I’m waiting at the airport for my sister who has come into town for a week. The fruit of the second joyful mystery is fraternal charity. We’ll have lots of fun.
Meanwhile, I’m listening to this.
My favorite Marian chant and the oldest Marian prayer in existence.
Also, help me decided… I’m considering theme music for the podcast. It was suggested to me that I use a recording by a US military band as they are not copyrighted if the song they’re playing is in the public domain. I had narrowed it down to The Liberty Bell March by Sousa but then thought we’d sound too much like Monty Python (not necessarily a bad thing).
Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother, stained glass, Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, MD
Look, it can’t be all anti-antipope and faggotry rants all the time. Sometimes you just need to listen to some chant and help me pick a theme.
A quick post tonight… It’s Friday night. I just found out that my parish abruptly cancelled all-night Adoration. That’s sad. Since I started making frequent Adoration part of my life, I have really come to look forward to the hour or so that my son and I get to spend in the presence of Our Lord. I think he likes that I take him to Jack in the Box at midnight right after we leave the church. But I also think he has taken to looking forward to seeing Our Lord. We pray five decades on our way to the church together. Then we pray the other ten during Adoration. We’ve been blessed to be able to bring others with us – friends of ours who might not otherwise go have made a habit of the first and third Friday nights. But not tonight. Alas!
North American Martyrs Chapel (SSPX), Glens Falls, NY
In other news, this community is truly wonderful. By that I mean tha Trad community. I spoke today with a prominent tech adviser who gave me some excellent pointers on starting up my podcast. It’s coming, folks. And thanks to the advice I got today, it might even sound technically great! I have also received lots of great advice from readers through email. Thank you, thank you to all of you for your kind assistance.
Also, one of my good friends moved away suddenly this past week. It was necessary for him to do this. He got a great job offer. I don’t like that I won’t see him much anymore. We enjoyed hanging out, talking about the Church, and lifting weights (mostly in the form of weighted whiskey glasses). But, such is life. Another good friend came by this evening. In our conversation, as two grown men do on a Friday night after the a long week, we tossed back a few gin and tonics and my friend got a little “sentimental”. That’s guy code for he was sauced. Don’t worry, I drove him home. Happens to all of us once in a while. In his “sentimentality”, and I cannot recall for the life of me why this came up, he said, “You [me] have really lived through a lot of tragedy. How do you deal with it?” He was referring to the many deaths in my family from my early childhood through to the present. Hey, big families mean big deaths. I told him, “Look, it’s all part of the beauty of the life that God gives to each of us.” I didn’t want to get all philosophical on him. There’s nothing worse than trying to share one’s “wisdom” with one who is inebriated. It gets lost in several directions. But the reality is that God gives to each of us the life He gives to us. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Lord!” Look, I don’t really know much else. But life is beautiful, that’s for sure. Treasure the people God has given you – your spouse, your children, your friends. Love them enough to correct them in their sins. Love them enough to laugh with them and cry with them. Love them enough to will their eternal happiness. I think that’s pretty good for a guy who’d just slammed the finest Dutch courage distilled in North Texas. Man, that stuff is good.*
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us!
*For those interested, I’m referring to Greenhouse Gin, distilled in Sherman, TX. Not to be confused with Greenalls which is distilled from the sewage-water of a nearby gin distillery. Cheers!
I first wanted to mention St. Rita yet again. I have received more prayer requests and have added them into my novena. Again, please pray for my intentions as well. It is most appreciated.
Over two years ago my son and I came down with flu-like symptoms. This was February of 2020. We went to the doctor who ran a flu test and confirmed negative results. “It’s not the flu but we’ll treat it like it is,” he said. A few days later we were fine. And then the world ground to a halt.
I used to trust doctors. Anyone who spends seven years in school must know what they’re talking about. I even said this knowing about the Jesuits and the Legionaries of Christ. The minute they told us to stay at home and wear dirty cloth masks all bets were off. I haven’t seen a doctor since. I’m not just sucking up here but thanks to Ann Barnhardt, I got on the Ivy train early on and began to see a difference not only in my overall health (which was never bad) but also in my attitude toward modern medicine.
I simply do not trust a man who insists I wear a mask or pushes the death jab on me. And I won’t tolerate it.
Latin Mass parish, Nashville, TN (submitted by a reader)
Fun fact: Harvey is a pack-a-day Marlboro Man. I know it’s not good for me, except that it’s so mild and refreshing. And, it kept me out of Uncle Ted’s clutches so there’s that. I intend to quit one day soon. And believe me, you’ll all know because I’ll be a raging bitch. If you thought Bergoglio was on my radar before, that Argentine prick best be a-steppin’ is all I’m saying.
