THE Consortium Vocale Oslo sings Crux Fidelis (Faithful Cross), from its CD of Gregorian chants for Lent and Holy Week, Exaudium Eum. Crux Fidelis is sung as a hymn on Good Friday during the Adoration of the Cross and in the Liturgy of the Hours during Holy Week. It is part of a larger sixth-century composition by Saint Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus which begins Pange lingua (‘Sing, my tongue’). It was originally composed for a procession that brought a portion of the true Cross to Queen Radegunda in 570, wife of the Frankish king Clotaire I.

Here is one English translation:

Faithful cross, above all other,
One and only noble tree:
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee!

Gregorian chant is prayer and song, biblical exegesis and meditation. The chants, which have their musical origins in the ancient Jewish synagogue service, once brought the Old Testament Psalms, in a perfect blending of text and music, to a world without books. Albert Schweitzer, of the vocal group, writes:

What makes Gregorian chant so popular today is its religious power that appeals to the deeper levels of the human heart; its spiritual and transcendental dimensions. (more…)

KADIE writes:

Recently, we received something in the mail called the American Community Survey.  Initially, I thought it was junk mail due to the fact that is was addressed to “Resident.” But, upon further investigation, I realized it was legitimate.  In asking around among family and friends, no one had ever heard of it.  So, I Googled it to find plenty!

It is a long form of the Census sent to a few million people per year.  It is 28 pages long and their estimated time to complete it is 40 minutes.  So, I began to peruse it before tackling the job.  It began with the usual questions you’d expect to find on the census and other questions whose answers can be obtained from the IRS, banks, employers, etc.  But then, to my shock and horror, the questions became increasingly personal and invasive. (more…)

ANTI-GLOBALIST EXPATRIATE writes:

“In India, Politics is Criminal.” According to The Diplomat:

In total, one-third of all of the MPs in India’s current parliament, elected in 2009, are accused of crimes ranging from electoral misconduct and rape to murder. Despite the seriousness of these charges few, if any, will ever face a judge or jury.

 And the other two-thirds haven’t been charged yet. They’re obviously keeping up with their bribe payments.

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THE Resurrection of Christ is most often thought of as a religious event, but it was first and foremost an historic event. Here is a brief summary of what we know from the New Testament accounts, which were consciously written as history and have as much authenticity as most universally accepted (by professional historians and laymen) ancient documents; from general knowledge of that era and from elementary interpretation of all this:

*Eyewitnesses described the crucifixion of Jesus in detail. John said that he saw blood and water pour forth from Christ’s lanced heart right before his death. (Jn 19:34-35)

*Roman soldiers faced the death penalty if they did not successfully execute someone condemned to death.

*Jesus’s body was handled and wrapped in cloth. Eyewitnesses testified that it was placed in a tomb covered with a boulder. Roman soldiers guarded the tomb. They would have faced severe penalty if they left it unguarded.

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THIS excerpt is taken from a sermon on Our Lord’s Resurrection by Pope Leo I, also known as St. Leo the Great, who died in 461 and whose feast day was traditionally observed today. Pope Leo is famous for having persuaded Attila the Hun in 452 to turn back from his invasion of Italy.

The whole of the Easter mystery, dearly-beloved, has been brought before us in the Gospel narrative, and the ears of the mind have been so reached through the ear of flesh that none of you can fail to have a picture of the events: for the text of the Divinely-inspired story has clearly shown the treachery of the Lord Jesus Christ’s betrayal, the judgment by which He was condemned, the barbarity of His crucifixion, and glory of His resurrection. But a sermon is still required of us, that the priests’ exhortation may be added to the solemn reading of Holy Writ, as I am sure you are with pious expectation demanding of us as your accustomed due. Because therefore there is no place for ignorance in faithful ears, the seed of the Word which consists of the preaching of the Gospel, ought to grow in the soil of your heart, so that, when choking thorns and thistles have been removed, the plants of holy thoughts and the buds of right desires may spring up freely into fruit.  (more…)

  IN a moving interview with The Daily Mail, Jennifer Trapuzzano, pictured above with her parents and brother, talks about her husband, Nathan, who was shot to death in a mugging during a morning walk in Indianapolis on April 1. Jennifer, 25, is expecting her first child next month. "'He had told me he thought he was made for great things, not in an arrogant or presumptuous way', she said." The night before he was killed, the couple had coincidentally talked about his dying. ‘I don’t know why, but we talked about him passing. We were lying in bed and I told him, "I don’t know what I’d ever do without you." Trapuzzano regularly attended a Latin mass and "was always inviting people to come." His funeral was packed, so in that sense he got his wish.

THERE are few things a true Catholic wishes more than unity with Protestants. God loves unity. He is unity. His revelation could not possibly be consistent with the doctrinal chaos that sprang from the Protestant revolution. A Catholic could not possess true charity toward the Protestant unless he wished with all his heart for the latter to join the one, holy, undivided, visible body that is the Mother Church, the only path to personal salvation and the only force that can defeat in the social and political realms the organized opposition to the supernatural life that has triumphed over the modern world. Either Catholicism is utterly false or the claim of Protestantism of a loose, invisible Church is false. They cannot both be true.

The Novus Ordo Church of Jorge Bergoglio, aka “Pope” Francis, has decided that Catholicism is false. It has announced a grand Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, in which the differences will be wiped away in a collective act of submission by the Vatican II sect. See the report at The Remnant Newspaper.

My heart goes out to those Catholics who are not sedevacantists. This must come as a kick in the teeth. You are now Lutheran too.

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WESLEY J. SMITH at the Center for Bioethics and Culture has a good post on the sad story of Dorothy Conlon, a Florida woman who at the age of 86 decided to end her life even though she was still in good health. As extensively reported in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Dorothy recruited a group of friends to accompany her through the process. It was all done in a very civilized, neo-pagan kind of way, with farewell notes to friends and relatives. Until the actual dying started. The friends, initially willing to help, were taken off guard, especially by the nastiness of their dying friend, who bossed them around and ordered them to accomplish last-minute organizational tasks while she was dying from lack of food and water. In short, Dorothy was, forgive the expression, a bitch at the end, which is not surprising for someone who was so controlling as to demand that death come before its time. After all, it wasn’t as if she was going to live forever anyway.

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WHO are you to judge?

There are several links at Novus Ordo Watch about the baptism last week of a child of lesbian “mothers” at the Cathedral of Cordoba in Argentina, initially reported at Tradition in Action. It was all done with the approval of the Novus Ordo hierarchy and the enthusiastic support of Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, who is the godmother (she is shown in the photo held by one of the “mothers.”) There is nothing spontaneous or unexpected about this. It’s the culmination of many years of revolutionary theology within the phony church. Waiting for the congratulation call from Francis and official surveys — funded by left-wing Jews — of the American “Catholic” idiocracy saying it fully approves.

Poor baby. Just a little political pawn of worldwide revolution. The two rather non-maternal figures flanking the couple are the mothers of the “mothers.” This maternal hit squad, absent of men, will apparently guide this little one toward her future of maladjustment.

Below is Francis, the pseudo-pope, kissing President Kirchner in gratitude for a gift last year.

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HERE, on Wednesday of Passion Week, is a reflection by St. Thomas Aquinas on the Holy Sepulchre. The great saint and theologian sees the tomb of Christ as a symbol. It stands for the hiding away and burial in this world of the soul that approaches God. “Therefore it is that men, bright with a spotless interior life, should be buried in the sepulchre of divine contemplation.” “On Being Buried Spiritually” is found in the compilation Meditations for Lent from St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Fr. Phillip Hughes:

HERE is a timely quote from Mgr. Fulton J. Sheen’s Communism and the Conscience of the West, published in 1948:

The Antichrist will not be so called; otherwise he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulphur, nor carry a trident nor wave an arrowed tail as Mephistopheles in Faust. This masquerade has helped the Devil convince men that he does not exist. When no man recognizes, the more power he exercises. God has defined Himself as “I am Who am,” and the Devil as “I am who am not.”

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  ACCORDING to the Detroit woman who came to the aid of Steve Utash, the man beaten by a mob last week after an accident that may have been staged, 100 people were watching while Utash was being beaten and stomped --- and she was the only one who protested.

IT’S always refreshing and inspiring when a male public figure has the courage or cluelessness to challenge feminist orthodoxy. Finnish conductor Jorma Panula recently said in public interview that women don’t make very good conductors. As we all know, that is tantamount to saying that women are not human beings. From WQXR:

Panula was asked in a Finnish television interview on March 30 whether he appreciated the fact that more women are entering the profession. “I do not!” he responded. “What the hell, it is such a limited profession. There are more than enough men. They can try, but it is completely different. Some of them are making faces, sweating and fussing, but it is not getting any better – only worse!”

The 83-year-old conductor added that women can try to be conductors provided that the music is “feminine.” For example, Stravinsky and Bruckner are not suitable for women; Debussy and Ravel are. “This is purely an issue of biology,” he reportedly said. (more…)

KARL D. writes:

This story as reported in the Daily Mail had me pulling my hair out. A young couple had to be rescued at sea by the U.S. Navy. This foolish, foolish couple decided to take a round-the-world trip on their sailboat with their one- and three-year-old children aboard. The one-year-old fell ill and they had lost communications and began taking on water when they made a satellite call for help. (more…)

ALAN writes:

The absence of moral outrage in response to murders like the one in Indianapolis is one example of the moral rot in today’s culture.  It is a result of hatred of responsibility: The responsibility to make moral judgments and act firmly on the basis of those judgments. Americans were once quite able and willing to do that, and The Law provided a proper moral and political framework for doing so. As Lawrence Auster wrote in 2006:

“Once upon a time, the press and the broadcast media represented the moral sense of the community and described vile murderers as vile murderers.”  [ “Evil Without Judgment”, View from the Right, Oct. 3, 2006 ] 

That is true.   The readiness to make those moral judgments and express them in plain language were the hallmarks of moral certitude.  But all of that is now gone.  What we have today in place of that moral certitude is moral imbecility.  It is reflected in how Americans think and speak, as when they say that a vicious crime is a “tragedy.”  Utter nonsense.   (more…)

BILL R. writes:

Here is another predictable Detroit illustration of the truth that no good deed goes unpunished. A child stepped in front of a passing pickup truck and the driver stopped to help him. The child’s leg was broken in the accident, but the man was viciously beaten and robbed by at least eleven men. He is in critical condition in the hospital.

Isn’t it amazing that in America all one needs to do in order to know the truth about race is to simply turn statements by government officials and MSM narratives into their precise opposite? Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said of this horrible crime, “This senseless vigilante style attack is not the essence of who we are as Detroiters and will not be tolerated.” (more…)