October – The Month of the Most Holy Rosary

I’ve always liked this precursor to the end of the year’s holiday season. What a great way to renew our faith and prepare for the upcoming liturgical season of Christmas, In the Catholic Church, October is the month of the Holy Rosary.

According to the account, the Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Dominic in 1206. Saint Dominic had been trying without success to overturn the Albigensian Heresy. (https://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY5.TXT) In spite of penance and prayer, Saint Dominic wasn’t meeting with success. The Blessed Mother consoled him in his fight against the heresy and gave him the Rosary. She told him that praying the Rosary was a mighty weapon in combating the evils of the world and encouraged him to share this with others.

Many miracles have been attributed to the devote prayers of the Rosary. History are good examples of this.

The first instance of the intercession by way of the Rosary is the defeat of the Albigensians in the Battle of Muret in 1213.

Saint Pius V attributed the power of the Rosary prayers to the defeat of the Turkish fleet on the first Sunday of October, 1571. In reaction to this miracle, the Pope ordered a commemoration of the Rosary to be made on that day.

In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII proclaimed a celebration of a Feast of the Rosary in churches having an altar dedicated to the Rosary.

In 1671, Pope Clement X extended the feast day to include all of Spain.

On August 5, 1716, a second major victory over the Turks occurred when they threatened the ruin of Christian civilization. Prince Eugene defeated them at Peterwardein in Hungary. After that victory, Pope Clement extended the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary to the entire Church.

Given the current state of the world, with worldwide persecution of Christians gaining momentum, it would be a good idea to think about offering a daily Rosary. You have to wonder why the idea isn’t being perpetuated more strongly in Catholic dioceses. There is a lot of history repeating itself these days and we know for a fact that we can’t turn to our political leaders for comfort and help. The Blessed Mother shouldn’t be second in our list when the world is in desperate need of prayer.

“Today, when dangers far greater than those of the ancient Turks threaten not only Christianity but all civilization, we are urged by our Blessed Mother to turn again to the Rosary for help. If men in sufficient numbers do this, and at the same time carry out the other conditions that she has laid down, we have the greater reason for confidence that we will be delivered from our dangers.” — Mary in our Life by Fr. William G. Most

Signs of a Liturgist in Your Parish

Signs of habitation by a Liturgist

Olympic swim team tryouts are held in your baptismal font

Your church is more bleak than a Turkish prison

The only icon in the church is the picture of the Dalai Lama on the priest’s stole

The priest’s stole is any color but white, Red, Purple, Green, Old Rose, Gold, or black (unless used together as a plaid).

The music is not elevating but fit for an elevator

They use every musical instrument created but the organ

The last time you heard the word sacrifice was at a baseball game People kneeling to receive Communion are zapped with a stun gun and taken outside

The word sister always precedes the word brother

Male pronouns have been banned by a liturgical interdict

The document “Environment and Art in Catholic Worship” is carried in and held up instead of the Bible

Vatican II is extensively quoted but no documents of this council can be found anywhere on church grounds

Confession is held for an hour on January 29th.

Extraordinary Eucharist Ministers are stationed at every row, if there is a concelebrating priest he is bound and gagged until after the EEMs are done

Liturgical dance, enough said

Liturgist vocabulary to watch out for includes: worship space, inclusive language, participation, worship environments, assembly, Easter people, presider. Words never used are dogma, doctrine, Ratzinger (unless with a sneer), GIRM, orthodoxy, man or mankind; if these words are used or reverence is given to the Holy Father than subject is not a Liturgist.

Liturgist disturbances can also be detected in the “The raising arm effect.” This can be seen if the arms of Jesus have broken away from the cross and are directed upwards. Depending on the intensity of Liturgeist activity sometimes the cross will appear to be entirely gone. The “raising arm effect” can also be detected prior to the Our Father where peoples arms mysteriously levitate and through some magnetic force their hands become attached to those next to them.

If any of these Liturgist disturbances are detected, run don’t walk to your Bishop. In normal circumstances the parish priest should be gone to first, but once this activity has been detected he has usually been
neutralized by the hypnotic effects of the Liturgist. Your Bishop will then appoint a priest who he has given the faculties for conducting the “Rite of Liturgical Exorcism.”

Rite of Liturgical Exorcism

The Liturgical Exorcist begins with the sign of the cross, and then a sprinkling of Holy Water on the Liturgist. It has been reported that Liturgists are deathly afraid of Holy Water. This has been noticed
because of their habit of putting everything in a Holy Water Font except Holy Water.

The Liturgical Exorcist then traces a cross on the Liturgists forehead using the The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM). A number of helpers are required to hold the Liturgist down since they will struggle with supernatural strength to resist the GIRM.

At this point the Liturgist will usually start supplicating to the spirit of Vatican II for help. If they start quoting anything, the Liturgical Exorcist asks for a reference to an actual Vatican II document. The Liturgist will normally show symptoms of shock at this point.

The Liturgical Exorcist will then begin reading from James Akin’s “Mass Confusion” while any of the faithful present chant “Orthodoxy.” Again, make sure enough people are present to hold the Liturgist down during this reading.

If the Liturgists starts to calm down during the reading of “Mass Confusion” and says an occasionally Amen, then the Liturgical Exorcism is successful. This can be verified by having the subject read from the GIRM or look at a picture of Cardinal Ratzinger with no ill effects.

A Liturgist with a university degree is especially hard to eradicate, much prayer and fasting will be required.

Church Marque Messages

*To belittle is to be little
*God answers knee mail.
*The wages of sin is death. Repent before payday.
*Under same management for over 2000 years.
*Forbidden fruit creates many jams.
*If you do not want to reap the fruits of sin, stay out of the devil’s orchard.
*Tithe if you love Jesus! Anyone can honk!
*Soul food served here.
*Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn’t have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn’t have to hear about the way his mother cooked.

Ascension “Sunday” – Alleluia Sing To Jesus – No Matter the Day!

Alleluia, Sing To Jesus

Alleluia! sing to Jesus!
His the scepter, his the throne;
Alleluia! his the triumph
His the victory alone:
Hark! the songs of peaceful Zion
Thunder like a mighty flood;
Jesus, out of every nation,
Hath redeemed us by his Blood.

Alleluia! not as orphans
Are we left in sorrow now;
Alleluia! He is near us,
Faith believes nor questions how:
Though the cloud from sight received him,
When the forty days were o’er
Shall our hearts forget his promise,
“I am with you evermore”?

Alleluia! Bread of angels,
Thou on earth our food, our stay;
Alleluia! here the sinful
Flee to thee from day to day:
Intercessor, friend of sinners,
Earth’s Redeemer, plead for me,
Where the songs of all the sinless
Sweep across the crystal sea.

Alleluia! King eternal,
Thee the Lord of lords we own;
Alleluia! born of Mary,
Earth thy footstool, heav’n thy throne:
Thou within the veil hast entered,
Robed in flesh, our great High Priest;
Thou on earth both Priest and Victim
In the Eucharistic feast.

Melody: Hyfrydol 87.87.D; Music: R. H. Prichard, 1811-1887; Text: William Chatterton Dix, 1837-1898

Celebrating The Month of May With Mary

May is the Month of our Blessed Mother. How many feast days do you know of and celebrate in thought, word or prayer?

