[Reposted from July, 2016]

ALAN writes:

To the modern mind, it is never enough that a thing be what it is. The modern do-gooder is going to make it over into “fun” for everybody. A pleasant restaurant is never enough; it must be made into “fun” for children. An art museum, historical exhibit, or planetarium are never enough; they must be made into “fun” for the bored. A library containing the wisdom of the ages is never enough; it must be made into a fun house for everyone. Children’s remarkable capacity for learning is never enough; learning must be made into “fun.”

To shop for groceries in a supermarket is never enough; it must be made into a “fun” experience with clerks and cashiers frozen in perpetual smiles and fun “music” blasting from speakers that are beyond any known earthly power to turn off.

I was standing on the platform at a Metro Link train station on the St. Louis riverfront when I noticed a sign advertising the St. Louis Science Center and Planetarium. “We specialize in making science fun!” the sign proclaimed. That was a year ago. Today the sign has been modified to read “We put the element of FUN into science!”

The mindset that we see here has nothing to do with science, or with learning, or with life.  It has to do with a certain incapacity to appreciate the world. It has to do with bombast, sales, and marketing.  Such people have not the slightest interest in encouraging anyone to learn about science.  Such people are shills and hucksters who would box and market the sky, the moon, and the stars if they could.  They would reduce those things to a circus of gimmicks, thrills, sensations, and contrived “hands-on” push-button FUN! for children. (more…)

  WHY doesn't Greta Thunberg ever mention the very obvious aerosol spraying program that is going on over our heads? Her handlers must know about it. You only have to look up to see. Here is a ten-minute preview of the 2010 documentary What in the World Are They Spraying by Paul Wittenberger that examines the issue. Where I live, there has been almost constant spraying during the past six months.  

DID you know the worst mass shooting in Wisconsin's history took place last week? Probably not. Perhaps that's because it wasn't committed by a "white supremacist." Christians for Truth reports: The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of mass shooters in America today are Black and other assorted ‘people of color’, but the jewish-controlled mainstream media doesn’t want you to know that. But Jews would like you to think that it doesn’t matter if they do indeed control the media.  Here’s why it does matter: It is official policy that all ‘gun-related’ violence in America is caused by White men, or even better, ‘White supremacists‘.  And any mass shootings by Blacks literally ‘don’t count’. Needless to say, had this been a White shooter, his identity and picture would plaster every news headline in America, but because he was Black, his ‘identity was not immediately released’, and pictures of him are literally buried.  

“EXTRA Ecclesiam Nulla Salus,” or “Outside the Church There Is No Salvation,” is a highly controversial and detested dogma of the Catholic Church. It is often misunderstood. Some distort it in the direction of flexibility and others toward rigidity.

For those who would like to grasp this important doctrine quickly and easily, I recommend the lucid and unimpeachable article, Questions And Answers on Salvation, written by the Rev. Michael Müller, C.SS.R. in 1875. It is taken from his longer work Familiar Explanation of Christian Doctrine, of the same year, which has the imprimatur of the then Archbishop of Baltimore and the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

There is enough here to console even those whom Fr. Müller offends and to dispel much confusion.

Q. Is it then right for us to say that one who was not received into the Church before his death, is damned?

A. No.

Q. Why not?

A. Because we cannot know for certain what takes place between God and the soul at the awful moment of death. (more…)

  HEAR, O merciful Creator! the tearful prayers we present to thee, during these forty days of Fast. O loving Searcher of the heart! thou knowest that our strength is weak: grant us the grace of thy pardon, for we are converted unto thee. Grievously have we sinned; yet, spare us, for we confess our sins to thee: and, for the glory of thy Name, heal our languid hearts. Grant that we may subdue our flesh by abstinence; that thus our hearts may leave what nourishes sin, and fast from every crime. O Blessed Trinity: O Undivided Unity! grant to us thy servants, that our fasts may produce abundant fruits. Amen. (From the Vespers of Lent)  

FROM a review by Salwa Balchar of the 2019 movie Lion King: What effect does this virtual reality have on the mind? To have an idea: According to the safety regulations of HTC’s virtual reality headset and system (see page 2), virtual reality technology “could trigger increased heart rate, spikes in blood pressure, panic attacks, anxiety, PTSD, fainting, seizures, loss of awareness, convulsions”... you get the idea. It is safe to say that virtual reality works to break a person’s psychology, since it blurs the lines between what is real and what is not. By extension, it does harm to the soul in a different way: You become immersed in a reality where there is no God, no Faith, no Cross... If this is what VR does to adults, what effect could it have on young people with malleable minds? One is left to imagine. [emphasis added]  

  FUNDED by the same people.

