Sharon Kabel , OSB vs. UFO: Stanley Jaki and the Theology of Aliens (June 16, 2021)- OnePeterFive
Acceptance
Adoration
A faithful servant@VConquisitor: Last night in Adoration someone accidently turned off the lights to that section of the Church. I was alone, in the dark and in complete silence with Our Lord. The only glimmer of light was the dim red candle. For an hour I felt completely peaceful, like no one else existed ⬇️
So, I wasn’t relegated to silence the whole time (though I did sit in silence for a good part-)
I spoke right aloud what I was thinking. I sang songs of praise.
It was a good visit with Jesus ��

Advice
Joseph Massey@jmasseypoet: “Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.” —Saint Teresa of Ávila
Sr. Miriam James@onegroovynun:“Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same understanding Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. He will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace.”—St Francis de Sales
Miracles happen all of the time.
Grace pierces our heart at every moment and a sudden breakthrough of love is always possible.
Don’t give up.
Keep praying, keep doing the right thing.
Love never fails.
St. Padre Pio@PadrepioSaint “Pray, hope, and don’t worry…….Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayers.”
✝️St. Padre Pio, pray for us!
John Campea@johncampea: Reminded today of something dad told me when I was younger: “Life doesn’t owe you anything. You better get that real quick. Work for what you want. If you’re lucky enough to get it, share it with the next guy because he may have worked just as hard but not been as lucky as you”.
This new year remember that a good decision is not the same as a good result. Good results are outside of your control. Good decisions are not. Trust your good decision-making process and don’t be dissuaded if they sometimes lead to undesired results.
Education in Virtue@EDUinVIRTUE: Slow down. Smell the flowers as you go by, and then you won’t need too much of this world’s goods. Enjoy your work and you won’t need much time off. Enjoy being at home and you won’t have to go away so much” – Fr. Benedict Groeschel, The Virtue Driven Life
Jim OShaughnessy@jposhaughnessy: Two thoughts from Walker Percy
“You can get all A’s and still flunk life.”
“Small disconnected facts, if you take note of them, have a way of becoming connected.”
Animals
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Film critic, Catholic deacon, father of 7 decentfilms.com creator
Spider-Lion, Spider-Lion
Does whatever a spider-lion does
Can he weave antelope-catching nets ten lion-lengths wide
No he can’t he’s a lion
Yung Catholic ���@TheYungCatholic: If I hadn’t personally seen a moose up close before, I’m not sure if I’d believe they’re real.
Look at these guys! They’re Ice Age remnants, the last of the great prehistoric North American megafauna. What an animal.
Jme@JmeBBK: Is there fur on the inside of a kangaroos pouch?
Or is it a rubbery membrane with cytoplasm extruding vicariously transatlantic tenchu ninja assassin badboy ina di house
Holadera@HolaDera: You know what animal I wouldn’t mind eating?
Penguins �
I dunno. They just look delicious lol
ItsAJ ����@itsAJHurts: If I were an animal I would be a penguin.
I have no scientific reason for this other than they’re cute.
And they waddle.

Apologetics
Matt Fradd@mattfradd: Host of #PintsWithAquinas
The Ultimate Catholic Apologist would have:
Fr. Pine’s rhetoric
Trent Horn’s debating skills
Jimmy Akin’s brain
Scott Hahn’s bible knowledge
Ed Feser’s understanding of metaphysics
Fr. Mike Schmitz’s jaw line
Cameron Bertuzzi’s (upcoming) conversion story
What am I missing?
Trent Horn@Trent_Horn: I would rather a Christian be kind yet bad at apologetics than be a jerk who wins every debate (ideally we should kindly win debates!). That’s because the damage caused by mean-spirited behavior sticks around way longer than the damage cause by not being able to answer objections
Word on Fire@WordOnFire:
Art
Building Catholic Men | Husbands | Fathers@BldgCatholicMen
Every person is called to be an artist.
Some use pencils, paint, canvas, or clay.
The rest of us use land, houses, gardens, our bodies, families, businesses, ministries, acts of service, works of mercy.
These are our works of art.
Artvisionᴺᶠᵀ@ArtvisionNFT: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
Josh Spiegel@mousterpiece: Film Twitter rules to consider:
1. Tweet about Paddington and/or The Rocketeer.
2. When tweeting about other topics, think about how to make them about Paddington and/or The Rocketeer.
3. Why aren’t you tweeting about Paddington and/or The Rocketeer already?
Icona �@Iconawrites: You must never be afraid to put down the books that bore you. Life is incredibly short, and you have far less time left to read than you think. Instead of wasting it on what does not speak to you, invest it in what delights and enriches you.
You ever just want to.
Surround your life with beautiful things.
Artwork. Poetry. Flowers. Sketches. Love notes. Everything beautiful and everything divine
Atheists
Emma Evans �@MelanieMoore: Here’s a thought that often amuses me, as an atheist.
I was raised Catholic and I’ve studied religions a fair bit. I absolutely know Xianity inside and out.
And I’ve liked to imagine that Jesus…does indeed come back one day. And it’s irrefutable. It’s Jesus, he’s back.
Baptists and Other Protestants
Obi-Wan Kenosis��JMJ✝️@elmago3221: Honestly gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that the baptists still find the Eucharist and traditional liturgical trappings spooky
Baptists see a Franciscan in a habit at Costco and are like “please sir do not turn me into a frog”
My family had devout Protestant friends growing up and I remember one of their kids trying to smash one of our “idols” (a glow-in-the-dark St. Michael statue), which, fair enough, was pretty tacky
Beauty
Hans Urs von Balthasar@h_u_v_balthasar: Supreme beauty is the glory of the invisible God radiating in the visible materiality of the world.
Being Catholic
Best Mass
Tweeting to the Choir about the Best Mass
— Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ, who spent 23 years in the Soviet Union, most of it as a prisoner and slave laborer.
Book It Sayers
Emily, praying for peace ���@EmilyKath319: Reading the life story of Dorothy Sayers is WILD.
You’d think from how homeschool moms enshrine her that she was really conservative or something but she had an affair with a married man, got pregnant, & then befriended his wife after he was discovered with yet *another* woman.
Jon M. Sweeney@jonmsweeney: Most good writers have also had other jobs, to make ends meet. Dorothy Sayers, for instance, worked in advertising. One of her accounts was Guinness. She’s credited with coining the phrase, “It pays to advertise.”
Book It Shakespeare
Shower Thoughts@TheWeirdWorld: Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. It’s a 3-day relationship between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old that cause 6 deaths.
David M. Wagner@david_m_wagner: True, the “great tragedies” (Coleridge’s term) are remarkably non-attached to a Christian order. Lear is the most radical. It has a pre-Xn setting, but even so, Gloucester’s remark about gods and flies seems to sum it up – and that’s a long long way from cheerful agnosticism.
In Othello, references to God and holy things turn up in ppls’ oaths, mainly Iago’s, and ofc there’s Iago’s “faith of man.” Also refs to Othello’s baptism.
Macbeth is interesting here bc it brings in a supernatural order – just not a Xn one; tho there is M’s tantalizing ref to having given his “eternal jewel” (usually parsed as soul) to “the common enemy of man” (usually parsed as the prince of the Bad Place).
But Hamlet, the 1st of this artificially defined tetralogy, brings the big exceptions, w the Ghost’s adventures in Purgatory, Hamlet’s speech on Claudius’s fate if killed at prayer, and the priest at Ophelia’s funeral.
Book It Tolkien
Mark@fom4life: The great works of literature are works of enchantment which have the power to re-enchant the most weary of souls. This side of the grave, there is no better company apart from the saints themselves. Like the lembas which sustained Frodo and Sam on their journey through Mordor to Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings, great literature is manna for the mind and food for the soul. -Joseph Pearce
tea with tolkien@TeawithTolkien:
my grandpa: i was born in 1937
me, nodding sagely: the year The Hobbit was published
grandpa: the what now
me talking to my relatives: if you watch the superbowl tomorrow you will see a commercial for the lord of the rings tv series that is coming out
relatives: the lord of the what
Boycott
Matt Walsh@MattWalshBlog: This idea that we must boycott companies who do not perfectly represent our political and ideological views is just extremely stupid. If a company is actually DOING something actively harmful then a boycott is warranted. Outside of that, boycotts are pointless temper tantrums.
Call of Christians
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Christians are called to make God’s love visible in this world. So our concern for this world and for the world to come must be inseparable. If we fail *either* to promote greater justice and harmony in this world *or* to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s love remains invisible.
Cancel Culture
Zoraida Merlo✝️@Zoraida_Merlo: “When we can’t praise the good a person does because they also do bad we have become the cancel culture we complain about.”@ChrisStefanick
Canonize These Men
Fr Matthew P. Schneider LC @FrMatthewLC:
The Catholic Thought of Fr. Matthew P. Schneider LC | Mark Wilson (patheos.com)
It would be great to canonize Frs. Georges Lemaître & Gregor Mendell.
If the heroic virtue & miracles were there (TBD), it would be great to show how science & faith go together. (It would also be interesting to see how many people’s minds would be blown�) For those out of the loop, Fr Lemaître was the first to theorize the Big Bang & Fr Mendell was the first to do modern genetics. So, these 2 central ideas of modern science come from faithful Catholic priests.
bioplastic@plastic_bio: We want a fireworks theory of evolution. The last two thousand million years are slow evolution: they are the smoke and ashes of bright but very rapid fireworks.- Georges Lemaître
Catholic Car Puns
Grant Hartley@TheGrantHartley: me reading in the Gospels how Jesus and the disciples went “in one accord”: “imagine Jesus AND twelve other dudes fitting in one Honda, that’s wild”
@CurtJester: So I wonder how much time I will get in Purgatory for punning on a saint’s last name? Sill appropriate for today’s feast.
Catholic Guy Tweetermatic Universe
Tweeting to the Choir About The Catholic Guy Tweetermatic Universe
Lino Rulli@linorulli:
I am a man with a large nose. And a radio show on SiriusXM.
When I met the Pope last week, I said (in Italian): “I pray for you all the time.”
To which he replied, “For me or against me?”
I had to lean in closer to understand if I heard him correctly. And then I busted out laughing.
Was still laughing when he gave me a rosary.
Someone just emailed me that my book Sinner is 10 years old. And while it isn’t ranked in books about Catholicism or Biography… It’s ranked in the Terrorism category. Rude.
Giraffes Are Like Werewolves@GiraffesAreFast·
Catholic and a Giraffe! � Typing with hooves ain’t easy!
@LT_TheBiblegeek you’re right that Easter doesn’t seem as big as Christmas or Halloween… but that’s also because of how commercialized those have become. �
Not sure we want Christ’s Resurrection to go down quite the same path. �
Found an interesting use for my iMissal app… cueing up the Nicene Creed for a coworker who honestly didn’t know (& had asked) if Catholics believed in Jesus.
Giraffes Are Like Werewolves @GiraffesAreFast

Example: “My favorite Bible verse comes from Galossians: “For God so loved the world that he made fast the bears.” (6/12/2018)
Bears Are Fast @bearsarefast (Jun 12, 2020)
Catholic Culture
Domenico Bettinelli ��@bettnet: One thing about the Catholic church in Massachusetts is that there is a decided lack in parish culture for communal food, like Friday fish fry or other meals. Sure some parishes do it, but not nearly as common as the rest of the country.
Catholic Women Support
Anonymous Carmelite: Catholic women need support from other Catholic women. Priests are there for general advice and spiritual counsel, but can’t really be there for women the way religious sisters can. I encourage all Catholic women to regularly visit the local community of nuns for friendship.
Carrying Your Cross
Father Chris Pietraszko@FrChrisP: If we demand, resentfully, for others to carry their cross, it’s a sign that we aren’t carrying our own. It amounts to a type of log in our own eye. Carrying our own cross in a spiritual way, always bears the fruits of gentleness, self-control, peace, joy, patience, etc..
James Martin, SJ@JamesMartinSJ: The Spirituality of Fr. James Martin JUNE 23, 2021
Gospel: Today Jesus asks us to “take up our cross daily” (Lk 9). What does he mean? First, it means that all human life includes some suffering that cannot be avoided. This is part of our “cross.” Second, it means letting go of anything that prevents us from following God more closely. Finally, it means sometimes choosing a difficult path, which you know will lead to suffering, because it is the right thing to do. (St. Ignatius Loyola talks about the person who chooses the difficult path because it also means following Jesus more closely. But when we take up each of those crosses, we are not alone. Jesus, who understands the Cross, is with us.
Chair Celebrations
Fr. Andrew Hedstrom@ProtoApostoli: “Celebrating a feast day of a chair may sound strange, but no stranger than celebrating a crucifixion, or believing that God became flesh, or that a human woman gave birth to God.”
Choices
(The) Church
Mark@fom4life: Christ established a Church, that built our civilization, brought us the sacraments, gave authority to the law and balanced justice with mercy and took care of the poor and chastised the rich and celebrated the marriages and blessed the babies & buried the dead. -Dale Ahlquist
Dave Armstrong@DaveArmstrong58: Biblical Evidence for Dave Armstrong
It’s the nature of the thought: IF Catholicism is true, there is no good reason to reject it. I accept it as true (for zillions of reasons); therefore, I don’t think there is any such reason to leave or reject it.
Consolation and Compassion
Emily, praying for peace ���@EmilyKath319:A lot of people like to say “You don’t leave Jesus because of Judas,” but they forget that the people scandalized were very well likely *formed* by a Judas, and then *we* put the onus on someone purposely spiritually deformed by that Judas to sort it out themselves & have faith.
This is where accompaniment matters. Being cruel, condescending, patronizing to broken individuals is not helpful or encouraging them to reconsider the Church. They need time to untwist & untangle a LOT & they need someone to listen w/o jumping down their throat with apologetics.
Contemplative
♀️81581Mr Focus@Focuslikejesus1: The contemplative life must provide an area, a space of liberty, of silence, in which possibilities are allowed to surface and new choices-beyond routine choice-become manifest.” — Thomas Merton
Carl McColman@CarlMcColman: If a moment of silence is a word from God, then your heartbeat is the period at the end of the sentence.
No matter how noisy your “monkey mind” might be, beneath all the chatter is endless, limitless, vast silence. And the silence is loving.
Dad Jokes
KarinaFabian@KarinaFabian:
I was reading a book about how the brain processes creating words. It’s mind-boggling.
Does February like March? No but April May
Disciples
Mark@fom4life We have a concept of the disciples as men who were laser-focused on Christ and his mission on earth — and to an extent, they were. But. They would try to take things too far (“shall we call down fire from heaven, Lord?” [see Lk 9:54]). They couldn’t stay awake during prayer time. And apparently one of them wasn’t wearing any underwear (just look up Mk 14:51-52).
Mac Barron,
Desiring Christ More
tommy@theghissilent: that my tweets be more about you than dune, the filet o fish, or absolutely anything else – Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. From the desire to be retweeted, deliver us Lord.
Disabled
Gregory Mansfield@GHMansfield:
If you exclude disabled people, I don’t want to hear how diverse you are.
If you exclude disabled people, I don’t want to hear how inclusive you are.
If you exclude disabled people, I don’t want to hear how accessible and accommodating you are.
Divine Providence
Sr. Helena Raphael Burns, fsp@SrHelenaBurns
In a ploy to get Ma to eat, I got her a Shamrock shake. She didn’t want it. I brought it to convent.
Nun: Is that a SHAMROCK SHAKE?!
Me: U want it? I hate mint.
Nun: I was JUST telling God how much I wanted one!
I told Ma abt this: Yup. I call that a ‘direct hit’ from God.
#MaSez
Fr. Goyo@FrGoyo: Today I am thanking God for protecting me from what I thought I wanted and blessing me with what I didn’t know I needed.
Divorce
Fr. Matthew Schneider��@FrMatthewLC: If there is abuse or abandonment divorce is not a sin, in fact it would often be the virtuous choice in such circumstances.
There is no obligation to live with an abuser.
Assuming your marriage was valid, another marriage isn’t an option, but the divorce is not sinful.
Easter
Heather �@heatherinthePNW
11 yrs ago we asked our kid what he wanted for his bday and he asked for us to quit smoking. He was 9. We quit the next day w/the help of a lot of Easter candy, particularly Starburst jelly beans. Like an excessive amount. Every year we celebrate by eating a crap ton more of them. Also the best gift he could have given to us. ♥️
Emily ✨@alottaem: Why is Easter Egg Chocolate always so much nicer than normal chocolate?
Edith 에디스 �@CatolicaEdith:When I say it’s always Easter in my heart I mean it. The people who know me know it’s true. My non-religious coworker started buying Easter decor � I have let Easter invade my life to the extreme. My Lord is alive!!!! How could I not celebrate every day
Pope Francis@Pontifex: This is the first #Easter message that I would offer you: it is always possible to begin anew, because there is a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures. From the rubble of our hearts, God can create a work of art.
Jimmy Akin@JimmyAkin3000: Yes. Catholics–like all historic Christians–believe in the resurrection of the body. The New Testament is rather insistent on it.
Mary Pezzulo@mary_pezzulo: You know how you can write a secret message in white wax on an Easter egg and it won’t show until you dip it in dye? I think saints are like dye. People seeking the Lord wholeheartedly will reveal what’s written in the hearts of the outwardly pious.
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Why is the cross and not the resurrection the central Christian symbol?
Because while the resurrection is the foundation of our hope, the cross is our daily experience. Easter Sunday is what we look forward to. Good Friday is where we live.
Augustine of Hiphop @hiphopaugustine:
BOOYAH
alle-alleluia
no more bein blue y’all
this is more than hoopla
death’s sting is moot ha
tomb is a lacuna
hear the roar of Judah
alle-alleluia
Eschatology and the End Times
William Hemsworth@w_hemsworth: If you don’t understand eschatology please don’t stress. It isn’t the end of the world.
Evangelization
God convert us errin punks
turn these monsters into monks
twist these sinnas into sons
shape the “nones” until they’re nuns
Paul J. Kim@pjkmusic: I was blessed to know Fr Benedict Groeschel, who personally knew “Madonna’s” grandma. She would ask him to pray for her granddaughter who had a rough upbringing. Looks like the prayers haven’t worked yet, but let’s pray that she puts the crown on the actual Madonna soon.
Father John LoCoco@Father_LoCoco: This current generation of teenagers is not asking, “Did Jesus rise?” but rather, “So what if He did?”
We have to be better at responding to what they are actually asking us instead of what we think they should know. I am saying this to myself as much as everyone else, too.
Rabbi Dr Laura Duhan-Kaplan �����@OnSophiaStreet: Why do so many Christians feel everyone in the world should be Christian? Serious question, not a subtweet.
The Catholic Talk Show@CatholicTalkSho: How terrible would Christians be if they TRULY believed that Christianity is THE truth and leads to eternal life and happiness but NOT CARE if others would get the same? Any religion that doesn’t think everyone should follow it seems either lukewarm or selfish.
Fr. Jonathan Howell@JonathanHowelll: “To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda to convert people or in stirring them up to movements of hatred and violence against one another. It simply means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist” –Catherine Doherty
Annoymous Carmelite: Proclaiming the Catholic faith is the bravest thing we as Catholics must do, but we must do it charitably. When you tell people the truth on what Christ willed for the Church, they often say, “If He were alive now, He would do it differently.” He is alive now. Listen to Him.
Joseph ��@jsyreee: Just grateful voices like Trent Horn, Jimmy Akin, Karl Keating, Christopher West, and Fr. Gregory Pine are considered the faces of American Catholicism and not @ Trad Crusader 1488 who talks about Jews controlling central banks and the immorality of eye contact more than Jesus.
There’s nothing more disconcerting than seeing such a close relationship between some spheres of e-Catholicism and actual neo-Nazis.
EVIL
Lyle Enright@YnysDyn: “It is a mistake to try and find any deeper meaning or some grand divine design in the evils we suffer. The randomness and meaninglessness of evil is precisely what evil is and thus to invest it with a deeper clarity is to grant it a dignity it does not have.” — Larry Chapp
Catholic sinner praying for the Ukraine@RobertO54702108: “The saints are God’s water: they go to the lowest and driest places. Do you live in a society, or a situation, that is full of evil? Don’t complain; practice nursing. That’s why He put you there.”
—Peter Kreeft from his book Practical Theology #Catholic #CatholicTeachers
(The) Faith
Catholic Charm ✞ ☀️@CatholicCharm: I don’t get how someone can look at the Catholic Church and know it was established by Christ and our first pope was Peter, an actual apostle who met and followed Christ and decide the Church isn’t true and instead join a church started by Jim Bob 6 years ago
They both find your lack of faith disturbing.�

Saint John Henry Newman@JHNewman: When we feel that His mysteries are too severe for us, and occasion us to doubt, let us earnestly wait on Him for the gift of humility and love. Those who love and who are humble will apprehend them.
Carl McColman@CarlMcColman: If religion is only a source of sorrow, not joy; a source of repentance but not the assurance of forgiveness, no wonder many abandon it.
David Dark’s Soft Spot for Sci Fi@DavidDark: “Christianity is something to do, not a philosophical puzzle. It comes about not when someone affirms a creedal proposition, but when someone does something. It is a way to be witnessed, not a proposition to be proven.”John D. Caputo
Brian Holdsworth@briankeepsworth: When some think about Traditional Catholicism, it brings associations of superiority media & unwelcoming fringes. When I think about it, I think of the wholesome families that I meet each Sunday that inspire me to love Jesus more. The former has nothing to do with the latter.
Fatima and Marian Apparitions
Tweeting to the Choir About Fatima and Marian Apparitions
Fr. Matthew Schneider@FrMatthewLC: When Sr. Lucia said JP2 consecrated Russia & an overwhelming amount of evidence supports this, we can say Russia was properly consecrated.
To claim otherwise, you have to twist some very complex web that is so astronomically unlikely as to be functionally impossible.
Emily, praying for peace ���@EmilyKath319: Has anyone considered… even if it doesn’t meet the specific conditions by Our Lady of Fatima, it’s still an objectively *good* thing for Russia and Ukraine to be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart (if we believe consecration is in any way efficacious) ???
Greg7190@greg7190: I think this rule should apply with apparitions – unless it helps with growth in Gospel values, following Jesus and faith, hope and charity, it can be safely ignored (especially if it has nonsense about the end of the world).

TheAmishCatholic@AmishCatholic: The truth of the Gospel does not hang upon whether the Blood of San Germano liquifies, whether Our Lady appeared to Ugandan schoolgirls, or whether the Divine Mercy was a real revelation to Faustina Kowalska. One can believe in all these things (I believe in some), but it’s emphatically secondary. Also, it seems to me that we shouldn’t lump together apparitions and private revelation with miracles, which at least seem patient of some kind of empirical verification. One doesn’t need to go far in the other direction and go around debunking cherished devotions, but it is actually very important not to confuse those devotions with public revelation.
Food, Glorious Food
fah’Tim@FrGrumbach: Eating ice cream with chopsticks is a fine art of delicate balance. Eat too slowly and it all melts and becomes a futile endeavor. Eat too quickly and you get the headache. I have practiced and worked out the proper patience to excel in this area.
Bob Rice@deaconbobrice: I ordered a dozen glazed donuts from@dunkindonuts and was told “we don’t have any.“ This is truly the end of civilization as we know it. The devil is driving a truck filled with my toilet paper and glazed donuts, laughing.
Maria Morera Johnson@bego: Today’s head-scratching moment: chocolate hummus. Why? WHY? Can’t you just make a nice chocolate dip and leave the delicious savory chick peas and olive oil to the hummus? #butwhy
The Catholic Talk Show@CatholicTalkSho: Did you know that the Popes used to drink a wine infused with cocaine? This Pope-Cocaine-Wine led a man to make his own cocaine-infused drink as a competitor. That drink? #CocaCola. Listen to the full story on the latest episode of The Catholic Talk Show! http://bit.ly/CatholicTalkShow-Ep9
Feeling Loved
Fr. Goyo @FrGoyo: Some years ago, I forgot I had to preach one Sunday. Full of nerves, I could only say,
“God loves you.”
When I got out, there was a line of people waiting. One by one they said, “thanks, I thought God forgot about me. You reminded me He hasn’t.”
Nadine Persaud@NPersaud5: A patient at our hospice once said to me “being here is the most loved I’ve felt my whole life”…she was 85. Don’t wait until someone is dying for them to feel like they matter. Make them matter every day so that when they are dying, feeling loved isn’t a new experience.
Sr. Miriam James@onegroovynun: Kindness, safety and truth are the fertile ground that brings forth healing, restoration and love.
Fr. Casey, OFM@caseyofm: In Defense of Fr. Casey Cole
Everyone has something worthwhile to share. Everyone has something they can teach others.
Never forget that there are things out there that you don’t know, and that you’ll never know them if you don’t listen.
Seek out people who are different from you. Listen to them. Learn from them. Partner with them in a project. Let them lead. Let them make decisions you wouldn’t make and think are wrong. Mostly, stop thinking that it is mine to “let” them do anything, whoever “them” is.
Obi-Wan Kenosis��JMJ✝️@elmago3221: If you’re feeling a road block in your spiritual life instead of trying a multiplicity of spiritual exercises or reading a bunch of mystics think of something you don’t feel like doing that would make someone else feel loved and do it. I’m sure you can come up with something.
Forgiveness and Mercy
Fr. Philip Maikkula@PhilipMaikkula: The power of forgiveness is the power of transformation. Rather than continue the cycle of violence through retaliation, Christ on the cross said “Father forgive them,” and the violence of the cross was transformed into Paschal joy and life. Forgiveness transforms pain into life.
Bishop Fulton Sheen@Bishop_Sheen: Skeptics always want miracles such as stepping down from the Cross, but never the greater miracle of forgiveness.
Andy Thomas@sophiaseeker: It seems to me that some Catholics would condemn the woman caught in adultery, yes, the one whom Jesus refused to condemn. “Mortal sinner! You are going to hell!” They may shout. Christ’s mercy is greater than what we can fathom, but the devil tries to convince us otherwise.
Fun and Interesting
TheCheekyRunner�@cheekyrunner123·: Roughly 37 people are killed by vending machines every year.
2-5 people are killed by party balloons.
Falling out of bed kills 450 per year.
Not going anywhere with this. I just have a weird thing for statistics and an even weirder compulsion to share.
judymcdonald@judymcdonald: I enjoy running. I also enjoy tax audits, going to the all night dentist and being beaten with a sock full of nickels by clowns.
To Millennity and Beyond@Drake_OMalfoy: Turn popular locations into subtle haunted houses, but don’t tell anyone. Like Wal-Mart looks completely normal until the guy with the chainsaw just starts chasing people around the store.
Emily, praying for peace ���@EmilyKath319: My great-great-great-grandfather was the bastard of Tsar Alexander II. Unless trying to rebuild the Russian Empire benefits ME by putting me on the throne as Tsarina, it’s a horrible and terrible and bad idea and I reject it
JD Flynn@jdflynn: Lady at the grocery store told me I shouldn’t buy balloons unless I had to because of the helium shortage. The what?!?
emma@emahalli: did anyone else who went to Catholic school think the “Big Bang” referred to the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs- NOT the actual creation of the universe?? just me??
Lex Fridman@lexfridman: I had a dream where Darwin, Orwell, Twain & others called me on the phone, talking only to each other. After a while I said “Hello?” Orwell responded: “Hello, friend.”
I asked “Aren’t you all dead?” They laughed and hung up.
How did all that come from my mind? Can I call back?
Catharine@coffeecatharine: I feel like we need another Mr. Rogers-like show but for grownups and maybe they could give us tours of things like breweries and the international space station
Kenneth Floyd@Kfloyd1890: Ok ok, hear me out… a Catholic confection company called “Mt. Caramel Caramels”
Side note: someone on Catholic Twitter needs to start a bakery called “The Little Flour”
Shannon Monaghan@Shonomatopoeia:
Business idea – a card shop that exclusively has niche Catholic cards. Like “Happy Spiritual Direction anniversary!” or “Thank you for blessing my home” or “Encouragement for your Lenten penance”…the list is endless.
Jerry Kehl@GeraldKehl: At a sspx chapel i used to attend there was a guy who would wear a complete Confederate civil war officers uniform complete with sword and spurs. His wife would wear a period antebellum hoop dress with hat. You could hear the sword clanging as he went up for Communion
Eve Tushnet@evetushnet: what is the opposite of an evergreen tweet. a nevergreen tweet. anyway it’s this
Troopers Andrea Pelachick & Lauren Lesher@PSPTroopFPIO: Crash Update: All monkeys have been accounted for.
Gay Christian
Carolyn Schultz-Rathbun �@CarolynSchultzR: When my friend, a lesbian who accepted the historical teaching of the Church on sexuality, asked her pastors for a ceremony to celebrate a lifelong commitment to celibacy, they asked what she needed from the church. She said she needed them 2B the family she was giving up. They said, wasn’t gonna happen. Folks were too busy, had their own lives.
Gotta choose, traditional church. If you expect folks to sacrifice for chastity, you’re gonna have to sacrifice to support them. Melissa’s story:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4B6ZHvalSjwKCaZlC8E9SF…
Eve Tushnet@evetushnet: “Trusting that gay people have an understanding of our own experience which can offer insights to the rest of the people of God; and trusting that Scripture and church tradition have more to say to us than ‘no.'”
James Martin, SJ@JamesMartinSJ: In the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus invites himself to the tax collector’s house. The crowd’s response? “All who saw it began to grumble” (Lk 19).
Showing mercy to people considered “other,” as with LGBTQ people today, always infuriates some people. It makes some people want to marginalize them even further.
What is Jesus’s response to the “grumbling”? To continue to reach out, to continue to listen to their stories, and to continue to welcome them into the community. Basically, to show them mercy anyway.
Jesus reached out to people on the margins even when it made others uncomfortable. That included a Roman centurion (not Jewish); the woman at the well (Samaritan, married 5x, living with someone not her husband); and Zacchaeus (a tax collector for Rome)…. Re: #DontSayGay
God Almighty
Tweeting to the Choir The Triune God
Father Chris Pietraszko@FrChrisP: p God is often hidden in ordinary ways. To those who seek him out, he lifts the veil on such ordinary experiences or perceived realities, and shows us His goodness, beauty, love, inner-unity, being, and truth. Pray to know Him, hidden in ordinary things, people, and life.
Fr. Joseph Krupp@Joeinblack: #talkedtotheboss God is worth your time, your energy, your sacrifice. He’s more important than hobbies, your children’s sports or your rest. The way to show we believe this is to act like we believe it. If we’ve failed this, ask forgiveness, start over.
Pope Benedict XVI@P_BenedictXV: The Word is flesh. It is given to us under the appearances of bread and thus truly becomes the Bread on which we live. This is the joy that God gives us: That he made himself one of us, that we can touch him and that he dwells among us. The joy of God is our strength.
Sr. Miriam James@onegroovynun: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”—St. John Paul II
132Kalpurrnia@kalpurrnia: “We can never attain a maximum love of God with only a minimum knowledge of God.” – Frank Sheed
God Creating Animals
God Creating Animals@GodAnimalBooks:
God: you’re a duck.
Duck:
God: you’re a duck.
Duck: God: you’re a duck.
Duck:
God: you’re a goose!
Goose: [starts chasing God around the circle while everyone cheers him on].
God Creating Animals
Fish: uh God, I think you might be obsessed with Fish.
God: why?
Fish: you’ve made like 32,000 different species of Me.
God: so, that doesn’t mean anything.
Jesus: did you guys see the new Earthly symbol Dad made for me? It’s a fish!
Fish:
God: ok that’s just a coincidence.
Gospel Analogy
MB@UnrighteousD: This is the gospel: imagine looking down on a pit of mud crabs, all pinching each other to establish rank as the alpha mud crab, and going “I am going to turn into a mud crab and teach them the love that rules the universe, knowing full well the other crabs will tear me apart.”
Gratitude
Dr Pooja Garg@poojagarg1111: Gratitude always increases you. You’re more yourself. When you’re thankful you’re confident and happier. Gratitude is precious stuff and should be vigilantly taken care of in yourself and others.#gratitude
Hell No
Dare We Have a Conversation About Hope?
Tweeting to the Choir About The After Life
Steve Skojec@SteveSkojec:The Wisdom of Steve Skojec
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: Objectively speaking, the infinite and absolute God can neither “shove” nor “withdraw” his presence anywhere; by definition, there is nowhere he is not. The common Western idea of hell as the absence of God, then, can only refer to the subjective experience of the Lost.
In the Eastern Churches the fire of hell and the bliss of heaven are often understood as two different experiences of the same reality—the love of God, embraced by the Blessed, hated by the Lost. This very naturally supports a similar concept of purgatory.
But perhaps this isn’t possible either. Perhaps in eternity there is no hiding from reality (love it or hate it), even in the interiority of subjectivity. Or perhaps both are imperfect, complementary ways of expressing the same reality.
History, Don’t Know Much About
Its Lent w/TheReligiousHippie@HippieReligious: History is His story
daniel mark w.@dmarkwiv“: History and legend are not an either/or game; one grows out of the other and becomes its own art form, representing universal truth and usually expanding upon a kernel of truth in a way we remember.” –Avellina Balestri
@FandFmagazine https://fellowshipandfairydust.com/2019/04/28/a-meditation-on-meeting-souls-gone-by/
Kaya Oakes@kayaoakes: It’s still weird to me to be listening to a serious history podcast hosted by academics going deep on Ukraine who suddenly start talking about meal kits and how great their mattresses are.
At some point we’re going to have to start inserting sponsored content in books if that hasn’t happened already.
Icons
it’s Em-mardi gras season �@EmilyKath319: One of the weirder things about my town is there’s a religious art company that also sells flavored popcorn and so they have a flavor called “Iconic Cheddar” with an image of Christ Pantocrator and I feel like having Jesus help sell popcorn is decidedly grifty?
Cuz also then you have a plastic bag with an icon image on it and like??? You probably shouldn’t just throw that away casually? Like maybe take off the paper part with the image to burn or bury it or something? Idk Part of my issue is that it’s very Latin-centric if that makes sense? Like ok, have cutesy popcorn named after saints. Juan Diego’s Jalapeño. Sure. But icons are not intended to be the same as religious art- it’s not something for aesthetic appreciation, it’s a tool for prayer
Imagine of God
Gloria Purvis@gloria_purvis: You don’t have to a hero to be made in the image and likeness of God… you just have to be human.
Jesus Lover of My Soul
Tweeting to the Choir The Triune God
Pope Francis @Pontifex: The Lord knows that evil and sins do not define us; they are diseases, infections. And he comes to heal them with the Eucharist, which contains the antibodies to our negative memory. With Jesus, we can become immune to sadness.
St. Therese@SocLittleFlower: Most beautiful death “Our Lord died on the Cross in agony, and yet this is the most beautiful death of love. To die of love is not to die in transports.” -St. Therese of Lisieux
Fr. Matthew Schneider��@FrMatthewLC: Why be angry about what someone random posted online when you can be happy about Jesus?
Jim Sichko@JimSichko: Following Christ means more than walking in his footsteps along the Sea of Galilee. As those first apostles he called discovered: it means living like him. It means loving like him. Sometimes, he even means suffering like him.-Dcn Greg Kandra
Joy Contagious
Joy Marie Clarkson@joynessthebrave: I want you to know something: you affect the people around you. When you cultivate a perspective on life that is joyful and life-giving, it spills into the lives of others. And your joy will grow as see your joy set other people at ease. It is the opposite of a vicious circle.
Joy of Heaven
Tweeting to the Choir About The After Life
Meg Hunter-Kilmer@MegHunterKilmer: Matthew 25:21
The NAB describes the entrance into heaven with this invitation: “Come share your master’s joy.” Other translations say: “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” I love the imagery of the latter, the idea of stepping into a place that is joy, a joy that permeates me and transforms me. But the former is powerful, too, giving a feeling that the Master’s joy is in some way caused by my faithfulness, that my salvation augments his joy.
Spending my holy hour today imagining this moment, imagining being greeted by him, seeing his face light up, his joy increased by my presence. I’m imagining the joy of heaven, of which the greatest earthly consolation is but a shadow. And I’m trying to let him take his time in bringing me home, but dang. I can’t wait.
#1YearBible day 52
Fr. Casey, OFM@caseyofm: Many Christians believe that Jesus came to redeem not just humanity, but to bring all creation to himself. Some, like me, have concluded that this means dogs will be in heaven.
But forget dogs. If this is true, will heaven have alien species from millions of light years away????
Judging Others
Jolz � Pray for Ukraine ��@Jolz_Aust: If we judged each other for sins against charity and justice the same way we judge each other for transgressions against chastity then we will all be shunned
Greg7190@greg7190: That’s why people trying to invent rules to exclude others from the sacraments and mass make no sense. They exist in my view for sinners, not for righteous and perfect people.
Your Kid’s Life
Tweeting to the Choir About Your Kid’s Life
tea with Tolkien @TeawithTolkien: saw a whole bunch of nerdy middle-schoolers at the park having lightsaber fights. it was beautiful. so wholesome
one of my kids came running into my room earlier, “mom!! can I go in the girls’ room because Lily is reading The Chwonicles of Nawnia to her stuffed animals and I wanna heaw too!” �
Steve Skojec@SteveSkojec: One of my boys asked me today about what happens if someone farts in a space suit – are they just trapped in there with the smell? And I realized that there are horrors I just haven’t even begin to contemplate.
A faithful servant@VConquisitor: My 5 year old daughter: “it’s not really Miss Universe because they are all from planet earth”….
Jackie Francois Angel@JackieFrancois:
My 5.5 yr-old Zélie fires off rapid questions like right now:
Mom, is God greater than love?
Mom, does God love the devil?
Mom, how do we know we aren’t in a dream?
#melancholicphilosopher
Dave Electronica@chicanokobe: Kid was acting like he wanted to lead prayer last night so I encouraged him to come up with something.
Kneels down, thinks real hard, comes up with
“God. Amen”
I am not usually shy, but this time I just didn’t know what to say
4-yr-old [sobbing at 6 AM]: MOM. MOM.
Me: [run into room, expecting carnage]
4-yr-old [sobbing]: DID YOU KNOW THAT WHEN I WAS BORN IT WAS THE PAST? AND NOW IT’S NOT ANYMORE?
Kindness and Tenderness
Fr. Goyo@FrGoyo: So it’s my birthday. What do I want you ask? consider being kind today, – to someone who suffers – to someone who’s alone – to someone who’s “your enemy” – to someone you love – to someone who’s sick – to someone who isn’t popular Oh & try going to confession #birthdayboy40?
Angela@TheWakingTulip: “There is not an act of kindness or generosity, not an act of sacrifice done, or a word of peace and gentleness spoken . . . that does not sing hymns to God.”– Thomas Merton
Sr. Miriam James@onegroovynun: Kindness, safety and truth are the fertile ground that brings forth healing, restoration and love.
Mouse@CatholicMouse: Kindness and calmness on their own are not the answer to oppression.
A necessary ingredient in many conversations, sure, but attitude alone doesn’t solve everything. The content of a message matters too.
*drives off soapbox*
Beata Productions@beataproduction: “In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror.” Flannery O’Connor #FlanneryOConnor
Latin
�ᴀᴛʜᴏʟɪᴄ �ɢʀᴀʀɪᴀɴɪꜱᴛ@PSLM77_34: After 9 years of praying the family Rosary, tonight we finally did the entire Rosary in Latin: two 6 year olds, a 7 year old, a 12 year old, a 15 year old, my wife & I.
Anonymous Carmelite: Now learn it in Spanish, Italian and French so you can pray it in all the Latin languages!
Amy Welborn@amywelborn2
Me: I set up your Latin tutoring for next week.
Son: Where?
Me: We’ll meet him at a brewery downtown.
Son: (Pause) Catholics are so weird.
Lent
Fr. Goyo@FrGoyo: Remember Lent is not what you can do or how big of a challenge you can take, but what God can do to/for/through you.#LentAllYearLong
Annoymous Carmelite: I lived off nothing but water and the Eucharist at morning weekday Mass one Lent. It was hard to do, I was cranky and lost weight and had head aches every day. I still never compared myself to others or claimed to be holy. Get out of here with the false humility.
Life Reflections
Limbo
Steve Skojec @SteveSkojec: If Limbo is a real place of perfect natural happiness where people who’ve been excluded from the Beatific Vision go, why aren’t the souls of all who do not choose God sent there? Why is it that we say these people choose hell? If a man can’t believe, should he be tortured for it?
niko@suckmeoffdumdog: What happens if Catholics were right and ghosts are only the dead people who’ve made it outta purgatory
Listening
Edith 에디스 �@CatolicaEdith: It’s good to remember that St. Thomas actively participated in discussions with others, was a key player in chapter meetings, etc. He wasn’t mute and absent-minded all the time like we often envision him. This perception hinders our devotion.
Fr. Matthew Schneider��@FrMatthewLC: God usually speaks to us through ordinary means.
He speaks to us through the Commandments, through ecumenical councils, through the voice of all Catholic bishops in unison, etc.
If your think God is telling you something contrary to that, it probably isn’t God speaking.
Little Things In Life
Loving Your Enemy
Patrick Madrid ✌�@patrickmadrid: I’m grateful to God and pray every day for all my friends and for all those who, for whatever reason, consider themselves my enemies. ��
Martin Luther King@MLK_quote “There is a final reason I think that Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies.’ It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Loving Your Neighbor
G. K. Chesterton@GKChestertonian: “We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour. Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain. He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts.”— GK Chesterton
This might not be a popular notion among Christians, but:
We do not need to “deal with the evil in our own hearts before we deal with the evils in society.”
People need access to food, shelter, medical care, and security even if I keep being petty, envious, and enraged.
If the nation ends up embroiled in a world war, at least the past two years have prepared us to know just how well equipped people in this culture are to come together, make sacrifices, and do the right thing for the sake of the common good.
Guys, don’t debate people who are going through spiritual struggles or recently fell away from their faith.
What they are looking for is not an intellectual argument, and its not likely you doing such an argument does anyone good.
Don’t dunk on them either.
The Catholic response is BOTH-AND, not either-or.
BOTH pray AND work to help those. less fortunate.
Loving Your Spouse
David Mills@DavidMillsWrtng: Our second child writes of a study in which women rated pictures of men’s faces on how attractive the men were, before and after they ate broccoli for a couple weeks. The men’s attractiveness ratings increased.
An advertisement for marriage: You no longer have to eat broccoli.
fathermikeschmitz@frmikeschmitz: The Church upholds the beauty, gift, and holiness of marriage. And also upholds the celibacy of Jesus, Saint Paul, and countless others. Celibacy doesn’t reject marriage, but chooses another good.
10Thomas ✝️@TSEliotRocks: St. John Chrysostom, on what young husbands should say to their wives:
“I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself… I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful than to be of a different mind than you.”
Maddening Modernism
Fr. Dwight Longenecker@dlongenecker1: Catholics: It is just as possible to apostatize through extreme traditionalism as it is through extreme modernism.
Otti A. Okello@oaokello: Accusing the Church of modernism, like any other pernicious idea or ideology, is building a straw-man for divisive shadow boxing. The Church should be viewed through the lens of the Mystery of the Incarnation of Christ, in every age, time, and place, for such is Her communion.
Marian
TheAmishCatholic @AmishCatholic: It is so beautiful to think of Our Lady’s interior life and the secret meditations of her Immaculate Heart in those bright days in the Cenacle, between Ascension and Pentecost. (I wonder if she prayed for us – if even then, by the words spoken on the Cross, she knew she had been given the whole Church throughout history as her progeny. Not just the Church; for all mankind has been redeemed in the Blood of Christ. What a consoling thing it is to approach Our Mother’s hidden life in the Cenacle.
Mark@fom4life: In the midst of a simple prayer in front of a Mary statue in some unassuming corner chapel, mid-recitation, sore knees and all, . . . Our Lady would begin to speak! Most people probably think this would be an amazing experience, like that of the children at Lourdes and Fatima, but it would terrify me. I never wanted it to happen, yet I thought there was always a chance it would.-Matt Weber
Its Lent w/TheReligiousHippie@HippieReligious: A lot of anti Catholics seem to forget that Mary also RAISED Jesus. She didn’t just carry Him for 9 months and give birth.
Liberty Hangout@LibertyHangout: “When Gabriel says to Mary, ‘Hail!’, a salutation of profound honor reserved for royalty, it is God saying these words. Thus, we find the source & origin of Marian veneration is God Himself. Catholics did not invent honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. God did.” – Fr. Blake Britton
Math
Jackie Francois Angel@JackieFrancois: If when you’re multiplying something by 10, you just add a “zero” to the number, then multiplying by 5 (since it’s half of 10), you just halve the number. Half of 18 is 9. So 18×5 is just half of 18 with a zero added. 90.
Meatless Fridays
Steve Skojec@SteveSkojec: Just a friendly reminder to all Latin Rite Catholics that if you deliberately eat a single bite of meat today and don’t repent of such an egregious act, the Church teaches you’ll burn in hell for all eternity, because proportionate justice doesn’t exist for God. Seems fair.
Mental Illness
LizziesAnswers@LizzieReezay: I’m also getting more brain damaged from bipolar. Everything I do is slower, my reading speed/comprehension is down, so much more memory loss, decreased psychomotor skills. I’ve been researching & it’s normal for the brain to continually shrink even without being in an episode.
There’s currently no treatment to reverse the brain damage, but they’re researching it & hopefully in 5-10 years there will be a medication I can take that will do lots of neurogenesis! I really hate it, because I thought the permanent brain damage would end once I was medicated.
If you also have bipolar, know that the longer you stay off meds & are in a manic or depression episode, the more permanent brain damage, that will continually shrink your brain for the rest of your life. Looking back, I completely regret wanting to be manic & going off meds.
Missed It
Morris My Tweets are a Penetential Season❤️�@Uncouth_Bard: I’m always embarrassed by the time that I got to attend a small group with Dr. Peter Kreeft in University after he delivered a guest lecture and I squandered the opportunity by being a dumb undergrad since I didn’t know who he was.
Music and Musicians
@CONSCIOUSBEATS2@CONSCIOUSBEATS2:
“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.”―Maria von Trapp
not into CCM but I am a MC
praisin God wit some rhymes full of wit and whimsy
Abigail Favale@FavaleAbs: Nothing like hearing the clocktower bells at my Quaker school sweetly peal out “Onward Christian Soldiers”
Movies and TV
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: So today I happened to read the Wikipedia page on Clerihews and watched the first half of PADDINGTON 2… …which means that twice in one day I was reminded that St. Paul’s in London was designed by Sir Christopher Wren WHAT ARE THE ODDS
Happiness is watching Saturday morning cartoons with the kids and discovering one more brilliant and hilarious Phineas & Ferb episode that you somehow missed all these years
Mark@fom4life: This is the one night I actually go on Twitter, usually I’m over on FB. But I don’t have cable or TV and well.. Got to keep up to date on the Oscarts.
Ally Cortés@TalkWithAlly: You wake up as the head of LucasFilm, what’s the first thing you do?
Eve Tushnet@evetushnet: children’s cartoon movie about two girls who are best friends and meet a Wookiee. I don’t know anything about Star Wars but I know what I like.
alternatively, remake “We Are the Best!” except that the Christian girl is also a Wookiee.
Nun Life
Tweeting to the Choir About Religious Life
Sister Bethany, fsp @SrBethanyFSP: My 15 year old baby brother has started getting up and skateboarding towards the sunrise every morning.
He sends all the siblings a good morning message with the sunrise, and it’s just really pure and makes me smile every morning.
I taught one of the Italian sisters (who is 91) to say “okey-dokey” and she liked it so much that she taught like seven other sisters. So now they’re all just waking around saying, “Okey Dokey” to each other and cracking up.
Hands down, biggest perk of religious life.
One of my favorite moments was giving a little talk to a 1st grade class and when I said that we have a chapel in our house, this little boy stood up and said,
“WAIT A MINUTE!! JESUS *lives* in your HOUSE!? I wanna be a nun!”
Sister Walburga@SisterWalburga:I entered the monastery #OTD 12 years ago! (Dec 12, 2021)
I work that out to be about 11,000 hours of the Divine Office.
With Mass, Adoration, Lectio and private prayer on top! �
Please keep me in your prayers as I pray for you �
Observations
210����� (wizened curmudgeon) ����@Not_OfTroy: Stuff you don’t see unless you live in Steubenville: Dr. Scott Hahn running a stop sign Never meet your heroes
Other Religions
Brett? In this economy?? ��@PapaBret:
I’m Catholic, but I’m also striving for:
The endurance of the Jews
The dedication of the Muslims
The tenacity of the Protestants
The compassion of the Buddhists
The zest of the Hindus.
Each sees life from a different angle. Together maybe they explain what we’re here to do
Shari Lynn@LynnSharig8: I’m a Catholic, married to a Jewish man, with daughters who are agnostic. I have a sister in law who is Buddhist, and a cousin who is Sufi. One of my best friends is a Christian, and the other is an atheist. I respect them all.
The only thing I don’t respect, is intolerance.
Pacifism
Henry Karlson@HenryKarlsonIII: Many people confuse pacifism as being there is no potentiality for self-defense. That’s not the case. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and other pacifists allowed self-defense, even of nations — Hanh talked about how countries can have armies for this. Pacifism says not to be militant.
Also, of course, one can follow the Orthodox/Eastern tradition which recognizes both the need for such defense, but also the pollution of the soul involved in it, so soldier need spiritual healing after even justified actions.
Philosophy
owen cyclops (+��)@owenbroadcast: if i was an ancient philosopher back when u could write anything i would write that babies are soft + fleshy because they eat from a boob, which transfers those qualities to them, + id make up a story about a baby from tunisia who drank from a stone cup + became hard and then later medieval philosophers would cite me like “in ‘natal theology’ by owenius a certain tale of a tunisian baby is recorded wherein …”
I be bustin out philosophy
to guard against apostasy
I’m wreckin pagans constantly
cuz truth is just my policy
Political
I suggest our times are like the Hunger Games because of how the characters are all so broken and use and wound one another to survive. The big, bad government is merely the surface villain, an instrument of broken people. It’s our story and we’ve been doing it for a long time.
Fr. Timothy Grumbach @FrTimGrumbach
To Millennity and Beyond@Drake_OMalfoy: I keep thinking maybe political discourse and the prevalence of social media are the main sources of toxicity in the world and then a local comic con just announced they’re switching from badges to wristbands and people went ballistic, making me think people just like to whine.
“Coins may bear the image of Caesar, but every single one of us bears the image of God. We shouldn’t be shy about pointing this out.”Also highly recommended:@leavenmag, the Magazine on Irish Catholicism@GregDalyedits.
(The) Poor
Pope
A Link to the Mass@ALinktotheMass1: If francis were to deny the divinity of Christ, would he still be pope? Honestly, open minded, good faith question
Anonymous Carmelite: Of course he would be, St Peter who was the first pope, denied Christ 3 times. Why is this question posed at Pope Francis rather than “ A Pope” though?
Joe Tobin@CardinalJWTobin: Mother of Hope, comfort us and share with us your confidence in God’s mercy. Stay close to our Holy Father Pope Francis as he begins his 10th year of ministry as the successor of St. Peter. Bless him with your tenderness and compassion, and share with him your courage and joy.
Stephen Colbert@StephenAtHome: I don’t have a problem with the Pope owning a foosball table. But the white smoke every time he wins a game is a bit much.
Brownson_Review@Brownson_Review: I am not the first to observe that converts like Armstrong and Lofton reasoned themselves into Catholicism with papal authority being the main dish. So it shapes their views on everything else, which creates a distorted picture of what Catholicism really is.
Dave Armstrong@DaveArmstrong58:
I converted because of:
1. Newmanian development of doctrine.
2. Catholic moral theology.
3. A study of the Protestant Revolt from a Catholic perspective.
The words “pope” or “papacy” never even appear in my published story in “Surprised by Truth.”
“Protestants … can flat-out invent doctrines … No pope could even dream of doing that. They wouldn’t dare do it (on a few occasions when they came remotely close to that a mass uproar occurred). They are strictly dependent upon received precedent.”
Prayer
Tweeting to the Choir About Prayer
Father Josh Johnson@frjoshjohnson:The most fruitful evangelist, teachers, healers, miracle workers, prophets, helpers, intercessors, administrators, leaders, pastors, craftsman, writers & missionaries in our Church were rooted in daily prayer. If we’re too busy to pray then our ministries won’t bear much fruit.
Scapular Project@ProjectScapular: For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned towards heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. – St Thérèse of Lisieux
In my more optimistic moments, I like imagining that he decided to dedicate his life to prayer as a Carthusian hermit to make good on the promise.
tommy@theghissilent: reading the last book of the expanse series and came across something I’m going to start saying instead of “praying for you” moving forward:
“we’re hailing an *awful* lot of marys over here”
tea with tolkien@TeawithTolkien: Good morning, did you know Tolkien translated Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be into Quenya so you could almost pray the an entire Rosary in Elvish?
Prayers To Pray
Fr. Goyo@FrGoyo: “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” At this moment, I don’t know what else to say or pray. #peace #peace #peace
Caroline Burt@Carolin80951797: I pray for all those who are finding it hard to buy the basic necessities for everyday living.
HolySoulsVocation@HolySouls3:
Let’s say three Hail Marys for the souls who are closest to Heaven.
Let’s say three Hail Marys for the souls who died alone.
Let’s say three Hail Marys for the souls who died today.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family.
The Jesus Prayer@TheJesusPrayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
Dawn Eden Goldstein ��@DawnofMercy· Dear Guardian Angels, St. Michael, and all angels of peace, watch over the whole world, especially over all those who are suffering, and pray for the conversion of all hearts to God. #capitolhillrightnow
Priesthood
Tweeting to the Choir About Religious Life
Fr. Casey, OFM@caseyofm Replying to @drew_deacon: I think my favorite criticism is when someone says that monks shouldn’t be spending time on the internet making videos which means I’m a bad monk.
Me: You’re right. I am a bad monk. Some might even say that I’m not a monk at all
I’m literally not a monk. I’m a friar, a member of a mendicant order not monastic one. Thomas Merton was a monk, St. Anthony of Padua was a friar.
Mark@fom4life: Monks are men of silence, but they are also men of many words… primarily the Psalms. — Fr. Stephanos Pedranos
Fr. Patrick Hyde, OP@frpatrickop:Why I wear a habit on a plane: Today, I met a woman who told me,
“Father, I was on my first flight as a mom with my son. I was so nervous. Then, you got on the plane & I knew it would be alright.”
Priests point others to Jesus.
I’ve also, while traveling, had people ask me to hear their confessions, to pray with them, and simply to listen.
This interaction struck me because it was years ago &, until today, I hadn’t the slightest idea my presence as a priest had so positively influenced someone.
@dismasop: We priests in the confessional try to be as merciful as we hope others would be to us, and as our Heavenly Father always is. In an unrelated matter, I will not be taking any questions at this time on the cookies that were on the kitchen counter.
Ashlyn Smith@ashlynjeffries: A few days ago a priest sent me a new rosary he personally touched to the Lord’s empty tomb.
Today, another priest told me he offered his Mass today for my intentions.
We are so blessed to have priests who often go unappreciated.
#ThankAPriest
Pro-Life and Social Justice Issues
Tweeting to the Choir About Pro-Life and Social Justice Issues
Sherry Antonetti@sherryantonetti: Pro-life is always love for the others, Pro-life is sacrificial. Catholicism is always a call to embrace the cross of service, of sacrifice, of loving others –from conception to natural death, and all the moments, every moment in between. Love is faith in action.
We can stand against abortion
AND
Care about babies and families *at the same time.*
Rondell Treviño@Rondell_Trevino:
Are you pro-life? Then get vaccinated.
Do you want to love your neighbor? Then get vaccinated.
Do you love America and want it to be great? Then get vaccinated.
Do you care about social justice for Black Lives, Latinos, Immigrants, Asians, and the poor? Then get vaccinated.
Purpose
Decided Excellence Catholic Media@TweetDecided:
Your life is not about you. It is
indeed your life, but your life has been
given by another and exists, finally, for
God’s purpose. -Bishop Barron
CatholicBard@BardCatholic: In times of crisis—and there have been many crises throughout the Church’s history (and indeed there will be more)—the Church summons new heroes who are committed to holiness and driven to uproot whatever sin and evil have infected the spiritual family.-Brandon Vogt
Quips, Quibbles, and Questions
TheCryptoJac .eth��@jacknobers:
Gday!✅Want to grow your follower count?�A few proven paths
1) Genuine insight about a topic you’re an expert in
2) Summarizing Wikipedia articles in thread form
3) “Funny but true” quips about work & life
4) Copying successful tweets from accounts w/more followers than you
Friar Mario Conte@FriarMario: A sign on a Catholic church door, “There is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us, that it is hard to tell which of us ought to reform the rest of us”.
Steve SkojecSteveSkojec: Replying to @c_mateer
Rite of Right Writing Poetry
As it governs our everyday life
And when it doesn’t function properly
It can cause turmoil and strife.
But when crosses pop up
For us to carry along
They can inspire A Poem or a Song.
Rite of Right Writing
Tweeting to the Choir About The Rite of Right Writing
KarinaFabian@KarinaFabian: If you are a Catholic writer looking for a writing home, check it out.
R Bratten Weiss@Prof_RBW: Odd when random individuals assume that because one has a writing career, one doesn’t know what work is.
As though writing isn’t work.
As though writers don’t often have other jobs.
As though the ability to write couldn’t be compatible with the ability to do physical labor.
Owl! at the Library ��♀️@SketchesbyBoze: stop shaming people for reading kids’ books. adult books are about sad people having affairs while kids’ books have a magic tree house or a worm driving an apple. you tell me who’s winning
Somehow I can’t imagine St Benedict approaching Pope Pelagius II and saying, “Holy Father, I’m the author of The Rule of St Benedict.”
William Hemsworth@w_hemsworth: My kids are blown away by all the things that the library has available online. They have been reading non-stop for two days. I’m not mad at that.
Sacraments
Daniel P. Horan, OFM@DanHoranOFM: ·It’s worth remembering that Sacraments are not magic and that the true minister of a Sacrament is always Christ. While Thomas Aquinas talked about validity according to Aristotelian categories of matter and form, he also said a lot about secondary causality. We don’t control God.
Kenneth@kennhistoria: I believe what the Church teaches. God uses the sacraments for salvation but is not bound by them. He applies efficacious graces where He sees fit. It’s not impossible for a non-Catholic to be in a state of sanctifying Grace (such as the baby John the Baptist, before baptism).
Michael Lofton@michaelloftonRT: I trust God makes up for whatever is lacking when we don’t know about an invalid sacrament. Once we discover it, however, we are obligated to rectify it. God is not bound to the sacraments but we are. There is even a part in the byzantine rite of ordination that speaks of the Holy Spirit making up for whatever is lacking.
Sacrament of Baptism
Scott Eric Alt@ScottEricAlt: If the marital sacrament is permanent independent of my failures, so is my membership in the Body of Christ (which is the Church) by virtue of the sacrament of baptism.
These sacraments are permanent and unrepeatable, and no sin cancels them: baptism, initiation, marriage, and Holy Orders.
This is not opinion; it is dogma.
A laicized priest is still a priest; a separated or divorced spouse is still a spouse; an excommunicated or apostate or heretical Catholic is still a Catholic and still belongs to Jesus Christ.
Sacrament of Confession and Confirmation
Bishop Robert Reed �@BpRobertReed: The trial of St. Justin before the prefect of Rome and his subsequent martyrdom reminds me of the blessing at the end of the Rite of Confirmation:
Preserve in your faithful th e gifts of the Holy Spirit: may they never be ashamed to confess Christ crucified before the world!
