Recta Ratio

I've been working on assembling Draft 2 of the book. I didn't actually finish Draft 1, but felt I had enough of a skeletal outline done to move on to the second draft. I still have a long way to go with Draft 2. In the meantime, I'm still using Draft 1 in my own devotions.

Before Draft 2 becomes Draft 3, I need to learn how to handle some software that will enable me to print it out in booklet form (I assembled the handwritten first draft in quires of ten pages folded over to make 40 pages of text) and integrate illustrations with the text.

Right now, I'm enjoying that creative nirvana a writer gets into sometimes (though my book is hardly creative: it is more a compilation), when you don't want to break off at night to sleep, and can't wait to get into the desk to start again next day. That mood only hits me about once every 5-6 years, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.
(Mention your intentions here)
Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

His feast day is December 3rd.

Most amiable and most loving Saint Francis Xavier, in union with thee I reverently adore the Divine Majesty. I rejoice exceedingly on account of the marvelous gifts which God bestowed upon thee. I thank God for the special graces He gave thee during thy life on earth and for the great glory that came to thee after thy death. I implore thee to obtain for me, through thy powerful intercession, the greatest of all blessings--that of living and dying in the state of grace. I also beg of thee to secure for me the special favor I ask in this novena.

(Here you may mention the grace, spiritual or temporal, that you wish to obtain.)

In asking this favor, I am fully resigned to the Divine Will. I pray and desire only to obtain that which is most conducive to the greater glory of God and the greater good of my soul.
V. Pray for us, Saint Francis Xavier.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O God, Who didst vouchsafe, by the preaching and miracles of Saint Francis Xavier, to join unto Thy Church the nations of the Indies, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who reverence his glorious merits may also imitate his example, through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.

Then add 3 Our Father's and 3 Hail Mary's in memory of Saint Francis Xavier's devotion to the Most Holy Trinity, and Glory be to the Father 10 times in thanksgiving for the graces received during his 10 years of apostleship

Taking on the secularist cultural fascists.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. (Mention your intentions here) Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. (Mention your intentions here) Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

Amen.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

They won't match the Met's offer.

If he has to play in New York, at least he is not going to the Yankees.

No, not Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, or even Fiesta.

The Continental Tire Bowl.

That's...pretty sucky.

Lots of good stuff.

I just looked at the November issue for the first time the other day, and noticed that Michael Rose has a new book out on church architecture, In Tiers of Glory.

I read Ugly As Sin in about a day and a half of light reading, and found it quite rewarding. I am sure that this further development on the theme of church design will be worthwhile.

Father Sistare at Not So Quiet Catholic Corner points out His Excellecy's continued stellar leadership on the Communion-For-ProAborts issue.

This prelate makes good sense, and continues to fight the good fight. I think the Church in the US has found a replacement for the late John Cardinal O'Connor as the country's leading Catholic prelate (and it certainly isn't Cardinal Egan, Cardinal McCarrick, Cardinal Mahony, or Archbishop O'Malley).

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. (Mention your intentions here) Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

December 1st is the feast of this martyr of the English Reformation.

Dutch hospital euthanizing babies.

Is there any solution?

Military dictatorship was long thought to be a solution to an out-of-control culture. But the history of authoritarian (not totalitarian) dictatorships is that they are too busy keeping people interested in overthrowing them under watch to spend much energy righting the culture.

I have become convinced that the solution can only come through a root-and-branch re-Christianization of Europe. And that must await a generation of priests the advance guard of which is still in formation or only recently out of seminary (and a long way from the rank of bishop).

But laity with the will and means to start the project are in place now, and can start the ball rolling.

This is a good opportunity to remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

In a private revelation, our Lord told St. Gertrude that 1,000 souls would be released from Purgatory every time the following prayer is said:

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

Just because the Month of the Dead will end at midnight, don't forget the Poor Souls.

Any one of us might end up among them, as we might easily outlive all who know us. We may have no children praying for our souls.

And the thing is, none of know how long we might be in Purgatory. Who knows that even the most mundane of venial sins, perhaps a random lustful thought, might not earn 1,000 or 10,000 years in Purgatory (and who knows what time even means in eternity?).

So recall the Poor Souls every day. If no one is praying for you, and you are looking at perhaps a million years' sentence, would you not appreciate, and be grateful for, the prayers, even the most general prayers for the Poor Souls generally, even the shortest ejaculation? I know I would.

And don't forget, you may have grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbors, perhaps even parents, among the poor forgotten souls.

Even if you don't believe that a 1,000 souls get their release into heaven every time St. Gertrude's prayer is said, any prayer for he Poor Souls must have some good effect. And it can hurt no one. The prayer takes 10 seconds to say.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires. (Mention your intentions here) Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

AmericanCatholic.org also offers Father Leonard Foley's excellent account of the first use of the Manger Scene by St. Francis and how this devotion spread.

