Madox Brown PRB

Elijah and the Widow's Son (1864) - Ford Madox Brown

Sacrificing the Pope, or, Goodbye NPR

Taking my son to see a movie about vikings and dragon training, I turned on the radio in search of some music worth listening to. The NPR reporter began the clipped, accusatory story about a letter. I turned off the radio, feeling angry.

Regardless of closer readings of each and every outcropping of this poison-pen ivy, and criticism asking simply for normal journalistic standards, it seems that intelligence is no antidote to being stupid about scapegoating and lust for sacrificial victims. (Think Radovan Karadžić.)

Robert Hamerton-Kelly has noted that in modernity, we either increase the number of our victims or the prestige of our victims: genocide or regicide. When the social and psychological tumult grows sufficiently, fallen human nature wants sacrificial victims.

Who has great prestige than the Holy Father? Well ... the left can't sacrifice their King, can they? Not yet at least. So, they want the Holy Father. Driven by their desire for a victim, they will continue to search, hunt, scan, and glean until they find what they feel is sufficient evidence to carry out the ritual. They even have a judge lined up.

Pray for the peace of the Holy Father.

Pray for perseverance in practicing the cardinal virtues (fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence), the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity), empowered by Our Lord's eucharistic grace, joining others who engage in Marian chivalry.

Pray for those anthropologically ignorant smart people who want a victim who is Christ's Vicar, Benedict XVI.

Madox Brown PRB

Walton-on-the-Naze (1860) - Ford Madox Brown

Catholic Tea Partism

Tunku Varadarajan at The Daily Beast thinks Pope Benedict XVI needs leaving alone to fix the problems within the Church. The sex scandals, shoddy governance, silence, and cover-ups have led, he believes, to a new era of openness that the Holy Father understands has changed the Church forever. In fact, he knows that it has come to the reality of Catholic tea parties that will from now on make sure the truth gets told to him, in love.

Goldman - This is Not a Drill

For the record: David P. Goldman - Spengler's This is Not a Drill — This is the Real Thing. NB: his last two paragraphs.

The Company He Still Keeps

From of all places, The Tablet: (h/t: Anchoress)

All Christians are one in the Body of Christ. I have deepest respect and affection for Christians from other Churches who nurture and inspire me. But this unity in Christ needs some visible embodiment. Christianity is not a vague spirituality but a religion of incarnation, in which the deepest truths take the physical and sometimes institutional form. Historically this unity has found its focus in Peter, the Rock in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the shepherd of the flock in John’s gospel.

From the beginning and throughout history, Peter has often been a wobbly rock, a source of scandal, corrupt, and yet this is the one – and his successors – whose task is to hold us together so that we may witness to Christ’s defeat on Easter Day of sin’s power to divide. And so the Church is stuck with me whatever happens. We may be embarrassed to admit that we are Catholics, but Jesus kept shameful company from the beginning.

Read all …

Wise as Serpents, Innocent as Doves

We must have our eyes wide open. As Our Lord admonished us, we must be "wise as serpents and as innocent as doves" (Mt 10,16). The same few men who now occupy the Oval Office, who have strived so hard to obtain so much power and control over the fate not only of this once-great nation but also others so indelibly influenced by the true biblical spirit, are now - if one were to follow the minute yet certain threads of power and control - are now trying their best to tear down and destroy both the credibility and the influence of the sacramental presence of Christ in our world; namely, the Catholic Church.

Like Elizabeth and Lord Cecil (Burghley) in the reign of Tudor terror in England, there is very little these power-mongers will not do, strings they will not pull, to try their utmost to undo the epistemological, anthropological, and theological allegiance of millions of Catholics in this and any other country that happens to be within earshot or readership of their onslaught against Christ's "one holy catholic and apostolic Church."

Read Evelyn Waugh's Edmund Campion. Watch Michael Wood's In Search of Shakespeare. Understand that "Bloody Mary" was a blip on the continuum of religious persecution compared with the model for the modern police state that was conducted behind the skirts of Queen Elizabeth, while hanging, having one's "privy parts" cut off and entrails roasted before your still living eyes, then being quartered was the norm of those sentenced to death at Tyburn Tree.

But our modern Lord Cecil and associates want nothing other than complete and monolithic power. "Whatever it takes" is the pragmatic motto of these officer-class ubermensch leaders. And they are confident they can do it.

Our response must be that recommended by T. S. Eliot in The Four Quartets: "prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action" and in that order. Or, as Gil Bailie quotes John Paul II as having quipped: "We ha(ve) two choices: a practical one and a hopelessly naive mystical one. The practical one (is) to fall on our knees and pray for the interecession of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The hopelessly naive one (is) to organize a meeting of politicians and bureaucrats."

You know me: engage in Marian chivalry. And never let go of your faith, hope, and charity - even toward these power-mongers who are forgetful that they must stand before Our Lord on the Day of Judgment. They, too, are forgetful that the Devil tends to break and throw away his "tools" when he finishes with them.

Fight the good fight! Pray! Love! And be Pope's men - and women - all.

Whudya Thunk

You mean - shock! - the Catholic Church may about the same but no worse than any other christianity or public school or, you know, like, uh, group (with some notable exceptions that, one might imagine applauding the precipitating events of the scandal)? Fancy that.

An Email from the Heartland

From an email sent to me from my sister:

In

1952

President Truman

established one day a year as a

"National Day of Prayer."

In

1988

President Reagan

designated the

First Thursday in May of each year as

the National Day of Prayer.

In June

2007

(then)

Presidential

Candidate Barack Obama

declared that the USA Was no longer a

Christian nation.

This year

President Obama,

canceled the

21st annual National Day

of Prayer ceremony

at the White

House under the rouse

Of "not wanting to offend anyone"

On September 25, 2009

from 4 am until 7 pm,

a National Day of Prayer

for the Muslim religion was Held on Capitol Hill,

beside the White House.

There were over 50,000 Muslims that

Day in DC.

I guess it doesn't matter

if "Christians"

Are offended by this event -

We obviously

Don't count as

"anyone" anymore.

The direction

This country is headed

Should strike fear in the heart of every Christian.

Especially knowing that the

Muslim religion believes that if Christians cannot be

Converted they should be Annihilated

Go to the website

To confirm this info:

http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/

Pay particular attention to the very bottom of the page:

"OUR TIME HAS COME"

I hope that this Information will stir your spirit.

The words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 -

"If my people, Who are called by my Name,

Will humble themselves And pray,

And seek my face, and Turn from their Wicked ways,

Then will I hear from Heaven

And will forgive their Sin and will heal Their land."

We must pray for our nation, our communities,

our families, and especially our children.

They are the ones that are going to suffer the most

If we don't PRAY!

May God have Mercy...

IN GOD WE TRUST.

French Intellectuals - Appeal to Truth

Young Andrew Cusack posts on an 'Appeal to Truth' penned by French Intellectuals in support of Benedict XVI here.

Ed Koch - Enough is Enough

For the record: former New York mayor Ed Koch writes in The Jerusalem Post that the procession of anti-Catholicism articles aren't meant to inform but to castigate.

Ronald Knox - Hope

HOPE IS SOMETHING THAT is demanded of us; it is not, then, a mere reasoned calculation of our chances. Nor is it merely the bubbling up of a sanguine temperament; if it is demanded of us, it lies not in the temperament but in the will ... Hoping for what? For deliverance from persecution, for immunity from plague, pestilence, and famine ... ? No, for the grace of persevering in his Christian profession, and for the consequent achievement of a happy immortality. Strictly speaking, then, the highest exercise of hope, supernaturally speaking, is to hope for perseverance and for Heaven when it looks, when it feels, as if you were going to lose both one and the other.

- Monsignor Ronald Knox

Witnesses in Dark Times

Without a working knowledge of mimetic theory, it is nearly impossible to extricate one's thoughts and feelings from the increasingly shrill accusatory voices in the present sex abuse crisis facing the Catholic Church.

Being a victim makes one more likely to be a victimizer. Violence is extremely mimetic. If you have ever been slapped in the face, what did your hand want to do to the one who slapped you? Too, we have rarely lived in such a litigious age as the present.

It is perfectly understandable, then, that legitimate sufferers of clergy sexual abuse should want, even demand, justice. What this may mean for the Church, however, is extremely conflicting to all who love and legitimately desire to defend Her as the sacramental presence of Our Lord in this world.

How can such strong and overwhelming feelings of the abused be heard, honored, and given justice without huge and destructive damage to the essential sacramental ministry and mission of the Catholic Church? And, of course, championing the cause of the victims of abuse gives those ignorant of anthropological realities the hand-rubbing, gleeful pleasure of victimizing in the name of victims; the only "legitimate" way to engage in violence oneself today.

Let us pray for the Holy Father, practice legitimate defense, and set examples of faith, hope, and charity. If we are called on to be martyrs of the truth, goodness, and beauty of Mother Church, so be it. It may be that we are called to such a vocation precisely for times such as these.

Ultimately it comes down to this: who are you going trust for epistemological, anthropological, theological, and soteriological certainty? I side with Our Lord and His "one holy Catholic and apostolic Church."

Dyce PRB

Woman of Samaria (1860) – William Dyce

Ben Hur, Dad's World, and Ours

As I do odd-jobs today, clearing the deck for my 3-month cancer check tomorrow, I finished without doubt my favorite film about Our Lord from the golden age of cinema, Ben Hur (1959). What I like about it is that it has the Gospel and Our Lord just off center-stage, but indelibly interwoven with the family of the protagonist, Judah Ben Hur. It is the kind of movie that my less than a year deceased United Methodist pastor father loved, because it bolstered his Christian faith at a time when the United States was ostensibly at-one with the biblical faith, morals, and ethos.

I converted to Mother Church nine years ago this summer because I saw that the Protestantism of my father would not, could not, sustain one in the coming storm of Moloch worship, the increasing momentum of jihad of the Scimitar, and the reversion to neo-paganism by the Judeo-Christian rejecting West. (Structurally, all three are symptomatic of Girard's "primitive sacred.")

What studio today would make Ben Hur? Except for loopy Mel's Icon Productions (Passion of the Christ), none would. The tipping point in America has been passed, but it isn't one of "global warming/climate change." It is the Rubicon of rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Cor 2,2), and we are seeing every day the ramifications of this rejection, from so-called "health care reform," to the Beirut-ization of American towns and cities all around us.

We must not, however, fall into despair. As Monsignor Ronald Knox said, God has used such abandonments and betrayals before to rejuvenate the Church, and He will continue to do so.

Be faithful, vigilant, loving and wise, engaging in Marian chivalry. Stand with the Holy Father, our brothers-in-arms and sisters-in-arms. God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.

Knox - History

GOD WORKS, NOT to a five years' or a ten years' plan, but with a purpose that realizes itself slowly through the centuries. The Roman Empire, while it persecuted the Church, was preparing the way for its world-domination. The barbarian inroads, which seemed so destructive, breathed life into a dying civilization. The Reformation itself, by provoking us to jealousy, brought home to us the need for a reformation from within. And, centuries hence, men will find it just as easy to find a meaning and a purpose in what is happening now.

- Monsignor Ronald Knox

Rotten in Denmark

A review and interview with the author of Among Criminal Muslims: A Psychologist’s Experience from Copenhagen here.

Rossetti PRB

Sir Galahad at the ruined Chapel (1857-59) -

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Hitler, the Shroud, and the Sudarium

A fascinating little story: Adolph Hitler send troops to steal the Shroud of Turin, but was thwarted by a few plucky Benedictine monks. Bully!

Relatedly, Ignatius Press has an enormously good deal on a hard-bound copy of Janice Bennett's seminal study of the Sudarium of Oviedo. The Sudarium, the blood on which matches the blood on the Shroud of Turin (think about that for a moment), has a much longer and well-documented "paper trail" than that of the Shroud. It is, therefore, of primary importance in any investigation into the authenticity of the Shroud that Hitler, apparently, wanted so badly.

Magister - 6 Accusations, 1 Question

Sandro Magister examines Six Accusations, One Question against Benedict XVI.

'Modernism on the Rampage'

For the record: Lutheran theologian, John Stephenson, does an Ironman crumple on the recent attackers of the Pontiff in The dictatorship of relativism strikes back—and goes nuclear.

Benedict - 'Cure Against Death'

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Jesus is the “cure for death” man has sought since ancient times and still seeks at present, a “cure” that begins at baptism that continues for one’s whole life, this according to Benedict XVI who spoke last night at Easter Vigil, the “Vigil of all Vigils”, during which he performed baptism for six catechumens.

