Plan, Read, Pray, Act, Be Intelligent

All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

And, Ireland is being really stupid. It is going to become an Islamic financial hub.  Read this on the buying and selling of  Islamic bonds, etc. in Ireland. How to lose one's sovereignty, is to lose one's currency to shariah compliant initiatives. Follow the money. And, Great Britain and Luxembourg did not get into this buying of these bonds, as the powers that be are a bit smarter. Greediness brought this on. What happened in the Sudetenland started with a lack of jobs in Germany and the Nazi take over of the imaginations of the German and Austrian people with regard to financial expansion. Edvard Benes used to meet in my Grandma's kitchen and discuss such things. The Czech economy was ruined by the Sudetenland take-over, but now there are more subtle means of doing the same thing.

The Beginning of the Gulag; stage 3-vilification

There have been since World War II, psychologists and sociologists who have defined stages of persecution for religions. The first is stigmatizing the targeted group. This has already happened in the United States under the present administration, who has labelled pro-life people as terrorists and those against same-sex marriage as prejudiced. Secondly, the government marginalizes Catholics in their role in society by taking away freedom of speech and by stating that personal conscience has no rights in law. That is what happened today and with Roe v. Wade. Third, the Catholics are vilified for alleged crimes or misconduct. This was in the language of the law today. Look at the press follow-up, here in this television report on the SPLC stating that all pro-life and anti-gay actions are hate groups. Jewish, Catholic, Black and White pastors are against this vilification. If you think I am into exaggeration look at the Southern Poverty Law Center's statement through this link here.

The fourth step will be a criminalization of the Church's stance on lgtb rights, abortion, contraception, etc. Wait and see in one year where these new laws take us. And, finally, the out and out persecution of the Church in martyrdom.


These categories are taken from PERSECUTION: HOW LIBERALS ARE WAGING WAR AGAINST CHRISTIANITY. By David Limbaugh


If we do not pay attention now, we have only ourselves to blame when all our liberties are gone. 

Losing Religious Freedom in the United States

This is too horrible to pass up. The Federal Government today announced two things. First, birth control pills will be free to all women in the States. Second, religious institutions must pay for birth control pills  The Washington Times story included this quotation: The decision is “a radical incursion into freedom of conscience,” said Deirdre McQuade, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Never before in U.S. history has the federal government forced citizens to purchase directly what violates their beliefs.”

and

Representing some 600 hospitals, the Catholic Health Association expressed disappointment.
and
Workplace health plans will have to cover all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration, ranging from the pill to implantable devices to sterilization. Also covered is the morning-after pill, which can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex and is considered as tantamount to an abortion drug by some religious conservatives.


This is an assault of the freedom of conscience for millions of Americans and for those institutions, such as colleges and universities which do not pass out abortifacients. All I can say is that those Catholics who voted for Obama in 2008 brought this upon the Church. This is the tyranny of the Left. (see Gramsci post below). One brave bishop prophesied this years ago and told Catholics if they voted for Obama, they had to consider their salvation. Click here.

A Land Under the Fog of Hatred

Last night in Londonderry, two Republican bombs were exploded. People in the area were evacuated quickly. This was not the headline in this morning's issue of the Irish Times online, but in the Wall Street Journal.

In the month I have been here, I have, almost daily, heard people, including women, go on about British occupation. I am sick of hearing about The Troubles. I am sick of the unforgiveness among Catholics, who like the "moderate" Muslims, do not condemn sectarian violence. Ireland is rotting from the inside out from hatred, prejudice and unforgiveness.

I lost family in both world wars. My grandmother's family, in what is now the Czech Republic, disappeared and their houses and land, and some were wealthy, confiscated by, first the Germans and then, the Russians. We assume many members of the family, most politically active, perished in the Holocaust. Some of my ancestors were Jews from Bratislava. We never knew what happened. I do not hate Germans and I do not hate Russians. I have personally experienced betrayal from someone I thought was my best friend, not once, but more than once. I forgave. I had to do so, as I was commanded by God to forgive. If we are obedient, we forgive.

I am reminded of the anime Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. It is a powerful story based on the Dumas novel of hatred and revenge. It is terrifying. It is "true". In the anime version, the Count is overtaken by a demon. But, he already had some-the demons of revenge and unforgiveness. Thankfully, there is redemption at the end. That is what we desire, redemption, not revenge.

Four members of my family were abused by a priest for years. These family members never sued, and are still Catholic and raised their children Catholic. They forgave. They exhibit heroic virtue, as we all must.

Forgiveness is the necessity of all Catholics, all Christians, all Jews. Those who do not forgive will not see the Face of God. Matthew 6:15 But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.

God said that. He means it. The evil of unforgiveness is that we become God. We play God. Here is the Count in the anime speaking:

Count of Monte Cristo: No show is as captivating as the death of a human being.

Count of Monte Cristo: Is it not as though we have become God?

I call this Evil. Like Lucifer, the Count was playing God.

