Mother Knows Best

This time, you really do want to skip the drama and stay with mama, because Our Lady truly does know best.

(I can't remember where I found that one, but it was on some Catholic Facebook face. I've found a lot of them. I'd never join Facebook just for their sake when I can lurk and snap up unconsidered trifles... memes, that is... but they do provide funny ways of sharing the Faith. I am very grateful for that.)

Oh, and this one was hilarious:

This is pretty much what happens whenever an evangelical Christian smells Catholicism. I've never been on the receiving end of this other than that one time. Actually, I've been pretty surprised by how little prejudice I've encountered at college (relatively speaking).

It probably helps that I avoid social interactions. Ah, well.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

For Your Holy Week Amusement

I am back with the latest round of Catholic-themed funnies! Credits for these first few go to Pope Hilarious gags on Facebook:

Dat cake.

This is both hilarious and very true. I think I'm going to save it, as I have the feeling I might someday be able to use it.

...I have quite an arsenal of Pope Benedict pictures and other Catholic-themed funnies with which to challenge any anti-Catholic hate directed towards me on the Internet. However, I haven't gotten any anti-Catholic hate. Strange. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I just find it odd that the ultra-liberals haven't found me yet.

I guess there's benefits to being overlooked, as Merry Brandybuck once said. (Read the book.)

How's that for a good picture of Xtreme Papa? XD I like to call him that. I even have a shirt that says that, complete with a picture of him wearing sunglasses. (The image is sadly coming to pieces after being washed, so I don't wear it that often - twice a year at the most.) I continue the tradition by also saying 'Papa Ben' and 'Papa Frankie', even if I do it only on the Internet.

The Swiss Guards (Cors Helvetica) do not look impressed.

I have another of Pope Pius XII captioned: VENI AD ME, FRA, which is Latin for, "Come at me, bro." He seems to have been prone to this stance.

I don't call that a problem; I call that awesome!

This one's on Papa Frankie. His poor assistants... XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Anime Papa Frankie!

It's a very pretty illustration from Catholic Anime, which never fails in its crusade to spread Catholicism through anime. I believe this picture is supposed to depict Argentina (quite fittingly) from Axis Powers Hetalia. As I do not follow that series, I cannot say for sure.

(I'm also not sure why Argentina would be blond, but it fits in nicely with the elegant golden vestments).

And, yes, 'Papa Frankie' is a nickname for Pope Francis. If there are t-shirts and mugs labeling John Paul II the Great 'Xtreme Papa' and Pope Benedict XVI as 'Papa Ben', then we can start calling Pope Francis 'Papa Frankie'. It's very nice.

Also, if you think the Pope is going to change official church doctrine.... neener, neener, neener. Joke's on you. I saw a syndicated columnist today admitting to a grudging liking to Pope Francis, although he said he wouldn't approve fully of him until he changed his mind about priestly celibacy, ordination of women, etc. Blah, blah, blah. When will these people understand that the Pope cannot change the dogmas of the Church? I guess the concept of objective truth is so lost to them that they cannot even begin to appreciate or respect the belief in it that others have. We must all conform to their nonconformity, and they do not even see the irony.

It doesn't help that at every family get together on one side of the family the Protestant members delight in repeating the various misinterpretations by the media of the Pope's words for our 'benefit'. We keep telling them that we don't trust the media to repeat the Pope's words faithfully, but somehow they assume that those misquotes prove something. I don't know.

I keep forgetting that logic doesn't work on most people.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Yes, I See The Resemblance

Someone commented: "Looks like Obi-Wan took his uniform from a priest."

Haha, you think?

And, just for good measure:

Oh, why not? I'll just post all my Catholic Star Wars funnies.

Catholic geeks have the best sense of humor. Just sayin'. XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

St. Thomas Aquinas's Take on the Serenity Prayer

...I have to admit, I like St. Thomas's version better.

And, yes, the image is from Catholic Anime, and it apparently depicts C.C. from Code Geass. Most of what I know about Code Geass can be summed up as: "Lelouch is not a girl, despite all appearances." Why does everyone look like a girl in anime?

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Even Google has commemorated it with this lovely graphic over their search bar:

Lorica of St. Patrick

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His Crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgment Day.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the love of the Seraphim,

In the obedience of angels,

In the hope of resurrection unto reward,

In prayers of Patriarchs,

In Predictions of Prophets,

In preaching of Apostles,

In faith of Confessors,

In purity of holy Virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today

The power of Heaven,

The light of the sun,

The brightness of the moon,

The splendor of fire,

The flashing of lightning,

The swiftness of wind,

The depth of sea, 

The stability of earth,

The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today

God’s Power to guide me,

God’s Might to uphold me,

God’s Wisdom to teach me,

God’s Eye to watch over me,

God’s Ear to hear me,

God’s Word to give me speech,

God’s Hand to guide me,

God’s Way to lie before me,

God’s Shield to shelter me,

God’s Host to secure me,

Against the snares of demons,

Against the seductions of vices,

Against the lusts of nature,

Against everyone who meditates injury to me,

Whether far or near,

Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues

Against every hostile merciless power

Which may assail my body and my soul,

Against the incantations of false prophets,

Against the black laws of heathenism,

Against the false laws of heresy,

Against the deceits of idolatry,

Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,

Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today

Against every poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against death-wound,

That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ at my right, Christ at my left,

Christ in the fort,

Christ in the chariot seat,

Christ in the poop,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

This lovely prayer is also known as the Breastplate of St. Patrick (because lorica is Latin for 'breastplate', and St. Patrick was ethnically Roman, if I recall correctly). You don't usually hear all of it, only bits and pieces in various songs and prayers.

Oh, and, by the way, that's 'poop' as in 'the poop deck of a ship' rather than whatever else you may have been thinking of...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

I've Seen This Argument Before

So my university is hosting a debate. The theme is: "The pain and suffering in the world indicate that the Christian God does not exist." It's being hosted by the University Christian Center, so I'm fairly sure it's rigged. These things usually are.

I've seen this argument so many times that when I saw the poster taped to the glass door of the science building this morning, I literally said, "I've seen that before," and walked in.

I'm just going to quote Boethius from The Consolation of Philosophy here:

We cannot raise the question, “How can there be evil if God exists?” without raising the second, “How can there be good if He exist not?”

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Bible Quotes Apply to Anything... Anything.

"God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' "

However, my latest favorite is this gem from Catholic Anime:

"Whoever digs a pit will fall into it;
 if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them."

Ahahahaha. Accurate Bible quote is accurate! Currently I have this picture as the first one that pops up on my screensaver. I haven't gotten tired of it yet. XD

Also, since they just posted this one in time for Friday and it's still Friday here (and also since I'm in a Yu-Gi-Oh! mood again and I have a soft spot for Kaiba):

I like one of the comments someone made on this: "Looks like Kaiba activated his Lenten trap card! I'm not sure if Yugi is going to be able to counter this one!"

Some of my other Yu-Gi-Oh! favorites from Catholic Anime:

HOLY MIND CRUSH!

Yami's hair is particularly distracting here... I really have no idea how he gets it to do that. It's also apparently natural. O.o Anyway, I always thought he and Yugi made more friendship speeches than Tea/Anzu ever did, but maybe that's just me.

Hmm, I've been thinking about rewatching the series. Maybe I should keep a running tally. That is, of course, after I get out of Season 0 of the manga where Yami is setting everyone on fire.

Someone's comment: "RELIGIOUS QUOTES ON MOTORCYCLES!"

Graceful Charity!

And now for one of the best of them all:

The comments always make it better:

"I activate my trap! LOGICAL FALLACY!"

"Anathema sit."

"It's time to D-D-D-D-DEBATE!!!!"

"Every time someone says a heresy, the most appropriate way to solve it is by playing a children's card game."

"I play my change of cheek!"

"HEART OF THE CARDS, GUIDE ME!"

Ahahaha.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Time For a Pope Post!

Some people on Facebook and Tumblr make some really good papal reaction images. XD

I would be greatly appreciative if other people starting using them as well! If all goes well, we shall convert the world... *rubs hands together*

Ahahahahaha.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Peter Kreeft on Faith

The Faith is not selling well.


Faith is selling well – extremely well: faith in general, faith as an attitude, faith as positive thinking, faith in faith. Also selling well are many strange new faiths: faith in cults, faith in UFO’s, faith in ICBM’s, faith in the Force, faith in ancient astronauts, faith in astrology – faith in almost anything. We are an incredibly credulous age.


The reason for this is probably that "nature abhors a vacuum" spiritually as well as physically. Our modern Western civilization is ready to believe in almost anything to fill the vacuum left by the de-Christianization of the last four centuries.


- Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, p. 193


This reminds me so very much of Hogfather, from the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett, where people ceasing to believe in the Hogfather (Discworld's analogy for Santa Claus) leaves a lot of 'extra belief' sloshing around. As a consequence, anthromorphic personifications like the Verruca Gnome, the oh God of Hangovers, and the God of Indigestion are created out of all that spare belief. I can't help but wonder what sorts of things we have created with our spare belief when our society turned away from Christianity...


Slenderman, maybe.


O.o.


Then again, we may deserve it for everything we've done.


In Pace Christi,


Elyse

We're Enantiomers

'Enantiomer' is my go-to chemical simile when I'm trying to describe two things that are alike and yet opposite. If you've taken organic, you know why. If you haven't, don't worry.


My latest comparison to enantiomers is atheists versus Christians. We're both human, and yet our outlooks are totally different. As evidence, I submit this thing I found on either Catholic Memes, Catholic Anime, or Catholic Gag (I can't remember which). I'm retyping it here since Google is still broken as far as posting pictures goes.

An Atheist's View on Life

I will live my life according to these beliefs

God does not exist

It is just foolish to think

That there is a God with a cosmic plan

That an all-powerful God brings redemption and healing to the pain and suffering of the world

Is a comforting thought, however

It

Is only wishful thinking

People can do as they please without eternal consequences

The idea that

I am deserving of Hell

Because of sin

Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power

"The more you have, the happier you will be"

Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose

In a world with no God

There is freedom to be who I want to be

But with God

Everything is fine

It is ridiculous to think

I am lost and in need of saving

A Christian's View of Life

(read this bottom to top)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Catholic Anime Once Again

GKC for the win!

Ahahahahaha. Okay, maybe Tuxedo Mask has a useful purpose in that sense. However, usually, both of them are useless.

Never thought you'd see Sailor Moon and St. Therese in the same post, did you?

Merry Christmas, everyone.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Anyone Excited for Christmas?

Personally, I'm looking forward to Midnight Mass tonight.

Okay, I may have done this post just in order to use these two gifs. *whistles innocently*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Hear, Heavenly Creator

This is an old (11th century) Icelandic song, transliterated into the Roman alphabet as 'Heyr himna smidhur' (if you don't mind me substituting 'dh' for the curved d-thing with a line through its stem) and which translates to 'Hear, Heavenly Creator'. The group is apparently called Arstidhir (again, me doing my best to write the name when my keyboard doesn't have all the right letters).

This is seriously beautiful. Again, it's a reminder that we Catholics have some of the best music - AND that all of the old music was the really good stuff. What we sing now just doesn't move the soul like this  does. Even atheist commenters on YouTube cannot help but acknowledge the otherworldly beauty of this song.

Bonus fact: they are singing it in a German train station. You can see a sign saying 'Ausgang' ('Exit') behind them at one point. They lucked out on the acoustics - the echoing of their voices in that area only adds to the haunting quality of the song.

That's another reason why the old styles of churches were better. The acoustics of the building allowed for beautiful music like this...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Reno Erat Rudolphus

Now presenting: 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An Abridged Edition' in LATIN!

XD This is simply hilarious. It's done in the true Gregorian style, and yet the lyrics (which I can decipher perfectly well, thank you) are the ones we all know and love, if slightly abridged. For instance, the opening lines go like this: 'Rudolph was a deer. He had a red nose. If you ever saw it, you would say it glows.'

Whoever did this, I love them.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Catholic Mid-Week Pick-Me-Up

First off, a screencap of Korra:

And now for Dr. Seuss (of all things):

And now we're back to Yu-Gi-Oh!

The comments on this one are also made of win:

| It's time to D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DEBATE!

| I activate my trap card! LOGICAL FALLACY!

| Mind convert!

| Every time someone says a heresy, the most appropriate way to solve it is by playing a children's card game.

| HEART OF THE CARDS, GUIDE ME!

Ahaha. If only they carried the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga here at our bookstore. Noooo.... we get Zexal and 5Ds. Even GX was weird compared to the anime (which actually preceded it). And they took the only characters I would have liked and put them through the wringer (yes, it was the Truesdale brothers, why do you ask?). Grr.

Even R would be interesting, because it has Arcana Knight Joker, who is almost as awesome as Dark Magician, and that's saying a lot.

...I still like to randomly say, "I summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" while playing any game involving cards... XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse