AMERICA'S favorite fast food -- fiberboard coated with sugar-spiked tomato sauce and recycled rubber -- has become even more popular in the past year. It's cheap, it's fast, it's filling. You can get it almost anywhere. Billionaires have become trillionaires. You can almost hear the Great Resetters say, "Let them eat pizza."  

YOU CAN read about the miraculous Lenten fast of St. Francis, made by the saint in 1211 A.D. on the then isolated island of Isola Maggiore in Lake Trasimene in Central Italy (not far from Assisi), at Shield of Faith blog.  

"WHEN the penitent sinner inflicts corporal penance upon himself, God’s justice is appeased. We have a proof of it in the Ninivites. If the Almighty pardoned an infidel city, as Ninive was, solely because its inhabitants sought for mercy under the garb of penance; what will he not do in favour of his own people, who offer him the twofold sacrifice, exterior works of mortification, and true contrition of heart? Let us, then, courageously enter on the path of penance. We are living in an age, when, through want of faith and of fear of God, those practices which are as ancient as Christianity itself, and on which we might almost say it was founded, are falling into disuse: it behooves us to be on our guard, lest we, too, should imbibe the false principles, which have so fearfully weakened the Christian spirit. Let us never forget our own personal debt to the divine Justice, which will remit neither our sins nor the punishment due to them, except inasmuch as we are ready to make satisfaction. We have just been told, that these bodies, which we are so inclined to pamper, are but dust; and as to our souls, which we are so often tempted to sacrifice by indulging the flesh, they have claims upon the body, claims of both restitution and obedience." -- Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year: "Ash Wednesday"  

FROM The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (Richard Whitford translation): Jesus hath many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but He hath few bearers of His cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He findeth many fellows at eating and drinking, but He findeth few that will be with Him in His abstinence and fasting. All men would joy with Him, but few would anything suffer for Christ. Many follow Him to the breaking of His bread for their bodily refection, but few will follow Him to drink a draught of the chalice of His Passion. Many marvel and honour His miracles, but few will follow the shame of His cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversity befalleth them, and can praise Him and bless Him when they receive any benefit of Him: but if Jesus a little withdraw Himself from them, and a little forsake them, anon they fall to some great grudging, or to overgreat dejection. They that love Jesus purely for Himself, and not for their own profit and commodity bless Him as heartily in temptation, tribulation, and all other adversities as they do in the time of consolation. And if He never sent them consolation, yet would they always laud Him and praise Him. O how much may the love of Jesus do to the help of a soul, if it be pure and clean, not mixed with any…

FROM EuroNews:

A court in The Hague ruled on Tuesday that the current curfew in the Netherlands to stop the spread of COVID-19 should be lifted as it violates freedom of movement and assembly. (more…)

Among other things the Annals of Saucerology can teach us is that some endeavors in life are engineered for men and others for women.  That is the way it is—not because anti-feminists like me say so, but because Nature makes it that way.

ALAN writes:

As a diversion from current goings-on that are bad, worse, or still worse, I offer the following reminiscence from ancient times:

Many boys who grew up in the 1950s-‘60s had the good fortune to become cub scouts and boy scouts.  I did not have that good fortune.  But in the late 1960s, I became involved in another masculine endeavor.

One day in 1968, eight men sat around a table in a private home in St. Louis County and agreed to establish an informal organization.  Among them were a chemist, a mail carrier, a newspaper worker, two aerospace engineers, and a high school student.  I was that student and the youngest one there.

What we had in common was a desire to explore the controversy about Extraordinary Flying Objects.  Some of us had spoken with airline pilots or police officers who had reported seeing such objects in the sky.  The purpose of the group was to investigate and study any such reports originating in or near St. Louis.

In looking back to those years, nothing stands out more clearly than that our project was a decidedly masculine undertaking.  Such a project appealed to many teenage boys, young men, and engineering types.  It involved elements of astronomy, optics, aviation, eyewitness testimony, and detective work, things of interest primarily to men.  It was also a good introduction to the work of evaluating ideas and conflicting truth claims.

Thousands of men across the nation—businessmen, writers, engineers, professors, outdoorsmen, amateur astronomers—volunteered their time and interest in pursuit of the truth behind reports of Extraordinary Flying Objects.  But very few women did likewise.  I can remember fewer than 20 women who took an interest in that subject. (more…)

THE famous tenor Mario Lanza, whose all too brief life and meteoric career ended when he died at the age of 38 in 1959, sings “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” an aria from Gaetano Donizetti’s opera “L’Elisir d’Amore” (“The Elixir of Love”).

In the opera, a poor peasant falls in love with a wealthy woman and, having no hope that she will return his love, he buys a love potion, which is actually cheap red wine sold by a trickster. In the aria, Nemorino, the peasant, sings of his belief that the potion has finally worked after seeing “a furtive tear” in the eyes of his beloved, Adina.

A translation: (more…)

THE effort to impeach Trump seemed like just another attempt to demoralize and defame his supporters until a friend yesterday offered another explanation.

Trump must be impeached in case any of the pending lawsuits challenging the election, and the massive, premeditated and systematic fraud, succeed in court.

Conviction in an impeachment trial does not automatically disqualify Mr. Trump from future public office. But if the Senate were to convict him, the Constitution allows a subsequent vote to bar an official from holding “any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” That vote would require only a simple majority of senators. There is no precedent, however, for disqualifying a president from future office, and the issue could end up before the Supreme Court. (Source)

Is it as simple as that?
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  HERE'S another scene from the wonderful 1943 movie The Song of Bernadette with Jennifer Jones playing Bernadette Soubirous. The music is a bit over-the-top so you may want to watch it with the sound off.

Source