Resisting Feminism

Jeff at Stony Creek Digest has an excellent post about the art of resisting feminism. I am in total agreement with him (except about Mary Poppins.) I wish more people would begin to realize how insidious feminism is. To quote:

I believe that Catholics need to become experts at the art of resisting feminism. I call it an “art” because it requires some creativity. There are many ways to do this. In the first place, we must watch our language. Feminism permeates the language nowadays: this is a very big problem. Think of how Protestantism so thoroughly infuses the English language as to make it hard for an English-speaker to even think like a Catholic. Feminism has now infiltrated the language in a similar way: to speak contemporary English is to think like a feminist. Feminism has all but succeeded in emasculating the English language in our generation. The most salient victory has been the disappearance of the masculine pronoun. Modern English-speakers would rather use the plural “they”, “their” or “them” than the singular “he,” his” or “him” when the antecedent noun is singular and the sex is unknown. Similarly, when modern writers feel compelled to use a singular pronoun out of respect for pronoun consistency, they will insist upon “he or she”, or they will alternate between “he” and “she” throughout a text, or they will use the abominable “s/he” device. Anything to avoid the default masculine pronoun! Share

Venus Chasing the Moon

My cousin Ted Kaiser took this fantastic photo of Venus and the moon while he and his family were at an Ontario lake for Victoria Day weekend. I thought it especially unique and then I saw an article about the increased brightness of Venus that some have noticed. Very interesting; read with discernment. Share

The Irish Brigade

A reader suggested a post about the Irish Brigade , the "Fearless Sons of Erin" who fought courageously for the North during the War Between the States. Yes, the Union army quickly discovered that the Irish made good cannon fodder and would send them marching in first. The English had long done the same with the Scots, as I recall reading in one of Nigel Tranter's books; the military leaders knew that the Scots were fearless and would keep marching forward, no matter what. The same with the Irish, in fact, it is an ancient Celtic trait to charge fearlessly, especially when provoked. The Irish Brigade was under the command of General Thomas Meagher, who tried to hold the brigade together in spite of the immense casualties:

Throughout its life in the Army of the Potomac, the Irish Brigade was almost always at the foremost position and suffered high casualties as a result. Such was the case at the "Bloody Lane" at Antietem, below Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, the battle in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg and at Chancellorsville. Efforts were made after the Chancellorsville battle to disband the brigade. General Meagher protested this action and resigned his commission on May 14, 1863. Though his resignation was later cancelled, he never again served in the field with the Irish Brigade.

The Irish Brigade started with 3000 men and ended with 300. Share

A Pagan Queen

A reader asked that I do a post about the Celtic Queen Boudica (Boadicea), who led her army in a bloody and unspeakably cruel vengeance upon the Romans in Britain after she and her young daughters were brutalized. I recoil from the details of such horrific events of antiquity, so instead of an article, I thought I would just quote part of Tennyson's poem.

So the Queen Boädicéa, standing loftily charioted,
Brandishing in her hand a dart and rolling glances lioness-like,
Yell’d and shriek’d between her daughters in her fierce volubility.
Till her people all around the royal chariot agitated,
Madly dash’d the darts together, writhing barbarous lineaments,
Made the noise of frosty woodlands, when they shiver in January,
Roar’d as when the rolling breakers boom and blanch on the precipices,
Yell’d as when the winds of winter tear an oak on a promontory.
So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries
Clash the darts and on the buckler beat with rapid unanimous hand,
Thought on all her evil tyrannies, all her pitiless avarice,
Till she felt the heart within her fall and flutter tremulously,
Then her pulses at the clamoring of her enemy fainted away.
Out of evil evil flourishes, out of tyranny tyranny buds.
Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies. Share

Marie-Antoinette's Moral Reforms

An excerpt from Charles Duke Yonge's biography of Marie-Antoinette, describing how the queen tried to reform the morals of the court.

