Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
ENOUGH, already, with the rage and hate and stuff. It’s not HEALTHY.
So I thought it would be very good for us to take a little BREAK. Here are two of my favorite comedy relief go-to’s. One is an old favorite: the one where the guy leaves a message on his boss’ answering machine about being late because he was just behind a car accident. Seems a truck driver ran a light and hit a car full of old ladies who proceeded to show him no mercy. Over and over again. It makes me laugh every time:
The second one is new for me. “Funniest Classical Orchestra Ever…Rainer Hersch.”
Enjoy.
OOPS! I ALMOST FORGOT. I meant to add some Victor Borge, too:
pnissila 
Hahaha! Ooooh! Whew! Oh yeah, I needed that. It is SO good to laugh! His descriptions of the four little old ladies amid his gasps and belly laughs…..priceless! Thank you! 🙂
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Hi Phyllis. Having now looked at the links I can make a few comments. Firstly, the so-called apparations cannot be taken seriously as genuine manifestations. If Our Lord had wanted to reveal himself to mankind periodically He would have done so in a definitive manner. This will happen when He returns at the Second Coming and this will be a cataclysmic event. The fact that these alleged apparations are of Mary straight away reduces their credibility. Why would Jesus delegate his mother as some kind of universal messenger conveying garbled messages? You notice that they all took place in Catholic countries and the ‘witnesses’ were illiterate children. Fatima was a very strange event as described by Mr. Marzulli, but whatever happened it had nothing to do with the Christian religion. Yet many Catholics believe in this event and countless other so-called manifestations. Ireland is another place where you find shrines in remote places with statues of the Virgin Mary. My own local Catholic church put up a large statue of Mary in the sanctuary on the hundredth anniversary of Fatima, and it’s still there. This is superstition, not religion. It has nothing to do with the central message of the Christian faith, but everything to do with spiritual hysteria and Mary-worship.
Your other piece about mind control is echoed by many Catholics I’ve spoken to. I know some who were put off the Christian faith by aggressive and spiteful nuns who were hardly shining examples of Christian charity. The Catholic ‘guilt’ thing is a very common phenomena. You can too easily end up with psychological complexes and long-lasting damage. Christianity is all about love, illuminated beautifully in the Beatitudes and in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is the ultimate antidote to human pride. Pride is the root of all evil in this world. Faith requires the antithesis to pride – humility – as a basis on which to build. Humility is the root of all those attributes that anchor Christ’s love in our hearts and keep it in the forefront of our life of faith – modesty, gentleness, justice, mercy, sincerity and peace. All of these qualities should flow naturally through every fibre of our being and demonstration of our faith. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognised as children of God’.
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Colin,
Very well said.
For a little kid with a vivid imagination, I was struck hard not only by the Fatima story but also several other “saints” of the Roman system who experienced all manner of bizarre physiological “events,” some, in my view now, bordering on the erotic. I won’t “advertise” them here by referencing names and dates, but one can look up the stories of the Catholic saints on myriad websites. Let’s just say many lend credibility to the pastime of members of Opus Dei which is not just a figment of author Dan Brown’s imagination for some Catholic shock and awe in his thriller, Da Vinci Code. My late mother’s late husband (who was a Catholic priest in his young years) had seriously considered joining Opus Dei. Certain things made better sense when I learned that. God rest his soul.
My favorite tragio/comic saint, though, was one who ditched his wife (with her permission) on their wedding day, fled to another country, then went back home and holed up in some hidden room “underneath the stairs” in his parent’s house for, wait for it, SEVENTEEN YEARS.
Even as a psy-op’d little Catholic kid, I figured it was she, rather than he, who should have been sainted. On the other hand, maybe God spared both of them from what would likely have been a very bizarre relationship…
Cheers
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Hi Phyllis. I know a whole family who are members of Opus Dei. They are nice people but misguided, totally sold on the full traditional Catholic thing. What I dislike about Opus Dei is their huge wealth and their enormous multi-million dollar mausoleum in Rome containing the remains of their founder, Escriva de Balaguer.
The Catholic Church spends a great deal of money on ecclesiastical adornments, expensive watered silk cassocks for the cardinals and bishops, and so on. They say it is all for the glory of God, but I say it’s more like the glorification of man. It’s all about Catholic imperialism which centers on the priestly hierarchy and its claim to be mediators for the flock. The new fad for popes to canonise previous popes is the ultimate in institutional self-regard. Thank God I have seen the Light in my old age, before it’s too late. However, when we stand at the judgement-seat of Christ our church affiliation will count for nothing (sorry Catholics, it really won’t). How much we have loved – that will be the clincher.
The biggest tragedy of all in recent times was the clerical abuse scandal which hit North America and parts of Europe. It has done enormous damage to the Church. They have only themselves to blame in the way they handled it, seeking to hide those crimes for decades. It tells you a lot about the Catholic Church and its inner workings. The same goes for the Church of England as new allegations come to light on a regular basis. The C of E is in a most deplorable state, riven with internal conflict, pretty much sold out to the liberal agenda and with pews emptying at an alarming rate – and with it much of their income. I have little respect for the big churches now, and some of the smaller ones too. In this the most secular country in the western world, there is really nowhere for people like me to find a spiritual home. I will simply await the one reserved for me (I hope) in heaven.
I’m curious, which erring saint are you referring to?
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Colin, see your email.
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Hi Phyllis. As a committed Christian and cradle Catholic it was harder for you to leave the Catholic Church than for me who converted to it in my mid forties. Catholicism was more or less in your DNA whereas I have always looked at it critically, being able to compare it with Anglicanism and other Protestant churches. I now realise I made a mistake in converting as it was done at a troubled and emotional time in my life. It wasn’t the best time to make a big decision like that. I was taken in by the panoply and the knowledge that it was a ‘universal’ church that had lasted for nearly 2,000 years uninterrupted. For me it wasn’t what they did to me, it was just a bad choice. However, I can see it from your point of view as someone who was given the treatment from an early age. And I agree with you that there are many genuine Christians amongst the Catholic flock, but they have still bought into the system. Thank you for the links.
I’ve rediscovered the spiritual and literary delights of the Book of Common Prayer, the 1662 edition, not the version used in the USA by the Episcopal Church. I’m trying it out for Morning and Evening Prayer. The journalist Peter Hitchens is a champion of the BCP and also one of those brave souls who is not afraid to speak out about the follies and outrages of the modern world and its politics. He has also done a 180 degree turnaround. Having once been left-wing and an atheist, he is now right-wing and a devout Christian. He has ‘seen the light’.
On the Royal family, I respect the Queen – up to a point. She has misguidedly attended multi-faith services in Westminster Abbey when she is supposed to be the Head of the Church of England. Charles has said that he will be ‘Defender of Faiths’ (plural) when he ascends the throne. There is a kind of naivety about the royals which is manifestly obvious in William and Harry. When the Queen goes I wonder about the future of the monarchy. Charles is not exactly popular, still less his consort the Duchess of Cornwall. And he has a habit of commenting on political matters, which is ill-judged. However, you’re right – we do ceremony and parades very well. We’ve had lots of practice.
The Masonic connection is less strong now. The Duke of Kent (the Queen’s cousin) is a top banana in British masonry, but I’m not sure if any of the other royals are involved. Edward VII and George V were masons. I dislike Freemasonry and other secret societies. The Bilderberg Group is rather sinister don’t you think?
Yes, irony is sadly missing from debate these days. People are too busy being splenetically angry to stop and think about the irony of what they are saying or protesting against. There’s a good deal of muddled thinking going on. As you say, human beings convinced they can create Paradise on earth with their political schemes and social engineering. Socialism anyone?
Yes, I think God has a sense of humour. But the time will come for him to be righteously wrathful. And that Day is approaching.
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Phyllis, I just wanted to thank you so much for directing my attention to J. D. Farag and his weekly sermons. He, and the few like him, are voices in the wilderness heard by those of us who are keen to diverge from the mainstream in order to hear the Truth. His reference to Prince William’s comments in his 1 July sermon didn’t surprise me at all. He and Prince Harry are friends of Obama. Says it all. I don’t have a lot of time for the royal family. They’ve aligned themselves too much with the ‘world’ and in so doing have tarnished their image.
