Kat...

Walk on the wild side.

Watch this...

Soooo stupid! Click here.
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This link reminds me; as time allows, I'll be posting some more thoughts on Medjugorje as well as the Charismatic Renewal.

More on "what scandal does"...

“We are personally going through the passion and the death which Christ experienced, but we have not yet gone beyond death to the resurrection. It is as if we are presently sealed up in a dark tomb waiting for the power of the Spirit of God to overtake us and raise us up to a new day and a new future.” - Archbishop Anthony Mancini.
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In an emotional pastoral letter read to all the Catholic parishes in the Archdiocese of Halifax this weekend, Archbishop Anthony Mancini responded in the strongest possible language yet to the news that Bishop Raymond Lahey was arrested for the possession and importation of child pornography last week.
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“I have cried and I have silently screamed, and perhaps that was my prayer to God: Why Lord? What does this all mean? What are you asking of me and my priests? What do you want to see happen among your people? Is this a time of purification or is it nothing more than devastation? Are people going to stop believing, will faithful people stop being people of faith? Lord, what are you asking of us and how can we make it happen?"
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“What I want to say is: Enough is enough! How much more can all of us take. Like you, my heart is broken, my mind is confused, my body hurts and I have moved in and out of a variety of feelings especially shame and frustration, fear and disappointment, along with a sense of vulnerability, and a tremendous poverty of spirit.” - Read more.

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Prayer of Reparation.

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May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. - Devotion to the Holy Face

Shrooms

I don't know what type of mushroom the top photo is, but I cut it off while mowing the lawn this evening - the "roof" is pictured immediately below the shaft. I know - everything is much too over exposed - but does anyone know what kind of mushroom this is? Are all lawn mushrooms poisonous? Below are examples from elsewhere in the yard - it has been very moist lately. I should note the lawn has gone totally organic this year - no artificial anything. Oh! Oh! I also noticed little elves running away before I captured the following specimens on film.

It seemed to me I began to shrink, and as I became even smaller, I found myself walking through the various stands of mushroom, and I'm quite certain I heard childlike voices and laughter...

Mantilla week...

Crescat is presenting a whole thing - like fashion week - on this style of head covering for women. Even Michelle Obama donned a mantilla (photo) - of course it is protocol at the Vatican - Queen Elizabeth does so as well when she visits. It isn't a matter of devotion.
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I have nothing against mantillas per se - although I think they do look dumb on some women - yet the long standing issue has been not what covers the head as much as it has been that a woman ought to have her head covered in the first place. It used to be a requirement in Canon Law that a woman was to have her head covered in Catholic churches. But for many years, devout Catholic women just stopped doing it.
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That said, before Jackie Kennedy popularized it in the yankee U.S., a hat or a scarf was usually the general norm for WASC (like WASP) women. Of course, if you happened to be Hassidic - you could wear a wig. In our day of the reform of the reform and trad is top drawer, the unwritten head covering mandate for women has become synonymous with the mantilla. Even in the Philippines, when a woman wears a hat in church - some people expect her to remove it. Yeah. Only men are expected to do that. (Although bishops may wear mitres and priests may wear birettas in church.)
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Of course, it is well known that in an earlier, more genteel time - such as the French Revolution (LOL!) - it was customary for women to cover their heads at all times - bonnets and veils you know. Many nuns and Amish women still do. On the other hand, in the mid-20th century, ladies frequently wore hats while indoors - at parties and the theater, and even in the office. (A gentleman always removed his however.)
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Which reminds me of a very chic french woman I once knew. Madame X, who had been in the French Resistance and decorated by de Gaulle, worked for a local interior design firm, and she always wore a hat while working in the office. She also smoked while holding her cigarette between her last two fingers: "That way, cherie," she advised, "the scent of ze nicotine will not affect your lover's palate as you feed him bon-bons." She also agreed with Chanel, that the good wife should rise an hour before her husband in order to do her toilette, style her hair, and put on her make-up so he will not be disappointed when he sees her.
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Mantillas are beautiful indeed - especially if the rest of your look compliments...
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Good night ladies and gentlemen!

Final perseverance.

Years ago one of my spiritual directors recommended to me that I pray daily for a happy death - in other words, final perseverance. Nevertheless, at the time I was unable to view death as anything more than a liberation from earth's exile, propelling the soul into the arms of Divine Mercy. I had just assisted at my mother's happy death, and was doing so well spiritually myself (I know! Such pride!), and I had such confidence in my confidence - I didn't take Father's admonition with any sense of urgently. Although I tried obediently to add the intention to my daily prayers as he advised.
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I still do - only now with a greater sense of urgency. All too often I've seen how easily the gift of faith can be lost.
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"That we can never in this life be certain of our final perseverance is defined by the Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xvi): "Si quis magnum illud usque in finem perseverantiae donum se certo habiturum, absoluta et infallibili certitudine dixerit, nisi hoc ex speciali revelatione dedicerit, anathema sit". What places it beyond our meriting power is the obvious fact that revelation nowhere offers final perseverance, with it retinue of efficacious graces and its crown of a good death, as a reward for our actions, but, on the contrary, constantly reminds us that, as the Council of Trent puts it, "the gift of perseverance can come only from Him who has the power to confirm the standing and to raise the fallen". However, from our incapacity to certainly know and to strictly merit the great gift, we should not infer that nothing can be done towards it.
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Theologians unite in saying that final perseverance comes under the impetrative power of prayer and St. Alphonsus Liguori (Prayer, the great means of Salvation) would make it the dominant note and burden of our daily petitions. The sometimes distressing presentation of the present matter in the pulpit is due to the many sides of the problem, the impossibility of viewing them all in one sermon, and the idiosyncrasies of the speakers. Nor should the timorousness of the saints, graphically described by Newman, be so construed as to contradict the admonition of the Council of Trent, that "all should place the firmest hope in the succour of God". Singularly comforting is the teaching of such saints as St. Francis de Sales (Camus, "The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales", III, xiii) and St. Catherine of Genoa (Treatise of Purgatory, iv). They dwell on God's great mercy in granting final perseverance, and even in the case of notorious sinners they do not lose hope: God suffuses the sinners' dying hour with an extraordinary light and, showing them the hideousness of sin contrasting with His own infinite beauty, He makes a final appeal to them. For those only who, even then, obstinately cling to their sin does the saying of Sirach 5:7, assume a sombre meaning "mercy and wrath quickly come from him, and his wrath looketh upon sinners". - Source

4 October: San Francesco d'Assisi

Perfect Joy

The Wild lost their season opener tonite too.

People do not want me to talk...

I just got this email:
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I read your latest piece.

RE: scandal- is it not scandalous to live with another man and yet rail endlessly about the gay agenda and the lavender mafia?

You said you don't take scandal lightly- can you see the scandal you could potentially cause your gay brothers and sisters who strive for theosis (and who don't, by the way, at least in my case, live with a man)?

I think the best thing Fr. Z ever put on his blog was a comment verifier- "Think before you post."

(I say this all in love, even though my hands are shaking.)


Peace, and Happy Feast of St. Francis,

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Blogger X

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My response:

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Tell me what is wrong with sharing a house with a friend who happens to be a man? Don't sink too low (name withheld) - other people have tried to threaten me with this as well.

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UPDATE: Thanks to all who commented on this post, I very much appreciate what you have had to say. Nevertheless, I decided not to publish comments so as not to make this into a big deal or cause any more offense to anyone. God bless each of you. Thanks.

Letterman

Who cares? What does one expect from a man like this?

N'Obama.

No Olympics for Chicago, USA.
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Obama and his wife, Michelle, had taken their star power to the Danish capital to make Chicago's case, ignoring the carping from Republican opponents who charged it was a bad time to go with foreign policy challenges in Iran and Afghanistan and the U.S. Congress bogged down in a domestic healthcare debate.
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"I'm asking you to choose Chicago. I'm asking you to choose America," Michelle Obama told committee members.
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Her husband said, "If you do, if we walk this path together, then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud." - Story
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Obama's is making the U.S. look weak. He ought to have stayed out of it and concentrated on his day job.

Another look at what scandal is and does.

