Another Monday: But Not an Ordinary One

No indeed. This is no ordinary Monday. It begins the week leading up to the SSPX consecration of bishops on Wednesday, July first. In 1988 Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops calling the event Operation Survival. The traditional Mass and sacraments likely would have disappeared without his actions. One could call the Wednesday consecrations Operation Survival Redux. It's a sad thing that the Vatican let it come to this, but the pope and Cardinal Fernandez have shown their willingness to allow and even enable dissent and heresy while they punish orthodoxy. 

I began my day with morning prayer and reading from the Credo Catechism by Bishop Athanasius Schneider. I'm in the section on faith, a providential place to be this week. 

The Powerful Witness of Persecution

I was talking to a friend last Friday after our holy hour for priests and she made a brilliant point about what's happening these days in the modern, post Vatican II Church. Here's the question. In the history of the Church over the millennia, who were persecuted and martyred? Who were executed in the Roman Coliseum and covered with pitch and set on fire to light Nero's garden? The Pharisees? The Sadducees? 

Traditio Part III -- Giving One's Life

Part I - What is a Priest?

Part II -- Catholic Missionaries Across the World

Part III -- Giving One's Life 

 

Want Your Children to Be Geniuses? Take the Challenge!

I recently read an important article that I recommend to every parent who reads my blog. 

Charlotte Mason and John Senior Agree: Great Books Are Not Enough

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in."

Years ago, no actually decades ago, I read an article in Parade Magazine that keeps coming back to me these days. It was during the height of the AIDS epidemic and told the personal human interest story of a young, active homosexual man. In the early days of his lifestyle choice, he discarded his parents because they would not approve. He slandered them to all his homosexual friends and maintained no contact for years. 

Ho-Hum, Another Synod....Does Anyone Care?

From Vatican News:

The heads of the Church's continental bodies have gathered in Rome this week for three days of meetings dedicated to the next phase of the Synod on Synodality, according to a press release issued by the General Secretariat of the Synod on Monday.

The meeting, taking place on June 23-25, brings together representatives of continental ecclesial organizations from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and North America, accompanied by coordinators of the continental synodal teams.

The Gift of Counsel and the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit: A Roadmap to Holiness

When our children were growing up and didn't particularly like vegetables, I always had them take seven beans or seven peas, etc. and recite the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. I thought of the gift of counsel as the Holy Spirit enabling us to offer wise advice to others. But this morning as I was reading the meditation in my Benedictus prayer book I read this by Fr. Barthélemy Froget, a French Dominican theologian who wrote frequently on the indwelling of the Holy Ghost:

The Battle of Front Royal Continues with Arrival of FSSP Chaplaincy

I've been more than a little amused at all the chortling over Bishop Burbidge establishing a  chaplaincy for the FSSP under the patronage of Our Lady of Victory. [See the announcement here.] "Isn't it wonderful? What a brave bishop! How grateful we are!"

Really? I'm sincerely grateful to Bishop Burbidge for a number of things, and I can even be grateful for this, since the only result can be to bring more people to recognize the glory of Sacred Tradition and the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). But I'm also a realist. This is the same bishop who severely reduced the availability of the TLM in accord with Traditionis Custodes. Except for the three parishes where it remains inside the church, the TLM was exiled to gyms and multi-purpose rooms where it continues. And in 2024, after renewing the indult, the three parish churches were ordered to substitute a Latin Novus Ordo (NO) for the TLM once a month. [Source] You see, it is all about "weaning" the laity away from the TLM (the Mass Pope Benedict said could not be abrogated.). We must conform to every jot and tittle of Vatican II and to the "new Mass" that grew out of it by the influence of probable Freemason, Annibale Bugnini.

Make me a river of grace, Lord!

The other day I read this statement from a therapist: "We can't diagnose people who are not in the room." Sounds like common sense, but do most therapists pay attention? How many listen to one side of the story and make judgments about the absent person or persons?

I went to someone for grief counseling for about six months several years ago. During the course of our discussions she suggested a diagnosis for a family member I was dealing with. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but after reading the statement above, I thought about it again. Sometimes it's hard to diagnosis the person talking to you. How can you possibly diagnose someone you've never met just by listening to a description from a third party who may be giving you a distorted picture? 

Franz Werfel, an Author Worth Celebrating!

Once upon a time there was newspaper of note that published wonderful articles and astounding editorials, book reviews, and human interest stories. Yes, the New York Times used to operate according to the journalistic principal of reporting the news objectively not twisting and perverting it. But that was a long time ago!

I thought about that while I was looking up information on Franz Werfel's novel, The Pascarella Family. I found a fascinating review in the Times written in 1932 describing it as a "fairy tale."

Franz Werfel's Romantic Novel; "The Pascarella Family" Is Old-Fashioned Pure Narrative, With a Distinctly Fairy-Tale Atmosphere THE PASCARELLA FAMILY. Translated from the German of Franz Werfel. 437 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $2.50.