Advent II
Going Jab for Jab
A Defense for Rejecting the Covid-19 Injections
By Rev. Stephen McKenna
SHORT EXPLANATION OF WHY WE REJECT THE THESIS OF GUÉRARD DES LAURIERS
By Rev. Vili Lehtoranta
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
It seems my Bishop’s Corner is well read. I figure it generally has three parts. I like to start out with some possibly poetic reflections on the weather. Then there will be news you won’t see anywhere else, chiefly concerning clergy and cats, but also church events, of course. Finally there is the “you should come to church this week because…” (varies each week, appeal is the same). From time to time I’ll give a personal thought, a sigh, a sorrow, which some will misinterpret as an attack. Oh well. The odd dollop of controversy sure keeps up my readership.
I was rushing over to the Rorate Mass on First Wednesday when I just had to pause. You see, the sun was rising rather gloriously and some birds were quite cutely chirping. I think of this as my “Juan Diego” moment every December. It must have been exactly like that at Tepayac when an Aztec Princess appeared, “the one who crushes the serpent god,” the Empress of the Americas, Mary Immaculate. Juan Diego was trotting by on his way to Mass and had to stop. Thus it began, the conversion of perhaps eight to ten million Indians. Sometimes you have to stop.
These mild, sunny December days are a great delight, aren’t they? One more reward for Cincinnati living. Each day is a gift, a precious moment, borrowed against winter waiting in the wings, soon gone with the sun at 5. It reminds me of what you know will be probably your last visit with a dear old friend or the sick, the elderly. It all goes so very well, but this is the last time, you know. Bittersweet.
The Rorate Mass ranks right up there with Vespers, as moments of exquisite beauty and profound prayer, undiscovered, unexplored, unloved. Were it not all done for love, you would almost think this worship wasted. But it is not so. I do rejoice when I remember the appreciated beauty of Midnight Mass or the Christmas Morning Mass with strings and Benediction.
Last Sunday we started Advent, and I hope you did, too. Helfta was nicely full afterwards. I hope you’ll remember your Advent Wreath, your resolutions and Wednesday’s Holy Day, when you’re really supposed to come back. Soon it will be time to meet for Christmas church decorating. Tuesday we begin our second Advent novena, to Mary Immaculate. Today we take a moment to renew our Legion of Decency pledge. Ignore it at your own peril. St. Nicholas is waiting for the little ones after Mass. I’m sure they won’t ignore him.
Despite Communist “health papers” border control, Fr. Trauner was able to slip away from Austria for a few days to visit some Norwegian Catholics, including some interested young non-Catholics. Pray for conversions and growth, and for our missionary priests. Fr. Romero, who has helped our clergy in both France and Brazil as well as his native Argentina, is still hospitalized in Seattle, and now making very slow progress. One priest is one Mass, and we just can’t afford to lose any. Pray. Be kind this week. We’ll cover the cats next week.
– Bishop Dolan