Why do Jehovah's Witnesses, nondenominationals, and various Protestant groups have sooo many ex-Catholics counted among them? Consider this: It's NOT because these groups are ecumenical, afraid to be blunt and direct, welcoming to sodomy, or indifferent to important doctrinal divisions. Catholics and ex-Catholics need to be told the straight truth about Catholic doctrine --- with clarity -- and so do Protestant sects and cults. Stand straight and be not afraid. Speak truth and let the Spirit do his work.

There were no Traditional Latin Masses available to us for yesterday's feast of Corpus Christi. So we went to our best Novus Ordo parish in town, a beautiful old German church. The priest ended the Mass, literally, with three "dad jokes" in a row he'd been saving for us. He has made dad jokes his signature duty to tell each week at the end of Mass. Afterward the parishioners (audience members) break into loud socializing, and the priest high fives the kids as we file out the door. Lex orandi, lex credendi -- it's still a thing after 16 centuries.

The worship God desires is not rocking out to a praise band, but sacrifice -- the pure and holy sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I have an adversarial relationship with red-wing blackbirds.

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8–9)

The best advice I can give to weather any forthcoming financial storms is simple: ===== Get out of debt -- as A.S.A.P. as possible. Right now. ===== That will save you more worry and headaches than trusting in BTC to make you rich. * Debt sucks. * Being poor -- while owing nothing to anyone --is many, many times better. * Having even a mediocre-paying job while living a simple life without debt makes you feel free and rich. So suffer awhile (delayed gratification) to avoid new debt while paying off your old debts as fast as possible, then play with BTC afterward if that's what you want to do. Don't rely on it to fix your existing problems.

The Society of Saint Pius X (#SSPX) needs to have a regular relationship with Rome, but for that to happen, Rome needs to have a regular relationship with Tradition. Praying for the Church to heal and be united in Truth.

DMs/private messages here are unreliable to me. I'm guessing I'm not the only one.

I wonder sometimes if I should check myself into rehab for my peanut butter addiction. Not that I have an addiction to peanut butter. I can stop anytime I want to. I just...don't want to. 🥄

My best, most profitable private prayer time is an early morning walk with the #Rosary. Brisk walking in the morning air as the sun rises keeps me alert and focused, and the Rosary lifts my mind and heart to where they should be. It helps me to "[p]ray without ceasing." Praying in bed, on the other hand, helps me to fall asleep instantly, which is not exactly the goal of prayer.

This is a walk-through of the Mass, narrated by Fulton Sheen in the 1940s: Is it any wonder that many insist the brand-new Mass of 1970 looks like an entirely different religion? Traditional Catholics want to worship and believe and practice the Faith as the Church always has until the recent revolution. No guitars. No gay Jesuit showtunes. No dad jokes, No altar girls. No women welcoming us to get things started. No receiving the Host standing and on the hand. No nonsense. Just the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

In the spiritually malnourished first half of my life, my ministers made fun of the idea that Jesus is either a commercialized sweet and helpless little baby in a manger or an effeminate helpless dead man nailed to a pagan cross. Instead, we were to think of him in "truth" -- as the one who would soon come riding down from heaven on a white horse with a rod of iron, taking charge as King of kings and Lord of lords, ruling over a geopolitical kingdom on earth for 1000 years. I never observed a Christmas or an Easter growing up -- because those were pagan, worldly holidays. So now, of course, I am especially nourished by meditating on the joyful and sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. I don't take them for granted, but feed my soul with them. Christmas and the Easter triduum are special times for us (my wife grew up the same way I did), even though we don't have any family memories of them as children. Please pray for my aging parents, one of which is struggling in a nursing home. They have never progressed beyond their false religion. To their angels, to our Holy Mother, to St. Padre Pio, to St. Jude Help of the Hopeless, to St. Monica -- I ask, Pray for us. Help such enemies of the Church even invisibly, behind the scenes, for the salvation of their souls and to the glory of God. This is my prayer literally every day.

I think the best advice to Catholics today is to be a listening people. That is to say, to listen to the saints of old and hold to the faith once delivered.

If the rosary is "the weapon against the evils of the world today," as St. Padre Pio said, then this is my conceal carry for prudent use in certain situations. I had it blessed according to the old Roman rite. Ave Maria!