AMERICAN composer Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is posted here today in memory of my much-loved father and the many times he filled our lives with beautiful music.

The music is the setting for the composer’s 1967 choral arrangement of Agnus Dei, based on the invocation from the Latin Mass, recited after the Canon, when the Host and the Chalice are lifted heavenward, the unblemished and bloodless sacrifice offered in expiation for our sins.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace. (more…)

LOSING A PARENT is like having a taproot severed. A cord that holds us to the ground is cut. Difficult it is for those with difficult parents, and even more so for those with good parents.

My father, William Paul Quinn, died yesterday at 11:54 a.m. in bed at home in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was 91 years old. All seven of his children were at his bedside when he took his last breaths. Having a parent for so long doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready to say goodbye. (If you know any couple who would be willing to adopt seven pre-elderly orphans, we’re open to offers.) We still need parental attention. We need parents to take care of and cherish too. The brutal fact is, we never truly outgrow the need for a father and a mother. Now both our parents are gone.

My father survived his wife of 64 years by a little over six months and spent much of that time in a recliner in his bedroom, unable to walk much, unable to control his basic functions, almost defeated, grieving, anxious to die but cheerful and interested in others nevertheless. He was mentally sharp up until the very end. The last few days he fell into a deep sleep, like a boxer who’d been flung back against the ropes for the last time. His hands were so swollen they actually looked like boxing gloves. He had put up a good fight. The bruises on his hands said so. But it was done.

Before the humiliations — and the good times — of old age, my father was a bright and accomplished attorney who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania; went to law school at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for the Reading Railroad. Then later as a partner in a firm he specialized in interstate commerce and railroads. (more…)

PLEASE pray for my father, William Paul Quinn, who is expected to die in the next day or two. He is 91, and has struggled physically for a long time, but especially in the last six months since my mother's death. Pray also for your own parents, if they are still alive. Here is a beautiful prayer for that purpose: O God, Who hast commanded us to love our father and mother, look down upon the souls of my beloved parents, whom Thy only-begotten Son has redeemed on the Cross. Remember, O Lord, the good which with Thy grace they accomplished; remit the punishments which their imperfections deserve. Pay Thou their debt, O Jesus, with Thy Precious Blood. Grant me that favor for the sake of the love which Thou hast for Thy Mother Mary and Thy Foster-Father Saint Joseph. Grant that I may meet my dear parents again in the realm of eternal bliss, that we may together enjoy the happiness of Thy saints forever and ever. Amen. I appreciate your prayers for my father.

"BERGOGLIO was not at ease with people who were in a position to overshadow him psychologically, intellectually, or socially. He was a recruit from a lower social level than many of his companions in the Society of Jesus, and in the class-conscious society that is Argentina’s legacy from its oligarchic past this was always a visible handicap. He dealt with it by affecting an exaggerated vulgarity (thus leading to the complaints about coarse language mentioned in the Kolvenbach Report), while at large gatherings he would make a point of ignoring the bigwigs and spending time chatting genially to the cleaners and manual workers. One can see a similar defense mechanism in his assumption of a simple, retiring persona which was in fact a cover for close psychological control." ---- Marcantonio Colonna, The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy [Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2018], pp. 36-37 A video interview with the author of The Dictator Pope has been posted at Novus Ordo Watch. Unfortunately, despite his important revelations about "Pope" Francis, the author, whose real name is Henry J.A. Sire, accepts Francis as a true pope. See the perceptive comments with this post.

ALAN writes:

Fifty years ago, there were only three television networks in America and no such thing as around-the-clock TV entertainment. But some Americans thought that even that was too much.

Years before Marie Winn’s The Plug-In Drug (1977) and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), veteran entertainer and show business legend George Jessel saw a menace in push-button entertainment so easily available. In 1968, he said in The Great Comedians Talk About Comedy [Citadel Press, 1968]:

“…..I think the amount of television we have is a terrible curse to our country…..because I see us completely degenerating.   ….the nation has been sort of intrigued or drugged to stay at home…..”

“There’s so little show business today in the United States,” he said, meaning: So little live theater of the kind where you could take your children and your Aunt Tilly on a Saturday afternoon. He was remembering a time when stage plays were common and where you had to get dressed up to go and where your children could learn how to dress and behave properly in public settings.

At one time there were 25 theaters in St. Louis that offered live entertainment ranging from vaudeville to stage plays, and performers ranging from Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, and Bob Hope to Jack Benny, Fred Astaire, and George Jessel. All but three of those theaters were demolished—along with the frame of mind in which people understood entertainment to be something out of the ordinary, a special occasion, something set apart.  (more…)

A READER writes:

I was reading your post on how men should dress and had a few question if you don’t mind.

Is it ever appropriate for a man to wear a T-shirt?  If so, when?

