Not posting much this week…

… I’ll get back into full swing next week. I’ve been spending most of my time preparing for a conference. So far my notes consist of this…

I’ll be discussing motherhood and Rule of St. Benedict, followed by a workshop on divorce/remarriage within the Church. If you could spare a prayer for my nerves, that would be fantastic. Maybe I should write “don’t drink” on the other hand, just to be on the safe side.

In the meantime, here’s some stuff for your consideration.

From Eye of The Tiber — Man May Have Accidentally Skipped Bead; Begins Decade Over Again.

Spencer went on to say that although it usually takes him approximately 20-minutes to say a rosary, he was now moving on to his second hour and still on his first decade. At press time, Spencer was questioning whether he had said a Hail Mary on the bead he was fingering when this interview began, or whether that was the next bead up.

This post on clericalism.

Clericalism is a mindset, an attitude, a perspective. It patronizes and denigrates those who disagree and uses ad hominem attacks to belittle. When a priest speaks disrespectfully to an elderly woman and embarrasses her publicly at Mass merely because she exercises her legitimate option (as defined by Rome) to kneel or genuflect at Communion time rather than just stand, that is clericalism. When the faithful are denied their legitimate option to receive Holy Communion on the tongue or confession behind a screen, that is clericalism. When women are ridiculed and scoffed at by priests for wearing chapel veils, which is their option, that is clericalism. When some of the faithful ask the pastor if the Extraordinary Form could be celebrated in their parish and the priest goes ballistic and insults them and calls them fanatical, schismatic rad-trads, that is clericalism. When priests who wear roman vestments and lace albs instead of burlap potato sacks and moo-moo albs are laughed at and slandered by gossip among their brother diocesan clergy, that is clericalism.

This photo gallery of “tolerant” pro-abortion liberals at an Australian pro-life rally.

From Verily Magazine — A TANGLED WEB: DON JON HIGHLIGHTS REAL-LIFE EFFECTS OF INTERNET PORN

For Gordon-Levitt’s first written and directed feature film, Don Jon (which sensitive viewers should know is filled with porn clips) raises a good question: Does our culture have an unhealthy relationship with porn? Has it diminished our view of women, relationships, and sex in general?

Don Jon is a bold contribution to a recent trend in entertainment, giving audiences a real—and grim—snapshot of 21st-century relationships. Call it post–Sex and the City realism. There’s the recent film Lovelace, contrasting the exciting story, as we were told it, of Deepthroat star Linda Lovelace, and the completely un-sexy version as it really was. There’s Girls on HBO, known for showing ugly, lifelike sex scenes. There’s Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, managing to make ultra-risqué performances devoid of any sex appeal. It’s as if sex is no longer sexy in pop culture. What was once a warm and alluring mystery is now a cold, anatomical display. If intimacy is dead, porn may have killed it.

That’s one post I’ve been meaning to write for years now. My experience with pornography in my own marriage. Next to abortion, there is nothing in this world I loathe more than pornography.