Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Friday, March 27, 2015

New and Improved Jesus for Our Times!

Great stuff from Anthony Esolen - "A Modern Translation" in Crisis Magazine. Read the whole thing.

The Church, I’ve been hearing, has to change, if she is going to have any leverage with men and women of our time. What that means, of course, is that they would like a sexual permission slip. It’s the only thing they care about. What’s it to them, after all, if the Church does not change her teachings, even if she could? They don’t obey them anyway.
But perhaps they are setting their revisionary sights too low. Why change the Bride of Christ, when you might as well go for Christ Himself? Why trick out the bride in lingerie from Astarte’s Secret, you can put new words on the lips of the bridegroom, or give him a new interest?

So we need a Jesus who will fit; a god we can put in the cave to stay. I translate His words accordingly:
 
“Blessed are the modestly well off, for theirs are the good schools and the suburbs.”
“Blessed are they who chuckle, for they need not give a damn.”
“Blessed are they who believe in themselves, for they shall cover the earth.”
“Blessed are they who scoff at righteousness, for they shall be less than hypocrites.”
“Blessed are the indifferent, for they shall be left alone.”
“Blessed are the sly of heart, for they shall see porn.”
“Blessed are the compromisers, for they shall win elections.”
“Blessed are they who persecute the righteous, for they shall be called the children of God.”
“Blessed are they who use my name to do as they please, to win the applause of men, while putting down the ignorant and faithful, for theirs are the good schools and the suburbs.”
“You are the salt of the earth. The salt never loses its savor, so don’t worry about it.”
“You are the light of the world. If you put your light under a bushel basket, what difference will it make? Don’t worry about it.”
“You have heard me say, what God has joined together, and all that. I take it back. Divorce at will, but do try to be nice about it, and help your children to buck up.”
“You have heard me say that it’s not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of his heart, things like fornication, adultery, deceit, covetousness, murder, and so forth. Let’s not be so hasty. A man may fornicate, but that does not mean he is not a nice person. A man may betray his wife, steal his partner’s business, stab his neighbor to death, expose his neighbor’s child to lewdness, and lie under oath, but that does not mean he is not a nice person.”
“Be nice, even as your imaginary deity is nice.”
“When you pray, be not as the hypocrites, who go to Mass to celebrate as I have commanded them. I take back the command. Here’s how you are to pray:
Our friend in the sky, give us what we want, and stow what we don’t. Amen.

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Mother Earth? Guess Again!

A landslide shows who really is in charge.


I know it's Jesus because I remember him from his likeness on my toast.



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Friday, March 20, 2015

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Redux

The past:




The present:


(RNS) When Pope Francis pays a visit to Naples this Saturday (March 21) he will have lunch with some 90 inmates at a local prison, a contingent that will reportedly include 10 from a section reserved for gay and transgendered prisoners, and those infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
The stopover at the Giuseppe Salvia Detention Center in Poggioreale, near Naples, was originally not scheduled to include lunch, according to a report from Tv2000, an Italian television network operated by the country’s Catholic bishops.

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Monday, March 16, 2015

Islamic Outreach, Part LXI

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile, from the Catholic World News:

 
A potential Islamist attack on the cathedral and synagogue in Bremen, Germany, was averted following action by police on February 28, a Belgian newspaper reported.
Numerous police guarded the cathedral and synagogue and searched a local Muslim cultural center, according to the report. 

It would be a better story if the cathedral was Catholic. It used to be, but then the Lutherans stole it who then had it stolen by the Calvinists. If you were a Lutheran, how would that make you feel, Angry Muslim Guy?

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SCAP....SNAP!

Let's say you show up for 8AM Mass and Father Uriel is not there. Instead, the Deacon, Tom or I read the Sunday Celebration in the Absence of a priest. You receive the Eucharist, but when it's over you realize that you are not inconvenienced by having to drive to Anna to attend 10AM Mass.

