FIVE HUNDRED years ago last week the “Protestant Reformation” began, an event to mourn for its ongoing effects. A revolution by oligarchs against the people, it disbanded many of the great charitable institutions of Europe: hospitals, schools, and alms houses run by those who took vows of poverty. Tenant farmers on monastic lands were displaced and many became the homeless poor. The spoils were distributed as political favors. To cite one small example, the buildings of Netley Abbey in southern England, a monastery renowned for its charity to travelers, were given to Sir William Paulet by Henry VIII in 1536 in reward for his loyal service to the king. He created a fashionable mansion.

Netley Abbey

In A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland, the Protestant writer William Cobbett (1763-18-35) wrote of the looting:

182. The whole country was, thus, disfigured; it had the appearance of a land recently invaded by the most brutal barbarians: and this appearance, if we look well into it, it has even to this day. Nothing has ever yet come to supply the place of what was then destroyed. This is the view for us to take of the matter, it is not a mere matter of religion; but a matter of rights, liberties, real wealth, happiness and national greatness. If all these have been strengthened, or augmented, by the “REFORMATION,” even. then we must not approve of the horrible means; but, if they have all been weakened, or lessened, by that “Reformation,” what an outrageous abuse of words is it to call the event by that name! And, if I do not prove, that this latter has been the case; if I do not prove, clear as the daylight, that, before the “Reformation,” England was greater, more wealthy, more moral, and more happy, than she has ever been since; if I do not make this appear as clearly as any fact ever was made to appear, I will be content to pass, for the rest of my life, for a vain pretender. Read More »

Autumn, Fern Isabel Coppedge

TREES are never trendy.

A tree can’t say, “I’m tired of the smoldering golds and russets of fall. I think I’ll wear black instead.” It can’t put on shoulder pads or sweatshirts or ripped jeans. It can’t listen to big-name designers.

Year after year, generation after generation, it wears the same thing. And yet we don’t tire of its fashions. Its style is timeless. It has nothing to hide, no need for modesty, no will to deny its essential nature. The dresses and skirts of trees have a perfection our garments can never match. Beauty isn’t boring. Seas of ugliness cannot destroy the messages of trees. Somewhere the orchards are eternal.

Louis Marie de Shriver

IT’S ABOUT TIME has been posting interesting paintings of flower sellers of the past. They include this French painting by Louis Marie de Shryver (1862-1942), Selling Flowers Elysee. Selling flowers was a humble, but profitable occupation for women on the streets of Europe. Barbara Wells Sarudy writes:

When some think street flower sellers, they picture Eliza Doolittle, the flower seller in Covent Garden who went from rags to riches, thanks to the attentions of Professor Higgins, in George Bernard Shaw’s (1856-1950) Pygmalion. Her rise out of poverty was hardly typical. Flower sellers were common on the streets of London, Paris, & other European urban centers. We can glean some information about British flower sellers from Victorian London census records which reveal that most were married women & widows ranging from older teens to women in their 50s, single women, mostly enumerated as “daughter” are far fewer & make up a small percentage of the total. We can see the occasional “flower girl” who was put out onto the streets to sell flowers in order to help with the family income. Flower sellers didn’t just sell cut flowers, which had to be sourced at dawn, taken home, made up into bunches & then taken out onto the streets to sell from a basket, wheelbarrow, hand cart, or temporary stall in high traffic areas such as informal markets or lining the streets of busy thoroughfares. They also sold pot plants, “roots,” seeds. There was a hierarchy within the occupation as described by Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) in London Labour & the London Poor. [cont.]

AARON RUSSO, the late Hollywood producer, discussed his conversations with Rockefeller family insider Nicholas Rockefeller in this 2009 interview with Alex Jones. Russo’s thoughts on the true nature of feminism, which was promoted by the government, foundations and corporations for profit motives and to bring about world government, are of special interest. Many people have awakened to this idea and millions have watched versions of this video. [I should add, I am not a regular viewer of the media personality Alex Jones.]

While there is truth to what Russo says, it obviously is not the whole story.

HURRAY to “John Williams” for a flawless performance.

Love the hairspray.

Bernadette Soubirous

A SAINT, one might say, is a man or woman who was willing in life to suffer intensely for the love of God and who retained his faith, confidence, hope, cheerfulness and spirit of charity through all his sufferings.

