We were driving from Wooton near Woodstock to Oxford, and I was a precocious 8 year old. "What was it like," I asked the driver, doubtless some kind of prof, "at the end of the war?" He replied, "The Germans, even in retreat, were incredibly disciplined," I was struck by that.
And here's the thing, and it played a part in my decision to join up, the people of my age now were, back in the '70s and '80s, WWII vets. They'd been through it, that awful, cataclysmic fight. And here we are again, baying for blood in the name of... what?
Transgender rights? No, that's a risible rainbow smokescreen. How about massive amounts of money flowing to and from the MIC to our beloved rulers of whatever party. Pay up, serf, so we can be richer and you'll get the consolation prize of a tranny bathroom. Or die, at the front.
Now that everyone's recovered from yesterday's curious juxtaposition of Thomist hymnody and Millwall FC, we can all sit back and enjoy the refreshingly cool breeze of a Texan summer evening. Except that we can't because it's like a preheating oven out there and it's not even August.
Rhodie doesn't seem too fazed by it though, despite having a fur coat, and spends his time sleeping inside when not patrolling the perimeter. In fact, he got a bit adventurous last night and went off on an unauthorized recce patrol.
Where's the dog? I asked myself. Nowhere to be seen, but there he was on the front porch at first light, sleeping, safe and sound. Glad he had the sense to nav back to the den.
St. Thomas Aquinas is rightly known as the Angelic Doctor, perhaps the greatest of theologians, and the sanctity of his thought and devotion comes through in his hymnody, not least Adoro Te, composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Here:
Anglo-Catholics, that rare breed, are familiar with this translation:
Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen,
Who thy glory hiddest ‘neath these shadows mean;
Lo, to thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed,
Tranced as it beholds thee, shrined within the cloud.
Taste and touch and vision to discern thee fail;
Faith, that comes by hearing, pierces through the veil.
I believe whate’er the Son of God hath told;
What the Truth hath spoken, that for truth I hold.
O memorial wondrous of the Lord’s own death;
Living Bread that givest all thy creatures breath,
Grant my spirit ever by thy life may live,
To my taste thy sweetness never failing give.
Jesus, whom now hidden, I by faith behold,
What my soul doth long for, that thy word foretold:
Face to face thy splendor, I at last shall see,
In the glorious vision, blessed Lord, of thee.
And in the military Latin original, so beautifully moving in the singing:
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,
Quae sub his figuris vere latitas;
Tibi se cor meum totum subiicit,
Quia te contemplans, totum deficit.
Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur;
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius,
Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius.
In Cruce latebat sola Deitas.
At hic latet simul et humanitas:
Ambo tamen credens, atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro paenitens.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor,
Deum tamen meum te confiteor:
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.
O memoriale mortis Domini,
Panis vivus vitam praestans homini:
Praesta meae menti de te vivere,
Et te illi semper dulce sapere.
Pie pellicane Iesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine:
Cuius una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.
Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio,
Ut te revelata cernens facie,
Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae.
Amen.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 A.D.) was born into a noble family in northern Italy. His Father, Count Landulph of Aquino, was of Lombard descent and his Mother, Theodora, was Norman.
Unsurprisingly, the men of his family were knights and warriors but Thomas chose the religious life and joined the newly formed Domincan Order, much to the annoyance of his brothers and doubtless Father. But if he declined the offer of a temporal sword he most definitely took up its spiritual equivalent.
His writing, like light cast on a darkened city, like a flare of sanctity and truth, illumines and drives back error, evil and disbelief today.
Keen-eyed readers of this popular international mind-blog will have noticed ACoC (Anglican Church of Canada) left earth orbit many years ago for the icy void of deep space, but not the Diocese of the Arctic. So here's some good news from an unlikely source.
First, its bishop, David Parsons, is a member of a species all but extinct in the Anglican Church of Canada: he is a Christian bishop.
Second, the diocese is in communion with ANiC (Anglican Network in Canada) and is open to licensing its priests.
Third, the diocese does not support the recently adopted liturgies for Gender Transition and Affirmation or any of the other LGBT+ claptrap that obsesses other ACoC clergy.
Fourth, the diocese sees itself as the Anglican Church of Canada and the rest of the organisation as – something else. By implication, not a church.
Lastly, Parsons thinks, “that the great and terrible day of the Lord is coming, and many bishops are going to have a stark wake up as they stand before God and are asked why they have not stood against the doctrines of demons and devils. My fear is, that day will not be a day of repentance but just justice and judgment because the day of grace will be over.”
Did you spot that? the diocese does not support the recently adopted liturgies for Gender Transition and Affirmation or any of the other LGBT+ claptrap that obsesses other ACoC clergy. Wow. He just got out and said it. And again, many bishops are going to have a stark wake up as they stand before God and are asked why they have not stood against the doctrines of demons and devils. Exactly.
Well done, Bishop Parsons and the small but faithful Diocese of the Arctic, would that England's Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals would be so bold. Regardless, we stand with you in the Diocese of Fort Worth.
So take heart punters, there is Good News, both in Christ and in his Church.
Have a beautiful Sunday,
LSP
PS. I take credit for coining the now ubiquitous acronym ACoC, so let's see some applause, international ortho/trad commentariat. Thx.
