If You Really Want a Holy Lent, Walk it with Mary!

On the first and third Sunday's of the month we have catechism after Mass. It's short, only about twenty minutes, but what a grace! There is always a message that touches the heart and brings clarity to the "fog of the moment"* in which we live. 

Several Sundays ago Fr. Albert, a retired Dominican in residence at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, delivered the teaching and focused on discouragement and Mary's role in protecting us based on the teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Knight of the Immaculata.

Lent is about identifying our disorders and choosing penances that attack them.

This guide will help us make really valuable choices during Lent that bring us closer to Christ by the time we reach Easter. I've listened to several times and it's already helped me identify a disordered thing in my life that needs attention. Father discusses penance, mortification, and making concrete resolutions "to clean things up in the future." Those are the luggage we need to take on our Lenten journey.

"What we're after during Lent is to remove obstacles to God's grace -- to remove those obstacles from our souls and our lives."

Want the journey to Easter to be fruitful? This is a good starting point? May God pour out His grace on us that we may reach our goal and be able to say, "That was a really fruitful Lent. Thank you, Lord. Help me continue to grow closer to You during the Easter season of celebration." 

And People are Saying the SSPX is in Schism? Get Real!

Thanks to Fr. Z for posting this.

Anything and everything is allowed except for the TLM pic.twitter.com/2B7OulGgj5

— T C (@TC_HELLCAT) February 16, 2026

Be Careful Who You Trust! Not Everyone in a Roman Collar Is Reliable!

I recently read several articles on substack defending the Novus Ordo by Msgr. Arthur Holquin, a retired priest of the Diocese of Orange in California. I don't subscribe to his account and won't. Once I realize someone isn't trustworthy, I shake the dust off my feet and move on. I left one comment and that's it. Someone else can argue with him. He writes a dissertation responding to anyone who disagrees with him and mentions over and over how educated he is. 

Need a friend for the year? There's a whole heaven full from which to choose!

I recently read that a Catholic tradition for Valentine's Day is to choose a saint for the year to be your special friend. What a great idea! I've been pondering the question. So many saints deserve a better acquaintance. Who would bring me to a closer walk with Jesus this year if I beg their intercession every day? Padre Pio? St. Gemma? St. Alphonsus Liguori? St. Philomena? St. Joseph? St. Francis de Sales? St. Jacinta? What a wealth of friendship there is in the Communion of Saints.

Those who embrace Sacred Tradition are uniting behind the truth: The SSPX is NOT in Schism!

STATE of EMERGENCY: Is the Society of St. Pius X In Schism?

Michael Matt's video is a must see. He presents the situation very well. 

"The faith must survive in someone!...The thing that unites us is the Catholic faith itself.....God has given us, even in the midst of this darkness, He has given us oases of light....God has not left us orphans. He has not abandoned us, Yes the shepherd has been struck with the sheep. Maybe we don't need to scatter as much as we thought. Because God has provided us faithful shepherds....So what do we do? We support them.

Where is Your "Third Space?"

I'm sure many of my regular readers know I like the Epoch Times. I almost never read an issue without clipping an article to send to someone. Today it was this:

 Reclaiming the Third Space

The Games Have Begun! How Long Can the Vatican Stall the Consecrations with their Fake Dialogue?

BREAKING: Cdl. Fernandez urges SSPX to drop plan to consecrate bishops

OR ELSE!

Cognitive Dissonance Is Engulfing our Beloved Church

We are becoming the Church of cognitive dissonance. Let's begin by defining that psychological term:

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes, or when their behavior conflicts with their beliefs. This discomfort motivates people to change their beliefs, justify their actions, or avoid new information to reduce the inconsistency.

Think about that. What happens when the actions of our pope and bishops show diametrically opposed philosophies. How do you reconcile two mutually exclusive propositions? You can't! Jesus called Himself "The way, the truth and the life."  Embracing truth means one has to choose. Which of two things is true, or are both untrue and is the truth elsewhere altogether.

St. Cyril of Alexandria Reminds Me of Archbishop Lefebvre

Today is the feast of St. Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and Doctor of the Church from the 5th 
century. As I read the entry in Butler's Lives of the Saints this morning I came across this statement which immediately put me in mind of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre:

Throughout his life, he made a rule never to advance any doctrine which he had not learnt from the ancient fathers. 

Would that those bishops who love introducing novelties and errors adulterating the faith were followers of St. Cyril. And what did Archbishop Lefebvre say? Unlike our dissenting and scandalous bishops, the archbishop wanted to pass on faithfully what he had been given. I think he and St. Cyril have much in common, both Catholic in the fullest sense, both lovers and defenders of the Blessed Virgin Mary and enemies of heresy. Archbishop Lefebvre was never looking for a fight. He simply wanted to pass on the faith as he had received it, protecting Sacred Tradition: