It's a good thing to remember that everyone has troubles and, really, no one wants to hear a long litany about yours. Ask for prayers but leave the dissertation unread. A confessor urged me a few months ago to "kill the spirit of complaining." I'm working on it, but I think it's a lifetime work. I better get busy because I don't have that much lifetime left. I'll ask all the angels and saints, especially my guardian angel and the Blessed Mother to intercede for me with Jesus to put a lid on it!
I went to St. Ann's from Kindergarten through third grade. Every day, my siblings and I walked the mile to school from our home on Guilford Rd. to the parish school on Coventry. The parish church was just finished in the early fifties, so I was among the first generation going to Mass in the Church instead of the school. I made my First Communion at St. Ann's.
I happened across an article about the expansion of the fake meat market. I never buy fake burgers although some have ingredients that appear to emphasize real food. Nevertheless I don't want my dinner coming from a lab. But who would have thought that the main course would now be created on a 3D printer?
3D-Printed Fake Meat and Fish Have Officially Entered American Grocery Stores Without Clear Labeling
No doubt you had a mouth-watering sensation as you read that headline. What's not to love about fake meat and fish made from ingredients like "soy flour, rapeseed oil, modified starch, methylcellulose (whatever that is), xanthan gum, locust bean gum, and artificial meat coloring." Yum!
Pope Leo is in the hospital receiving treatment for a lesion on his lungs. After surgery the doctors reported that they removed a portion of his lung and the tumor which was cancerous. Every faithful Catholic should be praying for him: for his physical healing and for his spiritual healing. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J. always said, the spiritual miracles are most important and, frankly, more miraculous than the physical ones. And wouldn't it be a miracle if Leo had a Damascus moment while he's recovering and decided to become a zealous defender of the faith like his predecessor, Leo XIII.
The decision of the Department of Defense to livestream the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood mass murderer, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, is in the news. To be completely transparent, I support capital punishment in rare cases. How can you protect guards and other prisoners if a murderer with a life-in-prison sentence has nothing else to fear? Is a life of solitary confinement a guarantee against an escape attempt? And what about murderers who are paroled? Think about rape, robbery, and home invasion victims? Is there a deterrent effect knowing that capital punishment is the mandatory sentence for a murder committed during those crimes?
My Butler's is about fifty years old so I don't have any of the updates, but with four thick volumes I have plenty of friends to consult even if more modern saints like Mother Teresa and Padre Pio are missing. Since I read my Benedictus prayer book every day, I catch them on their feast days.
Dickens had it right when he opened The Tale of Two Cites with his declaration that:
I've said it before. God has a sense of humor. While the porn-writing head of the DDF apparently expected hordes of SSPX priests to head for the exit door, the opposite is happening. Priests are heading for the open door to the SSPX and affiliating with the Society. LifeSiteNews has this:
Leo XIV’s excommunication backfires: SSPX lists multiple priests who just joined them
The New Mass – Novus Ordo Missae – is ecumenical in its construction and Protestant in its orientation. It is the most tangible expression of the Vatican II revolution, affecting every Catholic directly and deleteriously.
At our SSPX chapel, we recently had a catechism class by a Dominican, Fr. Albert, who sometimes helps out. He spoke about Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces. While the Vatican rejects that title the Church has taught it for over 1500 years. Father began by talking about Jacinta, the little mystic of Fatima. As she was dying she begged her cousin Lucia not to "go and hide," but to tell the world about Mary. God's will, Father told us, is to ask Mary for graces. Mark Miravalle, professor of Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, has promoted the "fifth Marian dogma" of Mediatrix of all graces for decades.
I have something challenging coming up and was praying about it this morning. Providentially, my spiritual reading addressed it. Catching up on my Benedictus meditations, I read this from October 5th: "The soldier of Christ must begin by victory over himself."
Last Sunday, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Larry and I celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary. How we got here so fast is a puzzle. It seems like yesterday we were making our vows at my parents' parish, St. Augustine in Elkridge, MD. Sunday was drizzily and chilly unlike that glorious October 4th in 1969 which was sunny and warm. I'll never forget my dad's toast wishing us the combined fertility of both families. I was one of 11, ten living; Larry was one of 11, nine living. Needless to say there was plenty of laughter in the room.
I think all faithful Catholics lament the serious problems we're facing these days in the Church. But sometimes I can't help but laugh and shake my head over current events. The Vatican often seems clueless about what's happening. I watched jounalist Diane Montagna's talk at the Catholic Identity Conference livestream yesterday and the panel following with fellow Vatican journalist Edward Pentin. They give a balanced view of both the good and bad happening in Rome. If you want trustworthy sources check out their substacks. I've hotlinked on their names.
At the same time, Chinese expert Anthony Clark revealed a contact from an underground Chinese prelate that the underground church has ordained ten new bishops. The Catholic Herald's Michael Haynes reported on it last month:
Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) is getting a lot of attention these days because they are a big blip on the Return to the Catholic Church graph. I recently read an article that said the primary attraction to the Church for Gen Z-ers is miracles - not the Traditional Latin Mass or the smells and bells, or the reverence or fellowship, etc., but the miracles.
