What A Good Day!

 

In some dioceses you don't want the bishop to visit because the prelate in question is an enemy of the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church they hypocritically profess to uphold. In short, they're raging heretics, you don't want them around. 

That in mind, thank God this isn't true in the Anglican Diocese of Fort Worth where we're blessed good bishops who stand for the Faith. So it was a joy to welcome Bishop Reed to the Missions today.

There were adult Confirmations in both churches, a real blessing, and then, after the second service, a great potluck of a feast at Mission #2. What a good result and no, there weren't any liturgical dancers or wymxn priestess figures at either church, that's not allowed.

In related news, the dog just tried to eat a nasty book by the repellent Rosemary Radford Ruther, Sexism & God-Talk. He nearly threw up, poor animal, perhaps that'll be a lesson to him.

Cheers,

LSP

Edinburgh Garrison RSM - For LL

 

Behold the power of the RSM, and well done those boys. LL, this short infovid's for you, respect. In other news, we had our diocesan convention this morning and it was incredibly, mercifully short. Upshot? They made me a Rural Dean. What does a Rural Dean even do?

I guess we'll find out. My guess is... fish, shoot, listen to Waylon, ride again, drive rigs, say Mass and get rural on a Dean tip. But seriously, if you'd said in the mid '90s and beyond that I'd be Priest-in-Charge of two country missions between Dallas and Waco, well, I'd have laughed.

How preposterous. Hey, the joke was on me, and I thank God for it. No kidding.

Your Pal,

LSP

What A Good Couple Of Days

 

It started as it often does, with a drive down I35 to the Metrosprawl, but this time in a V8 Beast, result. Objective? Set up at Dallas HQ then visit with the Bishop the next day and, the day after that go for a post-op checkup at a medico in Plano.

Two orders of business, several possible orders of outcome. So perhaps I was a little... pensive, how would it go? It went well. Had a great meeting with our outstanding new(ish) Bishop, which found financial security for Mission #1. No small thing, I live there.

And the Doc was helpful too, "You know, that was a pretty serious operation and you're healing way better than expected, I'm surprised." Result, and I drove back to base through the Tollway wasteland of North Dallas in good spirits.

Seriously, surgery's a deal. I know, we're all Warriors, but still, it's helpful to have the thing checked off by a doctor. He's Christian, to boot, and asked for permission to pray before the op, "Of course you can, I'm a priest." And there you have it, back to the sylvan boulevards of Old Hill County tomorrow.

Drive Safe,

LSP

Sunday Mass

 

For the first time in over a year I took a Sunday off and went to Mass in Dallas, at St. Matthias. "Smokey Matt's" is a traditional Anglo-Catholic church with an oriented liturgy, faithful priests and a down to earth, goodhearted congregation. Great people.

The previous Rector was sent there, he tells me, "to shut the place down," but he didn't, he grew the parish instead and quite literally built it. More than this, under his guidance, the church bought its way out from under pharaonic captivity to the Rainbow Church of Woken Dreams and the Diocese of Dallas. It now lives within the green pastures and still waters of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Result.

Fr. Dwight, Deacon of the Mass, gave an entertaining and true homily on today's Gospel, Martha and Mary. Without Mary's listening to Christ in love, in prayer, our active service becomes brittle at best and we run the risk of becoming "dried out activists." Yes indeed. Here's Benedict XVI on the same passage in Luke:

Martha and Mary are two sisters; they also have a brother, Lazarus, but he does not appear on this occasion. Jesus is passing through their village and, the text says, Martha received him at her home (cf. 10: 38). This detail enables us to understand that Martha is the elder of the two, the one in charge of the house. Indeed, when Jesus has been made comfortable, Mary sits at his feet and listens to him while Martha is totally absorbed by her many tasks, certainly due to the special Guest.

We seem to see the scene: one sister bustling about busily and the other, as it were, enraptured by the presence of the Teacher and by his words. A little later Martha, who is evidently resentful, can no longer resist and complains, even feeling that she has a right to criticize Jesus: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me". Martha would even like to teach the Teacher! Jesus on the other hand answers her very calmly: "Martha, Martha", and the repetition of her name expresses his affection, "you are anxious and troubled about many things; only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her" (10: 41-42). Christ's words are quite clear: there is no contempt for active life, nor even less for generous hospitality; rather, a distinct reminder of the fact that the only really necessary thing is something else: listening to the word of the Lord; and the Lord is there at that moment, present in the Person of Jesus! All the rest will pass away and will be taken from us but the word of God is eternal and gives meaning to our daily actions.