On another note, I came across your piece about the little old lady with the rosary who claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary. This kind of thing saddens me. Those so-called apparitions at Lourdes, Medjugorje, Fatima, etc. involved children in remote places. Why the Virgin Mary and why children? It’s astonishing that sane intelligent people can believe in this kind of thing. It’s a kind of spiritual hysteria.
The problem with the Catholic Church is that you can end up sidetracked, sent down a byway into a totally irrelevant fantasy world, or else caught up in endless debates about things that don’t matter. Now in the autumn of my life I see more clearly and have worked out a simpler, more direct kind of faith and daily spirituality. Christianity is a religion of the heart, not the rule book. It’s not Judaism lite, or Judaism in another form (but still with priests and altars). It’s much simpler than that. It’s about Christ, and Him only.
Blessings.
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Colin,
RE: Mary and children…the archetypal and most important care giver and the innocents…very powerful characters in psychological operations, no? while all the while trauma-bonding little kids into the Roman religious system. I believe that process starts with inflicting six year-olds with the Roman version of “confession”. I offer my comments on that, here:
The miracle of my “clean break” (taking a full six years) from the system is that I have processed through the denial, anger, and all the rest of the stages of grief over what “they” did to me (and millions through millenia) to a very soft and empathetic heart for Roman Catholics, many of whom, I believe, are genuine Christians. It’s just very, very hard, especially for “cradle Catholics,” to leave and overcome the power of that system. Indeed, as the Jesuits are fond of saying, “Give (us) the child until he is seven and (we’ll) show you the man.”
Works pretty good.
L.A. Marzulli did some recent research on the Fatima phenomenon that is well worth listening to if one is interested. Here it is:
Cheers
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Ah, yes. The Royal family… On this side of the pond, we’ve heard about the family’s Masonic connection and the Illuminati lore and all of that, but for me, honestly, it’s mostly about the gowns and jewels, I confess. Love those tiaras. And the royals do know how to put together weddings (at the commoners’ expense, however, we also know this. sorry).
Interesting to me that while Obama drove the wedge deeper between races and gave a (powerful) nod to anti-White sentiment here in the States, at the same time he cozied up to the most powerful family (counting its relations) in Europe…
But I don’t think irony is taught much, anymore, over here.
Cheers
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Hi Phyllis. Excellent, just what we need to take our minds off this depressing world. When I’m feeling down I usually tap into YouTube videos of Cissie and Ada (Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough as Ada Sidebottom and Cissie Braithwaite), two grotesque north British women gossiping in various locales. I don’t mind transvestitism if it’s done for laughs and these sketches are very funny, full of misconstrued statements and double meanings. You may find the northern accents difficult to follow at times. Les Dawson (d. 1992) was a leading comedian from ca. 1970 until his death and did numerous TV shows but I doubt if he’s known outside the UK. It’s a British tradition to send ourselves up. Other than that I pop a ‘—–‘ DVD into the player and let the humour do the trick. Keep the laughs coming!
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I’m glad God built a sense of humor into the race, comic relief being as therapeutic as it is. I do wonder what He thinks is funny, though. Sometimes. Carefully…
I just cued up Psalm 2 because I remembered there is something about God laughing there, and, lo and behold, we’re right back to the politics of the day (and, it would seem, every day):
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”
It appears, then, there is no state too deep nor government too shadowy to hide from the keen eye (and derisive laughter) of God.
Well, and immediately another (biblical) reference comes to mind. That of a certain jackass…talking….and, lo, it’s back to politics, again…
But I guess the biggest joke IS on flawed humans who believe they can create some kind of Utopia all by themselves. Be like a glob of primordial goo one day conducting the Philharmonic…
There’s a movie called “Multiplicity” starring Michael Keaton that tells, I think, the real story of man trying to mess with God’s business. It’s a comedy, of course.
Cheers
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