Piers Morgan, Our Problem

Piers Bans Witch

As I was driving off well before first light to say Mass, my not so smart phone bleeped at me, so I compulsively fired up the email. There was a message from an English reader, taking me to task for suggesting that Piers Morgan be shipped back to the land from whence he came.


This was, he thought, uncharitable of me and possibly unchristian. Piers is our problem, here in the States, suggested the email.


On reflection, I see that my electronic friend was right. Old England has plenty of problems as it is without adding to the burden by sending Piers back. It would be unfair of us to launch the jowly, smug, limo-lib, most hated man in journalism popular media superstar back at Blighty.


We have to deal with the Morgan issue here. In the United States. I was wrong. 


I apologise.


That is all.


LSP

Lugers and Bass

When I was a child, please don't laugh, I wanted a Luger. I thought they looked cool. But I never got one and never fired one; outside of a museum I've barely even seen one. That's because they're ALL at Dallas' Jackson Armory. They have racks of Lugers. They have Lugers on the wall. They have regular, run 'o the mill Lugers and custom, specialty Lugers. They have a plastic box full of Lugers you can pick up and play with. Jackson Armory is, quite simply, the Luger motherlode. Some are cheap (under $1000) some are pricey, and there they are, for all the world to see, just off of Snider Plaza by SMU. Who knew?

JA also has plenty of Lees, Krags, M1s, M1As, custom ARs, swords, Winchester 99s, and hi-cal big game rifles at reasonable prices. You can walk in, browse and check out the weapons without being condescended to. I can't think of a better gun shop in North Texas, especially if you like older guns and militaria. I love Jackson Armory, but more of that in a separate post.

After the Luger shock and awefest I went fishing and caught four Bass. Rare for me to get out the rod, but I always enjoy it when I do.

Cheers,

LSP

A Curious Thing.

Taurus' take on Beretta

Come Easter Monday and, if you're me, it's time for some R&R. So I drove back to the Dallas compound, grilled hamburgers for a few friends and browsed Bachman Pawn and Gun. BPG is on North West Highway and has a good rep, evidently, with Law Enforcement and shooters generally. More of a handgun  shop than anything else, but there were a few Beretta shotguns on the wall.

After checking out the pistols (I want a "9" and a .22) I cast a beady eye at the shotguns. They weren't cheap, over and unders mostly, coming in at around 3k. But here's the thing -- their "hand rubbed" finish was OK, but only just. You could see a fair bit of open grain on the butt and forends.

I was surprised. At 3k you're not going to get at 10k gun, but still, you'd think the grain on the stock would be filled, at least. 

just fill the grain, LSP

This inspires me with confidence for my own project guns.

More of that later. In the meanwhile, check out BPG if you want a Dallas pistol alternative to Rays. Less comedic gunnishness from the staff (whaddaya mean you don't want an AR? Aren't you a Patriot, dammit?!), which is a minus, but better prices and selection. Just don't go there looking for a big selection of rifles, or, er, properly finished shotguns.

Keep pulling the trigger,

LSP

Happy Easter

Exhausted now from the rigours of Holy Week but...

Wishing you all a joyous Easter.

Christ has risen, Alleluia!

LSP

Holy Saturday

The Body of Jesus is laid in the Tomb and the Tabernacles are empty of the Presence, even in some of the Anglican variants of the Mystical Body of Christ, militant here on earth.

Bishop Guest, the 16th century author of Article XXVIII on the Lord's Supper, had this to say about the sacrament of the Altar. The communicant does "take Christ's Body in his hand, receive it in his mouth, and that corporally, naturally, really, substantially and carnally..." but does not "see it, feel it, smell it or taste it." As Dom Gregory Dix reminds us, "It would be hard for anyone to be more explicit than that in asserting the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament." (The Question of Anglican Orders)

Despite this, more than a few Anglicans sit light to sacramental reality, taking their cue from the late medieval skeptics of the Reformation. For them, the Eucharist is at best a reality because we think it so and at worst an empty symbol of self-referencing belief.

smash it up

Perhaps it's no accident that the Northern European write-off of sacramental givenness was followed by a near total subjectivization of all spiritual value.

Lord, forgive us for the many blasphemies committed against your holy Sacrament.

LSP

Good Friday

I wish I could say that Good Friday, and the Triduum in general, somehow become easier as the years go by. But the reverse is true; as our consciences become increasingly alive to the weight of wickedness, so too do we realize our part in the crucifixion. Fortunately Easter is just over the horizon.

As always, Austin Farrer speaks well to this:

EVERYTHING that is true of Christ's body is true of us in some manner. He gives us his body that we may become his body. Christ's body died on the cross, he also rose. The resurrection is ours, but the death also is ours. Many men, at the last challenge, have consented to be martyrs, and set their bodies aside. But Christ's passion was no more than the last expression of what he had done all his life. He had set his body aside whenever its demands conflicted with man's need or God's will, and so he had rehearsed his death continually; not morbidly, but with joy and self-forgetfulness. We have many opportunities so to rehearse our death, and how steadily we reject them! Our bed, our chair retains us when we should get up and pray; fleshly delights of act and imagination, some by no means innocent, hold us from following better inspirations. Our own pleasure comes before our neighbour's, vanity before sympathy. How will it be when rehearsals are over, and we have to act our part, to put our bodies finally off, that we may possess God? If Christ offers us up with his own death in this sacrament, it is that we may die a voluntary and daily death, and merit a daily resurrection.

How will it be when rehearsals are over? 

Pray for mercy.

LSP

Maundy Thursday

Tonight we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper and we watch before the Sacrament as Christ's disciples were asked to watch with Our Lord while he prayed in the garden before His betrayal by Judas. I like this short meditation and prayer by Marianne Dorman.

"On this most holy night, let give me sincere thankfulness for the Blessed Sacrament which fills me with Your life each day, and may I always come to the Altar prepared to receive Love, and take Love out into the world. 

As I watch with You during the silent hours of this night let Your sufferings and grief penetrate to my inner self, so I can share something of what You endured for me and all mankind, what Deitrich Bonhoeffer called ‘costly grace’. I adore You O Christ, and bless You, because by Your cross You have redeemed the world. Amen."

Being a mission priest, I had two Masses this evening, separated by a drive, which meant refueling the truck. By way of conversation I asked the cashier where he was from. "Nepal," he said and I replied, "Gurkha!" 

gurkha

At which he started running on the spot while making great chopping movements with his right hand, in imitation of his knife wielding countrymen.

We saluted each other smartly and went about our business. It's all going on in the countryside, I tell you.

Every blessing for the Triduum.

LSP