This dog is beat tonight so instead of my usual pontificating, I thought I’d share something actually worthwhile. I came across this meditation last night and found it to be incredibly moving. Enjoy.
It’s been a minute since I’ve don’t a general stockpot of mixed thoughts under specially-fonted headings. In a crossword puzzle this would be called an “oleo”. Let’s kick off, shall we?
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Yesterday I posted a request for “non-squishy” novena prayers to St. Joseph. I woke up this morning to a number of emails from dear readers who did not disappoint. Thank you one and all! Now I have to decide which one I will begin praying. I spent part of my day just replying to each of you who sent something and if I missed anyone I apologize. I will get to you very soon. The important thing is that I have options. I love St. Joseph. I am trying to grow in devotion to this great man. As a husband and father, he is my patron. Thank you again and know that there will be more on this in the days to come.
Latin is Still Killing
Any of you fellow homeschoolers will know the struggle. We’re trying to get some loose ends wrapped up before beginning the third quarter in earnest next week. Coming back from Christmas break is hard but it had to be done. The kids and I tackled our Latin exams today. The following actual conversation may have taken place:
“Son, why did the Gauls hate the Romans?”
“Um… because they were French and they hate everyone?”
It’s hard for me to fault him on that one. We’ll go for half-credit.
Saying Thank You
Didn’t I just say thanks above? See paragraph 1. Tonight I had the pleasure of visiting with a small group of fellow parishioners. After the meeting I stepped outside because I am a slave to Phillip Morris. In the dimly lit exterior corridor outside the hall, a gentleman approached and asked if he could join me as he drew a long stemmed pipe from his pocket. As he stepped into the light I instantly recognized him. You would too. I won’t mention his name here but it should be TradeMarked. We proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation. Tobacco does that. Of course, I introduced myself using my real name. To my surprise, he had heard of me (under my real name). Before he turned his attention to one of his fans who had also approached, I was able to get in these words:
“You know, you were instrumental in bringing me into the Latin Mass.” He looked genuinely puzzled and replied, “How so?” “Your videos,” I answered. If he happens to see this, he should drop me a line. I’d love to carry on the conversation anytime. I rather enjoyed it.
Sometimes the “Separated Brethren” Don’t Get It Too Wrong
I am a fan of English chorale music. Since this is the month of the Holy Name of Jesus – the only name by which we may be saved – I’m dropping a video of a very nice arrangement of one of my favorite hymns, albeit sung by the choristers of the First Pentecostal Church of the Redeemer Almighty or something like that. Good voices are good voices. Pray for their conversion. And you really can’t beat that pipe organ.
Still better than David Haas.
That’s a wrap for this Wednesday night. Remember to stop every time you pass a crucifix and bless yourself. I’ve started doing that and it has had the most phenomenal effect on my spirit.
In the spirit of humility, I, your humble blogger, am seeking some assistance.
I would like to offer a novena in honor of St. Joseph, in particular to seek a special grace. the only problem is that the novenas I’ve come across online are all a bit squishy.
Anyone have any suggestions for a St. Joseph novena that’s a little more manly and traditional?
Thanks in advance!
PS: If you have a link to one, email me at harvey@harveymillican.com
Here we go again. JM Bergoglio, the Petrine Squatter is reported to have delivered some “off-color” remarks to a group of Spanish seminarians back in December.
Know what this reminds me of? If you guessed my own time in McCarrick’s seminary, then you’d be right and I will award you one gold star.
I saw this on Canon212 earlier (and please hit Frank’s donate button). If what is being reported is true (and please check out the story), then JMB is at best a dirty old man, at worst, well, it doesn’t get much worse than being an antipope and , as Barnhardt calls him, the “probable false prophet forerunner of the antichrist”.
But let’s stick with the dirty old man motif for a second. Is it important that men being trained for priesthood have a basic awareness of the kinds of situations they might face especially in the confessional? Yes. Is it necessary that these men be sexually harassed in the process? You don’t think that’s what this is? In any workplace situation where the CEO comes in to address the most Junior of trainees and starts using that kind of language and indulging himself with sex banter in blunt terms, those trainees could sue. And rightly so. No one wants to be forced to listen to an octogenarian talk about sex at all, let alone in anything other than the most sanitized and clinical terms and only if absolutely necessary.
