Thank God for Fall

Thank God for this pristine weather we're getting here in the Sooner state.  It starts calling to mind football tailgait parties, backyard fires, and the Fall garden.  I managed to squeeze into my schedule putting in the Fall garden.  Let's see, there's kale, spinach, Swiss chard, mint, oregano, and basil.

                  Lake Bixhoma

And everyday my body keeps equalizing one baby step at a time, my mind opening more and more to that deep thanks I owe the Divine Physician.


And I've been perusing my old "Summer Bucket List" back in like May, considering what summer outings I can still squeeze in now that I'm physically able to return to my adventurous ways.
I plan to work in some of those experiences in my upcoming posts, while pondering what subjects to tackle. I'm wanting to look closer at the issue of Artificial Intelligence (btw did you all see the Drudge Report link about sex robots now on the market? God help us), but also thoughts on work/profession, what Trump's been up to, and maybe a closer look at the Beatification of Okie Fr. Stanley Rother.

Friends, here's hoping you can partake of some of this great weather.  

Fall, 2017. Are we Headed for Chastisement or Divine Mercy?

Just got back from the gym. Thank God this place exists just down the street.   I did my PT exercises while a guy told me about his TMJ issues, did a couple of requisite sets of abdominal crunches, and then a dozen or so laps in the pool doing the crawl while a super swimmer torpedoed himself back and forth past me.  It ended with a meditative soak in the God-knows-whats-in-there whirloop. 

I have to thank God my health keeps returning to normal, and plan some Te Deum celebrations to thank the Good Lord for His Mercy.  This ordeal started in January, and, I think it will end up being in great measure due to the intercession of the saintly elfen Friar St. Padre Pio, that my health becomes fully restored. God knows He could have justifiably gone the other way and chastised me indefinitely. But through the prayers and support of family and friends, God's Mercy tipped the scales of His Divine Justice.

If our lives are a microcosm of what's going down in the World, I'd have to say the country/world is in the eye of the hurricane right now--figuratively and literally.

Hurricane Irma

Think about it.  The Houston Hurricane, earthquake in Mexico and then Akito, Japan (Yes, Akito--Our Lady of Akito, ora pro nobis), and now Hurricane Irma.  Oh, and glancing at the Drudge Report, there's also something about meteorologists bewildered over strange winds off the West coast of the US, and a bunch of strange earthquakes in some other part of the US.

Factor in the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima next month, the Remnant article about the prophetic happenings to come September 23rd I think it is related to the constellation Virgo, St. Padre Pio's Feast Day on the 23rd, and the Beatification of Okie American Fr. Stanley Rother on that same day.  And you have to wonder what kind of end times events we are witnessing.

          The Miracle of the Sun
                Fatima, Portugal
                 October 13, 1917

Perhaps then it is providential a friend gave us some blessed, beeswax holy candles.  You never know.  We may be headed straight for the 3 days of darkness.

On the other hand, if God is being merciful to me about my own well being, I hope and pray He will also be merciful to the World right now and not chastise us.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. St. Padre Pio, pray for us.

The Pope's Motu Proprio on Liturgical Translations: Tell the Modernists its Nothing Really New!!

So I just read Francis' motu proprio Magnum Principium, which the internet and blogosphere is a buzz about this weekend.  Its a short read on The Vatican website.  The modernists are pretending it is further decentralizing power away from Rome to Episcopal Conferences in the area of liturgical translation. Traditionalists are reacting to this interpretation as one more sign the Church, under the current Pontificate, is reversing the traditional liturgical restorations of BXVI.

Whatever the interpretation might pretend to be, being a canonical decree, in my opinion it's pretty plain, direct, and clear.  It stands on its own without any need for interpretation.

It doesn't create anything really, substantially new.  As it says, it is simply codifying as canon law what was already the constant practice since Vatican II.

Incidentally, Archbishop Lefebvre, as explained by his biographer Bishop Tissier de Malleries, did think some use of the vernacular was appropriate, especially in the Epistle and Gospel.

Which brings me to the strengths in this document, which traditionalists should point out to the liturgical innovators.

1. It upholds Latin as the traditional language still part of the Roman rite.

2. It insists all national translations are approved by the Holy See.

3. It insists on accurate translation which is in accord with Church doctrine.

4. It clearly underlined the fact the Holy See itself promulgates liturgical rites.

5. It highlights use of the vernacular for the Epistles and Gospel.

Conclusion:

a) No, Bishop's Conferences do not have new, increased power to translate liturgical texts.

b) The motu proprio no where encourages new, more progressive styles of translation, and does not reverse BXVIs insistence on more accurate translations.

c) But no doubt the modernists will falsely misrepresent this new canon law as permission to start translating again like a 1970s liturgical translator on weed.

d) This document per se in itself, from a traditionalist point of view, doesnt really do anything to restore liturgical tradition. But it isn't official permission to keep butchering the sacred language of the Church.

Am I right?  Let me know in the Comm Box Below.

Beatification of Okie Fr. Stanley Rother this Month. Questions from the Heartland.

From the supernatural view, the upcoming Beatification of Fr. Stanley Rother this month seems even more monumental for the US than Hurricane Irma.  He will be on the way to becoming one of the few American saints.  And God knows our country needs more saints.

But as a traditional Catholic, there is the requisite moment of pause every time a conciliar pope beatifies or canonizes a post-Vatican II saint, if they are trying to canonize Vatican II.   Yet, the overwhelming majority of theologians traditionally teach that canonization is infallible, so if the same should apply to beatifications, then I am prepared to publicly venerate at Mass and promote on this blog Fr. Stanley Rother as a saint.  

Hirsch wrote about this recently here.