Living among a people who dwell in unforgiveness is something I could not do for any length of time. I have never met, in modern times, people more prejudice than the Irish Republicans, and I lived in Missouri and Mississippi. The language of hate is in the speech like a reoccurring motif in poetry-except that it is deadly to those who speak it. Forgiveness creates healing. Forgiveness opens the door for reconciliation. It does not matter what or who on "the other side" do or not do. The power of forgiveness is in our hearts to use or not to use. Politicians here use the language of hate towards the Church, as the land is full of hatred. The beauty of Ireland is hidden in the fog of unforgiveness.

The Ultimate Failure of Transformational Marxists

Some of you have wondered when I was going to write my anti-Gramsci articles here. Well, here is the first of many. I wrote on this before many years ago and now it is time to dig in and get dirty on this blog. Here is where some of my information is from, but not all, as some is my own construct over the years. Also, there is another link below for summaries.There are many sites on Gramsci if one wants a bibliography, I can send one on request. But, the letters are key. Just remember that the key to understanding all of this is that the ideology is based on materialism, that there is no spiritual world. The old Marxism is not exactly the same as Gramsci's ideas, except in the denial of the spiritual and the emphasis on pragmatism, but that denial of a spiritual hierarchy is key. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, "Communism is based on a materialistic and humanistic view of life and history. According to Communist theory, matter, not mind or spirit, speaks the last word in the universe. Such a philosophy is avowedly secularistic and atheistic. Under it, God is merely a figment of the imagination, religion is a product of fear and ignorance, and the church is an invention of the rulers to control the masses. Moreover, Communism, like humanism, thrives on the grand illusion that man, unaided by any divine power, can save himself and usher in a new society--"

Gramsci wrote that "the mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist in eloquence … but in active participation in practical life, as constructor, organiser, "permanent persuader" and not just a simple orator…"  See above. Here is where the Chomskyites and Alinskyites come in. with grass roots political and social activism. But, there is more...The intellectuals were not merely to be in academia, or politics, but everywhere, changing the philosophical roots of the culture from within. Again, the emphasis is on pragmatism and what works in the relationships between people and groups of people,such as labor unions. However, what actually binds people together to want to do things together is a less than satisfactory explanation, being basically the historical context of "subjectivism", lacking any hierarchical ideology and denying any universals. In other words, humans create their own reality which changes constantly in history and context. This is a variation of the heresy of immanentism, which states that there is no God outside of man, and leads to the complete denial of God. Of course, if all meaning and history are created by humans, there is no God or plan outside the temporary. Historicism is a combination of immanentism and false progressivism or evolutionism, all condemned by Pope St. Pius X in his encyclical against Modernism (Star-Trek theories). Simplified here and here.

Gramsci also wrote of what he called his idea of infiltrating the media, the Church, journalism, schools, universities, the judiciary and so on. In the posting below on Levin a day ago, one can see how this has happened in government and political theory.  Georg Lukacs, Gramsci's follower, was the one who came up with the idea of sex education as undermining Christianity in the culture. One can see that in Ireland today, with the push to end Catholicism in schools. This has already happened in England. These ideas have been part of the elite of education in America, in Great Britain and now, in Ireland since the 1950s. By placing anti-Christian curricula in the schools such as anti-abstinence and pro-homosexuality, the Christian, and specifically, the Catholic religion would be destroyed in the culture. Now, this is mainstream. In addition, Latin and Greek were to be removed from the curricula, so that the continuity of Catholic and Western culture would be destroyed. All this has happened. It happened a long time ago when my brothers were in high school, and now they are in their early fifties. They did not get Classical Education. Some of these references are here.

I had Classical Education, including Latin, and world history, as well as Church history, logic, ethics, civics, Plato, Aristole, etc.  I was in the last generation to get the pre-Gramsci education, which was based on the Jesuits and on the Catholic-based Western Civilization. The destruction is now all but complete. All this was done in the name of "democracy" and the destruction of elitism. Anyone who decries elitism is a Gramscian at heart. In the early 2000s, I had a little business as a curriculum consultant, helping schools either move back to Classical Education or created new schools in this mode. Many people did this at the college level, like the founders of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, or Wyoming Catholic, or Thomas More College. It works. Young people learn how to think and how to preserve the beauty of Western Civilization. They discern the Marxist fallacy of class warfare in the present milieu and the nihilism of Post-Modernism. 

A drop in the ocean, I am afraid, are these efforts, as the powers that be are outlawing independence in education and outlawing home schooling. Look at developments this week in Sweden. The term "social engineering" has come to mean many things, but in academia and in politics, it means the appropriation of Gramsci and Lukacs' ideals of infiltration and destruction, of the emphasis on the pragmatic and not the person. In the construction of a new society based on relationships, this destruction of frameworks of relationship seems counter-productive. But, for Gramsci, humans are capable of inter-relating without religion or even metaphysics of any kind. I always wonder when reading this why people would bother to work for such a society.

Why? Because these men hate the Church and Western Civ, they set out to destroy both, knowing what Belloc so succinctly wrote that  "The Faith is Europe and Europe is the Faith."  Thanks to Gramsci and others, like Kant, we barely have the Faith and we barely have Europe....Gramscians deny that he intended to destroy culture, but I cannot see that his explanations and plans mean anything but that as a consequence of human activity to set up a society without Faith or the culture based on that Faith. Herein lies a paradox in Gramsci.