Dawn Eden Goldstein ��@DawnofMercy: Confession. Seriously. Just make a good confession and then you won’t have to fear death.
I make confession before I go on an airplane. Then, if it’s a turbulent flight, I have nothing to be scared of.
Sacramentals
Ashlyn Smith@ashlynjeffries: A patient asked me about my medals today. I was trying to describe my Our Lady of Fatima medal.
The patient is hard of hearing and thought I was saying “Geez Lady you’re fat”.
She kept responding with “I know I’m fat, but what’s on your necklace!”
This is my life.
Anonymous Carmelite: The lack of people on Twitter who put medals on their rosaries is astonishing! Is this a long lost tradition? Do people just not care anymore about medals and devotionals or having their rosaries Blessed my priests or taken to cool places on pilgrimage or touching relics anymore?
Saints Blessed Life
Peter Kreeft@ProfessorKreeft: A saint isn’t somebody who tries harder. A saint is somebody who trusts more.
John Cavadini@JohnCavadini: Also, is it wrong to consider John of God a badass Saint? Let’s face it, he single handedly chopped a burning hospital free from the adjacent building and by himself pulled all of the patients out of the burning building. You judge. Also he has the coolest name of all saints.
The name Theresa is a girl’s name of Spanish, Greek, Portuguese origin meaning “to harvest”. The popular appeal of the strong, intelligent Saint Teresa of Avila, combined with the selfless compassion of the more recent Mother Teresa.
#tbt #temperance Angela@TheWakingTulip: “The saints are present and available to us. They are family to us. They are elder siblings, only purified of all rivalry, impatience, and irritability. They want to help us become as they are (holy). They want to help us get all the way home.”— Scott Hahn
Saints Blessed Carlo
Melissa Marie-Therese Cecilia@MelissaCeciliaG: I received a copy of the chapter where the story of how Bl. Carlo Acutis’ intercession saved my life is included. Y’all, I want to cry. I’m not writing the book but I get a chance to approve what’s written. I’ll share book title & details when I know more.
Matt Swaim@mattswaim:
Halloween/All Saints Day
Save yourself the hassle of putting together two different costumes for the two different occasions: dress up as Blessed Carlo Acutis dressing up as Spider-Man.
You’re welcome.
Anonymous Carmelite: Someone should publish a really cool book of all the Eucharistic miracles that have been documented around the world, with photographs and geological information and little history tidbits and dedicate it to Blessed Carlo Acutis.
Bishop Robert Barron@BishopBarron: Bl. Carlo Acutis, video gamer and computer programmer with a deep devotion to the Eucharist and the first millennial declared blessed, pray for us!
Science and Other Related Topics
TOM the Greek Atheist@ParosTom: I’m sorry there is no possible way that you can be intelligent and be religious.
Fr. David Paternostro, SJ@DavidPaternostr: The three astrophysicists, three lawyers, two medical doctors, two chemists, the historian, and the Rhodes scholar I’ve lived in religious community with would all like a word
Daniel Joachim@danieljoachim: But science isn’t “true”, just like chess, waltz or harvesting crops isn’t “true” (or false).
Science is an accumulation of human activities, that proceed according to set of methods, builds theories, that hopefully unveils something real about quantitative aspects of our world.
Alina Sabyr@alinasabyr: “I do astronomy because it gives me a sense of joy…C.S. Lewis, a religious writer, once described religious experiences as being surprised by joy. I find that parallel…Science is God’s way of telling me he loves me”-Dr. Guy Consolmagno
@specolations ,director of @VaticanObserv
CatholicScientists@SocCatholicSci: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other to a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.”–St. John Paul II, letter to Fr. George Coyne. https://vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne.html
Thy Geekdom Come@ThyGeekdomCome: I can control my home thermostat from an app. My wife, who works from home, just texted me at my office across town to turn on the heat. It was quicker that way.
What a time to be alive.
Screwtape Rip Offs
R Bratten Weiss@Prof_RBW: If I were to write one of those “Screwtape” rip-offs I’d have Screwtape saying “get people terrified that trends from non-white cultures are channels for evil forces, but tell them actual evils like racism, anti-semitism, or spreading a deadly virus are just “different views.”
Sexual Moral Awareness
it’s Em-mardi gras season �@EmilyKath319: The idea that the orgasm is some sort of inalienable right has caused untold damage to society.
Y’all need to take a step back and decide if having your nethers feel good for 15 seconds is really worth our world being the mess it is right now.
(Hint, it is not.)
David Mills@DavidMillsWrtng: “If Christianity is so difficult to know and therefore so hard to accept these days, it is because the only content of Christianity, for a century, has seemed to be the moral question…reduced to one point, the sixth & ninth commandments, in other words the problem of sex”
Abigail Favale@FavaleAbs: Seems a little weird to say to the Church: yes I totally buy that a 1st century Jewish man was actually God and he rose again from the dead and I get to eat his body at Mass, but you are totally wrong about that sex and marriage stuff, that’s crazy
My Catholic peeps: don’t be conservative, don’t be progressive, just be CATHOLIC
R Bratten Weiss@Prof_RBW: Amusingly recalling the student who wrote in a course evaluation that I “should have assigned Theology of the Body.”
It was a class on women writers.
I taught that class for years. Loved teaching it. Almost every student who went through that class had only great things to say about it.
But, it would have been better if we’d read Theology of the Body. Clearly.
Sin
Brändøn@brannylives: The only thing thing that Jesus destroys — the only thing he takes away — is sin; everything else he elevates and perfects.-Fr. Gregory Pine
Daniel P. Horan, OFM@DanHoranOFM: The drive to ban books, censor ideas, erase reality, & create ‘safe spaces’ for white comfort and willful ignorance is not only a sign of moral weakness and perversion, but it is also sinful. It is that rare combination of a sin of commission that facilitates acts of omission.
Souls of the Faithfully Departed
Tweeting to the Choir About The After Life
Fr. Cassidy Stinson@TheHappyPriest: I offered the Last Rites this weekend for a parishioner.
Even as she prepared for her own death, she was still praying for her priests, and the repose of the souls of all her loved ones who had gone before her into heaven.
I hope I have that much faith at the end of my life.
Emily, praying for peace ���@EmilyKath319: So while in line for confession today (#NoSinGang – feels good!) I was reading the names of former parishioners on the stained glass windows & stations, etc. And I thought, what if the names aren’t there because they want recognition but because they want prayers when they die? So if you are ever waiting in line at Mass and you’re wondering whoever the person who paid for the 9th station might have been, you may as well offer a prayer for the repose of their soul.
And I thought, what if the names aren’t there because they want recognition but because they want prayers when they die?
So if you are ever waiting in line at Mass and you’re wondering whoever the person who paid for the 9th station might have been, you may as well offer a prayer for the repose of their soul.
Haley �️⚧️@pankhearst: Can ghosts exist underwater? Like, is the wreck of the Titanic haunted?
Ed Latimore@EdLatimore:
Remember that no matter what you do, you’re going to die.
And unless you do some Jesus or Hitler level crap, no one will even remember that you were ever alive.
You’ve only got 40 or so more *good* years on this rock.
Spiritual Direction
Free Spiritual Director from the Catholic Bard
(The) Struggle
—Mother Angelica Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality
Anonymous Carmelite: People struggle with the faith and understanding what true love really is and means, especially in the way of divine filiation. It isn’t easy being a Catholic in a fallen world, people have their own ideas of love and fall into despair or pride and need compassion.
Punky Mantilla �@PunkyMantilla·: “Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin.” Francis de Sales said that. As an anxiety and depression sufferer, I used to hate that quote until I noticed that it says …”except sin.”
Fear is not sin. But it is a plague sent from the Evil One.
Fr. Matthew Schneider��@FrMatthewLC·: In Gethsemane, Jesus had the most intense temptations to despair yet did not despair. We can look to him when we have similar temptations.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker@dlongenecker1: At this stage in my life and spiritual journey I am realizing how hard it is to persevere. The climb gets steeper and the air thinner as you attempt to ascend the mountain.
Sister Anne@nunblogger: Nobody likes obedience. (Well, maybe Jesus and the saints.) Obedience is hard. 43 years of vows hasn’t made it easier for me. It involves sacrifice: you have nothing to stand on but faith that God is in charge. Please pray hard for those whose faith is being tested.
#LatinMass
the moon’s wife@bookishseawitch: every time the world feels unbearable I have a hearty bowl of soup and suddenly everything is okay
I want to be a good human now, to enjoy the warmth of the sun & the smell of jasmine tea & the feel of rubbing lotion into my skin. I hope it’s just as holy.
Fr. Stephen Vrazel@KeytarCatholic: The hierarchy are making it hard enough for people to want to become Catholic (sexual scandal, financial impropriety, etc.)
People have enough legitimate barriers to entry.
Let’s not make it unnecessarily worse by embracing geocentrism and young earth creationism.
Supernatural
Theological Imagination
Fr. Tom badil@Bomcalix517: When Mario dies, he has a halo. This implies that he immediately enjoys the Beatific Vision upon death. A likely explanation is that his death at the hands of Donkey Kong was in odium fidei, making him a martyr. In this essay I shall
Trinity
Tweeting to the Choir The Triune God
Augustine of Hiphop ��@hiphopaugustine
can’t measure God like a gram or a kilo
He created space-time, did it ex nihilo
three Persons, one God, one substance, one nature
if you call us polytheists betta check ya nomenclature
I aint no Arian
straight Trinitarian
three co-equal Persons
wit a love unvaryin
the word Trinity aint simply educational
it means the ground of all being is relational
Sachin Jose@Sachinettiyil: “The household of Jesus, Mary and Joseph became a ‘home away from home’ for the eternal Son of God. It was an outpost of heaven, an image of the Trinity in the world.” – Dr. Scott Hahn Father
Time After Time
St. Thomas Aquinas@Aquinas_Quotes: The intellectual soul is created on the borderline between eternity and time (ScG 3.61).
