A beautiful musical recording of the Angelus can be found here.

Annunciation, Sandro Botticelli;1450

WHERE Eve was pride, she was humility.

Where Eve was action, she was surrender.

Where Eve was novelty, she was birth.

Where Eve was outward, she was inward.

Where Eve was death, she was life.

Where Eve was self, she was compassion.

Where Eve was shame, she was modesty.

Where Eve was materialistic, she was maternal.

Where Eve was wealth, she was poverty.

Where Eve was doubt, she was trust.

Where Eve was foolishness, she was wisdom.

Where Eve was liberation, she was restraint.

Where Eve was impulse, she was thought.

Where Eve was confusion, she was clarity.

Where Eve was virtue signaling, she was virtue.

Where Eve was slave, she was queen.

Zanobi Strozzi; The Annunciation; The National Gallery, London (1438-1447)

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“At that time: the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the Virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.” [St. Luke, Chapter 1]

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

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Archangel Gabriel, Luca Signorelli; 1490

FROM 1934 to 1968, most movies produced by major studios in this country complied with the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930. Known as the Hays Code, it provided moral standards for the industry, regulating how everything from murder and vulgarity to dress and religion were portrayed on screen. Cruelty to children and animals, prostitution, executions, “gruesomeness” and the demonizing of other nations were among the things it condemned.

All in all, the code represented benevolent and paternalistic protectiveness of the minds and souls of movie viewers.

Did you ever read the code? You might find it a profound statement on the importance and influence of film. You might also be amazed from the vantage point of today that such thoughtfulness ever existed.

Below is an excerpt from what is considered the most complete version:

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

I. Theatrical motion pictures, that is, pictures intended for the theatre as distinct from pictures intended for churches, schools, lecture halls, educational movements, social reform movements, etc., are primarily to be regarded as Entertainment.

Mankind has always recognized the importance of entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings.

But it has always recognized that entertainment can be of a character either helpful or harmful to the human race, and, in consequence, has clearly distinguished between:

Entertainment which tends to improve the race, or, at least, to recreate and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of life; and Entertainment which tends to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living.

Hence the moral importance of entertainment is something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours, and ultimately touches the whole of their
lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work. Read More »

“THE holy season of Lent is fast advancing; the choicest graces are daily being offered us; woe to the man whose mind is distracted by the fashion of this world that passeth away, and takes no thought for eternity and heaven, and even in this time of grace, is like tamarick, a worthless weed of the desert. Oh, how numerous is this class! and how terrible is their spiritual indifference! Pray for them, of ye faithful children of the Church, pray for them without ceasing. Offer up your penances and almsgivings for them. Despair not; and remember that each year, many straying sheep are brought to the fold by such intercession such as this.”

— Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year

                          St. Augustine, Bernini

“BUT the worshipers and admirers of these gods delight in imitating their scandalous iniquities, and are nowise concerned that the republic be less depraved and licentious.

“Only let it [the Roman Empire] remain undefeated, they say, only let it flourish and abound in resources; let it be glorious by its victories, or still better, secure in peace; and what matters it to us? This is our concern, that every man be able to increase his wealth so as to supply his daily prodigalities, and so that the powerful may subject the weak for their own purposes. Let the poor court the rich for a living, and that under their protection they may enjoy a sluggish tranquility; and let the rich abuse the poor as their dependants, to minister to their pride. Let the people applaud not those who protect their interests, but those who provide them with pleasure. Let no severe duty be commanded, no impurity forbidden. Let kings estimate their prosperity, not by the righteousness, but by the servility of their subjects. Let the provinces stand loyal to the kings, not as moral guides, but as lords of their possessions, and purveyors of their pleasures; not with a hearty reverence, but a crooked and servile fear. Let the laws take cognizance rather of the injury done to another man’s property, than of that done to one’s own person. If a man be a nuisance to his neighbor, or injure his property, family, or person, let him be actionable; but in his own affairs let everyone with impunity do what he will in company with his own family, and with those who willingly join him. Read More »

JEWISH WOMEN played a prominent role in the spread of feminism.

The significant presence of Jews in the movement is not surprising. Indeed, their zeal for feminism was a natural reaction to the misogyny inherent in the sacred Jewish texts of the Talmud. Just as Jewish capitalism, or the unleashing of the profit motive on society, bred the reaction of Jewish communism and its dream of economic equality, so Jewish disdain for women naturally bred the reaction of Jewish-led feminism and the extreme denial of essential differences between the sexes.

Underneath these polar opposites is a common thread: a dissatisfaction with the natural order and a restless desire to topple it.

Tragically, Jewish-influenced feminism was imposed on a society that did not historically possess the same views of women. As he walked and sailed through the lands of ancient Palestine, Jesus Christ did not disdain women. He healed them, he reasoned with them, he reproached them, he loved them. His mother stood at the foot of the cross, unafraid of Jewish retribution. The first person who saw him rise from the dead was a woman. The Catholic Church later exalted women in their feminine roles. It even offered an honored place for the non-married woman as a consecrated virgin. The birth of a girl was always celebrated every bit as much as the birth of a boy (except perhaps in cases where a king or nobleman wanted a male heir). No woman has been more revered than the Blessed Mother of God. Protestantism lessened this reverence and led to a commercialization of society that women would inevitably be pressured to join. Radical Protestants were the first promoters of feminism in this country. The difference between Protestant feminism and Jewish feminism was that the latter had financial fortunes behind it — and the Jewish talent for word games, for spinning the truth in a web of audacious sophistries that blast common sense to smithereens. It was no accident that Christian women writers were shunted from women’s magazines in the 1960s and replaced by Jewish women, whose every thought against men was broadcast throughout the land.

Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem were understandably dissatisfied and lacking in feminine pride. They did not come from a world that honored women and their varied abilities. They could not help, I suspect, of being jealous of the security of the Christian woman in her traditional place. This dissatisfaction was not the only motivation behind Jewish feminism, which was also a psychological weapon against non-Jewish society, but it surely accounts for some of the passion behind it.

Madonna and Child, Fillippo Lippi; 1465

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“I GREW up in an Orthodox community. I know that when I was born my father said, ‘What a shame, it’s a girl.’ I know that there were no ceremonies to welcome my arrival within the community. I know that no matter how hard I worked in Hebrew school and how many prizes I won, it didn’t really matter. At the age of thirteen, only the boys would have the official ceremony of the Bar Mitzva, which welcomed them into the world of men. And I have spent hours in synagogue sitting watching the men read from the scrolls, organize the services, and ignore the women completely. ….

“… I recently saw a photograph of a Hasidic celebration for the anniversary of the rabbinic scholar, Maimonides. Again, I found myself looking at the newsprint on the page trying to find someone who might look like me, a grown woman and a mother. But along the rows and rows of blackbearded men with dark hats and white faces I didn’t see a single woman. Once again, they had simply disappeared, as if they didn’t exist at all.

“That’s how the extreme Orthodox and Hasidic men like to have their women. They believe that women are wicked, unreliable, sexual temptresses, who are put on earth to lead men into evil ungodly ways and tempt them to stop observing the laws and commandments of Judaism.”

— The Hole in the Sheet: A Modern Woman Looks at Orthodox and Hasidic Judaism, Evelyn Kay (Lyle Stuart, 1987)

Video link

Video link

THIS 2015 speech at Boston College by politician and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes on the subject of marriage is outstanding and gets to the heart of why there’s no such thing as a marriage between two men or two women. “It doesn’t matter how many people put their hands together to say something God hasn’t said, that doesn’t make it true.”

To deny the essential nature of marriage is to deny the essential nature of God.

It was heterosexuals who changed the definition of marriage first, by denying its primary end of procreation.

                                                     The Holy Family, Francesca Montillo

I HAVE a great devotion to this saint because I have so often experienced that he can obtain so much from God. For many years I have been accustomed to ask a special grace on his festival, and my prayer is always answered.

— St. Alphonsus de Liguori

Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, San Jose, CA

St. Joseph’s Basilica, Webster, MA

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St. Joseph with the Christ Child, Guido Reni

THOMAS H. Kinane wrote in St. Joseph: His life, His virtues, His privileges, His power:

In the supernatural, as in the moral and physical order, the infinite wisdom and power of God suit the means to the end. God gives grace and sanctity to His Saints to fulfill the office and rank for which His Divine Providence has destined them.* The nearer a soul is destined to approach God, and the more intimately and largely she enters into the scheme of Redemption, the greater is her dignity, and in proportion is her sanctity. In the above principles we have the origin and the source of the sanctity, privileges, and choicest graces, showered, in all the plenitude of their abundance, upon the soul of St. Joseph by the Almighty.

Devotions to St. Joseph for today his feast day and everyday can be found here.

And some customs of his feast day.

Prayer to St. Joseph

O my beloved Saint Joseph! Adopt me as thy child; take charge of my salvation; watch over me day and night; preserve me from occasions of sin; obtain for me purity of body and soul, and the spirit of prayer, through thy intercession with Jesus. Grant me a spirit of sacrifice of humility, and self-denial; obtain for me a burning love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and a sweet tender love for Mary, my mother.

Saint Joseph, be with me in life, be with me in death, and obtain for me a favorable judgment from Jesus, my Merciful Savior. Amen

His Meditation Upon Death
—by Robert Herrick

Be those few hours, which I have yet to spend,
Blest with the meditation of my end:
Though they be few in number, I’m content:
If otherwise, I stand indifferent.
Nor makes it matter Nestor’s years to tell,
If man lives long, and if he live not well.
A multitude of days still heaped on,
Seldom brings order, but confusion.
Might I make choice, long life should be withstood;
Nor would I care how short it were, if good:
Which to effect, let ev’ry passing-bell
Possess my thoughts, “next comes my doleful knell”; Read More »