The Immaculate Conception, December 8th. This feast commemorates Mary’s conception without Original Sin.
The Birth of Mary, September 8th. Although we do not know the date of Mary’s birth, it has been celebrated on this day since the seventh century.
The Presentation of Mary in the Temple, November 21st.
The Annunciation, March 25th. This day celebrates the conception of Jesus by the Virgin Mary.
The Visitation, May 31st. This celebrates Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth.
The Birth of Jesus, December 25th.
The Solemnity of Mary, January first. This is the second celebration of Jesus’ birth with focus on Mary as the Mother of God.
The Presentation of the Lord, February second. Although the focus is on Jesus, it is still a day to reflect on Mary’s role as the Mother of God.
The Assumption, August 15th. The day Mary was assumed into Heaven, body and soul.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, July 16th. This was where the Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was founded about 1154. The feast was placed on July 16th because, according to tradition in 1251, Mary appeared to Carmelite St. Simon Stock on this day.
The Dedication of St. Mary Major, August 5th. The Basilica of St. Mary Major, in Rome, was the first church dedicated to our Blessed Mother.
The Queenship of Mary, August 22nd. We venerate Mary for her unique part in the redemption and because she is first among the saints.
Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15th. Mary endured many sufferings during her life, ultimately as witness to her Son’s passion and death.
Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7th. The entire month of October is dedicated to the Rosary.
Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11th.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12th.

Open Year Round!

Although many parishes enjoy a full compliment of attending parishioners every day of the year for Sunday and week day Mass, there are four days that can triple attendance and make for some interesting ‘spiritual’ interludes.

Naturally, there are always crowds of unknown people showing up for their twice annual attendance. I’ve heard many a pastor gently remind from the pulpit that the church is open more than on Easter and Christmas.

Then, there are the ‘freebies’ events – Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday when many unknowns show up for the ‘handouts’. Some people have told me that it is ‘bad luck’ to not receive ashes on Ash Wednesday and will ruin the rest of your year. Others get as many palms as needed to weave into crosses during Mass. You can’t resent their presence because even if their motive for coming was less than perfect, who knows what blessings might bring them back on the ‘off’ days!

In the most devout of groups, however, some interesting interludes take place on holy days and every day, for that matter.

I can never figure out why people don’t understand the concept of standing aside while one Mass exits so the next one can enter. I used to attend a parish with limited room to get in and out of Mass. When Mass ran over a bit, we’d face a solid wall of people who were determined to get in regardless of the opposing wall of people trying to exit. I’m sure many an usher would have risked his life trying to coordinate this so a solution was never reached.

When Ash Wednesday or Palm Sunday comes around, I always made sure to get there early if I wanted a seat. Back when I had a toddler in arms and three little ones, it was necessary to be able to corral and seat them. One Ash Wednesday, we were seated and settled. Crowds of people were still coming in and we actually got some resentful looks because we had secured a seat. Usually, morning Mass was sparsely attended and that Ash Wednesday it was packed for the ‘good luck’ ashes.

After the sermon, Father distributed the ashes and we all went up in an orderly manner, pew by pew. Even 20 minutes into Mass, people were still arriving. A group of people came in the side door and immediately pushed ahead of us in line for the ashes. We go our ashes and returned to our pew only to find it filled with the latecomers. At first, I gave them the benefit of the doubt as to not knowing that even though the church was crowded, one, lone pew had not been occupied. That doubt fled when we approached and they grinned at us and handed me our jackets and prayer books.

Pew stealers seem to be a way of life in what is supposed to be a Christian atmosphere. A friend related to me that when her family returned to their pew after the Blessing of the Fire on Easter Vigil, they found their baby carrier, purses, and prayer books dumped in the aisle and another family (who they knew well) was occupying the pew. When she kindly said they had been there first, having arrived an hour before Mass, the family said someone stole their pew so they took this one. My friend had a better solution as she smiled and said they would share the pew so ten people were together in a pew that was made for five.

I think my all-time favorite observation was the woman who marched up to the altar before Mass on Ash Wednesday, gave herself a ash cross on her forehead and walked out. Basically she had adorned herself with unblessed ashes but, to each his own.

An encounter at Walmart, one Ash Wednesday, summed up a lot of this when a woman turned to me in line, stared at me for a minute and said asked, “Where did you get THAT?” pointing to my forehead. Thinking she was asking a religious question, I began to explain and she stopped me and said, “No, WHERE did you get the ashes and do you have to attend Mass to get them?”

The Freedom of Religion, God, and the Government . . .

We, as Christians, pray for our country. Perhaps, we should add prayers for ourselves to stand up to our country when it tries to adjust our consciences and means of worship to coincide with the country’s secular and unchristian agenda for the world. Right now, pastors are reticent about crossing the ‘separation of church and state’ line lest they lose their tax-exempt status. From what I understand the separation of church and state was put into place to protect religion not the state. Given the many travesties of government to come down in the last decades, they might have been fought more strongly by people of faith if the faithful understood that the government couldn’t tell them how to worship and to keep quiet about candidates that would not promote the values that built this county.

There is a scary repeat of history taking place but like it’s forerunner, the changes are subtle and persistent. There are way too many easy comparisons between the Rise of Hitler’s Germany and what is taking place in the United States today. This is an excerpt from http://christianpersecutioninamerica.com.

While prayer in school had been obligatory the people allowed Hitler to make it optional.

Prayer was removed from America’s public schools in 1962.

Festivals that had previously been identified as Christian holidays were reclassified with secular names.

This has been accomplished all over America.

They took very aggressive steps to control and intimidate “Pastors” to incorporate and encourage various seemingly harmless pagan worship while discouraging churches from preaching the true Gospel message.

Most American churches have already voluntarily surrendered many of their rights by unnecessarily embracing 501 C3 (tax exempt status) registration and some “churches” in America today incorporate “Christian” yoga, “chrislam” and other pagan religious activities into their programs.

They took control of public radio not allowing views contrary to theirs to be broadcast.

In America there is movement to restrict Biblical views as “hate speech” as they now do in Canada and some have tried to do in America.

They supported and promoted Darwinian Evolution to justify the purging of the species.

In many schools and universities in America Creation is not even allowed to be introduced as an option.

In some cases the Christian cross symbol was outlawed and replaced with the German swastika (the swastika didn’t originate with Hitler; it had previously been used as a religious symbol for thousands of years).

Today many of the largest main stream churches that call themselves “Christian” are practicing and promoting the removal of the cross symbol so as not to offend anyone.

Controversial Yet Thought Provoking . . .

Woman are now liberated! What good news. We can now invade all the hallowed halls heretofore belonging only to males. We can become anything we want in life, according to the feminists. If it was formerly a man’s domain, then we should show him how much better we can do it. And even if we can’t do it as well, take it away from him anyway. Although I am of the proper gender to take advantage of this invasion, I find myself uneasy and not a little sad. It seems that in the pursuit of feminine superiority, we have lost so much of what it actually means to be a female

The feminine versus the feminist is definitely in the minority. As we struggle to be all we can be, we watch the liberated women be all that they want to be with the blessings of the world at large and the church in particular. I never paid much attention to the whole matter until it invaded the Church. The dignity of the sanctuary has been jeopardized by pant suits, miniskirts and perfumed grandmothers. The solace we should be able to find in our churches is undermined by the feminist agenda.

There is a small aspect of this revolution, and I know I am in the minority here, that defies reason, dignity for the most part and promise. And until I had a son serving Mass, I didn’t think about it much one way or the other but I find altar girls a potential threat to future, priestly vocations. And I feel sorry for the girls who feel they need to take part in a masculine role and try to make it their own. The influx of girls has cost many boys their rightful place in serving on the altar. In our efforts to be fair, boys may be turned from vocations that would be the building of our church’s future. And I don’t believe the retort that girls that serve Mass may go on to be nuns. Of course, some of these girls may find a vocation in religious life, but serving Mass isn’t in relation to it at all.

There is bonding that can occur between a pastor and his flock of altar boys. This can’t occur easily when females are involved. There are also many moments when the altar servers are alone in the sacristy, helping to prepare for Mass. Placing adolescent boys and girls in close proximity is asking for trouble. As reverent as servers can be on the altar, they are still children.

And the alb or cassock and surplice has traditionally been male attire. Putting a young girl into male clothing doesn’t dignify the Mass at which they want to serve.

I was raised back in the olden days! I never found myself envying the altar boys at Mass. The nuns at that era said that boys have the future potential to become priests and serving Mass let’s them experience that potential to an extent. Girls should happily emulate our Blessed Mother. As much as I have searched in the Bible, I have yet to find an instance where Mary tried to overstep her son or his apostles. She was a nurturer and a keeper of the hearth. She was the Mother of God and accepted her role with love and dignity in being a mother. When the Holy Ghost came down upon the apostles, Mary shared in those graces. The Apostles went out to preach and Mary channeled her blessings in being a true woman.

I’m not sure what women are finding as they crowd around the altar. And I feel sorry for little girls competing with boys on the altar. And I shed tears for the young boys who leave the altar rather than compete. Who will accept responsibility when their path from the altar takes them away from God’s plans for them and, perhaps, even the church.

Abstinence? Author Unknown

I was holding a notice from my 13-year old son’s school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in an actual lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.

When I arrived at the school, I was surprised to discover only about a dozen parents there. As we waited for the presentation, I thumbed through page after page of instructions in the prevention of pregnancy or disease. I found abstinence mentioned only in passing. When the teacher arrived with the school nurse, she asked if there were any questions.

I asked why abstinence did not play a noticeable part in the material. What happened next was shocking. There was a great deal of laughter, and someone suggested that if I thought abstinence had any merit, I should go back to burying my head in the sand. The teacher and nurse said nothing as I drowned in a sea of embarrassment. My mind had gone blank, and I could think of nothing to say. The teacher explained to me that the job of the school was to teach “facts,” and the home was responsible for moral training.

I sat in silence for the next 20 minutes as the course was explained. The other parents seemed to give their unqualified support to the materials. “Donuts at the back,” announced the teacher during the break. “I’d like you to put on the name tags we have prepared – they’re right by the donuts – mingle with the other parents.” Everyone moved to the back of the room. As I watched them affixing their name tags and shaking hands, I sat deep in thought. I was ashamed that I had not been able to convince them to include a serious discussion of abstinence in the materials. I uttered a silent prayer for guidance.

My thoughts were interrupted by the teacher’s hand on my shoulder. “Won’t you join the others, Mr. Layton?” The nurse smiled sweetly at me. “The donuts are good.” “Thank you, no,” I replied. “Well, then how about a name tag? I’m sure the others would like to meet you.” “Somehow I doubt that,” I replied. “Won’t you please join them?” she coaxed. Then I heard a still small voice whisper, “Don’t go.” The instructions were unmistakable. “Don’t do!” “I’ll just wait here,” I said.

When the class was called back to order, the teacher looked around the long table and thanked everyone for putting on name tags. She ignored me. Then she said, “Now we’re going to give you the same lesson we’ll be giving your children. Everyone please peel off your name tags.” I watched in silence as the tags came off. “Now, then, on the back of one of the tags, I drew a tiny flower. Who has it please?” The gentleman across from me held it up. “Here it is!” “All right,” she said. “The flower represents disease. Do you recall with whom you shook hands?” He pointed to a couple of people. “Very good,” she replied. “The handshake in this case represents intimacy. So the two people you had contact with now have the disease.” There was laughter and joking among the parents. The teacher continued, “And whom did the two of you shake hands with?” The point was well taken, and she explained how this lesson would show students how quickly disease is spread. “Since we all shook hands, we all have the disease.”

It was then I head the still, small voice again. “Speak now,” it said, “but be humble.” I noted wryly the latter admonition, then rose from my chair. I apologized for any upset I might have caused earlier, congratulated the teacher on an excellent lesson that would impress the youth, and concluded by saying I had only one small point I wished to make. “Not all of us were infected,” I said. “One of us abstained.”