Attention, American Catholics: Michael Matt and Christopher Ferrara on the Election

I Won't Let Go and I Can't Let Go

The Other Major Problem Facing Us All

At least here in St. Louis, that is. The menace of which I speak haunts us, as Shakespeare has the King of France say, "in our familiar parts"-- the roadways of our fair city.

Danger. Accidents. Lives ruined, or maybe just bummed out.

I'm talking about the greatest danger to good driving that exists:

The Joy 99.1 FM Sticker Joymobile.

No doubt you have seen these remorseless predators driving, parking and idling around town. What driver doesn't seek to put as much distance between themselves and a Joymobile whenever encountered?

Though this publication is not known for serious journalism, the Riverfront Times has posted a helpful article about the menace: 

There you are, driving along and carefully minding your own business, when suddenly one of your fellow motorists does something stupid, putting the lives of everyone they share the road with in imminent peril. Acting quickly, you narrowly avoid calamity. As the offending motorist speeds off, oblivious, you instinctively check the back of their car. It has a 99.1 "Joy" FM sticker on the back.

Every. Single. Time.

Joy FM is a Des Peres-based radio station with a contemporary Christian format, and its bright, oval-shaped bumper stickers can be found on vehicles owned by horrible drivers all over the St. Louis metro area, replacing Illinois license plates as the roadways' most ominous harbinger of imminent vehicular doom.

Not only does the author sum up the problem nicely, he points readers to a facebook support page for those victimized.

Thanks, RFT. Readers, be careful out there!

Man Up

Fr. Rutler has a well-written post (as usual) with the call for the West to defend itself against the infidel and to abandon the weakness brought on by moral degeneration. Excerpt:

This is not obscure trivia: Were it not for Charles Martel at Tours in 732 and Jan Sobieski at the gates of Vienna in 1683 — and most certainly had Pope Saint Pius V not enlisted Andrea Doria and Don Juan at Lepanto in 1571 — we would not be here now.  No Western nations as we know them — no universities, no modern science, no human rights — would exist.

In the ninth century, the long line of martyrs of Cordoba told the Spanish Umayyad Caliph Abd Ar-Rahman II that his denial of Christ was infernal, and that they would rather die than surrender. Saint Juan de Ribera (d. 1611) and St. Alfonsus Liguori (d. 1787) repeated the admonition that the concept of peace in Islam requires not co-existence but submission.

The dormancy of Islam until recent times, however, has obscured the threat that this poses — especially to a Western civilization that has grown flaccid in virtue and ignorant of its own moral foundations.

Captain Obvious on the Martyrdom of Fr. Hamel

I suppose it goes without saying that the reaction of Mohammedans, should Catholics ever storm one of their infernal mosques and murder some so-called imam, would be a little more, shall we say, forceful than ours has been?

Can I further suppose that the media and secular governments that ensure our downfall would demand substantive action against Catholics for doing such a thing?

I get that there are many powerful people trying to force some kind of religious, or racial, or class warfare. I get it.  And one of the many, many reasons why Catholics are right is that we don't do that sort of thing.  But man, can we wake up and at least defend ourselves when they come for us?

Whatever the means, there is definitely a war between civilization and barbarism.  It isn't just that barbarism is winning; it is that civilization doesn't even believe in itself enough to fight.

Meatless Friday Tuesday Has No Feel Edition: Does Ya Know?

Old Coot remembers. Pepperidge Farm remembers.  Do you remember?

Bernie Sanders Gives What Appears to Be Nazi Salute at Convention

Showing that pro-Nazi symbolism transcends party affiliation and religious identity.

Abbe Jacques Hamel, Requiescat in Pace

Father was martyred while saying Mass today in St-Etienne-du-Rouvray, by a follower of Mahomet.

May he intercede for France and all the tattered remains of the West!

