FROM the remarkable letters of the late William Strojie, who wrote during the 1970s and ’80s about the Revolution in the Catholic Church:

The Jansenist takes a dim view of God’s mercy; he expects that only a few will be saved, but feels quite certain that he will be one of those few (of the remnant or elect) who have earned the right to Heaven, mainly by his spiritual works.  This is what makes him frantic when Mass and Sacraments are no longer regularly available.  It is what makes him chase after those charlatans and cash operators who promise to provide a substitute church for him in our time. And he takes with him many good Catholics who are simply confused.  There are many degrees of that state of mind, soul and temperament, a kind of pietism, which I here call Jansenism.  It is, as most writers agree, a thing difficult to pin down, which I am not trying to do precisely.  My main purpose in all this is to alert some, who might read this paper, that it is possible to appear very Catholic without being quite so really.

[…]

In the U.S., six or more traditionalist organizations are definitely Jansenistic.  They are impressively Catholic in the appearance of their chapels, as are their priests in the performance of the Mass; and generally in the publications it is difficult for Catholics unread in these matters to see where they deviate from the Catholic balance or center.  (more…)

"THERE has never been and never can be or will be a general Christian religion professed by men who all accept some central important doctrines, while agreeing to differ about others.  There has always been, from the beginning, and always will be, the Church, and sundry heresies either doomed to decay, or like Mohammedism, to grow into a separate religion.  Of a common Christianity there has never been and never can be a definition, for it has never existed." --- Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies  

"THE name of liberty ... seems condemned to be ill understood in all its applications. In the religious, moral, social, and political order, it is enveloped in such obscurity, that we can perceive the many efforts which have been made to darken and misrepresent it. Cicero gives an admirable definition of liberty when he says, that it consists in being the slave of law. In the same way it may be said, that the liberty of the intellect consists in being the slave of truth; and the liberty of the will in being the slave of virtue; if you change this, you destroy liberty. If you take away the law, you admit force; if you take away the truth, you admit error; if you take away virtue, you admit vice. If you venture to exempt the world from the external law, from that law which embraces man and society, which extends to all orders, which is the divine wisdom applied to reasonable creatures; if you venture to seek for an imaginary liberty out of that immense circle, you destroy all; there remains in society nothing but the empire of brute force, and in man that of the passions; with tyranny, and consequently slavery. --- Jaime Luciano Balmes, Protestantism and Catholicity: Compared in Their Effects on the Civilization of Europe (Library of Alexandria. Kindle Edition; Location 6071)  

FROM St. Thomas Aquinas’s Meditations for Lent:

Christ assumed human nature in order to restore fallen humanity. He had therefore to suffer and to do, according to human nature, the things which could serve as a remedy against the sin of the fall.

Man’s sin consists in this that he so cleaves to bodily goods that he neglects what is good spiritually. It was therefore necessary for the Son of God to show this in the humanity He had taken, through all He did and suffered, so that men should repute temporal things, whether good or evil, as nothing, for otherwise, hindered by an exaggerated affection for them, they would be less devoted to spiritual things. (more…)

"OUR souls are the temple of God, created and sanctified by God to the end that he might dwell there. He would have nothing to be in them which is unworthy of their destination. This is the Season for self-examination; and if we have found that any passions are profaning the sanctuary of our souls, let us dismiss them; let us beseech our Lord to drive them out by the scourge of his justice, for we, perhaps, might be too lenient with these sacrilegious intruders. The day of pardon is close at hand; let us make ourselves worthy to receive it." -- Dom Prosper Guéranger, Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent; The Liturgical Year   

S.B. writes:

Did you watch the president’s speech last night? (If you can call him president, I mean.) It was a total push for ALL Americans to be vaccinated.  A total psy-op, like it’s your duty to get this injection, and if you want things to go back to normal, you will do it for the sake of your fellow Americans. “I need you” to be on board with this, etc…. I can see where this is going: scapegoating of the “vaccine deniers.”  We will be pushed out of society.

My cousin in Washington state got vaccinated, age 65, supposedly so he could travel again and see his grandchildren.  Hospitalized this week, and organs shut down, he is now in hospice. and not expected to live long … Others I know have gotten it, but not experienced the same severe reaction. (more…)

ALAN writes:

More than thirty years ago I worked in an antiquarian bookshop in St. Louis. By no means was it a “respectable” job. But by no means was I a respectable person. Since 1966, I had been an outlier, a dissident, a misfit who wanted no part of the speed and frenzy of modern life.

The bookshop occupied an old building five stories high. There were thousands of books on all floors, but only the first two floors were open to customers. There were hundreds of old magazines, bound journals, phonograph records, sheet music, postcards, comic books, and ephemera.

At one time the building was a Drug House. Or so it said in advertisements for the pharmacists who worked there. In later years, it was occupied by shoe companies and costumers.

The building next door had once been the Loew’s State Theater, a movie palace with carpeted staircases.  In its early years, a parrot and a macaw greeted visitors as they walked into the lobby.  It was aglow with moviegoers and excitement on the night in 1944 when the motion picture “Meet Me in St. Louis” was shown there for the first time anywhere.

The bookshop was the oldest and largest in St. Louis, dating from the 1930s.  An acquaintance once said to me, “I’ve heard good things and bad things about that place.” I said to him:  Both are true.  (more…)

AT the Gare du Nord in Paris on March 4, 2021.  

BEAUTIFUL. Just beautiful.

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MASS RALLIES against COVID restrictions continue throughout Europe, but they are rarely reported in the mainstream news. Youtube channels that post videos of these rallies have been taken down. Listen to a speech at a rally in Cork, Ireland yesterday here.