MONDAY, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday are known as Rogation Days in the true Catholic Church — days of penance and prayer before the great feast marking Christ’s departure from earth.

Can we do better than participate in this ancient custom this week?

The goal of these days, the great 19th-century French monk Dom Prosper Guéranger explained, is “to appease the anger of God, and avert the chastisements which the sins of the world so justly deserve; moreover, to draw down the divine blessing on the fruits of the earth.”

Stern, old-fashioned language!

But really new compared to nature worship — and much more fulfilling. Guéranger continues:

The Monk of St. Gaul’s, who has left us so many interesting details regarding the life of Charlemagne, tells us that this holy Emperor used to join the Processions of these three Days, and walk bare-footed from his palace to the Stational Church. We find St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in the 14th century, setting the like example: during the Rogation Days, she used to mingle with the poorest women of the place, and walked bare-footed, wearing a dress of coarse stuff. St. Charles Borromeo, who restored in his Diocese of Milan so many ancient practices of piety, was sure not to be indifferent about the Rogation Days. He spared neither word nor example to reanimate this salutary devotion among his people. He ordered fasting to be observed during these three Days; he fasted himself on bread and water. (more…)

BRING FLOWERS OF THE RAREST

Bring flow’rs of the fairest,
Bring flow’rs of the rarest,
From garden and woodland
And hillside and vale;
Our full hearts are swelling,
Our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.

Chorus:
O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May,
O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May. (more…)

Source

TRUMP made this country so much better. Millions accepted a loss of freedom they never would have accepted if a Dem had won. Lesson learned: It’s better to have natural rights abolished and billions paid out by your guy, than the other team’s guy. (more…)

“THIS documentary explores the highly controversial subject of the design of America’s capital. Was the city built to reflect the majesty of America’s newfound freedom? Or the hidden agenda of secret societies? With every major cornerstone laid by Freemasons, was the city built in a Masonic pattern? Embark upon this incredible journey as Riddles in Stone interviews experts on both sides of the heated debate. Watch as Freemason apologists defend some of the most direct and hard-hitting questions concerning the influence of Masonry in America, and its symbolism in Washington, D.C. Alongside them are leading researchers who maintain that occult architecture permeates the city, and conceals a secret agenda. Was D.C. laid out according to the pattern of the stars? Is there really a pentagram in the street layout north of the White House? Does a Masonic square and compass extend from the Capitol building to the Washington monument? And why is the city filled with zodiac symbols, mysterious faces, and various god and goddess images? If America was founded as a Christian nation only, where are the images of Jesus Christ? Or does Washington D.C. symbolize another Christ, the Masonic Christ?”

—Christian J. Pinto (more…)

Every mystery contains a central nucleus of truth that is comprehended, surrounded on all sides by things that we do not comprehend. Think of it as a globe of light surrounded by darkness. The man who rejects mystery is rejecting the central globe of light and accepting the impenetrable darkness. Whereas for the man who accepts it, the light grows and expands, sending longer and longer rays into the darkness around. --- Frank Sheed, The Map of Life  

FROM "Perseverance in Good," by Fr. Francis Hunolt: God does not wish us to pray to him for the same reason that beggars are forced to ask alms from the rich: namely, to declare their poverty, or to excite pity and commiseration for their needs. No, the all-knowing Lord is better acquainted with our wants than we are ourselves. “Your Father knoweth what is needful for you,” says Christ, “before you ask him” (St. Matthew 6: 8). He knows your miseries before you expose them to him: and he has greater pity for our wretchedness than a good mother has for her sick child. Why, then, is it necessary for us to implore the help of God, if he already knows what we want, if his Fatherly love already inclines him to help us? It is true that God knows already what help and grace we are in need of from him; and that he can give us his grace without our co-operation, if he wishes to do so; but as a general rule, he will not give us any grace, the first alone excepted, unless we humbly ask it of him. God could have caused the fruits of the earth to come forth of themselves; but he does not do so. He requires us to do work, to till the fields, and sow the seed. In the same way he wishes all men to be eternally happy in heaven,…

IN 1955, Pope Pius XII proclaimed May 1st, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in response to Communist May Day celebrations, which pandered to the working class while placing it under the merciless control of an oligarchy.  As a laborer who worked with his hands, St. Joseph was everything the Communist slave was not. In Divini Redemptoris, On Atheistic Communism, of March 1937, Pope Pius XI advocated that the battle against world Communism be entrusted to the great saint's intercession. How far we have come since 1937 and 1955! The Vatican II Church has long since abandoned the fight against world Communism and in fact has joined in its ascendancy under the United Nations and centralized financial forces. That fact should only motivate us the more to honor the saint on this, his feast day. St. Joseph, again, is the ideal representative of the working-class man (and woman), industrious in his labors, strengthened by virtue and unmoved by slogans of class envy. He is the construction worker, the appliance repairman, the plumber, the farmer, the truck driver and the electrician -- uncelebrated, but necessary to everyday survival. One of the terrible fruits of quasi-Communist society has been the deprivation of a living wage to the working man so that his wife must now work outside the home too. State-endorsed feminism and state control of the family through heavy taxation, intrusive regulation and favoritism toward corporations has made it difficult for…

Leger Poll  

    

CANAL BANK WALK Leafy with-love banks and the green waters of the canal Pouring redemption for me, that I do The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal, Grow with nature again as before I grew. The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third Party to the couple kissing on an old seat, And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat. O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech, Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.  ----  Patrick Kavanaugh  

ALAN writes:

I was not an angry young man when I walked into high school in 1964, but I was a very angry young man indeed when I walked out in 1966. By no means was I “a superior student.” But what I made of it –meaning the compulsion to be in school and to attend certain classes — was:

1.  I disliked it.

2.  Then I resented it.

3.  Then I hated it.

4.  Then I loathed it.

5.  Then I refused to abide by such compulsion any longer. (more…)

A CALIFORNIA nurse describes her work experiences under Covid mandates in an interview with Childrens Health Defense. After protesting new treatment standards, she was fired and banned from working for area hospitals. (more…)

FROM "The Continuing Chaos," (July, 1982) by W.F. Strojie: Our priests have been made into religious, political and social change agents. Some of them don't like it but nevertheless go along. Frivolity, smiles all around, that's the "in" style now, but these same men can be earnest enough at times. Here, in America since Vatican II, they have built hundreds of grotesque or synagogue-style new churches at fabulous expense. Fundamentalist sectarians of centuries ago could not match the iconoclastic fury of the new priests as they go about ripping out the old altars, throwing on dump heaps statues, Stations of the Cross, etc. Recently a friend, in California, took me to see a local parish church --- the plainest of square buildings, made of concrete blocks. A big square altar, slightly upraised, stands in the center of the building. Looking at this altar I visualized a fire underneath and the Temple animal sacrifice taking place. There was nothing else there -- except metal folding chairs which could be picked up and taken out should the fire get away. In any event, metal chairs do not burn. A prudent pastor! And I have just heard that in a nearby Benedictine monastery 100 years old, they recently smashed the fine old marble main altar and threw it over a hill. The Vatican II and Protestant Table had stood before the main altar for years. Ite, Missa est. The Message could not be plainer. Some…

"BETTER that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith." --- St. Peter Canisius (b. 1521-d. 1597)  

FROM A speech Thursday at George Washington University in D.C.: [America] is the biggest settler colony in the world. And if you think you’re going to liberate Palestine and leave this monster intact, I’ve got news for you. Capitalism and imperialism is based right here, and it must come down right here. ... We want to smash the Democratic Party, we want to smash the Republican party, we want to smash this whole goddamn capitalist, imperialist empire. It's a merging of forces: gays led by their communists women led by their communists blacks led by their communists mahometans led by their communists trans led by their communists all pulled together into one bloc even right wingers led by revolutionaries, pretending to be on the right (Source)  

THE MORE oppressive government becomes, the more taxes we pay. But, of course, it's all for our "freedom" and "rights." Here's a ditty found in The Fishwrapper of April 9, 2024, I guess to ease the pain of this massive transfer of wealth, which may be still fresh in your mind. Maybe the excessive publicity of the recent solar eclipse was a way of saying, "Look over there!" during tax season. Tax his cow, tax his goat; Tell him, "Taxing is the rule." Tax his tractor, tax his mule; Teach him taxing is no joke. Tax his oil, tax his gas, Tax his notes, tax his cash. Tell him good, and let him know That after taxes he has no dough. If he hollers, tax him more; Tax him 'til he's good and sore. Tax his coffin, tax his grave, Tax the sod 'neath which he's laid. Put these words upon his tomb: "Taxes drove him to his doom." After he's gone, we won't relax; We'll still collect inheritance tax.