I just finished reading an outstanding book called God's Will.  It's about the incorrupt African-American Benedictine nun, Sr. Mary Wilhelmina, Foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles.  She was born Mary Elizabeth Lancaster on the 13th of April 1924 in St. Louis.  She died on the 29th of may 2019.  She was found incorrupt on the 18th of May 2023.  To be "incorrupt" means the body of the deceased has miraculously refrained from the normal post-mortem decomposition process. I (top-right) have no plans on being incorrupt like her (top-left) but I noticed a few similarities in our intellectual conversions from modernist Catholicism to traditional Catholicism.  Before entering the contemplative live, Sr. Mary Wilhelmina was in the active life.  As a black woman, she was encouraged to "Give'em gospel."  This didn't work.  She wrote:  "One just sang or [...]

With the beginning of a new liturgical year, we heard in the Epistle today from St. Paul, "The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."—Rom 13:12 Seeking what resolutions to pursue for the new year, I recently heard this talk by Fr. Ripperger. That talk opened my eyes to the depth of graces offered to people who endure temptations from enemies invisible (and probably visible.)  Also, as in other talks, Fr. Ripperger encouraged his listeners to ask Our Lady of Sorrows to reveal their primary defect. This time the answer in prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows in regards to my primary defect was immediate, even as I started this new liturgical year: Thanksgiving. "Lack of thanksgiving" probably sounds like a [...]

The above picture is a Latin-Rite (Western) Church in an Eastern Orthodox country.  More specifically, it's the Franciscan run "Church of Our Lady of Victory" in Rhodes, Greece.  I spent time praying there as well as helping with corporal works of mercy.  Above the altar within the above Church is a plaque found from centuries ago when the Holy Theotokos showed up to liberate the island from a Turkish Muslim invasion. Rhodes is an island where St. Paul visited (and he apparently loved it.) Over a millennium later, the island was built up by the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani) who were a Catholic military order (henceforth in this blog just referred to ask "The Knights.")  The Knights were on the Greek Island of Rhodes from 1310 until [...]

We landed on 7 Oct 2023 in Tel Aviv, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  As most of you know, this feast commemorates the Naval defeat of the Turks by the European armies after Pope St. Pius V got all of Europe praying the Rosary for a miraculous defeat.  That is exactly what was granted.  But just before landing in Tel Aviv five hundred years later, one boy (of our group of 60 pilgrims) saw in the distance smoke coming up from the Gaza Strip from the initial strikes at the beginning of the war. As we landed, an Israeli woman next to me helped me interpret the news:  These bombings were more than the yearly skirmishes in the Middle East.  This was going big.  As we got off the plane, there was a tense silence as people [...]

The above is a picture I recently took while walking and praying my Divine Office (Psalms) at a rather-empty beach in Florida.  It always brings me so much peace. Most of you do not know this, but several times in seminary I felt called to leave my studies for the Catholic priesthood and go live as a homeless, celibate, Catholic preacher in front of abortion centers in Florida.  I felt called to live as a mendicant (beggar) without marriage, but also without Holy Orders.  Now as a priest doing some of those things as a monk-missionary on my own, I have also been overwhelmed by the issues of politics that pertains only to the priesthood. Some of my recent crosses have been getting raked over the coals by the liberal media, figuring out what happened with an issue with my [...]

The above is a picture of my friend, Fr. Fidelis CFR, being arrested for his pro-life work.  For peaceful pro-life work, I have been arrested in Wash DC and New Jersey with Fr. Fidelis under a group called Red Rose Rescue (RRR.)  I thought I was pro-life before I met those associated with RRR.  But the way that RRR changed my thinking was this:  Whereas most pro-life organizations know in their brains that the unborn are really children, the members of RRR know in their hearts that children are really being killed. Here's what I mean:  Imagine if you found out in the nearest big city that somewhere downtown there was a conveyer-belt with three-year old toddlers on it, and these kids were were systematically rolled-out under a machine which crushed them with a sledgehammer.  Imagine you find this was [...]

I have conglomerated these lines from Holy Scripture which help me in times of false-accusations.  You might want to save them to a note app, too: Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.—Mt 5:11-12 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.—Rom 12:19-21 Three times [...]

The above pic is a statue of Our Lady that remained standing amidst the recent Hawaii fires of 2023. (It was all over social-media, so if you know the original source, I’ll happily give photo-credit.) My favorite line in St. Louis De Montfort’s description of the saints of the final days of the Catholic Church goes like this: “They will have the two-edged sword of the Word of God in their mouths and the bloodstained standard of the Cross on their shoulders. They will carry the crucifix in their right hand and the Rosary in their left, and the holy names of Jesus and Mary on their heart.”—Thunderclouds of Mary, St. Louis De Montfort. But more recently, I have been thinking about a less spectacular line: “Attached to nothing, surprised at nothing, troubled at nothing, they will shower down the [...]

Except for the Blessed Virgin Mary, I would say that my favorite saint is the Apostle Paul.  Why is that? Blaise Pascal once wrote, "The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing." So, of course not everything can be identified. But here's a few reasons: St. Paul was the "Chosen Channel" and the "Standard Bearer" of the entire Gospel of Love.  He chose to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2.) Christ Himself chose him to transmit the Gospel over the whole Mediterranean region nearly 2,000 years ago. With Christian-radio being played in my house all during the time growing up, I learned to love St. Paul from an early age.  As I said on a recent podcast, my Catholic grade-school education was very much based in social justice, but at least [...]