1. "The spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and so many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally to refuse to worship any of the hydra's heads."-J.R.R. Tolkien (from a letter written in late 1969) 2. Our problem with Halloween is that we miss half the … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Mostly On Halloween
Faith
Feast of St. Boethius
There are a surprising number of people whom even knowledgeable Catholics don't realize are Saints, and Boethius is one of the more prominent. While secular scholars loftily debate whether he was even Christian (which seems to me absurd given even a cursory reading of De Consolatione), the Church has recognized him as a Saint and … Continue reading Feast of St. Boethius
Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman
Today's the Feast of St. John Henry Newman, so I'm going to offer another nugget of wisdom from the great Saint. The words below are all his. WHEN a "Catholic Literature in the English tongue" is spoken of as a desideratum, no reasonable person will mean by "Catholic works" much more than the "works of … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman
Sunday Thoughts: The Heart
The heart is the seat of the passions, the raw, blazing energies that mediate between the reason and the appetite, enforcing the will of one or the other, according to how they are trained. We perceive goodness with the reason, but we feel it in the heart. As C.S. Lewis said, we moderns are, in … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts: The Heart
Friday Flotsam: Ember Days, RPGs, and ‘Bofuri’ Season 2
1. Last full week at work. One of my assignments was to make a particular alteration in the code. It was a matter of changing a single parameter in Javascript. It then took over a day to get it approved and pushed through for testing. Probably this is something that happens all the time in … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Ember Days, RPGs, and ‘Bofuri’ Season 2
Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows
Take some time today to meditate and pray over the Seven Sorrows of our Mother, who must feel such anguish over the state of the world, the loss of so many of her children, and the ingratitude and contempt shown towards her Son. You can read more about this feast and find a good devotion … Continue reading Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows
The Queen is Dead. Long Live the King
Rather fitting that on Feast of the Nativity of the Queen of Heaven and Earth, the longest reigning Queen of England should pass away. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest … Continue reading The Queen is Dead. Long Live the King
Sunday Thought: On Seeing God
The fact that we can so easily become distracted at prayer is proof of just how inadequate our ideas of God and the Heavenly Court really are. For, of course, if we had even a faint understanding of just what we were dealing with, it would be almost impossible for anything else to have a … Continue reading Sunday Thought: On Seeing God
Assumption Proclamation
Should have gone up yesterday. I have a feeling that I might have made the same error last year...oh, well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJcSyaRU0kc "The old world in its sunset was fair to see."
Newly Blessed Martyrs
Thanks to Caroline Furlong for sharing this: ten holy Polish sisters who were martyred by the advancing Red Army in 1945 were Beatified last weekend. The group of Elizabethan martyr-sisters is headed by the youngest of them, Blessed Sister Maria Paschalis (Maria Magdalena) Jahn. She was born on April 7, 1916, the eldest of four … Continue reading Newly Blessed Martyrs
Serpent's Den 