"This is Sister Monica Joan.... it is our privilege to care for her."

I am feeling over-privileged. Or -under?
But it is a terrible piece of good fortunate to be able to care for someone you love.
I shan't be around for a while, may I ask anyone who reads this not to comment, but to say a prayer for someone called Rose.

Action Item #13

Who do you suppose voted "nay" on the pastoral letter to the faithful, encouraging the Faithful to avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, and reminded them that sometimes it is an obligation?

Baptized pagans?

According to George Weigel, led by Raymond Arroyo's "interview" questions, that is what all the putatively Christian who failed to vote for Romney are; they did not take a position "congruent" with the bisops' teachings, they "reject" what the bishops had to say, apparently.

 Baptized pagans.

To declare that that fifty percent of Catholics voted for Obama ipso facto support the president's position on ANY specific policy, whether mandated birth control coverage or progressive tax rates is of course absurd, and frankly, insulting.

If these people do not want to come off as GOP shills, they would do well to explain to someone like me what a committed Catholic, a Catholic who endorses everything taught by the Church, is to make of those wink-wink nudge-nudge ads with which we were inundated here in a bone fide "swing state," in the final weeks of the campaign, aw don't worry, Mitt ain't gonna actually DO anything about abortion, he's not some kinda EXTREMIST, followed by, I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this message.

Sins of the Fathers

For some reason, before beginning the meat of this post I feel full disclosure is required of me, to whit, that I am not capable of bearing a child. 
I mention this as, in the eyes of some polemicists, this may render me as ineligible to express an opinion on what is meretriciously labeled "reproductive rights" as any old white guy republican politician. 

I think that at least one loser in the recent elections was pilloried for calling out those who have latched on to the least defensible position in the abortion debate. Well, he doesn't seem to have "called anyone out," exactly, but simply to have given a sincere and badly-worded answer to a pundit's question, which answer was seen as an affront to said indefensible, but purportedly compassionate, position.

 I don't know much else about this would-be congressman, but my guess would be that I agree with him about virtually nothing else.
 But let's talk about the pro-life-unless-that-life-was-short-sighted-enough-to-have-been-the-result-of-rape-or-incest position.

Let us say that you are opposed to at least some abortions.

Why are you opposed to any abortion?

Is it not because you believe that abortion is the deliberate taking of innocent human life?

Or is it because you believe that pregnancy is the just punishment due a woman for engaging in illicit, or at least careless, sexual activity?

Surely the former, please say it is the former? (I'm not addressing you, Mr Aiken, you've made your reasoning abundantly, albeit mayhaps inadvertently, clear.)

If you believe an unborn child's right to life trumps the right of the woman or girl in whose womb he resides not to be burdened with him, IN MOST CIRCUMSTANCES - how are his rights somehow impinged on by, abrogated on account of, the evil and vile actions of the man who begat him? Is that child somehow less worthy of, less entitled to his already-begun life than, say, the one who is the product of a boozy but amicable one-night stand?

How can that be?

Are you perhaps less concerned with the child's right to life than with the mother's responsibility to lie in the bed she has made?

We must stop allowing the argument to be framed by the devil's useful idiots, must stop trying to answer the unanswerable "When did you stop beating you wife?" question that tripped up the Indiana candidate.

"Do you believe a victim of rape should be forced to bear a child? Really?"

No, no, NO!

Ask in retort, do you believe that a child who is a product of rape is an inferior being to, and less entitled to life than a child who is the product of love? Really?

Watched the USCCB Confab...

... a little prayer of thanks for Bishop Bruskewitz. Yeah, "challenging."

Are We Aware That Liturgy is the Salvation of the World?

Magnificat really is a nifty little publication.
It proved NOT such a great gift for Mom, as its editors seem to generally try for a little variety and on weekdays in Ordinary Time, usually go for the readings, or at least Propers of optional memorials, and our weekday parish avoids such things, trouble with bookmarks, you know; so really not much help for those who, already struggling with hearing, are saddled with mumbling, ill-prepared readers.

But I, on the other hand, am really enjoying it, particularly the devotional readings from holy men and women of whom, oft as not, I have not heard.

Madeleine Delbrel, (+1964,) a French mystic, may well have been, judging from her date of death, immersed in the Liturgical Movement, and, again judging from the date of he death, surely had no reason yet to doubt the efficacy of the ongoing Vatican Council.

"Are we aware that liturgy is the salvation of the world? [emphasis added] If... it is once again necessary [to adapt the liturgy, it is not] a question of making the liturgy more human. It already is human, and tragically so; it is the Passion of the Son of God made man, made continually present among us."

Other Catholics with a grudge against Traddies, if not against Tradition itself, like to mock the phrase I coined, "Save the liturgy, save the world," as if it expressed some sort of simplistic belief that a return to the old forms is either necessary, or worse, sufficient for the salvation of mankind.

But the fact is, it had nothing to do with the Extraordinary Form, it is nothing more, nor less, than an expression of certainty of the utter importance of the Eucharistic Liturgy and its proper execution, an expression of a belief in the Eucharistic Liturgy's primacy in the economy of salvation, an expression of solidarity with the Vatican II dictum that the Eucharistic Liturgy is the very Source and absolute Summit of our Christian life.

Or Perhaps His Excellency is Planning to Whap the Confirmandi...

One of my CCD students is curious to know if we will be learning more about "Confrontation", the sacrament, one supposes, when the Holy Spirit comes down and smacks some sense into ya...

Cantorae S. Augustine, and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

I was fortunate enough to attend an evening of music of "Rest and Repose," presented by Cantorae S. Augustine last week. Quite lovely. I think I enjoyed the shape note music as much or more than anything because it was unexpected and unfamiliar. Mary Jane Ballou should be very proud indeed. I don't suppose I could drive 8 hours round trip and ask to sing with her? No, didn't think so....
Then, embarrassment of riches, SUNG Vespers. My mom, for whom All Souls is very special, was very pleased. Its evenings like that that keep me from tearing my hair out and screaming.

(In other news, in another diocese, at Mass on All Saints, Just a Song at 
Twilight struck someone as appropriate, and so was recited, for our edification 
and sanctification. So you see, it was a piece of great good luck that the PTB 
had decided to omit the Gloria and Credo leaving us plenty o'time for JaSaT.) 

Oh, after Vespers I complimented the altar servers. It was refreshing to see child servers who sang and spoke when they ought.

What does it say about a parish and its liturgical life when its expenditures for music for Mass are lumped in with Bingo expenses on the annual financial report? (Candles and altar flowers rate their own line.)

I Apologize to Florida...

... for ever having complained about the lack of change-of-season.

This has been a gorgeous week, and going to early morning Mass, has been such a grace and such a joy, (not to mention the fact that "early morning" means 9:00 am -- does it get any better than this?)

I am going to try to stop whining about things, I really am. I am so blessed.