Console Your Sorrowful Mother who Shares in the Passion of Her Son.

Have you ever wondered what words would console the aching heart of the Blessed Mother as she cradled her adorable Son in her arms, His body covered with the signs of His torture? 

I'm praying every day to Our Lady of Sorrows for our darling Brendan. Will you please join me? My greatest consolation right now is to imagine our sweet boy in Mary's loving arms. All you grandmothers in heaven, please intercede for Brendan and embrace him with the grandma hugs I can no longer give him. You patron saints and guardian angel of Brendan, pray for him and for us.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on Brendan and us.

Most Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for Brendan and us.

St. Brendan, pray for Brendan and us.

St. Lawrence, pray for Brendan and us.

St. Patrick, Brendan's confirmation patron, pray for Brendan and us.

Guardian angels who watch over Brendan and everyone in our family, pray for Brendan and us.

Why Are Catholics in Rhapsody over the Royal Wedding?

Oooooo! Aren't they just the cutest thing!

I'm about to be a wet blanket.

Catholics, why are you in rhapsody over the royal wedding between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry? Why do you celebrate with gushing Facebook posts and wedding-watching parties the fake nuptuals between a divorced woman and the prince? Is it because they are such a "cute couple?" Is it because her veil is "to die for" (even if her dress looked like a flour sack as many commented)? Is it because Princess Charlotte was the sweetest bridesmaid ever? Really? Is your faith that shallow?

Marriage is a sacrament. Let me repeat that. Marriage is a sacrament instituted by Christ to give grace. "But...but...", you may say, "Meghan was only married to Trevor Engelson for two years and doesn't she have a right to be happy?"

We have our own Alder Hey Hospital in Ohio -- Twin Boys Just Weren't Worth Saving at Riverside in Columbus, Ohio!

It's important to realize that babies as little as this have survived and that 22 week babies often do if they are treated aggressively. But in the culture of death life is cheap so the twins, even the larger and stronger, were simply abandoned. Like Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard in the UK, they weren't worth the effort despite the hospital's own policy to treat babies born at 22 weeks five days.

Suicide Survival: Prayers and Wisdom from a Friend

I received this email from a friend in California whose mom recently died and herself experienced the suicide of an uncle last fall. Since our precious grandson took his life, many have shared their own stories of close family members who took this desperate way out to escape their pain. 

At this point there is little consolation from anything except, for me, to meditate on the suffering face of Christ, but the reaching out of friends has been like a lifeline. Thank you to everyone who is praying for our family and having Masses said for our darling Brendan. May God reward you for your kindness.

Mary Ann,

What you just wrote to me is precisely one of the greater goods that Our Lord is bringing from your and your family's suffering: an increased awareness of suicide. Your experience is more devastating because it has happened in your family with a precious young adult, your grandson, but no matter the age of the person who commits it, it is always devastating to surviving loved ones.

Age Is Supposed to Bring Wisdom, but These Grandmothers Champion Murder!

O most pernicious woman

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tales, -- meet it is I set down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
At least I'm sure it may be so in [Maine].

Hamlet Act 1 scene 5

Grandmas for Abortion

The acronym of these grandmothers from Maine is GRR (Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights) and all I can say is it's an insult to animals that go "grr...."

I remember a squirrel who carefully moved her babies from a tree we were cutting down at our old house. She very methodically carried each tiny bundle of fur down the tree in her mouth and relocated them to a safe place. What a good mother! Rescuing them from the treecutter's axe.

I've often watched small birds attack a bigger bird threatening their nest.

And we all know how dangerous it is to get between a mama bear and her cubs.

No, these women don't even have the hearts of a squirrel or a bunny rabbit. The abortionist is their ally as they champion the murder of their own offspring. They have the heart of Medea who, after murdering her brother and her father, murdered her children to revenge Jason for his infidelity. An evil woman is an appalling thing.

Do You Believe in Coincidence? I don't!

Mother Adele Garnier with
the Basilica of Sacre Coeur
in the background

We've had two deaths in our parish lately of two mothers/grandmothers and I decided to write cards today offering Masses for the repose of their souls tucking in a copy of a newsletter I get from an abbey in France, Saint-Joseph de Clairval. The inspiring little document always features a saint or blessed or holy man or woman. Many I've never heard of, but delight in being introduced to them.  The one I picked up first today spoke to me profoundly because of its focus on suffering and the encouragement to offer them in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The newsletter (dated April 12, 2015, I save them all) was dedicated to Mother Adele Garnier, a 19th century sister born in the Diocese of Dijon, France in 1838 who was deeply devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was instrumental in starting perpetual adoration at the Basilica of Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, in Paris.

During a long period of illness, she went to Lourdes and was inspired to offer the society she hoped to found to adoration in "reparation to the Heart of Jesus, under the protection of Mary Immaculate." As she wrote to Cardinal Guibert, the archbishop of Paris:

I Meme This: God Exists

Jon McCray uses his talent and modern day resources (YouTube channel Whaddo You Meme??) to demonstrate St Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica theory for proof of the existence of God. Jon has also joined David Wood and Vocab Malone in a series of hilarious YouTube videos, Islamicize Me: The Challenge, where they "spend 30 days during Ramadan (May 17 - June 16 for 2018. The dates change annually as they're determined by the sighting of a new moon from Saudi Arabia.) living according to the teaching of Muhammad, and fighting the evil forces of Islamophobia". 

Here's Jon proving God's existence re: St Thomas Aquinas.

What Saint Peter and Donald Trump Both Know

Quite by coincidence today, ….if anything really is coincidence, I happened to open up a little New Testament I carry frequently in my purse and randomly began to read 2 Peter, chapter 2.

I thought, “Lo and behold!”, and then I chuckled to myself, because in verse 12 of this chapter 2, I read a message from St. Peter to the Christians, whom we  are, telling them the following:  “These men are like wild beasts, mere creatures of instinct born to be caught and killed.”

Study Shows 81% Increase in "Moderate to Highly Increased Risk" of Mental Health Problems for Post Aborted Women

The "sample comprised 22 studies, 36 measures of effect and 877 181 participants (163 831 
experienced an abortion)." The abstract of the study reports:

 Women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10% of the incidence of mental health problems was shown to be attributable to abortion. The strongest subgroup estimates of increased risk occurred when abortion was compared with term pregnancy and when the outcomes pertained to substance use and suicidal behaviour. 

Sunday Meditation: Jesus, the Man of Sorrows

Albrecht Dürer 1493

Have you ever reflected on the title of Jesus, Man of Sorrows? I have thought of little else these past ten days. God, Who made us for Himself, suffers even to the point of sacrificing every drop of His blood out of love for us, a love wrapped in suffering -- And all for our salvation.

Think of the awesomeness of that. God, in his divinity, can't suffer. He can't weep. He can't "feel sad" or be unhappy. But after the fall of man brought suffering into the world, God wanted us to realize that human suffering has meaning. It isn't pointless. It isn't a waste. It isn't the lying  mantra that, "Life's a bitch and then you die." Suffering means something. Even when our hearts rebel against it, we can embrace the pain in the knowledge that God will bring good out of it. Yes, let me say that again. No matter how heart-shattering our grief, God will bring good out of it! My Jesus, I trust in You!

The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became a man -- "like us in all things but sin." He suffered in every way a person can suffer. He suffered physically from the wounds so eloquently witnessed to on the Shroud of Turin. He suffered mentally by the abandonment of his friends and the knowledge that so many would reject him to the point of willingly entering hell rather than accepting His love and mercy. He suffered spiritually, afflicted by the assaults and temptations of the devil with his lies and empty promises.