Thin Blue Papist

 Book Review: Freemasonry and the Christian Faith by Fr. Ashley Beck This booklet does a great job at giving you a history of the Church's position on Freemasonry over the years.  It also shows you how Freemasonry has evolved over the last few centuries.  Overall, as the tagline states it answers the question, "Is Freemasonry compatible with Catholicism?"   As you might have guessed, the answer of course is a resounding "No." This is one of many great booklets/pamphlets published through the Catholic Truth Society and can easily be read within a few short hours.  From the Table of Contents the booklet breaks down the overall topic into some of the following areas (this is not the complete Table): What is Freemasonry I think it is important that if you are going to be against something you should know what it is exactly that you are against.  This section covers how this secret society came to be, what its origin claims are and how it organizes itself today...

 Book Review: The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity by Matthew Kelly The real point of this book is not that it is about the "biggest lie in the history of Christianity" but that it can be overcome.  I'll admit, I thought this book was going to be completely different.  I assumed it would be about some "boogeyman" like lie or some giant glaring technical error that is never corrected.  I was far from the mark.  What this book delves into is a lie that has been propagated by society and even ourselves that ultimately separates us from being as close to God as he wants us to be and becoming the best versions of ourselves that God wants us to be.   Ultimately I read this book in a total of a few hours over two days.  It wasn't gripping in a sensational way but in a way that left me thirsting for more information on how to combat this lie, live a better life and change the world in the process.  I wouldn't say its a playbook on how to ch...

This is basically the post that pushed me over the edge to do the blog.  As I sat trying to compile something yesterday on fasting, since it was Friday, I realized an informative and succinct Instagram post wasn't going to cut it.  So here we are, and here's really the first intentional blog post.  If you like it and want me to keep it up, let me know.  If you think everything I've written is drivel, also let me know.  (I didn't proof read this after I wrote it, I scanned for red squiggly marks for obvious issues, fixed them, and moved on).  I want all of us to get to the kingdom together.

I was really struck by the Placeat (Prayer to the Blessed Trinity after Mass) today.  A main critique of the TLM is that the priest doesn’t face the people.  Read this prayer.  Who is it directed to?  The people, no.  The Trinity, yes. From the start, to the end, the priest’s prayers are directed to God, we pray with the priest, gazing upon the cross as the sacrifice of Calvary is re-presented on the Altar.  The Placeat is just one of the many prayers ripped from the Missal by the reformers.  It impoverished the Mass and forced the faithful to lose focus.  The numbers speak for themselves, scores of churches and schools closed, pews are empty and shrinking belief in the true presence.  Study your faith, know your faith, defend your faith. Picture 1 is taken from the Fr. Lasance Missal.  Picture 2 & 3 are excerpted from Mass of the Ages Episode II.

  A reflection on Acts 14:5-18 (1st Reading 5/8/23, Monday of the 5th Week of Easter) Who are we to stand against God’s plans?  Who are we to question God’s infinite wisdom?  As the psalmist says: As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he knows that we are dust. (Psalms 103:13-14) While me must acknowledge our lowliness compared to His majesty, we also rejoice in knowing that, “ God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him …” (Genesis 1:27).  While we must be humble servants of the Lord we must also be bold heralds of the Gospel.  In this passage of Acts we first hear of the crowd of both Jews and Gentiles that try to kill Paul and Barnabas by stoning them in Iconium.  Despite this, and other attacks, they continue spreading the Good News in Lystra and Derbe.  We read in this part of Acts of the man healed by Paul.  Paul sees the man’s faith and calls to him, “Stand u...

 The Catholic Church is full of a seemingly endless variety of traditions, devotions and sacramentals.  I'd like to take a moment to talk about one that seems to have fallen out of disuse, blessed or more properly, exorcised salt.  Salt is very important biblically and spiritually, there's even a "Salt in the Bible" Wikipedia page , go, check.   Salt goes back to being an ingredient in ritual prayer to our forefathers in faith, Leviticus 2:13 states, " You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt ."  Ezekiel, Exodus, Ezra, Numbers, Chronicles, Psalms and other Old Testament texts reference salt. The famous Salt & Light sermon in Matthew reads, "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out a...

 This post was born out of a comment I was originally going to make on @cool_catholic 's reel regarding the purpose and meaning of the Mass.  Using the funeral example, sadly I think we see the most secular incursions on the Holy Mass happening at funerals.  There's not enough emphasis put on the fact that at a funeral Mass we are praying for the repose of the departed's soul.  We're not "celebrating life," and we don't "know X is among the angels."  Consciously of subconsciously there is a tendency to make the funerals about and for the grieving, not the deceased. I blame most of this on bad catechesis and a poor grasping of theology by the laity, and its not their fault.  But there's also little Christian charity exercised by those who do know and understand with those who don't.  I'll admit, I'm guilty of it too, but I strive to be better. I recall a story of a priest who, having the option of purple or white for funeral Masses...