When a Girl Says “No…”

Last updated on: May 22, 2018 at 7:40 pm By Mary Pezzulo

The conversation happened when I was an awkward, ugly, bookish teenager, ridiculously well-read but with no social skills, homeschooled half the time and attending community college the other half. I’d been homeschooled in an extremely conservative and paranoid group; my siblings were being brought up a little more loosely. The chastity swing-dances of which I’ve already written were a thing of the past, and I considered myself too old for them anyway. I had never been to a prom;... Read more

Into the Summer

Last updated on: May 19, 2018 at 11:09 pm By Mary Pezzulo

Hey gang, This is just your approximately-every-two-week reminder that Steel Magnificat runs almost entirely on tips. You guys literally keep the lights on for Michael, Rosie and me, and we are humbled and grateful that you appreciate us so much. We have had some extremely prosperous months, and some months where we got by by the skin of our teeth. Such is the danger of being a starvingwriter. My fibromyalgia gets much worse with changes in temperature so we... Read more

Something About the Royal Wedding

Last updated on: May 19, 2018 at 7:46 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I don’t care about the Royal Wedding. I really don’t. I tried. I know everyone there has intrinsic value as human persons and so I’m pleased there was a wedding and I hope everyone had a good time. But as far as getting excited over the Royal Wedding more than I would be over the wedding of any other two human beings anywhere on earth, I’m not. I hope that’s not too callous. I wish Prince What’s-his-Name and that... Read more

Ten Times Eternity: A Response to the Texas School Shooting

Last updated on: May 18, 2018 at 10:07 pm By Mary Pezzulo

I woke up to find there’d been another school shooting. I didn’t know what to say. I’ve written about this so many times. I’m told this is the 101st mass shooting in 2018, in 138 days. Math was never my best subject, but I think that averages out to a mass shooting every 1.36 days. I’m told there have been 22 school shootings resulting in casualties this year. I think that averages out to about one a week. I’m told... Read more

An Urgent Work of Mercy For Everyone

Last updated on: May 17, 2018 at 2:35 pm By Mary Pezzulo

People are always asking me questions. I do my best to answer. For the past week or two, several people have been asking me me how we’re supposed to do the will of God on earth if we don’t fight to establish a theocratic monarchy that has something to do with the Holy Roman Empire. This isn’t a question I ever saw myself trying to answer, when I first decided to become an internet blogger. I am off the hook,... Read more

It’s Too Darn Hot

Last updated on: May 16, 2018 at 1:46 am By Mary Pezzulo

It’s hot and humid out today, in case you haven’t noticed. It was worse in my dining room. Veteran readers will remember that I don’t do well in the heat. It’s one of the mile-long list of fibromyalgia triggers. The head fog caused by heat and humidity is something it’s very difficult to work through. And the writer’s block caused by a fibromyalgia head fog is thicker than cement. But I’m a blogger; my entire living is writing something, anything,... Read more

Say there is a Lady

Last updated on: May 13, 2018 at 7:53 pm By Mary Pezzulo

Let’s say there is a Lady full of Grace. Let’s say there is a Lady who is perfect– but not as the world sees. Not a perfect June Cleaver who serves hot breakfast in a flawless manicure and perm. Not some perfectly accommodating wife who is a maid in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. Not a perfectly organized, no-nonsense coupon-clipping mom of ten moppets who always gets them dressed in matching suits, pinafores and chapel veils... Read more

Lilacs in Labelle

Last updated on: May 10, 2018 at 8:44 pm By Mary Pezzulo

LaBelle smells like unwashed dogs. The neighbors in the apartment building have at least two large dogs they don’t walk. They let them out twice a day to do their business, and it stays there. Their front yard is a minefield; so is the bus stop in front of their house. The sun dries it out, and the wind blows the smell our way– a smell I’ll always associate with early summer on this dismal street, in this dismal... Read more

Seven Steps to a Catholic What?

Last updated on: May 9, 2018 at 3:19 pm By Mary Pezzulo

The other day, I saw a post in the a group of traditionalist Catholic would-be monarchists who were not in any way joking. It went like this: How to restore a Catholic monarchy in seven steps: 1) Find a good wife. 2) Raise traditional Catholic children; 3) Develop a strong household economy; 4) Forge alliances with others who are following this model; 5) Offer perpetual fealty to a stronger household that can exercise effective leadership with a Christian civilization: 6)... Read more

“The Counter-Revolution” and The Spirit of the Antichrist

Last updated on: May 7, 2018 at 11:45 pm By Mary Pezzulo

Lately I was in an argument with a person who was very fond of Saint Thomas, and who kept insisting that rape is actually a form of fornication, an act of sex instead of an act of violence. I could not get through to them, try as I might, and eventually I stopped trying. This person had, in the top right-hand corner of their profile picture, a tiny emblem with a two-headed spastic eagle on it. I have seen... Read more