Sorry for the dearth of posts, but I have received some bad news with regards to the “parking spot” for the “van down by the river” and have been admittedly preoccupied and out-of-sorts. It isn’t immediately catastrophic, but I may have to find another “parking spot” within the next few months. If I do “move the van”, it is a near certitude that “parking fees” will go up. We shall see. At any rate, I try not to ask for much, especially considering the astounding generosity and munificence that has already been displayed to me by complete strangers who know only of me what they have seen on a flickering screen, of which I seriously worry that it has been sinful in and of itself to accept, but I am beginning a novena to dear St. Joseph tomorrow as he is the patron of all domestic issues. The text is below if you would like to join in, and add your own intentions. If you could, in your generosity, throw in a brief mention of “Ann’s situation with the parking spot for the ‘van down by the river'”, good St. Joseph will know exactly what that means, will stroke his facial hair and nod knowingly, and take it up with his Foster Son. Thank you, again, for your continued kindness and prayers.
(Say this prayer for nine days for anything you may desire. Then abandon yourself to the Divine Providence. Trust that whatever is the outcome of your novena, it is truly what is best for you in accordance with the Will of God.)
O Saint Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.
O Saint Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.
O Saint Joseph, I never weary contemplating you with Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath. Amen
O Saint Joseph, hear my prayers and obtain my petitions. O Saint Joseph, pray for me. (Mention your intention)
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
St. John Bosco, ARSH 1815-1888
““Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Therefore, according to the Gospel, any citizen can be a good Catholic – that is, side with Jesus Christ and the Pope, and do good to his fellow men – and at the same time side with Caesar, namely, observe the laws of the land, except when the rulers persecute religion or tyrannize the consciences and minds of citizens.“- St. John Bosco
If your mind and conscience is not tyrannized, at long last, my only question would be: What, exactly, will it take?
1. The allegory of the Hedgerow. Man up, mash the throttle and just go straight over the top. There’s no more time for “around”, or “maybe there’s a gate over there”. Thirty years ago? Maybe. Today? Nope. We need to be like Bradley’s First Army in the fields of Saint-Lo.
2. Mailbag time! THIS LETTER is why I openly state that Pope Francis is unintelligent. Because when you explain these things – that is, REALITY – it allows people to process and understand what is happening. Delusion, denial, pollyannaism, none of these things do anyone any good, and in fact, are repellant. You know why? Because at their core, they are all a form of LYING. Remember, the Truth, even when it is horrific, STILL is connected to beauty because Truth and Beauty are both constitutive qualities of God Himself. I sit and stare at an image of the Crucifixion for upwards of 90 minutes per day on average because the TRUTH communicated in the horror of God dead on the Cross is the most beautiful thing in the universe. Read on:
Dear Ann,
I realize you would get masses of mail so am certainly not expecting acknowledgement of receipt of mine. Nevertheless I want to write to you to thank you for your very encouraging words re. (not) leaving The Church on account of Francis.
I have tried to see what Pope Francis has actually said as opposed to the select pieces that the msm tells the world. I feel very uncomfortable, thinking, let alone saying anything bad about the Pope. I have however been guilty of some very uncharitable thoughts and words after the “breeding like rabbits” episode.
I am the mother of 10 children, not because I was unaware of, or incompetent in the use of NFP, but because my husband and I decided more souls for Heaven was more important than an overseas trip. There is much sacrifice in this decision but of course the joy well outweighs it. My siblings all have large families and I know many other large families that are constantly having to defend their decisions to the world. Particularly a world that bows to a green god and to have the breeding like rabbits quote come from the mouth of the head of Christ’s Church made me cry. Breeding like rabbits when likened to human reproduction is ALWAYS a derogatory term, you can’t accidentally use it.
So while I would never leave The Church, I am increasingly wondering what the hell is going on? Where do we go from here? Was this really a Pope chosen by The Holy Spirit? Your words about leaving The Church “because of a staggeringly stupid South American Jesuit” (there I said it!) gave me much encouragement. I just have to keep my eyes on Jesus. Like Peter walking on the water but never faltering – all eyes on Him.
