Manos
Cincinnati’s Curious Masonic Church
Cincinnati has long appeared to have a revolving door between the Masonic lodges and the Catholic Church. Having grown up there, I can recall discussions of various people who were both in Knights of Columbus and Masons, and rumors of parishes that were pagan experiments. People talk, and that sort of talk happened way before blogging. In…
Who is this Savior Born of Mary?
Christmas is wrought with contradictions and hope. I love it. I always have to wonder just Who people think Jesus is and what His Incarnation means for us today, though. Besought with an authoritarian government, the encroachment of Marxist demoralization, and myriads of distractions foisted on us by the mass media, it is difficult sometimes…
Bishop Paprocki is Stealing their happiness? !
You’ve seen the headlines by now: Bishop Paprocki of Springfield diocese is going to perform an exorcism at the same time as the Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois signs a bill into law that enacts so-call marriages between persons of the same sex (as if that were possible anywhere in God’s creation). The story is…
Until the Choir Sings “Amen” – One Easy Secret to a Happy Death
“Life is a play in which for a short time one man represents a judge, another a general, and so on; after the play no further account is made of the dignity which each one had.” –St. John Chrysostom It’s that time of year when we ought to have been focused on the eleventh and…
Fire From Heaven and St. Michael’s Tears
Somewhere in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty there is claimed to have been placed a plaque inscribed with a passage from the sonnet The New Colossus written by Emma Lazarus. The passage compares the two bronze statues for purpose: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land…
Dark Night Arrives
Finally, today, I had a box in my mailbox — I was hoping, and it turned out to be the box for which I have been waiting. The Fall catalog of Roman Catholic Books advertised this saucy title from Dr. Alice von Hildebrand: It is precisely what it says: a critique of the Theology of the…
Spring a Friend — the All Souls Day way
“Not by weeping,” says St. John Chrysostom, “but by prayer and almsgiving are the dead relieved.” Know anybody that passed away this past year? Time to visit their grave and pray for them, because you can get a soul out of purgatory today due to that wrinkle which permits a plenary indulgence to be gained for…
Pope Wrestles Mania, Disappoints Some
With my post about the Pope Francis interview the other day, in the aftermath of that interview, we see people picking up their toys to go home and saying things like “the pope doesn’t support this so I give up.” Or, see for example this article from Rorate Coeli blog (FAIR WARNING: the melodrama and…
Francis, the object of Modern Tribalism
If you aren’t laughing at the idiots all fighting amongst themselves in reaction to Pope Francis’s interview, yet, then I hope this post will give you a perch from which you can start to laugh with me. Yes, I was irritated at first, rightly so, but as I think it over, I’m finding a lot…
The Controversial Sign of Redemption: the heart of our logo.
Saint Thomas Aquinas would complete all of his works while meditating upon a Crucifix. It is said that after he finished writing the words to the song, Pange Lingua, the Corpus on his cross came to life and said, “Well done, Thomas”. At the end of his life, while Saint Thomas was meditating again on…
