DAVID Z. writes:

Taken from Novena For the Relief of the Poor Souls in Purgatory:

To open Heaven to the Poor Souls is to increase the number of those who praise and glorify God, the number of hearts that love Him. “Such a work,” says [16th century French Jesuit preacher Father Louis] Bourdaloue, “is an apostolate more noble, more meritorious than the conversion of sinners, and even of heathens.“

Greenwich Village, Beulah Bettersworth; 1935

“But, if the tenderness and the attractiveness of this mysterious coming make no impression on you, because your heart is too weighed down to be able to rise to confidence, and because, having so long drunk sin like water, you know not what it is to long with love for the caresses of a Father whom you have slighted–then turn your thoughts to that other coming, which is full of terror, and is to follow the silent one of grace that is now offered. Think within yourselves, how this earth of ours will tremble at the approach of the dread Judge; how the heavens will flee from before His face, and fold up as a book (Apoc. vi. 14. ); how man will wince under His angry look; how the creature will wither away with fear, as the two-edged sword, which comes from the mouth of his Creator (Ibid. i. 16. ), pierces him; and how sinners will cry out, ‘Ye mountains, fall on us! ye rocks, cover us (St. Luke xxiii. 30.)!’ Those unhappy souls who would not know the time of their visitation (Ibid. xix. 44. ), shall then vainly wish to hide themselves from the face of Jesus. They shut their hearts against this Man-God, who, in His excessive love for them, wept over them: therefore, on the day of judgment they will descend alive into those everlasting fires, whose flame devoureth the earth with her increase, and burneth the foundations of the mountains (Deut. xxxii. 22. ). The worm that never dieth (St. Mark ix. 43.), the useless eternal repentance, will gnaw them for ever.”

— Dom Gueranger, The Practice of Advent, 1910

A FEW WORDS from Fish Eaters:

“Though most Protestants — and far too many Catholics — see this time of year as a part of the ‘Christmas Season,’ it isn’t; the Christmas season does not begin until the first Mass at Christmas Eve, and doesn’t end liturgically until the Octave of the Epiphany on January 14. It goes on in the spiritual sense until Candlemas on February 2, when all celebrations of Christ’s Childhood give way to Septuagesima and Lent.

“The mood of this season is one of somber spiritual preparation that increases in joy with each day, and the gaudy ‘Christmas’ commercialism that surrounds it in the Western world should be overcome as much as possible. The singing of Christmas carols (which comes earlier and earlier each year), the talk of ‘Christmas’ as a present reality, the decorated trees and the parties — these things are ‘out of season’ for Catholics; we should strive to keep the Seasons of Advent holy and penitential, always remembering, as they say, that ‘He is the reason for the Season.'”

We prepare for His second coming too, now more than ever since we are living in the Great Apostasy and are bereft of faithful churches:

At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; Men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved; And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And he spoke to them in a similitude. See the fig tree, and all the trees: When they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh; So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen, I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Luke: xxvi)

Do you ever wonder why Christmas decorations look so tawdry after Christmas? It’s because they speak of missed opportunities. The dazzle was all. If you don’t have the spirit of Christmas within, what difference does it make how many sprigs of fake holly you own or how enchanted your children are on Christmas morning?

There are moments of euphoria in the hectic “holiday season.” But there are moments of euphoria in a dose of heroin too. That euphoria has a price: anxiety, stress, financial insolvency and distraction from the essence of Christmas.

Thomas Droleskey explains why we must separate ourselves from pre-Christmas excess:

The principal of a fully traditional Catholic school some years ago now explained some basic Catholic teachings about Advent in a letter sent home parents to explain why the school would not be participating in a tree lighting ceremony in a nearby park:

This letter is to inform you that the students will not be participating in the annual tree-lighting ceremony.

The ceremony, scheduled for December 1st, is to be secular in tone, featuring such songs as “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman,” so as to be politically correct by modern standards. We, as faithful Catholics, do not condone the premature celebration of the feast of Christmas itself, nor do we approve of the purely secular “holiday” celebrations which the world in general promotes as a “Christ-less” alternative to Christmas. Therefore, we cannot participate in the planned festivities on Stepney Green.