We need more saints, and a true Okie saint would help build up our own Local Church.  On the other hand, since canonization/beatifications have not been ruled by the Magisterium to be infallible, and is therefore an open question, then if there is serious reason to doubt the beatification of Fr. Rother, then I am equally prepared to discuss the issue.  What is at stake is a true understanding of Catholic sainthood, not to mention a true understanding of the Catholic Faith.

From what I understand about his cause for canonization, the crux of the question rests on the claim he is a martyr.   He was known for orthodoxy and personal holiness, but what makes him stand out was the fact he was killed because he was a priest.

Perhaps what throws tradition-minded, orthodox Catholics, is how Fr. Rother is so frequently depicted either wearing a rainbow stole over a plain white alb, or wearing lay clothes.  I have to wonder how much those images really represent him, or are used to paint him as a liberation theology-style worker priest.

But his cause begs some questions.  Is there a movement in the Church to canonize priest freedom workers killed in South America in order to promote a liberation theology view of Catholicism? Is being killed for a Catholic-based political stance a new form of matyrdom?  And how do these questions apply to the cause of Fr. Rother?

The deciding question is:  did the killing of Fr. Rother meet the traditional definition of martyrdom? 

The beatification is still a fortnight away, so I suppose it's still an open question.   I for one dont want to witness a somehow invalid beatification, so I am actually eager to welcome not only a new American saint, but an Okie Saint!   From what I've read of Fr. Rother's life, there seems to be much to venerate and imitate, especially his love of the poor.  He was a devout priest who refused to abandon his mission knowing he was on a Hit List.

Your thoughts?  The Comm Box is open!

The Traditional Catholic Blogosphere: Some Thoughts

I've discussed before all the times I've heard from the pulpit admonitions about misusing the internet, including the Catholic blogosphere.  Its a mess out there.  Just recently one well known trad blogger called into question a certain trad apostolate, followed by a well known trad author responding on another well known trad blog in defense of said trad apostolate.  It doesnt matter what the controversy was.  It was just your latest flame battle in the trad blogosphere.

But both sides did make some valid points, I felt.   A blog is nothing more or less than a blog.  A blog writer, in so far as they are writing a blog, is nothing more than a blog writer.  Its one man or woman's way of voicing their opinion from their armchair.

There's the ambivalent concept of the "armchair theologian" or "armchair philosopher."  Usually the idea is criticized, but if you follow the usual discussion about that topic, it is also usually admitted that that role is valid.

I don't think a Catholic has to be a priest, professional theologian, or published author to write about Catholic subjects, or musings about daily life from a Catholic perspective.

To this trad blogger, I see the Trad Blogosphere as a good thing but with just as much weirdness and rigorism as you'll experience in any sector of the Trad Movement outside the internet.

For me, I'm still new to the blogging scene.  Plus returning from my semi-hiatus means another learning curve.   The last half turn around the Sun, I've been decidedly ignorant of Church and secular politics.  But as much as those subjects can become a nutty, wasteful diversion from fulfilling duties of state in life (for myself mea culpa), they are also generally, necessarily something to be engaged, especially by traditional Catholic men, fathers, and husbands.  In so far as ecclesial authority has been emasculated, it often falls on the shoulders of the family to figure out where to go to Mass or what is orthodox.

The Trad Blogosphere, I would argue, is a microcosm of the Trad Movement.   Said movement is fractionated.  One issue after another seems to separate us.  And the issues are becoming even more specific and fractionating.   Just look at the "SSPX Resistance" part of the movement, which a casual glance at it's online hub confirms it's own adherents readily admit is very divided in itself.  And it seems one of the latest fractionating issues is Fatima, in light of the 100th Anniversary, and the passing of Fr. Gruner (RIP).

I've got chores to do, so I better get to the point.  I'll list a few opinions about how I feel the Trad Blogosphere/Real World Community should interact, in a way that is unifying yet frank about our differences.

1.  Blogs should be treated as just blogs, northing more or nothing less.  They are the voice of one man or woman.  That's the nature of a blog.  The authority of the author rests purely on their own education, catechesis, and writing abilities.  The Trad blogger can be an Armchair Theologian but that's all they are.  Just a layman sitting in his armchair waxing theological about current events.  But what makes the Trad Blogosphere vital and effective is it's expanding presence on the secular web.   Together, we are a voice for traditional Catholicism.

2. Disputes between Trad Bloggers should avoid the typical Trad Blogger Flame Wars.   But this requires seeing in general that we traditional Catholic bloggers are in fact traditional Catholics, each trying to find the surest road through this Hurricane that is the crisis in Church and society.  We should try and be OPEN to one another. We should ask more questions, verify, privately confront, work things out, before attacking or rashly judging.

3. Confront real differences openly, frankly, in a GENTLMANLY and UNIFYING way.  Not be Church of Nice, but also not be the Church of Trad Cat Fight Club Bloodbaths.   There's a fine line in all of this, but I believe common sense will be judge about what is helpful and discussion-worthy, verses toxic and dividing.

I think the internet and the blogosphere will be here long after all of us are dead, and exponentially more and more a dimension of living in the modern world.   The Trad Blogosphere could be used by the devil to divide us traditional Catholics against ourselves.  OR, Trad Bloggers can help to restore all things to Christ and build up the cause of Tradition.

Did I miss anything?  Do ya'll have anything else to add?  Post in the Comment Box below.  

One Trad's Meditation on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Communion for the divorced and remarried.  One more issue to fractionate the Church.  The Southern Poverty You Know Who waging a culture war against The Religious Right, funded by God knows what elitist circle of billionaires.  A football stadium of fetuses ripped from their mother's womb everyday, in the US alone.  An ever declining social-moral quality of life paradoxically inversely proportional to the exponential rise in technology.  And psychotic Kim Jung whatever his name is shooting a warhead over Japan. Meanwhile, the Passion of Our Lord is made ever present on all the Catholic altars of the world, giving mercy to the many who would approach the communion rail.  These are the thoughts that pass through my Okie head here in the Heartland this Tuesday, one of the day's of the week devoted to the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.

