Madonna and Child with St Ignatius of Antioch and St Onophrius, Lorenzo Lotto, ARSH 1508, Borghese Gallery, Rome

Today is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a student of St. John the Apostle.  Not bad.  I love how in the image above, Our Lord is reaching toward St. Ignatius and handing to him His Sacred Heart, crowned with thorns, and pierced.

When I was reading my way into The Church (and being so scandalized by the Kennedys that I kept delaying my entry), one of the most helpful books I read was called “The Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words“, which is a compendium of quotations by the early Church Fathers, namely Ignatius of Antioch (died ARSH 110), Clement of Rome (died ARSH 99, consecrated a bishop by St. Peter), Justin Martyr (died ARSH 165), and Irenaeus of Lyon (student of Polycarp who was a student of John the Apostle, died ARSH 202). If you are genuinely interested in what EXACTLY was going on in the days, weeks and decades after Our Lord’s Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, I highly recommend reading the words of the Church Fathers themselves.  It’s all there: the Mass, the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist, sacramental confession of sins, hierarchical structure of the Church Militant, everything.

Here is a quote from St. Ignatius. 

In like manner, everyone who has received from God the power of distinguishing and yet follows an unskillful pastor and receives a false opinion for the truth shall be punished…
Be not deceived: if any man follows him who separates from the truth, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and if any man does not stand aloof from the preacher of falsehood he shall be condemned to Hell.
-St. Ignatius of Antioch

Boy, how timely and relevant is this?  Remember folks, every one of us will stand ALONE before Christ at our Particular Judgment.  There will be no finger pointing, no blaming of others.  Every human being with the “power of distinguishing”, which means above the age of reason, and not suffering from mental retardation or other physical limitation to reasoned thought and apprehension of objective reality, will be held responsible for their actions.

Many people today are desperately trying to convince themselves and others that only degreed theologians or canon lawyers are competent to “distinguish”.  This is a LIE. And it is so transparently ridiculous a lie as to be laugh-out-loud-able.  We know from the Good Shepherd discourse, Our Lord’s words to the disciples of John the Baptist, the example of the Good Thief, and the witness of the Martyrs, many of whom were peasants, soldiers, and even children (St. Agnes of Rome was 13), coupled with the observation of the ever-escalating catastrophic failure of theologians and canonists of the past century, and plain old common sense, that “the power of distinguishing” belongs to all of us, and we are all expected to use it. 

Trailing off after an arch-heretic Antipope, and likely False Prophet Forerunner of the Antichrist, in the name of “obedience” and “humility” or even some perverse notion of “piety” will NOT go over well. “But… but… but…the wolves and faithless hirelings and people with doctorates from Pontifical Universities told me it was okay….” Balderdash.

But a stranger [the sheep] follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.

Western Swing is that sublime intersection of Country, Bluegrass, Big Band, Jazz and Blues. It’s just about as quintessentially American as you can get. And Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys are peak Western Swing.

Enjoy “Milk Cow Blues”. Take it, Leon Rausch….

https://www.amren.com/features/2024/12/india-its-worse-than-you-think/

The thing that struck me hardest in this piece is the fact that the average I.Q. of Indians (dot, not feather) is a shockingly low 77. As I have said and written, the Indians we see in the West are all on the front side of the I.Q. bell curve, capable of studying and working in medicine, engineering and computer science. India, with a population of 1.4 billion, cherry picks brainpower from its population to export, but most Indians are of far lower intelligence than white Westerners, even though we have a misperception of the entire race being “above average.” Pile on top of that the fact that their culture is pagan and intrinsically depraved, without the advantage that Christianity and its moral code imparts, and it’s exactly as the author says: so much worse than we think.

Wow. It’s almost as if they should be colonized and converted to Catholicism FOR THEIR OWN GOOD, or something. It’s almost as if PROSELYTIZING IS A VIRTUOUS ACT OF CHARITY, EXPLICITLY COMMANDED BY CHRIST HIMSELF.

Do read the whole thing.

Women are destroying their human embryos from IVF they didn’t want anymore because they got their babies and who needs the other souls they created right? 😡 … anyhow they are putting their own deceased children in a ring. pic.twitter.com/fCInon8rnb

— 🌷 LIZZIE🌷 (@farmingandJesus) January 26, 2025

Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales.

“While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice.”
-St. Francis de Sales

UPDATE: I knew it wouldn’t take long. Well done, everyone! May God reward you! The Communion of Saints exists in the Church Militant, too! I’m sure the Sisters have a whole list of items their nascent community could use, so don’t be dissuaded from donating and giving them some extra windfall in these final days of Christmastide!

They’re almost there. Let’s get it done tonight, y’all. With maybe a little extra money to boot. 😇🙏🏻

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/for-the-glory-of-god-we-need-your-help

Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.

-St. John Chrysostom

Happy Feast of St. John Chrysostom!

Years ago, before the CoronaScam Crime Against Humanity, as I was walking to Mass one evening, some jerk sexually propositioned me as I walked past his storefront. This rarely happens to me because I never leave the house dressed in anything other than what modern people literally consider formal-wear, and that sort of dress and comportment rarely receives gutter attention. Dress like a lady, be treated like a lady. Dress like a skank, be treated like a skank. Dress like a slob, be treated like a slob.

After Mass, I stopped into a nice sushi bar for a quick dinner, and the owner/manager before seating me leaned in and said, “Can I ask you something?” And I thought, “Here we go again. You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Cynically, I was expecting something lascivious having been lasciviously addressed just a couple of hours before. Here is what he said:

“We see you walk past here every day, and you’re always so HAPPY. Why are you so HAPPY?”

“Because I live here, I get to eat sushi, and I get to go to the Latin Mass every day.”

“There is a Latin Mass? Here? Where?”

I told him, and then I ate sushi, as one does.

Unagi roll!!!

The highest prayer is The Mass. Next is the Divine Office. The next highest prayer is the Rosary, which is actually a proxy for the Divine Office in a sense. The Rosary is called “Our Lady’s Psalter” because the 150 Hail Marys (15 Mysteries X 10 Hail Marys per Mystery) map to the 150 Psalms, and thus could be the layman’s participation in the Divine Office.

St. John Chrysostom wasn’t blowing smoke. If you pray, you’re happy, you’re confident, and you’re at ease. Because if you pray, you aren’t scared or worried. You know Who is in charge, and you know that He loves you, and is driving everything toward greater good and ultimately total consummation. You trust Him, and are abandoned totally to His Providence, which is always perfect.

St. John Chrysostom, pray for us!

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!

(Originally penned and posted eight years ago today, 25 January, ARSH 2017. I keep reposting this on The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, of which it is the Epistle reading,  precisely because “kicking against the goads” is such a massive, massive problem of moral failure among men today. The right thing has to be done. The Truth MUST be acknowledged, sooner or later. Fighting it, trying to avoid it, trying to kick the can down the road and foist unacknowledged disaster off on future generations is just about the most effeminate act there is. IT JUST MAKES EVERYTHING EXPONENTIALLY WORSE. The only way out is through, and the “through” is The Cross. –Alpha Bravo ’25)

The Conversion of St. Paul on the Road to Damascus, detail. Caravaggio, ARSH 1601, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.

Nearly all Protestant Bibles and Post-Vatican II Bibles delete the words of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Saul in Acts 9:5. The full verse of Acts 9:5 is:

VERSE 4:  And falling on the ground, he heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
Et cadens in terram audivit vocem dicentem sibi: Saule, Saule, quid me persequeris?

VERSE 5:  Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And He: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
Qui dixit: Quis es Domine? Et ille: Ego sum Jesus, quem tu persequeris: durum est tibi contra stimulum calcitrare.

What does “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad” mean??

A goad is a type of cattle prod, a stick with a sharp iron tip that was used to drive oxen pulling a plow in antiquity. You might have heard the verb “to goad”, as in, “She goaded her husband into buying her a fur coat.” The way the goad worked, if the ox kicked at it to resist it, it would actually drive further into its flesh.  So, the more the ox tried to resist the prod of its master, the more it suffered. In this saying, Christ is referencing a well-known ancient Greek proverb:

“To bear lightly the neck’s yoke brings strength; but kicking against the goads is the way of failure.”
-Pindar (died 438 B.C.)

See how that ties directly to Our Blessed Lord’s use of the imagery of the yoke in Matthew 11…?

VERSE 29: Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.
Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me, quia mitis sum, et humilis corde: et invenietis requiem animabus vestris.

VERSE 30: For My yoke is sweet and My burden light.
Jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve.

The more we resist the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Holy Church, of which The Law is an integral part, the more we suffer, and the harsher God’s discipline necessarily becomes.

Proverbs 13:15 says, “The way of the unfaithful is hard…” and Proverbs 15:10 says, “Stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path.”

The reason that Antipope Bergoglio is so popular with “the world” is because he ratifies and confirms people in their mortal sin, most particularly those sins relating to the Sixth Commandment, and also because it is very clear that he DOESN’T ACTUALLY BELIEVE ANY OF THAT CATHOLIC “BULLSHIT”, thus ratifying and confirming all of those who are heretics and apostates within The Church, are outside The Church, have left The Church, and atheists.  They falsely believe that Bergoglio is The Vicar of Christ, or at least a legitimate representative of The Church, and that he is finally confirming that the Natural and Divine Law is not only BULLSHIT, but that they will be HAPPIER and their lives EASIER and BETTER if they break it, and he, Bergoglio, is their “all-merciful liberator” from it. What Antipope Bergoglio is trying to do is vilify and suppress the conscience of man such that it is totally silenced and replaced with sensual, material, earthly, effeminate, narcissistic, concupiscent pleasure as the only metric by which man weighs and judges his decisions.

This is, quite simply, SATANIC, and if one STILL can’t see that Antipope Bergoglio is a man wholly in league with satan, actively seeking the ruin of souls, then I reckon one never will.

Ever wonder why sex perverts become more and more miserable, many unto suicide, despite the fact that our depraved culture hails them as heroes?  Why did multi-millionaire celebrity pop singer George Michael, as just one example, despite all of his wealth, popularity and complete cultural acceptance, cruise filthy public toilets for sodomy with strangers, and ultimately kill himself with alcohol and hard drugs, crack cocaine being his purported favorite?  Why do transvestites, today held up as heroes and as superior beings, have one of the highest suicide rates in the world? Why are psychopathic arch-criminals like John Corzine and Hillary Clinton, among so many others, so consistently horrible, miserable, cruel, abusive, evil people behind closed doors? Ever wonder why divorce rates skyrocketed after the introduction and social acceptance of birth control in the 1960s?

Because it is hard to kick against the goad.

Now you know what that means.

And please, get yourself a Bible that includes EVEYTHING, properly translated, and when you see some word or phrase you don’t understand, LOOK IT UP.  This pretty much means, for English speakers, a Douay-Rheims Bible.

Here is an online version:  www.DRBO.org

St. Paul, pray for us.

Christ, have mercy on us.