I love dis guy!
😍
Christmas 2022 Homily
There is a saying that I agree with, and the Knights of Columbus even have magnets for cars that say this phrase - “Keep Christ in Christmas”
Again, I agree that we should Christ in Christmas, but it is important to also say “Keep the “Mass” in Christmas.” The -mas at the end of Christmas means “Mass” just like we have "Michaelmas", which is a Mass in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel, and “Candlemas” which is a Mass where we process into Church with lit candles in honor of Mary bringing the Christ Child, the true light of the world, into the temple for the first time, so as well we celebrate tonight “Christ’s Mass”.
The event that we remember and celebrate tonight was Jesus being manifested to the world for the first time 2,000 years ago, and so as well, on this altar, at this “Christ’s Mass”, when a priest says the Words of Consecration over bread and wine, they instantly become Christ once again manifested to the world. And so it is good to be here with you tonight!
I would like to tell a brief story about Poland, and a Christmas Midnight Mass.
In 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, which triggered WWII. The same day that WWII ended in 1945, Poland found itself behind the iron curtain, now under the brutal oppression of the Communists. So Poland suffered brutally for decades.
I mention all of this to say that in 1959 a young bishop Karol Wojtyla, who would become St. Pope John Paul the Second, started having a Christmas Midnight Mass OUTSIDE in a city that had been built by the Communists, and that Christmas midnight Mass was usually well below zero like it is tonight.
100,000 Poles showed up for that first Christmas midnight Mass, outside…imagine that…100,000 people outside, below freezing temperatures, but they were there for Mass 100,000 strong, and the Polish people showed up at every subsequent Christmas Midnight Mass until the Communists relented and in 1977 the Ark Catholic Church was built, the only time a Communist nation has allowed a Catholic Church to be built.
It is well below zero tonight, but we are here celebrating Mass.
In our world today Communism and Socialism are once again on the ascendant, but just like Herod, just like Pontius Pilate, and just like the rulers and lords of our day, every ruler who runs up against the Christ Child is doomed.
The Devil and the Communists and Socialists play the long game, but God’s plan is prior to their plans…Christ’s plan existed before the world was even created!
We rejoice tonight at the birth of the Savior Jesus, as He once again appears on our altar tonight. We gather this night and at every Mass to give thanks for the greatest gift of all time…the gift of Jesus Christ.
https://catholicinsight.com/vote-in-parliament-tonight-on-emergencies-act/
The Senate will still have to vote, if this does pass, but I can’t remember the last time they went against the will of the Liberals.
If there are any truly illegal actions by protestors in the near future, they can be dealt with by our civil laws, which are broad and robust enough – too much so, in this writer’s opinion – to deal with transgressions and threats, outside of open war, for which this measure was originally intended. Is Trudeau at war? And with whom? The people of Canada?
To put this all in perspective, look over the pond to Britain, which is set to end all Covid restrictions – yes, all of them, leaving it up to individual’s to exercise discretion and prudence, as we have done for endemic illnesses from time immemorial. Imagine that.
Trudeau, in poker terms, is on tilt, for reasons known only to him, and we need an end to what is becoming an unhinged situation, mocked and criticized across the world. The tide is turning, we may hope, back to normalcy and sanity.
So please do pray that that tide of basic common sense washes over and into the hearts and minds of our parliamentarians, including that intention in your prayers tonight, not least in all your family rosaries. The simple, humble and guileless petitions of children are powerful indeed in the sight of God!
Our Lady, Saint Joseph and all Canadian martyrs and saints, orate pro nobis! +
https://catholicinsight.com/dystopias-and-warping-truth/
Future dystopias – which now have to be written the present tense – almost invariably involve governmental control and manipulation of the people’s thoughts and consequent behaviour, with a false and deliberately manipulative view of reality foisted upon the citizenry, usually by technological means to which the people are addicted. (Ironically, and providentially, I’m publishing this as the police crack down on the Freedom Convoy, with a media blackout in the area)
The paradigmatic is Orwell’s 1984, (published in 1949 in the wake of the collapsed Nazi regime) with Big Brother both watching every move we make and every breath we take, as well as shaping and controlling our thoughts by declaring obvious falsehoods from which none dare demur. Two plus two is five, and the past is what we say it be.
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) has the people of 1999 (which seemed far off in the fifties!) mesmerized by giant, wall-sized television screens, filled with inane entertainment – clowns and circuses – with interludes of ‘news’, shaped to form the opinions the government desires.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), the people of 2540 (at this point, I’m not sure we’ll reach mid-century) addicted to the soporific soma, accepting whatever Mustafa Ford tells them. Unlike the hapless citizens of 1984, they were more lulled into obeisance than forced.
Before all of these, there was E.M. Forester’s The Machine Stops (first published in 1909, no future date given for the story, but we’re all more or less in it) which eerily predicts a giant information/entertainment ‘machine’ to which everyone in the underground city is connected, and which gives them everything they need, from music, to food, to news. They have forgotten there is a world ‘up there’, for the machine does everything for them. But what happens when the machine no longer works?
These are all meditations on a theme of Plato’s original allegory of The Cave, from chapter VII of his Republic (written circa 400 B.C.). In a metaphorical underground cavern, people watch shadows of images, thinking they are real. When the philosopher tries to convince them that there is a beautiful, glorious world outside, the sun shining, the water sparkling, the rocks, grass and hills…Well, you may guess what they do to him, deemed a liar and dreamer, contradicting their ‘narrative’, as they return to their shadowy idols dancing on a stage.
Every one of these dystopias, from Plato to Bradbury, were written well before the internet, full-immersion media which has made mass psychosis a very distinct and all-too-real possibility. Peruse this interview with Robert Epstein on how we are all being manipulated by Google and friends, and how easy it is. Dr. Epstein is quirky and liberal, but dedicated and courageous. The first twenty minutes give you most of what you need to know, which is to get gone from Google, for they are indeed not only watching us, but manipulating us in very subtle ways.
An article in Wired commented that two of the recent SuperBowl ads advocated the new Meta virtual reality and their idiotic headsets as a way to escape the hell we’re building here. Yet, a contrary one, with all-American Matthew McConaghey urged us to fix our problems right here on planet Earth.
It’s in reality that we must remain grounded if we’re to see our way through the deceit and mayhem that is on the horizon. Saint Thomas defines truth as the adequatio rei et intellectus, the ‘conformity of the mind to reality’, God’s good, holy cosmos and all the living and non-living beings therein.
Satan hates all of this. Christ quite aptly describes him as a liar and murderer, the two evils not unrelated. The unborn child is declared a non-person, a lie repeated enough, and, eventually, their lives can be snuffed out. The Jews in Germany were deemed by physicians and Goebell’s propaganda machine as disease-ridden and untermensch. In the Rwandan massacre, Hutus were urged on by the media to massacre and rape their ‘inhuman’ Tutsi neighbours by the tens of thousands; many claiming they did so because the ‘radio told them to’.
Whither now, dear reader, as the rhetoric ramps up? Will peace and good will prevail?
One way to ensure they do, to some extent, in some locales, refuges, remnants, or at least in some hearts, is to immerse yourself in the truth, not least those of our Faith, in Scripture, the Catechism, the Fathers, the Summa, in a myriad of great and good books. As well, spend far more time in reality than in the virtual version on screens. In nature, friendships, music, home-cooked food, laughter, love – hug someone, and let’s see some friends shaking hands.
Lies enslave, while the truth sets us free. By living in the really real, we can, by the grace of God, quite easily tell the difference.
Ad veritatem, in caritate! +
Dear Justin Trudeau,
Jesse Watters
So Our neighbors to the North are clearly loosing it. The Prime MInister who needs a history lesson and a haircut has declared war on Canadian citizens like they're an ISIS caliphate. Emergency powers, freezing bank accounts and threatening to take away protesters’ dogs and children. Dina Perino is very upset. It's getting so bad up there, government forces are even targeting innocent Gelato shops like this one here in Ottawa, Canada. Turns out the owner of Stella luna Cafe made a giant mistake. She privately supported the Freedom Truckers convoy with a $250 donation. Her donation then leaked and was made public. Her Gelato shop was then Doxed and began receiving threats. Lunatics threatening her with violence and vandalism. Treating her like a Salem Witch. All because she showed her support for freedom. The owner of Stella Luna Gelato Cafe, Tammy Giuliani, no relation to Rudy. Is here with us now. Right, Tammy, what exactly is going on up there with your shop?
Tammy
Well. I should preface by saying that I have a tendency to think with my heart and not with my head. And does that get me in trouble? A lot! And would I change that about myself? Not in a million years. And when I heard about a group of people that were willing to drive all the way across the country in below 30, whether to gather peacefully in front of Parliament and to stand up for their beliefs and to say, you know, maybe this whole mandating the existence out of everyone needs to be revisited. My heart said no, and I don't think anyone, and I certainly don't think anyone could have imagined that it would be transformed into something like we're witnessing today.
Jesse Watters
Yeah, we're witnessing complete chaos, and I don't know how to describe it. But you probably know better than I do, since you're up there. What has been the blowback for you and your shop, and what kind of threats and harassment have you faced after that donation was made public? Well, you need to understand it's still a Stella Luna is our livelihood and my husband and our children and son-in-law all work for the business. It's how we pay our rent. It's how we keep our lights on. It's how we eat. So we feel very passionately about eating. And um, we’ve pushed really hard over the past two years trying to keep this business alive. So we have this, this passion and it just keeps going on and on so I reached into my personal pocket and I pulled out 250 bucks with my personal money and I gave a donation to fill a gas tank of someone so they didn't have to sleep in minus 30 in the cold that night, and I think that decision speaks to my humanity and not to political beliefs, but attacking our children, attacking our team. That's unconscionable.
And I think never in my 56 years have I ever experienced a country so divided. So full of hatred towards friends and neighbors. Sorry, so full of hatred towards their friends and neighbors. You know, they may have opinions that differ from theirs, but they're so willing to publicly shame and humiliate and spew forth angry vitrol. Um you know, we have been called terrorists. For the first 36 hours we were inundated with hatred, with threats of violence, people threatened our team on the phone telling them we're coming to get you. We're going to throw bricks through your window, you'll pay for this you Nazi supporter. I personally have been called a disgusting pig of a woman and that I should rot in hell. Our rural shop out in Merrickville, Ontario, someone draped a large bed sheet over our sign. I'm sorry. It's been, It's been a tough few days. You know, and the sign read “Tammy supports terrorists” Now, Mama Bear is gonna dig out her claws on that one, and we're getting the video surveillance of the incident, and we will pursue that with the police.
But late yesterday afternoon, messages of support and encouragement started to arrive and people from coast to coast to coast throughout Canada and the US. And you know, even buying gift cards online and calling themselves guardian angels. So you know, we're going to use those funds to help pay the staff for their miss shifts and get some security guards in and make sure everybody is safe and that they feel safe coming to work. But the phone has been ringing off the hook all day today from calls all over Canada all over the U S sharing stories of losing their jobs because of bankruptcy or because they refused to get vaccinated, losing their homes. Now we've heard the tragic stories. I didn't think it was gonna be this hard. You know, we've heard so many stories from people calling to support us because you know, we're pretty insignificant. We're just a little Gelato shop and all we wanna do is bake really good Gelato. And so, to have our you know to be targeted and have our staff targeted and our children targeted because I decided to reach in my pocket and, you know, fill the gas can of some guy, I didn't want to see sleep in the cold overnight. You know, but our kids arrived at the shop today and there were heart-shaped balloons hanging from the door handle, and the window was covered with little sticky notes. And there were all these inspirational messages of encouragement. I think our favorite, which sums it up in a nutshell so to speak was somebody said
"Pistachios before politics."
Jesse Watters
That's wonderful. Well, Tammy, you are such a perfect person. I love you. The audience loves you. You're a total sweetheart. I can see how hard this has been for you, but how inspiring you've been for us and for the community up there and we're at Jesse Watters Prime Time, we're gonna order a boatload of pistachio. I don't care how we get it here. We're gonna get it here. We're gonna order a hell of a lot of it. So, you know, keep up the good fight.
Tammy
Can I tell you one thing
Yeah. One, one message I wanna leave people with ensure. Truly thank you so much for everyone. For all over. For, for contributing buying gift cards. We all need a healthy dose of positivity and love and respect, and we all need a whole lot less judgment and hate. And I think if people would just before they open their mouth or they start tapping away on their keyboards. If they could just listen to their hearts and find their humanity, the world would be better served.
Jesse Watters
Well said Tammy for prime minister of Canada.
Tammy
Never!
Jesse Watters
Thank you so much, Tammy you're the best that was very very moving and we support you