For those who are new to this page, I pray a novena to St. Rita of Cascia, patron of impossible causes every nine days. I’m starting anew tomorrow. If there are any intentions for which you would like me to pray, please email me. I have quite the long list now. I also don’t take any intentions off the list until someone gives me reason to (a note saying the favor was granted, etc.).
Friends, my guardian angel came through for me again today. He’s a real prince. Love that guy. I knew going to bed last night that I would have a lot on my plate today and so I asked him to wake me up extra hard today so I could get to the early Mass. How early is that Mass? 6AM. That means I had to be up at 5:20. I worked out really hard last night and did not sleep that well. But, the angelic being assigned to me by God Almighty made sure to assist me in getting out of bed.
As I was leaving that Mass the thought popped into my head that today is an anniversary and that I should have made the person who’s anniversary it is my primary intention at Mass.
And all day long I’ve been thinking about him.
My big brother Brian was a character. He had his faults. We all do. A natural salesman, I remember a moment in his younger days when he showed a lot of people “how it’s done”. I share this story now to show you a glimpse of his life.
For the unfamiliar, the Port Authority Trans Hudson (PATH) trains is a commuter rail line that connects New Jersey with Manhattan. In the mid-1980’s PATH introduced a dollar-feeding machine at the turnstiles. The fare to ride was a dollar. Most commuters still carried quarters for the turnstiles. Coming home from work in the City one evening, Brian saw long lines of straphangars waiting to pay their fares in quarters but almost no one at the dollar bill turnstiles. He walked into a bank on the concourse and emerged with a truly brilliant plan. He sold dollar bills for five quarters a piece. The weary commuter who just didn’t want to wait in his line was ecstatic to part with 25 cents for the privilege of getting on the next train home.
I remember tons more. I remember being five years-old and the excitement of my big brother taking me to Madison Square Garden to see the Ringling Brothers circus. I remember him letting me man the microphone at the college radio station he ran when I was nine. I remember standing on the roof of the World Trade Center next to him. I was twelve. I looked out on the world and thought, “This is the coolest thing ever…”
As I grew older, my brother strayed far from the path that our parents had taught us to follow. Politically, spiritually, there wasn’t much to bind us together anymore but I still remembered the guy I knew.
A “therapist” had him taking Xanax or some other such nonsense for years. Let me state this clearly and I hope it sinks in. Don’t ever touch that shit. It is Satan’s Tic Tacs and no good can come of it. Yet even there I don’t think he was so far gone just yet.
Then came 2020.
My brother was the most social human being you would have ever met.
Do you remember what they did? Do you remember how they locked us all in our homes? Do you remember how they let our loved ones get sick and die alone? Do you remember your world being turned upside down?
This man who thrived on the company of others, who could chat up a deaf mute and for whom the thought of being in isolation was a nightmare could only endure so much.
From March until July of that year he bought into the hype until he couldn’t anymore.
I remember.
I remember that four years ago this very night my sisters and I had the lovely task of informing our mother that her son had hung himself.
I know.
“Forgive and ye shall be forgiven.”
It’s hard.
The late Fr. Buckley – known to many readers of these pages – said a requiem Mass for his soul. That was a great comfort.
Forgive.
Let go.
Don’t forget.
Pray for him.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him!
PS: I’ve had a good cry now while writing this. I think that’s cathartic. I think the big bottle of gin on my bar will also help.
Pretty soon they’ll take the training wheels off and let him ride down the block all by himself!
With apologies (?) to Freddie Mercury. Also, that song does have a special place in my heart, having already witnessed six of my siblings go to their judgments. Gallows humor. Check into it.
So the “other one” here is Ohio Senator JD Vance, rumored to be on Trump’s shortlist for veep pick.
Check out this exchange he had with some anchorbabe (as Rush Limbaugh used to call them).
Let’s review.
Anchorbabe (AB): Let me ax you something…
Vance (JD): Yessum…
AB: I personally hate you. Just wanted to state that up front.
JD: Understood.
AB: Do you agree with the Heritage Foundation on reversing access to Mifepristone?
JD: Well, I want to be clear that –
AB: NOW! Tell me now. I want to take a pill to kill my baby, you racist piece of shit!
JD: I just wanted to be president one day! Please! I’ll do anything!
AB: ARGHGHGHGHGHLRLRGHAAA! Kill babies with pill!
JD: Help me someone please!
AB: INCENSE TO MOLOCH!!!
JD: Yeah, cool. I’ll do it.
AB: Glad to hear it. I still hate you and will lie about you to the hilt to make sure you never leave Ohio politics.
And to JD I say, “Yeaaaah no. We’re done here. Loved your little biopic. Honestly couldn’t tell that hag playing your meemaw was Glenn Close. But killing babies, be it with a pill or a coat hangar, is still murder. Buh Bye.”
I posted yesterday about being in the emergency room with my son.
Mercifully, we checked out after four hours and I still made it to Mass for First Friday. Son seems to be doing A-OK and all is right with the world (the trannies and the dykes notwithstanding).
Thank you for the prayers!
When they won’t excommunicate Biden or Pelosi?
When they tell you that it’s OK to be a good [insert non-Catholic sect here]?
When Vigano’s own defense indicates that he doesn’t accept their “authority” anyway?
When James Martin, FJ* gets star treatment?
I say…
Fight on, Excellency!
These clowns have revealed themselves for the scum they are.
If you adhere to the Catholic faith as handed down by the Apostles, you cannot be in schism.
Remember when they excommunicated McCarrick? Yeah, me neither.
*the former Society of Jesus now known as a cadre of faggots
It’s always fun sitting in the emergency room with your kid (even if he is taller than me, he’s still my little boy). Someone decided it was a great time to have abdominal pain. It appears to be a kidney stone (which runs in the family) and all will probably be just fine. Please pray for him (and for me) that this gets resolved quickly and painlessly. I do appreciate it.
Also…
Today is the First Friday of July!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
