As one reader put it, perhaps we can ask the martyred nun for some intercession for Father MacRae!

I guess there is some controversy about this video, as it conjurs up perceptions of what was happening down in Nicaragua back in the day…

There is another side to all that….  I was in Nicaragua during their worst times. With a friend, I was literally the “last foreigner out” in the worst area. There is so much to say that… oh my… I think that will have to wait for an autobiography if I’m ever able to write it.

The point of the video here was more about the present crisis between Church and State, with Obama wanting to shut down freedom of religion altogether. What Reagan said about religion being free from any tyranny of the state is spectatular. That’s all I wanted to say here, as the tags indicate!

“But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. [...] They will look on Him whom they have peirced” (John 19,34.37).

An email, betraying the age of the correspondant, arrived earlier on…

“The Church Militant is not for wusses!”

LOL! I couldn’t possibly agree more. Keep in mind that if we don’t belong to the Church Militant, we will not belong to the Church Suffering or the Church Triumphant. So, don’t be a wuss!

The strongest of all the apostles was John, who returned after He ran away. Second was Peter, who took long to heal after his betrayals. Both are heroes for me!

May the hearts of the entire Mystical Body of Christ beat in unison as the one Heart of Mary’s Son… The flames! The flames! Yikes!

The angels know well how to put us into humble thanksgiving mode before Mary’s Son, Jesus…

Early Thursday morning after Ash Wednesday. On fire for the Lord! The flames, my dear readers.. The Flames! The Lord is very good and very kind. We are just so nothing, but He. Is. Just. So. Good. And. Just. So. Kind. !!!

The martyrs went to their deaths singing the Te Deum laudamus!, a hymn of praise and humble thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Incarnate Word born of the Virgin. The picture is linked to TSW.

A bit cynical, that cartoon? Not at all. Not after reading the David F. Pierre Jr. books on the false accusations hurled against Catholic priests. Here’s a half dozen links to those books over at Fr Z’s blog. Buying through his links helps him out. 

Again I ask, is the cartoon a bit cynical? Not at all. Not after reading more of Father Gordon’s TheseStoneWalls.

My response to all this recent reading of mine is to wonder if there are any priest-heroes for real victims, not only Padre Pio, but priests living right now. And, of course, it will be those innocent priests who suffer on behalf of real victims, in solidarity with them. Of course the priest-heroes of real victims are those priests whose accusers-bearing-false-witness-for-monetary-gain make a horrific mockery of real victims.

Those who have suffered abuse will get around to recognizing this – en masse – and then the false accusers and groups like SNAP who use abuse for ideological hatred of the Catholic Church will receive a backlash in whatever ways. Among those receiving a backlash for such injustice will be some bishops, those who throw under the bus also those who have been exonerated by the court system, by repentant false-accusers and their families, by repentant false-witnesses, by all, but are still thrown under the bus, with priestly faculties removed, with no means of support, out of prison, but with nowhere to go except down, down, down, down, down… Real abuse victims know what it’s like to be abused, and part of their healing will be to be in solidarity with those who suffer injustice on thier behalf.

Reality check! Just to say, I know some very, very excellent bishops, living saints, for whom I have all the respect in the world. They immediately see through all the rubbish by the clear light of Jesus. Jesus, mind you, notes all things; He is the judge of the living and dead; His kingdom will have no end; in His presence, the damned will be damned and the saved will enjoy the eternal beatitude in which they have already begun to rejoice here upon this earth.

Again, the reason for Holy Souls Hermitage is to pray for priests and bishops going through the purgatory of this life or the next. So, here we are. I’m in total solidarity with them! However, what I do is nothing compared to those who are also my heroes, those who are falsely accused (fully 50%) but are still treated as criminals. Thanks be to God, I was never abused as a kid. And I bet the same goes for many if not all falsely accused priests. But that doesn’t stop me from being in solidarity with the sufferings of falsely accused priests and the suffering of true victims. Many falsely accused priests have told me or have written that they are offering their sufferings also for their fellow priests. This is totally, wonderfully awesome. Being part of the family of faith under persecution is what gives me hope. It puts me solidly before Jesus, His goodness and His kindness.

Lent is not about prayer and fasting and almsgiving done apart from the friendship of our Lord, you know, to see how much we can do or to let it be seen how much we can do. Without our Lord, such wonderful things are detrimental exercises of self-congratulation.

Lent is about an increase of friendship with our Lord Jesus, Mary’s Son, also by way of prayer and fasting and almsgiving. We just gotta begin, carry out, and end any prayer, fasting and almsgiving in friendship with Jesus. Thus:

• Jesus, you know I don’t know how to pray as I ought. I fail in the very act of presenting myself to you, for, if I am not depending on your friendship, I present myself to you as if I were doing something good apart from you. Jesus, please, don’t merely help me to pray; kill me off to myself so that I live no longer for myself, but you live within me, with the Holy Spirit uniting me to the Father through, with an in you, with ineffable groans. – And then, in finding that the grace of this prayer, provided to us by our Lord, has drawn us before Him, we can be in humble thanksgiving, and have no hesitation to praise Him, adore Him, petition Him for our needs and those of the whole world.
• Jesus, you know what happens to me when I fast. I tend to be tempted to look at such weakness. Don’t just help me to fast, Jesus; kill me off to myself so that, living for you alone, with you living in me, I won’t look to myself, however much I know my weakness, but will rather look to you, not more intensely, as if this is something I had the capacity to turn on or off, but always more simply, being drawn by you, seeing your strength shining through my weakness. – And then, rejoicing in Jesus’ strength, will we let our weakness scream out that Jesus is the Victor, that His love is stronger than death, and we will rejoice that Jesus has our weakness work for us.
• Jesus, you know just how selfish I can be, and that if I do give alms, how tempted I am to count the cost. Jesus, don’t just help me to give alms, but so kill me off to myself that I will live only for you, with you living in me, loving neighbor as we love ourselves, loving neighbor because you love them and you give us the love to love you loving them. — And then, perhaps quite suddenly, we will not be after any good feeling or other self-serving rubbish (which is bound to turn into donor fatigue), but will rather rejoice that we find ourselves, by the grace of our Lord Jesus, in the family of faith, of His love. And we will know the goodness and kindness of His friendship!

Unjustly imprisoned Father Gordon MacRae has a great post on Lent and Time, very well worth the read, truly… HERE.

A comment on that post is as follows:

Jeremy February 22, 2012 at 1:14 am

Note: I posted this sometime last year on These Stone Walls, but I think it is very relevant to today’s post. So I want to post my comment again and here it is.

There is a lot more to the story of Father Gordon MacRae than you know. I want to tell you about the real Gordon MacRae. I spent five years in prison with him, but we didn’t know him as Father anything. Just G. I was 19 years old when I went to prison and most people thought I was 16 or 17. Every young kid in prison is very aware of predators and prison is filled with them. A tiger can’t change his stripes and a man who is a predator on the streets can be a monster in prison.

G is far from a predator. He was the only person any of us could trust. He treated us with nothing but care and respect and challenged us to leave prison better than when we came in. In all those years I never saw, heard, or felt anything that made me believe G ever belonged in prison.

There’s something else you need to know. There was this big, tough man on our cell block who everyone feared. I was a pretty tough kid and could handle myself , but one night this guy told my roommate to be somewhere else. Then he came in my cell and demanded something despicable from me. When I refused he dragged me from my bunk and started beating me. I fought but was no match for him and he pinned me to the floor. All the upstanding convicts fled to their cells and blocked their ears.

Then the beating stopped and i realized someone else was in the room. It was G. The man stood up and demanded that G leave. G just said, “I don’t jump on your command.” Then this beast just lunged at him, but G stood there and didn’t move. When this guy saw that G wasn’t backing down he walked past G and left. G made sure I was okay. This man never came near me again. He never even looked at me again.

I am out of prison today because of G. All I learned about courage and integrity and honor I learned from G.

Jeremy

Shrove Tuesday, a day on which to be shriven, was a great day for this hermit: Mass, confession, and so much more. Our Lord is very good and very kind. Ancient of days, “T.K.”, beloved volunteer at the soup kitchen, wasn’t around the past couple of weeks, so I’ve had the joy of doing his Tuesday deliveries to the elderly shut-ins. 37 plates all told. This is a favorite “hermit” thing for me to do. Usually, it’s just Thursdays that I head down the mountains for such a joy.

Mardigras, a name with a more secular emphasis – a Tuesday on which to get fat before the rigors of Ash-Wednesday and Lent begin in full force – was also wonderful. I cooked up some pasta with onion and tomato on the woodstove. I even threw in a couple of fresh free-range eggs. What an appelation! Imagine eggs ranging freely about for spiders and such… Mmm, mmm good!

In some regions, chickens have a lot to do with Mardigras. This year, for me, was pretty special. I got a rooster for the hens! As you can see from the picture above, it’s a Barred Rock rooster, though crossed with a Rhode Island Red somewhere back in his lineage. You can see some speckles of red in the feathers. The Reds are very close to the breed of the hens I have. So, that’s all very good.

As I let “Rocky” go in the coop, the ladies really commented up a storm among themselves. I don’t know what they were saying as I don’t know chicken-speak, yet. He checked out all the nooks and crannies of the coop, the water, the feed, the roost, and then took a gander at the ladies. The hen at the top of the pecking order presented herself and he immediately made it clear that he was not going to be a hen-pecked husband. They were all happy with that. You just have to set the ground rules from the beginning. After some minutes, he felt at home with them and they with him. So he started crowing. He loves his new home. He doesn’t sing very well, but that’s O.K. He makes up for it by beating his wings in the air louder than any Ruffed Grouse could dream of drumming up a storm. Never seen or heard anything like it. Quite impressive, really.

I might ask you to say a prayer for the fellow who sold me the rooster. He and his wife are great Catholics. He’s been terribly sick the past month. He gave me a great deal on this fellow. Hail Mary…

Spending some minutes with the chickens as I unleashed the rooster among them, and all this on Mardigras, reminded me of some rather wild experiences on one particular Mardigras, but such stories are best saved for a possible autobiography. I just would not let my priesthood be compromised. Yikes! Many Mardigras-ers were terribly underwhelmed at my decision, an understatement if there ever was one.

O.K., I can’t resist. Here’s just one itsy-bitsy anecdote of another Mardigras in that same parish, which only came full circle some months later. Early in the day — and at least this was on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, and not in Lent itself – some of the Mardigras-ers were stealing chickens from all around the countryside. They were to be prepared for the huge Mardigras meal later that night. They always say that it’s just a cultural thing to “steal” the chickens, and that they’ll be given back later. Probably they just use store-bought chickens for the meal. At least that’s the story.

Some of the Mardigras-ers belonged to one of the three fully armed, rebelliously minded, not “theatrically motivated” militia in the territory of my parish. This was nothing new to law enforcement. In this tiniest, littlest of country towns, there were always, 24/7, at least three F.B.I. agents surveiling the situation. Rather expensive, though necessary. Anyway, these particular Mardigras-ers, all of them ”white”, also on an ideological level, made the mistake of not returning the chickens of one of the local ”black” retired hobby-farmers, who wasn’t ideological anything, just an honest to goodness American and… and… heavily decorated Green Beret, who had served in some of the rougher parts of Southeast Asia back in the day. You have to know that the Green Beret, the U.S. Army Special Forces, are — every one of them – like Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris rolled into one, and much more sure of themselves than any Rambo, and rightly so.

Tired of waiting for the chickens to be returned — with now a few months having gone by – the old veteran jumped into his old truck and drove for some miles down some narrow winding back roads until he came to an open field. He knew the knuckleheads would be there. He had no weapons. He got out and walked right into the middle of the field, and quickly had guns pointed at him from all directions. They moved in and made it clear that he would be riddled with bullets unless he had a very good explanation for being there.

“Give me my chickens,” he said, ever so quietly, locked into a staring contest with the leader of this pitiful band of cowards. “Say… what?” was the incredulous, though nervous response. “The chickens…” said our hero, it being unclear whether he was now referring to the fowl or to the “men” surrounding him. They made the mistake of moving in closer, so that the barrels of their rifles were almost touching him. The leader knew this was a stupid move on the part of his sycophants. “…Or you’re all dead,” continued the old Green Beret, not breaking the stare.

The leader of the militia saw the old fellow tensing up a bit, knowing that he was  watching for any signal he might give to his “men” to open fire, even with his eyes. He knew that with a single lightning quick move on the part of the old man — so terribly easy in these circumstances — he would be the first to die, only to be joined by his “men” within seconds.

A seeming eternity of seconds went by… Still in an unblinking staring contest… with life and death in the balance… but then the militia leader quietly said, “Get the chickens.”

Hah! This was a region where lynchings and house-burnings and forcing-out-of-the-area activities had taken place within the living memory of even — at the time — the younger-middle-aged population. As one racist said to me: “Oh Father, we’re not racist here at all. We’re very good. We treat them n*ggers just as if they were real people.” Double-Yikes!

I’ve got to hand it to this old fellow — very likely passed away as I write this so very many years later — for in that one act of bravery (which, mind you, wasn’t in the least about any stupid chickens), he single-handedly did more to break the spirit of the local white-supremacists and get things back on track than pretty much everyone else had been able to do on so many other levels over a number of decades in that entire region. Having said that, don’t try this at home! These were quite unrepeatable circumstances and this fellow was extraordinarily talented. Double-Yikes! again.

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Behold! The beatitude of beatitudes, which has its own extended instructions and explanations, and so many nuances…

Blessed are you whenever they may heap insults upon you, and may hunt [you] down, and may speak — bearing false witness — all sorts of evil against you on account of me! Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in the heavens, for thus do they hunt down the prophets who are before you.

This passage is full of aorists and aorist subjunctives. An aorist is a verb without boarders of time (past, present, future), which must be supplied by the context. However, we are here thrown so deeply into the family of faith that past, present and future melt together in the ardent flames of the Heart of our Lord: the entirety of the Mystical Body of Christ is before us, in front of us… we behold in our presence all the members of that Mystical Body who enjoy the transcendent joy of blessedness. We see the prophets being hunted down as if in the present tense… and it is all present tense for Mary’s Son, and for us in Him. And just as we rejoice in their fidelity to the Son of Mary, so they rejoice to see our fidelity in adversity, our rejoicing even though we may well be without benefit of a good reputation, even though we may well lack freedom in this world.

In our fallen human nature, we are tempted to shun those upon whom insults have been heaped, whose who no longer enjoy a good name, fearing that we will be besmearched by way of association, you know, the old condemn that damn Jesus for eating and drinking with those damned sinners kind of thing. That’s what we’re tempted to do. Can we look further into the reality of what’s going on? Few can. Sure, some can congratulate themselves for eating and drinking with those they imagine to be below their own social standing, but very, very few can stand beside the one who is falsely accused, who has insults hurled at him from all directions, who is utterly alone, abandoned by all, with all fleeing just as all the apostless fled from Calvary.

No matter. All is offered also for their sanctification! You have to understand that this is the thing about this beatitude: there is beatitude! There is transcendent joy which is not dependent on external reputations or freedoms, but on being a member of the family of faith, rejoicing with the prophets in the present tense, with the prophets being all those who lived the faith in whatever circumstances, and were faithful in adversity. The betrayal of such insults, of such removal of freedom — which our Lord Himself suffered by the way… — is impossible for us to endure if we stare at the betrayal, especially betrayal wrought be friends, by those we’ve tried to help, by those who, before God and man, should and do know better, but choose to remain aloof, to run away. We are not to stare at the horror, but simply look to Jesus as the littlest of Mary’s children.

You have to know that this has to happen this way, in all justice, all the insults, and the bearing of false witness. Like the Master, so the disciple. No good deed goes unpunished! Our Lord will treat those around us, if they lack any faith at all, like He did Pharaoh, hardening their hearts even while they congratulate themselves on being ever so very nice! Since our Lord is the one who, in all justice (aimed in the long run at mercy), blinds them, it is only the Lord who can unblind them. Prayer is key. But this can only, only be done by those who rejoice in this transcendent, God-given joy, this beatitude.

The “timing” of this beatitude is confirmed, as with other beatitudes, not only by the present tense blessedness of those who suffer so horrifically (which transcendent joy can only come from our Lord who is in Heaven), but also because of the present tense of right now having our great reward in the heavens… present tense… yes, even while we are simultaneously still suffering on this earth in all these horrific ways. We are already beginning to rejoice with the great prophets who were hunted down and tortured and put to death, and not only in the past, but also in the present, in the future.

We are encouraged by their faithfulness because we see them going to their martyrdom, with this intercession of their very lives thrusting us on our knees before Mary’s Son, whom she beheld on the Cross from the perspective of every time, from the beginning, as the Woman in Genesis 3,15, then as the Woman of Cana, then as the Woman under the cross, and finally as the Woman who is the symbol of the Church, the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, crowned with twelve stars… In this beatitude, we share that timeless perspective and present tense beatitude with her. Faithfulness in extreme adversity is its own reward, which is timeless, indeed, eternal. We are just so very much in the midst of the Holy Family… Well… before this great mystery of the enthusiasm and joy to be found in the Holy Family, I am rendered speechless. Perhaps that’s a good thing for a hermit!

O.K. One last note: There is a nuance Jesus adds here: “…on account of me.” You have to know that the only one on this earth who will likely know that all this abuse being hurled at one is because of having witnessed to the truth and charity of Jesus among us will be the very one who is suffering all the abuse. Those hurling the abuse will likely either discount the importance of Jesus (little do they know), or will have a different idea of Jesus altogether, and think that they are serving Him by abusing you. In this way, one comes to know those words of Jesus on the Cross: Ηλι ηλι λεμα σαβαχθανι; “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27,46). But this speaking so directly to our Heavenly Father through, with and in His Son, as one with Jesus, is perfect joy, perfect beatitude. We learn to love all as He loves all. We learn to become perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, the sum total of all the beatitudes.

My dear brother priests and bishops, are not the Mysteries of Light especially appropriate for use by ourselves? Blessed John Paul II, while thinking about his own priesthood over the years, put these together, it seems to me, specifically with us, his fellow priests and bishops, in mind. Please God, more Scriptural and Patristic sources will be added to the present “rant style” meditations when circumstances at Holy Souls Hermitage aren’t quite so utterly barbaric.

The purpose of this first run through these mysteries is to note especially the goodness and kindness of Jesus amidst the violence and chaos back in the day… and today. Hang on, it might be a bit of a rough ride, as rough and tumble as the conversation between Jesus and the Woman of Intercession, His mother and ours… that is, especially of us, His priests, sons of His mother with Him. Here’s the old NAB of the first part of John 2:

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. 9 And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

Don’t you just hate it when busybodies start off everything they say to you with the words, “You should…”, as if they had the breadth of oversight that you have? Yes, well, Mary is not a busybody, and she stays away from any “You should do this” or “You should do that.” She knows that all she has to do is present herself and make a simple statement, that being sufficient to know that this is a concern for her, and that she is appealing to her Son as an act of intercession: “They have no wine!”

Excuse the pelagian terminology, and of course we are utterly dependent on the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but just to put it in a way that we can understand: all of us, without exception, make or break our eternal salvation in relation to marriage. Those who are biologically married know this very well. Those who find themselves in horrific situations are intensely aware of this. Priests and religious are married to the Church through the Sacrifice of the Mass. Those who are single are also given over to the marriage of Christ with the Church by way of His wedding vows at the Last Supper, those vows of total self-giving: “This is my Body and Blood given and shed for you in Sacrifice…”

Mary, in her own extraordinary marriage, was extremely aware that marriage is central to who we are before God. It is to be celebrated: “They have no wine!”

Jesus’ response by way of a question (so typical in those days), has been even maliciously misinterpreted in the past by some of our non-Catholic separated brethren as an insult of Jesus for His dear mother. Nothing could be further from the truth. An incisive question is not dismissive of her request. His own explanation proves that, and her further response proves she understood oh so very well.

Jesus says: Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί, γύναι; οὔπω ἥκει ἡ ὥρα μου. “What’s it to me and to you, Woman? My hour is not yet come.” That “what’s it to me and to you” is a much used phrase. It is even used by Satan against Jesus amidst exorcisms in Mark 5,7 and Luke 8,28. That doesn’t mean that Jesus is possessed! It’s just a question: “What is this to me and to you?” It demands an answer. And Jesus with the greatest tenderness and love a Son could have for His dear mother gives her a hint as to what that answer of her’s might be: “My hour has not yet come!”

It is either impurity of life or misogyny or utterly false ecumenism or just what-I-don’t-know which has some Scripture ”scholars” think that Mary is less intelligent than they are, that she doesn’t have an agility of soul which can take in the breadth of the history of salvation even though being the very Mother of God, the Mother of the Savior, of Jesus. That’s why they think Jesus’ words to her are an insult, thinking she could never answer. Actually, they don’t even know what Jesus is talking about in the first place. But she does. Let’s see:

The question of Jesus — What’s this to me and to you? — surely puts her on edge, awakens her, so that every bit of her being (as always) is centered on her Son and where He wants to lead her. Note that the question is not casting her off, but uniting her with Himself (“to me and to you”). Her answer is to reflect that unity. O.K. Great! But let’s have a hint: “My hour has not yet come!”

Cana and Mary’s statement about the lack of wine for the celebration of the marriage is all about… marriage… right? Jesus speaks of another time when her intercession is to come into play in a special way, during an event analogous to the wedding of Cana, His hour of marriage with the Church by way of the Last Supper and Calvary, which makes marriage possible, which makes our salvation possible. He announces to her how her vocation to be His mother is to be fulfilled on Calvary, where her intercession for us will be her birth pangs giving birth to us as other members of the Mystical Body of Christ. She intercedes. Our Lord provides the redemption, the salvation, the re-creation of us as members of His body, the indwelling of the Most of Holy Trinity. But she intercedes. This is her hour with Him during His hour.

She understands. Her conversation with Him is over. Her “response” to Him is by way of what she tells the servants: “Do whatever He tells you.” She knows that from what He said that, yes, of course, He wants to celebrate this marriage at Cana right here and now, though in view of what He will do at the Last Supper (His wedding banquet) and Calvary, the Sacrifice of the Sacrament, whereby He has the right in justice to bring us to Himself. I’m sure our Lady was just beaming, radiant in transcendent joy, blessedness: “Do whatever He tells you!”

I’m sure Jesus was also just as happy at this moment, some years before that wedding of His would take place. We know the rest of the story, how He changed the water into wine, the Law into Freedom, the Old into the New.

There’s just one last bit I would like to emphasize for my fellow priests and bishops, the last phrase of the account: καὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ — “… and His disciples believed in Him.”

Whether some started believing just then or increased tremendously in their faith is beside the point. There is an emphasis here on believing amidst what was happening there at Cana. The sign that was worked was not for “ooohs and aahhs” — which leads to the bordom of looking for the next trick to be done. No. The sign that was worked was to encourage faith, and it did. They “got it” just as did the Mother of God. She led the way. They followed her lead. She lead them straight to Jesus. The “Do whatever He tells you!” is a command of the Mother of God especially to us, her priests sons in her Priest Son. She puts us right before Jesus, looking to Him expectantly for His marching orders for us. She has her hands on our shoulders as we look to Him.

In the new evangelization, He will have us change the water of a mere shell of Catholicism into the wine of vigorous faith. Believing in Him, truly, on our knees in humble thanksgiving, we will want to share our believing, the greatest love of our lives, with others. Profound adoration of our Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will provide all we need to invigorate what is needed for everyone in whatever relationship to marriage that they are to have in this life, whether single or married or priests or religious. Mary will be interceding for us at that hour of Jesus, her hour of intercession. She will remain with us under the Cross, where we will receive our marching orders. And we will march with feet nailed to that Cross. We will march right into the thick of battle, right into the false culture of death, wherever we find it.

This is how the Woman of Cana fulfills being the Woman of Genesis, the Mother of the Redeemer back in Genesis 3,15. This is how the Woman of Cana find her fulfillment in her intercession for us under the Cross, the Woman in John 19,26. This is how this Woman of Cana is the Woman of the Apocalypse (12,1), the Mother of Christ, the Mother of the Church, our Mother. This Woman!

Gentlemen! At this very moment, just as at that moment on Calvary, there are those of us who …

… are dead to all that is good and kind, as was Judas, swaying in the wind by the rope around his neck. Not many, just a few. But they are not only non-believers. They are anti-Catholic, ready to betray any truth and charity they see, right to death. You know it as well as I do. It is a great suffering to see those who are led astray, whom these Judas priests lead to hell with themselves.

… have run away and don’t know what to do, fearful, scared, as if waiting for Jesus to come to the Upper Room right though the very tightly locked doors. We are frozen with fear before the challenges of the culture of death that we find beating us down all around us, incessantly, mercilessly… with no conscience. There are many more of us who don’t want to look up in that Upper Room to see Jesus, or who, like Thomas, are cynical that Jesus truly rose from the dead, although our hearts are crushed… for we want to believe… There is such great danger to remain in this state, to not fall to one’s knees before the risen Jesus to repeat with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” If we refuse, bitterness makes us start acting like Judas with our fellow priests, and we become faithless, a danger to ourselves, to others, to the Church, to society.

… have run away and come back again, and now stand with John, that beloved disciple, under the foot of the cross with that Great Woman, our Mother, ready to get our marching order from our High Priest, at her intercession, all for the true culture of Life, the Life of God among us.

But gentelmen… If we imagine that we are going to change water into wine in such a society as ours, know that we will do nothing with our own plans, however nice, however grandiose, however much money we have thrown at them. We will only say something, do something, be something in the family of faith if we can feel the hands of Mary on our shoulders as she has us look up to Jesus on the Cross. If we are not in humble thanksgiving for the family of faith, for the marriage of Jesus to the Church being consummated on the Cross, all our words and actions, our very lives, will be as nothing, and worse than nothing, detrimental to ourselves and others. No compromise! Calculating degrees of love and truth to tolerate of those under our charge thrusts us from the cross right onto the tree of Judas.

Jesus is the one who gives us our marching orders. There is no calculation with Him. All the truth. All the charity. Mary asked this of Him for us. This is how we change water in wine. Jesus and our Blessed Mother are just that good, just that kind.

I made this set of videos (about 20 minutes all told) during my time living just over the cave of Elijah on Mount Carmel, Israel. The O.C.D.s had invited me to stay there for an entire month during the years that I was a chaplain at Lourdes. I must say that these videos are very emotional for me to watch to this day. What a fright! But… Jesus, Mary’s Son, is just that good and kind! Even though in watching these you don’t move from station to station yourself, I’m sure your heart will be transported to be right next to Jesus, to be with Him in solidarity, and to be right next to His dear mother as she accompanies our Lord, again in all solidarity.

Please God, I’ll be able to watch these heart rending videos frequently during this Lent…

Also some time ago, just over the way a bit, a chinook crash landed, he said. Rather expensive training!

Now, should  ye all ever need an emergency chaplain — if you would, God forbid, crash just right around here — let me know, or, if I hear or see it, I’ll come running. But just be careful!

UPDATE: I put this up at the beginning of February, 2012, but thought I would bump it to the top tonight. Either there’s been a major catastrophe that I haven’t heard about, or there are wargames going on for some hours now above Holy Souls Mountain. Since sunset there have been I don’t know many kinds of aircraft zipping about, planes and choppers and whatever… one after the other or at the same time. But I’m not complaining! As I say, its great to be living under the safest airspace in the world!

/// And the war games continue on this next day with multiple aircraft — terribly slow moving huge helicopters and slow moving jets. It’s like: How slow can we go amidst the sheer winds of these mountains without dropping into a ravine… or… or… on top of that hermitage down there?!

“[I]t is true that the Church may never simply align itself with the “Zeitgeist” [spirit of the times]. The Church must address the vices and perils of the time; she must appeal to the consciences of the powerful and of the intellectuals, not to mention of those who want to live narrow-minded, comfortable lives while ignoring the needs of the time, and so forth. As a bishop [of Munich] I felt obliged to face this task. Moreover, the deficits were too obvious: exhaustion of the faith, decline in vocations, lowering of moral standards even among men of the Church, an increasing tendency towards violence, and much else. The words of the Bible and of the Church Fathers rang in my ears, those sharp condemnations of shepherds who are like mute dogs; in order to avoid conflicts, they let the poison spread. Peace is not the first civic duty, and a bishop whose only concern is not to have any problems and to gloss over as many conflicts as possible is an image I find repulsive.”

Just keeping the status quo of fallen human society as the first duty of the priest… a damnable image indeed, but all too common in America, especially… especially… among the neo-conservative obsequious toadies, those who garner the praise of the sheep for looking like shepherds, but who make sure that no one but no one in their own purview will ever do or say or be anything that will challenge the status quo of fallen human society, even regarding the clergy. Such evangelization, the mute dogs say, would be a show of cynicism, because… wait for it… Because we’re NICE! [vomit here...]

So, what would Jesus say? Jesus is not pleased:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Mat 5,13 NAB).

