This is super awesome

The Vatican has posted an online gallery in honour of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  It includes excerpts from his writings.  Enjoy. I know I will, again and again.
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His last day as pope

Full video here, as well as text of his final address.

This was my favourite quotation:

Here, one can touch what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all. To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one’s hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy...

We can, of course, physically touch Christ's power, truth, love and joy in the Eucharist, but also in each other. At the heart of the faith is not a creed or dogma, but the living person of Jesus Christ, whom we carry in our hearts.  Evangelization is being in relationships, and carrying Christ to the heart of another.
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Mr. Caldwell, Prognosticator

Actually, pun-nosticator. Here he is, on the much-touted St. Malachy's prophecy, being his usual fun and witty self: 

As you can clearly see, apart from getting the date, names and actual events wrong, Nostradamus called it perfectly.
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It’s not that I don’t believe in prophecy.  I do.  But most of us suck at it (President Romney, please call your Oval Office).

Theo concludes with the words of Jesus that "we know not the hour" and should just prepare, albeit in a sane and non-hysterical fashion, for the End Times anyway. And he asks us to pray for a wise man to be elected pope, which is just what a wise man would suggest. 
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The Lord knows our ways

This cut n' pasted directly from EWTN's daily Mass readings. (Red stuff my additions).

Psalm 50:
8	I do not reprove you for your sacrifices; your burnt offerings are continually before me. (the Lord knew about my cooking even back then!)
9	I will accept no bull from your house (my writing too, apparently), nor he-goat from your folds.
16	But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips? (he desires deeds before words)
17	For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. (OUCH... hello, daily life)
21	These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.
23	He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!"

I'll say it again, thank heaven for Lent-- and for online devotions--which help us to order our ways aright.

I can't help but think this is a bad career move.

Further to the post below, it looks like the partnership is breaking up. And so soon after winning an Oscar! It will be depressing to see the less famous half first appearing in Adam Sandler movies as a toupee, then as the B-list celebrity on Dancing With the Stars, and finally in late night infomercials for Grecian Formula ripoffs.
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Obligatory Oscar Post

I'm not especially crazy about Ben Affleck. I don't especially like beards. But put those two things together...

...and you have my pick for the new category of Joint Best Actor/ Supporting Actor for 2012. Ben Affleck and His Beard. They might even get their own spinoff.
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Lenten Meditation

Wouldn't you rather spend more time fasting with Jesus than indulging with one (or ten, or fifty, or eighty-five) of these?
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I got magnetic Scrabble tiles for my birthday.

I find they are really handy for when you're waiting for supper to finish cooking, or just whenever something is weighing heavily on your mind....

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Every possible book has been written now, and we can all stop.

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Ich bin ein Home Schooler!

In a political asylum case involving a German family that fled to the United States to be able to homeschool their children, the U.S. Justice Department is arguing that the freedom to choose to educate one's own children is not a fundamental right.

Good thing the U.S.J.D. knows who the real enemies of America are: people who want to educate their own kids.

  "There are two major portions of constitutional rights of citizens – fundamental liberties and equal protection. The U.S. Attorney General has said this about homeschooling. There is no fundamental liberty to homeschool. So long as a government bans homeschooling broadly and equally, there is no violation of your rights. This is a view which gives some acknowledgement to the principle of equal protection but which entirely jettisons the concept of fundamental liberties."

As long as there's a boot on everyone's face, why, then no one is getting treated badly because everyone is equal!

 "It is important that Americans stand up for the rights of German homeschooling families," Farris concludes. "In so doing, we stand up for our own."

How do you say, "You can take our lesson planning books from us when you pry them from our cold, dead hands!" in German?
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Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

The world just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Or is it just me? (Don't answer that.) I've become quite used to seeing my columns and articles popping up (re-posted etc.) on other pro-life websites, parenting web-sites, pro-family websites, Christian websites, but (ye gods)  The Richard Dawkins Foundation, for cryin' out loud? It's enough to make a dumb old housewife give up blogging.

Must go find hairshirt.
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It's as if they had a window to my past

This is almost a verbatim retelling of Mr. P's marriage proposal! Not really, because I didn't say no, and he doesn't do foot massage. He can make soup though, as long as it comes from a tin or a noodle package. Too funny.

Mortification 101

"The Christian who goes through life systematically avoiding sacrifice will not find God, will not find happiness. What he will have been taking care to avoid is his own sanctity."

Fr. Francis Fernandez,
In Conversation With God: Vol II, Lent and Eastertide

worth every penny:

Amazon.ca Amazon.com

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Happy Evangelization Day to our fellow Slavs

Today is the commemoration of Saints Cyril and Methodius, missionaries to the Slavic peoples.

His last Lenten message as pope

From News.va

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin the liturgical time of Lent, forty days that prepare us for the celebration of Holy Easter, it is a time of particular commitment in our spiritual journey. The number forty occurs several times in the Bible. In particular, it recalls the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness: a long period of formation to become the people of God, but also a long period in which the temptation to be unfaithful to the covenant with the Lord was always present. Forty were also the days of the Prophet Elijah’s journey to reach the Mount of God, Horeb; as well as the time that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning his public life and where he was tempted by the devil. In this Catechesis I would like to dwell on this moment of earthly life of the Son of God, which we will read of in the Gospel this Sunday.

Ash Wednesday

It's good to be reminded every so often that all the hustle and bustle in which we immerse ourselves really is for naught. Wishing you a fruitful Lenten season.

As for man, his days are like grass;
he flowers like the flower of the field;
the wind blows and he is gone
and his place never sees him again.

from the Office of Readings, Psalm 103

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The devil is in the bureaucracy.

Which should surprise absolutely no one. Bureaucracy is evil. David Warren nails it, as usual.

This has become, to my mind, the key practical issue for the Church to face in her immediate future.

And other thoughts on the pope's resignation. Read. It. All.
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Well said, Mr. Cook

“To silence, by honest living, the ignorant chatter of fools; that is what God expects of you.” By that standard Benedict XVI has been all that Catholics expected of him, and more.

Just one of several worthwhile tributes to the Holy Father at MercatorNet. 

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Try to keep up

A recent Saturday evening conversation with my girls:

Mom: Let's watch a period drama.

Miss P #5: Which one?

Mom: Let's watch Sense and Sensibility.

Miss P #4: Which one?

Mom: The short one.

Miss P #3: The one with Snape and Bertie Wooster?

Kind, sociable and fluffy

Don't we all aspire to be described thus? This just in from Russia, with love: an email from "Olga," courtesy of my spam folder. I don't know why I find these so funny, but I do. I guess we have to take our simple pleaures where we can. It's quicker than reading a self-published novel. 

(I might sound unnecessarily sarcastic from time to time, but in a life, I more nice.) 

You have drawn my attention to a site of acquaintances. I hope, as I shall like you. How I to you in a photo? The truth - pretty? :) But in a life I more nice!!!And as I cheerful, kind, sociable and fluffy! I like to go in for sports, read books, to listen to music. I love winter and summer. I do not love spring and slush.If I have interested you, with pleasure I shall tell about myself more in the following letter.I wait for the answer on [link deleted]

"While my mind understands...my heart still breaks a bit"

I agree with Pat's feelings of sadness (and yes, even a bit of fear), but not with his conclusion. We have to trust that the Holy Father knows what he is doing, and that God is in charge. But we will miss you, Papa. Pray for us.

From the publishers who brought you Blonde Anne of Green Gables

 CreateSpace presents its library of classic literature!

Now available wherever fine littrature is sold!
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My writing students, past and present, will be pleased.

And so will Miss Pinkerton #2, who is currently studying German in university. A short article about the implementation of the new universal language at the European Union. 

For those of you out there who are currently trying to teach children things like grammar, spelling and writing, relax. You may carry on as before. Parents will be placated to know that the rules will soon be for naught anyway.

h/t Mr. P's brother and his lovely wife, who emailed me the link. 

This one's for Mrs. Jones

Source: quickmeme.com via Cayden on Pinterest

And the Gables? Fuschia.

I wonder if Kevin Sullivan had anything to do with this.

What's Gilbert going to call her now, Cornhead?
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Amusing. Concise. True.

Thanks to Mark Shea, I have discovered (quite late in the game, as usual) the Population Research Institute's POP 101 animated series. Check out all their videos.

Yet another Facebook photo

Shamelessly stolen from a friend's timeline. And yes, it's one of those days. Actually, it's shaping up to be one of those decades.

Redneck "gun culture" and other post-modern fairy tales

Canada has been there, done that (repeatedly) with the debate over gun control. Funny how it always comes down to politicians wanting to take away shotguns from the guys in the plaid flannel shirts--hunters and farmers--when that's not really where the heart of the problem lies.

Ben Stein at American Spectator:

In any given week, on any given weekend, dozens of black youths are gunned down by other blacks in America’s cities. This is a horror show happening in real life. The total number of deaths from this ongoing disaster far outpaces the deaths in mass killings in Aurora or Newtown.

Now, in no way should either of these grim phenomena be used to minimize the other. But it amazes me that the whole country, the whole world, goes berserk about the killings in a charming town in Connecticut, as we should — while the daily slaughter of black youths by other black youths is just part of the wallpaper of modern life.

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Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. And we pay very little attention to it when the people on both ends of the barrel are black.

This one's for Mrs. Beazly

And possibly Mr. Blurn, since they don't fancy Christian rock. I like some of it, but you still have to be able to laugh at yourself. If you don't, someone else will. (And indeed, there IS a lot of cheesy and just plain terrible worship music out there...)

Comfort Art

It's just as efficacious as comfort food, but without the weight gain. The homey interiors and lovely natural scenes of 19th c. Swedish artist Carl Larsson  (with enduring thanks to Nordic Thoughts, as usual).

Larsson admitted, however, in the same memoirs that the pictures of his family and home "became the most immediate and lasting part of my life's work. For these pictures are of course a very genuine expression of my personality, of my deepest feelings, of all my limitless love for my wife and children."

What's not to love?