Rule for Thinking With the Church #13
If we wish to proceed securely in all things, we must hold fast to the following principle: What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines. For I must be convinced that in Christ Our Lord, the bridegroom, and in His spouse the Church, only one Spirit holds sway, which governs and rules for the salvation of souls. For it is by the same Spirit and Lord who gave the Ten Commandments that our holy Mother Church is ruled and governed.—St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, Rules for Thinking with the Church #13 St. Ignatius of Loyola is one of my favorite saints. In [...]
Stop Groveling Under the Table
The new document was correct about one thing: There's only ever been one Roman Rite. https://twitter.com/FrDaveNix/status/1417114763734122500?s=20
“As if the Bride of the Lamb Could Have Two Voices”
Dr. Taylor Marshall spoke today about how Pope Benedict XVI attempted to bifurcate both the Roman Rite and the Papacy. In other words, it seems that the Roman Rite was bifurcated into the “ordinary form” and “extraordinary form” in the 2007 document, Summorum Pontificum and it seems that the Papacy was split into two as a “contemplative Pope” and an “active Pope" as even the Vatican's Archbishop Georg Gänswein has explained it. Such errors of creating new (and impossible) theological realities may be blamed upon what is called a “Hegelian dialectic.” Archbishop Viganò has this criticism of Pope Benedict XVI's philosophy of attempting to create new realities from his own brain: His Hegelian [...]
Extreme Evil Requires an Extreme Remedy
"They wound; they kill; they go down to hell."—St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises #108. Leaving a sick call about 10 years into my priesthood, I ran into a gothic-looking fellow. He was about 30 years old and decided to strike up a conversation with me. I didn't have much time to talk, but I realized this would be one of his only interactions with a priest his whole life, so I couldn't brush him off. As usual, I had to listen to someone preach to me. (This is ironically more common than me preaching to someone.) In any case, this guy was a little different. He just wanted to [...]
How To Use a Layman’s Missal at the TLM
If you are new to the TLM, you will hopefully find this blog post very helpful. In late 2017, I taught a class at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, FL on how to use the layman's missal while attending the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM.) People new to the TLM needed some help thumbing through their ribbons in their layman's missal. Now, because of how many people came to the TLM last year, my friend recently suggested this that I do a re-post of my five classes: TLM Class 1 TLM Class 2 TLM Class 3 TLM Class 4 TLM Class 5 Also, St. Francis De Sales wrote [...]
Teamwork in Saving One Soul
There's a couple who listens to my podcast from California, but the wife had to rapidly return to her home state of Louisiana for an emergency: Her uncle (who she described as basically her brother growing up, as they were close in age) was hit by a drunk driver. The drunk driver then ran over his head. Somehow, he surived and was life-flighted to a trauma center in another part of Louisiana. He lived for about 10 days after numerous surgeries. I received a modification to my blog after publication from his niece about what really happened on scene: "You wrote that his head was ran over, which is technically [...]
How Can I Close the House of God?—Fr. Ganni
About four years ago, I said on the phone to my Navy SEAL friend (with whom I did this podcast and this podcast this year) that I feared the rise of militant Islam would persecute Christians in the West again. What he said surprised me, namely that he feared more the rise of secularism in the West as a bigger threat to Catholics. We'll come back to this suggestion halfway through this blog. On the 3rd of June 2007, Trinity Sunday after Pentecost, a 35 year-old Chaldean Catholic priest named Fr. Ragheed Ganni was shot and killed in his home country of Iraq by Muslims for not converting to Islam [...]
Discerning “The Great Reset” vs. “The Empire of Love”
Michael Matt recently made the point that the Great Reset is not an attack on man as much as an attack on God. As Mr. Matt mentioned here, "even Adolph Hitler paid lip-service to God." Indeed, the architects of the Great Reset like Klaus Schwab want to direct all of humanity in place of God without mention of God. The Great Reset is not only a project of genocide, but also an attempted attack on God Himself. I believe the most common phrase in the entire Bible is "Be Not Afraid." It is in the Bible over 365 times. So, if Christ's message is: "Be Not Afraid" then we must [...]
Catholic Schools, EMS and the Death Jab
In this short podcast, Patrick Coffin describes how the Catholic diocese of Orange, California issued an invitation to a Zoom meeting with an auxiliary bishop and the Superintendent of Catholic schools and two physicians including the President of the Orange Co. Chapter of the American Association of Pediatrics. This was a Zoom meeting originally meant for Catholic parents of Catholic kids (going to Catholic schools) to "ask questions" about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine for their kids. But this Q &A session for Catholic leaders and Catholic parents didn't happen. What did happen on that Zoom meeting, as Mr. Coffin relates, was "a non-stop aggressive sales-tactic with one goal in [...]
Marian Prayer of Bl. Junipero Serra
You may wish to save in your note-app this little-known prayer of a saint to Mary and pray it every day: O Purest Queen of heaven and earth, most perfect work of the Holy Trinity, since from all eternity the Father chose you for His daughter, the Son selected you to be His Mother and the Holy Spirit selected you as His spouse, there could not be the slightest imperfection, not even the smallest shadow of original sin on your soul. As the first fruit of the redemption, your soul was free, beautiful and free from the initial moment of your conception. Receive, O Mother, in virtue of this singular mystery, my [...]