Sacrilege at a Portland Parish as Foolish Old Farts Interrupt the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!

A meeting of the Foolish Old Farts society? Hey folks, age is supposed to bring wisdom!

Ah...progressive Catholics. What a gift they are to the Church. Like Judas they bring into strong relief the difference between truth and error, fidelity and rebellion. And so, dear readers, I give you today a group of loony-tune, self-professed Catholics who want to create their parish in their own image and likeness rather than God's. But a protest during holy Mass? No Catholic hearts among these geriatrics! As they say, "There's no fool like an old fool.

More on Fr. Benedict Groeschel -- What a Blessing!

A friend sent me the following email which I pass on because I found it so interesting and inspirational. So many holy men and women have died on days and at times that have such incredible links to special events in their lives. So it seems to be with Fr. Benedict. What a gift!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Father Benedict Joseph Groeschel, a famous Franciscan preacher, died following the praying of the 'Transitus' ritual last night. For those of you unaware of this, the Transitus ritual is a significant devotion familiar to all Franciscans. Each year on the evening of Oct 3 they gather to ritually remember the holy passing (or 'transition') of their Founder, St. Francis of Assisi, from this life to the next. St. Francis of Assisi actually died on the evening of Oct 3, 1226. I'd say that it is a rather remarkable instance of Divine Providence that Fr. Groeschel's passing took place at the exact date and time of the passing of his spiritual Father Francis. The Universal Church celebrates St. Francis of Assisi's Feast Day on Oct 4, which is today. Father Benedict always had a great sense of the dramatic. It was no different in his death. Requiescat In Pace Fr. Benedict. St Francis of Assisi, pray for us !

(Hat tip to Sweat!)

Semantic Gymnastics and Verbal Engineering

I've been having a friendly disagreement with Catholic in Brooklyn over the situation in New York

with Holy Innocents and St. Francis of Assisi and the pre-pride Mass. She calls me angry and judgmental and, frankly, I think she's a little clueless.

Anyway, the conversation got me thinking about another New Yorker, Msgr. William Smith, a holy moral theologian who often spoke at pro-life and home schooling conferences. (He died in 2009, a great loss to the Church Militant here on earth..) I was blessed to hear him speak on several occasions. One of his maxims was "verbal engineering always precedes social engineering." He described how effectively Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups took the spotlight off abortion by renaming it "choice." It created the ludicrous situation of many, even Catholics, claiming to be both pro-life and pro-choice. Feminists and pro-abortionists advanced abortion acceptance with this brilliant strategy! You can hear it in almost any Catholic Church and, in fact, I have a number of practicing Catholic relatives who claim they are "not pro-abortion, but pro-choice" ignoring the obvious moral contradiction of saying they support both the right to life of an unborn baby and the right of the mother to kill her child if that's what she chooses.

How is this related to the issue at hand? The homosexual community engages in the same kind of verbal engineering with the term "pride" to advance acceptance of homosexuality. It takes the focus off what homosexuals do (sodomy, fisting, fellatio, S&M, etc.) and focuses on self-affirmation and celebration of "sexual diversity" including all its permutations - LGBTQXYZ. The fact is "gay pride" (like "choice") is a political term emphasizing acceptance and celebration of homosexual activity. You certainly don't see Courage and Encourage featured at "gay pride" events because those groups promote chastity. "Gay pride" is the opposite. (Although what, pray tell, is there to be proud of in having a disordered inclination toward sinful behavior?)

When the Franciscans at St. Francis of Assisi embrace the word "pride" they join the same verbal game as the pro-aborts with the word "choice." That their order also promotes the misreading of Pope Francis' out-of-context "Who am I to judge?" statement indicates (to me at least) a disingenuous promotion of the gay lifestyle. And certainly selling all kinds of merchandise featuring the rainbow flag and the "Who Am I to Judge" statement, as St. Anthony Shrine in Boston does, promotes the gay lobby, something Pope Francis specifically condemned.

Consider a religious order offering a "pre-choice Mass" before a feminist march featuring Planned

http://www.cafepress.com/shrinepride

Parenthood and NARAL. Would that be acceptable? Not to me! Unless it were booked as a Mass of reparation for the sin of abortion.  which was certainly not the case with the "pre-pride Mass." The fact that the Franciscans used an ad featuring a variation of the rainbow flag, a symbol of homosexual activism, is also problematic.

Words and symbols have meaning that are not only explicit, but reach one at a subliminal level. More and more young people are embracing the gay agenda philosophically. I believe we can thank the Franciscans for contributing to the confusion, deliberately perhaps? Verbal engineering does, indeed, lead to social engineering and we are rapidly moving toward sexual social chaos.

So...the big question is...Who really is that man under the red hat?

Cardinal Dolan? Can you explain why you coddle the homosexual parishes in Manhattan?

What exactly is going on?

Why are St. Francis Xavier and St. Francis of Assisi allowed to promote the homosexual agenda and advance "gay pride?"

Aren't the bishops fighting the redefinition of marriage? Do you mean it?

Can the faithful get answers?

Anyone? Anyone?

Thought for the Day from St. Francis of Assisi: Hell is for Real!

The world depicts St. Francis as a namby-pamby nature lover, but there's a lot more to the saint than that. He had a deep understanding of the nature of sin and the great danger to souls caught in its grip. In his Canticle of the Creatures he wrote:

Praised be You, my Lord, for our sister bodily death, whom no living man can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin, blessed those whom she will find in Your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them.

 Mortal sin kills the grace of God in the souls of His creation. No one who dies in the state of unrepented mortal sin can go to heaven. What is mortal sin and what is necessary to commit one?

Tough Love from St. Francis and Michael Voris

Love for God's Creation

Saint Francis would love this guy!

St. Francis' Feast Day is also our wedding anniversary

Today is the feast of St. Francis and my husband's and my 41st wedding anniversary. St. Francis fascinates me. I'm glad we married on his feast day, although I didn't know him as well in those days. He's credited with creating the nativity scenes we set up at Christmas. In 1223 in Greccio, Italy he put together a living nativity scene with the blessing of the Holy Father. He wanted to place the proper emphasis on the meaning of the feast rather than the secular emphasis on gifts and parties. (Some things don't change much.)  His inspiration immediately caught on and was imitated in countless other places. Francis also developed the chapel devotion of the Stations of the Cross at a time when the Holy Land was held by the Muslims and people couldn't make pilgrimages there to walk in the in the physical footsteps of the Lord. Because of the wisdom of St. Francis they could walk the path in their home churches.

I think these devotions show what a profound understanding of human nature St. Francis had. He realized how important "touching" mystical events could mean. We are not just spiritual beings; we learn though our senses. We need to experience God's love "with skin on." We need to "taste and see" how good the Lord is. We need to confess our sins out loud and hear the words of absolution from the priest. The smell of the oils and incense of the sacraments stresses their richness. We come to a much deeper understanding of the reality of both the birth of Christ and his suffering and death through entering into it with our bodies. Our sufferings become what St. Paul called a making up for what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ. What's lacking? Our active and willing sacrifice.

October is respect life month. If you are fortunate enough to have an infant in your life, hold and cuddle that little one imagining the joy of Mary holding baby Jesus and rejoicing at the goodness of God. Today, on our anniversary I want to reflect on the gift of my husband, Larry, our five children and their spouses, and our nineteen grandchildren. Love bears fruit and the Lord has given us a bountiful harvest of life.

"God has done great for us and holy is his name."