Can you receive Holy Communion again?

 Father Z. Explains:

The law is clear. The faithful who are properly disposed can received Holy Communion once a day, and then once more in the context of Holy Mass.  To receive more frequently is an abuse.

  
The 1983 Code of Canon Law says:
Can. 917 – Qui sanctissimam Eucharistiam iam recepit, potest eam iterum eadem die suscipere solummodo intra eucharisticam celebrationem cui participat, salvo praescripto Can. 921, § 2.

Someone who has already received the Most Holy Eucharist can receive it again (iterum) on the same day only within the Eucharistic celebration [i.e. Mass] in which the person participates, with due regard for the prescription of can. 921 § 2.
And… can. 921 § 2 says that if a person is in danger of death, he may receive Communion even it is not in the context of Mass.  That is Viaticum.
That iterum does not mean “again and again”, but merely “again, one more time”.

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Friday, March 13, 2015

I Have To Rethink Things

From the Go Fund Me site:

We are the secret direct bloodline family of Jesus Christ.  Our names are Richard, Jane & Ethan.

It has been a guarded secret for nearly 2000 years that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had issue that brings us through time to our present family. 



The bloodline progressed through Jesus and Mary's daughter Sarah as Mary was pregnant at the time of Jesus's crucifixion.  Mary gave birth and formed a dynastic line in France that today by grace of God is in America.

We are the direct Holy Royal Bloodline also known in code as "The Holy Grail" which pertains to this great secret and not as popular tradition dictates 'the cup' used at the last supper.

Over the intervening centuries the direct family has hidden due to murder of its members by both evil and the Roman Church.  Both of which have direct interest in not having the bloodline of Christ exsist or the truth of Jesus's true nature coming into the public domain. 

I Reached the End of the Internet

 From Catholic Culture:

Father Adolfo Enríquez, 77, the pastor of the parish in Vilanova dos Infantes, Spain, has been found dead in a haystack with evidence of a blow to the dead. He had been stationed at the parish for 45 years.
Vilanova dos Infantes, a town of 250, is the site of a Marian shrine where the image of the Virxe do Cristal (Virgen del Cristal) has been venerated since the seventeenth century. The Marian image, described by local media as the smallest in the world, has disappeared. 

Strangely, I can not find anything on the internet about this "image" (at least, nothing in a language I can read).

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Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?

Father Z. reports:

The Guard Takes an Oath to Protect the Pope
 I have a project for us all.

When I was in Rome last October with a pilgrimage group for the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage (there is another coming up this October – see the ad on the sidebar), we had a private tour of the barracks of the Swiss Guards.  The tour that day was conducted by the fiancee of one of the Corporals of the Guard.   They are now married, by the way.  When we were in the armory, she explained how uncomfortable the breastplates are for the men, because they are not individually crafted.   Imagine.

However, she said that her fiancee, now husband, the Corporal wanted to get an individually fitted breastplate.

It would coast 6000 Euro, which was out of their reach on a guard’s salary. However, my heart melted when she said it would have St. Joseph on the front and St. Joan of Arc on the back.

So Father Z. did something. He began a campaign to raise the money to pay for a custom made breastplate. And....

 Hurray!  You did it.

Cpl. Bergamin

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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Fédération Internationale de Natation Feast of St. Fina, March12

According to the book, Saints A Year in Faith and Art:
San Gimignano
"Born at San Gimignano, Italy in 1238, she died at fifteen, already in the odor of sanctity"

I don't know what the odor of sanctity is, but it sounds slightly unpleasant. Maybe this explains it:

In 1248 Fina’s life was changed by a serious illness, which began, progressively, to paralyse her (probably a form of tuberculous osteomyelitis). Her deep faith relieved her pain. She refused a bed and chose instead to lie on a wooden pallet. According to her legend, during her long sickness her body became attached to the wood of the table, and worms and rats fed on her rotting flesh. During her illness, she lost her father and later her mother died after a fall. In spite of her misfortune and poverty she thanked God and expressed a desire that her soul might separate from the body in order to meet Jesus Christ.