A Partir de un Peregrino Frustrados Orar por Paciencia y Perseverancia

Last year a sign, this year an excerpt from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year: 

Nearly eight centuries, which to the heavenly citizens are but as a day, had passed over that tomb in the north of Spain, where two disciples had secretly laid the apostle's body. During that time the land of his inheritance, which he had so rapidly traversed, had been overrun first by Roman idolaters, then by Arian barbarians, and when the day of hope seemed about to dawn, a deeper night was ushered in by the Crescent. One day lights were seen glimmering over the briars that covered the monument; attention was drawn to the spot, which henceforth went by the name of the field of stars. But what are those sudden shouts coming down from the mountains, and echoing through the valleys? Who is this unknown chief rallying against an immense army the little worn-out troop whose heroic valour could not yesterday save it from defeat? Swift as lightning, and bearing in one hand a white standard with a red cross, he rushes with drawn sword upon the panic-stricken foe, and dyes the feet of his charger in the blood of 70,000 slain. Hail to the chief of the holy war, of which this Liturgical Year has so often made mention! St. James! St. James! Forward, Spain! It is the reappearance of the Galilean fisherman, whom the Man-God once called from the bark where he was mending his nets; of the elder son of thunder, now free to hurl the thunderbolt upon these new Samaritans, who pretend to honour the unity of God by making Christ no more than a prophet. Henceforth James shall be to Christian Spain the firebrand which the prophet saw, devouring all the people round about, to the right hand and to the left, until Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place in Jerusalem.

And when, after six centuries and a half of struggle, his standard bearers, the Catholic kings, had succeeded in driving the infidel hordes beyond the seas, the valiant leader of the Spanish armies laid aside his bright armour, and the slayer of Moors became once more a messenger of the faith. As fisher of men, he entered his bark, and gathering around it the gallant fleets of Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama, Albuquerque, he led them over unknown seas to lands that had never yet heard the name of the Lord. For his contribution to the labours of the twelve, James drew ashore his well-filled nets, from west and east and south, from new worlds, renewing Peter's astonishment at the sight of such captures. He, whose apostolate seemed at the time of Herod III to have been crushed in the bud before bearing any fruit, may say with St. Paul: I have no way come short of them that are above measure apostles, for by the grace of God, I have laboured more abundantly than all they. 

Today all Catholic hearts must invariably turn to Spain on this glorious feast day of St. James the Greater. Today let all of us, wherever we are, be spiritually united in the Sacred Heart in Santiago de Compostela.

Let our prayers be offered for, and in union with, the peregrinos arriving at the Cathedral today. And may our Saint be especially invoked in these days of Mohammedan attack in the West.

Happy feast day!

Trump Revisited

N.B. Disclaimer below*

Four months ago, I publicly declared my support, whatever that means, for the candidacy of Donald Trump. If you are interested enough to read today's post, you may want to reread that linked above.  Upon reflection, after listening to Trump's acceptance speech last night, it remains essentially true. As I wrote in March:

Trump's candidacy stands for the proposition of national sovereignty in foreign and domestic affairs, peace, a return to individual liberties that have been practically crushed by taxation and the tyranny of a P.C. outlawing of incorrect opinions. Though he is not the classic Henry-Hyde-gold-standard-pro-lifer, he states he opposes public funding for abortion and that he would appoint justices like Scalia.

Also, he has opened the acceptable range of free speech and debate on issues that the leftist establishment, aided and abetted by cowardly "conservatives" in government, has decided Are. Not. Allowed. To. Be. Held.  We are a short distance indeed from Catholic teaching on many issues being considered criminal behaviors and hate crimes.

Last night's speech was powerful and I'm still trying to come to terms with it. It was very good-- just not in the way to which I'm used. I used to be much more politically engaged in my youth and early middle age, and even on a semi-professional level.  So, I'm used to convention speeches.

Ronald Reagan truly had a gift. The man could reassure, embolden and inspire. He made you feel heroic and virtuous. He so set the standard of speechmaking in the television era that wittingly or unwittingly every candidate after him has tried to bottle the formula. No one else has ever succeeded like Reagan. Of course some are better than others.

But Trump's speech didn't use that mold. He presented essentially two modes, problem identification and promises and/or plans to solve them. At times he inspired, but mostly he took great pains to (in my opinion) accurately identify just how bad things are. And friends, it is bad. You know it is-- if you love your faith and the rule of law. 

