July 17, 2026

Friday, July 24, 2026

SMOKE IN THIS LIFE NOT THE NEXT

Fri, Jul 24 — FAST Day Virtue: Vigilance & Purification

Cigar: Clean Connecticut — focused, ascetic, the leaf that refuses distraction

Bourbon: Peerless Small Batch — crisp, purposeful, the drink that sharpens intention

Reflection: “What must be burned away?”

FAST days strip the soul down to its essentials. Tonight’s Connecticut smoke is not indulgence but examination — a clean, honest leaf that refuses to hide anything. Peerless Small Batch follows with its crisp edge, a bourbon that tastes like a man deciding to tell the truth. Together they form a quiet ritual of vigilance, the virtue that keeps the interior life awake when the world prefers sleep.

Blessed Stephana Quinziani understood vigilance in its most terrifying form. Kneeling beside the bier of Sister Paula, she prayed with the fidelity of one who refuses to abandon a friend. Then the veil tore: the crucifix fell, the dead hand rose, and the living were summoned into the suffering of the departed. Paula’s grasp was not horror but revelation — the hidden fire of purification laid bare in a single desperate plea.

“Help me… pray… do penance for me.” It is the cry of every soul who loved well yet imperfectly, who now longs for the final cleansing flame that precedes glory. Vigilance sees this truth; purification accepts its cost.

Tonight’s smoke rises like Stephana’s penances — small, steady offerings that become ladders for the waiting. Peerless sharpens the question that returns with Paula’s grasp:

What fault, what indulgence, what quiet shadow must be burned away — and whose suffering might be eased by the sacrifice I choose tonight?

JULY 24 Friday Eighth Week of Pentecost

Vigil of St. James the Greater-National Tequila Day

Psalm 15, Verse 1-5

LORD, who may abide in your tent?

Who may dwell on your holy mountain?

Whoever walks without blame,doing what is right, speaking truth from the heart; Who does not slander with his tongue, does no harm to a friend, never defames a neighbor;Who disdains the wicked, but honors those who FEAR the LORD; Who keeps an oath despite the cost, lends no money at interest,* accepts no bribe against the innocent.

In life we are always moving toward the future. Our destination is life eternal with our creator. In our little sailboat of life, we tend to be either moving toward God by taking advantage of His graces which provide the wind for our sails, or we do nothing but drift.

Napoleon Hill noted in his manuscript on a book he never published entitled “Outwitting the devil” stated drifting was one of the tools the devil uses to keep us off tack and not sailing towards God’s mountain.

Protection against drifting lies within easy reach of every human being who has a normal body and a sound mind. Self-defense can be applied through these simple methods:

1. Do your own thinking on all occasions. The fact that human beings are given complete control over nothing save the power to think their own thoughts is laden with significance.

2. Decide definitely what you want from life; then create a plan for attaining it and be willing to sacrifice everything rather than accept permanent defeat.

3. Analyze temporary defeat, no matter of what nature or cause, and extract from it the seed of an equivalent advantage.

4. Be willing to render useful service equivalent to the value of all material things you demand of life and render the service first.

5. Recognize that your brain is a receiving set that can be attuned to receive communications from the universal storehouse of Infinite Intelligence, to help you transmute your desires into their physical equivalent.

6. Recognize that your greatest asset is time, the only thing except the power of thought which you own outright, and the one thing which can be shaped into whatever material things you want. Budget your time so none of it is wasted.

7. Recognize the truth that fear generally is a filler with which the Devil occupies the unused portion of your mind. It is only a state of mind which you can control by filling the space it occupies with faith in your ability to make life provide you with whatever you demand of it.

8. When you pray, do not beg! Demand what you want and insist upon getting exactly that, with no substitutes.

9. Recognize that life is a cruel taskmaster and that either you master it or it masters you. There is no half-way or compromising point. Never accept from life anything you do not want. lf that which you do not want is temporarily forced upon you, you can refuse, in your own mind, to accept it and it will make way for the thing you do want.

10. Lastly, remember that your dominating thoughts attract, through a definite law of nature, by the shortest and most convenient route, their physical counterpart. Be careful what your thoughts dwell upon.

A simple formula combining all ten points:

Be definite in everything you do and never leave unfinished thoughts in the mind. Form the habit of reaching definite decisions on all subjects.

Question for the devil. Can the habit of drifting be broken, or does it become permanent once it has been fanned?

Devils Answer: The habit can be broken if the victim has enough willpower, providing it is done in time. There is a point beyond which the habit can never be broken. Beyond that point the victim is mine. He resembles a fly that has been caught in a spider’s web. He may struggle, but he cannot get out. Each move he makes entangles him more securely. The web in which I entangle my victims permanently is a law of nature not yet isolated by, or understood by, men of science.

More from Kamil: KamilsView on YouTube and http://www.kamilsview.com/

Copilot’s Take

There are movements in every age that pull people downstream, movements that ask nothing of the will and demand nothing of the conscience. They promise ease, sameness, and the relief of not having to think for oneself. These are movements of dead men. Whether they wear the label of communism, consumerism, nationalism, or any other banner, their defining feature is drift — the quiet surrender of personal responsibility, moral agency, and the sacred duty to seek truth. As CCC 1776 teaches, moral law is written in the heart; downstream movements erase that writing by encouraging people to float.

Upstream living, by contrast, is the signature of the spiritually alive. It is the life Psalm 15 describes: walking without blame, speaking truth from the heart, refusing slander, honoring the righteous, and keeping promises even when they wound. These are strokes against the current. They require intention, vigilance, and the courage to resist the gravitational pull of cultural drift. The living walk upstream not because it is easy, but because it is the only way to reach the mountain of God. CCC 1808 calls this courage fortitude — the strength to pursue the good despite difficulty.

This is where CCC — Courage, Clarity, Conviction becomes essential. Courage is rooted in CCC 1808, clarity in CCC 1783–1785, and conviction in CCC 1811. Courage resists the current when it pushes hard. Clarity sees through the fog of ideology, propaganda, and moral confusion. Conviction is the steady will that refuses to surrender to drift. Any movement that suppresses thought, discourages initiative, or replaces conscience with conformity becomes downstream. It becomes a current that carries people rather than a path that calls them upward. These CCC pillars are the spiritual musculature required to swim against such currents.

Downstream movements thrive on passivity. They encourage dependence instead of discipline, fear instead of truth, and ideological obedience instead of personal responsibility. They dissolve the strength of the individual by eroding the habits that keep a soul awake. CCC 1731 teaches that freedom is the power to act or not act, to do good or evil — downstream movements weaken that freedom until it collapses. When people stop thinking, stop choosing, stop exercising the moral agency God gave them, they begin to float. And floating is the beginning of death. CCC’s moral framework is the antidote — awakening the will, sharpening the conscience, restoring the upward pull of the soul.

The real conflict in America is not left versus right, nor party versus party. It is living versus drifting. It is upstream versus downstream. It is the struggle between movements that awaken the soul and movements that lull it to sleep. Evil advances wherever people stop swimming, wherever they surrender their agency, wherever they allow the current to decide their direction. Renewal begins wherever people rise, resist, and move toward the mountain of God with CCC 1806–1832 as their compass — the virtues, gifts, and fruits that keep a soul alive.

And so, the ancient question of the psalm — “Who may dwell on your holy mountain?” — becomes the modern question of the nation: Are we walking upstream, or are we floating down? The mountain is never reached by drifting. The tent of the Lord is never entered by surrendering to the current. The living walk upstream; the dead float down. And the CCC — Courage (1808), Clarity (1783–1785), Conviction (1811) — is the force that keeps the living moving toward the summit, daily, deliberate, and decisive.

Vigil of St. James the Greater[1]

In the Tridentine Calendar, July 24th is the Vigil of St. James the Greater. We call to mind St. James the Greater today as his feast day is tomorrow.

Collect: Sanctify and protect Your people, O Lord. Let the assistance of Your apostle James strengthen them that they may serve You with confidence and please You by their conduct. Through our Lord . . .

The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released book on the 12 Apostles written by Frances Spilman of CatechismClass.com. This can serve as a meditation as we prepare for the Feast of St. James the Greater

Catholics know that death is not the end but the beginning of a new life and so it proved with St. James. His tomb in Spain is a place of religious pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands of people every year. In the past, the Spanish people were inspired by St. James as they reconquered their country from the Muslims.

In 711, General Tariq Ibn-Ziyad led a force of Islamic Moors of Arab and Berber descent to conquer most of Iberia. Fortunately, the Islamic force was halted by Charles Martel and his army at the Battle of Tours in 732. Yet most of Spain was still under foreign rule and, according to legend, Charlemagne (742-814) was recruited to rectify this situation.

“Charlemagne saw a path of stars in the sky, beginning in the Frisian Sea and extending through Germany and Italy, Gaul and Aquitaine, passing directly over Gascony, Vasconia, Navarre and Spain to Galicia, where the body of Saint James lay buried and undiscovered. Looking upon this stellar path several times every night, he began to mediate its meaning. A knight of splendid appearance, more handsome than words can describe, appeared to Charlemagne one evening in a vision as he sat in deep meditation.

“What are you doing, my son?” the knight asked.

To which the king responded,

“Who are you, sir?”

“I am Saint James the Apostle, disciple of Christ…and whose body lies forgotten in Galicia, a place still shamefully oppressed by the Saracens. I am deeply disturbed by the fact that you, who have conquered so many cities and nations, have not liberated my lands from the Saracens… The path of stars that you have contemplated in the sky is the sign indicating that you must take a great army from here to Galicia to do battle with those perfidious pagans, to free my path and my lands and to visit my basilica and my tomb. After you, all peoples from sea to sea will walk there as pilgrims, begging forgiveness for their sins and proclaiming the greatness of the Lord…” (Kevin R. Poole, editor and translator of The Chronicle of Pseudo-Turpin, Book IV of the Liber Sancti Jacobi (New York: Italica Press, 2014) pgs. 5-6)

The historical Charlemagne was forced to retreat from the Muslims in Spain and then tragically, the Basques attacked his baggage train and killed Roland, the warden of the Breton March. The incident inspired the Song of Roland but brought the Spanish people no closer to freedom. However, the Reconquista had already begun in 718 when Pelagius defeated an Islamic Umayyad patrol in the Battle of Covadonga in Galencia. Although there were occasional forays into Galencia, the Muslims never controlled this part of Spain. Galencia was incorporated into Asturias, a Christian kingdom in the northwest of Spain.

In 812, Bishop Teodomiro, Bishop of Iria Flavia in Galencia, Spain, was visited by a group of men in his diocese. They told him that the anchorite Palagio with other devote men had seen a bright star over the hill of Libredon. Not only this, but they had seen lights moving among the forest while unseen voices sang religious chants. Stirred by this miracle, the Bishop determined to investigate the area with his canons and some prominent citizens on July 25th. After clearing away the underbrush, the men discovered a cave. Inside of the cave were three stone coffins. The largest of the coffins was in the middle with its occupant identified as Saint James – “Here lies Santiago, son of Zebedee and Salome, brother of St. John, whom Herod beheaded in Jerusalem. He came by sea borne by his disciples to Iria Flavia of Galicia…”

King Afonso II of Asturias, with the nobles of his court, journeyed to the shrine and ordered that a church be built to honor Saint James. Pope Leo III informed the Archbishops and the Bishops of the discovery. A small town grew up near the cave called Santiago de Compostela and the body of Saint James was moved there in 829. A beautiful Church was constructed during the reign of Afonso III in 893. (Catherine Gasquoine Hartley The Story of Santiago de Compostela (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1912) pgs. 22-27)

The pilgrimage of St. James became very popular – third in popularity after Jerusalem and Rome. Even a Moorish ambassador was astonished at the crowds:

“When Ali-ben-Yussuf, the Almoravide, sent an embassy to Dona Urraca about 1121, the ambassadors were amazed at the throngs of pilgrims who choked the road. They asked the subaltern detailed to escort and assist them, the Centurion Peter..:

‘Who is it the Christians so revered, for whom so great a multitude comes and goes, from this side and the other of the Pyrenees, so that the road is scarcely cleared for us?’

And Peter answered with a fine gesture: ‘He who deserves such reverence is St. James whose body there is buried…’” (Georgiana Goddard King, The Way of Saint James, Volume 1 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920) pg. 107)

In 1122, Pope Calixrus II granted a Holy Year to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela when July 25th (Saint James’ feast day) falls on a Sunday. On that year, the Holy Door is open from January 1st to December 31st and pilgrims are granted special indulgencies. The years 2004, 2010, 2021 and 2027 were or will be Holy Years and there are usually more pilgrims during these years. The Codex Calixtinus, an illustrated manuscript of the 12th century, is a description of the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and includes music, stories of St. James, miracles and advice about the route. Despite its name, it was not written by Pope Calixrus II but by unknown authors and organized by Aymeric Picaud, a French scholar.

St. Francis of Assisi, like many others, went to Santiago de Compostela with a few of his companions:

“At the beginning and commencement of the Order, when as yet there were few brothers and the Houses had not been taken into possession, Saint Francis for his devotion went to Saint James’s of Galicia… Having won thither, while he was spending the night in prayer in the church of St. James, it was revealed by God unto Saint Francis, that it behooved him to take possession of many places throughout the world, because his Order must needs grow and increase into a vast multitude of brothers” (The Little Flowers of Saint Francis translated by T.W. Arnold (London: J. M. Dent and Co., 1907) pg. 11)

Throughout the ages, pilgrims have had different reasons to visit the tomb of St. James. Some came to worship, others to fulfil a vow, still others petitioned the saint to alleviate their or other’s distress. Fray Miguel Capeller and Fray Leonardo de Gratia, for instance, were sent to ask St. James to stop the plague in Barcelona in 1465 (The Way of Saint James, pg. 123).

Church authorities sometimes required penitents to make the pilgrimage to atone for their sins. There were several official roads to Santiago – the one from France being one of the most popular. Most pilgrims purchase a credencial - a small book which is marked by the local church or town hall with an official St. James stamp as the pilgrim progresses on his or her journey. The pilgrim must travel at least 100 km by foot or 200 km by bicycle (about 62 and 127 miles respectively) to receive the Compostela. The Compostela is a certificate of achievement given by the Pilgrim’s Office to those who arrive at Santiago de Compostela after traveling the required distance. According to the Confraternity of Saint James, the pilgrimage is still popular with 272,135 receiving the Compostela in 2010 (a Holy Year) and 262,469 in 2015.

St. James is often shown with a seashell and a pilgrim’s hat and staff to emphasize his protection over the pilgrims who visit Santiago. However, St. James represents more than a protector of pilgrims. As we saw above, St. James appeared to Charlemagne as a great knight. St. James was an inspiration to the Spanish as they attempted to reconquer their land from the Moors. The great warrior El Cid invokes St. James as his army of four thousand prepares to fight the Moorish force of fifty thousand:

“Our bishop, good Don Jerom, an early mass shall say, And give us absolution before the dawn of day. Then we shall sally forth and assault them in the names Of the Lord and His Apostle our worthy good St. James”

There are legends of St. James on his white horse leading the Spanish to victory against the Moors. The Spanish achieved their final victory in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella defeated the last Moorish army and Spain was finally free.

Novena of St. Ann[2]

Daily Prayer to Saint Ann

O glorious St. Ann, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Ann, help me now and at the hour of my death. Good St. Ann, intercede for me.

EIGHTH DAY

Hail, St. Ann! I rejoice at your exalted glory. You gave birth to Mary, whose divine Son brought salvation to our lost world by conquering death and restoring life and hope to sinners. Pray to Him who, for love of us, clothed Himself with human flesh in the chaste womb of your daughter.

Glorious St. Ann, with your blessed daughter, deliver me from everything that is displeasing in the sight of God. Pray to your gentle and powerful Grandson that He may cleanse my soul in His precious blood, that He may send His Holy Spirit to enlighten and direct me in all that I do, always obedient to His holy inspirations.

Good mother keep a watchful eye on me. Help me bear all my crosses. Give me the fullness of your bounty and sustain me with courage.

National Tequila Day[3]

Another Hedonistic progressive holiday--Note: Humility and its source is where all goodness comes from; the Spirit of God, and not this spirit.

National Tequila Day is dedicated to recognizing Tequila, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the blue agave plant and the main alcohol in a margarita. Blue agave plants produce sugars such as fructose, which are ideal for preparing tequila. The plant only grows in the rich and sandy soil of Jalisco, Mexico at altitudes of 1,500 meters.

To make tequila, the heart or piña of the plant is removed when the plant is approximately 12 years old and weighs around 40-90kg. The heart is then heated to extract sap which is fermented and distilled into tequila. According to history, the Aztecs created fermented beverages from the agave plant prior to arrival of Spaniards in 1521. The origins of National Tequila Day are not well understood; however, it appears that National Tequila Day began to emerge around the late 1990s. This holiday is celebrated every year on July 24.

National Tequila Day Facts & Quotes

During prohibition, tequila became more popular because smuggling liquor into the country was easiest from Mexico.

According to Guinness World Records, the most expensive bottle of tequila was worth $225,000 in 2006. The Platinum & White Gold Tequila bottle was sold by Tequila Ley .925 to a private collector. The tequila was harvested from 100% blue agave plants that had been aged 6 years.

As per the Official Mexican Standard for Tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005), the alcohol content of tequila ranges from 35-55%.

As per the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (Tequila Regulatory Council), Mexico produced 118.9 million liters of 100% pure agave tequila, of which 77.9 million liters were exported.

I wanted to do my part to help preserve that golden age of travel… I step aboard the Patron Tequila Express railcar, and I go back in time to the days when a long journey was something fun and very special. - Billionaire John Paul DeJoria, Owner of the Patron Spirits Company

National Tequila Day Top Events and Things to Do

Try the World's Best Tequila. Winner of the World's Best Tequila Award 2015, 1800 Anejo is produced by La Rojena.

Attend a tequila festival. Here are some popular ones to consider:
1) Day of the Dead Tequila Festival
2) South Florida Tequila Festival
3) Northwest Tequila Fest
4) Texas Tequila and Margarita Festival

Tour tequila distilleries along the tequila trail in Jalisco, Mexico. The distilleries offer insight into the production process and offer ample opportunity to sample a variety of tequilas.

Try different categories of tequila. These include:
1) Blanco (white) tequila which is unaged or has been aged for less than two months.
2) Joven (gold) tequila which is unaged silver tequila that is flavored with either caramel coloring or sugar-derived syrups, etc.
3) Resposado tequila which has been aged for a minimum of two months but less than 1 year in oak barrels.
4) Anejo tequila which has been aged for at least 1 year, but less than 3 years in oak barrels.
5) Extra Anejo tequila which has been aged for at least 3 years.

Try a tequila twist in your favorite recipes. Many recipes can be infused with tequila, for example:
1) Citrus and tequila infused cupcakes. Add some citrus zest and sprinkles of tequila to the cupcake frosting.
2) Tequila glazed chicken. Just add a few spoons of tequila to your favorite chicken glaze recipe.
3) Barbecued tequila and lime pork spareribs. Add lime and tequila to an overnight sparerib marinade.

Today is my millennial daughter Nicole Patience’s (Victorious Patience) birthday; hopefully she is eating cake and not slamming shots! I ask your prayers.

"Vaya con Dios, mi amor"

Fitness Friday-The 5 Switches of Manliness: Physicality[4]

This post begins our series on the five switches of manliness. The five switches of manliness are the power switches that are connected to our primal man and deeply ingrained and embedded in the male psyche. When they’re turned off, we feel restless, angry, and apathetic. When they’re turned on, we feel alive, invigorated, motivated to be our best, and just plain manly. The two principles behind these posts that must be adopted in order for the recommendations to be successfully integrated are: 1) the switches are simply either on or off, and 2) turning them on requires only small and simple changes in behavior. The biggest obstacle to flipping the switches will be pride–the belief that firing up our masculinity requires arduous, mystical, and/or perfectly “authentic” tasks. Just because you cannot do everything does not mean you cannot do something. The maxim to adopt is this: “By small and simple means I will flip the switches of manliness.”