Is it ever appropriate for men to wear sandals, flip-flops, etc.?  If so, when?

Should men always wear a tie when in public?  If no, how casual can a man dress while still being appropriately dressed?

Thank you for your blog and any guidance you can offer. (more…)

STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes from Australia:

What a completely different and ugly creature is the cacophony and egotism that is to be the so-called “Day of Silence.” What a misnomer. No silence at all in it. No withdrawal. No stillness of mind or thought as a prelude to self-abnegation. No minimizing themselves or their egos in the service of their purported cause. On the contrary, they’re just setting up for one very loud, virtue-signaling jamboree of self-display.

Looking at the organizer’s website one sees clearly that everything connected with the day is designed to facilitate the SJW’s doing what they love best: drawing attention to and celebrating themselves. This is to be no mustering of contemplative withdrawal. Consider the bustling about publicly registering for the activity itself; running around pinning up posters advertising the activity; the public passing out of personal speaking cards to alert the less woke, (which to them is everyone), to what they are doing; the buying, pinning and wearing of buttons and badges to draw attention to themselves. And, of course, there’s the all-important retailing and display opportunities in the form of the buying and selling of “merch”:  their “Day of Silence” t-shirts  and even temporary tattoos both of which proclaim as loudly as words would both their ostensible message and their own superior virtue. It’s a celebration of self rather than a denial of it.

It all just seems to me to be a day to give free reign to the egos of immature people who, like small children, need their mummies and daddies to “look at me,” oblivious that what is perfectly charming and normative in a three-year-old is just sad in an adolescent or adult. (more…)

FROM The Free Thought Project:

“This month, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9-11 Inquiry, a group representing families of the 9/11 victims, filed a petition with the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to push for an investigation into the crimes of 9/11. The committee states that they have “conclusive” evidence that explosives were planted and detonated in the trade center buildings, and that this is the actual reason for the collapse of the towers.

“According to the 52-page petition, which is accompanied by 57 exhibits, federal statute requires the U.S. Department of Justice to review the evidence with a special grand jury. The petition states:

“The Lawyers’ Committee has reviewed the relevant available evidence . . . and has reached a consensus that there is not just substantial or persuasive evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted crimes related to the use of pre-planted explosives and/or incendiaries . . . on 9/11, but there is actually conclusive evidence that such federal crimes were committed.”

“The evidence that is put forward in the petition includes the following: (more…)

“GRATEFUL READER” writes:

In the latest news, see the below message from the American Family Association about this Friday’s “Day of Silence” in public schools.

Whereas Christians use silence as a medicine, the modern activists seem to be using silence as a weapon.  In fact, isn’t that the quintessential contrast between the two groups of people.

From the American Family Association:

On Friday, April 27, high schools (and many middle schools) across the country will be hosting the LGBT movement’s annual “Day of Silence.”

During this all-day event, student activists and even school officials encourage students to be silent for the entire day as a sign of solidarity with the international LGBT movement. Students are encouraged to wear special pro-homosexual badges, stickers, and bracelets – which are often handed out at the school entrances that day. There are also pro-LGBT posters in the hallways, handouts, and even workshops.

Although the adult activists claim that the “Day of Silence” (DOS) is put together by “students,” it is in fact organized behind the scenes by adults with the enthusiastic cooperation of school officials. They use materials and instructions from a national homosexual activist group. (more…)

  THE arrest of two black loiterers at a Philadelphia Starbucks on April 12 -- and the subsequent protests against racism -- reek of staging and manufactured fake news. Judging from the promptness with which the police responded, the strange passivity with which the men were arrested, the fake-looking hysteria of an Ashkenazi man at the scene (see this video), the almost instantaneous protests with all the appropriate paraphernalia, the quick outcry by the Anti-Defamation League, and the idiotic, national media storm over what amounted to a triviality, this was either entirely staged or heavily orchestrated to fan racial tension and create distraction with all-too-familiar, Elders-of-Zion diversionary tactics. That does not mean there wasn't real reaction in nauseating quantities from the media and public, or that the incident itself was definitely not authentic. But the needle of my hoax-o-meter registered a high of 83 percent when I held it up to a few news reports. This media storm was not primarily the doing of liberal snowflakes or black radicals. This wasn't a big story. It was made into one. Starbucks, which has been into Soros-style political agitation before, has triumphed with some truly great publicity. You can't buy this kind of national advertising. Or, maybe you can, but not through the normal channels. Starbucks coffee is the official beverage of the New World Order. Although I will not indulge this advertising and covert political scheme by complaining about the behavior of the arrested men at…

ELLEN BROWN on rising interest rates and what to do about them: The Federal Reserve calls itself independent, but it is independent only of government. It marches to the drums of the banks that are its private owners. To prevent another Great Recession or Great Depression, Congress needs to amend the Federal Reserve Act, nationalize the Fed and turn it into a public utility, one that is responsive to the needs of the public and the economy.