The First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, the Agony in the Garden:

Our Lord sweating blood so much it soaked his hair and beard.   Our Lord in his humanity--like us in all things but sin--allowing Himself to experience the worst anxiety and terror, seeing every sin that would be committed by every person from the beginning until the end of time.

Imagine the pain and sorrow He felt seeing in His mind's eye His priests banalizing and desecrating His Divine Sacrifice, and later sexually abusing little boys in virtually every diocese.   Or seeing some of those same clerics once sexually abuses by their own pastors or fathers.

Imagine how much His heart was wrenched witnessing 40 million++ babies being killed in the womb, the most innocent and defenseless.  Imagine the sorrow He felt even for the abortionist, how they are possessed and tormented by the devil.

Imagine Our Lord looking square at each of our's most grave sins against Him and eachother.  The acts of impurity, the unjust acts of anger, the neglect of prayer and penance.

The Second Sorrowful Mystery: the Scouring at the Pillar:

Isn't the most beautiful of men Our Lord Jesus Christ, reaching perfect physical and mental development at the age of 33?   Lean, muscular, strong.   A brilliant, eloquent, fearless Shepherd.  Penetrating eyes, a paternal face, flowing golden Brown hair and beard.

Now imagine the first barbed hook grabbing onto the flesh of His back, as He hung at a pillar completely naked.  One square inch of flesh at a time was ripped open, until his entire backside was mutilated.  And then he was turned to the otherside.   By the time the scourging was finished, His whole face, neck, shoulders, torso, and legs were butchered.

Now imagine if that happened to us, all the inordinate care we give our body.  Imagine Paris Hilton or Brad Pitt mutilated head-to-toe to the point we couldn't recognize them.  Every act of vanity slicing across Our Lord's body.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery, the Crowning with Thorns:

I think it was Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, who through her visions of the Passion, said Our Lord's greatest pain was the Crowning with Thorns.  Because the mind is where sin originates, in our thoughts and acts of free will.

Think of the billions of worldly, egotistical, atheistic thoughts that get circulated on the internet everyday.  All the hidden, angry messages that keep replaying in the back of our minds.

Mother Teresa disclosed she dealt for 50 years with a kind of depression, and she said that kind of suffering corresponds to Our Lord's Crowning with Thorns.  She is not exactly the trads favorite saint, but that little lady understood suffering. There is nothing more painful than mental illness, and mental illness is an epidemic across the materialistic nations.  Souls so disoriented from reality and their own individual identity, they would rather die.

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery, Carrying the Cross to Calvary:

When there is a fast food restaurant on every corner, and in a society that expects everyone to be in a certain Tax Bracket to "be somebody," who would think that the path to happiness not only in the next life but in this life, would require each one of us to do what Christ did, to directly look at whatever Cross God gives us, thank Him for it's saving grace, embrace it, pick it up, and pull that sucker up the hill.  To keep doing that, persevering to the end.

I think how Our Lord fell three times.  He was so physically and mentally exhausted He couldn't physically bear the Cross.  But we're supposed to bear our cross at all times, right?  If we fall, doesn't that mean moral weakness?  Its easy to be discouraged by my own weaknesses, or to be confused by my own failings.  I sense I need to look deeper within to know when my weaknesses are sins or where they are just my human nature reaching it's own physical limits.

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus' Died on the Cross:

That Holy Cross now divided into thousands of Relics around the world.  Miraculously rediscovered by Constantine's mother St. Helena.  That Cross which at the time of Christ was considered the worst form of torture and capital punishment.  But that Cross that became the New Altar for the New Sacrifice.  If you trace a line from where Our Lord was crucified, it ran straight through the altar of the Jewish temple where the priests simultaneously offered the sacrifice of the lambs, literally facing in the direction of the Cross.  But in the end, no animal sacrifice or act of mortal man could save mankind.  Only God Himself could save mankind by becoming man and offering His life to the Father.

I've tried to imagine how three hours on the Cross atoned for millenia of human sin.  How the trillions and trillions of sins, even the most venial meriting long, terrible penances in purgatory, were mystically placed on the shoulders of our dying Savior.  I cant imagine that. That mystery of Faith must rank up there with the mysteries of the Incarnation, Transubstantiation, or Our Lady's Assumption into Heaven.

Kyrie eleison.

Meditation on the Glorious Mysteries

Happy Sunday fellow Okie Trads and readers far and near.  Deo gracias.  We've crossed the finish line.  We've made it to September, which means the Purgatorial heat of summer is subsiding.  Cooler temperatures, Fall backyard fires, calming breezes.   So I was reminded of what awaits all our efforts in life, as we prayed this Sunday's Glorious Mysteries.

The First Glorious Mystery:  the Resurrection:

All of those pains and sufferings.  All of those earthly accomplishments which fade like the colors of summer.  All our tears, grieving, and torments.  All of that will pass away.  For those of us who persevere to the end, on the last day at the end of the world, our souls will be united to our glorified bodies.  The bodies of the non-elect won't be glorified. All will face the eastern horizon and the rising Son of God who will judge all Mankind.  If the Church Fathers are correct, the majority will be damned.  Our bodies will be so perfect there will be absolutely no pain or sufferings.  What we consider now to be preternatural gifts--telepathy, bilocation, superhuman strength--will shared by all.   In our sanctified state, our natures will even rise above that of the angels, thanks to that "happy fault of Adam" and the Redemptive Act of the New Adam.