When I met my first true follower of Gramsci he said to me. "One cannot be a scholar and a Catholic." The implication was that only those who had thrown off the tyranny of the teaching of the Church, of Aquinas, Bonaventure, Augustine, even Maritain or Gilson, could one think. Not so, as Gramsci himself needed the past to resconstruct or rather desconstruct Western society. He relied on the writings of some of the "great books", the same he seemed to decry. The Gramscian error lies in the fact that the Marxist has just accepted another ideology in place of the teachings of the Catholic Church, and one more illogical and self-serving than that of the Church. Gramsci's emphasis on intellectuals and activists leading society away from the Church and Western Civilization just replaces one ideal system for his own. The error lies in the denial of the basic premises of natural law philosophy and the desire of the human will for freedom from social engineering. Over and over, he writes about historicism, mentioned above, the idea that humans get their identity from societal relationships and not from nature. In this sense, Gramsci is the arch-relativist, the grave error of the American educational systems today. He is a relativist also in so far as he does not believe in the absolute materialism of the Marxist, but a created, practical materialism. This pragmatism may be where one sees Gramsci being influenced by Machiavelli, the ultimate pragmatist. However, even with relativism or utilitarianism,  a backlash comes eventually and the backlash is barbarism. The only idea that has historically changed the barbarian is Christianity.

The reason why barbarism is the ultimate failure of Gramsci's desire for atheistic communism is that the lowest common denominator of a human mode of being emerges from the death of the West.  Communism and historicism fall to the armies of complete selfish, narcissistic individuals who only think of themselves and not the common good. Ergo, the Russian mafia. There is no longer a common good. There is no state to adore. This is complete Post-modernist deconstructionism and nihilism. In the post-society, the only remaining ideals are the death-wish and the desire for power. Interestingly enough, Gramsci was against worship of the state and believed that the proletariat could rule without such an organization. He thought that a regulated society could rule itself-this is the false ideal of utopianism, see post below on Levin's book. Order does not spring out of mere pragmatism. In fact, I would state that relativism and atheistic anarchy comes out of utilitarianism. Here is the difference between Michelle and POTUS. She is a true Alinksy activist and he is a narcissist. However, they both fall into the Gramsci camp of relativism.

Sadly, all of the idealism of the Gramscian falls to the neo-barbarians desires for personal, physical satisfaction and the death-wish. What Gramsci and his followers fail to take into consideration is raw evil, or Evil, if one can be so primitive as to believe, as I do , that Evil is a Person, who is pure spirit. The idealism of the Marxist or neo-Marxist cannot stand up against the greed and hatred of the world, the flesh and the devil. It doesn't matter in the long run, as the Marxist, as well as Evil, desires the destruction of the West and the Catholic Church. Marxism undoes itself by unleashing deeper powers, such as one understands in the dabbling of the occult. There is always something under the atheism and narcissism. But, those who deny the spiritual world. those who are complete materialists, overlook this important concept. In that spiritual world is found naked power. In the praxis of history and human activity, as described by Gramsci, there is no accounting for this evil. However, evil exists. It states, "Non serviam" I will not serve. Jeremiah 2:20--"Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself."

That is what the neo-barbarians understand. Naked power does not need an ideology in order to succeed. Power just wants power. However, the good news is that such power undoes itself. It self-destructs over and over again. That is the nature of evil-it cannot create, it can only destroy. But, destroy, it does.

Taken from Lebanon News source The Daily Star

International Pope warns US against 'radical secularism' January 19, 2012 01:55 PM Pope Benedict XVI. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI warned against the grave dangers that "radical secularism" posed to the Catholic Church and society in general during a meeting Thursday with US bishops. The United States was founded "on certain ethical principles" that have "eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents...," he said. These trends, the pontiff continued, "are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such." While acknowledging the legitimacy of the separation of church and state, that did not mean the Roman Catholic Church should remain silent on certain questions, he added. "The Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth," the pope said. He noted US bishops' efforts "to maintain contacts with Catholics involved in political life and to help them understand their personal responsibility to offer public witness to their faith...". That was especially important with regard to "the great moral issues of our time: respect for God?s gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human rights," he said. The bishops had to ensure that American Catholics had the courage "to counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church's participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society." The pope's comments were posted in English on the

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2012/Jan-19/160416-pope-warns-us-against-radical-secularism.ashx#ixzz1jw31UM5g
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb) 

As I am a teacher still...look at these great articles

Look at the great article on feminism as a heresy at Crisis, one of the links on my bloglist. And, I am sure all you out there know to click on the colored links in the posts here for articles. Also, there is an excellent series on the Eastern Catholic Rites, The Other Successors of Peter: The Patriarchs of Antioch, as well as Requiem for the Third See of Christendom and We Are Non-Roman Catholics.. This series is by one of my favorites, Robert Spencer and I am so glad to see Crisis picking up on his work.

Where are the "fighting Irish"?