Men try to extend and improve life. “But let us reflect for a moment,” the Pontiff said. “[W]hat would it really be like if we were to succeed, perhaps not in excluding death totally, but in postponing it indefinitely, in reaching an age of several hundred years? Would that be a good thing? Humanity would become extraordinarily old; there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation.”

Christ instead transforms “our lives from within”; he creates “a new life within us, truly fit for eternity,” transforming “us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness.”

More>>

Duke 61 Butler 59

Gold Standard

Sanctity, Pure Love, and St Bernard

Fr Dwight Longenecker analyzes the age-old version of the two-pronged attack on Mother Church. He tells us, rightly, that each one of us is to engage in the battle using the only remedy: sanctity.

Below is a key understanding of the mysticism of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Doctor Mellifluus, on that remedy of sanctify as explicated by Thomas Merton:

False contemplation can be attained by the prudence of the flesh, but true mysticism is a gift that is granted only to those who are extremely little and poor in their own eyes, and who have learned, as Bernard himself did, to live not for themselves but for others. Such things are only learned supernaturally from the Holy Spirit ...

First ... every man should aspire to perfect union with God, at least in heaven. The fact that we are made in God's image should lead us to do this without any fear. The perfection of love, indeed, demands that we cast out all fear and seek the mercy of God with perfect confidence ...

...(S)ince God Himself is love, nothing can give Him greater honor than our love. Consequently nothing could be more meritorious than this pure love by which we abandon all and live for God alone. What does love merit? More love. For charity is at once the merit and the reward ...

Turning to our own world, the Holy Father (Pius XII) laments the fact this charity has grown cold. The love of God is not known. The doctrine of this divine union has been forgotten by those who lose themselves in the cares and business of increasingly active lives. They have forgotten the meaning of contemplation and of that charity which is fed not by human enthusiasm and the inspirations of natural ambition but by God Himself in prayer and sacrifice.

Christos Voskrese

Huge h/t and bow to Orthodox Fr Stephen, who provides the English translation (below video):

People rejoice, nations hear:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Stars dance, mountains sing:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Forests murmur, winds hum:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Seas bow, animals roar:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Bees swarm, and the birds sing:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!

Angels stand, triple the song:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Sky humble yourself, and elevate the earth:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Bells chime, and tell to all:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Glory to You God, everything is possible to You,
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!

Spinmeisters and Double Standards

Just imagine if Tea Baggers did this.

I don't fancy myself a Tea Party type myself, but it is interesting to note how the liberal progressivist agitprop machine works.

Boycott the NYT

Fr Dwight Longenecker and Francis Beckwith both are calling for Catholics to boycott the New York Times in light of Maureen Dowd's refusal to recant her "sleazy and false attack" on the Holy Father. Count me in.

Let's Cuff Him

This is what passes for British jurisprudence?

Meanwhile, amidst the knee-jerk accusations, a rabbi recommends the biblical ethos of charity.

P. Hitchens - The Lost Archbishop

For the record: the only Hitchens brother worth reading on Our nice, furry Archbishop... lost in a barbarous world.

4 Quotes for an Easter Afternoon

1.

“So after I signed the bill, I looked around. I looked up at the sky to see if asteroids were coming. I looked down at the ground to see if any cracks had opened up in the ground.

"It turned out to be a pretty nice day. Birds were still chirping. Folks were strolling down the street. Nobody had lost their doctor, nobody had pulled the plug on granny, nobody was being dragged away to be forced into some government plan.”

- President Barrack Obama

2.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

— Mark Twain

3.

"We are not baptized into the hierarchy; do not receive the Cardinals sacramentally, will not spend an eternity in the beatific vision of the pope. Christ is the point. I, myself, admire the present pope, but even if I criticized him as harshly as some do, even if his successor proved to be as bad as some of those who have gone before, even if I find the Church, as I have to live with it, a pain in the neck, I should still say that nothing a pope (or a priest) could do or say would make me wish to leave the Church although I might well wish that they would leave."

- Frank Sheed

4.

"If it don't play in the cancer ward, it ain't the Gospel."

- Carlyle Marney

Happy Easter

Resurrection (1518) - Albrecht Altdorfer

Resurrection (1400s?) - Fra Angelico

Resurrection (1515 Isenheim altarpiece) - Grünewald