Lepanto

Battle of Lepanto

Inspired by Snarky Basterd, I thought I'd better post this, from the Battle of Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton.

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

Stirring stuff - Lepanto. Then again, I'm for the Faith, along with GKC. But more of that on the Feast of Our Lady of Victories (Oct. 7).

God bless,

LSP

Horsing Around

Rural Texas was the way England used to be before Carbon turned the erstwhile land of hope and glory into some kind of Kurt Vonnegut Ice 9 disaster. In other words, it was misty and wet with the light drizzle of rain that I always used to associate with the onset of spring, or summer for that matter. But nostalgia aside, it was good to get out to the stables and ride about, except for one thing.

As soon as I began to get into the stride of a canter, the horse would pull a quick head duck, half halt, sneeze, then proceed as if nothing much had happened. But it had, the rider had nearly gone over the handlebars; not dissimilar, I suppose, to being on a motorcycle when the brakes go on unannounced - scary. Didn't come off, fortunately.

Still, sneezing aside, it was great to get back in the saddle for an hour or so. Curious creatures, horses - they do me the world of good.

Get to sight in new M4gery tomorrow, excited about that.

Stay on the horse,

LSP

Christian Realignment

Not B16, just some guy

I haven't posted much on Pope Benedict XVI's important Apostolic Constitution viz. Anglican converts to the Roman Church. So, to make up for the deficiency here's an article by William Lind, from the American Conservative. He writes about the realignment of Christianity across jurisdictional lines, amongst other things - I think it's excellent:

"Their (Frankfort Marxists/Gramscians) driving force is political ideology, not theology. They view the church as just one more venue for radical politics.

Their goal is Nietzsche’s “transvaluation of all values,” where the old sins become virtues and the old virtues, sins. In churches where they take power, the Holy Trinity is replaced by a trio of bogeymen: racism, sexism, and homophobia. Every denomination so afflicted is bitterly split between remaining Christians and the politically correct. (No, you can’t be both, as Marxists would agree.)

What is now happening, and what Rome may have discerned, is that the people on each side of this division find they have more in common with those in other denominations who share their basic faith, Christianity or cultural Marxism, than with the people on the other side of that divide within their own churches. A potential is emerging for a vast realignment, one transcending the divisions that came out of the Reformation. That realignment, in which the remaining Christians in every church would gather in a single, new (small “c”) catholic church, needs a leader. Who better than Rome? Indeed, who other than Rome could possibly pull it off?

Seen in that light, the Pope’s offer to the Anglicans takes on broader meaning..."

Read the whole thing here - well worth the effort.On another theme, you might like SBW's plea for commonsense thrift and less waste, Freeganomics.

Cheers,

LSP

Evil Space Aliens

TEC Bishop

I just read the most remarkable thing, about space aliens. Here's an excerpt:

"The Alien spiritual mission is to spread the gospel of the New Age Movement and to deny Christianity. They also highly encourage their contactees to participate in occult practices such as channeling or mediumship, automatic writing, clairvoyance, mental telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and other New Age related activities. Others who have been abducted have become obsessed with dabbling into the UFO phenomena and occult activities, which, for many, leads to bondage, despair, destruction and suicide. Surveys that have been taken discover that the majority of those who have been abducted have shown an interest in paranormal or mystical activities, involvement in the Eastern religions, and New Age movement. Other have also claimed they have had a past involvement with astral projection, astrology, channeling, Ouija boards, witchcraft, and so on. These things are clearly forbidden by God in His word (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)."

A Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Funes, had this to say:

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures over the earth, so there could be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contradiction with our faith, because we cannot establish limits to God's creative freedom," he told the newspaper. "To say it with St. Francis, if we can consider some earthly creatures as 'brothers' or 'sisters,' why could we not speak of a 'brother alien'? He would also belong to the creation."

Terrifying Space Creature watched by Holy Father

Interesting - can both be right? In the light of The Episcopal Church's 'Bench of Bishops' and their Pelosian allies in government, I'd have to say that Fr. Funes is guilty of wishful thinking.

God bless,

LSP

What Gun?

Woke up to a beautiful morning, the sun was rising on frost covered grass and all was still save for the distant sounds of shotguns firing away on the farms. Then it was a spirited Mass and off to the next Mission; fine, until Global Warming and its friend, the New Ice Age, stopped my pick- up from starting. Disaster! Until a friendly parishioner lent me a car to complete the journey.

As I drove along my mind turned towards that burning and knotty issue - what gun to buy? Part of me thinks, "Get an M4gery", sure, but what brand? What caliber? .223 or .308 - maybe something else again... Bushmaster or Armalite? DPMS or Colt? etc. And with what optics/flip up iron sights?

Then again...

Why not get an M1A? Tempting. Or should I just be sensible and get a Tikka T3? No easy choice, is it, but then again, who ever said life would easy?

All advice welcome. Forgive the incessant questions.

Have a blessed Sunday,

LSP

Just Get Out & Shoot

For some strange reason I haven't shot my .45 for a time, probably thinking in the back of my mind that I should 'save ammo', which is ridiculous because I have plenty and what's the point of owning working firearms if you don't shoot them? With thoughts such as these I drove bravely off into the New Ice Age to the local supermarket to buy yet more ammo - Winchester White Box, God bless it - and then off to my Treasurer's place for a shoot.

The Treasurer wasn't in but another parishioner was, feeding horses. We set up a range against some hay bales and blasted away from eighteen or twenty yards.

Shot reasonably well, though I tended to pull low left, which is doubtless some kind of lesson in the making. Then, before our range was crushed under the weight of oncoming glaciers, it was back to the parsonage for evening prayer and dangerous thoughts of purchasing a 1911... all in good time.

Good shooting,

LSP

Fruit of Kaboom

From Feed Your ADHD - thanks Snarky.

Guns and horses next.

LSP