The Irish Catholic online today reported the contentious Labour position which may endanger all religious, denominational schools in the Republic. Click on the link. Why do the Irish insist on voting Labour, when this type of position, a hardening of anti-Catholic, anti-Christian sentiment is so obvious? I can ask the same question of the Catholics who voted for Obama, the man with the worst pro-life record in the history of the State of Illinois, a follower of Chomsky and other Marxists, and a narcissist. Oo, fighting words, but if you read the post below this one, you will see where POTUS and, indeed, some politicians here in Ireland stand on Christianity and the traditional Western Civ view on individual rights.

The Irish are in a fog about their own government and the country at large. While continuing to give out millions for social programs, the country is sliding into depression, financial and psychological. Many people here, especially the youth, are unhappy. The best leave and get jobs in Canada and Australia, like millions of our ancestors from Europe did in hard times. Those who get jobs where the jobs are need to be encouraged, but they are not. One dad here told me that his wife did not want the boys to emigrate, as she would never see the grandchildren again. That is just plain selfishness, as these young men have a first duty to their wives and children. 

The country of Ireland needs more than selfishness, it needs leaders and people with vision. Obviously, attacking religious schools is not vision but oppression. I wish the old Republican spirit would awaken in the people of Ireland, but it is merely part of the stories said around the pubs and homes, stories from the past and not of the future. Here are a few quotations from the Irish Catholic article this morning.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin TD, vice-chair of the Oireachtas education committee, told The Irish Catholic ''that religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic''.

His comments come as senior Church sources have accused the Labour Party of ''bullying'' Catholic schools by falsely accusing them of breaking the law over enrolment policies that admit Catholic children ahead of other children if the school is over-subscribed.

Dr John Murray of Mater Dei Institute of Education said the Labour move amounted to an attempt to ''intimidate'' the schools.

He said: ''I hope this isn't indicative of the attitude of the wider Labour Party to denominational schools because if it is, it is deeply worrying and needs to be strongly resisted.
''It is nothing less than an attack on the religious freedom of denominational schools,'' he said.


From where I am standing, Catholicism is becoming the minority way of life here.

the only thing that stands between tyranny and what we have today---is us

OK-- I had the last of Classical Education. We studied Locke, de Tocqueville, Montesquieu, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. We studied Thomas More's Utopia, and learned why such a system was doomed to fail, which is the point of the book. I learned all of this in a Catholic high school and a Catholic undergraduate college. What happened? Infiltration of the left into education happened just as I was going into second year of college--and by graduate school, I knew the enemies of the Church had won the day. My younger siblings did not get this good stuff and now we need a new person to remind us of our Constitutional roots. 

The title of this post is a quotation from Mark Levin. 

I wonder is Mark Levin has been reading the Pope's on socialism? His new book looks great and if anyone wants to send a review here, please do. The problem is the American re-definitions of the individual and society, long decried by every Pope since 1849, which are Marxist. This breaking of the framework of the American Constitution began, as I have tried to teach in the past, under Woodrow Wilson. This re-interpretation of the Constitution was pushed by F.D.R. The present POTUS has carried this destruction of individual liberties to a new extreme.

Levin traces the history of the Constitution in simple terms. Of course, my hero, de Tocqueville prophesied all the problems we have today and Levin mentions him. Levin traces utopianism, condemned by the 19th, 20th and 21st century Popes. Levin is not the first to discuss these problems, note Michael Peters' Postructurialism, Marxism, and Neoliberalism: Between Theory and Politics. What Levin does is make political theory more readable for most people. 


Levin can be seen here in a snippet.


I would suggest a reading of these documents from Rome: Centesimus Annus, Ubi Arcano, Humanum Genus, Immortale Dei, Sapientiae Christianae, Libertas Praestimissimus, Mirare Caritatis, and Testem Benevolentiae ,Quas Primas, Divini Illius Magistri, Casti Connubii, and Divini Redemptoris, Rerum Novarum , Quadragesimo Anno, Notre Charge Apostolique, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, Summi Pontificatus, Mater et Magistra, Deus Caritas Est....


I believe it is the duty of Catholics, who have been taught of the evils of the isms for over a century, to right these wrongs. However, those Catholics who are socialists, and many right here in Ireland, have to do their homework. If people want to be treated as numbers, as children, well then...carry on. But, what is at stake is the loss of religious and all other freedoms; watch and see.

Open Letter to Some of My Traditional Seminarian Friends in America and on the Continent of Europe

I write to you in the States and to those on the Continent of Europe. I do not write to those in Great Britain as there is more of an acceptance of individual talents and interests which allows for a healthier seminary experience. But, for those who are upset 24/7, here is some maternal advice.

The reason why you feel emotional about the Latin Mass and cannot be peaceful, is that you are in an adversarial climate.  It is very unhealthy to be in battle mode all the time. In an atmosphere of liberalism and modernism in the Catholic Church in the seminary or even in your parish, it would be too easy to fall into a mind-set of being against and anti-authoritarian all the time. This becomes a habit of mind, which is very unhealthy.

One does not need to be in a mode of defense or even of apologetics all the time. If one is constantly in a "fight or flight" mode, one cannot be creative, cannot learn, and most importantly, cannot love.

