And now for a musical break: Pale Shelter

Ann Barnhardt posted recently a video of “Everybody wants to rule the world” by Tears for Fears (one of my favourite bands from the 80s). I love that song.

I am showing my age. I’m as old as Tears for Fears band members, Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal.

But the music is still so good!

I found a video clip of Tears For Fears performing my favourite song of theirs, Pale Shelter, live in 1983 at the Rockpalast in Germany. It’s amazing how well Curt Smith can sing while playing bass guitar. I had such a crush on him when I was in my 20s.

Here is the official video for Pale Shelter, a rather strange one which features a crocodile in a swimming pool and a Pan Am jet taking off.

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Perpetual Adoration: your life will never be the same

More Perpetual Adoration, please!

When St. Catherine of Siena parish on Long Island (New York) introduced the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament over a year ago, the results have been remarkable:

“There’s a wide range of people on their knees before the Blessed Sacrament. Older couples, businessmen in suits stopping by before or after work or at lunchtime, entire families, a young guy in painter’s clothes, a woman in tears, a 20-something guy with tattoos and a sweatshirt, a priest from a neighboring parish. One couple come regularly with their adult disabled daughter. A dad brings his three sons straight from school. They follow him right up to the Blessed Sacrament and kneel beside him with their backpacks. A family of four generations came to pray together.”

I can hear the chuckles coming from those who think we’re kneeling before a piece of bread. But we don’t care. When we kneel before the Blessed Sacrament to be with Our Lord – to talk to him, to offer our joys, sorrows, problems, and pains to Him – we know He listens to us and comforts us. The peace that He gives us, even in the midst of our tribulations, is a peace that those who deny Him will never know and we pray for them, that they may adore Him and obtain His peace, which no one can ever take away.

Read: How Perpetual Adoration is Transforming My Parish

 

 

Time to de-canonize JPII

I read with glee an article in the Tablet UK entitled “Cardinal condemns de-canonisation of St. John Paul II.” At last, what has been whispered about for years in certain Catholic circles (notably, those who are persuaded by the sedevacantist position), has burst out into the open. There must be more than whispers now if a cardinal has gone public on this touchy subject.

The man who pleads for the retention of JPII in the communion of saints is Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.  He has a personal stake in the matter, having been JPII’s personal secretary for 39 years.

Excerpt:

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Poland has condemned attempts to damage the status of his former superior, St John Paul II, and rejected calls for his “de-canonisation” for ignoring sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

“John Paul II was a man of the Second Vatican Council, which shaped his thinking about the Church and contemporary world”, said Cardinal Dziwisz, who was the Polish pontiff’s personal secretary for 39 years. “Efforts are being made to undermine his authority and even question his sainthood – and the situation the Church now finds itself in is encouraging this, among people whose consciences are troubled by John Paul II and who seek to weaken the Church’s position.

(I highlighted the most important text in bold).

There is compelling evidence that JPII did ignore clergy sex abuse and furthered much of the scandalous, irreverent liturgical practices in the church today. Not only that, under JPII, Catholics left the church en masse. But all Cardinal D. cares about is the “status” of his dead boss. Who cares about the massive decline in church attendance or the catastrophic collapse of vocations under JPII’s papacy?

If the Catholic Church were a corporation and JPII its CEO, he would have been fired by the board of directors before he had a chance to die in office.

But Cardinal Dziwisz tells us to keep venerating JPII as a saint because he was a man of the Second Vatican Council. That is exactly one of the most compelling reasons why he should be decanonized.

Vatican II is the most poisonous tree planted in the garden of Catholicism, and it has brought forth poisonous fruits, all of which have become ripe today.

While we’re at it, let’s look into the decanonization of Paul VI, who presided over the Second Vatican Council and approved all of its documents. He also introduced the irreverent Novus Ordo mass.

Both JPII and Paul VI were canonized by none other than Pope Francis, who has been accused of heresy by theologians and clergy.

Whenever I recite the Apostles Creed and mention the communion of saints, and when I think about the lives of the saints, their sacrifices and their unshakeable faith, I simply can’t bring myself to put JPII and Paul VI in their company. These two men are responsible for much of the destruction of the faith and morals in the Catholic Church.

Stop using the 60s sexual revolution as an excuse for clergy sex abuse

Bishop Sanborn has written an excellent post entitled “Ratzinger blames sex abuse by priests on the 1960s sexual revolution” in which he states what is so obvious to anyone with a functioning brain.

Here are excerpts:

In a recent letter commenting on clerical sex abuse, Ratzinger said that the cause of it was the sexual revolution of the 1960s. This is a stunning statement. Why? Because it is the mission and purpose of the Church to resist moral corruption, and especially to protect the clergy from it. The clergy should practice mortification of their sexual passions, devoted as they are — and canonically obliged — to celibacy and perfect chastity. One could just as easily say: “The monks are all fat because of the eating revolution.” Are they not supposed to practice mortification? It would be the equivalent of saying that the Titanic sank because there was an iceberg in front of it. The reality is that the Titanic sank because the crew was recklessly speeding at 22 knots (at that time very fast for an ocean liner) through “Iceberg Alley” in the springtime when icebergs are most commonly seen. The crew had also committed gross negligence in ignoring the warnings of ice by other ships.

. . .

Ratzinger offers a few other reasons for the clerical abuse. One of the factors is declining devotion to the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist: “The declining participation in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration shows how little we Christians of today still know about appreciating the greatness of the gift that consists in His Real Presence.” It was Ratzinger, however, who told us in an encyclical that Christ is in the bread,” which is a thoroughly Protestant notion of the Eucharist, denying the Real Presence of Christ. Ratzinger also stated: “To go to church on the ground that one can visit God who is present there is a senseless act which modern man rightfully rejects.” (2) And has the New Mass promoted devotion toward the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist?

The cherry on top of this burlesque of self-exoneration for the heinous crimes of the clergy is the final paragraph: “At the end of my reflections I would like to thank Pope Francis for everything he does to show us, again and again, the light of God, which has not disappeared, even today. Thank you, Holy Father!”

It is not to be forgotten that the “Holy Father,” that heretical motor-mouth, is the one that has pronounced numerous heresies, and has justified receiving communion in the state of the mortal sin of adultery.

. . .

The real cause of the clerical abuse. Ratzinger said a few things which were true, but failed to assign the cause. Yes, there was a sexual revolution of the 1960’s, but was not the stated purpose of Vatican II to adapt the Church to fit the modern world? Did it not want to “open the windows of the Church,” as John XXIII said? The effect of this attitude produced in the clergy and the people an absorption of the very detestable sexual revolution which Ratzinger laments. If Vatican II had not happened, the Church would have resisted the sexual revolution. It was very successful in doing so in the 1950’s by means of the Legion of Decency, for example, which managed to control Hollywood’s penchant for sex. The Legion of Decency died after Vatican II, and so did decency in movies and in television.

Likewise the collapse of the Church’s moral theology was a direct result of Vatican II. Up to 1958, moral theology was in wonderful condition. Many moral theologians wrote treatises and textbooks in the early part of the twentieth century which were excellent, applying traditional moral principles to modern moral problems. One such example is the textbook of the Dominican Merkelbach, which we use here at the seminary. It is the most thorough moral theology textbook in my experience.

Ratzinger describes these horrors as if neither he nor his boss, “Saint” John Paul II, were responsible for them, and in any way participated in them. The reality is that Ratzinger is one of the most responsible for Vatican II as the radical, modernist, suit-and-tie theologian, together with his “buddies” Karl Rahner, the pantheist Jesuit with a mistress, and Hans Küng, the notorious denier of the divinity of Christ, Our Lady’s Assumption, and the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. They were the radical threesome. I remember. It was Küng who said “We got more from Vatican II than we ever expected.”

