ALAN writes:

At 8:30 on weekday mornings in 1956, women in St. Louis could listen to “Music to Sew By” on radio station KCFM. That same year, newspaper columnist Ruth Millett wrote:

      By the time she is 16, there are certain homemaking skills every girl ought to know.

     …..She ought to know how to sew at least well enough to keep her clothes mended and hems at the right length.  If she is encouraged to make some of her own clothes, so much the better…. [“Some Skills Every Girl Should Know,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 19, 1956, p. 12-l]

 Hems? As in skirts and dresses?

Imagine how quaint those things must sound to Cool People, who are of course immeasurably smarter than people were in 1956.

Can’t you just hear the chorus of Cool People and Feminists saying “How primitive!  How oppressive!”

The Amish might understand the wisdom in such advice, but they are not Cool People. Excluding the Amish, how many American women under age 40 today who are not in the fashion business know how to sew? How many make or mend their own clothes?

Thousands of women in St. Louis in the 1950s knew how to sew — and did. My mother was one of them, as were other women in our extended family.  I couldn’t count the times during my boyhood when she was seated at her sewing machine and working on this or that garment for family or friends – a monogrammed blouse for herself, a dress for a friend, alterations in my boyhood clothes as I grew, and doll clothes for her niece, among many other projects. My mother used an industrial model sewing machine. But I doubt she ever listened to “Music to Sew By” because the noise of the sewing machine might have drowned out any such music.  She concentrated fully on whatever project was at hand. She did not want or like distractions while she was working. (more…)

"EXCESSIVE sadness seldom springs from any other source than pride." --- St. Philip Neri  

TODAY is the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, which commemorates the stunning and miraculous event witnessed by the Apostles, Mary and more than 100 others outside Jerusalem. Jesus, after instructing his apostles to go into all nations throughout the world, ascended into the heavens, 40 days after his Resurrection.

During forty days after His Resurrection our Lord appeared many times and in diverse places and circumstances to His disciples and others. He walked and talked with them. He permitted them to see and put their hands into His wounds, and He ate with them; thus proving by the most incontestable arguments that He was really risen from the dead, and was again living in His own body. It was also during those forty days that our Saviour gave His Apostles final instructions concerning His Church. (Source)

Jesus told the Apostles that they too would be capable of performing miracles after His departure and he was proven correct. The miracle of his Ascension was additional testimony to His divinity. Only God could suspend the laws of nature in this way.

From a beautiful sermon, “The Ascension of Our Lord,” by the Rev. William Graham:

In the beautiful panorama of hill country that unrolls to the eye of a pilgrim looking eastward from Jerusalem there is no point of view so picturesque or at the same time so rich in sacred memories, as Mount Olivet. Rough and narrow is the stony path winding to its summit, but its many associations more than repay the cost of ascent. On its lower slopes lies the Garden of Olives, lovingly tended by the Franciscan Fathers, who point out the spots in and around where Christ’s agony and prayer began and ended. The brook Cedron that He crossed with His disciples on the sad night of His betrayal He must also have passed in His risen body on His way to the hill, whence while they looked on He was raised up. Alas! a Mohammedan mosque now crowns the spot, and the followers of the prophet point out by favor a stone bearing the imprint of a foot, which, piety suggests, was left by the ascending Christ. Even they, however, reverence the spot consecrated by the last steps on earth of the great prophet Issa.

Since the day when St. Helena built a splendid church on the Holy Hill, whence the ” new ark of alliance” was carried to the ” royal city that is above,” the Church has, every year, on the feast we keep today, solemnly expressed her belief in this final manifestation of Him who ” showed himself alive after his passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to them, and speaking of the kingdom of God” (Acts i. 3). “Forty hours,” says St. Thomas, “He lay a corpse in the tomb, and forty days he walked and talked among His friends.”

We all are “glad and rejoice “today in the glory of our crucified and risen Saviour, and our thoughts mount to the rising, cloud-encircling form of the conquering and triumphant Christ as, clothed in His human nature, He moves towards ” light inaccessible.” In the joy we feel in His victory over sin and death, we realize the force of His parting words: “If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father” (John xiv. 28). Heaven, not earth, was His true goal and resting-place, once He had risen from the grave. It was only out of condescension to the needs of the infant Church that He tarried forty days on earth. (more…)

“CONSIDER FIRST, that our whole mind ought also to be consecrated to divine love, according to the import of that greatest and first commandment of our heavenly Lover. Now, the mind is the seat of thought, and consequently of consideration, meditation, and recollection in God. Wherefore, to love God with our whole mind is to have our thoughts ever turned towards Him; to consider Him; to meditate daily upon Him and His truth, and upon all that relates to Him, or helps to bring the soul to Him; to walk always in His presence; and to keep ourselves recollected in the remembrance of Him. This love of the whole mind was required of all the servants of God even in the old law, and much more in the new, which is the law of love. ˜Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,’ &c., said He, Deut. vi. ‘and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house and walking on thy journey, sleeping, rising; and thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes, and thou shalt write them on the doors of thy house.’ See, my soul, how strongly thy God inculcates the perpetual remembrance of Him and of His divine law; but more especially of the great commandment of love, which is the fulfilling of the whole law. See how He expects that thy whole mind should be ever full of Him. (more…)

SOMETIMES you suddenly and for no reason think of people you haven’t seen in years, the friends that drifted away. Recently, I was thinking about a family that used to live on our street. They moved to a nicer neighborhood a few miles away — oh, boy, it was about 15 years ago — and we gradually lost touch.