Yes, some of us are called to be prophets, like Jeremiah or John the Baptist, but they knew the love, the piercing, cleansing love of God in their lives which kept them grounded. This is what you need, to focus on the Love of Christ and His Mother and less on the evils in the Church. You are called to the Order of Melchizedek, not to the order of prophets. One in a million priests are called to public prophecy. Melchizedek was the King of Salem, the King of Peace.

You will not grow into the loving, kind and prudent gentleman and priest God wants you to be if you are constantly fighting. Even soldiers get battle fatigue and emotional problems because they are on guard against the enemy all the time. I do not mean merely "r and r" , a vacation, but a presence of mind which is positive and living in the grace of God, which always reaches out to those who need Him. The presence of mind is living in the Present Moment of Brother Lawrence, in that simple book, The Practice of the Presence of God. I recommend this.

I am not advocating false, nicey nicey love or a false tolerance of evil. No, I am talking about you finding that still center of your soul where you can work out of peace instead of turmoil and the adversarial mode. One must live and work in peace and not in turmoil.

All of this is in the Will. If you decide to follow peace, the emotions will follow.

I have learned not to live in this mindset and here are some tips from my experience, which is like others.

Number one, be absolutely honest with yourself and others at all times. Never allow deceit of any kind into your life. If you are clear, you will avoid turmoil. Deceit divides. Honesty unites. 

Number two, look for the common ground even with your "opponents". There is always some place where we can start a discussion rather than have an argument if we can find that common ground. If this seems totally impossible, we pray for insight.

Number three, respect yourself, me, others, all men and women, even if they seem like they do not deserve respect. All of us are sinners and all men and women have the dignity as sons and daughters of God, even if we cannot see this. St. Paul's admonition that we have all fallen short of the glory of God should be in our minds constantly.

Number four, pray to see the suffering Christ in those who oppose the Latin Mass. Christ is suffering in that person who hates the Mass, either through serious sin, bad teaching, ignorance, or corruption of mind. Pray and fast. Do not judge.

Number five, realize that the adversarial mode is unhealthy not only for you but for your opponents. You make them more obstinate if you pursue Truth without Love. Love and Truth, even tough love, go together. Tough love is real love, love with honesty. If someone starts an argument, defuse the situation gently but firmly. 

Number six, pray about your role in the Church. Very few priests are called to hard prophecy. I think that is the role of the laity. John the Baptist was not called to be a priest. A priest is called to minister to those whom God loves, His People. If you have a vocation to the priesthood, do not follow the way of the prophet at this time during your studies, but be more humble and wait. Prudence is knowing when and where to speak a truth, even about the Latin Mass.

Number seven, focus on what you are supposed to be doing now, your duty. I think you must actively and strenuously pursue your vocation. Do not get sidetracked. Go back to Latin studies, read the Doctors of the Church and the Early Church Fathers. You have many years of preparation and that is what your focus should be. Learn to learn on your own and not rely on false teaching. Make sure you match everything up to the glorious teaching of the Catholic Church. Rejoice in the beauty of these teachings. Say your Office, say your rosary. Live in the now.

Number eight, pick your battles. Wisdom is knowing when to speak and when to be silent. We do not have to be seen as being "right" all the time. That is intellectual pride. If something is important enough to fight, fine, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. 

Number nine, learn boundaries. Your generation does not know psychological boundaries because of the public sharing of information and because of the lack of manners. Not everyone has to know everything about you and your life. Boundaries protect your soul and mind, and create healthy relationships.

Number ten, remember your First Love. The reason why you are pursuing the priesthood is because God has called you and you have answered "yes". You are in a relationship with the Living God, who is your First Love. All else flows from that.

Number eleven, be patient. I know that it is in the nature of youth to be impatient for change. Learn patience.

Number twelve, be more patient. 

God bless you.

Thoughts on Beauty and the Tridentine Mass

Scholars argue, even today, on Thomas Aquinas' idea of Beauty as an Attribute of God. It depends on whether one sees him as primarily Platonic, Aristotelian or Dionysian, or a combination of these, in his approach to beauty. I am not going to get into those philosophical divisions at this point, but as an Aristotelian by nature, I would be inclined to come down on the side of the form and sense of beauty starting in the perception of what is pleasing around us, rather than an ideal which is mostly super-sensible. That is not the topic of this post.

What is the topic is the idea of Beauty Himself, as God is Beauty, as He is Truth, Love, the Good. The motto of my undergraduate college was Beauty, Truth, Goodness, as in the pursuit of through study. This is a good Benedictine approach to learning, as one becomes closer to God through study. The purification of the intellect, heart and will can happen through study and prayer aimed at Beauty, Truth and Goodness, that is God Himself.

Now, in Aquinas, God is so beyond what we see as Beautiful, as He Himself created all that is beautiful, that we must refer to Him as "super-beautiful". The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, existing from all time, was revealed to us at a particular time in history, but His Beauty is beyond time.

Before I switched degrees, I was pursuing "fine art" as a degree. I write poetry and I paint. In college, my strengths in painting were nature scenes, such as water, trees, flowers, in oils , acrylics, or water color. Surprising even to myself, I actually had some talent in this small area of the fine arts. I gave up the art degree for others, such as philosophy and theology, history and English, etc. However, as with others in my immediate family, a sense of the Beautiful haunted me.

In 2009, I began to paint again after many, many years of setting this aside. I had cancer and needed some creativity other than writing prose and poetry. What I found was the same connection to Beauty Himself in the pursuit of art, which can be all-consuming, all attention being needed for at least a period of time. The pursuit of Beauty is lost in our world. Art has become political or cultural statement art. It reveals the ugly and the individualistic, rather than the sublime. A young woman being interviewed a few years ago at the Toronto Art Expo stated that all art was based on how an individual felt on a certain day and expressed that individual feeling. Yuck, stuff and nonsense. She said that, and I wish I were making this up, if she took mud and smeared in on a board, that was art.

No, dear, it is not. Art has rules and is a discipline. It has order. Mimesis, the imitation of the great work of the Creator, God Himself, who gives us this gift, has Order, the Order of the Universe. And, this Order is Love. Like Julian of Norwich's who saw all creation cared for by God and sustained by God, God is the Center of all that is, and He invites us into that creativity, by the fact that we are made in His Image and Likeness.

And in þis he shewed me a lytil thyng þe quantite of a hasyl nott. lyeng in þe pawme of my hand as it had semed. and it was as rownde as eny ball. I loked þer upon wt þe eye of my vnderstondyng. and I þought what may þis be. and it was answered generally thus. It is all þat is made. I merueled howe it myght laste. for me þought it myght sodenly haue fall to nought for lytyllhed. & I was answered in my vnderstondyng. It lastyth & euer shall for god louyth it. and so hath all thyng his begynning by þe loue of god. In this lytyll thyng I sawe thre propertees. The fyrst is. þt god made it. þe secunde is þet god louyth it. & þe þrid is. þat god kepith it.

I believe it is the duty of the Catholic to reintroduce Beauty to the world before it is lost forever to barbarism. Of course, the most beautiful thing in the world is the Tridentine Mass. There is a start in the re-education of men and women to the sensibility of the acceptance of Beauty Himself. We only need to fall in love with Love Himself to perceive the Beauty which is around us. And, the Tridentine Mass opens our hearts and our minds to this Beauty.

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!  You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.  In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all.  You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.  You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.  You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.  I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.  You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

                      St. Augustine, The Confessions

A Counter-Terrorist Named Barbie

Now, a disclaimer. I never played with Barbie and her friends. I had twenty-two dolls, (I was the only girl), and I duly baptized them all with the tap water, (and, I must admit, with holy water), and named them such late 1950s names as Cynthia, Daphne, MaryRose, Katy-Jane, Kimberley, Karen, Donna, and so on, unless they had names, like Shirley Temple, and my pre-Disney story-book dolls, Snow White, Rose Red, Sleeping Beauty, etc.

Barbie was not my thing. However, Barbie may become the iconic counter-terrorist for this site. Again, according to the keen Robert Spencer, she has been banned in Tehran. This is at least the second time Barbie has been made into an infidel doll. I can understand her appeal to very young ladies--the fake American dream of too-perfect figure, blond hair and trendy clothes-- the princess doll syndrome.

However, it is too much that Barbie is again labelled as a symbol of Western decadence. Well, maybe, in a strange way, she is, but I know lovely women in convents, traditional Catholic women, who were not as counter-cultural at the age of eight as I was, who loved their Barbies. Sigh, the only thing I really wanted for MaryRose and Karen was the pink vintage Barbie Austin Healey, but my dolls, all baptized and full of doll grace, would probably have not wanted to be caught dead in a Barbie car....

Daphne was rescued by one of my brothers from a pretend high-rise fire on my dad's recliner by a very large metal firetruck. She rode away perched on top of the ladder as my brother saved her, but that is not quite the same thing as moving in style in a pink vintage Austin Healey. Maybe this is what Tehran fears...women driving sports cars.

St. Anthony Abbot, pray for the Christians in Egypt

We know that the term "sectarian violence", when used to lie about the persecution of Christians by certain non-Christian religions, is the politically correct term used by the media. This ugly lie hides the massacre of men, women and children going to or leaving Sunday Mass, standing in front of their humble houses, or walking to work. Today is the feast of the great St. Anthony, Abbot, the Father of Monasticism. He was called into Egypt by the Holy Spirit, followed by men and women who wanted not only to dedicate their lives to the Almighty Triune God, but to renew the culture through prayer and good works. His native language was Coptic. May he intercede for us all, now and especially our brothers and sisters in the Coptic Church.

APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM and the dumbing down of lay expectations

Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity  click here

On another blog, there is a discussion on the laity. Fr. Blake has started an important conversation about those who know the Faith and those who perhaps do not. I have a great memory of the document on the laity which came out in 1965 and challenged an entire generation of us youth to look at ourselves in a new and exciting manner. Pope Paul VI taught us lay people not only our responsibilities in the Church, but challenged us to meet those, not as clericized lay people, but as people who are to bring the Gospel into the world. I have written on this earlier here on this blog and in the past. The laity of 2012 in too many places have accepted no responsibility for their own growth in the Faith and have not grown up to take ownership of their own consciences.