Her first desire was to purify the court where licentiousness in either sex had long been the surest road to royal favor. She began by making a regulation, that she would receive no lady who was separated from her husband; and she abolished a senseless and inexplicable rule of etiquette which had hitherto prohibited the queen and princesses from dining or supping in company with their husbands. Such an exclusion from the king's table of those who were its most natural and becoming ornaments had notoriously facilitated and augmented the disorders of the last reign; and it was obvious that its maintenance must at least have a tendency to lead to a repetition of the old irregularities. Fortunately, the king was as little inclined to approve of it as the queen. All his tastes were domestic, and he gladly assented to her proposal to abolish the custom. Throughout the reign, at all ordinary meals, at his suppers when he came in late from hunting, when he had perhaps invited some of his fellow-sportsmen to share his repast, and at State banquets, Marie Antoinette took her seat at his side, not only adding grace and liveliness to the entertainment, but effectually preventing license, and even the suspicion of scandal; and, as she desired that her household as well as her family should set an example of regularity and propriety to the nation, she exercised a careful superintendence over the behavior of those who had hitherto been among the least-considered members of the royal establishment. Even the king's confessor had thought the morals of the royal pages either beneath his notice or beyond his control; but Marie Antoinette took a higher view of her duties. She considered her pages as placed under her charge, and herself as bound to extend what one of themselves calls a maternal care and kindness to them, restraining as far as she could, and when she could not restrain, reproving their boyish excesses, softening their hearts and winning their affections by the gentle dignity of her admonitions, and by the condescending and hopeful indulgence with which she accepted their expressions of contrition and their promises of amendment. Share

Once a Priest....

No, I do not believe in Medjugorje, but yes, I sometimes do read Spirit Daily, where I found this story, under the heading of "Our Sad Times." It is about a priest and a nun (of the Latin rite) who fell in love and got married. They have a family and the priest has written a book about his situation. He still performs marriages and baptisms, independent of any diocese. The priests I know of, who left the active ministry to get married, are obedient to the Church and do not perform weddings and baptisms, at least, I assume they do not.

It is certainly not for me to judge anyone in such a situation.

I hope that the priests who leave to get married are happy. I hope that the women parishioners (or women they were counseling, whatever) with whom they fell in love, are happy, too. Happiness in a good thing. Sometimes I wonder how long someone should struggle along in a difficult, committed situation, be it marriage vows, clerical vows or monastic vows, when to walk away and Be Happy would be so easy. But happiness, being elusive and intangible, can come and go. Is it worth the high price one may have to pay? I really do not know....

"They fell in love." I was a bit perplexed when a devout Catholic women said that to me regarding a priest who became involved with a woman, whom he eventually married. So love justifies everything. Love justifies breaking up a home and giving scandal to parishioners--oh, yes, I realize it can all be canonically very correct. (And sometimes not so correct.)

Seriously, I wonder about this. I wonder what it is like to be able to throw aside vows and commitments. I can only surmise that the unhappiness must be very great and the bliss of finding true love, quite overwhelming. Yes, happiness is important. Perhaps it makes it easier for those involved to get to Heaven if they are deliriously happy. Maybe it makes it easier to practice virtue. I have no idea.

No, we must never judge those priests and their ladies. By the same token, we should not judge some grouchy old priest who has persevered for thirty or forty years. Maybe he could have left to get married ten times over, but decided to remain faithful. Maybe he has struggled with alcoholism and temptations-- only Almighty God knows-- but has stayed in active ministry for the sake of the flock. He is the one I will turn to for counsel about matters of faith and morals, not ex-priests and their wives. Share

Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale"

Here are some lines from one of the most beautiful poems in the world:

Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy,
Though the dull brain perplexes and retards:
Already with thee! tender is the night,
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. Share

Goldengrove

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins Share

A Bold Faith

Cathy has a some delightfully blunt observations about modern Catholics. To quote:

What we need is "in your face Catholicism". It's critical that we are interiorly disposed towards the Faith and we live it and believe it with our whole being. However, we need to quit hiding out. Quit acting like Catholics skulking in the Catacombs. The last time I checked Queen Elizabeth I was still dead so quit acting like she's going to send her troops to kill you for practicing your Faith. And, even if someone is going to kill you for practicing your Faith should you fear that? Think about it. If the Apostles had decided to lie low because they were afraid of death and persecution we would not have a Faith. Almost all of them died horrible deaths. They knew that would probably happen, yet they kept on. Share