The mind of Our Holy Mother the Church must be our rule of action. The Church would have us observe Advent. Although, to be sure, Advent is not another Lent, as regards fasting and other penitential practices, nevertheless it is a reverent hush, so to speak, during which we recollect ourselves and joyfully anticipate the glorious feast of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s Nativity. When Christmas arrives, we shall celebrate it all the better for having piously observed Advent.

We must not allow ourselves to get swept up by the spirit of these worldly times. The spirit of the Catholic Church is not one of yielding to human respect and emotionalism, or of compromising with the world. “Peace on Earth; good will to men” is not synonymous with “Peace on Earth to men of good will.”

                     George Henry Boughton, Pilgrims Going to Church

“TODAY, the most progressive lands in America remain the regions firmly steeped in Puritan lore, tradition, and history, or the regions that were settled by New England Puritan diaspora (the West Coast).

“The Puritan’s DNA is rooted in restless iconoclasm, reform, and protest.  It is the only trinity Puritanism ever knew, and it remains the only trinity known to all the descendants and inheritors – consciously and unconsciously – of puritanism today.  After all, it is only in Puritan and Calvinist countries where iconoclasm still manifests itself today.  It is precisely modern secularism’s revolutionary, iconoclastic, utopian, and progressive spirit as to why most sociologists and philosophers see secularism as ‘the preservation of certain Biblical habits and ideas even after the atrophy of Biblical faith.’ Alan Simpson’s 1954 article captured the essence of Puritanism in its title: Saints in Arms: English Puritanism as Political Utopianism. The Puritans may be dead, but their soul is still marching on.”

— Hesiod’s Corner, “Puritanism and the Utopian State of Mind” Read More »

“NOW, why is it that the riches and pleasures of this world cannot make us happy? It is because the soul was not created by and for them, but by God for himself. It is God who made our heart, and he made it for himself. When man first came forth from the hand of God, his heart turned to God naturally, and he loved creatures only as loving keepsakes of God. But sin and death came into the world. The heart of man was defiled and degraded. He turned away from the pure and holy love of God, and sought for love and happiness amid creatures. But our heart seeks in vain among creatures. Our heart is small indeed, but its love is infinite. It can find rest only in God. Whatever we love out of God brings only pain and bitter disappointment.

“A thing is made better only by that which is better than the thing itself. Inferior beings can never make superior beings better. The soul, being immortal, is superior to all earthly things. Earthly things, then, cannot make the soul better. God alone is the soul’s supreme goodness and happiness. He who possesses God is at rest. The more closely we are united with God in this  life, the more contentment of mind, and the greater happiness of soul we shall enjoy,”

— Fr. Michael Mueller, The Church and Her Enemies, 1880

MY God, I give Thee thanks for what Thou givest, and for what Thou takest away; Thy will be done.

Indulgence of 300 days (Pius X, 1906) The Raccolta

A READER writes:

Just also to let you know how I came across your website originally. I’m Catholic and used to follow a wide number of blogs concerning Church issues between, say, 2010 and 2015, and yours popped up along the way, recommended by others. I’ve always been eager to hear your opinion on many matters, even where we might differ slightly, because you’re unafraid to stand firm on what you believe, regardless of the opinions of others, and that’s so good!

Also, whilst having a terrible time personally in 2015 and beginning to understand the nature of sociopathic behaviour in individual people and systems of power (especially in the Church), I one day saw your re-posting of a video of interviews of New York firemen during 9/11 (I think the video may have been connected with Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth) and that changed everything for me. It really did!

You posted the video with a disclaimer saying that you didn’t want to be dragged into this ‘conspiracy’ nonsense but that the video itself presented something which indicated an enormous scandal, a lie which had been told to us for so long that we simply had to acknowledge it to get our proper bearing of who really held the reins of power.

I thank you for that because this sort of knowledge can change and yes, ultimately save lives in this era.

YEARS AGO, on the day before Thanksgiving, my husband put a load of wet clothes in the dryer at my parents’ house. He turned the dryer on and left the room.

Three freshly-baked pies — pumpkin, apple and pecan — sat on top of the dryer. He didn’t really notice.

About 15 minutes later, the pies were jostled by the vibrations of the dryer and they slid to the floor with a crash.

