A Facebook exchange tonight reminded me of a Facebook post I submitted way back on January 21st.  For the life of me, I can’t remember why I didn’t blog it.  It must have been because I just started tapping away on the keyboard, emotionally invested in the video I had just played.  

Watch the video.  Then read what I wrote.  You might understand, to some extent, the anguish I was experiencing in those moments my soul was pining for Pope Francis.

I do not like Pope Francis.  But I do love Pope Francis.  Deeply.

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“Sharing our experience in carrying that cross, to expel the illness within our hearts, which embitters our life: it is important that you do this in your meetings. Those that are Christian, with the Bible, and those that are Muslim, with the Quran. The faith that your parents instilled in you will always help you move on.”

– Pope Francis, to Christian and Muslim refugees at Rome’s Sacred Heart parish.

If there was ever a moment… IF THERE WAS EVER A MOMENT TO EVANGELIZE!, it was in that moment when the Holy Father was speaking to HIS DISTRAUGHT CHILDREN.

Did you get that? Catholic… Protestant… Muslim… Hindi… Wiccan… Atheist… ALL CHILDREN ON THIS EARTH are in the care of the Vicar of Christ.

I don’t think you heard me. The pope is commissioned to care for every, single, solitary person on this earth. Commissioned.

Commissioned. Commissioned. Commissioned. Commissioned… by Jesus Christ.

If there was ever a moment to speak the truth of the faith to unbelievers, it was in that moment at the podium at a Catholic church in Termini. Off the cuff, our Holy Father could have simply stated “I am blessed to be with you all here. Even in your suffering, God feels your pain. You are not alone. God’s Son Jesus Christ felt this pain… even more than what you are experiencing now!… and He loves you with a love that is unfathomable. Do not cry my children… you are loved! By God, you are loved so much. I love you. And just upstairs in the tabernacle is the Person of Jesus Christ. He is waiting for you. Talk to him. Ask him to heal you… Go to him…”

…or some such thing.

If there was a moment to speak as a loving father who wants his child back home, it was then. The father did not give his prodigal son the message “here son… here is some more money… it really sucked being out there in the wilderness, leading a life away from me and your brother… I love you, but here… sell this coat and calf we were going to slaughter… hock this ring… you can fetch some good coin for that… and here’s a fifty. now go back out there and live it up.”

But what does Pope Francis say to the Muslim refugees? “Those that are Christian, with the Bible, and those that are Muslim, with the Quran. The faith that your parents instilled in you will always help you move on.”

No, Holy Father. The Muslim ‘faith’ cannot help anyone ‘move on’. Unless it is moving along a road that leads further away from Christ.

THAT IS NOT THE COMMISSION!!!!

My heart is aching in my chest. Tears are welling up in my eyes. And I am going upstairs right now to recite and dedicate 10 Sorrowful Mysteries for the pope.

Pray for Pope Francis. Pray very hard for Pope Francis. Love him until it hurts. And ponder Damian, you rotten, rotten scoundrel, just how much Christ loves you even as you continually pound nails into his hands. Every. Single. Day.

Pray for the pope.

Pope Innocent III died July 16, 1216. The same day he appeared to St. Lutgarda in her monastery at Aywieres, in Brabant. Surprised to see a spectre enveloped in flames, she asked who he was and what he wanted.

“I am Pope Innocent,” he replied.

“Is it possible that you, our common Father, should be in such a state?”

“It is but too true. I am expiating three faults which might have caused my eternal perdition. Thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary, I have obtained pardon for them, but I have to make atonement. Alas! it is terrible; and it will last for centuries if you do not come to my assistance. In the name of Mary, who has obtained for me the favor of appealing to you, help me.”

With these words he disappeared. Lutgarda announced the Pope’s death to her sisters and penitential works on behalf of the august and venerated Pontiff, whose demise was communicated to them some weeks later from another source.

– “Purgatory Explained”, by Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J.

Expiation of three faults. The cost? Enduring hundreds of years of torturous flames.

Three. Faults.

Centuries of pain. A kind of pain that is other-wordly to the point that we could never endure it in this mortal coil.

And we’re told not to “proselytize” about our Catholic faith which includes the Sacrament of Reconciliation?… without which, forever is spent in a state none of us could possibly fathom?

What times in which we find ourselves.

This video is just… brilliant.

Midway through, the little boy says, “…You just had two babies, and you keep loving them forever, and not having another baby between us…”

Right there, is undeniable truth that those two children in the backseat of that vehicle are truly LOVED by those wonderful parents. He is loved so much, he does not want to see his love “divided”.  The child responds exactly how a child is supposed to.

Now as he continues to grow in love, he will become more attuned to the beauty of love’s selfless giving. And, more importantly, if he grows up Christian (God willing!!!), that child will learn that there is a Name for that Love, and that there is no greater image of love than what is signified on the Cross of Calvary. And if that child grows up receiving the Most Holy Eucharist, LOVE HIMSELF will fuse with the very DNA of that boy who will certainly come to understand one day that having “another baby between us” is the greatest act of love we mere humans can propagate.

Okay. Maybe a little too deep.

At least you laughed at the part where the kid says “this makes no sense.”

