The Practical Parson

 This week the Society of Saint Pius X consecrated 4 new bishops for their movement; to ensure that the work they carry out will be able to continue for the foreseeable future.  In response, today the Vatican has announced that not only are the clergy who participated in the consecrations excommunicated, but likewise all the lay faithful who the SSPX ministers to as well.  In the decree of excommunication, Cardinal Victor Fernandez of the "dicastery for the doctrine of the Faith" declared the SSPX and all its adherents to be in schism.   While Schism is indeed a major problem in the church and something to be avoided at all costs if indeed possible; there have been times throughout the history of the faith when schism has occurred, and have changed the church itself- sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.  The great schism between East and West when the Popes of Rome attempted to exert undue authority over the Byzantine church of the East, the Wester...

 Recently, the Vatican issued a reprimand of 2 Argentinian bishops who deprived the faithful in their dioceses of the canonical right to receive Holy Communion while kneeling.  While that is something one would not EXPECT to hear ordinarily, it is sadly a sign of the times in the modern era of sacramental Christianity.  Ever since the accursed "council" in the 1960's, the Roman Church's modern proclivities towards sacrilege have sadly infected the other sacramental churches as well; in the spirit of ecumenism, of course.  Yes, rather than being bold in tradition and liturgical worship, our churches have abandoned centuries old practices and observances, in favor of the new and innovative concepts of faith; which are ever-changing and never the same from day to day.  There is an old Latin expression which says "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi" or "As you pray, so you believe".  If we do not worship the Lord with respect, with honor, and with dignity; what ...

You hear the call to arms from the liberal progressives every day: free food, free housing, free healthcare, etc.  Free?  Is anything in life ever truly Free?  The answer, much to the chagrin of our liberal neighbors, is sadly not.  Nothing in this world is ever free; not even the gift of salvation is truly free, since the price of salvation was borne by our Savior.  Yes we receive it at no cost to ourselves; but the price has been paid and most dearly, by someone else, somewhere else.   This is the answer to the great myth of the "free" anything.  There is nothing in life that does not come without cost, however you try to frame it.  The only thing one can do is to try to mitigate the appearance of the costs, and usually by transferring it to another person, and also usually another person as far removed from ourselves as possible.   In the secular state, 'free' programs are funded by taxpayer investment; which rise and fall accord...

 As some of you may know, back in December, just a few days before Christmas; I had to go to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy.  While appendectomies are a fairly routine surgery in this day and age; the expenses associated with hospital stays are certainly a factor of their own.  Due to a number of health issues, I have not been able to work a secular job since 2012; and as a result of many circumstances, do not presently have health insurance.   I do not address this to elicit sympathy from any of you, but to describe my experience with the aftermath of all of this.  With what little resources I have available to me, I am working to pay off the medical bills which are ever present; however I thought that I would ask for just a small amount of help from friends and family in the form of a "Gofundme" page.  The amount a small portion of the bills in total; but a chance for those who wish to, to help if they want.  I expect nothing of any ...

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.    Speak unto others as you would have them speak unto you.   Speak of others as you would have them speak of you.    Love others as you would have them love you.   Give unto others as you would have them give unto you.   Be a friend unto others as you would have them be a friend unto you.   Care for others as you would have them care for you.    For by the standard that you judge others, you yourself shall also be judged.  If we say that we are above the judgement of man, yet judge other men; how shall we be spared ourselves from the more righteous judgment of God?  We speak ill of those we despise, we treat with contempt those with whom we disagree, we lash out against those who have angered us; forgetting that we ourselves are reflecting the manner in which we desire to be treated by our treatment of others.   Love your enemies, do good to those...

 Recently, a well known Anglican conservative commentator and clergyman named Calvin Robinson was dismissed from his position within the Anglican Catholic Church, after his appearance at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC.  He wasn't dismissed for attending the summit or even for speaking at the same; but rather for a (for him) unavoidable incident of public trolling those who disagree with his positions on things.  First and foremost, the action in an of itself was not terribly horrible; a simple mocking replication of Elon Musk's "my heart goes out to you" gesture from the night of President Trump's inauguration: which prompted accusations of "Nazi salute", despite it being a quite common gesture before large audiences.  The gesture of placing your hand on your heart and then extending it out towards the assembly is a widespread gesture; and has even been used by politicians on the Democratic side, from Hillary Clinton to Tim Walz, Kamala H...

Recently, the new president of the United States attended a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.  The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the District of Columbia decided a service of prayer was as good a time as any to public berate the new president for what she perceives to be his shortcomings on matters of social justice she clings to.  While it is certainly within her right to promote whatever message she seems appropriate, given that the current state of the Episcopal church seems less based on faith and more on social order or disorder; It is entirely fascinating to me that a woman who encouraged and promoted physical violence and destruction for the summer of 2020, denied the resurrection of Christ during her Easter sermon, and actively promotes anti-Semitic and anti-Christian ideals- should be the one to presume to lecture anyone about morality from a supposedly Christian position.   Is it not ironic that those who demand "mercy", are the leas...

