“[A]LL kinds of satisfaction are reducible to three heads: prayer, fasting and almsdeeds, which correspond to three kinds of goods which we have received from God, those of the soul, those of the body and what are called external goods.”

— Catechism of the Council of Trent

“LAY not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where thy treasure is, there thy heart is also.

—- Matthew, 6:19-21

LENT is often mistaken for a grim season.

The truth is that, when observed well, it can be not only the happiest time of year, but the path to a generally happier life.

Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more. John 5:14

Many people practice Buddhist-style meditation or “mindfulness” today, seeking to empty themselves and draw closer to an ambient, mindless force.

Lenten meditation and repentance, by contrast, involve filling oneself up with the divine existence of God. He is mindfulness itself. Happiness consists in meaning. Happiness is loving the truth, even the truth of our own depravity.

“Man can be made happy, not by things, but by life,” Fr. Edward Leen wrote in Why the Cross?, “Mere existence cannot give him beatitude. He becomes happy when existence is transformed into veritable life by being brought into contact with Life itself. Without the Saviour man would exist, but would not live. Hence Jesus states that the purpose of His coming is that man might have life and have it in ever increasing measure. Life expresses itself in appropriate activity.”

“Lent” is from an Old English word “lencten” meaning spring.

As this French Lenten hymn reminds us, Lent partakes of gladness:

To bow the head
In sackcloth and in ashes,
Or rend the soul,
Such grief is not Lent’s goal;
But to be led
To where God’s glory flashes,
His beauty to come nigh,
To fly, to fly,
To fly where truth and light do lie.

The sorrows of Lent — and true contrition must produce sorrow — are medicinal. What is better than, having experienced this sorrow, to heal the depravity of our own souls?

[F]or as ulcers are lanced with a knife in order to allow the escape of poisonous matter accumulated within, so the heart, as it were, is pierced with the lance of contrition, to enable it to emit the deadly poison of sin. (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

Here is a medicine that returns us to life.

The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. Ps. vi, 7-9

And finally some relevant thoughts from Dom Prosper Gueranger’s The Liturgical Year:

“Our Redeemer would not have us receive the announcement of the great feast as one of sadness and melancholy. The Christian who understands what a dangerous thing it is to be behindhand with divine justice welcomes the season of Lent with joy; it consoles him. He knows that if he be faithful in observing what the Church prescribes, his debt will be less heavy upon him. These penances, these satisfactions (which the indulgence of the Church has rendered so easy), being offered to God unitedly with those of our Savior Himself, and being rendered fruitful by that holy fellowship which blends into one common propitiatory sacrifice the good works of all the members of the Church militant, will purify our souls, and make them worthy to partake in the grand Easter joy. Let us not, then, be sad because we are to fast; let us be sad only because we have sinned and made fasting a necessity. In this same Gospel, our Redeemer gives us a second counsel, which the Church will often bring before us during the whole course of Lent: it is that of joining almsdeeds with our fasting. He bids us to lay up treasures in heaven. For this, we need intercessors; let us seek them amidst the poor.” [bold added]

O GOD, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, give me the grace to detest my sins as Thou dost detest them. Make me see that my sins and imperfections offend Thee, that they keep me from striving for perfection, that they are the cause of unhappiness to myself and to others. Fill my heart with sorrow for sin, so that I may never sin again.

O Holy Spirit, soften my heart, that I may detest my sins as I will on judgment day, which is so terrible even for the innocent soul.

O Mary, Mother of God, and my mother pray for a poor sinner who places all his confidence in thee. St. Joseph, listen to my prayer. All ye Saints of Paradise, help me to detest my sins and imperfections.

(Source)

SUPPORTERS of Vatican II, when faced with its shocking fruits in the West, sometimes point to growth and success in Africa as a hopeful contrast to disastrous decline. The numbers are up by many millions in Africa, they say. Some even argue the “reform” was all necessary because the Church needed to be de-Westernized. Africans and Asians being incapable — so they say — of appreciating the solemn and ancient liturgies, only the great watering down and “evolution” of Vatican II could have accomplished that de-Europeanization.

The writer George Neumayr visited Africa in 2022 and 2023, hoping to write a book on this very subject. What he found was contrary to this idea of a “vibrant” Africa.

Writing in American Spectator, he described his visits to Côte d’Ivoire, the former French colony where the faith was robust and growing in the first half of the 20th century. His observations are collected in a new book published by Os Justi Press, Is African Catholicism a “Vatican II Success Story?”  with co-authors Peter Kwasniewski, Claudio Slavucci and an “African seminarian.” While I cannot recommend these authors on the general meaning of Vatican II, this book is a perceptive glance at Africa since the robber council.

