Start Novena to the Holy Face today February 28, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, North Deanery.comments closed
From my secret correspondent:
Novena In Honor of The Most Holy Face Holy Face of Jesus
This novena prayer may be said at any time, but especially in the nine days leading up to the Feast of the Holy Face on Shrove Tuesday March 8 – The Novena is also available in booklet form see Materials.
THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS
“I firmly wish that my face reflecting the intimate pains
of my soul, the suffering and love of my heart, be more
honoured! Whoever gazes upon me already consoles me.”
(Our Lord Jesus Christ to Sister Pierina)
DAILY PREPARATORY PRAYER (start with this prayer – everyday of the novena)
O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession
of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword
of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we
ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with
Jesus, united with all His sorrows, love and total abandon-
ment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede
for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face
of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. (Start novena)
NOVENA IN HONOR OF THE MOST
HOLY FACE OF JESUS
“All those who, attracted by my love, and venerating my
countenance, shall receive, by virtue of my humanity, a
brilliant and vivid impression of my divinity. This splendour
shall enlighten the depths of their souls, so that in eternal
glory the celestial court shall marvel at the marked likeness
of their features with my divine countenance.” (Our Lord
Jesus Christ to St. Gertrude)
NOTE: The rest of the prayers are at the link above. God bless you!
Priests reject Church Doctrine February 28, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, foolishness, General Catholic, North Deanery, sadness, scandals.comments closed
This data is from Australia, but I’m concerned that the same mentality is widespread in the United States and most other ‘advanced’ nations. In Australia, the vast majority reject Church Authority, reject Magisterial dogmas like that promulgated on contraception, and have a bizaarely vague notion that the laity should have a much greater role in the Church (essentially, a protestant view that the Sacramental priesthood is medieval hooey):
Only 35.4 per cent [of 542 priests surveyed – ED]thought bishops were doing a good job, with one saying their performance was ”between poor and mediocre”. But 43 per cent did not feel nurtured by their bishop while 41.5 per cent did.
Almost 65 per cent did not think Rome understood the challenges facing priests and 70.1 per cent thought it often failed to understand the nature of the Australian church.
This schism was reflected in the respondents’ views on church teachings. Only 19.2 per cent thought it sinful for married couples to use birth control. [I don’t know the percentages in the US, but I do know there are priests in this Diocese who reject Church doctrine on contraception. – ED]
Almost 70 per cent thought abortion was always a sin but only 40.2 per cent said the same of sex before marriage. More than 70 per cent thought celibacy for priests should be optional and several priests made ”no secret of the fact they were in long-term committed relationships with women”. [If these priests cannot be trusted to maintain fundamental, solemn vows they have taken, is it any surprise they find truth such a malleable concept? – ED]
Lay involvement was seen as the church’s greatest internal challenge, with many acutely aware of – and affected by – dwindling attendances. [Increased lay involvement, in the form advocated by these men (essentially, lay people playing at priest) is the cause of dwindling attendances]
Some comments from priests contained in a book that accompanies the study:
- “Many of the priests believe the Vatican exercises far too much control in the life of the church, expects far too much regimentation and allows far too little room for local variations in expressions of the faith.”
- “Many priests bemoan the lost momentum for church reform that grew out of the 1960s and the trend towards the restoration of a more centralised, conservative and rigidly disciplined church over the past 30 years.”
- “A majority see the need for a Third Vatican Council to build on the church’s engagement with society that was achieved by the Second Vatican Council.” [Yes, because that ‘engagement,’ by which they mean capitulation, has been such a stunning success. Why, the new springtime is in full bloom all around us]
- “More generally, in their everyday ministry priests are caught in the conflict of mediating Vatican directives and official church teachings to a laity that is more educated, more sceptical of authority and more willing to think for itself than at any time in the church’s history.” [And these men have played a fundamental role in the laity opposing Church Doctrine! By making clear THEY themselves don’t accept Church Doctrine, by making snide comments about Rome, by accepting the ‘wisdom of the world’ and rejecting the Truth, which Christ has revealed through His Church, they are encouraging the laity to do so, as well. And that plays a fundamental role in dwindling attendance!]
