Every mystery contains a central nucleus of truth that is comprehended, surrounded on all sides by things that we do not comprehend. Think of it as a globe of light surrounded by darkness. The man who rejects mystery is rejecting the central globe of light and accepting the impenetrable darkness. Whereas for the man who accepts it, the light grows and expands, sending longer and longer rays into the darkness around. --- Frank Sheed, The Map of Life
FROM "Perseverance in Good," by Fr. Francis Hunolt: God does not wish us to pray to him for the same reason that beggars are forced to ask alms from the rich: namely, to declare their poverty, or to excite pity and commiseration for their needs. No, the all-knowing Lord is better acquainted with our wants than we are ourselves. “Your Father knoweth what is needful for you,” says Christ, “before you ask him” (St. Matthew 6: 8). He knows your miseries before you expose them to him: and he has greater pity for our wretchedness than a good mother has for her sick child. Why, then, is it necessary for us to implore the help of God, if he already knows what we want, if his Fatherly love already inclines him to help us? It is true that God knows already what help and grace we are in need of from him; and that he can give us his grace without our co-operation, if he wishes to do so; but as a general rule, he will not give us any grace, the first alone excepted, unless we humbly ask it of him. God could have caused the fruits of the earth to come forth of themselves; but he does not do so. He requires us to do work, to till the fields, and sow the seed. In the same way he wishes all men to be eternally happy in heaven,…
IN 1955, Pope Pius XII proclaimed May 1st, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker in response to Communist May Day celebrations, which pandered to the working class while placing it under the merciless control of an oligarchy. As a laborer who worked with his hands, St. Joseph was everything the Communist slave was not. In Divini Redemptoris, On Atheistic Communism, of March 1937, Pope Pius XI advocated that the battle against world Communism be entrusted to the great saint's intercession. How far we have come since 1937 and 1955! The Vatican II Church has long since abandoned the fight against world Communism and in fact has joined in its ascendancy under the United Nations and centralized financial forces. That fact should only motivate us the more to honor the saint on this, his feast day. St. Joseph, again, is the ideal representative of the working-class man (and woman), industrious in his labors, strengthened by virtue and unmoved by slogans of class envy. He is the construction worker, the appliance repairman, the plumber, the farmer, the truck driver and the electrician -- uncelebrated, but necessary to everyday survival. One of the terrible fruits of quasi-Communist society has been the deprivation of a living wage to the working man so that his wife must now work outside the home too. State-endorsed feminism and state control of the family through heavy taxation, intrusive regulation and favoritism toward corporations has made it difficult for…
CANAL BANK WALK Leafy with-love banks and the green waters of the canal Pouring redemption for me, that I do The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal, Grow with nature again as before I grew. The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third Party to the couple kissing on an old seat, And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat. O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech, Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven. ---- Patrick Kavanaugh
I was not an angry young man when I walked into high school in 1964, but I was a very angry young man indeed when I walked out in 1966. By no means was I “a superior student.” But what I made of it –meaning the compulsion to be in school and to attend certain classes — was:
1. I disliked it.
2. Then I resented it.
3. Then I hated it.
4. Then I loathed it.
5. Then I refused to abide by such compulsion any longer. (more…)
A CALIFORNIA nurse describes her work experiences under Covid mandates in an interview with Childrens Health Defense. After protesting new treatment standards, she was fired and banned from working for area hospitals. (more…)
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FROM "The Continuing Chaos," (July, 1982) by W.F. Strojie: Our priests have been made into religious, political and social change agents. Some of them don't like it but nevertheless go along. Frivolity, smiles all around, that's the "in" style now, but these same men can be earnest enough at times. Here, in America since Vatican II, they have built hundreds of grotesque or synagogue-style new churches at fabulous expense. Fundamentalist sectarians of centuries ago could not match the iconoclastic fury of the new priests as they go about ripping out the old altars, throwing on dump heaps statues, Stations of the Cross, etc. Recently a friend, in California, took me to see a local parish church --- the plainest of square buildings, made of concrete blocks. A big square altar, slightly upraised, stands in the center of the building. Looking at this altar I visualized a fire underneath and the Temple animal sacrifice taking place. There was nothing else there -- except metal folding chairs which could be picked up and taken out should the fire get away. In any event, metal chairs do not burn. A prudent pastor! And I have just heard that in a nearby Benedictine monastery 100 years old, they recently smashed the fine old marble main altar and threw it over a hill. The Vatican II and Protestant Table had stood before the main altar for years. Ite, Missa est. The Message could not be plainer. Some…
"BETTER that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith." --- St. Peter Canisius (b. 1521-d. 1597)
FROM A speech Thursday at George Washington University in D.C.: [America] is the biggest settler colony in the world. And if you think you’re going to liberate Palestine and leave this monster intact, I’ve got news for you. Capitalism and imperialism is based right here, and it must come down right here. ... We want to smash the Democratic Party, we want to smash the Republican party, we want to smash this whole goddamn capitalist, imperialist empire. It's a merging of forces: gays led by their communists women led by their communists blacks led by their communists mahometans led by their communists trans led by their communists all pulled together into one bloc even right wingers led by revolutionaries, pretending to be on the right (Source)
THE MORE oppressive government becomes, the more taxes we pay. But, of course, it's all for our "freedom" and "rights." Here's a ditty found in The Fishwrapper of April 9, 2024, I guess to ease the pain of this massive transfer of wealth, which may be still fresh in your mind. Maybe the excessive publicity of the recent solar eclipse was a way of saying, "Look over there!" during tax season. Tax his cow, tax his goat; Tell him, "Taxing is the rule." Tax his tractor, tax his mule; Teach him taxing is no joke. Tax his oil, tax his gas, Tax his notes, tax his cash. Tell him good, and let him know That after taxes he has no dough. If he hollers, tax him more; Tax him 'til he's good and sore. Tax his coffin, tax his grave, Tax the sod 'neath which he's laid. Put these words upon his tomb: "Taxes drove him to his doom." After he's gone, we won't relax; We'll still collect inheritance tax.
The unity of idea, which, as these words imply, is to be found in all monks in every part of Christendom, may be described as a unity of object, of state, and of occupation. Monachism was one and the same everywhere, because it was a reaction from that secular life, which has everywhere the same structure and the same characteristics. And, since that secular life contained in it many objects, many states, and many occupations, here was a special reason, as a matter of principle, why the reaction from it should bear the badge of unity, and should be in outward appearance one and the same everywhere. Moreover, since that same secular life was, when monachism arose, more than ordinarily marked by variety, perturbation and confusion, it seemed on that very account to justify emphatically a rising and revolt against itself, and a recurrence to some state which, unlike itself, was constant and unalterable. It was indeed an old, decayed, and moribund world, into which Christianity had been cast. The social fabric was overgrown with the corruptions of a thousand years, and was held together, not so much by any common principle, as by the strength of possession and the tenacity of custom. It was too large for public spirit, and too artificial for patriotism, and its many religions did but foster in the popular mind division and scepticism. Want of mutual confidence would lead to despondency, inactivity, and selfishness. Society was in the slow fever of consumption, which made it restless in proportion as it was feeble. It was powerful, however, to seduce and deprave; nor was there any locus standi from which to combat its evils; and the only way of getting on with it was to abandon principle and duty, to take things as they came, and to do as the world did. Worse than all, this encompassing, entangling system of things, was, at the time we speak of, the seat and instrument of a paganism, and then of heresies, not simply contrary, but bitterly hostile, to the Christian profession. Serious men not only had a call, but every inducement which love of life and freedom could supply, to escape from its presence and its sway. (more…)
"TELL me whether you know of anything more sacred than this sacred mystery, anything more delightful than the pleasure found herein? What food, what honey could be sweeter than to learn of God’s Providence, to enter into his shrine and look into the mind of the Creator, to listen to the Lord’s words at which the wise of this world laugh, but which are really full of spiritual teaching? Others may have their wealth, may drink out of jewelled cups, be clad in silks, enjoy popular applause, find it impossible to exhaust their wealth by dissipating it in pleasures of all kinds; but our delight is to meditate on the Law of the Lord day and night, to knock at his door when shut, to receive our food from the Trinity of Persons, and, under the guidance of the Lord, trample under foot the swelling tumults of this world." --- St. Jerome, in a letter to his disciple Paula
"GRINDING poverty is a well-known enemy not only to morals but to faith itself. But always our primary preoccupation is to help men make the best of the condition in which they find themselves; whereas the primary preoccupation of the modern reformer is to better the conditions and to hope for a new race of men. Our work is to colonise heaven, theirs to breed for Utopia. And that disparity of inspiration leads, again and again, to a contrast of method. The revolutionary reformer wishes to achieve Utopia by methods which offend against our sense of justice. The bureaucratic reformer wishes to achieve Utopia by methods which offend against our sense of liberty. Neither side finds in us an ally who can be trusted to go all lengths; either side, therefore, distrusts our alliance, and at best tolerates it as a necessary embarrassment." --- Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics, 1927
