How's Your Blood Pressure? Lower it from the Knees!

Reading the headlines these days is enough to send your blood pressure through the roof. The war in Iran is showing signs, not of de-escalation, but a strategy of horizontal escalation that gives a weaker power the ability to respond to a stronger power. [See Why Escalation Favors Iran.] Reading about it definitely gives one pause about the wisdom of starting the fight. Did we learn anything from Vietnam? And now Hezbollah has joined Iran with coordinated, simultaneous missile attacks.

Lent and the Number 40

I keep coming across the number 40 this Lent. Today was another reminder. It's the feast of the 40 martyrs of Sebaste. Since I hate the winter cold, this story strikes me particularly hard. I think of the poor soul who failed to persevere and died in the warm bath. Is he in an even hotter place now? It's hard to imagine that, under such torture, a person gives full consent of the will to the evil act. I'm praying for him today. I hope he is in the company of his fellow soldiers today glorifying God.

A Saint for Homemakers: St. Frances of Rome, Pray for Us!

Today is the feast of St. Frances of Rome who lived during the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) when there were two competing clerics claiming to be pope. Frances was a wife and mother, married at thirteen to a good man who never tried to curb her austerities and service to the poor. She was charming and kind and well loved, especially by the poor.

One of the amazing things about St. Frances were her visions and mystical experiences.  They included being escorted through hell and seeing the punishments inflicted on those who broke the commandments. 

The Bible tells us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and reading her words and the descriptions of her visions will certainly immerse you in the fear of the Lord! It's better to serve God out of great love for Him than out of fear, of course, but often that begins with recognizing his power and judgment of sin. And don't we acknowledge that when we pray the act of contrition?

Fake and Fatal Empathy -- The Left Doesn't Care! about Anybody!

Innocent people are being killed because authorities won't support law enforcement. These videos peg the disaster we are facing both in Virginia and in the country. The Democrats in the executive and legislative branches hate us and they don't even care about their own supporters! The activists they trigger are deliberately put in harms way. And the Americans raped and killed by illegals get a shrug. If they didn't hate us, they wouldn't be facilitating murderers and rapists attacking us. Women and children are the ones most vulnerable to the evil. Face the facts. No comment from the Lieutenant Governor on Stephanie Minter's murder, no message of consolation to her family. The governor signing sanctuary legislation hours after Minter's heinous murder. These people are "far left lunatics." And, yes, they hate us.

Sunday Meditation: How Do You Fight Against the Noonday Devil?

Our sermon today was on the noonday devil, also called acedia or sloth. How many people have any idea what that means? I'm betting most have never even heard of "acedia" and probably think "sloth" is a synonym for laziness. But the reality is much worse.

Sola Scriptura Protestants Don't Really Believe In Sola Scriptura!

I've had a lot of interactions with Protestants on social media over the years, anonymous Protestants usually. They often have no interest in an honest discussion about faith and the differences between Catholic belief and Protestant belief. Often they tell you what Catholics believe which is almost always wrong and, when you correct them, they just repeat their errors insisting they're right. It's actually pretty funny. They know more about what Catholics believe than a life-long Catholic does. They often aren't interested in a good-faith exchange; they just repeat their bigot points. Catholics worship Mary. The Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon and the pope is the anti-Christ. Catholics aren't allowed to read the Bible. Yadda Yadda. Many Protestants are rabidly anti-Catholic bigots who are just trolling and lobbing insults -- not exactly a model of Christian charity.

We All Know the Solution to These Murders: Knife Control Laws!

Virginia woman accused of ramming into another car, stabbing driver in road rage incident

‘Terrified': Mother, daughter say man sideswiped them before 495 stabbing rampage

The world has gone crazy. Iryna Karutska is stabbed to death on a Charlotte, North Carolina subway (ironically it was a "blue" line train). Her murder shocked the whole country. This kind of thing is getting to be a daily headline. But usually it's far away from me.

Religious Schizophrenia: The Battle in the Church between Truth and Authority!

When one examines a crisis, it's important to know exactly what that crisis consists of. We know there's a crisis in the Church; you'd have to be brain dead not to realize something isn't right. But what is it? Is the crisis a fight over different liturgies? Is that really the central issue? Between those nostalgic for the old ways versus those progressives who want what they believe to be a more accessible church with windows open to the world? Or is it primarily about Vatican II?

Update on Stephanie Minter's Murder and the Soros Prosecutor who Helped Kill Her!

The other day I wrote a post about the murder of Stephanie Minter at a bus stop in Hybla Valley, my formers neighborhood for thirty years. 

When a Vicious Murder Hits Close to Home

Let's call this chapter two of the story.

The Iran War: Can Humanity "Break Free from its own Destructive Tendencies?"

I have mixed feeling about the war in Iran. On the one hand, it is terrifying to think of Iran having nuclear weapons with a naval fleet or submarines capable of delivering annihilation to any city in the United States. Europe is under particular threat which may explain the reluctance of Spain and the U.K. to get involved. Is their anti-U.S. talk designed to protect them from retaliation considering their proximity to the conflict? Somehow I doubt that carries much weight with fanatical terrorists!