In their blind obedience...

...to the overtly patriarchal, heretical, materialistic, and inherently corrupt worldwide organization known to its followers as "The Roman Catholic Church," whose sham attempts at posing itself as pro-life, while "sincerely" caring for the poor, only as a ruse to fill its pews and therefore, its coffers, MikeinCT and PattyinCT fulfill their obligations of adding one more soldier/propogandist to the Pope's Army and Auxiliary.



















Welcome Agent #98746243837, Gabriella Sophia Victoire [inCT], born on the feast of the Church Triumphalist, All Saints' Day.

Cheers, Comrade PattyinCT!

She says she isn't Superwoman...

...but I'm not so sure! In addition to homeschooling the three boys, cooking obscene amounts of food for freezer storage, keeping our home, keeping me on track, and oh yeah, preparing to give birth to our fifth child, she also blogs. And a few weeks back, Wifey posted a transcript from a fantastic yard sale treasure called Our Faith and Belief (c. 1917 Murphy and McCarthy, New York, NY) discussing why the Church uses Latin in the liturgy.

[Please note, I'm not trying to stoke up any Novus Ordo vs. Extraordinary Form rivalries here.]

In full disclosure, I've only ever been to one Mass in EF, and honestly, I was clueless at the time. But this article, written decades before Vatican II and the subsequent hijacking of the liturgy, while in purpose, was to justify and explain the use of Latin, sheds a deeper meaning on the celebration of the Mass, regardless the form.

Striking to me is to remember that the priest is not addressing us, even though he faces us. He is addressing God the Father. He is not so much talking as doing; he is offering; he is sacrificing. And no matter how loudly we sing or in which key (please, pick one, people!) our action is to offer along with the priest, our own sacrifices, gifts, prayers, and petitions to God.

I've been tagged!

It's been a long time since I played tag. Or freeze-tag, or TV-tag. (Freeze tag: the person who was it turned people to statues by tagging them, in TV tag, the statues could come back to life if they could immediately name a TV show. What can I say, we were dorks.)

Aaaaaanyhoooo, I got tagged by Nod in the "Five Favorite Devotions" meme.


My five favorite devotions (in no particular order):
1. Rosary -- especially the sorrowful mysteries
2. Stations of the Cross
3. Novenas to St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart of Jesus
4. "Salve Regina" -- one of our bedtime prayers
5. Reciting the Exultet (I don't think you need a link.)


Now I get to tag five other bloggers to share their favorite devotions. And no, they can't get out of it by yelling, "Starsky and Hutch!"

1. PattyinCT (I think she's cute.) at My Apologies
2. Subvet at Blowing San #1 -- (No, I don't think he's cute.)
3. dadwithnoisykids at Scorpion Stalking Duck
4. Magister Christianus at Bedlam or Parnassus
5. Kristin at 11onmyown

Oh, and in honor of Nod who tagged me, who impresses and intimidates me with his gourmet recipes of all sorts, please feel free to check out the video here of Aretha Franklin showing Martha Stewart how to make "Chicken Italiano." No two women could ever be less alike.

in faith and morals

When the Church says, "No, that's a sin; it's bad for you," she's always right, even if it takes a while for the rest of the world to notice.

And apparently, even cardinals sometimes take a while to join in the chorus.

Just a quick post to say...

...I'm still alive. Work went from being like the Maytag repairman to being, well, buried.

I'm taking a much-needed break today to go to a Catholic Men's conference in Woooosta, MA with a bunch of other guys from my area. (Thanks, honey!) Fr. Mitch Pacwa and Dale Alquist are among the speakers. It should be a good day.

Keep praying for votes, not just "no" votes, but "HELL, NO!" votes.

This health care bill is not only an attack on the sanctity of life, but also the freedom of all Americans in this country. Have you called your Congressman?

Did I mention to pray?

Fulton Sheen on the marks of the Church and the Mystical Body

Before I hand off the copy of "Servant of God" Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ to my nephew (who, by the way, is a fine young man, but I suspect is starting to buy into some of the Dan Brown-isms of the day), I thought I would share a few passages from the end:

Christ is living now! He is teaching now, governing now, sanctifying now--as He did in Judea and Galilee. His Mystical Body or the Church existed throughout the Roman Empire before a single one of the Gospels had been written. It was the New Testament that came out of the Church, not the Church which came out of the New Testament. This Body had the four distinctive marks of life; it had unity, because vivified by one Soul, one Spirit, the gift of Pentecost. As unity in doctrine and authority is the centripetal force which keeps the life of the Church one, catholicity is the centrifugal force which enables her to expand and absorb redeemed humanity without distinction of race or color. The third note of the Church is holiness, which means that it endures on condition that it keep itself healthy, pure, and free from the disease of heresy and schism. This holiness is not in each member but rather in the whole Church. And because the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, it can be the Divine instrument for the sanctification of souls. The sunlight is not polluted because its rays pass through a dirty window; neither do the sacraments lose their power to sanctify because the human instruments of those sacraments may be stained. Finally, there is the work of apostolicity. In biology, Omne vivum ex vivo or "All life comes from life." So too the Mystical Body of Christ is apostolic, because historically it took its roots in Christ and not from a man separated by centuries from Him. That is why the infant Church met to choose a successor of Judas who had to be a witness of the Resurrection and a companion of the Apostles.
...
Many think they would have believed in Him if they had lived in His day. But actually there would have been no great advantage. Those who do not see Him as Divine living in His Mystical Body today would not have seen Him as Divine living in His physical Body. If there are scandals in some cells of His Mystical Body, there were scandals too in His physical Body; both put forward a human appearance which in moments of weakness of Crucifixion require moral strength to see Divinity. In the Galilean days, it required faith supported by motives of credibility to believe in the Kingdom He came to establish or His Mystical Body through which He would sanctify men through His Spirit, after His Crucifixion. In these days, it requires faith supported by the same motives of credibility to believe in the Head, or the Invisible Christ, governing, teaching, and sanctifying through His visible head and His Body the Church. In each case a "lifting-up" was required. To redeem men, Our Lord told Nicodemus that He had to be "lifted up" on the Cross; to sanctify men in the Spirit, He had to be "lifted up" to heaven in the Ascension.

Alright, this is awkward...

A friend whose daughter is at the Franciscan University of Steubenville sent this to me. If you have had no ties with the school, you'll probably think this is an anti-recruitment video. If you have any friends who have gone there, you'll get the joke. It's an exaggeration, but not much of one.



Thanks, Mary!