Camo Weddings, Beautiful Fall & Confusion

Dear TIA,

Fall and the Thanksgiving holiday remind us of turkey, hunters and the hunting that so often occurs this time of year. In keeping with this notion, a few days ago, the local newspaper ran a story about a new wedding trend, along with a large photo as evidence.

The trend is this: camouflage wedding attire (i.e., camouflage garters, camouflage wedding trains attached to a more "traditional" wedding dress (Can you imagine the ugliness?) camouflage vests for men, camouflage tuxedos, and camouflage dresses.

I'm kind of surprised the women will wear them, given so many women wear pants now). Apparently, the demand has overwhelmed suppliers who are behind on their orders. I guess this is more evidence of the pit into which society is falling, as they apparently can't get enough gray, brown and drab to blend in with all the other animals.

Contrast this with the other two trends, which apparently include LOTS of lace (similar to the gowns of about 30 years ago) and feathers. One of the newest fads is for a complete feather bottom ... more "animal" influence, I guess.

So, there you have it: a stark contrast between tradition and modernity. Not terribly surprising, I believe, when considering that some don't like all of the "anything goes," and are drawn back to the "old," while the other races on ahead with more novelty.

I can't imagine to what direction camouflage will lead.

     E.S.

Dear TIA,

I can't get away - but I hope this tour through the United States will make your day as it did mine.

M.E.

TIA,

I have recently read articles on the Divine Mercy devotion on your site (here & here). This made me take a closer look at the image, and what I find very odd is that this Jesus bears no wounds on his hands or feet.

We know from countless other Saints that Jesus retained the wounds of the Passion and never would appear without them.

This seems to correspond with the removal of the Crucified Christ from Crosses in Vatican 2. It is as if someone is trying to erase the Crucifixion, and replace it with the Resurrection.

Here is a link to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy displaying their odd choice of Tabernacle the world.

     M.M.

Dear Dr. Marian,

Thank you so very much for TIA’s excellent article on the Divine Mercy devotions by Fr. Patrick Perez. I too was "taken up" by this devotion for many years and promoted it with great enthusiasm.

I loved it and I encouraged my children to sing/pray it often. We attended the conferences in Ireland. I was told once to "be careful" but no explanation followed.

Thank you for helping us to understand. Clearly, we did not study our faith well enough!

Thanks be to God for Tradition in Action! You are a gift from God.

May I, please, take this opportunity to say thanks a million for your wonderful support to my dear mother during her illness; Christina O' Shea, R.I.P. My mum died on 24 August having suffered so much during her lifetime and again during her last six months or so. You very kindly posted a photo with her holding her great grandchild in her arms. See April updates. Continue to pray, please.

Your advice and help to us during her last months very likely helped mum to save her soul. Please God, she did save her soul+. Your advice and support certainly helped me to comfort and support my Mother, most especially during her last hours before God called her. To love is to suffer and when offered in union with the suffering and Passion of Jesus and Mary, death is indeed a blessing.

     Forever in my prayers and with profound gratitude,

     God bless you all.

     Mary M. Wrenne and family, Ireland

Hello,

I am so confused, I just quit going to New Mass not because of something I read or heard, just because something did not seem right - you know, everyone giving Communion but the Priest; the Church buzzing like a mall before Mass, people filing in half an hour late just in time for Communion and leaving after receiving, everyone going to Communion and not one going to confession. Of course they could not go, the confessionals were storage closets. Churches looking like Masonic temples, and on and on.

I don’t know why it took so long to leave. Guilt I guess, and thinking the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Moving ahead, after being on the internet and reading ALL THE BICKERING among Catholics, I have information overload, I can’t figure out the difference between the fly poop and the pepper: the Pope is a heretic, the Pope is not the Pope, but the antipope, schismatic. Or the Pope is still the Pope, he is a material heretic, not a formal heretic, a heretic is a heretic, the papacy is vacant - so many internet so-called theologians and prophets and online Monasteries which of course call sell you any thing you want.

You must not go to Novus O mass; you must go to Latin Mass - but was the priest ordained in the NO counterfeit Church? Is he valid but illicit? Or is he illicit but valid? Does he accept Vat 2? Are the sacraments valid???????

That rite is schismatic, but the priest is valid, you can't go there, you should go to your own rite. But you can go there in an emergency, and on and on. I am not a lawyer and don’t feel qualified to be a Catholic.

HOW DOES A CATHOLIC TODAY PRACTICE? Just stay home and say the rosary??????

Any help would be greatly appreciated. and you would be the first one of many I have emailed who has replied.

     Blessings,

     I.B.


TIA responds,

Hello I.B.,

We believe the first requisite to be taken seriously is to sign one’s own name, especially when one asks advice on important matters such as those in your message. Even though you did not fulfill this basic requirement and, therefore, normally we would not answer your fake-named appeal, we will open an exception to try to help you.

A person with Catholic sense habitually sees clear amidst confused problems - even when the confusion is as great as it is today, with the crisis in the Church reaching the highest pinnacle. Grace never fails to give true Catholics the needed orientation not to fall into the snares of the Devil and his cohorts.

So, if you are in such an afflictive confusion, you may ask yourself whether the problem is not with your eyes, which for some reason became unable to see what is not so difficult to see.

The solution is not to be a lawyer or enter into despair. The good solution is to humble yourself and ask yourself how your own Catholic sense became obscured. Then, approach Our Lady of Good Counsel, asking her to cure your defects and show you the simple way to be faithful in these difficult times.

We hope and pray this may prevent you from plunging into a despairing skepticism.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk