The musings and meandering thoughts of a crotchety old man as he observes life in the world and in a small, rural town in South East Nebraska. I hope to help people get to Heaven by sharing prayers, meditations, the lives of the Saints, and news of Church happenings. My Pledge: Nulla dies sine linea ~ Not a day without a line.
Leo has Fernandez publish the strongly worded letter the Vatican sent to the German bishops 2 years ago regarding their implementation of Fiducia Supplicans. It contains no notes about the consequences of ignoring papal authority.
What do we most misunderstand about the "Dark Ages"? What was so special about Anglo-Saxon women? Also, why are we so obsessed with finding warrior women in history?
Join me as I interview historian and author Annie Whitehead on this and more!
Annie Whitehead is an award-winning historian and author of numerous books with a passion is for all things Anglo-Saxon, and Mercian in particular. We discuss her work on Anglo-Saxon women and her upcoming book on murder, revenge, and weregild (VERY exciting!).
Find Annie Whitehead's website (and highly informative blog): https://anniewhiteheadauthor.co.uk/ .
Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. May our devotion to the Blessed Mother increase more and more and help us to love her divine Son, Jesus, more and more. We've included the Memorare, the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a Spiritual Communion. Begin your May with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.
The Talmud in Sanhedrin 97a-b records a prophecy from the school of Elijah: The world will exist for 6,000 years - 2,000 chaos, 2,000
Torah, 2,000 days of the Messiah. The third 2,000-year period
begins around the time of Christ. The Talmud admits, "Through our
sins, many of these years have been lost." From a Catholic
perspective, he wasn't late. He came exactly on schedule.
The six days of creation prefigure 6,000 years of history,
culminating in cosmic Sabbath rest. Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8
confirm: "A thousand years in God's sight are like a day." St.
Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Lactantius, and Augustine all recognised
this framework. We are living in the Messianic era right now.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Talmud Predicted the Exact Timeline
1:14 The Three 2,000-Year Periods Explained
2:20 Six Days of Creation = 6,000 Years of History
2:52 Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8: One Day = 1,000 Years
3:33 St. Irenaeus and Hippolytus: The Church Fathers Saw It
4:26 Catholic Eschatology: Already Present, Not Yet Consummated
5:12 The Eucharist as Foretaste of the Messianic Banquet
6:01 Rapture Myth: Invented in the 1830s, Unknown for 1,800 Years
7:05 Jewish Objection: Messiah Was Supposed to Bring World Peace
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Among the many popes who were saints throughout the centuries, St. Pius V stands out for his remarkable life and dedication to the poor.
There have been numerous popes who were later canonised, and sometimes we don't take the time to get to know them and their inspiring lives.
Having lived in the 16th century, St. Pius V was one of those saintly popes who "practised what he preached," not only as a pope, but even before he was called to be the Bishop of Rome.
As a member of the Dominican Order, the Catholic Encyclopediastates, he "he strove to develop the practice of the monastic virtues and spread the spirit of the holy founder. He himself was an example to all. He fasted, did penance, passed long hours of the night in meditation and prayer, travelled on foot without a cloak in deep silence, or only speaking to his companions of the things of God."
When he was eventually elected pope, he protested and did not want to receive such a responsibility.
He relented and then proceeded to transfer his same holiness into his new responsibilities. He did not let the power of being a pope poison his personal quest to live a Gospel-centered life.
True servant of the poor
For example, "He began his pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, instead of distributing his bounty at haphazard like his predecessors. As pontiff, he practised the virtues he had displayed as a monk and a bishop. His piety was not diminished, and, despite the heavy labours and anxieties of his office, he made at least two meditations a day on bended knees in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. In his charity, he visited the hospitals and sat by the bedside of the sick, consoling them and preparing them to die. He washed the feet of the poor and embraced the lepers."
People were converted by the example of his holiness, as "an English nobleman was converted on seeing him kiss the feet of a beggar covered with ulcers."
St. Pius V was a great reformer and had help from his friend St. Charles Borromeo in reforming the clergy of the Catholic Church.
It was also St. Pius V who established the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in honour of the victory at Lepanto.
He sought to implement the reforms of the Council of Trent and did all he could to lead by example.
St. Pius V died on May 1, 1572, with the words, "O Lord, increase my sufferings and my patience!"
Much happened during his pontificate, but what stands out is his remarkable example of holiness and his desire to live as a true servant of the servants of God. St. Pius V is a prime example for us all, especially those who are called to lead others in the world.
“Either be theologically fluent and figure it out, or just roll the dice and most likely find yourself led astray.”
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If salvation depends on identifying true doctrine, but Protestantism places that burden on individuals navigating competing interpretations, then it effectively restricts access to the faith to those with theological ability, contradicting the Gospel’s claim to be universally accessible, especially to the poor.
Little Robert Prevost turned three years old about two and a half months before Our Lady of the Angels Catholic School in Chicago’s Humboldt park, some ten miles away, burned and was then demolished. The fire began in a basement stairwell and went undetected for some time before it self-ventilated through a window. That, plus an open door, resulted in rapid fire spread. Ninety-two children died in that fire, along with three sisters whose actions to save them are well-documented. The enrollment of Our Lady of the Angels was about 1200 in the year 1958.
I follow the ongoing story of the SSPX as a traditional Catholic from the periphery. I have never assisted at Holy Mass at a chapel of the Society or sought it out for any other purpose. Since the previous pontiff granted its priests universal faculties to hear confessions, and moreso after the publication of Fr. Charles Murr’s book, Murder in the 33rd Degree, I think I have paid better attention… but I live my traditional Catholic life with the help of secular clergy and that of former Ecclesia Dei religious.
Even now, having promised myself on 8 May 2025 not to concern myself with what the Pope had for breakfast on any given day, I follow the latest installment of the Society’s story concerning the episcopal consecrations, but moreso to learn from select individuals on various sides rather than to offer an impassioned or inevitably-ignorant opinion of my own. It should go without saying, but it cannot be too often said, that prayer is always in order.
One of those select individuals wrote a letter to Pope Leo, and I listened to Tim Flanders read it in full on the OnePeterFive podcast. I was edified by much of what I heard from His Excellency, Bishop Schneider, particularly by his image of a fire chief requiring his firefighters to use or not use certain tools to extinguish a house on fire. On this one particular occasion, I am persuaded to think that I might have something worth contributing to the discussion now underway. Here is His Excellency’s parable:
But the situation in the life of the Church today can be illustrated with the following parable: A fire breaks out in a large house. The fire chief allows only the use of new firefighting equipment, even though it has been shown to be less effective than the old, proven tools. A group of firefighters defies this order and continues to use the tried-and-tested equipment—and indeed, the fire is contained in many places. Yet these firefighters are labelled disobedient and schismatic, and they are punished.
To extend the metaphor further: the fire chief permits only those firefighters who acknowledge the new equipment, follow the new firefighting rules, and obey the new firehouse regulations. But given the obvious scale of the fire, the desperate struggle against it, and the insufficiency of the official firefighting team, other helpers—despite the fire chief’s prohibition—selflessly intervene with skill, knowledge, and good intentions, ultimately contributing to the success of the fire chief’s efforts.
Faced with such rigid and incomprehensible behavior, two possible explanations present themselves: either the fire chief is denying the seriousness of the fire, much like in the French comedy Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise!; or, in fact, the fire chief desires that large parts of the house burn, so that it may later be rebuilt according to a new design.
If the efforts of the firefighters referred to by Bishop Schneider were successful in their tasks (in a real world scenario), they would be praised as courageous, innovative professionals – as real heroes. If their efforts to save lives and preserve property failed, they would be called to appear at meetings and hearings at several levels of the chain of command. They might be called to testify in civil or criminal proceedings. Their decisions would be documented in an After-Action Report, which would be referenced in OSHA and NIOSH Reports and identified as the primary or contributing factors to the overall success or failure of the operation. These fire service members might be terminated from employment or removed as volunteers. They might be sued; the municipality might even be sued. If firefighters in that district were represented by a union, extensive involvement could be expected from leadership and from the membership in other locals.
After passions died down a bit – long after the general public moved on from the story and whether the efforts of those firefighters were successful or not – the decisions made and tools used would be discussed at fire academies and other small and large scale training venues. They would wind up being something additional to put in the new firefighter’s proverbial tool box, or serve as a cautionary tale. It might even become part of an industry standard.
***
In his “Editor’s Opinion” for Fire Engineering’s August 2018 issue, Chief Bobby Halton (RIP) wrote about those who do and do not have “skin in the game.” Relating a story about a phone call he received from a reporter inquiring about a recent fire, he expressed his frustration with those who, in spite of the professionalism and bravery exhibited by crews, were only interested to know, “how much time is it supposed to take to put water on the fire?” “High authoritarian modernists,” he called these people, interestingly enough.
His frustration was further increased when he discovered the motivation behind the reporter’s question, namely that, “a city official said it’s only supposed to take two minutes.”
That conscientious professionals “innovate, deviate and improvise” rational solutions for the problems before them – this simply does not occur to people who are focused on rules for rules’ sake. In defense of those firefighters who seem to have made a wrong decision, the Chief pointed out that, “We must honor the firefighter who, in context, made a decision they thought would be successful.” Chief Halton, a Catholic firefighter, died of occupational cancer a couple of years back; please remember him to God.
The famous “hope on a rope” rescue by FDNY in 1991
In sum, I think this fire service image is an apt metaphor, and Bishop Schneider’s letter gives us a lot to think about. I pray the Holy Father thinks about it, too. We don’t all have the same role to play in the advance or defense of the Truth, in the saving of life, in the preservation of property. It is obvious that the Church and Her institutions are on fire and that souls are at stake. So, finding and functioning each of us in our own role is the first important task! A willingness to support with fasting, prayer and almsdeeds those who have what seem to be more impactful roles is not out of the question.