Dear friends, as I said, this Gospel passage...  recalls the fact that the human person must indeed work and be involved in domestic and professional occupations, but first and foremost needs God, who is the inner light of Love and Truth. Without love, even the most important activities lose their value and give no joy. Without a profound meaning, all our activities are reduced to sterile and unorganised activism. And who, if not Jesus Christ, gives us Love and Truth? Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us learn to help each other, to collaborate, but first of all to choose together the better part which is and always will be our greatest good.

Here endeth the Lesson and as we reflect upon it, check out this helpful infographic.

Arduus Ad Solem,

LSP 

Sunday Rambling

 

In some dioceses the bishop's visitation is a terrible thing, a nightmare. There you are when some unspeakable old heretic tips up with a view to destroying everything you believe in. Thank God it's not that way in the Diocese of Fort Worth. Our bishops stand firm for the Faith, they're successors of the Apostles as opposed to wicked mountebanks in the pay of Rainbow Baphomet.

So today was good, our bishop came, sung the Mass and preached, what a blessing. The Specialist even came down from Fort Hood to swing some incense, well done. Curiously, everyone in the sanctuary party was either former or active duty or involved in pro rodeo. Clearly a moral, if you care to draw it.

Then we fell back to the church hall for a delicious lunch, the mission eats well, and a good time was had by all. What a lot of fun, and I tell you, it's a real blessing to be in this diocese. 

Is it perfect? No. Should we be part of the wider Catholic Church, East and West? Yes. But so too should Rome and Constantinople be as one and, of course, the broken shards of the catholic mirror are one, essentially, in terms of faith, to say nothing of deeper sacramental union. 

Ut unum sint, may they all be one, prayed Christ. Do you think the Father somehow chose to ignore His Son's prayer? Hardly. The Mystici Corporis, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, is one by nature or essence. The unity is there; that we've wrecked it, in worldly terms, with competing jurisdictions and associated wickedness is, frankly, the Devil's work. 

My take, for what little it's worth, is that it'll take real persecution to bring about the outward and visible unity which strengthens the inward and spiritual. After all, it's in the Good Book, "Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved."

Apocalypse aside, what a great day.

Keep the Faith, you heathen,

LSP

Go To Church

 

Preferably with lots of incense, which indicates the prayers of the saints and elevates the spirit to God. Regardless, it was good to drive over to Arlington, which is a suburb of the DFW Metrosprawl, and assist Mass at St. Albans, Arlington.

Which was good. Fr. CC was installed as Master of our province of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) and and all was well. And here's the thing, the SCC was set up as a missional society of priests, to claim and defend catholicism for our part of the Church, Anglicanism.

CC will do well at that and I'll support him, 100%, wholeheartedly. Part of this might include skeet shoots, it's happened before. In the meanwhile, consider the power, for good, of a united Christian witness against the evil of age.

Your Pal,

LSP

This And That

 

Please don't yawn but our diocesan convention was semi-virtual this year because of the Chinese scamdemic. This meant we met by regional deanery and conducted business via Zoom. Of course I'm in the Deep South Deanery and drove off to Waco and Christ Church.

Downtown Waco

Have you been to Waco? It always strikes me as a town that was bombed during the last Big One and never really rebuilt. Still, Christ Church is going strong and there's signs of life returning to a downtown gutted by asset strippers and associated malfeasants. Good.

CCW

There's also the amazingly awesome, incredible, faked up rubbish rip off worth every penny SILOS. You can buy a beautiful made in China tin mug at the Silos for around 10 bucks, which is value because the mug's got Magnolia written on it. Owning the beautiful mug not only makes Chip and Joanna even richer, but adds you to their marketing team, for free! Except that it's not free, you've paid $10 for the privilege. 