The Second Glorious Mystery: the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven:

Our Lord's path was circular.  Just as He came from the Father, so He had to go back to the Father.  He had to join Himself to that circular path because that is our own path, and He "became like us in all things but sin."  We come from God, and so must return to God.
That Second Person of the Blessed Trinity had descended upon the Blessed Virgin Mary 33 years before as the Incarnate Word.  33 years later that Incarnate Word ascended back to Heaven, that sacred abode where the Almighty manifests for divine worship by the angels and the Saints.  Our Lord was risen, and showed again his divinity through His Transfiguration.  God from God, Begotten and not made.

The Third Glorious Mystery: the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost:

If the Holy Ghost is able to manifest Himself in a sacred place--whether it be the blessed womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a consecrated church, or the sanctuary, so He manifested Himself in a sacred way in the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church became a living reality that Pentecost when it's first members received the Paraclete in a sacred way.  The sacredness of this Divine Spirit cannot be fully experienced except within the Holy Catholic Church, which He made His home.

The Fourth Glorious Mystery:  the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, body and soul:

One thing I love about our Catholic Faith, is how one truth follows from another.  Our Faith is a system of orchestrated truths.   Because God became incarnate through a woman, He preserved her from original sin, remarkably made possible by the Cross 47 years later (14 years + 33 years).   And so Our Lady was also preserved from the consequence of original sin--i.e. death.  Instead she mystically fell asleep in her old age before ascending to Heaven.  Isn't it likewise remarkable to point out to the non-believer that there is no grave nor remains for Our Lady. If the first Christians had preserved the relics of the 12 Apostles, certainly they would have preserved those of the Mother of God.  But no, God did not want her to be incomplete in Heaven.  He wanted her there both in soul and in body.

The Fifth Glorious Mystery:  the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen of Angels and Saints:

We've reached the end.  The Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries have come and gone.  The final Glorious Mysteries have culminated in Heaven, where there will be no suffering, but eternal bliss.  There Our Lady stands near her Son who sits on the Divine Throne.  Every prayer passes through her heart and is heard by Our Lord from the lips of Our Mother.  And every grace from her Son flows through her mantle to us here below, the Church Militant, fighting for our salvation, for our own soul and that of our brother and sister.   The Mother of God took her final place of glory as the Mother of the Church.

Here's hoping you all have a cool, fun Labor Day!

Bishop David Konderla, newish Bishop of the Tulsa Diocese

Our Bishop, Bishop Konderla, was called to the fullness of the Catholic Priesthood a little over a year ago, to be a Successor to the Apostles, to transmit Sacred Tradition, to confirm and ordain, and to govern the faithful of Eastern Oklahoma as their Shepherd.

You may recall a year ago I discussed critically some changes in the diocese in light of the fact they occurred after the installment of our new bishop, and that later I apologized for any indiscretion in my blog posts, going too far.   The thing is we do not know certainly and publicly why those decisions were made, and the concrete circumstances.  I recall asking questions, not intending to assert an answer, yet some drew conclusions.

So instead, I would like to give some positive impressions of our newish bishop, which I think we can take as a good sign that Bishop Konderla has much to offer our Local Church.

1.  Bishop Konderla has a reputation of being very conservative, ie orthodox and following church law.  He is especially praised by the many college students he pastored, for many years, as the Catholic chaplain at College Station in Texas.  He oftened preached sermons explaining the Faith, the Lives of the Saints, and the call to holiness.  He helped endless young people know and continue to deepen their Catholic Faith.

2.  Bishop Konderla loves his priesthood.   His biography explains how he really took time to discern his vocation as a young man.  As a priest, he oftened mentored young men considering the priesthood, taking them on roadtrips to visit seminaries.  At one time he considered being a Trappist monk.   One layman reported that in all the many years he knew then Fr. Konderla, Father was always faithfully wearing publicly his priestly clerics.

3.  Bishop Konderla is a gentleman.  That was evident to me in a YouTube video in which he was showing some guys his country cabin retreat.  When I emailed him, he always emailed back and was friendly, caring, and polite.

The Catholic Church is in a Crisis.  It is difficult to not see how that is not caused in part by Ecclesial authority.  Yet thank God for bishops.  Without them there would be no priests.  And without priests, we would not have the mercy of Christ in the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist.
So thank God for Bishop Konderla.   We pray for him and all the priests every night.

Back in My Blogging Okie Armchair

Deo gracias.  I am resurrecting and normalizing.  My health condition is exponentially improving, and I'm back on track with progressing in work, career, personal pursuits, and this here little hobby.  Its been over a year since I signed up on blogger.  In the first six months I really picked up a lot of momentum and wrote about a lot of cool subjects.  But these last 6 months have been a semi-hiatus.  But thank God I now have the frame of mind and priority to refocus, but my health challenge it seems permanently shaped by perspective on life, including my own, for the better, so you might detect shifts in my style and focus as we go.

Sunday is almost over and time for the work week ahead, so I'll just list some topics I may blog about on the horizon.

The Society of St. Pius X in Tulsa
The Latin Mass community in the Tulsa Diocese
Summer outings I can now do
The Good Works of Bishop Konderla
The Good Works of Msgr. Brankin
Artificial Intelligence
100th Anniversary of Fatima
St. Padre Pio

Have a good week friends!

Health Club Experiences

Starting Week Three of my Hit-the-Gym phase of my Rehab.  Health is seemingly, slowly improving.  Since it's been since the second millenium since I signed up for a gym membership, I thought it might be interesting to catalogue some of my experiences with this new venture.

Considering myself still in the category of "young man," it's humbling to hobble down the the stairs from the parking lot to the entrance of the gym, as senior citizens bounce past me carrying their yoga mats.  I look up at the sky and think "Ok.  One day at a time.  Before I know it I'll be bouncing up these stairs after a workout.

When I enter the gym I hand my ID to the clerk who looks like a workout guru athletic trainer.  After a moment of cinversation, it becomes obvious that's who they are.  One of the clerk trainers is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic super muscly guy with a Ziploc bag of homemade energy bars on his lap. Power to him!

