I choked on my omelet this morning. That was an eggs-aspirating experience.

When conservative Catholics boast of their "reverent Novus Ordo Masses informed by the TLM," I wonder: Why not be fully informed? Would they object to the TLM fully in English? What parts of the TLM do they not want to inform their New Mass? Their answers would be revealing.

I just re-listened to a memorable episode of Dr. Taylor Marshall's podcast from 2019. This is from when he would inspire us, convict us, motivate us to hold fast to authentic Catholicism -- before he started taking ad spots for Birch Gold and other sponsors. He was honest, he was real, he was raw. We could identify with him. We aspired to be stronger Catholics in the face of opposition. Today, he is not the same. Where is the old Taylor from the TNT days? What happened? Pope Francis says Pachamamas Retrieved from Tiber River - Taylor Struggles and Reflects (#323)

Everyone freaked out about the #SSPX needs to catch this 2-hr video from @kennedyhall: It is comprehensive, informative, & addresses the hard questions. It rises above the lazy fallback of "Well ya gotta obey the pope or else." It is intellectual sobriety. --- I will continue going to my diocesan TLM, but I'm not going to condemn the SSPX for their good fight. Scare tactics and weaponized appeals to obedience from those who are the real cause of such great problems in the Church will not go over well on judgment day.

I grew up in a quasi-Christian cult, the leader of which expected to be considered infallible, even when he made things up and contradicted himself. As a young adult I took the Bible-only route for a while. I “proved” things from my Bible, until I later proved myself wrong by the same standard, and so it led me to not know what is necessary for the Christian to believe or do. How can I know who’s right or wrong on important issues -- or even what the truly important issues are? Finally I became Catholic. Not to follow an oracle. Not to become a Protestant or Modernist or to follow my ill-formed conscience. I became Catholic because of rock-solid, 2000-yr-old Tradition that makes sense of everything. Without it, we have no certainty about the truth of our Faith. With it, we can endure any storm, whether in our personal life or in the Church.

Do your best not to say, "The reason being is because...." I want to like you. "The reason is..." is just fine.

My wife recently had a thumb surgery (trigger thumb) and then decided to read a book about Padre Pio.

I am afraid of hell. When I imagine it, it's not so much that I'm afraid of its literal pains or any other similar punishments, as horrifying as that would be. It's more that I fear its hopelessness and despair, for hell's inhabitants have no more recourse to God. Unlike now, there is no longer any route to repentance. Today is the day of salvation. How stupid it would be to throw it all away, to be tortured with regret for all eternity.

Here's a thought experiment: What if the only Mass within two hours of your home is one at which the priest always processes do the altar doing the moonwalk? 🚶‍♂️ He says mass to a funky beat. 🔊🕺 And he touches the Host to his nipple and crotch, with a wink 😉, before placing it in your hand. While inappropriate, it's still "valid." Transubstantiation happens. Are you obligated to go? Would you take your children there? Or would you save up gas money to go to a more appropriate, traditional, reverent mass that's three hours away every other week -- which means you would miss Mass on the off-weeks?

If you worship like a Modernist, you will become a Modernist.

I was going to do some yard work this morning, but I just saw this ad for a Catholic education opportunity for my city's parishes. I just have to go. (I need to make our Director of Adult Faith Formation feel nervous. He loves 🏳️‍🌈stuff.) BTW, there's NO CRISIS in the Church!!!

I think one reason modern normie Catholics and others fall for false ecumenism and delight in interreligious handholding is this: === They believe religion is fundamentally about being nice to each other. So most religions promote the same message, serve the same purpose, shoot for the same goal. === But the foundation of true religion -- i.e., Christianity, or Catholicism -- is how we respond to the Person of Jesus. Without that foundation, your nice religion is as impotent and useless to save your soul from hell as the local Rotary Club.

A few years ago I went to Confession at our local college's Catholic center. The priest was (at the time) the diocese's vocations director. It had been a couple weeks since my last Confession. He said we should confess like we go to the dentist: about every 6 months. He invited me to read something he wrote explaining that. There were photocopies of it outside the confessional. This was at a college campus from the vocational director?! #crisis #RecognizeAndResist

I have a clear conscience supporting the #SSPX 's planned consecrations of bishops when I see the Archbp of Wash. D.C. presiding over an "LGBTQ Mass" without consequence. Disobedience can either be heroic or damnable, or somewhere in between. It takes a little discernment with a well-formed Catholic conscience.

When Protestant friends of mine insist on baptism by full immersion, because it captures the idea that our old selves are dead and buried, they don't seem to recognize that water is also associated with cleansing and new life. Remember how the Red Sea is seen as a prefigurement of Christian baptism? The water that came crashing down to kill the Egyptians is the same water by which Israel was saved. Scripture shows we are cleansed (not just buried) by the waters of baptism, and the Holy Spirit is depicted as being poured. The short of it is that both immersion and pouring are acceptable modes of baptism. This was understood early on and was taught in the Didache, which was likely written in the first century. Oddly, my friends who insist immersion is the only true form of baptism also insist that baptism is merely a symbolic gesture that doesn't actually save. They say it's only an outward sign, a symbolic witness to others, of a pre-existing inward change. Pro Tip: The latter issue is much more critical to figure out than the first. Priorities.