Typical Waco Street Scene

Silos aside, the Zoom convention went well enough and it was fun to see some of the Deep South clergy and laity; a faithful crew. As I was pondering this blessing, and working up sermon notes while a Nigerian bishop bellowed over the Zoom link, the PFC called in.

Somewhere in Korea

He's on a mission somewhere in Korea and having fun protecting the border against the commies. Well done, kid, a happy soldier's a happy father. 

In related news, somewhere around a million people descended on DC to march for 45, freedom, and the integrity of our election in the face of a perceived, I'd argue actual, billionaire funded leftist coup. They didn't loot, burn or attack anyone. They were attacked by hate filled leftist revolutionaries.

MAGA2020

Curious, isn't it, that all the violence is coming from the left. Shouldn't it be the other way around, given that Trump's literally Hitler and his supporters Nazis? But that's not the case. Patriot doesn't = National Socialist. Does Democrat = Bolshevik? Not necessarily, but the Donkey's strangely silent in the face of the violence and hatred it's encouraged for at least four years.

As we reflect on this disturbing trend and forecast even more disturbing outcomes, remember that evil has a strange way of overplaying its bestial hand.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Convention

You know the old saying, "Bishops should be locked up and put in a cage." So true, but there's an exception which proves the rule, Jack Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth. I tell you, I have not served under a better bishop. Professional, uncompromising in the Faith and remarkably pastoral.

That and far more in mind, it was moving to hear Bishop Jack give his last address to the Diocese before retirement at our Convention this weekend. Quite a thing. Regardless, I sat next to an interesting woman at the convention dinner who told me that when it came to religion "she'd seen and heard everything."

A Typical Owl Idol

I thought about this for less than a second and fired back, "You have? What about this. Our local Church of Christ's teaching its members that the Original Sin wasn't Adam and Eve, no, it was Adam and Lillith. You know, the demon. What about that?"

She was confused and wondered where this curious teaching came from. "Perhaps from the Kabbalah, a grimoire or even the OTO." Huh, "What's that?" Well, you get the drift and she glazed over as I explained the reinvention of occult ritual magic under the aegis of Aleister Crowley. Who can blame her?

MAGA 2020

The night finished at the hotel bar with assorted priests, bishops, and clergy, great fun, as was talking with a couple of cowboys. I figured they were with the rodeo but no, just riggers and we swapped tales of horses and broken bones. What a good crew.

Texas

Saturday saw the business of the Convention, which was mercifully brief, and I headed for home via the country route. It was alright.

Free Roger Stone

LSP

Hold The Fort

The sun was rising, Blue Perimeter was on the front porch, I was finishing off some coffee in the kitchen, and there was a voice, "Hey, Padre, where you at?" 

I looked 'round to see a rodeo buckle strolling in, "Dog didn't bite you?" Apparently not. "No, I just walked 'round him," said the cowboy, "Let's go to Fort Worth." 

And that's what we did, drove down I35W to the metrosprawl to elect a new bishop for the Diocese of Fort Worth. I know, you think "so what?" So a lot. 

Fort Worth  is the last Anglo-Catholic diocese of stature to remain standing against the libtransgay revolution that's doing its best to turn us into genderless satanic drones of the NWO.

We stood against that and elected Fr. Ryan Reed to be our next bishop. He's a good man, pray for him and his wife, Kathy.

This diocese will continue to stand firm and resolute for catholic truth.

Hold The Fort,

LSP

November Fest

It's all going on in Texas, I tell you. House painting, Diocesan Convention, torrential rain, and endless street parties celebrating the tragic defeat of our faux Latino messiah, Beto. I went to one, it was awesome.

There were lights, food, a German band pumping out Erika and all was well. Good fun and a welcome chance to party after the Diocesan Convention's Mass and a scary drive on I 20.

Then we met again today to conduct the slight business of the diocese, meet old friends and generally get it together. There were lots of video reports, one of which seemed to say that God forgives and also forgets. 

How can God forget anything, He's omniscient. I made the point to a friend who thought this somehow "limited God."  Long story short, it doesn't.

And here we are back at the Compound, thanking God for His goodness and for survival on the highways of the metrosprawl.

Please pray for our bishop, Jack Iker, who was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer right after announcing his retirement a few months ago. 

We fight against principalities and powers.

