Prayers for safe travels (again) are always appreciated.
Without divulging precisely where I’m headed, I pls to visit the home of Benjamin Harrison while there. For those who didn’t follow along in US History class, look him up and then you’ll get the title of this post.
Holy Angels, protect us in our travels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison?wprov=sfti1#Cabinet
Ann Barnhardt has written a banger on the Prevostian antipapacy. Here’s a snippet:
“The notion that we laymen – the sheep – are NOT to listen and discern whose voice it is that we hear is abject lunacy. The notion the we laymen – the sheep – are to sit and wait for the hirelings – that is to say today’s faithless and effeminate clergy and prelates – to TELL US that the lying, hissing heresies and blasphemies we hear are, in fact, the words of a wolf before we react is clearly refuted by Our Blessed Lord. Further, the notion that we the sheep should willfully suspend disbelief and follow A WOLF if the hirelings tells us to, is, again, utterly irrational patent absurdity which is explicitly refuted by Our Lord and Savior in the Gospels.”
Check out the rest here:
Just got my hair cut (both of them). My wife got me a year-long membership to one of those fancy men’s day spa places with big leather chairs and liquor. It’s 10 AM. When in Rome…. My go-to (even pre-noon) is a gin and tonic. I’ve been drinking them for years. I’m the best. Also, smart business move on their part. Get the customer slightly lubricated and he won’t care as much if you make him look like Telly Salvales. Who loves you baby?…
Ah gin… I blame my English ancestry. And my Irish ancestry. And my wife’s Dutch ancestry. And 2025. And Robert Prevost. What can I say? It’s crisp and refreshing.
Feeling like a million bucks after my buzz job, I decided to stop at a liquor store and pick up a bottle for the home bar. Also, I was out at home and I have out of town guests coming who may or may not like gin but I sure do.
Wandering through the aisles of a liquor store I had never been in before I encountered a young man in a green vest.
“Can I help you find something,” he asked politely.
“Gin.” I said, expressionless.
Our Alkoholexpertekind (thank you Google Translate) immediately began extolling the virtues of a particular “Edinburgh” gin. Clearly, he had been trained to push this brand as evidenced by his next line.
“This Edinburgh gin is amazing. And Edinburgh is where the gin and tonic originated.” Only he said the name of the Scottish city with a very hard “g” at the end. Hint: it’s /Ed-in-bur-rah/ with just the slightest hint of g so soft I didn’t even include it in the pronunciation word.
“No it’s not,” I said so quickly even I was surprised.
Boy genius looked at me puzzled and began to wonder how he would make his escape without looking like he was mentally challenged.
I then proceeded to tell him about how gin originated in Holland, that gin was the English form of jin which was short for the Dutch jiniver which translates to juniper, the berry from which gin is distilled, how the British had colonized Inja and brought their crack cocaine gin with them but realized they’d need to start mixing it with this quinine tonic the Injans were drinking if they wanted the tonic to be both palatable and effective at preventing malaria and THAT is where the gin and tonic came from. I proceeded to add something about navy strength gin and how the Brits began shipping so much of the stuff to the subcontinent that they started concentrating it to save space on their ships but by this point I could see a tear streaming down his doughy cheek.
He thanked me for the history lesson and backed away. 
I thought about the virtue of charity and it’s natural outflow, true Christian kindness. Then I picked up the bottle of Edinburgh, wandered through the aisles and found young Paco. He was assisting another customer. I waited for a break in their conversation and said simply:
“For your trouble, I bought the handle of Edinburgh.”
The things I won’t do to raise a man back up and restore his dignity.
Granted, I stripped that dignity away in twenty seconds flat but still…
Now I’ve just got to sample the stuff and see if it’s any good.
Who am I kidding? It’s gin. I’m going to drink it anyway.
The orations of the Mass for this saint are hilarious…
Remember, Joseph was know to have been able to fly. Like actually fly.
“O God, Who willed that all things be drawn unto Thy Son when He was raised above the earth, mercifully grant, by the merits and example of Thy seraphic Confessor Joseph, that, having been raised above all earthly desires, we may be found worthy to come unto Him.” -Collect of the Mass
Also, if you’re about to take a test, send up a prayer to him. He wasn’t too bright but somehow he managed to pass through.
St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us!
I’ve been trying to write something about Charlie Kirk’s widow – some encouragement, some prayer. It’s a struggle but I feel the need to post something with her and their young children in mind. In the meantime, here’s an image for mediation.
It’s a facetious question.
I glanced up at the priests and altar boys at a Solemn High Mass for The Seven Sorrows and felt a deep sense of…
Pride.
Unmitigated. Unqualified. Pride.
The priests – my priests – looked amazing in their gold vestments with their precise movements and perfect Latin. The young boys were flawless in their reverential attention to detail.
I know I had nothing to do with it.
But boy did my heart swell.
Humility, Lord… Grant me humility. And thank You for Your gifts to me.
Meditation on Our Lady’s seven dolors is of great spiritual benefit. From catholictradition.org:
1. I will grant peace to their families.
2.They will be enlightened about the Divine mysteries.
3. I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
4. I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
5. I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
6. I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.
7. I have obtained this Grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.
Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us!
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 