 When Fina’s body was removed from the pallet, the people who were there saw white violets bloom from the wood and smelt a fresh flower fragrance through the whole house. The violets grew on the walls of San Gimignano too and still today they grow there. For this reason the people of San Gimignano call them “The Saint Fina violets”. 

Just before she died, she was visited by St. Gregory the Great.  I hope he looked like this:
But probably looked like this:
Announcement of Death to St. Fina, Domenica Ghirlandaio, 1474






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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Insha'Allah

You know it's true because it's in the Daily Mail:




Pope Francis has said he has accepted that he may be assassinated- but has asked God to make sure it doesn't hurt too much as he is 'a real wimp'.
Francis said that if fanatics want to kill him, it is 'God's will'. 
He said: 'Life is in God's hands. I have said to the Lord, "You take care of me. But if it is your will that I die or something happens to me, I ask you only one favour: that it doesn't hurt. Because I am a real wimp when it comes to physical pain."'

If he wants a quick death, he better hope he doesn't fall into the hands of ISIS.



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Bird is the Word

An interesting story about the unofficial portrait painter of the Vatican...

Shen Jiawei

VATICAN CITY — Artist Shen Jiawei’s paintings of Chinese soldiers during the Cultural Revolution were so popular with Mao’s regime that 250,000 copies of his most famous work were made into propaganda posters and distributed throughout the country.
Four decades later, Shen now has a different patron commissioning his work: He has become, somewhat inexplicably, the unofficial portrait artist of the Vatican. He painted the first official portrait of Pope Francis and recently completed a huge rendition of the second most powerful man in Rome, Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s money guy.

Here's the portrait.




Reminds me of....


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Strange Things Happen Here!



From their website:

The Rosicrucian movement, of which the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is the most prominent modern representative, has its roots in the mystery traditions, philosophy, and myths of ancient Egypt dating back to approximately 1500 BCE In antiquity the word “mystery” referred to a special gnosis, a secret wisdom. Thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt select bodies or schools were formed to explore the mysteries of life and learn the secrets of this hidden wisdom. Only sincere students, displaying a desire for knowledge and meeting certain tests were considered worthy of being inducted into these mysteries. Over the course of centuries these mystery schools added an initiatory dimension to the knowledge they transmitted.

OK, you're right...that is STRANGE.


Or as Henry Adamson put it:

Thus Mr Gall assured it would be so
And my good genius doth surely know:
For what we do presage is not in grosse
For we be brethren of the Rosie Crosse;
We have the Mason word, and second sight,
Things for to come we can foretell aright.
I only mention it because according to Wikipedia:
 Rosicrucianism was associated with Protestantism (Lutheranism in particular), and the manifestos opposed Roman Catholicism and its preference for dogma over empiricism.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 30



A professor of theology at Creighton University in Omaha,Neb., was recently quoted in the student newspaper and described as recommending “more morally neutral” language in the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality. Although the professor teaches theology at the Jesuit university, the article made no mention of him imparting or explicating the Church’s teaching on the matter.



Dr. Todd Salzman, who teaches ethics under Creighton’s theology department, “believes changing the language the Catholic Church uses to address homosexuality to something more morally neutral is the most helpful step toward improving relationships between the Catholic Church and the LGBT community,” The Creightonian reported.
  


Last October, Creighton President Father Timothy Lannon, S.J., announced the decision to extend employee spousal benefits to same-sex partners at the University. The move was followed by a statement from Omaha Archbishop George Lucas, who said he was disappointed and disagreed with the Jesuit university’s decision. “Despite Father Lannon’s claim that this is not a statement of approval of same-sex marriages, this is precisely the message that the university is giving,” Archbishop Lucas wrote.

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