More thoughts on the errors of Russia ...

Marge Sanger, 1961

Hillary Clinton's hero.

Nearly 100 years ago, Our Lady of the Rosary warned at Fatima that Russia would spread her errors ...

How clearly do we see that now?  I was re-reading Roy Schoeman's book, Salvation Is From The Jews the other day - looking for references on Nazi Germany and abortion, and once again ran across Margaret Sanger's name in connection with Nazi eugenics, birth control, and so on.  Sanger's sympathies were very much in line with Nazism.  Interestingly enough, her views dovetailed with Theosophical thought as well (another error promulgated from Russia) - which in turn influenced the ideology of neo-pagan Nazism.  Sounds convoluted and theoretical - but we shouldn't be so dismissive because of that.  I mention these connections to point out the influences which formed Margaret Sanger and the foundation of Planned Parenthood ... the lavishly endowed, gilded lily of the eugenics movement.

Margaret Sanger and Russia.

I came across an interview at Catholic World Report with Dr. Paul Kengor, author of "Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage".  Whose name pops up?  Marge Sanger.  A couple of excerpts from that interview:

CWR: You show how the Bolshevik revolution took direct aim at both marriage and Christianity. What were some practical ways in which Lenin sought to destroy both? Is there a direct correlation to how both are being attacked and undermined today in the U.S. and the West?

Dr. Kengor: Lenin and the Bolsheviks immediately went after God/religion, private property, and marriage and family. They radically liberalized all divorce and abortion laws. You weren’t free in Bolshevik Russia to have freedom of religion, press, assembly, speech, or property, but, wow, if you wanted a divorce or an abortion, you were the freest person on the planet! The sky was the limit. And in very short course, Russia soon had divorce and abortion rates unseen in the history of the world. In fact, the abortion rate got so bad that it astounded Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who took a fact-finding trip to the Soviet Union in 1934, and even stunned Stalin, who, in 1936, was forced to ban abortion out of fear that his country would soon cease to exist. Russian women were annihilating the future generation. This madness had to be stopped or there would be no communist Russia.

As far as the correlation to America and the West today, our rates of divorce and abortion have never been as bad as communist Russia, but they’ve certainly been bad enough. We’ve seen divorce rates near 50% and experienced the extermination of nearly 60 million unborn babies in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973. And in other areas, such as birth control and the condemnation of those who oppose birth control and abortion on moral-religious-political grounds, we in America today stand where Bolshevik Russia stood eight decades ago. In the book, I have a full chapter on Margaret Sanger. Sanger wrote this upon her return from communist Russia in 1934: “Theoretically, there are no obstacles to birth control in Russia. It is accepted … on the grounds of health and human right…. We [in America] could well take example from Russia, where there are no legal restrictions, no religious condemnation, and where birth control instruction is part of the regular welfare service of the government.”

What really strikes one about reading this assertion today is how modern liberal Democrats in America have arrived at Sanger’s Bolshevik ideal, where Planned Parenthood’s services have become, in their mind, “part of the regular welfare service of the government,” just like in Stalinist Russia. If you disagree with today’s “progressives” on funding Planned Parenthood or the Obama HHS mandate or whatever, they accuse you of favoring a “war on women.” In many areas, as I show in the book, today’s liberals are just a few decades behind the communists. - Read the entire interview at CWR

Here's the deal, as I'm seeing it.

To quote John Lennon, "You say you want a revolution?"  It happened.  It's now.  Progressivism.  Change.  Constant revolution. 

You are waiting for a sign?  A miracle?  A heavenly intervention?  It happened.  In 1917.  We were warned and now we are reaping the effects of ignoring the warning.

Heaven help us.

Saturday August 22, Feast of the Queenship of Our Lady and Nationwide Protest Against Planned Parenthood.

In St. Paul Minnesota:

St. Paul 

Planned Parenthood, 671 Vandalia Street (map)

When: This protest will be held Saturday, August 22, 2015 

Sponsor: Pro-Life Action MinistriesContact the local leader

Other locations in Minnesota and across the country here.

If you are unable to attend, pray, fast, or do some sort of penance, but pray.  Attend Mass and adoration, into the night, if possible.  Pray for an end to abortion, lobby and petition for the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, and please try to spread the news of the atrocities committed by the abortion industry.  The dissection of living newborns and the selling of body parts and 'tissue' for medical research is intolerable. 

Don't let these crimes continue to be assimilated into the culture, taken in stride, or denied and simply ignored.  These are living infants destroyed through abortion, including partial-birth abortion, as well as newborn infants, kept alive to harvest intact specimens.  We now have documentary evidence - the most recent example here.  

This is definitely a sign.

The 'fire rainbow' over Isle of Palms, S.C.

Yes it is.

Those are seraph wings on a pillar of cloud suggesting an angel and the Old Testament account of the pillar of cloud-pillar of fire in the Exodus.  No doubt about it.

The chair?  I think we're looking at sede vacante there.

. . . 

Happy Friday!

Joseph Prever and same-sex friendship.

You've got to have friends.

Friends of Joe Prever feel he was 'picked on' for his tweets at a recent Courage sponsored conference in Detroit.  I wrote about that here.

That is what happens when we discuss same sex attraction, gay and Catholic stuff.  Clarity on Catholic teaching is a necessity.  Perhaps that was mentioned at the conference - I'm sure that was the expectation.  Candid, albeit public tweets by participant and invited guest Joe Prever concerned some people and an online discussion ensued.  That's good - because, as I say, clarity on Catholic teaching is a necessity.  (As for infiltration of the Church by gay activists - that already happened and has been the case for decades.  Dignity, New Ways Ministry, and others have influenced Catholic teaching and pastoral care on the parish and scholastic level for years.)

The Spiritual Friendship model has been invited to the table.

Joe Prever is a work in progress, as we all are.  There is nothing wrong with challenging a public speaker.  That said, his message is out there.  What it amounts to is very similar to discussions within Courage groups - honest, forthright, discussion regarding the difficulties involved in dealing with same sex attraction, isolation, loneliness, temptations against chastity and so on.  Prever discusses the need for friendship and support - disinterested friendship - meaning without inordinate attachment or affection.  Not mixing it up with sexual fantasy or neurotic fears of 'an occasion of sin' in having a 'guy' as a close friend and confidant.  When we talk that way - sometimes it sounds like we are trying to find a way to have a lover, or boy friend friendship, or partner-type intimate friendship.  And so that is why public speakers and authors find themselves challenged.

Joe Prever

Prever's presentation is getting more press, which affords a different perspective on the intent and purpose of his presentation at the conference.  It's helpful to consider his POV within the context of his experience.

True friendship is vital in helping young people who are struggling with same-sex attraction but trying to live a chaste lifestyle, said a prominent gay Catholic blogger. 

“We love when we make ourselves vulnerable,” said blogger Joseph Prever who writes under the pseudonym Steve Gershom for a blog with the tagline, “Catholic, gay, and feeling fine.” Prever was speaking at an international conference on pastoral care for those experiencing same-sex attraction, organized by the Catholic ministry Courage.
In his talk titled “The Curse of the Ouroboros: Notes On Friendship,” he explained how close, chaste friendships can help young people experiencing same-sex attractions escape a self-destructive cycle that can result from an excessive inward-focus.

“A lot of people struggle with being sort of inward-turned, sort of self-enclosed, sort of unable to engage people in actual person-to-person relationships, because you’re so concerned with maintaining your own self-image, maintaining your image in other people’s minds,” he said in an interview after his talk.

“So for me, the struggle has always been learning to sort of unknot that knot, and a large part of the way that has happened in my life has been via friendships, both in learning to let other people see into my interior and to sort of help me when I was not quite willing to be helped,” he said.

“And also learning to reach out and help other people who are in even worse, or just different, spots.” - CNA

They're here ... and you know ...

The Spiritual Friendship Movement has achieved recognition by many Catholics, and their representatives are invited to speak here and there, while their writings are being read by Catholic clergy and laity.  So I'll reiterate, it is entirely appropriate for Catholics to challenge these spokesmen whenever there may be some confusion regarding Catholic teaching, pastoral care, or conscientious objection to the notion that gay is a third way.  Nothing wrong with that.  God bless those courageous enough to act as 'devil's advocate' in these contentious times.

