"NOT to will those things which are actually taking place, is to have a will opposed to the decree of God, to Whose Providence whatever is done is subject." --- St. Thomas Aquinas  

"GOD does not want sacrifices, the prophet Samuel told King Saul, but he does want obedience to his will: “Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices; and to hearken, rather than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel; and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey.” The man who follows his own will independently of God’s, is guilty of a kind of idolatry. Instead of adoring God’s will, he, in a certain sense, adores his own. "The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything. Our Redeemer came on earth to glorify his heavenly Father and to teach us by his example how to do the same. St. Paul represents him saying to his eternal Father: “Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not: But a body thou hast fitted to me . . . Then said I: Behold I come to do thy will, O God.” Thou hast refused the victims offered thee by man; thou dost will that I sacrifice my body to thee. Behold me ready to do thy will." -- Saint Alphonsus de Liguori  

FROM The Dispossessed Majority by Wilmot Robertson (1972):

Liberal dogma to the contrary, such popular goals as universal literacy are not necessarily conducive to great literature. The England of Shakespeare, apart from having a much smaller population, had a much higher illiteracy rate than present-day Britain. Nor does universal suffrage seem to raise the quality of artistic output. When Bach was Konzertmeister in Weimar and composing a new cantata every month, no one could vote. Some 220 years later in the Weimar Republic there were tens of millions of voters, but no Bachs.

Great drama, which usually incorporates great poetry, is the rarest form of great art. Art critics and historians have been at some loss to explain why great plays have appeared so infrequently in history and then only in clusters — fifth-century (B.C.) Athens, late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England, seventeenth-century Spain and France. The answer may be that conditions for great drama are only ripe when artist and audience are in biological as well as linguistic rapport. Such rapport, unfortunately, is bound to be short-lived because the era of great drama is usually accompanied by large-scale economic and material advances which tend to soften national character, sharpen class divisions and attract extraneous racial and cultural elements from abroad. To the great playwright a heterogeneous or divided audience is no audience at all.

Not only high art but all art seems to stagnate in an environment of brawling minorities, diverse religions, clashing traditions, and contrasting habits. This is probably why, in spite of their vast wealth and power, such world cities as Alexandria and Antioch in ancient times and New York City and Rio de Janeiro in modern times have produced nothing that can compare to the art of municipalities a fraction of their size. The artist needs an audience which understands him — an audience of his own people. The artist needs an audience to write up to, paint up to, and compose up to — an aristocracy of his own people. These seem to be the two sine qua nons of great art. Whenever they are absent great art is absent. (more…)

HERE'S a list of more than 300 rock stars who died prematurely, with an average age of death at 37. The list is old, ending in the late 90's, so it's only a snapshot. The number of premature deaths of die-hard rock fans from drugs, drinking and suicide is incalculable.  

FROM How to Root Out Hidden Faults by Fr. James F. McElhone:

Too many persons are satisfied with mediocrity. They are neither good nor bad; they are ordinary, commonplace; and they remain so through their own fault. Let us glance over the various kinds of mediocrity and then determine whether or not we are ordinary, Some are mediocre in general. They have a lukewarm, careless attitude about everything. Their standard is ordinary in regard to spiritual things, studies, manual labor, to the proper attitude in recreation. (more…)

ITALIANS are said to be returning in large numbers to the ancient gods of Rome. Neophytes are encouraged to firstly, “set up a space dedicated to the deities in your home so that you can begin to offer to your gods”, and secondly, to “ritualise following the main holidays that are remembered by the Kalendarium”. “The Roman religion is fundamentally a collectivist and convivial religion, it does not leave much room for individualism and personalism which often led – and still leads – to condemnable superstitious practices,” adherents are told. On 10 February 2024, an eclectic group of enthusiasts from the Communitas Populi Romani assembled near the ancient Roman Forum to express their devotion to the deities Juno, Jupiter and Apollo. A relevant quote from Henry Edward Manning, D.D. in 1861: In truth, when the intellectual become pantheists, the simple will become polytheists. They need a more material conception than the refined unbelievers, and they impersonate and embody, first in thought and then in form, the object of their worship. And what is this but paganism simple and pure?  