1. The aberrosexual NFL washout Michael Sam “proposed” to the guy whose body he uses for masturbatory friction on the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – exactly, directly over the tomb of St. Peter. Because there was no other place on the surface of the earth that these shameless sodomites could have mocked and aped the sacrament of marriage. They had to do it whilst LITERALLY dancing on the grave of St. Peter.
Folks, the objective of these people and their satanic agenda is not, never has been, and never will be a “peaceful co-existence”. The order of progression, once sodomites are given even the slightest quarter in a culture, is:
Tolerance, acceptance, ratification, cooperation, participation.
Now you might be asking, “How can they force people to PARTICIPATE?”
The actor Billy Crystal, who actually played the first open sodomite character on teevee on the creepy sitcom SOAP in the ’70s, said recently that he really doesn’t care to watch sodomite sex scenes on teevee and in movies and was attacked and “forced” to apologize. Watching pornographic depictions of sodomite activity is a form of participation. Crystal was “punished” for stating that he preferred not to participate.
2. I recently posted a brief explanation of the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary was, in fact, already married to St. Joseph when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her at the Annunciation, whereupon after she gave her fiat, Our Lord was incarnated in her womb by the power of the Holy Ghost. This is so important because the evil infiltrators of the Church are going to push hard from here forward to destroy the sacrament of marriage and essentially attempt to abrogate the 6th Commandment in the minds of the people. They’ve already started, and have already made tremendous progress. Countless millions of souls have been permanently ratified in their mortal sins against the 6th Commandment by EXTREMELY HIGH RANKING prelates. Others, knowing the truth, but shaken by the fact that it is EXTREMELY HIGH RANKING prelates who are doing this, are losing their faith and willingly leaving the Barque of Peter (more on that in a moment). Well, here is Cardinal Burke’s excellent sermon on this subject. Click over, read it, and then ponder the fact that Cardinal Burke is now the patron of a charitable order, “punished”, insulted and vilified for being a believing Roman Catholic.
3. Just to go on record, I am now praying every day that Pope Francis be removed from office, in addition to praying for the salvation of his soul, and I say that here publicly without any qualms or hesitation. The sheer quantity of damage he is doing to souls is unprecedented and I don’t see how a person who has the least concern for others (charity) can not be desirous of the soonest possible end to this ongoing catastrophe of a papacy.
4. I was recently told that I was intellectually inconsistent in saying that there is a mere 36 hour news cycle today and that people forget current events, while at the same time claiming that Pope Francis’ rhetoric is doing permanent damage. I stand foursquare behind my position. People will indeed retain and remember when the Vicar of Christ ratifies them in their sin. Call it “selective memory” or whatever you like. Think about it. If a teenaged boy goes to confession and confesses masturbation and Fr. Neopagan Jazzhands tells him that masturbation is NOT a sin, do you think the teenaged boy will EVER forget that? Oh no. Not a chance. It’s off to the self-abuse races. Do you think that all of these people who have been told by priests, either in the confessional or out, that the pill and contraception in general are not sinful and are even virtuous EVER forget that? Not a chance. Oh, we are all guilty of remembering with crystal clarity when other people confirm, ratify and encourage us in our sins. And how much more magnified is this reality when it is the Pope of Rome who is winkingly feeding people these lies? Further, Pope Francis’ horrific rhetoric is the “gift that keeps on giving”, because it will be used and cited by people as an appeal to authority literally until Our Lord returns in Glory. Decades and perhaps centuries hence, people will say, “Well, Pope Francis said….” I WISH the 36 hour rule applied to him. But it doesn’t. And that’s just reality.
5. I do not think that Francis’ horrific rhetoric should be ignored, but rather explained, because what every one of his episodes provides is an opportunity for catechesis. Even if just one or two people learn and have a lightbulb go on above their head when unpacking his staggering, malignant stupidity, it is worth it. It is certainly better than nothing. For example, when he was recently in the Philippines, a little girl asked him why God permits terrible things like child prostitution to happen. And, of course, Francis, being dumb and apparently profoundly uncatechized in Catholicism, said, “She is the only one who has put forward a question for which there is no answer….”
Um, no. The answer is because God Almighty, because He LOVES US, holds our wills SACRED and will not ever overcome our will or coerce us, because the second He does that, we are no longer subjects, but objects. Plastic chessmen. Love CANNOT be coerced. It has to be freely given and freely returned, and that freedom includes the freedom to reject The Lover and to choose evil. A third of the angels chose evil. We choose evil with every sin. And, paradoxically, it is precisely in that reality that we KNOW that we are loved more than we can ever, ever comprehend.
But now somewhere in the Philippines there is a little girl who thinks that God is an indifferent “divine watchmaker” and that the Church has no answer to her question, when in fact it is a children’s Penny Catechism 101 topic.
This is why I pray for God to remove Pope Francis from office.
6. I’m hearing lots of people tell me that they are seriously thinking of leaving the Church because of Francis. Lots of people are looking at the Eastern Orthodox, sedevacantist groups, or just ceasing to go to Mass.
And satan oinks and squeals with delight.
Here is what that tells me. These people are lacking in what the protesters call “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”. They are in a mindset wherein Our Lord is not front-and-center, but rather His Church has been reduced to something akin to a political party, and He is just a mascot. Yeah. This is a big, big, big problem, even among traditionalists. Why are you Catholic? Why do you go to Mass? The correct answer is: BECAUSE JESUS.
It seems to me that Our Lord is using this as perhaps one last big sifting, or sorting, to see who REALLY gets it, who really loves Him personally and not as a mere philosophy or legal system, and is going to stick with Him. Again, I think the cancer analogy is very helpful here. If your wife was diagnosed with cancer, would you immediately move out? File for divorce? Because, hey, I didn’t marry someone with cancer, and therefore you are no longer the person I married, right? Nope. Stay in the boat. Because schism only breeds more schism. And besides, that’s exactly what they want you to do. They want you out, because if you’re out, well, for lack of a better phrase… YOU’RE OUT. It is going to be an absolute mess, and Our Lord says this repeatedly in scripture (sorting of sheep from goats, the sorting of the catch in the nets, the weeds growing among the crop, people crying out, “Lord, Lord” and being escorted to hell because “I never knew you”.) Also, we have Our Lady warning us of all of this repeatedly, Fatima and Quito being the two most prominent instances. Bottom line, none of this should be a surprise, and thus we should all be confirmed and “dug in”, with the thought of abandoning Our Lord, or really withdrawing from Him and His Church in any way, to be not just unthinkable, but in diametric opposition to the very circumstances and responses we have been anticipating and preparing ourselves for.
The remedy for this is simple, and Our Lord has told this to many, many approved mystics over the last 2000 years. He says, again and again, “Think and pray about My Passion.” Why? Because the more we think about His Passion and what He went through, the more grounded we are in His Incarnation and Divine Personhood, and the more we realize how much He loves us. When you think about His Agony in the Garden, His Scourging at the Pillar, the Crown of Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, and His Crucifixion and Death on the Cross, the more you are faced and confronted with the fact that God is not just a “divine watchmaker”, but Personal, Incarnate and completely in love with you. If you get your head around that even a little, and you understand that the Catholic Church is HIS CHURCH, which HE INSTITUTED, and is HIS MYSTICAL BODY and HIS BRIDE, and that HIS PHYSICAL SUBSTANTIAL PRESENCE is confected only at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass therein, then the thought of abandoning Our Lord and His ONE Church because of a staggeringly stupid South American Jesuit is as unthinkable as angrily severing a relationship with a parent, spouse or child because they were diagnosed with cancer. What are you thinking??
Here is a post from a while back titled “Overshadowing Shoulders” describing the physical torture and agony that Our Lord suffered. If Pope Francis or anyone else gets you thinking about leaving the Church, read this and I promise not only will those thoughts be put to flight, but you will be dug in even harder, ready to go to war for Our Sweet Lord.
7. I read lots of comments from people bewailing liturgical abuses at Mass. But you know what? NO ONE EVER DOES ANYTHING. All hat, no cattle, as we used to say back in the day.
I have an action suggestion.
When the liturgical dancers, or tango dancers, or prancing sodomites begin their performance, or when Fr. Jazzhands decides to “come out” during his homily, or sing showtunes or whatever, I would propose kneeling and singing “Tantum Ergo”. Loudly. English literal translation below. The “old practice” and “new rite” is the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, not the Novus Ordo post-Vatican II paradigm, of course.
