50 YEARS OF VATICAN 2 FRUITS

Wanting to do our part to celebrate the Second Vatican Council and its fruits on its 50th anniversary, we offer these visual testimonies to the renewal:



Mount St Helens, after the 1980 eruption: the trees that were once erect

But many years after the Mount St Helens blast, when the whole countryside around was rubble and ash, something happened amid the horrifying ruins:

Mount St Helens, some decades after



THOUGHTS ON A PROPOSED CANONIZATION

That excellent blog, The Eponymous Flower, informs us that plans appear to be going ahead for a possible canonization of Pope John Paul II.

http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2012/12/canonization-of-john-paul-ii-in-october.html#comment-form

Actually, this is more serious than first imagined.  If this is not mere wishful thinking on the part of John Paul's admirers and does indeed occur then we have reached yet another crossroads in the history of the Church.

If a legitimate canonization is done, properly and without chicanery, then as I understand it that becomes what some theologians term a "second-class infallible declaration", a declaration that that person is actually in Heaven.  Now what is alarming in this particular case is that there is no evidence that John Paul II's pontificate was anything but a disaster for the Church.  There is plenty of evidence that this troubled man spoke not only good words but not-so-good words, words that just skirted the edges of heresy.  And, no, one doesn't need to be a licensed theologian to be able to state that, as long as one has a basic familiarity with doctrine.  Additionally, there is no evidence at all, unless it has been kept secret (and why it would be kept secret at all would be an open question), that he ever recanted some of those problematical words and actions.  So if the case for his sanctification is being based on what the public could clearly see and hear during his reign then it would seem utterly impossible for the Holy Ghost to allow his canonization to move forward.  It would be an utter contradiction.

Unless, of course, behind-the-scenes chicanery is in play.  In other words if the man actually gets canonized without any clear evidence that he undid some of the damage he inflicted on the Church by his bizarre opinions and lack of firm governance, allowing the Church to float aimlessly at sea, then we are justified in suspecting that games are being played in Rome and that proper processes are being ignored in an unseemly haste to further the agenda of the modernists in the Church.  We know that John Paul II, for all his kindly qualities, was a modernist as is, by the way, the current occupant of Peter's Chair.  And if Rome wants the average Catholic to put aside his suspicions about this canonization then it is going to have to release to the public solid evidence that John Paul II deserves to be declared a Saint.

It is true that generally speaking the Church looks at someone's personal holiness more than anything else (so I have been told) when assessing qualifications for Sainthood.  But I believe it logical to assume that if a man is personally holy his actions would bear that out.  Here there are far too many contradictions.  If John Paul II were personally holy then how can one explain his actions?  Can the authorities in the Church assure us that his personal holiness trumps his terrible legislation?  Can his reciting of the daily rosary (which I have no doubt of) have allowed him to approve the sacrilege of Communion-in-the-hand?  Yes, I do try myself to perform this duty on a daily basis but speaking honestly I believe the chances of my own future canonization are somewhat slim.  This is not an attempt at flippancy.  This sublime prayer has no doubt saved many from going completely off the deep end.  But does it always lead to one's eventual raising to the altars?  Did John Paul's prayer life prevent him from even worse mistakes?  It's an interesting question.  This is too serious an issue to allow sentimentality to rear its hideous head, and to wallow in our own "feelings" toward this Pope.

Since such evidence is scant at best we have a right to know what criteria Rome is using, in detail, to advance his cause.  We are perfectly within our rights as Catholics to ask, "Where is the evidence?"  The supposed "miracle" that has been noised about has been, under closer examination, seriously doubted by reputable scholars as being a genuine miraculous occurrence.

It was John Paul II himself who deliberately cheapened the Saint-making process by his streamlining of all the necessary precautions that the Church had in place for centuries to protect it from from making errors in these cases.  These measures were in place so that the Church could declare with absolute certainty that this or that man or woman was worthy of veneration.  How many times in Church history have there been charlatans who gave every evidence of holiness, only to be discovered later as frauds?  That is why the Church has historically taken her time when considering the canonization of persons.  Indeed it took the Church 400 years before finally declaring Joan of Arc a Saint.

We could go on cataloguing the scandals that prospered under John Paul II, some of them instituted by the man himself.  Assisi is one; the "apologies"(!)to the Jews is another; the appointing and maintaining of one snake after another in the episcopacy; his downright weird meetings with pagans, topless and otherwise.  It is too depressing to recall.  But we must keep these tragedies in mind when we speak of canonizing a man who was at the center of these tragedies.

These attempts to canonize recent modernist Popes is a very, very troubling development.  It could call into question the infallibility of the Pope in the minds of poorly-instructed Catholics.  What if one of these men is "canonized" by some underhanded Vatican streamlining of the process and it later comes to light that the personal life of such a man was a moral mess?  Unless we know for certain that proper procedures were in place we cannot, tragically, just assume that Rome has made a wise decision.  We have the examples of Donald Wuerl and Vincent Nichols and the "theology of the body" to remind us that some decisions of the Popes are skewed at best.  There is a move afoot now to canonize even Paul VI.  Mind-boggling.  If that man is canonized by some process of episcopal legerdemain the Church will indeed have more than egg on her face, because there are some rather unflattering aspects to his life that have been kept from the public but seem to now be leaking out.

A prayer to the Holy Ghost would seem to be in order right now. 

FRANKENBAMA

I believe I have found the secret surrounding our president's birth certificate.

He was begotten in a test tube.

MR BELLOC ATTENDS A FUNERAL

Here richly, with
ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse
was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed
to see him hanged.

Hilaire Belloc

NIGHT-PIECE

Photo by Mr Aaron Teasdale

 
 "When it was midnight, I walked out, and strolled in the woods....I was suddenly roused from a delicious reverie, by observing a dark object moving slowly and cautiously among the trees.  At first, I fancied it was a bear, but a nearer inspection discovered an Indian on all fours.  For a moment I felt unwilling to throw myself in his way, lest he should be meditating some sinister design against me; however, on his waving his hand, and putting his finger on his lips, I approached him, and notwithstanding his injunction to silence, inquired what he did there.  'Me watch to see the deer kneel,' replied he; 'This is Christmas night, and all the deer fall upon their knees to the Great Spirit, and look up.'  The solemnity of the scene, and the grandeur of the idea, alike contributed to fill me with awe."

                                                   JOHN HOWISON, Sketches of Upper Canada (1821)

[From "The Christmas Book", an anthology by D.B. Wyndham-Lewis]

TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT

From the superb St Andrew Daily Missal (pre-Catastrophe edition):

"The central event in the history of the world is about to take place.  In accordance with Isaias' prophecy St John the Baptist is about to introduce the Messias to the world, and it is of the first importance to determine the historic moment when this took place.

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caeser, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Avilina, under the high-priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert."

St John the Baptist

Let us note the exacitude with which this event is recorded.  One wonders how our historians, who are capable of deciphering the slightest details of the ancient world going back 6,000 years seem to have some difficulty with these particular details recorded by Luke, the physician.  Surely if the mental processes of Queen Cleopatra can be (they believe) deciphered by several nebulous suggestions by personages living in her time then the precision of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, illuminated in such easily verifiable detail, can not be brushed aside as mere hearsay.  Unless, of course, you are employed by PBS and given millions by well-heeled foundations to produce the usual bilge that tends to show up like clockwork every Christmas and every Easter.  Ho hum.

Let us not be detained overmuch by these zealots.  For at midnight tonight we begin a joyous fesitval, which indeed commemorates the Central Event in all human history.

O come, Emmanuel.

FESTAL COCKCROW

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

                                      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

DON'T DISCOUNT THE DEMONIC

This writer is not the first to point out that this latest murder spree in Connecticut may have a preternatural explanation.  There will be blaming and fostering new conspiracy theories to be sure but we cannot discount the agency of an Angelic Intelligence being behind these horrors.

We Catholics can do no more at the moment than pray for the souls of these little ones, and for their parents.  Let me amend that: we can do other things, like putting such episodes into their proper context, as these brief lines are attempting to do.  The world in general - and by "the world" is meant the voices we continually hear from - has completely cut itself off from decency.  Completely.  Of course we are not speaking of the good, average souls who live and work and pray and are rarely if ever heard from.  We are speaking of the usual voices of media and government, those two peas in a single pod who work in unison almost constantly.  Thus we have the usual banalities coming from the talking heads or outrageous hypocrisies like the words of the Chief Assassin in Washington telling us that "they had their whole lives ahead of them".  How profound.  And how funny, coming from a man who not only is the most bloodthirsty abortionist in the world as well as the cold-blooded killer of innocent human beings in the Middle East, many of them women and children - children whose whole lives were ahead of them as well.  When the visage of that foul criminal shows up on intenet or TV I can only look away in disgust.  His cruel indifference to the sufferings of the innocent make him the worst swine in the pigpen.

