Recta Ratio

Here may ye see my wounds wide
That I suffered for thy misdeed.
Through heart, head, foot, hand and side,
Not for my guilt but for thy need.
Behold, both back, body and side,
How dearly I bought thy brotherhood.
These bitter pains I would endure;
To buy thee bliss thus would I bleed.
Thus was I dight thy sorrow to slake;
Man, thus behooved thee to borrowed be.
In all my woe took I no wrack
My will it was, for the love of thee.
Man, sore ought thee to quake,
This dreadful day this sight to see;
All this I suffered for thy sake;
Say, man, what suffered thou for me?

Source: The York Judgment Play, quoted in Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion In England 1400-1580

In Illo Tempore brings us this image of the high altar at the Alte Kapelle of Regensburg, which the Holy Father will visit. Oh my. Now that is Baroque!

Note to other Pugin enthusiasts: Even if it is Baroque, don't fix it!

Sniff. Sniff. I sense blood in the water. If only the conservatives were strong enough to make use of this to get back in with a solid majority. Labour wants to return to its leftist roots. If they do, that should mean electoral disaster.

Some thoughts on the Manoppello image.

My question is, does the image match the image from the Holy Shroud of Turin? Is it the same man? We know that the bloodtype from the Shroud matches the Sudarium, and the Eucharistic Host of Lanciano. People of faith would like to believe that we have all three pieces of cloth that touched our Lord during his Passion and Death, Veronica's Veil (the Manoppello image), the face covering from the tomb (the Sudarium), and the full burial cloth (the Holy Shroud). But are these three items in fact what we hope them to be?

I love Gillibrand's work. But even I am depressed after reading most of his posts since the beginning of September.

What a sad tale of self-inflicted wounding of the Body of Christ unveiled in story after story about church closings in the US and Europe, the sad fate of some closed churches, efforts to convert Gothic chapels to secular use, Catholic seminaries turned into schools for Moslem martyrs. And all so unnecessary!

If only the Church had continued to preach strongly and confidently, to follow traditional devotions, and to hold the course charted over 2,000 years rather than make a radical (and not even necessary from the Vatican II perspective) course correction she has endured from the 1960s to the present. These places would all be thriving Catholic centers of worship today.

St. Michael the Archangel and St. Joseph, pray for Holy Mother the Church.

The official site for her cause for canonization.

Here is an interesting one that I tried to resolve last year, but had to give up on. Does anyone know if then-Cardinal Ratzinger ever met Bl. Mother Teresa, and if there were any photos taken? Reason tells me that they must have met. Heck, she met John Paul II numerous times, and shared the stage with him on a few. But I can't find a thing on on line showing Pope Benedict and this certain future saint together, not even a standard photo-op pic.

I do have one very tiny personal recollection of Mother Teresa to share. I saw her in person once, at a distance of about 30 feet. I was at Logan Airport with family in the 1980s seeing off a family friend on her way to Sweden, and Mother Teresa was coming into Boston on her way, if memory serves, to Harvard to receive some sort of award and to speak. She was surrounded by security and a large entourage, but I did get a brief glimpse of this saint in person, probably the only person who will be raised to the altars of the Church who I have seen in person.

Sat 09/09 Home Peabody High 1:30PM
Sat 09/16 Home Central Catholic 1:30PM
Sat 09/23 Away Springfield Commerce 1:00PM
Fri 09/29 Away Brockton 7:00PM
Fri 10/06 Away Dracut High 7:00PM
Sat 10/14 Home St. John's Shrewsbury 2:30PM
Sat 10/21 Home Billerica 1:30PM
Sat 10/28 Home Catholic Memorial 1:30PM
Fri 11/03 Away Malden Catholic 7:00PM
Fri 11/10 Away BC High 7:00PM
Thu 11/23 Away Xaverian Brothers High School 10:15AM

Dale Price tagged me for the "Deep Conversation With 5 People" Meme, so, here goes.

If you could meet and have a deep conversation with any five people on earth, living or dead, from any time period, who would they be?" (Explaining why is optional.) Name five people from each of the following categories:Saints, Those in the Process of Being Canonized, Heroes from your native country, Authors/Writers, celebrities.


1. Saints

a. Padre Pio

b. Thomas More

c. Edmund Campion

d. Sidonius Apollinaris

e. Francis of Assisi


2. To Be Canonized

a. Bl. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

b. Bl. Pier Giogio Frassati

c. Ven. Pope Pius XII

d. Servant of God Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson

e. Servant of God Monsignor Ronald Knox


3. American Heroes

a. John Adams

b. Elias Haskett Derby

c. Ted Williams

d. Nathaniel Hawthorne

e. Calvin Coolidge


4. Authors/Writers.

a. Alexander Pope

b. Russell Kirk

c. Evelyn Waugh

d. Dr. Samuel Johnson

e. Patrick O'Brian


5. Celebrities.

a. Ann Coulter

b. William Bennett

c. Curt Schilling

d. Paul Johnson

e. Thomas Gainsborough (nobody said it had to be a living celebrity!)

6. New Category I Am Adding Just for Myself: Military Heroes

a. General George Patton

b. Alcibiades

c. Scipio Africanus

d. General Charles Marquis Cornwallis

e. Field Marshall Eric von Manstein

Now I have to tag 5 people who have not done this yet.

a. Ginny

b. Vir Speluncae Catholicus The Great

c. Perun

d. Argent

e. Jovan