After ‘dissent’ like this has gone on for a very long time, it is extremely difficult o get people back in line with Church Doctrine. It makes the follow-in priest’s job extremely challenging – if he starts preaching the Faith right away, he is bound to make many mad and make attendance and donations drop, real concerns for any priest. But it must be done. The alternative is to continue the slow death of 1000 cuts, as individuals gradually lose the Faith and drift away. Many priests feel great pressure to follow down the path that has been trod to the wide gate where the way is smooth, so we must encourage with our prayers, or words, and our pocketbooks those priests that adhere to the Faith, who proclaim it in no uncertain terms, who challenge the Faithful to live the Truth Christ has revealed through His Church. We must challenge priests who evidence the same lack of Faith shown above to do better, to return to the unchanging Truth, to die to themselves and live for Christ. Ultimately, it comes down to humility, and willingness to accept God’s Will rather than our own selfish desires. We must do all we can to support our priests, even when that support requires us to challenge what they are doing, for love of them and the Sacramental priesthood. There is no one else to turn to.
US entitlement programs are unsustainable February 28, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Basics, disaster, General Catholic, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
You can zero out defense, and everything else, and we’re still running a deficit. Without controlling federal entitlement programs, this country will never economically recover:
And the deficit will grow horribly worse, year after year, as the boomers retire in greater numbers and the social security obligation explodes. This is just the beginning.
This is where Catholic social doctrine, at least as interpreted by the USCCB, runs into problems – there isn’t enough money to pay for the promised entitlements. Even with a massive tax increase, revenues would not greatly increase, as higher tax rates just lead to more income sheltering and depressed economic performance, which keep the coffers from filling as the left likes to fantasize imagine. In fact, it has been shown that lower tax rates actually lead to more economic growth and higher tax receipts. However, that is in normal economic times – with so much of the available money being floated as federal debt, that tends to dry up resources for private investment and puts a lid on how much growth can occur. That is basically what occurs in stagflation – massive federal debt, which the government tries to reduce by printing money, leads to inflation, and also to stagnant growth, or depression, because so much money is being swallowed by the government.
Without a major turnaround, the best we can hope for is a replay of the 70s. The worst is something alot worse than the 1930s. And left wing policies make it worse. The longer we put off addressing horribly underfunded entitlements, the worse the suffering will be. Not enough children were born 1970 – today to provide enough workers to provide the economic activity to afford the promised benefits.
Report on the ‘Walk for Choice’ February 28, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, North Deanery, sickness, Society.comments closed
So, I blegged last week asking for folks to come down to the pro-abort ‘Walk for Choice’ that was held downtown this past Saturday to counter-protest, and none of you people showed up, so you’re all fired! Get off my blog!
End of report.
Just kidding, actually, about 40 pro-lifers were there, to stand for life in opposition to the pro-aborts. So, what was the pro-abort ‘walk’ like? Well, it was nothing like the March for Life – first of all, there were only about 200-250 pro-aborts there, in comparison to the 10,000 at the latest March for Life. There was a fairly interesting demographic breakdown – about 2/3 were college age folks who were very far on the radical side, as evidenced by the prevalence of very conformist expressions of rebellion – lots o’ tatoos, punky hairstyles, cigarette smoke, general lack of personal hygiene. The youngsters were split about 70-30 female-male. There was another subset of middle aged to elderly women who were probably about 25% of the crowd, and then a smattering of pro-abort parents who brought their kids. Some salient differences in the behavior of the respective crowds – at the March for Life, faith plays a huge role and the event is very ad hoc – in spite of the speeches and the Mass, it’s a mass of individuals marching, all kind of doing their own thing as they go. In contrast, the pro-aborts, in typical leftist fashion, are very top-down directed, with a few people with bullhorns leading chants (and with printed pages handed out so everyone could be on board with the chants!) of simplistic messages that are repeated ad nauseum and betray in many cases a lack of deep understanding of just what they are marching for. The entire event was scripted, excepting when the pro-lifers made that impossible, which I will address shortly.
