It's a small world after all

It's a small world. I just found out that Michael Voris was at Notre Dame when I was, and that I attended his graduation, except I did not know him. I went to the 1983 as my boyfriend at the time was graduating with his doctorate. I was working on my doctorate at the time, which I did not finish there. It is a small world. I wonder how many other orthodox Catholics have graduate from ND? How about a mini-poll?

Gendercide in America-No Protection for Females in the Womb

Yesterday, I could not face writing about this, but I must. The American Democratic Party is now supporting gendercide. The Dems in the House did not get enough votes for the bill banning the selection of girl fetuses for destruction. How are we different than any non-Christian, Marxist society? We are not.

That Planned Parenthood is behind this refusal to ban the murder of females is clear.
If we needed another proof that the feminist movement failed to really help women, here is one test.

Check out this article, from which I take a snippet, the second one below. The Chinese have an army of over one million men. The fact that many men in China cannot find mates, find wives, leads them to a more aggressive life-style. The lack of females in a society not only kills traditional marriage, lowers the birth-rate, but allows a society based on war to develop. Sparta killed their girls. I borrow this photo from The Economist, which in 2010, called any society which supported gendercide, "unbalanced" and full of the "ancient prejudice" against girls and women.


In January 2010 the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) showed what can happen to a country when girl babies don’t count. Within ten years, the academy said, one in five young men would be unable to find a bride because of the dearth of young women—a figure unprecedented in a country at peace.
The number is based on the sexual discrepancy among people aged 19 and below. According to CASS, China in 2020 will have 30m-40m more men of this age than young women. For comparison, there are 23m boys below the age of 20 in Germany, France and Britain combined and around 40m American boys and young men. So within ten years, China faces the prospect of having the equivalent of the whole young male population of America, or almost twice that of Europe’s three largest countries, with little prospect of marriage, untethered to a home of their own and without the stake in society that marriage and children provide.

Sad that the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave should have fallen so low into a barbaric mind-set. From LifeSiteNews, this quotation shows that we are now of the same ilk as China with regards to girls. We have joined the ranks of barbarians.


Tom McClusky, Senior Vice President for Family Research Council Action, said he was “deeply saddened” by PRENDA’s demise.

“That anyone on either side of the political aisle would vote against a bill preventing gendercide in the United States is profoundly troubling,” said McClusky.

“We are heartened that a strong majority of House members voted to ban performing or coercing abortions for the purpose of eliminating unborn babies of an undesired sex – usually, girls,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “Shamefully, President Obama, and a minority of 168 House members, complied with the political demands of pro-abortion pressure groups, rather than defend the coerced women, and their unborn daughters, who are victimized by sex-selection abortions.”

NRLC pointed out in a release Thursday that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) had warned legislators that it would score the PRENDA vote as a vote against “women’s health.”

“So, for PPFA, abortion for sex selection is just another menu option, except where it is illegal – and PPFA vehemently opposes making it illegal,” said the pro-life group.

The Dream of the Rood at Moreton, Dorset

My most favorite small Anglican church in England is at Moreton, Dorset. St. Nicholas has the fantastic, numinous engraved windows of Laurence Whistler. The original windows were destroyed early in World War II and from 1955 to 1984, these engraved windows were put into place. One must look and take time to examine the details, including the Scriptural references.



I cannot decide which is my favorite, but the Dream of the Rood window is magnificent. I have linked a photo on the poem's title above.  Here are some samples of the windows. And, I include the poem in translation.

Listen! The choicest of visions I wish to tell,
which came as a dream in middle-night,
after voice-bearers lay rest.at 
It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree
born aloft, wound round by light,5
brightest of beams. All was that beacon
sprinkled with gold. Gems stood
fair at earth's corners; there likewise five
shone on the shoulder-span [ 1 ]. All there beheld the Angel of God [ 2 ],
fair through predestiny [ 3 ]. Indeed, that was no wicked one's gallows,10
but holy souls beheld it there,
men over earth, and all this great creation.

Wondrous that victory-beam--and I stained with sins,

with wounds of disgrace. I saw glory's tree

honored with trappings, shining with joys,15

decked with gold; gems had

wrapped that forest tree worthily round.

Yet through that gold I clearly perceived

old strife of wretches [ 4 ], when first it began

to bleed on its right side. With sorrows most troubled,20

I feared that fair sight. I saw that doom-beacon [ 5 ]

turn trappings and hews: sometimes with water wet,

drenched with blood's going; sometimes with jewels decked.

But lying there long while, I,

troubled, beheld the Healer's tree,25

until I heard its fair voice.

Then best wood spoke these words:

"It was long since--I yet remember it--

that I was hewn at holt's end,

moved from my stem. Strong fiends seized me there,30

worked me for spectacle; cursèd ones lifted me [ 6 ].

On shoulders men bore me there, then fixed me on hill;

fiends enough fastened me. Then saw I mankind's Lord

come with great courage when he would mount on me.

Then dared I not against the Lord's word35

bend or break, when I saw earth's

fields shake. All fiends

I could have felled, but I stood fast.

The young hero stripped himself--he, God Almighty--

strong and stout-minded. He mounted high gallows,40

bold before many, when he would loose mankind.

I shook when that Man clasped me. I dared, still, not bow to earth,

fall to earth's fields, but had to stand fast.

Rood was I reared. I lifted a mighty King,

Lord of the heavens, dared not to bend.45

With dark nails they drove me through: on me those sores are seen,

open malice-wounds. I dared not scathe anyone.

They mocked us both, we two together [ 7 ]. All wet with blood I was,

poured out from that Man's side, after ghost he gave up.

Much have I born on that hill50

of fierce fate. I saw the God of hosts

harshly stretched out. Darknesses had

wound round with clouds the corpse of the Wielder,

bright radiance; a shadow went forth,

dark under heaven. All creation wept,55

King's fall lamented. Christ was on rood.

But there eager ones came from afar

to that noble one. I beheld all that.

Sore was I with sorrows distressed, yet I bent to men's hands,

with great zeal willing. They took there Almighty God,60

lifted him from that grim torment. Those warriors abandoned me

standing all blood-drenched, all wounded with arrows.

They laid there the limb-weary one, stood at his body's head;

beheld they there heaven's Lord, and he himself rested there,

worn from that great strife. Then they worked him an earth-house,65

men in the slayer's sight carved it from bright stone,

set in it the Wielder of Victories. Then they sang him a sorrow-song,

sad in the eventide, when they would go again

with grief from that great Lord. He rested there, with small company.

But we there lamenting a good while70

stood in our places after the warrior's cry

went up. Corpse grew cold,

fair life-dwelling. Then someone felled us

all to the earth. That was a dreadful fate!

Deep in a pit one delved us. Yet there Lord's thanes,75

friends, learned of me,. . . . . . . . . . .

adorned me with silver and gold.

Now you may know, loved man of mine,

what I, work of baleful ones, have endured

of sore sorrows. Now has the time come80

when they will honor me far and wide,

men over earth, and all this great creation,

will pray for themselves to this beacon. On me God's son

suffered awhile. Therefore I, glorious now,

rise under heaven, and I may heal85

any of those who will reverence me.

Once I became hardest of torments,

most loathly to men, before I for them,

voice-bearers, life's right way opened.

Indeed, Glory's Prince, Heaven's Protector,90

honored me, then, over holm-wood [ 8 ].

Thus he his mother, Mary herself,

Almighty God, for all men,

also has honored over all woman-kind.

Now I command you, loved man of mine,95

that you this seeing [ 9 ] tell unto men;

discover with words that it is glory's beam

which Almighty God suffered upon

for all mankind's manifold sins

and for the ancient ill-deeds of Adam.100

Death he tasted there, yet God rose again

by his great might, a help unto men.

He then rose to heaven. Again sets out hither

into this Middle-Earth, seeking mankind

on Doomsday, the Lord himself,105

Almighty God, and with him his angels,

when he will deem--he holds power of doom--

everyone here as he will have earned

for himself earlier in this brief life.

Nor may there be any unafraid110

for the words that the Wielder speaks.

He asks before multitudes where that one is

who for God's name would gladly taste

bitter death, as before he on beam did.

And they then are afraid, and few think115

what they can to Christ's question answer [ 10 ].

Nor need there then any be most afraid [ 11 ]

who ere in his breast bears finest of beacons;

but through that rood shall each soul

from the earth-way enter the kingdom,120

who with the Wielder thinks yet to dwell."

I prayed then to that beam with blithe mind,

great zeal, where I alone was

with small company [ 12 ]. My heart was

impelled on the forth-way, waited for in each125

longing-while. For me now life's hope:

that I may seek that victory-beam

alone more often than all men,

honor it well. My desire for that

is much in mind, and my hope of protection130

reverts to the rood. I have not now many

strong friends on this earth; they forth hence

have departed from world's joys, have sought themselves glory's King;

they live now in heaven with the High-Father,

dwell still in glory, and I for myself expect135

each of my days the time when the Lord's rood,

which I here on earth formerly saw,

from this loaned life will fetch me away

and bring me then where is much bliss,

joy in the heavens, where the Lord's folk140

is seated at feast, where is bliss everlasting;

and set me then where I after may

dwell in glory, well with those saints

delights to enjoy. May he be friend to me

who here on earth earlier died145

on that gallows-tree for mankind's sins.

He loosed us and life gave,

a heavenly home. Hope was renewed

with glory and gladness to those who there burning endured.

That Son was victory-fast [ 13 ] in that great venture,150

with might and good-speed [ 14 ], when he with many,

vast host of souls, came to God's kingdom,

One-Wielder Almighty: bliss to the angels

and all the saints--those who in heaven

dwelt long in glory--when their Wielder came,155

Almighty God, where his homeland was. 

 

Translation copyright © 1982, Jonathan A. Glenn, who I knew at Notre Dame. 

Visiting Cranborne

I cannot describe adequately the beauty of Cranborne Manor Gardens in Dorset. As one walks from one garden room to the next, one is overcome with either the simplicity of the beauty, the history of the walks, or the romantic drama of these separate Edens.

One can take time and walk and think and enjoy the beauty, which is a gift of God, who is Beauty.

On a late Spring day, I visited these gardens recently and was overwhelmed with a soft, gentle quiet. The word I would use is homey. These gardens are like comfortable blankets, surrounding one with beauty and peace.

I was fortunate to be there with a friend and more frequently than not, we were the only two on the walks.

The purple beeches. like magnificent knights, guarded our way. I share some photos and hope you will enjoy the peace and romance of each walk.

I can hardly believe this place was the home of one of the most anti-Catholic of Elizabeth's reign. Robert Cecil's father was the  William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and he was influenced by Sir Francis Walsingham, the hunter of Catholics. How strange that hundreds of years later, an ardent Catholic like me can walk the grounds and feel the peace of God out of this violent history of religious persecution.