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Don’t Poke the Bear. Catholic Edition

Posted: November 26, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , ,

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.

Winston Churchill

Two days ago I was taking a quick peek at Youtube in between the work/sleep cycle that the seven to fourteen days that black friday entails when I saw this video from Christine Niles who I recognized from Church Militant:

This was the first I had heard of Michael Voris resignation from Church Militant. I watched his statement when I did it reminded me of something a particular priest once mentioned in passing. That it was during Mass when he prayers the Eucharistic Prayers that he finds himself most attacked by the devil and that brings me to one of the most basic facts about the war for souls, something that my pastor and spiritual advisor has said move and over.

Don’t poke the bear.

One of the real dangers in deciding to take part in the war for souls is that the closer to the front lines you get the more you’re under the fire from the enemy. To a regular person the battle for your soul might be almost invisible. To the faithful and to those who struggle against sin it is more apparent but how much more for a religious?

A novice might be a target and struggle but the nuns are a bigger one and the target an individual nun is nothing compared to a Prioress whose call can bring down others.

A seminarian might struggle but a bigger target is a priest tending his flock or the Bishop who is over dozens of priests or a Cardinal and the biggest target is always the Pope and those who surround him because if you can bring down the top so many may be crushed beneath them by the fall.

It is the same in law ministry or apostolates the higher you go, the more prominent you are in the fight the more vulnerable you are to a fall, and the thing to remember is that it’s a battle of attrition.

And while there is nothing more exhilarating then watching the devil run when you meet him face to face the real victory doesn’t come from that transitory moment, it comes from the persistence in prayer and the trust in Christ that keeps him at bay.

Niles noted that Voris stopped leading the group in prayer as he once regularly did and that one of the first signs of trouble for a soul is when it walks from prayer. For the lay person prayer is an indispensable part of the life of faith how much more so for one on the front lines confronting the works of the enemy daily? That’s when the foothold is established and C. S. Lewis noted the results of such a situation:

If such a feeling is allowed to live, but not allowed to become irresistible and flower into real repentance, it has one invaluable tendency. It increases the patient’s reluctance to think about the Enemy. All humans at nearly all times have some such reluctance; but when thinking of Him involves facing and intensifying a whole vague cloud of half-conscious guilt, this reluctance is increased tenfold. ‘They hate every idea that suggests Him, just as men in financial embarrassment hate the very sight of a pass-book.

Screwtape 13

The first duty of a person is to secure their own soul. Until that is done it’s almost impossible to help secure others as Christ put it:

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Matt: 7:3-5

Based on Voris video and this post that followed:

I suspect he put off with dealing with an issue or tried to do it handle it himself rather than turning to Christ in prayer and the sacraments.

How will it end? I don’t know, there are plenty of people, particularly those who don’t want scrutiny that will enjoy his fall hoping it takes the apostolate with him. For me I’ll be praying for the lot and keeping this as a object lesson to remember the wise words of my pastor.

Don’t poke the bear.

Some Jewish Hostages that We Were Told Did not Exist Released

Posted: November 25, 2023 by datechguy in Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

4th Doctor: You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.

Doctor Who: The Face of Evil pt 4 1977

Got home from work yesterday and saw this:

I’m happy for the families although my gut still thinks a deal might be dangerous but aside from that I’m confused about one thing.

We’ve had reports that Imams in the US and elsewhere have told their congregations that “claims” that Hamas took Jewish hostages on October 7th were false.

We’ve also been assured by college students and others all over the country that any such claim of Israeli women and children being taken hostage was simply propaganda. In fact many such people stated this as the reason why they were pulling down posters of the kidnapped jews.

If we are to believe these people then this hostage deal must not have taken place and our belief that these people have been returned to Israel must at best be a shared delusion or at worse a grand Zionist conspiracy running so deep that even Egypt and parts of Hamas, for reasons that are unclear, are taking part in it.

It will be interesting to see how those folks reconcile these facts with their previous claims.

Cue Tom Baker

Two Interesting Tweets That Speak Volumes

Posted: November 24, 2023 by datechguy in culture, middle east
Tags: ,

Back in the days before Mr. Musk bought twitter wordpress I could tweet and/or retweet something and it would show up on the blog.

But since that avenue is no longer valid here are two tweets that are worth your time.

The first one comes from those favorites of the left. There is nothing the left loves more than Jews who will take the side against Israel. If you are decide to carry that kind of banner odds are you will never be short of funds.

But I do have a bit of advice, if you’re going to actually pretend to believe in the Torah don’t choose verses that you’re afraid to read in public, to wit:

Now if it was me, I would have picked a different verse, but this lady was too obvious, not only does she highlight the verses she wants to ignore making sure that everyone will see this video but by choosing these verses she not only confirms Israel’s historic claim to the holy land predating all others but makes sure that all will see that as a mandate from God.

That one is pretty good but the 2nd one is even better.

Now I’ve argued that when it comes to Transgender people, you can’t assume that because people have a mental illness concerning other things. I speak from the experience of both working with and carpooling to work with such people.

But as this tweet demonstrates, you can’t assume that said mental illness and delusion WON’T cross over to other things:

As a devout straight white Catholic male who has lived in Massachusetts all his live and has worked in Marlborough MA let me tell you that in 2023 I have a better chance of being beheaded here than this person does.

The frightening thing to me isn’t the obvious idiocy on display, but the fact that seeing this over 136 thousand people actually bought it.

Cue John Cleese:

Thanksgiving Thoughts Under the Fedora: Still no Apology, NFL Trumps the College Games, Their Call not Mine, Jokes not Told and the Week that Will Speak Volumes

Posted: November 23, 2023 by datechguy in economy, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, local issues, nfl, Sports, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , , ,

It’s Thanksgiving day and because the Turkey is cooking and my wife is on full blast I did a quick Dunkin & McDonalds run so as not to dirty stuff for DaWife’s coffee or my breakfast.

I passed by St. Bernard’s football field and remembered the phony hate crime hoax from years ago that got national attention of the FBI & the Obama admin and caused the Lunenburg St. Bernard’s game to be cancelled that year. I covered the story here:

As I recall the town never got an apology from all those who called them a bunch of racists nor did the players who missed their Turkey game that year.

They never do.

Thanksgiving is a traditional day for football (as mentioned above). When I was young the TV would be filled with college games. Now the NFL has gone in a big way, not only just the Cowboys and the Lions who both host home games on Thanksgiving (and will therefore never face the other on Thanksgiving day) but a late game that is an A list matchup between the 49ers and the Seahawks. They have even added a black Friday game Dolphins at the Jets.

I guess they’re all in on Thanksgiving weekend and taking the business from the colleges and I guess it’s the right move. Make the money while you can now because nothing lasts forever.

As for me, well I guess it a good way to pass the time waiting for spring training

In a recent speech Tucker Carlson talked about trusting your gut. My gut says that the deal with Hamas that Israel has made for hostages is a bad idea.

But since it’s the Jews of Israel who are doing the fighting and dying and it’s the Jews of Israel whose woman and children are hostages and I’m just sitting at a keyboard in safety I think I’ll defer to the judgement of their leadership vs my own.

I’m old enough to remember when I could make a joke in public or online without worry that it wouldn’t give supporters of terror groups that want to kill jews idea.

Alas those days are gone so my excellent joke shall have to remain in house.

Finally today is going to be my last day off before Black Friday. During the Trump years this was flat out time for me. We ended up working 14 days in a row after Thanksgiving and six days a week all though Christmas and carried a ton of temps all thought that time.

Last year we had one busy week and it was so quiet that the Friday after black Friday was optional and all the extra temps were laid off within two weeks.

We had a busy week this week as one of our retailers had a pre-black friday sale but this week will say more about the truth of Biden economy than any talking head can.

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