Since we were outnumbered 5 to 1, the pro-lifers initially kept a low profile, just witnessing and praying the Rosary while the pro-aborts did their thing. At one point, the pro-aborts were in front of the JFK Memorial (what a catastrophe that is……), and we were across the street. A black woman drove by in a minivan and was shouting something about Planned Parenthood out the window, but I couldn’t make it out. The pro-aborts kept shifting their crowd so they wouldn’t have to see us pro-lifers, so we moved over nearer to the memorial to be in front of them again. At this point, the black woman who had driven by came walking down the sidewalk, waving a Bible in the air and shouting “Abortion is murder of innocent children.” Her two boys soon joined her. They were shouting this at the top of their lungs, and the pro-aborts were very dismayed. I joined in, and I’ve got a voice that can carry, so the scene devolved into rival groups shouting at each other. They had bullhorns and scripts, but we had conviction and even though badly outnumbered, it was a fairly even contest.
After that went on a few minutes, the pro-aborts decided to “march” again, which entailed their going around the block waving their banners and shouting their simple chants (pro lifers you all lie you don’t care if women die, etc). But as they drifted off, I started asking, very loudly, if these pro-aborts felt they were alive when they were in utero, since they claim abortion is all about ‘choice’ and has nothing to do with life. I also informed the young ladies that the men holding signs that demanded “free abortion on demand without apology,” meaning you and I get to pay for it, were acting out of narrow interest and had no concern for the women other than the brief pleasure they could provide them. I think that stung a couple of the young women, I could see it in their reaction.
Some sad notes: a mom had brought her 5 1/2 y/o daughter to the pro-abort event. I had my 9 y/o and 4 y/o with me, and that sweet little girl asked my daughters if they could play. The mom had put a “I support reproductive rights” sticker on her little girl, and the little girl had a dolly. It made me want to cry, because I had to say no, my daughters can not go over among the wastrel pro-abort college age types and play with you (I did not use those words). And I wanted to ask THE QUESTION, which is, what do you think of the fact that if your mom had wanted to exercise her ‘choice’ with regard to you, you would not be here, but of course I did not. The mom was terribly embarrassed, as well she should have been. In the eyes of a child, such a ‘choice’ is indefensible.
Then, there was the father of two young sons I engaged with as the pro-abort group left to go walk around the block. I asked him if he was alive when he was a fetus. He said no. I said…..wasn’t your heart beating, didn’t you have brainwaves, didn’t your body grow – how were you not alive? He didn’t say anything that I can recall, so I asked if he was not alive, was he dead? Of course not, he answered. So what was he…..then he changed the subject to contraception, and I talked about abortifacients, etc. He didn’t have much answer, but he certainly thought he was very smart. He oozed condescension. Only a simpleton could be pro-life, obviously. His two sons are named Abraham and Isaac, but he is not religious – I think he thought it was cute, ironic, to name them such.
We left a bit early, before the pro-aborts were done. Perhaps Andrew or Kassi can fill in some more details from the conclusion of the ‘Walk,’ or send some pictures. I found it very interesting, and revealing. The pain of so many of the women ‘walking,’ who have had abortions themselves, is palpable, and colors every aspect of their personality. They have to embrace abortion as a wonderful, empowering right, because to see it as horribly evil and wrong is too painful – they can’t live with what they’ve done, so they have to lie and turn it into something positive. I pray for them.