Let’s not even dig deeper into the question of his supposedly telling these young men to absolve everything even in the absence of a sign of repentance on the part of the sinner. If that’s true then we simply have more evidence that two “churches” exist side by side. Apparently Our Lord’s instruction that some sins could be refused absolution means nothing to Papa Pervo.
But back to my days studying for the holy priesthood. I will never forget the day when the rector of my college seminary delivered a talk to the 25 or so of us young men sitting in the chapel. It was the weekly rector’s conference. I believe his topic was something along the lines of chastity. Yet somehow, about five minutes in, he began describing in vulgar detail the male ejaculation. Only he used other words. He couched it at first by giving the etymology of the French term “petite mort” – the “little death”. I was so confused wondering where he was going with all of this. And then he just blurted it out. “Men, I’m talking about [Latin conjunction for with]-ing”
Whoa.
I was 19. I had never been with a woman. I was not unwise to the workings of human reproduction. I knew the words he was using. I was still as red-faced as a tomato. In front of the Blessed Sacrament, no less! What was he thinking?
Years later I got a copy of the Catechism of Trent and discovered that the Church used to teach that such matters should be broached with great discretion. Not to our rector. Apparently he thought it was “chill” to be “down with the kids”. Again, I never did figure out how his talk related to chastity or what practical information a seminarian could glean from this garbage. I do remember him describing the marriage act in graphic detail including observations about how couples need to “work together to achieve mutual pleasure”. I’ll spare you those details. You’re welcome.
He went on to become a bishop, the Vicar General for McCarrick, and got his own see not long after. Good old Teddy strikes again.
Coming back to Bergoglio, though, I have no doubt that this story is true. For starters, it appears certain that he abandoned his prepared speech. My guess is he noticed actual theological terms on the first page that he knew he couldn’t pronounce.
Regardless, it would behoove him to remember that just because he’s a twisted fetishist doesn’t mean everyone else is. Also, if you’re still wondering how the older stream of Vatican II wickedness still seems to flow through the Church today, look no further. It’s called grooming and they’ve been doing it for years.
Regular readers will note that I occasionally post stories that simply give a snapshot of my daily life with little theologizing or news analysis. Hey, the subtitle of the page is “Musings of a Trad Dad”. Sometimes those musings are just about the amazing gifts God has given me, namely the extraordinary things I find in the “ordinary” home life I enjoy. Today was the feast of the Holy Family after all, so what better time to capture and reflect on these moments?
First up, Christmas is coming to an end. I don’t mean the Christmas Season. I’m assuming we’re still working off the February 2nd date for that one. But the hullabaloo of Christmas proper is basically over. I like to extend this as long as I can but some things cannot be avoided. Tomorrow, it’s back to the schoolroom with the kids. We’ve eaten just about all the candy in the house (mercifully). Mine is still the only house in the neighborhood with lights up, though. My trees are still up too. In here, it’s going to be Christmas for a few more weeks. Trust me, there will be plenty of time to put all of this behind us in February when Septuagesima arrives. But for now, if you stop by this place, I’d still offer you a glass of eggnog.
My Jack Russell terrier is curled up next to me in bed as I write this. There is no significance to that fact. He’s a dog. They’re loyal. I’m his master. It’s nighttime and that’s when both men and dogs tend to sleep. He’s a terrier so he’s schizophrenic. I’m actually a little frightened at the moment that he could flip and go pyscho on me if I move a limb the wrong way. Pray for me. I am scared. But he’s a good boy.
Bergoglio is still an antipope.
I texted a friend of mine today whom I don’t see often. Inquiring how he was doing, I was told that he has the flu. I seriously thought we eradicated that thing in 2020. I wrote back to him, “Do you need Ivermectin?” His response, “Sure, what’s that?” opened the door to a great conversation. How does one condense three years of memes, conspiracy theories, and the pharmo-industrial complex into one or two pithy texts? Well, yours truly found a way. Before the end of the day I was in his kitchen with my bottle of 1% injectable welcoming my friend to the club. Once again, a huge thank you to Ann Barnhardt for all of her work on this front. If it hadn’t been for her, I would never have heard of the stuff and here I haven’t had so much as a sniffle in two years. As I left his house he thanked me to stopping by and sharing my “meds”. “It’s a work of mercy, right?” I asked. “Isn’t it kind of what we’re supposed to do?” And it is what we’re supposed to do. I have to remind myself never to overlook even the simples works of charity and offer everything to God. Who knows who will be helped by these actions and prayers of ours? Who knows what soul might be freed from Purgatory and then pray aggressively for us? And of course, he is a friend and that’s what friends do.