A few days ago, my older sister went to her doctor complaining of symptoms of indigestion. She’s 48. She’s also a fan of the tar. It’s just so damn smooth. But I digress. Yes, vascular disease runs in our family and whatnot. Still I think we were surprised to hear that she needed to go in right away to have a stent put into an artery.
She had the procedure this morning and is just fine, Deo Gratias!
Here’s where it gets interesting.
The doctors came in and gave her the usual “Ma’am, quit smoking for the love of God!” speech. And she was actually on their bandwagon until…
They insisted she pull her mask up for this convo.
And I realized just how dumb *most of them are. None of us are going to argue that smoking is good for you. However, I wonder if these same twits stand near a bedside and say…
“Sir, this monkey pox is going to kill you! For the love of God, stop butt blasting!”
I rest my case. Good night.
Seriously though, stock up on what you can. There are places where you can go. All things in moderation. Tobacco won’t be available soon anyway. But spare me the feigned indignation and false concern. I’d rather smoke a fag than listen to one bitch at me to wear a Masonic face muzzle.
Tonight, simply a prayer of thanksgiving and another in my posts of ongoing praise of Our Lord and His beloved servant Rita of Cascia.
Almost two weeks ago I began to pray the novena to St. Rita. I’ve prayed it so many times in my life I have it committed to memory. She has never let me down. I invited readers to pray the novena as well and many responded with emails asking me to add their intentions to my own novena. This I did with gratitude. I most humbly ask others to add my intentions to their own novenas to this saint of the impossible.
This past Saturday I concluded day 9. A former student – a young man with whom I have become good friends – had been looking for a job and, more importantly, a wife. He wants a trad girl. He wants lots of babies. He wants nothing more than to take care of them, help them get to heaven and himself along the way. I didn’t tell him I had added his intention, simply prayed it.
The shrine to St. Rita in my home. Originally in a church named in her honor in west Texas, this shrine was rescued from wreckovation by a devout woman who kept it for 30 years until her daughter informed her of my devotion. She then gifted it to me.
On Saturday night as we sat in my yard with a few cocktails and cigs I suddenly remembered another friend was having a get-together. If you’re keeping score, that is exactly two friends I have. Something about being abrasive or something… I asked the young man if he wanted to join me for an hour at the older friend’s party. He came along out of a sense of obligation. Within minutes he had been approached by another guy I know who works in construction in a very lucrative job. 20 minutes later my friend found me to tell me that he had been offered a job.
I told him at this point that it was Rita’s doing. He kind of scoffed. I looked up heavenward and laughed.
Two days later, still thinking the job offerer had been drinking and speaking out of turn, my friend decided to give him a call. Well, at this point St. Rita decided to toy with him. Do you know that within 36 hours, the deal has been not only inked but moved along so rapidly that this morning, on almost no notice, my friend boarded a flight to California where he will live and work at that amazing job for the next five months. After that he’ll return to Texas where he will continue in that job as a supervisor.
Friends, pray this novena. She will come through for you.
I’m still waiting on a few favors I requested for myself but I have confidence. Again I ask, please pray for me and my intentions. I greatly appreciate it.
St. Rita of Cascia, patron of impossible causes, pray for us all!
Gloria.TV (one of my favorite sites, by the way) published a video titled: “Paris: Roman Mass Grows Despite Traditiones Custodes”.
Folks, I love everything about the news report except that the title is wrong.
You see, interest in the Mass of the Ages is growing not despite “TC” but rather because of it.
These jackals in Rome (Bergoglio, Roche, et al.) failed to learn a very important lesson about human nature. This could be because they have spent years denying human nature, as all post-modernists do. It could be because they’ve spent years subverting human nature as all sodomites do. It could be because they’re dumb as a bag of rocks. I do not know, nor do I care. But the lesson they missed was this.
Whenever you ban something, it creates an air of mystery that makes people want to know more about it.
-Me
I’ll share a personal story, and it isn’t an isolated one.
When I was in seminary in the late 1990’s, I was part of what the formators called “a formation group”. Everything had to be done by committee, it seems. Years later, a decade and a half of teaching and running Catholic schools would confirm that if there is one thing the Church does well theses days, it’s copy to the secular realm and do it five years too late. My formation group was lead by a priest who at that time was in his mid-40’s (about where I am these days). This means he was ordained in 1981. Oof. That’s like being cast as the third Darren Stevens. The show’s been cancelled, Dick Sargent and Dick York are dead, and all the master tapes have been destroyed. You just have to learn on your own and hope you do a good job. Anyway, said priest – we’ll call him Fr. John – was a good man to be sure. He wasn’t a fag, had a fairly functioning brain in his head, and was a deeply spiritual man. His only issue was that hippiness had been baked into his DNA.