Looks like a prominent Ivy League school's been selling body parts. The shocking revelation came to light when FBI agents raided James Nott's apartment in Kentucky, finding 40 human skulls.
James Nott and an Harvard Skull
Six other people have been charged with dealing in human skulls, skeletons, spinal cords and more, not least Cedric Lodge, manager of the Anatomical Gifts Program at, you guessed it, Harvard.
Cedric Lodge and his Creepy Wife
Harvard's popularly known as Satan's Vatican and enjoys an endowment of over $49 billion. Do you remember that bit in the Gospels where Jesus says "you cannot serve God and mammon"?
Have you noticed how everyone's trans all of a sudden and wondered how this latter day Mengele madness swept through the Western world? This short from Christopher Rufo gives a synopsis of our current, and I'd argue Satanic, Frankensteinian trend:
From Pritzker billions to the slums of Detroit with cultural Marxism at the beginning, middle and end of the Godless project. Imagine the damage, physical and mental, to the victims of this nihilist abhorrence and the mighty profits which accrue from it.
You'd think, in the face of such demonism, that the Church would stand up and be counted but no. Mĕnēʾ mĕnēʾ tĕqēl ūpharsīn, מְנֵא מְנֵא תְּקֵל וּפַרְסִין, you've been weighed in the balance and found wanting. God's writing on the wall has, perhaps the weight of a curse, certainly divine judgement.
Word to the wise. Do yourselves a favor and watch Sound of Freedom in a small country movie theater or anywhere, but a small cinema in a small town may well be best. We still have a few, a very few, in this part of Texas and I went to one this evening, the Cliftex, with some kind church people.
Here's Prodigal's review:
Just returned home from watching "Sound of Freedom" at the Cliftex Theater in Clifton, Texas. Was built in 1916! $5 ticket!!!
Outstanding movie! Multiple times you could have heard a pin drop. Such a gut-wrenching reality. And it was done in a very mature manner. Not just an "appeal to the emotions" movie.
The level of perverseness and utter depravity that this, dare it be said, industry sinks to is heinous and wicked and demonic. There is no pit in hell deep enough for these haters of humans and humanity. Archangel Michael will usher all of them and their devil daddy to hell soon enough.
May God's Name be hallowed and praised. We beseech Him for strength to bind the strong man.
And use our prayers to frustrate and bring to naught the machinations of the ungodly.
Right on and thanks, Prodigal, for the ticket. On theme, watch Nefarious too, maybe the best demon possession movie I've seen, very "Hostage to the Devil."
Libs hate, despise and scorn both these excellent films, can't think why.
Look, it's too hot to think so I'm asking you, the reader, to help me out. Why are California Democrats blocking a bill to make child trafficking a felony? Likewise, why are mainstream media and film critics ignoring or rubbishing Sound of Freedom?
Perhaps you've heard of it, an indie box office smash hit detailing the very real, very serious and very evil scourge of pedo sex trafficking. It's based on real life LE experience and details, in suspenseful form, the utter evil of the thing.
The people love it, it's a very popular film. The critics and most media hate it. I say again, why? Why does Rolling Stone, which somehow still exists, hate it so much? Because, they say, the movie fosters a right wing conspiracy theory. Viz. Thousands of children are sold into sex slavery every year.
You see, there is no organized child-sex slavery operation, it's a figment of Nazi Fascist, tinfoil hat conspiracy crazies. That's what they say, there is no large scale pedophile trafficking going on in our country or around the world. It is, you stupid redneck Nazis a figment of your imagination. Listen to the science. No. Children. Being. Sold. For. Sex. Gettit?
No, I don't get it, because pedophile sex-slavery and torture is real. Just ask Jimmy Saville and Huw Edwards. You'd think, all ye champions of right over wrong, that this would be a bipartisan issue. Stop child sex-slavery even if the threat was remote, stamp out even the mere rumor of such a thing. But no, the Left chooses to ignore it and worse, castigate those who fight against it.
Why? As you reflect, people who champion killing babies in the womb are capable of anything. But your call, it's too hot to think.
So what's going on, LSP, apart from vaguely unhinged ranting on our evil transnational elite and Europe's schizophrenic war lust. You know, bay for war, clamor for combat, but don't produce any ammo or tanks or planes or ships or guns. Of course that's hard if you've offshored your industry to China and rely on cheap Russian gas. That aside, what's going on?
I'll tell you, heat, extreme heat. It's like a preheating oven out there and it's getting to the point where the very air itself might ignite, thermobaric style. Imagine driving under a scorching Texan sun, the fields around you bleached by its light and someone carelessly flicks a spent cigarette out of the rig's window. Boom, ignition as mesquite dust, pollen and chaff explode. Terrifying.
typical Texas hat
In the old days, I'd think nothing of getting out in the field in the midst of it all and ride, shoot, fish in the heat of the day. Now? Not so much, it doesn't seem so attractive to slowly boil under a 107* Heat Dome. That in mind, we have to wonder at the sheer toughness of the people who pioneered this place. Remember, they had Commanche as well as the heat to deal with, and most definitely no AC.
Speaking of which, the Compound had a wrap 'round sleeping porch up until the '80s when it was sadly destroyed to make way for an extension. Error. Maybe we need to fix that mistake, the upstairs AC's barely cutting it. But such is the War on Weather, no one ever said it'd be easy.
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