The wearing of mantillas.....so unfair

                                             

I mean, we men have no such easy means of assuming an aura of humility and dedication of self to God.

Women may carry a mantilla with them in their pocket or handbag and, hey presto, within a few seconds transform themselves from the worldly to the angelic.

Whenever I attend Mass with my daughters, my heart misses a beat when I turn and catch sight of them, head bent in prayer and a mantilla gracefully hiding the glory of their hair from the sight of man, but not from God.

In that instant I realise that they belong not to me but to Almighty God and that I am just the part time caretaker, the hired hand who only has a passing involvement in something much more intimate and beautiful, the relationship between them and Our Lord.

So, the mantilla has a transforming effect and that is why it is so unfair; we males have nothing remotely approaching this mantle of sanctity; we have to remove our cloth caps and go bareheaded into the House of the Lord, like schoolboys removing their caps while in the presence of the Head.

We stand there, dull and ordinary and zombie like while our wives and daughters positively glow.

It is good, therefore, to see another 'mantilla' blog appear, this time from Oxford's Amanda Lewin, please visit her blog 'Loving Mantillas' and add it to your bloglist.

This is Amanda's second blog (masochist) her first one being
 Catholic Home Education.

Why not visit both?  Why not add both?

Fr Hugh Thwaites - his wisdom lives on

Mark Lambert has a post prompted by Rhoslyn Thomas's piece on Fr Hugh Thwaites and the NO Mass compared with the Tridentine Latin.

Well worth reading HERE

Colorado Territory

Just before the advent of "adult Westerns" comes this curio. Raoul Walsh's noir-inflected oater Colorado Territory (1949) tries to add darkness to a familiar Western plot, but the result proves underwhelming.

Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) escapes from a Missouri jail and flees to Colorado. He soon falls in with outlaw leader Reno (John Archer) in a convoluted train robbery. Though Wes falls for preacher's daughter Julie Ann (Dorothy Malone), he also develops feelings for half-caste femme fatale Colorado (Virginia Mayo), who has her own agenda. Wes and his uneasy partners waste no time backstabbing each other, leading our antihero squaring off against a massive posse.

Colorado Territory is a remake of Walsh's High Sierra (1941). Transplanting that gangster film's story to the Old West works well enough, but the movie never really comes into its own. Walsh's big action scenes are uninspired, with obvious rear projection grating against location work. The character dynamics yield few surprises, and Wes's bid for redemption never grows as compelling as it should be. With its morally compromised hero and downbeat ending Colorado's unusually dark for a '40s Western, but that's not enough on its own.

Joel McCrea seems awkwardly cast in a role originated by Humphrey Bogart. Villains John Archer and James Mitchell aren't especially effective, either. Virginia Mayo offers the best turn: Colorado veers towards stereotype, but Mayo invests her with both poignancy and sex appeal. Character actors Morris Ankrum, Henry Hull and Frank Puglia provide dependable support.

Colorado Territory is decent but unremarkable. Perhaps being a remake of a bona fide classic held Walsh back, but either way it feels like it could be much better.

Catholic Franciscan Priest Beheaded in Syria

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church and this brave man's story simply must be read.

Lucinda Creighton Speaks on Abortion Legislation in the Dáil

Franciscan Joke

A band of Catholic laymen in England decide to sell all they own, give the money to the poor and become mendicant friars in their hometown. The new order is a success with other young Catholic men joining, as they live the mendicant existence, with no permanent address, sleeping wherever they can, relying on the generosity and alms of others to survive, preaching to towns and villages across the South East the glory of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Their order well and truly off the ground, they set off on pilgrimage to Rome to have their order recognised by the Pope. They beg along the way and make the journey from England to Rome on foot. It takes them a long, long time on foot to get to Rome but they eventually turn up at St Peter's Square, exasperated, hungry and in pain from the tiring pilgrimage in their rags. Their leader makes a request that the band of brothers may have the honour of a private audience with the Pope so that His Holiness may bless the new Order and give it formal Papal recognition.

The Pope, seeing the band of brothers, steps forward, approaches the group of men, all kneeling as they await news of what the Pope will say to them. He reaches them, stops and says, 'Rise, O brothers.'

The men rise but each go to venerate the Office of the Papacy, kissing the Holy Father's hand upon which is the Fisherman's Ring. After a period of expectant silence, the Pope says to the brothers, 'You have come all the way from England, I hear, so that I may give formal recognition to your Franciscan Order?'

Their leader speaks up. "Yes, Your Holiness. We wish to live as Jesus taught us to live, in poverty and simplicity, taking nothing for our journey but trusting solely in His Providence. We have come all this way from England just to see you so that Your Holiness may bless and give your personal Papal recognition to this new Order."

The Pope smiles and says to the brothers, "You came all this way to see me? Ah...so you haven't heard?'

"Heard what, Your Holiness?" says the leader.

"What an unfortunate co-incidence!" says the Pope. "Only last week, I devolved the recognition of new Orders to the individual Bishops' Conferences for each country. In fact, your local Bishop could have given you recognition. You needn't have come all this way. In fact, because the power to recognise new Orders universally has been given to the individual Bishops Conference for each country, you need to go and see your Diocesan Bishop for formal approval and he will decide in concert with his brother Bishops in the Conference of England and Wales. I'm the Bishop of Rome and I could only give formal recognition to your new Order if you were in my Diocese. I'm terribly sorry, brothers!"

The leader speaks up, "But Your Holiness, our Bishop thinks we're insane! We have done everything you asked of us, Your Holiness, we live in poverty and serve Jesus in the poor. You have inspired us to give up everything for the Lord!"

The Pope says,"Well, I'm sorry its too late, the power to recognise Orders outside of my Diocese has already been divested from the Papacy and I don't want to tread on the toes of my brother Bishops. Would you like some sandwiches? Wait here, I'll go and make them myself, no? Avanti!"

Your Holiness, Have Mercy!

We must all of us pray for Pope Francis in a spirit of filial love. 

Damian Thompson today writes of the deeply concerning news that Archbishop Piero Marini is rumoured to be moving to the Congregation for the Divine Worship.

As Catholic bloggers we must always strive to be loyal to the Successor of St Peter, under whom the whole Catholic Church finds communion and unity in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Archbishop Marini has, since Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, said some most uncharitable things of the reign of the now Pope Emeritus, as well as challenging the Catholic Church's position on same-sex civil unions for homosexual persons. It is surely true that for an Archbishop, who has made such public statements of contempt for Pope Benedict XVI's reign as Sovereign Pontiff, to be placed in such authority over matters of Divine Worship would be a grave insult to the Pope Emeritus who Pope Francis embraced recently saying, 'We are brothers!'.

Please, Your Holiness, we beg you to show mercy to your predecessor, show mercy to your sons and daughters, and, if this is planned, to reconsider this appointment.