God bless,

LSP 

Teeth

I know, you're thinking this is a post about the exotic Tooth Djinn, Huma Abedin, whose hopes for power were shattered by the repellent Weiner. 

Then again, maybe you think it's about Huma's special friend, the Old Crone, who was renowned for her fine teeth before she found herself "lost in the woods."

Or perhaps you're thinking it's about Joe "Trans" Biden, whose prize winning teeth were thwarted of presidential ambition when their billionaire backer, Prince Wally, got himself thrown in the Ritz slammer thanks to the Magic Kingdom's recent night of long knives.

 Good call, vast international readership but not so fast. Because this well known mind blog isn't remotely narcissistic, the teeth in question belong to me, kind of. It started back in January when I pulled myself together and marched into a catastrophically expensive dentist.

"Holy Horseman," he announced like a cowboy, "I'm gonna have to weld those sonsabitches together in case you sneeze and blow your teeth all over the cabin of that plane to London!" He did, and I managed a trip to England without losing the all important front runners. They stood firm, like our brave men at Waterloo or Jackson at Bull Run.

Once back in the Lone Star State, I dodged the Maseratis to get into the dental clinic. "Why howdy! They all gotta go," was the cheerful verdict and damning xray evidence backed it up. There was all kinds of infection lurking around the sturdy jawline. And that's bad because it can mysteriously navigate down to the heart and kill you, stone dead.

So out came the few remaining ivories, in went a couple of implants and on popped a set of falsies and a couple of bottles of synthetic opium. Opioids, they call it and apparently they're a scourge. Just see the video page of this blog and you'll see, QED.

Since then, life has been mostly about driving to Dallas to get the teeth seen to and today was no exception. You see, readers, getting bionic teeth replacement may sound like a walk in the park but it isn't. Still, thanks to the Diocese of Fort Worth it's possible. Thank you, Bishop Iker, 100%.

I file this story under "teeth in rural and not so rural Texas."

God bless,

LSP

Chrism Mass 2017

Every year the clergy of the Diocese of Fort meet in Holy Week at St. Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, for the diocesan Chrism Mass. Thanks for the photo, Fr. C.

But guess what, there's no liturgical dance and there aren't any clowns goofing off in the cathedral. Perhaps, in your book, this disqualifies the event as a meaningful worship experience. I find it a relief, but that's just me. 

Goofing Off in Church

This year's sermon had its moments too, including a quote from Evelyn Underhill:

God is the interesting thing about religion, and people are hungry for God. But only a priest whose life is soaked in prayer, sacrifice, and love can, by his own spirit of adoring worship, help us to apprehend Him.

I felt judged, and rightly so, by that.

God bless,

LSP

The Gates of Hell Shall not Prevail. God Bless Bishop Iker.

Bishop Iker in LSPland

You've heard the old saying, "They should round up all the bishops and put them in a cage." There's an exception to that rule in Jack Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth. 

Iker doesn't celebrate Neronian gay marriages and he doesn't ordain women, he doesn't even hold goof-off liturgical dances in his cathedral. But what he does do is drive out to LSPland to confirm a very sick man in his home, out by Slap Out, aka Hubbard.

We RV'd at the Compound and drove out to the countryside and the sacrament of Confirmation, in which the Holy Spirit is bestowed by the laying on of hands and anointing. Now, I've never been present at a "house confirmation," much less asked a bishop to do one and I'll tell you this, it was a powerful and blessed event. I don't say that lightly.

Cage These Goons. And Stacy Sauls? You're fired.

Bishop Iker is known for his unwavering stand for catholic orthodoxy, in the Anglican tradition, in the face of the litigious rage the Episcopal Church. He was the first traditionalist bishop to say enough is enough and leave the Episcopal Church with his diocese. He did so on the floor of the 2006 General Convention in Columbus; I know, I was there. Three years later the Episcopal Church rounded on Iker and his diocese, suing him personally and the diocese, in an attempt to gain its money, property and presumably wreck the life of its bishop.

A Couple of Goof-Off Clowns

That lawsuit is ongoing at huge expense and the Episcopal Church is losing, having suffered a series of defeats in the courts. 

The result has yet to be called, but Bishop Iker remains a pastoral and good man in the Apostolic succession. And what can I say? 