Here’s a bit of Ezekiel 34 (old NAB), which I think should be memorized by all shepherds:

¹ Thus the word of the LORD came to me: ² Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, in these words prophesy to them (to the shepherds): Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep? ³ You have fed off their milk, worn their wool, and slaughtered the fatlings, but the sheep you have not pastured. ⁴ You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost, but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally. ⁵ So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered ⁶ and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; my sheep were scattered over the whole earth, with no one to look after them or to search for them. ⁷ Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: ⁸ As I live, says the Lord GOD, because my sheep have been given over to pillage, and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast, for lack of a shepherd; because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep; ⁹ because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: ¹⁰ Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. ¹¹ For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. ¹² As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.

What sparked this post was reading over David F. Pierre Jr.’s Catholic Priests Falsely Accused. I had glanced over it before, but just now read it in one go. May the Lord grant peace and healing to real victims of abuse. But I would like to add that there is a pandemic of false accusations, and that pandemic of falsehood speaks to a sickness in society which must be confronted as part of the new evangelization.

Perhaps one might think that it has been taken care of… that there are no more mute dogs to be found with this kind of thing. 

But I say, not by a long shot. Why not? Because abuse is being used as an ulterior motive to advance other agendas. Thus, SNAP wants nothing more than to destroy the Catholic Church, using abuse as a means to this end. Liberal “theologians” say that abuse means we should have married priests and women priests. And, to the point of this post, there are Bishops who continue to marginalize falsely accused priests as a way to ”prove” to all and sundry that they are heroes for being so heavy handed.

This kind of utilization of abuse for the sake of self-promotion is just more abuse meted out the real victims, who are horrified and betrayed anew by all this rubbish, which has nothing to do with their own sufferings.

There is still a culture of marginalizing verifiably exonerated priests so that “it just looks better for appearances.” That’s what we’ve come to? Some Bishops slitting the throats of their priests for appearances, even when those priests have been totally exonerated? Any Bishop who is willing to do that is also willing personaly to commit abuse — or bless it when they see it going on — for they are using victims for their own ends, a power move, and isn’t that what’s going on with all of this? The truth will win out.

Continuing to marginalize priests who have verifiably been exonerated does no favor to real victims, who, eventually, will no longer come forward because of the backlash of people getting sick of all the false accusations and all the horrific injustice following in the wake of false accusations. Injustice breeds injustice. Being too careful is being careless. Overkill is a licence to kill.

The “mute dog”, who will not enter the new evangelization on this level – on the level of Jesus Crucified and the innocent priests with Him – is an image that we all find repulsive. A mute dog does no good for society. Instead of being evangelized to the point that society might hold the sufferings of those falsely accused to be heroic, society is instead confirmed in the self-serving perspective that all religion is from hell. Thanks much, mute dogs.

This is the territory of cynics, who must be thinking that they can actually hide behind the injustices of marginalization that they commit, and look like heroes both in this life and in the next. But God will not be mocked. Instead of treating falsely accused priests with great honor for having suffered for our Lord, so many falsely accused and exonerated priests continue to be marginalized and condemned by all. With that going on, how can one speak of Christ Jesus and Him crucified with any credibility? Isn’t it a crucified criminal whom we preach about? Any Bishop who has been found to treat exonerated priests as criminals should be forthwith removed from office and… and… be subject to the same punishment which they meted out to those they knew to be innocent.

O.K. I said it. I had to say something after reading that book (see link above). Wow… Oh, and this: Help Father MacRae!

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

I just love that pefect passive participle in Greek. The only way to translate it correctly is rather clumsy, but rather exhilerating if the truth of my heart be told:

Blessed are the δεδιωγμένοι! which means rather precisely: Blessed are those perfectly continuing to be perfectly persecuted!

Hah! LOL! I just absolutely love that!

I once knew a certain Cardinal (I’ve personally known many!), who boasted that he never once in his life had a disagreement with anyone, never anyone upset with him. Yikes! That’s not the kind of thing I would boast about. Such cynics think that being persecuted is a sign of weakness. This Cardinal in particular said that Jesus’ crucifixion was a failure. He also said that Blessed John Paul II being in a wheelchair was – get this – an embarrassment to the entire Church in front of the whole world, not realizing that his example in suffering was a great blessing for all those who suffer, including me, for I was also in a wheelchair for quite a while. The cross of our Lord is a victory of our Lord’s love for us. The continuing faithfulness of those who suffer is a victory of our Lord’s love for us. Heaven will be so wonderful! What we preach, Christ Jesus and Him crucified, is a sign of contradition to the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil. If no one ever takes issue with what we preach, with what we do, with who we are… could there possibly be something wrong with what we preach or do, or with who we are? Could it be that we not with our Lord, but against Him?

The cynics, however, you know, the power brokers of self-congratulation, who stomp on others to lift themselves up… those cynics say this:

“What our Lord said about His disciples fleeing from one town to the next does not, cannot apply to us today. We’re nice! Persecution doesn’t happen to nice people like us! We’ve moved on since the time of Jesus! We’re better than they were. WE. ARE. NICE!”

But our Lord says:

“Blessed are those perfectly continuing to be perfectly persecuted!”

I almost want to dance around in my little hermitage before the Lord in transcendent joy…. O.K. I just did! Now, let’s see what this blessedness is all about!

Remember, this is present tense, transcendent joy amidst persecution right now. There is a hint about the source of this blessedness, which is, of course, not the persecution itself. Persecutions are just annoying. It’s the bit about “for the sake of righteousness” that is important. This righteousness is about knowing and doing the will of our dear Heavenly Father, keeping the commandments and just being faithful, His little children, His little flock, in the midst of the circumstances of our day to day lives, circumstances which He either wills, if they are good, or permits for our benefit, if they are evil, knowing that He can and will draw good out of the evil if we cooperate with Him in His grace, with His life within us, depending utterly on Him. That’s righteousness. We don’t put ourselves forward as righteous. We look to Him as the only righteous one, who provides that righteousness to us, He being, yes, just so good and just so kind. We don’t deserve any of this friendship with Mary’s Son, our Lord Jesus, and receiving His gift of friendship is part of this joy. The joy is accentuated when we see ever so clearly that we would cave before any persecution at all, and watch how, in the midst of persecution, He holds us up, having us continue to be faithful. We find, in joy, that this is utterly, totally awesome. We watch the majesty of His priesthood in our lives. The majesty! He walks among us, amidst all the persecution, still bearing the wounds on His hands and feet and side, in His Heart…

“For theirs is the Kingdom of the Heavens.”

I mean, it’s not that we still don’t have free will after being perfectly continuing to be faithful amidst perfectly continuing persecutions. It’s not that we can’t still choose to sin. It’s just that the transcendent joy of blessedness becomes such an attraction, the life of Jesus within us, and so close does Jesus keep us to Himself, that He can’t but help say that the Kingdom of the Heavens belongs to us already, so happy is He with His knowledge that we will one day join Him soul and body in heaven, where the rejoicing will be at fever pitch, where the grace we now enjoy will shine out as His own glory. Yikes! Jesus is proud of us! Double yikes!

by TSW Editors on February 15, 2012

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post written by Ryan A. MacDonald

The National Center for Reason and Justice announces a new appeal based on new evidence in the case of Fr. Gordon MacRae, but help is needed.

I am grateful for this invitation to bring to your attention a major step toward possible justice in the case of imprisoned priest, Father Gordon MacRae. The Boston-based National Center for Reason and Justice announced a Motion for New Trial in the case of Fr. MacRae last week, and posted it on the NCRJ website at the link below.

The published brief presents a detailed description of newly discovered evidence in the case as well as other legal considerations. I invite readers to review this compelling document and to suggest the NCRJ link to others.

Though entirely unrelated to These Stone Walls, this long sought development is both hopeful and encouraging for those who have seen the injustices at the heart of the case of Father Gordon MacRae. However, filing this appeal is but the next step in this ongoing effort. Legal expenses have mounted and will continue to mount as the appeal progresses. Please consult the “Contact” page on These Stone Walls for a description of how to help in this effort for justice.

I am sure that most readers understand that Father MacRae himself will not be commenting on this appeal brief. I believe he has decided nonetheless to continue writing weekly for These Stone Walls which is entirely unrelated to this legal effort.

You are invited to review the appeal brief filed with new hope for justice for Father Gordon MacRae. The appeal is posted in its entirety at the website of the National Center for Reason and Justice. Click here to read the “Motion for New Trial in the Case of Fr. Gordon MacRae.”

(Ryan A. MacDonald is a Spero News columnist who blogs at A Ram in the Thicket. He has written extensively on the matter of due process for accused priests at Spero News, and many online Catholic venues).

To get all the active links of this story, click on the title above inside the post. That will bring you to the post on TheseStoneWalls. There is also a comment box over yonder, and many ways to help out.

UPDATE: I’m told by those who know that there is great excitement about all this, building more and more everyday. But we need your help! Please! Today! As a pre-lenten almsgiving! Click on the link at the top of the inside of the post and you’ll see how you can help. And ~you~ can help. Yes! Even ~you~!

Saint Louis is one of Holy Souls Hermitage heroes for autobiographical reasons of unrepeatable circumstances. I did the consecration as a seminarian… um… now quite a few years ago! That was really, really good for me. He caught me in a time of confusion and set me on the right path. But is this consecration good for others too?

In the post linked above, an apologia is offered for what contemporary Americana might consider to be over the top flowery language (typical French enthusiasm of the time) and exaggerated rhetoric (once considered one of the high sciences). He was instrumental in returning France to the faith by way of enormous “missions”, which many tens of thousands of people would attend, get back to the sacraments, and be put on the path to heaven once again.

Soon after this, the dark days of the Enlightenment would see Enlightenment child Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre personally see to the death of some 25,000 Conventual Franciscans, besides all the other priests and nuns laity murdered in this Catholic Holocaust which so many Frenchmen celebrate to this day. Don’t think it can’t happen here. Everything is already in place.

I could mention all those deeply affected by Saint Louis’ devotion to Mary, such as Blessed John Paul II, with the famous “Totus Tuus” in the Papal Coat of Arms, and wax poetic about why the consecration to Jesus through Mary is good for everyone, but I’ll let you read his words yourself.

Instead, I’m not going to try to convince anyone to make the consecration. Instead, I’m going to convince you why it’s not necessary, not in the least. And when I’m done, I think that you’ll be eager to learn as much as you can by ordering books providing you with the saint’s preparation for and exemplar of a consecration to Jesus through Mary so that you can make that total consecration to Jesus through Mary. Hah!

The only point I’m going to make  concerns one of Jesus’ “words” on the cross:

“Jesus, then, seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, said to the mother, ‘Woman! Behold! Your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold! Your Mother!’” (John 19,26-27).

Now, isn’t it true that such a consecration is merely secondary, and, if anything, merely an unneccesary confirmation on our part of what Jesus has already done for us in a primary way? Isn’t a consecration like this always a bit exterior to the reality of the situation? Isn’t becoming a “slave of Mary” as de Montfort puts it, absolutely nothing compared to what Jesus did in putting us right into the Holy Family, in making Mary our mother in the midst of His passion and death, in the midst of our Redemption? What can we do that can compare with that? Obviously Jesus wants us to be totally given over to His mother… our mother, the Immaculate Conception, just as He is given over to her as the greatest, most loving Son ever to be born of woman; so… are not our meager efforts almost insulting? Don’t we lower the standard He put before us by taking on such a lowly however total consecration? How can we be more directly put into the Holy Family than what Jesus has done for us.

We can’t do anything better than what Jesus has done for us, and we shouldn’t try! But… but… consider this:

Jesus, in redeeming us, in saving us, makes us, as Saint Paul says, members of His body, the Mystical Body of Christ. He, the Head of that Mystical Body, is born of Mary. As Saint Bernard asks, is she to be the mother of a monster, of a head only, and not also of the rest of the body? Exactly right. She is to give birth to the entire Son of God, Head and members. We are never God, but we go to the Father through, with and in Jesus, in the unity of the love of the Holy Spirit. We are brought into the life of the Most Holy Trinity, always and for eternity, through, with and in the Son of Mary.

She gives birth to us by way of her intercession for us as she stands under the cross, where that “hour” of Jesus became her “hour” of intercession (as we read at the wedding of Cana). Most precisely, it is when Jesus declares her to be our mother, at the moment when that intercession is perfect, her birth pangs for us, her heart, her immaculate heart being pierced through with sorrow, seeing with her clear vision exactly what we need, for she sees clearly all the hell vomited on her Son from the beginning of time to the end by simply seeing Him being tortured to death because of our sins on the Cross.

Jesus Himself wants to be entirely born, so to speak, and has this happen by way of His mother’s intercession for us. He is the only mediator between God and man; only He provides us with santifying grace, the life of the Most Holy Trinity within us, by way of uniting us with Himself, but, in justice, it is most appropriate that someone who is “merely” human, unlike Himself, make a perfect act of intercession for all that He was doing and is doing for us. That is most appropriate. And just as He came to us through Mary, so does He want to bring us to Himself through Mary. He wants us to be born of her. He wants us to be her children. He wants us to be one with Him in being her Son. Total consecration to Jesus through the intercession of Mary.

Having said all that, making this consecration of the great Saint Louis de Montfort is not second guessing Jesus, is not trying to outdo Him, is not something which will add something to what He has done for us, nor does it try to do this. It’s just that Jesus does appreciate the little we can do to show Him our eager enthusiasm at being the littlist of tiny children of Mary, like Himself, with Himself. He loves His mother, and wants us sharing that love with Him for her! Of course He does. Mary does nothing if not bring us straight to her Son. And He knows that too. Really, Jesus, and Mary, are just so good, just so kind.

Now, make that consecration!

P.S. Can anyone provide links to books and pamphlets that readers might order to this end? Often, this consecration is made on 25 March or some other Marian feast. It takes some weeks to prepare for, so let’s get a move on!

UPDATE: http://fisheaters.com/totalconsecrationmontfort.html

Check it out now. You’ll be impressed. Very cool!

Gregg the Obscure adds: There’s an Android app available that includes the book “The Secret of Mary”, which describes the consecration and it includes all the material necessary. It works on the Kindle Fire.

There’s a nifty bit more about the consecration here too. Turns out none of us are ever likely to have another year where the optimal day to start coincides with Ash Wednesday.

I just may… may… be getting a Barred Rock rooster to be joining the ladies, who I think by now are over mourning for the rooster who gave his  life in defending them from the intruding transmittered hound dogs a couple weeks back.

But I mean, does anyone know if it’s O.K. to put a Barred Rock rooster in with Hyline hens? I mean, if you decided to hatch the eggs you wouldn’t get some wierd ninja chickens, would you?

I don’t know why it is, but I somehow got to know more than I wanted to know about the mafiosi, their ways and means, their infighting, factions, mockery of the Church, and so on. Of course, “more than I wanted to know” amounts to almost nothing: “I know nothing!” say I. “Troppe cose…  conosci… Padre…” is the predictable, mangled syntax, response: “Too many things… do you know… Father.” All said with pregnant pauses and a raspy voice, of course.

Perhaps it was all the priests and bishops – and nuns! — that I knew in Italy for the 20 some years I was there, who recollected this and that anecdote, and their own dealings with the mafia, how to combat them in their pastoral ministry, and so on. Not infrequently I met with priests who were ignorant of anything to do with the mafia (which I doubted), or who were afraid to say anything (most likely). It is so very easy to be compromised by the mafia if they don’t like you. They “own” some of the priests in this way. Those who remain independent are a thorn in the side of the mafiosi, who try to make the lives of good priests and bishops miserable indeed. But this, of course, only sets those good priests and bishops on fire all the more, which is a joy to see.

Perhaps I also got to know so much about the mafia because of friendships with the anti-mafiosi of the Guardia di Finanza, not to mention the Italian Ministry of Defense point-man between the Italian govenment and the Holy See, who wanted to set me up in a parish near some likely skirmishes between the independent minded Sacra Corona Unita and the the frightful, horrific, monstrous ‘Ndrangheta (with Cosa Nostra and the Camorra becoming ever more insignificant). Perhaps I’ll recount that scenario another day.

Check out the above video of Blessed John Paul II condemning the mafia in The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Sicily, the icy heart of the more “famous” Cosa Nostra. You can see the Master of Ceremonies of JPII cringing in the background of this video, fearing, it seems, that he is going to get shot with the Holy Father at any second, so strong, so forceful is the Sovereign Pontiff, who shakes his fist non-stop at the mafia bosses.

Fearless, John Paul immediately went down to speak this condemnation when the Cardinal of Palermo was threatened by the local gangsters. They had already been killing priests and their parishioners and generally being a nuisance by breaking peoples bones, wrecking their homes and businesses, prostituting their sons and daughters, forcing drugs and crime and extortion and corruption on all and sundry, killing the anti-mafia crowd of the Guardia di Finanza, executing judges, on and on and on. “Pay your ‘pizzo’ (the Mafia ‘tax’), or we will kill your two year old daughter.” Like that. Thugs, yes. But total cowards.

Imagine you’re a young priest who’s called to the hospital on a Saturday evening, and find out that your own grandmother has had both her arms broken because she didn’t have the money to pay her “mafia protection”, and wouldn’t have paid it even if she had had the money. Full of emotion, you preach against the mafia the next morning at Sunday Mass, inviting them to convert, and encouraging your little flock amidst the daily, deadly harassment of such parasites.

Then, later that night, the mafia quietly enter your bedroom with a teenage girl, a parishioner in your youth group, who, because of your successful work with all the youth, does not prostitute herself for the mafia, or agree to get married to one of the local godfather’s sons against her will. She’s unconscious, but they hold her head up by her hair, gun to her head, and ask you if you are going to continue your supposed “crusade” against the mafia. You are speechless for some seconds, and before you can speak, they blow her brains out all over the walls of your bedroom, then drop the gun on her as they leave, wanting the weapon to be found by their friends in law-”enforcement”. Do you continue to fight? Well, yes, with more work with the youth, with prayer vigils, with Eucharistic and Rosary processions through the neighborhoods, all of them, even those down by the sea… And… and… you rejoice in the words of the correctly entitled Blessed John Paul II.

John Paul II, as memorialized in the above video, made a great distinction between the self-congratulatory “rights” created by fallen man, and the rights provided to man inalienably by God. The mafia, you see, has a sense of entitlement, a sense that they have rights no one else has, the ‘rights of man’ created by man egotically to suit himself, as opposed to the inalienable rights provided by God in the Natural Law.

Such a sense of entitlement is the bane of mankind. The mafia are the bane of mankind. Anyone anywhere who for any reason has a sense of entitlement is the bane of mankind.

Error has no rights. Fallen man as fallen, egotistic man, has no rights apart from what God gives him. The rights of man, apart from God given rights, are (How to say it best? … perhaps in the words of the great Cardinal Cipriani) esa cojudez! But more on that, please God, in a future post!

Sometimes you just can’t warn people enough. One of the seminarians I taught in one of the many seminaries where I have been on the faculty, got himself into so much trouble with his local mafia that he had to be transferred by the bishop. After his ordination, he was assigned to the mafia parish of that part of the country. He was a bit of show-boat, and would often end up singing while standing on top of tables at wedding receptions, and so on. The mafia noted that he liked attention. The mafia work on any weakness, like Satan. The mafia quietly sent newspaper reporters to him so that he was front page news very frequently. They also sent television reporters to get sound bites from him to put on the evening news. They made sure that the radio proclaimed the wonders of this up and coming priest loudly for all to hear. On and on. And the young fellow sucked it all in, actually thinking he was pretty hot stuff. Sad, that. Well, as time went on, the mafia crowd would invite him more an more to their villas and retreats, to parties with the rich and famous. They would sit him down for banquets and slowly, ever so slowly, begin to talk more and more business in front of him, as if he were not there. In other words, he was trusted. But, in this way, they owned him. He knew too much. If he says anything, he’s dead. All too dramatic for him, so this point didn’t register. When he heard details of huge movements of drugs spoken in front of him, he got scared. Back at the rectory he breathlessly told the secretary that he was going to the local police to tattle on the mafia. “But don’t tell anyone!” he said. She waited until he left, and then called the mafia herself. And the police, were they not owned by the mafia as well? The bishop recieved a call, and the young priest was removed forthwith, to save his life. He’s still alive to this day, somewhat wiser, I hope. Perhaps he’s studied up a bit more on the rights of God verses the “rights” of man. I hope so.

Having a sense of entitlement to being popular is just as bad as that sense of entitlement which has you stomp on others. They are just different aspects of the same idiocy and end up hurting others one just as much as the other.

Who are the mafiosi? Those who have a sense of entitlement…

After offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass facing the Tilma, I received this image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from the head sacristan in the main sacristy of the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe down in Mexico way back in the 1990s, when I went down to visit my brother, accompanied by a priest from the Congregation for the Clergy of the Holy See. It’s the exact size and color of this part of the Tilma. Very, very, very wonderful. The rose, so significant to the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, not to mention Lourdes, was a gift from the neighbors to put next to Our Lady. The little icons are a gift from my spiritual director.

So far, no trees or huge branches have fallen on my head, but I think that now and again a bit of southern “manna” falls from the sky. Southerners might wonder why I’m so interested in their florae, especially the extreme variety of moss to be found here on Holy Souls Mountain. It’s just that we don’t have such things in Minnesota, where there is, instead, an abundance of Timber Wolves and Moose.

It behooves me happily to admit that I know it is known that I think that donkeys are by far the greatest thing ever to walk on four hooves, even if they cannot all be palestinian donkeys. This one is, I think, a palestinian donkey. He doesn’t bear the cross on his back as do other palestinian donkeys, however, that’s not his fault. He’s just dark all over. Too many times falling down with that cross on his shoulders…

I’m also happy to admit that I’ve made it one more year around the sun, due to the benevolence of the Son! My birthday’s in these last days of February. Closer to heaven, I hope!

I was asked this question today by someone looking over the David F Pierre Jr. books, which present a more accurate history of the recent flood of accused priests. By the way, I’ve received way more requests for the books than I have books! However, our kind benefactor said that if there is need of more, more will be purchased. Patience is a virtue! And I will… I will, please God, get to your emails! This will take a while to sort out!

Now, in answer to the question, I said that the reason why seminarians want to become priests even if they go to prison falsely accused right after their ordinations is because it is precisely for this that they signed up. As the Master, so the disciple. If Jesus was falsely accused… I mean… excuse my well chosen words here (which are most appropriate)… Where in the hell would they think that they have some sort of entitlement not to suffer in the same way our Lord suffered? Are they so special? No? Then they should even welcome being falsely accused. They should rejoice that they can suffer for the sake of Jesus. And they do. But I’ll get to that, please God, as the series on the Beatitudes continues on the blog here.

Just to make a bit of an analogy with the Tyburn martyrs over in England. The seminarians studying at the English College in Rome back in the day when England was killing priests as fast as they could hang, draw, and quarter them…. those seminarians knew that they would be slaughtered in just such a way about as soon as they returned to England after their ordinations. And, indeed, they went straight to their deaths. That’s what they signed up for in signing up for the seminary. They knew it. Everyone knew it. That’s why the English College in Rome is called The Venerable English College. It was the seminary of martyrs. Wow! Sign me up! Oh wait! I’m already a priest! Guess I’m carried away here…

Now, just to say… If this desire of the true disciple to be like our Master, Jesus, is not the attitude of today’s seminarians, they had better think again, or leave the seminary. If they are scared, perhaps a bit of spiritual direction is in order. We want fearless priests who are not afraid to preach, in season, out of season, all the truth, in all charity, whatever the cost.

Jesus, grant us good and holy vocations to the priesthood!

Once upon a time in a far away place, on a dark and stormy day, I was talking to someone about contraception:

Interlocutor: There is no place in the bible which forbids contraception.

Myself: Genesis: Be fruitful and multiply.

Interlocutor: Celibate priesthood cancels your argument.

Myself: Priests are married to the Church and have spiritual children.

Interlocutor: That’s a load of cr*p.

Myself: Christ, the High Priest, was celibate, but He makes us His children.

Interlocutor: The Pope is wrong. Priests like you are wrong. Planned Parenthood is great. Contraception is great. I have no problem with abortion for rape, incest and the health of the mother. [And then he was off and running, spouting off against Catholic doctrine and morals, though he was a Catholic, a pillar of the community and of his parish, and belonged to a pro-life organization.]

Conclusion: People have free will and can be rebels like this, but I got the sense that he wasn’t speaking from well thought out conviction, though he was very emotionally invested in what he was saying so breathlessly, all the while unwilling to listen to anything I might try to say. Just blather upon blather. I got the impression that he was repeating things he had heard the leadership in his Catholic parish say. In fact, he quoted them as “authorities” over against the Church, against Christ. He had taken the scandal of those trying to destroy the Church from within. Too bad, that. Really, just too bad.

*** In other words, his excuse to be pro-contraception and pro-abortion is priests not fathering biological children. Wow… just… wow…

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Peacemakers know what war is. War is hell. Always.

After Jesus made peace between ourselves in God with the completion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on that hell (and heaven) of Calvary, and just after the soldier thrust the spear into His side, His Heart, sundering that Heart of peacemaking unity so as to bring us to be one with Him, it is just then that the soldier, stepping back as the blood and water flowed over him, said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

The Son of God… though He called Himself the Son of man. The more we tried to prove that He was but a mere human being, the more we saw that He was a Divine Man, a God-Man, the only God-Man. The more we spit upon Him, mocked Him, stripped Him, scourged Him, crowned Him with thorns, throwing the instrument of His torture and death on Him, and finally executing Him, the more we then saw the strength of divine love, of divinity in Him: How good and kind, going through all this… for us…

All the cynics – those who find their security in keeping the status quo, those who are politically correct, those who cower before any true evangelization, those for whom religion is congratulating themselves on being consensus builders of the absolute lowest common denominator, on not rocking the boat, on not offending people (to the detriment of everyone’s eternal salvation) – think that peacemaking is all about the absence of doctrine and morality (which is to be merely privately upheld, if at all), a muzzling of those who cannot but speak of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

But did not our Lord and God, Mary Immaculate’s Son, say that He did not come to bring peace, but the sword? Yes, that is what He said. Who are we to think that He is an idiot for saying such a thing, and for His putting these words into practice, with His words being sharper than any two edged sword? We are the damnedest of fools if we think He is an idiot, especially by proving our foolishness by actions of sweeping under the carpet anything that would ever rightly and wonderfully cause friction with anyone, ignoring the fact, perhaps maliciously, that all and sundry may just trip on that now bulging carpet and go tumbling down, perhaps right to hell.

But Father, but Father! If you poke your head up to speak, it’ll be cut off! If you speak words of contradiction [love and truth always being a contradiction of the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil], then you’re sure to be crucified! Don’t do it! BE NICE! BE NICE! JUST. BE. NICE!

As the Master, so the disciple. Those who are peacemakers, truly, are to be sacrificed, as was the Son of God, the Son of man, the God-Man. The true peacemakers become the sons of God in The Son of God.

The true peacemakers, like the Son of God, will not on this earth be called sons of God. That will be for later, in heaven, where they will shine with the glory of the Son of God Himself.

As was the case with the Son of God, the peacemakers on this earth, speaking fearlessly of truth and charity, will be called inept, non-consensus-builders, those who have to be marginalized, despized, hated, treated as criminals, the scum of the earth, the off-scouring of the world, the worst examples of being religious. They will cynically be called cynics for speaking the truth with charity.

The true peacemakers, however, know blessedness in all this already upon this earth. The more they are not called the sons of God, but rather the sons of Satan (and this for saying and doing what is right, for truly being with Jesus), the more they know, with transcendent joy, with blessedness, their unity with the Son of God, how they are being brought into that Heart of unity which was sundered for us…

The only way a peacemaker can truly be a peacemaker in the eyes of God is to have his heart united with that Sacred Heart, which brought peace by the very sword which pierced His own Heart. Not so much cor ad cor loquitur (Heart speaks to a heart), but cor cum cordis loquitur (Heart speaks with a heart), for cum cordis is con-cord, that is, concord, that is, peace, no? Yes. Mary’s Son is just that good, just that kind, The Peacemaker…

The Prince of the Most Profound Peace

When I was in Lourdes as a chaplain for a couple of years, I must admit to being rather distracted, time and again, by the exclamatory words of the Immaculate Conception – now highlighted in raised gold lettering under the statue of the grotto -  which are usually translated as “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Going down from the Chaplain’s house on the “zig-zag path” to the grotto to offer Holy Mass followed by adoration (from 11:00 PM until midnight, my favorite time in Lourdes), or passing by the grotto on my way to the Rosary or Eucharistic Processions, or to hear Confessions in the morning and afternoon, I would stare hard at these words. I knew I just had to hunt down some of the rapidly diminishing in number local Bigourdan speakers. You probably can’t tell it from my blog posts, but I’m a bit of a grammar freak, and these words just bothered me to no end. Sorry. I think I was born this way.

