Tonight I would like to share with you a beautiful image that a dear friend sent to me.
I have admired the work of Hans Holbein the Younger for many years, in particular his Portrait of Sir Thomas More which I have seen in the Frick Collection in Manhattan.
This painting is a bit different however. Take a look.
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1522
It is striking to me. And since this is a subject for meditation, I shall say no more other than that the Body of Christ (the Church) will have to suffer as He did. I would say we’re on the Road to Calvary already.
The former Nuncio and current Prelate of Mystery speaks of what he knows. I will admit that Archbishop Vigano has said some things that have made me scratch my head in the past. Actually it was one thing and he may not have been totally off base with his comments about Donald Trump being some kind of katechon. Nonetheless, he seems to have figured out the enemy’s plan.
Folks, if you haven’t figured out by now that Jorge Bergoglio is an antipope and that his plan is to isolate the remaining faithful Catholics of the world while confusing all the rest then I can’t help you much.
Use your common sense. Use your God-given gift of reason. Use the gifts of the Spirit you received in confirmation. But use them now and resolve to cling to the Truth.
St. Joseph’s and Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church (SSPX), Colton, CA. Sent by a reader.
The man has said he will schism the Church. We know that’s not possible for an actual pope to do.
He dialogues and encounters with every manner of degenerate but calls Catholics “rigid” and worse.
So Vigano thinks we’re going to be forced into a Bergoglian-elevated SSPX and then excommunicated. Some of us have been saying this for a while. It’s not hard to read the signs.
What is interesting is that Vigano proposes a solution to keep us united. Go read the article and decide for yourself.
Already in my own circles, I know people who are converting guest bedrooms and spare rooms into lodging for cancelled priests and home chapels. I proposed a year ago that we form a network of priests willing to offer the Latin Mass so that we know where to go when that day comes. I think of it as an “Underground Railroad” of sorts for the TLM crowd.
But we must have a plan. So “put on your thinking caps,” as Sr. Assunta used to say. She was my first grade teacher, you know before her refusal to abandon her habit made her a pariah to her order and she was banished. Even in the 1980’s my mom knew where the wind was blowing. It wasn’t too much longer before we were homeschooled.
St. Martha, pray for us!
PS: Might I ask prayers for several personal intentions this week? I appreciate it greatly!
I took a break from the back-breaking labor I’ve been doing the past week. I’m building a fence which requires the demolition of not one but two other fences. But that’s another story.
I took said break because my daughter asked for a family movie night. Somehow we settled on the Gary Sinkse version of of Mice and Men.
I am so disturbed now.
I suppose next time I’ll pick something light like Schindler’s List.
I was captivated by a small detail I read in a news article about the late singer Sinead O’Connor this past week.
In her obituary it said that the was born Sinead Marie Bernadette O’Connor on December 8, 1966 (Feast of the Immaculate conception) in the Cascia House Nursing Home in Dublin.
It also listed the rather odd detail that the delivering doctor was the son of the Irish revolutionary leader and first Taoiseach (president) Eamon de Valera. She was named in honor of the doctor’s mother Sinead and St. Bernadette of Lourdes.
As you might have guessed, it was the location that caught my eye.
Perhaps St. Rita is poking her head out again and reminding us that, with God, nothing is impossible.
So pray for the dead and pray for your own impossible causes.
If you’re too young to remember (I was 13 at the time) Sinead O’Connor was an Irish singer who shot to stardom with a song called Nothing Compares 2 U. The song was written singer who has gone to his judgment, Prince.
The song was indeed haunting, or rather Sinead’s voice was. She clearly had great talent.
But as quickly as she rose to fame, she also fell from Grace. Hard.
In October of 1992, the singer appeared on Saturday Night Live where she ended a performance of the Bob Marley song War by picking up a glossy photograph of Pope John Paul II, declaring “Fight the real enemy!” and then tearing the picture to shreds.
She was instantly banned from ever appearing on that show again. What’s more, she was roundly condemned. Look, when Madonna says you went too far, you’ve probably gone too far.
But I also remember a few years later when O’Connor found a renegade Catholic priest to “ordains her” to the priesthood. I believe she called herself Mother Bernadette or some nonsense.
Sinead claimed to have been abused by the Church. This is where it gets sad. Knowing what we know, she may very well have been abused. She claimed to be fighting for the true Catholic faith. She also appeared to be mentally unstable and easily manipulated. It seems to me that the Catholicism she was fighting for was straight out of the gates of hell, almost like an anti-church. Coupled with all her other problems, this talented women who otherwise could have had a bright career spiraled out of control and is now dead at 56.
Sinead isn’t even the point of this post though. And she wasn’t a “fierce activist” either. She was a manifest public sinner.
But what are we? Are any of us prepared for our judgment day? Hopefully none of us are tied up in drugs. But the question is valid. Barring mental illness and mind altering substances, how are we living? Are we prepared for the day when our lives are snatched away and we have to give an account of our wretched sins? When we die, did we think we had just one more day to pray for contrition and ask forgiveness for substance abuse, contraception, abortion, theft, blasphemy, to say nothing of the sacrilege of simulating a sacrament?
It comes quicker than you want and more final than you desire.
Seek the Truth.
He is a real Person.
In fact, He IS GOD Incarnate.
Cling to Him. Cling to His Church – the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and make sure it’s not the false church presented to the world these days.
Today, the feast of St. James, I woke up and headed to morning Mass at the parish. I noticed two things as I got out of my car. The first was that I was overcome by an image in my mind. The image was of me sitting in a pew during the Offertory in the very church almost two years ago. It was a cold yet bright weekday morning, the same Mass I was walking into today. It was while sitting there during that Mass that I began to get the phone calls from my sisters telling me that one of our brothers had died.
I thought of him as I looked around the parking lot this morning and I said a prayer for him. I thought I’d how he died – alone in a boarding house in Scranton, PA. He had made his choices in life and these were the results. Years of drinking and drug abuse culminated in a massive heart attack or seizure or something. We don’t really know. In fact we didn’t even know he had died until that morning which was six weeks after the fact. No one in Scranton knew who we were. It was Providence that someone connected the dots right before he was to be either cremated or buried in a potters field, I can’t recall which.
Picture of a young martyr (St. Sylvan in Dubrovnik) sent by a reader.
I thought of my mom and the now-routine duty we’ve had in telling her that another of her children were dead. She is a rock. Rather, she has faith unmatched by anyone I’ve met. I remember her explaining death to me when I was 4 years-old and my twin had died. I lost a twin. She lost a baby. Yet she saw her obligation was to comfort the living and to teach. What did she tell me? She told me to never be afraid and it’s something she’s told me again and again. I’ve reminded her of that during these dark days of the Bergoglian antipapacy. God will not be mocked and the Immaculate Heart will triumph.
I thought of 30 Gregorian Masses I arranged to be said for his soul and I prayed that God would look upon that one gesture of mine for my brother, my godfather, and overlook his sins and welcome him into His heaven.
If it isn’t obvious…
Stay confessed and never forget to pray for the dead.
I thought about all of these things as I realized the second thing while I was getting out of my car…
The parking lot was unusually empty. I’ve been away two months and didn’t realize they had suspended the morning Mass for the Summer.
Oh well. Let’s try again later.
St. James, pray for us!
*PS: I did eventually get to Mass where I prayed for my brother on what would have been his 57th birthday specifically at the elevation of the Chalice. Lord Jesus, have mercy on him and on me!”
Folks, I got off all that social media nonsense a while ago. Sorry but I'm not on Twitbook, Facepalm, YouHu, WingWang or any of the others. Maybe an event will happen to make me change my mind like Peter and Paul coming down with flaming swords and commanding it be so. Until then, read the blog and if you feel a comment is in order or you feel like sharing a tip or suggestion for a topic, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com.
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 