Today, the Feast of All Saints, is a good day to honor saintly heroism. To that end, here is a brief list of some of the trials of one saint, St. Bernadette of Lourdes (1844-1879), who in her short lifetime endured the following:

1. Humiliating and sometimes vicious personal attacks at the age of 14 from her parents, teachers, neighbors, the local clergy and police (who threatened her with arrest) when she claimed she had seen visions of a beautiful lady.

2. The burden of celebrity when later many believed her visions were real. This attention lasted for the rest of her life. It was tedious and unwanted by her but she handled it with humility and patience.

3. Persecution from a superior at a convent who falsely believed she was full of herself and seeking attention.

4. The death of her parents.

5. Severe physical suffering before her death at 35 from tuberculosis.

Suffering, for a saint, is a grace.

God sends great hardship to those he loves most.

WHAT power do the people have against rogue judges like Colleen Kollar-Kotelly?

She’s above the written law — the Constitution gives the president command of the military — and she certainly considers herself to be above the moral law, which means that even if the people overwhelmingly supported her, she is against reality itself. The moral law is like the law of gravity. It doesn’t go away just because you don’t believe in it.

I can safely predict that the prohibition against gravely unbalanced individuals in the military (known as the transgender ban) that Judge Kollar-Kotelly stayed on Monday will never be enforced. Modern democracy, by its very nature, leads to progressive decadence. There will be “transgenders” in the Army. What of the many stunning departures from morality enshrined by our government in the last 50 years has been reversed?

Rejoice that the truth is clearer by the day.

ANNA MARIE writes:

I am recently engaged and planning a wedding for next August! Please pray for me. I was wondering if you had any advice/book suggestions for me to read as I prepare for marriage. Read More »

CHRISTOPHER writes:

I prayed five Glorious Mysteries for your mother yesterday. I have no real Catholics in my family so I always offer masses and prayers for people I don’t know because I know they will pray for me and my family.

God bless!

IF THERE is one idea that Americans of all political persuasions hold in common it is that democracy is the greatest of all political systems. More than an idea, it’s an emotional state. Love of country is love of “We the People.” It doesn’t matter how many liars are elevated to power, it doesn’t matter that the democratic state routinely imposes restraints that surpass those of tyrannical kings and make the woes of the American colonists seem utterly petty, it doesn’t matter that the government bureaucracies relentlessly expand, confiscating wealth and brazenly defying the people on issues such as immigration, democracy, we continue to believe, is the foundation of freedom. It will not let us down in the end.

But it has let us down and, according to the Belgian writer and historian Christophe Buffin de Chosal, this is the end. It will never deserve our trust again. Buffin de Chosal has produced a powerful and provocative critique on the nature of democracy. The End of Democracy, originally published in 2014 and recently translated into English by Ryan P. Plummer in a new edition by Tumblar House, is unsparing in its rejection of the modern democratic system.

Democracy has failed us, he argues, not because we are decadent. We are decadent because of democracy. Democracy by its nature promotes “spectacular advances in immorality.” It is not government for the people and by the people. It is government for the powerful by the powerful. Democracy never was a movement of the people. We are democracy’s dupes. Its revolutions were always imposed from above. Offering the masses the illusion of participation, it prevents popular resistance to its absolutist dictates. Both the English parliamentary revolution and the French Revolution were the successful efforts of powerful minorities subjugating the monarchy to its demands. The people were a ruse.  “Liberal democracy did not want liberty for all, but only the liberty of the wealthy,” Buffin de Chosal writes.

The reality is that democracy was invented for the purpose of bringing an oligarchy into power and keeping it there.

In his introduction to Buffin de Chosal’s work, historian Charles A. Coulombe embraces this thesis too:

Democracy has been a system in perpetual degradation. it has participated in the decline of the Western world, being both its cause and its fellow traveler. It is a factor of “decivilization,” and it leaves in its wake disappointed and politically immature peoples. Behind the screen of its rituals, it consolidates oligarchic totalitarian regimes which shall one day surprise — indeed this day has come — people who believed themselves free.

Democracy by its very nature leads to the all-encompassing intervention of the state. It controls education, the media (through the political interests supporting it), the issuance of money, the medicine we take and the food we eat. Our government drifts ever leftward because given the choice between freedom and security most voters will choose the security of government handouts. Though Buffin de Chosal is more focused on democracy in Europe, most of what he says applies to the United States too. He writes: Read More »

ALAN writes from St. Louis:

I know how terrible it is to lose a mother to whom one owes a tremendous moral debt.

Your remark about aging parents, “We have to put them to bed, as they once did us,” reminded me of the above sheet music from 1927.

This song was included in my father’s small collection of sheet music. I have never heard the song, but I know the sentiment well, and I’m sure you do also.

BOOKMARK this piece by John Horvat II so that the next time you read of Catholic organizations advocating open borders, you can revisit one of the greatest saint’s and theologian’s reasoning to the contrary. Nations are not morally required to accept all strangers.

My mother with the first of her seven children

MY MOTHER, Katharine Ann Curtin Quinn, who was born on August 8, 1930, died yesterday at 2:50 p.m. at Paoli Hospital in Paoli, Pennsylvania. She is survived by her loving husband of 64 years, William Paul; seven children, thirteen grandchildren, two sisters and two brothers. She died of heart failure after two weeks in the hospital, during which time her children, grandchildren and husband, who is 91, spent much time with her. We took turns staying by her bedside.

There is so much to say about my beautiful mother, who was a highly talented person, one of the first female computer programmers, a woman who left career early on to devote herself to family, but my heart is too filled with sadness, gratitude for my mother’s existence and prayers to elaborate now.

No one is more powerful than a mother. I could not believe anything else, given the influence of my own mother during my childhood. No one is more powerful than a mother because the human soul is immortal while things of this world — works of art, scientific advances, buildings and politics — are not lasting, and no one influences the soul’s development more than a mother. The love of a good parent is a reflection of the love of God. There is enough for everyone. There is no such thing as too many children. The heart expands to include each one as if it were the only one.

Please pray for her eternal rest.

My mother, who went by the name of Nancy, left each one of us with words of affection during her last weeks. She was often calm, lucid, and accepting of death despite pain (from four broken ribs and a broken pelvis) and difficulty breathing. Just before she went into the hospital, on her last two nights at home, I helped both of my parents to bed and stayed with them through the night. She had an undiagnosed broken pelvis. After I tucked in their blanket, she said to me, “You shouldn’t have to put your parents to bed.”

But we do. We have to put them to bed, as they once did us.

“May the angels lead thee into Paradise; may the martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and bring thee into the holy city, Jerusalem. May the choir of angels receive thee, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, mayest thou have eternal rest.”

Read More »

KAEDE LIRA answers objections to the necktie, including the complaint that it is inconsiderate of the poor to wear nice clothes. Yes, Lira says, the tie can be elitist but that’s okay:

One class should not sacrifice its own dignity in dress under the pretext that ceremonious clothing degrades the poor. The lower classes are always raised and elevated when they look to the elites and imitate them in their dignity of dress and manners. To say the opposite is to pay tribute to the fallacies of Communism and Miserablism. Read More »

OLE DAMMEGARD argues that there were multiple shooters in Las Vegas and speculates that extremely wealthy, bored people are playing a form of modern gladiator games by hunting human beings down for sport. Listen halfway through for the speculations.

However, a trauma surgeon says the reports of bullet wounds were not plausible and a military surgeon found videos of victims unconvincing.

Anastasia Smith analyses the fake heroics outside Mandalay Bay.

THE mainstream media and the state of Florida have been orchestrating the possibility of a major confrontation at the University of Florida today when Richard Spencer, the media’s chosen representative of the Alt-Right, gives a speech.

In light of what appears to be a desire for a confrontation, it’s worth considering this post at Akmai Tree about Spencer’s CIA connections.

℣. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
℟. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

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.

℣. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
℟. Be it done unto me according to thy word.

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.

℣. And the Word was made flesh.
℟. And dwelt among us. Read More »

CHILDREN’S TV indoctrinates Western children in globalism and the eradication of their culture:

[I]n the most unlikely change of all, Thomas [the Tank Engine] will leave his home on the Island of Sodor for adventures abroad, in episodes that support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Mattel, the US toy giant that owns the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine, has collaborated with the UN on storylines featuring five of the goals: quality education, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and life on land.

Aside from political indoctrination, children’s TV is so hyper and ugly it creates restlessness and boredom.