What happened in Connecticut was a satanic incident, quite obviously so when one considers its proximity to this holy time of year.  It is the delight of the Evil One to shove evil in our faces during Easter and Christmas.  Never forget that this demon is an Angel, and was gifted by his Creator with all the intelligence of an Angel.  We ignore that at our own peril.

Others will write more eloquently on this sad topic, therefore I will quietly post these thoughts and then try to do what can be done with these limited resources.

May these little ones enjoy the Beatific Vision, and may they pray for their parents and for the utter and total defeat of the evil forces that have engulfed our sad world.

BELLOC ON BURGUNDY WINE

It is not the Christmas Season officially until we ponder Mr Belloc's thoughts on burgundy wine.  That, and his delightful "Noel", which we reproduced about this time last year, remind us that a good, old bit of Christmas celebrating, and not a little decidely wicked humor, comes naturally to the Catholic heart at this time of year.

As Charles Lamb wrote to Bernard Barton, "Old Christmas is a-coming to the confusion of Puritans, Muggletonians, Anabaptists, Quakers, and that unwassailing Crew.  He cometh not with his wonted gait; he is shrunk nine inches in his girth, but is yet a lusty fellow".  Words well worth remembering for those who live in formerly Catholic or non-Catholic countries.  Belloc was disgusted with those who also disgusted Mr Lamb, the Puritans, et al who had a horror of any kind of joyous celebrating of the coming of the Christ Child.  This disgust brought out the playful nature in this great man.

So here it is, for your pleasure: Mr Belloc on burgundy wine.


On the Excellence of Burgundy Wine

My jolly fat host with your face all a-grin,
Come, open the door to us, let us come in.
A score of stout fellows who think it no sin
If they toast till they're hoarse, and they drink till they spin,
     Hoofed it anain,
     Rain or no rain,
To crack your old jokes, and your bottles to drain.

Such a warmth in the belly that nectar begets
As soon as his guts with its humour he wets,
The miser his gold, and the student his debts,
And the beggar his rags and his hunger forgets.
     For there's never a wine
     Like this tipple of thine
From the great hill of Nuits to the River of Rhine

Outside you may hear the great gusts as they go
By Foy, by Duerne, and the hills of Lerraulx,
But the rain he may rain, and the wind he may blow,
If the Devil's above there's good liquor below.
     So it abound,
     Pass it around, 
Burgundy's Burgundy all the year round.

                               Hilaire Belloc (from Sonnets and Verse)

I love this man all year round.  But I love him most at Christmastide.

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SAVING OF COMMUNISM...BY AMERICA

We were recently reminded of this excellent article by the very perceptive writer Patrick Foy, who writes brilliantly about the machinations behind the scenes that brought America into a terrible war, a war which single-handedly saved the Communist dictators in Russia.  For those who may still be wondering why these "international events" seem to just come upon us out of thin air here is red meat to feast on:

http://www.patrickfoydossier.com/patrickfoydossier/Pearl_Harbor__The_Search_Continues.html

Every war has its villains.  But rarely does the winning side ever want to know the truths of the villainy practiced by their own leaders.  It is time to end such Pollyanna-ish thinking.  Especially these days, when the United States has been recklessly attacking one country after another that has done us no harm whatsoever.  We have become worse than the dictators we fought in the 1940s.  In some ways, far, far worse.

There were other evil regimes that came into being as a result of this war, regimes that are still making life hell for those people it hates.  But that is a story for another day.

THE STALINIZATION OF AMERICA

Heil Hitler???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I received this in my email today.  I think it's worth passing along.

A Letter from Hobby Lobby Stores CEO By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn't much bigger than most people's living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God's word. From there,Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation's largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family. We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I've always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God's laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that's what we've tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week's biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We've not only added jobs in a weak economy, we've raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage. But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don't pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don't cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines. Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that's raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It's not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it's the same for everybody. But that's not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won't exempt them for reasons of religious belief. So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don't like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit. My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that's a choice no American and no American business should have to make. The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church. Since you will not see this covered in any of the liberal media, pass this on to all your contacts. Sincerely, David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.