So Long, Farewell...

The time has come for me to say farewell to the world of blogging.

For me, it is time now to focus more of my time and attention on living a life of prayer and penance. That, really, is my “calling”, and I know it. There are others who are called to blogging; and I know you will all keep up with the good, orthodox, faithful Catholic bloggers out there! Be sure, also, to get your daily dose of “The Vortex”, and if you haven’t done so already, sign up for a Premium Membership to ChurchMilitant.TV, and learn more about the faith through their excellent programming.

I have been considering this change for some time now, and on a recent long drive, I listened once again to Rod Pead’s talk on the “Sword of Unity” (it is also available in the form of a written article). I’ve mentioned Mr. Pead’s work before (here and here);  Rod Pead is the editor of Christian Order magazine, and the talk was delivered at a “Faith of Our Fathers” conference almost 14 years ago. Yet, it makes every bit as much sense today as it did then. If you haven’t listened to the talk or read the article, you should.

In his presentation, Rod Pead notes that many of us know about the problems in the Church – about the crisis in every measure of Church health (vocations, Mass attendance, etc.) – but he makes us think again:

If we know this; if we are really aware of all this; why do we resist tailoring our prayer life and our thoughts and our actions accordingly? If we consider ourselves so aware and savvy about this travesty of truth and unity, then why, as the Jesuit, Father James Schall states, are Catholics so wimpy?

In another place, Pead adds:

…It is true that while at the moment we find we can't live with the bishops, we know, too, that by God's design we can't live without them, and that there is only so much we can do. But have we done even that much? Have we prayed and fasted and done penance and really begged God on our knees to convert the hearts and minds of the bishops? Have we consistently pleaded with Him to take the hirelings who will not respond to His grace to their early reward, and send us real Catholic Shepherds in their stead?

… Christ Himself told us, in the parable of the unjust judge, that we should pray continually and never be discouraged [Lk 18 1:8]. … Our Lord told the people: "will not God give redress to his elect, when they are crying out to him, day and night? Will he not be impatient with their wrongs? I tell you, he will give them redress with all speed." And then Christ immediately adds…, "But ah, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith left on earth?"

And so…are we really praying for the conversion of the hirelings or their replacement by strong, solicitous, Catholic Shepherds – as if we believe? Given Christ's promise, I can't imagine that enough of us are.

And so, because I am called more to prayer and penance than to blogging, that is what I will do…at least for the time being. God only knows what the future holds.

I have met many wonderful people through this blog – thank you for your friendship, your encouragement, and your prayers!

Stay in touch! My email address is drjayboyd@msn.com.

"Mandela Was Not a Great Man": Vortex

Count on Michael Voris to tell it like it is. In this Vortex, he says, in part:

Nelson Mandela – whatever good that may be ascribed to him – ushered in an abortion law that has resulted in the deaths of over a million of his fellow South Africans since the mid-1990s. That is not the mark of a great man. 

And it appears some bishops are also pointing out the problems with ignoring the ways in which Nelson Mandela harmed, rather then helped, his fellow countrymen. For instance, a Boston Globe story notes:

While the pope said that former president Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who died last week, will “inspire generations,” Tobin issued a statement declaring that appreciation of Mandela’s admirable qualities should be tempered by his “shameful” promotion of abortion in his country.

Good for Bishop Tobin! 

Here's the Vortex: 

Here's the script:

One hallmark of being a weak man is the desire to associate yourself with the latest drama, or inject yourself into the latest fad topic so as not to think of yourself as being “irrelevant”.

This penchant for attention and recognition certainly doesn’t apply to everyone who is weak, but it has proven time and again to be an indicator of those who are extremely insecure – weak, emotionally or psychologically.

The particular problem with this weakness is that often times, the appropriateness of WHAT or WHO a man is associating himself with can be… well… extremely inappropriate.

And we see this evidenced most recently in the rush among so many Catholic churchmen to sing the praises of recently departed Nelson Mandela.

In fact, in some instances it seems as though a game of one-upmanship has started. One churchman, speaking out singing Mandela’s praises so as not to be left behind as the relevant train departs from the station, is almost immediately outdone by the next, who heaps even more praise on Mandela, so that HE may now bask in the glow of being “relevant”.

Some of these men – all of them weak – are almost tripping over themselves to not be left out of the picture.

Nelson Mandela – whatever good that may be ascribed to him – ushered in an abortion law that has resulted in the deaths of over a million of his fellow South Africans since the mid-1990s.

That is not the mark of a great man. That is the mark of evil and of the diabolical. Whatever his political career may have profited some in his native land, he was largely a stooge of western social engineers who used his dramatic back story to their own advantage.

He and his African National Congress were and are large embracers of abortion and on the political front, never missed an opportunity to cozy up to communist leaders.

No one is saying that Mandela didn’t do some good for some of his fellow countryman. That’s not the point.

The point is that he did far worse for most of his countrymen by not only introducing laws which directly killed the most defenseless among them, but also instituted a mindset that abortion and contraception are good things.

For a man so associated with fighting for human dignity, it’s a little puzzling that his record on the dignity of man with regard to the unborn is overlooked.

You would of course expect that from a secular anti-God media, but when Churchmen jump on the Nelson bandwagon – that becomes something more than puzzling.

Shepherds and clergy need to be concerned with saving souls and that’s it. Nothing more. But too many of them are too concerned with the praise of other men.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wrote: “Leaders are afraid to speak on vital truths to their troops, fearful that they may incite a revolt or be unloved.”

Sheen was a master clinician of the mind and soul. He could straight to the heart of issue bypassing all the excuses. When he said leaders are afraid to be unloved, he brought the hammer crashing down on the proverbial head of the nail.

Weak men are the curse of the Church these days, the scourge from the Almighty. There is nothing of the faith from which they will not dispense in order to gain some small salve for their injured and self-absorbed psyches.

Nelson Mandela was not a great man. He was a political leader who became a SYMBOL of greatness. But as he goes to his grave, he is preceded there by over a million innocent South Africans who never knew their political killer, the man who legislated them out of existence.

Whatever else may be attributed to him, THIS cannot go by without mention; without being the chief characteristic of his notoriety – that he was willing to traffic in the lives of the innocent to secure power.

For churchmen to fall all over themselves to praise this is pathetic and a clear demonstration of just how devoid of real men the Church is these days. But weak men are never “relevant” beyond their ability to be used by whatever the prevailing trends may be in a given age.

Heaven spare us from weak men in the ranks of shepherds.

Pray for the Church and her leaders my fellow Catholics. Pray in all earnestness.

GOD Love you.

I’m Michael Voris

Annual Re-Post: Yes, Virginia, There Is a Traditional Latin Mass!

My annual reposting of a favorite (of mine!):

..with apologies to Francis Pharcellus Church, whose "Yes, Viriginia, there IS a Santa Claus" article appeared in 1897, and is history's most reprinted newspaper editorial. To refresh your memory, see the full original editorial at the end of this post.

Dear Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei:

I am 58 59 years old. Some of my liberal detractors say there will be never be a Traditional Latin Mass in our diocese. The Holy Father says, “If you see it in a motu proprio, it's so.” Please tell me the truth; will we have a Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Baker?

Philothea

PHILOTHEA, your liberal detractors are wrong. They have been affected by the modernism of an age of moral relativism. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Philothea, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. This is why there is resistance to the extraordinary form of the Mass, which opens the Mysteries of the universe to us.

Yes, Philothea, someday there will be a Traditional Latin Mass widely available. It will exist as certainly as faith, hope, and charity exist, and you know that they abound as theological virtues and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary life would be if there were no extraordinary form of the Mass! It would be as dreary as if there were no Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist! There would be no childlike faith then, no sacred polyphony, no Gregorian chant to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which God fills our souls would be extinguished.

No Traditional Latin Mass! You might as well not have any liturgy at all! You might get the Holy Father to hire men to watch in all the Dioceses in the United States to find a Mass in the Extraordinary Form, but even if they did not find one, what would that prove? Nobody sees the Spirit of the liturgy, but that is no sign that there is no Extraordinary Form. The most Real Presence in the world is One that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see the Holy Angels surrounding the altar at Mass? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, hope, and love can push aside that curtain, and view and actually participate in the supernal beauty and glory beyond it, at Holy Mass. Is it all real? Ah, Philothea, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No TLM! Thank God! it lives, and it lives forever. A thousand years from now, Philothea, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, it will continue to make glad the heart of the faithful who seek it.

Read the original below the links, or see the original article here.

Related:

Nothing Compares with the TLM

The Battle for the TLM: Conspiracy or Coincidence?

Why I Promote the EF Mass

Paving the Way for the EF Mass

How to Undermine the TLM in Your Parish

 7 Reasons Why You Should NOT Go to the EF Mass

The Glass Ceiling over the Traditional Latin Mass

Tota Pulchra Es

I'll be way on retreat the next several days; there will be no further posts till next week. Be sure to keep up with the Vortex while I'm gone!

I will happily be able to attend Mass in the extraordinary form for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception! 

At the end of Mass, we will sing the lovely and haunting Marian hymn, "Tota Pulchra Es". I had never heard or sung it before, but now I'm hooked! 

Listen!

Here's a version with an "Eastern" flavor: 

Archbishop Sample on Church Dedication and Consecration

Archbishop Alexander Sample speaks about the beautiful symbolism involved in the solemn liturgical ceremonies as he consecrates Shepherd of the Valley Catholic Church in Central Point, Oregon on October 13, 2013.

Would it be possible to clone him?!

(Thanks to Marc Salvatore!)

The Importance of the Traditional Latin Mass

This is wonderful - H/T to Richard at "Linen on the Hedgerow".

Why the Vortex?

Sequel to yesterday's Vortex. Don't forget to sign up for a Premium Membership!

How the Vortex Came to Be

"Ah, the Vortex!" 

Some people love it, some people hate it. Here's how it came to be, why it came to be, how it's changed...