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.

(more…)

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.  

Believing as the Church Believes
by Anonymous

“Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk.11:28). Like the Blessed Virgin Mary, who conceived the Word of God in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb, we must hear the word of God and believe. Jesus, exasperated by the lack of belief of His hearers, once compared them to children sitting in the market place, shouting to one another: “We have piped to you and you have not danced; we have sung dirges and you have not mourned” (Mt.11:16,17). Created by God as rational beings, their minds were too clouded by sin and the errors of the times to recognize the Messiah when they saw Him.

Just as it is reasonable to believe in God, it is reasonable to BELIEVE God when He speaks. It is reasonable to believe what God has revealed. The Catholic Religion is the most reasonable of all religions. In fact, it is the ONLY reasonable religion, the only religion based on the truth of God’s revealed word. Hearing God’s word means belonging to the Catholic Church, the Ark of Salvation. The Church expresses this doctrine in the formula, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, “Outside the Church there is no salvation.”** (more…)

WAS Donald Trump’s presidential persona consciously modeled after the loud-mouth Alex Jones? Seems like it.

This 2018 article by Timothy Fitzpatrick is still a fascinating read:

If the Trump persona truly is based on the Alex Jones persona, perhaps we can make a prediction of where Trump’s presidency will go. Right now, Alex Jones, as a character, appears to be on the decline. The truly awakened individuals that once followed him are long gone and now all he has left are mindless “red-pilled” idiots, of mostly millennial, hillbilly, and pothead extraction. His out-of-control behaviour is, perhaps, doing the most damage to his status and reputation. The publicity of his custody-trial with ex-wife Violet revealed a lot about the artificiality of his public character. He is currently married to what appears to be a former hooker. His strange relationship with Hollywood sleaze Charlie Sheen went public a few years ago, and now his former employers are bringing to light even more darker truths of the Alex Jones character. In essence, he is self-destructing. Could Donald Trump follow a similar path? Many think he already is. Both Jones and Trump share the pathology of narcissism, which makes them their own worst enemies—and at the complete mercy of their handlers. (more…)

    DR. Ben Tapper's speech before the Omaha City Council last August is still timely. They don't care about your health. (Note: If you get a warning message, please ignore it. There is no danger.)  

"SUFFERING, no matter how small, has its own work. I pray that mine will perform its work within me, and that the time I have left in this life will be well used as a result of the inevitability of suffering. "The rain in these mountains has stopped for now, and the air is clear and cold and peaceful. Spring is less than three weeks away, and I am straddling the two seasons, enjoying the things of winter and yet looking forward to a loosening of my joints and a new perfume in the air when the green things begin to lift towards the heavens again. All around me, the trees and bulbs are pushing and jostling and insistent in their cellulose way. And in the background, men work their evil deeds and tell their blatant lies. It is a wondrous time to be alive right now." -- S.K. Orr at Steeple Tea  

JEWISH Fragility refers to feelings of discomfort a Jewish person experiences when they witness discussions around race and theology.  This may trigger anger, fear, guilt,  and violence.  Some Jews may become insecure when other people groups claim privileges that Jew[ish] people enjoy. If a Jewish person  becomes defensive, a non-Jew may feel obligated to comfort the Jew.  For example, some Christians comfort Jews by telling them they are “God’s children,” while some Europeans speak words establishing racial self-hatred.   These non-Jews seek to unburden themselves from socially constructed sin accusations (racism or anti-semitism). Manifestations of Jewish fragility commonly include accusing others of what they do themselves. These include, but are not limited to: Inventing a social sin that only applies to non-Jews (anti-semitism). The privilege of their own racial homeland while accusing others of a social sin (racism)  for seeking the same privilege. Establishing organizations promoting the interests of their own race while denying that privilege to others, specifically Whites. Violence toward those who do not submit to religious, historical, and cultural narratives promoted by the Jews. One manifestation of Jewish fragility was the reaction to Jesus Christ, who verbally chastised them for  hypocrisy. As a result, the Jews used their power and influence (Jewish privilege) to have him executed. Fritz Berggren, PhD 28 February 2021  

MEDITATING upon the gruesome and bloody crucifixion of Jesus is too much for most people. Why? The Rev. Frederick William Faber offered one reason: It is the excessive love of the Incarnation and the Passion which makes men find it hard to believe those mysteries. We confess it seems to us that he who, on reflection, can receive and embrace those two propositions, that God loves us, and that God desires our love, can find nothing difficult hereafter in the wonders of theology. Another feature of this love is that it is eternal which is in itself an inexplicable mystery. As there never was a moment when God was not in all the plenitude of His self-sufficient majesty, so there never was a moment when He did not love us. He loved us not only in the gross as His creatures, not only as atoms in a mass, as units in a multitude, all grouped together, and not taken singly; but He loved us individually. He loved us with all those distinctions and individualities which make us ourselves, and prevent our being any but ourselves. [Thoughts on Great Mysteries, selected from the works of Frederick William Faber; Suttaby & Co.: London; 1884.] People who see in a crucifix only morbid and unpleasant reminders of the finality of life and who think those who meditate devoutly upon the crucifix are psychologically unbalanced are people who don't see the love. They do not…