Religion

I keep up occasional correspondence with the prioress of a cloistered Carmelite monastery, and she pointed out to me that our daughter’s baptism (Jan. 2nd) coincided with the birthday of St. Therese of Lisieux. I didn’t know this. Now this is exceedingly cool because I have a devotion to St. Therese, and last year I received as a gift an icon of her from the convent at Lisieux itself, blessed by a priest, and it is this very icon that hangs over Marie’s bassinet. More proof that Someone is watching out for us in ways strange and mysterious…

Little note: I know many people pronounce Lisieux as “Li-soo” because it’s easier that way, but in actual fact it is pronounced “Liz-ee-uh.”

Two weeks ago, the tabernacle, including Our Lord present in repose inside, along with several sacred vessels, was stolen from St Augustine and St Monica Parish on Detroit, Michigan’s east side. Today, although the lock on the tabernacle is damaged and it no longer closes, all has been returned. The items were brought back by a neighborhood man who knew the 3 people who had stolen the objects. He said they were poor and desperate, and, after eating the Hosts inside, were unable to sleep peacefully. He, as well, after many sleepless nights, retrieved the tabernacle and objects from the trio and brought all the objects back to the parish. A $500 reward was given to the man, and he in turn, gave some money to the three, telling them to leave town. The pastor of the parish, however, does not want to press charges. He is thankful that the Sacred Hosts were not desecrated and that so many prayers around the country were answered.

Isn’t it wonderful how Holy Mother Church provides so many avenues of grace to her children? The Holy Father has announced the following ways to obtain a plenary indulgence in this Year of the Eucharist:

“A Plenary Indulgence is granted to all faithful and to each individual faithful under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin), each and every time they participate attentively and piously in a sacred function or a devotional exercise undertaken in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, solemnly exposed and conserved in the tabernacle.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to consider Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s appeal over the so-called Terri’s Law, leaving the fate of the severely brain-damaged woman for whom the measure was enacted with state courts that have repeatedly ruled she should be allowed to die.

“Do you see this lantern?” cried Syme in a terrible voice. “Do you see the cross carved on it, and the flame inside? You did not make it. You did not light it. Better men than you, men who could believe and obey, twisted the entrails of iron and preserved the legend of fire. There is not a street you walk on, there is not a thread you wear, that was not made as this lantern was, by denying your philosophy of dirt and rats. You can make nothing. You can only destroy. You will destroy mankind; you will destroy the world. Let that suffice you. Yet this one old Christian lantern you shall not destroy. It shall go where your empire of apes will never have the wit to find it.”

You know, I’m only 30, but I’ve done a decent amount with my life thus far. I’ve lived in foreign lands and travelled to third world countries and stayed among the natives; I’ve studied philosophy and theology and patristics, Latin, French and Greek; I’ve played in chess tournaments in England, and was captain of my boat on the crew team at Oxford; I’ve got a law degree from Notre Dame and clerk on my state’s Supreme Court… But the absolute greatest thing I’ve ever done, the most satisfying, the most wondrous, is being a mother. Bar none. After the diapers, spit-ups, thousand loads of laundry, and sleep-deprivation, Marie’s little smile still sends me over the moon, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

There’s nothing like waking up early on a snowy day to attend Mass with one’s family, then afterwards having a nice lunch together, and then, with the baby asleep in her swinging chair beside you, the snow fine and white outside and the sun still high, sitting down to a hot pot of tea and cream to read Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday for the first time.

This morning, due to a not-entirely-culpable lateness in rising, we thought we’d try a local Novus Ordo mass rather than driving 1.5 hours to Sacramento. First stop, St. Monica’s in Willows. The faithful meander into the church chattering away and dressed for a day at the beach. An altar girl lights the candles. A woman is solemnly seated in a chair to the right of the altar table, and two more women are “tuning up” their guitars and what not in the corner as if preparing for a concert. After a short time the solemnly-seated 60ish-looking crop-haired woman gets up, ascends the podium, and says “Good morning!”. Most of the congregation replies jovially, “Good morning!” She then proceeds to announce some news about a “presider” – I didn’t catch it all – and then turns to one of the women with the instruments. The music lady then announces that we must all sing “Gather Us In” (a song I’ve never heard) together, and everyone commences with the awful song. All of this and still no sight of a priest anywhere. We got up and left.

Jihad Watch provides more clues pertaining to the Armanious family murders:

“The Armanious family had inspired several Muslims to convert to Christianity — or thought they had. These converts were actually practicing taqiyya, or religious deception, pretending to be friends of these Christians in order to strengthen themselves against them, as in Qur’an 3:28: ‘Let believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful — he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah — except in self-defense.’
Of course, the family, not suspecting the deception, was happy to see the ‘converted’ men and willingly let them in to their home. That’s why there was no sign of forced entry. Then the ‘converted’ Muslims did their grisly work.

The greatly inspiring but now defunct Caelum et Terra journal was, for a time, the pre-eminent “crunchy Catholic” magazine in the English language. In a new blog by the same name, a former editor of the journal describes the C & T vision thus:

“Let me just free-associate for a moment: our vision was (and is) mystical, contemplative, distributist, agrarian, sacramental, ecumenical, aesthetic, traditionalist, and progressive. Note the last two: there are significant political differences among us, but we all believe that the Catholic faith is simultaneously the most conservative and the most revolutionary force on earth. And we agree that there really is a culture of death growing in the world, and that Christianity naturally tends toward the development of a culture of life.”

This grisly murder here has Islamic terror written all over it.

Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.
Armanious, an Egyptian Christian, was well known for expressing his Coptic beliefs and engaging in fiery back-and-forth with Muslims on the Web site paltalk.com.

He “had the reputation for being one of the most outspoken Egyptian Christians,” said the source, who had close ties to the family.

Incredible, isn’t it, that we have so long forgotten our most ruthless and persistent enemy. It is certainly time to act. America is no place for the violence and barbarism of the Mohammedan religion. Perhaps an amendment to the Constitution is in order …

Seattle Catholic today links to this article by Fr. Hugh Thwaites, S.J. here:

“When people forget about Original Sin, they are unaware of the chronic weakness of our intellect and wills, and of our chronic tendency to slide into error and sin. Our faith needs a frequent input of doctrinally nourishing liturgy if it is to stay pure. The traditional rite of Mass provided this. The new rite does not.

There is nothing wrong with the new rite. Rome cannot feed her children with poison. But the new rite of Mass does not give us what we need. Michael Davies’ analogy is helpful here. If a doctor tells a couple that their child need milk every day, and they give the child only water, the child may not live. There is nothing wrong with water. But if the child needs milk, water may not be enough.

A Waverly Concert Christmas is absolutely the best Christmas / New Year recording ever. A rare and priceless treasure, I tell you truly. Play it all year ’round, each time leaving behind modernity and all its pomps and works and ways.

I think I’ve figured it out. The religion of the masses, that is. It is Comfort. All the strange and seemingly disconnected ideologies, from vegetarianism to pacifism to socialism to fascism to capitalism to environmentalism and all the rest, the common denominator is Comfort – that is, Comfort for the elect, whomever or whatever the elect happens to be.

Pulling into the driveway one evening, I knew my 8-year-old daughter had country in her genes: