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Hello all, I’ve started a new Instagram page where I talk about art, history, Catholicism etc. Hope to see you all there ♥️

Sedes and SSPX lack this humility

Nationalism isn't about crushing others cultures. But preserving our own. If you can't preserve your culture without destroying another. Your beliefs are not based in Christ.

Racial superiority does not exist in the Bible.

It does not exist in Christ.

Every woman whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm.

Every woman, by her virtue or her vice, by her folly or her wisdom, by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevation or degradation.

A community is not likely to be overthrown where a woman fulfils her mission, for, by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise that community from its ruins and restore it again to prosperity and joy.

Use your feminine influence wisely, for good, within your vocation or station in life, and in accordance with God's plan for your life.

glowsticks-and-jesus-deactivate

Sin is always a choice. We may be manipulated into sinning, but it’s still a choice regardless. Lying is a choice. Stealing is a choice. Sexual immorality is a choice. Racism is a choice. Homosexuality is a choice. Greed and laziness, both choices. Fits of rage and mockery are choices. Hatred and blasphemy are choices. All sin is a choice that we are given ways out to. Some of these choices are much harder to walk away from. Some of us face extreme pressure and situations we feel we have no choice. But friends these choices effect where we stand with God. choose this day whom you will serve. You cannot serve two masters.

semperreformanda

when Christ said not to be anxious because God provides for our needs, He didn't use the example of ants. they work hard and strive to save resources for the coming days. no, He used sparrows as an example. they do not sow nor reap, nor gather into barns. in short, they don't worry about what they're going to eat or if their needs are going to be met. they already know their Creator will feed them--yes, they're fed, even in the stormiest weather. and so Christ says, you are more valuable than birds. you are made in His image, you have been redeemed by His blood, and you have been adopted into His kingdom. why then do you worry? He says, seek first the kingdom of God, and these things will be added to you.

pursue Christ, love the brethren (including your family), be faithful to the daily tasks He has given to you. don't worry about the necessities, because He will provide them. not He might provide them, He will provide them for you. He has promised it. therefore, do not be anxious.

St. Peter Chrysologus cloquently sums up the eminence of man in creation: "Why then, man, are you so worthless in your own eyes and yet so precious to God? Why render yourself such dishonor when you are honored by him? Why do you ask how you were created and do not seek to know why you were made? Was not this entire visible universe made for your dwelling? It was for you that the light dispelled the overwhelming gloom; for your sake was the night regulated and the day measured;

eternal-echoes

Sometimes I feel like sedevacantists, SSPX, and other tradcats bashing on Vatican II and Pope Francis aren’t really making Catholicism attractive to Eastern Orthodox Christians because they’re inadvertently sending the message that there’s no point to having a pope at all when they show that it’s perfectly acceptable to disrespect the Pope and split from the Church. And if they don’t accept Vatican II as a legitimate council as all the councils before then that’s like saying that the Holy Spirit abandoned the Catholic Church which goes against Matthew 16:18:

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

The SSPX is a lot closer to us than the Eastern Orthodox Church but at the same time, just as you’re not bound to accept everything that Pope Francis says, there is still a limit to how far you can disagree with the Pope.

Fifth Lateran Council states:

"Moreover, since subjection to the Roman pontiff is necessary for salvation for all Christ's faithful, as we are taught by the testimony of both sacred scripture and the holy fathers, and as is declared by the constitution of pope Boniface VIII of happy memory, also our predecessor, which begins Unam sanctam, we therefore, with the approval of the present sacred council, for the salvation of the souls of the same faithful, for the supreme authority of the Roman pontiff and of this holy see, and for the unity and power of the church, his spouse, renew and give our approval to that constitution, but without prejudice to the declaration of pope Clement V of holy memory which begins Meruit."

Upon Perfect Virtue

- St. Francis De Sales

Blessed Francis de Sales thought very little of any virtue unless it was animated by charity; following in this the teaching of St. Paul, who declares that without charity the greatest virtues are as nothing. Thus, even the faith which works miracles, the almsgiving which leads a man to sell all his goods to feed the poor, the spirit of martyrdom which impelshim to give his body to be burned, all, if without charity, are nothing.

That you may clearly understand the distinction which he drew between the natural excellence of certain virtues, and the supernatural perfection which they acquire by the infusion of charity, I will give you his exact words on the subject, as they are to be found in his Treatise on the Love of God.

He says: "The light of the sun falls equally on the violet and the rose, yet will never render the former as fair as the latter, or make a daisy as lovely as a lily. If, however, the sun should shine very clearly upon the violet, and very mistily and faintly upon the rose, then without doubt it would make the violet more fair to see than the “more fair to see than the rose. So, Theotimus, if with equal charity one should suffer death by martyrdom, and another suffer only hunger by fasting, who does not see that the value of this fasting will not, on that account, be equal to that of martyrdom? No, for “who would dare to affirm that martrydom is not more excellent in itself than fasting…. Still, it is true that if love be ardent, powerful, and excellent, in a heart, it will also more enrich and perfect all the virtuous works which may proceed from it. One may suffer death and fire for God, without charity, as St. Paul supposes, and as I explain elsewhere. Still more then may one suffer them with little charity. Now, I say, Theotimus, that it may come to pass that a very small virtue may be of greater value in a soul where divine love fervently reigns, than martyrdom itself in a soul where love is languishing, feeble, and dull. Thus, the least virtues of our Blessed Lady of St. John, and of other great Saints, were of more worth before God than the most exalted perfections of the rest of His servants.”

#st francis de sales

autistic-af

In 1970, my mother's family adopted an intellectually disabled man named Horace. Horace was 56, and had been in an institution since 1921.

My uncle, who was 19, was working as an orderly at the institution where Horace lived. He only stayed a few months as the abuse he witnessed was too much for him. He had become friends with Horace and told him "I'll come back for you."

Horace replied "They all say that."

By that Christmas, Horace lived with my uncle and his family. My grandparents did the official adoption. Horace had never seen a Christmas tree, and that was his first real Christmas.

Horace died in 2010, at the age of 96. He laid down for a nap and just slipped away.

At least two generations of children grew up with him. He felt immortal to us. He loved Hot Wheels, pizza, cartoons and to talk to the portrait of my grandparents as he sat in his rocking chair.

He knew everyone's birthday. He loved unconditionally.

He had scars on his back from the institutions. If you asked him about that place, his face would screw up and he'd say "oh, it was a bad place. Bad place."

And for 40 years, he was safe, loved, and happy. He loved us in return.

No point to sharing this. But I still miss his laugh as he held a conversation with a portrait, whispering about his day to the people who had helped rescue him.

Beware of sloth! It's not just couch-potato syndrome, solved by getting busy—but a larger spiritual sickness which is reflected in despair and lifelessness, what people used to call acedia.

From Pieper's Faith Hope Love: “As a capital sin, sloth is man's joyless, ill-tempered, and narrow-mindedly self-seeking rejection of the nobility of the children of God with all the obligations it entails.”

Kierkegaard called it the "despair of weakness.”

Aquinas noted that the companions and symptoms of acedia include despair, excessive curiosity, interior restlessness, sluggish indifference to the truly important things, timidity in the face of opportunity, rancor and rebellion against all who wish to remind you that you were made for better, and plain old malice.

The bad news is that Enemy has traps set all over: porn, weed, endless streaming services. So much of modern life is designed to induce sloth—so that the authorities can then have their way with you.

One avoids sloth/acedia, Pieper noted, not by hustling and bustling, but by cultivating magnanimity: "Magnanimity, a much-forgotten virtue, is the aspiration of the spirit to great things ... A person is magnanimous if he has the courage to seek what is great and becomes worthy of it … Magnanimity, as both Thomas and Aristotle tell us, is 'the jewel of all the virtues,' since it always—and particularly in ethical matters—decides in favor of what is, at any given moment, the greater possibility of the human potentiality for being."

momentsbeforemass

NPC’s

(by request)

In the first century, Roman jailers were tortured and put to death if their prisoners escaped.

That’s the backstory to the jailer’s reaction to the earthquake at the jail in today’s first reading.

The foundations of the jail shake, the doors fly open, the chains are pulled loose.

The jailer sees this, assumes that his prisoners (Paul and Silas) have escaped, and prepares to kill himself. Because he knows what they do to jailers.

In that moment of despair, Paul calls out to the jailer, “Do no harm to yourself, we are all here.”

When they could have escaped, Paul and Silas didn’t. Why?

Because Paul and Silas know what they do to jailers.

It would have been so easy for them to run away after the earthquake. Paul and Silas had every reason to do it.

Their friends would have been so happy for them to be free. No one would have given the jailer a second thought.

But Paul and Silas? They knew what running away would mean for the jailer.

So, they stayed. And made sure that the jailer didn’t take his own life.

Why? What makes the jailer so special? All we know about him is his job. In the narrative, he’s part of the scenery, a nameless background character. In gaming terms, he’s an NPC (non-player character).

But that’s not how God sees things. In God’s eyes, there are no nameless background characters.

Paul and Silas are instruments of God’s grace, to be sure. But if we’re only looking at Paul and Silas, then we’ve missed the point of the earthquake at the jail and everything that followed.

Everything that happened wasn’t done for show, so that people would be impressed with Paul and Silas.

As St. John Chrysostom tells us, it was all done for the jailer – “not for show but for salvation.”

It was all done so that someone who was part of the scenery, a nameless background character to everyone else, might know how much he mattered to God. That to God, “he was worthy of salvation.”

That is how God looks at each one of us.

Because in God’s eyes, there are no NPC’s.

Today’s Readings