship began in March of ARSH 2013.

These days the very, very pious fishwives are online. Every parish has always had such devout meddlers - not always women either. They read a lot and know all the rubrics and instruct the pastor and new assistants how to do stuff.  Like the mayor in the film Chocolat did.

Mayor of Lansquenet instructing the parish priest on his homily.

As one commenter noted in another post of mine:

"Maybe these lay bloggers missed their vocation to the priesthood?Maybe there should be a synod on married priest so that all these lay bloggers can be the priests that they always wanted to be. After all these lay bloggers are more catholic than Pope Benedict."

He has a point.  A little bit of knowledge/experience can be as dangerous as a lot of knowledge without pastoral practice - you can begin to believe you know more than the Church.  This happens with people who tried their vocations in religious or priestly formation, and or studied theology and maybe even got a degree or two.  I will appropriate a few thoughts from Pope Francis to help explain what I think happens:

“When a person feels a a bit more experienced in the spiritual life or religious 'practice', he begins to appropriate faculties which are not his own, but which are the Lord’s. The original awe seems to fade, and this is the basis for a sort of lay-clericalism - in thought and action for those convinced of their righteousness.  What then prevails is a formal adherence to rules and to mental schemes, which seem to them to impart a certain authority - as if they were arbiter of what is right or wrong.  When we see what appears unorthodox or too permissive or lax in religious observance or catechetical instruction, we think we can set things right, that we are the protagonists. And if that person is faithful and devout, he ends up believing that he is separate from ordinary Catholics, that he owns the doctrine, that he not only owns power - but is obliged to wield it." (My edit)

"What new deviltry" is this?

Vox, please say this is not true. Please.

   I speak from experience.  

I always feel like I've done something wrong or I'm going to get in trouble for something...

Crackpots Online: Here's something ...

What's in a logo?

You know the saying, "You can't make this stuff up." But people do - they really do make this stuff up, or at least they believe the crap other people make up.

Chris Moore sees something synergistically sinister in the Jubilee logo ...

The work explicitly takes the Good Shepherd iconography and perverts it into this merging of man and God. Second, the logo displays several uses of an almond shape, also known as the mandorla, or vesica piscis. We know this not only because our eyes tell us so, but because the Pontifical Council does as well. In their words, “[t]he scene is captured within the so called mandorla (the shape of an almond), a figure quite important in early and medieval iconography, for it calls to mind the two natures of Christ, divine and human.”

Without a doubt, orthodox Christian iconography is replete with this shape. The Virgin of Guadalupe stands in the midst of a mandorla, and many depictions of Christ throughout the millennia do as well. In this way, the logo does make use of Christian tradition, but it has clearly done so in an odd way. The fact that the image is surrounded by a mandorla is not, to my eye at least, especially noteworthy in any negative way, but coupled with the merging bodies and with the third eye, which is also almond-shaped, the entire piece takes on an occult feeling. - Read more at 1P5

Reading too much into things.

Obviously, the readers of 1P5 agree with the author and go so far as to expand the conspiracy, claiming it is also homoerotic ...

The image's Freemason teasing is so tickling obvious it acts as a distraction. With that, the image - regardless of the artist's intent - is no stealth surfacing signaling Illuminati plans and conspiracies. The Illuminati wickedly attained power shortly before the French Revolution, ran its course, and is now historical debris. Something other (other wicked things have taken its place. I do not give Satan honors of successfully running an "apostolic succession". With the Devil it's hit and miss: of course, hitting and missing with horrific destruction or great sizzle. Let's face it for him; the guy has been defeated, if not yet chained, tossed, and dungeon door slammed. 

The point being, evil's (and the Evil One's) present presence and current ways and means is what matters, which should arrest our own eyeballing the world about us.
Which brings me to this - and I'll say it, since few are - the image is homoerotic.

I'm not a big fan of logos myself - but these people are reading far too much into the design/composition of Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik.*  His work is outstanding and 'orthodox' and it should stand in testimony and proof of his 'Catholicity'.  A logo is a graphic design-symbol to encapsulate the essence of what it is supposed to represent - in this case the Jubilee or Holy Year of Mercy.  Logos are used to brand a product or in this case identify and summarize the meaning of mercy - to be merciful like the Father.

Christ goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep;  he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.  He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains,  he who is God, and Adam's son. -From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Aside from the Pontifical Council's official description, it seems obvious to me at least, that the image is Christocentric - the so-called X cross the Christ figure stands upon is taken from the Resurrection icons of the Descent Into Hell, Christ tramples the gate of hell and redeems Adam - as Son of Man, Son of Adam - the Son of God is united with the fallen Adam - and he lifts him like the Good Shepherd upon his shoulders.  The symbolism is profound and steeped in Christian tradition - the Good Shepherd, the Descent into Hell, freeing the souls detained, rescuing the sinner like the Good Shepherd or the Good Samaritan: Christ the God-man - Son of God-Son of Man, the Divine Mercy, exhibiting the stigmata of the Holy Wounds, Christ the Image of the Father reconciling man to Himself.

A Freemason around every crackpot.

