ALAN writes:

I am here only because of the Big Band Era. If such music had not become popular in ballrooms and dance halls in American cities in the 1930s-‘40s, I might never have been.

One place where people could enjoy such music was the Casa-Loma Ballroom in south St. Louis. Young men and young women went there to meet each other. That is how and where my parents met.

My father preferred the music of the “sweet” bands over that of the “swing” bands.  That kind of music and that ballroom would hold a place in his memory for the rest of his life.

My father’s grandfather was born in Bavaria in 1837. When I was from four to six years old, my father would take me for walks on Saturday afternoons. We often walked past a building in south St. Louis called the Bavarian Inn. He knew all about it, but at my age I couldn’t make any sense out of it.  It was a restaurant and bar with a large fireplace, stained glass windows, and outdoor beer garden. It was “a landmark of gemutlichkeit” where customers enjoyed oom-pah-pah music and the Ducky Dance.

We also walked past a shop that made awnings and tents.  Across the alley from there was a vacant lot next to a house. It was there on that lot that we played a game of imagination wherein we would take turns naming good things to eat, and each of us would try to outdo the other.

In the middle of another block was a small confectionary. My father would buy a soft drink for each of us, and I was permitted to reach down into a large cooler filled with ice and pull out a frosty glass bottle of grape or orange soda.

As did my mother, my father lived by a scale of moral values that is wholly unknown to generations born after the revolutionary 1960s. (more…)

"THE universe is the work of God. He reigns over it and every happening is according to the plans of His Providence. When we believe that desertion is going to be general, we forget that a little Faith is enough to give Faith to the family of Jesus--like a little leaven makes all the dough rise. These extraordinary events where the mob wields the axe to undermine the work of God, serve marvelously to show His Omnipotence. In every country will be seen what the people of God saw. When the Lord was wanted by Gideon to show His power against the Midianites, He had him send back most of his army. Only three hundred men remained, and those without arms, in order that it could be seen that the victory was God's. This small number of Gideon's soldiers is the number of the Faithful elect of that century. You have seen with the saddest astonishment, my children, that out of all those called, since all of France was Christian, the greater part, like in Gideon's army, remained weak, timid and fearing to lose their temporal interests. God sends them back, for use in His justice. God only wants those who give themselves to Him entirely. Do not be surprised at the great number who quit. Truth wins, no matter how small the number of those who love and remain attached to Him. For my part I have only one…

FEMINISTS claim that women are more fulfilled and happy when they are free to wear almost nothing.

The whole Western world has accepted their premises. You will be hard-pressed to find any woman on a beach today covered up to the extent that these women — such ridiculous figures, huh? — were in 1906.

Are women better off?

The truth is, these ridiculous figures on the beach were much more likely to have a stable home life. They were more likely to have children. They were less likely to face the existential crises women face today. They lived in a more stable society with less crime. Political power and wealth were not so dangerously concentrated in the few. The federal income tax didn’t even exist! Our economic system was not yet crushed by debt, reducing most of us to insidious and hidden financial enslavement.

It’s no secret that powerful people want women unclothed and actively promote it. Civilization demands clothes. Tyranny demands nudity.

Immodesty undermines femininity. A woman’s greatest influence and dignity are not physical, but in her personality and soul.

Immodesty is a form of aggression. Men are — by nature — sensitive to visual stimuli, much more than women, and cannot, except by emasculating themselves at some deep level, easily eradicate their responses to the female form. (And why would women want them to eradicate their masculinity?) Most women are not conscious of this. The fashion industry pressures them to dress in a certain way and to believe that the sexes are exactly the same (while at the same time dressing as if they are not), but immodesty in women is a power trip over men in the same way physical aggression by men may be a power trip over women.

For much of history, in many cultures, the world was wiser than it is today. Societies that wanted to survive held the physical power of women as sacred and potentially dangerous.

The Greeks and Romans had separate bathing houses for swimming for men and women. Colleen Hammond writes in her book Dressing with Dignity: (more…)

PLEASE don't call it a "pandemic." It was a great robbery, the Greatest of All Robberies. Anthony Migchels does a good job of explaining the economics of the Great Reset in these two videos, here and here. He explains why the "pandemic" happened exactly when it did. They locked us down to prevent social unrest as they bailed out the banks. And it isn't over. A comment from "Remnant Posting" on Telegram: The mass hysteria is no longer being pumped as aggressively by the media, but this doesn't undo the massive dysfunction that's been created across the entire economy and the day-to-day function of society. I cannot even get a plumber to give me a firm answer on when they can come by to deal with an issue for me, and this is with dozens of different plumbing companies in the area. They all say they're short-staffed. How is this relevant to COVID?  Well, when you print a third of all USD in circulation within a two-year time frame, that kind of destroys the value of your currency. And then people kind of develop new expectations for how much they should be paid, since the wages that were once adequate are no longer adequate. And then business owners who budgeted for certain wage growth expectations can't afford to meet those demands, because they too are suffering from the devaluation of the currency. So they can't retain employees, because no one will…

GABRIEL Garcia Moreno was elected three times to the presidency of Ecuador, the last time in 1875. When Moreno formally consecrated that small nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1873, he acted in keeping with the famous revelations of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun of the 17th century who said that Christ appeared to her and instructed kings and nations, as well as individuals, to adore His divine heart. Christ promised an outpouring of graces in return.

