Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – It was my intention to post last Monday from the Fete Dieu du Teche but I have to say, I got all caught up in that event that I just wasn’t able to.

I’ve posted before about this annual Eucharist procession down Bayou Teche each year on August 15, on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. In Cajun Country it also coincides with the 257th anniversary of the arrival of the Acadians in south Louisiana. This all-day event begins in Leonville with a Mass in French by the Bishop and ends in the early evening in St. Martinville with some six or seven stops in between where the boats stop, and the procession comes ashore to say the Rosary in each town.

It is just incredibly moving to me to see the entire community in prayer and reverence like this and I love hearing the ceremony in French.

I am not a real believer in coincidences. My husband and I are not Catholic but are Episcopal. They are fairly close; close enough where we can follow the services. On Saturday, two days before the Fete event, we were shopping in an antique store and found “finger rosaries.” We’d never seen one but thought they were very pretty so we each picked out one. We have Anglican rosaries, and I figured I could sort of use this in the same, or similar, way. The one my husband picked had a “Miraculous Medal” of Mary on it. Neither one of us had ever heard of this medal so when we got back to the house Steve did a little research on it.

At the Fete Dieu du Teche, as we were walking down to the bayou bank for the procession, Steve saw a lady in a van trying to park. She was with Radio Maria, and she was having trouble wedging into a parking place, so Steve helped her. After the ceremony, she sought him out to thank him, and she said, “Oh wait! I want to give you something!”

She handed him an American flag with a Miraculous Medal of Mary dangling from it and a card that said it had been blessed.

Kindness begets kindness.

I have so much love and respect for the Cajun culture and not to oversimplify things, but their love of Church, family, and community is incredibly admirable.

Living in three hours away from the area is just too far for me and I can’t wait until we can relocate there. I’m not Cajun by blood, but I had someone down there tell me, “but you are by heart!” I’ll take that incredible honor and I’ll mark my calendar for August 15 next year!

Every single person involved in these vile attacks both physical and verbal are a single good confession away from the mercy of Christ.

I suspect that’s why Christ tells us to love and pray for our enemies to help them toward that step so they can be hired to work that last hour in the vineyard.

Never forget some of the giants in the pro-life movement started out on the side killing kids.

None of this means that we shouldn’t fight the culture wars, we should and we must fight hard and strong, yet we must never forget that those we fight against whether or not they recognize it are children of the same God as us.

White is bad

Posted: August 16, 2022 by chrisharper in media
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

The ideological attack on white men in the United States has gained considerably in recent years, including a series of blatantly racial attacks. 

Simply put, being white in America has become inherently bad.

For example, Rolling Stone recently highlighted the arrest of a man the publication contends wanted his compatriots to rape white women and kill blacks to increase the majority of Caucasians in America. 

“[A] former U.S. Marine plotted mass murder and sexual assault to ‘decrease the number of minority residents’ in the United States as part of his membership in a far-right neo-Nazi group, ‘Rapekrieg,’ the news organization writes. 

“Belanger was the subject of an FBI Joint Terrorism Taskforce investigation into allegedly plotting to ‘engage in widespread homicide and sexual assault.’ Much of Belanger’s ideology and plotting…is based around a desire to lessen the number of nonwhite Americans and to rape ‘white women to increase the production of white children,'” Rolling Stone contends.

What’s noteworthy about the report is the final paragraph: The Senate Armed Services Committee recently stated that the Pentagon was spending too much money on investigating such matters because the number of individuals is so small.  

So why does Rolling Stone even report the arrest? Because it promotes a frequent meme: Marines are primarily white, rightist wingnuts rather than soldiers who deserve the nation’s respect. 

But there’s more. Atlantic published an article equating Catholic rosaries with extremism. “Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad trad’) Catholics,” Atlantic’s Daniel Panneton writes.

“On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture,” Panneton adds. “These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.”

Just think about the outrage if someone wrote that worry beads were a sign of a terrorist in the Middle East.

But there’s even more. Wired, known primarily as a tech publication, has picked up the anti-white meme in a book review. 

“Whiteness is a seduction. Whiteness is also an illusion. These are the twin motifs on which Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid props up The Last White Man, his latest novel,” Wired states. 

The novel focuses on how whites wake up as nonwhites and how society becomes better for the change.

It’s heartening that Atlantic’s outrageous slander against Catholics has faced some blowback on social media. Still, it appears that the current meme in the media elite is to publish even more outrageous and offensive attacks against whites.  

Where are the Hidden Heroes of Today?

If you are a man looking for inspiration in these dark times have I got a treat for you.

WQPH 89.3 FM is hosting a Catholic Men’s Retreat on Saturday Aug 27th at St. Benedict’s Abbey 252 Still River Road Still River Massachusetts.

The primary speakers are Dan Duddy and Tom Caffey hosts of WQPH’s 13th Apostle every Saturday at 11:30 AM EST. They have been doing men’s events all over the east coast. This will be their first for WQPH in Massachusetts. The theme: “Where are the Hidden Heroes of Today?”

The retreat runs from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM and includes the following on the schedule

  • The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at 9 am
  • Morning Coffee a light breakfast
  • Group Prayers
  • Free time during which confession will be available
  • Luncheon
  • A Talk from Dan Duddy and Tom Caffrey on our theme: Where are the hidden heroes of today?
  • Group discussion Q & A
  • Closing prayers

There will also be books and sacramentals available at the event

The Cost is $55 but only $45 for early bird registration by August 23rd which includes both luncheon and light breakfast

You can sign up in three ways:

  1. Go to WQPHradio.org and hit the Donate Button. In the notes for the donation specify that said donation is for your spot on the retreat (If you wish to sponsor additional people feel free to do so but please include their names in the notes).
  2. Call 617-459-8735 and we will take your information
  3. email us at wqph893@comcast.net with your request.. We will contact you back to confirm the number of tickers and payment

Don’t miss a chance to be part of this excellent life changing event