Neumayr wrote:

But all that momentum is now gone and the Church in Côte d’Ivoire is a shadow of its former self. Today’s Catholic priests offer not unvarnished Catholicism but its pitiful “social justice” variant, a blend of socialist politics, modernist theology, and ecumenical babble. Read More »

Christ Carrying the Cross, Andrea Solario

BELOW is a list of reading possibilities for Lent, including familiar classics and lesser known works — all of which are secondary to the most important books of all: the Old and New Testaments. If you don’t mind reading on a screen (or listening to audio versions), you can obtain any of these books below for free.

LENTEN READING

Perfect Contrition: The Golden Key to Paradise, Fr. J. de Driesch
The Passion and the Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus de Liguori
A Catholic commentary on Holy Scripture; Bernard Orchard, ed.
Haydock’s Bible Commentary,George Leo Haydock
Of Prayer and Meditation, Ven. Louis of Granada
The Sinner’s Guide, Ven. Louis of Granada
Meditations for Lent, St. Thomas Aquinas
Lenten Sermons, Fr. Augustine Wirth
Pope St. Leo the Great’s Sermons on Lent
The Mystery of the Crown of Thorns, A Passionist
What Jesus Saw from the Cross, Fr. A.G. Sertillanges
A Doctor at Calvary: the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ as described by a surgeon, Dr. Pierre Barbet
The Foot of the Cross, by Fr. Frederick William Faber
Spiritual Conferences, by Fr. Frederick William Faber
The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ, Rev. Richard Clarke
The Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Fr. Thomas Jesus Read More »

“DONALD Trump has paid roughly $30 million to settle child-sex complaints brought against him since 1989, according to a D.C.-based investigative journalist.

“Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), which is a subscription site, describes the settlements in a Jan 14-15 post titled ‘Why is Trump so afraid of Cohen’s testimony?'”

Read more.

“UNLESS we ponder and consider the mysteries of our faith, our faith is as it were a letter closed up, and sealed.”

— Ven. Louis of Grenada, Of Prayer and Meditation

Read More »

FUNNY and true comments from J.D. Hall:

These men choose their political beliefs like they choose their theology; they choose whatever belief that is least likely to bring controversy to their door step, as close to the middle as they can possibly get, so as to offend the least number of God’s enemies as is humanly possible while still keeping up the facade that they’re conservatives. Read More »

S. writes:

I hope this finds you well.

I remember a few months ago there was a discussion on your blog about the flooding in Western North Carolina and other areas from hurricane Helene and whether the weather could actually be modified to make storms more severe.

I thought I would send this old short film I just found. It seems they have been working on this technology for a while.

“When the shepherd becomes a wolf, the first duty of the flock is to defend itself. It is usual and regular, no doubt, for doctrine to descend from the bishops to the faithful, and those who are subject in the faith are not to judge their superiors. But in the treasure of revelation there are essential doctrines which all Christians, by the very fact of their title as such, are bound to know and defend. The principle is the same whether it be a question of belief or conduct, dogma or morals.”

— (The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger Vol. 4 Septuagesima, p. 379-380)

THE man the world recognizes as pope and supreme ruler of the Catholic Church, who proclaimed in the first year of his pseudo-reign, “I want a mess,” is gravely ill. While Francis may recover from this latest health crisis, his remaining days on earth are clearly to be few. It is likely his condition is worse than is being publicly let on today.

As he lies ill at Gemelli Hospital in Rome, may God have mercy on the many victims of this audacious vulgarian, head not of the Catholic Church but of the One-World Ekumenik Church. As an indicator of just how bad off the institution he led is, the city of Boston, once a stronghold of Catholicism, now has one seminarian per nearly 30,000 nominal Catholics, while the city of Chicago has one seminarian for every 67,000 parishioners. (And sadly, those seminarians will never be true Catholic priests, no matter how well-intentioned they are.)

