Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Thursday, November 4, 2021

NYC to LA BY TRAIN | A 3000-Mile No-Fly Travel Film

This is a wonderful look at America as experienced by a young English couple who took a trip across the United States by train from New York City and Washington, D.C. to San Francisco and Los Angeles.



Tuesday, November 2, 2021

All Souls Day - Requiem Dies Irae - Mozart

 


 The History of All Souls Day 

The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22)​ when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the faithful departed; one for the priest's intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. On only a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.  

Pope Benedict XV. Imagno / Contributor / Getty Images
Pope Benedict XV

While All Souls Day is now paired with All Saints Day (November 1), which celebrates all of the faithful who are in Heaven, it originally was celebrated in the Easter season, around Pentecost Sunday (and still is in the Eastern Catholic Churches). By the tenth century, the celebration had been moved to October; and sometime between 998 and 1030, St. Odilo of Cluny decreed that it should be celebrated on November 2 in all of the monasteries of his Benedictine congregation. Over the next two centuries, other Benedictines and the Carthusians began to celebrate it in their monasteries as well, and soon the commemoration of all the Holy Souls in Purgatory spread to the entire Church.

Offering Our Efforts on Behalf of the Holy Souls 

On All Souls Day, we not only remember the dead, but we apply our efforts, through prayer, almsgiving, and the Mass, to their release from Purgatory. There are two plenary indulgences attached to All Souls Day, one for visiting a church and another for visiting a cemetery. (The plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery can also be obtained every day from November 1-8, and, as a partial indulgence, on any day of the year.) While the actions are performed by the living, the merits of the indulgences are applicable only to the souls in Purgatory. Since a plenary indulgence removes all of the temporal punishment for sin, which is the reason why souls are in Purgatory in the first place, applying a plenary indulgence to one of the Holy Souls in Purgatory means that the Holy Soul is released from Purgatory and enters Heaven. 

Praying for the dead is a Christian obligation. In the modern world, when many have come to doubt the Church's teaching on Purgatory, the need for such prayers has only increased. The Church devotes the month of November to prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and participation in the Mass of All Souls Day is a good way to begin the month. 

 
Richert, Scott P. "All Souls Day and Why Catholics Celebrate It." Learn Religions, Aug. 28, 2020, learnreligions.com/what-is-all-souls-day-542460.



Monday, November 1, 2021

Queen's Speech for COP26 Evening Reception

Pope Francis Encourages Communist Groups as “Veritable Invisible Army”

 



The Lepanto Institute released a new video report, exposing the celebration and promotion of militant communists in a Vatican event initiated by Pope Francis. The report focuses on the organizations and speakers that were celebrated in a video produced by the Vatican for the fourth annual World Meeting of Popular Movements (WMPM).

According to the WMPM website, the purpose of the meeting "is to create an 'encounter' between Church leadership and grassroots organizations working to address the 'economy of exclusion and inequality' by working for structural changes that promote social, economic and racial justice." But many of the organizations participating in the meeting are self-avowed militant Communists. “A woman named Ceres Hadich, representing a Brazilian organization called Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), shows up in the Vatican video at around 14 minutes,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. “We have video of Hadich, just a few months before the WMPM, doing a family read-aloud of the Communist Manifesto, with the communist hymn called the Internationale playing in the background while the MST flag hangs on the wall behind them! We also found hundreds of posts and articles by MST celebrating Karl Marx and calling for a communist revolution!” The Lepanto Institute also exposed the Vatican’s inclusion of Luca Casrini, who heads the organization called Mediterranea Saving Humans. Casarini is a long-time Marxist agitator and activist who once headed the Tute Bianche movement, which infamously engaged in violent clashes with Italian police during the G8 summit in 2001. During that clash, Casarini (whose facebook page is littered with communist organizations) issued a “declaration of war” against G8 participants. Other organizations given a spotlight in the Vatican’s video, exposed by the Lepanto Institute for openly working toward Communist revolution are StreetNet International and Slum Dwellers International. “Perhaps the most shocking thing we discovered in producing this report is Pope Francis’ admission to having examined the documents and speeches of these individuals and organizations, while he sings their praises and encourages them to continue on,” said Hichborn. In a video speech to the participants in the WMPM, Pope Francis praised them as a “veritable invisible army” with “the future of humanity in great measure in [their] own hands.” Addressing the question of what these self-professed Marxists should be doing, Pope Francis said that "some concrete measures that may allow for significant changes," are "present in your documents, in your speeches, and I have taken them very much into account; I have reflected on them and consulted specialists."
Responding Pope Francis’ speech, Hichborn said, “Pope Francis removed all plausible deniability that these organizations are acolytes of Karl Marx, working toward Communist revolution by admitting that he reviewed their documents and speeches. We also reviewed their documents and speeches, and it is clear even to the casual observer that they are Communists. It is both shocking and horrifying for the man sitting on the Chair of Peter to encourage organizations working for Communist revolution to follow their own ideas for ‘significant change.’”

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Henry V - Speech at Agincourt - Eve of Saint Crispin's Day



ON THIS DAY 25 OCTOBER 

 The Battle of Agincourt was one of the greatest English victories in the Hundred Years' War. It took place on 25 October 1415 (Saint Crispin's Day) near Agincourt in northern France. England's unexpected victory against a numerically superior French army boosted English morale and prestige, crippled France, and started a new period of English dominance in the war. The celebrated St Crispin's Day speech is a part of William Shakespeare's play, Henry V, Act IV Scene iii 18–67. An extract follows:

 "This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be rememberèd— We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.'