     THE TRUE CATHOLIC faith cannot be found in any of the church buildings you see, not even in "traditional" chapels. But that is not cause to be discouraged or sad, angry or upset. Separate yourself from the fake Church, embrace the true and a shower of graces will rain down upon you. (Caution: I cannot vouch for all the content of the website from which this video comes. See further links on this subject in my post "Christmas and Reality.") [updated]  

"THOUGH the academic authorities are actually proud of conducting everything by means of Examinations, they seldom indulge in what religious people used to describe as Self-Examination. The consequence is that the modern State has educated its citizens in a series of ephemeral fads.” – G.K. Chesterton, Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, April, 1935  

  THE "pancake race" is part of the traditional English observance of Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday). Read more about this and other customs in the season before Lent at Tradition in Action: "So integral is the pancake in the English Carnival celebrations that they hold pancake races on this day. According to legend, in 1445 a housewife was baking pancakes in her kitchen when she heard the shriving bell ring. She was in such a hurry that she ran out of the door and into the streets with her frying pan. "This inspired pancake races all over England, but especially in Olney where the women of the village gather to have a race where they run to the finishing line flipping the pancakes at least three times." This day should be a day of wholesome fun. Happy Shrove Tuesday! By the way, the day gets its name from the ancient English custom of seeking confession, or shriving, from the priest before Lent. After confession of sins, the obligation for meatless meals began --- thus the tradition of pancakes on this day. "Collup Monday" (the day before) included the custom of eating bacon (that's because fresh strips or "collups" of pork were set to cure until the season was over) and was the last day meat was eaten until Easter.  

“THE purest, most peaceful moments of my life have happened on my yoga mat,” says filmmaker Kate Churchill in the opening of her 2009 film Enlighten Up! A Skeptic’s Journey into the World of Yoga. “The problem is the closer I look at yoga, the more contradictions I find.”

She finds a multibillion dollar industry devoted to what some maintain is exercise and what many fervently claim is a spiritual discipline. Nevertheless, Churchill decides to prove that yoga can transform anyone both physically and spiritually.

For a quick overview of the world of yoga and its major figures, I recommend this light and inconclusive documentary. Though it is now more than 10 years old, the film’s subject matter is as relevant. Obviously, yoga continues to be hugely popular and a major American obsession.

Churchill recruits Nick Rosen, 29, a likable, unemployed journalist who lives in New York City and has no interest in spiritual matters. He is her guinea pig. She wants to prove that even he can become “enlightened” and also resolve her own confusion about yoga. Rosen sets out with Churchill to visit, practice with and interview famous practitioners in America and India. The interviews include South African Tantric and Kriya Yoga Master Alan Finger, who channels the body’s life force into healing directions; Diamond Dallas Page, the former pro wrestler who offers macho yoga for men; B.K.S. Iyengar, since deceased, who became the foremost popularizer of modern yoga in America after befriending and instructing the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and many others.

Rosen’s happiest moments in life, he says, have been those in which he has been physically fit. He insists that whatever yoga claims it must appeal to him intellectually, and not just through feeling. “I’m not interested in believing in anything that cannot be proven.”