From my POV.
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Many people now know about the arrest of Canadian Bishop Lahey on child pornography charges.
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Once hailed as a brave advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, Mr. Lahey faces one count of possession and one count of importation of child pornography, after the discovery of images on his laptop computer at Ottawa's airport while he was returning from a foreign visit on Sept. 15.
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Mr. Lahey is well known in Nova Scotia as the bishop who did what no previous Catholic leader had done before: accept responsibility and apologize -- without any resort to litigation -- for the sex-abuse crimes of a former priest in his diocese.
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The victims of that abuse, dating back to the 1950s, are now eligible for compensation from a $15-million out-of-court settlement Lahey negotiated earlier this year.
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Mr. Lahey was in the midst of a difficult fundraising effort across his diocese to generate money for the settlement, when he was pulled aside by Canada Border Services agents for a random check of his laptop at Ottawa International." Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2055255#ixzz0Sn7PPfOg
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I think it possible, and I hope it is true, that this bishop is innocent of the charges and that the material on his laptop was simply part of his private investigation and research. In the meantime, I noticed on another blog that people in his diocese are talking about leaving the Church if these rumors prove to be true.
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Commenter's mean well when they say things like, "I will not leave because of some man's sin or bad example. If these people really knew their faith - they would not leave the Church." On one level that makes sense and I understand the goodwill behind that statement - nevertheless a bishop's fall from grace, if it be true, is huge. Bishops are our shepherds in the faith - they are our leaders and teachers in the faith. When they fall, or when a priest falls, it is a terrible scandal.
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The effects of scandal.
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Scandal leads to sin and many times, loss of faith. One's faith can be shaken even when one claims to know one's faith. The bishops and priests who scandalize the faithful by their sins and or apostasy, they too know their faith - just as well if not better than the people they lead. And yet - they betray the faith, fall into sin, and sometimes apostatize entirely.
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So we should never think we are safe from scandal because we know our faith. We shouldn't be too harsh about those who leave the Church because of scandal. Catholics have to understand that this is exactly what scandal does and means - to scandalize someone is to cause them to sin, to lose faith. If the accusations against Bishop Lahey are proven to be true, this bishop scandalized his people.
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We need to pray for the real victims - the people who are scandalized and the victims of the pornography industry. As for the Bishop, if the charges are true, unless he repents and makes amends it would have been better if he had never been born.
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St. Paul explains that our brothers and sisters in faith who are scandalized are weak - Christ refers to them as little ones - they have faith, but it is weak, and scandal can rob them of it.
"Extend a kind welcome to those who are weak in faith... we must no longer pass judgement on one another. Instead you should resolve to put no stumbling block or hindrance in your brother's way." - Romans 14. Knowledge of the faith is not a competition, someone who appears to be unaffected by a public sin because his faith is strong is not better than the believer whose faith is weak and suffers scandal. It is not the same thing as priding oneself upon scholastic achievement while disparaging the under-educated.
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Little children (simple, ordinary folk) do not have to understand the faith in order to believe. In truth, anyone can have the gift of faith taken away or destroyed by those who cause scandal. Especially when the ones who cause scandal are those who know the faith, who understand the faith - those who have ears to hear, eyes to see, and so on.
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People have to understand this and stop feeling sorry and making excuses for the bastards who take advantage of their positions to exploit the weak and give scandal to little ones. "Scandals will inevitably arise, but woe to him through whom they come. He would be better off thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck than giving scandal to one of these little ones." - Luke 17
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Intellectual pride.
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Today we place so much emphasis on intellectual knowledge and knowing the answers to theological questions, that isn't a bad thing at all. That is why the Catholic Church has a catechism, and why those in positions of leadership and teaching are trained in theology. It is a good thing. Nevertheless, our knowledge and academic achievements often become for us a source of pride and self-assurance. Our knowledge will not save us - our faith will. Yes, we must nurture our faith with prayer, the sacraments, and study, and exercise it in good works - but we need to remember it is a gift and can be lost... Lost though it can be, one still retains all of that knowledge.
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Think of the people who left the Church who know our religion, our faith better than ourselves. I know a woman at a Catholic company who knew just about every Vatican document, understood dogma and knew her scriptures. She left the Church and returned to her old religion, Wicca. She still works at the same company because she is so knowledgeable about the faith and Catholic devotions.
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I know another woman who had been a novice with a well known religious order - a "good one" as people like to qualify them. Her spiritual director was a fine priest from a traditional order, well known for his sound theology and spirituality, a priest faithful to prayer - rising in the night for adoration - even when he was spending the night in the same bed with his little novice. They both knew their faith, and practiced the devotions to sustain it. Father had been helping sister through some sexual difficulties through his interpretation of JPII's theology of the body. Kind of scandalous huh? She is no longer a candidate for religious life and is having troubles with her faith.
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I once prided myself on believing so firmly and completely in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, my faith "fixed on Jesus" convinced me that my own faith could never be shaken. Until two religious superiors I greatly esteemed abandoned their vocations, one to found a new order, the other to pursue an academic career and "come out". I knew my faith. I had experienced many graces. My eyes were fixed upon Jesus. I couldn't admit it at the time, nevertheless I was deeply scandalized - my faith was shaken, and I fell away - for a couple of years. It is a miracle that I came back.
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I hope to never, ever again say things like - "How can they leave just because some man sinned or disappointed them - I know my faith, I understand my faith - I'm not going."
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Understand the faith - what does that mean anyway? Can anyone explain the Trinity? Transubstantiation? The Virgin Birth? The Immaculate Conception? Peter knew Christ was the Son of God, yet he denied him. Judas, who was anything but honest, betrayed him. They both knew their faith. A person could speculate that one man, Peter, had been scandalized and therefore fell away. While the other man, Judas, became a part, if not the source of scandal - thus it was better for him to have never been born.

