Lenten Fasting

 

This Lent I've resolved to take the fasting rule more seriously, which means eating less. No meat on Wednesdays and Fridays and daily, one very light meal around Noon and a light meal in the evening. Also, for me, no rice, pasta or bread, which is hard because I love all that, and the list goes on, just cut right back on food; no wine either except on Feast days. And there you have it, a Lenten fast.

It's not easy, at least for me, but it's a great spiritual tool which frees us from over attachment to our appetites, quite literally, and from the sins of pride and gluttony. You'll note a selfish man is a greedy man and vice versa. By counteracting this on the most basic level, by denying ourselves food, we free the soul from worldly attachment and that wickedness described by the Apostle, "their god is the belly."

All this sounds strange and repugnant to North American ears because our culture, if you can call it that, is geared towards self-indulgence, to gluttonous pride. We see the outward and visible sign of this on the outskirts of our cities where we're welcomed by forests of plastic fast food signs. Eat moar! But I won't bang on, here's St. Isaac the Syrian via Orthodox Christianity:

As satisfying the stomach is the beginning of any evil, so fasting is the basis of any virtue and the holy way to God. The fast is the protection of virtue, the beginning of self-sacrifice, a wreath of abstinence, the beauty of virginity and holiness, the shine of chastity, the basis of a Christian life, the father of prayer, the originator of chastity and wisdom, the instructor of silence, and the leader to everything good...

Fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us. Whoever neglects it is not right. For if the Law-giver Himself fasted, is it not also necessary for those for whom the law is given to fulfill the fast? For a long time the human race was not able to win, for a long time the devil did not test the defeat of our nature; but at the very beginning he was weakened by this weapon. Our Lord was the leader and the first conqueror. He first delivered the victorious crown of our nature. Since then, whenever the devil sees that some one has this weapon, immediately he is afraid, immediately he imagines and remembers that defeat which he underwent by the Savior in the desert: his power is destroyed and disappears.

Take heed, fasting is the weapon prepared by God for us, we should use it.

God bless,

LSP

Domestic Extremists All Helpfully Label Themselves For FBI

 

Via The Bee:

U.S. — Law enforcement officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were overjoyed this morning to discover the nation's most dangerous domestic extremists had helpfully labeled themselves with a strange black "X" on their foreheads.

"Wow. This makes our job so much easier," said FBI Domestic Extremism Investigator Chet O'Grady. "This morning our field offices across the country reported they had observed hundreds of people arriving at various suspected extremist locations, where some strange guy wearing robes marked them with ashes on their foreheads. Now we have thousands more suspects to monitor this year. Jackpot!"

The bizarrely marked potential insurgents will be monitored for terrorist activity, such as attending school board meetings and praying outside abortion clinics. "These sickos are capable of anything," said O'Grady. "America can rest assured that we will be watching them very closely."

At publishing time, the FBI had nabbed several suspected terrorists at a local church basement fish fry.

What can we say, those dangerous domestic terrorists get everywhere. The Vatican is working in full cooperation with the ongoing investigation.

Thanks for the tip, Swankenstein.

Your Friend,

LSP

Ash Wednesday

 

Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris 

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou

hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are

penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that

we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our

wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy,

perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our

Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Have a holy and blessed Lent,

LSP

Yellow Rose of Texas

 

Dam straight

Cheers,

LSP

Warning Order

 

Do you dare think, for an instant, that the way we live now will not be judged, that our so-called society of grift, scam, malfeasance, self-idolatry, fraud and worse, will somehow go on forever? If so, think again. Such wickedness cannot and will not stand.

Take note, a Day of Wrath is barreling down the pike at us faster than you can say "national debt at interest" or "money laundering crooks." So prep up, and begin with the spirit. Lent is our opportunity to do so.

Dies Irae,

LSP

Yet Another Tranny Shooter

 

All the world knows Joel Osteen's megachurch was shot up the other day but the shooter wasn't a crazed right-wing extremist. No, on the contrary, the crazed would be killer was an MTF (male to female) trans immigrant from El Salvador, Jeffrey Moreno.

Jeffrey was stopped by local LEOs before he could do much harm and appears to have a long criminal history , including weapons charges. Also, the crazed wannabe killer seems to have been more trans successful in the past.

So what went wrong, did the trans drugs become somehow unavailable and tip the already mentally ill Moreno into psychotic desperation as he/she discovered she/it was becoming more masculine? Maybe so, but we do know this. 

The dysmorphic potential killer had a "Free Palestine" message on its rifle. Expect this story to be memory-holed as though it had never happened. Keen-eyed readers of this fantastical mind-blog will recall several other tranny shooters.

Cheers,

LSP

A Short Sunday Sermon - Transfigured

 

If you follow the new-fangled ABC, tripartite Lectionary you'll have heard St. Mark's account of Our Lord's transfiguration this morning. Here:

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.

And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

 

Next we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and Peter speaks out, "Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

It seems a strange thing to say and Mark admits as much, "For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid." But hold on. Some days earlier Peter had made his confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And now, before his eyes, Christ was transfigured; the Messianic age had arrived with supernatural glory and power. What were God's people to do? The Psalmist tells us, exalt "in the tents of the righteous."

Again, look to the Feast of Tabernacles, during which faithful Jews set up tents in memory of their journey in the Exodus wilderness, all the while looking forward to the time God would tabernacle with men in the person of the Messiah. It must have seemed to Peter that the time had come, there was Christ, transfigured, the Majestic Glory. 

Seen in this light, Peter's outburst makes a kind of sense, but no, the time had not yet come. Return to Moses and Elijah, conversing with Jesus, what did they talk about? St. Luke tells us, of our Lord's "imminent departure" in Jerusalem, of his exodus through the Red Sea of the Passion and Cross to the promised land, the glory of the Resurrection.

Our Lord's transfiguration signifies and foreshadows this, but the time had not yet come, first the Cross. Accordingly, Jesus does not answer Peter but the Father does, the cloud of glory descends upon Tabor and the Father speaks, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." And so we must, he is the living Law, the Torah Incarnate.

Peter, in his Epistle, is adamant that this happened, "we do not follow cunningly devised myths" but beheld the Majestic Glory on the holy mountain. The vision was real and it's real for us, we too are invited to climb the mountain.

For Peter, James and John the ascent was physical. For us it's mostly spiritual, an ascent which begins in the foothills of humility and repentance, blessed are the poor in spirit and those who mourn, and climbs upwards through righteousness and its enactment, mercy, to purity of heart and the vision of God.

What do we see there? Christ, who shone in the darkness from the beginning, the light of the world in whom there is no darkness at all, who was light on Tabor. Seeing Him, we too become light and will shine like the sun in the kingdom of heaven.

God give us grace to climb the mountain,

LSP

Tucker Interviews Putin

 

Did you  watch the historic interview between America's last journalist and Russian strong man, Vladimir Putin? I did, after Mass, and was immediately struck by one thing. Viz. Putin knows history and can speak coherently, without notes, for two hours and then some.

Can you imagine any one, any one of our 2024 presidential candidates doing such a thing? I can't. Wow, a world leader who actually knows history. Far out.  Here in the States we got rid of history a long time ago. Look at us now.

That in mind, it was good to see a journalist doing journalism and it certainly doesn't hurt to hear Putin's point of view, not least this: Russia strove for decades to find a constructive commonality with Europe and the West, only to be lied to and attacked. Feel free to disagree but I'd say he has a point.

Here's another thing. Granted our beloved Inside-The-Beltway rulers have millions, perhaps billions of dollars invested in the Ukraine adventure,  what was in it for BoJo? What did Boris Johnson stand to gain by derailing the Istanbul peace accord? For that matter, what did he stand to lose by not doing so.

Regardless, the floppy haired ex-Prime Minister's accused Tucker of "treason." Huh. Perhaps BoJo will send what's left of the Royal Navy to seize Mr. Carlson and carry him off to the Tower for due punishment. Watch out, Tucker, like no fooling. And note, Putin's an accelerationist with a belief in soul.

Cheers,

LSP

Is This For Real?

 

Here's William Lundy helmeted up in front of a F-100 Super Saber at Eglin AFB in 1955. He claimed to have served in the Confederate cavalry (Company D 4th Alabama Cavalry Regiment) from March 1864-1865, joining up at the age of 16. 

If true, that'd make Lundy a remarkable 107 years old at the time of the photo, but his story's disputed. Census records suggest he was actually born in 1860, which would make the alleged veteran a posing old fraud, albeit with a venerable visage.

I like this old man a lot

Who knows. I'd like to believe the story's true because there it is, a very old man who lived in the horse-drawn age standing next to a jet fighter in the 1950s. How cool is that? Very. And even if Lundy wasn't the veteran he claimed to be, he was still a stand-out from another age. A person who lived across the transformation of America and Western civ into something approaching the way we live now.

Ahem, RHSM, maybe we need some "fast movers"?

You can imagine his dismay, if he were alive to see it, at our devolution into the hideous, banal, ersatz, wicked, dumb-as-you-like-then-some barbarity of the 21st century. As it is, he had his moment with a Super Saber.

So, is the photo and all that's with it real? You be the judge.

4ACR forever,

LSP

A Fourth There Shall Never Be

 

Moscow, the Third Rome, a fourth there shall never be. Now look, I get the Cold War animosity, I even remember it, and I get geopolitical rivalry, but surely Christians should band together against the heathen? Then, it was the godless Soviets. Today it's the demonic transnational elite against everyone, not least you.

They hate you, they doubtless hate themselves, and they hate Christ. Russia turned its back on this Bolshevik evil, we, on the other hand, have embraced it with usury. Here's a video by way of antidote:

With a tip of the biretta to Seamus. Are these people not our brothers? Shouldn't we be aligned with them towards the creation of a Christian commonwealth, in which everyone flourishes, freed from the banksters' greed? Call it Pax Americana or something like that, but no, we're at war. 

We must thank God, literally, that the war is proxy, unless you're a conscript in the actual fight.

Your Pal,

LSP

Goodnight

 

Sleep Tight,

LSP

Branded Burger

Do you go out for dinner? I don't, hardly ever, but tonight a kind churchman invited, "We'll be in town this evening where we can do our business. Why not join us for dinner afterwards?" What, dinner in the NCTEZ (North Central Texas Exclusion Zone)? Terrifying prospect, but it can be done, at Branded Burger.

Branded Burger is a family owned Midlothian restaurant which has expanded into a few neighboring towns and their slogan is, "Where The Locals Eat." Their signature is a burger in a bun which has been branded with their... brand and stabbed through with a black plastic knife.

As in, take that, burger, I forgot my Benchmade or Opinel, so here's this plastic knife statement. Marketing aside, the Branded Burger is pretty dam good, coming in seared and quick at around 7 bucks. The patty? Close to an inch thick and properly medium rare. Yes, this is a good burger and I devoured mine like a hungry wolf.

Verdict: If you're lucky enough to travel through our storied lands, stop at Branded Burger, they're alright.

Boodles Forever,

LSP