To blame priests, or bishops for not leading is a lame excuse for not being a saint. See my post almost two weeks ago on this point. What has arisen on Fr. Blake's blog is the question of maybe a two-tiered Church, of those who know or are in the know and those who are not.

We have only ourselves to blame for a lack of knowledge. And the document clearly sets forth the idea that we all have different talents to use within the Church, which we know from St. Paul's great letter, First Corinthians, Chapter 12. The problem is not a recognition of gifts, but an acceptance of responsibility.

Look at one of the sections of this document, which I studied in high school and college, and which my parents studied in an adult faith formation group in their parish in the middle to late 1960s.


Since Christ, sent by the Father, is the source and origin of the whole apostolate of the Church, the success of the lay apostolate depends upon the laity's living union with Christ, in keeping with the Lord's words, "He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). This life of intimate union with Christ in the Church is nourished by spiritual aids which are common to all the faithful, especially active participation in the sacred liturgy.(5) These are to be used by the laity in such a way that while correctly fulfilling their secular duties in the ordinary conditions of life, they do not separate union with Christ from their life but rather performing their work according to God's will they grow in that union. In this way the laity must make progress in holiness in a happy and ready spirit, trying prudently and patiently to overcome difficulties.(6) Neither family concerns nor other secular affairs should be irrelevant to their spiritual life, in keeping with the words of the Apostle, "What-ever you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him" (Col. 3:17).
Such a life requires a continual exercise of faith, hope, and charity. Only by the light of faith and by meditation on the word of God can one always and everywhere recognize God in Whom "we live, and move, and have our being" ( Acts 17:28), seek His will in every event, see Christ in everyone whether he be a relative or a stranger, and make correct judgments about the true meaning and value of temporal things both in themselves and in their relation to man's final goal.


Read the entire link above, as this is a great motivational document. Now, what happened? How is it that this clarion call was not heeded except by a few?

I blame the same educational dumbing down which happened in all the schools as connected to this phenomenon of the laity not taking responsibility for learning the Faith and acting out that Faith in the market place. When expectations for learning were destroyed by a false egalitarianism, when no one was allowed to be better than anyone else in the classroom, when mediocrity won the day (my famous story of all the kindergarten children-all-getting awards on award day so that no one would feel left out), when the kids' baseball team stopped having try-outs, when tracking in schools was stopped so that no one would be hurt by being in the lower tracks, and so on, the laity got used to being lazy about the Faith. The message of one of my favorite plays which I used to teach, Amadeus, is that mediocrity wins over excellence in these times. The Salieris have killed the Mozarts.

As a teacher and a lay person I can say that the most rewarding times I have had in catechesis have been when I have taught the Mystagogia, or Mystagogy classes after the RCIA first or second year, which were absolutely not required but attended by those who wanted to grow in the Faith. What a fantastic experience it was to teach those who wanted to learn more about the Mysteries of the Faith. All the laity should want to do this, and it was free!

So, why are people "too busy", "too tired", "too stressed" to take advantage of Adult Faith Formation when offered? Is it offered everywhere? As I have noted elsewhere, Bishop Finn in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has a wonderful program. This type of thing could be happening everywhere.

One of the problems is the emphasis by some on experiential religion alone. We are in an Age of Anti-Intellectualism, see below again....I personally blame the over-emphasis on feeling (see Picard below) and the seeking of comforts from God-wanting the lollipops and not the meat. St. Paul in the same epistle mentioned above states that he wants to give meat to the people but they can only take milk and milk is baby food. Adult Catholics must decide to start eating meat and give up the bottle. This is our responsibility and not the priest's. If there is a two-tiered system of Catholics, we have only ourselves to blame.

Wow, from Rorate Caeli today--direct quote and see side link

For the first time in decades, a cerimoniere pontificio - Monsignor Marco Agostini, an official in the State Secretariat who has also been since June 2009 in the staff of the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, headed by Mgr. Guido Marini - celebrated the Traditional Mass publicly. It took place yesterday in the Personal Parish of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the parish entrusted to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in the Diocese of Rome.

[Source & tip: Osservatore Vaticano blog]

An Unusual, Controversial Catholic Subject-Celibacy in Marriage

Now, I am not married, but I live a celibate life-style. However, I have an increasing number of friends, traditional Catholics, who have opted for celibacy in their marriages. This is not a new ideal in the Church, and although Christ wants most married couples to be fruitful and multiply, that is, to have the wonderful children God desires them to have, there have been and are couples, who for the sake of the kingdom, have chosen a different way. Of course, the norm, having children as God gives, creates saints, such as Blessed Louis and  Blessed Zelie Martin, Blessed Karl and Empress Zita, SS. Joachim and Anna, SS. Isidore and Maria (who vowed abstinence later in their marriage), and so on. This is not an exhaustive list.

However, the emphasis on celibacy should be rare, but seen as a call within a call. I also think there has to be good reason for not having children. The grand example are two of my favorite Catholics, Jacques and Raissa Maritain, who on the Isle of Wight, as Benedictine Oblates, took a vow of celibacy "for the sake of the Kingdom". Raissa writes in her diary, which I practically have memorized, that it was difficult for her, but she could see that Jacques was called to be in the world and she was his prayer backup, companion in holiness, and confidant, as well as best-friend. They shared philosophy, theology, and the dedication to bringing the Gospel into the workplace in the extreme. God called them to this.

I first met celibate married couples about twenty-five years ago. The first couple I met were in their forties and had a close relationship with the Church and the priest who was the pastor. They were very active in the Church, but did not have normal marital relations. They had chosen that way and had married later in life. The man had been in the Jesuit seminary for years, but left, as he did not think he had a priestly vocation. He found a wife who would support him in his spiritual walk. The second couple I met were in their early sixties. They had decided that past child-bearing age, they would make a celibate commitment. Since then, I have met another couple who have decided the same thing. Their "extra" time is spent in good works, praying and fasting. Obviously, these couples have spiritual directors. This call within a call is, also, obviously, by mutual consent.

Those with a worldly mindset and even some good Catholics may find this call repelling or unnatural. I would say that this call is rare, but not unnatural. I think that those who decide to live in the world, or are called so by God to remain among the laity, can exhibit a variety of calls "for the sake of the Kingdom". And, to be in a relationship which is celibate may be a sign of contradiction to the world as well as giving two people the necessary, daily support a brother and sister in Christ may give to each other. Intimacy has many faces, and the physical side of intimacy is only one aspect of relationship. I have written this to support my friends who have chosen this way and to encourage those who feel the need for companionship without sex to be comforted in that they are not alone. We are all called to be saints, and there are many ways, in Christ, through Mary, to be saints.

In addition, God did not intend people to live all alone. The fact that there are so many single, lonely individuals needs to be addressed by the Church. Those who for whatever reason cannot be a priest or nun or sister, have some options, but loneliness should not be the norm. Church communities have failed, especially in America, to support their singles. Many Catholics are singles for many reasons. There exists a judgmental attitude, which excludes those singles from the larger interaction in the Church. And, for those who desire celibacy in the world, that is an option, but it does not have to equal loneliness. I am very fortunate, as I do not experience the gnawing type of loneliness some do. I may miss my dear friends when apart from them, but that is different than the vague experience of loneliness many feel. We all need to reach out to those who feel this need, pray for them, and include them in our busy lives. To do otherwise is not to be Christian.

Among new friends in Dublin...

archived photo of St. Kevin's

I spent a lovely morning at the Tridentine Mass at St. Kevin's in Dublin and then had coffee and such with some of the regular traddies. What a warm and friendly group this is, and I would recommend anyone in the area to check out the beautiful Mass and community there. The conversation over coffee at the hotel coffee shop shifted from politics (and as an Iowan I can match any Dubliner talking politics), to the Latin Mass, to Modernist heresies, to Freemasonry, to the lack of catechesis among adults, to the beauty of Shakespeare. I was in traddie heaven. Sadly, I shall not be able to go for a long time, as the buses do not connect from my village that early and my ride was a one-off. However, one is comforted by the fact that there are wonderful, educated (mostly self-educated), happy, traditional Catholics scattered throughout Europe. I also was "in" a much smaller, but equally good-willed, happy, educated and dedicated group in Malta, but there, without the regular Mass, which here is offered at this exquisite church daily. Plus, the choir was "heavenly". And, the sermon superb (about real marriage, the brave priest mentioning that same-sex unions were not marriages-yippie) and the congregation well-trained in responses and customary rubrics. Sigh, wish I could go every day to such a Mass, or even a low TLM. Join me in prayer, please, that I could be part of a parish like this for the rest of my life...traddie heaven.

Narcissism and the Costa Concordia

Men did not make room for women and children  Click here for eyewitness report.

Check this out. Chivalry is dead. Some of us have known this for a long time. Men did not make room for women and children.

Men are no longer men, but boys. This is the triumph of narcissism. It does not matter whether they were fathers not wanting to leave their wives and children. Sacrifice is asked of the mature and the brave. The West is dead...if chivalry and sacrifice are no longer automatic responses to crises.

Illiteracy and religion, plus one of my favorite books

I have been doing a mini-study for an article on illiteracy in 2012. I noticed something very interesting...Note the countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world and, you tell me what they have in common? Does Christianity help education and one's standard of living? Good Socratic Method involves asking questions. Data is from the CIA World Factbook.

1 Niger 84.3%

2 Burkina Faso 77.%

3 Afghanistan 63.7%

4 Sierra Leone 63.7%

5 Gambia 63.5%

6 Guinea-Bissau 62.7%

7 Senegal 62.7%

8 Benin 62.5%

9 Ethiopia 61.3%

10 Mauritania 60.1%

The following book should be read by every Catholic educator and all homeschooling moms and dads.

This book, along with the ideas of Maria Montessori, literally, changed my life.

I could not have said it better; thanks Mr. Voris, for the charity and clarity. Pray.

Do we know longer believe in
tough love, that is, love which is real it based on Truth and not on feel-good nicety-nicety? Pray for the bishops, priests, seminarians that they all follow the Teaching of the Holy Catholic Church.