In the popular yoga studios in New York City that Rosen visits, yoga is clearly not just exercise for even its mainstream practitioners. The students chant the Hindu incantation, “Om,” and are instructed to alter consciousness along with their movements. Rosen is surrounded by young women. One tells him that yoga is better than sex because it gives her “an overwhelming feeling of good will and warmth.” A 62-year-old woman tells him that yoga has given her a new lease on life. (more…)

"'DOGMAS make nations.' — So says M. [Louis] de Bonald: such is one of the most profound remarks of this profound thinker. And if they make nations, they also make men. "I shall never cease saying or thinking," says another deep thinker, M. [Joseph] de Maistre, "that a man's worth depends  upon his belief." Man's worth does, indeed, depend upon his ideas, and he is what he thinks. It is the weakening of truth that makes sanctity vanish from amongst mankind. "Hence, my most urgent and primary necessity is to rectify my ideas as to myself, as to creatures, and as to the use I ought to make of them. As long as these remain uncorrected, nothing will be restored in me; as long as my efforts are not directly brought to bear upon this point, they will remain fruitless. It is faith that purifies the heart. Faith is the vision of the truth; truth is God's glory seen in everything." --- François de Sales Pollien, The Interior Life Simplified and Reduced to its Fundamental Principle, 1853-1936.  

  FROM a letter by Bishop Gerald de Proenca Sigaud, Bishop of Jacarezinho in Brazil, written on August 22, 1959: What do we see if we look closely at this little piece of paper? In a circle, on the right side, we see a pyramid which is built on a vast waste land. The stones of which it is made are polished and square. The meaning of these symbols is given in the inscription which says in Latin: "New World Order". This pyramid signifies the new humanity which is composed of men who are honored by the freemasons. These men, created by God, are transformed by the Grand Architect of the Universe. The base of the pyramid indicates the foundation of this New World Order: 1776, which is the year of birth of the USA. The USA is therefore the basis for this new, Masonic humanity. The pyramid is still lacking a few stones. The New World Order is not yet complete, but nearly so. Meantime the work will certainly be completed since on top of the pyramid is written "God", meaning not the Father of Jesus Christ, who is an avenging Creator, but a Gnostic god, the architect, who is represented by an eye placed in a triangle. We are fully in the domain of Gnostic Manichean dualism, which is the theological basis of the freemasonic sect. This "God" gives his approval to their enterprise, as may be read on top of the…

DARWIN'S missing link has been discovered by some enterprising scientists. This revelation will radically change your understanding of human origins --- and provide some comic relief.  

IN the mid-nineteenth century, when Europe was still convulsed with revolutions that overthrew Christian rulers and the existing social order, the French Benedictine monk Dom Prosper Guéranger wrote these prophetic words, so applicable to our own time:

God promised Noah that He would never more punish the earth with a deluge. But, in His justice, He has many times visited the sins of men with a scourge which, in more senses than one, bears a resemblance to a deluge: the invasion of enemies. We meet with these invasions in every age; and each time we see the hand of God. We can trace the crimes that each of them was sent to punish, and in each we find a manifest proof of the infinite justice wherewith God governs the world.

It is not requisite that we should here mention the long list of these revolutions, which we might almost say make up the history of mankind, for in its every page we read of conquests, extinction of races, destruction of nations, and violent amalgamations, which effaced the traditions and character of the several peoples that were thus forced into union. We will confine our considerations to the two great invasions, which the just anger of God has permitted to come upon the world since the commencement of the Christian era. (more…)

  MOST people, even professed Christians, dismiss the idea that the story of Noah's Ark is literally true. How do they explain then that the memory of a catastrophic flood exists in the collective traditions of reportedly hundreds of highly divergent cultural groups? Quoting once again Hugh Owen: Hundreds of people groups all over the world have preserved an historical memory of a global Flood.  It is significant that the histories handed down by people groups who settled close to the location of the Tower of Babel, resemble most closely the true history related by Moses in the sacred history of Genesis. This chart compares Flood accounts from all over the world and shows the remarkable similarities that exist among them.  Not only do these accounts recall the Flood as a global event and a judgment upon mankind from which only one family and some animals were spared on an Ark; many of them include details contained in the Mosaic account of the Flood, such as the release of a bird to determine if the flood waters had receded at the end of the Flood.   According to Dr. Monty White: Hawaiians have a flood story that tells of a time when, long after the death of the first man, the world became a wicked, terrible place. Only one good man was left, and his name was Nu-u. He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it…