So, I went Bigourdan-speaker hunting and spoke with an elderly, retired gentleman who, though not knowing anything about grammar or spelling, was quite certain of the following, for he has lived the language. If I remember rightly, he was the legendary head sacristan who retired just days after my speaking with him.

The “què” [yes, with the grave accent, impossible in French], he said, has nothing to do with the French subjunctive. It means “je” in French (or “I” in English). I’m sure he’s correct, though I bet this derived from the subjunctive as a cultural oddity, which speaks to the humility of the locals, not wanting to put themselves forcefully forward, but always using the subjunctive for themselves.

Anyway, the “soy” is “suis” in French (or “am” in English).

“Immaculada Councepciou” is clearly “Immaculée Conception” in French (or “Immaculate Conception” in English).

The “éra” [yes, with the accute accent], he continued, is not part of a compound verb (perhaps giving us something like a presently continuing situation of a past event [and wouldn't that be interesting?]) but is rather what he called a definite article, as in “la” = ” l’ ” in French (or “the” in English). But then he backtracked and said that, in reality, “era” is the Bigourdan way of saying “elle” in French (or “she” in English), giving us something exclamatory like: “I am she: Immaculate Conception!” Wow… I can’t imagine that being said except with much joy. No wonder Bernadette ran, ran, ran to the parish priest, repeating what our Lady had said the entire way.

But then this elderly gentleman got complicated on me, saying that, in his opinion, it is not written the right way, that “Què soy éra Immaculada councepciou” is unacceptably too proper. The “éra”, he says, would be contracted into “Immaculada”, giving us this: “Què soy érimaculada councepciou”. So, not an exclamation. The pronoun was simply used over time as a definite article: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

But then, why was the phrase written the way it was written, especially if this is so unacceptable? Did the parish priest try to clean up the language a little bit, falling into a linguistic error himself? No. I doubt that. I mean, when the words ‘Que soy era Immaculada Concepciou’ were put up, wouldn’t all the locals who knew how to read know exactly what the words meant? And wouldn’t they have realized that there was a mistake if there indeed was one?

So, back to the exclamation: “I am she: Immaculate Conception!”

I should be satisfied with that, I suppose. But the accent in “éra” bothers me. The opening deadened “e” in the French “elle” would hardly develop into “é”, even if the double “ll” easily turned into an “r”. A self-proclaimed expert said that this could be a past tense verb of some kind, but that surely it was just a definite article. Given the difficulties with the “unacceptable” nature of the “éra” standing on its own, I’m guessing that it is some kind of past tense verb, giving us presently continuing action begun in the past. This would be the perfect rendition of the Greek perfect in Luke’s Gospel, where the angel says, “Rejoice, O you who stand transformed in grace” (in context, from the first moment of her vocation to be the Mother of God, from the first moment of her conception). Now, wouldn’t that be wonderful? This would be a gentle push for the Church at that time (1858) to look more closely at the Gospel, and this just a short time after the very correct definition that Mary was immaculately conceived (1854). The doctrine of Sacred Tradition is not only reflected in the Sacred Scriptures, but it is in the Sacred Scriptures themselves (not only in Luke 1,28, but also in Genesis 2,4–3,24). Mary was not only immaculately conceived, but she is still perfectly what she was when she was just conceived, to wit, the Immaculate Conception. Wonderful.

While in Lourdes, I kept asking Bigourdan speakers about the “éra”. While they admit that Bigourdan is way closer to Italian than it is to Spanish, and while they admit that however much French there is in this dialect, there really is quite a bit of Italian influence, some are adament that this is a definite article, or, at least, something along the lines of “She is”, giving us “I am she is… Immaculate Conception.” More smoothly: “I am she: Immaculate Conception.” So, does that solve the mystery? Perhaps the “definite article” did not have to be in a contracted form at that time. Moreover, the continuing action begun in the past is perfectly rendered here: “I am” is present tense, while “Immaculate Conception” hails to the time of her conception. Again, that perfectly reflects what’s happening in Luke 1,28, where we read of Mary perfectly continuing to be perfectly transformed in grace from the first instant she could begin to live her vocation to the Mother of God, that is, at her conception, her Immaculate Conception!

How very humble of Mary. Instead of pointing to her being the Mother of God, she instead emphasizes the glory of being the Mother of God, which is doing the will of God, which she did perfectly, by the way, at the time of her being immaculately conceived. She was always, from the first instant, utterly transformed in grace, just as she is today as Queen of heaven and earth, angels and men, the Virgin Mother of God assumed soul and body into heaven. It is God’s life within us that counts the most, doing his will.

You might want to click on this blog’s category “Immaculate Conception.”

/// A great seminarian wrote in the other day to say that he was offering the Emergency Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception for me (very, very much appreciated), but with some changes. He said that before and after this chaplet, on the three beads one finds by themselves on a rosary, he added the words three times each: “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou!” He called these statements “prayers”… This seminarian is very close to Saint Bernadette. I got to thinking about that repetition of those words, and Bernadettes breathless run came to mind, from the grotto to her parish priest up the steep hill, up in town, incessantly repeating these words,  “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou!” Imagine what the parish priest would have thought with such a child, totally out of breath, utterly uneducated, stammering on his doorstep: “I am she: Immaculate Conception! I am she! Immaculate Conception! I am she! Immaculate Conception!” …. and only after just a bit explaining that this was the name of the lady she saw in the grotto. To repeat those words with the innocence of a little child, with such enthusiasm, yes, this also is a prayer. Was not Jesus, the High Priest, also Mary’s little child? Yes, by the way, He was, and is! Are we not as well? Yes, I think we are!

Greetings from Eden–or make that Washington, D.C.!

My Peace I Give You (Ave Maria Press, 2012) is the first book ever to offer a Catholic spirituality of healing for adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. It bears an Imprimatur (ecclesiastical approbation) from Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl.

Here’s more from the Ave Maria Press website:

Eden uses her own story as a backdrop to introduce numerous holy people— like Laura Vicuña, Thomas Aquinas and Bernard of Clairvaux—who suffered sexual abuse or sexual inappropriateness, as well as saints such as Ignatius of Loyola who suffered other forms of mistreatment and abandonment. Readers seeking wholeness will discover saints with wounds like their own, whose stories bear witness to the transforming power of grace. Eden explores different dimensions of divine love—sheltering, compassionate, purifying, etc.—to help those sexually wounded in childhood understand their identity in the abiding love of Christ.

Sisters of Life Superior General Agnes Mary Donovan S.V. writes in the book’s foreword:

“An inspired work . . . powerfully moving and hope-filled. . . It is my hope that this book may become a resource readily available: in churches, schools, counseling centers, young adult ministries, libraries, and hospitals. Through it may many whose human dignity has been offended come to know their beauty in the eyes of God, and learn to sing in joy of His love and His mercy. I pray that for every reader this book will be an instrument of grace and instruction.”

The book has also received endorsements from Father James Martin S.J., Alice von Hildebrand, Barbara Nicolosi Harrington, and others.

Pre-order HERE, also on Amazon. Her excellent BLOG. And… and… HERE.

I would put this on my Amazon WishList, but I think I’ll ask her for a review copy, which she’s invited me to do.

Click on the picture for the link to the blog, and read the updates, and then… and then… click on the “follower” gadget on his sidebar and become a “follower”.

Philip is launching himself into the blog more than ever, and it will be a joy to accompany him while he remains, for now, a seminarian with brain cancer.

But just before you go there… say a Hail Mary or three for him right this minute… Hail Mary…

Here’s the link to the post.

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Purity of heart and seeing God. Makes sense.

But the transcendent joy, the blessedness, is already present: “Blessed are…” = present tense, even though the seeing of God is in the future, in heaven, of course. Not even the Immaculate Conception, but only her Divine Son, Jesus, enjoyed the blessed vision of the Trinity (of which He is the second Person!) whilst walking upon this earth, or hanging on the cross above it.

So, how is it that such blessedness of seeing God can begin here? There must be something rather special about being pure of heart.

First of all, the word in Greek for purity is where our word “catharitic” as in “a cathartic experience” comes from: “The event was so dramatic, I was totally drained, but that was a good way for me to forget all my worries. Really cathartic!” = cleansing. So, there’s a sense of having been cleansed, a purity that was provided by something impure being taken away.

Here, in this beatitude, this having-been-cleansed-purity refers not to psychological catharsis, but to purity of soul, of spirit, of heart. Yet, the two are intertwined a bit, for we are soul and body, no?

In the book of the prophet Ezekiel 11,19 (RSV) we read about our Lord’s promise:

And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.

In getting rid of our stony hearts, we would like spiritual hearts, no? That’s not good. Our Lord’s ways are above our ways. He provides a heart of flesh, just as He did for Himself. Why? Because a spiritual heart cannot suffer the way a heart of flesh can suffer. Our Lord’s heart was pierced through, but only after it had already been literally broken (as the Doctor of Calvary says) by way of a massive heart attack in the Garden of Gethsemane, because of which our Lord literally sweat blood for us.

The purity of heart our Lady enjoyed, being immaculately conceived, and that of our Lord, did not permit them to escape the hell of this world. They saw it all the more clearly.

We, having been conceived in original sin, are so blind to the reality about what our Lord saved us from, and we therefore cannot see clearly all the good that He has done for us. In being forgiven by Him, we are filled with sanctifying grace, but He wants us to agree to see reality the way it is. He wants us to love Him with our free will. He wants us to say, “Yes, Lord, I will be generous enough with the truth of the reality of our redemption — by way of Your grace — so that I might learn how good and kind You really were to reach into this hell of darkness with you light of glory, and save us, bringing all the darkness and hell on Yourself so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us. With patience, gentleness, little by little, the Lord opens our eyes, unblinds us, removes ever so slowly the fear we have of this tremendous, overwhelming reality of who we all are before God. So…

Being pure of heart doesn’t at all mean that our hearts are free of the darkness and hell of this world, though we are then His littlest children, rejoicing with His life within us. Instead, being pure of heart means that we can see reality all the more cleary, who we all are before God. Such a fright! But also such transcendent joy, for we then can be about rendering to our Lord the humble thanksgiving which is true religion. The paradox is that the more clearly we see, the more hell of Calvary we see, the more we see the glory of the Lord’s tender love for us on the cross. Inpurity of heart, we can even stand, like John, next to the Blessed Mother, there, under the cross.

It is there, under the cross, through the darkness, through the hell, that we begin to see God: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.” And when it is time for us to enter heaven, where we will have the joy of humbly thanking Him with full understanding – knowing as we are known – it is then that we will fully see God, and see with such clarity His goodness and kindness. Amen!

But what if we have been impure in any way? What about arrogance, lust, stomping on others? What about… you name it. Are we lost? Damaged (as non-U.S.A. English speaking countries) horrifically – stupidly — call weakness?

Rather, with repentance, conversion, turning to the Lord, we can love with the love which He provides, and be forgiven much. Our Lord absolutely delights in forgiving us and bringing us to Himself.

Confession just so sets us on the right course, and just so opens our eyes to His goodness and kindness, having us look to Him, though we also know our weakness in this earthly body. But this pushes us to look just to Him, no? Yes! Our Lord uses all this to have us look to Him. To Him be praise and glory and honor forever and ever.

Thanks go to L.F. (or should I say E.F.?), for sending in a heap of David F. Pierre books on the history of what we’ve been through for the past ten years. These are yours for the asking. Write to me at holysoulshermitage using gmail dot com. Include your mailing address so I know where to send them. Not you have no excuse not to read these books.

UPDATE: So, some responses coming in from individuals and… and… a great Catholic Radio station which hosts programming by the seminarians of a great seminary here in the U.S.A. I was once a guest on that program. Silly seminarians… they had me talk a bit about why donkeys are so great, besides their being intelligent, their ability to sing, and their doing only what they understand. I think I could have gone on for hours about donkeys in the life of the Holy Family, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, to the cave of Bethlehem, to the exile into Egypt and all the way back to Nazareth, to the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem to be crucified. I could have gone on and on about Alexamenos and the crucified donkey in the Imperial School overlooking the Circus Maximus in Rome. So many things. I’ll have to write a book from the perspective of a certain donkey, not that I already don’t write from that perspective!

THE UPSHOT: If you would like me to send these books to you for free, get your bid in. Now’s the time!

Thanks go to C.W., who sent in a box of Stovers (way, way, way too fattening for hermits!). Note that the box has a familiar scene, as did the card. Very thoughtful. Thank you! C.W. also sent in an e-subscription to the Latin Mass Magazine. Thank you for that. In looking over the present edition, one article in particular jumped out at me, Part II of a long article on the Vulgate and Council of Trent. I was able to go to the archives on line and get Part I. It looks great. Just what I was looking for, actually! Of course, the rest of the edition, as all the other editions now available to me at a click’s notice, are magnificent.

Thanks go to T.P.F. & R.L.F. for their contribution to the hermitage. May the Lord reward you!

Thanks go to the ever faithful G.P.E. & S.M.E. for their persistent and insistent donations! Yikes!

Thanks go to S.H. McC. for the very generous contribution to help pay for a new rooster! LOL. Thank you for remembering! A very thoughtful note included an offer that if ever I need something…. Thank you! Also for the great card!

Also in the mail were a heap of books, but I’ll get to those in another post.

May the Lord continue to bless you all according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception.

The picture above is of a bumper sticker I saw today when out to do a few necessary errands. It reminds of some 13 years ago, when yours truly underwent some rather extraordinary body piercing so that I wouldn’t have to get the leg amputated. I think there were 17 wires going from one side of the multiple-ringed cage to the other, right through the leg, through the bits of shattered bone, along with carriage-bolt sized screws going from the cage to the various bits of bone that otherwise would have been floating about in the leg if there were merely a cast and some months of traction. This made everything solid as a rock by the end of the operation. A bit dangerous for infections though. It was invented by an imprisoned doctor in the Siberian salt mines. He only had the spokes and rims of bicylce wheels with which to fix a fellow prisoner’s leg. It worked great. I recommend it instead of traction any day.

Hobbling about Rome in this way brings some rather astonishing comments. Some punk rockers from northern Europe thought that this “piercing” was “the ultimate”. They wanted to know what shop I had been able to purchase the installment of  such piercings. Yikes! Really, you don’t want to do this to yourself on purpose!

Click on the picture to go to the post. It is by far the most visited post by school districts and libraries in the U.S.A., not to mention by countries in the region of Mekong delta… You can see other posts on exorcism by clicking on the category Exorcism.

If the good bishop wants this hermit to take over the rectorship of the sanctuaries for the transitional period, I’m willing to do it. I mean, after all, the original Carmelite hermits, much like our Holy Father Elijah, would do the hermit thing for about nine months of the year, then do some pretty ferocious preaching for a few months, and then go back to being hermits!

He’s the best thing that’s happened to Lourdes since 1858!

The benefit and drawback of being a chaplain in Lourdes for a couple of years is that one gets to knoweverything about everything. Yikes!

I let them out for the first time yesterday evening for a hour before sunset. They investigated the whole area around the hermitage and under it, but didn’t stray more than about twenty feet, often going in and out of their “coop” just to make sure they had a secure base to which they might return at the first sign of danger. They all went back in dutifully, as chickens do, at sunset. I’ll let them out a bit earlier every day. They love to scratch everything into a storm of leaves and pine needles and dirt and branches flying in the air… all for a possible spider. I’m happy with that. I have ninja-chicken spider hunters for the hermitage!

Ice, sleet, snow, slush, more ice… Very cool! It’s just starting. I suppose there’s going to be plenty of ice-weighted branches crashing down. Hey! That makes for easy collection of firewood. I like that… as long as no chunks of ice fall on my head!

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

This beatitude is the first one which might at first glance of the Greek phraseology seem to be rather restrained, blunted, not quite up to par with the others. Let’s do a pendantic translation of what our Lord spoke:

Blessed are those providing what is desperately needed by another, for they will have what they desperately need provided to them.

That, of course, is already quite a lot. It takes giving of ourselves to help someone out. Without God’s grace, we don’t like to do that without some self-serving motivation of self-congratulations, or seeking the approval of others, or lusting after that “good feeling” that one gets when helping someone in need. If that’s all we’re after, we will almost immediately get donor-fatigue syndrome, for we will tire of our own hypocrisy. Turn the channel. Finad another distraction. And then we’ll get depressed and upset and frustrated with life altogether… right?

Christ Jesus, of course, is demanding pure motivations in all this mercy. Yikes! How to do this if we don’t have it in us to do this? Are we just to be bribed with a future reception of mercy? Is there is really a present blessedness in such self-sacrifice? I mean, blessedness doesn’t come from any action that we might do. To be blunt about it, filling the desperate need of another is sacrifice that’s not, in itself, going to make anyone happy, certainly not transcendentally joyful, that is, blessed.

So, is one blessed only because there is a promise of having our own desperate need met ["...for mercy will be provided to them."] when we need it most, say, at the hour of death, when we desperately need the gift of the grace of final perseverance? I mean, Jesus does say that there will be a time for all of us in our own futures when we will have a desperate need for which we cannot now prepare. Our need will have to be fulfilled, and this is a promise of His that our desperate need will be fulfilled. This is not just a material need (for no one can prepare for this), but a spiritual need that will be common to all our futures.

Being happy about the future fulfillment of a promise of our Lord is surely part of being blessed now – for hope is so very important in our lives — but the thing is that this blessedness starts now… present tense, a transcendal joy which is more than is to be entirely had with being content with a promise about something in the future. Of course, true hope is discerned when there is presently a partial realization of that for which one hopes. But in this case, in this beatitude, it is not one’s present needs which are to be met in the future, but one’s future needs which are to be met in the future. Right now, one has the wherewithal to help another. So where does that blessedness come from? What is it that makes the foundation of the realization of hope for the future so real in our lives right now that we have this transcendental joy, this happiness which has such deep currents running through every aspect of our lives on all levels and in every way? And perhaps, after all, this present blessedness might, in the end, have something to do with our own needs being met in the future. But how can that be?

The word for mercy in this beatitude, referring to us, is ἐλεήμων, which is today used in Italian for almsgiving. You can see that word on the almsgiving buckets of parish churches, for example. This is the kind of almsgiving the Fatima children would run to give to those poorer off than themselves, often giving their lunches, whatever they had, giving until it hurt, and hurt badly. When someone is in desperate, immediate need, this kind of giving is important. If you were on the receiving end, you would know this. If people had tossed a penny or two at the Soubirous family, I bet that almost half of Saint Bernadette’s familiy would not have died because of the wretched state in which they lived. Probably people thought that they weren’t worth a penny or two, for they lived in an abandoned jail cell whose only window opened on to a mountain of manure. It was dark and dank and stank to high heaven. Don’t be scandalized now, but they were the “shit family” and the little saint was called by everyone in town the “little shit”… la petite merdeuse. Who’s going to give her anything? Think hard about this…

Severely condemned by the more up-to-date Marxist-priest-theologians was the great Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It was said that her taking care of the poor, often just being with them in their last dying moments in a gutter full of sewage, was not only useless, but detrimental to the fixing of the big picture, which, they insisted, needed such images of misery in order to provoke the violence of the masses against the powers that be. But she knew that individual love for someone in desperate need was of immediate importance. Go ahead and fix the structures of broken society, justly, but let me help this man die with love and hope, overwhelmed with goodness and kindness!

One can sometimes see the exasperation in the parishes of Rome. This sign tacked to the door of a church says that professional begging is not sincere, and that one should visit the local equivalent of Catholic Charities if one wants to do something about anything. I’m thinking that poor father has no imagination for what could be done from his own rectory. He must have been influenced by the more extreme of liberation theology antics, such as this one, saying that almsgiving is not the answer. Sure, there are gangsters, but begging like this can be the immediate answer to an individual’s desperate need. Everyone has a story. Some are professional “stories”. Others are real. It doesn’t take long to figure it out. Individuals are not ”units”; they are people. Honestly! Can we no longer help someone who is in desperate need of assistance, right here, right now? Do we just say, have a nice day and keep warm and well fed and then take off? What if, say, a youngster is on the streets of New York? A run-away. Most are pimped-off within 24 hours. Most die within two weeks of mistreatment. Are they professional beggers for their first few hours. Sure they are. But they also need help. Can we listen?

On this last point, a bit of advice about just how bad it can get… One does have to beware of the street-mafia groups, which are rife in Italy and pretty much everywhere else. I remember seeing a rather frightening number of little children in Calcutta who had hands or feet cut off, begging on the streets. Many had homemade skateboards to roll about on, or long sticks to hug lest they fall. They looked pitiable. That was the point. The street-mafia would steal children from one part of the city, bring them to other, chop off their limbs and, as they did with one little boy, put a tin begging plate in his mouth and make him crawl like a dog, he having had both hands and feet chopped off. I don’t see anything wrong with putting such children in an orphanage while beating the living day-lights out of the thugs! A good almsgiving, that.

While I’m at it, should businesses not provide a living wage to their workers, taking into consideration the number of children a family has? This is justice, not almsgiving… But how many have been made beggers because of a lack of justice. Sometimes people get a bit uppety about people in misery, saying that it’s all their own fault, but at the same time steal from their employees, making sure that they are turned out on the street… There are a few rich people who now find themselves on the street. Not many, though. Lots of tycoons sadly commit suicide when they go bankrupt. How silly to equate money with life. It’s an eternal mistake. We cannot serve both God and mammon.

But back to the original question about how to be blessed presently with mercy being provided to those in desperate, immediate need…

There is another word for mercy in the Gospels that is not used here, but is only used for Christ Jesus. That word describes something much more far-reaching than “merely” fulfilling the desperate need of another (if that can be described as “merely”!). The word, the verb, actually, in its conjugated form, is ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, as found, for instance, in Luke 15,20, where the father, seeing his prodigal son, is filled with compassion, that is, mercy. Mercy is misericordia or misery of heart, the misery of the other which one brings into one’s own heart so as to fulfill that need as if it were one’s own need. No transference here or other such rubbish. The other’s need is our need in the one Mstical Body of Christ. At any rate, this ἐσπλαγχνίσθη is translated slavisly as having had one’s heart sacrificed. Imagine that. The father’s heart was, as it were, sacrificed for his son. Jesus’ heart was sacrificed for us. That’s His kind of mercy, misery of heart, which is so good and kind!

Now then, if we are to do anything with a pure motivation, it is to be done with the grace of God, He uniting our hearts to His own, sacrificed Heart, broken open, pierced through.

It is that unity with Jesus which provides present blessedness and the reality behind the promise of mercy being provided for us when, in the future, we will indeed be in extreme need. This is the reality behind the present partial realization of the hope we have for the future. We are already with Jesus now in this mercy that we provide in His grace, by way of His sacrificed Heart. Are we not to remain with Him in our final moments? Are we not to be with Him in heaven? This is not a dumbed-down beatitude after all. We are here being lifted into the very Heart of our Lord and Savior, Mary Immaculate’s Son.

Now, just to say, if we do not know anyone in desperate need, emotionally, spiritually, physically… then we need to take serious stock of our lives and see in what ways we’ve gone way, way, way out of our ways NOT to take note of those who are in desperate need. If we want to be blessed now, united to the sacrificed Heart of Jesus, we had better open our eyes, depending on the grace of our Lord, for of ourselves we are just so blind. We are to be merciful just as mercy has been shown to us, and then we will also have the greatest mercy shown to us at the moment of death. It’s eternity we’re talking about. Think about it. Do something. Plan for it now. Then do it. Then, go to heaven! What blessedness! Jesus is just that good, just that kind… Truly. Give it a try. You’ll know it to be true.

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness in their own lives are — in that very act of hungering and thirsting, in that very anguish of soul and body (for this involves the entirety of who we are) — already experiencing the righteousness of God in their own lives. It’s not a future tense thing in this case, so, that means that this beatitude is not about that. It’s about hungering and thirsting for what God knows to be just and good to be manifest in the lives of everyone here on this earth. Ain’t gonna happen here for everyone, is it? No. Not even for our Lord, who was crucified by the unjust, by those lacking in the righteousness He Himself would provide to them in virtue of that very act of injustice He suffered, having the right in justice to have mercy on us for taking on what we deserve although He was innocent: Father, forgive them… And in this way He provides righteousness.

The extremity of our desire for righteousness, grinding us down to the very core of our being, starving and thirsting to death without this righteousness upon this earth, is answered by our Lord with His provision for us of Himself by way of His Body and Blood, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, literally sating our hunger and thirst by being united with His hunger and thirst for us being sanctified in righteousness.

But is it not true that we are to help each other out? Some are way ahead of us, some way behind. But we can always help all these to know Him who is Righteousness, no? We want to share the greatest love of our lives with others, no? This rather in-your-face friendship with our Lord has to be shared with others, no? But everyone has free will, and only come to the Lord at different times, so that we are always in a bit of anguish, of hungering and thirsting.

So, the future tense: We will be utterly sated. We will see it all in heaven. Everyone there will be righteous, perfectly following the will of Mary’s Son, in all goodness and kindness. The rejoicing, the blessedness, will be at fever pitch. But the blessedness is in the present tense. It all starts here, first of all with our own righteousness. Then we want to help others know our Lord more.

A good first step in all this is ourselves hungering and thirsting for righteousness so much that we not only go to confession ourselves, regularly, but we encourage, even bring others to confession with us.  — “Hey, I’ll buy you lunch across town.” And while going, you say, “Let’s just stop in here for just a second. I have to talk with the good padre.” You go to confession. You pray for your friend to take the opportunity, but no more. A good example was set. That good example might be taken when you’re not there, even if you get ribbed for having done what you did for quite a while. When people are following their consciences formed by the Church, they will also follow the natural law in their public, even political lives, will they not? Be not afraid. Go to confession and save the world!

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Usually we read about just how happy the meek are, or the gentle, something like: “Happy are those who are nice!” Sigh… no!

“Friendly” in English is directly related to the word in question in Greek. This is about friendship, true friendship, not self-serving rubbish, not nicey-niceness, but true friendship, friendship that will come to bat for you when you’re beaten down, but friendship that will whoop you upside the head without hesitation when you’re being stupid, friendship that is welcoming, but friendship that knows who is who and respects that. This kind of friendship is what the Lord meant about Himself when He called Himself our friends, calling us His friends, after He rose from the dead and met with those who had… run… away… How good and kind our Lord is. What a good Friend He is.

The friendly will inherit the land because they are the only ones who are welcoming of new life from natural conception onwards. Justice wins out. Truth wins out. Respect for life wins out. Agressive wars can kill many, but the arrogant will soon die as well. And it is those who are welcoming of life who will win the day. Always. A bit of a future tense is necessary here, but that future tense is also a promise, a prediction, a prophesy. The extreme liberation theologians for the day would have been rather upset with our Lord!

Generally speaking, those who are friendly, who are welcoming of life, are poor, because they have large families. They welcome life into their lives. They are friendly.

Generally speaking, those who are friendly are the ones people turn to in time of need, in time of distress, in time of their need for advice. The friendly, in this way, direct how things go in their local communities, in their lands, in this way and that, no? People recognize true friends, and flock to them. How blessed are the friendly! Yes, a transcendent joy to be a true friend to one and all. A true friend first of all keeps up his  friendship with Jesus, who is good and kind, The Friend.

If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series on the beatitudes, click the category “Beatitudes” and start from the beginning! No repeated info. One beatitude builds on the others!

Anyone who has loved anyone who has passed away knows that grieving comes from love. It is the experience of the loved one seeming to have ripped one’s heart right out of one’s chest so as to bring it with them on their rather momentous journey. But doesn’t this manifest the depth of the love that is there, with the one so devastated on this earth looking to the one who has done all the heart ripping out of the chest thing?

Grieving is very much a present tense thing. It’s all right here, right now. Time doesn’t necessarily heal all things, does it? The scars of the heart being ripped out of the chest thing can be reopened at any time, right?

Our Lord is very, very present to those who grieve, for they love, which is why they are grieving. And Jesus is love. He is with them.

The second part of this sentence, the explanation — “for they shall be visited” — is frequently translated as comforted, helped, aided, and so on. The word in Greek, which is used for the Holy Spirit, comes from paraclete, that is, to be called next to [someone]. The Holy Spirit is called upon us by the Father and the Son. In this case of the beatitudes, the visitor is not specified.

Note that this second part is in the future tense. We can seem a bit unconsolable here upon this earth at times, can’t we? Grieving can be pretty intense, much like the truest love. Are not all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ of whatever time and place with us, grieving with those who grieve and rejoicing with those who rejoice? We must not forget that we, who belong to the Church Militant, fighting to keep our faith amidst a perverse generation, also have the Church Suffering in purgatory and the Church Triumphant in heaven with us, visiting us. This truth sinks in only slowly, however, for the wounds of the heart-being-ripped-out-of-one’s-chest experience can be rather raw. Yet, the truth, the life of the family of faith does take hold of us all the more deeply.

