"My" Mass... Surprisingly Little Relationship to the Coloring Book I Was Given When I Was Five

The author of the newly published book from OSV, “Bored Again Catholic: How the Mass Could Save Your Life,” [Timothy P. O’Malley] wants to reignite an appreciation in Catholics who may have short attention spans at Mass or find the rituals repetitive and dull.

The director of Notre Dame’s Center for Liturgy says,

“For years, my students have told me that they’re bored at Mass.” ...
Many of them come from parishes with active youth ministry programs, where the kids felt fed and uplifted. But in college, they feel less enthusiastic and worry their faith lives are receding.
“What people understood by ‘active practice of Faith,’ especially young adults,” he said, “was that faith was supposed to be exciting all the time; you were supposed to be perpetually entertained.” 

And that hasn't worked?
I am shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED.
Why, why... it's almost as if although each of us was told the world revolves around him, OTHER people think it revolves around them, and when we all get out into the real world -- well, someone forgot to tell the rest of the world.

Here's my take on it, (I'm developing this idea for Sunday school):

The Mass is the Source and Summit of the Faith.

It is the ritual in which/place where/means by which, we can most intimately join ourselves to another human being. (Ha. You thought was sex, didn't you?)
Mirabile dictu, that other human being is also God. (This union occurs to a great extent even if we don't receive Communion, but never mind that for now.)
A mind-blowingly miraculous event occurs, for everyone, but even if you were the ONLY one - JUST FOR YOU.
Yes, it, no, not "it", "HE", He is nourishing, but don't compare Him to food for the body, this Food for the soul is easier to understand as analogous to food for the mind.
In short, think of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a book.
Think of it, of Him, as a book.
THE Book.
It is as a volume filled with "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
ALL.
So we have this Book.
Oh.... and it's hard to understand. Because it's.. well, it's pretty big.  Because It is wherein are contained ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.
All of them.
So, we better translate it into our mother tongues, we'll "get" more if it that way.
But we don't. Because we can't. Because He contains ALL THE TREASURES OF WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE.
Which is... you know. beyond us?
But we think we should somehow understand it.
And then there are children.
And we CAN'T EVEN READ.
So instead of, I dunno, teaching us to read, you gave us books in which you had scribbled all over those "incomprehensible" words with crayons, pictures and colors you thought we'd find to our taste,and you pasted on stickers, and you gave us more markers and crayons and spray paint and ribbons and firecrackers and kites and kiddie pageants...
And then you wondered why people didn't ever recognize, much less appreciate the Book. when they encountered it in the real world
Where they weren't the center of the universe
In any language.
They couldn't understand it.
And they didn't "want" it.
So yeah, VCII liturgists and RelEd directors, and priests, and music directors, and Catholic school teachers, and USCCB-types, and random bishops (I know some  of them fought this drift.)...
You got a lot of 'splaining to do.
And you best not do it by handing out crayons...

"You don't believe any of this....?"

Himself started watching something last night that looked interesting to me, but as I've more or less given up tv, (though yeah, I check the weather, and whether or not our country had gone to war....,) for Lent, I left the room.
He turned it off shortly afterwards, I asked what gives? and he said, "Oh, you know, the kind of programming they put on this time of year, we're being utterly objective and scientific and historical about all this Jesus stuff, and they make a big deal about anything that contradicts the Bible or common understanding, but if any hard facts support Christian tradition they downplay them...."
"Oh,"... he added, "and you know how they get jackasses or crazies for all the talking-head parts."
Yep, yep, I do know...
But, Department of Silver Linings, we don't have an Established Church in the US.

Few things in life are more reliable than that the BBC will celebrate Holy Week by running a story which causes controversy about Christianity; the only thing more reliable is that it won’t do the same about Islam during Ramadan. The latest, to be found here reveals that nearly a quarter of ‘Christians’ do not believe in the Resurrection. However, 1 in to people with no religion said they sort of believed in some way int e Resurrection, prompting this: ‘The Church of England said it showed many people held religious beliefs.’ I fear what it really shows is the failure of the Established Church in this country to do much in the way of religious education. One of the more remarkable bit of the piece was a vicar saying that: ‘”I think [people answering the survey] are being asked to believe in the way they might have been asked to believe when they were at Sunday school.’ Quite apart from the fact that it is doubtful that many people even go to Sunday School, one wonders quite what she thought was being taught at Anglican Sunday Schools? Then, with all the confidence of a modernist who doesn’t know better, she pronounced: ‘”So to ask an adult to believe in the resurrection the way they did when they were at Sunday school simply won’t do and that’s true of much of the key elements of the Christian faith.” She tells us that” And an adult faith requires that it be constantly questioned, constantly re-interpreted, which incidentally is very much what modern church is actually about.’ Indeed, and in that apercu lies much of what has gone wrong with the Church of England.

One wonder, then - if asked in a survey, does the quoted vicar think the Anglicans of the UK would deny that they loved their Mums? Because, of course, they wouldn't love them in the same way they had when they were children....

"Catholics, Look East, Look East, Look East..."

"...people, servers, deacons and priest!"
Deacon Greg Kandra had one of those moments so many of us have had regarding the liturgy, when, whether by accident or design we found ourselves engaged in a rarity that used to be routine. "Oh, THAT'S why it was done this way!"

And suddenly it all makes sense.

Save the Liturgy, and We Save the World.

I don't care what the US liturgical calendar says....

...a Blessed Epiphany!
(And I feast on this Friday...black forest ham, Mancahgocidre, fruitcake and eclairs)

Why the hate?

I wonder why some elderly people, who were raised with the old Latin Mass, nevertheless hate it. And I ask myself: Why so much rigidity? Dig, dig, this rigidity always hides something, insecurity or even something else. Rigidity is defensive. True love is not rigid.
But who am I to judge?

The Pope said this, or something similar.

I think....

"Purposefully Making Christ Anonymous"

A compelling faux dialogue between an older parish priest and a younger.
A bit of polemic, some improbable as conversation, but it covers some very important matters about liturgy, the "new evangelization", misguided empowerment of the laity, and above all, catechesis - that is, the handing on as if an echo The Truth.

If the standards are set low, it sends the message that what is taking place is not of great importance.  Therefore it makes sense that about 70 % of Catholics do not believe in the true-presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Even our social-justice events rarely speak the name of Jesus and give him the glory in such activity.  We have pushed God aside as a politically incorrect name to avoid mentioning.  We are purposefully making Christ anonymous, and someone who loves Him wouldn’t do that…ever.

Catholic Cultural Currents, and Words

What does it mean to "conserve," to wish to "conserve"?
Could we say that sometimes the opposite of "conservative" is "neglectful" or even "destructive"?
If you disparage others as "scrupulous," are you saying it's better to be "negligent"?
Is the opposite of "nostalgia-hankering" perhaps "novelty-chasing" or "trend-infatuated"?

If you insist on setting yourself apart from those you deride as "pro-life," what does that make you? How would you like to identify yourself, vis a vis your position on "life"?

And what does it say about a Catholic who

When you speak of opinions outsiders may have of the Church, do you say, "They are known for the...." when it is aspects which you condemn or disavow, but ask "What do they say about us now?" (The way in '50s sitcoms when Junior drove Mom crazy she'd ask Dad, "What do you think YOUR son just did?")

Just wondering....
As Santayana said, or at least should have, 

Those who fail to appreciate history are doomed to be embarrassed when they look back on the present.

I Am Not a Squeam, But I Am Squeamish

I have never, even when I was a child or a romantic adolescent, longed for the days of yesteryear.
I am simply incapable of yearning for a period in history when I would be deprived of  any of the comforts with which I grew up.

Forget the big thing, antibiotics, long distance communication in real time, suffrage.

I would be miserable deprived of hair conditioner or fitted sheets or individually wrapped American cheese singles or bug spray or ice cubes.
(We live in a golden age, no?)
Anyway, I am in awe of the easy familiarity with which our ancestors dealt with other species and life and death in the Animal Kingdom.

Yes, Blanche, we have rats in the garage.
I shudder doing the wash, I shudder getting canned goods from the pantry, and I shudder at the smell of whatever has died in the wall.
Himself is made of sterner stuff, he is after all a hick.

Me?
The Silent Squeam.

And God Said, "Let There Be...."

And there was light. But darkness, too.

Remarkable bit of news in science when sperm meets ovum, and life begins, zinc radiates out in a "breathtaking" burst of light!

When.  Life.  Begins.

(The knowledge, alas, will almost certainly be used to grade the lives deliberated created to be ranked, and to off those of our brothers and sisters who shine less brightly.)

The discovery could help fertility doctors decide the best fertilised eggs to transfer during in vitro fertilisation.

Well, no, not "off them" outright, just consign them to the attic* as we used to do with other children who didn't make the grade, at least in horror films and gothic novels.
You know.
Cripples. Idiots. Bastards. Monsters.
Fine old custom, with a long pedigree.....

Oh, they were so cruel in the olden days! How could parents do that? Why didn't they just kill him before they had to look at him, like we do nowadays?

(*Nowadays our more advanced civilization uses refrigerator tanks.)

'When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.'

"It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage."

People have been complaining lately about the lectionary, whose fabricators seem, calculatedly, to have omitted "hard sayings."

Well, what about the Canon of the Bible itself having omitted the next couple verses in Acts, huh? What about that?

But that "abstain from unlawful marriage" thingy? Don't worry, Silas and Judas will look to the reality of the family today in all its complexity.
Some of our members, (those judgy ones who went out to you without any mandate,) find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We are called to form consciences, not to replace them.
Marital problems often give rise to new relationships, new couples, new civil unions, and new marriages, creating family situations which are complex and problematic for the Christian life Therefore, while clearly stating the Church’s teaching, the prebyters are to avoid judgements that do not take into account the complexity of various situations. Some of the brethern lack the training needed to deal with the complex problems currently facing families, and issues involving  marriages with pagans require particular attention which contain numerous elements that could well be made good use of and developed, both for their intrinsic alue and for the contribution that they can make to the ecumenical movement.
For those in unlawful marraiges, consider - because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – such persons can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end. In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. 

Someone leave out those words to the Antiocheans, (Antiochites? Antiochers?) deliberately?
Maybe St Luke decided Olden Days People didn't need them.
Our problems, of course, are very different from Olden Days People.
Because... complexity.

Receiving the Sacraments, the Way We Live Now

Be courageous, go to Confession!

So urges Pope Francis.
God bless him, he has made commendation of this sacrament a centerpiece of his pontificate, God prosper his work.

In preparing a class on the "Sacraments of Healing" it suddenly hit me - not only has the Church of most of my lifetime, at least in this country, taken rather different tacks with the two sacraments that are most available and one would think would be those by which each of us is blessed most frequently with an outpouring of God's grace...

It has likewise turned the practice of the 2 sacraments of healing on its ear!

I have long laughed at the inconsistency of the .... what, "progressive"? not really, but whatever... of the Catholic establishment in its demands, (that amount to bullying,) regarding frequent reception of the Eucharist, (especially under both species,) and its simultaneous denigration of the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Yes, I said "denigration," and I meant it.
The "box" is disparaged, priests chase penitents away for wasting the priest's time with petty sins, catechists have discouraged inculcating reception of the sacrament by making much of the fact that canon law does not absolutely "require" it prior to a child's first Communion, the condtion of Confession for gaining Indulgences elicits the same kind of contempt indulgenced practices themselves do, the specification of "mortal" is always now highlighted in the precept of the Church dealing with the sacrament of penance, (if, indeed, anyone is so backward or ill-bred as to mention the Precepts of the Church).....
It seems never to have occurred to them that what makes confession of mortal sin terrifying is that by deprecating and making difficult if not downright unavailable the confession of venial sin, (who is going to make the effort to receive "by appointment" for "hitting my brother"?) confession itself has been turned into a daunting "emergency procedure."
The prospect is as horrifying as a root canal - how can someone who has never brushed his teeth be less than sick at the thought?
Or perhaps that was the intention? to eliminate confession entirely?
Guilt and shame are baaaaaad.
Do away with them by neutering the concept of sin, of there being anything for which one should feel guilty.

But as our beloved Holy Father has said, "“It’s healthy to have a bit of shame… It does us good because it makes us more humble.”

But strangely, at the same time as the practice of confession has been frittered away to nothingness, reception of the sacrament of the Sick is growing by leaps and bounds!
Some parishes offer it at every single Mass on a weekend, two or even three times a year, and everyone is encouraged to partake, Getting a scratchy feeling, might be a cold coming on, sign me up!

I literally know a normally healthy, walking around, living-her-life adult who has received the Sacrament of the Sick far more times than she has been to Confession.

How did this happen?

Do you think Francis can change how things are?

Have you noticed how seldom new strains of theology, new attempts to "understand God" profess upfront that God is beyond my understanding, therefore the understanding of Him that I here express must perforce be inadequate and incomplete?
And how often breaks with "the old," with traditional lines of thought about God, contradiction of scripture even, basically boil down to, Well, that's not the way I would have done it if I were God, so that can't be right?

Ad Orientem and College-ruled Notebook Paper

I've been hearing of more and more parishes, more and more priests that are tentatively attempting a move toward worship ad orientem. And their are some sound reasons behind it, and advantages to it.

1. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is experienced as having a theocentric direction and focus.
2. The faithful are spared the tiresome clerocentrism that has so overtaken the celebration of Holy Mass in the past forty years.
3. It has once again become evident that the Canon of the Mass (Prex Eucharistica) is addressed to the Father, by the priest, in the name of all.
4. The sacrificial character of the Mass is wonderfully expressed and affirmed.
5. Almost imperceptibly one discovers the rightness of praying silently at certain moments, of reciting certain parts of the Mass softly, and of cantillating others.
6. It affords the priest celebrant the boon of a holy modesty.
7. I find myself more and more identified with Christ, Eternal High Priest and Hostia perpetua, in the liturgy of the heavenly sanctuary, beyond the veil, before the Face of the Father.
8. During the Canon of the Mass I am graced with a profound recollection.
9. The people have become more reverent in their demeanour.
10. The entire celebration of Holy Mass has gained in reverence, attention, and devotion.

 I know there are those who consider it a shibboleth that some Trads, or crypto-Trads make too much of, but here's the way I think of it:
Is it necessary?
No.
It is possible, to take on that list of rationales, for the people to remember that God is the center of the Mass; the priest to subsume his personality, to make it clear the Father is being addressed, to convey the reality of the Sacrifice, and to modulate his volume appropriately and meaningfully; and for all to be reverent and recollected; in a Mass celebrated versus populum.

Yes.

It is possible.

But how frequently none of that occurs! You may say not all that often, (I would argue with you, but you may,) but even once is far too many times!

The ad orientem posture of the priest is a tool that can help all that happen.

If perfection has not been reached, WHY WOULD YOU DEPRIVE YOURSELVES OF THAT TOOL????

 I cannot write a line of text without ruled paper without drifting up or meandering to the lower edge of the sheet.
Why would I want to do away with lined paper?

Do you paint, sew, bake, do carpentry? Some people can eyeball things, but most of us need to measure. What shame is there in that?

Because there are those rare actors who, sans costume, sans make-up, sans sets and lighting can BECOME SOMEONE ELSE, and not just transfix their audience but TRANSPORT them, to another place, another time - shall we do away with all the accoutrements of theatre?
Where does that leave the actors who are not Ralph Richardson, or Magda Olivero, or Anthony Hopkins? (Not to mention their audiences.)

Because my great-aunt Gen could feed a veritable banquet to a family of two dozen with a few cans, a loaf of bread, a wood stove, and a rare sort of genius, shall we sneer at those who need fresh food and a modern kitchen to even achieve "palatable"?

Yes, all the advantages derived from ad orientem can be achieved without.

But I have yet to learn of any advantage to versus populum.

Is there one?

"Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of..."

Someone wrote to an advice column in the Paper of Record, that she felt betrayed by a co-worker, to whom she had expressed, (on the Book of Faces, I think,) her eagerness to be quit of her job.
The co-worker had passed this on to the boss.
WHO WAS THE CO-WORKER'S HUSBAND.

Some people maybe should avoid social networking?
Just sayin'.

A newsletter I receive contains a Letter to the Editor that has alerted me to what may be a sinister conspiracy that the epistolarian has noted.

Thank God he or she has called this to the attention of responsible Catholics! Else, where might this linguistic madness end? Imagine using the Universal Church's official language in Her liturgies, the horror!

But now, hopefully, someone will be "watching."
You know, and "addressing."
A group.

For about two years or so, quite a number of churches have started using Latin for the "Holy, Holy" and "The Lamb of God" in their Sunday liturgies.  Why?

Even the election of Pope Francis has not stopped this trend.  Is any group watching the liturgy and addressing apparent attempt to bring back Latin? 

[name redacted to protect the imbecilic innocent]

(In all seriousness, this is so dim-witted I wonder if the poor thing accidentally stumbled into a Mass in, oh, I dunno, Spanish)
(And while the subject is the Holy Father and languages, does Pope Francis always address the English-speaking pilgrims at the Angelus address in Italian? or did the tv station just use the wrong clip?)

"St John Vianney and the Necessary"

Perhaps I am just an awful person.
Perhaps there is something a bit askew about the way my mind works.
Perhaps I have seen 1776 too many times.

There is a lovely essay by Julie Machado about holy priests, and how they are like Mothers, putting their children's needs before their own.

But its title led me to believe it was going to answer a question I have always had, concerning how in the world a confessor who spends every waking moment in "the Box," attends to, er... bodily functions.

(We'll just let it pass, shall we? )

A Love Story

A priest on the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name -- at least, not in most chanceries.

Well, that rules out the first one that popped into your head, doesn't it? (Admit it!)

Hmmm... what could it be? what would be frowned upon in most of the halls of power of American Catholicism? they're a pretty enlightened bunch, right? forgiving of human foibles, morally flexible, in that who-am-I-to-judge way.

What in the world would cause them to be getting all judgy?

Of course! you know what it is -

“So what do you think of the Tridentine Mass, Bishop?” Sweat began to form on my brow...
It is a scene which has happened to me many a time, and which is very familiar to young priests all over the world. All of a sudden, I was no longer just one priest among others. I was a marked man. I had committed the not very original sin of being one of “those priests,” the kind who celebrated the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. I was an enigma to the many friends I had made in the communities who enjoy exclusive use of the pre-conciliar liturgical books...
And I was a mystery to my brother priests and even some of my parishioners who couldn’t square the man they knew as their friend, who seemed so jovial, fun-loving and open-minded...
At dinner, my dear father in God, the successor to the apostles, shared with us, “I remember the Tridentine Mass when I was a boy. I served that Mass. I still remember the responses: Introibo ad altare Dei; ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. But it was not beautiful. We had priests who said Low Mass in fifteen minutes and had no idea what they were saying. I lived through all of that. I am done with that. I like the English Mass, and I don’t want to go back.” One can hardly argue with another man’s experience: it is what it is, it is his experience, and you can’t discount that.
Then the priest who launched the cannonball turned the discussion to the contemporary adherents of the extraordinary Mass, “They’re all crazy. They’re just nostalgic for a past they have never known. And most of them are just the walking wounded."...
they would always see my penchant for the “Trad” thing as a character flaw, a foible, an inexplicable eccentricity. 

Fr Smith is a delightful writer, (and wonderful speaker, any opportunity you have to hear him preach, or deliver and address, take it!)
"Inexplicable eccentricity" :oD
Go read the rest of the blog post, and learn how a Baptist kid discovered the glories of liturgical prayer, Catholicism and the Roman Rite and "fell in love."

Disappointing Homily

Taking a cue from today's Gospel, the deacon preached on the need for sabbatical, for private time, for daily, private, personal prayer, in addition to attendance at Mass.

But he couldn't let it go without his usual dig at the Bad Ol' Days when "most of what the priest did was silent," and ignorant pew dwellers eschewed EffCap for their "rosaries and novenas" - and a dig at those today who try to privatize the Liturgy and who complain that they can't pray.

I'm sure it's just me, but I "feel" more a part of something greater in the silences.
And I am far more aware of being actually present at both Calvary and at the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb when I am not asked to open my yap.
I can drink in the glory of celebrating with the entirety of God's people, not just those who by accidents of time and space share the pews, far more deeply when I am not constantly yanked into the here and now.

The Church! Not just "here comes everybody," but "here IS everybody"!

"Fasting, sexual continence and silence are all much easier than real prayer but they are necessary adjuncts to prayer."

A disturbing, but fascinating post from Fr Ray Blake.

A couple of years ago a rather distraught Italian lady came to see me, she was upset, she didn't come to Mass here or anywhere else in England, [really, Senora? you think your own devotion may be somewhat reflected in how warmly your sons' embrace their Catholic Faith?] though, "I go the time in Napoli", "... but I sent my boys to Catholic school, they went to Mass and Confession there, now they have both becoming Muslims and they are telling me I should become Muslim and Maria my daughter should become a Muslim and cover her hair!"....
The Italian lady told me about how her boys became Muslims. They had been teasing a Muslim friend about his Ramadam fasting, so he challenged them to fast with him, they did and after a few days they had started breaking the daily fast with a group Muslim men and discussing the Koran with them, and a little later they were praying with them and going to the mosque with them.
The mother was convinced it was the fasting that did it!
One of our great post-Concilliar lacks, is fasting and abstinence. One of the things we in England and Wales should be grateful to Bishop Kieran Conry for, was his pressing the restoration Friday abstinence amongst their Lordships. Amongst the teaching of the Fathers prayer is always accompanied by fasting and abstinence. A friend staying here for a few days respite from Greece, told me of Greek monks sermon which contained the memorable line, 'For a life of prayer, three things are necessary, control of the tongue, control of the genitals, control of the stomach'.

How hard it must be to learn to value that which requires no, forget sacrifice, requires no effort!

Acts of Reparation

I was looking forward to the solemnity, this, Christ the King, and Corpus Christi really speak to me, orations, propers and readings. The celebrant is one who heeds the calendar and ordo, so, unwontedly, we actually spoke the gloria, the credo, even heard a small homily, on the history of the feast.
This was actually a touch remarkable, as there was some preaching on the beauty of devotions, and this from a priest who from time to time betrays a kind of fond contempt for anything that smacks of Old Churchy Things.
A few weeks ago I worshipped at a parish that hears Confession before Sunday Mass, "time permitting," and I do like to make confession somewhere other than my home parish. There was a very long line, it moved in fits and starts, and just as I made to enter "The Box" for my turn, the priest exited, "sorry, MASS!" and rushed past me.
So, they were having two morning Masses so presits were hanging around after the first and I availed myself of confession. I had the list of things I had wanted to talk about a few weeks ago niggling at me - nothing serious, nothing too specific, my poenitentia interrupta hadn't been keeping me up nights or anything.
Among my sins were the real anger i feel stirring at the way people behave in Church, not just in Sunday Mass where there may be those who are only there out of a sense of obligation, but weekdays, Lenten devotions, hanging around after Mass, that sort of thing.
Well, the good father didn't give me a penance, per se, he told me to just sit before the tabernacle and let the Lord's healing "wash" over me.

"Healing"??!???  I don't need no stinkin' healing, I thought quietly to myself, I need penance! punishment!
And instantly, from my reaction I figured, oops! guess I do....

So I took myself out to the nave and sat.
And sat.
There was Jesus. There was my Lord. There was the Sanctissimus.There was God.
So I sat there and just tried to love Him, and feel His love for me.
And it was workin' pretty good.

And as the Mass-goers trickled in for the 9:30, the chattering began. And it got louder, and louder. I thought the Pick-a-Little ladies were practicing behind me, the noise from what sounded like an Elks' smoker grew and grew over to the side with occasional loud guffaws, people were trading recipes and photos of their grand-kids, and disappointment in their teams scores in front of me.

And I wasn't feeling any love for them, and I was thinking, see, Father? I was right to be angry, that was a dumb thing for you to tell me to do, you should have known how noisy it wold be, I should come back and do this later, these people are awful, I can't stand them, what is WRONG with them, I hate it, can't they even --

And then I thought about Chesterton.

And then I thought about trying to love them.

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us me prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere here, in this very seat, subject. 
Mindful, alas! that we our I myselfves have had a the lion's share in such great indignities, which we I now deplore from the depths of our my hearts, we I humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our my readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our my own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying probably not as far as I from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity neglect? stress? thoughtlessness? (I'm in no position to throw stones,) to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law. 

I got me so much work ta do......

I'm not the only one gettin' all judgy.....

Tut, tut, that reactionary Ross Douthat is waxing nostalgic for the deserving poor, and their monogamy, fidelity, sobriety and thrift.

Alfred Doolittle would not approve.

I mean, that sort of talk, by implication, criticizes the Differently Behaved.
Or do I mean those with Non-Conforming Values?
Or would the PC term be "those with Alternative Morals"?