The Coming of the Wise Men

I love the Epiphany! What a wonderful story -- three wise men watch the skies for signs and portents, men of action ready to head off across the world on a pilgrimage following a star. And why? To seek the one who is all truth, all beauty, and all goodness, the Word made flesh, the newborn king. What do they do when they get to their destination? They prostrate themselves in humility before God made man. The three kings illustrate as much as any figures in Scripture the reality that "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Our God is an awesome God who inspires "fear" in the sense of  "awe and wonder." That the high and mighty are humble enough to see their God in a feedbox testifies to both their wisdom and humility.

"He came to His own and His own received Him not." They could not see the glory of God in the Son of a carpenter. But the wise men never faltered. Outsiders, gentiles, nevertheless they saw with the eyes of faith and acted with love.

You can't go wrong following in the footsteps of the wise men on a pilgrimage to the house in Bethlehem, a house filled to the rafters with holy truth. There you will meet, and see through the eyes of faith  the just man, the queen of heaven and earth, and the Savior of the World, Him through whom all things were made. Hosanna in the highest!

A Wonderful Romp Through Life or Why I love Chesterton

If the only thing you've read of Chesterton is Orthodoxy, you may appreciate his wit, but not his childlike innocence. He was a lover of fairy tales and mystery stories, puppet theatres and games, but mostly he loved and enjoyed life with the exuberance of Father Christmas. I suspect Chesterton's little novel, Manalive, is his tongue-in-cheek laugh at himself.  The novel revels in the profoundly ridiculous and I could just see its hero, like the Pied Piper, attracting a crowd of little children dancing in his wake.

The protagonist, Innocent Smith, is a large man with a small head. And that, it seems to me, is the essence of Chesterton. He had a heart that required a large body to contain it, and a wise head that was not puffed up with its own brilliance. We meet Smith in a windstorm, leaping over the garden wall at Beacon House, a boarding house filled with solemn, cynical, and somewhat self-absorbed people. And like the wind that blew him into their lives, he blows them away creating a "crazy sense that it was everybody's birthday."

Message from the Hypocrite-in-Chief

Talking about the murder of twenty little first-graders in Connecticut, President Obama waxed eloquent about the need to protect our children. "We can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. To end them we must change," he said. This from the same man who voted numerous times not to protect children born alive after abortion. He cheerfully accepts the "carnage" of thousands of babies murdered every day. Watch this video and imagine he is talking about the "violence visited on our children year after year after year" by abortion. But he considers that violence a woman's right and champions Planned Parenthood, the largest baby butchery in the country. The hypocrisy of his message is stunning.

Can it Happen here? History has the Answer!

History is filled with examples of the planned extermination of religious groups for racial cleansing or for organized resistance against the wickedness of their governments. Elizabeth I's draconian plan involved murdering any priest who dared to say the Mass and any English citizen who harbored a priest. Some were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Others were crushed. Still others, like St. Thomas More, were beheaded.

In Mexico during the early 20th century, the government closed churches, arrested and murdered clergy, suppressed Catholic education, and executed all who disagreed usually without trial. Even after a deal brokered by the U.S. ambassador and the Vatican, the Mexican government headed by Plutarco Calles executed thousands.

During the Spanish Civil  War in the 1930s tens of thousands of clergy, religious, and Catholic laity were massacred for no other reason than being Catholic. And the record of the butchery in the Third Reich against Jews, Catholics, and others is well known.

Almost no one, however, recalls what happened in the Catholic Vendee during the French Revolution when the population, mostly Catholic peasants, rose up against the godless, violent revolutionaries. In the name of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" the evil republican government, which had already committed regicide murdering the entire royal family, annihilated over 170,000 including women, children, and the elderly. They were systematically butchered by the French republican army who made no distinction between combatants and non-combatants. We had best open our eyes to understand the lessons of history. When a society is immersed in a cesspool of lust and perversion as our is, violence is endemic, and a godless government targets people of faith as enemies of the state. Wake up, Christians!

Senate Gets Three Minutes to Read "Fiscal Cliff" Bill

This is pathetic! The bill (HB 8) increases taxes by $41 for every $1 cut in spending. And how much pork do you think is in the bill? Here are eight corporations getting fed. Bet there's lots more!

Ban Baseball Bats!

Okay, folks, it is time to recognize the evil of baseball bats and get them off the streets. Please petition your congressman to introduce a bill banning and confiscating all baseball bats. We also need "baseball bat free zones" around every school in the country. Let's reduce the danger and violence that these weapons represent to our neighborhoods!

Recommending a New Year's Resolution for Every Parish

STOP THE LITURGICAL ABUSES!

I am in complete agreement with the article below. Can we please bring back obedience in the small things. Remember what Jesus said about those who are faithful in those: they will be faithful in larger things as well. How many of the liturgical abuses mentioned in the article are taking place in your parish? If you witness them, maybe a polite note to the pastor is in order. I always close my eyes during the Our Father if I'm in a parish where I think the hand-grabbing will start. It saves me rejecting the, no doubt, well meaning gesture and feeling like an ungracious guest.

Tidings of Discomfort and Liturgical Abuse

Interview with Alice von Hildebrand: Should Pope Paul VI be Canonized?

I received this in an email and thought it was important enough to post it. The intro was written by Thom Nickels, a Philadelphia journalist. In reading this ask yourself whether Pope Paul VI should be canonized. I've highlighted some especially significant passages. 

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
"Pope Paul VI and the Slippery Slope


I recently came across this interview with Alice von Hildebrand. The interview was conducted by the Latin Mass Magazine (I am a subscriber). Alice von Hildebrand also writes for the New Oxford Review. Her words speak to the present crises in the Catholic Church.

[The interview, reproduced in part]

TLM: In terms of the present crisis, when did you first perceive something was terribly wrong?

AVH: It was in February 1965. I was taking a sabbatical year in Florence. My husband was reading a theological journal, and suddenly I heard him burst into tears. I ran to him, fearful that his heart condition had suddenly caused him pain. I asked him if he was all right. He told me that the article that he had been reading had provided him with the certain insight that the devil had entered the Church. Remember, my husband was the first prominent German to speak out publicly against Hitler and the Nazis. His insights were always prescient.

TLM: Did your husband think that the decline in a sense of the supernatural began around that time [1920s -- from an earlier question], and if so, how did he explain it?

If You Want 2013 to be Truly Blessed...

...put your hand in Mary's. She will lead you straight to Jesus. On this feast of the Somenity of Mary, make yourself her "slave" as she made herself the slavegirl of God. She does not compete with Christ, she does what the Scripture says and "magnifies the Lord." Love and honor Mary and your relationship with Jesus Christ will grow like a fertilized flower. The commandment to honor her comes straight from the Bible. Can anyone think that Jesus didn't keep God's law to "Honor your father and your mother" better than any creature on earth. Mary is the shortcut to heaven. If you love and honor her, you will grow closer to her Son. Guaranteed!

O Mary, conceived without sin, 
pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Happy New Year!

Ghandi's Take on British Gun Control in India

Well, what do you think? Can you imagine Ghandi carrying a gun? Maybe not, but he still supported the right to bear arms. Here's what he said in his autobiography:

I used to issue leaflets asking people to enlist as recruits. One of the arguments I used was distasteful to the Commissioner: 'Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity.