Wait and see

 Lillian Roth was once a stage, film and recording star. Her parents put her to work as a child and didn't concern themselves  with her safety as much as her paychecks. She was molested at the age of 6, while at a modeling job. Miss Roth started drinking in her teens and by the end of her twenties she was considered unemployable and was killing herself with alcoholism.  Finally, she went to Alcohol Anonymous and got sober. Her sponsor was a Catholic man and she converted and married him. Her autobiography, conversion story and the movie made of her life were huge news in both secular and Catholic circles. After 18 years of sobriety, she relapsed and her husband, who was also her manager left her. Lillian also discovered that he'd stopped by the bank as he was walking out of her life, and emptied their account. 

Her Catholic husband who had been her knight in shinning armor turned out to be a really nasty  toad and from reading old newspaper archives, I get the impression that a some of the public  who were lavish in their enthusiasm for Roth when she converted were disappointed and not all that helpful when she needed help again. Roth did regain her sobriety and she even made a triumphant return to Broadway. She is buried in a Jewish cemetery. I hope she kept the Faith but I haven't found anything that makes it clear that she did or didn't. 

Why do I mention this?  Because the tragic story of Lillian Roth reminded me of current events. Right now a lot of people are excited because two women who made their living from  the sex industry have converted.  All I can say is wait and see. Remember the parable of the Sower and hope that these women aren't seeds in shallow soil. 

By all means,  be happy for them.  Pray for them but don't treat them like they're God's special gift to the Church.  Give them a chance to show they're genuine and give them time to mature in the Faith.  Considering what both these women did for money I would think that anybody who really cares about them should be advising them to step away from social media and live their new redeemed lives in private. People are watching them closely in an effort to prove that they are fake. If they are sincere, surely all this worshipful fandom and hostility from others is too much pressure to be under.  When real life gives them a rough patch or they meet a Catholic who lets them down, they might weaken in their conviction. Remember the parable of the Sower and hope that these women aren't seeds in shallow soil. 

Hey fellow Catholic...before you buy that distant property, read this

This is going to irritate some people but I don't think the Catholic Back to the Land movement is the best or only answer for the American Catholic future. You may have a hazy fantasy about running off to an area near a chapel and priest or monks and then homesteading off grid, but is that realistic?  

Have you ever killed a chicken? My grandmother could wring a chicken's neck with seemingly no effort. My mother never got the knack of it and preferred to use a hatchet and I can't do it all. I could learn the skill, of course but I'll be starving  by the time I perfect butchering and then getting the bird on table. 

Can you shoot a shot gun? You're going to have do that at some point.  Do you know how to milk a cow or care for one? Do you understand that goats and sheep are cute but need a lot of attention? Have you any idea how to butcher a steer, a hog or deer?  Do you know what could  happen if the well goes bad?  

My grandparents weren't dancing and singing in the fields; they were working hard every day but Sunday and even then, the cow, the mule and the other animals needed to be tended to before they left for church. Do you have the stamina for that? Country boys are strong and you better be too or you won't make it. 

 I've learned many things from YouTube videos but if you want to succeed at homesteading you are going to need a wise and loyal someone in real life and nearby to help you. That may be a problem. 

Your new neighbors may not like Catholics. They may have already insulting encounters with city folks. They may resent you because you and people like you are buying up property and making things more expensive for the locals. You might find yourself a pariah before you even meet your closest neighbor. If you inadvertently messed up in your social interactions, being out there alone with hostile neighbors may be very bad for you.

Someone may be muttering right now, "But Dymphna, we have to get out of the city, and we need to do it NOW." I understand but don't run off half cocked with no plan.  You might be better served by moving to a small city or town or finding a largely Catholic planned community. I know everyone mocked Ave Maria when it was built in Florida but that, or a situation like it, might be a far more realistic option for you than homesteading. 

I have read comments from people who think cordial relations with their neighbors don't matter. They aren't looking for a community and don't care about the impression they're making on  the neighbors. All they want is a quiet place to hold up and make a stand if there is a major societal upheaval in the future. Lone wolves rarely make it. In real life they end up scavenging until they can join or create a pack of their own. You are going to  need the good will of the locals and I'm not seeing a whole lot of Catholic homesteading dreamers talking about that. 

Random thoughts on Eclipse day

•  Enjoy the eclipse with eye protection of course. When my mother saw her first one she was a small child and was terrified.  When I  saw one I was an adult and was standing on the roof at my employer's eclipse happy hour gathering. Obviously the world didn't end either time.  To those Catholics  who lean Protestant and are expecting the Rapture, sorry, you aren't getting out of here that easily. Go read your bible and then read St. Francis De Sales on the topic of anxiety. 
  
  
  
  
• There's been chatter that Michael Voris is trying to make a come back. I hate to say it but there's probably quite a few individuals out there who are  willing to give him one more chance and write him a check. 
  
  
  
  
• I don't normally read anything from the National Catholic Register and stuff like this is why. It's not just huge scandals that alienate young men from the Church it's the everyday nice and sentimental and absolutely revolting mush. 
  
  
  
  
• I've said it before but I really think that 19 years after the death of Pope John Paul II,  the Divine Mercy devotion is in decline. In recent years in my parish, the first Sunday after Easter was either celebrated with the painting being displayed but without any mention of DM or like this year, the painting was displayed and the lector announced that it was DM Sunday and that was it. We have not been asked to pray the chaplet during or after Mass in several years and while the lines were Confession were long that could have been because the line is always long around the first of the month. To my knowledge we don't have any Polish parishes or Marian Congregation parishes in the Arlington diocese but other than those I didn't get the impression that it was a big deal this year. 

• Does anyone remember how weird it was when Catholic "influencers" began Tweeting that they weren't going to see Oppenheimer before it even came out because of the sex scenes. Nobody asked them publicly about the movie. They weren't Catholic movie critics; they just made their righteous statements out of thin air  and when the movie hit the theaters the Tweets came to a dead stop. Did the first few guys get paid to drive some Twitter traffic towards the movie while the latter ones just jumped on to get attention? 
• It wouldn't be the first odd publicity campaign and we know that Hollywood uses bots and pays people to make provocative Tweets and posts on Facebook about upcoming films. I found it interesting that these men got their Oppenheimer feelings--that nobody asked them for--- out in public but lost interest in movies after that. 

• In your charity please pray for my aunt. She's my late father's youngest and only surviving sister. She was in a terrible, freak car accident and was both run over and dragged in her own yard. 

Happy Easter !Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

 

Holy Saturday : a playlist

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

from an ancient Holy Saturday Homily

Have a Blessed Triduum

•  Rocky and I went to our old parish for Holy Thursday and then went to visit churches to pray at their Altars of Repose. Queen of Apostles in Alexandria had the most beautiful one and I was very surprised to see that the worst one was at the Cathedral of St. Thomas Moore. We saw great tenderness, beauty  and decorative talent in little parishes so the lack of effort at the cathedral was disappointing. 
  
  
  
  
  
• On Good Friday we went to West Virginia. The Solemn  Liturgy. It was incredible.  On the way home we drove past St. Anthony of Padua church in Falls Church just as the Stations of the  Cross were getting started. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Palm Sunday pre-1955, 1962 and Novus Ordo

I've been trying to understand the differences in the pre 1955 Holy Week liturgies and the 1962 version. I've listened to lectures and read a few explanations but seeing it was the key for me. 

I found a pre-1955 Palm Sunday Mass and watched then compared it to a 1962 rubric Palm Sunday Mass and then the Novus Ordo. 

I was watching a video on traditional texts to study for Holy Week and one of the resources was Restore the 54.  It does a good job spelling out the changes that happened during the Pius XIII pontificate to the Holy Week liturgies. 

Another fake, fake, fake devotion.

 

I encountered a very nice person who was big into the Divine Will fake devotion. He's educated and has written books on the Faith but I don't care. Whatever Luisa Piccaretta was talking to was not Our Lord or Our Lady. This disturbed woman's cause for beatification has been  suspended and God willing won't go any further.  WARNING  -- In this video refuting the devotion, Fr. Mawdsley quotes directly from Luisa's books and her words are so revolting it's physically painful to listen to but it is necessary to show that Luisa was either insane or speaking to a demon. 

 How on earth this filthy business ever caught on with anybody is astonishing.  As Fr. said, "This is wrong, this is so wrong and it doesn't bear commenting on with so much that is suspicious and off and even sickening about this". 

If anybody tries to promote this to you, be extremely wary.