To better understand the present, read about the past.

Freedom will come from the Jews. Sc. 21; compare John 4:22.

However, civil peace – such as it was – came from the Romans.

There is much blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.

Leave me. Sc. 31, Matthew 7:23, Luke 13:7, Sc. 78, Matthew 25:46.

Not all will be welcomed.

Spiral and Ember got a haircut.

“Disproportionate” by Victor Davis Hanson

Disproportionate”. Can anyone recall a war won by proportionate measures?

When war is proportionate it more often turns into a Stalingrad—or perhaps an Ukraine—until one side finds a disproportionate response that will change endless stasis to victory.

World War II was not won by a proportionate response to Pearl Harbor. And what would be a proportionate response to the murder of a thousand civilians?

Under the logic of “proportionality,” ought the Israeli state then invade Gaza and likewise murder a thousand of its civilians? The whole concept of a “proportionate" response to an unprovoked massacre of women and children asleep in their homes and during a peace is absurd.

Victor Davis Hanson

Main Street Diner, Valatie, NY

Two elements give strength to the bonds that make a society. One is the force of habit in individuals; the other is the force of their collective faith – faith in the value, the rightness, the permanence of their particular civilization. —Barzun, “What are the Cracks in Our Civilization?

Why say good? One is good, who is God. If you want life keep the commandments. Sc. 71, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19

Probably too much emphasis is placed on being good, and too little on obedience and love.

Ideas and realities: “For Isaac and his countrymen, and Jews anywhere, it’s an imminent reality.” —Patrick Kurp, ‘All Forms of Evil ’Neath the Sun’

When men and women rise from the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will live like God’s angels in heaven. Sc. 78, Matthew 22:30

In heaven, husbands and wives are apparently uncoupled.

Dear Priests:

A Catholic at Mass might sometimes completely miss the moments of Consecration. Bells are helpful.

My baby in me jumped for joy. Sc. 4, Luke 1:44

One tends to use the language of persons one admires, so: “baby”.

How is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' —from today’s Gospel

All are invited, but you must be appropriately dressed.

What we care most about we can do nothing about; so: prayer.

This is the synod that doesn’t end twitter.com/LeoTheLes…