Ratzinger refuses to see Vatican II as the cause of the problems. The Council is his baby. It is evident to anyone with a brain that the Church went into a tail-spin in every aspect of its life since the opening of that wicked meeting of Vatican II, but Ratzinger insults every thinking and decent person with these preposterous and farcical “reasons” that he gives for clerical abuse, never once saying “mea culpa” for his criminal, lawless, disgraceful, and reprehensible cooperation in these vicious acts of a corrupt clergy.

So many people allow the man who calls himself Pope Emeritus to squirm his way out of responsibility for the sorry state of the Church today. Until Vatican II is dumped and men, like Ratzinger, who are responsible for this sorry mess are held to account, not much will change.

Time to use the off-switch on Ugly TV — The Conservative Woman

I cannot believe that people still watch TV. I have not had TV (and the plastic/metal box in which TV is delivered) since 2008. TV is a sewer. I don’t mean the plastic and metal box itself. You know what I mean when I say TV.  That is why I say “TV” and not “a TV”. When I stay in hotels, I don’t even turn on the box. I have no desire to watch TV. It’s stupid, depressing, annoying and disgusting.

Every time I am forced to see TV in operation (in airports, for example), I know for sure that people who watch TV are immersing themselves into the filthiest mind sewer that man ever devised. You are being brainwashed and tortured. Stop it now.

You say you’re bored. There is something very wrong with you if you relieve your boredom by watching TV.

You say that you feel out of place and out of touch when your friends discuss the latest piece of rubbish that they binge-watched the night before. You don’t need friends like that. They aren’t friends, but robots. Get new friends!

AS IS the case with anyone (everyone) who has better things to do, I’ve never watched the Jeremy Kyle Show. Tell a lie, I tuned in once for about thirty seconds (it seemed longer) out of curiosity and found whatever was happening with the poor devils on the sofa so repellent that I jumped channels…

via Time to use the off-switch on Ugly TV — The Conservative Woman

The shortage of priests didn’t just happen by itself, it was engineered. — Fr. Z’s Blog

At The Media Group there is a piece about the epidemic of false accusations against priests. They have the numbers. This is economic persecution based on greed, pure and simple. On another note concerning priesthood, LifeSite re-posted a great piece by Anthony Esolen from 2016. I gave that offering my characteristic black and red treatment and posted a…

via The shortage of priests didn’t just happen by itself, it was engineered. — Fr. Z’s Blog

Difficulty with mental prayer after years of Buddhist meditation

I have been struggling with mental prayer for the past week. I don’t suffer from a wandering mind, as most people who are new to mental prayer do. My problem is different: I had been doing Buddhist meditation for years before coming back to the Catholic Church. In Buddhist meditation, you empty your mind. You are not supposed to think about anything. In mental prayer, you focus on a specific text in the gospels and turn it over again and again in your mind; or you apply your imagination to an event in the gospels (example: the Visitation of Our Lady to Saint Elizabeth) and you immerse yourself in it. The one thing you don’t do, which I tend to do, is to sit on your ass with an empty headspace.

So, I decided to pray to Our Lady for guidance during mental prayer. I sat for 2 days, 15 minutes at a time, turning over in my mind, a sentence in the New Testament. One day it was this: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” The next day it was this: “I am the good shepherd.” I decided I was going to relax about this instead of being uptight and worried about whether any magic thing was going to happen, whether I was going to obtain some kind of inspired divine insight as I was meditating.

This is what I learned. You don’t necessarily receive any amazing insights while you are meditating. When you end the meditation, you get on with your day. However, the next day and the days after that, I was surprised to discover that these two meditations were seared into my memory and I found myself thinking about them while hiking and doing my chores, and deriving profound insights. Better yet, as the week wore on, it became easier for me to sit down and simply turn over a sentence from the day’s Gospel reading in my mind.

My advice to people who are getting started with mental prayer: pray to Our Lady for guidance, relax, don’t expect an earth-shattering experience, just follow the mental prayer instructions (you can find videos and articles on the Internet about mental prayer) and be patient.