The Little Flower

Many of us prefer the photographs of the Saint to most paintings of her, even this one painted by her talented sister Celine. But did you know that Celine modeled the expression we see here from that of how Therese looked immediately after death?
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"...In 1905, at the urgent request of the community I painted a picture of Therese as she appeared immediately after death. For a model, I used the photo taken in the infirmary on October 1. The sisters who had been her contemporary considered my portrait a perfect likeness of our Saint. It was this picture that was published in all the editions of Histoire d'une Ame, after 1906." - My Sister St. Therese
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A blessed feast day to all on this joyful feast of Little Therese.

The United States new image under Obama...

Iconic.

How the USCCB spends...

Why do we even have a USCCB?

Transitus of St. Therese.

Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
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Little Therese died on September 30, 1897 at 7:20 in the evening, after a prolonged agony. I have been reading Sr. Genevieve of the Holy Face (Celine) book, My Sister, St. Therese for my novena in preparation for the saint's feast day tomorrow. Celine was a real artist - an accomplished painter, and I think I understand her temperament. Little Therese always told her, "You are too little... to understand... or to do this or that..." and so on. I get that.

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Once in the infirmary - just a few days ago (1897) in fact, Celine relates:

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I had been going to and fro in the Infirmary, and became upset because something had gone wrong. Therese called, "Bo-bonne, no interior anxiety if you please!" (September 3) I can almost hear her say that.

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Therese always knows when something is wrong.

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Her dying reminds me so much of the death of love Our Lord suffered... today she cries out:

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"Oh! It is pure suffering, because there is not a drop of consolation, no, not one."

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No, I would never have believed that it was possible to suffer so much... never, never. I can only explain it by my extreme desire to save souls." (September 30)

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Celine says, "She was trembling from head to foot..."

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At one point she told Celine, "Va, va, ma Celine, je serais avec tois..." "Go on with courage... I shall be with you."

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Finally, gazing on her crucifix, Little Therese cried out:

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"Oh!... Je L'aime!... Mon Dieu, je... vous... aime!" "Oh! ...I love Him! ...My God, I ...love ...you!"

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These were her last words.

"Vicious" - defined.

Main Entry: vi·cious
Pronunciation: \ˈvi-shəs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French vicios, from Latin vitiosus full of faults, corrupt, from vitium vice
Date: 14th century
1 : having the nature or quality of vice or immorality : depraved
2 : defective, faulty; also : invalid
3 : impure, noxious
4 a : dangerously aggressive : savage
b : marked by violence or ferocity : fierce
5 : malicious, spiteful
6 : worsened by internal causes that reciprocally augment each other
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So there you have it, a word I too will use on occasion and frequently misspell - I always think there is an "s" in it. I will have to remember the etymolology: visios, vitiosus: vice.
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I used it in a post yesterday referring to homosexuals who attack the Church and manipulate Her teachings, scriptures, devotions, and liturgies to advance their agenda.

What writing does for me.

"Me too!" - said the Pope.

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In an interview with John Allen (NCR), the Holy Father replied to a question concerning the healing of his wrist, saying he was pleased to be able to write again, explaining: "My thinking develops above all through writing."

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That is exactly the same for me, it is the reason I write - and paint. My thinking develops above all through writing and painting - if not one, the other.

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The Holy Father is so humble.

Longest running apparition.

Nothing supernatural.

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So anyway. Fr. Ray has two very good posts on the Medjugorje evangelical revival serial. The comments on the post are also very good. I almost got fooled into believing in this one.

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Medjugorje #1
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Medjugorje #2

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Photo: Grownup seers of Medjugorje.

The Holy Father in Prague

His first stop while visiting the Czech Republic was at the Church of Our Lady of Victories to venerate the Infant Jesus and present the gift of a Papal Crown for the miraculous statue.

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Devotion to the Infant Jesus is not just for children.

So... Eminence, are you able to exercise the duties of your office?

"This is way beyond my field." Cardinal Mahoney
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The LA Cardinal was actually answering another question - but this works too.

Pandemic panic.

See, the thing about liars and conspiracy theorists and psychics and religious visionaries and the U.N. warning everyone that annhilation is just around the corner, is that I don't believe nuthin'.

So anyway - my parish church has taken out all the holy water fonts and replaced them with hand sanitizer pump bottles. I know! How proactive.

So much for In God we trust. (I hope they cut out the hand holding at the Our Father and the inappropriate touching at the sign of peace too.)

Last nite I had a dream that I was talking to Laura Bush and she told me, "Just be ready by March - that's when it's going to happen ."

I looked at my friend Darold and said - "See - even she knows!" Turning back to Laura I asked, "So what should we do?"