I dearly love a nice, elaborate Nativity Scene. I have included a prayer for the blessing of such a scene among the Advent Prayers (a sub-file under Catholic Prayers) at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

The feast of Saint Andrew is one of the four saints' days commemorated in the messes of the British army. Andrew is the patron of Scotland. Saint George (April 23rd) is the patron of England. Saint David (March 1st) is the patron of Wales. Saint Patrick, of course, is the patron of Ireland. Saint Andrew's Day is the only one of the four not in late-winter/early-spring.

Because of my re-enacting experience, I am either a member of, or have been a guest of, the messes of regiments of all four major ethnic groups. I have dined with the Royal Welch Fusileers (23rd Regiment of Foot) officers' mess on March 1st, with the Friendly Brothers of Saint Patrick on March 17th, with the officers' mess of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment, or 42nd Regiment of Foot) on November 30th, and with the Loyal and Friendly Society of the Blue and Orange on April 23rd.

These evenings are convivial occasions, with a formal dinner, many, many toasts, and seemingly eccentric regimental customs. You would not want to drive yourself home after one of these dinners. Re-enactor officers are just being true to the characters they portray in these celebrations.

John Peebles, an officer of the grenadier company of the 42nd Regiment celebrated St. Andrew's Night thus in his New York-area garrison in 1779:

Went to town to celebrate the day with his Ex (he mounted a round blue device with a white Saint Andrew's cross in his regulation highland bonnet-GTF): where the field offs. & Capts. of the 42nd. were invited , the Adml. there the offrs. of the Royal Highland emigrants & some others, about 24 in all. Major Small personated the Saint who gave very good toasts & apropos for the occasion. The Adml. very chatty & entertaining. Major Hay sang some good songs & spouted a prologue very well. A good dinner & drink till 10 o'clock. A numerous party of the Sons of St. Andw. din'd at Hick's above 60, among whom were the subs. (subalterns: lieutenants and ensigns- GTF) of the 42d. Exchanged a complit. & some of our Compy. join'd them after we broke up, & made a night of it.

John Peebles' American War 1776-1782, edited by Ira Gruber, 1997.

I wish my Scottish friends a happy Saint Andrew's Day, with much enjoyment of haggis and that amber-coloured beverage distilled in the Highlands.

Today, the Church celebrates Saint Andrew, brother of Simon Peter, disciple of John the Baptist, and Apostle of the Lord.

Andrew was a fisherman from Capharnaum. He was with John the Baptist at the time of the baptism of Jesus, and followed Him from that time, later bringing Peter into the fold of the apostolic college. It was Andrew who reported the state of the food supply to the Lord before the feeding of the five thousand. But ortherwise, he appears to have faded into the apostolic group.

Andrew exercised his ministry in the region of the Black Sea, and was crucified on an "X" form crucifix at Patras in Achaia. He is the patron of fishermen and fishmongers, as well as patron of Scotland.

St. John the Evangelist in North Cambridge was desecrated this weekend by pro-abortion vandals who spray-painted pro-abortion graffitti on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and adorned her with a crown of coat hangers.

It is astonishing that they picked this parish, which is a liberal one. These guys can't even tell their allies from their real enemies.

I guess if you are one of those Papists, the difference is only in the degree of culpability as far as these people ae concerned.

Next thing you know, they'll be burning down convents in the name of "choice."

Given the current breakdown on the court, and the absence of Chief Justice Rehnquist, it is probably not a bad thing that the Court rejected the appeal without issuing an opinion.

The last thing we need is a Supreme Court precedent that tends to support the idea that there might be a US Constitutional right to gay "marriage." And given who is sitting on the Court now, that is just what we might get.

And once again, the Archdiocese is cautioning parishioners with the flu to forgo receiving the Precious Blood in the Chalice, and to get by with a nod and smile during the Sign of Peace.

A) The Eucharistic Host contains the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing more complete than that. Receiving from the Chalice is redundant.

B) Receiving only the Host and that kneeling at a proper rail eliminates more of the germ-spreading problems, as the priest is reaching down, and you are looking up, thus eliminating some potential finger/tongue/lips contact.

C) I'd be very happy to dispense with the Sign of Peace altogether. One of the priests at St. Francis Chapel does that sometimes (Lord bless him!). And, of course, when I attend the Indult Mass, there is no such thing.

D) This has great potential to cut down on pre-Mass "grip 'n grin" sessions.

Sometimes, the flu is our friend, as long as no one dies from it.

BC took a major stomping from Syracuse on Saturday, and therefore lost the Big East title in their final year in that conference, and can forget about a major bowl.

The Patriots won, making them 10-1 on the season.

And Pedro Martinez is flirting with the idea of signing with the Yankees. You can probably forget about that dream rotation of Martinez, Shilling, and Clemens (with Wakefield, Lowe, etc.). I doubt that the Red Sox will match a Yankee offer on Martinez.

From the Franciscans at American Catholic.

Because it seems that I am a natural one.


Welcome to the One, Holy, CATHOLIC, and Apostolic Church! You my Friend are a Catholic. You have a strong sense of something outside of yourself and feel drawn to answer profound questions to satisfy your desires. You recognize that truth isn't self-centered or about inventing something new, but rather following the road map of your heart to a bigger picture. You are probably baptized.
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From the Franciscans at American Catholic.