Temperance on St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick's Day means not much more than green beer and drunken reveling for many people today, but in late-19th century America it was --- believe it or not --- a day to honor moderation and total abstinence from alcohol. In the Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day parade of 1875, some 10,000 people marched and "the majority parading walked with the thirty-nine marching units of the [Catholic] Total Abstinence Brotherhood, an organization with strong religious backing and a missionary zeal for temperance crusading.," according to Dennis Clark.  It was after the Civil War that parades of all kinds became a sort of national craze. Veterans of the conflict turned out and, in Philadelphia, General St. Clair Mulholland and other heroes of the war stepped smartly along on St. Patrick's Day each year. Temperance organizations became a big component of the March 17th Parades from 1870 through the turn of the century. Father Matthew of County Tyrone (above) was the popular founder in Ireland of organized temperance earlier in the century and it spread to this country with the creation of state groups and then the national Brotherhood in 1871. On July 4, 1876, the Catholic Total Abstinence Centennial Fountain was dedicated in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, featuring a marble statue of of Father Matthew. From the May 1887 edition of Catholic World: The saloon has fastened itself upon society as an ulcer living upon the life-blood of the people. The saloon, building…

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St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland

“Patrick, a native of that part of Britain now called Scotland, was born about the middle of the 4th Century. The Romans having left this Island naked and defenseless, it’s inhabitants were an easy prey to their troublesome neighbors the Irish, who made several incursions, and carried off considerable booty. Our Saint was sixteen years old, when he fell into the hands of those plunderers; and was carried into Ireland, where the hardships of slavery were to prepare him for the labors of an Apostle; and the experience he had of the spiritual necessities of that people was to inspire him with the charitable design of carrying the Light of the Gospel amongst them. (more…)

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day

ST. PATRICK’s BREASTPLATE

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward, (more…)

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He Gives Sight to the Blind

"AND Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may become blind. And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we also blind? "Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth." --- John 9:39-41  

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The Inner House

"IF some rich and powerful friend were to enter your home, you would quickly clean the entire house for fear something there might offend your friend’s eyes when he entered. Let anyone then who is preparing his inner house for God cleanse away the dirt of his evil deeds." -- St. Gregory the Great  

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The Music on Calvary

"BUT the couching of our spiritual sight is not the only operation which the senses of our soul undergo on Calvary. All souls are hard of hearing with respect to the sounds of the invisible world. The inner ear is opened upon Calvary. The sounds of Jerusalem travel up to us through the darkness, and perhaps the sounds of labour in the gardens near. But they rise up as admonitions rather than as distractions. They come to us softly and indistinctly, and do not jar with the silence of our endurance, or the low whisperings of prayer. Least of all do they muffle the clearness of our Saviour’s words when He vouchsafes to speak. Down below, how the world deafened us by its tumultuous noises, and jaded our spirits with its multiplicity of sounds! We knew that Jesus was at our sides, and yet we could not converse with Him. It was like trying to listen, when the loud wheels are rattling harshly along the streets, when listening is no better than an unsuccessful strain, or a perplexed misunderstanding. The mere noise the world makes in its going so amazes us that it hinders our feet upon the road to heaven. It is only on Calvary that earth is subdued enough to make music with heaven; for it is there only that God is heard distinctly, while the low-lying world murmurs like a wind, a sound which is discordant nowhere,…

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The Hidden Sphere of Grace

"EVERYWHERE evil is undermined by good. It is only that good is undermost; and this is one of the supernatural conditions of God's presence. As much evil as we see, so much good, or more, we do know assuredly lies under it, which, if not equal to the evil in extent, is far greater in weight, and power, and worth, and substance. Evil makes more show, and thus has a look of victory; while good is daily outwitting evil by simulating defeat." --- Fr. Frederick Faber, Bethlehem (Tan Books, 1978); p. 191  

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Hatred Is a Jewish Value

 NO JEW has to be a Jew. It's always a choice in the end. One is not born a Jew, one is made a Jew. Stand up to Jewish hate. Talmudic values divide the world. They divide humanity into the chosen and the inferior, the enlightened and the enslaved. Whether in religious or secular forms (e.g., Communism, multiculturalism, globalism, predatory Capitalism, Holocaustianity), Talmudism seeks to dominate and dehumanize with lies and seductive propaganda. Standing up to Jewish hate is not hatred of Jews. Not all Jews understand that hatred is a Jewish value.  

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