Our Lady in East Boston

The late Msgr Frank McFarland (1931-2001), quondam director of Boston's CatholicTV, gives a reflection on the role of Our Lady in our redemption.  The video begins with the history of the sculpture at East Boston's Madonna Shrine -- sculpted by one Arrigo Minerbi, an Italian Jew who was sheltered during the Second World War by Don Orione Fathers.  (Length of video: One half hour.)

A Redemptorist at Okinawa

Fr Philip Dabney, CSsR, tells of his uncle Fr Lawrence Lynch, CSsR, who was killed at Okinawa at age 39. Fr Lynch was very devoted to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

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More Chocolate Drops

"Hit Em Up Style":

"You'll fit right in"

Cool quotation found on tumblr:

To the drunks, the addicts, the perverts, the victims, the porn stars, the prostitutes, the adulterers, thieves, the obese gluttons who think a waste is a terrible thing to mind, the Twilight fans, the murderers, the mommy’s boys, the losers, the freaks, the geeks, people who think wrestling is real, red necks, guys who own action figures, chain smokers, everyone who does not use a turn signal while texting and talking on the phone in their car, men who live with their mothers, women who get paid in dollar bills, dudes in dresses (seen it at Mars Hill), democrats, republicans, the guys at the gym who walk around the locker room naked singing Bon Jovi’s "Living on a Prayer," Mormons and anyone else who wears sacred under breeches, whoever is responsible for the creation and ongoing sale of men’s Lycra biking shorts… yoga instructors, witches, pot heads, meat heads, crack heads, dead heads and meth heads… people who don’t recycle, the rainbow-loving tree-hugging … lefters, and religious people who do not know what I am talking about because these subjects were not on The Little House on the Prairie or covered in their Home School co-op — I have good news for you: Jesus loves you. You’ll fit right in. And because He died for your sins, you get to repent.

~ Mark Driscoll, Jesus Loves Sinners

I love this song

"Country Girl" by Carolina Chocolate Drops

New poet laureate named

The next poet laureate of the United States will be Natasha Trethewey, 46.  Congratulations to Ms. Trethewey!

Veni, Sancte Spiritus et emitte coelitus lucis tuae radium

Come, Holy Spirit, come! 
And from Thy celestial home 
Shed a ray of light divine!


Come, Father of the poor! 
Come, source of all our store! 
Come, within our bosoms shine! 


Thou, of comforters the best; 
Thou, the soul's most welcome guest; 
Sweet refreshment here below;


In our labour, rest most sweet; 
Grateful coolness in the heat, 
Solace in the midst of woe.


O most blessèd Light divine 
Shine within these hearts of Thine. 
And our inmost being fill!


Where you are not, man has naught, 
Nothing good in deed or thought, 
Nothing free from taint of ill.


Heal our wounds, our strength renew; 
On our dryness pour Thy dew; 
Wash the stains of guilt away:


Bend the stubborn heart and will; 
Melt the frozen, warm the chill; 
Guide the steps that go astray.


On the faithful who adore 
And confess you, evermore 
In your sev'nfold gift descend;


Give them virtue's sure reward; 
Give them Thy salvation, Lord; 
Give them joys that never end. 


Amen. Alleluia!


*

(HT: Vivificat!)

From The Tragicall Historie of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth,
Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,
Leaps from th' antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,
Faustus, begin thine incantations ...