Motherhood is a statement from God that things will be alright. The first person you meet in this world is the person who bore the most pain to bring you into it. She will be the first to fully embrace you. She will be the first to feed you. She will be the first to love you.

Motherhood is a declatory statement that human life will continue. It may not be easy, but life is worth it. Every mother is a sign of God’s love.

— Padraig Martin

Happy Mother’s Day! Your sacrifices, past and present, matter.

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Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

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ALAN writes:

It must have been in 1955 or ’56 when my mother permitted me to stay up long enough to watch a TV police drama that was telecast in St. Louis at 9 or 9:30 p.m. She would likely have watched it anyway, even aside from my enthusiasm for it.  It was a syndicated program called Highway Patrol. It featured tough-guy movie actor Broderick Crawford as the hero, Captain Dan Mathews.  I was six to seven years old.  Something in the program inspired my respect. I looked forward to it every week. But of course at that age, I could not articulate why it impressed me.

Now, seventy years later, it is perfectly clear. In recent months, I have watched dozens of episodes of Highway Patrol.  The essence of that program lay in its moral-philosophical frame of mind.  The stories were well-written and tightly edited.  They were about good and evil.  They embodied a code of moral standards that were shared by nearly all Americans in those years.  There was no moral ambiguity or uncertainty in those episodes.  The job of the Highway Patrol was to defend the lives, property, and rights of law-abiding citizens.

I was in the early years of parochial school when Highway Patrol inspired my respect. I enjoyed watching it and two other syndicated programs in those years — Rescue 8 and Sea Hunt — because they showed confident men doing heroic things to uphold a fixed code of moral-philosophical-cultural standards.

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“HE who is afraid of falling distrusts his own strength, avoids as much as possible all dangerous occasions, and recommends himself often to God, and thus preserves his soul from sin. But the man who is not fearful, but full of self confidence, easily exposes himself to the danger of sin: he seldom recommends himself to God, and thus he falls. Let us imagine a person suspended over a great precipice by a cord held by another. Surely he would constantly cry out to the person who supports him: Hold fast, hold fast; for Gods sake, do not let go. We are all in danger of falling into the abyss of all crime, if God does not support us. Hence we should constantly beseech him to keep his hands over us, and to succour us in all dangers.

— St. Alphonsus Liguori

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“HOW beautiful art thou, O Michael, in thy heaven made armour, giving glory to the God, Whose enemy thou overcamest! Thine humble and fervent eye is fixed on the throne of the Jehovah, Whose rights thou defendedst, and Who gave thee the victory. Thy sublime cry: “Who is like unto God?” roused the faithful legions, and became thy name and thy crown. It will remind us, for all eternity, of thy fidelity to our Creator, and thy triumph over the dragon. Meanwhile, we enjoy thy loving protection; we are thy happy clients.”

— Dom Prosper Guéranger, “The Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel“

The sanctuary of St. Michael on Mount Gargano in Apulia, Italy [pictured above] first became a site of veneration of the archangel in the fifth century, following the famous apparition of the saint there and many miracles attributed to him.

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We do love you, Month, most fair,
For the precious name you bear;
And we hail you with delight;
Mary’s name sheds lustre bright;
Every flow’ret seems to say,
Mary’s is the month of May.
Welcome, Month of Mary!

Hymn of Welcome to the Month of May

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FROM Survival Manual during the Great Tribulation and the Operation of Error by Javier Morrell [English translation by Google]:

Thus is unleashed the Operation of error or seduction of iniquity (II Thessalonians 2, 8-12), which consists of an impressive series of errors and doctrinal contradictions, false sacramental prodigies and heretical barbarities disguised as apparent Catholic orthodoxy that we will call fables or logics of Anomie, but which all contain a deadly deception; This Operation of Error was inaugurated with the advent of the Antichrist Montini, and above all, with the great apostasy he instigated, which culminated in the mass defection of the entire episcopal body, formalized on the fateful day of December 8, 1965, with the signing of the heretical acts of the accursed Second Vatican Council. The Operation of Error is a false power sent by God to lead astray those who did not love the Truth as revealed by God in Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium, but instead delighted in deceit and iniquity. It is a truly insidious seduction that strikes virtually all souls whom God has rescued from the world and its deceptions. Later, we will explain the modus operandi of this unfathomable mystery called the Operation of Error, and we will attempt to provide a way out, with the help of the Triune God, of this relentless universal deception.

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“DOTH not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice? Standing in the top of the highest places by the way, in the midst of the paths. Beside the gates of the city, in the very doors she speaketh, saying: O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. O little ones, understand subtilty, and ye unwise, take notice.

“Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things. My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness. All my words are just, there is nothing wicked nor perverse in them.They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge.Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold.”

— Proverbs, 8: 1-10

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“THE apostate cleric is the first factor the devil seeks for his work of rebellion. He needs to present it in some authoritative way to the eyes of the unwary, and for that purpose nothing serves him better than the endorsement of some minister of the Church. And since, unfortunately, there is never a lack of clerics in the Church corrupt in their morals, the most common path to heresy; or blinded by pride, also a very common cause of all error; hence, he has never lacked ecclesiastical apostles and supporters, whatever form he has taken in Christian society.

