Our Lady of Ashes

By tradition August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the 22 was once celebrated as the feast of her Immaculate Heart before it was moved to correspond with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. The feast thus would have been celebrated as the octave of her Assumption (Aug 15). Scripture connects these feasts, for Christ told us Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be, and Mary’s greatest treasure was the Kingdom of her Son. With her treasure firmly in Heaven, Mary’s human heart—along with the rest of her body—could not but be drawn up by God into the celestial abode. Even the little insight into Mary’s inner life the Gospels offer reveals untold depths of love for God and a soul loved by God. Mary’s heart is full of grace and perfectly conformed to the will of God: I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word . Her heart ever proclaims the greatness of the Lord and exults in God her Savior . The events of her son’s life, s...

In which the pilgrim wonders at the strange misreading skeptics give a modern fable, pontificates about the discernment and value of Catholic Tradition and traditions, and sings along with Tevye. The Pilgrim ran across this contemporary fable today: The Five Monkeys Experiment   The Five Monkeys experiment with the skeptics' moral An experimenter puts 5 monkeys in a large cage. High up at the top of the cage, well beyond the reach of the monkeys, is a bunch of bananas. Underneath the bananas is a ladder.  The monkeys immediately spot the bananas and one begins to climb the ladder. As he does, however, the experimenter sprays him with a stream of cold water. Then, he proceeds to spray each of the other monkeys.  The monkey on the ladder scrambles off. And all 5 sit for a time on the floor, wet, cold, and bewildered. Soon, though, the temptation of the bananas is too great, and another monkey begins to climb the ladder. Again, the experimenter sprays the amb...

Gaudete Sunday I recently read an article about keeping a thanksgiving diary, in which one lists ten things each day that one is thankful for. In my Advent journal yesterday, I wrote I wanted to focus on the virtue of GRATITUDE for the rest of the season. These two ideas seem to be a good fit to this pilgrim. For the grace to stand in your presence and minister to you in your sacrament of Eucharist with my wife and son on the Lord's Day being a member of your parish of St. Lawrence, in Asheville which the Bishop has chosen as a pilgrimage site for the Jubilee Year of Mercy having found "the zone" in my 3 mile run the beautiful cool-down walk Jessica and I took afterwards Sunday breakfasts with my parents Shelle  our realtor who is awesome and patient and a lot of fun finding a house worth making an offer on, that we might make into our domestic church lunch with the Vine and running into RCIA folks Sabbath time with Jessica and naps great friends with ...

Today is the feast of St. Hippolytus of Rome, who has the dubious distinction of being the first Anti-Pope, but so beloved by both factions that he was quickly raised to the altars after his death as a martyr. His memorial is optional on the Roman calendar, which is a shame, because, first, there is value in celebrating the holiness of a man who divided the Church and then repented to be reconciled with Her, but also because St Hippolytus is attributed with writing what has become probably the most commonly used Eucharistic canon, Eucharistic Prayer II.  The Anaphora of Hippolytus, which became the basis for the prayer, is found in Chapter IV of The Apostolic Tradition , a work attributed to Hippolytus. The Apostolic Tradition's purpose is a guide to recently ordained bishops, and the prayer is included as a guiding example to these bishops, who were expected to compose their Eucharistic prayers extempore . However, even in its own time, the prayer must have been recognized...

Anglican Decline and Its Biblical Remedy by By Tyler Blanski. This is really good. It is perhaps the best summary of the Biblical foundation for both Apostolic succession and the primacy of Peter that I've read. At least, I can never recall having been excited to read this topic before, and this was captivating, told with a dramatic flair. By now my friends—most of them wiser and more learned than myself—are raising their eyebrows. I nervously tap my tobacco pipe and press on. The argument is well laid out and its basic thread I've read before. But there are bits that just grab me to make me think this over in new ways. “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old,” wrote St. Augustine, “and the Old is unveiled in the New.” It could also be said that the Church lies hidden in Israel and Israel is unveiled in the Church. Raymond Brown says: “The kingdom established by David was a political institution to be sure, but one with enormous religious attachments (priesthood, tem...

Almighty God, Omnipotent and Infinitely Wise, had to choose his Mother. What would you have done, if you had had to choose yours? I think that you and I would have chosen the mother we have, filling her with all graces. That is what God did. —St. Josemaria Escriva

 St. Juan Diego, oremus! O God, who by means of Saint Juan Diego showed the love of the most holy Virgin Mary for your people, grant, through his intercession, that, by following the counsels our Mother gave at Guadalupe, we may be ever constant in fulfilling your will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.