When a doctor tells you that you have cancer, it isn't pleasant, but it might save your life. Telling you that you are fine will end up killing you.  The press jumped all over the "dark" tone of the speech.  Waaahh!

In a text exchange with my brother, I wrote this:

I liked it. Very realistic portrayal of what's wrong. I thought it a sign of how far gone we are that certain passages made me uncomfortable. I think the press will skewer him. He's 100% right about 80% of his beliefs. He will do what he says if he can. I don't remember anyone, even Reagan, thanking religious people for support. The homosexual stuff shows we're far gone-- he seeks the classic "liberty" angle, which is better than we have now but ultimately illusory. He will win in a landslide.

This morning, I would not walk one thing back.

Remembering the disclaimer below, and that elections are possibly meaningless exercises, I say this: if you don't wish to vote because the thing is rigged or useless, I get that.  But if you think that elections matter, or count, or whatever, and choose the Hamletesque delicacy of abstaining because Trump isn't somehow pure enough, I think that is a bit nuts.  But hey, brother, its your life. Again, from March:

I can hear you saying, "You can't be serious.  He doesn't mean any of this. He will say anything to get elected!"  To which I respond, "Then he can be no worse than any Republican elected since at least 1980."

And you know what?  He might actually mean it. And that scares a lot of powerful people a whole lot-- people that I am 100% certain don't have my best interests at heart.

My own take on the Trump-Clinton matchup I posted on that most worthless of social media platforms, Facebook. After acknowledging the he may-or-may-not-come-through angle, I wrote this about his opponent:

Hillary, on the other hand, will not do anything good and will do a lot of bad. She hates the Church, hates families, heck, if she knew me she'd hate me. She is an unqualified, doctrinaire Communist.

Easy choice.

Anyway, since some of you asked, that is how I feel about the whole deal after hearing the speech last night.

_________________

* The above assumes arguendo that any of this matters.

** FYI, Chris Jackson at The Remnant has written a Catholic apologia for Trump and has a Catholics for Trump website if that sort of thing interests you.

My Two Cents on the Cardinal Sarah Affair: the Ultimate Result of the Fracas is Very Good Indeed

I don't apologize for having a real job, I guess, though it makes timely commentary sometimes impossible.  On the other hand, a busy schedule stops my normal impulse of spouting off right away before the dust settles. At times, many times maybe, a blessing for us all.

But I did want to chime in on the call by the head of the CDW, Cardinal Sarah, for ad orientem worship in the novus ordo, and the aftermath, with what I have long believed is an absolute requirement for fixing the mess in the Church using the tools God gave us.

To recap: Robert Cardinal Sarah, whose dicastery has responsibility for the celebration of the sacraments, including of course Holy Mass, very gently--too gently, methinks-- asked priests to implement (slowly, very slowly) ad orientem worship in the ordinary parish setting. If you are not familiar with the term, ad orientem means "toward the East"-- in practical terms, the priest and the congregation facing the same direction during the Mass, towards God, and not facing each other down in the banal, off-Broadway cooking show musical that most Catholics know. 

I never want to badmouth any attempt at reverence in the liturgy, or trying to improve the novus ordo if one has to endure it. So my first inclination was to think, "Well, that's nice, doesn't mean much because no one will pay attention, and also because that ship sailed about forty years ago."  Part of the now dead-as-a-door-nail reform of the reform movement.  I thought of the Titanic (another blogger, I can't remember whom, has already written something like what follows, so I'll note that because I don't want to be accused of stealing ideas): "Sure, first officer of the Titanic, the ship is sinking fast, but yes, rearranging these deck chairs so we all face the same direction would marginally improve the experience."

But, like I said, a good notion as far as it went.


However that may be, the real education came with the overwhelming condemnation of this modest appeal by the Vatican and its now-familiar propaganda arms. Cardinal Nichols of Westminster took pains to explain to his priests that none of them should consider such a cheeky move. Even the Bishop of Podunk, Arkansas (if I remember the see correctly) wrote a dramatic and snippy letter to his priests that he would be most displeased if any of his priests should even consider such a thing. I don't know where a bishop in Podunk could reassign a disobedient priest as a punishment, but there it is.

Furthermore, the late, great Fr. Lombardi, who explains away every papal malfeasance, put the kibosh on the Sarah appeal by typically distorting the relevant conciliar and rubrical instructions. You see, the rubrics of the novus ordo itself assume that the priest celebrates ad orientem and at times during the Mass it instructs the priest to turn and face the people.  Look it up.

The situation in which we find ourselves these days boggles the mind. They can't discipline heretics; they can't uphold marriage; they can't stop liturgical dancing.  But oh boy! they can stop ad orientem worship. And they can kill it even when it is called for--expected, in the liturgical law itself.

So ends the affair. But, does it really? Is there any good news here? 

I maintain there is good news: the mask is all the way off.  The curtain is all the way down. There stands the Great Oz, the humbug, for all to see.

The Reform of the Reform is dead. Long live the true Mass!

I have many friends who assist at the novus ordo, and I speak now to them. You are not bad Catholics. You are not second-class citizens. I claim no exalted status by the accident (or blessing, if you will)  of having found the traditional Mass. 

I say: You have not let the Church down, but her leaders have let you down. You deserve so much better. You deserve the Mass that has been handed down for more than 1,500 years. You deserve the Mass that has formed our greatest saints. 

Do not prop up this travesty anymore. Come out of her! 

For not only do you deserve better, but in an infinitely greater amount, God deserves better. He deserves our best and highest worship. Can we not give Him that?

The novus ordo regime has decimated the Church and must be stopped. Nothing is going to be fixed until it is GONE.

There are only two choices now, taking each side to its logical conclusion: full liberty for every individual to do and act as they please and call it Catholicism, or else we accept and embrace the whole and entire Catholic faith established by Christ and handed down from the apostles.

The whole and entire faith includes, requires, and presumes the whole and entire Mass.

Cardinal Sarah and his enemies, albeit unwittingly, have given us the gift of clarity. Let us make use of this gift and act accordingly.

"They are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

Another great reflection for these troubled times, from the epistle for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost:

(I Cor. X. 6-13.) Brethren, Let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them: as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able but will make also with temptation issue that you may be able to bear it.

Stand

Christ will not fail us. No matter what. Let us not fail Him.

The West. The structure of the church. The heavens and the earth. All may pass, but He will triumph.

Let us be men.

Corrected Headline

As part of my ongoing public service apostolate, here is a more accurate headline to a story on Cardinal Sarah's efforts to introduce a modicum of liturgical order into the mess of the novus ordo:

Robert Cardinal Sarah attests to how botched preparation for the liturgical reform [destruction] had[s] devastating effects on the Catholic population

Prelude

It is therefore permitted to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal, which was promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962 and never abrogated…

--Summorum Pontificum, 2007 (emphasis added)

Let all everywhere adopt and observe what has been handed down by the Holy Roman Church, the Mother and Teacher of the other churches, and let Masses not be sung or read according to any other formula than that of this Missal published by Us. This ordinance applies henceforth, now, and forever, throughout all the provinces of the Christian world, to all patriarchs, cathedral churches, collegiate and parish churches, be they secular or religious, both of men and of women - even of military orders - and of churches or chapels without a specific congregation in which conventual Masses are sung aloud in choir or read privately in accord with the rites and customs of the Roman Church. ...

[...]

All other of the churches referred to above, however, are hereby denied the use of other missals, which are to be discontinued entirely and absolutely; whereas, by this present Constitution, which will be valid henceforth, now, and forever, We order and enjoin that nothing must be added to Our recently published Missal, nothing omitted from it, nor anything whatsoever be changed within it under the penalty of Our displeasure.

We specifically command each and every patriarch, administrator, and all other persons or whatever ecclesiastical dignity they may be, be they even cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, or possessed of any other rank or pre-eminence, and We order them in virtue of holy obedience to chant or to read the Mass according to the rite and manner and norm herewith laid down by Us and, hereafter, to discontinue and completely discard all other rubrics and rites of other missals, however ancient, which they have customarily followed; and they must not in celebrating Mass presume to introduce any ceremonies or recite any prayers other than those contained in this Missal.

Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass in any church whatsoever, this Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain that no one whosoever is forced or coerced to alter this Missal, and that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remain always valid and retain its full force notwithstanding the previous constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, as well as any general or special constitutions or edicts of provincial or synodal councils, and notwithstanding the practice and custom of the aforesaid churches, established by long and immemorial prescription - except, however, if more than two hundred years' standing.

--Quo Primum, 1570 (emphasis added)

Hope, though the World be Hopeless

O Lord, strengthen my hope, for he who hopes in You will never be confounded.

We look at the infinite God who is perfect and immensely higher than ourself, a weak, miserable creature, and we wonder: How can I ever reach Him and be united with Him, who is so infinitely beyond my capacity? And hope replies: You can, for God Himself wishes it; it was for this reason that He created you and raised you to the supernatural state, giving you all the help necessary for such an arduous undertaking. The Council of Trent affirms that we should all have "a very firm hope-- firmissimam spem-- in the help of God," help which He has formally promised to those who love Him and have recourse to Him with confidence. "Ask and it shall be given you," Jesus said; "Seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.... If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?" (Mt. 7, 7.11). The "good things" promised by Jesus are those contained in the act of hope: "eternal life and the graces necessary to attain it"; this is the object of hope and what we must ask for before everything else.

--from Divine Intimacy, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.

Survivor's Log

The proposition can be read here.

Ingredients: High-quality, but non-pretentious, craft bourbon and low-quality, and decidedly non-pretentious, Twinkie (post-bankruptcy vintage).

Process: Pour bourbon neat. Take Twinkie out of package. Take moment to question your life generally, and this decision specifically. Dip Twinkie into bourbon, and take photo thereof:

Remove Twinkie from bourbon.  Bite down, taste, assess.

Dear Readers, let me tell you when I first realized I had a problem. In the time it took to place the Twinkie into the bourbon and snap the above photo, approximately 2 liters of bourbon had been sucked up into that spongy goodness. Well, not 2 liters, but 2-much. I learned quickly in the nanosecond I bit down that the taste buds that normally receive the Twinkie signals aren't the same one that receive the bourbon signals. 

Worlds collided. I felt as though I had placed molten lava laced with ghost peppers into my mouth. Suddenly my jest that I could go blind didn't seem far-fetched. I saw stars, like Wile E. Coyote after the anvil drops on his head.

After regaining my bearings, I tried dipping the Twinkie more gently and quickly, to decrease the bourbon yield.  No medical crisis this time, but not that great. All those fried Twinkie with bourbon recipes I found online must bank heavily on the alcohol being cooked out. Whatever.

Scientific progress was the goal, though, and the goal was reached. Though the Twinkie was not improved by the bourbon, the opposite was not true. When, after consuming the Twinkie, I turned to drink the remaining bourbon, it was a revelation! 

Bourbon with Essence of Twinkie is a drink I could get behind, if, that is, I could ever go public with such a preposterous idea.

Help Me, Lord, for I Am Weak

Sometimes I can't help myself.  The above screenshot shows what happened when I tried to comment on one of Mark Shea's frequent public love letters to Simcha Fisher (Trigger Warning: link will take you to something Mark Shea wrote). I suppose the blocking dates back to when I tried to help out Mark and Simcha with a blog post suggestion.

I know I should just ignore them, but it's like seeing the bearded lady at the circus. I can't look away!

Keep up the good work, you crazy kids!

Begging the Question: Converted to What?

In an apparently laudable sentiment, Pope Francis prays that the hearts of terrorists be converted.

It must be asked, converted to what? In light of His Holiness' apparent tolerance for syncretism, I don't think we can just assume he means converted to the true faith.

If he doesn't mean conversion to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith, of which he is the visible head and principle of unity, then what does his statement mean? Short answer: nothing.

Life Is Cheap in This World

I wish I could say I think Dallas is the end of this nonsense. We are ripe for the taking, divided as never before by those who would enslave us. Oremus pro invicem.