Jesus spoke these words also to Mary, His Immaculate Mother, for she would see her Son be tortured to death and buried.

But then she was visited, consoled, comforted. Very. Awesome. That. Such depth of grieving. Such depth of love. Such a visitation! Jesus is risen. He is truly risen!

Sometimes my fellow Scripture scholars get a bit carried away with the description of where Jesus spoke the beatitudes. Was it a mountain? Was is a field? My question is this: why can’t you have a field on a mountain? Those who know anything about the mountains know that there are very often fields on mountains. Perhaps they are consummate city slickers! Pictured is the traditional site of the beatitudes, both a field and a mountain: Just look how high you are up in perspecitve in this picture. Rather breathtaking, isn’t it?

In Greek, the word we translate as blessed refers to a transcendent happiness, a spiritual joy, nothing ephemeral or transient about this blessedness. It is enduring, through thick and thin, right through death, from our turbulent lives on this earth right to eternal rejoicing in heaven in the next life.

In the first part of this sentence, in Greek, the main clause, there is no verb, or rather we have an understood verb in the present tense. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

The dependent clause — “for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens” — is also in the present tense.

The plural “heavens” is a way of speaking of the singular heaven with, however, all of its various aspects. There are millennia of tradition behind this. Saint Paul also speaks of various levels of heaven, being caught up in them.

The word used for “poor” in Greek refers to a poverty which is total, utter desitution, in which one is entirely dependent on others. Of oneself, one is worthless, powerless, nothing.

Just stare at all that for a while.

First of all, how can anyone who is so poor, especially in spirit (how terribly, horrifically ghastly and dark!) be presently experiencing transcendent joy?

Second of all, isn’t heaven in like… you know… heaven? How is it that the eternal joy of heaven, the whole kingdom of heaven, mind you, which is most rich as opposed to poor, be available to those upon this earth, to us who are in the viator, or wayfarer state? Are not things different in heaven than on earth? Isn’t our hope that things in heaven are different than they are here on earth?

Knowing who we are before God, how dependent we are on Him because of the consequences of original and personal sin, is not a bad thing. Rather, it opens us up to the vast, eternal treasures of the mercy and love of God for us, who takes us to Himself if we follow up with His grace, also by His grace, to be in a state of humble thanksgiving before Him. This humble thanksgiving is the state of those who are in heaven. Of course, they are without the weaknesses we justly bear on this earth because of original and personal sin (this being our cross Jesus commanded us to carry, so as to look to Him all the more honestly). Sharing in this eternal joy already on this earth is surely one of the levels, if you will, of heaven, that we can already participate in here on earth.

The way to do this? The best way is regular confession. Do you want transcendent joy that no one can take from you, no matter what? Go to confession regularly. Blessed are you if you do. Truly. Jesus truly is good. Jesus truly is kind.

That’s tonight’s NOAA government forecast… with windchill factor included. I’ll have to collect some wood! And re-tack up some of the plastic sheeting that’s ripped in the winds… And there are gale force winds coming tonight as well. Already have had some of those. Things are falling down outside and banging around… Yikes!

UPDATE: O.K., so that’s eight small super-dead but still somehow standing white pines (bark off) that I’ve cut, hauled, cut again, tossed, re-tossed, and finally stacked inside the hermitage, or just outside the plastic sheeting door. The plastic in other places has been re-tacked. And… and… I moved the water of the chickens further under the hermitage, in their “coop”, where they’re cooped up, so that the hot water I’ve given them will last a couple extra hours before freezing solid. This sets them to purring…

SUNSET just occured in this part of the mountains… Instant drop in temperature. So, wood on the fire and now dressing in multiple layers. And, for tonight, happy to have the down! I hope the chimney doesn’t fall in the winds… That would be difficult. But I’m preparing for that eventuality…

9:00 PM Air temp next to the chair where I sleep: just at the “freezing point”. So, not so bad! The chair is next to the roaring fire in the woodstove, which is losing the battle to heat the hermitage. Very cool, so to speak! By the way, I’m not complaining. This kind of thing is always a challenge met with enthusiasm.

7:55 AM Sunday morning: I am reminded at this chilly hour of the day of a retired priest I knew, in his eighties if I remember rightly, who lived alone in a tiny trailer house out in the middle of nowhere. The bishop visited him one day in winter and criticized him, saying that he had to turn on the heat. It seems the bishop figured out that it was a bit too cold inside when the toilet broke because the water has frozen solid and expanded. It wasn’t that the old priest was batty. Instead, if I remember correctly, the old fellow was saving money which he would then give to the missions and to seminarians, saint that he was. He has long since gone to meet our Lord Jesus, but there are plenty of priests still around who are living saints. The mass media only speaks of the few fallen priests, but it is not this passing world which is important. It is the next life which is important: it is eternal. I’m happy to have the good examples of the many saintly priests there are out there. I know many. I need their good example. Knowing that I need their good example is a fruit, I am sure, of their prayers and sacrifices. So, I guess this little note is a note of thanksgiving for all the good priests out there. My plastic water bottle:

Chapeau to Val: HERE: Aujourd’hui 11 février, fête des Apparitions de la Sainte Vierge à Lourdes, la Salle de Presse vaticane annonce que la démission de Mgr Perrier du siège épiscopal de Lourdes a été accepté par le Saint-Père et que celui-ci a nommé pour le remplacer, Mgr Nicolas Brouwet, jusque-là évêque auxiliaire à Nanterre.

Né en 1962 (il a 49 ans), Nicolas Brouwet a fait des études d’histoire à la Sorbonne, puis ses études ecclésiastiques à l’Université Grégorienne de Rome, et à l’Université du Latran (Institut pour la Famille). Ordonné prêtre en 1992, pour le diocèse de Nanterre, il a d’abord reçu des ministères dans le monde étudiant, puis comme curé de diverses paroisses. En 2008, ce prêtre, fort intelligent et pasteur de qualité, qui bénéficie d’amitiés solides dans le haut clergé parisien, est nommé évêque auxiliaire du diocèse auquel il appartient, Nanterre, dont l’administration est lourde à porter, peut-être aussi pour « équilibrer » la gestion de Mgr Gérard Daucourt, lequel s’était empêtré dans un refus obtus de dialoguer avec le monde traditionaliste particulièrement présent et important dans l’Ouest parisien. Il faut dire, à ce propos, que l’abbé Nicolas Brouwet, notoirement favorable à la messe traditionnelle, faisait partie des prêtres désignés par le diocèse pour répondre aux demandes auxquelles l’administration diocésaine acceptait finalement d’acquiescer. Lors d’une réunion du Grec (Groupe de Réconciliation entre Catholiques), à Paris, il avait déclaré que non seulement la célébration de la messe traditionnelle lui avait beaucoup apporté, mais qu’elle avait l’avantage d’entraîner avec elle « tout ce qui va avec », selon sa propre expression, à savoir : prédication, catéchismes.

Il n’est pas impossible que le « profil » de cet ecclésiastique, manifesté par ses sentiments et par son action discrète, pas toujours suivie d’effet, dans un sens favorable à la réponse aux demandes de messes traditionnelles en suite du Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, ait contribué hier à sa nomination comme évêque auxiliaire, aujourd’hui au siège saillant de Lourdes. De fait, les célébrations selon la forme extraordinaire par ce jeune évêque français (participations au pèlerinage de Chartres, ordinations dans les instituts Ecclesia Dei, messe pontificale à Chartres à la dernière Pentecôte, etc.), sont l’un des signes indiquant que, même dans l’épiscopat de la couronne parisienne, l’importance de la sensibilité traditionnelle avec son évidente « fécondité » (écoles, vocations, mouvements, catéchismes), est toujours davantage prise en compte, le plus souvent par réalisme pastoral, parfois même par conviction.

On sait par ailleurs que son intérêt pour l’enseignement catholique, dont il était chargé à Nanterre (une soixantaine d’établissements, qui croulent littéralement sous les demandes d’entrées, mais dont une partie des directeurs ne sont même pas des catholiques pratiquants) est particulièrement vif, son ambition ayant été de « recatholiciser » cet enseignement.

Il reçoit aujourd’hui un diocèse très particulier, celui de Tarbes et Lourdes, d’une part, totalement sinistré comme la plupart des diocèses ruraux de France, quant au nombre de prêtres, l’effondrement de la pratique, des catéchismes, etc., mais qui est aussi, par ailleurs, celui de la ville des Sanctuaires mariaux, avec les foules ininterrompues de pèlerins, le passage de prêtres, d’évêques, de séminaristes du monde entier, et aussi les réunions périodiques des assemblées de la Conférence des Évêques de France.

Un poste stratégique. Et, sans conteste, la meilleure nomination du nonce Ventura, et la première, pour lui, de ce type.

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I just sooooooooooooooooooo want to go to Lourdes and have some long discussions with the new bishop. Wow… Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I bet your mother is giving you a big hug right now!

But how would it be possible to go to Lourdes? How? How… How…. How…..

Today’s feast brings back many memories of my two years being a chaplain at Lourdes, living in the chaplains house above the grotto, and wearing the badges alternatively for the Italian chaplaincy, the English chaplaincy, the French chaplaincy, and the Extraordinary Form chaplaincy. Yikes! The Eucharistic processions, the Rosary Processions, the Way of the Cross, the Angelus in the grotto, the Masses, the zillions of confessions, the blessings, the conferences, the tours…. Yikes!

A favorite passtime in these years was grunge-caving with the Immaculate Conception. This video is from my now defunct blog over in Lourdes:

My best memories are just being in the grotto with the pilgrims before the Immaculate Conception. She has seen it all with clear vision in seeing her Son on the Cross. She knows. We can go to her in all our suffering. She knows. She knows.

Here’s a bit of the story from the great Patrick Craine over at LifeSiteNews:

‘Hold bishops accountable for mishandling sex abuse,’ says Vatican’s top prosecutor
Patrick B. Craine Fri Feb 10 15:59 EST Faith

ROME, Italy, February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic bishops must be held accountable for their mishandling of sex abuse cases, the Vatican’s top prosecutor urged this week.

Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said it is “unacceptable” for bishops to ignore existing policies for disciplining priests and insisted that canon law provisions allowing for penalties against bishops who are guilty of “negligence and malice” ought to be applied more rigorously.

“We need to be vigilant in choosing candidates for the important role of bishop, and we also need to use the tools that canonical law and tradition give us for the accountability of bishops,” he told reporters at a four-day symposium sponsored by the Vatican on the handling of sex abuse cases, according to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter.

Msgr. Scicluna criticized the “deadly culture of silence” and “deliberate denial of known facts” and said, for example, that the Irish Catholic Church “has paid a very high price for the mistakes of some of its shepherds.”

He pointed out that penalties for “clergy” under canon law can be equally applied to bishops, even though that fact is often “ignored.”

“It’s not a question of changing laws, but of applying what we have,” he said.

At least that’s my take on this story, that the new Nuncio to Ireland is preparing for some actions. I’ve known Archbishop Brown for decades, and, of course, he’s worked closely with Msgr. Charles Scicluna for almost that long. Good.

One note of concern, however, would be that bishops would now try to prove themselves all the more as being accountable by looking for priests to discipline unjustly, as has often already been the case. It’s the old kick the priest in the face and lift yourself up by standing on his corpse trick. This is just an extention of the abuse of power Msgr. Charles Scicluna is talking about. It’s just another way to use the sufferings of the little ones in order to build oneself up. This would just be another form, then, of abuse. Anything that capitalizes on the sufferings of children for ulterior motives is an extention of their abuse.

We’ve seen how many have pushed their agendas for married priests, women priests, and so on, using the suffering of children to further their ideologies, which only promote more abuse. One takes care of unchastity by fixing the unchastity, not by getting offenders married, so that the unchastity will also continue with the children of the family. We’ve seen many priests and bishops and some Cardinals support married clergy for such a specious reason, haven’t we? Superstitiously throwing one sacrament (Holy Matrimony) at another (Holy Orders), is not going to fix the unchastity of a few, and is a terrible insult both to marriage and the priesthood, proving that those who promote such nonsense have lost the plot, or never knew it.

Moreover, denying that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the marriage of Jesus to His Bride, the Church (by way of the vows of this Sacrifice: this is my Body given for you in sacrifice… my Blood shed for you in sacrifice), a denial made to the end that women-”priests” provide a lesbian image of this marriage of Christ with His Bride the Church, is not going to fix unchasity among the few who are unchaste. Promoting a homosexual image is not the way to go. It is simply blasphemy. But we’ve also seen this view supported from the higher-ups, have we not, perhaps especially across the pond?

However, Archbishop Charles Brown and Msgr. Charles Scicluna are pretty shrewd, and can see through politicized rubbish pretty quickly, bringing their wrath down upon the higher-ups who are too quick to condemn their underlings so as build themselves up into being heroes, when, instead, they only show how they want to capitalize on the sufferings of children to build themselves up.

So much darkness! Where’s the light? We have to see the light shining through the darkness. Jesus didn’t make the darkness disappear in this world. He reached into this darkness and took it upon Himself. It is for us not to run from the darkness, but to look through the darkness so as to see the majestic glory of His love reaching down (from the Cross) to draw us to Himself, to drag us to Himself, right through the hell of the darkness on Calvary. The more of the darkness we see, the more the reality of the profundity of Christ’s tender love for us becomes ever so clear. He loves us just that much! He is just so good, just so very kind.

Thanks to whoever gift-wrapped and left these books with the Fathers of Mercy at our Generalate in Auburn, KY. Very kind of you.

Thanks go to D.&T. T., for the Mass stipend for Father P.S., very much alive. That Mass will be offered on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. You can see the whole list of Mass inentions in these days on the Mass Page.

Most of all, thanks to those who have prayed for me, offered sacrifices for me, offered or had the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for me. Thank you…

May the Lord continue to bless you all according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception.

She’s always gotten me through thick and thin over the decades, always being my Good Counsel whenever I was in need of Good Counsel, which is… um… all the time! I’m grateful to Jesus’ Mother. She how Jesus squeezes her neck in an enthusiastic hug?! He’s so happy, she so understanding. Just. Awesome.

What I saw next:

The apse bears images very significant to me in my decades in academia, having written much about Luke 15,1-32 and about the Immaculate Conception. And there’s Saint Paul and there’s Saint Augustine!

Just a few of the great results of the trip, outside of some satisfied nostalgia, include, among so many others:

• Expressions of heart-felt solidarity from the Fathers of Mercy were offered, especially considering the difficult times in which we live, when so many, especially now, including the Obama Adminsitration, are attacking Holy Mother Church and all believers.
• Requests were made for “prayers for the Fathers of Mercy, since that’s part of the deal for the hermitage” – a reminder I was given. Yes, of course, as I do, daily! My privilege!
• Visionary think-tanking about the trajectory of this blog of yours truly was — how to say? — cogitated. The result of this was what I can only decribe, very happily, as “Saggio blogging” — to coin a phrase. The Italians have a particular academic literary genre permitted by publishers to the elite of academia, an almost shameless exposition of ideas on whatever topic without, however, a thousand references and discussions, but simply an exposition done with wisdom (the definition of the Italian “saggio”). The wisdom bit is not, of course, always and everywhere successful, but you get the idea. I’m very happy with this, as this is the kind of writing I had been thinking of doing for some decades now. A good reminder, which I take to heart with joy. There will always be the same “fight” my Superior was happy to say I still possessed. There will always be the same in-your-face orthodox Catholicism, hopefully with always more an edge of goodness and kindness! But the “saggio” thing… yes… very cool, that!
• An offer was made for my being included in the group insurance of the Fathers of Mercy, which I accepted. Of course, this might only last until 1 August, 2012. We’ll see. The story behind that is that I did not want to have my being a hermit burdening the Fathers of Mercy, and volunteered to get my own insurance. My group insurance was cancelled and I went to State Farm to get some high-deductable health insurance I could afford, this being before the Obama administration got more carried away with bigoted anti-constitutional attacks on the consciences of those who believe in God, who do not want to pay into insurance funds for the killing of children by way of abortifacients, etc. At any rate, I was auto-denied, and was told that it was pretty much an absolute that I could not ever get insurance with any company at any price at any level, anywhere, for the auto-deny was automatically attached to my social security number. I wouldn’t even be considered by any insurance company. I found out much later that North Carolina has high risk insurance, but, as I was to find out, it mirrors whatever Obama wants for his pro-death initiatives. I was happy to use the free clinic here in WNC and to just hope for the best. I only found out the other day that I could, in fact, despite all this, be included in whatever plan of group insurance. So, I’ll be back on the Fathers of Mercy insurance within the next week or two. Very cool! Well, this will last at least until 1 August. We’ll see what Obama and the SCOTUS do…
• Many other things, including catching up on the news, collecting the mail in my mail box in the library of the Fathers of Mercy, and so on.

One of the things in the mail-box was a gift-wrapped package. Inside were two books! Thanks to whoever the benefactor was for this. Very kind, indeed! But, more on that later. Having trouble with the memory card of the camera…

And… and… Thank you all so very much for your prayers. My plea for prayers here on the blog was seen and joyfully welcomed by the good fathers, who said that I can continue to ask, in fact, for prayers. Being a hermit isn’t always easy! There have been many rosaries and chaplets and Masses which have gone up before the throne of the Most High, with Father T going so far as to offer a novena of Masses for me. I have only reported a fraction of the good that has come out of this meeting, and none of the potential good that has come out of this meeting. I am enthusiastically excited by our Lord’s — how to describe it? — almost mischievious providence in how He works things out for the best in the lives of those who love Him. Very, very cool. This is one very, very happy hermit.

BTW: I will be getting to the many emails I have received soon! Thanks very, very much to all who responded to the inquiry for a good confessor in the D.C. – Baltimore area. Very helpful. Right now, I have to do my usual Brevard run. I’ll be praying for ye all on the way!

Prayers for a safe and successful trip, according to the will of the Son of the Immaculate Conception… please!

An emergency chaplet of the Immaculate Conception would not be inappropriate for today’s events. This is important. Thanks!

Such memories of being accused! I’m now laughing out loud, though back in the day I think I only had a  bit of interior smirkiness going on.

I was accused — in an incredibly liberal seminary, by one of the formation advisors – of knowing what I think. And that accusation was made by one who is now in line, if I remember rightly, to be made… well, I better not say!

The idea of the formation advisor was that we cannot ever know what we think. We have to turn to the magisterium of theologians[!] to know what we think, for we cannot know or understand what the magisterium of the Church reflects concerning faith and morals.

Honestly! Just wake up and die right! as the neighbor says. We can know, and we are responsible to come to know the truth and embrace it, whatever the cost. The cost is always knowing the Lord with joy and enthusiasm.

The reason for me to be so mischieviously smirky was and is because I long with all my heart and soul to lay aside such tunnel-visioned accusations, so limited, so small, and get on to being accused by Satan before the very throne of Almighty God, the Most High — before all the heavenly court, the angels and saints — having the entire idiocy of my life revealed for all to see, in blazing, accurate detail, with all gasping at the horror of it all… the horror! (Truly.)

Why? Because in that very instant, with all the angels and saints (this being my hope!), I will point directly to the wounds upon the risen body of our Lord Jesus, to His Heart, so violently pierced assunder for love of us, taking on what we deserve so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us. I will point out that however great has been my idiocy, so much greater has been the mercy of the Lord, and all eyes will look to Him, in praise, in humble thanksgiving, in rejoicing for such unbounded love — even for the horrific likes of me – all to the praise and glory of God, forever and ever. Amen!

And then Satan and associated minions will pack off to hell, defeated, for the umpteenth zillion time, only to accuse someone else, only to be frustrated at the praise for the great mercies of our Lord and Savior, Mary’s Son, Jesus. Satan is super intelligent, but he is also perfectly lacking in wisdom, and continues to frustrate himself for a hell of an eternal hell.

And I would go further. Am I accused of not knowing what I know? I answer that I am not only guilty of all my own idiocy, but that, given the circumstances in life, from conception onward, I could easily be guilty (if bereft of the grace of God) of any and all sins and crimes that one can imagine, which covers a lot of ground! None of us are any better than the next man, whatever he has done.

There, most certainly, but for the grace of God, go I. Right? If you do not think so for yourself, dear reader, and dear long time ago leveler of silly accusations, you are very far from the truth, very far from the mercy of God, very far from the reality of who you are before God and man, and… and… you are giving yourself a licence to kill in whatever way you go about that in your day to day life. Wake up, be honest, and die right!

But let’s go further: Am I accused of knowing what I know? I’m fine with that. But, let me answer again in this way, jacking up the stakes: I wish to stand accused of all the idiocy of all men of all time with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who took us to Himself, taking on the sin of all men of all time — becoming sin for us (as Saint Paul so shockingly puts it) — though He remained not only innocent, but life giving in the mercy and forgiveness and grace He provides, His life within us.

I want to be with Him, rejoicing in His goodness and kindness. I want to know the rejoicing of those who are falsely accused, of those who are slandered and beaten down for Jesus’ sake. I do know what I know, and I want to know the joy of sharing the mercy of our Lord with all those who, like myself so many times in my life, felt they had to test that mercy with their idiocy. I am in solidarity with them, urging them on to come to know the great mercy of our Lord, and His joy, His unbounded enthusiasm to be with us… that is… unimaginably… with us… He being just so good, and just so kind.

Oh, and forgiveness for those who accuse? Why yes! If I’m forgiven of my idiocy, why should I not, how could I not forgive others? I know what I know, and that’s what I know, you know?!

Click on the picture and take a long look. Very cool.

Considering the recent posts How to avoid a bad confessor and How to find a good confessor, I’d like to ask readers for the names of good confessors around and between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. I’m looking for a priest’s priest. Preferrably someone who has suffered a great deal in every way. Send me your well thought out suggestions to holysoulshermitage using gmail dot com. Thanks for taking the time to respond to this. Don’t tell me about your confessions!

To avoid a bad confessor, avoid the priest who…

… is merely a lionness instead of a lion in the pulpit, and who, instead of being a lamb in the confessional, eats the pentitents who come to him for mercy.

… mocks penitents. This is a crime that cries to heaven for vengence.

… talks about confessions, whether directly or indirectly. This is a crime that cries to heaven for vengence.

… does not offer scheduled confessions, though such would be very possible.

… makes if virtually impossible to schedule a confession, though such would be very possible.

… does not preach up going to confession.

… discourages confession by telling people the only ones he wants going to confession are rapists, pedophiles and murderers, so that, predictably, no one lines up for confession (and this does happen…)

… offers general absolution without the permission of the bishop and with no catastrophe at hand. By the way, large numbers of penitents do not a catastrophe make.

… tells people to confess only one sin, which may make their confessions non-integral and therefore sacrilegious.

… mocks the desire of penitents to have a screen partition. (Note that some priests want this screen, but the pastor, who has the say over building projects, will not permit it).

… is otherwise careless with the Sacred Liturgy, and who dissents from Church doctrine and morals. He will likely just confirm you in your sin. Is that what you want?

… asks solicitous questions about you which he has no business asking, which have nothing to do with what you’ve confessed, such as details about where you live, etc.

… who, at a penance service with individual confessions, publically gives everyone the same penance, such as saying the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, once, before the confessions even begin (or after). This is a terrible disservice to the pentitents, who are to have their penances tailored to their confessions.

I could go on, but you get the idea. See How to find a good confessor.

Now then, TO get any confessor, make sure he’s…

… a lion in the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional (–Saint Alphonsus). It is almost always true that a lion in the pulpit will be a lamb in the confessional. His goal in teaching the truth, in season, out of season, is to get people to repent. It is his joy to offer absolution with enthusiasm.

… a validly ordained Catholic priest having the faculties of his diocese and, if applicable, the religious order or congregation or other society to which he belongs. If he doesn’t have faculties, and he knows you know this, the confession is invalid. This applies to most confessions of the Fraternité Sacerdotale Saint Pie Dix, does it not? Don’t risk your eternal salvation by bucking the Church on this matter. I am terribly distressed about all this, and have appealed to the Holy See for a solution. I did get a hearing, and great sympathy for the idea, but it looks like the chances are small. The wisdom of Canon Law on this matter is, in fact, great, and learned by the Church with no small amount of suffering. But, we’ll see…

… a priest who will recite the words of absolution without ad libbing, risking the validity of the Sacrament, with you paying the price. You should always hear the words Et ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris + et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. That is: And I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father + and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If you hear something like “I absolve you Father, Son, Spirit” (something a huge percentage of Irish born priests say), the absolution of sins is invalid, is it not? Don’t such words say that he is absolving God? Maybe he means something else, but this is what the words say, and… and… I’ve heard three, if not four priests actually speak favorably about such nonsense, about forgiving God? Honestly! So, if you have to do it, just bring the text of the absolution with you and have him read it. Do him and all his penitents a favor and insist on this.

To get a good confessor, make sure he’s…

… a priest who preaches up confession, the joys of frequent confession, about all the various aspects of confession, about his own joy in going to confession frequently, about the great friendship with our Lord which this sacrament brings.

… a priest who makes time for scheduled confessions, not just Saturday morning or afternoon, but before the weekday Masses as well.

… a priest who is happy to hear, if possible, your confession at a time you schedule with him. Sometimes there are confessions we know will take a long time because of the gravity and aggravating circumstances and complexity, and we ourselves would prefer to have another time for this. That’s O.K.

… a priest who knows why he’s a priest, and who will be a priest for you, in other words, someone who will tell you like it is, ever so gently, but frankly, if you need to have absolution delayed or denied, for instance, if you declare that your sin is not sin, no matter what Jesus and the Church say about it, and that you want to continue in this sin. “You mean there are priests who would absolve someone like that, sealing their trip to hell, and the priest’s trip too?” Why not? If Judas betrayed Jesus, would Judas hesitate to betray us as well?

… a priest who will not compromise in his advocacy for the vulnerable, in season, out of season, who will just not compromise, who will not betray, who finds his security not in political correctness, in getting along, but in the Heart of Jesus, which was pierced right open. A dangerous place to be, that Sacred Heart. Such violence takes place there, most of all the violence of ourselves receiving His mercy. And that is a violence by which we storm heaven, receiving His mercy, His goodness and kindness, which is so very, very different from the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil. That mercy is a sign of contradiction. Thus the violence against the non-politically correct, against those who stand up for the most vulnerable, in season, out of season. Any priest who has suffered terribly in this way will likely be a great confessor, putting us right before Jesus.

You get the idea. See How to avoid a bad confessor.

The status quo of nothing has become the god of politically correct ecclesiastics, who desire nothing more than to say nothing other than what is said by others, who desire nothing more than to do nothing other than what is done by others, and who desire nothing more than be nothing other than what others are. And the only others in their view that are worth taking note of are those who say nothing, do nothing and are nothing. The status quo of being dead: nice!

So, let’s edit the famous more modern version of all this, oft disputed as to its true modern origin. You saw this version here first! –

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

But Father, but Father, that guy was really, really offended by what you said! He said that you’re challenging him to live up to his declared faith, to his declared patriotism, to his declared loyalty to God and man. How dare you! Oh, Father, how can you be so arrogant, so obstinate? Do you think that you’re another messiah? Do you think that you’re the savior of the world? Huh? Huh?

Sigh. No. Jesus is all. But we are His disciples, no? And, like the Master, so the disciple. Let’s just say it again:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

But Father, but Father, don’t you know that that’s suicide to say such things. They’ll curse you, slander you, try in every way to discredit you, make you look like a criminal, despise you, spit on you, crucify you. Judas is alive. Everywhere to be found. What can’t you just be nice? Don’t you get it? Just cave in. Get along. We’ve all given in. Come along with us, for friendship! Otherwise, you elect yourself a martyr…

Sigh. No. Faithfulness is synonymous with giving witness. Jesus is the one who has laid down our lives with His own. What a privilege! And the reason we give witness is not because we hate others, or think we are better than they are, but because Jesus has shown such great mercy to all of us, and loves us, and wants that we all see the fullness of the truth, of love, of goodness and kindness. I have none of those things, but Jesus does. I point to Him, as should we all. Pointing to Him means saying something, doing something, but most of all, more than all other things put together, it means being something, that is, someone, who has received His mercy, His goodness, His kindness. Of ourselves we are nothing, do nothing, say nothing, but with Him, we can witness to Him, who is All in all.

Will it cost us? Yes. Terribly. Nothing in comparison to what our Lord went through for us. He is just so good, just so kind.

I was going to take this road this week back to Kentucky for some hours of talks with my Superior General. I’m having second thoughts.

From WBIR:

Officials confirmed Sunday morning that westbound traffic is now moving again on Interstate 40.

Both lanes are back open in North Carolina, according to the state’s Dept. of Transportation Web site, but the interstate slows to just one lane around the site of the rockslide in Tennessee, according to a TDOT official.

The westbound lanes of the interstate were shut down Tuesday in Cocke County after a rockslide near mile marker 451.

Crews closed off 25 miles of interstate through Tennessee and North Carolina for the cleanup process.