Fortunately, my mother was in a good mood. How could she not be? The black coffee my husband had spilled on her cream-colored carpet was no longer visible (after frantic scrubbing and dabbing) — and she had a new grandson. She picked up the smashed pies and put them back together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope the things that go right — and the things that go wrong — on this Thanksgiving Day make you grateful for what is simple and true.

This recording of Johann Sebastien Bach’s cantata, Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, sung here by the Monteverdi Choir was made in the Abbaye d’Ambronay in France in 2000. The English Baroque Soloists are conducted by John Eliot Gardner.

Wer Dank opfert, der preiset mich, und das ist der Weg, dass ich ihm zeige das Heil Gottes. (Psalm 50, 23)

Who thanks giveth, he praiseth me, and this is the way that I shall show to him God’s healing.

IN “The Richest Man in the World,” a very, very long article at The Unz Review, Larry Romanoff makes the point that famous billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Elon Musk are merely figureheads and front men, created through extensive planning by those whose wealth vastly exceeds theirs. This is unquestionably true.

From the article:

Looting Americans 1975 to 2022

The situation is not different with the 2008 financial meltdown in the US. We had clearly deliberate attempts to inflate the housing market to almost atmospheric levels, with nearly zero interest rates and the removal of all restrictions and requirements – to the point where unemployed homeless people were buying $500,000 homes. This was again done with the full cooperation of the FED. Then, they simply collapsed the bubble, resulting in tens of millions of foreclosures. And again, when the blood was running in the streets, firms like Blackrock and their ilk were busy buying up these foreclosed homes at perhaps half price, as rental properties – often, to the same people who lost them. There is no accurate record of the total purchases, but the buying was almost frenzied. At one point, one agent in Florida for one “investment firm” alone, was bidding on more than 200 homes per week. With even conservative estimates, the transfer of housing assets alone from the American middle class to these same few people, would have been $7 or $8 trillion, all within two or three years. Read More »

ALAN writes:

Much of our lives in the 1950s took place in the city block where we lived in south St. Louis.

I had three girlfriends. One of them lived in a house on the corner of our block.  Another corner was occupied by a grocery store, and there was a tavern on a third corner. Our church and my school were across the street from the corner market. At age 5, my world was largely bounded by those outposts.

On some days during kindergarten and first grade, the Catholic nuns allowed pupils to purchase penny candy and soft pretzels from cardboard boxes in our classroom.

I remember the vivid colors — red, blue, silver, purple, green, and black — on 78-rpm records of Big Band music that my mother kept from the 1940s and allowed me to play if I didn’t break too many of them. In 1953 my aunts and uncles teased me about my fondness for Patti Page’s recording “(How Much is That) Doggie in the Window?”  At age 3, I was appalled:  There they were — my own family — poking fun at my dead-serious concern for that little puppy. Read More »

“IF WE see Job sitting on a dunghill, Joseph loaded with chains in a dungeon, David reviled by Semei,–in a word, if we see a just man suffering, we immediately cry out in astonishment, How unhappy, how much to be pitied is that man! Blind mortals as we are, we call those unhappy who suffer; whilst Jesus Christ says, “Blessed are they that mourn.” (Matt, v, 5.) Where is our faith? If God afflicts the just man, it is because He loves him; for, if He loved him less, He would treat him as he does the fortunate men of this world: he would permit him to enjoy the pleasures of this world, to be deluded with the world, to be perverted with the world; and the day would come when He would judge, condemn, and punish him with the world. Sufferings are the mark of the elect. Whoever shall not be stamped with this sacred character shall never enter into that kingdom which Christ gained for us by His sufferings. We are all children of Calvary. It is there that Jesus Christ regenerated us with His blood. This tender, this dying Father left us no other inheritance, at His departure out of this world, than His cross and His grace. Let us accept this precious pledge of His love with a grateful heart; let us preserve it with humility and care. We shall one day gather with joy the undying fruit and reward of it. The saints never felt more happy than when God sent them afflictions. They believed most firmly that, the more they suffered in this life, the greater would be their reward in the next. Hence the martyrs went with the greatest joy to the place of execution, remembering what our dear Lord has said: “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you untruly, for my sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.” (Matt, v, 11, 12.)”

