Jonah in the Belly of the Whale

“Because the light and wisdom of this contemplation is very bright and pure, and the soul in which it shines is dark and impure, a person will be deeply afflicted on receiving it. When eyes are sickly, impure and weak, they suffer pain if  bright light shines on them.

The soul because of its impurity, suffers immensely at the time this divine light truly assails it. When this pure light strikes in order to expel all impurity, persons feel so unclean and wretched that it seems God is against them and they are against God.

Because it seems that God has rejected it, the soul suffers such pain and grief that when God tried Job in this way it proved one of the worst of Job’s trials, as he says Why have You set me against You, and I am heavy and burdensome to myself? [Jb. 7:20] Clearly beholding its impurity by means of this pure light, although in darkness, the soul understands distinctly that it is worthy neither of God nor of any creature.”

— St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night, from the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, ICS Publications, 1961; p. 402

Fruit in a Basket, James Peale

THANKSGIVING is a day for unity, not division. What are the things that unite us, whatever our political persuasions? The conditions of existence unite us. Here are three:

1. We were born; created, not self-begotten.

2. We will die.

3. Our souls will live forever.

None of us differ in any of these conditions. The innate longing for unity is fulfilled. We are on the same boat. We are in the same vessel. We sail on the sea of time. We will sail on the sea of eternity.

The immortality of the soul can be established with the use of simple logic. You don’t have to get a degree in philosophy to see it. The soul is immaterial. It is not physical. It does not partake of physical death.

Put away political thoughts. They will be there when you wake up tomorrow. Put away political knives. Cut the turkey instead. We are alike more than we are different. Gratitude is a universal need. We have such a beautiful country, which none of us deserve. We can be united in gratitude that we are so much united. We can be united as the collective recipients of undeserved gifts.

Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice. (Psalm 72:3)

Happy Thanksgiving! 

The editorial board and maintenance staff of The Thinking Housewife extends her wish for many blessings to you, whatever your beliefs.

FROM a Thanksgiving letter by Harry Crouch of the National Coalition for Men:

I am not sure exactly how it works but the Department of Corrections unceremoniously dumps some released prisoners directly back into society. I spotted one last week late at night standing near our office building, about 50 or so feet away, bewildered, seemingly lost, in a pair of cheap sandals, wearing black knee length athletic shorts, no shirt, carrying a plastic bag with not much in it and no place in particular to go. It was chilly getting colder. He looked at me lost, wanted to ask me something… My arms were full of stuff; I wanted to give him a shirt or a jacket. I had to get rid of the stuff first. He said nothing. I said nothing. He turned, looked in a garbage can, and walked down C street toward where the woman lived on the corner across the street from the new $555 million dollar court house where $150,000 a year plus benefits judges will soon safely work. He was young, frightened, and alone in an inhospitable city.

IN THIS interview at True Restoration, Bishop Donald Sanborn, who endorsed Trump, looks at the election from a Catholic perspective, noting an uprising by working-class voters (non-working class is more like it) in rural and outlying America against the educated voters of the large urban blocs. Ironically, Trump is the quintessential New Yorker.

If Trump fulfills major promises and does not compromise with the Republican establishment (Rudy Giuliani for Secretary of State? Yuck!), it may be a long time before the Democratic Party, with its commitment to globalism, appeals to this segment again.

Bishop Sanborn comments on Trump’s degrading, sexual talk about women and, while not dismissing it, says, regarding Trump’s personal life, “Personal debauchery does not affect your ability to govern.” Ideally, good morals and good governance go together. But oftentimes, debauched people seek power and make good rulers. Still, Trump sets an undeniably bad example in certain areas.

GIVEN the influence of American politics on Europe, will the victory of Donald Trump help propel Marine Le Pen to the French presidency?