On Friday, another slide happened in North Carolina. However, the rocks came down on a section of roadway that already had been closed for the Tennessee cleanup so traffic was not further affected.

The second phase of the rockslide cleanup in Cocke County is expected to begin in late March, according to TDOT officials.

Crews will do more extensive work to further stabilize the remaining slope above the interstate. One lane of traffic will remain open through the area until that work begins. TDOT officials said they will try to maintain one lane of traffic throughout the stabilization process as well.

Officials are asking drivers to use extra caution when driving near the rockslide cleanup efforts.

What General Confession is NOT:

1. General Confession is NOT General Absolution.

2. General Confession is NOT saying, “I confess my life” with no detail other than that!

3. General Confession is NOT being scrupulous in trying to be more forgiven.

4. General Confession is NOT being scrupulous in trying to remember more sins just for the sake of remembering more sins that were, at any rate, already confessed.

5. General Confession is NOT the self-destruction of going over the same rubbish again and again.

What General Confession is really all about:

A General Confession is a brief overview of one’s sins during one’s lifetime, or since the last time that one has made a General Confession. No detail, just the kind, number and circumstances of whatever sins which you would like to present once again in Confession for the reason that you realize more clearly the greatness of the Lord’s love for us, and you have a more profound sorrow for sin BECAUSE of a greater love for Him. Sorrow for sin is a matter of love, even if one’s sin is already forgiven. The purpose of all this is THANKSGIVING. I’ve been such a sinner! I really know that more than ever. Because of that, I’m able to thank the Lord all the more for his goodness and kindness in his forgiveness. This is a matter of love and friendship with the Lord. IF one is looking to the goodness and kindness of the Lord in this way, it is a good idea to present even just one sin from the past that is already forgiven, but which is ever present in one’s mind, for instance, an abortion. There is a great deal of healing which goes on in Confession, if we participate in the Sacrament for reasons of love. General Confession, to whatever extent this practically turns out for whatever Confession (one sin or a whole lifetime) is a salutary exercise.

Who is and who is not ready to make a General Confession

It’s not for everyone. It’s not for the scrupulous. It’s not for those who are looking for a “better absolution”. It’s not necessary anyway. Some should and must avoid it.

It’s great for big events, like Confirmation, Marriage, entering Religious Life or the Seminary, being ordained to the diaconate or priesthood or episcopacy, going off on an extremely dangerous adventure, like the front lines of war, or even and especially a very deepened faith, before which one wants to lay one’s life before Jesus, frankly, totally, trusting in His great mercy.

Why there is confusion about all this:

1. People, including many priests, don’t know what Confession is all about. Some celebrate their goodness and that’s it. Some rationalize forever. Some confess tendencies, or weakness. All of that is just so much rubbish and an abuse of the Sacrament of Penance.

2. Some confuse psychology and the spiritual life. For such people, General Confession is counterproductive. They just don’t get the friendship with our Lord that is involved in a General Confession. Again, it is a matter of thanksgiving and of love for the goodness and kindness of our Lord.

3. Some confuse spiritual direction and Confession, which can be annoying to priests who have, say, a hundred people lined up for confession.

These are my good friends, the great Tyburn nuns, enjoying the snow in Rome.

I remember one year, back in the day, when we had three feet of snow. All the pipes of all the colleges broke, with all their water tanks, all exposed on the roofs, all morphed into gigantic frozen water falls… for weeks and weeks…

These great nuns are at the heart of the Church, praying away for all in sundry in the countries in which they reside, and the whole world, and… and… for priests, not to mention, in a rather special way, yours truly.

Thank you. May the Lord reward you, continuing to bless you according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception.

(1) Have I failed to pray? Do I participate in the sacraments regularly? Have things and events been more important than my obligations towards God? Was I irreverent in Church? Have I received Holy Communion while in mortal sin? Have I neglected being Confirmed? Do I study and promote the Catholic Church? Have I been willingly bitter against God? Have I rejected any teachings of the Church? Have I despaired? Have I been superstitious, even using astrology, fortune tellers, horoscopes, occult “games”? Have I taken undue pride in myself or my accomplishments? Have I supported the Church? Have I fasted and abstained on the appointed days?

(2) Have I used God’s name in vain or cursed others. Have I blasphemed God, or have I provoked others to blaspheme God? Have I mocked the saints or anything sacred?

(3) Have I kept the Lord’s day and the Holy Days of Obligation sacred? Have I missed Mass on these days without a serious reason? Have I done unnecessary labor on Sundays? According to my circumstances, have I spent time with my family or friends in recreation on the Lord’s day?

(4) Have I respected and obeyed my parents and other superiors? Have I helped them in time of need? Have I dealt well with those who are under my authority? Have I seen to the religious education of my children or given bad example to them? Have I violated any just laws?

(5) Have I committed violence against myself (including, for instance, sterilization)? Have I hated others, or held a grudge? Have I taken or desired revenge against others? Have I taken or sold drugs, abused alcohol, been gluttonous? Have I endangered the lives of others by carelessness (for instance, by reckless driving, driving while intoxicated, etc.)? Have I fought with others? Have I been impatient? Have I attempted suicide. Have I committed murder, been an accomplice to murder, or wilfully desired someone’s improvident death? Have I committed, attempted, approved of, promoted or helped in an abortion, a suicide, or act of so-called euthanasia? [Note that so-called contraceptives like Plan B, Ella, RU-486, any morning-after-pill, and others, including injections, implants (such as Norplant, etc.) have abortifacient effects and can be murderous of unborn children. Also note that anyone using the “Pill” in order to “regulate” one’s cycle must refrain from marital relations because of both contraceptive and abortifacient “side effects.” Note that IVF (in-vitro-fertilization) usually kills very many children who are simply discarded or forever frozen or are used for experimentation. IVF is also wrong because the loss of the unitive aspect of the act of marriage.]

(6 & 9) Have I observed the marriage laws of the Church? Am I using contraceptives? Am I using Natural Family Planning for selfish reasons? Have I denied conjugal rights to my spouse without good reason (sickness, etc.)? Have I committed adultery, fornication, self-abuse, homosexual acts, etc.? Have I done things which obviously belong only in marriage, where the proper consummation of such activity can take place? Have I given scandal to children or others? Have I dressed immodestly? Have I kept bad company? Have I put myself, my children, or others in a proximate occasion of sin by using, selling, or providing obscene books, magazines, films, videos, TV programs or internet sites? Have I purposely dwelt on impure thoughts? Do I make use of filthy language, sexual innuendoes, or tell immoral jokes or stories?

(7) Did I steal anything? [The priest may require restitution in one way or another, if that is possible. Try to do any restitution you know you must do before coming to Confession. You must bear the fruits of your repentance after all!] Have I destroyed another’s property? Have I wilfully gone into debt with no means of payment? Have I refused to help the poor when I was able, or have I, instead, been overly jealous of my goods, egotistically keeping everything for myself? Have I cheated others? Have I paid employees promptly and justly, and given them proper working conditions? Do I cheat my employer by not working diligently? Have I been selfish? Have I misused the talents God has given me? Have I been lazy? Have I strengthened and supported the Church, for instance, my parish, the missions, the Holy Father, charitable works?

(8) Have I lied? Did I make rash judgments, been suspicious, or unduly critical of others? Have I hurt others reputation by word or deed in detraction (if it was something that did not need to be said) or slander (if it was a lie)? Have I tried to repair the good name of someone whom I seriously hurt in this way? Have I perjured myself, or committed fraud?

(10) Have I been envious of my neighbor’s goods, always wanting what someone else has instead of trusting the providence of God and using the talents that I do have to the best of my ability?

The corporal works of mercy

Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy

Admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries, pray for the living and the dead.

The obligation of Confession

It is obligatory to go to confess any grave sins in kind and number (including important circumstances), once a year, as an absolute minimum. Having said that, the Church highly recommends frequent confession, once a month or fortnightly, even if one has not committed any mortal sins since one’s last confession. If one falls into mortal sin, one should seek absolution as soon as possible. The sacrament grants forgiveness through sanctifying grace, i.e., God’s gift of charity, which gives us strength to remain and grow in God’s friendship.

FOR THE USUAL PARTICIPATION IN CONFESSION ONE NEEDS:

(1) To make an examination of conscience

Sometimes it helps to compare one’s life with the virtues, one’s duties in life, the ten commandments, the precepts of the Church, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and so on. One should keep in mind that sin is not only wrought with wilfully evil thoughts, words, or deeds, but also with any omission of something which we really ought to have done. One has to know something is a sin and will this with sufficient reflection.

(2) To make an act of contrition

This sorrow is expressed imperfectly though sufficiently by some who, because of their sins, fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. The Church urges us to have perfect contrition, i.e., truly being sorry through an act of charity, of love for God and neighbor.

(3) To have a firm purpose of amendment.

As with a true act of contrition, this amendment of life excludes the sin of presumption, that is, presuming that we can chose to sin because we think God will forgive us no matter what. God forgives those who are humble and contrite.

(4) To confess any serious sins according to their kind, number of times committed, and any grave circumstances.

This is called an integral confession. A sacrilegious confession takes place when, in normal circumstances, graves sins are not confessed, or not all of them. Confessing “I cheated” is not sufficient if the reference is to frequent adultery which has caused a divorce and much suffering to any children. Venial, or less serious sins, may also be confessed. It is not obligatory to mention all venial sins. The fact of a scrilegious confession also must be confessed.

(5) To perform the penance which the priest gives you.
This could consist of prayer, an act of charity, or some type of mortification such as fasting.

A note on general absolution

Absolutions granted to groups of people without individual confession and no intention to confess individually are invalid. To instruct people otherwise is a grave injustice. People are obliged to confess their sins since their last good Confession in an individual confession. If you’ve been going to General Absolutions, you have to confess any grave sins in individual confession.

Procedure in the confessional

Let the priest know how long it has been since your last confession and what your state in life is (single, married, a religious or priest). Then, after mentioning your sins, the priest may offer you some spiritual advice, will tell you the penance you are to carry out, and should ask you to say an act of contrition. The priest will then recite the absolution for the forgiveness of your sins.

An Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all of my sins, because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

The Seal of Confession

There are priests who have been put to death for not breaking the confidentiality of the confessional called the Seal of Confession. Others have been tortured, thrown into prison, denounced, slandered, and so on. What is said in Confession cannot be used by the priest in any way. Jesus has us go to Confession to Him before a priest to let us know that we are reconciled both to God and the Church.

Some other advice: Be Clear, Concise, Contrite, Complete (the four “C s”).

Some other advice: Click on this blog’s category: CONFESSION

If you knew anything about the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple precincts, and the ferocity of the present tense in the Greek manuscripts of this incident, you would have to conclude that the whole scene was set up beforehand by those who wanted the death of Jesus. The woman herself was, to them, totally unimportant, disposable after use, even by stoning. What was important was the death of Jesus. I’ve written on that at length elsewhere. Can’t find it. The hermitage is not yet in order. So just a few comments:

If Jesus agreed to have her stoned, He Himself would be put to death that very day by Pontius Pilot, who could not tolerate an individual usurping the right of Rome to judge whether someone was worthy of capital punishment.

If He didn’t agree to have her stoned — which would be thought to be a disagreement with Moses — then He would lose all credibility, and could be stoned along with the woman.

Either way, He was a dead Man that day, no? The answer is yes, He was a dead Man that very day. You can’t infuriate the religious leaders of the day and live, not in yesteryear, nor today. You’ll have your head cut off one way or the other.

Some of the Fathers of the Church (by no means unanimous!) did not like this passage, saying that it let the woman off too easily. My response: No, it didn’t.

In fact, many religious leaders today would throw Jesus out of active ministry for being so “severe” with her, so “pastorally insensitive”. He said: “Do not sin again!” Those words should ring in our ears, given sound by the weakness we know ourselves to suffer. “How dare He not give us a loophole, a rationalization, a way to break the Law of God and please ourselves. How dare He tell us to do the impossible!”

Sometimes people don’t know what they are doing: “Father, forgive them… They know not what they do!” Those making the comments that Jesus let her off too easily ought to see things from her perspective. She could see quite plainly that Jesus, in doing what He did – turning the tables with a word, having those breathing death humiliate themselves – He Himself would pay the price. They would immediately plot His death another way, and be successful in doing this…

… until He rose from the dead.

It was in this moment in which Jesus said, “No more! No more will stoning of adulterers be a viable pedagogical witness to the justice of God in the face of sin. In laying down my life, I, being God and man, will be the only lesson which men will receive from now on about the horrors of sin and the mercy of God. I will take on the consequences of their sin, death, and so have the right in justice to have mercy on them. Father, forgive them…

Though some throw tantrums, wanting to stone this adulterous woman right out of the Scriptures, saying that she is not textually critically viable, the Church says otherwise. I’ve done some rather detailed studies of this. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to find those in the hermitage here, and publish them.

And oh, just to say, this woman does not object, nor throw a tantrum that she is too weak to stay away from sin. She has a sense of the strength and love of Jesus that will keep her on the right Way to heaven. Of course she is too weak. We are all too weak. Jesus doesn’t just command us not to sin. He gives us strength. He has the right to do this. He was, as it were, stoned to death for us.

To go further with this. This adulterous woman, no longer adulterous, but in the good graces of the Most High, is the image of the Immaculate Bride of Christ, the Church. She is transformed in grace. She is one with her Savior. The Sacred Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are filled with references to this, no? Everywhere you look.

Any sin is an adultery, departing from the right Way to prostitute ourselves to the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil. With any sin, we are that adulterous woman. Sure, circumstances set me up for a fall into whatever sin, such as arrogance. But I could choose not to sin, depending on the grace of our Lord. But I can also choose to be the adulterer, prostituting myself to political correctness. The Lord will tell me: “Sin no more!” And, with His grace, I, like this woman, will look to Him with humble thanksgiving, knowing that His words are not mockery, but an invitation to trust in Him once again. Jesus, just that good, just that kind.

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Plan B, rape, and abortion: Err on the side of life
Patrick B. Craine Fri Feb 03 14:22 EST Abortion

February 3, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Elise Hilton took a strong stand rooted in her pro-life convictions last week when she refused the drug Plan B after her mentally disabled daughter was brutally and repeatedly raped. After we reported her story yesterday, words of sympathy came flooding in, but many also questioned Hilton’s concern that the drug could cause an abortion. Others outright attacked her and accused her of trumpeting an “anti-choice” myth at the expense of her daughter.

The use of Plan B for rape victims has become the standard practice in health facilities throughout North America – to the point where state legislatures have even forced it on Catholic hospitals. But it’s a hot-button topic within the pro-life movement, and is more complex than it may seem.

There are essentially two key issues: First, is Plan B in fact an abortifacient? And second, if it is an abortifacient, is it possible to administer the drug without the risk of deliberately causing an abortion?

Is Plan B an abortifacient?

The drug’s purported aim is to prevent pregnancy within the first few days after intercourse. It acts firstly by preventing the fertilization of the women’s ovum by either (1) delaying or suppressing ovulation, or (2) inhibiting the transport of the sperm or the ova.

But studies have found that if fertilization has already occurred, the drug can also act by thinning the uterine lining to prevent the newly conceived zygote from implanting, and thus cause an early abortion.

The Food and Drug Administration and even Plan B’s manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals, both recognize the possibility of this “anti-implantation” or “post-fertilization” effect. One 1994 study found that this effect could account for most cases where the drug “prevents” pregnancy.

Recent studies have called this abortifacient function into question, however, leading some pro-life organizations like the Catholic Health Association to dismiss it.

But even the CHA, which supports the use of Plan B for rape victims at Catholic hospitals, still admits the possibility of the abortifacient function. Dr. Ronald P. Hamel, the CHA’s Senior Director of Ethics, wrote in 2002 that “the destruction of a conceptus cannot be absolutely ruled out.” In 2010, when CHA was attempting to justify their stance in favor of the use of Plan B, Hamel still could not rule out an abortifacient effect. He wrote that “virtually all of the evidence in the scientific literature indicates Plan B has little or no post-fertilization effect.”

Furthermore, some studies continue to find evidence suggesting an anti-implantation effect, so the more recent studies are not unanimous.

Of course the wider scientific and bioethical community reject the whole debate about the drug causing an abortion, because they long ago redefined pregnancy to begin at implantation. But obviously that won’t fly for pro-lifers who believe, as the embryologists do, that life begins at conception.

The overwhelming view among those who have not bought into this redefinition is that Plan B carries at least a minimal risk of causing a chemical abortion. Some, including the Pontifical Academy for Life, believe the risk to be far more than minimal.

Can Plan B be taken without the risk of deliberately causing an abortion?

Acknowledging this risk, some Catholic moral theologians have argued that you can avoid the abortifacient effect by simply ensuring the woman is not pregnant when she takes it. They oppose its use in general as a contraceptive, but support the drug in cases of rape, arguing that it’s morally just for the woman to repel the attacker’s semen.

So Catholic doctors have proposed two approaches to testing the victim for pregnancy.

The first involves a simple pregnancy test. But even advocates of this approach admit that all this will do is establish a pregnancy existing prior to the rape. The test only actually shows up positive a week or so after intercourse, so it wouldn’t detect a baby conceived from the rape.

The second approach seeks to determine whether the woman has ovulated or not based on an assessment of her menstrual history, or in the case of the more rigorous Peoria Protocol, also based on a urine test and blood test. If she has not ovulated then she is clearly not pregnant, the theory goes. But even with all of these tests, advocates of this approach admit the possibility of “break-through ovulation” even if the results are negative, meaning the victim could still become pregnant.

The fact that these tests can still fail to circumvent the abortifacient function would be enough for many to rule the drug out. It goes back to the classic hunter in the woods scenario. If a hunter sees something moving behind a bush he can’t shoot until he knows for sure it’s not another person.

But some Catholic theologians argue that the improbability that the drug would cause an abortion raises enough doubt to offer “moral certainty” that an abortion will not occur. They argue that the child’s death would be an unintended consequence outweighed by the broader concern for the rape victim’s psychological state.

But this argument reduces moral certainty to a weighing of probabilities. If we acknowledge even the remote possibility that the drug will “prevent pregnancy” by destroying a human life, then we are directly responsible if it does. We cannot say that we are morally certain a child will not die as a result of Plan B when we admit there is a chance one could die, no matter how improbable we believe that chance to be.

The hunter in the woods can’t settle for probabilities. If we accept that Plan B carries a risk of abortion, there is a reasonable fear that an abortion could take place, and we cannot be morally certain that one will not. Any risk of directly committing an abortion is unacceptable, however remote.

As bioethics expert Bishop Elio Sgreccia, then-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told LifeSiteNews in 2008, Plan B “is not able to prevent the rape. But it is able to eliminate the embryo. It is thus the second negative intervention on the woman (the first being the rape itself).”

We must always err on the side of life

I know that this is a heart-wrenching and deeply personal issue, especially of course for women who have suffered rape and taken Plan B on doctors’ advice. I want to emphasize that I am no way intending to make accusations. This is a complex issue, and I am in no position (and have no desire) to judge a decision made in such horribly difficult circumstances.

I’ve made my case against Plan B from the perspective of those suggesting the abortifacient risk is minimal. But many researchers, theologians, and pro-life advocates are gravely concerned that it’s more than a remote possibility, and it’s not my intention to suggest otherwise. My point is that even if we accept the premise that it is simply a remote possibility, that’s still enough to rule it out on moral grounds.

Commenters accused Elise Hilton of jumping into a serious life-or-death decision based on faulty science. But the science is far from settled, and where there is doubt we must always err on the side of life.

I stand with her.

Patrick Craine is Canadian Bureau Chief for LifeSiteNews.com and the president of Campaign Life Coalition NS. He lives with his wife and two children in a rural town in Nova Scotia.

* * *

Thanks, Patrick. You’re the best!

Some states mandate Plan B for use in Catholic Hospital Emergency Rooms. States funnel Federal Medicaid monies, the financial backbone also of Catholic Hospitals. If you don’t follow the regulations, you don’t get the money. Don’t for a second think that this is not also a consideration. That’s the way it is. That doesn’t mean you have to take the money. We can do better. If you’re truly Catholic, the Lord will take care of you. We don’t have to follow the words of the High Priest Caiaphas: “You know nothing! You don’t know that it is better that one man die than that a whole nation perish!” (You know nothing! You don’t know that it is better that some children die than that some Catholic Hospitals are closed).

• Should you want to see what the USCCB put up (art. 36), GO HERE.
• Should you want to see a survey about what is actually done in these Emergency Rooms according to a survey of Catholics for Choice (and they have no reason to inflate or deflate the results), GO HERE.
• Should you want to see a contradictory acticle with which I disagree, rationalizing the risk of killing a vulnerable young person, GO HERE.

One of our readers is hoping to adopt multiple children, older children. I put up this post as an encouragement if times ever get a bit rough, not that they will, but just if they do…

This is a “how-to-do-it” true account of adopting the most troubled older children. This is not to impune the “foster” care families who have volunteered and done enormously good work in impossible situations. It is to say that adoption is good, and that orphanages are not bad (all things being equal, right?… but that holds true for “foster” families and adoptive families as well). I know that there are different systems for doing this, but I’m just taking the extreme example, because that’s what was the case here in this worst of all worst case true life scenarios. I also realize that foster homes these days have developed a bit, replacing orphanages until such time as adoption is possible. However, I still question the dynamic of all of that… Can’t we do better? In this case, it was foster care while looking forward to the green light to adopt kind of a situation…

They were two brothers and a sister, seven, nine and eleven years old, who, by this time, had been in and out of literally hundreds of “foster homes” (which insults the word “foster” and “home”). A week here. A few days there. Perhaps a day over yonder. Always, always thrown out. Those who lasted a week with them were incomparably more patient than all the rest, but then they also caved. After all, they were just “foster” homes, right? They weren’t going to adopt anyone. If times get rough, just throw them out on the street for the next foster home to pick up, right?

Well, as it happened, these three kids had already become the world’s greatest cynics. There was no one who would love them, which had been shown to them time and again as they were tossed out time and again. You can’t beat experience. They had come to a point, unconsciously, where they were immediately going to show their worst to whoever it was that was going to take them on with what they just knew could not be true generosity of spirit. Would that person still love them, even though they showed their worst? or would that person throw them out right away, as had hundreds of others? They became proficient in showing their worst.

In my very first parish as a deacon, on the very first day I was in the office “on duty”, a woman came in stating that she wanted to adopt these three children, and wanted them baptised (that also being their desire). “You are a very strong, charitable woman to want to adopt children of this age,” I said, “since they would have been through miserable experiences of being rejected in foster homes so many times.

This great woman of faith recounted, in fact, her firm, consistent love for them, with firm, consistent correction where needed, giving the children a sense of security, of predictability. She had lasted with them for six months. She hadn’t thrown them out on the street. She hadn’t said: “You can’t stay here! I don’t care where you go — nor will I help you — but you can’t stay here. I don’t care if you can’t get there from here!” No, not that.

Instead, this woman recounted that the first three months with them seemed like they were scripted in hell. The children showed their worst, breaking the windows, breaking the dishes, taking razors to the carpets and furniture and curtains — destroying everthing — destroying the steps, destroying the walls…  and… and… almost succeeding to burn the house down… count them… five times. “Firm, consistent correction and love,” she said…

And it worked, three months into the saga, it just hit the children that… hey… this woman really loves us, that she’s not going to dump us, even though we’ve showed her our worst, and that she wants us, of all people, as her family. Not that they voiced that even mentally, but, this woman said, from that moment they were angels, and had stayed that way for three months. They were always so helpful, wanting to do the dishes, sweep the floor, wash the windows…

They had had their cynicism answered. They now knew what it was to be in a family, perhaps for the first time in their lives… They wanted what this woman had, the faith, and wanted it now. So, O.K.!

This was a good lesson for me for my diaconate, for my priesthood: never, ever compromise, always but always be there for the most vulnerable, even when the most aloof — who should know better — kick you in the face for doing so.

So many times people are thown out as garbage for the sake of other people’s convenience. Sometimes self-congratulatory comfort zones are invaded… Sometimes people are pro-life until the going gets rough. Then they get nervous and lash out at anyone who would take them out of their comfort zones. It’s comfortable being pro-life, unless pressure is put on… Things happen, especially when we are growing closer to our Lord, when He has us go againt the culture of death, when He has us encourage life…

To the point: Have we not all tested the Lord in our sin, showing our worst? Has He not shown us firm, consistent correction and mercy, giving us a sense of security with the very wounds which we inflicted in His hands and feet and side… and Heart? Are we not those children, so cynical, that the Lord has to work on with His truth, His love, His enthusiastic joy in knowing that He will drag us to Himself? The Lord is just that good, just that kind.

What’s the absolutely most awesome adoption story ever? That the great Woman, clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, crowed with twelve stars, the Church, would adopt us, and bring us right into the family of faith with great joy. Mary’s Son. Jesus’ Mother. Saint Joseph. All the rest. Just so wonderful.

3:03 AM So, tabernacle empty, sanctuary candle out, and away to the emergency room parking lot… I’ll wait to see if I really have to go in… but I’ll be there…

I’m bringing my phone, which I haven’t charged up for weeks. I’ll be able to do that in the truck, thanks to the kindness of D.W., who sent in a car-charger…

4:35 AM Still alive. Sitting at the far end of the Emergency Room parking lot, waiting to see if I absolutely have to go in. It’s said that they charge you $50.00 here just to walk in the door… literally. I’ll wait and see…

The phone is still charging. Guess the battery was way down. I haven’t checked any messages or calls. Sorry, if anyone has been trying to get a hold of me. The phone will take longer to charge, since I turn off the charger when the truck is not running…

Meanwhile, since LifeSiteNews surpassed what I said in my articles on the USCCB blessing the handing out of Plan B (or whatever else there is) via the Emergency Rooms of Catholic hospitals. I’m going to take down those posts, leaving up the post of LifeSiteNews… Interesting is the mention of the Peoria Protocol. It is that protocol which a layman and myself battled against when it was first introduced. “If it plays in Peoria, it’ll play anywhere” as the saying goes.

8:16 AM So, still alive. Tried to sleep a bit. Didn’t get worse, though not much better. But since it didn’t get worse, it’s not going to get worse, only better. I hope. Lot’s of experience with these things. So, O.K. I’m heading back up into the mountains. Thanks for all the prayers that went up! This little crisis is over, and I’m happy with that. Thank you! Today’s a day for sleep. That’s it…

8:30 AM To be more realistic, I had better just stay in town for another few hours, close to the hospital. This just happens once in a while, having to do with a hereditary lack of an enzyme…

9:20 AM Can’t sleep, so I’ll try to write something. I’ve been intending to write on not throwing kids on to the street. Many kids are thown out of their homes: “You can’t stay here!” they are told. “And I’m not going to help you go anywhere else! Just go! You are bad and evil for taking me out of my comfort zone!”

10:29 AM Still no better. Still not worse. Well, maybe a little worse. But not much. So, O.K. I’m going to continue hanging around in the proximity of the emergency room… Sometimes this takes a good while…

11:45 AM I stopped in the local grocery store to get a couple of items, passing the time. When I was checking out with these few items, I was asked if I needed help out to the car. That woke me up a bit. No, I said. Back to the hospital parking lot. Hopefully not for much longer.

12:05 PM Post Angelus…

1:08 PM O.K. I think I’m good enough to go back up the mountain. Thanks for the prayers, everyone.

7:43 PM After arriving back at the hermitage… crash, burn, dead to the world… But then, the Extraordinary Form of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered for all deceased priests and bishops in purgatory at the request of D.T. Of course, I had an extra altar bread to consecrate for reposition/adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen this morning. By coincidence, the last candle burned out on its own within a few seconds after the Sacred Host was consummed before going to the hospital this morning. But now, a new sanctuary candle hails the Real Presence of our Lord here at Holy Souls Hermitage. This is one happy hermit!

I admit that I will certainly stalk a big spider, camera in hand, until I have it in hand. They sometimes move quickly, so it may take repeated attempts. The spider doesn’t mind. I’m pretty good with spiders, unless I feed them to the chickens. You have to know that chickens just love to eat spiders! I didn’t know that chickens kind of purr like cats when they are happy. My chickens purr a lot. I might just be feeding them spiders and worms and such!

Then there’s another kind of stalking. After so long a time, the neighbor’s dog is still having the time of her life playing with the dead rooster after it was slain by the invasion of transmitter collared hound dogs into the chicken coop the other night:

But there is another kind of stalking. From Wikipedia:

Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet. The word stalking is used, with some differing meanings, in psychology and psychiatry and also in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offense.

According to a 2002 report by the National Center for Victims of Crime, “Virtually any unwanted contact between two people that directly or indirectly communicates a threat or places the victim in fear can be considered stalking.” [National Center for Victims of Crime (February 2002). "Stalking Victimization". Office for Victims of Crime.]

