Roscoe Ellis @[email protected]

Mass of the Ages has just released the first of 3 episodes: Discover the Traditional Latin Mass.

Freely available (and worth watching, regardless):

https://youtu.be/xdbwNMYKhw0&t=62

Your choices for today don't just matter for today. Your choices will create your habits and your habits will transform your life.

Have a GREAT day! 👍

#habits

Crisis Magazine has a good piece by Barbara Farrah on progressive (i.e. wayward) bishops cancelling faithful priests. This is a serious problem.

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/canceling-faithful-priests

Interesting article by Steve Skojec at One Peter Five about his angst with the Church and traditional Catholicism. (I appreciate the Church's traditions but don't consider myself a traditionalist.)

https://onepeterfive.com/saying-no-to-crippled-religion/

I've had other spiritual issues but never that sort of angst about the Church or my relationship to it. It's always seemed self-evident to me that the Church, like the world, is made up of sinners and that we are putting our faith in Christ and not an institution. The Church's job is to secure the deposit of faith, and it's a gathering point for the faithful, and all that is good. But there have and will continue to be good and bad priests and even Popes throughout history. They're just men. Flawed men. They aren't God or Christ.

For me, Christianity is an individual religion and is about my personal journal and growth. The Bible tells us this -- the wheat grows with the chaff, many will seek and few will enter, etc.

The reason I am "religious" rather than "spiritual" is because being "religious" to me is effectively being "spiritual, in a community," and since human beings are social creatures, that's important for most of us, even as we recognize that our community, like ourselves, is wracked with sin. And the reason I am Catholic rather than not is partly birth but also that I do think we flawed human beings need to work out these theological issues together -- when everyone is their own Pope, chaos ensues.

But I guess having never expected as much as Steve to begin with, I was less disappointed with the (occasionally grim) reality?

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Happy Mother's Day!

american online ham radio: http://kiwisdr.k1ra.us:8073/
I haven't found anything listenable yet!

#GospelToday (Mt 18:21-35)

Then Peter approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?"

Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.

At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'

Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.

When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.'

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?'

Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart."