A Treasure To Be Shared

Advent is a season of hope. The holy season of Advent invites us to shift our priorities and to embrace the gift of hope found in Jesus Christ. There are many cheap and hostile substitutes for hope barking for our attention and support. Alerted by a video by Mr. Matt Walsh to a United Church of Canada (UCC) database containing incantations, as social commentator Walsh has rightly termed such misguided and misguiding compositions, it's this blogger's sincere desire that those in the UCC who possess even a modicum of commonsense, for the sake of their souls, upon confronting the horrifyingly misleading material concocted by the UCC brass, will come to their senses and veer toward safer harbours where the dignity of human beings created in the image and likeness of God is preserved and human life is revered, not painted over using some diabolical inversion of prayer. Original texts can be viewed at the following UCC link:  https://united-church.ca/worship-theme/death-and-dyin g. ...

Robert Scott Lauder (1803-1869) - Christ Teacheth Humility Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction. - Dante Alighieri Dear Friend, do you seek fame? What is it that you possess that leads you to think you merit fame? Is it something tangible such as an ability? Is it something intangible such as luck? AMDG Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. For the greater glory of God. fame (n.) Online Etymology Dictionary early 13c., "character attributed to someone;" late 13c., "celebrity, renown," from Old French fame "fame, reputation, renown, rumor" (12c.), from Latin fama "talk, rumor, report; reputation, public opinion; renown, good reputation," but also "ill-fame, scandal, reproach," from PIE root * bha - (2) "to speak, tell, say." The goddess Fama was the personification of rumor in Roman mythology. The Latin derivative fabulare was the colloquial word for "speak,...

But the ethos of the modern world is precisely synthetic and grounded in a false imitation. Ancient mimesis sought to emulate in the microcosmic world of man the “music of the spheres” and to align the human realm with the divine. But modern imitation is Titanistic insofar as it begins and ends with a repudiation of the normativity of the formal structures of existence and thus seeks to make everything plastic and fungible in the interests of “control and domination”. - Larry Chapp The Church has relied on vivid imaginations nurtured by a continuous recollection of prior explorations in art, architecture and music, bound to the will of the Chief Architect, the Holy Ghost, so that contemporary expressions may become part of the language of worship, to infuse the imagination with authentic desire for holiness and to lead souls to God. We live in times, however, when cheap imitations abound, and Catholics are all too happy, it seems, to endorse the plastic and trivial. Church official...

insolence (n.) late 14c., from Latin insolentia "unusualness, strangeness; excess, immoderation; haughtiness, arrogance," from insolentem "unusual; arrogant" Ironies abound. Though every organization, it seems, has an anti-bullying or anti-oppression policy and a team of peer counselors (and tribunals and lawyers... oh my!) dedicated to mitigating playground, office and classroom intimidation, a generation of bullies has emerged, bullies emboldened by their successes in complicating others' lives. Exodus 20: 12 | Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Permissive parents do not control or regulate their children’s behavior. So their children are less aware of the limits of acceptable behavior. They also exhibit worse impulse control and have more behavioral problems. When facing stressful situations, they are more likely to resort to using aggression. Studies have found that children raised by...

Apologies to Eugene Field Wynken Weighs In (Gavin Ashenden) The handbook or vademecum for the Synodal process puts it like this: “Widespread participation is an important part of the diocesan process, with no one being excluded. “We must personally reach out to the peripheries, to those who have left the church, those who rarely or never practice their faith, those who experience poverty or marginalization, refugees, the excluded, the voiceless, etc.” This rather gives the game away. These are sociological categories, not ecclesial or spiritual ones. How does someone who has deliberately turned their back on the church, or refuses to practice their faith constitute the Church? Do they have no agency, no will, no responsibility? Gavin Ashenden was a senior clergyman in the Church of England who recently converted to the Catholic Church.  https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-synodal-way-offers-nothing-more-than-quasi-marxist-content-in-a-spiritual-comfort-blanket/ Blynken Boos (Rac...

Anthony Esolen What is that being in the womb? Not disorganized, like a wart; not inert, like an acorn on the sidewalk; not inanimate, like a crystal growth; not dead or merely alive in potential; not canine or feline or anything else but human, with all the powers of man latent yet unfolding with remarkable intricacy, exactitude, and speed; a child, our brother. Gavin Ashenden The Church is often behind the times. The tragedy at this juncture is that so much of the Church has bought into the flimsy therapeutic truisms which only mask and do not heal disorder. In doing so it is abandoning its own theological justification for existing – acting as an agent of the salvation of peoples’ souls. It has yet to notice that no one actually needs or wants it as a third-rate incompetent therapist-cloning agency of secularised spirituality. It has yet to notice that behind the appealing frontage of the pseudo-niceness of diversity, inclusion and diversity, lies a ruthless determination to cancel ...

Parents who wear their children like jewelry or cosmetics. Having tutored hundreds of private students, I have witnessed too many children who have merely wanted to have a quality moment with mom or dad, or both, instead of being shuttled between soccer, piano lessons, baseball, hockey, etc., and who, in an attempt to gain their parents' attention, act out in a lesson because they don't know any other way to get their message across. They act out in the presence of another adult who might - just might - decode the behaviour and invite the parents to a consultation to figure things out. Single people who fear and loathe commitment. As a contented single person, graced by God with peace of heart and mind with regards to a social life, and who hasn't been lonely for decades, and who enjoys sharing conversations and meals with others, it is always surprising to meet single people talking down relationships. Surprising, because their cheering of singleness sounds more like a co...

  Dear Friend, Each and every one of us, from the moment of conception, is given life so that we may become the person God calls us to be. God sustains our very being, granting to us endless opportunities to draw near to Him in an intimate communion of faith, hope and love. And yet, He does not force us into relationship with Him. He welcomes us. Difficulties beckon us to accept easy and cheap forms of relief from the labours and trials of this life. Our resolve can be weakened to the point of despair should we forget to engage in daily spiritual practices which dispose us to God's grace. Through those moments, we give our consent to God. If one is not a believer, one can all too easily descend into a world of chaos and habitual disorientation. It's one thing to engage risk in a calculated manner to improve one's character and knowledge. However, we shouldn't go looking for morally hazardous opportunities to further complicate our lives. As it is, there are plenty of si...

Romanglicans: members of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Ordinariates in full communion with Rome. Visceral Auntie: the vigilante of the family; she talks your ear off with impassioned stories of family and foes (often one and the same); see parish gossip. Paying things backward: the opposite of paying things forward; see dine and dash . Wishdom: often mistaken for wisdom; fantasy masquerading as facts; ill-conceived concepts. Prayers at the Foot: words muttered after having stubbed one's toe. Chrewth: [sounds like truth ]; ideology that sticks between one's teeth. TLM-etry: the automatic measurement and wireless transmission of liturgical data from remote sources. Alb: long-sleeved white linen tunic secured at the waist by a cincture, often worn for months on end without laundering; see biohazard . Patener: liturgical panhandler. Pew: scently sitting place; communion of the scents, a.k.a. the Church Fragrant. Cullchurr: cult-like society; see  wokeism ; see  secular relig...

noblesse oblige nobility obliges St Matthew 25:34-36 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 2 Corinthians 9:6 The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Iliad , Book XII Homer: translation by Alexander Pope Sarpedon exhorts Glaucus, his comrade. 'Tis ours, the dignity they give to grace The first in valour, as the first in place; That when with wondering eyes our confidential bands Behold our deeds transcending our commands, Such, they may cry, deserve the sovereign state, Whom those that envy dare not imitate! The Grand Old Name of Gentleman by the Rev. John R. Vernon, in Contempo...