A Treasure To Be Shared

Their Golden Bovine [ 7 minute read ] It's politics season. (When isn't it?) Politicians prepare for debates and, predictably, turn to their favourite marketing deities to attract voters. Some politicians invoke the gods of social progress, the gods of racial and sexual identity, others the gods of economics and prosperity, and still others the gods of national defence, borders and fundamental freedoms. Many invoke wrathful deities that are the patrons of the fearful, the insecure and of self-declared victims. The faithful invoke the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to the consternation of those who loathe fundamental freedoms and who demand a naked public square, i.e., a society scrubbed of (the Christian) religion. Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.  George Bernard Shaw Citizens of all nations, but in particular citizens of Western nations that are seeing the erosion of fundamental freedoms and the disintegration of public order, would do well to insist ...

Photo by Gilbert Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” A vacation can open one's mind to the possibilities. Fleeting encounters with helpful strangers on a bus, conversations with table servers at a favourite cafe or with a fellow traveller who invites you into sharing a picnic table at the beach, a disgruntled cashier at a convenience store who grunts the cost of groceries but smiles in appreciation when offered a kind remark...

Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2 Originally published Thursday, April 19, 2018 https://atreasuretobeshared.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-synod-on-young-people-faith-and.html Catholics young and old deserve true teaching and true Liturgy, the school where we are formed for mission. Are the hierarchs listening to voices such as the one cited by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia? The good Archbishop, a clear voice of faith and reason who manages to navigate the waters made turbulent by less than credible witnesses to the Catholic Faith, has shared a letter from a man who articulates well the desire among young people for clarity. The question for the hierarchs of the Synod is: Are you listening? Will the Synod be a mirror of the facts, of the Spirit speaking through the courageous witness of faithful Catholics, or will the Synod be another muddled affair with a preordained ou...

[ 7 minute read ] What's on the menu? Decades of impromptu and unsanctioned changes to form and content by clergy and laity have frequently rendered celebrations of the Novus Ordo liturgy a mess, even a disaster. Those who have participated in liturgical abuses of one kind or another may have their ideas and actions judged as those of: the rebel Catholic: a willfully disobedient individual who imagines there are no absolutes except those he or she demands the right to impose. His or her disdain for liturgical law, rubrics, norms and principles that preserve the ars celebrandi and the integrity of the Mass , reveals a latent hostility toward the authority of Jesus Christ and His Church. the woefully ignorant child of a rebel whose comfortable religion (of compromise) is the predictable outcome of a well entrenched generational bias. the enthusiastic but woefully ignorant proponent of popularism (liturgical democracy?) emanating in various forms that pretend at authentic engagement....

Vigil Auntie | AI Generated ATTBS Antsy: patron of altar servers... who cannot sit still for more than 15 seconds. See also: Blessed Fidget. Logorrhea: patron of parish council members who monopolize meetings. Nix: patron of happy participants in the cancel culture. Doofus: co-patron of misguided prelates. Mediocrity: patron of liturgists and contemporary architects. Crapacious: beloved patron of liberal academics. Pseudo-Veritas: patron of mainstream journalists. Blessed Perspicuity: patron whose intercession is rarely sought by those who are most in need of rational thought. Ignoramus: patron of political debates. Goofus: co-patron of misguided prelates. Karen: patron of an aggressive species of hyper-vigilant neighbourhood and mall-dwelling self appointed regulators of others' behaviours: see Vigil Auntie . The Venerable Tesla: patron of obsessive non-polluters who drive expensive cars that use lithium-ion cells that rely on raw materials — like cobalt, lithium and rare earth el...

Dante lost in the dark forest enters hell. Dante Alighieri's Inferno Canto 1 illustrated by Gustave Doré in 1861. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has lived a contentious life. He has used his position in government to berate people of goodwill and to pound his opponents into submission. Despite his lauding of bipartisanship, he has often been anything but a cooperative and civil man. To say that his political actions reveal fleeting convictions and self-interest is an understatement. His support for anti-life policies has rendered practically meaningless his claims that he is a devout Catholic. His confused witness is a scandal for Catholics who strive to keep the Faith in a society made hostile by the shameful behaviour of the Bidens, Pelosis, Kerrys and others. In a word, Joseph Biden is a charlatan. Where is the honesty, humility and contrition of a Christian? Psalm 11:4-7 | The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, his eyelids test, the childr...

Pope Francis Embraces Shadow Pope Grillo | AI prompt by Gilbert Much psychological violence is being committed against faithful Catholics who value the older Latin Mass. Rome's actions to suppress diocesan celebrations of the Usus Antiquior have provoked dismay among observers from a variety of liturgical backgrounds. dystopia - an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic. "imaginary bad place," 1952, from dys - "bad, abnormal" + ending abstracted from utopia . Earlier in medical use, "displacement of an organ" (by 1844), with second element from Greek topos "place". | OED There are ambassadors of a dystopian vision, mercenaries, prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Andrea Grillo, lay theologian, acts like one such foot soldier. Too dramatic? Let's listen to Professor Grillo speak and then decide. Come out, come out, wherever you are! A ...