Hence so great a Sacrament Let us venerate with heads bowed
And let the old practice
Give way to the new rite;
Let faith provide a supplement
For the failure of the senses.
To the Begetter and the Begotten,
Be praise and jubilation,
Hail, honour, virtue also,
And blessing too:
To the One proceeding from Both
Let there be equal praise.
Amen.
1. Changing it up, I’m going to start with the pretty music first. This is one of my favorite pieces of music – it’s like heroin except without the whole “dissolving your teeth out of your head” part. I warn you, once you go here, it will live forever in your mind. This is an instrumental bluegrass cover/arrangement of (stay with me) Jimmy Buffet’s “A Pirate Looks at 40”. I have always appreciated the MELODY of APLA40, but, obviously, loathed the whole Jimmy Buffet wallowing in stoner-drunk-loserdom thing, and always thought it would be cool to re-lyric the melody. Well, lyrics schmiricks. If you have a pretty melody, JUST. GO. INSTRUMENTAL. And if you’re really awesome, get a mandolin involved. And it just showed up on YouTube. Here ya go. It is best turned up loud, or with good headphones.
2. Remember, the monthly Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for all of my benefactors and supporters is tomorrow. It is the feast of St. Raymond of Penafort. He was a canon lawyer, and was all about converting the Jews, musloids and heretics. Because WHEN YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN GOD AND HIS HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, YOU PROSELYTIZE AND TRY TO WIN CONVERTS, BECAUSE THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUTH, AND THUS IT IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE TO TELL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ABOUT IT. And also, when he needed to travel over water, he would windsurf on his spiffy Dominican mantle. This is so cool:
Saint Raymond accompanied the King of Aragon on an expedition to Majorca and boldly rebuked him there for giving public scandal. However, finding that his rebuke had no effect on the King, Saint Raymond prepared to return to Barcelona. The King attempted to keep Saint Raymond on the island by force, but Saint Raymond flung his mantle into the sea fastened to the end of his staff, serving as a mast, and sailed on his mantle, like a boat, the nearly 100 miles back to the mainland. On reaching Barcelona, Saint Raymond took up his mantle, which was perfectly dry, and was transported through the locked doors of the convent and beyond the acclamations of the crowd that witnessed his landing. Touched by the miracle, the King of Aragon thereafter renounced his evil ways and led a good life.
The original and never-to-be-topped “I am OUT OF HERE!”
3. While we’re in the groove of super-manly quotes, a perennial favorite from Louis Cardinal Pie and his Christmas homily of 1871. Cardinal Pie was a favorite of St. Pius X (our Father in God), and I’m sure you’ll see why here. Read this, in all of its eloquence, until you understand:
“Is not ours an age of mis-lived lives, of un-manned men? Why?
Because Jesus Christ has disappeared. Wherever the people are true Christians, there are men to be found in large numbers, but everywhere and always, if Christianity wilts, the men wilt. Look closely, they are no longer men but shadows of men. Thus what do you hear on all sides today? The world is dwindling away, for lack of men; the nations are perishing for scarcity of men, for the rareness of men. I do believe: there are no men where there is no character; there is no character where there are no principles, doctrines, stands taken; there are no stands taken, no doctrines, no principles, where there is no religious faith and consequently no religion of society.
Do what you will: only from God you will get men.”
4. Here’s a quote from St. Terese of Lisieux via a Zed Thread that also bears frequent repetition:
‘Celine, during the SHORT MOMENTS that remain to us, let us not lose our time . . . let us save souls . . . souls are being lost like flakes of snow, and Jesus weeps, and we. . . we are thinking of our sorrow without consoling our Fiancé . . . Oh Celeine, let us live for souls.” Correspondence July 1889 from the book, General Correspondence: 1877-1890
5. A bit of housekeeping on the YouTube front. Yes, YouTube scrubbed my ARSH 2011 “Islamic Sexuality: A Survey of Evil” video series from MY YouTube account, which is why I strongly encourage and appreciate other people MIRRORING my YouTube stuff. Mirroring is the ultimate hedge against censorship. I don’t care about my own personal view count – none of my vids are monetized. I just want the info out there. That’s the point. So, here it is in one video. There are countless mirrors though if you type “Ann Barnhardt Islamic Sexuality” into the YouTube search box.