Bourbon-Dipped Twinkies, or, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chatting in the Church basement after Mass can lead to all sorts of solutions to life's problems.  This past Sunday, when trying to decide how to handle one of life's latest outrages, a friend suggested that I eat a Twinkie.  Another friend was quick to respond that I tend to find solace in the occasional bourbon instead.

Then it hit me: I need to eat a Twinkie soaked in bourbon.

I'm writing this now for posterity.  First, I want you to be assured that this plan was concocted while sober.  Second, I wanted to memorialize the decision in case this experiment causes me to go blind, or crazy, or slip into a coma from which there is no return.

I plan to "live-blog" this event as it happens, but I don't really know what "live-blog" means. Possibly, the results written in real time might not be all that sensible.

"Why, thetimman? Why? Why do this?"  Because someone has to.

And don't bother me with your southern funk recipes of fried bourbon-soaked Twinkies. I'm not aiming for faux-gourmet here.  I want immediate and unmediated scientific results.

Stay tuned.

Battle Lines are Drawn

Other than the fact that I am not in a dark night of the soul over this yet (and with God's grace hopefully never), I could agree with every word of this essay from Juan Manuel de Prada at Rorate Caeli.

The Catholic Church

This is the song that first got me to think seriously about the genius and insight of Bob Dylan.  Here it is sung very well by the great Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell-- because I know some of you just can't take to Bob's dulcet tones.  People, this song is about the Church.  She is our Shelter from the Storm.

The Unique Evil of the Left

I had a hard time editing down the following excerpts from the full article at Lew Rockwell.  It's that good:

____________

Is it too much to say that since the French Revolution, the left has been the source of virtually all political evils, and continues to be so in our day?

There can be no doubt that great cruelty and violence can be and have been inflicted in the name of preserving the existing order.

But when we compare even the worst enormities of the more distant past with the leftist totalitarian revolutions and total wars of the twentieth centuries, they are in general a mere blip. The entire history of the Inquisition, said Joe Sobran, barely rises to the level of what the communists accomplished on a good afternoon.

The French Revolution, and particularly its radical phase, was the classic manifestation of modern leftism and served as the model for still more radical revolutions around the world more than a century later.

As that revolution proceeded its aims grew more ambitious, with its most fervent partisans demanding nothing less than the total transformation of society.

In place of the various customs and settled ways of a France with well over a millennium of history behind it, the radical revolutionaries introduced a “rational” alternative cooked up in their heads, and with all the warmth of an insane asylum.

[…]

Given that the left has sought the complete transformation of society, and given that such wholesale change is bound to come up against the resistance of ordinary people who don’t care for having their routines and patterns of life overturned, we should not be surprised that the instrument of mass terror has been the weapon of choice. The people must be terrified into submission, and so broken and demoralized that resistance comes to seem impossible.

Likewise, it’s no wonder the left needs the total state. In place of naturally occurring groupings and allegiances, it demands the substitution of artificial constructs. In place of the concrete and specific, the Burkean “little platoons” that emerge organically, it imposes remote and artificial substitutes that emerge from the heads of intellectuals. It prefers the distant central government to the local neighborhood, the school board president over the head of household.

[…]

As time has passed, leftists have bothered less and less to pretend to be neutral between competing social visions. This is why conservatives who accuse the left of moral relativism have it so wrong. Far from relativistic, the left is absolutist in its demands of conformity to strict moral codes.

[…]

And it is not simply that dissent is not tolerated. Dissent cannot be acknowledged. What happens is not that the offender is debated until a satisfactory resolution is achieved. He is drummed out of polite society without further ado. There can be no opinion apart from what the left has decided.

Now it’s true: the left can’t remind us often enough of the tolerant, non-judgmental millennials from whom this world of ubiquitous bigotry can learn so much. So am I wrong to say that the left, and particularly the younger left, is intolerant?

[…]

The leftist obsession with “equality” and leveling means the state must insinuate itself into employment, finance, education, private clubs — pretty much every nook and cranny of civil society. In the name of diversity, every institution is forced to look exactly like every other one.