Highly effective pro-life ad February 28, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, awesomeness, General Catholic, sickness, Society.comments closed
Check this out, from American Life League an ad that puts the reality of abortion right up front, but without the ‘off-putting’ bloody images (which is such a sad joke – Americans can watch violent shoot ’em ups night after night but if you show them what a post abortive baby looks like, that’s totally unacceptable):
h/t culturewarnotes
REMINDER – TOMORROW another area pro-life issue – oppose the ‘Walk for Choice’ February 25, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, asshatery, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, North Deanery, sickness, Society.comments closed
Boy, they’re creative, these pro-aborts! In response to the thousands that participated in the March for Life here in Dallas, the pro-aborts are planning to host a ‘Walk for Choice’ this Saturday, Feb 26 in downtown Dallas at the JFK memorial. It starts at noon. I know I request my readers frequently to support pro-life activities, but would you consider participating in a counter-protest being organized to oppose the literally dozens who will be participating in this walk for murder? Details are still being worked out, but I’ll update them as soon as I get them. You can follow events at the prolifetexas blog.
Anyone want to bet concerning the level of news coverage compared to the 10,000 who were at the March for Life this year? I’m guessing at least 3 of the local stations will give it prime time coverage on their broadcasts that night. Let’s make them look bad! Let us have 10 times the pro-life folks than there are pro-aborts!
A massive scandal unfolding in Kansas…. February 25, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, General Catholic, horror, sickness, Society.comments closed
….involving corrupt democrat politicians protecting, yes, you guessed it!, Planned Barrenhood, and obstructing justice in defense of young girls being raped. You can’t make this stuff up. And the dirty little secret that has led to a good man being unfairly prosecuted, which I’ll reveal at the end, is so banal it’s staggering.
First, some history. A few years ago, the then Attorney General of Kansas, Phil Kline, filed suit against Planned Barrenhood in order to subpoena their records to follow up allegations of complicity in child sex abuse cases. As a ‘mandatory notifier,’ any time a child under 14 is brought into a Planned Barrenhood for any treatment and evidence is found of abuse or pregnancy, they are required by law to report this fact. But as Kline brought evidence to trial, it was sat on by then Governor Kathleed Seblius and she instead directed her government to begin an investigation of Kline, which put all his pending cases indicating Planned Barrenhood had deliberately withheld evidence of sex abuse or statuatory rape, on hold. This wasn’t one or two cases – this was over 200 cases of failure to report sex abuse in just 2 years! As events unfolded in this case, more and more of Kansas’ governing elite turned against Kline, until he was hounded from office and put up on ethics charges! They claimed he was trying to reveal the names of all women who had abortions at the Johnson County Planned Barrenhood facility – not just abused kids. And that is what totally freaked out the elite class. They claimed he had violated his oath of office by being a starry eyed pro-lifer and that it colored his judgement. Which, I don’t believe, is any kind of breech of office, but, whatever.
So, this ethics complaint has now gone to court, and Kline has been able, finally, to release the evidence he accumulated about Planned Barrenhood, once again, deliberately covering up felonies being committed in order to advance the pro-abort cause. This evidence shows he was not trying to uncover the names of women who had had abortion in Kansas, as has been falsely claimed (and is part of the secret mentioned above), but was investigating the systemic violations of the law by Planned Barrenhood regarding sexually abused girls. But this was known all along, and the vociferous reaction of Sebelius’ government and others in Kansas governance went way, way beyond wanting to insure good ethics in government. Why did they react so vociferously, so viciously, against Kline? They were afraid the names of their daughters who had abortions would show up in his records, and sully the lily white reputations of the Johnson County elite (Johnson County being the most upscale locale in Kansas, which ain’t saying a whole lot). These were not cases of rape or sexual assault – these were just the daughters of elites whose reputations would be ruined (or, was it the reputations of the parents?) if it were known they had abortions:
Nearly every abortion I’m aware of among my friends and acquaintances took place under solid pressure from parents – usually mom. These parents had no time, inclination or interest in raising their daughters to value chastity, however.