Theology
Truth
Fr. Matthew Schneider@FrMatthewLC: Not all untruths are lies, so it’s better we use “untruth” when unsure of the subjective reality of the person.
A lie requires not only it be untrue but that the person knows, or has reasonable grounds to judge most probably, it is untrue.
Our language, even in non-religious circumstances, can often express our faith & worldview. For example, simply referring to “creation” shows a sense of Christian metaphysics.
Wayne Kasper@k3enteprises: “The Truth is like a lion; all you have to do is set it loose, and it will defend itself.” St Augustine
� Augustine of Hiphop ��@hiphopaugustine:
just because I spit the truth don’t mean I’m virtue signallin
and I got a righteous dance I call it virtue wigglin
nah you best not be that joker in the church who gigglin
cuz the Spirit’s gonna find you when he search you little friend
Twitter Discourse
Tweeting to the Choir About Twitter Discourse
Chef Andrew Gruel@ChefGruel:
FACT: Not a single mind has been changed during an argument in the comments section of Twitter. How valuable is your time?
Carlos A. Rodríguez@CarlosHappyNPO: Remember this and stay free:
I don’t have to reply
I don’t have to defend.
I don’t have to make time.
I don’t have all the info.
I don’t have to.
Rene Albert ☕️✟@coffeencrucifix: Honestly, if anyone is ever interested in becoming Catholic, the best advice I can give for those who are easily troubled is to stay away from any Catholic social media.
For many, it has led them to the Church and to connect with likeminded individuals. But for many others, it is enough to shatter any hope they have in humanity or in a loving, merciful God.
Jimmy AkinJimmyAkin3000: Though we have quite different views on various issues, it has not stopped Tim and I from having productive discussions. He’s been a gentleman toward me, and I seek to be one toward him–and to everyone. Differences of opinion don’t mean we can’t be charitable toward one another.
Ukraine
Unicorn Cult
Vatican II
Virtues and Grace
WAR! What Is It Good For?
TinaBob ™@TinaBob: Do people actually understand what nuclear war means?
Anonymous Carmelite: The Japanese do, because they have so far been the only victims of a nuclear bomb and they know the horrors that come with it, even if on a small scale. The nuclear bombs we have now are like a million times more powerful to what existed in 1945 so no, people don’t understand.
Jay Black@jayblackisfunny: Hey, millennials and zoomers who are dealing with your first bout of World War III panic:
Find yourself a Gen X friend to see you through it.
We spent the entirety of our childhoods prepping for nuclear war, alone, while eating Pop Tarts cold from the foil.
We got you.
Jen Fulwiler is on tour@jenfulwiler: Last week we were live tweeting the Super Bowl and this week we’re live tweeting a war. Modern life is surreal
CRC@ICRC: � The rules of war �
1. Civilians cannot be targeted.
2. Civilians cannot be used as human shields.
3. Civilians must have safe passage to flee.
4. Humanitarian organizations must have access to deliver aid to civilians.
Wedding
Where You Are
Theresa Zoe Williams �@TheresaZoe
Too gay for the straights
Too straight for the gays
Too secular for the Catholics
Too Catholic for the seculars
…Right where God wants me
Word of God
Wordle And Russia
Sr. Theresa Aletheia ☠️@pursuedbytruth: Wordle except the word is always “DEATH.”
Joy Marie Clarkson@joynessthebrave: wordle is a gateway drug to quordle. this hunger can’t be satisfied.
Mary Pezzulo@mary_pezzulo: As an elder Millennial whose first memories are from the 80s, it’s weird how we’re on the verge of a hot war with Russia and we’re all just playing Wordle and cracking jokes and pretending to have a good time.
I remember being so young I’m not in preschool yet and watching Mr. Rogers go to Moscow to meet the Russian TV host. I remember being confused because I already knew Soviets are evil and hate us, yet Mr. Rogers was just talking through his puppet to some ordinary-looking kids.
Words
Stephen Simpson �� ProperGander �@BamaStephen
“You say Gestapo
I say Gazpacho
You say Nazi
I say Nacho
Gestapo! Gazpacho!
Nazi! Nacho!
Let’s call the whole thing off!” �
Steven D. Greydanus@DecentFilms: “Multiversal” seems like a decent enough adjective, but as I mull Spider-Man: No Way Home in comparison/contrast to Into the Spiderverse, I find myself driven to coin the term “multiversiferous.” Or possibly “multiversiverous,” I haven’t decided.
Mr. ((Vincent)(The Catholic)) Linguist: @FilologLX_X: “Have you found that what languages people speak affects how they see and celebrate their faith? I’m thinking of how different churches have different liturgical rites and traditions, and wondering if that extends to, or is caused by to some extent, the various languages spoken.”
! Overall, I am a weak Whorfian. That is to say, I do believe that our native language INFLUENCES but does not definitively determine the way that we see the world. It is my observation that in most of the Eastern Rites and the Orthodox, it isthe culture/language which influences and shapes the faith. My main exceptions to this are the Melkites, Maronites, and Chaldeans, as their faith does not transcend macro-cultural boundaries. However there are other communities, like the Lakota, who have had clear influence of their Catholic faith on their culture.
By the way, we as English speakers are not immune to the influence of our language on our faith. We love taking “becoming” from Scripture and turning it into “making.” We’re busy busy busy Saxons!
Fr. Matthew Schnieder:
AMEN comes from the Hebrew root אמן (‘MN) which is the verb to be firm, confirmed, reliable, faithful, have faith, believe.
- It has nothing to do with the word “men.”
- Most verb roots are 3 consonants in Hebrew, the first here is a silent consonant though.
Wonderful Womanhood
Patricia Heaton @PatriciaHeaton: Being a mother is indescribable; joy, worry, delight, frustration, but ultimately the greatest satisfaction and deepest human love of your life. So grateful.
A.J. Jacobs@ajjacobs: “It’s odd that birthdays focus on the kid, when they should honor the mom. What did I do on that day long ago? I came out, cried, demanded food, got a mediocre score on my Apgar. The real hero is my mom. She’s the one who had her body dangerously distorted by my infant skull.”-Me
Cardinal Seán@CardinalSean: A mother’s love is our first glimpse of God’s love for us. Mothers love their children tenderly & face any challenge to protect them from harm. We pray that all mothers receive the grace & strength to guide their children on a path of righteousness & holiness. #HappyMothersDay
Peccatrix@CatholicAwesome: So many pregnant woman talk about how they miss laying on their stomachs but I miss being able to lay on my back without passing out.
Hans Fiene �@HansFiene: Gentlemen, if you stop playing video games and use that time to learn how to make furniture and stuff, attractive women will want to marry you and have your babies.
Steve Skojec@SteveSkojec: I’ll be sure to tell my beautiful wife, who has given me 8 children, that we must stop gaming together so she can marry me and have my babies.
Nicky Gumbel@nickygumbel: 2000 yrs ago Jesus repeatedly liberated and affirmed women- treating men and women as equals.
Women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb – the first to be entrusted with the news of the resurrection of Jesus. #InternationalWomansDay2022
Leah Libresco Sargeant@LeahLibresco: One thing I love in the letters of St. Francis de Sales is his confidence that God sends us the pains and penances we need. He cautions a pregnant woman not to fast, since God has already sent her “holocausts enough” in her pregnancy.
There is no life the Cross is absent from.
☀️ Catholic Charm ✞ ☀️@CatholicCharm: Pregnancy is an absolute blessing and everything mothers go through to bring their child into the world is worth it- but that doesn’t mean the process isn’t hard. If a pregnant friend of yours is venting, please don’t dismiss her feelings by saying “well just be happy”. Of course we are happy. It’s possible to feel grateful and still struggle with aspects of it at the same time. It’s not one or the other. Pregnancy and motherhood can already feel isolating in some ways, and it just makes it worse when others don’t acknowledge our feelings.
Puking sucks. Having intense headaches sucks. Seeing your body change can suck. After labor, having bleeding nipples sucks. If you have stitches and feel them throb every time you sneeze or go to the bathroom.. really sucks. Not every aspect of pregnancy is romantic and that’s okay. I’d do it over and over again to have as many children as God will bless me with.
And it’s all worth it to have my son in my arms and to be expecting my second child. I wouldn’t change it but it can still be tough. I just hate seeing other women struggle and feel like they have no outlet. If they complain they’re painted as ungrateful. So they keep it in and feel all alone. Please be there for your pregnant friends.
X-Mass Stuff
G. K. Chesterton@GKChestertonian: “What makes Christmas wonderful and merry, according to Dickens, is ‘keeping’ Christmas. Scrooge’s life changed overnight, and his conversion turned him from a miser to a giver. What if we had a night like Scrooge? What if we woke up changed?”— GKC, ILN, December 24, 1921.
“A mass of legend and literature, which increases and will never end has repeated and rung the changes on that single paradox; that the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle.” (GKC, The Everlasting Man)
Tomás Insua@tomasinsua: “One Person of the Trinity entered into the created cosmos, throwing in his lot with it. From the beginning of the world, but particularly through the incarnation, the mystery of Christ is at work in a hidden manner in the natural world” (#LaudatoSi 99)
Merry Christmas!
Michelle Ule@Michelleule: Thomas Howard wrote about the incarnation:
“He didn’t come to thin out human life; He came to set it free. All dancing & feasting & processing &singing & building & sculpting & baking & merrymaking that belong to us, &stolen into serving false gods, are returned in the gospel.”
(((Simcha Fisher)))@SimchaFisher: who wants to hear my medieval Christmas hymn lyrics? all purpose
I forgot to put in about a deer
Rod Jones ���@rj_cubed: I’m not normally a hate mail sender, but in yesterday’s show Lino was wrong, totally wrong, about Saint Nick. Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus, in pop culture, have been the same person for hundreds of years.
y’all don’t wanna miss this
we was different continents
Christ is the isthmus
makin us his business
can I get a witness
out the Lord’s poverty
we been given richness
Yaks, Yoga and Yetis
https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/1500104699361562631?s=20&t=6E7eDmboguDjuJdhH5cbug
Zoo’s, Zombie and Generation Z
chrismpadgett@chrismpadgett: As the zombie apocalypse takes place all vegans will realize that lifestyle was a cute convenience.