When one has a sizable web presence, one is confronted with multiple unpleasantries. The first is the harm that scandal and hypocrisy does to souls, and the second is just how many people there are walking around unsupervised who are utterly detached from reality. After the war, one of the paradigms that will have to be re-established is that of the insane asylum. And oh, oh, how terrifying this question is, because as we all know, the number-one go-to excuse for mass murder and indefinite detention by tyrannical oligarchies is the accusation of “insanity”.
I am accused on a daily basis all over the innerwebz, and not infrequently to my face, of being crazy, insane, a loon, batshit, you name it. If it weren’t for my tax strike and open denial of the legitimacy of the Washington DC regime (what they would erroneously call sedition), I would expect to be imprisoned initially under some sort of accusation of psychiatric illness, because there is nothing easier to falsely convict someone of than that. Think about it. How does anyone prove that they are not crazy? Our Lord was constantly accused of being either crazy or demonically possessed. How can we not expect the same, especially after the events of the last 100 years wherein tens of millions of people were executed by their Marxist-Communist government for being “mentally ill”?
This conundrum is one of satan’s better chessboard maneuvers. Western culture has convinced itself that no one should be institutionalized for any mental ailment, but rather medicated. The problem is that the psychiatric medications, we now know, often do far more harm than good, and elicit or even create murderous, suicidal rage monster reactions. Adam Lanza, the Giffords shooter, the Aurora movie theater shooter – all of these men should have been sent to insane asylums, and all of the signs were there. Total detachment from reality.
I have multiple people who email me who are in this category, and I keep an eye on their emails just to be sure there are no suicide or murder rampage threats contained therein, but they pretty much have two things in common: they subscribe to all of the boilerplate whack job conspiracy theories, and they are all convinced that I am communicating with them personally, that they are engaged in an intimate personal relationship with me, and that I am destined to be their wife/girlfriend/sex slave/baby mama. And we shall go to the secret underground lair and vanquish the shape-shifting lizard jooooz and their mind control chemicals together.
I have only involved law enforcement a scant handful of times because, sadly, we all know that a non-trivial percentage of law enforcement today are sub-100 IQ, steroided monsters who would be only too happy to go summarily execute people if they thought that there was zero risk to them. One man’s family I was able to track down and contact, and they begged me to call the local police, as they knew the man (their father) had descended into madness, but they were unable to get a court to entertain any sort of competence hearing. They thought that perhaps having a pile of his hand-written screeds in which he was announcing his intention to kidnap me and hold me as his “wife” and “mother of his children” in Central America in the hands of law enforcement might help them to get their father the round-the-clock care he needed.
This is where the whole notion of a wise, morally upright, honorable class of men within a society whose job it is to make these judgment calls becomes so critical. Think about our culture of today. Do you really trust the judiciary to be making these incredibly grave decisions the way that people trusted judges just 50 years ago? The judiciary is every bit as corrupt and morally depraved as the rest of society. Perhaps even more so, because remember, the vast, vast majority of judges are… lawyers. Shudder.
Western culture is so far gone and “upside down” that the genuinely mentally ill are swept under the rug, treated as normal and entrusted with responsibilities that should be reserved exclusively for those who are firmly anchored to and operate exclusively within the confines of reality, and even made worse via medication, while very, very soon the sane remnant will have their property, livelihoods, and eventually their liberty taken under the accusation of “mental illness” with the full, enthusiastic cooperation of the very judiciary that is supposed to protect the sane and advocate compassionately for the insane. The day is swiftly coming when refusing to not just tolerate but ratify sodomy, or refusing to accept the lie of global warming, will be grounds for being declared mentally incompetent and a danger to society.
As with the question of money, banking and finance, there is no external, structural solution to this problem. The one and only solution is the repairing of the culture, and that has to be done one soul at a time. So long as our culture is depraved and morally degenerated, it will fail to produce men of sufficient integrity and stature who are truly worthy of being entrusted with the custodianship of the genuinely mentally ill among us.