Many millennia ago in Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians had a rather complicated and extensive system of belief; mostly in the area of what happened to the soul once the individual had died.  As one who has studied Egyptology on my own and read numerous books and watched countless hours of documentaries, presentations, and debates on the subject matter; there is one particular scene from the Egyptian book of the dead which describes judgement- that stands out to me in the 21st century as a Christian.  That scene was known as the weighing of the heart.   They believed that the god of the dead (Anubis) would take the heart of the deceased, and weigh it in a scales against the feather of 'truth', personified in the goddess Ma'at.  If the heart was heavier than the personification of truth, the soul was judged to be laden down with sin and guilt, and was thus destroyed by a monstrous demon called Ammit.   If the heart was lighter, then it was judged that the so...

 Recently in Rome, the Bishop of Rome was wheeled into an audience hall to admire a nativity scene given the title "The Nativity of Bethlehem".  In true heretical fashion, the scene itself as well as those who gifted it and the fat man in white receiving it; glossed over the truth of what the scene represents.  THIS scene depicts the Holy Family as Palestinian people, with textual and visual representations of a purely "Palestinian" design.  Nativity scenes have always been an expression of the people and places in which they are created, so that fact might ordinarily be forgivable; if not for the one, glaring and obvious thing in the scene which makes it disgusting:  the figure of the newborn Christ resting on a Palestinian Keffiyeh.  For those of you who may be unaware, the Keffiyeh is an Arabic headdress worn by Arabs, and was known as the "crown of the Arabs"; and in previous generations, was forbidden for Jews to wear on pain of death.  The Arabs ...

 In Anglican Church circles today, as I suspect has been for some time; there is an ongoing debate as to the nature of the theology of provinces within the Anglican patrimony.  Some, like myself, tend more towards what might be called old-school Anglo-Catholicism; which others claim is a recent innovation.  Others tend more towards Calvinist theology; which the evangelicals in Anglicanism is the only "true" expression of the Anglican identity.  While I will not argue the value of churchmanship as part of theology, I have very good and solid friends on both sides of that spectrum who are theologically quite similar; it is worth noting that a principle cause for so many to claim Calvinism as Anglican has largely to do with an evangelical approach to the liturgy and church in general.  Being evangelical is not in and of itself a bad thing, nor does it denote an unnecessarily unfortunate tendency towards anarchy; however the notion of denying anything good about the...

 As one who does not regularly watch the Olympics, I do not ordinarily hold much opinion about them as a general rule of thumb.  I mean, apart from the blatantly neo-pagan ritual they hold at Mount Olympus in Greece in order to light the Olympic flame, there isn't ordinarily too much for one to object to on a moral level.  Judge my surprise, when the sight of a bevy of Drag Queens mimicking and mocking the Last Supper was broadcast on international television.  Men dressed as parodies of women, posing about a table to mock the famous image of the Last Supper; with a nude figure in blue representing the ancient Roman pagan deity Bacchus (god of wine) on the table in front of them.  These blasphemers and God-haters don't even TRY to hide their contempt for religion anymore.  To top it all off, the cathedral of Notre Dame has finally been able to unveil its great spire and roof after 4 years, since being destroyed in a great fire; and THIS is how "the communit...

There is currently a building campaign going on in the heart of Rural North Carolina, which strives to rebuild the church and Christendom; which have both suffered much loss as a result of the excesses of the past 50+ years. I will tell you all about this project from the fundraising site: The Missionary Diocese of the Sacred Heart was established in 2016, in response to the loss of faith that the Church has seen over the past several decades. Its mission is to provide truth to a fallen world, a home for those forgotten, and a place where all may encounter Christ at the foot of the cross in His holy sacraments. Our diocese is blessed to be experiencing growth and expansion of our missionary outreaches; and we seek to build physically so that the work we carry out in the name of the Lord may have permanence and a home. To this end, we are seeking to build a (relatively) small cathedral at our Bishop's seat in Ruffin, North Carolina; which will be the mother church of our diocese. It...

 In recent decades, more so since about 2007; there has been an increasing demand from people in the world for all churches to open up the ministry to women instead of just men.  While there are some denominations where such a shift would not matter greatly, as they are focused primarily on the written word instead of any actual service; to make such a demand of the sacramental priesthood is a problem which cannot be simply overcome by political ideology or social justice cause.  To put it bluntly, women cannot be priests.   Having nailed the colors to the mast with that statement, I will elaborate: From the beginnings of the Christian Church, the services and means of worship were never intended to be divorced from their Jewish origins.  To this day, within traditional sacramental worship, there are elements of the service which correlate to ancient Jewish temple practices; from the manner in which the priest holds his hands in prayer, to the way in which ...

