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| Will this be the only home you can afford? Move over, chickens! |
Do you think of yourself as a homeowner because you bought a house? When you first purchased a home, you probably thought, "Well, the bank and I own it until I pay off the mortgage in 20 or 30 years." Did you celebrate when you "paid it off?"
Think again. Even after you "pay off" the mortgage, you are a renter. It doesn't matter how long you've lived in your home or whether you've reached the end of the 30 year mortgage; you are a renter. The real homeowner is the government. You'll find out pretty quickly if you don't pay the PROPERTY TAXES who owns your house. The government does.
by James M. Thunder
published in The Narthex, blog of New Oxford Review, in four parts
Feb. 24, March 8, 11 and 13
Part 1: Notre Dame: The Good News & the Bad News | New Oxford Review
Folks, the good news out of Notre Dame is shockingly good. The bad news out of Notre Dame is shockingly bad. I’ll start with the bad.
On January 8, 2026, Notre Dame issued a press release announcing that a professor, Susan Ostermann, was being appointed, effective July 1, as director of the Liu Institute. Because of her public and persistent pro-abortion views, this appointment has been met with objections by:
I was talking to my sister-in-law the other day about the financial situation of our children and grandchildren. Today many families need two jobs just to survive. She described how thankful she was that she was raising her children when it was possible to be a stay-at-home mom. The reality of the problem hit home as I was reading an article in Chronicles by Ryan Neuhaus, America's Affordability Crisis. It's sad and sobering:
We have built a country in which a young person can do well in school, take on debt to get a degree, work full-time, delay gratification, even postpone marriage, and still fail to secure a middle-class life. That kind of change doesn’t just happen. It’s a reflection of how the country has been governed for decades, and the truth beneath all the charts and numbers being thrown around today is that the affordability crisis is a governing crisis: a failure to use power to deliver outcomes that make ordinary life better.
Several years ago I did a post on five R words that I kept coming across in my spiritual reading. Sometimes things that repeat become like a hymn that buries itself in your soul like a precious memory. That's the case with these R words for me. So I'm repeating the post with some changes and will be watching for these words every day when I pray the Mass.Reading the headlines these days is enough to send your blood pressure through the roof. The war in Iran is showing signs, not of de-escalation, but a strategy of horizontal escalation that gives a weaker power the ability to respond to a stronger power. [See Why Escalation Favors Iran.] Reading about it definitely gives one pause about the wisdom of starting the fight. Did we learn anything from Vietnam? And now Hezbollah has joined Iran with coordinated, simultaneous missile attacks.
I keep coming across the number 40 this Lent. Today was another reminder. It's the feast of the 40 martyrs of Sebaste. Since I hate the winter cold, this story strikes me particularly hard. I think of the poor soul who failed to persevere and died in the warm bath. Is he in an even hotter place now? It's hard to imagine that, under such torture, a person gives full consent of the will to the evil act. I'm praying for him today. I hope he is in the company of his fellow soldiers today glorifying God.
Today is the feast of St. Frances of Rome who lived during the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) when there were two competing clerics claiming to be pope. Frances was a wife and mother, married at thirteen to a good man who never tried to curb her austerities and service to the poor. She was charming and kind and well loved, especially by the poor.
One of the amazing things about St. Frances were her visions and mystical experiences. They included being escorted through hell and seeing the punishments inflicted on those who broke the commandments.
The Bible tells us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and reading her words and the descriptions of her visions will certainly immerse you in the fear of the Lord! It's better to serve God out of great love for Him than out of fear, of course, but often that begins with recognizing his power and judgment of sin. And don't we acknowledge that when we pray the act of contrition?
Our sermon today was on the noonday devil, also called acedia or sloth. How many people have any idea what that means? I'm betting most have never even heard of "acedia" and probably think "sloth" is a synonym for laziness. But the reality is much worse.
I've had a lot of interactions with Protestants on social media over the years, anonymous Protestants usually. They often have no interest in an honest discussion about faith and the differences between Catholic belief and Protestant belief. Often they tell you what Catholics believe which is almost always wrong and, when you correct them, they just repeat their errors insisting they're right. It's actually pretty funny. They know more about what Catholics believe than a life-long Catholic does. They often aren't interested in a good-faith exchange; they just repeat their bigot points. Catholics worship Mary. The Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon and the pope is the anti-Christ. Catholics aren't allowed to read the Bible. Yadda Yadda. Many Protestants are rabidly anti-Catholic bigots who are just trolling and lobbing insults -- not exactly a model of Christian charity.
‘Terrified': Mother, daughter say man sideswiped them before 495 stabbing rampage
When one examines a crisis, it's important to know exactly what that crisis consists of. We know there's a crisis in the Church; you'd have to be brain dead not to realize something isn't right. But what is it? Is the crisis a fight over different liturgies? Is that really the central issue? Between those nostalgic for the old ways versus those progressives who want what they believe to be a more accessible church with windows open to the world? Or is it primarily about Vatican II?
The other day I wrote a post about the murder of Stephanie Minter at a bus stop in Hybla Valley, my formers neighborhood for thirty years.
When a Vicious Murder Hits Close to Home
Let's call this chapter two of the story.
I have mixed feeling about the war in Iran. On the one hand, it is terrifying to think of Iran having nuclear weapons with a naval fleet or submarines capable of delivering annihilation to any city in the United States. Europe is under particular threat which may explain the reluctance of Spain and the U.K. to get involved. Is their anti-U.S. talk designed to protect them from retaliation considering their proximity to the conflict? Somehow I doubt that carries much weight with fanatical terrorists!
Things change. I would say that old age makes one less willing to suffer fools. I've been blogging for almost twenty years and, in the beginning, I posted most comments. Ad hominem attacks galore made it past my moderation wall without censorship, especially if the one attacked was me. I'm pretty thick skinned. I was less obliging for insults against others.
"The current situation regarding the episcopal consecrations in the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has suddenly awakened the entire Church." [Source] Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Being awake is a good thing as St. Peter reminds us:
"Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour." [1 Peter 5:8]
In the Old Testament God told Gideon to dismiss any soldiers who knelt and drank directly from the stream. Those who stayed alert, awake so to speak to any advancing enemy by using their hands to bring water to their mouths, became the conquering army. [Judges 7]
Revelation has a particularly apt point:
"Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God." [Revelation 3:2]
You've probably noticed that the world is in a mess! Francis didn't need to call on Catholics to "make a mess;" the mess already existed. Can anyone deny that the secular world rivals Noah's time? Do the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah come close to the diabolical condition of the modern era? Have you read any of the Epstein files? (I don't recommend it; just know that the evil is so satanic it boggles the mind. I had to stop looking at it and pray the St. Michael prayer.)
