Prayer to St. Joseph

Saint Joseph, Guardian of virgins and father, to whose faithful care Christ Jesus, innocence itself, and Mary, Virgin of virgins, were entrusted, I ask and beg of thee, through these two dearest pledges, Jesus and Mary, preserve me from all defilement, and make it always possible for me unsullied in mind, pure in heart, and chaste in body to give to Jesus and Mary my holiest service. Amen.

(I recently found this prayer in my missal and have been praying it after the Sacrifice of the Mass on Sundays.)

A poor Church, for the poor

Quite soon after his election to the Petrine throne, his Holiness Pope Francis I said he wants “a poor Church, for the poor.” Through martyrdoms white and red, he shall have it, if perhaps some time following his pontificate.

As the world turns against Holy Mother Church and her children, those children shall suffer persecution, even the glorious crown of martyrdom. Primarily middle or upper class in social status (for the poor, in their pride and lust for earthly pleasures shall reject the Bride who would “deny” them their “freedoms”), faithful Catholics shall suffer the loss of status, employment, housing, civil rights, family, friendships, even their very lives. Catholics shall be cast to the periphery of society. They shall become the poor Church, for the poor.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Thus She and her children shall evangelize, living the Gospel, converting the pagans. Upward, upward shall she rise, until she has swept up the whole into her arms and shepherds them forth, one nation, under God.

Football & the gender elephant in the room

Sitting here eating chips and salsa, watching Super Bowl L just for the commercials, it strikes me how this game is so masculine. Still.

All the players are men. All the coaching staff are men. The photographers on the sidelines? Men. The announcers? Men. That goes for most major sports. They are the domain of men.

All of that is kind of odd, given American culture’s disdain for men, for the masculine, for everything the masculine projects. With all the “equality” stuff in our culture, the I-can-sleep-with-anyone-and-don’t-judge-me, the I-can-be-any-gender-I-want-and-y0u-WILL-conform-to-my-fantasy, how oh how have major league sports, like the NFL, escaped?

Why aren’t Millennials boycotting the Super Bowl for not allowing women? Why aren’t Millennial teenage girls, or girls who think they’re boys, demanding the right to try out and MAKE their high school or college football teams? Why aren’t legions of bull dykes marching outside Levi Stadium demanding their “right” be play as defensive tackles? Why are there no female coaches in the NFL? Half of the US population has no part to play, literally play, in major league sports or events like the Super Bowl. Women are not “represented.” They are not being treated equally by “the patriarchal establishment” or whatever wording “the enlightened” are using nowadays.

I’m not saying I’m “pro-” women in major league sports. I don’t follow sports, I was never good at them, they bore me, there’s too much money involved, so it makes no difference to me if women play or not. But it’s peculiar that this industry’s thus far escaped the overarching cultural pressures on men to be less manly. Don’t you think?

 

Prayer to St Joseph for purity

Found this buried in the “Thanksgiving after Mass” section of my missal. What a prayer for men, all men, but especially those of us suffering from inherently disordered inclinations:

Saint Joseph, Guardian of virgins and father, to whose faithful care Christ Jesus, innocence itself, and Mary, Virgin of virgins, were entrusted, I ask and beg of thee, through these two dearest pledges, Jesus and Mary, preserve me from all defilement, and make it always possible for me unsullied in mind, pure in heart, and chaste in body to give to Jesus and Mary my holiest service. Amen.