 Today is Ash Wednesday, and the Christian world (especially here in the states) is plagued by a relatively recent innovation in church 'services' called affectionately by its proponents- "ashes to go".   I'll let the reader soak that in for a minute.   Yes, clergy will stand on street corners throughout the nation to administer ashes to people who happen by and want to receive them.  Many have argued that this extends the Christian message and Lenten observance to more and more people, but does it really?   Or does it rather cheapen the sign and symbol of what those precious ashes actually represent? The ashes we receive today are taken from burning the palms we blessed the previous Palm Sunday.  In that, they symbolize both the mortality of humanity's actions; as well as how quickly our voices of praise and celebration can turn to dust and be lost to the winds of time.  How loudly we exclaimed "Hosanna" to the savior, only to turn our ...

Many years ago in Mexico, there was a small girl named Pepita.  She was a good child, but from a poor and needy family; who often barely had enough food for dinner.  Though her family was poor, Pepita was happy; because Christmas would soon be here.  Each year, the parish church was beautifully decorated with candles and ornaments; and a beautiful nativity scene which was her favorite.  Though she was looking forward to Midnight Mass and celebrating the Christ Child’s birthday; she was sad to know that she would not be able to afford a gift to offer the baby Jesus this year.  As she and her brother were walking to Mass, she became sadder when thinking about how she had nothing to offer.  Seeing her sadness, her brother spoke to her and said “I’m sure that even the smallest and simplest gift, given by someone who loves him; will make the Baby Jesus very happy”.  Pepita was encouraged by this, and looked around to see what she could find; seeing only a m...

  In a move that should come as little to no shock to many, the Arch-Heretic in white of Rome today announced that Roman Catholic priests would be permitted to bless same-sex couples- "provided they do not resemble marriages".   What the Lout has done is essentially what the United Methodist Bishops did, which caused the breaking up of the Methodist Union:  telling one group of people (heterosexual couples) that they must abide by the rules and regulations hereunto set forth in canon law and church doctrine; while telling another group of people (homosexual couples) that they don't have to follow those same rules, that they get a pass on it because "God loves them too".   The main issue at hand is not even whether same-sex couples/ marriage is morally right or wrong; but rather a man (or group of leaders) telling 2 groups of people to follow 2 diametrically opposed sets of rules, while claiming both are perfectly acceptable and equal.  NO.  If you...

 This past week, the Roman Catholic Church celebrated its "World Youth Day"; an event marketed as a way to get youth reinvigorated in their faith and to give them opportunities for worship.  What World Youth day is, or at least what it has become; is a festival of sacrilege and blasphemy against the sacraments of the catholic faith and Christ himself.   So-called "designer" vestments which look like they were made for a Halloween Costume shop, chalices and patens made from anything but dignified materials, glass bowls for consecrated hosts covered with saran wrap, stages that look like something out of apocalyptic film/ TV series rather than altars of worship of the most Blessed Trinity.  The list of sins World Youth day this year has committed against the dignity of the Christian faith is as long as one's arm; yet the most disgraceful, distasteful, and outright blasphemous act is the manner in which the sacred Body of the Divine Savior was both distributed and ...

Over the past 4 or 5 years, I have sat back from my chapel porch and watched the world go by; as it is wont to do.  I have watched flowers grow, the trees in my garden sprout new branches and fruit, the grapes in my small vineyard grow and produce their first batch of wine.  I have also watched other things around the churchyard which have needed intervention- weeds which needed pulling, peeling paint which needed re-touching, stains on chapel carpeting which needed cleaning.  There has been much that has gone on here, though most of it only noticeable to my own eye as the one who is caretaker of it.  In this, I feel a connection with the eternal Father: who watches over the whole of creation like the great gardener and caretaker of the universe which He is, and I begin to understand the problems of this world through an empathetic place with our Lord. Our world today demands ever-increasing progress: Progress for "rights", progress for technology, progress for moral...

  Today we celebrate the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, following the 40 days we have walked alongside him in the desert of Lent towards the cross of Calvary. Easter is a joyous time; filled with light, happiness, family, friends, and flowers... absolutely EVERYWHERE you can imagine.  Yes, the Joy of Easter is palpable to all who even simply pass by a church today.  However, what do we make of it?   So many people in our churches these days focus all of their energy on the end holiday of the period, and little to none on the time leading up to it; much like as with Advent and Christmas.  Yes, we want the joy, chocolate, and flowers of Easter; but so many don't want the rest of the story that makes today possible- Suffering, Crucifixion, and Death.  This is endemic of our society, which has grown so dependent on "safe spaces" and coddling; to the point where we can't handle any form of negativity or sadness, only ever focusing on happy things th...

  Many Christians in the United States will undoubtedly be aware of a new(er) TV series, which purports to dramatize the life of Christ and his followers.  What most people, even some clergy, do not realize; is the subtle, underlying heresy that this series teaches against the Christian Faith itself.   T he show seems to be focusing not on the nature of the people they are supposed to be portraying; but the laws of physical attraction, in the manner in which they both dress the actors, as well as the focus in cinematography on the eyes and faces of the characters.  This introduces the first heretical idea of the show- depicting Christ as purely human, and as such subject to the attractions and desires of human flesh.   That may be simply reading too much into the way in which they film the series, but when one repeatedly hears comments on the series about "how sexy Jesus is", one must ask if the intent was NOT to depict him thus.  The manner of co...