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The Texas Monthly article was interesting. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-bishop-who-picked-a-fight-with-the-wrong-nuns/

Damien Rice singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." I don't really like most Leonard Cohen songs because he tends to use Biblical imagery for secular purposes. But I won't go into all that here and now, but this doesn't count as "a Gospel song," although it uses a number of Biblical images. Hundreds of people have recorded this song; I've chosen Damien Rice accompanying himself with a very spare guitar arrangement but with lots of emotion in his voice. And that's the part that will feed your ears.

I have just read about this online. These allegations are pretty shocking if true.

Other documents are available too since this conflict seems to be playing out very publicly on the diocese's and the monastery's websites- and getting news attention. The texts of the four separate letters from the Dicastery are posted on the Fort Worth Diocese website. The first one overturns the bishop's dismissal of the prioress. The bishop's statement presents his own actions and behavior in the best light, glossing over the finding that he failed to follow required procedure in dismissing the prioress. The other three letters uphold the bishop's actions as consonant with his duties and responsibilities and with current legislation for contemplative religious women (Cor Orans and the 1990 Discalced Carmelite Nuns' Constitutions, which Arlington follows). Also posted is a statement written by Mother Marie of the Incarnation, President of the Association of Christ the King. It describes how she was refused admittance to Arlington Carmel when she attempted on two occasions to deliver individual letters from the Dicastery to each of the nuns there, as she was instructed to do by the Dicastery. There is a new statement on the Arlington Carmel webpage as of May 23rd as well. They include justification for their actions based in part on the U.S. Constitution, an odd choice since the Holy See is not bound by that in any way.

Cissy Houston is the mother of Whitney Houston and the aunt of Dionne Warwick. She has been a back-up singer, had a solo pop/soul career, and has been a Gospel singer pretty much through all of it. This is her singing "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)." This is another example of a pop song (Marvin Gaye had a hit with it) that gets 'baptized.' It really was a two-way street - many soul singers began in church and brought that Gospel feel to popular music, but it also happened that pop songs were altered slightly and brought into church. The music is smooth and polished.

Last Sunday, we celebrated the sending of the Spirit, which sealed God’s new covenant and made a new creation. In this new creation, we live in the family of God, who has revealed himself as a Trinity of love. We share in his divine nature through his Body and Blood. This is the meaning of the three feasts that cap the Easter season— Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi. These feasts should be intimate reminders of how deeply God loves us, how he chose us, from before the foundation of the world, to be his children. It has been said that it is far easier to preach to hundreds crowded into the church on Christmas or Easter than it is to discuss the doctrine of the Holy Trinity for a handful on a sleepy holiday weekend in late May. Trinity Sunday is the only day of the entire church year that is devoted exclusively to a doctrine—which is never mentioned by name in Scripture. Preachers must use caution and craft careful language to avoid the minefields of heresy, only to utilize the same adjective that St. Athanasius used to describe the Trinity – “incomprehensible” – all while hoping and praying that “incomprehensible” is not the word the faithful few at coffee hour will utilize to describe this morning’s sermon! And yet, while we are right to be chastened by the Trinity’s doctrinal depth and complexity, we must not shy away from it altogether, for it was in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that the confessors endured persecution and the martyrs were willing to shed their blood. Inspired by this belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, missionaries spread the word to innumerable others. Indeed, had someone not shared the Good News with us, none of us would be here today. It is easy to forget that the central tenet of our faith is not just that we are created by God, but that God walks among us, most fully in the person of Jesus, and also in the face of the stranger and the oppressed and the marginalized, and God leads us to new depths of faithfulness in the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this isn’t something that has happened in history; no, God is still, even at this very moment and in every moment, creating, walking among us, and leading us. In the same way, viewing the doctrine of the Trinity we see it’s impossible to understand the crucifixion apart from believing that it is God made human flesh in the person of Jesus by the power of the Spirit who dies on the cross and rises from the grave. It’s not God demanding something from someone else and exacting a monstrous punishment; rather, it is God’s selfless giving of God self to die so that death could be defeated once and for all for our sake. In the same way, it is impossible to understand the resurrection of Jesus apart from believing that God made human flesh in the person of Jesus is resurrected through God’s own will and action in the power of the Spirit. God’s life and love are bigger even than the most monstrous and cruel consequences of human sinfulness. And finally, the Doctrine of the Trinity necessitates the conviction that God’s Holy Spirit comes to us and abides with us unto eternity, guiding us and leading us into all truth. The Trinity gives us perhaps the most complete understanding of what God is like: God creates us purely out of God’s love and desire for relationship; pursues us, even stepping in to offer to die so that we might live; and abides with us. The Trinity helps us see God more fully as God is. It is the God we meet in the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who, at every moment, asks, “Whom can I send as a prophet to tell the world about me?” May each of us, strengthened, purified, and nourished by that self-same God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in humility and boldness, say, “Here am I; send me.” In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