In this consecration, Moreno was also acting against the current of the entire modern world with its idols of rationalism and secularism. The president sealed his fate. For with that event, it is believed, Freemasons resolved once and for all to assassinate him.

Devotees of the Sacred Heart traditionally went to Mass and received Communion on the First Friday of the month. On the first Friday of August, 1875, after Mass, work on his inauguration address, and a final visit to the Blessed Sacrament, Moreno walked to the Presidential Palace. According to Marian Horvat’s account:

At the steps of the Presidential Palace he greeted several persons, including Faustino Rayo, who would shortly strike the first brutal machete blow. Rayo, who held a grudge against Moreno for dismissing him from a lucrative office because of his dishonest practices, had taken up leatherwork. He pretended, however, to be on friendly terms with the President, who had recently contracted him to make a saddle for his young son (his only living child), Gabriel García del Alcázar. (more…)

FROM The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr. John Croiset:

“OUR other enemies we weaken and overcome by the practice of virtue; whereas, it is in the very practice of virtue itself, that this enemy finds its strength. Our very victories are weapons which the devil makes use of, to vanquish us, by taking occasion from them to inspire us with pride. We may say, that of all vices, there is none that has kept so many souls back in the path of piety, or that has plunged so many from the highest perfection into tepidity, and even into sin. From this spirit of vanity proceed the inordinate desire that we have to be seen, and the excessive eagerness we feel to succeed in all that we undertake.

“In vain do we torment ourselves, to assure ourselves that in all this we are seeking nothing but the glory of God. We have but to listen to our conscience, to be convinced that we seek nothing but our own glory. That excessive uneasiness which the fear of not succeeding causes in us; that sadness and discouragement we experience after a failure; that joy and satisfaction we feel at the sight of the honours and praises we receive, are clear proofs of the spirit of vanity that urges us to act.

“This same spirit also mixes itself up with the practice of the highest virtues: we wish to he highly mortified, to he obliging, courteous, civil, charitable, and we may add, to give great edification to our neighbour, by appearing so. From the same source spring almost all our defects. We fill our minds insensibly with the idea of a pretended merit, which we do not possess, and which this idea alone would make us lose, did we really possess it. We love to recount our adventures. We have always some circumstance of our life ready, as an example of the subject on which we are speaking. One would say, that it is no longer any failing to praise ourselves continually, when we already bear a good reputation. We wish to possess the esteem and the hearts of all. Hence it is that we prefer to omit our obligations, rather than disoblige another; and what is still more extraordinary, we try to cover this ambition and vanity by the specious pretext of civility, charity, and condescension. We falsely persuade ourselves that we must act thus, in order to make virtue less difficult to others. We wish to please both God and men. By this means, we very often fail to please men, and we always displease God. (more…)

FROM The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr. John Croiset:

MANY think they are truly humble, as soon as they have a low opinion of themselves. But they deceive themselves, if they are not at the same time well pleased, that others should entertain the same opinion of them. It is not enough that we acknowledge ourselves to possess no virtue or merit. We must believe it. We must be pleased that others believe it. The first step to be taken in gaining this virtue, is to beg it earnestly of God. The next is firmly to convince ourselves, by means of serious and frequent reflection on ourselves, of our poverty and our own imperfections. The remembrance of what we have been, and the thought of what we may be, serve greatly to humble us. The truly virtuous think little of others, and occupy themselves solely with their own imperfections. The truly humble are scandalized at nothing, because they know their own weakness so well. They see themselves so near the precipice, and they are so much afraid of falling, that they are not surprised if others fall. The less we speak of ourselves, the more closely we conform ourselves to true humility. Those affected discourses, by which we wish to make it appear that we have little esteem for ourselves, have no effect usually but to gain us praise. The most certain mark of sincere humility is to have a special love for those who despise us: never to avoid any humiliations that present themselves to us; not to take pleasure in vain thoughts and vain projects for the future, which only serve to nourish a secret pride within us; never to speak to our own advantage; never to complain and not to allow others to complain of anything Almighty God allows to happen to us; to excuse the failings of our neighbour; never to be troubled at our own relapses; to defer to others in all things; never to undertake anything but with diffidence in ourselves, and to have little esteem for what we do. Finally, to pray much, and to speak little. (more…)