The gates of hell shall not prevail, do not compromise with them.

God bless,

LSP

Fighting Talk

If the Takfiri terrorists get past the pump and the pistol they'll have to reckon with the rods, an umbrella, an out of tune piano, and a Blue Heeler. Good luck, Daesh.

But the front against terror comes in many forms, and one of the reasons I'm here in this bucolic farming community is to face off against lib mutineers, who tried to take over the Mission in 2009 and hand it over to the pink empire of gayness, TEC (The Episcopal Church).

"Set up in the compound, LSP," said the bishop, "and stop those terrorists from taking over the church."

So that's what I did.

Your Pal,

LSP

Fr. Dolling on Chicago

Anglicanism's a confusing beast, and it gets all the more confusing when you consider its claim to be catholic. This isn't taken very seriously these days, if it's considered at all, but it was in the 19th century, when the 1st and 2nd Oxford Movements worked to catholicise the Church. For the clergy and people of this movement, to be an Anglican was to be a catholic Christian. 

One of the more colorful figures of the 2nd Oxford Movement was a slum priest, Fr. Dolling, and I was reminded of him at a clergy conference (SSC) today, in Arlington.

Dolling visited America in the late 1890s and stayed for a year, before returning to work in England's slums. He was struck by the country, especially Chicago; here's his description of the city on a Sunday evening:

"Comparatively few of the churches are open on Sunday night. All the theatres, and music-halls, and saloons, and low resorts certainly are. To wander along State Street on a Sunday evening is to witness sights the equal of which is to be seen in no other city in the world, and as to what may be seen in other cities of the world I have not a small experience. There is no suggestion of Sunday evening. The shop-doors are closed, but all the windows are a blaze of light, and before them are crowds of women looking at the bonnets, on slowly revolving discs, or watching the electric appliances that dazzle the eye with sudden gleams of tinted globes. Crowds surge about the lower-class theatres. There is the beating of a drum and the shriek of a hurdy-gurdy to attract to a dime museum. At one street-corner is a man yelling anarchy. He has a big crowd. At another street-corner is a sallow, curly-haired individual demonstrating that the earth is flat. He has 200 listeners. At another corner is a semicircle of Salvationists, and a tall woman in a poke bonnet is nasally yelling in prayer that God would strike Chicago to Hell. There are not more than a dozen onlookers."

I love that.

God bless,

LSP

Diocesan Convention, Gun Show, Yorkshire Pudding

I drove to Fort Worth today for our Diocesan Convention. It was good to meet up with like-minded clergy and people and I tell you, that's at a premium these days. But this is the Diocese of Fort Worth, so what d'you expect, a gang of gender advocacy clowns? A crew of labyrinth walking priestesses? 

No, none of that. There was a gun show next to the Convention and I went to that too. Uplifting to see all the guns, I always think. One old fellow said, "Father, you're a brave man coming here." I liked him for that and replied, "I love shooting," and that's the truth.

But when I'm not going to Conventions or gun shows, I tend to be searching for the perfect Yorkshire Pudding. I've tried a few recipes with varying degrees of success. Here's one that works for me.

Blend/whisk 4 eggs with 1 1/4 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cups of whole milk and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Set aside and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Don't cut corners like a lazy soldier.

Preheat oven to 425. Put 1 teaspoon of oil/drippings into each indentation of a muffin tin. Put the tin in the oven until it's smoking hot, like the barrel of your carbine after a good blast at the opposition.

Take the batter out of the fridge. Give it a quick whisk, then use something to ladle it into the muffin tin so that each indentation is appx 3/4 full. It will sizzle. This is good, don't hang around pondering it like some kind of dumbass Buddhist, get the tin filled and back in the oven. Attention to detail.

Let the Yorkshire goodness cook for around 20 minutes at 425 until risen and golden. Do not open the oven like an idiot recruit. The puddings will sink and die. Like the Episcopal Church, or Wendy Davis' useless campaign to take over Texas.

There's other recipes, like the "Three Way Split," in which eggs, flour and milk all go together, 1 cup per ingredient. And many more, which I will try. In the meanwhile, the above works for me.

Some say Yorkshire is God's own County. That would make Texas God's own Country.

LSP