These people are criticized right and left - as most gay people are.  In September Ron Belgau will be speaking at Philadelphia's World Meeting of Families.  LGBT activists do not think it's enough, nor do they think Belgau is relevant since he represents the tiniest minority of LGBTQ Catholics in this country.

See.  That's part of the problem folks... LGBTQ activists will tolerate those who choose celibacy - but don't force it or even propose it for the rest of them.  Hence the confusion.  Which is exactly why concerned Catholics and clerics need to clarify what 'gay-Catholics' are attempting to 'teach' and 'propagate'?  Oh - so you are worried such discussions will turn people away and not attract them to the Church?  It doesn't deter me.  Anyway - the Holy Spirit attracts people - not to worry.

Don't forget, LGBTQ and gender issues are huge issues threatening the Church and family and they should be the concern of parents and clergy alike.

Yeah, so toughen up.

I'm Blocking Monsignor Pope Too - Just Like Facebook Did.

No more.

Yeah.  That's right.

Mons. Pope is blocked from commenting here.

I'm sick of it.


Song for this post here.

Planned Parenthood documentary videos and serial killings.

The child in the womb, the newborn has no choice.

Don't abandon them.


The latest horror story of cutting through a newborn's face to access and remove the brain while the infant is still alive reminds me of FBI crime scene profiling accounts of how serial killers disfigure and dismember their victims.  The PP story here.

Please do not avoid these stories - do not let them go - do not shield yourself from the truth.  Please pray and sacrifice in reparation for these heinous crimes against babies and children.  Feel the pain - pray and do all in your power to remind people of what has been happening, and work to eliminate PP and the abortion industry.

+ + +

I'm in the middle of the monthly novena to the Infant Jesus, and yesterday I considered the mystery of the Holy Name of Jesus and His Circumcision.  Jesus suffered and shed His blood the first time when He was circumcised.  Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with St. Joseph, I offer the merits of His most Precious Blood for the little ones who suffer the cruelty of abortion and infanticide.  Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.

I don't know what to do. I can't stop thinking of the Planned Parenthood videos and the slaughter of innocents. I keep coming across new stories.

-source-

Planned Parenthood may be keeping some babies alive after the abortion procedure in order to better collect their organs for harvesting — such as their hearts. - Finish reading here.

Then, a new video ... aborted baby's heart was beating as the brains were harvested ... LifeSite news.


MAKE IT STOP!

O my God,

I am heartily sorry

for having offended

you my God!

I detest all of my sins,

because I dread the loss 

of heaven and the pains of hell.

But most of all -

most of all, because they 

offend you my God

who are all good

and deserving of all my love.

O my God.

I firmly resolve

with help of your grace,

to confess my sins,

to do penance,

and to amend my life.

Amen.

O my God,

I cry to you, O Lord.
I have said: "You are my refuge
all I have in the land of the living."
Listen, then, to my cry
for I am in the depths of distress.

Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep?
Arise, do not reject us for ever!
Why do you hide your face
and forget our oppression and misery?

Purging the Psalter of all those 'mean' psalms and verses.

Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished; 

truth has gone from the sons of men.

Falsehood they speak one to another, 

with lying lips, with a false heart. - Ps. 11

Otherwise known as the 'hostile' psalms.

Years ago when I was a novice the issue was discussed at Chapter.  Several of the monks wanted a deeper purge of all the negative, hostile, 'violent' verses and psalms from the monastic office.

I always thought that was wrong.

I've always thought that these psalms and those verses which called on God to destroy the enemies who oppress his people, were spiritually and psychologically healthy to pray.  I've often wondered if that is why we have become so soft on sin, and passive in the face of those sins which cry to heaven for vengeance?

I find these psalms especially helpful in times of temptation - especially temptation to discouragement.  The words can express our deepest frustration - with ourselves and our soul's enemies.  In a sense, they can be a sort of exorcism, a spiritual defense in the spiritual combat.  They also inform us, remind us of God's justice.