— Fr. Michael Mueller, The Providence of God and Why He Permits Evil; 1877

“TO find ourselves forgotten on earth by those whom we love and who have loved us is a cruel trial – but to find ourselves in Purgatory – forgotten by all whom we loved and helped on earth must be a most painful sorrow.”

Prayer: Our father, three Hail Marys, Gloria, De Profundis

O my God, infinitely just, hear our prayers in reparation for the souls suffering in Purgatory for want of charity. Release them from their pains that they may evermore praise Thee and intercede at Thy Judgment Seat for us at the hour of our death.

Source

FOR A LONG TIME, I have felt like a billionaire trapped in a middle class person’s body.

This psychological condition is so intractable, it must be innate. It has caused me acute distress, especially lately because I need a billion dollars so that I can give it all away to people I know could really use it. I could make a big difference if I had those bucks.

I just have this feeling. This inescapable feeling. I’m a billionaire, or maybe just a millionaire, but society refuses to recognize me as such. Yesterday, I was so surprised at the bill at the grocery store that I was overcome by a dysphoric attack of great intensity. I was trapped in a social construct — an economic identity assigned at birth without my consent.

The bank refuses to recognize me as a billionaire. Car dealers, utility companies, the construction industry — they all refuse to see the truth. That’s discrimination. Just because I don’t have millions doesn’t mean that inside, where it really counts, I’m not loaded. No foundations or organized psychologists are out there to help people like me transition to the super rich.

The world is a cruel place. I know a man who lives in a tiny mobile home, all because he is an unrecognized billionaire. His suffering is totally ignored. Maybe those who share the same disorder can someday organize. We should make our plight known because as things stand we are a horribly persecuted minority. It’s not necessary that we be given billions. Not at all. But we definitely need to be treated by everyone, especially banks and retailers, as if we have them.

IN A CEMETERY, the dead own a bit of real estate.

Each plot is, you might say, a little home. The tombstone says something solid and important exists here. The bereaved visit the dead in a realm set apart from the hectic world. One remembers at the grave the face and the living personality. One’s thoughts are drawn to eternity. Fortunately, praying for the dead is a two-way street. What one gives, one gets back.

The cemetery is an ancient institution — so ancient we take it for granted. But more and more, the dignity and reverence it accords the dead are condemned. The cemetery is guilty of elitism, environmental wastefulness, extravagance and other Marxist sins. Five states in response have already legalized a new practice for disposing of the dead: human composting.

There is a pseudo-scientific name for every new form of dehumanization and in this case it’s Natural Organic Reduction. This is the wave of the future — the environmentally correct mass grave.

Composting a body in Seattle

In NOR, the body is reduced to dirt by the application of voracious microorganisms and through rotation in straw, woodchips and dirt — as you would turn the eggshells and tea leaves in your backyard compost pile with a pitchfork. It takes about six weeks and creates enough dirt to fill a pick-up truck, about 800 pounds in all. That’s a lot more to dispose of than cremated ashes because the body needs to be aerated with soil supplements to speed decomposition. The practice has been used for years with livestock.

The promotional literature is filled with inspiring green imagery. There are no photos of staff members spading the deceased into bins or crushing the bones that won’t break down quickly.

Since most survivors of the deceased cannot pick up or dispose of that much dirt in their gardens (and who truly wants to shovel grandma into a pickup?), those processed into compost will in most cases be disposed of in nature preserves. As the World Economic Forum put it, “You will own nothing and be happy.” Not even a grave.

Kathleen Domingo, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, said the use of a body composting method originally developed for farm animals creates an “unfortunate spiritual, emotional, and psychological distancing from the deceased.” In addition, she said, the process “reduces the human body to simply a disposable commodity.” Source

It’s true that open space is precious in big cities. But with modern, earth-moving equipment, it is possible to bury many bodies economically in a small space. And human composting is not as cheap as you might think it is. (Composting is $7,000 in Seattle.) Where there’s a will to bury, people always find a way.

Here is the tragic story of a relatively young woman whose body was composted in February. Will she become a bush or a tree someday? In this new incarnation she won’t commit unforgivable sins of environmental ruin. Trees are truly sacred. Human beings are not.

Will human composting be mandatory some day? Perhaps it will — to save the earth, of course. But who will go to human soil and truly pray for the sacred dead?

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— BIPOC Doing Racism (@BIPOCracism) October 30, 2022