How is the fight vs . sexual violence and alcohol use faring at our Catholic colleges? Same old same old. BUT- technology is being used to help our young think about these behaviors!

From time to time on these pages, given that the sex instinct, as Paul VI reminded us in 1972, is a major way the Devil wreaks havoc with souls, I like to document "success stories," i.e., stories that show that indeed, Jesus has "overcome the world." In this interview , we read Fr. Vincent Serapa, O.P.'s interview with Jason, a courageous man who tells of how he left the homosexual lifestyle. It makes for thought-provoking reading.

Just ran across this video which I thought was interesting, given t he Holy Father's defense of traditional Marriage....

 In 1967 the Church near my place of employment was built. Whenever driving by it, perhaps a bit irreverently I allowed the image of Margaret Hamilton's "Wicked Witch of the West" hat to come to mind. Its interior always struck me as dark, barren, like a giant sauna. It has been gutted and is undergoing extensive reconstruction as I write. Fr. Longenecker has written for Our Sunday Visitor that the architects back in 1967 must have lost God's blueprint for building Catholic Churches....

Clothe your faithful people in the armor of salvation   and shield them from the deceptions of the devil.            -Intercession from Vespers for Friday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time In my book I noted how Sacred Scripture views the struggle against the prince of this world in military terms, as we are indeed in a war, a war against spiritual forces that can only be defeated with the help of the Holy Spirit, with the grace that comes with death to self. With this help we can put up armor to shield us from the Devil's deceptions, such as the one many have been fooled by, thinking that by commission of the sin of cohabitation, one can better prepare for Holy Matrimony! Read Ruth's story....

As a teacher in a Catholic school, from time to time I have had Muslim students "shadow," or visit the learning environment, to to whom I generally remark, "Muslims honor Mary, Jesus mother, don't they?" To which they point out that Muhammad's daughter was named Fatima, the place of Our Blessed Mothers' apparition. In his The World's First Love , Fulton Sheen offers an interesting reflection which I believe is relevant for the immediate future, given the  Jihadist threat : The Koran, which is the Bible of the Moslems, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all , the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception, and also, in her Virgin Birth…..The Koran also has verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying, Oh Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth. In the 19th chapter of the Koran there are 41 verses...

Here is a fine article by Pat Archbold on what could be done that would greatly develop a greater sense of the transcendent at Mass, an experience woefully missing since promulgation of the Mass of Paul VI, in common parlance the Novus Ordo . These steps are totally in accordance with Sacrosanctum Concilium , the Vatican II document on the Liturgy. In fact they are what Vatican II intended for the Mass, but were never implemented, as implementation of Sacrosanctum concilium was hijacked by a papal commission stacked with neomodernists. No, these steps would not render the Mass a "pre-Vatican II Latin Mass," though it must be said that there is a renaissance of the Extraordinary form throughout the world. They would merely bring to being  the liturgy  that Vatican II intended.