One friend had three abortions by the time she was a Freshman in college. She wrote me about it explaining that her mother dragged her to the clinic each time. I don’t know why she wrote, except to express pain. I was too young and stupid to offer any concrete help. The same mom had nothing to offer about her daughter’s sexuality.
An old girlfriend cajoled me to go to a clinic with her to rescue a friend. Her friend’s older sister had called to say her mother was dragging the younger sister down to the clinic and she didn’t want to go. The sister wouldn’t intervene because the father told her he’d kick her out of the house if she did – a nice, well-off, respectable suburban house. When we got there, mom and dad were on either arm of this hysterically crying young woman pulling her into the clinic. The dad, later that day, after coercing the abortion of his grandchild, kicked his elder daughter out of the house for alerting anyone.
Anybody who’s spent time outside an abortion clinic has witnessed that scene time and again.
Upward mobility and the creation of a respectable, suburban identity were the driving factors in these parents’ decision making, not morality. Threaten that carefully crafted identity with a pregnant daughter though, and it’s back to being trash – something that wouldn’t be tolerated. And in this is the kernel of why Kansas elites hate Phill Kline.
There are any number of anti-abortion politicians in Kansas and none of them are hated with the vehemence directed at Phill Kline. He didn’t propose pro-life legislation or prosecute a doctor without a license. There would have been no vendetta for that. I even suspect that if he’d somehow shut down Tiller’s Wichita practice, there would be less hatred toward him than for what he actually did.
What he actually did was to subpoena medical records at the Johnson County Planned Parenthood. He had reason to do so and the records suggest many violations of Kansas law.
But these were patient records, and even though the names were redacted, the barest chance that anyone, even just Phill Kline, might divine the identity of clients there sent chills down the spines of not a few well-off suburbanites desperate to defend a facade of respectability and propriety.
So, a very good man’s career was ruined, the law is in tatters, abuse has gone on unpunished (and unchecked), and a white hot viciousness has been stirred up, and for what? To protect the good rich suburbanites of Johnson County from having their precious, precious reputations sullied. To keep up the evil, false notion that abortion is ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ To keep up elite left wing appearances. It’s easier to kill a grandchild than to build up that reputation, apparently. This is so banal its vomitous.
Eco-sham classroom too cold to use February 25, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, Basics, foolishness, General Catholic, silliness, Society.comments closed
Yes, it is rather dreary in London……
Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.
Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson – there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building.
The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark classroom was opened three months ago to great fanfare.
It boasts laudable green credentials and is made from sustainable wood, sheep’s wool and soil. The roof is made of mud and grass and it has its own ‘rain pod’ and solar panels.
But there is snag – its solar panels only provide enough energy to power a few lightbulbs.
As a result the classroom is bitterly cold and uninhabitable for lessons.
Parents have branded it ‘useless’, an ‘expensive piece of wood’ and a ‘great idea for the Caribbean’.
There are many, hopefully well intentioned folks, who would like to strongly encourage, even force, the rest of us to use unproven technologies to replace evil, evil fossil fuels. Unfortunately, most of these alternative energy sources have massive problems that have prevented their widespread use – after all, in a free market, if there were truly a way to power our homes and cars and everything else in a manner that was completely pristine, would it not have taken off by now? Solar cells, wind, all the favored forms of ‘alternative energy’ have serious issues of scalability and availability – capacity time. Your average wind generator is “up,” producing power, less than 1/3 the time. Depending on the location, solar cells will work between 10 and 45% of the time, and they never work at night, so you have to have a massive cache of batteries, full of very harmful and dangerous heavy metals, in order to store power for use when the sun isn’t out. And they just don’t scale very well – we’d have to wallpaper Arizona from end to end to even produce a portion of our nation’s electricity supply from solar. So while the intentions may be great, neither of the two most cherished forms of alternative energy so loved by environmentalists has the potential to be more than niche players. But if folks want to try to use these things – great. Just don’t make up false government mandates that will lead to the vast majority of us shivering in the dark.