So I pass the racquetball courts and pools to the men's locker room.  Call me weird, but I've never been very comfortable in locker rooms.   Something about old men walking around airdrying with their family jewels just hanging out there.   The inviting aspect are the fine, wood lockers, wet spa, and dry spa which are good for stress release and detoxifying your body.

More to come tomorrow...

Okay, I'm back.  So, you know you're out of shape when you prefer to take the elevator instead of the stairs to the second floor, where there is one huge, open floor plan with weight machines, free weights, treadmills and bikes, and walking trek (where I spend most of my workout right now).  Sandwiched in the middle is an exercise classroom surrounded by glass walls, for yoga (dont get me started), zumba, and tai chi classes.  Maybe tai chi?

One upside of this health club is that it is part of a Catholic hospital, so the ethos of the place is quiet and conservative.  There's a few knuckle draggers and Jane Fonda fitness junkies, but the majority are seniors.

Interestingly, almost everytime I go to workout, I cross paths with a Monsignor of the diocese.   Outside of the confessional, I've never talked to him.  I want to go up and talk to him, break the ice, seeing that our paths will probably keep crossing.  How might he react that I go to the Latin Mass?  To the SSPX just blocks from where he serves as a priest?  Hmmm, I double dog dare myself to talk to him about the Traditional Movement!  Should make for an interesting update when I update my health club experiences.

Time for bed...next time the pool,  whirlpool, and deli! :)

Okie dokie.  Back once again.  Home from my evening workout.  Popping my knuckles...okay where was I?

The gym floor.  So today I put myself through quite the anaerobic workout, which given my current lack of cardiovascular fitness was actually also a good 20 minutes of aerobic exercise.  Met with "Tad" (the name sounds like an athletic trainer) assigned to all newbie members to start designing a workout routine.  Very friendly guy.  Looks like he's spent years inside a gym.


So as I later keep circling the walking track--every few laps passing an aging sister of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother who run the attached hospital--some inspiration starts swelling.  For months it was hard to walk for any length of time.  Maybe it was the music in the background, or the religious sister going full steam ahead, but the thought struck home that I'm going to get in shape.  In better shape than I ever was before.

Back down to the first floor locker room, I changed into my swim trunks and swam several laps, followed by a long, unwinding meditation in the whirlpool hottub.   Spoiling, but right now practically, therapeutically necessary.

Since starting to make the whirlpool a habit I've struck up a friendship with a regular, a black lady who comes for the "plus size" therapy pool exercise group.
Loves to tell stories and give pointers about making best use of the club.

Near Death Experience

I was sitting with my wife in the back of an SUV.  My mom was driving (she doesn't know how to drive) along a narrow, rocky path.  We were driving along the top of a bear mountain ridge, steep on both sides.  Mountains were in all directions.  I realized in that moment we were suppose to be having a leisure trip to the great outdoors, but may fall to our death at any moment.

Suddenly, the vehicle veared off the path to the right (thanks mom), and we flew off the side of the mountain plummeting thousands of feet.  The SUV was turned on its right side in it's free fall, and looking forward I could see the sky.  And in that last moment I was thinking to myself "Oh my God, I'm not ready to die.  I need to go to confession."

Then I woke up.

Reflection on my Dream:

Before my current health crisis, every month or two we took Saturday afternoon drives in the country, often to lakes or rivers for a picnic, and then stopping and museums or antique stores in historic towns back to the city.  I suppose part of the nightmare was grief or sadness we can't do those kind of things right now.

The other more obvious reason was that perhaps there is still dis-ease in my soul.   Serious illness will make you face the hard facts of existence, and the purgatorial flames of pain and discomfort it seems have not yet fully purified me.

As I've talked about recently, and probably will make more posts about, I've discovered an affection for St. Padre Pio, in particular because he is an excellent example of how to suffer, but also because the man was and still is a powerful healer of the sick.

Padre Pio recommended to his "spiritual children," ie members of prayer groups around the world attached to his counsel, that Catholics say the rosary every day, go to Mass and communion daily, and to go to confession once a week.

For me those counsels would take some special effort, but I'm thinking if God gives messages in dreams, in that dream last night He was probably saying to go to confession more often.

Which I am going to try to do.

TGIF!  Have a restful weekend.

Lunch on the North Side

My stomach growled as I darted across the impoverished "North Side" of Tulsa via the interstate.  The double arches caught my eye.  Ten minutes later I was sitting in the corner of McDonald's with my #1 meal--the Big Mac.  After a man asked for directions to the zoo, and the best I could offer were some sketchy directions, he mosied on over to what he called the "Old Timer group" for better help, which caught my attention.

For the next thirty minutes, while I polished off my hamburger, I observed this group of a dozen or so older Black men mixed with a few middle aged and young adults.  And I was struck by their group dynamic, something we rarely encounter in "Midtown" or other parts of T-town we frequent.  It was an impromptu gathering of seemingly random Black folk from the north side grabbing a dollar burger or a coffee.  Something you might encounter in a Black barber shop.

Which got me thinking about typical white society (or the lack thereof), including in your common traditional Catholic parishes and chapels, or in the online Trad forums.

Every other newcomer to this group seemed to be unknown, but gravitated together apparently by virtue of being Black and from the Northside.  A bit of a nod was all that was needed to indicate they belonged and could slide their tray of food next to everyone else's.

One man looked about 50.  He was decked out in all black, and a gold chain with a cross.  I couldn't make out what he was saying except in every other statement he used the said "God" or "Jesus."  Others responded shaking their head humming "Uuugh huh.  Uuugh huh."  Like the black soldiers in the movie Glory with Denzel Washington, humming in agreement to the Black spirituals song the night before battle.  Before long the man got a call on his cell, and told the group it was his church staff reminding him of a meeting. He must've been a minister.

As he left, an older man maybe 60 walked in.  He was wearing the stereotypical decked out suit outfit of a 1970s "pimp."  He was fittingly proud of his threads and multiple, jeweled rings on his hands.  He joined the group too without hardly a word.

There was a quiet, seemless quality about the group, a close solidarity based on shared skin color and local ethnicity.  At any moment, most were silent, phlegmatically smiling and listening to one person at a time.  It was communal, respectful, and charitable.

Being a white, European-American traditionalist Catholic, first generation son of a German immigrant and an Irish Catholic American, I almost wanted to envy the spirit of this group.
When we eat at your average urban eatery, the atmosphere is something opposite--individualistic, cool, and lonely.

But is it much different in your average traditional Catholic enclave?  For as much incense and Latin and doctrine that we have, do we really enjoy this kind of communal spirit? For as saccharine as it can be, your urban, post-modern Faith Community Catholic parish, imo, has a One Up on us trads when it comes to fellowship and unity.  I know we sometimes have our coffee and doughnuts and pig roasts, but even in the best of my trad experiences across Traddom, the atmosphere often seems somewhat privatized and individualistic.  Am I alone in this experience?

If random people can gravitate together in McDonalds, based on the simple metaphysical principle of "Like attracts Like," and the common bond is the simplicity of skin color, then youd think having a shared love of the Tridentine Latin Mass and the richness of our Catholic Faith, would even more strongly unite us!

Which brings me to a more specific local subject for my fellow Okie Trads.  Several years ago the Tulsa Fraternity parish split.  One group bought their own church.  The other placed themselves under the traditional-bent of one diocesan priest who had learned the Latin Mass.   Sadly, this good priest is now recently gone to other assignments, and the future of the traditional Catholic community of Tulsa, Oklahoma seems to be shifting.

Will the diocesan Latin Mass group continue? Or will the two groups once united under the Fraternity one day reunite at the new Fraternity church? Will the Society of St. Pius X community of Tulsa survive?

Time will tell.  But my prayer is we come together in some way. Recognize what unites us.  Grow as a traditional Catholic community.

And as I will hypothesize in my next segment, perhaps if/when/as the Society becomes regularized, that it's Tulsa Masses will become filled to capacity, that the sons of Archbishop Lefebvre (Society + Fraternity folk + all Trads) will come together across our little sector of the Heartland.

"Uuugh huh!  Clap. Clapetee clap.  Uuugh huh!  Clap. Clapetee clap."

Criticizing the Hierarchy. Including Tulsa Diocese

St. Catherine of Sienna did it.  But Catholic in Brooklyn says we shant. Voris and the Remnant have built a business around it.  And I myself blogged about this once upon a time.  The inverted hiearchy post a year ago.  

With a hierarchy turned upside down, where the pope answers to bishops conferences, bishops to presbyteral councils, parish priests to members of the parish Faith community, and last but not least, actually now in a supreme place of authority, it is children, toddlers, and babies ruling their parents and thus in an inverted pseudo-collegial hierarchy, babies, nay Embryos take the place of Supreme Pontiff.

Is it any wonder then the Church is in crisis?  And it is logically impossible to recognize and actively respond in conscience to said crisis without criticizing the conciliar bishops or pope.

But lets be honest.  The traditional Catholic today commonly lives on three activities that fuel their zeal (a good thing):  the Tridentine Mass, studying high scholastic thought, and focusing the problem on bishops and priests.

I for one am burnt out on the last part.  The trad newbie naturally follows this line of traditionalism.  How can't he?  To cure a disease we need to know the root causes, but also the main vectors by which the virus entered the host.

But sooner or later the evidence is overwhelming and superfluous.  I've read about one too many doings and sayings from the present pontiff.  Its old.  Unless it's new to you or you dont have much firewood to stoke the fire of your inner zeal.

Bishop Konderla of my Local Church shut down two traditional religious communities.  I posted about it last Fall.  This March I apologized for going somewhat too far.  Truth be told it bothered not just my conscience but my psyche.  It was not promoting my much needed inner peace.  Is what it is.

Criticizing the hierarchy is a very delicate matter.  Its not just about distinguishing criticism of word and deed from criticizing the bishop or priest in question.  It requires a reverent reserve and careful choice of words which is very hard to do when you witness sacrilege and heresy coming from those representing Christ.

Its very late here in Oklahoma.  What I'm getting around to saying is, as I start making blog posts more frequent, my clerical criticisms will decidedly shrink, and at least when I ponder the happenings of my own Okie Local Church, my lens will be widening to focus on what I can see that is good, true, and beautiful, yet ever through the eyes of a traditional Catholic, ie committed to Catholic Tradition and defeating Catholic modernism.

Keep cool.  😎

Thoughts on Life and Purgatory

I was pondering this today trying to finish my book on purgatory while recovering from some recent serious illness.  Purgatory and life here on Earth have metaphysical differences but seem to me to essentially to be the same thing.  In a way this life is purgatory. A constant state of suffering of some kind in reparation for our sins.  Check.  A temporary place.  Check.  In reality nothing compared to heaven.  Check. Where comfort is always secondary to suffering.  Check.  Where suffering prevails over reliefs and comfort. Check.  Yup, they sound to have enough of the same characteristics in common to place them in the same category of "Valley of Tears."

Its nice to think of having a full, happy life here in the natural sense, without much suffering, and to avoid purgatory completely just by being ordinary Catholics saying our prayers and earning indulgences.  I've always thought that way more or less, truth be told.  Deep down I still do. I'm still choosing the easier road to heaven hoping indulgences will make up the difference. 

But from what Ive been reading about purgatory, if we really understood the hard data about the place, we would gladly suffer terrible crosses here.  And apply our indulgences to the Poor Souls themselves out of charity because to be holy--ironically therefore to avoid purgatory--we should want to first relieve the suffering of others before ourselves.

If you want to avoid purgatory by gaining indulgences youd probably need a plenary indulgence right before a holy death considering even the best of us commit venial sins every day.  But we have to be detached from venial sin to gain the full indulgence.  Even if that does not have to be an extraordinary, mystical kind of detachment, it seems to me to be assured you will have it before you die, its important to already have that as a habit.  And to have it as a habit, not to mention to have a basic "holy and happy death," it is very important to live a penitential life beyond that of being an ordinary, devout Catholic.

Consider St. Padre Pio, our own contemporary saint and mystic. From the different Lives of the Saints I've read over the years, arguably he is one of the most holy saints who suffered the most.  The full stigmata, chronic GI pain/vomitting/migraines all his life, persecutions from religious superiors and members of the hierarchy, nightly attacks of body and mind by demons, crippling diffuse arthritis later in life, etc, etc.  None of which he sought out, but simply accepted because he had no other choice.  Yet he waited until just the last moments before his death for his final confession!  He must have known he had at least one venial sin to confess that could merit him some serious purgatory time.  He could read souls after all--why not his own?

Maybe Im taking this too seriously?? But if you study purgatory--shouldn't we all spend some time studying it ?--it is to a certain degree frightening...but ultimately consoling.  You realize that as strange as it may sound to earthly ears, all the countless revelations of the Saints about how long and terrible purgatory is for most who are saved, are really a gift from Gods mercy.  He has revealed them to Catholics--or rather to Catholics today fortunate enough to have stumbled across these private revelations--to actually help us suffer LESS.  And to help many of us practicing Catholics avoid damnation from just one mortal sin, who are just lax enough to think "I'll be fine if at least I make it to purgatory."  

In the most raw pragmatic sense of a believing Catholic human being who naturally wants less pain as long as they exist, it only makes sense to seek out more suffering and penance on this side of the grave.

I hope I'm not sounding or being scrupulous.  But its never resonated with me as much as it is right now deep down that this life IS essentially purgatory and that it is wiser to be more penitential now.  Not that most of us should be Religious or practice severe penances all day long.  But that we should embrace this life for what it really is--a kind of purgatory.  

Thoughts?  Objections? Counter-points?

Living in the Present aint Easy

A year ago a good priest recommended reading Kiersey on understanding my temperament $1.99 here.  If you've ever taken a personality test before, you may know the akward feeling you experience after discovering your psychological profile with unexpected results.  Turns out my profile is "INFJ" which is code for "Idealist-Counselor."  In a nutshell, I am so driven by idealism to better society and others around me, that I am almost exclusively oriented from the past towards the future.  My psychological DNA programs me to think of everything along a timeline of to-do lists and goals.

The INFJ wakes up driven by what will happen later that day.  What transpires over breakfast means very little compared to the grand goals of the day.

Going off to work or school is all about progress in the future.  Projects are about reaching future mile stones more than simply achieving a good in the present tense.  That's how I'm wired anyway.

The wife on the other hand is the complete opposite.  Her habit is not To-do-lists or exacting punctuality, but living in the needs of the present.  This is why she'll never forget to turn off the oven, and I will as my aloof mind ponders the future in reference to the past.

And it is this quality that is presently extremely challenging for me right now as work and educational pursuits were completely haulted recently by my medical deprivation from the normal world of work and leisure.   
The future hangs in a silent state of limbo. My life continuum has been temporarily dislodged from my psyche.  The past seems like a distant past life, with just recent memories of emergency rooms, specialists, and evolving symptoms.  The future looks like a foggy haze of uncertainties mixed with visualizations of renewed goals and hopes.

For an INFJ, living like this feels like being stuck in a limbo-like present surrounded by the once familiar mystical clouds of past and future.  The last time I was in this "place" was probably early childhood before that Ericksonian stage of development kicks in called "industry."

But so be it.  God has His reasons and I'm sure one intention He has is for me to spend more time in the Present, contemplating the Eternal Now, as St. Augustine calls it.

I'm learning lessons that have eluded me.  To not base my happiness on success in this life, or the esteem of others (except in spiritual and moral stsndards).  To no longer expect my life will or must follow my own plans in order for my life to be fulfilled.  To detach from hard to break bad habits that have kept me too many times from living a blameless life.

Today was not a great day, health wise.  I do not know what tomorrow will hold.  Perhaps I will experience more shifts back to restored health.  Perhaps not.  I don't know when I'll be back to my old self and reattached to the linear traintrack of my life moving familiarly forward towards future goals.

I am forced to go above my temperament for a while, to follow the good example of my wife, and many of the contemplative saints, and to just take one day at a time.  But still be goal driven to accomplish the life priorities just for that 24 hour day.

Time for my bath and moonlight rosary.

Your thoughts?

Daily challenges and blessings

I'll get the challenges over with.  My TMJ syndrome pain flared up unusually high today, I figure meriting some higher glory in heaven God willing I make it through the Pearly gates.  Offered it up for a certain someone out there.

That was actually the one challenge.

The blessings were just that.  Spent hours of quality time with the wife and mom, savored a Braums cheeseburger (eaten in small bites) and had a couple hours of so little pain I actually felt like my normal self and relaxed enough for us to visit my aunt.  Tonight enjoying the A.C.

Thank God for today.  A day closer to restored health in Gods time and our eternal reward.

How was your day?

Another thing to add to my summer bucket list: dinner at the Amish

Well I'm waiting on God and Mother Nature to decide when I recover from my health situation.  In the meantime, I ponder the pleasant things we might partake in during this summer season which at present I'm limited to be able to do.  A few posts ago I mentioned going to Blue Hole Springs, Eureka Springs, among other local outings.  And I forgot to mention one of my most favorite daytrips that perhaps the Divine Physician in His good humor will make soon come true.  And that is dinner at a local Amish farm.