FROM How to Root Out Hidden Faults by Fr. James F. McElhone: ENVY IS THE FEELING of sadness which we experience in contemplating the prosperity of others, in so far as we regard this prosperity to be our own loss. There is no question that we do have temptations to envy. We are somewhat inclined to rejoice at the failures of others and to be sad at their success. Others achieve riches, honors, dignities, renown, reputation, praise, applause, success; we see what they have accomplished and we are tempted to envy. Others have qualities of mind and through their use become more or less successful, and we are tempted to envy. Others have qualities of soul and reach certain or higher degrees of holiness, and we are tempted to envy. It should be remembered that what those others have, we regard as our own loss. It is hard for us to rejoice whole-heartedly at the success of others; it is easy for us to feel glad at their failures. Envy will try to show itself in some of the following ways: Do | feel sad at the prosperity of others? At their success in games? In athletics? Do | rejoice at their failures? Do | envy the riches of others? Do | envy their honors? dignities? power? renown? reputation? Do | envy the applause given to them? Do | envy another's intellectual qualities? Read more.  

"DURING economic depressions when the Elite Class can no longer enjoy their monopoly over financial capital and the 'lower class' can no longer be subsidized by a shrinking economic surplus, the two classes join in a coalition to plunder the [Middle] Class. When this happens the resulting form of government is called Fascism because it involves takeover of the government by elitist corporations who form a coalition with the Lower Class to commit crimes against the Middle Class." -- From a review of Covert Covid Culprits: An Inquest Chronicle by Karl Haemers (See review below book description)  

A SERIES at Tradition in Action on Nazism is, despite TIA's errors on the crisis in the Church, well worth reading. It begins: In 1931 and 1937 Alfred Rosenberg, the theoretician of Nazism who had such a great influence over Adolph Hitler, ordered the scholar Otto Rahn to make a careful study of the ruins of the Castle of Montségur, the citadel and temple of the Cathars. This castle was the last refuge for the Cathar heresy that contaminated Southern France in the 11th and 12th centuries. At about the same time, Heinrich Himmler, the supreme commander of the SS, reconstructed the Castle of Wewelsburg, near Paderborn in Westphalia, Germany. In its gothic basement, he placed a black marble altar emblazoned with the silver letters SS. This altar was meant to hold the object that the heads of Nazism were expecting Otto Rahn to find at Montségur: the mysterious Grail and an ancient stone book that contained the compendium of the Gnostic tradition. In this sinister chapel, the SS, elite troops of the National Socialists, would meditate on the book of Otto Rahn, Lucifer’s Court in Europe. These strange facts reveal that, different from what the general public thinks, Hitlerism was not above all a political movement. Read more.  

“WHEN we read the Lives of the Saints, and find that persons, who were in the ordinary walk of life, practiced extraordinary virtues, we are inclined to think that they were not exposed to great temptations, or that the misfortunes they met in the world, made them give themselves up unreservedly to God’s service. Such interpretations of the actions of the Saints are shallow and false, for they ignore this great fact,—that there is no condition or state, however humble, in which man has not to combat against the evil inclinations of his heart, and that corrupt nature alone is strong enough to lead him to sin. But in such a Saint as Casimir, we have no difficulty in recognizing that all his Christian energy was from God, and not from any natural source; and we rightly conclude, that we, who have the same good God, may well hope that this Season of spiritual regeneration will change and better us. (more…)

 MARCH 8 is International Women's Day. This Communist feast day, like all feminist propaganda, ultimately celebrates the degradation of the female sex and the interests of the powerful.  

 JARED Taylor reviews the arguments before the Supreme Court in favor of censorship on the Internet. On Monday, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could determine whether there is free speech on the internet or unlimited censorship. Is YouTube, for example, like a newspaper, which has complete control over what it decides to print, or is it like the US Mail or the phone company, and must transmit all legal messages? Transcript here.  

