PRISCILLA writes:

 The above is a video described at Canon212 as “the liturgical disaster at Lourdes.”  I am speechless upon viewing it,  although I think you might find words to describe it.  The procession is especially egregious.  HCPT is a UK charity which funds pilgrimages for disabled and disadvantaged children, which is undoubtedly a worthy cause, and it is encouraging to see so many young people participating.  Something in my soul shrivels aesthetically in the face of it, however.  The priests in ball caps, clown wigs and face paint are truly cringeworthy.  Unfortunately, “liturgical disasters” are not uncommon these days, but this seems particularly brutal.  And I feel bad and petty for noticing!  What would Jesus say? Read More »

DAN R. writes:

Are you sure it wasn’t you who wrote the caption to this photo?

“Never has a photo said so much about the current state of humanity.” Read More »

CAROLINE writes:

Just had to share these pictures with you. They are photos of a “health service” vehicle at a public university. It was early in the morning when I dropped my daughter off, so the li’l car was charging in the conveniently located charging outlet. It might be redundant, as in many ways we are so far gone as a society, beyond Orwell, but there is so much wrong with this “service,” one hardly knows where to begin.

First of all, the condescension to ethnic minorities (image below) revolts me. Easy to see who educated the marketing firms.

The nauseating coopting of a perfectly lovely color, pink. Before I read the copy on the “car,” I thought, ‘Oh no, more female cancer agitprop.’ (Don’t know what to think about the pig.)

The car advertises “birth control” and services for “safer sex.” It almost looks as if they’ll deliver their products to eager students in their dorms. (Stashed in the back compartment of course.) Don’t know. Perhaps exclusively for TTHW readers, they should add pizza delivery?

As I contemplated this insult to decent people, it occurred to me that in my time of high school and college (and before I think) students carried on their own elicit affairs by themselves, with no help and guidance from the over-preening hand of the university. They had illicit sex, did drugs, got drunk—mostly on their own terms. Not that I advocate this, of course. Still, it seems to be that the elites want to control, illuminate, and manage this part of students’ lives. Encourage, too. (Since we’re just a collection of molecules anyhow. No souls; no spirits; no eternal creation of loving God.)

Weird. But makes sense if you understand the power lust of totalitarianism. How Marx and Lenin must be laughing from their hole in hell.

Woman with a Pearl Necklace (detail), Johannes Vermeer; 1662-64

SONG OF THE PEARL
— By Archie Sullivan

I WAS made for the smallest hands to press,
For the softest kiss and the still caress,
For the whispered peace of a night in June,
For tired eyes that watch the moon.
I was made for grief and for hearts that break
To passionate tears for the loved one’s sake;
My soul is a mist, my heart a sea,
And I pave the floors of eternity.

REPUBLICANS have for quite a while been offering lip service and minor action to the anti-abortion movement in exchange for Christian Zionist support for military aggression.

A podcast from the organization We Hold These Truths looks at the “bone” Trump is tossing to anti-abortion “Evangelicals” while he simultaneously ramps up threats of war. Chuck Carlson comments on the hypocrisy of Christian Zionism. The high-paid, carnival barker preachers who have led the masses into unjust wars are, despite their opposition to abortion, child killers.

Unknown Artist from Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375); De claris mulieribus

AN allocution by Pope Pius XII in 1958, posted in part at Tradition in Action, asserts that beautiful clothing “concentrates the sight on the spirit.”

The more materialistic a culture, the uglier and the more immodest its clothes.

FROM a 2004 piece (no longer available online) by Paul Craig Roberts:

Compare an American taxpayer’s situation today with that of a 19th century American slave.

Not all slaves worked on cotton plantations. Some with marketable skills were leased to businesses or released to labor markets, where they worked for money wages. Just like the wages of today’s taxpayer, a portion of the slave’s money wages was withheld. In those days the private owner, not the government, received the withheld portion of the slave’s wages.

Slaves in that situation were as free as today’s American taxpayer to choose their housing from the available stock, purchase their food and clothing, and entertain themselves.

In fact, they were freer than today’s American taxpayer. By hard work and thrift, they could save enough to purchase their freedom.

No American today can purchase his freedom from the IRS. Read More »

SEE many vintage photographs at Call Me Jorge of May Crownings and Processions. The one above is from 1950 and below from 1929.

ONE OF five baby rabbits born in our garden this weekend.

Behold the miracle of the mother of the Lord:
a virgin has conceived though she knows not a man,
Mary, who stands laden with her noble burden;
knowing not that she is a wife,
she rejoices to be a mother.
She has conceived in her chaste womb
one who is beautiful beyond the sons of men,
and blessed for ever,
she has brought forth God and man for us.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.