It is so simple and straight forward, yet crackpots with filthy minds and homoerotic memories are reading filth into an otherwise simple graphic depiction for a logo to be used on pamphlets, letterheads and cards in commemoration as well as to identify events and information connected to the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

This conspiracy theory is nearly as crazy as the one promoted by Michael Calace in his documentary titled, Rape of the Soul. Calace billed himself as one of the world's few experts on embedded imagery in art - specifically Roman Catholic religious art.  I wrote about his stuff here.

Some people see the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast, others see demons and Freemasons around every corner and in graphic designs which are often not even presented as objects of devotion or veneration - although Calace obviously sees penises in venerable iconography such as the San Damiano Crucifix of Assisi.

Filth may be in the eye of the beholder ... and that log may not be what you think it is.

Song for this post here.

+ + +

*NB: Fr. Rupnik's work can be seen in the Vatican Redemptoris Mater Chapel, and other major churches in the world, including Fatima.  The article from 1P5 is absurd.

The Redemptoris Mater Chapel

It is a masterpiece.

Do not be afraid!

Today's Gospel - Jesus walking on water telling the disciples: "It is I!"

A 'field hospital' in Ukraine.

Through the years I've known many fine religious and orthodox priests, who after ordination were eager to preach the Gospel without compromise, especially without moral compromise.  To correct consciences, to not only propose, but to practically 'impose' Church teaching and every liturgical rubric.*  With zeal they were zealous for the Lord.  Pastoral experience mellowed them - the ones who remained priests, that is.

One friend, in his new assignment was asked to do an infant baptism for a couple living together without benefit of marriage.  Father refused, and after he told me he had done so, I asked why.  In part he said new thinking had it that infant baptism may not be the right thing to do, as well as telling me the more Catholic sense would be to refuse if the parents are not practicing Catholics, and so on.  You all know those reasons.  I explained that if that would have happened in my case, I may never have been Catholic.

Another young priest I knew wouldn't give marriage instruction/prep counselling to a cohabiting couple unless they separated and lived a part.  I remember saying - but what if they just sleep in separate beds - considering the added expense of moving out and so on.  He laughed and said I was naive to think they could live together chastely until marriage.  Hopefully, such examples will be less likely to happen after this exhortation is promulgated.  We underestimate ordinary people, who if shown the way - the ideal - and trusting that their inclination to seek to regularize their domestic situations is sincere, respect them enough to take them at their word when they agree to live chastely.

The new exhortation from the Holy Father speaks to these issues, the reality of family life in modern times.  I've only read parts of it of course, but what I've read strikes me as just fine.  In fact, it pretty much addresses issues honestly and clearly, and promotes pastoral care in a way that has been pretty much practiced for decades.  The Holy Father doesn't depart from Catholic teaching, nothing is changed, but going forward, condemnations of 'public sinners' may be even less common than it is now.  Despite the fact many online are already saying the Pope has abandoned Catholic teaching.  He has not.

Bishop Barron posted a wonderful commentary on the Exhortation, and Padre Steve reprinted parts of it on his blog.  I'll reprint just a couple of things Bishop Barron said.

On a spring day about five years ago, when I was rector of Mundelein Seminary, Francis Cardinal George spoke to the assembled student body. He congratulated those proudly orthodox seminarians for their devotion to the dogmatic and moral truths proposed by the Church, but he also offered some pointed pastoral advice. He said that it is insufficient simply to drop the truth on people and then smugly walk away. Rather, he insisted, you must accompany those you have instructed, committing yourself to helping them integrate the truth that you have shared. I thought of this intervention by the late Cardinal often as I was reading Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

[...] the Pope also honestly admits that many, many people fall short of the ideal, failing fully to integrate all of the dimensions of what the Church means by matrimony. What is the proper attitude to them? Like Cardinal George, the Pope has a visceral reaction against a strategy of simple condemnation, for the Church, he says, is a field hospital, designed to care precisely for the wounded (292). Accordingly, he recommends two fundamental moves. First, we can recognize, even in irregular or objectively imperfect unions, certain positive elements that participate, as it were, in the fullness of married love. Thus for example, a couple living together without benefit of marriage might be marked by mutual fidelity, deep love, the presence of children, etc. Appealing to these positive marks, the Church might, according to a “law of gradualness,” move that couple toward authentic and fully-integrated matrimony (295). This is not to say that living together is permitted or in accord with the will of God; it is to say that the Church can perhaps find a more winsome way to move people in such a situation to conversion. - Da Mihi Animas

These matters are way over my head of course, but what I see is the Holy Father opening doors, windows, and untying knots for ordinary people to come into the Church.  Effectively ministering to them, going out onto the highways and bi-ways to accompany them back home.  I also see him affirming those pastors who have already, for decades, ministered to the so-called misfits, outsiders.  Those pastors we've often condemned as liberal - too liberal - who nonetheless ministered to those in irregular situations.  Who knew, until now, these so-called liberals have been missionaries, chaplains in a field hospital, truly ministering - giving the Bread of Life to those who would otherwise maybe not fit in so well at a 'normal' parish?

Will Amoris Laetitia end all debate on these matters? Hardly. But it does indeed represent a deft and impressive balancing of the many and often contradictory interventions at the two Synods on the Family. As such, it will be of great service to many suffering souls who come to the Field Hospital. - Bishop Barron

*"Then I feel it is helpful to reaffirm that the Church does not impose but rather freely proposes the Catholic faith ..." - Pope Benedict XVI