FROM  Fr. Karl Stehlin, writing in his book The Nature, Dignity, and Mission of Woman (Angelus Press. Kindle Edition):

“IF GOD Himself defines the most intimate possible relationship between Himself and a creature as the relation between mother and child, then we can say that all earthly motherhood finds its deepest meaning in connection with the Divine Maternity. Mary’s motherhood is the model and standard of every sort of motherhood on earth, and every instance of motherhood on earth is meant to be an echo of the Divine Maternity. That means that the mother (and by analogy the father also) experiences her motherhood fully when she views it in light of Mary’s motherhood.

“The parents see their child as a gift from God; they see in the child the presence of the Child Jesus. Conceiving the child and carrying it in the womb becomes for the mother a living reminder and “representation” of the conception of the Eternal Word and of carrying Jesus Christ in one’s heart. The birth and the raising of the child are understood as symbolic of the divine mission, that is, the sending forth of Jesus Christ into the world and His proclamation which gives birth to Christ in souls. Jesus Himself confirms this way of looking at it when He says that whoever does His will is “brother, sister and mother” to Him (Mt. 12:50).

“Mary’s Divine Maternity makes comprehensible to the Christian, and in particular to the Christian woman, the mission that she has to fulfill in her short life. (more…)

"Nothing represents an object more faithfully or clearly than a mirror.  In the same way, nothing more widely represents the good or bad qualities of a soul than the greater or lesser regulation of the exterior, as when one appears more or less modest.  You must be modest in speech, modest in laughter, modest in your bearing, modest in walking.  All this must be practiced, not out of vanity in order to display one's self, nor out of hypocrisy in order to appear to be good to the eyes of others, but rather, for the internal virtue of modesty, which regulates the external workings of the body." --- Padre Pio (Read more here)

"IF THE Lord should give you power to raise the dead, He would give much less than He does when He bestows suffering. By miracles you would make yourself debtor to Him, while by suffering He may become debtor to you. And even if sufferings had no other reward than being able to bear something for that God who loves you, is not this a great reward and a sufficient remuneration? Whoever loves, understands what I say." ----St. John Chrysostom

  THE FRENCH author Hervé Ryssen documents the leading role of Judaism in the Communist Revolution in 20th-century Russia in this excellent documentary. (Warning: Disturbing images include reenactments of executions.) An estimated 30 million people, mostly Christian, were killed by the Communists in Soviet Russia. (Alexander Solzhenitsyn  put the death toll at 60 million.) Ironically, as Ryssen explains, many secular Jews became Communists because they wanted to inaugurate a reign of peace on earth, others wanted revenge against monarchist Russia -- and of course, most Jewish Communists were not themselves murderers. The movement they supported was and to this day, the Western press conceals the extent of the genocide. American students are taught about the Holocaust, even though there is no hard evidence of gas chambers, nor will there ever be hard evidence since the technology for large-scale gassings of the type described by survivors was non-existent, and the claimed death toll is patently false. Students are never taught the history of the Soviet genocide, for which there is abundant documentation and physical evidence. This history is highly relevant to world events today, as Ryssen explains at the end of the documentary. Ryssen has been arrested numerous times, fined and imprisoned in France for his discussions of these events. The sort of censorship that existed in Soviet Russia exists in the West today.

FROM a comment posted here in 2013 by Steve Kogan, a writer who is now deceased:

The issue of “women’s rights” was almost a century old when Nietzsche cut it to the quick with a five word response: “Feminism: the uglification of Europe.” For years, I found nothing to match its bite until I recently came across the following reminiscence in The Dostoevsky Archive: Firsthand Accounts of the Novelist from Contemporaries’ Memoirs and Rare Periodicals (1997):

    At the parties I gave, Dostoevsky showed himself to be a charming person. He told his stories, and he displayed his wit and humor, as well as his unusual and original way of thinking. As a new person entered the room, however, Dostoevsky became silent for a moment and looked like a snail retreating into its shell, or like a silent and evil-looking pagan idol. And this lasted until the newcomer produced a good impression on him…. If the stranger engaged Dostoevsky in conversation, one generally heard him make some rude remark, or saw a sour look on his face.

    Dostoevsky was opposed to the so-called “Women’s Question.” At that time, this movement took the form of eccentric behavior and attire on the part of some women, such as very short haircuts, dark blue spectacles and other fads. Among other things, these ladies did not notice that Dostoevsky disliked them, and they revered him as their teacher.

    Several times, I was present at such meetings. A contemporary woman entered the room. She failed to notice the forbidding expression on Dostoevsky’s face. She did not hear his cold tone of voice or his formal question, “What do you want?” This lady, filled with her own motives, began to tell her story, with animated and shining eyes and flushed cheeks. (more…)