STATEMENT OF ARLINGTON CARMEL, MAY 23, 2024 On the morning of May 22, 2024, the Diocese of Fort Worth published private decrees from the Holy See dated April 30, 2024, and a statement from the Bishop of Fort Worth on their diocesan website. These decrees from the Holy See include one overturning Bishop Olson’s peremptory and unlawful dismissal of our Mother Prioress from the Carmelite Order last year. It is time for Bishop Olson to apologise publicly, and in person to us, for this abusive act which has now been publicly recognised as such by the Holy See. In respect of the decrees upholding Bishop Olson’s investigation of allegations against our Mother Prioress, we repeat that his investigations were flawed in radice, carried out in an intimidatory manner and violated her ecclesiastical and civil rights. It is reprehensible that medical evidence proving these allegations to be completely unfounded and fabricated has been ignored by the Holy See. In addition, we are surprised that, as we learn from the decrees themselves, these matters were decided by the Holy See on March 12th but were not communicated to us in April together with other documents dated April 18th. We can only speculate that some authorities hoped that they would not have to deal with our recourses and that these issues could be swept under the carpet. We are profoundly disappointed that, in the place of the dialogue about which they speak so much, the relevant persons have once again chosen to resort to unproven narratives and attempted public humiliation to achieve their ends. This includes the fact that the members of the community never obstructed the so-called "investigation" by Bishop Olson. As stated in the Constitution of the U.S. and seconded by Pope Francis himself, every person - including every religious woman - has the right to counsel. For anyone, including a Bishop, to try to stop a person from consulting a lawyer, civil or canonical, is obstruction of justice. On Wednesday May 22, 2024, without any notice or warning, the President of the Carmelite Association of Christ the King, accompanied by another nun, attempted to enter Arlington Carmel in spite of the prohibition on her from so doing made in our statement of April 20, 2024. The next day she violated this prohibition again. We maintain our rejection of any takeover of our community or its assets, as has happened repeatedly to other Monasteries of women in our country and throughout the world. We remain firm in following Our Holy Mother St. Teresa's directive that each monastery remain autonomous in its self-governance and life, including the election of its superiors from among its own members. We are astonished that in our day and age, even some members of the Holy See itself refuse to follow the guidance of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, regarding the dignity of and respect for women. "Let us respect their dignity, their basic rights. And if we don't, our society will not progress. Let us pray that the dignity and worth of women be recognized in every culture, and for an end to the discrimination they face in various parts of the world," Pope Francis says in his video message for April 2024. We thank our faithful friends and supporters and assure them of our continued prayers, just as we continue to pray for the Holy Father and for the Bishop and Diocese of Fort Worth.

This is Christopher Laing again. He's new to me, and I'm sorting out his various styles. This is a different kind of sound than "Step on the Enemy" - this sounds sort of Muscles Shoals, but with simpler instrumentation and arrangement. Here's "If a Million People Tell You No."

Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Mary Teresa Bettag talks about our love of sports and making sure we love God more as we strive for sainthood on this Relevant Radio Morning Air segment. https://fscc-calledtobe.org/2024/05/22/relevant-radio-morning-air-franciscan-sister-talks-about-loving-god-and-loving-sports/

"Step on the Enemy" by Christopher Laing. I can find exactly no information about this guy. He sounds Caribbean to me; in the video, I see an American flag in one corner of the stage, and I see someone in the audience holding another flag, but those are only a couple of very brief glimpses. Still, I tracked down what I think I see, and the flag could be of Trinidad and Tobago. All of which is to say that I can find exactly no information about Christopher Laing. But I like his sound.

Godsplaining is a show on YouTube in which Dominican friars talk about various topics. When they interview guests, they sometimes change the name to Guestsplaining. I recently watched this show, but there are several others available on different aspects of the same topic, transgender ideology. This one's about half an hour long, and it features a general surgeon who blew the whistle on gender re-assignment surgery at Houston Children's Hospital, and his lawyer. I recommend it.