And finally, speaking of offer things up… A thought struck me this morning at Mass. Maybe it was the orations. Maybe it was the Gospel. Maybe it was the sermon. I cannot say. I think it was the general tone of the Mass. We celebrated the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at Nazareth. In one of the prayers I was hit with the reminder that God placed me at the head of a family. He gave me the care of a wife and, blessedly, two children. I am to protect them physically and spiritually. I am to teach them, settle their disputes, teach them, give them good example, show them how to love, teach my son how to be a man, teach my daughter what kind of man to look for, and be a consolation to my wife. On that last point, I laugh that this is what she got for “consolation”. Gives a new meaning to the term “consolation prize” I guess. But I began thinking of something a dear friend had said to me several years ago. My wife and I were just beginning to come to grips with the fact that after a quick start – we got pregnant with our son on our honeymoon and our daughter was born 19 months after the boy’s birth – we were never able to conceive again. I’m not going to lie. The kids are both teenagers now. I still pray every day for that miracle, that impossible cause. I would take all the joy and anguish or raising kids all over again for the glory and honor of God and because I love being a dad with all my being. But this friend of mine suggested something to me when we began to realize that the struggle might actually be real. She said, “I think God wants you to offer up this pain as a sacrifice to Him…” It’s what she said next that haunts me. “A sacrifice to Him in recompense for all the Catholic couples who contracept.” I don’t know why those words came back to me this morning as I knelt before the Eternal Sacrifice. And who knows? Maybe He has something truly incredible in store for us. He has NEVER let me down in the surprises department. But I like the idea of taking this cross He’s given me and picking it up and carrying it for Him. I will think of those words from now on when I am at daily Mass.
Just my musings on a Sunday night on the feast of the Holy Family.
I was asked by a good friend earlier today if I would write a rebuttal to an article linked on Canon212. You will understand why I am not goin to mention either the name of the article or the author or the same. It was a classic screed written by a man who apparently knows very little about Tradition and even less about the Traditional Latin Mass. Frank Walker refers to him as one of the two “ThugBrothers”. I hope Frank trademarks that word. The author waxes idiotic about his premise. “There ought to be one, single liturgy in the Roman Rite,” he opines, or some other such horseshit. “And that liturgy should be the Novus Ordo.” Wow, big shocker from a big brain. He goes on to write a few hundred more words to prove that he has indeed made good use of that thesaurus the other ThugBrother gave him for Christmas.
I remember a conference I attended some years ago in the Denver Archdiocese for Teachers of Theology in Catholic high schools. One of the speakers, a brilliant man, gave a talk wherein he lamented the state of the young mind, how it had been absolutely raped by our degenerate culture. This was in late 2015. He talked of how he would give lectures at local high schools and students would ask him ridiculous questions such as, “Why does the Church hate the gays when they just want to love each other?” and “What’s wrong with trannies and when is the Church going to stop being racist?” He told the assembled group for this conference something that made absolute sense. “I very quickly realized,” he said, “that I will not engage with them anymore. They don’t want answers. They don’t have logic. They cannot argue from reason. Shake the dust from your shoes and move on.” And so to the friend who asked me to rebut the Thug, I will say something similar.
I would love to engage in a battle of wits with this man but I don’t fight unarmed men.
Wagers
George Neumayer tweeted something recently. I’m not on Twitter but others are and they forward me the tweets. I have been a fan of George for many years. I even had the privilege of meeting with him on one or two occasions. As an aside, he is perhaps the most down-to-earth guy you’d ever meet. He is a true reporter. I admire his work. George tweeted to the effect that the Vatican might not be able to produce the laicization documents for my old ordinary/nemesis Teddy McCarrick because they might not exist. I’d be willing to wager that George is right. I think I shall explore this question further… Stay tuned.
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 