And then there was two…. February 25, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, sadness, sickness, Society.comments closed
….or maybe one, it depends on whether they can launch an unfunded STS-135 in June or not. Back in the day, each shuttle was expected to fly at least 100 missions, and make going into orbit like going to….well, if not Cleveland, maybe, say……the South Pole? Exotic, but still done fairly regularly. Didn’t happen. Busted design. Way too fragile. And now, the best of ’em all, Discovery, has flown for the last time. All the astronauts agree, pretty much – Discovery has always been the best ship.
While I respect the technology that has gone into the shuttle tremendously, I just don’t care very much about it. It’s pretty cool, but not much to get excited about. Any one of the Gemini missions means more to me than pretty much all shuttle missions combined. It was the worst of both worlds – reliable ‘enough’ to make LEO incredibly boring, but unable to go anywhere else, while also being horrendously expensive and inefficient. I think capsules are better than this compromised design – BUT, if you could develop a true two-stage shuttle with a flyback booster, as was originally envisioned, perhaps it could have worked, but I don’t know if the technology was ever really there. It appeas SSTO is a dead end with current or near future technology. Hard to believe that back in the late 60’s, when they were first talking about the shuttle, they were forecasting over 60 flights – PER YEAR! The entire program, over 30 years, has only flown 133 missions, with 2 catastrophic failures. And very soon, within the next few months, this nation will have no manned access to space. Unless, of course, private industry succeeds where government has failed – failed as it must.
I agree, totally – Apollo was a trap. In the 1950s, the US was on the path to a truly sustainable space program, one based on winged vehicles that would land on normal runways. However, when Sputnik and then Vostok 1 happened, that ‘natural development’ of winged vehicle, expanding the flight envelope gradually into space and then orbit, went out the window, and we launched men into space like artillery, using huge throwaway boosters and capsules that splashed down in the ocean. I don’t know when we would have gotten men in space had the 50’s program continued, but I do know that once they had gotten there, it would have been far more natural, normal, and regular – it would have just become a part of life. We may not have gotten to the moon yet in that scenario, but space travel would likely be something that was just done, by now, and not still a high risk experimental enterprise. 40 years of government involvement upset that natural order and have left us about where we were back in the late 50s, trying to develop sustainable means to get manned access to space cheap enough for private industry to sustain.
Any thoughts, Colleen?
The importance of the Sacramental life February 24, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, scandals.comments closed
Or, I should say, the absolute criticality of the Sacraments. From the book This is the Faith by Canon Francis Ripley, p. 224:
The Sacraments are the official channels of grace to the souls of men. We shoudl therefore be very grateful to God who has given them to us through His love, and we should prove our gratitude by making use of them. The supernatureal life is our most precious treasure. Every time we receive a Sacrament, we nourish that life. In addition, each of the Sacraments confers its own Grace, in accordance with its purpose. It would be wicked pride to say that we do not need these Graces; it is criminal carelessness to try to live without them; it is black ingratitude to use thse priceless Gifts from the burning Heart of Christ.
I would add, it is the height of human folly to look so askance at the Sacraments, to be so blase’ about them, as to receive them unworthily, or in a manner ill-suited to their reception. Do not approach the Blessed Sacrament distracted or absent-minded – go knowing you are about to receive the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord, with a trembling fear at your unworthiness to receive so august a Gift. Be very thankful, and always have many prayers to offer at the Mass that will go up to Heaven and come back down as so many Graces at the reception of the Precious Body and Blood. Do not be flippant in Confession. Perform as honest and thorough examination of conscience as possible, and then have true sorrow for your sins. Do not receive the Blessed Sacrament if you are in a state of grave sin, or even have doubt. It is better not to receive Communion one day, than it is to “eat and drink condemnation” on yourself.
I do not know how people like Cuomo sleep at night. I guess they just. don’t. care.
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