The men of that [last] generation will have no deeds whatever, but there will come upon them temptation, and those who are worthy in this temptation will be higher than us and our fathers.—St. Ischyrion of Egypt. I have wondered for a long time if good Catholics in any given period in history have to “take the hits” (so to speak) of that specific era in which they live. In other words, if Medieval Catholics were physically very cold, it is no wonder that saints like St. Francis of Assisi had to face to cold as a poor beggar. If Christians in Muslim lands had their throats slit, it is [...]

Who controls the past controls the future.  Who controls the present controls the past.—George Orwell, 1984. Tucker Carlson recently interviewed a Chinese woman named Xi Van Fleet.  After Mao's culture revolution, Xi sought and received asylum in the United States in the 1970s.  She soon came to love and defend America.  This became especially evident when, in 2020, she realized the United States was undergoing a communist revolution, fabricated not upon a conflict of class, but rather that of race.  (Fabricated is the operative word in the last sentence.)  Although Xi never wanted to be involved in politics in the United States, she spoke at a Loudon Co. (VA) school [...]

Anyone who tries to phone me knows that my device is in "airplane mode" about ¾ of the day and then in "moon mode" the other ¼ of the day.  This isn't to be rude, but because a traditional priest has several hours of prayer a day.  Due to this (and not having a community with whom to share various duties) my only time for "reading" is while washing dishes or cleaning my hermitage or running to the hospital for extreme unction.  Thus, I listen to pre-downloaded audio-books or podcasts or Rosaries on airplane-mode much of the day while not in prayer or writing.  My goal is to then turn [...]

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the Precious Blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.—1 Pt 1:18-19. The above quote from Sacred Scripture shows that the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ is objectively of infinite value to our salvation from sin, death, hell and demons.  But many Catholics today subjectively take the shed-blood of Jesus for granted.  As I have written before, a diocesan bishop once admitted to me that 80% of the Catholics in his Archdiocese received Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin [...]

Above:  Reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, p/c S. Meyssonnier at Reuters. The Overton Window is what a group thinks to be believable in the eyes of others in its attempts to grow their faction in numbers.  The left uses the Overton Window to determine which lies they can get away with as they approach the left-of-center in a bell-curve of opinion polls.  The right also uses the Overton Window, but they use it to determine which aspects of the truth can be digested by the lukewarm on the right of the same bellcurve.  Fiducia Supplicans greatly shifted the leftists' Overton Window on heresy to the point that even [...]