Love Thy Neighbours

Gosh. Well that was not pleasant. Someone I have known for 2-3 years came to my door this evening. He has 'issues' which revolve around mental health and is homeless, one of the many people abandoned by the Council and their 'rough sleepers team'. Though he would be the first to admit he is as mad as a box of frogs, he did once point out to me that if all the homeless in Brighton were housed the Rough Sleepers Team would lose all their jobs, so it probably isn't in their interest to do so. He has a very dry sense of humour. This evening, outside the block of flats where I live, he was telling me how he woke up this morning under a bush and felt rain dripping down but that he managed to get to the local rail station to get shelter just in time for the downpour.

He also told me that he had recently been threatened by one of my neighbours and not too long after he said this, the said neighbour emerged from the corridor and gave us a look that was, to put it mildly, not approving. On his way back in, and then back out again, he exchanged some words with Ben and I. I don't know what the guy's name is, but he reproved me for talking to Ben outside the block of flats, saying that he "pays a lot of money" for his flat and doesn't want to see any homeless people outside, as if, somehow, I have a queue of homeless people waiting outside my flat or something, which simply isn't true. I am on friendly terms with Jason and Ben and that is pretty much it. What am I to say to Ben? "Sorry, Ben, you can't call for me anymore because even though I count you as a friend you are not really a proper human being because you are a homeless untermensch and my neighbour doesn't like you?"

My neighbour's comment was, I thought, more insulting to Ben than it was to me, but the man went on to say this was the "last warning" (when he should have said "first and last"), otherwise he and a couple of his friends would "do something" about it and I got the distinct impression that he was not talking about legal action, but something more physical and violent. It was ironic that the chap turned up at the moment that he did, because Ben and I were just discussing Hitler and the Nazis. I asked the guy whether Ben and I were doing something illegal and he told me to "f*** off". Nice, eh? He also found enough time to tell Ben that "I don't give a f**k about you," which is a sentiment with which Ben is all too familiar.

I told him I would call the police if he threatened me again. The worrying thing is that if I called the police, the police might possibly take my neighbour's side because talking to a poor man outside your block of flats is probably considered "anti-social behaviour" and nowadays that is the crime above all crimes. I expect that if they do bring back the death penalty to this country, those guilty of 'anti-social behaviour' will be the first in the line waiting to hang from a noose. What with abortion being the killing of the innocent, I thought it might not be too long before the killing of the guilty would attempt a return. I guess cuts need to be made in these harsh economic times and prisoners are ripe for the culling, aren't they?

I don't think this video (which I was going to post anyway, regardless of tonight's unsavoury events) does justice to Ben's talent, but then Ben doesn't really do justice to Ben's talent and is not currently able to do so. He doesn't have a house, he doesn't have a room and he doesn't have a guitar. All he has is the clothes he stands up in and a sleeping bag. He describes himself as a 'man seeking asylum in his own country'. He hasn't been housed since he was evicted, for apparently no good reason, from Glenwood Lodge.  He never did get his guitar back from there.

I have at least two neighbours in my block who are on good terms with Ben and one occasionally comes out to see him if he notices him and gives him some of his delicious home cooking, so it is not like all my neighbours are up in arms about this issue, just one or two people who pay a lot of money for their property but no attention to their immortal souls.  I don't particularly want to get beaten up and ultimately I am a bit of a coward. At 33, I'm too young to get martyred and if I am to be martyred I'd rather be martyred at 93, so say a prayer for me and for Ben and for my rather aggressive and not very understanding neighbour. Anyway, for those of you who don't like guitar music in any shape or form, here is nice collection of photographs of Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrating the Mass of all Masses. The Church looks like St Patrick's, Soho, but I could have that wrong...

On this special day for priests - a prayer with a difference

Today is the feast of the patron saint of all priests, the Cure of Ars, St John Vianney. H/T to Ros at Shadowlands who reminded me of this prayer with her post.

The following is a prayer for priests, not all priests, just renegade ones. They may be renegade for any number of reasons and the word itself, in this case, just means a priest at odds with his vocation. He may have problems of chastity, obedience, poverty - whatever the problem, this prayer is for those men and one in particular who need not be named:-

“I have no chapel; no altar at which to offer the holiest sacrifice; no pulpit from which to preach. There is no confessional where penitents await counsel and absolution from my lips; no baptismal font where, by the sacrament of regeneration, I may give to the Eternal Father another child. I am a priest, Christ’s shepherd, but I have no sheep.