"Stock up on water and canned goods - and your prescriptions - you won't be able to get them after March." She said, smiling all the while. I didn't see George.

And wouldn't you know it, I forgot to ask March of what year.

Anyway - I watched a new series on television last night called "FlashForward" - which must have inspired my dream. I think the writers based the plot line on the warning and chastisement stuff from Garabandal. 3 days darkness stuff - yep - I got the candles.

I've always liked George and Laura (Bush).

Virgen de los Desamparados

One of my favorite titles of Our Lady...

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Our Lady of the Lunatics, Insane and Forsaken. Read about her here.

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September 24 is the feast of Our Lady of Ransom - I did not forget. The feast usually occurs between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - during the Jewish days of Awe.

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"During the Days of Awe, a Jew tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God (bein adam leMakom) and against other human beings (bein adam lechavero). The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt (Vidui). At the end of Yom Kippur, one considers one's self absolved by God." - Source

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Please pray for this desamparado's conversion.

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“If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right arm wither away!

May my tongue stick to the roof

of my mouth if I fail to remember

you....” (Psalms 137:5)

Calling out lies.

"Stop lying to one another." - Col 3, 9
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St. Paul makes that appeal more than once in his Letters. Today we experience great doubt in a culture which seems to subsist upon lies. Recently a politician disrupted the President's speech, calling him a liar; while in Europe, Pope Benedict is being accused of lying about what he knew concerning the Nazi sympathies of a bishop of the SSPX. That perhaps figures well with those who accuse the Pope of having been a Nazi because of some sort of mandatory involvement in Hitler Youth. (A fact, if memory serves me, an ill-informed Vatican spokesman mistakenly denied as well.)
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Of course we also have the situation of an Internet rife with accusations of lying and deceit by all types of persons and institutions - to the extent that one has to wonder if it is the lies that are so destructive to the common good, or the mistrust, uneasiness, and doubt they generate. Surely they go hand in hand in a corrupt society - the cause and the effect.
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We also have the experience in the U.S. of Catholic bishops dissimulating and covering up for deviant priests, and themselves at times, at great expense to the faithful - not simply monetarily, but morally and mortally as well. This is the result of scandal, and why good bishops and priests and Catholic laity must point such things out; clarifying Catholic teaching - the truth - as in the case of Archbishop Burke, offering solid catechesis regarding the Kennedy funeral discussion.
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Nevertheless, lying seems to be getting the better and best of us, and is all pervasive, which is why the exhortation from St. Paul is always relevant. We must stop lying to one another.
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Politically correct language, diplomatic language, legal terminology, philosophical and theological loopholes, and even socially polite niceties or exaggerations, contributes to an atmosphere of moral ambiguity - especially for the unsophisticated and under-educated. As St. Francis De Sales said, "plain dealing" is always best and is the responsibility and duty of the children of light.
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"Your language should be frank, sincere, candid, and honest. Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity, or dissimulation. While it is not always advisable to say all that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth." - Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III: 30

Preserving architecture in a post-Christian society...

Unsettling.

Perhaps it is unfair to call our times post-Christian, churches have often been sold off and used for commercial purposes, we have examples of it locally - one I know of is a bookstore. Years ago one of my favorite discos in NYC was an old church called The Sanctuary - it was even used in a film for a location shoot - the movie: Klute.
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It is rather unsettling however to come across photos of the Dominican church (above), nicely converted into a fashionable bookstore. The location is Maastricht, Netherlands, and so it is no surprise perhaps. It will most likely be a common occurrence throughout Europe as the faith continues to dwindle. There are more photos on the architect's site here. It really is a very handsome conversion, wonderful use of space without obstructing the lovely art and architecture.
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If I were rich I'd love to buy an old abandoned church in France or Tuscany.


H/T Catholic Church Conservation

September Issue

If you have ever worked in fashion, marketing or ready to wear, you must see "September Issue" - the best documentary on the business ever.

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The movie is fascinating. There are moments however where the vacuousness of the industry and the persons who work in it emerges. In quiet moments the principals seem to convey a bored disappointment, even sadness... and that is when one can experience a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness. I think that may in part account for why fashion changes so rapidly and always tends forward to what is novel and glamorous - it removes one from one's reality and spiritual self knowledge. Of course, profit is a driving factor as well. But the everchanging, always in flux creative atmosphere is what generally attracts the superficial.

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In the film, the only moments Anna Wintour betrays any authenticity as an actual person is when she is in the company of her daughter - otherwise she seems a rather soulless creature exercising power over equally soulless individuals in a strange antechamber to... nothing.

'The September Issue' Trailer HD

Must see. The best.

Followers

I have a Followers box, widget, whatever, in my side bar that doesn't show up now. Does it show up for visitors here? If so, it may be my security settings are blocking it. I can't be bothered with this stuff - but I hate it when stuff doesn't work.

Oh! Oh! What if the CIA blocked it?!

Saints

I came across one of the most extraordinary posts I have ever read, concerning the Orthodox Hieromonk Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi, his photo in death shown above. Elena of Fountain of Elias blog has posted the Elder's teaching on prayer. Go here to read. After reading it, I was filled with a blessed peace.

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Incidentally, the novena for the feast of St. Therese has begun. And of course, today is the feast of St. Pio.

Victims of racism...

Blind leading the blind.
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I kinda feel sorry for Governor Paterson now.

End of summer.

Portion of the back garden.

The red morning glory on the trellis attracts Hummingbirds - which seem to me to be like little angels or fairies as they dart about, often hovering in mid-air to get a closer look at me.

Bishop Talk...

The USCCB on proselytism...
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Proselytism, or the deliberate targeting of another Christian or group of Christians for the sole purpose of getting them to reject their church to join another, is not allowed. Some people may feel called in conscience to change from one tradition to another, but “sheep stealing” is unacceptable. USCCB
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The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith does not equate proselytism with “sheep stealing,” but with coercion. In its 2007 Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization, the Congregation teaches:
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The term proselytism originated in the context of Judaism, in which the term proselyte referred to someone who, coming from the gentiles, had passed into the Chosen People. So too, in the Christian context, the term proselytism was often used as a synonym for missionary activity. More recently, however, the term has taken on a negative connotation, to mean the promotion of a religion by using means, and for motives, contrary to the spirit of the Gospel; that is, which do not safeguard the freedom and dignity of the human person. It is in this sense that the term proselytism is understood in the context of the ecumenical movement. - Catholic Culture

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H/T Pewsitters

What's my line? Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

"What's My Line?" - Catholicism as a game show.

Stop-it!

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I don't get it. This morning at Inside Catholic I noted Archbishop Burke had remarked upon funerals for pro-abortion Catholics:
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"Neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to such politicians," said Archbishop Burke. "To deny these is not a judgment of the soul, but a recognition of the scandal and its effects." - Source
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So far so good - for him - and maybe a few of us. Archbishop Burke is a gem of a Catholic prelate - but does anyone listen to him? A couple of Cardinals just buried a pro-abortion politician in a very public Catholic funeral, while other bishops and priests condemned those who dared criticize it as uncharitable, hate filled, misguided Catholics.
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I'm not going to waste time this morning listing the litany of questionable Cardinals and Bishops here, but damn! Where is the consistency in Catholic teaching? Is it now just fine to live however one desires, accepting or rejecting Catholic teaching while professing to be a Catholic and yet maintain "good hope" that everyone is saved? (This was even intimated on last evening's Sunday Night Live with Fr. Benedict Groeschl, CFR on EWTN.)

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III. INDIFFERENTISM, LATITUDINARIANISM
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15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true. -- Allocution "Maxima quidem," June 9, 1862; Damnatio "Multiplices inter," June 10, 1851.
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16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846.
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17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. -- Encyclical "Quanto conficiamur," Aug. 10, 1863, etc.
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18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church. -- Encyclical "Noscitis," Dec. 8, 1849. - Syllabus of Errors Condemned by Blessed Pius IX
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We live in an age when heresy, apostasy and compromise has infected the Church close to the top - it almost seems all that is left to be accomplished is for the abomination of desolation to take it's place in the sanctuary.

Congratulations Christopher West!

Cardinal Rigali approves.
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Cardinal Justin Rigali, as Chairman of the Episcopal Advisory Board for the Theology of the Body Institute and as local ordinary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia where the Institute is located, and Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Christopher West's local ordinary in the Diocese of Harrisburg, have stated that they are pleased to express strong support for the important work of the Theology of the Body Institute and, in particular, that of Christopher West. - Source
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Excuse me while I whip this out.
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I really cannot print what I think of this. However, it must be remembered that many bishops and cardinals also hoped that discipline might change concerning the regulation of birth before Humane Vitae was issued. While afterwards, several continued to object - and reject. This isn't the same thing of course, but it certainly helps one appreciate the effectiveness of such a general imprimatur.
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Wait, watch, and see what happens... It will make headlines.
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That's all.

Attention Monastery cooks!

This is very cool - great for celebrating feasts of martyrs such as St. Januarius!

1930s Futuristic Fashion Predictions

For Susan and Cathy and Angela and Adrienne... oh, and Bob.

St. Januarius

Guys really like the martyrs - the bloodier the better. 19 September is the feast day of St. Januarius.

I don't get it...

- the look I mean.

Obama the sell out?

WARSAW, Poland – Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.

"Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back," the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page. - More here.
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Anyone know what happened in September of 1939 in Poland?

The secret decoded

Click here to read the narrative.

The Reluctant Saint The Life of St. Joseph of Cupertino Part 5

My Santo!

The Secret is out.

Click here.

The Sacred Stigmata

Penance
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Today is a feast of St. Francis of Assisi, since on this day he received the sacred stigmata, or the wounds of Christ crucified, in his own flesh.
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The Third Order of St. Francis was founded for those who wished to follow the spiritual discipline of the Friars Minor while remaining in their particular station in life. As we know, observing the duties of one's state in life is sometimes the greatest penance of all. For example, the single person must remain chaste while earning his own keep or possibly caring for an aged parent or friend. The married person must remain faithful no matter what - not abandoning his spouse, earning a living, raising a family, and so on. All Christians first duty is to God of course, keeping the commandments, assisting at Mass, constancy in prayer, fidelity to the laws, discipline and teachings of the Church, etc.. All these ordinary things comprise the duties of one's state in life - they are little things, but the means of sanctification.
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The Brothers and Sisters of Penance, as the first secular Franciscans were called, undertook much more however. They added more daily prayers and special fasts and abstinence to their lives. They dressed more modestly and poorly, lived more frugally with out luxury and unnecessary convenience, and either gave alms or served the very poor as best they could, according to their means and abilities. Their life took on the character of the religious they so admired, and the poor they served. The very poor and illiterate did likewise, often increasing corporal penance and prayer to a heroic degree.
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I'm amongst those of us who have lost the sense of penance, or the idea that one is morally obliged to be faithful to what is routine and mundane in one's responsibilities. For instance, when I got tired or bored with my job, I would stay home and use a sick day - a lot! When I got really bored, I quit that particular job. Even now, when I don't feel like painting, I don't. If I'm too tired for daily Mass, I stay in bed. If I don't want to clean the house, I don't. If I want a beer, I have one. If I want steak, I eat one. If my computer goes down, I get mad and complain. If my life isn't comfortable, I do what I can to make it so.
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So the feast of the Sacred Stigmata reminds me of the penance I owe for the many sins of selfish self-indulgence I continue to commit, wallowing in my sloth, while criticising priests and religious and other good people whom I envy and I'm jealous of because they are better Catholics than I am.
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Art: "St. Francis carried dying to St. Mary of the Angels offering a last blessing to Assisi." Leon Benouville

What 'fashion' is, and what it is not...

I just received and watched the DVD "Valentino - The Last Emperor" - it is a fantastic view into the world of haute couture - which, as Amanda Priestly** would tell you, has a great impact upon what the ordinary woman buys on sale at Marshall's. That said, what goes into a piece of apparel - from the original design, to construction, to finished masterpiece is amazing. It is not only art and architecture, but an enormous industry which employs countless people. I highly recommend the documentary. (If you have ever worked in any segment of the business, you will definitely appreciate the film.)

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What I can't recommend as fashion or design is something naively referred to as Pure Fashion. The concept is laudable - the product, the shows, the marketing - not so much. There is no fashion whatsoever in anything I have ever seen regarding this effort. Jeans, skirts and t-shirts - ordinary-every-day-wear is not fashion. Tips On How To Dress Modestly is a better descriptive than misappropriating the appellative "fashion" to this "stuff".

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** [To Andrea] "This... stuff? Oh... okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out — oh, I don't know — that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002 Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St. Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? (I think we need a jacket here). And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff." - Wikiquotes

"The Secret" unveiled...

Detail of my painting, "The Secret of Fatima"...
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Remember, this is all most people really knew about the so-called third secret until the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco Marto on May 13, 2000... And yet there were quite a few variations of the contents of the envelope floating about the world before that.

Very funny.

I'll be at adoration this afternoon.

The Pope speaks...

This is it!

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This is my point exactly, but I have not been able to articulate it. The Holy Father said it well in this morning's allocution concerning St. Symeon the New Theologian:

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In the nine volumes of his works, Symeon “insisted that true knowledge of God comes not from books but from the spiritual life, born of a journey of inner purification that begins with conversion,” the Pope summarized. The New Theologian "calls us all to the spiritual life, the hidden presence of God in us, to the purification of conscience, so the Holy Spirit becomes present in us and guides us." - CNA

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Yes, yes, YES! The 'purification of conscience', which at times can be a great suffering... an arduous 'journey' which only 'begins with conversion'.

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"More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy." —Jeremiah 17:9

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Deep calling unto deep...

Yesterday

I finished "The Secret" Sunday afternoon, 13 September, the 92nd anniversary of the 5th apparition at Fatima.
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I have never worked so long and hard on a painting and come away so disappointed with it. I did some detail work and glazes today, and signed it, but I have to let it go for awhile. I don't know what to do with it. I decided it should be titled "Fatima, The Secret" - otherwise people may not get it. I'm too embarrassed to show it right now - maybe later...
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It was beyond my ability - that is all I can say about it.
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For the past few months I have been immersed in the message and accounts of the apparitions at Fatima. I have read and reread every detail it seems to me. I have prayed many rosaries, and will continue to do so. Did you know Our Lady asked for more than prayer for the conversion of sinners? She asked for sacrifices - sacrifices. Imagine. Our Lord explained penance as the fulfillment of the duties of one's state in life. Imagine.
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Did you know Our Lady predicted WWII but never said anything about concentration camps and the holocaust? Of all the horrors of the 20th century, the war and immorality, Our Lady chose to remind us of the existence of God, that he is gravely offended by sin, and that the souls of sinners end up in hell, "because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them."
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Stunningly, after the 3rd part of the secret was revealed, people were disappointed - they claimed it was not revealed in it's entirety because nothing apocalyptic had been revealed, errant bishops weren't condemned, the Vatican Council wasn't anathematized, and so on.
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The Blessed Virgin did not come to tell fortunes - she came to urge the faithful to return to God, to be converted, to pray and make sacrifices for sinners. She came to make us understand that God exists - that hell is real, that Satan exists, and the souls of unrepentant sinners go to hell. She came to announce that her Immaculate Heart would be the way that leads us to God - that the peace of the world was in her hands.
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The secret and the October miracle at Fatima were of such significance for our times, not unlike the great prodigies of the Bible, that to be ignored and shuffled off to the archives of history must be a great offence to God. To say that "Fatima is over! It is this or that revelation or apparition that is important now" must be a great insult to Divine Providence and the most sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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If nothing else, working on the painting caused me to understand anew that the message of Fatima is more relevant today than ever.

I pulled the girls out of school...

I wasn't about to allow them to be brainwashed by Obama's speech.
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ROFLMAO!
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I was offline for the hysteria...

This is how bad I am.

Entrance antiphon.
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I turned on EWTN yesterday afternoon and there was a televised Mass for the dedication of a statue of Mother Teresa of Calcutta at the National Shrine in Washington, D.C..

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I couldn't stand the singing, the processional, the choir robes, the Missionary of Charity entering the sanctuary for the reading, or the bishop smiling his way down the aisle, or his vestments, or anything else about it. But it was the singing that really annoyed me the most.

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I turned it off.

"I'm every woman"

Kidding - I mean, every sinner.

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I used the Chaka Kahn song title because of a meditation I've been pondering this past week. Last Sunday or Monday I decided to read the Gospel as if all the sinners, cripples and other outcasts that Jesus either encountered or spoke about in his parables, were actually me. The idea, "I'm every sinner" originated one morning at prayer, which led to my search for Gospel stories to see where I fit in. It remains a good spiritual exercise.

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Anyway. That is why I've been offline for so many days. I had nothing to write about... I have this huge log in my eye which makes it difficult to even see the keyboard... so I kinda lost interest.

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Oh. I've been busy painting as well.

More favorite endings...

Labor Day signals the end of summer in these parts. I love good endings - and I don't always mean the happily ever after endings either. Some endings are sad. Other endings are really beginnings... although we never find out how it ends.

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From Klute:

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Bree Daniels: "I have no idea what's going to happen. (Pause.) I just can't stay in the city, you know? (Pause.) Maybe I'll come back... (Long pause.) You'll probably see me next week."

The Wrestler - Official Trailer

I love this film.

Something about the duties of bishops...

The Holy Father on St. Gregory the Great:
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"Taking up a favorite theme, he (Gregory the Great) affirms that the Bishop is, above all, the 'preacher' par excellence: As such, he must first be an example for others, so that his behavior may constitute a point of reference for everyone.
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Effective pastoral action also requires that the bishop knows who it is addressed to and adapt his interventions to every particular situation. Gregory takes time to illustrate the various categories of the faithful with acute and timely observations, which could well justify those who also see this work as a treatise on psychology. One thus understands that he truly knew his flock and that he spoke about everything with the people of his time and of his city.
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The great Pontiff, nonetheless, insists on the Pastor's duty to recognize daily his own poverty, so that pride may not render in vain, in the eyes of the Supreme Judge, the good that he has done.
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Thus, the final chapter of the Rule is dedicated to humility: "When one is pleased at having achieved many virtues, it is good to reflect on one's insufficiencies and be humble: instead of considering the good one has achieved, one must consider that which one failed to achieve." - Benedict XVI on The Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great, Wednesday Audience 6/4/08