THE CASE OF BARRONELLE STULTZMAN, the Christian florist who was sued by two “marrying” homosexual men and the Washington State Attorney General because she would not create a floral arrangement for their “wedding,” is going to the U.S. Supreme Court. This video tells her story.
JORGE BERGOGLIO, the Man Who Would Be Pope, loves to be interviewed. On his latest interview, Novus Ordo Watch wrote recently: [S]ome time ago, German journalist Alexander Kissler referred to Francis as a “U.N. Secretary General with a pectoral cross.” That is a pretty apt description of Mr. Bergoglio, except that even his pectoral cross leaves a lot to be desired, as it looks more like a bottle opener than anything else — although it is a fitting reflection of the man’s shoddy theology. In essence, there is nothing that Francis says that couldn’t just as well be affirmed by a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Zoroastrian, a Jain, a Wiccan, an agnostic, or an atheist. One day people will figure out that if that is the case, nobody needs a “Pope”, a “Catholic Church”, or even a great variety of religions — they could all just come together under one false “Messiah” who preaches fraternity, dignity, and solidarity.
BOND AND FREE --- Robert Frost Love has earth to which she clings With hills and circling arms about— Wall within wall to shut fear out. But Thought has need of no such things, For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings. On snow and sand and turf, I see Where Love has left a printed trace With straining in the world’s embrace. And such is Love and glad to be. But Thought has shaken his ankles free. Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom And sits in Sirius’ disc all night, Till day makes him retrace his flight, With smell of burning on every plume, Back past the sun to an earthly room. His gains in heaven are what they are. Yet some say Love by being thrall And simply staying possesses all In several beauty that Thought fares far To find fused in another star.
PEOPLE ARE NOT ALWAYS aware of their own hopelessness. That's bad. Modern philosophy offers them no hope whatsoever, but to be unconscious of this state of hopelessness is worse than being distracted from it. Frank Sheed, a mid-20th century author who had a brilliant way of summing up complicated phenomenon, wrote in his 1946 book Theology and Sanity: An unhappy generation has of necessity to distract itself from its own emptiness. Since the beginning of the world, men have sought distraction in sin; our own world has found a further distraction, special to itself, in science. Take science first. It is incredible how long science has succeeded in keeping men’s minds off their fundamental unhappiness and its own very limited power to remedy their fundamental unhappiness. One marvel follows another— electric light, gramophone, motor car, telephone, radio, aeroplane, television. It is a curious list, and very pathetic. The soul of man is crying for hope or purpose or meaning; and the inventor says “Here is a telephone,” or “Look, television!”— exactly as one tries to distract a baby crying for its mother by offering it sugar sticks and making funny faces at it. The leaping stream of invention has served extraordinarily well to keep man occupied, to keep him from remembering that which is troubling him. He is only troubled. His sense of futility he has never got round to analysing. But he is half strangled by it. Sheed, Frank (2015-03-17). Theology and…
SISTER WENDY BECKET, in her book The Story of Painting, wrote about this 16th-century portrait, a painting of the artist’s wife with their children, by Hans Holbein the Younger:
Artists have always painted their families, but this is the saddest version on record. He lived very little with his wife and children in Basel (the reasons may have been political, religious or financial), but this tragic little trio has all the withering marks of the unloved.
The dim-eyed wife presses down on the children, plain, pale little beings, all unhappy and all ailing. Holbein, that superb manipulator of the human face, cannot have meant to reveal their wretchedness and expose his neglect with such drastic effect. It is as if his art is stronger than his will, and for once Holbein is without defenses.
The court painter, native to Germany, captured the personalities of the rich and powerful of Europe by maintaining a “dignified distance,” without conveying any intimate knowledge. But here he gets closer:
Here his courtly shield is down, perhaps because of the artist’s personal sense of guilt. He was not a good husband or father, and while he can carry off any portrait with superb technical aplomb, he catches his breath and opens the inner door when he paints the family that he abandoned and neglected. (more…)
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Behold we were conceived in sin; and in iniquity our mothers brought us forth;
Have mercy on us. *
As we have grown in years, we have multiplied our offences; and every day Thy goodness adds to our lives, our wickedness increases the heap of our transgressions; *
The law of our body makes war against the law of our mind, and brings us into subjection to sin; so that the good which we would, we do not, and the evil which we would not, that we do; * (more…)
THE HABIT OF PERFECTION
— by Gerard Manley Hopkins
ELECTED Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.
Shape nothing, lips; be lovely-dumb:
It is the shut, the curfew sent
From there where all surrenders come
Which only makes you eloquent.
Be shellèd, eyes, with double dark
And find the uncreated light:
This ruck and reel which you remark
Coils, keeps, and teases simple sight.
Palate, the hutch of tasty lust,
Desire not to be rinsed with wine:
The can must be so sweet, the crust
So fresh that come in fasts divine! (more…)
A SERMON by Fr. Anthony Cekada on "The Enigma of Suffering" can be found here.