I find such psalms especially helpful when praying for Christians facing martyrdom, and the oppressors who persecute them.  Similarly, I have found consolation in praying these psalms in defense of the defenseless innocents killed by abortion and infanticide.

Rather than expunging these verses from the psalter, I think they need to be reinstated, in the Liturgy and  Offices.

"Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you." - Ps. 5


Once again, Rorate Caeli brings the changes to our attention in a very good post revealing the effects of the liturgical reform and the editing of the psalter - purging the more difficult psalms from the Ordinary Form and the Divine Office.  Though rather critical in tone, I want to include a couple excerpts here:

For 2,000 years, Christians Eastern and Western had been praying the psalter of David in its integrity, and now, Catholics were handed an expurgated or abridged version, with verses removed by “experts” who knew better than the Holy Spirit, knew better than the Israelites, knew better than the Church Fathers and Doctors, knew better than Tradition. But of course they knew better: this was the Age of Enlightenment breaking in at last upon a fortress-like Church, an age in which we should shake ourselves free from the shackles of unenlightened piety, with its gnarled, enigmatic, sharp-edged, implacable expressions, and its archaic, earthy, tribal atmosphere. Razing the bastions, making the world safe for democracy, and all that good stuff.

This observation dovetailed with another talk given at the Sacra Liturgia conference about the reform of the lectionary, in which the speaker looked at how the Novus Ordo lectionary for Mass also suppresses “difficult” verses from both Testaments—verses that had always been present in the traditional Roman lectionary but were excluded from the new lectionary, in spite of its boast of being so much bigger and better.

Catholics who attend the Ordinary Form are not merely getting “more” Scripture, they are also getting different Scripture—and the principles of selection are politically correct, ecumenical, sensitive, excluding much that is dark or difficult. In other words, the principles are rather unlike Scripture itself. The modern principles and the premodern text to which they are applied sit uneasily together. - Posted by Benedict Constable

Arise O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered.

Perhaps such revisionism is why the Catholic hierarchy can seem so banal at times, the liturgy so effeminate in the touchy-feely sense, and Catholics so complacent and compromised by moral relativism?

I appreciate the following verses - especially when I pray for those who slaughter the innocent:

O God, break the teeth in their mouths,
tear out the fangs of these wild beasts, O Lord!
Let them vanish like water that runs away;
let them wither like grass that is trodden under foot:
let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime;
like a woman's miscarriage that never sees the sun. - Ps. 57

Upon waking, my daily prayer always begins this way:

Let God arise, let his foes be scattered.
Let those who hate him flee before him.
As smoke is blown away so will they be blown away;
like wax that melts before the fire,
so the wicked shall perish at the presence of God. - Ps. 68

I keep thinking of St. Paul's admonition: Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.

So anyway ...

On the street ... The Sartorialist

Song for this post here.

What?

Cover Art.

Sugar Shack - by Ernie Barnes 

Used for Marvin Gaye’s album “I Want You”. (RIP)

Contemporary genre art.

(Favorite) song (ever) for this post here.

Encourage boys to play sports and do boys stuff ...

You know, just to make sure they do not turn out gay...

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer David Denson has become the first openly gay player on a team affiliated with Major League Baseball. - Source

Something's in the beer.

Something from the Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault.

Dom Jean Pateau

The hearts of so many men who ignore Christ are yearning for us. - Dom Jean Pateau

I have a friend who entered a monastery a few years ago, whose prior told him in so many words, "We don't do pro-life here - were contemplative."  Not that my friend was a pro-life activist or anything like that, but the prior was probably just trying to explain 'the life' to my friend.  Nevertheless, the impression was made - the issue was pretty much a secular concern, and not a focus for monastic life.  Kinda-sorta.  At least that's how I perceived it when my friend told me.  I thought it an odd distinction to make, especially since the monastic community got a lot of press in business journals and newspapers - for being so hip, business savvy and everything the world admires.  That particular monastery is now closed.

