The Post Retreat Culture Shock

Is it too soon to go on another retreat? Returning to the world after a retreat is always a bit of a culture shock. For almost a week I:

• didn't have a single phone call
• didn't see a single newscast
• didn't hear or read a single bit of bad news 
• didn't read a single e-mail

Back From Retreat and I'm Exhausted!

Not complaining, just explaining. Five days of silence was a real gift, but not, by any means,  a restful silence. One can be silent and working. Think of a Trappist monastery where the monks all pray (ora) and then go to their work in silence (labora). Some monks garden raising a crop to make jellies and jams. Some might suit up to work the apiary, checking the bees while praying for a sweet golden harvest. Some make fruit cake or roast and pack coffee beans. I once saw two monks up on ladders picking pecans at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma. But all their work is wrapped in silence. 

Some things are worth repeating. May we all love the truth and always speak it in charity!

I'm on a silent, Ignatian retreat this week and scheduled a few posts before I left since I will be completely off the internet and my phone: nothing but silence, the conferences of the priest, the rosary and hours, Confession, and sitting with Jesus in the chapel. What a blessing to have that quiet time. I thought this post from 2023 is timely since many are suffering for the truth today. So I'm resurrecting it and hope you find it helpful. Please pray for the happy repose of the soul of Fr. Hardon. He was a tremendous warrior for the Lord. I heard him speak a number of times and had the blessing of attending the last retreat he offered before his death in 2000. Please pray for me as I will for you during my retreat.

Our Duty: To Suffer for the Truth!

Every now and then a theme crops up everywhere I look and demands attention. Over and over the echoes roll over me like a tidal wave: on social media, in news feeds I follow, in magazines I read, etc. Often it has a lot to do with what's happening in my life at the moment. "Pay attention!" my guardian angel reminds me, "This is important!"

Are You the Fourth Monkey? Are You Deaf, Dumb, Blind, and Lost Your Mind?

I get some silly comments on my blog but one of the silliest and most patently absurd is this:

"[T]he Pope, no matter how sinful he might personally be, can never mislead you spiritually."

A Lovely Memory of a Past Retreat with a Holy Priest Now Gone to His Reward. Fr. Buckley, Please pray for us.

I wrote this post in 2019 as I prepared to head off for my annual Ignatian retreat. If you've never made a silent, Ignatian retreat I heartily recommend it. Remember, the posts this week were pre-set. I am not on the internet or my phone and will not be moderating comments. Please pray for the happy repose of Fr. James Buckley, FSSP, who died in 2023. A priest once told me that there's no one deader than a dead priest because he has no biological family to remember and pray for him. But a good and holy priest has hundreds, perhaps thousands of spiritual sons and daughters and so I pray daily for Fr. Buckley and all the priests who have touched my life, especially those in danger of hell fire.

Praying for You While I'm on Retreat; In Your Kindness, Please Pray for All the Ladies on the Retreat! 

The Decline of Gravitas in a Culture of Whiny Child Adults

This morning at Mass, our pastor read a letter from Fr. Davide Pagliarani to the lay faithful about the current situation between the SSPX and the Vatican. It offered consolation and encouragement, something the laity certainly haven't received from our father in Rome sad to say. It also manifested a virtue that one seldom hears about today -- gravitas, a seriousness and dignity, not to mention respect and concern for the laity. It was inspiring to listen to it. It's not published online yet, but no doubt will be by the time I return from my retreat. I'll post it then.

Sunday Meditation: What would Pope Leo IV think of the Crisis in the Church?

 

As I posted yesterday I'm going on a silent Ignatian retreat this week from Sunday evening (tonight) until Saturday morning, July 25th. I've scheduled some articles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but will be completely off the internet starting this evening. 

I won't be moderating comments either. You are welcome to leave them, but they'll sit in the combox until I return on on July 25th. I will be praying for all my readers while I'm on retreat. Please pray for me as well.

For those who read regularly you've seen my open letter to Bishop Michael Burbidge about the treatment of the laity in the decree of Pope Leo and the explanatory note from Cardinal Fernandez. I mailed the letter on Monday, July 13th, but delayed publication out of courtesy for the bishop. Then I scheduled the letter's publication on Friday, July 17th. 

Let's Get One Thing Straight. The SSPX Did Not Claim to Have the Papal Mandate!

I've read a number of posts by those claiming the SSPX lied during the consecration of the bishops by claiming the papal mandate. But, in the course of the consecration Mass, when asked if they had the papal mandate, Bishop Fellay did not say "Habemus," (We have it.) Instead he called on the notary, Fr. Foucauld Le Roux, to read a declaration of necessity which implicitly recognized the lack of the papal mandate. The sedevacantist site, Novus Ordo Watch, where I found the text of the document, says this indicates that the SSPX recognizes Leo as a legitimate pope and are living a contradiction by acknowledging the conciliar church but refusing to obey its pope. Hmm....

Open Letter to Bishop Michael Burbidge with Cover Letter to Apostolic Nuncio: We are are not excommunicated schismatics!

OPEN LETTER TO MOST REVEREND MICHAEL BURBIDGE, 

BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

July 13, 2026

Your Excellency,

How grateful I am for your vocation to the priesthood and the privilege of calling you my spiritual Father. We met only once several years ago after Fr. Clarence Trinkle's funeral at St. John the Baptist. I left by the front door thinking to slip away quietly, but you were standing alone next to the hearse only a few feet away. I stopped, genuflected and kissed your ring, introduced myself, and thanked you. I considered our brief exchange providential and was delighted to receive a personal blessing. I recall that meeting today as I write in grief over the recent decree of excommunication of the SSPX bishops. Since my purpose is not to defend the Society consecrations, I will not address that topic.

The Rome of Cognitive Dissonance and Doublethink

There's a psychological term that applies in spades to our age of confusion and chaos. It's called "cognitive dissonance" in the language of mental health and "doublethink" in the language of dystopian literature. Both terms mean the same thing: the act of trying to believe two contradictory things at the same time. 

Sadly, modernist Rome has become the icon of cognitive dissonance and doublethink. The Vatican pays lip service to the unchanging Catholic faith taught for two millennia, while, at the same time, undermining it with modernist claptrap. One bishop says contraception and abortion are wrong. Another says there are circumstances when they're not. Moral relativism takes center stage in the synodal church where sexual deviance is love.