Holy Ghost Catholic Church, Knoxville, TN
So, hippy Fr. John, ministering to college students, really and truly believed what he had learned in the 70’s. The “new mass” was a restoration of the Apostolic agape meal. The Church needed to throw open the window and let in the fresh air. The sign of peace was just dope. You know, basic 20th century retardation.
And then TC hit the world with a thud.
I hear from another dear friend who is a priest serving with Fr. John. It seems that Fr. John desperately wants to learn (in secret if he must), the Traditional Latin Mass. “If they’re trying to ban it and they’re doing it with this level of cruelty, seems like something I gotta’ learn…”
You go, Fr. John. Learn that TLM and you will never be the same again.
Pray for our priests. Fast for our priests. Offer everything you have for them. The good ones – like Fr. John – might not be TLM’ers right this minute; but if their hearts are in the right place and they’re not intellectually diminished by years of unrepentant mortal sin, they can and will come around.
During the 2020 GOP Convention I watched in awe as Sr. Dede Byrnes stood on a stage before a national audience, fully habited, and, holding high her rosary, proudly proclaimed that it was “her weapon”.
I marveled at that statement because I know just how true it is. Our Blessed Lady gave us this most magnificent ordnance to honor her, to fight heretics, and to help save our souls. She did so because, as a perfect Mother, she loves us. I remember my own dear mom once sending me out the door in the morning during a time when I was having trouble with a classmate. I wasn’t being bullied but I could tell this kid was crying for attention and that he might try to get it by making me feel insecure with his digs and taunts. I had just received a pretty bad haircut as I recall. I think I was 8. Mom gave me a kiss on the forehead, handed me my lunch money, and whispered, “Just remember Love, your hair will grow back. He’ll always be a dumb sh*t.” See? moms love their kids and give them the weapons they need. In my case it was a biting humor that came from the streets of Manhattan circa 1945. But Our Blessed Mother? She gives the best weapons.
And now in The Atlantic we read that the rosary is a “weapon for rad-trads” who consider it like their “AR-15”. So first, the author of that piece that shall not receive a link from me thinks he is insulting us by calling us “rad-trads”. I’ve been called worse by better people, you dumb sh*t. Rad… as in radical… as in deeply rooted. OK. I’m down with that. Trad… as in traditionalist… as in clinging to the eternal Truth? Yep, down with that too. And my AR? I thought you were trying to denegrate me. The AR is a great piece of weaponry. I’m fixin’ to get Psalm 42 etched onto my stock. Then she’ll be real purty.
In the end, we are told, all that will remain is the rosary and the “sign of my Son”. For several months in 2020, the rosary WAS all we had. I will let those beads out of my hands when I’m cold and dead. Oh wait, no I won’t. They’re going in the ground with me.
A dear reader wrote me recently and mentioned that she prays all 15 in Latin every day. Barnhardt mentioned that in a post as well. I began the practice myself during Lent. Do it. Make the time. You will NOT be disappointed. Get out there and fight like a man for your Mother.
The Results are In and You’re Gettin’ a Podcast!
You are all so, so lucky. I couldn’t write that with a straight face. Still, I am encouraged by the poll results. 90% of you responded that you would make time to listen to my voice. 2 people responded with the obvious joke answer “hell no”. I tracked their IP addresses. I think there are some angry V2 faggycollars reading this blog. ‘Nuff said on that. Either way, I hope to get started recording in the next week. If anyone reading has any specific tech-y advice, I’m all ears. I’ve done this once before by recording Zoom calls and uploading the audio but I’d be interested to hear what else is out there.
High altar, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Dallas, TX
Magnificat!
A final word tonight regarding whatever it is that Antipope Bergoglio said in reference to Our Lady’s stirring hymn of praise – the Magnificat. “An overturning of values”? Reminds me so much of my seminary days when we discussed how the liberation theologians hopped on the Magnificat and interpreted it as a statement of social justice par excellence. They fail to see that the Blessed Mother was in fact making the most humble statement ever proclaimed. “He has lifted up His lowly servant… The Almighty has done great things for me… Holy is His name…” But yeah, I could see how someone might hear “overthrow the capitalist pigs” in there too I guess.
Just remember, friends, you can always learn to understand Scripture in the light of the Holy Ghost and the Tradition of the Church. The others? They’ll always be dumb sh*ts.
Almost two years ago I recorded ten episodes of a podcast on homeschooling. I was, perhaps, my own biggest fan. Granted the five other people who heard it generally liked it.
Clearly in the intervening time my own focus has shifted such that I am now writing exclusively about the crisis in the Church and it’s effects.
So dear readers, I pose a question to you tonight:
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 