I mention this because the killing of children in or out of a mother's womb is not just a political concern - or an activist's job - it is a humanitarian issue which needs to concern all of us.  Which is why I was very happy to discover the homily delivered by the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau, Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault for the Solemnity of the Assumption, posted by New Catholic at Rorate Caeli blog.  I know!  Rorate Caeli!  Seriously, there is nothing wrong with that blog - every blogger online has written things that offend or upset other bloggers.  Nothing is wrong with Rorate, or Fontgombault.  Nothing is wrong with being Catholic.

That said. I'll reprint a couple of very important statements from the Abbot's homily.

Love of God unto death inconveniences those who only know love of themselves. - Dom Jean Pateau

Fontgombault Sermon and Address for the Assumption

The third World War, that the Holy Father mentioned several times, has many battlefields… Those very visible in the East… those less visible in the West. Still, the reasons for the battle are everywhere the same: refusal of God our Maker, refusal of Christ and His love message. The opposing forces make up two sides: God’s side, and Satan’s side. Satan is the destroyer of creation, he is par excellence he who divides, he is the apologist of individualism, of a quest for pleasure that despises the weak and the little, he is the instigator of the most vile and barren instincts in the hearts of men and in laws. His aim is to defile creation, to incite men to squander their dignity of children and friends of God, so as to acquire another kind of “dignity”, far more elating, the dignity for mankind to define itself, to legitimate any kind of behaviour, especially if it is out of keeping with nature and its laws.

Satan has been at work for a long time. The light of God and the enlightenment of freethinking have often clashed together in the hearts of men. Yet, our times witness a paradox. How can a society that commits itself to promoting an ecology of nature, deliberately ignore the fight for an ecology of man? True enough, once reason had been set free it became destructive, and its first aim was to assault nature; more recently, it has turned on man.

Baby seals are protected, while human babies are jettisoned… We commit ourselves to preserving clean air, while we omit to fight images and media texts that promote violence and debase human bodies to the status of slaves. We rhapsodise about peace in the world, while we bring war into mothers’ wombs by abortion. We claim for brotherhood in various countries, while we deny children the imprescriptible right to know their biological parents and to live with them. What shall we answer when the little ones and the weak make themselves our accusers? How long shall we have to wait, how many corpses, before the world takes pains to promote a true ecology, understood as a quest for the good of all? - Fotgombault Sermon - Rorate Caeli

The real ecclesiastical periphery ...


I think we can no longer dismiss traditional Catholics who hold fast to Catholic teaching and who are unafraid to proclaim it.  I want share something Bishop Athanasius Schneider had to say regarding the faithful who adhere to the Traditional Liturgy:

I would like to say to these priests, seminarians, young people and families: “It is an honor and a privilege to be faithful to the Divine truth and to the spiritual and liturgical traditions of our forefathers and of the saints and being therefore marginalized by those who currently occupy administrative power in the Church. This your fidelity and courage constitute the real power in the Church. You are the real ecclesiastical periphery, which with God’s power renews the Church. Living the true tradition of dogma, liturgy and holiness is a manifestation of the democracy of the Saints, because tradition is the democracy of the Saints. With Saint Athanasius I would like to tell you these words: Those in the Church who oppose, humiliate and marginalize you, have occupied the churches, while during this time you are outside; it is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They claim that they represent the Church, but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray (cf. Letter to his flock)”. - Interview: Mons. Athanasius Schneider

St. Roch

O blessed Saint Roch, patron of the sick, 

have pity on those who lie upon a bed of suffering. 

Your power was so great when you were in this world, 

that by the sign of the cross, 

many were healed of their diseases. 

Now that you are in heaven, 

your power is not less. 

Offer, then to God our sighs and tears 

and obtain for us that health 

we seek through Christ our Lord. - Source

St. Roch was a layman, a pilgrim.  His feast day is August 16, the day after the Assumption.  Popular legend indicates he contracted the plague and was nursed to health, in part, by a dog who licked his wounds and brought him food.  Roch also nursed other plague victims.  Unrecognized when he returned to his home town, the authorities imprisoned him as a spy.  Thus he is the patron saint of the falsely accused and imprisoned, of dogs, pilgrims, the homeless, as well as plague victims or those suffering skin diseases.  He is often depicted with St. Sebastian as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Interestingly enough, he is also the patron saint of 'bachelors' ...  Yup.

To read more, go here.