I am a singularly profane man. From the time that I first heard my Dad, paternal uncles and their father let flood torrents of colorful, witty, gargantuan oaths, curses, profanities and maledictions I was hooked.
After joining my cousins in baiting my Kerry-born bog man of a grandfather with accusations impugning his citizenship -"You ain't even American Grandpa!" - and other such words learned and encouraged to be dispensed at their rage-a-holic Pater from Uncles Bart, Sy and Donny, like Bog-trotter, Culchie, Turkeybird and Greenhorn, I would delight in his ripostes - " You shower of bastards! Christ Jesus Almighty, you'd put that suffering Man comfortably back up on his Cross, so you would."
Balanced to this delight in profanity was the devotion learned from the better gender of Mom, Aunts, and Granny who'd wash our mouths out with soap and shoo us off to Saturday's and Father Gerrity's confessional box and the litany of penitential prayers.
The HHS Mandate of the Obama Regime ( a genuine shower of bastards) is no surprise, but certainly not to be taken lightly.
I am spending the day in prayer and fasting. As Joe Biden once said in front of a Hot Mic - "This is a Big @#$%ing Deal."
Damn my eyes and profanity.
Anyway. I had a coffee this morning and will ingest only water and lime for next twenty four hours. BFD? I hope I so. I also plan to pray for our Religious Liberty which is under attack. Be assured, I read all the Chicago Papers, the New York Times, Salon, Mother Jones, New Republic as well as Commentary and American Standard. I read a alot, because I am useless with mitre box, saw, screw driver and pliers. Reading and writing have been the tools of my trade - teaching - and by most accounts I was pretty good at it. I am pretty well schooled in my discipline (British, American and World Lit)and up on the schools of critical theory.
That said, I am in awe of the written and spoken word. Words matter. That is why the media is pouring out vitriol on my Church. The Catholic Church is the only opposition to America's plunge off the cliff. Abortion, Infanticide and Eugenics are a Trinity of monstrous associations to horrific acts in any and all languages. That is why they are perfumed with euphemisms and false contexts.
The Obama Regime ( I call it that, because I believe the President is totally scripted) is desperate to fundamentally change America and the World. People of good will can and do disagree about politics and policies, but that is not possible these days.
Like the NLRB's totalitarian fiat to strip St. Xavier University, Chicago's oldest college founded by Catholic nuns, of its Catholic identity only last April, January's monstrous HHS Mandate is no shot over the bow of Boat of St. Peter. It is a broadside aimed at the heart of Catholic belief and religious liberty itself.
It is not about getting college kids a gross of rubbers each semester on the Federal dime, or abortifacients to confused and anchorless young ladies who believe that sex is love, it is about our freedom to believe that our earthly actions have consequences.
Religion is ridiculed, and it was so in Chaucer's, Shakepeare's and Hawthorne's time. However, English literature begins with Anglo Saxon translations of The Our Father, the devout The Dream of Rood and The Harrowing of Hell and later the wonderful medieval Morality Plays. It took a village to build a Cathedral.
It only takes neglect and ridicule to create ruins.
For one day, I will glutton not, profane only at gun point and pray. This is the least I can do and I am pretty good at doing the least.
O GOD OUR CREATOR,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.
We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.
Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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