I was thinking about her, the mother of two boys roughly the same age as our boys. I always liked her. “Maybe I will knock on their door,” I thought. “I’ll just show up and say, ‘Remember me?” (more…)

  SOME news stories about the alleged Robb Elementary School shooting were posted on the Internet before the event. Wikipedia posted a full page on the shooting, complete with map of school campus the day of the event.  

HERE is a beautiful American love song, dedicated to my husband, on the occasion of our 35th wedding anniversary.

We’ve lived on the same street for many years now. I still remember when we didn’t, and would rather be here, on the street where he lives.

People stop and stare
They don’t bother me,
For there’s no where else on earth
That I would rather be

Let the time go by,
I won’t care if I
Can be here on the street where you live (more…)

"WHEN I was a teenager, people with looser morals in the area of sex tended to characterize those with more conservative attitudes as prudes or killjoys.  The attitude was that of the frat boy who pities the nerd or bookworm who doesn’t know how to have a good time. Nowadays the mentality is instead like that of a Bizarro-world Cotton Mather, or perhaps a mashup of Hugh Hefner and Mao Zedong.  Critics of the sexual revolution are treated as agents of the devil or enemies of the people – bigots, haters, oppressors who must be hounded and silenced. [...] "It is ... worth noting that as the sexual revolution has progressed, it has led to claims ever more bizarre and manifestly preposterous – such as the claim that the biological distinction between male and female is bogus and an expression of mere bigotry. How could anyone seriously believe such nonsense?  The motive for wanting to believe it is not mysterious, since one might have gotten oneself locked into sexual vices so extreme that their rationalization requires such an absurd thesis.  But how could one fool oneself into actually believing it?  Here too a kind of Bizarro-world moralism rides to the rescue.  If one can whip oneself up into a self-righteous frenzy that directs attention away from the absurdity of one’s belief and onto the purported bigotry of those who deny it, then the belief can (perhaps just barely) be sustained.  And the more manifestly absurd the belief, the more moralistically shrill…

"ASK Mary to obtain for you the grace of a clear, practical knowledge of your nothingness. You have inherited the seed of pride from Adam; hence, the road to self-knowledge is rough and hard. But Mary is your Mother, if she is with you, everything will become easier and sweeter." (Memento Mori)  

SPRING is a time of combat, at least here in suburban Pennsylvania. The greens are on the move. They are lush, vibrant and unstoppable. Lilacs, azaleas, verdant lawns and an infinitude of flowering plants fill our lungs with their sweet, restoring exhalations. But the weeds have returned too, amassed in military-style battalions with age-old strategies of invasion and conquest, some operating with sneak attacks or guerilla warfare, others blitzkrieg-ing entire neighborhoods within a few hours. They may have delicate and colorful flowers. They may be as fragrant as expensive perfumes, but they will spread and dominate all other plants if they get their way. They  mean to conquer. In May, invasive vines would wrap their tendrils around our necks at night if we let them do what they naturally do and if we did not engage in backbreaking battles with them, like mariners in a storm holding the sails against the towering waves crashing over our heads. I have seen grape vine trying to get in our bedroom windows. I have told my husband that if I die before him, he must evacuate the property immediately. Otherwise he will be murdered by honeysuckle. I currently have Weed-Induced Cardio-Muscular-Skeletal Fatigue Syndrome. The people who defend weeds and say they should generally be left alone are barbarians with no appreciation for order and beauty. You cannot love some plants unless you hate others. We can't shoot weeds with guns unfortunately and we shouldn't…

THE Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be found here.  

  APOLOGIES for not being able to say more right now about this subject. I'm laughing too hard. Oh, it hurts. I can't breathe. I, I can't stop, I just can't ...  

FROM Gary Barnett at Lew Rockwell: It seems completely obvious that this so-called baby formula ‘crisis’ is a scam, and was purposely created to advance other agendas. Is baby formula scarce worldwide, or is this a U.S. phenomenon? There is evidence that U.S. baby formula is on shelves in other countries. It is also obvious that most could breast feed their babies naturally, which could negate this fraudulent (manmade) shortage. That is the healthy choice, but pharmaceutical companies are telling mothers and parents that breast feeding is dangerous and not a solution for this baby formula shortage. Baby formulas coming from the few large U.S. companies allowed to produce and sell them, are chemically laced and unhealthy products, but so many have been sold the lie that mothers can simply use a store-bought product instead of natural feeding or making their own formula. This is just more hype and lies meant to harm families and promote a particular reaction. After all, it is easier just to buy these protectionist products instead of seeking alternatives, and that seems to be the new American way. Money, power, control, and societal dependence are sought by the state, and this new ‘crisis’ is simply meant to cause more panic to young parents who have been groomed to do as they are told. After all, this is not the only government made panic, as everything going on is meant to create and stoke fear. Food shortages abound,…

Courtesy of Thuletide

"O THOU vain prattler, hearken! A sage giving counsel to mankind saith: If thou speakest, say little and speak seldom and speak low, do not shout and verily this is a most useful saying! Woman, when thou speakest to thy husband say little, and speak seldom and in a low tone, because who sayeth little can seldom err. Knowest thou the proverb: He who speaketh often, doth often err. And moreover when thou speakest, speak in a low tone: do not speak so that thou seemest a locust. "Woman, wouldst thou please thy husband? Yes. Then speak little, do not chatter as many women do — chia, chia, chia — who never cease in order to rest. O she is a bad neighbor, a chatterer. We have it that the Blessed Virgin spoke seven times in all the length of her life, and not more. I mean not to say that she never said more, but that of all those things which she said we know only seven." -- St. Bernardine of Siena (H/t: Memento Mori)