And remember, be very careful about whom you hurl the “crazy” pejorative at, especially in these dark days as the very word is being weaponized. To be crazy is to be alone, and to remain alone. Detachment from reality, irrationality, these things put a person in their own impenetrable faux-universe – completely cut off. They can’t be reasoned with, because they do not share the common foundation of reality upon which to build coherent, lucid thought, and thus are incapable of any sort of genuine relationship with other men or with God. The description has eerie similarities to the description of hell. It is one thing to have disagreements. Completely sane people disagree all of the time. It is one thing to be in error. Completely sane people commit errors all of the time. But to be “crazy” – that is a declaration of complete severance, and should be reserved only for those sad, sad cases for which it is true.
1. January’s Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for my benefactors and supporters will be on January 23rd. Remember, once you’re on the ol’ list, you never, ever, ever can be removed, ’cause I got an arrangement wit’ God. So, yes, it’s like the Hotel California – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Deepest thanks again to one and all for your munificence with your little fungible proxy units of human capacity to labor, produce and create through time. Your subsidy is what allows me to do the janitorial work I am now doing, and which I so enjoy. Alas, I see no real alternative to PayPal, and thus, sub-optimally, cash to the address on the Contact page is still the best bet for those so inclined.
2. Okay. More cutting of the crap. {rubs eyes and forehead with exasperation}
No musloid is genuinely “offended” by any image of Mahound, or whatever the fake child raping, goathumping, mentally retarded mascot of the islamic political system’s name is. Wise up. It’s all a pretense for violence and aggression, which serves to embiggen and empower their oligarchical political cult, AND because most of them get off on the violence – and yes, if you read a sexual fetishistic meaning into the phrase “get off”, you were correct to do so. When people descend to the very pits of hell-on-earth, sex and violence become braided together, hence sodomy.
We have to collectively wise up and quit feeding these bullshit memes coming out of these various satanic political cults. In the case of the musloid political system, the images have nothing to do with it, just as Marxism has nothing to do with “helping the poor”. They kill not because they are provoked in any way, but simply because they lust bloodletting for bloodletting’s sake, and whether these images are published or not, THEY’RE STILL GOING TO “KILL THE INFIDEL” AND COLONIZE, LOOT AND CONQUER LANDMASS, BECAUSE THAT IS THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE MUSLOID POLITICAL CULT. This “image” crap is just an excuse for their evil expansionism in the EARLY DAYS OF THEIR COLONIZATION OF THE WEST.
I’m sorry, but this perpetual inability on the part of western man to recognize obvious tactics and motivations just mystifies me to no end.
3. I am now to the point that if ANYONE within my earshot refers to it as “the muslim faith” or “the islamic faith” I correct them, and will do so at EVERY INSTANCE of their use of that term until they stop, no matter how socially “awkward” or abrasive it might seem. Would we tolerate anyone saying “the Nazi faith”, “the Soviet faith”, “the Maoist faith”, or “the Kimist faith”? Then why do we tolerate it with regards to this satanic political system? You know why? Because we are WEAK and STUPID, and we are weak and stupid because western culture has been totally feminized.
4. Here is ridonkulously spectacular quote from Donoso Cortes number one. Read it over and over again until you get it. I can’t bold it, because every syllable should be bolded, in 100 point font, or better yet, just written in the sky. Good grief, this is spectacular:
“There is no man, let him be aware of it or not, who is not a combatant in this hot contest; no one who does not take an active part in the responsibility of the defeat or victory. The prisoner in his chains and the king on his throne, the poor and the rich, the healthy and the infirm, the wise and the ignorant, the captive and the free, the old man and the child, the civilized and the savage, share equally in the combat. Every word that is pronounced, is either inspired by God or by the world, and necessarily proclaims, implicitly or explicitly, but always clearly, the glory of the one or the triumph of the other. In this singular warfare we all fight through forced enlistment; here the system of substitutes or volunteers finds no place. In it is unknown the exception of sex or age; here no attention is paid to him who says, I am the son of a poor widow; nor to the mother of the paralytic, nor to the wife of the cripple. In this warfare all men born of woman are soldiers.
