I post everyday. Writing daily is a way I keep my brain engaged.
Yet yesterday, I ran out of time.
I don’t do this often, but through the magic of “post settings” I’m correcting that problem and moving on. Let’s chalk it up to the return to standard time.
St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!
This post will be updated later with the specifics. For now, I wanted to remind the readership of the things mentioned in the title. I was able to obtain a plenary indulgence today. This was most fortunate as I received news that my sister’s mother-in-law died overnight. Her name is Teresa. Please offer a prayer for her repose.
Ever have one of those days?
My days are typically filled with exciting things. I always get to go to Mass which is the greatest thing to do. I get to teach my kids which is something I truly love. I make no money doing this but when I was a Catholic school teacher I similarly made no money so there’s no change there (when I was an administrator I made even less!). And most days I get to spend an ample amount of time on my front porch in the late afternoon enjoying a gin and tonic and watching my Sacred Heart flag gently blow in the breeze twenty feet above my quarter-acre signaling that all is right in my world.
Today? Not so much.
Today I missed Mass. strike #1.
I got the pleasure of shuttling guests of my wife’s company party back and forth between two area airports and a hotel. I actually enjoyed this as I love meeting new people and I love airports. We’ll call it a draw here.
My dryer is busted. Four years old and the drum ate away at the housing while the dish ran away with the spoon. I’ve been shuttling laundry to my mother-in-law’s house in between my other assigned tasks. Don’t buy a GE.
But the absolute worst thing today was confession. As in, it didn’t happen. I’ve been trying to go specifically for the November plenary indulgence. Unfortunately amidst all of my airport runs, I had to pick a church that I do not usually frequent – as in ever.
Confession at this church runs from 11-11:30. I arrived at 11:32 and got on line. There were five people in front of me. Person #1 enters the box and exits within two minutes. Person #2 meanwhile answered his phone, exited to the adjacent vestibule and proceeded to gab at full volume for about fifteen minutes. Person #3 (now serving as person #2) enters the box and seemingly got sucked into a black hole because she remained there for fifteen minutes. Person #4 enters the box next. While he was in there, the original Person #2 re-enters the church and jumps on the back of the line until… Person #5 (the only man standing between me and the priest at this point) motions for him to come back to his original spot.
The next thing that happened was that this line-cutter went in, presumably confessed his sins, and stepped out just in time for my watch to signal it was time for the moon Angelus. And then he dropped the bomb.
“Father said he has no more time. Sorry.”
So now my question is, when I get to confession tomorrow am I obligated to confess wanting to strangle this man? Kidding. I’m glad someone got his sins wiped clean. Just wish it could have been me.
St. John Nepomucene, pray for us!
Tagged confession, TLM, traditional catholic
The collect from today’s holy Mass:
O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Your servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired.
Pray for the dead. We will join them one day.
St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for us!
That’s right friends. Time for another nine days of prayer for your intentions. Please send me anything you’d like added. Grazie!
I could write volumes on what I heard today.
I could. But I won’t. That is because I have been so thoroughly disgusted by what I heard. I was shaken to the core almost as much as the man who told me these things.
Many of you know that I have a “source” in law enforcement. One of my nephews is a detective in a large Northeastern city. From time to time he fills me in on the details of life on the job. Today he called me and this was no ordinary phone call. He was almost trembling as he spent the next hour relating to me the absolute demonic state of our world. And this is the takeaway.
Earlier today, Ann Barnhardt posted another brilliant piece about a subject that used to garner universal support in this country. Her thesis, if I may, is that sodomy is among the worst of evils and a society that ignores such blatant violations of natural law (i. e.: not executing sodomites) is soon doomed to disaster.
My law enforcement source sat through extensive training for the past few days. The topics ranged from investigating financial crimes (and the absolutely criminal ways your government goes about said investigations – perhaps a topic for another day) to more routine “traditional” police work.
But the thing that left him wondering why God Almighty hasn’t blasted the third rock straight to fiery hell focused on what he and everyone in his cadre referred to as “the single greatest epidemic of our time”. And no, it isn’t fentanyl (though I’m sure that’s not far down the list).
I cannot repeat most of what he told me and I don’t want to either. Suffice to say that literal children – pre-pubescent boys and girls all the way down to infancy – are being raped every single day in horrifying numbers. Did we not know this? Well, not to the extent that he made me aware. And the worst part is that we and, of course, law enforcement KNOW that the overwhelming majority are being funneled through that southern border for this express purpose. In one instance alone (for which my source saw the actual evidence) a young girl was raped over 200 times in a single week. And that’s just in one location that was discovered.
What infuriates me most of all is the malevolent obtuseness of the hierarchy in this country – both civil and ecclesiastical – who overlook all of this as they tell you to welcome the immigrant, you racist bitches. Then the ecclesiastical part of that equation take money from the civil side for “refugee resettlement “.
The souls of every one of those children is on their hands.
But the most shocking part of all of this – the reason I write this at all – is what he was told next. this was told to him by his superiors in no uncertain terms.
“There is nowhere on earth that you could go where you wouldn’t be more than one mile from this heinous crime.”
One. Mile.
Think about that. Then get on your knees and pray to be spared the effects of the chastisement that surely must come because God is infinitely just and the lives of these children call out to Him for vengeance.
I’m convinced now that the oligarchs are well aware of this. They don’t care. They’re most assuredly part of it. Dear Lord in heaven, it wasn’t enough for them to murder them in the womb? No, Satan spits in God’s eye as he convinces men to turn their backs on nature.
As the Council of Trent proclaimed: “There isn’t a single sin man would not commit if not for the grace of God.” That goes for you and me alike.
Lord Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, spare us!
Tagged TLM, traditional catholic
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a wedding. Normally, the previous sentence would be the setup to a joke. You see, I generally do not like weddings. Matrimony, of course, is a wonderful institution sanctified by Christ. Weddings, however? I cannot imagine Our Lord had in Mind ushers who do not know how to seat a couple, bridesmaids who do not know how to properly walk down an aisle and guests who have not seen the inside of a church since their baptisms. Don’t get me started.
This wedding, though, was quite different. I will state that it was a trad wedding held in a beautiful church. Other than a handful of guests who failed to remove their Stetsons and this proved themselves to be fake cowboys, the ceremony was quite edifying. Here’s to the newlyweds!
After Mass I used the opportunity to snag some pictures to keep in the old camera roll for future blog posts. I want to share one with you here.
In this image of the Eleventh Station we see the Blessed Mother mournfully witnessing the crucifixion of her Son. As the Stabat Mater teaches us, Mary stood by Jesus “to the last” and suffered with Him for the salvation of the world.
It seems to me, though, that her hand is outstretched for a number of reasons.
It could be that the artist wanted to show Mary’s willingness to die with her Son. Her hand is stretched as if to say “Nail my hands to the cross with His.”
It could be that she holds her arm outstretched in a gesture to us as if to say, “Behold what my Son has done for love of you!”
Or it could be, as I would like to believe, that she is inviting us. Blessed Mother is ever to be found standing beside her Son. She is, in a way, our link to Him and in this His most bitter agony and hers, thinking not of her tremendous sorrow but of our need for salvation, she fulfills her role and urges us to take her hand to be united with His.
O Fairest of Our Race, O Queen of Calvary and Sorrowful Mother!
O Mary Conceived without Sin, Pray for Us Who Have Recourse to Thee!
Tagged sacred art, TLM, traditional catholic, wedding
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 