(H/T Samuel Willodson)

IT’S NOT too late to chop down a tree, make a pole, gather ribbons, pick flowers for garlands and wreaths and assemble in the village green to celebrate the first day of May and the Queen of Heaven.

Maypole dancing, 1915 (Courtesy of It’s About Time blogspot)

FORMER Planned Parenthood manager Sue Thayer reveals in this video by Live Action that Planned Parenthood has had abortion quotas:

“Every center had a goal for how many abortions were done.”

Employees were rewarded with meeting sales goals with pizza parties, Thayer says.

“It sounds kind of crazy, but pizza is a motivator.”

“OPIATES killed ten times as many Americans in one year as all terror attacks in last 20 years.” Unintentional drug overdose is now the primary cause of accidental deaths in the United States, Claire Bernish reports.

Read about how Oxycontin, the painkiller blamed for many cases of opiate addiction, was marketed to the medical establishment by Purdue Pharma: Read More »

NICK writes:

I’ve emailed you in the past about certain topics you helped with. So, I thought I’d ask another if you have the time to answer.

On the recent Easter Vigil I was confirmed into the Catholic Church. For the past decade I’ve studied Thomistic philosophy, even uprooting myself from my rural home in North Carolina and moving to Houston to attend a Catholic University to further my education. Still, I went through RCIA, which was little more than deacons expressing their personal testimonials and religious experiences. Read More »

St. Catherine of Siena Exchanges her Heart with Christ, Giovanni di Paolo (1398–1482)

“TO the servant of God, every place is the right place, and every time is the right time.”

—- Letter T328, St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena, Giovanna di Paolo

A HIGH school teacher in Downingtown, Pennsylvania aggressively harassed a couple of students protesting abortion outside his school. (Language warning.) At The Philadelphia Inquirer, a commenter writes:

This guy is the epitome of the modern liberal (no longer liberal – only communist/socialist). Back in the day if you didn’t like someone’s message, you ignored it and moved on, knowing that you [could] push your own message just as they could if you so wanted. Now the modern liberal, exactly like this guy, seeks active obstruction of that speech in lieu of pushing his own. Get in their face, cuss at them, yell at them, and shout and dance over their message, to suppress their speech. Very bullying tactics – the heckler’s veto.

Knowledge is power right? If their knowledge couldn’t stand up to a debate, why would he try to suppress them? People should know more. They should know all sides of the issue, and logically deduce themselves and from shared debates and discourse, the end logical conclusion. Instead he suppresses opposing viewpoints. Does he not think that his students should be exposed to all sides of the issue?? It seems so. As Bill Maher would say – a modern book burner.

Sarah Trumbull on her Deathbed, 1824

DON’T DIE, dear reader.

Please don’t die. I am experienced enough with this regrettable phenomenon to advise you — without hesitation or doubt — that you should not die.

Do something else instead.

Go for a walk in the woods.

Get a haircut.

Have a glass of wine or start a new hobby or write poetry. Anything, for Pete’s sake.

But, die? It’s not worth it. Interesting yes, but not worth the trouble. If death comes knocking at your door, politely decline. There are some experiences you don’t need on your resumé.

But … you must die someday, you say? “I have no choice,” you say?

Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that.

Well, in that case, it is my editorial duty to inform you that if you must die, you must strive to do it well. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. But only at your finest.

How, you might ask, can you die well? That’s a good question. Now that I think of it, the answer is lengthy. Let’s start with one small and essential tip: Don’t wait till the last minute. Procrastination is risky, and besides it takes a long time to die well in many cases.

Start now. Everyday, without fail, for a few moments, contemplate your own death. Even if you are smart and young and busy and active with a hundred plans for tomorrow. Contemplate your own death.

That’s a morbid subject, you say! It is. Don’t get caught up in picturesque details or gory scenarios or the idea of last minute confessions. Your death may not be spectacular. It might be boring and only technically morbid. Simply meditate upon the finality of death. It is final in certain ways, you know. You were born. You will die. You are here. You are gone. A weird thing. Death is abnormal. If you think upon this fact then you not only have a chance of dying well, you have a greater chance of living well. Death is strange. And therefore life itself is strange. How can you understand anything unless you face the mystery of death? Not death in the abstract. But your death.

To die well is to live well. Or to live well is to die well. In not that much time, you and I and the next person will be gone.

Begin today. I would rather you not die. That is my personal preference. But if you must do it, mortal man, do it well. Die well, sweet victim. All else is minor in comparison.