I agree. And the question of abortion has been handled by the politicians almost exactly the way the question of slavery was. Some politicians were clearly for and some were clearly against slavery; some politicians argued that it wasn't a national question but a state-by-state question; some politicians claimed that they were personally against it but they couldn't justify imposing their personal opinions on the whole nation; the Supreme Court supported slavery laws every step of way, often using very creative reasoning to justify their decisions; there were really only four national laws that governed slavery and they were often unfunded, underfunded, or largely ignored; and those laws were written for the benefit of the owners of the slaves, not for the benefit of the slaves themselves. The parallels are striking. The real problem, on both issues, is not just the matter of law. It's the conversion of hearts and minds. Even after slavery was officially ended, something very akin to slavery continued for a long time. Even after the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s were passed, the hearts and minds of an awful lot of people have not been converted to reflect the intent of the laws. This is why St. Paul gives priority to the Spirit over the law - the law never converted anyone's way of thinking, whereas the Spirit has. And in a literary vein, it's why Mr. Bumble, in Dickens' Oliver Twist, says "... the law is a ass."

I recently got a newsletter from Feminists for Life. "FFL endorses the recently introduced More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS Act) by co-sponsors Senators Katie Britt, Marco Rubio, and Kevin Cramer. The MOMS Act would provide critical support to women during typically challenging phases of motherhood – prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood development – by increasing awareness of resources, funding new opportunities for additional resources, and reaching mothers in rural areas who often are left in maternity deserts. "I’m proud to support women throughout these seasons of motherhood. This legislation is further evidence that you can absolutely be pro-life, pro-woman, and pro-family at the same time," noted bill co-sponsor Katie Britt. Specifically, the Act would: Establish Pregnancy.gov* – a federal clearinghouse of resources available to expecting and postpartum moms, as well as those with young children; Provide tools for pre-natal and post-natal telehealth appointments by instituting a grant program to purchase necessary medical equipment and technology in rural communities and other medically-underserved areas; Establish a grant program* for non-profit entities to support, encourage, and assist women in carrying their pregnancies to term; and to care for their babies after birth; Require states to apply child support obligations to the time period during pregnancy, if so requested by the mother. *Abortion-referral and abortion providing organizations will be ineligible for funding or promotion on Pregnancy.gov. "The MOMS act would help ensure better coverage for pregnant women and new moms in rural areas who desperately need obstetric care and we hope reduce maternal mortality for Black women," said FFL President Serrin Foster, adding, "And while a national clearing house of resources are a dream for the government, you are invited to visit our WomenDeserveBetter.com helpsite that is already up and running now." Please call or email your U.S. Senator and urge her/him to co-sponsor the MOMS Act. Call the United States Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or find her/him online at https://www.senate.gov/ to send an email. Thank you. Because women deserve better, Joyce McCauley-Benner Director of Public Education"

funny how the US map 2024 looks today compared to year 1858 and its odd too that the democrat party was pro-slavery/ pro-abortion and the Republican party was anti-slavery/prolife, then and now?

"A house divided against itself, cannot stand. "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half pro-abortion and half anti-abortion I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of abortion will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new – North as well as South.

"When the Spirit of the Lord Comes Upon Me (I Wil Dance Like David Danced)" by Fred Hammond. His music is considered Contemporary Gospel Music. It's a newer sound than the older, more traditional style, but it still has the same intensity. Hammond is from Detroit, and he worked with the Winans and Commissioned before going solo.

"The Power of the Holy Ghost" by the Mighty Clouds of Joy (from Los Angeles) is a much more energetic and experiential approach compared to yesterday's "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" by Harpa Dei. And that's one of the big differences between Catholic liturgical hymns and Gospel songs - in general, the liturgical hymns sing theology whereas the Gospel songs sing experience.

^ THANKS! ^

Sr. M. Elizabeth's profession was actually in 2023.

The sad thing is this speech is somehow considered to be hate - speech??? May God bless this fine and righteous young man. Amen

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/16/1251778598/nfl-harrison-butker-commencement-speech-backlash vilified speech ? I thought this young man made sense Please like if you agree 👍

Congrats

Book of the day (Monday, 20th of May 2024) Confessions of St Augustine (PDF) Source: Free Catholic Books Pope St John Paul II