“SINCE the body he had assumed was about to be taken away from their bodily sight, and was about to be carried to the stars, it was necessary that, on the day of His last supper, He should consecrate for us the sacrament of His body and blood, so that what, as a price, was offered once should, through a mystery, be worshipped unceasingly.”

—- St. Eusebius

Pange Ligua Gloriosi

Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s glory, Of His flesh the mystery sing;
Of His Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our immortal King,
Destined, for the world’s redemption, From a noble womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing, Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order, Wondrously His life of woe.

On the night of that Last Supper, Seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating, First fulfills the Law’s command;
Then as Food to all His brethren, Gives Himself with His own hand. Read More »

The Last Supper, Jaume Serra; 1370

“Where is the Christian who can speak or even think of this evening without the most holy sentiments of love arising in his heart as the scene of the Holy Paschal Table, round which Jesus and His disciples were seated, rises up before his spiritual view? What mighty love was that which impelled the Son of God to institute this Most Holy Sacrament, that He might remain with us even to the consummation of the world! What a pledge of this faithful love! And, of all the Apostles, none more fully realized this than St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved; and who, on that evening, enjoyed the privilege and happiness of being nearest the Lord at the Last Supper, and of leaning his head on the bosom of Jesus. In the whole course of his life St. John never forgot that evening. He styles himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, and to whom this great grace was granted; but gives us to understand that we also are permitted to participate therein in its plenitude, for he says expressly: “Those whom Jesus loved, He has loved until the end of time.”

— Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876

GEMMA O’DOHERTY, Fakenukes Phil and Lynn Ertell discuss the many obvious signs that the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was a deliberate controlled demolition, probably to get rid of an obsolete structure and replace it without all the hassles of following bureaucratic procedure.

Great discussion. More insights here and here.

“I WANTED to know the truth–to see Jesus of Nazareth as He walked and talked in His native haunts. And then to give back to the millions of my fellow-Christians this real conception of the Founder of the Faith. If I spent ten years in the Holy Land, treading in the very footsteps of the Saviour, it was only that I myself might better realize all that He was, all that He did, before I give it to the world. Day by day, hour by hour, the facts grew dearer to me. I was moved by the consciousness that I was looking at the same rocks, the same trees that had been reflected in the eyes of the Saviour, and as I walked along those paths in which He must have trod, I could not always restrain the tears.”

— Artist James Tissot, on his famous illustrations of the Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus Read More »

NO GROUP of people has so effectively utilized their own alleged hurt feelings for political goals as have Jews. You might even say Jews have conquered the modern world not with guns or armies, but with hurt feelings.

Holocaust propaganda, for one, is largely focused on hurt feelings. Holocaust history overwhelmingly involves emotional accounts of survivors and not physical evidence.  A survivor recounts his experience with gut-wrenching details. Should anyone question the physical evidence of actual gas chambers or even make a simple request for physical evidence of them, battalions of combatants rise up and decry the “hurtfulness” of questioning history. These hurt feelings, we are told, are genetically inheritable.

Should anyone publicly or even privately criticize Jews, he is immediately accused of “hatred.” This puts the focus on the hurt feelings of the victims of hatred.

Reducing an issue to the emotional level can be very useful. It deflects attention from the facts.

Noah Feldman, writing on “The New Anti-Semitism” for Time magazine, resists tears:

Sitting in my office in leafy Cambridge, Mass., a proud citizen of the freest country in the world, in which Jews have been safer than in any other country in history, I am not free of emotion on the topic. Nor could I be.

Fortunately, his head is clear enough to call those who criticize Jews “neo-Nazis” — a term everyone knows is popularly synonymous with mass genocide — and to accuse them of being so many boobs who traffic “in us-vs.-them stereotypes,” as if using the term “neo-Nazi” is not trafficking in “us-vs.-them stereotypes.” How easily the emotionally sensitive traffic in defamation.