The left can’t ever be satisfied because its creed is a permanent revolution in the service of unattainable ends like “equality.” People of different skills and endowments will reap different rewards, which means constant intervention into civil society. Moreover, equality vanishes the moment people begin freely exchanging money for the goods they desire, so again: the state must be involved in everything, at all times.

Moreover, each generation of liberals undermines and scoffs at what the previous one took for granted. The revolution marches on.

[…]

Dominus Vobiscum

Et cum spiritu tuo?

I post this because the blog by the above name, formerly Southern Illinois Catholic, appears to have been pulled down.  The author of this blog sometimes reads here, so I'm checking in.  Hope everything is OK; I'm sure your readers would love an update.

Our Lord's Warning Today

The Gospel for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost:

Matt. 7:15-21

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."

In the Gospel of the day, Jesus directs our attention to the “false prophets” who appear “in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” There are many who claim to be teachers in spiritual or moral matters, but 

they are false teachers because their works do not correspond to their words. It is easy, in fact, to speak well, but it is not easy to live well. Sometimes false doctrines are offered to us, even though they may not seem false at first because they have the appearance of truth. Thus any doctrine which, in the name of an evangelical principle, offends other doctrines is false: for example, that which in the name of compassion for individuals does harm to the common good, or that which in the name of charity sanctions injustice or leads to a neglect of obedience to lawful superiors. Equally false is any doctrine which tends to make us lax, disturbs peace and harmony, or under the pretext of a greater good, brings about dissension between superiors and subjects, or does not submit to the voice of authority. Jesus would like us to be as “simple as doves, ” averse to criticism and severe judgments of our neighbor; but He also wants us to be as “wise as serpents”, so as not to let ourselves be deceived by false appearances of good which hide dangerous snares. 

-- from Divine Intimacy, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD

July 3-4, 1863: The Beginning of the End of Self-Governance in America

July 3, 1863: Pickett's Charge fails; the Army of Northern Virginia is defeated at Gettysburg.

July 4, 1863: Vicksburg falls after a lengthy siege, splitting the Confederacy in two; the North assumes full control of the Mississippi river.

Think of these events while you are lamenting the federal implementation of the anti-life, anti-marriage, anti-freedom agenda of these days.

Enjoy your weekend!

We Have Not Yet "Resisted unto Blood": Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

In the Office of the day, St. Paul earnestly invites us to correspond with Christ's gift. "Jesus... that He might sanctify the people by His own Blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore to meet Him... bearing His reproach." If we want the Blood of Christ to bear all its fruit in us, we must unite our own blood with it. His alone is most precious, so precious that a single drop is sufficient to save the whole world; nevertheless, Jesus, as always, wants us to add our little share, our contribution of suffering and sacrifice, "bearing His reproach." If we are sincere we will have to admit that we do all in our power to escape Christ's shame and disgrace. A lack of consideration, a slight offense, a cutting word, are all that it takes to arouse our passions. How can we say that we know how to share in Christ's humiliations? Behold our divine Master treated like a malefactor, dragged amidst the coarse insults of the soldiers outside the gate of Jerusalem and there crucified between two thieves! And we? What part do we take in His Passion? How do we share His reproach?

To redeem us, "Jesus... endured the Cross, despising the shame..." and "you," St. Paul reproaches us, "have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb 12, 2. 4). Can we say that we know how to struggle "unto blood" to overcome our faults, our pride, our self-love? Oh! how weak and cowardly we are in the struggle, how self-indulgent and full of pity for ourselves, especially for our pride! Jesus, Innocence itself, expiated our sins even unto a bloody, ignominious death! We, the guilty ones, far from atoning for our faults unto blood, cannot even sacrifice our self-love. The blood which flows from sincere, total renunciation of self, from humble, generous acceptance of everything that mortifies, breaks and destroys our pride: this is the blood which Jesus asks us to unite with His! The Precious Blood of Jesus will give us the strength to do so, "for the soul which becomes inebriated and inundated by the Blood of Christ, is clothed with true and genuine virtue" (St. Catherine of Siena).

--from Divine Intimacy, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD