middle west mindset

@ArchangeloRom @CatholicRob This is summer to do it. Go all in get some sort of fountain

@MiddleMindset @CatholicRob Looking at my St. Francis yard statue rn. I need a Marian grotto.

If the average Evangelical would see you, a Catholic, as a fellow Christian, you’re probably doing Catholicism all wrong. You need to be Mary-maxxing. You need to be indulgence maxxing. You need to be asking the intercession of the saints constantly.

SUPER NINTENDO CHALMERS

@Coleidoscopes @X9_redux Yes back then lots of people could find rewarding flexible and creative well paying work at magazines

@X9_redux Jill worked for a magazine until she went back to school to earn her masters in Psychology and built her career. You’re misinformed.

If you ever watch Home Improvement just remember. Tim Taylor was roughly 38, big home, hotrod in the garage, 3 kids and single income.

In 2003 I was not Catholic, but found myself in Spain for Holy Week. I had never even heard of a religious procession. But on my way home one night I got cut off by one. It was like getting mugged by history, tradition, beauty, and Catholicism all at once. It was glorious.

RFK Jr.: “I had a friend who wrote me this week… about her son... He had been thrown out of a recovery program in California for talking about God.”

Never seen this chart before, but it hits hard. Because it's accurate. I've tried to watch later episodes than S10 and they're just not the same... I watched the show as it originally aired as a youth (I was the same age as Bart was originally portrayed). I own Seasons 1-10 on DVD. That's what aired from when I was in 4th grade until I graduated high school. Which was about when I stopped watching it regularly. And that's all you need really. I end a full re-watch of those 10 seasons with that episode where they go to hell at the end (S10 E18 "Simpson's Bible Stories"). Perfect cap-off in my opinion.

@ArchangeloRom @CatholicRob Saint Francis statue in the yard. Stacks of books by Joseph Ratzinger

@CatholicRob IMO your house needs to be as such that a Protestant think they just entered the Vatican when they come visit and are visually accosted by statues, holy water fonts and icons

Christian clergy preaching to a Norse settlement

James Fishback, running for Florida governor has announced that he will be attending the Traditional Latin Mass at Ave Maria University tomorrow, on Palm Sunday.

✝️❤️

BREAKING 🇲🇨 🇻🇦 Pope Leo XIV has been greeted by enthusiastic crowds in Monaco

@Moriarty554468 @EWTNews Why do you follow this account?

@EWTNews Apostolic visits ended in the first century, when the last of the apostles were martyred

On March 28, Pope Leo XIV will make history by becoming the first pope in the modern era to make an apostolic visit to Monaco. Tucked along the Mediterranean coast, the principality of Monaco — whose official language is French — is often associated with Formula 1, wealth, glamor, and the famed Monte Carlo Casino. Yet beneath its polished exterior lies a profoundly Catholic heritage that continues to shape its laws, culture, and monarchy. Here are 10 key things to know about Monaco and its enduring Catholic identity: 1. Monaco is the last European country that is Catholic by law. Unlike many modern European nations, Monaco officially recognizes the Catholic Church as the state religion. Only a tiny handful of countries still have Catholicism as their official state religion in law including Vatican City, Malta, Costa Rica, and Liechtenstein. Monaco is the last European country whose constitution declares “the Catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion” as the state religion, making Pope Leo’s visit a spotlight on Europe’s final officially Catholic state. Currently, more than 90% of the population — roughly 38,000-39,000 people — identifies as Catholic. Monaco also has an older population. Roughly a third or more of residents are over 65. Life expectancy in Monaco is among the highest in the world — often estimated in the late 80s — which means the Church here walks with a very elderly population. 2. The current sovereign has deep Catholic roots. The ruling family of Monaco, the House of Grimaldi, has long been closely tied to Catholicism. Prince Albert II of Monaco, the current sovereign, was baptized and raised in the faith, as were his predecessors. Prince Albert is the son of Prince Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly, who was also Catholic. Prince Albert II is 68 and has been married to Charlene Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer, since 2011. They have two children — twins Jacques and Gabriella. Before marrying Wittstock, Albert had two children out of wedlock — Jazmin and Alexandre. While both are recognized as children of Prince Albert, they are not in the line of succession for the throne because their parents never married. 3. Monaco is the second-smallest country in the world. Believe it or not, Monaco is smaller than New York City’s Central Park. Only Vatican City is smaller than Monaco. The principality covers just about 2 square kilometers (less than 1 square mile), yet it packs in a dense population and world-class infrastructure. It should be noted that Monaco is both a principality and a country. It is a sovereign, independent city-state and its status as a “principality” relates to its form of government — a constitutional monarchy ruled by a prince. 4. Monaco has only one Catholic diocese and one archbishop. The small country only has one diocese, the Archdiocese of Monaco, and the Guiness World Records recognizes it as the smallest diocese in the world by territory. During his visit, Pope Leo will meet with Archbishop Dominique‑Marie David — a French priest ordained in Nantes, France, and appointed to Monaco in 2020 — the only archbishop in the country. 5. Catholicism by the numbers in Monaco Monaco has a surprisingly rich parish life: Six parishes and about 15 churches and chapels serve this tiny country. There are 29 priests in active ministry — including one official exorcist: Canon Alain Goinot, who was appointed in 2015 — as well as 14 religious sisters. The four communities of religious sisters include Dominicans, Oblates of the Virgin Mary of Fátima, Filles du Saint‑Cœur de Marie, and Sœurs de Notre‑Dame de l’Incarnation. Additionally, if you were to look at a map of Monaco you would see that on each corner of the principality there is a church: the Cathedral on the Rock, Saint‑Charles with the Dominicans, Saint‑Martin–Sacré‑Cœur, Sainte‑Dévote, Saint‑Nicolas in the port, and the Prince Palace’s own chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist. 6. Monaco is where a billionaire and a housemaid can sit in the same pew. Monaco has one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world. Its economy thrives on luxury tourism, banking, and real estate, attracting millionaires and billionaires from across the globe. One major reason the wealthy flock to Monaco is that it does not levy personal income tax (with a few exceptions). This has helped establish it as a global tax haven. Abbé Christian Venard, episcopal vicar for communications of the principality’s archdiocese, told EWTN News in an interview that “while there are very wealthy people, ordinary people, sometimes even very simple ones, are also needed to make the system work. This social mix gives our diocesan Church a truly unique character. Sometimes in church, a billionaire and a housemaid can sit on the same pew. The Church is one of the rare places of social intermingling in the principality and must take this important aspect into account in its daily apostolate.” 7. Monaco hosted one of the most-watched royal Catholic weddings. The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate — formerly the Cathedral of St. Nicholas — is where Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly were married in 1956 and where many princes and princesses, including Kelly, are buried. Their wedding Mass is still one of the most-watched royal Catholic weddings in history. 8. Monaco’s patron saint is St. Devota. Monaco’s patroness, St. Devota (Sainte Dévote), is so important that her feast — Jan. 27 — is a solemnity and day of precept in the archdiocese. Her relic is even kept in the palace chapel. St. Devota is a revered early Christian martyr believed to have lived in the late third or early fourth century. According to tradition, she was born in Corsica and killed for her faith during Roman persecution. Her body was said to have been placed on a boat by fellow Christians, which miraculously drifted to Monaco, where she became the principality’s patron saint. 9. It is a pro-life country. One of the clearest reflections of Monaco’s Catholic identity is its legal stance on abortion. Influenced by Catholic moral teaching, the country has historically prohibited abortion except in very limited circumstances. This legal framework reflects a strong cultural commitment to the dignity of human life. Last November, Prince Albert refused to sign a bill that would further liberalize abortion in the principality, even though it passed in Parliament 19-2. Albert said he understands “the sensitivity of this issue” but insisted the current law better respects Monaco’s Catholic identity and the special place of the Church while still ensuring “safe and more humane” support for women. 10. A princess was removed from the British line of succession for becoming Catholic. In 2018, Princess Alexandra of Hanover, a member of the royal family of Monaco, was removed from her distant place in the British line of succession after becoming a Catholic. Princess Alexandra was born in Austria and baptized a Lutheran two months after her birth. She is the daughter of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, and Prince Ernst August of Hanover. Through her father she is descended from Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Alexandra is the granddaughter of Grace Kelly, who in 1956 became Princess of Monaco when she married Rainier III. So in addition to having been in the British line of succession, Alexandra was the 12th in line to the Monegasque throne. Because the British monarch is head of the Church of England, which is the established church there, British law bars Catholics from succeeding to the throne. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 allowed heirs to the throne to marry Catholics, among other changes. However, the law still stipulates that the acting British sovereign must not be a Catholic. Catholics have been barred from the English throne since the Act of Settlement 1701. More details soon at EWTNNews.com

Pope Leo XIV to the Catholic Community of Monaco: "Bring the light of the Gospel to everyone so that the life of every man and woman may be defended and promoted from conception until natural death.  Offer new pathways capable of stemming the tide of secularism, which risks reducing humanity to individualism and basing social life on the production of wealth."

Your visual cortex burns 44% of your brain's energy budget. Turning off the lights in the shower is the fastest way to slash that load to near zero. Your brain is 2% of your body weight but burns 20% of your total energy. Visual processing alone eats almost half of that. Every photon hitting your retina triggers a cascade of neural signaling that demands oxygen, glucose, and ATP at rates higher than almost any other cognitive function. When you kill the lights, you're removing the single largest energy load on your cortex. That freed-up metabolic capacity gets reallocated. This is where it gets interesting. A 2022 study from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research measured what happens when you strip sensory input from anxious patients. High-frequency heart rate variability, the gold standard marker of parasympathetic activation, increased significantly compared to controls. Blood pressure dropped. Breathing rate fell. The nervous system shifted from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic mode within minutes. The warm water adds a second mechanism. Core body temperature rises during the shower. When you step out, temperature drops rapidly. That cooling signal triggers melatonin production and primes the circadian system for sleep. Layer darkness on top: no photons suppressing melatonin through the retinal ganglion cells, no blue-light signaling to the suprachiasmatic nucleus that it's still daytime. The shower is doing three things simultaneously. Reducing cortical energy demand by eliminating visual input. Activating the parasympathetic nervous system through sensory reduction. Triggering thermoregulatory sleep signaling through the heat-then-cool cycle. A $0 float tank that takes 10 minutes.

@PronouncedHare Prbly not a great move

@DrFrancisYoung No, it’s because now serious Catholics have to waste hours talking to the nominal Catholics about this

The outrage of some non-Anglicans at the enthronement of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury is perhaps the most promising sign in a long time that the Church of England retains its hold on hearts and minds as a truly national church

@Robkearney1981 @CatholicSat They were naive as to how aggressive secularism would be and didn’t realize that once you ended the state religion concept you’d eventually get a ban on Christmas carols in schools

I wish that more effort had been made to preserve Catholicism as the state religion in many countries that had previously done so. Instead, various paths of state secularism were instituted that stripped many nations of an official connection to the Church, which was and still is a vital part of their historic identity and culture no matter how strongly they may now seek to distance themselves from and even suppress it.

Pope Leo XIV to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco: "You are among the few countries in the world to have the Catholic faith as a state religion. This faith places us before the sovereignty of Jesus, who calls Christians to become in the world a kingdom of brothers and sisters – a presence that does not cast down but raises up, that does not separate but connects, always ready to protect every human life with love, at any time and in any condition, so that no one is ever excluded from the table of fraternity."

@TeologZoomer @Robkearney1981 @CatholicSat That was a disaster

@Robkearney1981 @CatholicSat Yes, for example in Spain (in 1978) bishops supported secularism totally against the Catholic doctrince.

@Nadira_ali12 My church leader is Pope Leo

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “If your church leaders and elected leaders tell you the way to bring Jesus back is by killing innocent children of innocent foreign people, in a foreign land you’ve never been to, then you’re believing the lies of wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing.”