An old story. In Geneva, the pattern during Catholicism was to have mass once a year, for they took the passage we have today seriously, and wanted to be confessed and able to partake on that day. Calvin considered this a nonsense, and argued — again from this passage — that communion should be every week. Please note the change in words, it matters because the reformed do not accept transubstantiation, though the Romans teach it as firm doctrine. The compromise was communion every quarter, and this became a rigid tradition.

But the question of approaching the table of God in an unworthy matter continues to be an issue. The virtue of having a general confession is you can deal with this in the service, but the issue of those, like the Corinthians, who flaunt their evil, proclaiming it is good, remains. From brother Mundabor.

We all knew that Father Jeanine Martin, Society of Fags, is one of those to suspect whom of being homosexual is like suspecting Stalin of being Communist. However, even so it is difficult to even imagine the lows that these low existences can reach.

Father Martin did it recently, by reposting on his Facebook page an article speaking of (and forgive me for having my adrenaline going through the roof now) the “Queer Jesus”.

It boggles the mind. Please consider saying your rosary today in reparation of this unspeakable blasphemy.

It is fair to say that even if Francis’ papacy were, in everything else, the very epitome of orthodoxy, the mere presence of this extremely worrying, creepy, utterly disgusting “man” in the Vatican would be enough to mar his entire pontificate. However, it is even fairer to say that, if Francis’ papacy were orthodox, this man would have been defrocked a long time ago.

It would be fair to say that modernism is a cancer, and it is destructive. My prayer for such priests is that they take this seriously. It should drive them back to fidelity to their vows (including marital vows) and encourage them to live righteously. For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God, and at the table of communion he is proclaimed.

1 Corinthians 11:23-34

²³For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. ³⁰For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. ³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

³³So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

This is not merely within the priesthood, or the churchly powers. It is within the family. There are too many people who are using spiritual language to hide the ugliness within us. This occurs within families, and it is just as ugly, as Heidi Stone notes.

Don’t feel like you have power? Oh, I disagree. Strongly. We have so much power. We have no idea how much power we have.

Proverbs 14:1
The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hand

Not someone else. Our parents. Poor upbringing. Unfortunate financial woes. Not our husbands.

Us. XX chromosome. PMS and feel good cries. Just the whole deal of womanhood. Us.

We build up or tear down our own houses.

These aren’t bungalows and cottages that I’m talking about. We don’t use hammers and nails or crowbars and chainsaws here but, I’m afraid we do a lot of housework. And for many of us? Given the destruction of marriages?

We are doing it all wrong.

I’m not currently writing to the ladies who build up. Not yet. This is to the sisters who bulldoze their own security and future. Shingle by shingle. Tear by manipulating tear. Guilt trips by angry blaming.

Every day, systematically destroying their homes, one snark, one bitterness, one resentment at a time the foundation crumbles until there is nothing left to preserve. Nothing left to fight for or hold on to.

I don’t have to make a list, we are familiar with the usual suspects. Anger, resentment, bitterness, defensiveness, and arrogance. No one needs to be convinced those elements are at the heart of poor choices. Toxic to our warmth and hospitality.

But we justify. We excuse our failures. When we are at church thinly masking our dishonor of our spouse with a carefully worded prayer request or trying to explain our behavior to our friends… Maybe we spend too much time searching for a friendly ear when we believe we’ve been horribly “wronged”.

But there really is no limit to the depths of ugliness in the human heart. Have you thought about how disrespect and comparison, victimhood, and slander can pull down your house?

What about isolation and exclusion?

See, we can’t fix those with fortune cookies or coffee dates with the girls. Those are real issues with real life consequences.

When we go to the table we need to assure ourselves that we are in good relationship with those around us: we have confessed our sin and we are working to change those parts of us that, left unchecked, make us less than human. We are all flawed. We all sin. And the damage we do we do, all too often, to those who are closest to us.

This should not be.

It is better to be in front of the altar weeping and penitent than to be talking about how wonderful mindfulness is and that you plan to retreat to some monastory for spiritual enlightenment. For God will help those who seek him.

But he cannot help us if we do not. Be not that.