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Catholicism
carmelite feasts
I’ve been a lay Carmelite ever since October 2001. The Order is quite ancient and has its origins well before the eleventh century, traditionally hearkening back to before the Birth of Christ.
The Order, since the days of Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in Counter-Reformation Spain, has been divided into two main branches, the Discalced, and the Calced (or Ancient Observance). Although they have much in common, each branch has its own separate customs, rules, and traditions. Each month of the liturgical year has at least one Carmelite feast day.
July is quite an important month for Carmel since it’s the month during which we honor both St. Elijah, the Prophet and our Father, on the twentieth; and the Virgin Mary. Mary gets two days. The first is the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on the sixteenth. Her other feast day is the Mother of Divine Grace, on the twenty third. It’s on the nineteenth in Europe. Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary, are also honored on July 26 as the protectors of the Order.
soon to be available
Please purchase this new book, about the Holy Rosary, a favorite prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was written by Father Donald Calloway, M.I.C.
canonize pope pius xii
O’Brien was talking happily about the canonization prospects of Pius XII, and Rabinowitz, as always, begged to differ.
“Haven’t you read Rolf Hochhuth’s “The Deputy”? He blurted out.
That’s as big a load of garbage as Maria Monk’s novel in the nineteenth century.” his friend reminded him.
“Pius saved no fewer than 860,000 Jews. He ghost wrote Pius XI’s “Mit Brennender Sorge”.
“Chief Rabbi Israel Zolli changed his name to Eugenio and his family converted.”
“Read Sister Margherita Marchione instead of that fanatical poison and you’ll see my point, old bean. Facts and figures are better than ideology.”
Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff~Fields both for supplying this week’s photograph and for being our weekly Friday Fictioneers fearless leader.
trouble in scranton diocese
Raymond De Souza, K.M., of EWTN, is on my Facebook friend list. Unfortunately I found out, by way of a post of his this afternoon, that there is big trouble afoot in the Scranton Diocese. My parents were both from northeastern Pennsylvania, and I lived, for around seven and a half years, in the Borough of Wyoming. I was a parishioner at Our Lady of Sorrows (now St. Monica’s) in West Wyoming. I have always been rather fond of northeastern Pennsylvania so I was quite disappointed to find out that St. Peter’s Cathedral, the mother church of the diocese, on November 23, 2015, hosted an interfaith service during which the Moslem god, Allah, was invoked.
Besides that, and other Moslem references, a woman was allowed to read the Gospel.
controversial interfaith service
Considering how controversial Islam has always been, this service must have raised quite a large number of eyebrows. According to all I’ve been reading about the service, and the comments on Mr. De Souza’s page, Bishop Joseph Bambera may have quite a difficult time explaining the decision to allow such an event.
undeniable and inexplicable order
Today is the ninety ninth anniversary of the birth of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, thirty fifth President of the United States. His younger brother and attorney general, Robert Francis Kennedy, was fatally shot on June 5, 1968. J.F.K. was assassinated on November 22, 1963, two days after R.F.K.’s thirty eighth birthday.
Over the past very many years I have always noticed that death has no respect for special occasions. People often die on, or close, to times like Christmas, Easter, and other milestones. My mother died exactly a week after my fifty fourth birthday. neral was on my father’s eightieth birthday.
So many things are like that. Between William Henry Harrison in 1840 and John F. Kennedy in 1963, each president elected at a twenty year interval died, either naturally or by assassination, while an incumbent. This has been attributed to the curse of Tippecanoe, dating back to Harrison’s questionable tactics in the Treaty of Fort Wayne with the Indians.
Another example of inexplicable coincidences can be found in the 1917 Our Lady of Fatima apparitions and events that are relevant to them. In 1517 the world was afflicted with the Protestant Revolution, the first of many evil milestones. In 1689 Luis XIV refused Jesus’ request to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart. During 1717 the Masons were founded. 1789 was the beginning of the French Revolution. The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917, and the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. There are so many other supposedly coincidental dates that are crucial to the circumstances surrounding Fatima. I’ve only skimmed the surface. These, and many other dates and milestones, fit a most undeniable pattern that cannot possibly be overlooked.
This kind of order, visible only in retrospect, has to be reckoned with. I have no idea of exactly what’s going on but it has always made me so insatiably curious.
famous birthday boy
Unfortunately for young George, Sister Rose Eugene caught him sulking in St. Gabriel’s library, during an especially nasty day.
“Young man,” she confronted him. “Today is Karol Josef Wojtyla’s birthday.” Do you know who he was?”
“Huh?” he blurted out.
She explained, “Karol’s mother died when he was eight years old. His father and brother both were dead by the time he was twenty one. Because of World War II he was forced to go to school secretly for fear of the Nazis.”
“Your bad breaks shouldn’t discourage you,” she reminded him. “Nothing stopped St.John Paul II.”
This week’s photo prompt was supplied by J Hardy Carroll. Rochelle Wisoff~Fields guides us weekly as our Fairy Blogmother.
fighting with a sad sick world
I’ve just found out, unfortunately, that homosexual groups were allowed to march in yesterday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, but that no pro-life groups were welcome. “The whole thing is perverse,” said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, of the Archdiocese of New York, rightly pointed out that the parade exists only to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of both Ireland and of the Archdiocese, and that no one may legitimately be allowed to use it “… for causes that are extrinsic to its origins.” Besides that, Obama has recently nominated Merrick Garland, a favorite of Planned Parenthood, to replace the recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. We simply cannot allow this to go on any longer. The left has been walking all over us for entirely too long and it’s about time we finally wised up and demanded our rightful due.
why didn’t she fight back? domestic violence
write your worries in the sand, carve your blessings in stone
we only have one life to live
Of course I most certainly don’t give any credibility whatsoever to the dualistic claims of eastern religions and modes of thought which claim that each individual must go through a series of different lifetimes in order to be purged enough so that he may be happy in the next life. Beatle George Harrison may have been quite an absolute expert at music but he got it all wrong when it came to that topic. God puts each of us here for only one opportunity to do the right thing. In that sense my view of life is more linear than cyclical. Whenever a new baby is conceived, God does not insert a new soul into a material container. Each individual is conceived with his body and soul inextricably linked permanently to each other. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that for over two thousand years.
“It is appointed unto men to die once but after this comes the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27). That’s where the Four Last Things-Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell-must be dealt with. Once someone has faced up to his Particular Judgment immediately upon his decease, he goes either to Purgatory temporarily, straight to Heaven, or straight to Hell.
what goes around comes back around
tempus fugit, memento mori
“I’ve always been in the habit of visiting graveyards on Ash Wednesday each year,” Clarence reminded Gertrude. “Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.”
“It’s so cold and windy,” she gasped, “but it’s a really good way to get ready for Lent.”
In the distance was the world they’d have soon to return to.
“Most of the time we have to play Martha,” she went on, “but it’s always necessary to give the regular doffing of the hat to Mary too.”
After a few hours they went home, back to their usual routine.