See excellent ongoing coverage of the upcoming May election at Galliawatch. A recent post looks at French reaction to the Trump election.  Tiberge quotes one commentator about the possibility of “Trumpify-ing” some of the candidates:

No [French] candidate comes up to Trump’s ankle. They lack the thing that gave him his success, the power to rise above the crowd. They depict Marine Le Pen as Donald Trump’s sister, and vice-versa… it’s completely false. She is engaged in a strategy of un-demonization, while Trump has always held his head high. He has never backed off and never submitted to political correctness. And then, Marine Le Pen is not new, she’s a party. She has already run in elections, unlike Trump who does not come from the world of politics. This aspect also is lacking in France. We need a renewal in the French ruling class. Certain candidates try to act like Trump but take no risks. He endured numerous attacks, notably from the media. That would frighten away any French political leader.

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE in Massachusetts has taken the American flag down from its campus flagpole in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.

President Jonathan Lash wrote: “By removing the flag, the college will seek to focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.”

That just about covers all the bases. By the way, it costs more than $65,000 per year to attend hate-free Hampshire, which is 60 percent female and 70 percent white.

Detail of a miniature of God creating the sun and moon; British Library

LAST WEEK, the moon was reportedly the most remarkable it has been in appearance since 1948. They call it a “super moon” because of its close proximity to the earth. And it was super. Anyone — rich or poor — could look up and see the brilliant, luminous circle that had been not long before been what Emily Dickinson would call “a chin of gold” in the sky.

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold
A Night or two ago—
And now she turns Her perfect Face
Upon the World below—

Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde—
Her Cheek—a Beryl hewn—
Her Eye unto the Summer Dew
The likest I have known—

Her Lips of Amber never part—
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her Silver Will—

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)(Credit: AP)

How disappointing photos of the surface of the moon up close are compared to its appearance in the sea of night from here below. Even the view of a normal full or half moon is inspiring, but the surface of the moon, up close, is a relatively sterile, almost lifeless terrain. Interesting for its comparative impoverishment, amazing for all that it does not have. Read More »

TRUMP breaks his promise to pursue a host of serious allegations against Hillary Clinton.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN thought the turkey was preferable to the bald eagle as a national symbol, reports the website It’s About Time. In Franklin’s words:

For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

“With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .

If he had been persuasive, we might have sports teams called the Turkeys, instead of the Eagles.

“POPE” Francis finds out Vatican employees have been reading the sedevacantist web site Novus Ordo Watch, which maintains he is not a true pope.

Here’s more on Francis “boiling with rage.”

CNS News reports:

In a ceremony at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland on Saturday, the Catholic Bishops of Poland in the presence of President Andrzei Duda and many Catholic pilgrims, officially recognized Jesus Christ as the King of Poland and called upon Him to rule over their nation, its people and their political leaders. Read More »

MISOGYNISTS upset about the election are planning to march on Washington on January 21 to protest the presidency of Trump.

They’re steaming mad. Hillary promised to keep women down! She promised to help them kill their children. The woman-haters are mad as hell that she didn’t win.

Why are these misogynists crying anyway? They’re crying because they don’t have the power over women they thought they had. They’re crying because American women are stronger and more independent minded than they thought they were.

Read More »

IT IS not surprising that Mike Pence was booed and scolded at a performance Friday of the Broadway musical, Hamilton. The play is a celebration of the replacement of the European peoples of America, something Trump voters want to limit. Gregory Hood, writing last April at American Renaissance, called the extremely popular play a “subversive jab” at the Founders: Read More »

Luxuria, George Glover; 1630

IN A three-part series, Fr. Franz Hunolt (1691-1746) wrote “On the Folly of Impure Desires of Sensual Pleasures:”

You may talk to the impure man hundreds and thousands of times of the eternal joys of Heaven, he will not feel the least desire for them. He would willingly give them up, if he could satisfy all his wishes on earth. He cannot even imagine a joy which does not consist in impure love. He is inclined sometimes to envy the beast of the field, and to wish that he had neither reason nor freedom, that he might gratify his passions without shame, or the fear of eternal damnation. So that he has lost all pleasure in, and taste for everything; nay, his ruling passion itself gives him no content, because his desires increase more and more, and the greater they are, the harder it is to satisfy them.

Marriage, Andrew Wyeth; 1993

ANOTHER Wyeth painting.

SAM OOSTERHOFF ran on a pro-life platform.

Source

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FELLOWSHIP OF THE MINDS reports that bestialists, apparently emboldened in recent years, are now concerned.