When seeking to activate the deeply encoded parts of primitive masculinity, there is no better place to start than physicality. Primitive man used his body all day every day: building, hunting, walking, dancing, fighting.

For modern man, these activities have been replaced with sitting. Many of us sit for twelve hours or more a day. Sit down for breakfast, sit in the car on the way to work, sit at your desk all day, sit in your car on the way home from work, sit in front of the tv at night…. Rinse and repeat.

Sitting represents the ultimate in passive living; it practically shuts your body down–your heart rate, calorie burn, insulin effectiveness, and levels of good cholesterol drop as your risk of obesity and diabetes goes up. Or, as Dr. James Levine, leader in the emerging field of “inactivity studies,” puts it: when you sit, “the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse.”

“Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.” And he’s not kidding. A study found that men who sit for more than six hours of their leisure time each day had a 20% higher death rate than those who sat for three hours or less. The epidemiologist who conducted the study, Alpha Patel, concluded that excessive sitting literally shortens a person’s life by several years (not to mention the years that are simply wasted from sitting as opposed to doing anything). Another study showed that men who sat for 23 or more hours a week had a 64% greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours per week or less.

Not only is sitting around literally killing us, but it’s also throwing a wet rag on our manliness.

Let’s get Physical-Physical-St Joseph Workout

What was the Physicality of Christ like?

The Gospels reveal Christ’s words, His compassion, His authority, and His sacrifice — yet they say almost nothing about His physical appearance. This silence is intentional. Scripture emphasizes who He is, not what He looked like. Still, His humanity was real, embodied, and lived in the physical world. When we consider His carpentry, His travels, His suffering, and His resurrection, a picture of His physicality begins to emerge.

Jesus is called a tekton (Mark 6:3), a craftsman or builder. In first‑century Galilee, this meant working with wood, stone, and heavy structural materials. It was demanding labor — cutting, shaping, lifting, hauling, constructing. His hands were not soft; they were the hands of a man who worked. His shoulders bore weight long before they carried a cross. His strength was quiet, honest, and earned.

His ministry required stamina. Jesus walked long distances across rugged terrain — from Galilee to Judea, from the Jordan to Jerusalem, from village to village. These journeys were measured in days, not miles. He preached for hours, healed the sick, and stood firm against opposition. His physical presence was steady and resilient. He lived in His body as fully as He lived in His spirit.

The Passion reveals even more. The scourging, the crown of thorns, the carrying of the crossbeam, and the crucifixion itself show a man with a body capable of suffering to its limits. The fact that He endured these torments without collapsing immediately speaks to a body conditioned by labor and strengthened by years of physical work. His suffering was not symbolic; it was felt in nerves, muscles, bone, and flesh.

Yet Scripture also tells us His appearance was unremarkable. Isaiah 53:2 prophesies that the Servant would have “no form or majesty that we should look at Him.” He was not a figure of earthly glamour. His strength was not theatrical. His power was not built on physical intimidation. His authority came from truth, holiness, and love.

And in all of this — His labor, His endurance, His suffering, His humility — Christ was the Man who walked upstream. He resisted every current of His age: the current of political zealotry, the current of religious corruption, the current of cultural compromise, the current of spiritual drift. His physical life was the vessel of His mission: strong enough to work, gentle enough to touch the sick, human enough to suffer, and holy enough to rise.

In summary, Jesus’s physicality reflects the mystery of the Incarnation: true God and true man, possessing a real human body shaped by work, strengthened by travel, capable of suffering, and glorified in resurrection — the body of a man who walked upstream all the way to the Cross and beyond.

Around the Corner

Today is International Day of Self Care

There are Seven Pillars of Self Care

Pillar 1: Knowledge & Health Literacy

Pillar 2: Mental Wellbeing

Pillar 3: Physical Activity

Pillar 4: Healthy Eating

Pillar 5: Risk Avoidance & Mitigation

Pillar 6: Good Hygiene

Pillar 7: Responsible Use of Self-Care Products & Services

It is traditional in Spain to make a yearly pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela on July 24. Read more about this custom. From Catholic Culture's Library: Pilgrimage To The Stars and Cycling through time on the Camino de Santiago.