“Judas, who began in the apostolate itself to murmur and sow suspicion against the Savior, and ended up selling him out to his enemies, is the first type of the apostate priest and sower of discord among his brothers; and Judas, note, was one of the first twelve priests ordained by the Redeemer himself. (more…)

AVE, GENEROSA
—-Hildegard von Bingen

Hail, girl of a noble house,
shimmering and unpolluted,
you pupil in the eye of chastity,
you essence of sanctity,
which was pleasing to God.

For the Heavenly potion was poured into you,
in that the Heavenly word
received a raiment of flesh in you.

You are the lily that dazzles,
whom God knew
before all others.

O most beautiful and delectable one;
how greatly God delighted in you!
In the clasp of His fire
He implanted in you so that
His son might be suckled by you. (more…)

ALAN writes:

Speed is a weapon used against the old, the past, the sensible, and the capacity for thought and contemplation. Never has any population been more intoxicated with speed than today’s high-tech generations. Speed is their default frame of mind — speed in automobiles, jets, reading, accelerated learning, fast food joints, high-speed Internet, and high-speed advertising to promote high-speed everything across the board.

Observe in today’s television advertisements (unlike those in the 1950s) the constant movement, gesticulating, optical gimmicks, changing frames, hyper-paced editing; the cool, casual apparel preferred by the young and hip; cool people wearing vapid smiles, high speed animation, relentless agitation, and the frame being split into two or more frames, which means your mind being diced and sliced, which has the effect of making or keeping viewers half-witted, which is part of the deliberate dumbing down of Americans. Did I mention the continuous babbling?

I can remember a time when people were savvy  enough to recognize an avalanche like that as a Snow Job. Today their descendants enjoy being snowed under and then wait for more.

In the 1950s, advertisers wanted to get viewers’ undivided attention. I can even remember when TV pitchmen spoke the language carefully, clearly, and in a sensible cadence.  Today they want to divide your attention from one second to the next, to shatter it, to minimize your capacity for thought or erase it altogether. You are not permitted even for a few seconds to think about what is being shoved in your eye and ear. You are not permitted to pause, to slow down, to weigh and consider claims, to examine their premises, or worst of all, to identify both the sales pitch itself and the format in which it is presented as a high-tech production in song-and-dance Flim-Flammery. They do not want you to think about any of that because they do not want you to think at all. They hate viewers who think — because they might stop being viewers.

For a perfect example, watch any TV coverage of severe weather warnings.  (more…)

BUT I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin: because they believed not in me. And of justice: because I go to the Father; and you shall see me no longer.

— John, 16: 7-9

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On the Sign of the Cross
The Ursaline Manual, 1857

“THERE is nothing which can more effectually assist you to recollect the presence of God, and remind you of the duty of consecrating all that you say or do to his honor and glory, than the frequent and devout use of the sign of the Cross. This sacred sign has always been used by the Church to signify, that all graces and spiritual assistance are derived from the cross and passion of Jesus Christ. When accompanied with corresponding sentiments, it is an excellent form of prayer, a fervent act of faith, of hope, and of charity, beside being a public and solemn Profession of our belief in those mysteries of our religion, which we must all believe and profess in order to be saved; namely, the Unity and Trinity of God, the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection of our Savior.

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“Our Saviour did not think the time between His Resurrection and Ascension a fitting one for glorifying the Instrument of His victory. The Cross was not to be brought into notice, until it had subjected the world to Him Whose glory it so eloquently proclaimed. Jesus was three days in the tomb; His Cross is to lie buried unknown to men, for three centuries: but it is to have its Resurrection, and the Church celebrates this Resurrection today. Jesus would, in his own good time, add to the joy of Easter by miraculously revealing to us this sacred monument of His love for mankind. He intrusts it to our keeping, it is to be our consolation, as long as this world last: is it not just, that we should love and venerate it? (more…)

“FURTHERMORE, if anyone has once been apprehended in schism or heresy, or confessed or condemned for these, such a person can never be elected Roman Pontiff; otherwise, the election would be null and void, nor will it be revalidated by the passage of time or long possession, and anyone, when this offense appears, may withdraw from his obedience, without waiting for any declaration in this regard, according to the Bull of Paul IV, Cum Ex Apostolatus, and therefore has an exception that can be presented against the election of the Pope.”

—- Carolo Antonio Thesauro SJ, De Poenis Ecclesiasticis Praxis Absoluta et Universalis, 1831

[Source]

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“VITALIS was a soldier, and the father of Saints Gervasius and Protasius. Coming one day into Ravenna, in company with the judge of Paulinus, there was being led to execution, for his having confessed the Christian faith, a certain Ursicinus, a physician. Vitalis observing that his courage was somewhat staggered by the tortures, cried out to him: ‘Ursicinus! thou that art a physician, and curest other men, take heed lest thou wound thyself with the dart of eternal death!’ Encouraged by these words, Ursicinus bravely suffered martyrdom. Whereupon, Paulinus was exceedingly angry, and ordered Vitalis to be seized, tortured on the rack, and then thrown into a deep pit, where he was to be buried alive by stones being thrown upon him. This done, one of the priests of Apollo, who had excited Paulinus against Vitalis, was possessed by a devil, and began shouting these words: ‘O Vitalis, Martyr of Christ, thou burnest me beyond endurance!’ Mad with the inward burning, he threw himself into a river.”

— Dom Prosper Guéranger, “St. Vitalis, Martyr, The Liturgical Year

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