THE South African writer Jan Lamprecht wrote in 2017:

What people refer to as “Racial Discrimination”, is nothing more than logic in action. You can legislate against it all you want and even throw people in jail but you will never kill it. You will never kill it because it is the truth, and even if people don’t know it exists they will sooner or later realize it for themselves. It will never die until the root cause of it is addressed. Any white or Asian person who remains in contact with black people for any length of time (years, or more likely decades), stands a very good chance of becoming a racist. I have seen this happen, and it is a fact of life. It often occurs that people from Europe or America come to Africa and stay here for a long time, and the process will cause them to become “racist”. Even Dr Albert Schweitzer, who devoted his life to helping black people in his little hospital, made statements which would be regarded as extremely racist.

Why do I say that people will become racist? Well, its because when you live among blacks for any length of time you start to realize that they are often their own worst enemies. You begin to realize that they are often the cause of their own disasters, and it also happens that many of them refuse to listen to reason. (more…)

"FOR, if thou freely indulgest in meat and drink, and bridlest not thine appetite by fasting, it needs must be that the noble fire of the spirit, smothered by the frequent indulgence of the body, should grow dull, and the soul, like the drowsy flesh it inhabits, fall into heavy sleep. "Therefore, let us bridle our bodily desires, and follow the clear interior light of prudence. Thus, the soul having her sight made keener, will breathe more freely, and will pray to the Creator with the stronger hope." --- Prudentius (348-c. 413 AD)  

DENNIS Prager, who himself is Jewish, describes the religiosity of Jews who no longer follow traditional religious practices.

“Jews are to ‘isms’ what Italians are to opera. They create new movements.” (more…)

FROM How to Root Out Hidden Faults by Fr. James F. McElhone:

Pride of timidity is self-love manifested by shyness, backwardness, cowardice. Pride of timidity is self-love protecting self through the hiding of weaknesses from fear of ridicule. Now it must not be thought that the quiet person is necessarily humble. A fine reserve is praiseworthy, but timidity is carrying reserve to excess. Quietness of disposition may not show that there is pride beneath.

Ordinarily the talented are not so subject to pride of timidity, just because they are talented. Still those who have ability are not so generally developed as not to have some weakness or other; and even a strong weakness, as they view it. Self-love seeks to protect, to hide that weakness, and so develops a habit of timidity from it. Moreover, the talented are sometimes very much under the rule of human respect. They fear what others may say or think about them; they are in certain circumstances afraid to do what is right or to avoid what is wrong. (more…)

"OUR perfection does not consist in doing extraordinary things but to do the ordinary well." --- St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows  

FROM the transcript of the searing documentary Hell’s Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll by Eric Holmberg:

Young people wake up to it, drive to it, play to it, study to it, and go to sleep to it. Studies show that between the 7th and 12th grades, the average teenager will listen to and watch 11,000 hours of rock music and rock videos – more than twice the time they will spend in class.

As Dr. Alan Bloom noted in his best-selling book The Closing of the American Mind, “Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music.”

Incredibly, despite this unprecedented power and the mounting evidence that rock’s influence can be less than positive, most people have never stopped to consider what is really going on in and through contemporary music. Why is music so powerful? How does it affect us? What is its source? And to where is it leading us?

Throughout the ages, wise men have noted music’s profound impact on its listeners. For example, over 2,000 years before the birth of Christ, the musical systems of China were both highly developed and central to its society. It was to this that the philosophers directed much of their attention. Understanding its intrinsic power, they carefully checked their music to make sure that it conveyed eternal truths and could thus influence man’s character for the better.

To this end, tradition states that one emperor, by the name of Shun, would monitor the health of each of the provinces of this vast kingdom by simply examining the music they produced. Course and sensual sounds indicated a sick society, one in need of his intervention and assistance. (more…)