It came to mind that that just might be opportune knowledge. Such things just strike me as useful to know if I happen to run across them. I put them up. Of course, I have to make analogies with the florae and faunae, no?

I immediately turned to the books of Samuel, where the previous edition has a horrifically in-your-face anti-Semitic comment worthy of an Auschwitz commandant. The comment also effectively denied original sin and the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures. Those were the especially dark days for Catholic Biblical Scholarship. I fought against that comment for years. Now, it’s gone! Very happy about that.

I then turned in this NEW New American Bible to the topic of my thesis, Genesis 2,4–3,24, where I met with great disappointment. The editor there lost the plot of what translating is all about.Too bad, that. But very useful for me. To do my popular edition of the thesis, I need to see what others are up to.

I then turned to Luke 1,28. No better luck there. It’s uphill. What about Romans 5,12? Not at all the worst possible translation and notes. Interesting.

This is an important entry in the HSH library, to see the translation made. This is often indicative of currents in scholarship for those given to currents.  Thanks!

When I was a kid, I loved it when my dad, who headed up the famed WR Corsair Checkerboard squadron, would do a flyby over the house, taking the shingles off the roof. Very cool!

I almost had a heart attack tonight, however, when what I can only guess was a helicopter gunship did a flyby of the hermitage, almost seeming to knock it off it’s foundations. Gathering wood will be a bit easier, as I think it actually grazed the tops of the trees. Louder than anything! Like an earthquake. A very slow flyby. I think even I could have run as fast as it was moving, which, then, is not very fast.

Yikes! The blog did get a visit from a particular crowd earlier on today. I half suspected a flyby was about to happen. Yikes again. This is a military practice zone, and therefore about the safest place on the planet, but still, when you’re in the middle of some operation…

Interview: Mom says no to Plan B after her disabled daughter is raped

by Patrick B. Craine

Editor’s note: Find Elise Hilton’s own account of the story here.

February 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rape is one of the worst things a parent could ever imagine happening to their child. Though rare, the pain is often compounded when the brutal act results in pregnancy. So, according to conventional wisdom, doctors generally intervene to prevent the conception of a child.

But what if their method of doing so risks killing the child rather than just preventing pregnancy?

Last week, Elise Hilton’s disabled daughter was kidnapped and brutally raped, repeatedly. But when the nurse handed her Plan B, Hilton said no. (Click here to find out more about Plan B’s abortifacient properties.)

In a blog post republished by LifeSiteNews Thursday, Hilton explains that while she was sorely tempted to give her daughter the drug, she knew God was calling her to put her pro-life convictions into action.

“If the being that had done this to my daughter had been in front of me at that moment, I likely would have killed the bastard,” she writes. “But Plan B is a whole other thing, isn’t it?  It’s about taking the life of an innocent child.”

“What child deserves to die due to a parent’s sins and brutality?” she asks.

In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Hilton said that her daughter, who functions at about the level of an eight to ten year old due to a cognitive disability, is “pretty traumatized” but doing “about as well as can be expected.” Police have yet to find the perpetrator, but the investigation is ongoing.

The girl went missing Jan. 23rd, and was only found 48 hours later.  She was taken to a local woman’s shelter, where she was examined by a nurse. The nurse advised Hilton to take her daughter to the emergency room for medical treatment, and then handed her a box of Plan B.

The drug, also known as the morning-after pill, is used nearly universally in North America for rape victims, even in Christian hospitals. The aim is to prevent a pregnancy by blocking the rapist’s sperm from reaching the victim’s ovum. But numerous studies have found that the drug also acts as an abortifacient – it can kill the newly conceived zygote by preventing him or her from implanting in the mother’s womb.

Hilton was not prepared to take that risk.

“I can’t imagine how taking the life of an innocent child could be healing in any way. That doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said.

Hilton says her daughter understands what happened and is glad she did not take the pill. “I said, ‘That kind of medication makes you have an abortion if you’re pregnant.’ And she said, ‘Oh, it would kill the baby. Oh, then I’m glad you didn’t give it to me.’”

“It’s just the foundation of our life that we promote and protect life at every stage,” said Hilton, who has five children with her husband, all adopted.

“One of the biggest truths of our life is that there’s no situation that’s so evil or so grave that God’s grace can’t redeem it,” she continued. “I don’t know how it’s going to be redeemed yet, but we do believe that it will be.”

“Some good has to come out of it, and whether it’s one person reading the story and saying ‘Okay, I get it now’ or one person who reads the story and says ‘I see how she could have made that decision, I need to rethink this’.”

“It takes it out of the intellectual realm. It’s no longer an intellectual discussion in the classroom or a debate between a theologian and a humanist,” she said. “It’s what am I going to do? How am I going to put my beliefs and my faith into action right now under the very worst of circumstances? Do I really believe what I say I believe?”

Elise Hilton blogs at KissingtheLeper.com.

Here’s my Rosary Rant on the 4th Joyful Mystery. This is a special Feast Day for consecrated religious such as yours truly, with the idea being that we are being presented publically to our Heavenly Father. Wish the religious you know a “Happy Feast Day!” today. That would be very wonderful.

Pretty regularly I get notes from possible vocations to the religious life from both young men and young women, and to the priesthood from, of course, just young men. I mention this in particular just now since I received an email asking for prayers so that a hesitation to enter the seminary going on for WAY TOO LONG, will come to a happy end by way of speaking to the vocation director or bishop of the local diocese, or to an order or congregation… So, prayers, please! How about the Angelus (to help him listen better to his guardian angel)! HERE.

Thanks go to Mother L., who sent in a hand-embroidered Happy Birthday card (that would be coming up toward the end of this month). The note inside is absolutely wonderful. Note, on the Vatican Christmas postal stamps, that there is a donkey in the background. Thank you! Prayers and blessings!

Thanks go to J.E. from one of my favorite parishes in the whole world. The great Monsignor (R.I.P.) put me up for a night back in the day. The above is all about the feast of Saint Agnes, Patroness of the parish. And yes, prayers and blessings for the special intention you mentioned.

J.E. also sent in pretty much a whole first aid kit. I’m hoping not to have to use the super-extra sized bandages… Yikes! I must say, I was thinking about it today, as I used the chainsaw in some rather hard to reach places around tree trunks and branches.

Thanks go to S.A. who sent in a contribution for a Mass for the repose of the soul of Father Joseph Kramer. I’ve scheduled three on 28, 29 and 30 March, 2012. He served in the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota (quite familiar to me!).

If you would like to schedule a Mass for a seminarian, priest or bishop, see the Mass Page. Of course, any contribution is absolutely against all my protestations.

By the way, Holy Mas was offered for all the benefactors of Holy Souls Hermitage today. Thank you all. May the Lord continue to bless you all according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception.

Thanks again to TMB for sending the Trilogy in to the hermitage.

Let me just direct this review to Brian… My disclaimer, Brian, is that I’m not very well read with novels. I’ve only read Fatherless once. I haven’t yet read the other two volumes in the Trilogy, yet, though I immediately started in on the second volume, Motherless, which is a good sign, no? This is just a first exclamation following a quick read… And only a few thoughts, as I didn’t jot things down as I was reading. Your work brought back many memories of my own pro-life work, and that’s another good sign for me of the book’s reflection of the reality about which you write.

My first impression: Excellent. Because of your business ranking, your work is sure to be read by some rather important execs, just to know who you are and what you’ve done. They will surely take an interest in the how-to-do-business-and-succeed aspect to the book, which will draw them in to the points you want to make. I do think it will work on all who read it, and on some it will hit home sooner than later. The elite movers and shakers are clearly your intended readership, along with some of our weaker, silent or more liberal priests and bishops. I thank you for your effort. You certainly have my prayers and blessings. I was happy to see that you were on the board for Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, on whose behalf I’ve done some teaching for one of their seminarians all the way from the hermitage.

Brian, you may help to save uncountable women from suffering and dying from breast and cervical cancer induced by the contraceptive/abortifacient pill, not to mention the lives of untold numbers of children otherwise subjected to such an early chemical abortion. I like the way you repeated some of the info again at the end, just before closing. That will clinch the argument for some individuals. It’s not just clever. We see that you’re a true believer, both in the Natural Law and with the faith. And, yes, that does work on the hearts of those trying to make themselves believe they are hardened atheists. Your work should be gifted to all in the Fortune 500, not to mention to all the bishops, not to mention ad agencies, pharmaceutical companies, investment firms and politicians, though with hand signed cover letters covering the points on just one page. You know how these things go.

The timing of the publishing and republishing of the volumes couldn’t be better, with the Obama administration pushing chemical contraceptive/abortifacients the way he is. We all thank you. I’ve scheduled a Mass to be offered for you and yours and your intentions on 27 March 2012, here at Holy Souls Hermitage, in thanksgiving… motu proprio.

Perhaps, Brian, you could write something on the introduction of the “date rape” abortifacients introduced into Catholic hospital emergency rooms. This would be extremely timely. Obama is sure to point out the hypocrisy of the present push of the USCCB (and as of the last count today, more than one hundred individual bishops) to complain about Obama’s infringement on conscience rights regarding the non-provision of contraceptives/abortifacients, and will therefore, perhaps, get a favorable hearing from the Supreme Court. Florida has a bill put forward to repeal Obama’s attack on religion, but will it succeed with this congress? If you want to know the history of the introduction of abortifacients into Catholic Hospital emergency rooms, with uttterly unexpected names and dates and places — and a monitum about who those people are today — send me an email (see the graphic on the sidebar of the blog — also, check your inbox). I was right in the middle of all that, hospitals, ethics committees, journalists, priests and bishops. You name it. The lie is that one can know at the very moment of conception that the woman has conceived or not. This is, of course, categorically, scientifically impossible, at the moment of conception, just before, during or immediately after the sperm has reached the ovum, but it’s just at this time when such harse chemicals would be provided to — usually — girls and young women. As I’ve said before, one is not to act on a doubt, especially when homicide is at stake, but it happens all the time, with the blessings of the icons of clerical moral theology orthodoxy, with the blessings of priests and bishops. Having said all that, maybe this is one of the major themes in “Childless”, which I’ve not yet read. If it isn’t, perhaps you might fit this in for a revised edition. I note that the other two volumes are already revised.

I’m guessing that you’ve had a hard time of it with some of the ecclesiastics of today’s Church and… and… that you haven’t come to know well very many good priest or bishops. That’s understandable, given the times in which we live.  I understand the point of the book is about being “Fatherless”, both in parish families and biological families, and why. I’ll save my thoughts about Grogan and Father John until I’ve read a bit more! Whoever advised you on the exorcism bits made some terribly grave mistakes about exorcism. Your exorcist also has a mistaken idea of vicarious suffering. Back in the day, I knew very well the exorcist in New York, indeed, Father James Le___ (R.I.P.) and helped to teach the one back in the day in Philadelphia, and, through pastoral circumstances, know way more than I want to know about Euteneuer’s case…

Sorry to say, there is a rather appalling bit to Father John’s talk with JPII. The blessed Pontiff is depicted as listening to Father John indirectly (perhaps because of the uniqueness of the unrepeatable circumstances, directly) violating the seal of confession. I’m sure any priest who attempted to do that with Cardinal Ratzinger or John Paul would have been stopped dead in his tracks. Having met up with so much of this kind of rubbish, I had a long chat with now Cardinal Raymond Burke. Something was done about it, as he promised me, so that now also the indirect breaking of the seal of confession is, in law, held to be among the gravest of crimes, ranking along with sexual abuse of minors. This is something to change in a future revised edition.

I don’t think these last comments of mine should stop people from getting the book, reading it, sharing it. But these are my monitums.

A last suggestion would be for your own reading pleasure, a simple Master’s Thesis at the Dominican House of Studies written by a rather outgoing New York journalist, truly worthy of a Pulitzer for her efforts. Anyone reading Dawn Eden’s very readable work (here’s a free .PDF) would hesitate to put up those she mentions as those promoting their books. It’s a short read, well worth it.

Finally, again, thanks, Brian, for this wonderful first volume. Everyone should read it. Again, you have my prayers and blessings.

This great woman, this mulier fortis, this post-abortive woman, this one-time mulier adultera with the culture of death, this fragile woman, filled with fortitude, overwhelmed with the joy of humble thanksgiving for Mary’s Son, Jesus, is set, right here, right now, to redefine the “tactics” of the pro-life movement. Just by being who she is before God and man. After all: she’s honest.

Here’s her utterly honest first reflection on the first March for Life in which she’s participated in the actual walk. A must read, especially for our priests and bishops in the trenches, if you will, of this war for life, especially for the elites, if you will, of pro-life organizations. Really.

Read her post and bookmark her blog. Over here at HSH, this is post #1 on her work. I’ll have another, please God, soon, all about John 7,53–8,11, a very, very wise choice on her part, very insightful. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in her, and not only for her.

Such… such enthusiastic joy of our Lord Jesus in all this… Now go read her post.

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The thing is, the angels, spiritual guardians sent from the throne of the Most High, and the angels, human friends part of my life by providence of the Most High, know first hand my utter unworthiness and idiocy before God and men, and… and… they still encourage me. And to think, spiritual angels, our guardians, see God in the Face at this very moment… To be in humble thanksgiving mode makes a person very, very happy. This is one happy priest, because the Lord Jesus, also through these angels, human and spiritual, shows Himself to be good and kind.

The angels pictured above are the angels of the Altar of Sacrifice (which all altars, to be altars, have to be, right?) here at Holy Souls Hermitage. They look down to the tabernacle, where our Lord deigned to dwell, for a while, “a little lower than the angels” (Letter to the Hebrews 2,7.9).

Mary’s Son drags us to Himself in this Holy Sacrifice, does He not? The angels are quite content that they see us also as members of the Body of Christ. How much God loves us!

Friday, 20 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning, requested by F.J. & M.E. F.

Saturday, 21 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Bishop F.B., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Sunday, 22 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Bishop E.S., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Monday, 23 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Bishop R.F., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Tuesday, 24 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father M.R. & Bishop O., both very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Wednesday, 25 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father F.P. & Bishop Z., both very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Thursday, 26 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father *.*. [I know who!], very much alive <em>and kicking</em>, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Friday, 27 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father Gordon MacRae [I don't think he minds his name being spelled out here!], very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F. Check out his blog! A real honor to offer the Holy Sacarifice for him.

Saturday, 28 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father R.F., F.S.S.P., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Sunday, 29 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father F.D.M., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Monday, 30 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for Father D.G., very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Tuesday, 31 January, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for all the priests of the F.S.S.P., at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

[[Wednesday, 1 February, 2012, Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form is offered in thanksgiving for the intentions of the wonderful benefactors of Holy Souls Hermitage!]]

Thursday, 2 February, 2012, Holy Mass is offered for seminarian P.G.J., very, very much alive, at the request of F.J. & M.E. F.

Just now the hermitage was surrounded by wildly bellowing hound dogs, foaming at the mouth, jumping up against the plastic walls (seven feet up!), against the plastic sheet which is my door (though I had that supported with a wooden brace against the wind, which works for dogs as well as I find out), and smashing into everything under the hermitage. Bellowing and yapping and snapping. What a racket. Non-stop. As if all hell had broken loose. Had I become their prey?

Amidst all this utter mayhem, I heard the chickens getting nervous. I had to protect my ladies, so I went outside, wondering just how stupid I was. Too late. The rooster, ever gallant, ever the gentleman, never a bully, just watching out for the flock, obviously tried to defend the ladies. He gave his life in the attempt. A good example. I stayed with the hens, since the dogs were intent on eating the rooster and killing more hens. I wasn’t going to permit either. One tried to eat the chicken feed. I wasn’t going to let that happen either. But I couldn’t get them out. They just would not leave, and they started to get a bit aggressive with me. I stayed there anyway, knowing it wouldn’t be too long before the hunters showed up looking for their dogs.

Two of the pack had ripped a hole in the door and made their way inside. I’ll have to replace that with chicken wire instead of mere screen. I’m now down to six hens and no rooster. So much for trying to raise a new flock! No rooster, no fertilized eggs. Moreover, the ladies, after this trauma, might not lay any eggs for weeks. We’ll see.

The hunters came up to get their dogs. Pretty brave, really. They gave me $25 bucks for the trouble. The head hunter, so to speak, said that in his whole lifetime of hunting, he has never ever seen such a sight as hounddogs breaking into a chicken coop instead of going after their prey. And to tell the truth, they had the hardest time getting them to leave the chicken coop. They just would not leave. They had to literally drag them out.

Before this happened, a cloistered nun sent me an email reminding me that no good deed goes unpunished. That was in reference to this post. Yikes!

UPDATE: Check the comments about 50MMs and exorcisms…

Also, a follow up on the fate of the rooster and the post-trauma egg laying capacity of the chickens…

As a courtesy, I went down to check the neighbor’s chickens in the evening, closing the chicken coop door, making sure all and sundry were content. I went back down in the early morning to let them out, leaving their tiny door opened up, throwing them a small handful of feed to make them happy with such an intruder as myself. I broke up the ice of their water bucket, as it got pretty cold last night. Some pics of ice and hoar frost (phrost!):

In going back up the mountain, the neighbor’s dog followed, but then ran ahead. This is what greeted me when I arrived:

I would have butchered him for dinner (the rooster, not the dog), but it was already late… and freezing out. He froze solid by the next morning, and the meat would have been good, except for the way he was killed. The blood wasn’t drained, and so the arteries would have been full of blood. Blech! So I was happy enough for the dog to have her way. She deserved a treat anyway, having been mauled by some other dogs some days before. There are plenty of pitbulls on the road below.

The hens, to my great surprise — although I sweet-talk them very much — are as happy as ever. So far today I have five eggs and it looks like a sixth on the way. Not bad for traumatized chickens in the middle of winter!

Floating downstream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You end up in sedentary pools on the sides of the stream, clogged with other fish as effectively dead as yourself.

Mind you, it’s not that masses of people float downstream because there are no benefits. Political correctness brings it’s own perks. First off, don’t think that one doesn’t get used to floating downstream, or even to getting caught stuck in fetid eddies with fellow fish. For selfish motives, such as job advancement and popularity, the feeling of power one has with being “successful”, a “consensus builder”, one can get used to anything, and then, in fact, fool oneself into thinking that one is actually enjoying oneself. The power of it all!

I mean, just think, one only has to look at the few dead fish within one’s self-imposed, extremely limited horizon, those who are with you, floating, unmoving, pretending not to be the floatsum these have made of themselves, insisting that, if anything, in a victim mentality, they are simply jetsam, getting along like everyone else, cleverly doing what one has to do to get along as a victim in this fallen society of ours, pretending all the while not to be depressed and falling into despair, because, in all actuallity, one might no longer be reclaimable lagan by way of confession, by way of bearing the fruits of repentance, but lost forever as derelict, beyond the mercy of God and God-inspired compassion of real men (which is never the case as long as we have breath: Dum spiro spero!).

I mean, just think, it’s not so bad, after a while, even if it’s a good while. Not only can we can get used to anythying, we can even start to rejoice in the good points of one’s fellow rotting fish:

• Their scales glint in the sun, a rainbow of colors. Such distraction!
• Their stench is actually kind of sweet, complacency of lifestyle!
• The antics of the little parasites crawling in and around them are fascinating to watch, a great passtime. I want some too!
• There’s no stress, no change, no challenge to grow. I’ve arrived!

And besides, “Everyone floats downstream!” — which is the useless defense before the judgment of God concerning whether we go to heaven or hell, a defense made by someone who is falling into despair and calling out for help.

Swimming upstream is altogether different. One is swimming, sleek and agile, exercized, full of energy, in the middle of the stream, in clear, sky blue, sparkling waters. With deft, lightning movements, one navigates not just around the few dead fish one had been with, but around countless others, always more. Not a pretty sight, but one is instead enjoying enthusiastic freedom, darting in and out, here, then there, always in the clear waters of God’s grace, always in humble thanksgiving. In exhilaration, one leaps out of the water and into the sunshine, high into the air, taking in the view: Wow! Look at those mountains! How tall the trees are! Yikes! A Kodiak Bear! A monster! A demon! An agent of Satan! The bear, of course, eats whatever fish forget humble thanksgiving and trust in their own talents, conglatulating themselves for being good, putting others down as worthless, and so rejecting their own redemption by the Son of Man, the Son of God.

There are even more benefits, mind you, to swimming upstream with humble thanksgiving for God’s grace, not only avoiding the bears and avoiding dead fish (though giving them good example and wishing that they turn around), but also — and this is not selfish — but also rejoicing in the height and depth and breadth, the entire expanse of God’s intimate, joyful love for us. We come to know Him as THE FISH, in Greek, Ichtus, ιχθυς, the letters of which stand for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior, with the last word being a translation of the first word.

In early centuries under Roman persecution of Catholics, the faithful would get to know each other safely by way of code… by way of tracing out a fish on the ground with a stick, ever so casually, and if the other did the same, ever so casually, one would know that one was safely in the company of a fellow Catholic.

Jesus, like Jonas, was in the belly of the whale, the earth, for three days and three nights, but then was spit out, that is resurrected from the dead. He suffered like a dead fish, but death had no grip on Him. Jesus is just that good, just that kind, to us, who have all been dead fish, floating downstream, but whom He has saved, to have us swim upstream, with Him, with agility of soul, rejoicing.

Here. We wish Steven and his youth apostolate well! I’m sure the World Bank Group joins in our good wishes… Interesting that they’re so interested in Uganda, particularly in Mbarara…

Perhaps some might think it odd that the statue of Saint Michael slaying Satan sent in by a very generous and kind reader has made it to the gradines at the back of the ad orientem altar at Holy Souls Hermitage: “Satan has no business being so near the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!” To which I respond: Jesus didn’t think so. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Calvary part of the Last Supper — took place on the Cross amidst all hell breaking loose. All hell breaking loose… Jesus is just that good and just that kind.

Thanks go to Mother L., who sent in this Papal Blessing for yours truly at Holy Souls Hermitage. Profound thanks for that!

Thanks also go to G.P.E. & S.M.E. for their donation, always against my tantrum like protestations.

May the Lord continue to bless you all according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception!

The roof was leaking, though not through the roof. It was by way of water running underneath the bottoms of the rafters from the bit of moisture collected at the very upper ends. So, up went some flashing over each rafter-end, but tucked under the ondura. Hopefully, I’ve not set up the most advanced lightning attrator in North America.

On this day, five years ago, this is how I closed off the comments of thanksgiving prefacing the doctoral thesis on Genesis 3,15. I call the conversion of Saint Paul (today’s feast), the reception of the enmity as described in Genesis 3,15:

Rome – 25 January 2007

Feast of the reception of enmity by Saul of Tarsus

וַיְמַהֵר וַיִּקְרָא בְּבָתֵּי כְנֵסִיּוֹת אֶת־יֵשׁוּעַ לֵאמֹר כִּי־הוּא בֶּן־הָאֱלֹהִים הוּא ׃ (Acts 9,20)

Saint Paul understands Genesis 3,15. That’s why the more knuckleheaded of the past 60 years of commentary say, on Romans 5,12, utterly ignores Genesis. Interesting, no? So afraid of the truth. This is a mortal sin in Exegesis. If one part of scripture clearly explicitly commenting on another part of scripture, one has to take a look at that other part of Scripture, no? But, nope. It’s not done. I’ll try to rectify that with a popular version of thesis, where I mentioned this difficulty. This is very much what Holy Souls Hermitage is all about. See the My Books page. Yikes!

Time for Confession, according to my New Year’s resolution not to ever go more than two weeks without this great sacrament of our Lord’s goodness and kindness. The Holy Souls Mountain waterfall was behaving itself, even after the days of rain we’ve had here. Further below, the one-lane bridge seemed about to cave in to the waters below… with dry rot… Yikes!

Futher along, the famous bridge over the famous waterfall where in a famous film a famous vehicle was shoved over the top so that it could be caught on film tumbling down. I never saw the movie, so I don’t know what that’s all about. The vehicle is still hundreds of feet down below… It’s hard to get a perspective of the size of these falls in a picture. The white pines can get 100-150 feet high, if that helps to understand what’s going on here…

Later, one might meet up, again, with a truck jackknifed around a hair-pin curve in Holy Souls Mountain one lane gravel road. The cab always ends up in one ditch while the bed of the truck lands in the ditch on the other side. These truckers are all using the Truckers Rand-McNalley GPS map thingy, though I’m not sure if that’s to blame. It apparently claims that this road is trucker friendly. Decidedly NOT.

Cardinal Tomás Séamus Ó Fiaich of Armagh (R.I.P.) made an intervention at the Second Vatican Council to complain about the possibility of confession for the islanders. He said that for them to come off the island, across the choppy seas, risking life and limb, to find a priest to whom to go to confession wasn’t worth the effort for venial sins, and was too dangerous if one had mortal sins on one’s conscience!

My, my, my… Where there’s a will, there’s a way! Regular confession does wonders for the soul, keeps one far from serious sin, points the soul to heaven, helps avoid purgatory in the next life and all in all sets everything in the right perspective, who we are before Jesus, who is so good and so kind, calling us… yes… His friends.

You looking from the floor to the roof, due South, on the Western corner. This is just tacked up with a 2×4 on the outside to keep it from falling down the mountain until I make a proper structure for it. It has flashing underneath, combined with a handy shelf. This is actually half of a sliding door. Very heavy, doubled paned, good insulation!

O.K. Some have suggested more sunshine for the ladies. So, there we are. All I did was fold the plastic sheeting back a bit. I think they’ve been getting the rays all the time, but this makes it obvious! They’ve been doing well with the shells as well!

In moving some things around I opened up some boxes and, behold, a year’s worth of mould! So, I put up a couple of shelves with the wood at hand and put a few up to dry out. Yikes!

In all seriousness, just because one works for the government doesn’t mean that one cannot act on one’s conscience for the good. Think about it, my friends.

Thanks to C.W. for sending this in! Sometimes it’s pouring and there is nothing on the radar for some hundreds of miles. This must be a micro-climate where only donkeys and hobbits live… Looks like this donkey is wearing a Roman Collar!

That picture doesn’t tell the whole story of the hermitage. Here’s a picture I took the other evening, walking up the mountain and arriving to the hermitage after it was already dark. This is from about fifty feet away, still down the hill a bit.

Greetings from Jesus, from His Heart. The sanctuary candle is burning brightly now that I have it insulated properly.

Readers will remember Steven from Mbarara, Uganda, befriended by HSH, a great youth leader, heart patient, and very recent author of two books (besides the reflections he pumps out every day to over a thousand youth, giving them a great perspective on what it means to live the faith).

NEW UPDATE: Steven is set to go, having now the wherewithal for the medicines and for his apostolate and, soon, for a new flock of chickens so that he can be more independent. Thank you, dear readers, for your generosity. See the comments for the fuller story of this good news.

Scroll down for the comments…

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You have helped him greatly. He reports that, as of today, he has 24 sales of the books, worth $127. He is very, very grateful for the support and sends you his thanks. For those who haven’t taken a look at the books, go HERE and then HERE for the full story and some reviews and some links to the books.

HOWEVER, ALAS! The way things work on Amazon is that sales made in January will only get to him by the end of February.

The aim here is not to continue to give things to Steven, but to make him independent once again, in fact, by way of raising chickens. Yeah! However, while that possibility is coming at the end of February, he needs this month’s supply of heart medicine for his heart failure. That’s four medicines. Keeping him going for just a bit longer with his internet apostolate is also a high priority for the ongoing formation of the youth. So what to do?

There is a solution. But first, read Steven’s email:

I pray I will not be asking for too much from you again, it is said “A problem shared, is a problem solved”( not sure that is the right wording of the saying )

I am still having so much need for my medicines and Internet connection. I will not be able to access internet in the next 3 days, as my subscription will expire. I use a wireless modem, and a monthly internet bundle costs 85000($36). I am as well having great trouble with getting my drugs this month.

The money for the books cannot be paid to me soon. Sales made in a particular month are paid for towards the end of the next month. That is, sales for January will be paid me towards the end of February. Yes, it will be in time for me to start on my poultry farm again, but it will be way to late to save the situation I am facing now.

Without internet, I will not be able to do what my heart loves most; getting the daily readings, reflection and Saint of the day, to the so many youth out here.

How can you help out again? Is it okay if you made another post on your blog particularly seeking help for internet connection and a month’s medicines? God can make it possible that if the article appeared on your blog for 3days, it can attract us $200! This will be well enough to cover my medical needs for a month, and internet connection for the next 2 months.

O.K. So, there it is. What I’m going to do is give you his email address. Hopefully, there is a reader or two — especially among those who have been inspired by his writings — who will help him out with this. He does have a quick and easy way. Adopt this 3rd Order Dominican novice and adopt 1000 Ugandan kids to encourage them in living the faith in trying circumstances! Here’s his email:

sbeingana using uyma dot org

Thanks, dear readers. Some of you send me a bit each month. Why not not send that to me, but to him instead?   Yikes!

OLD UPDATE: O.K. So, as we read in the comments, one of our readers has graciously picked up the next six months of internet for Steven. That is very generous, so good and so kind. Very inspiring to see such goodness and kindness! However, Steven still needs this month’s supply of medicine for his heart failure. Anyone? It’s $90 bucks. A great opportunity for far-reaching almsgiving, no? Yep! Can ~you~ do this?

sbeingana using uyma dot org

These windows, ultra inexpensive from Habitat for Humanity (and they don’t really work so well!) were much heavier than I thought, or perhaps I’m getting older. They’re not really installed yet, just sitting there, in place, with 2x4s to keep them from falling down the mountain. But, they are there. They were really getting in the way on the floor of the hermitage.

I wasn’t distracted by a rather large sliver which had been festering and (sorry) swelling the finger up with puss, since, in finally digging it out, I was able to put some drops of handy dandy Tea Tree essential oil in the wound. That was sent in by a wonderful benefactor, “just in case”. It was like instant healing.

I’ve plenty of energy to do the work. The chickens continue to lay eggs, all with shells. There are, however, different sizes. One of them is pretending to be an ostrich with the size eggs she pops out. Is this normal? So huge? She should win a ribbon in the state fair or something.

T.M.B. wrote in asking if I had read Brian J. Gail’s Trilogy. As I say, I am about the most badly read hermit ever to have lived. Favorite reading material has, in the past, been The Far Side by a fellow Minnesotan. When I lived at the Casa Santa Maria, conveniently across from the Pontifical Biblical Institue, in the 1990s, I was determined to read at least one novel from the used books room. I picked  The Sum of All Fears by Dan Fogelman and Tom Clancy. I picked up on his style, and used that for the first volume of a Trilogy I started to write while doing my doctoral thesis on Genesis 2,4–3,24, waiting for my moderator to plow through another chapter of the thesis. The first volume turned out to be some 750 pages. Paul Brazier (R.I.P), perhaps the greatest intellect and most wonderful Catholic in the Southern Hemisphere, throught it was great, “a ripper!” However, I got the idea that it was a difficult read, very dense, however dramatic, as it took him 9 days of virtually non-stop reading to get through it. What to do? Read more, and learn from other people’s style. T.M.B.’s offer to send Brian J. Gail’s Trilogy may be just the thing for me. We’ll see what his style is like. I’m a bit leary of some of those praising the book, but take solace that, for instance, Motherless is supported by Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Chaput. Thank you so much, T.M.B. I’m sure this will help me quite a bit. Very thoughtful. Do you readers have any comments to make about this series? Can one start with a different volume than Fatherless, or does one have to follow the order Fatherless, Motherless, Childless?

Also in the mail was the signal repeater from C.W. Thanks C.W.! I’ve still not permanently set it up, but have noticed a stronger, more stable signal, about 40%, up from a terribly occilating 0-15%. So, this is much, much better. The homily series is getting closer with this addition to the hermitage.

Oh, it might seem that we decide to go to confession, and I guess we do, but if we do that sincerely, with true penitence, looking to our Lord in humble thanksgiving (or at least afraid of the loss of heaven and the pains of hell), that grace, with which we cooperate, comes from our Lord.

Don’t think that it is not possible to go to confession out of pride: “I’m so upset I sinned, not because I truly dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, not because I have a thought about humble thanksgiving, but I’m so upset I sinned because I can’t be proud of myself as I would like to be, so, I know, I’ll go to confession and be in a position to be proud of myself.”

Is it possible to fool a priest who hears your confession? Yep. Really easy, that. Your recitation of an act of contrition and a firm purpose of amendment is what he hears. Unless he’s like Saint Pio of Pietralcina or Saint John Marie Vianney, he doesn’t know what’s in your heart. But Jesus knows. God will not be mocked, ever. Don’t think we can use a sacrilegious confession in favor of ourselves either at the Judgment when we die or the Last Judgment.

In saying all that, I realize that such can put scrupulous people into a bit of a tizzy, but they should know that their concern speaks to their sincerity, while the agony of scrupulosity is simply a cross that our Lord commands them to carry according to the circumstances they’ve been through in life. Scrupulosity is a mind game. The way to break through that is humble thanksgiving. A matter of love. Something we can’t bring about by ourselves (so there is nothing to be scrupulous about). Our Lord draws (drags!) us to Himself. We have no power without His grace to put ourselves before Him. He forgives us. We don’t forgive ourselves.

At any rate, some words are necessary to encourage people’s penitence and humble thanksgiving, all with the grace provided by our Lord, whether they are laymen or priests or bishops. So, here we are:

To redeem us, Jesus became sin for us – as Saint Paul, with such abbreviation — puts it (see 2 Corinthians 5,21). Just as in His baptism (see my rosary rant on the first mystery of light here), He takes our place as sinners before His Heavenly Father. It is as if He is confessing all of our sins in the first person singular before His Heavenly Father, and not just as if. Although He remains innocent, He takes on all the consequences of our sin.

“Bless me, Heavenly Father, for I have sinned. I confess constantly, at all times and in all places, from the beginning until the end of time. I accuse myself of the following sins…”

Now, in view of what Jesus does for all of us, we, as lowly penitents, want to be (1.) clear (not ambiguous), (2.) concise (not chatting, not gossiping, not accusing others, not including useless circumstances, not making confession into spiritual direction if others are waiting…), (3.) contrite (not making excuses, being truly sorry) and (4.) complete (including all mortal sins since one’s last good confession, or, if there are no mortal sins on one’s conscience, or as well as mortal sins, one might include some, not necessarily all[!] venial sins).

Fathers, bishops, when’s the last time you’ve been?

UPDATE: Oh, I forgot. Our Heavenly Father gave Jesus a “penance” to do for such an outrageous confession as that:

“Jesus, for your penance, you are to be betrayed by one of your close friends; you are to be taken and tied up; you are to be mercilessly interrogated and mocked; you are to be imprisoned overnight, during which time many despicable things will happen to you; you are to be publically condemned and then beaten with barbed scourges until you are almost dead, and your flesh in hanging from you like bleeding rags; you are to crowned with a crown of thorns and scorned by the politicians and the priests and the laity; you are to be burdened with a cross for you crucifixion, and remain crucified until you die; you are to know what it means to seem to be forsaken by me. Finally, you are to descend to hell.”

And then… then… the glory of victory began to shine. Jesus mocked the fallen spirits, reprimanded the damned, and preached the good news to the saints of old, from Adam, who repented of his sin (see Wisdom 10,1-2) to the many. 

And then He rose from the dead.

Exile into Egypt as Herod tries to murder baby Jesus

Some things people haven’t seemed to notice about Obama’s HHS decision to trash freedom of religion regarding not paying insurance premiums for abortion:

• Firing all women (is that the intent of Obama?) will not, in fact solve the problem of providing abortion insurance for workers, for spouses can be included in that insurance.
• A guarantee from workers that they will not use the insurance for abortion has no effect on the fact that the insurance premiums are going into the pot from which abortions are paid.
• Dropping the benefit of insurance for workers will not be a legal option. One must provide insurance and that insurance must fund abortion.
• Individuals such as myself are not provided an option not to have insurance, and are not given a year to think about it, as are the others (though time makes no difference for such a decision, which will remain that of not paying for such insurance).
• Fines for not paying insurance premiums that one has not purchased in the first place would go into the pot to fund abortions anyway — right? — so the fines are not to be paid either.
• Those who are so pro-life that they will not pay the premiums or the fines will be harassed by the Obama admin. He starts in earnest this August. Let’s see if we can’t get a widget for that:

Will the non-funders of abortion be called domestic terrorists and be forthwith removed as terrorists, with no one knowing about it, without representation, without trial, for an indefinite time, even life? That’s the direction this is going.

This post is where our readers who have ordered this book (see link above) might post some reviews/ thoughts/ comments. If you also have A Walk with Christ Living the Gospels, save reviews/ thoughts/ comments on that for another post. I don’t have that one yet! My copy of The Highest Level of Worship was sent in by E.D. Thank you, E.D.! May the Lord reward you!

Here’s my review and thoughts and comments: This is a small book with not many pages, but the size of any book doesn’t speak to the quality of the contents, does it? Some write many hundreds of pages and don’t say anything. Steven writes a few pages and says a lot. But you have to know how to slow down and drink in the eternal truths of which he writes. Steven has some wisdom both from the School of Hard Knocks and the School of Prayer. I’ll make an excerpt of just one sentence. If you’ve not suffered in your life, or are not much given to prayer, it might seem all too mysterious. See what you can take in from your experience:

I have learned by experience that the deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting Him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving Him when he seems distant.

I like people who write from experience. For instance, Saint Teresa of Avila said that she couldn’t write anything that wasn’t from her own experience.

I’ve now read through this book of Steven’s and I must say that my soul resonates so much with every sentence that at one point I had to laugh out loud, rejoicing in the words on the page.

If you or anyone you know is suffering, especially those who are sick, who have cancer, who are terminally ill, especially the family members of those who are terminally ill, then you will want to get copies of this little, easy to read book for them. They aren’t Catholic you say? This book might just convert them. It manifests the goodness and kindness of Jesus even and especially in the midst of our suffering in this world. In a time of horrific increase of euthanasia, this is an absolute must read. Get this book and get it now!

Mbarara, the region of Uganda where Steven lives, immediately borders Rwanda. I’m sure you know of the accounts of Immaculee, or have seen somewhat accurate depictions in such films as Hotel Rwanda. A priest from Rwanda, who just escaped death many times (though some of his family was murdered), gave me the DVD to watch, after which we discussed it many times. Uganda also boarders the South of South Sudan, where there has also been a genocide playing out from the Northern agression. Immediately to the West of Mbarara, Uganda, a genocide and systematic rape of all the women has been playing out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Death and refugees all around I’m sure. Steven has also warned of violent Islamicist incursion in Uganda.

Now, while the book is small, yes, it’s true, I also look on it as a kind of connection to Uganda, a country I never visited, at least yet. I was supposed to have gone to the Central African Republic, a few hundred miles to the Northwest side of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to give a month long retreat/conference to all the Missionaries of Charity from about fifteen African countries, back in the 1990s. But that’s when my leg was totally shattered to bits, so that I was unable to move in traction in Santo Spirito hospital in Rome. At any rate, I still have a standing invitation to go to the Missionaries of Charity’s largest novitiate in the world in Nairobi, in the Catholic Triangle, just to the East of Uganda, but, well, now I’m a hermit! The closest I ever got to Uganda was Egypt. So, this book helps me feel a bit more connected with the country where Christ Jesus also reigns in the hearts and souls of many.

And remember, this is also about getting Steven the wherewithal to get medicines for his heart failure, about getting him the wherewithal to re-plenish his chicken flock so that he might be self-sufficient not only in getting his medicines, but also in keeping his wonderful apostolate going among the youth of Uganda and more. If you haven’t gotten your copies of his two books, ever so recently published, check out this rather comprehensive post for all that you need to know!

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/01/obama-administrations-war-on-religious-liberty-we-have-one-year-to-comply/

And this, just hours after Pope Benedict said this is what was happening:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/01/benedict-xvi-important-address-to-us-bishops-of-regions-iv-vi-about-attacks-on-religious-liberty-in-the-public-square/

And you think there’s going to be an election?

Thanks go to Bishop Peter Joseph Jugis, Ordinary of the Diocese of Charlotte, who has ever so graciously given me permission to be a hermit in his diocese. He sends his prayers and blessings. When he says he is prayer and sending blessings… yes… I feel them… strongly. Awesome. I am forever indebted. My prayers and blessings for you and yours and those in your care in return!

Thanks go to T.M.B. for the kind donation and the wonderful card.

Thanks go to L.C., for the donation and the kind note, the latter of which made me laugh out loud:

Reverend and dear Father Byers, I found your website via Fr Z this morning and was so tickled by your non-solicitation of funds that I just had to send something. And of course it is for more fun, and just a touch subversive, to send cash reather than a check .

Thanks to D.E.H. (on my soup kitchen delivery route which I do in hermit style — on my own — once a week), for the care package! (Chocolate is subversive too!)

Thanks go to M.A.B. for the kind contribution and the beautiful card above.

Thanks go to F.J.F. & M.E.F. and family for the kind donation and awesome card below, which includes the introit of the Mass of Christmas Day in Latin. Very cool!

Thanks to C.W… and M. & F. & E. & X., for all the prayers and uncountable gifts. Very kind for this unworthy hermit. Thanks.

Thanks go to C.H. & C.H. for their donation, which includes my sharing in 9 Masses beginning on Christmas, as well as once a week throughout the coming year, and a rememberance by the Vincentians daily. Very, very thoughtful. Truly needed. Truly appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks go to K.P. for his donation! Prayers and blessings!

Thanks go to T.P.F. and R.L.F. for their very kind contribution! Very generous.

Thanks go to J.M.D. for the kind contribution. I’ve asked our Lord about your special intention: G.C.

Thanks go to N.V.d.S. for the well thought out care package: Hand made cookies in a hand made container with a hand made card, not to mention some tea and homeopathic  remedy for cold and flu (just in case), and… and… and… a book of prayers for priests before and after Mass that was saved from an infamously infamous book burning… Wow. Very brave indeed! Thank you! L.O.L. Yikes!

Thanks go to G.P.E. and S.M.E. for their kind contribution! (x2 — Yikes! Thanks for being patient with me!)

Thanks go to R.J., who has offered an hour of adoration on 26 December for me. Thank you so much. Also for the… what do I call it if you say… ahem!… “This is not a donation!” Thank you so much. Very kind.

Thanks go to P.A.P. who was instumental in getting me the very generous donation from the team at Gloria.TV, all good friends. Thank you all! I’m very humbled.

Thanks go to R.T.G. and J.A.G. for the kind contribution. They write: “Please accept this Epiphany figt — we positively insist! 20+C+B+M+12 Christus Mansionem Benedicat!” Thank you!

Thanks go to J.B.E. and S.N.E. for their kind donation to the hermitage!

Last but not least, thanks go to the great D.D.W. for his wonderful contribution, which included Mass stipends for Father M.K., Father R.K., Father M.K. (a different one) and Father J.H. These were put up on the Mass Page quite a while back. I think I might have put up some pictures of this, I forget, but this care package, very thoughtfully put together, included a Thermos for soups and drinks, an LED headlight with zoomable lens: “Et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt (John 1,5) (Ha! ). This is wonderfully useful, especially when invading the chickens, looking for eggs and for foraging for wood at night, not to mention going up and down the path if it is already dark out and I need to carry something with both hands. Often the case. This is so very useful. Also an inverter for the vehicle, keeping me running! Also 100 feet of 7-strand paracord, USA made, because “seems to me that every modern-day hermit needs some paracord”. ! ! ! O.K. Right now I use it for a clothes line, but I will  think up something better! Mystic Monk Coffee Bold Hermit blend (I do remember putting up a picture of that)! Assumption Abbey Trapist Monks Fruit Cake. That was especially tasty. Thank you! Prayers and blessings!

May the Lord continue to bless you all according to the perfect intercession of the Immaculate Conception!

Obama -- who has done more than anyone in history to have ever more children murdered, is rightfully spurned by children. The tables will be turned at the Last Judgment.

Obama has been establishing religion in the United States by redefining it as worship without religion, so that one has freedom of worship but no freedom of religion. Our overseas readers might not know that the establishment of religion by the government is against the U.S. Consitution.

Religion: Rendering to God what is His due in justice, a matter of obligation between creature and Creator, which includes acting on one’s conscience in accord with Natural Law (and all that we know by way of revelation).

Worship: Rendering to God what is His due in justice, a matter of obligation between creature and Creator, which worship, however, is made invalid if one does not act in accord with one’s conscience in accord with Natural Law (and all that we know by way of revelation).

The same God who said “Thou shalt worship!” also said “Thou shalt not abort your children!”

Obama wants to oblige people in his law, against the Natural Law, to pay insurance premiums that would pay for abortions. This would go against the freedom of religion and would invalidate all freedom of worship.

People will also be obliged in law to pay a fine if they don’t pay such insurance premiums. But that money would go right back into the pot to pay for abortions, would it not? So, if the fine is not paid? What? Confiscation of bank accounts? Confiscation of goods? Jail? Then?

This is not about money. This is about the mania of the President of the United States and his administration to get you to agree to murder children. He wants to break you. In doing this, he destroys both freedom of religion and freedom of worship.

Is there a way out? Yep. Be a martyr.

UPDATE: Um… So… See the comments for awesome inspiration from InfiniteGrace! O.K. Now doubly updated in the comments.

I guess I’m pretty sensitive to this. I think I might have been a bit autistic myself when I was a little kid.

Over the years, having the joy of meeting autistic children in the families of my parishioners, I’ve noted the glory of the human spirit somehow being shackled and smothered in expression, but only in expression. What I saw was a defense mechanism, the brain forcing its own short-circuiting, an intelligence so intense that it had to protect itself from exploding, and even throwing the person into sensory perception to distract itself, head banging, fingernail biting, flailing about, and so on. And… that’s the way it is.

The pro-aborts who are intent on sacrificing children to their death-gods, want to find an excuse to murder these children by coming up with a test to see if unborn children are autistic. But they won’t just abort autistic kids, they will also murder as many as they can, using also this as an excuse. The tables will be turned at the Last Judgment.

I’ve updated the list of autistic children for whom we pray over on the side-widget of the blog. This comes from the Novena for Autistic Children project over on MissionBell, which is run by one of my old parishioners in Australia, and whom I helped with this while I was a chaplain in Lourdes.

After watching the must-see video above, visit Mary Ann at Missionbell, and then send her an email with the first names of the autistic children in your family, and/or in the families of friends and relatives, co-workers…

UPDATE: Mary Ann, who is quite the authority on autism by way of her family sent in an email. I think she has the record for the number of autistic children in the Southern hemisphere. Yikes!

Thank you for the posting on autism. I watched the video. I have also seen it on TV. It is amazing.

My mother told me about a case that she knew of here in Australia, of a teenage autistic boy who had never said one word in his life. His mother was always trying to get a few words out of him. One day she came to him and said with great excitement. “Let’s go down the street and see the fire and the fire engine.”  Her son replied that he was too tired to go!  The mother was astounded, and asked him why he had never spoken before, and he replied that he had never known how too! I also read about an autistic girl (in Canada) who started to speak at the age of 18. She also started to display a wonderful gift for painting pictures at that time. It seems that her Catholic parents had prayed a lot for her.

I have just received an email from one of the lists that I am subscribed to, which mentions a new test which has been delevoped in Australia, to diagnose the genetic disorder Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of autism. The article is HERE.

The main point of this article is that children will be able to be diagnosed at birth or in early infancy for autism. The article says that this would indicate autism before the the symptoms show up at the age of 3  years of age.

The symptoms of autism, for those who are attuned in a special way to it, are apparent long before the age of three.  I knew that my daughter was showing the symptoms of autism when she around the age of 11 or 12 months, because my severely autistic (now deceased) brother was born when I was nine years old.

Father Rod Bray (the former parish priest of Merrylands, who died last year) heard a radio broadcast about the symptoms of autism, and then went into the nursery to study his six month old nephew. He worked out the child had autism. This proved to be absolutely correct.

The article in the newspaper says that the widespread screening of new born babies will allow early intervention i.e. teaching, therapy etc. This may be so, or ways may be found to make sure that these children don’t survive too long.

From an email:

I saw on the blog the other day that you stated you were going to make a veil for the Tabernacle.  At our college chapel we have the same Tabernacle, but no veils.  If you are able to make one, or find one online, would it be possible for you to send me a link or instructions?  Also, I saw from your post this morning (which was great by the way) that you have a veil inside the Tabernacle as well.  We unfortunately do not have one.  Do you know where we could find one?

My reply, so far… For the inside of the tabernacle:

If you open the tabernacle[!], you should find a bit of hardware on the inside “ceiling” to the right and left and in the center of the doors. All you need are some pliers and a metal coat hanger, which is cut and given a circular shape with the pliers, right to the length of the hardware. It would only be one piece. The material can be had at any fabric store, which should also have some gold bordering. Involve someone who can sew with the measurements, including hem-space, that you provide, for the would-be panels to the right and left.

For the outside of the tabernacle:

This is much more difficult. Either it drapes over the entire tabernacle like a limp umbrella with a space just big enough for whatever hardware is on the top (which I replaced with the cross, using the metal dowel of the hardware that was there, drilling this into the bottom of a wooden crucifix), or, you have to fix up some kind of support system for a veil that would only drape over the sides, but not the top at all. This last option, much more difficult, is what I’m faced with given the kind and quantity of the material I have.

If anyone has ideas about how to do this, let me know!

Here’s a picture of the material I have:

* * *

I also need to do something about getting a veil to put over the Blessed Sacrament inside the inner sanctum of the tabernacle…

The Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge has announced the diocesan phase of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Father Thomas Frederick Price will open March 9, 2012. Father Price, who was born in Wilmington, NC, on August 19, 1860, was the first native North Carolinian to be ordained to the Priesthood.

At the time of his ordination, some 800 people in the state identified themselves as Catholic. Father Price was committed to converting all residents of North Carolina to Catholicism. The January/February 2011 edition of the NC Catholics profiled Father Price in a cover story.

Read the news release issued January 17, 2012 (PDF), regarding the diocesan phase of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Father Price.

HERE and HERE… Just. Awesome. This is the providence of the Son of the Immaculate Conception. This is just so cool. Humble thanksgiving to the Lord!

In Psalm 22, all about Jesus on the cross, we read: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22,2). A few verses later, we read, also in the first person singular: “I am a maggot [ תוֹלַ֣עַת / σκώληξ ] and no man” (Psalm 22,6). Recently I put up a post about Jesus as the Ninja Maggot. It being that I’m really, really, really old (in my early fifties, when memories of one’s youth come flooding back!), that mention of maggots and Jesus brought up some memories of my younger days as a seminarian, when I was a total, total idiot, knowing almost nothing of the faith, nor of morals, nor of anything at all. There was little formation back in the day. I myself was also, I’ll say it again, an idiot.

However – and I say this as an encouragement for those young men who feel they have a vocation to the priesthood, but also feel themselves to be absolutely totally unworthy — the Lord did not abandon me, but, instead, despite my idiocy, filled my heart and soul with an almost frightening loyalty to whatever it was that I knew about all that is good and kind and holy, all that is orthodox Catholic belief and morality, at least when I wasn’t a total idiot in my sin. Actually, that loyalty wasn’t anything praiseworthy on my part. It was actually the very patient and solicitous guardian angel granted to me by our Lord (and to all of us), who went out of his way to direct me to all that is good and kind and holy and Catholic, not that I took his lead all the time… but, sometimes I did, for which I thank the Lord Jesus. I was happy to be make frequent confession an absolute in my life. I tried to get a spiritual director. The one I had, without even speaking to me, said that he couldn’t do anything for me. He left the priesthood altogether some time later. Anyway…

I have two horrifying, glorious stories for you, sketches of accounts which would be part of any autobiography should I eventually get to write it. My life is filled with such horror and glory, I suppose because such is the path Jesus knew I must take to be able eventually to look to Him instead of myself, all by His grace. O.K., so, here we are…

(1) Pope John Paul II had offered Mass just a few miles away from the seminary. It had been a Mass during which the heavens tore open with a pouring rain like I had not seen in the longest time. The mud was shin deep and getting always goopier and stickier with the trampling crowds. The next day I had an inspiration that I could not ignore, lest my guardian angel really whoop me upside the head and I regret not taking his direction. I asked a friend to come with me, saying, “We have to rescue the Blessed Sacrament.” He thought I was crazy, but went along because I insisted so much. I knew this would be good for him to see. When we arrived at the scene, the seeming battleground of the Papal Mass site, my friend stayed on a side street rather than slog through the sea of shin-deep mud with me, as I, without hesitation, went straight out into the mud and flowing pools of water about fifty yards. I just went where I thought I was being directed. Because of the rain, there were worms everywhere to be seen, having come up above the mud and water for some air. At one point, I stopped, looked down, and, there, just half sticking out of the side of a deep foot-print (some six inches down), was a muddied Host. Quite miraculously, it had not disintegrated in the least. My friend was overwhelmed, just not able to wrap his mind around what was happening. We brought the Host to a priest at a nearby church.

All this, of course, was an occasion to want to be all the more attentive to my guardian angel. Not that I always succeeded, for, as I say, I was total idiot. However, the Lord was working away on me in this way and that. He is very patient, good and kind, and does know how to draw us to Himself: “When I am lifted up [on the cross], I will drag [ ἑλκύσω ] all to myself” (John 12,32). “Dragging us”, you have to understand, is part of being patient and good and kind!

(2) A few years later, and now, by the grace of our Lord, having become more loyal to Him in every way, I had another angel/Eucharist/maggot experience. It was Summertime, and I was visiting home. About two and half miles walk on a gravel road winding through the forest and up and down the hard red-clay hills the local diocesan seminary was to be found. I was in the habit of walking this road late at night, making my way to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the seminary. There was always a door open somewhere in the building. I hated the chapel itself. These were the darkest of dark years for the Church in America, mind you. There was a bright orange, deep shaggy carpet with bright yellow bean bag “chairs”, the pews having been shoved off to the side. The tabernacle was a black and silver (mostly black) glop of metalwork. It sat on a granite post perhaps a foot square and four and a half feet tall. I felt terribly, terribly uncomfortable being there, but thought I should do some reparation for what was happening in that seminary, and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was always a good thing, right?

Well, one day, visiting the Cathedral of the Diocese, I spoke to the rector, who was, in fact, the priest who had baptised me there more than twenty years previously. He wanted me to help him move into that very seminary, where he was to become the new rector. He was doing this to troubleshoot the problems that were there. He told me that there were priests there who would not celebrate Holy Mass for six months at a time for the reason that “the Vatican” did not allow women to preside at Mass. On the published student list, I had noted that, in fact, about one third of those studying there were women. I asked one what she was doing there and she said that she was studying for the priesthood, should her being ordained become a possibility. There were other problems as you might imagine.

When we walked into the front doors of the seminary, we put down our boxes and walked into the chapel to greet our Lord. What we saw was a scene from hell. There was what I hoped was merely “bread” everywhere. There was an array of multicolored candles all over the altar. Everything was in disarray. It looked as if there had been some other sort of pagan ceremony combined with the “Mass” that had been celebrated. The sacristy was worse, much worse. I only got as far as the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, where I knelt down. I asked the new rector if he could please open the tabernacle, as there was something terribly wrong on the inside. I just knew it. Well, no. I think this was my guardian angel after me. The rector complained that it was locked and so that was the end of that. I insisted, explaining that there was something terribly wrong. I suppose he thought that I was being nice enough to help him out with the moving, so he proceeded to find the key in the sacristy while I remained kneeling there on the floor. He soon returned and opened the tabernacle. He genuflected, but then, standing, he gaped into the tabernacle, unable to take in what he was seeing. He looked at me and then back into the tabernacle and then back at me. He then reached in and took out a paten and held this out for me to see. There were some five or six Hosts and… and… about a half dozen maggots munching away. I don’t know, but this seminary seems to have been one of the epicenters for the darkest of the darkest days in the history of the Church. And there I was, to witness it, to help do something about changing the situation for the better, not because I was any good, not because I was better than anyone else, but because the Lord wanted to teach me something in all this as well, just how evil things can be, and just how much I needed to be with Him, before Him in the Blessed Sacrament…

I’m sure this helped set the tone for what the new rector had to face in this seminary. This was good for me too, bringing me face to face with what had to be done for the seminaries of those darkest of all dark years in the Church. I would later find myself teaching in seminaries, hearing confessions, doing spiritual direction and formation advising. Yikes! Our Lord uses all that which we learn in our lives. He draws good out of even the most terrible of circumstances.

Now, I’m a hermit, with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament in the hermitage. Jesus, you have to understand, is so very good and so very kind. Now I know even more how much of an idiot I’ve been –  and how much of an idiot I can be in any given moment if I am without His grace — all of which knowledge helps me to praise Him all the more and makes me want to encourage all to do a bit of Eucharistic Reparation.

Let’s say a prayer for vocations and for seminarians and for the admins and faculty and formators of our seminaries today… Hail Mary…

And now that you’ve done that… how about making the next Hail Mary you say for that intention be before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Closed tabernacle door or not (that matters little), stop in your church/chapel/oratory, and spend just a moment there, then praying this Hail Mary for this intention. It will do your soul good, and will be good for the souls of so many others. The Lord does hear our such prayers immediately, and brings about results efficaciously. Hail Mary…

Seeing the worms of the wormy wood I’ve been throwing in the fire on these chilly days and nights set me to thinking…

Psalm 22, which is all about Christ being on the Cross, from beginning to end, has this in verse six — “I am a maggot and no man…”

In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of those who go to hell (see Mark 9, 48 quoting Isaiah 66,24), “where their maggot does not die…”

Those in humble thanksgiving, those who make regular confession a practice, know that in all goodness and kindness, Jesus took on what we deserve, the worst we can give out. We treated Him like a maggot, crushing Him on the cross: “I am a maggot and no man…” Those in humble thanksgiving can have a sense of the utter majesty of Jesus hanging on the cross. He’s our Ninja Maggot ! ! ! ! ! For those with “pious ears”, I might suggest looking hard at a crucifix…

Now, if Jesus is the maggot, and He speaks of those condemned to hell as those whose maggot does not die, what is it that He is saying about His goodness and kindness. Well, you see, it’s like this: if we accept His suffering on the cross as an invitation to have our sins forgiven, we go to heaven; if we think of His suffering on the cross as a mere incrimination of our sins and nothing more, we go to hell, but what follows us to hell is the goodness and kindness of Jesus. We would forever rebell against that goodness and kindness as if it were the worst thing ever, as if it were eating us alive…

A salutary thought. I think Saint Teresa of Avila would agree. Oh yes, a picture:

I apologize to those with “pious eyes”. Well, no, I don’t. Hah! I wanna be a maggot too! (as in, “Father, not my will, but Thine be done).

Click the picture to get your T-Shirt, which supports the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Saint Joseph’s Adoration Monastery in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina. Unlike the Mystic Monk Coffee for the FSSP, Fr Z, et al., I don’t, can’t benefit from this sale. All proceeds wonderfullly go to the good nuns. They are using the proceeds to build a new Adoration Monastery (What. A. Name!) in the diocese. They are now in inappropriately cramped quarters. They are getting vocations. The project is wonderfully moving forward. These are the most enthusiastic, joyful, super-Nuns you would ever want to meet, and I have, many times, both at their present quarters and, until they are enclosed in their new monastery, at the ordinations and the Chrism Mass here in the diocese. So, do you think you need a(nother) T-Shirt. I think you do! I’m going to harrass you readers with this! Sorry! Well, I’m not sorry. Hah!

You’ll have to click on the picture to see what the various fronts of the T-Shirts are like. The above picture is of the back of the T-Shirt only.

And, no, this T-Shirt is NOT the habit worn by the good nuns. They are very traditional Poor Clares praying away for you and for me and for great vocations and for the priests and…

Here’s their most recent newsletter (PDF). Inside you can read about their own version of an Immaculate Conception Chaplet. Very different from my Emergency Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception, but very theologically enthralling.

Today’s the Feast of Saint Anthony of the Desert, hailed as the Father of Monasticism. He’s called a hermit, an abbot, a spiritual director of all and sundry who has some spiritual sense about them. In the picture above, he’s Saint Anthony the tempted, by Michelangelo. That reminds me, I’m still “reading” The Temptation of St. Anthony by Gustave Flaubert and translated by Lafcadio Hearn, published by The Modern Library in New York, as I’ve noted on the Others’ Books page. The trouble is, I don’t know where it is. Surely in one of the boxes of books I brought up the mountain but are still waiting to be unpacked, waiting for shelves, etc.

Saint Anthony was a hermit, for a while, but then our Lord had other plans for him. The thing about saints is that they open to doing the will of God. Saint Jerome went the opposite direction. He started with a double monastery carved out of the rock under the cave of the Nativity of our Lord in Bethlehem, working away on the Vulgate. Later, he became much more Saint Jerome the Hermit. They both were tempted, however. The Lord ensures that we learn to look to Him for strength, not to ourselves. That’s very good and kind of our Lord.

Christ is risen, and so has conquered suffering and death! Let us go to meet the Lord in our own future resurrection… through the suffering and death, the purgatory of this life. The angels point us, in all goodness and kindness, to Jesus.

Getting a tabernacle veil over the tabernacle is today’s project. I do have some material.

Don’t be scandalized at the bubble-wrap sanctuary candle. The two-week beeswax and pure natural oil candles (which will burn out as they hail the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Jesus in the Tabernacle) don’t burn as well as they should. I put them in a glass sleeve with a bit of air-insulation against the cold air wafting down from the window, but that isn’t good enough. There is a cover with an opening for just enough air to feed the flame. But that isn’t good enough. More insultation is required for the winter!

But, Jesus is here…

UPDATE: Some results (with no injury):

It’s supposed to snow later on today, but, so far, this is all that is evident on the Southernmost side of Holy Souls Mountain:

The ice is everywhere there is an outcrop of rock, or a cliff…

Further up, on the Parkway (now closed for the Winter), such ice can get many feet thick, and cover expanses of hundreds of feet. When it breaks off and falls, it can be rather dangerous.

More peacefully, the donkey of Holy Souls Mountain, also on the Southernmost side, a bit further East, is munching away while he can:

While some people in past ages came up with a spoof Feast of the Donkey, I don’t think it should be a spoof at all. But, more on that later.

…that was growing along a rift of Holy Soul’s Mountain…

It’s enough to make your hands cold!

Every once in a while I like to put up this video I made at Yad vaShem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The names being read are those of the children put to death. Children…

I’ve been thinking about Jewish gratitude to Pius XII, who personally saved more Jews than all others put together.

As I’ve said before, such reports get me reved up to write a little booklet about a little known and little understood document put out under orders of Pius XII that would otherwise have huge impact on Catholic/Jewish relations, for the better. I’ll have to add that to my list of My Books to write.

Full disclosure: From my father’s side, I’m half German (or Scottish going back some centuries). He was born in America. From my mother, I’m half Polish. She was also born in America. She never picked up Polish at home, but she did have some bits of yiddish, as I remember.

I put up the two stained glass angels today. They were originally in the monastery of the Poor Clares up in Portsmouth, Ohio. When they left, the angels were still there. Providential, no? God bless you, my good nuns! A Hail Mary for them, please… Hail Mary… The angels then went, of course, to none other than the great Father K.L., of Holy Family parish in Columbus, Ohio. They would have gone into the famed Jubilee Museum (the museum of Catholic identity in America and around the world). He very graciously donated them to Holy Souls Hermitage. God bless you Father! Three hail Marys for him, please… Hail Mary… Here’s Father K.L. with Father Mitch Pacwa on EWTN:

He speaks of the 1563 Vulgate, which I want, and told him so, but he still has it…

Anyway, one of the seminarians of the Diocese of Columbus up in the Josephinum was trying to work it that I would be a hermit in the abandoned Poor Clares Monastery. Such did not work out, but the angels came with me to the mountains here. As it happens, this is the same diocese, that of Charlotte, N.C., U.S.A., to which the nuns came!

They’ve revamped their web-site recently, and have a number of items available for your good donations. Some have coffee, some have soap. These nuns have habits! That is, T-Shirts! Also, good Fathers, altar breads. Visit them. You’ll be glad you did! They pray for me quite a bit. Please say a Hail Mary for them… Hail Mary… Did I mention they’re getting quite a few vocations? Very awesome.

I’ll have to do something about getting a veil on the tabernacle…

Amidst terroristic threats coming in from the world over, Pope Benedict XVI baptizes former Muslim Magdi Cristiano Allam*

My dear brother priests and bishops, are not the Mysteries of Light especially appropriate for use by ourselves? Blessed John Paul II, while thinking about his own priesthood over the years, put these together, it seems to me, specifically with us, his fellow priests and bishops, in mind. Please God, more Scriptural and Patristic sources will be added to the present “rant style” meditations when circumstances at Holy Souls Hermitage aren’t quite so utterly barbaric.

The purpose of this first run through these mysteries is to note especially the goodness and kindness of Jesus amidst the violence and chaos back in the day… and today. Hang on, it might be a bit of a rough ride, even worse than it was for the charioteers and horsemen of Pharaoh drowning in the crashing waters during the Exodus. They did not have the benefit of the firey pillar of cloud going with them through the parted sea, for that firey pillar of cloud was against them.

After the Exodus, still in the Jewish Scriptures, the Jordan River was seen as a symbol of that tumultuous sea. Upon entrance to the Promised Land at Jericho, the waters of the river parted for the Chosen People so that they could march through the waters on dry ground (Joshua 3,16), just as the waters of the Jordan would later part for Elijah (2 Kings 2,8) and Elisha (2 Kings 2,14). But this parting of the waters was not what the greatest prophet, John the Baptist, wanted for the Jews, the Israelites, not in the least. He wanted them to understand the symbolism of what happened at the Exodus, but in a much more incisive way.

The charioteers and horsemen were drowned because their motive was the continued enslavement of the descendents of Isaac. John wanted those coming down for the baptism unto the remission of sin to proclaim, by their going under the waters, that they deserved to be drowned like Pharaoh’s henchmen, for they had been enslaving each other in a much worse way, with sin. All those in Jerusalem, Judea and the whole region around the Jordan came down, in fact, publically confessing their sins. My fellow Catholic biblical scholar, Father John P. Meier, rewrites the text in his imagination at this point so that no one confessed their own sins (which for him is condemnable narcissistic idol worship). He has it that they recalled God’s gracious deeds for an ungrateful Israel, of which one was a member. It’s odd, then, that John the Baptist makes a distinction of the sinners coming down sincerely and the horrific hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees — Matthew 3,7): ”Who told you to flee from the wrath to come?” They were invited not by God’s grace, but were told by their own imaginations of political correctness. At any rate, the idea for those who were sincere was repentance, bearing the fruit of repentance, calling on the Most High in this most humble of ways so that mercy and forgiveness might be theirs.

Father Meier – praised as the greatest Catholic biblical scholar today by the likes of Joe Fitzmyer, S.J., and the late Raymond E. Brown, S.S.  — reminds scholars “c0nstantly not to project their pet theological agendas onto the legitimating figure of Jesus.” One is amazed, however, how he has ironically marginalized the historical critical truth of the baptism of Jesus to such an extent that, in reading his theological agenda into the text, he thinks that the sum total of what can be known of Jesus’ baptism is the following:

Around the beginning of A.D. 28, Jesus of Nazareth, no doubt in the company of other Jews, journeyed from Nazareth to the Jordan River to receive John’s baptism. By doing this Jesus [1.] acknowledged John’s charismatic authority as an eschatological prophet, [2.] accepted his message of imminent fiery judgment on a sinful Israel, [3.] submitted to his baptism as a seal of his resolve to change his life and [4.] as a pledge of salvation as part of a purified Israel, on whom God (through some agent?)[!] would pour out the holy spirit [sic] on the last day.

In other words, Jesus identified Himself with sinful Israel, but not in Saint Paul’s sense of Jesus becoming sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5,21), so that, while remaining innocent, He might be the vicarious Sacrifice for our sins. Instead, here, Jesus is seen to be identified with sinful Israel in a way that makes Him part of the problem before He could (perhaps?), be part of any solution. But, I digress, hopefully usefully.

Jesus, it is true, in going under the waters of such a baptism unto the remission of sin, was making much the same statement as were all the others being baptised, except “worse”. It was as much for Him to say: “Father, treat me as the worst sinner ever; treat me as the enslaver in sin of every man, from Adam until the last man is conceived.” But there is a difference, in remaining innocent as ever, He would then have the right, in all justice, to have mercy on us, to say to His Father: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do!”

Jesus, in fact, spoke of the crucifixion (see Mark 10,38-39) as the baptism concerning which He felt oppressed until it was accomplished (see Luke 12,50), and this after the baptism of John. It would be at the crucifixion that Jesus would be treated as if He had enslaved all men in sin, from the beginning until the end. That’s why He came. This is what He wanted, for us, in His goodness and kindness, for then He would have the right in justice to have mercy on us, having taken on the worst we could give out, what we deserve ourselves, death. Jesus came for this fulfillment of justice, of righteousness, to be our Suffering Servant.

John the Baptist, it is true, did not at first understand. But at this least word of Jesus, it all came rushing home to him. John the Baptist, sanctified in the womb, had such agility of spirit. Mind you, just before John was to have his head cut off, he sent another question to Jesus, wondering if Jesus was, in fact, the One to come. John was feeling the pressure, and surely thinking that if Jesus is the One, why would he, John, have to get his head cut off. Jesus’ answered that John shouldn’t be scandalized at the ways of God, so gracious and kind, so far above our ways. Just as Jesus was to go from the baptism of John to the baptism of blood in His Passion and Death by preaching in season, out of season, so John was to go from the baptism he was providing to the baptism by blood of his own death, doing this by preaching in season and out of season. How many of us would call John a fool for reproaching Herod? Hopefully not too many, but… John is highly praised by Jesus. Not sure where all the talk of rivalry comes from, if not the “California psychobable” read into the text…

Analogous to this baptism is Jesus’ circumcision, which was a punishment for Abraham’s lack of belief in the power of the life-giving God. Jesus, the Author of Life, was being punished as if He, like Abraham, had cynically laughed at the possibility of life. This was so that all righteousness could be fulfilled, so that Jesus would have the right in all justice to have mercy on us.

At any rate, instead of the utter violence of baptism and Jesus’ crucifixion, baptism has often been seen as a nice ”christening”, ever so sweet, as sweet as the champagne which “christens” a new ship. Art reflected this ever so gentle niceness:

Perhaps it is because of a loss of sense of sin and, therefore, a loss of the sense of the majesty of the weight of the glory of Jesus’ love for us on the cross, that the theophany — the skies being shredded open, the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus, and the voice of the Father speaking of Jesus as His beloved Son — is held to be no more than the result of political correctness for those wanting to lift up Jesus and put down the said to be more popular John. Again I’ll say it: Perhaps it is because of a loss of the sense of sin, today… As Saint Thomas More said of the works of Tyndale, “Trying to find error in the works of Tyndale is like trying to find a drop in the ocean.”

With quite a bit of righteous ferocity, John takes exception to the Sadducees (pretty much agnostics) and Pharisees (who did at least externally accept the faith). They were the more outspoken religious leaders of the day. He calls them a brood of vipers, hearkening back to Genesis 3,15, calling them, therefore, sons of Satan. John’s not out to condemn them to hell, however. If he was doing that, he need not tell them anything. He wants them to convert. He needs to shake them up. He has to say what no one else had the guts to say, for they were all “sinners” anyway. We shouldn’t think that we priests and bishops are any different from the religious leaders of yesteryear. Times don’t change in this regard. Are there those who do not offer Confessions? Are there those who think there is no such thing as personal sin, or that personal sin is utterly unimportant, or that it is always thought of as being cut off from others?

In the absolution, do we not recall the Holy Spirit who was sent among us for the forgiveness of sins? It is this Holy Spirit which descended upon Jesus in bodily form, pointing out the Instrument of that forgiveness, He who would say: “Father, forgive them…”

Are not the words of the Father – ”This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” — spoken once again at the Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah and Jesus were speaking of the exodus, the death Jesus was to suffer in Jerusalem?

As the Master, so the disciple. Are we priests and bishops not supposed to have our baptismal graces flourish in our priesthood by way of what Jesus was doing in His baptism? Are we not to willingly take on the ravages of those who despise being redeemed, and this specifically as Fathers of the Family of Faith? Are we not to evangelize Him who is Truth, in all charity, in all goodness and kindness, instead of running from possible controversy by not speaking out when we must lovingly govern as a father governs his family, not shirking his duties?

Jesus was not able to go from the baptism of John to the baptism of His crucifixion by being a nice guy, a man of consensus regardless of truth and justice. Jesus laid down His life by preaching and acting for us in season and out of season. That’s how our baptismal graces are to flourish, bringing us to the same end of Jesus, one way or the other. He’ll make it happen for us, if we are faithful to His graces.

Of course, I speak out of turn here, for I am a priest, not a bishop. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that the suffering of a priest is one thing, while the Calvary of a bishop is exponentially more agonizing. But, that’s part of the purpose of the hermitage, to pray for you, that you might always know something more of the baptism of Jesus by John, and of His firey desire to be baptized by blood on the Cross, all in His goodness and kindness for us. Pray for me too.

* Regarding the photo at the top of this post: I had a rather lengthy public internet debate with the religion editor of Reuters over the baptism of Magdi Allam by Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps I’ll republish that on this blog at some future date.

No, Blessed Pope John Paul II did not promulgate a special sixth mystery in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. No, this doesn’t belong to any of the sets of five mysteries in particular. No, it’s not officially mandated by the Church.

However, to whatever set of five mysteries one is saying, it has been a custom in very many countries by very many peoples, including religious congregations and orders, to recite an additional mystery, that of the Immaculate Conception. Some rosaries reflect this reality with six decades instead of five. This is an additional devotion, if you will, which is, I think especially in today’s pro-abort mentality, appropriate to include. But what is it about the Immaculate Conception that’s so important? Let me count just a few of the ways:

• It is entirely appropriate in all justice for Jesus, the Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of His virgin Mother (with no intervention of man), so that He might not contract original sin (which comes about through propagation, not imitation). However, it was also necessary to this end that His mother be free of original sin, and this she was, as we read in Luke 1,28 (in context) and Genesis 3,15 (in context). In Luke, Mary is said by the angel to be perfectly continuing to be perfectly transformed in grace, and, in context, to when this began, from the first moment she would have begun to live her vocation to be the virgin Mother of God, which was, of course, from the first instant of her conception, therefore, an immaculate conception, free from Adam’s sin, original sin. This is all about Jesus, but it redounds on His mother. In Genesis, it is clear that the woman in Genesis 3,15 is not the wife of Adam, but rather a woman future to the one who is writing the account, a woman who would be Mother of the Redeemer, a woman free from the sin of Adam (which I’ll be writing about, please God, in times to come: My Books page). Non-Catholics claim that the Immaculate Conception is not in Scripture. How wrong they are.
• It is, again, entirely appropriate, in all justice, that Mary’s consequent purity of vision and agility of soul, would enable her to take note of all that we need by way of redemption, so that she, a “mere” human being, might complement the redemption of the Sole Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, her Son. She perfectly saw what we needed in seeing her Son hanging in bleeding shreds of flesh on the Cross, saw what we needed from the first man, Adam, to the last to be conceived. She had merely to intercede for us, to have her Immaculate Heart in solidarity with the Sacred Heart of her Son, to be the mediatrix of all graces. This is what it means for her to be “co-Remptrix”. She perfectly intercedes for all the grace which is perfectly and only provided our her Son, our Savior.
• As with her Son, Mary did not have to suffer the weaknesses due to original sin. No weakness of mind, weakness of will, feelings and emotions all over the place, sickness, nor even death. However, that doesn’t mean that she had an easy time of it. Quite the opposite. The clearer the vision, the agile of soul, the more one sees the goodness and kindness of God, but, with that standard of comparision, with that bond of love, one all the more incisively sees the evil and cruelty of those who sin. And when she saw her Son on the Cross, her own heart was pierced with a sword of sorrow, as prophesied by Simeon during Jesus’ presentation in the Temple. Outside of her Son, no one suffered more than Mary in this life. She has suffered more than all of us put together. These are her birth pangs for the members of the Mystical Body of her Son. This is how she becomes our mother. Her intercession for us was not easy. She felt every bit of it and persevered to the end.
• In Lourdes, she called herself the Immaculate Conception, with utter humility. She was perfectly doing the will of God when she was conceived, just as much as she would when she would become the Virgin Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth, of angels and men. This title, Immaculate Conception, points directly to the goodness and kindness of God for us all.
• Because of her Immaculate Conception, Mary would not die because of weakness contracted with original sin. She would, instead, be like her Son, who laid down His life for us, that, in taking on what we deserve because of sin (the worst we have to give: death), He might then have the right in justice to have mercy on us. She freely chose to the the mother of such a One, whom she loved, to whom her heart was united. His Heart was pierced through, and so was hers. Jesus’ broken Heart, beginning with what seems to be a massive heart-attack during the agony in the garden of Gethsemane (as we learn about His pericardium from the Doctor on Calvary), would have caused His death even if there was no scourging, no crowning with thorns, no crucifixion). It was His will to follow the will of the Father. Mary’s unity with her Son brought her the same end. She survived for some time with John, but not for all that long. Her death is not about her having original sin; it is about her not having original sin.
• It’s common to say that we pray to saints, or pray to Mary, but, to be more exact, we ask for their good intercession as we would of anyone else we might know who knows anything at all about prayer. Non-Catholic bigots condemn Catholics for worshiping Mary. Um… no.  At least they are condemning what we also condemn! Whenever I explain this to non-Catholics, it’s an eye-opener for them. Then I ask why they aren’t Catholic. They are dumbfounded that Catholics would want to evangelize. People are very hungry. Let’s feed them.
• When I was a chaplain in Lourdes, I noted how all and sundry ran to the grotto. There is a sense that Mary is the Mulier Fortis, the Strong Woman, who knew suffering and wants to introduce us further to her dear Son, who also knew suffering. The pilgrims looked to Mary in hope of her intercession, that they might come to know the goodness and kindness of her Son all the more. Typical mother, she would send them trundling off to confession, where they would meet her Son in the most intimate way, heart to Heart, heart with Heart. Reciting this special sixth mystery of the rosary is a good way to pray for those who have been away from the sacrament of Confession for a very long time, that they might have the fortitude to know the friendship of our Lord Jesus, her Son, so good and so kind.

Our lives are already written out in extreme detail in the wounds of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior: ιχθυς. He lifts us to Himself. We don’t lift ourselves up. No one gives what he doesn’t have. Nemo dat quod non habet. The Father speaks the One Word of Himself, the Logos, now Jesus Incarnate. The Father speaks Jesus into our own souls, writing that One Word of His, creating us anew in eternal life.

So, why bother “journaling”? Help me with this. In the best case scenario, is this a mere exercise in psychological therapy, a chance to make goals by reviewing the blindness from which one has supposedly grown, therefore lifting oneself up by one’s own bootstraps, and therefore falling on one’s keester?

Is the Ignatian pushed autobiographical writing — clarifying one’s thoughts before the weight of the glory of the Lord — a better way to think about this? This would be more along the lines of humble thanksgiving, day by day, to Him who loves us so much, is so good and so kind: a journal of humble thanksgiving…

I’m under obedience from my spiritual director to write an autobiography. My confessor is after me as well. And not only that, so many people, in the same 24 hour period, in different places, unknown to each other, were after me to write down my experiences. When that happens, I sometimes think it is my guardian angel who is after me.

Hhrumph… (grumble, grumble, grumble…). I’m extremely unwell-read about all this. Any ideas?

I mean, what I do know is that it has to be more than a list of unrepeatable circumstances. For instance, yesterday, I spent a great deal of time trying not to freeze. Big deal. What would be helpful, perhaps, is seeing the “inscape” of all that (the word being coined by Gerard Manley Hopkins), or perhaps, inasmuch as this is possible, the “instress” of all this (also his word, but I would emphasize the power of grace with this).

There are unrepeatable circumstances that I would like to emphasize just to do it, though really in praise of the Lord. For instance, ever since I started to encourage you dear readers to be inspired in your almsgiving by helping out Steven over in Uganda, getting some of his writings in return, helping him to re-establish his chicken flock, so that he can get what he needs for his heart failure and continue his in-your-face kind and good Catholic youth apostolate, my own chickens have given up providing shell-less or no-shell eggs, but all seven hens have been daily laying good-shelled eggs, some of them huge. And, mind you, it’s the dead of winter. Do any other flocks do so well?

NOAA.gov has a java-script wind-chill calculator HERE.

Thanks to benefactors enabling me to get the stove, stovepipe, chainsaw and woodsplitter. Thanks to those supplying the army blankets and the down, not to mention warm socks! This is when I realize that the polyurethane rolls that I spread out and tacked to the frame of the hermitage are not insulated. But I’m not frozen. No complaints here at all. It’s a challenge supplying enthusiasm.

The windchill calculator above would be worthless in Minnesota, where I’m from. It was once minus 74 Fahrenheit, with a windchill of minus 104. Yikes! Another time there was crisis on Lake Superior outside of Duluth. The largest and heaviest ocean-liners in the world (the Minnesota Iron-Ore boats) all got stuck in the ice, all with a gargantuan ice-breaker ships between them. The lake was freezing at a rate of five inches a minute. Brrrrrr! Not that cold here.

After all, Jesus is here in the tabernacle… The flames of His Heart warm all who come to Him, even this most insignificant of hermits. He’s very good and kind.

These two, together: VERY COOL! Here we have Philomena with the anchor along with Mary of Magdala

I just love that: the Virgin Martyr Philomena (posts HERE) and the sainted penitent Mary of Magdala, together! This is the glory of the Church Militant, the Church Triumphant, and the aim of going through purgatory in this life instead of the next. Both knew themselves to be saints and sinners.

It’s not that Philomena didn’t know that she was totally weak and conceived in original sin, absolutely deserving of hell. It’s because she knew that all so well, and was filled with such humble thanksgiving for Jesus, the greatest love of her life because of His grace, that she was able to persevere in being a martyr because of the virginity which she gave to Christ Jesus, knowing that He appreciates the utter agility of soul which goes along with this, one’s very life becoming an act of intercession for the entire Mystical Body of Christ.

It’s not that Mary of Magdala wasn’t a saint, though knowing full well her “past history”. It’s because she knew this all so well by the grace of Christ — the standard of goodness and kindness — that she was able not to look to herself and get depressed and despair, but was able to take up the invitation of the goodness and kindness of Jesus in order to be a great, great saint, for whose intercession we are all of us so very thankful, never forgeting, however, why she needed that invitation in the first place.

If one gluts oneself in sin, one no longer knows oneself to be a sinner. For the sinner, there seems to be no sin. For this one, saintliness is out of the question. If you’re not a sinner, you can’t be a saint!

If one easily, simply, fully accepts one’s weakness, that one would easily fall into sin without the grace of Jesus, then one can know that one is invited by our Lord’s goodness and kindness to be a saint, that is, to be His good friend, as He called us in a creative act after the Resurrection.

So, saint and sinner: it’s either both or neither one. Confession brings all this home gloriously. When’s the last time you’ve been? It’s a great experience of our Lord’s goodness and kindness.

Followers of HSH know that Steven, a once past seminarian, now a novice for the lay-Dominicans, a youth leader (see http://www.uyma.org/ ) and heart patient (heart failure) in Western Uganda, needs a bit of help. He also writes a daily email on the Scriptures for a 1000 some youth. He even has some awesome facebook pages, though I don’t do facebook. Here are his Profile, and the Uganda Youth Ministry Association, and the Consecrated Secularity page.

We’ve figured out a way for him to get his medicines without going through endless financial obstacles for those wanting to help, but who are unsure how to do this and unsure of his suitability for receiving a donation or two. I had to shut down some of his comments when I saw a paypal link go up. He didn’t know the difficulties inherent with collecting money for overseas entities in the present “security” climate, much less my difficulties in regard to any donations here in North Carolina!

Turns out that Steven is a one-time chicken keeper (Ooo-Rah!), who still has his hen-house ready to go. Way to go, Steven! He had more than a dozen chickens, but they started to die with a contageous cough (hopefully not avian flu!). The eggs brought him enough income to get the four medicines he needs for his heart condition. But he had to sell them off when they started dying.

So, he needs chickens… perhaps enough not only to pay for the medicines, but also for his other bills for his apostolate. So, what to do?

Turns out also that Steven is also an author. He has two books for sale on Amazon. He receives royalties for the sale of each book, $9.00 for the $20.00 book and $4.00 for the $10.00 book. That’s a great percentage for royalties. Let’s take a look:

 Publication Date: December 2, 2011 — “A big challenge Christians have today is to relate the word of God in the Bible with their everyday lives. The Catholic Church daily provides a timely message in the scriptures read at Mass, but how do we relate this word to our daily living? This book is a journey through the Gospels making them practical and livable. Ready your bible, and let’s get going!”

($20.00)

Click on the picture.

And here’s the other:

 Publication Date: December 28, 2011 — “The situations that will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job. In a single day he lost everything—his family, his business, his health, and everything he owned. Most discouraging, for thirty seven chapters, God said nothing! How do you praise God when you don’t understand what is happening in your life and God is silent? How do you stay connected in a crisis without communication? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they are all full of tears? You do what Job did: “Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the Name of the Lord be praised.’ “(Job 1:20-21).”

($10.00)

Click on the picture.

Don’t you wish you had them? You, meaning ~you!~ can get them, read them over, pass them around… You get to give almsgiving. You get a great read in return. Your almsgiving not only helps Steven, but, through him, his apostolate. All safe, all legal, and hopefully frequent!

Can we all do this for Steven? I think we can! He does very much for Mary’s Son, Jesus: Click and Click! Done!

UPDATE: As you can see from the combox, we are getting closer to getting Steven his chickens so that he can get his meds. I’m very happy about this. In looking over some of his posts on his facebook pages, I’m impressed that he cites Church documents here, there and everywhere, and well cited, not just to do it. This sets up a perspective that is instilled into the zillion youth he works with in Uganda. That’s really very awesome. If you haven’t ordered your books yet, today is the day, um…   Here and Here. Done! The best kind of almsgiving doesn’t give someone a sterile egg… no… The best kind of almsgiving gives someone chickens, which can lay eggs, and reproduce, and… Very cool!