The first thing I did when it happened was to call the Poor Clare Sisters and ask for their prayers. It's always helpful to have allies on the field of battle. And, let's face it, the most difficult battles are within our own souls. St. Paul talks about it, the interior struggle against evil that makes us "groan and suffer." It threatens to capsize my little boat. "Wake up, Jesus, I need your help!" And His response is the same as he said to the apostles, basically, "Where is your faith?" Help my disbelief, Lord, my flesh is weak! And so I reflect on St. Paul:
My spiritual reading yesterday kept leading me to the "heart" of the matter starting with the daily devotional from the SSPX which examined "purity of intention." A good question for each of us is this. Does my action come from a heart filled with love for God or other lesser motives? People can perform the same external actions with very different results in the eyes of God:
We can go to Mass out of routine or out of obligation, or else simply to see a particular person. We can also go to Mass out of love of God. Externally, the actions are the same, but in the eyes of God they are each very different. The same external act will be meritorious for some, not for others, depending on the purity of their intention. It is the same for our duty of state. We can set to work out of obligation, out of pleasure or out of love of God. The same action is meritorious for some and not for others. [Source]
Anyone on the internet blogging or using social media deals with trolls. Facebook? It's filled with creatures from Grimm's Fairy Tales!
Usually trolls are anonymous and cast their aspersion from underneath a rock or hiding behind a silly fake name. Often their comments are personal attacks along with name-calling and sometimes profanity. I have a few trolls and my way of dealing with them nowadays is to delete their comments as soon as I recognize the source. That usually takes reading about ten words then into the circular file they go.
The TDS crowd is in full rage mode going into the midterms. Even though Trump isn't on the ballot, he's being used to claim that the only moral choice is to vote Democrat. One young person with whom I engaged claimed she cares about character and Democrats obviously show much more character than Republicans who only care about giving tax breaks to the rich. She would never have an abortion herself, but doesn't want to limit "health care" for other women. Oh, and ICE is "killing many Americans" (32 in 2025). How many babies were killed in 2025? The Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood estimates 1,124,000 clinic abortions and tens of thousands of others by tel-med where women abort alone without medical supervision. But hey! That's reproductive health care!
I recently told my spiritual director how overwhelmed I feel. Our house and property are a black hole with constant needs. Right now we need to close up the pool, get the bees ready for winter, take down some dead trees and do general clean up. I enjoyed gardening at our home in Alexandria, but with three acres it's a never-ending chore these days. The circle garden out front is a jungle. And then there's the house. The spiders have taken over the basement and the fruit flies are propagating in the kitchen. The dust bunnies own the upstairs. The to-do list keeps growing and I'm drowning in clutter.
This week begins one of the quarterly periods observed by the Catholic Church called "Ember Days." I remember them growing up. Our Catholic calendar showed a half fish meaning that on those days (Wednesday and Saturday) meat could only be eaten at the main meal. Friday, of course, was a day of complete abstinence. All three days were fast days (one main meal and two smaller meals that did not add up to a full meal).
The purpose of the ember days was to sanctify the coming season. Catholic Answers quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia describing them this way:
Yesterday I wrote introducing the new Vatican document, A Journey of Hope (JOH), commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (ND), the Vatican II document on ecumenism. The new document was written by three Vatican dicasteries and approved by Pope Leo. As things have progressed since Vatican II, it's clear that ND was just the first down in the game of indifferentism. What's the score after 60 years? JOH gives us a clear look at the scoreboard.
What would pre-Vatican II popes say about the Vatican's latest document celebrating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (NA), the council's ecumenism document. I re-read it yesterday and, of course, it includes Catholic truth:
Mom was certainly well educated. Adopted by a Cleveland lawyer and his wife, a fact she only learned as an adult, she attended law school at Western Reserve University (later Case Western Reserve), the only woman in her class. She dropped out in 1940 after two years to fly to California and marry my dad, a recent graduate of the Naval Academy. She followed him to Pearl Harbor where they lived through the Japanese attack that got the U.S. into World War II. She was pregnant with my oldest brother when she was evacuated from the island.
There's a song that presents the world's views these days in spades. It heralds the destruction of love. Listen to the lyrics and see how much it accords with today's woke views:
To keep your balance these days, you need to rewind past the lunacy and read the encyclicals and listen to the saintly popes of the past who taught unchanging doctrinal truth. The Judases treat the Church like a wild roller coaster ride and make everyone so dizzy they can't tell up from down, but no one is forced to get on board. "By their fruits [and nuts] you shall know them." And once you know them, their errors are easier to avoid.
I read an article by Gavin Ashenden this morning on Substack about the Clancy trial titled Lindsey Clancy and the Return of Witchcraft. One sentence made me stop and think. "Evil sucks out life and color." There is something so profoundly true about that statement. The quote made me think of the filthy book (which I haven't and never would read) Fifty Shades of Grey. Goodreads puts it in the category of "Smutbooks." Pornography is a more apt adjective.
Traditionally All Hollow's Eve was a Christian feast preceding All Saints Day. Here's a bit about its origin:
All Hallow’s Eve origin
Will the prosecutors go for a new trial for Lindsay Clancy or will she receive a get-out-of-jail free card, spend a few years (if that) in a mental facility, and then be declared "cured" and released. Would you trust her to babysit for your kids?
The discrepancy between the two Go-Fund-Me pages for Pierce vs. Clancy is shocking. Clancy's is over a million. The fund for the Pierce family just over $219,000.
An anonymous juror has come out in defense of the holdout who refused to find Lindsay Clancy not guilty. This article is worth reading. The murdered little ones deserve justice, not excuses for their killing.
Anonymous Lindsay Clancy Juror Defends Holdout, He Stood on “Convictions”
The black and white illustrations by. Jon Goodell are so sweet I almost hate to give the book away, but it definitely belongs in the hands of children.
It arrived with lots of other books at our little independent library. They were all paperbacks which we don't keep, so all of them were placed in a basket in the children's section or outside on our giveaway rack. I took about a dozen to share with my grandkids, but wanted to read them first to make sure everything is acceptable. In today's world where the "diversity bookbag" for children includes sewage, I always want to check first. I'm glad I did because it's given me some happy hours.
I haven't said anything about Lindsay Clancy up to now because the entire situation is like a horror story and I hate horror stories, especially when it involves harming children. It's hard to wrap your mind around such an evil deed as a mother strangling her three little ones.
I finished reading Pope Pius X's first encyclical, E Supremi Apostolatus, this morning. What a wonderful pope! The document could have been written yesterday and what a clarion call for today's Catholics. Please read it. I'll give you just a few bits of its brilliance:
Yesterday was the feast of St. Pope Pius X, so today is good day to read about his life and examine some of his writings. Here's a list of his encyclicals, 17 in all. His motto was "To restore all things in Christ" which was the subject of his first encylical published on October 4, 1903.
If I went out to do a man-in-the-street interview (using "man" in the generic sense), and asked, "How do you feel about the death of Gloria Steinem?" I would expect a puzzled look and a "Who's Gloria Steinem?" from most people. She got her fifteen minutes of fame during the era of feminism, but that era is fading. Feminism has been in its death throes for a long time. Babies and stay-at-home moms are making a comeback as the White House Baby Boom illustrates.
My mom used to have a full stock of sayings appropriate to various occasions. "If the shoe fits, wear it!" was one that seems especially relevant to modern culture with a shift in meaning. Lots of folks today stick their feet into other people's shoes presuming to know everything about them. They judge people they only know as "friends" on Facebook. They jump to conclusions about things and make rash judgments about others in the comment section of every website. After all, they know everything about them because they slip on their shoes just long enough to tell the world all about them: their beliefs, their opinions, the state of their souls. Their knowledge about others (Trump supporters especially) would fill a multi-volume encyclopedia.
Well today was a red-letter day. I've been called a lot of things: a fat cow (I admit I'm overweight.), a schismatic and excommunicated Catholic, a Protestant. Really, I was even once called a feminist. That blew my mind since I've fought the radical feminists for decades. But name-calling is often preceded by brain death. The "little gray cells" go on vacation.
My husband and I just finished watching all of the seasons for about the fourth time. And then we watched the extras. Suchet answers a series of questions about what is essentially the role of his life. He described how he studied all the stories and kept a voluminous file about how Poirot dressed, ate, walked, spoke, etc. -- all that allowed David Suchet to disappear into the persona of Hercule Poirot, not an actor playing a character, but becoming one.
[T]hese people are border-crashers who come and/or stay in this country while disregarding our laws and procedures. They are no more "immigrants" than a burglar is an "undocumented house guest".
I'm re-reading one of my favorite novels, The Masterful Monk by Owen Francis Dudley, a Catholic priest who converted from Anglicanism. He wrote a series of connected novels about human happiness. I've read them all. The Masterful Monk is the third in the series which is recommended in Fr. John Hardon's Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan.
Meanwhile, Maura Healey, the faux Catholic governor of Massachusetts, where it's also illegal to feed seagulls, recently signed a bill allowing babies to be killed in the birth canal. Just slit that unwanted little parasite's neck so he comes out dead. But don't feed the sea gulls; it can send you to jail.
That, friends, is the definition of hell. We all know that baby seals and eagles' eggs are protected. And now we know that seagulls have rights too. Although the seagulls love goldfish. They might not appreciate their right not to be fed by the tourists.
This morning at the chapel we celebrated yesterday's Marian feast for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. What a debt of gratitude we owe to the mother of God for her fiat. Take her hand and she will lead you straight to Jesus!
Frankly I can never understand the Protestant contempt for Mary. Do Protestants love their own mothers? How can they when they expect Jesus to see His mother as a rival? She isn't and never has been. She loves Jesus more completely than any other human who has ever lived or will live.