But though I have no sheep, the Prince of shepherds is my friend. He needs me; He is my divine companion. It is His will that I should be as I am. “Christ is in me” and, for me, that is enough.

There are others like me and, in every country throughout the world, “silenced priests” living hidden lives; hidden from the world; hidden, as far as may be, in Christ.  Some are my good friends……..

Prayers going up to heaven, in ever increasing volume for faithless priests are wondrously fruitful. Many “stray shepherds” heed the call of Christ, who searches for them in the mist. When they see Him again their hearts are moved and they come back.

Then, there occurs what Luke (2:20) mystically foretold “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God”.

 

Is There a Career in Prayer?

Why should new agers be running a monopoly?

A priest friend of mine recently told me about a medieval man who would receive payment for his praying the office of the dead for the repose of souls. That was, literally, his job.

In Brighton we have quite a few palm readers and tarot readers and the like, in the city centre and on the beach. The question is, could a Catholic make a career out of prayer and challenge their monopoly of taking advantage of the vulnerable and superstitious?

You can imagine the scene. A Catholic sets up a small tent on the beach and becomes renowned as some kind of local 'mystic' or 'guru'. People approach the tent, where he is almost always on his knees and people ask him to pray for their dead grandmother, and for a fee of £4.99 (he takes Visa, American Express too) he promises the release of said grandmother's soul from Purgatory. He's a mystic, of course, so the Lord reveals to him whereabouts in Purgatory the grandmother is, so he can, if necessary, tell the client that the ascent to Heaven will be greatly helped by another £4.99 and grandmother is 'nearly out'.

It wouldn't just have to be prayers for the dead, either. Prayers and Novenas to the Saints could be offered for particular intentions because most in Brighton don't have the time that the 'guru' has to say the prayers. People could come along with a skin complaint and supplication could be made to St Bartholomew for healing. People with sore throats come and novenas are launched to St Blaise. I expect it would be more effective than those Chinese medical shops at any rate. He really is a mystic, of course, so it isn't necessarily fraud or deception, and because he is increasing in holiness because of his devout and penitential life, seeking only the Face of God and money, in five years time he really is telling people their futures, temporal and eternal, while levitating in ecstatic prayer. I can see the idea taking off, even in Brighton, because more or less everything takes off in Brighton. It is that kind of novelty-obsessed town.

Brighton, after all, is at the cutting edge of new age philosophy and bizarre alternative remedies. Check out, for instance, this place in the city centre, that is offering 45 minutes of enjoying a 'fish spa' for just £20. Basically, you stick your feet in a fish tank and the fish (apparently not piranhas) nibble all the dead, flaky skin off your feet. Poor fish! Morrissey must be going mad with rage at this flagrant attack on fish rights! People really are charging £20 so that you can put your feet in a tank and have your feet nibbled by fish.

There were two stalls on the beach yesterday selling, among other bracelets, those Catholic saints bracelets, made of wood and elastic. I asked how come they are selling them, as I didn't think Brighton was particularly Catholic. The guy responded that apparently they are all the rage at the moment because the winner of X Factor was wearing one! Welcome to Brighton, quite possibly the most superficial town in the United Kingdom!

The Left Make the 'Tea Party' Appear Eminently Sensible

Polly Toynbee: Concerned champagne socialist 

Well, I have something of a headache today, having met up with my old band and had one too many drinks (mea culpa). What I really needed last night was an arm of the State to come and pour my last pint down the drain as the police do for local homeless men and to be arrested for opening a new can, as Jason was very recently.

It is unlikely that the band will re-form  because, unfortunately, only about 6 people ever came to our gigs and five of them were in the band. Don't worry. Neither fame, nor fortune will change me, because neither are likely to touch me.

It has been, therefore, a highly unproductive day, but I've been reading some of the Telegraph blogs.  Yesterday, I took a look at Tina Beattie's Marginal Musings to see whether she had been hacking at the walls of Holy Mother Church with a pen knife lately and was pleasantly surprised that she seems to be in art critic mode, a mode in which she can do little damage, so I left her blog thankful that she had calmed down and maybe accepted the Catholic Faith.

No such luck, however, for later in the same day, Damian Thompson wrote a post concerning the great 'Roehampton reformer', whose eccentric ideas are more attractive to at least a sizable proportion of the Bishops of England and Wales than those of the currently reigning Supreme Pontiff.  It really is astonishing that the Bishops of England and Wales allow this lecturer in theology to lecture the Faithful and even Priests in Clifton on matters pertaining to the Faith, when she consistently makes it apparent that her agenda is ideologically motivated, rather than Christian in content. Tina, as we know, paints herself as a latter-day St Catherine of Sienna while maintaining that her outlook on the Church is 'progressive' and, such is the way in which words are leapt upon and hijacked like a Boeing 747 at Heathrow, you cannot be 'progressive' and hold views that are 'traditional' because the 'old way' of thinking, which is grounded in reason, as well as faith, must be discarded.

No. To be 'progressive' you must challenge even those opinions that are so deeply rooted in the Church's very being that they are stored as a treasure and guarded by the Successor of St Peter himself and find expression in the Catechism of the Church which you claim to love. To the 'progressive', nothing is sacred. The only thing that is sacred to the progressive is the wholesale rejection of your own tradition.

'Progressives': Do they deliver progress or anarchy?

In this sense, we can draw a comparison between Tina and 'progressives' such as Polly Toynbee.  To be a 'progressive' you must occupy the ideological left and mock and attack the traditions, beliefs and opinions of those you deem to be of the old guard, or 'regressive'.  James Delingpole writes today on Polly's denunciation of the 'Tea Party' movement in America and I must say that the more criticism they attract from the righteous left, the more attractive they become because they stand for beliefs about liberty and freedom which they view as timeless and from God. The 'Tea Party' is largely pro-life, pro-liberty, pro-family. Some may be rather simplistic in their worldview but then the left does tend to over-complicate even the simpler things in life, like love, marriage and family with 'progressive' ideas such as divorce, abortion and the promotion of the homosexual sub-culture into the mainstream.

I wonder whether there has ever been a variant of socialism which has not been 'champagne socialism', the crude ideology espoused by Polly Toynbee and many on the left. Capitalism may produce winners and losers, but I'm not sure those who died at the hands of Pol Pot, Stalin and the host of Marxist elites turned mass murderers would have described themselves as winners. The sad thing about champagne socialism is that that those who adhere to its credo rarely offer any champagne to the people they claim to stand up for. They live in mansions or expensive London penthouses and have the audacity to maintain that they believe in 'equality'! They despise free trade or the free market and bewail the fact that the poor do not drink champagne because no champagne 'trickles' down to them, while believing that it is not their own champagne that should be distributed out among the poor, but that the State should do it because the State must do everything, including calling time at the bar for Mr Jason Evans.

Analysts search for colour darker than black to describe Thursday

The State, that most impersonal and, in terms of recent human history, often quite terrifying and merciless force, becomes the organ that pumps money around the body of society.

Then, when the arteries become clogged and the organ fails, the 'progressives' still believe that this is the organ that is responsible for everything, including the rescuing of the diseased organs that led to its failure, the financial sector and huge multinational banks.

It is interesting, is it not, that between billionaire global financiers, speculators and investors such as George Soros and Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and Polly Toynbee, there is probably not even a hair's difference in political opinion, yet The Guardian still presents her as someone who speaks up on behalf of the poor and working classes. Pull the other one. Polly Toynbee actually defends the interests of a very small group of billionaires who have consistently flooded the 'progressive' campaign and the progressive camp with their money. The next time you see Bill Gates or Warren Buffet giving a load of their cash to some 'reproductive health' organisation in Africa, remember that Polly Toynbee is behind them, 100%.

The proponents of left-wing ideology consistently deride those who disagree with them as simple goons who need to be re-educated. The 'Tea Party' is a threat to them because the 'Tea Party' stands for values enshrined in the US Constitution and/or the Bill of Rights.  Americans are quite right to distrust the over-reaching State because history tells us that when it becomes too big it crushes human freedom, liberty and even religion itself. As it stands, US citizens cannot even go to an airport without being molested by the TSA officials. As it stands, the US Government bailed out major banking institutions who recklessly lended to those who were unable to pay back and few, if anybody, in the banking sector were called to account for the crisis that led to the 'debt ceiling', being raised, lest the Government default on its staggeringly huge debt. It is no wonder that the 'Tea Party' has many members in the USA and if I were given a choice of spending some time with them, or with Polly Toynbee and the billionaire financier abortion promoters who promote her 'progressive' causes, I know which choice I would make.

As for Tina Beattie, well, I expect that she and Polly Toynbee would see eye to eye on a range of issues. That's the really sad thing about Tina. She 'challenges' so much Catholic teaching that she might just as well be an atheistic, left-wing Guardian writer. You can just imagine them at a pub together in a plush part of London slagging off Pope Benedict and praising President Obama, that great 'progressive'. $14 trillion of debt. Now that is what I call 'progress'! Can I raise my 'debt ceiling' too? If I could do that I would have bought a whole round last night. I'm a simpleton, I'm not a 'progressive'. I just believe that the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

Oh dear...Bad news just in...Does Polly have any ideas for how the State can solve the 'Eurozone' crisis? I hope her shares won't be affected. That George Soros may be excited about today's events may be sick, but sadly it may also be true. Hey, what do you expect? He's a 'progressive', you know.

...."the British Governement hereby requires you to report for active service in a war zone as from....."

If a letter commanding you to report for active service landed in your postbox how would you react? I suspect that, not many of us would run around punching the air and giving high fives to all and sundry.

I guess we would sit down and have a strong cup of tea drink before breaking the news to one's wife or husband.

War. Away from home for months, maybe years. Facing untold hardships and, every day, staring death in the face....gulp! Have another strong drink.

But could we or would we turn down the Government's request to become part of the military? Most Catholics hold hard to the belief that the legitimate protection of innocent lives is a matter that must be accepted even if it entails the killing of one's fellow man. "Thou shalt not kill" works both ways; wrong to wantonly murder and wrong to allow wanton murder to take place, even if it does mean taking lives in the process.

Conscientious objectors (COs) traditionally but not exclusively, come from the ranks of Quakers and homosexuals (and sometimes people of a faith that is subject to utter persecution such as the Jews in the last war).

This is a most selfish stance to take. It allows your neighbour to offer the ultimate sacrifice while you stay at home tucked up in a warm bed.

Belloc had a good way of encapsulating the CO position when he wrote:

"Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,

but Roaring Bill, who killed him,

thought it right"

For those whose beliefs just will not permit them to take up arms there is always the Ambulance or Medical Corps or any one of several dozen non combatant roles. Many medals for gallantry have been won by homosexuals and others in these positions. But I have no time for the full on COs who refuse to play even a passive role.

Today I speculate on how many men and women, upon being sent conscription papers, would play the CO card. I suspect that the numbers electing for a year or two in jail rather than a year or two facing enemy fire, would be a great deal higher than at times of previous call-ups.

We do suffer from a malaise of moral decay that will, in the event of war, produce an abundance of those who will not fight and claim that their conscience prevents them from doing so.

It would be interesting to do a research survey to try to discover just how many of those serving Queen and country also believe in God. I suspect that the majority do. I also believe that the majority of those wishing to shirk their duty are non believers. I cannot prove those points, just a personal belief.

I hope that the time never comes when the point is capable of being proved.

An invitation from the Bishops of England and Wales

The call has gone out via the parishes of England and Wales for the laity to make their views known to their Lordships regarding the re-instatement (or not) of  two of the Holydays of Obligation, the Epiphany and the Ascension. These are now (as far as Nuchurch) is concerned, celebrated on the nearest Sunday.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters) who know about such things still have Mass on 6th January for the Epiphany and 40 days after Easter for the Ascension feast. But for all Catholics who labour under trials of the modern day Church, it's the nearest Sunday - saves a lot of extra church going!

This became fact some two plus years ago; now the Bishops want our views on the matter. Hmm.....if they were politicians I suspect we would be banging on the table by now saying words to the effect "You should never have changed  in the first place" or "You are in a responsible position and you should have known that this was a silly move from the word go".

But, as they are Bishops we just send in a polite note saying "We want our Holy Days back on the traditional date please" 

Why Can't We Put Our Politicians on Trial?

Hosni Mubarak has appeared for trial in Egypt. Here we don't do trials. We do 'inquiries'...