Taking a summer break plus summer reading list 2019

Dear readers, I am enjoying a summer break in the Mediterranean. That means swimming, swimming and more swimming. Daily sustenance: salads, grilled fish and vegetables, and wine (for lunch and/or dinner).

I may not post until September. Here is my summer reading list:

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, translated my Neville Coghill

The Spiritual Life and Prayer by Cecile de Bruyere

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

The Summer of the Danes (Cadfael series) by Ellis Peters

Medieval Europe by Chris Wickham

Enjoy your summer! Don’t let the b*****ds grind you down. You know who I mean.

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June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: recommended reading

After devoting the month of May to Our Lady, it is only fitting that we should devote the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion to the Sacred Heart  began after the apparitions of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) in Paray-le-Monial, France in the 17th century. Since then, Catholics have celebrated a feast day in honour of the Sacred Heart on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi and dedicated the month of June to the devotion. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The object of the devotion is the immense love of Jesus for us. We offer our prayers and meditations to His Sacred Heart in reparation for the ingratitude of mankind, for the insults against Him and for the coldness and hard-heartedness of many Catholics.

Worst of all is the profanation of the Eucharist in most Catholic churches around the world by Communion in the hand. When I was a young girl, we knelt at the Communion rail and received the Eucharist on the tongue. Now, at the Novus Ordo church I am forced to attend (because there isn’t a single Tridentine Mass in this country), people queue up and get the Eucharistic deposited in their greasy palms (it’s humid) and pop it into their mouths. Isn’t this sacrilege? I am the only one who kneels in front of the priest and receives the Host on the tongue. I will pray this month that Our Lord ends the horrific practice of Communion in the hand.

Other reasons to devote ourselves to the Sacred Heart: the disgusting sexual abuse committed by priests, coverups of abuse, the heretical pronouncements coming out of the mouths of cardinals, bishops and priests, and from the man who occupies the throne of Saint Peter. These men are keen on feeding the sheep to the wolves. Let’s pray to Our Lord to give them a whack on the head so that they’ll straighten out and do their duty.

This is what I am reading to deepen my devotion to the Sacred Heart. The book is called Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Father John Croiset published in 1863, now in public domain. You can download it for free on the Internet. I got mine from the Amazon Kindle store for 99 cents. There is also a print version.

 

Newly Published McCarrick Letters Vindicate Viganò — ChurchMilitant.com

“VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – Newly released letters vindicate Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò, proving that Pope Benedict imposed restrictions on Theodore McCarrick and that Cdl. Donald Wuerl knew of these restrictions, in spite of his claims to the contrary. They also prove that McCarrick ignored those restrictions. Correspondence published Tuesday by Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, former personal…”
via Newly Published McCarrick Letters Vindicate Viganò — ChurchMilitant.com

What Comes Next, O Spirit of Vatican II? — OnePeterFive

Pope Francis left another trail of confusion and frustration with his May 23 homily to the 21st general assembly of Caritas Internationalis. In it, Pope Francis explained that, among other things, Christ did not want the Church to be a perfect model and that the apostles “did not need a bunch of doctrines and traditions,”…

via What Comes Next, O Spirit of Vatican II? — OnePeterFive

French Senate Says Notre-Dame Must Be Restored Exactly How It Was — Musings of an Old Curmudgeon

The cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris

Alleluia! Praise God! (From The Local) French Senators have stipulated that Notre-Dame cathedral must be restored exactly how it was before the devastating fire that tore through the Paris landmark. On Monday evening, the French Senate approved the government’s Notre-Dame restoration bill – but added a clause that it must be restored to the state it was before…

via French Senate Says Notre-Dame Must Be Restored Exactly How It Was — Musings of an Old Curmudgeon

I pray that this actually happens. There had been talk of an architectural competition for the renovation of the roof and we know that if you give Notre Dame de Paris to today’s “starchitects”, they will turn it into a modernist horror (like the Centre Pompidou and the Bastille Opera house).

Hilarious Japanese TV commercial: 3 second shrimp tempura

Who says we trads can’t have a good laugh every now and then?

Behold, I present to you a TV commercial for NTT Docomo’s supposedly super-fast LTE network. NTT Docomo is a Japanese mobile operator and when they launched their LTE service in Japan, this was one of the commercials that they created.

The ad starts innocently enough: a boring housewives’ cooking demonstration on how to make shrimp tempura. But then it becomes . . . I’ll let you watch.

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