You gaze across the table at roast beef and fried chicken, the creamiest mashed potatoes, green beans, German noodles, huge yeast bread rolls, real butter, and a pitcher of ice tea.  Later each table gets their choice of two pies.  We usually pick the coconut cream and pecan pies, plus of course served with coffee.  Mind you the mother of the house woke up at 5am to prepare everything from scratch with the best ingredients.

Its the Earl Miller family about five miles southwest of Chouteau an hour east of Tulsa on 412.  You see how they live and dress.  You'll probably pass by horse and buggy on the way there, and maybe even their K-8 one room school house.

They host several dinners a week.  Bring a church group, or if there's already people there, a family can have their own private table.

Despite their Anabaptist rigorism, their traditional way of life is something I'd bet would intrigue many a traditional Catholic.

Just call the Dutch Pantry restaurant in Chouteau and ask for Earl and Lisa Miller's cell # to make reservations.

Peanut butter and jelly

It was Friday, so being a traditional Catholic I followed the old custom of abstaining from meat today.  Some penance united to the Good Friday cross, we are taught.

So what would it be?  Well I ended up not settling on something all that penitential.  Turns out I made a childhood favorite made popular probably back in the 60s or 70s, and that is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with good old fashion white Wonder bread, Peter pan, and Welch's, slid onto a paper plate accompanied by, what else, Frito corn chips.  

I needed to eat after all.  Plus I did abstain from meat.  The ingredients just jumped out at me as an easy meal.  But truth be told there was really no penance in the meal, unless you count the paper plate--which I actually find makes for a more classic, eye-appealing presentation that indirectly somehow affects the palate.

But you've got to love a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich...but next time polished off with a glass of ice cold milk.

Can I make you one?

TGIF fellow Catholics and my Okie trad patriots.

Ruminating and Reflecting on Peace

Just polished off a plate of comfort food--tender roast beef, creamy mashed potatoes, and green beans with bacon, all smothered with a thick dark gravy.   It was medicinal and just what my body needed right now.

And so I lean back in my Okie armchair, take a good, deep breath, and ruminate and reflect on life.

Last night I wrote about suffering. Tonight I think I'll muse about peace, because I read recently that while the souls in purgatory suffer more than they did in this life, they are somehow actually simultaneously in an actual bona fide state of happiness.

Turns out that "somehow" is that they're in a state of perfect peace.  There is absolutely no disharmony or conflicts among the Holy Souls or with God.

I confess for years I've lacked a level of peace that should be becoming of a practicing Catholic.  I could lay out the series of conflicts and misfortunes years ago that tilted my soul away from the abiding peacefulness and easy-to-forgive attitude God singularly blessed me with in my youth--instead towards an attitude of tension, irritations, and even anger foreign to me in childhood.  But such corruptions of heart I think are common even among some of the most admirable men.

The young man emerges from the garden into the jungle.   The colors of the rainbow and warmth of the Sun give way to grey shadows and cold valleys.  Petty neighborhood childhood disputes are replaced by betrayal, malice, egoism, and cold wars.  Amidst all our shopping malls and ubiquitous sea of restaurants, in the middle of all the pleasure and prosperity is a constant battle between husbands and wives, siblings, friends, and coworkers.

If an abiding, spiritual, Christian peace is a prerequisite for happiness, even in the midst of the worst sufferings, then Id reckon most of us, including yours truely, are not exactly happy.

Can a paraplegic in constant pain be happy?  Can a man wrongly sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn't commit be happy?  Yes and Yes, but humanism cant explain how.

Peace.  Suffering.  Happiness.  These are pieces to the puzzle of life that cant be fit together using human reason.  Philosophy or science cant solve the mystery of the paradox of life.  It takes Revelation from God, i.e. the Catholic Faith.

Part of me thanks God for this Faith; without it Im not sure how I could have so far coped with the jungle of adulthood.  The other part of me is mystified how anyone without Christ, without a spiritual life united to Him, is getting through this valley of years.

I want to be like the souls in purgatory.  Wanting 100% to embrace my crosses to do penance for my sins, but at the same time in a state of peace with God, my neighbor, and myself, and therefore to be truely happy.

Well its time for the evening rosary.  That's where I can work all this out.

Suffering

Suffering.  A personally relevant subject that has admittingly been compulsively occupying my mind as of late.  I've learned in new ways there are degrees of suffering that, if it weren't for faith in the Revelation of a divine, eternal reward vs. a black, eternal punishment, would lead one to despair.

I mean if a car swerved on the highway and hit someone's car, making it flip, severing their spinal cord, leaving them bedridden, paralyzed, and in constant spastic pain for the test of their life (btw this sort of thing happens all the time), and the victim was a secularist (ie your average American), from tpohe point of view of today's values, what would be the point of their life?

My wife sadly sees these kind of patients often in the hospital.   Miserable and lost.

Faith is a gift, much more than an intellectual achievment, and so few people have this gift.   Without it, people are sitting ducks.  In an instant, an act of nature can turn someone's life upside down.

I confess I am too weak to simply accept these stark realities without questioning or rather becoming bewildered about God's ways.

Right now out there is someone who suffers very little.  God gave them excellent health, properity, success, and a rich family and social life.  They may even be close to God yet live a nice, long, healthy life devoid of tragedy.

Then there's someone out there whose one of the most suffering souls on Earth.  Imagine a blind, deaf, mute, retarded, quadriplegic little girl, who has never been taught about God or the hereafter, sold into a dark underworld of prostitution, to be raped over and over, day after day, for decades.  In some sick pagan corner of Asia, I could imagine a victim like this.

Suffering is a mystery.  All we know is suffering is in reparation for our sins, gains us merit for salvation and a higher reward in heaven, and to help convert sinners.

That's it.  That's all we know.  We suffer.  And by Gods grace we are saved.

Thoughts?