It's okay to make artwork out of clay or whittled from wood or fashioned of metal. We see it everywhere. It doesn't somehow become an IDOL if *religious* art is carved or fashioned from these materials. The point of the Commandment is that we should have no other "gods" but the one, true God. Don't worship your Christian artwork, and you will be fine.

If the religious Jews of today oppose the kingship of Jesus Christ, then we should treat them just like infidels, heretics, and pagans. That is to say, we should love them, pray for them, and help them to convert and turn to Jesus.

This morning I had a strong desire to pray the rosary well. I noticed at the end of the third mystery, my tangle-free rosary had somehow become hopelessly tangled. I couldn't fix it, but I didn't want to be distracted. And so I continued and finished well. I still couldn't untangle it afterward, which is very frustrating, so I asked for Mary, Untier of Knots, to help. Then it just came loose. She's not only Queen of Heaven and Earth; she is also our Mom.

If the apostle Paul needs to tell Christians to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), then how much more serious is the situation for souls who are not Christian? Be converted -- and then evangelize!

During times of distress and war and violence and instability, we don't need to freak out. But the chaos can serve as an impetus for us to confess our sins (yes -- the sacrament of Confession!) and get right with God now before it's too late. "Too late" can either be a nuclear end-of-the-world scenario... or something like clumsily falling off the ladder wrong when cleaning your gutters. Be ready always.

Before the 1960s and 70s, EVERY Catholic was a "Traditional Catholic," whether a good one or a bad one. In the big picture, it's twisted to think that "modernized" Catholicism -- only about 60 years old -- is the norm, while "Traditional" Catholicism is the outlier. It's quite the opposite.

An insightful prayer from my morning prayer book: "Make me clearly understand that, if I wish to be completely converted to you, I can never make peace with my weaknesses, my faults, my self-love, my pride." It's a mistake to neglect cooperating with God in the work of rooting out our sins, assuming they just magically go away when (as we may wish to believe) we go straight to heaven when we die. Do what needs to be done now.

There are problems -- some greater, some smaller -- in fully siding with * sedevacantism * the #SSPX * the modern Roman church of synodalism. Best thing to do as lay people is to pray for clarity and resolution in the Church, and to live out the Faith of the saints and the perennial teachings of the Church. 📿 Pray the Rosary. ✝️ Read the Saints. 📚 Read the catechisms of Baltimore, Pius X, Trent, etc. 📖 Read the Bible. 🙏🙏🙏 Pray, pray, pray Avoid the ditches of (1) rejecting the office of the papacy and the authority structure in the Body of Christ, and (2) embracing the spirit of the world, even if particular popes and bishops seems to do so at their own peril, deceiving even the very elect.

IS ECUMENISM BAD? It's good if it involves clarifications to promote understanding -- for example, explaining patiently and carefully to Muslims why our belief in the Trinity does not mean we are polytheists, or assuring Protestants that our veneration of Mary and the saints is fundamentally different than worship that is due to God alone. Clarifying is always good. A different kind of so-called "ecumenism" is bad if it involves compromising the integrity of the tenets of our Faith in order to make it compatible with, or blend with, conflicting faiths. Fake unity serves no good purpose, and is in fact harmful.

Jesus did not build his church to become a glorified Book club with live on-stage bands and breakout sessions.

Christ is King, and Mary is his Queen Mother.

A coworker said, "Before my wife and I married, we agreed that if one of us later wanted to be with someone else, we would tell the other rather than cheat behind each other's backs." Honorable? Invalid! A sacramental #marriage has no conditions, has no exception clauses.

An excellent explanation of the current and broader crisis in the Church:

"[T]he love of riches is an insatiable hunger which so tortures the soul by the ardor of desire that it does not find solace even when it obtains what it covets. The acquisition of wealth causes great fatigue; the possession of it brings great fear; its loss occasions great sorrow." (Ven. Raymond Jourdain) #BTC #XMR #crypto

I think of what it be like for me 50,000 years from now. Even just 50 years from now. Will I care whether I stacked enough sats, or whether I was able to retire early, or whether I could convince friends to use Nostr and encrypted messengers? No. This life -- with all its sufferings and pleasures -- won't even be a drop in the bucket of eternity. Nothing about right now will matter in a million years except for one thing: whether I died in a state of grace with God. That is the one memory that will either bless me in Heaven or haunt me in Hell. Forever.

A non-denominational preacher, whose biggest disagreement with Catholics centers around our "legalistic" view of #salvation, tells me an interesting view of his own. He believes a true Christian is able to die in the act of adultery (committed freely, knowingly, and willfully) and still go to heaven -- so long as he has never "renounced Christ" or "lost hope." Which is more "legalistic" -- his view or the correct understanding of mortal sin?