Month: February 2024

“The sacrament of Holy Orders will be mocked, oppressed, and despised because they (masonic sects) oppress and violate the Church of God, and God Himself in his priests. Then the devil will endeavor to persecute the ministers of Our Lord in all ways and will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their sublime vocation, making them degenerate into debauchery. Scandalizing the Christian people many times, they (the bad priests) will draw upon all the priests the hatred of the bad Christians and of the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church. With this apparent triumph of Satan, they will draw immense sufferings on the good pastors of the Church, and on the great majority of good priests, and the Supreme Pastor and Vicar of Christ on earth who is prisoner in his Vatican will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of God and his Lord begging for light, sanctity, and perfection for all the clergy of the whole world, of whom he is king and father. Moreover, in these ill-fated times, there will be unrestrained lust which will captivate countless frivolous souls who will be lost for being the snare of sin for the others. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor any sense of shame in women. In this supreme necessity of the Church, he, who at the time should have spoken, will be silent.”

Producers of lithium and nickel pause projects after prices collapse and momentum slows for electric-vehicle sales

I guess they’re not so thankful anymore.

https://voxday.net/2024/02/14/so-thankful/

Video is only three minutes. At the end, you will see what a week’s worth of groceries costs in Russia, converted to US dollars. Prepare to be very angry, then google Cloward-Piven.

The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite themselves to God’s will when things go wrong and are painful to self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of God. St. John of Avila used to say: “One ‘Blessed be God’ in times of adversity, is worth more than a thousand acts of gratitude in times of prosperity²⁰.”

Furthermore, we must unite ourselves to God’s will not only in things that come to us directly from his hands, such as sickness, desolation, poverty, death of relatives, but likewise in those we suffer from man—for example, contempt, injustice, loss of reputation, loss of temporal goods and all kinds of persecution. On these occasions we must remember that whilst God does not will the sin, he does will our humiliation, our poverty, or our mortification, as the case may be. It is certain and of faith, that whatever happens, happens by the will of God: “I am the Lord forming the light and creating the darkness, making peace and creating evil²¹.” From God come all things, good as well as evil. We call adversities evil; actually they are good and meritorious, when we receive them as coming from God’s hands: “Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done²²?” “Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God²³.”

It is true, when one offends us unjustly, God does not will his sin, nor does he concur in the sinner’s bad will; but God does, in a general way, concur in the material action by which such a one strikes us, robs us or does us an injury, so that God certainly wills the offense we suffer and it comes to us from his hands. Thus the Lord told David he would be the author of those things he would suffer at the hands of Absalom: “I will raise up evils against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy face and give them to thy neighbor²⁴.” Hence too God told the Jews that in punishment for their sins, he would send the Assyrians to plunder them and spread destruction among them: “The Assyrian is the rod and staff of my anger . . . I will send him to take away the spoils²⁵.” “Assyrian wickedness served as God’s scourge for the Hebrews²⁶‘‘ is St. Augustine’s comment on this text. And our Lord himself told St. Peter that his sacred passion came not so much from man as from his Father: “The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it²⁷?”

When the messenger came to announce to Job that the Sabeans had plundered his goods and slain his children, he said: “The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away²⁸.” He did not say: “The Lord hath given me my children and my possessions, and the Sabeans have taken them away.” He realized that adversity had come upon him by the will of God. Therefore he added: “As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord²⁹.” We must not therefore consider the afflictions that come upon us as happening by chance or solely from the malice of men; we should be convinced that what happens, happens by the will of God…

Uniformity with God’s Will, Saint Alphonsus Liguori

h/t to the highly reliable Laura Wood:

Prayers for Detestation of Our Sins

Blessed waning Carnevale (the correct spelling, as it translates as “Meat, goodbye” carne vale). As such, it is a Catholic celebration when properly observed, and it lasts for weeks, not just one day. Alas, most of us no longer really say goodbye to meat/eggs/butter for all of Lent, as used to be required of all the faithful. Being a Keto/no carbs person for over 20 years, I am thankful for that.

Another thing that used to be required was actual fasting. As in, days with zero food. If you have never done it, you really should. It’s not even hard, especially when there are only two days when it is currently required. Examine your conscience; do you really think fasting means three meals a day, as the current discipline suggests?

Zero. Just do it. Once you’ve done it once, you will actually look forward to it. Come back and call me a liar if I’m wrong.

It would be different if it were multiple days or weeks in a row of course, in which case some sustenance would be needed. But for ONE day, come on. Zero calories, folks. Water, coffee, and no-calorie electrolytes are okay. It really is a fine way to start off towards your Lenten goals. Note well, those latter two things DO violate the Eucharistic Fast, which allows only water to be taken.

Speaking of goals, commit to them in writing. Post them on your fridge or some other prominent place. Here are some things that have been going through my head:

Commit to a limited number of things you will practice DAILY. Needless to say, this starts with the Rosary. If you can commit to daily Mass, it is highly recommended. Daily Mass in the TLM is really special during Lent, because each day has its own proper Mass, every single day of Lent. It is like being on a journey. Rosary and Mass, and we are now committed to one hour per day.

Now stop. Before you go further, do NOT attempt to take on the workload of a cloistered religious. You will fail, probably by the end of the week, get really discouraged, and be off to a rotten Lent. Instead, start small, and add things if you are able. Make your list aspirational, for sure, but start out smaller.

What about other structured prayer? Last year I did Benedictus and Divine Intimacy every day. This year I am moving mental prayer up the priority list, putting Adoration first. If you have never sat in quiet conversation with our Lord, or if it has been a long time, maybe try to get back to it. 15 minutes after Mass is a good place to start, but getting the solid hour once a week is where the heavy lifting gets done. The most effective way to do this is attempt to converse for the first 30 minutes, then shut up and listen for the next 30. He speaks in whispers.

Next on my list are books. How big is that stack of books you ordered, but haven’t read yet? It’s embarrassing. Constantly confessing wasting too much time on the internet, yet that stack hasn’t gotten any smaller. I am doing something about that this Lent.

There are still a few hours left, and I still have a few more things I’m mulling. Leave your best ideas in the combox!

Two more resources on fasting HERE and HERE.

Blessed Lent, everyone.

Via Nurse Claire.