Life’s little lessons.  They come from the strangest places.

Life is good, eh?

One of my favourite albums is “The Nightfly” by Donald Fagen.

(It came out a year after Steely Dan called it quits, but I was too young to be broken up about it.)

The song “New Frontier” was Fagen’s way of needling the nuclear war fear-mongers of the day. (…remember Ultravox’s “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”?… man, I used to eat that shit up.)

As I watch the video for “New Frontier”, I’m reminded that the song was as far removed from the video’s “Red Scare” theme as we are now to those golden days of good, early 80’s tunes.

JFK spoke of a New Frontier. These days, I’m still trying to get my head around George HW Bush’s comments on a New World Order.

Funny, but I don’t see or hear many people around these days guffawing at the prospects of bombs flying overhead somewhere in the not-so-distant future.

And dammit, I don’t even have a bomb shelter.

“Western Catholics, especially since The Asteroid (™) hit in the mid-1960s, have been steadily drained of an appreciation of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary, and have been indoctrinated with Protestant-atheist ideas that A.) their sins aren’t really sins at all and thus they should NOT feel shame or guilt for them and B.) even if they do sin, God’s mercy is a given, a blanket that covers everything (ahem), so don’t even sweat it. Shame is a an antiquated, peasant concept far beneath the modern, everlasting man…. The world is going to hell IN A HANDBASKET because shame is considered a psychological defect to be overcome, and a hate crime when recommended to others.”

– Ann Barnhardt, “We Should Be Ashamed”

“I could really use, to lose my Catholic conscience,
Cuz I’m getting sick of feeling guilty all the time…”

– Great Big Sea, “Consequence Free”

“It was pride that changed angels into devils;
it is humility that makes men as angels.”

– Saint Augustine
And all of this, as folk continue to pour ice water over their heads…
and as others continue to slough off the threats of Islam and brow-beat – in a spirit of ‘ecumenism’ – those who have eyes to see…

I dunno how some of us can’t plainly see the demarcation line between the Church of Christ and this modernized Church of Man bent on laying sacrifices at the ‘selfie’ altar.

Strive for that perfect faith Our Lord commands of us. For it is in the striving towards perfection that we can be truly genuine and sincere in our love of Him who is Love.

The pre-Vatican II Church.

Half a million Catholics reciting the Holy Rosary… converging in San Francisco, of all places.

Did you get that?

San Francisco. 

Five. Hundred. Thousand. Catholics.

Wash yourselves in this photo.  Bathe in it.  Let it fill your soul.

Rinse.  Repeat.

I have a list longer than my arm of rock ‘n roll songs that – to me – have profound spiritual undertones. I concede that I will have a tough time selling this elixir to the “rock music is of the devil” crowd. And to be honest, I completely understand.

But my buddy Clayton Richard Long put forth the other day that he has a tough time letting go of rock ‘n roll music. Quote – “If there is one thing I am weak at….my vice…the one thing I find really hard to‘leave behind’ ( in order to be a good Catholic and try and live a Saintly life…of course I have many other problems. But the one thing that I just can’t seem to quit is rock n roll.”

I feel ya, brother.
He put this forth on my blog post which included lyrics of the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”. But Clay, maybe we have to weed through the bad to find some good? Just askin’.

All of this said, I used to love The Black Crowes. I think I still do. Their tune “Sting Me” speaks of “truth”, “tradition”, and a “recognition of that same old (human) condition”. Yes. It may be forcing it, but I’ve long interpreted this song as a shout-out to the Old Evangelization, proclaiming that any “independence is a half-assed deliverance”. Even with that Southern Baptist backing vocal, and southern-fried back-beat.
Can the faith “Sting Me”?… Right to my rotten bones?

How about you?
And, do y’all ever do that? – try to find some Christian meaning in rock songs that seem not to have any inspiration of the Divine?
Hit me up!  Lemme know!

THE BLACK CROWES LYRICS

Jason Riley: “The black man’s most notorious enemy is the black man, not the white cop.”

Meet The Press Producer in the control room: “Son of a bitch, he’s going off script! He’s going off script! Kill his mic!… Kill… No, no! (Hitting the switch to Andrea Mitchell’s IFB) Andrea! What tha hell!… Get in there… get Riley to shut the eff up!  Throw to… the… uh… the chick show strikes out dudes in little league!… yeah, that!”

BTHT The Right Scoop

DamoRadio CFRB

The Devil comes in many disguises.  Sometimes, even as the “friend”… plucking on your heart-strings.

If one thinks the “mercy card” being played in conjunction with Robin Williams’ suicide has absolutely nothing to do with the push to euthanize the disenfranchised and soften-up the baby-killing lobby, they are foolish.

Think about it.  For a moment, just think about the catch-phrases that have been tossed here and there in the aftermath.

“No choice”.

“Mercy”.

“Rest”.

“Peace”.

“Freedom”.

“Keep quiet unless you’re a woman… er… intimate with Depression.”

Be stalwart, fellow Christian. Withstand the slings and arrows.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Moreso, pray for those who are in pain.  And even MORESO, pray for those who know not YET the Prince of Peace.

“… As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
Cause I’m in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste…”