And don’t tell me you don’t wish to fight; for the moment you tell me that, you are already fighting; nor that you don’t know which side to join, for while you are saying that, you have already joined a side; nor that you wish to remain neutral; for while you are thinking to be so, you are so no longer; nor that you want to be indifferent; for I will laugh at you, because on pronouncing that word you have chosen your party. Don’t tire yourself in seeking a place of security against the chances of war, for you tire yourself in vain; that war is extended as far as space, and prolonged through all time. In eternity alone, the country of the just, can you find rest, because there alone there is no combat. But do not imagine, however, that the gates of eternity shall be opened for you, unless you first show the wounds you bear; those gates are only opened for those who gloriously fought here the battles of the Lord, and were, like the Lord, crucified.” —Juan Donoso Cortes
{Trembling with admiration…}
5. A while back I wrote about the excellent and pious practice of teaching children to pray for their future spouse. Here is a lovely song that I first heard over ten years ago when I attended the “Down From the Mountain” concert, which was the tour associated with the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. I splurged and bought front-row center seats at the Paramount Theatre in Denver. Hands down, best show I’ve ever seen. The only thing missing was the Cox Family, who were on the bill, but Willard Cox had just been in a serious car accident.
Anyway, this song by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings is about the anticipation of spousal love, and can also be heard Christologically, with the imagery of a boat (the Church), a guiding star (the star of Bethlehem), the wind rushing over the waters (creation and baptism), and the outstretched arms inviting embrace (Our Lord crucified). Hurry and take me straight into the arms… indeed.
I want to go all over the world
And start living free
I know that there’s somebody
Who is waiting for me
I’ll build a boat, steady and true
As soon as it’s done
I’m going to sail along in a dream
Of my dear someone
One little star, smiling tonight
Knows where you are
Stay, little star, steady and bright
To guide me afar
Rush, little wind, over the deep
For now I’ve begun
Hurry and take me straight into the arms
Of my dear someone
Hurry and take me into the arms
Of my dear someone
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
“The Savior is working mightily among men, every day He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all over the world, both within and beyond the Greek-speaking world, to accept His faith and be obedient to His teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt that He has risen and lives, or rather that He is Himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men, so that they throw all the traditions of their fathers to the winds and bow down before the teaching of Christ?”
― Athanasius of Alexandria, On The Incarnation
1. I have received many emails from people who, like myself, have returned to menial, manual labor after a high-flying intellectual career, and share my sentiments that manual labor is deeply, deeply satisfying and truly good for the soul. Beware the man who declares menial, manual tasks to be “beneath him”. Remember, Our Blessed Lord worked in His foster father’s shop. I’ll bet He did a lot of planing and scraping and polishing of wood – arduous work, especially without sandpaper! And I’ll bet He did a goodly share of the general tidying up, too. Because, even though He is the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, He was also “second banana” to St. Joseph in the shop.
2. I was given a book to read (PDF version), and if the introduction is any indicator, I think I’m going to like it. The book is “Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism and Socialism. Considered in Their Fundamental Principles.” by Juan Donoso Cortes, Marquis of Valdegamas (ARSH 1809-1853). Here is a quote from the introduction:
“…Donoso does not argue or hold discussions with error, to which he denies all rights. Donoso only teaches, and shows error its profound ignorance and contradictions, or points out its deformity to the world; and in teaching one and the other with the authority of truth, whose eloquent organ he is, he needs not to enter on a contest with error in order to conquer it. Whilst other apologists go down into the arena, and contend with dubious victory, Donoso Cortes, like a giant, demolishes error by one stroke of his arm….”
In these days, shrouded in the intellectual and spiritual darkness of hyper-effeminization with its endless, insipid babble about dialoguing, encountering and tenderly caressing every filthy lie, sin and heresy, how can one not swoon like a bobbysoxer at a Sinatra concert in ’43 at the quote above? Error has no rights. LeSigh…. LeSwoon….
3. Speaking of masculinity in culture, I am inclined to repeat an anecdote which I have written of here before long ago, but which bears repeating in light of the current discussion of “free speech”. The bottom line is this: a healthy culture SELF-POLICES and naturally, swiftly and efficiently quashes that speech which should be suppressed. You don’t need the government to get involved – the onus is actually on the people themselves to take care of these things. It’s almost like … SUBSIDIARITY IN PRACTICE, or something.