Criticism of Jews is always irrational or based in religious prejudice. So we are told. In reality, the “new anti-semitism” is not coming from mindless boobs or criminal personalities but from intelligent, informed and conscientious individuals who have thoughtfully studied the subject rather than engage in stereotypes and have courageously spoken out despite the threat of personal destruction. Though the victims of Jewish domination have always existed more abundantly in the lower classes and therefore a certain mindlessness was easily associated with their outrage, the fact is that the critics of Jewish strategies of domination throughout history include many artists, scientists, historians, philosophers and other intellectuals who did not traffic so much “in us-vs.-them stereotypes” as piercingly truthful insights into reality.

The “new-anti-semitism” is characterized by this informed truthfulness, which is precisely why it is raising such alarms.

Having insulted others, Feldman turns to the feelings of his compatriots: Read More »

THIS clip is from the 1977 British TV series, Jesus of Nazareth, noted for the outstanding performance of actor Robert Powell, who played Jesus. The series can be seen in full here.

Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem, 1544 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Those that thronged around the Saviour on Sunday do not so much acclaim Him as they acclaim themselves.

ON this Palm Sunday, the profound reflections below by Fr. Edward Leen in Why the Cross? may help you better understand that day in history and challenge the common misconception that because Jesus was hailed by palm-waving crowds in Jerusalem he therefore had popular support. He did not have popular support then, he certainly does not have popular support now and he would never in all human history be accepted by the majority of the human race, not even by the majority of Christians.

From Fr. Leen’s book:

On the morning of the Sunday in the last week of His mortal life, Jesus entered Jerusalem amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of a multitude composed of citizens and strangers. His malignant enemies saw their snarling protests drowned in the tumult of rejoicing. They felt themselves to be like straws tossed helplessly on the swelling tide of popular favour on which the Nazarene was borne triumphantly. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves : ‘Do you see that we prevail nothing? Behold the whole world is gone after him.’ And yet, five days later, Jesus was hurried through the streets of the city of His triumph amidst the execrations of the multitude and the silent dismay of His friends. Such a sudden reversal in the fortunes of the prophet of Nazareth baffles human reason. Some explanation might be furnished by the ordinary laws of mob psychology, but the explanation is far from satisfying and, to a mind approaching the problem without prejudice, appears wholly inadequate.

[…]

Much has been made of the supposed devotedness of great numbers of the simple country people to the cause of the Saviour. The entry into Jerusalem is pointed to as the occasion on which this enthusiastic devotion overbore all opposition and had a free course. The mood of the populace is supposed to have undergone a complete change in the course of a few days, owing to the machinations and the skilful propaganda of the priests. It is undeniable that the Nazarene had some sincere and devoted followers, but they must have been comparatively few in numbers. They did not constitute the great throng that went out at the city gates, on the morning of Sunday, to welcome Him with loud acclamations and the waving of palms. Read More »

“THE Church will be punished because the majority of her members, high and low, will become so perverted. The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles to have expired.”

— St. Nicholas of Flüe, d. 1487

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Source: Thuletide

STATES and the federal government have represented the interests of Big Agriculture for many years and have engaged in a longstanding war against the small farmer, which appears to be intensifying. Read More »

A READER writes:

I thought I’d commend you for being a thinking housewife. As a believer in male headship, as well as a great admirer of the Brontë sisters, I hold that the ideal wife is a thinking being who is a complement to her husband.

From Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley:

“Solomon’s virtuous woman … had something more to do than spin and give out portions: she was a manufacturer – she made fine linen and sold it: she was an agriculturist – she bought estates and planted vineyards. That woman was a manager: … a worthy model! … Men of England! Look at your poor girls … envious, backbiting, wretched, because life is a desert to them; or, what is worst of all, reduced to strive, by scarce modest coquetry and debasing artifice, to gain that position and consideration by marriage, which to celibacy is denied. … Seek for them an interest and occupation which shall raise them above the flirt, the maneuverer, the mischief-making talebearer.” Read More »

WHO can understand sins? From my secret ones cleanse me, O Lord; and from those of others spare thy servant.
If they shall have no dominion over me, then shall I be without spot; and I shall be cleansed from the greatest sin.
And the words of my mouth may be such as may please: and the meditation of my heart always in thy sight.
O Lord, my helper and my redeemer.

Psalm 18, 13-15

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