Doggerel Delayed a Day

The clerihew: an excellent little style of poetry invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley. Basically, a biographical poem, naming the subject in the first line, following an AABB rhyme scheme. And that's it. Nice.

I dropped the ball in not getting these out before (yesterday being St. Pius X's feast day) (at least in my calendar), but when you live outside of time, it is a little annoying going back into the land of years, days, and hours.

Ahem.

The Tenth Pope Pius
Sighed, "Modernists sure try Us."
They thought they were terribly trendy
But he got 'em with Pascendi.

And this one, loosely inspired by the frustrations of the excellent Fr. Groeschel ...

The Spirit of Vatican Two
Makes a poor subject for clerihew.
(The subject, Bentley insisted,
Ought to have existed.)

Began writing another one about meus ac vester amicus Marty Haugen, but then I realized that his name rhymes with "deserves a floggin'," and it just got more uncharitable from there. Remember people -- love the ubiqitous liturgical composer, hate the ubiquitous liturgical compost.

More later. Perhaps something less controversial, like some good old-fashioned popular piety.

Peace out

You lucky moderns ... your Pope is fantastic, I hope you know. His Holiness, speaking on the difference between peace and "peace":

"...the peace which [Jesus Christ] came to bring is not synonymous with the absence of conflicts. On the contrary, the peace of Jesus is the fruit of a constant struggle against evil. The fight which Jesus decided to wage is not against men or human powers, but against the enemy of God and man, Satan.

"Whoever wishes to resist this enemy by remaining faithful to God and goodness must necessarily face incomprehensions, and, at times, true and actual persecutions. Therefore, those who intend to follow Jesus and devote themselves to truth without compromises must know that they will face oppositions and shall become, despite of themselves, a sign of division among others, even within their own families. Love for parents is in fact a holy commandment, but, for it to be lived in an authentic way, it may never be placed before the love of God and of Christ.

"In such a way, on the steps of the Lord Jesus, Christians become "instruments of his peace", according to the famous expression of Saint Francis of Assisi. Not of an inconsistent and superficial peace, but of a real [peace], sought with courage and tenacity in the daily struggle to overcome evil by good [cf. Romans xii, 21] and paying in the flesh the price which this entails."

De Blogibus

Hello, 21st century!! God bless . . . all two of you who are reading this. It has always been my belief -- in fact, I mentioned this briefly during my Easter Wednesday sermon in 1851 -- that blogs are rather silly things. Actually, before I knew English well, I thought for the longest time that a blog was a damp smelly place where amphibians thrive. However, now knowing the difference, I still find myself chuckling puzzedly at the typical "Look at me! Look at my life! Look at what I did today!" blogs that you modern people love to write. With notable exceptions such as Rorate Caeli, Totus Pius, Sober Sophomore, etc., and of course those written by people who are actually doing something adventurous abroad or something, blogs have never much claimed the interest of this old Bishop.

Why then am I making my own? Well, first of all, as mentioned above, an oddball Wisconsinite teenager (who shall remain anonymous lest I embarrass ... myself) chose me for his Confirmation Saint years ago, and has ever since been bugging me to start my own blog because he can never remember any of my best quotes. Well, finally I folded like an altar cloth. (cf. Lk 11:8) Second of all, some of the garbage that has happened to Holy Church in the last few decades has made me want to roll over in my grave. (See below.)

Rolling over accomplishes very little, though, and so I figured that a blog like this would provide a better chance to vent-ificate as I wish. And third .... even I admit it. Blogs look like fun.

I was known for being extraordinarily organized in life -- so I figured, now that I'm "dead," as you people say, I can kick back a little and throw organization to the wind. This blog shall not be organized or well-planned. I will update rather sporadically. Possibly never. Hopefully not.

More later. I pray for you all. Some more than others.

Pax vobiscum!! (...or possibly tecum. I'm not expecting much popularity here.)