I like a bright sunny and cloudy morning.

For weeks now I've been praying multiple rosaries a day, and it has been very helpful. 📿 One of my unfortunate personal problems is a tendency to think of God as being displeased with me. But praying the rosary throughout the day -- a set or two of mysteries in the morning, a decade here or there with my work-safe "ring rosary" during breaks or lunch, etc. -- helps me fight that inclination. I still have a sense of my own sinfulness and imperfections, but the difference is that with regular rosaries I feel more closely connected to Our Lady and Our Lord. I sense (and know) they are not disappointed with me, but eager to teach, train, and mold me into what I will become. I consider myself enrolled in the School of Mary, and she won't let me fail to graduate as long as I keep showing up to class. I see things more clearly, with more perspective, when I heed St. Paul's admonition to pray without ceasing.

A common "nondenomational" belief: If a person finds himself not trusting in Christ's finished work, then is there something he can DO about it? Yes, begin to TRUST. But that's a "work" in itself, isn't it? One might ask: Are you saved by the power and "work" of your own trust? Or by Jesus' self-sacrifice -- regardless of your imperfect, human trust? Seriously, though... The problem behind many Protestants' irrational fear of salvation by "works" comes from thinking "works" always means obedience or any good deeds. But when the New Testament speaks negatively about "works," it nearly always has to do with the works of the Mosaic Law in particular. (Sacred Scripture never speaks ill of obedience to God!) We're not saved by the religious system that requires sabbathkeeping, circumcision, clean and unclean dietary laws, etc. No, we're saved by Christ as we do the things Christ teaches the Church to do, including baptism, the Eucharist, confession, and everything else he commands us. In other words, we're saved by the fullness of Christianity, not by unfulfilled Judaism. Christianity indeed requires the work of a warrior who needs to put on the whole armor of God. It requires that we flee temptation and beware of Satan who prowls like a lion seeking those whom he might devour. Christianity is not just "believe and sing along with the praise band." It's a battle of life and death. It's a race, requiring that you train yourself, submit to God's will, love God and man, and mortify the deeds of the body. It's not easy -- suffering is never easy -- but the reward is great if we remain joyful and faithful through our suffering. Just like Jesus did.

FOR THESE REASONS, don't fret that God is too unhappy with you to forgive you yet again: * He always had a plan to save us, but it was first revealed in the Garden when Adam and Eve got busted. * God sent His Son to us while we were yet sinners, His enemies. * Jesus suffered and died for us as our representative. He volunteered to undergo this suffering, and it was excessively brutal. Proof of His love. * To apply the fruit of his most generous self-sacrifice out of love for us, he instituted the sacrament of baptism, which wipes away the eternal and even temporal punishments due to our sins. * He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of Himself in us, to guide us and lead us and empower us. * He knew we would still sin after baptism, so he instituted the sacrament of reconciliation, or confession. * To eradicate or lessen the temporal punishments due to sin, he gives us the gift of indulgences. That's some extra generosity right there, more proof of His love for us and His eagerness to forgive us our sins and welcome us on the fast traoffer ante called of all his life lines eternity. * Provided we don't die in the state of mortal sin, He gives us the necessary gift of purgatory to make us worthy of heaven even if we haven't completely overcome all sin. * On top of all this, he gives us a spiritual family in heaven, the saints in light, who are cheering for us, witnessing our race in life. They pray for us, even if no one else does. * The angels are also on our side. In fact, we are each assigned our own guardian angel to protect and guide us, to intercede for us, and to offer us inspirations. * Not least of all the signs of God's love for us is the premier saint,, our Queen Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom Jesus gave us to be our greatest teacher and example in the created realm. She loves us with a mother's heart. So don't be overly scrupulous or overly downtrodden when you stumble or fail in this life. It does not surprise God. He already knew about it. Just repent every day. Love our Lord every day. It's easier to do so when you remember all that he has done in anticipation of your failings, and how he has gone out of his way to ensure your entrance into the glorified kingdom of God -- if only you will accept his offer and take hold of all his life lines.

Of all the Church's bishops around the world "in good standing," how many are willing, for example, to openly speak against sodomy and its celebration 🏳️‍🌈? What about the new bishops picked by Leo, with potentially a long reign ahead of him? What about his doctrinal chief? Don't cover your eyes. On this and many other fronts, the Church is manifestly in a state of crisis. We need good bishops to ordain good priests to form good Catholics -- to save souls, which is our primary duty (even more so than following the legalistic rules of plainly duplicitous prelates).