“Dead to the world” ≠”Dead in the world”

I think “survival” is an improper goal for a Christian. We are supposed to be “dead” already, having surrendered all this stuff anyway. I do think that “working with your hands so that you may have something to share with those in need” is a proper goal for myself, though.

Uh, no.  You can neither preach the Gospel nor perform acts of charity when you’re dead.  You are largely useless to God when you’re dead, though I’m sure He’d like to have the fellowship and praise.  In  a martyrdom situation, you may be worth more to God dead than alive. But survivalist scenarios rarely involve persecution of Christians.

If God wanted you dead, believe me, you’d be dead. Ergo, God wants you alive.

Chanta Claus came to town!

Sr. Mary Electa (Madeline Columbro) is going to Rome and has things she can neither leave here nor take with, and since she got her doctorate here, we were gifted with (last week) a number of microfilms of early manuscripts and early music dissertations, and (today) books on and of chant. This is one of the 3 shelves in my office…a crappy picture taken with a crappy camera by a crappy photographer. The chant books go as far back as 1853. Most so far are only held by a half-dozen or so institutions (mostly Catholic), though I’ve found one unicum so far. 1 1/2 shelves are chant; the books are generally cool things that we already own. I’m hoping this will not only be of use to early music people, but to Catholics, once we get them catalogued and on the shelf.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s final revelation

She knows the truth now.

As a Christian, I should take no pleasure in this. As cults go, it was a pretty penny-ante operation, and people wouldn’t much care had they not been stockpiling GUNZ! OH NOES!!! They ended up losing the guns in exchange for getting their tax-exempt status back, which should bother me, I suppose, except that an organization that becomes a State Church deserves what it gets. I certainly don’t think they were wrong about TEOTWAWKI, but their timing was off. Like Moses, she won’t set foot in the Threatened Land.

Elizabeth Prophet, who died on October 15, is survived by three daughters and two sons, one of whom is spiritual leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant. For some years she had been suffering from dementia.

As the left asked about Reagan, for how long?

OMG! I agree with Cass Sunstein on something

Marriage. And here, predictably, is WND getting their tits in an uproar over it.

Of course the organ-donor and abortion stuff is way out there.

Why I am not a conservative, part 666: The Conservative Bible

…because I don’t think that the Word of God is something to hang ideology around.

Things like Thomas Nelson’s American Patriots’ Bible were bad enough, but at least the NKJV text was intact and untampered with. But to attempt or propose a retranslation based on politics is an affront to God and an invitation to hellfire. These folks want to start with King James. OK, KJV is not without political biases; neo-pagans know well the story of Exodus 22:18. But we’re not talking about liberalism here : 20 years before KJV, they were drawing and quartering Catholics in England. Karl Marx wouldn’t be born for 2 more centuries. Who am I supposed to trust here: the best Biblical scholars of their time, prayerfully seeking the truth, or a bunch of non-scholarly yahoos who are convinced that what God really meant was what’s in their pea brains?

Criminy, even Joe Farah thinks this is a hideous idea.

Really, it’s Protestantism run amok. If you accept, contrary to 2 Peter 1:20, that Scripture can be of private interpretation (the basis of the Protestant heresy), then private retranslation (which is just a particular form of interpretation) is fine. More evidence of this can be seen in their belief that there was grape juice in the northern hemisphere at Passover, a departure from physical reality shared by the likes of Ernie Sanders.

The result of this must inevitably be a conservative civic religion, related to but not identical with Christianity (which is independent of if not opposed to the State), and another way for Christianity to be a laughingstock to those on the Left.

Disparate souls

Today is the anniversary of John Henry Newman’s reception into the Catholic Church.
And of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s reception into Hell.
You can get the shirts here.

The Queen disapproves

I don’t get this:

According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has “grown increasingly sympathetic” to the Catholic Church over the years while being “appalled”, along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England.
The usually well-informed newspaper adds that the Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the C of E, is “also said to have an affinity with the Holy Father, who is of her generation”.

If Her Majesty is ultimately in charge of the Church of England, why are we hearing about this from “Catholic moles”? Why aren’t we hearing it from Elizabeth’s own bully pulpit? Granted, nobody has any business running both a church and a state (the main historical and structural problem with the C of E), but if she’s deemed to be ultimately responsible, then why isn’t she taking responsibility? Why isn’t she speaking out about the increasingly apostate positions the church is taking? What would her illustrious predecessor and namesake have done?

As for her relationship with the Pope, wouldn’t it be a hoot if she attempted to give the C of E to the Vatican upon her death? It would never fly, for sure, and would stir up all kinds of bizarre historical grudges. But at least the Catholics would know what to with the thing. OTOH, “King’s College sings Marty Haugan”…. EWWWWWW!!!!

Prayer request

Of your charity, please pray for the health of Fr. Cyril Crume, my priest at St. James, who is undergoing a quadruple bypass on Tuesday.

Maybe they thought they were signing the Book of Life

Where’s that “separation of church and state” meme when you really need it?

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A coalition of mainline Protestant churches have authored a letter to members of Congress asking them to make certain the health care bills they are considering contain taxpayer funding for abortions.

The letter calls abortion a “morally justifiable decision” and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike that taxpayer-financing.

The letter added that she doesn’t want more abortion funding bans in place and complained that additional “restrictions” on abortion funding constitute a “serious moral injustice.”

And stealing from people who believe that abortion is murder is not a serious moral injustice? Not to mention abortion itself?

The denominations endorsing the letter include the American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church, and others.

ELCA: George Tiller’s church

Some of the signers to the letter include: Fr. Dr. Luis Barrios, Chair of Latin American and Latina/o Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice – CUNY; Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder, Bishop, The Fellowship; The Rev. Dr. Paula Gravelle, Chair, Clergy Action Board; and Rev. Dr. Larry Greenfield, Executive Minister, American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago.
They also include Rabbi Peter Knobel, Former President, Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, Dean, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary; Rev. Michael Livingston, Executive Director, International Council of Community Churches; Rev. Dr. Deborah Mullen, Director, Center for African American Ministry and Black Church Studies, McCormick Theological Seminary; Dr. Sylvia Rhue, Interim Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition; and Rev. Dr. William Stayton, Professor of Sexuality and Religion, Morehouse School of Medicine

Last Mass at St. Procop

They’ve closed the old Czech parish… and Bishop Lennon, the hatchet man himself, was there to celebrate Mass. I don’t know what to think of that. They didn’t have a priest there. It was good of him to man up, put himself on the spot and take responsibility. But in another sense it was just rubbing salt in the wounds. And all the security was a little distasteful.

This is telling:

A choir, accompanied by organ, trumpets, guitars and drums, filled the majestic Byzantine Romanesque structure, rich in sacred art, stained-glass windows and glorious ceiling medallions. The old church, with paint peeling from its walls and ceiling, hadn’t seen such liveliness in decades.

With that lineup, you can bet they weren’t doing Palestrina. The incongruence between the building and the music is pretty stunning.