So here’s the anecdote. Many years ago in the early ’90s, I attended the annual Threshing Bee in McLouth, Kansas. A Threshing Bee is very similar to a county fair, and features antique farm machinery (including operating steam engines), tractor pulls, draft horse competitions, booths, a fairway with games, rides and food concessions – a quintessential rural American family event. One evening we were watching the tractor pull and draft horse competitions, and some drunken idiot in the stands started screaming and yelling all manner of curses and obscenities. This was in the early evening, and there were families and children all around. This went on for about 30 seconds, and then spontaneously, about six men out of the crowd without a word stood up, mustered, and discreetly surrounded and confronted the drunk. One of the men assumed the lead and told the drunk that either he shut his mouth and leave the premises RIGHT NOW, or the men would shut his mouth for him and physically remove him. They didn’t ask him, they told him. His only choice was, do it easy or do it hard, but either way, it was getting done.
This is what I’m talking about. This is subsidiarity in action. There wasn’t even a need to go summon the sheriff’s deputy who was the on-duty security. Why? Because the PEOPLE, in this case a small group of able-bodied men, had not only the ability, but thereby also the duty to self-police and handle the situation. And because they were actual MEN, with their testicles intact, and not residing in a pickle jar on top of their teevee, or in their wives’ purses, the situation was quickly and discreetly handled.
Because no, drunken trailer trash jackasses do NOT have the “right” to scream the f-word at public, family-oriented events. Another example of this that comes to mind is, in fact, teevee. If any of the satanic agitporn trash that passes for prime-time teevee today (think 2 1/2 Men or Family Guy or Real Housewives of…) were to air in ARSH 1957, the era of “Leave It To Beaver”, “Dragnet” and “Gunsmoke”, understand that the American people themselves would have demanded, not just made idle, impotent, five-minute threats about boycotts, but demanded and PHYSICALLY BACKED IT UP that the network and people responsible be held to account, punished, and that it not happen again. I know it is hard to imagine this today, but it is true. The culture was still healthy enough to self-police. Today, we are so far gone and so lacking in any sort of masculine initiative or boundary-setting, that the entire notion of a self-policing, subsidiary social order SEEMS impossible. And so, tyranny you shall have, until such time as you get off your effete, apathetic asses and restore your balls to their proper position.
4. A Jewish man emailed me announcing that he is ready to become a Christian and asked if I would please baptize him. Because proselytizing is NOT “solemn nonsense”. Like the Ethiopian eunuch and St. Philip, how can they possibly understand it if no one explains it to them??
Nipping this in the bud now, NO NO NO NO NO. When you are ready to enter the Church, you need to be baptized, after receiving convert instructions, by a priest. The Old (pre-1965-Asteroid impact) Baptismal Rite is a massively powerful sacrament, including all manner of minor exorcisms. I so regret not having been baptized and confirmed in the Old Rite. But, hey, it all worked out. While it is true that ANYONE can baptize, that latitude exists only because of God’s infinite mercy, especially in regards to emergency situations. A layperson should only baptize in a dire emergency, or if political oppression or some other grave circumstance makes baptism by a priest impossible.
And remember, the matter and form of baptism is to lave the head with true and natural water, whilst saying, “I baptize thee (or This person is baptized) in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” And by “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, one must mean the Triune Godhead, not “space alien #1, space alien #2 and space aliens #3 & #4”, as Mormons do, hence making their faux-baptisms ALL INVALID.
If you are ready to ‘git right wit’ the Lord, and enter His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, I would recommend finding and contacting a parish, or an individual priest that celebrates the Traditional Mass *that is in full communion with the Church*. Yes, even in these dark, rudderless days, you still want to be in FULL COMMUNION with the Church, which remember, is a SUPERNATURAL entity. No matter how bad the pope may be (because remember, we get the clergy and pope we deserve), the Church is still the Body and Bride of Christ, and there is no salvation outside of it. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Today is the Feast of St. Hilary of Poitiers, a father and doctor of the Church. He was born in ARSH 300 and died in ARSH 368. “Hilary” means happy or cheerful, hence the word “hilarious”.
When I look at Your heavens, according to my own lights, with these weak eyes of mine, I am certain with reservation that they are Your heavens. The stars circle in the heavens, reappear year after year, each with a function and service to fulfill. And though I do not understand them, I know that You, O God, are in them. -St. Hilary of Poitiers
This is a photograph. Not a painting. A PHOTOGRAPH. It is the Deer Lick Cluster, starring NGC 7331. “Starring”. See what I did there? That’s… hilarious!