Highlights from his false pontificate in 2014 alone include:

Held the first Muslim/Jewish prayers and Koran readings at the Vatican; Sent an iPhone message to evangelicals through prosperity-gospel TV preacher Kenneth Copeland; Peace doves attacked; Said to ‘scold the Lord‘ and also that he would baptize aliens; Cover of Rolling Stone; Accidentally said ‘the F word’; Cardinal Dolan claimed Francis said ‘Catholic Church should not dismiss gay marriage‘; Mentioned re-thinking celibacy for priests; Said he’s ‘not interested in converting evangelicals to Catholicism‘; Initial synod document suggested shift in Church’s position on homosexuality, but was revised; Said man is ‘the king of the universe!‘; Told a woman in invalid marriage it’s alright to take Holy Communion, saying ‘A little bread and wine does no harm‘; Compared Islamic terrorists to Christian fundamentalists…

But, the purpose of this post is to focus on the countless casualties, not on the state of Francis himself. The people harmed by this outrageous imposture that a man who joked about the Crucifixion, who said “Communists think like Christians” and who rejects key doctrines of Catholic belief and its sacred rites can be head of the Church include the following:

*Protestants repelled by his clearly immoral, anti-Christian statements, his eager support for the flooding of Western countries with immigrants, and his enthusiasm for every globalist U.N. agenda, including the Covid fraud. Francis has scandalized them and confirmed many in their obstinate blindness against the unshaken spiritual authority of the papacy which comes from Christ himself.

*Muslims, Maoists, Buddhists, voodooists, Jews, and assorted pagans who have been led to believe they worship the same God as Catholics. They too have been confirmed in their errors and continually given the impression that objective truth in spiritual matters does not exist. Francis went so far as to wish Muslims a Happy Ramadan: “I also think with affection of those Muslim immigrants who this evening begin the fast of Ramadan, which I trust will bear abundant spiritual fruit.” (Homily given at Lampedusa on 8 July 2013 with illegal Muslim immigrants)

*The people all over before whom Francis has insulted and apologized for the martyrs and saints of the past, dragging the name of Christ’s Church through the mud.

*Sincere, would-be Catholics deceived into believing Francis is a true pope when he is not even so much as a member of the body he claims to govern. The spiritual harm to them is incalculable and most have lost the true faith. Many are woefully uneducated about their faith and do not even know of the many anti-popes in Church history.

*Would-be Catholics offended by Vatican II apostasy who yet believe a heretic and apostate such as Francis can somehow be a true pope and that it is permissible to refuse him submission, thereby destroying all honor due to the papacy. (This is known as the “recognize-and-resist” position.)

Read More »

“FAITH is always asking people to do things that are unusual, and out of the ordinary. This must happen if men deal with God. God can never be ordinary. He must always be outside of order as we know it and can see it and can measure it. God is within his own limits, which are limitless. Therefore, God is always breaking in on things that men have settled — not really settled but only observed.”

— Bede Jarrett, O.P., Returning to the Lord

Read More »

Ida Tarbell

“IT IS common enough to hear women arguing that this close grappling with household economy is narrowing, not worthy of them. Why keeping track of the cost of eggs and butter and calculating how much your income will allow you to buy is any more narrowing than keeping track of the cost and quality of cotton or wool or iron and calculating how much a mill requires, it is hard to see. It is the same kind of a problem. Moreover, it has the added interest of being always an independent personal problem. Most men work under the deadening effect of impersonal routine. They do that which others have planned and for results in which they have no permanent share. Read More »

Cooperstown, New York, where Susan Fenimore Cooper lived and shopped.

FROM Rural Hours (1850) by Susan Fenimore Cooper, daughter of James Fenimore Cooper:

But to return to the “store;” there are half a dozen of these on quite a large scale. It is amusing to note the variety within their walls. Barrels, ploughs, stoves, brooms, rakes and pitch forks; muslins, flannels, laces and shawls; sometimes in winter, a dead porker is hung up by the heels at the door; frequently, frozen fowls, turkeys and geese, garnish the entrance. The shelves are filled with a thousand things required by civilized man, in the long list of his wants. Here you see a display of glass and crockery, imported, perhaps, directly by this inland firm from the European manufacturer; there you observe a pile of silks and satins; this is a roll of carpeting, that a box of artificial flowers. At the same counter you may buy kid gloves and a spade; a lace veil and a jug of molasses; a satin dress and a broom, looking-glasses, grass-seed, fire-irons, Valenciennes lace, butter and eggs, embroidery, blankets, candles, cheese, and a fancy fan.

And yet, in addition to this medley, there are regular milliners’ shops and groceries in the place, and of a superior class too. But so long as a village retains its rural character, so long will the country “store” be found there; it is only when it has become a young city that the shop and warehouse take the place of the convenient store where so many wants are supplied on the same spot.

It is amusing once in a while to look on as the different customers come and go. Some people like shopping in a large town, where all sorts of pretty novelties are spread out on the counters to tempt purchasers; but there is much more real interest connected with such matters in a large country store, whatever fine ladies tossing about laces and gauzes at Beck’s or Stewart’s may fancy. Read More »