"THE SIGHT of Jesus Christ makes me love the Cross so much that I do not think I could be happy without it. I look with respect on those whom God visits with humiliations and adversity, of whatever nature they may be; these are, doubtless, His favorites. In order to humiliate myself, I had only to compare my lot with theirs when I am enjoying prosperity. "The following words never come to mind, but light, peace, liberty, consolation, and love seem to enter along with them; they are: simplicity, confidence, humility, entire abandonment, nothing kept back, the will of God, my rules." --Blessed Claude de la Colombière, as quoted in The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr. John Croiset  

IMPORTANT advice for those considering marriage, or already married, from Cana Is Forever (The Nugent Press, 1949) by Fr. Charles Hugo Doyle:

There is something formally prohibitive about a sign on a door reading “No Admittance Except on Business,” and it usually gets results. There would be fewer disappointing marriages if none entered the sacred relationship but those bent on serious business. Believe me, marriage is serious business. It is no lark, no adventure in the vacuous emotion of youth; it is a decision that will affect for life, and perhaps for eternity, not only oneself but one’s partner and any children God may send.

Marriage is a career, one so vital and so splendid that it ranks next to the priesthood and religious life in the trinity of top-flight careers in the world. All other careers are incidental to them. The fact that marriage was the first career ever to be embraced by man is most significant. And our common Father, Adam, when his pure gaze fell upon the first incarnation of unalloyed womanhood, Eve, proclaimed the inviolable law that was to bind all his descendants until the end of time: “Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24.)

The etymological meaning of the word “career” is interesting. It comes from the Latin word carrus–“wagon”–and means literally something that carries one along a road. In this sense, marriage is truly a career–one instituted by God Himself to carry a man and his wife and their children along life’s highway to heaven.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “career”: “As a course of professional life or employment which affords opportunity for progress or advancement in the world.” According to this definition marriage certainly qualifies as a career. History bears this out. There was hardly ever a great deed done by man that did not somewhere bear the fingerprint, no matter how faint, of a fond mother or a loving wife. How often have we not heard successful men humbly proclaim that the Herculean feats they have accomplished they owe to a devoted, saintly wife.

Indeed, not only is marriage a career that affords opportunity for spiritual and temporal progress and advancement in this life, but it reaches far into the next. “Marriage,” said Taylor, “is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities and churches, and heaven itself. The state of marriage fills up the number of the elect and hath in it the labor of love and the delicacies of friendship, the blessing of society and the union of hands and hearts. It is indeed the very nursery of heaven.” (more…)

“WHEN water comes down from the heavens as rain, it is always the same in itself, yet, it produces different effects – one in a flower, another in a tree, and yet a third and fourth in an animal or person. So the grace of the Holy Spirit,  like water, adapts itself to the needs of every creature that receives it. In the same way the Holy Spirit, whose nature is always the same, simple, and indivisible, gives grace to each man [or woman] as  He, [the Holy Spirit] wills.” ---  St Cyril of Jerusalem  

"BY the gift of Fortitude the soul is strengthened against natural fear, and supported to the end in the performance of duty. Fortitude imparts to the will an impulse and energy which move it to under take without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample under foot human respect, and to endure without complaint the slow martyrdom of even lifelong tribulation. "He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved." Prayer Come, O Blessed Spirit of Fortitude, uphold my soul in time of trouble and adversity, sustain my efforts after holiness, strengthen my weakness, give me courage against all the assaults of my enemies, that I may never be overcome and separated from Thee, my God and greatest Good. Amen. [Source]  

PATRICK O. writes: The article entitled "No Place Like Home" from a couple of days ago brought back a memory. Sometime in the late 1960s I was riding south on the elevated train in Chicago through an area of two- and three-flat apartments. From the train I could see down into the backyards of these old apartment buildings. Trashed yard after trashed yard, an old car here, junk there, bare dirt. But then between the fences of two ugly dumps of a yard there was a yard of grass and beauty. I can still see it. Somebody with real class lives there, in the midst of neighbors who didn't care and were, as the article mentions, without hope.  

RUSS WINTER of Winter Watch analyzes the reported mass shooting in Texas last week in a podcast with Andrew Carrington Hitchcock. This is an excellent overview. Winter believes the primary agenda here is to nationalize the police. In related news, here is another excellent discussion, this time of the recent alleged shooting in Buffalo. The discussion features forensic analysis from a private investigator.  

THIS documentary starts at minute 2:00. (more…)

REMEMBER today those who fought and died in American wars. Some names and faces can be found here.