Bucket List: Military Hop

Incirlik PASSENGER TERMINAL Turkey

What to do

Let Freedom Ring Day 18 Freedom from Jealousy

Spirit Hour: Antinori nel Chianti Classico

Foodie: Baklava

Get an indulgence

Daily Devotions

Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Protection of Life from Conception until natural death.

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Religion in the Home for Preschool: July

Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

Drops of Christ’s Blood

Universal Man Plan

Rosary

* [15:5] Lends no money at interest: lending money in the Old Testament was often seen as assistance to the poor in their distress, not as an investment; making money off the poor by charging interest was thus forbidden.

[1] Conscientious Catholic: Vigil of St. James, the Greater

[2]Blessed Sacrament Fathers, ST. ANN’S SHRINE, Cleveland, Ohio

[3] http://www.wincalendar.com/Tequila-Day

[4]https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/the-5-switches-of-manliness-physicality/

THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946)

Hedy Lamarr • George Sanders • Louis Hayward Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer • A Film‑Noir Melodrama of Beauty, Power, and Moral Corrosion

The Strange Woman is one of those mid‑century noirs whose force comes not from spectacle but from the dangerous interiority of its heroine. Beneath its period setting lies a tale of ambition, seduction, and the ruin that follows when beauty becomes a weapon rather than a gift. Hedy Lamarr’s Jenny Hager is the restless center of the film — mesmerizing, calculating, shaped by childhood violence, and determined to bend the world to her will.

Around her move two men who reveal the cost of her hunger: George Sanders, with his velvet cynicism, and Louis Hayward, with the wounded sincerity Jenny exploits. Their performances turn Ulmer’s melodrama into a moral study — a portrait of how charm untethered from conscience becomes predation, and how desire without discipline becomes destruction.

The film’s emotional core is the tension between power and purity, between the intoxicating thrill of control and the quiet ache of a conscience Jenny cannot fully silence. Ulmer’s direction leans into noir’s moral chiaroscuro: shadows fall like judgments, and every choice feels like a step toward either damnation or redemption.

🎞️ Film Card — The Strange Woman (1946) The Strange Woman 1946 • 6.8/10 IMDb • 100 min

A beautiful but morally conflicted woman rises from poverty to social dominance in 1820s Bangor, Maine, manipulating the men around her with intelligence, allure, and calculated vulnerability. Her ambition entangles her in scandal, violence, and forbidden desire — revealing the tragic cost of power pursued without virtue. Film‑Noir Melodrama • Period Drama

Director Edgar G. Ulmer Stars Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders, Louis Hayward Studio Hunt Stromberg Productions Notable One of Lamarr’s most psychologically complex roles; Ulmer’s signature noir severity applied to period melodrama.

1. Production & Cultural Setting

Ulmer’s Noir in Broad Daylight

Ulmer brings his trademark severity to a period piece, creating a world where sunlight exposes sin rather than conceals it.

Lamarr’s Darkest, Richest Role

Jenny Hager is not a femme fatale caricature — she is a woman shaped by trauma, wielding beauty as both shield and sword.

Sanders & Hayward as Moral Foils

Sanders embodies cynical detachment; Hayward embodies vulnerable sincerity. Jenny consumes both.

2. Story Summary

A Childhood of Violence

Jenny learns early that power belongs to those who seize it.

Rise Through Charm and Calculation

Her beauty becomes currency; her intelligence becomes leverage.

Two Men, Two Mirrors

Sanders reflects her ambition; Hayward reflects her buried longing for goodness.

Desire, Scandal, and Ruin

Jenny’s manipulations spiral into forbidden passion, betrayal, and tragedy.

A Final Reckoning

Her downfall is not punishment but revelation — the truth of a soul divided against itself.

3. Moral & Emotional Resonances

A. Beauty Without Virtue Becomes Violence Jenny’s allure is powerful — and destructive when untethered from conscience.

B. Trauma Shapes but Does Not Excuse Her childhood explains her hunger but cannot justify her choices.

C. Power Is a Dangerous Substitute for Love Jenny seeks control because she fears vulnerability.

D. Conscience Is the Last Voice to Die Even at her worst, Jenny is haunted by flashes of moral clarity.

E. Desire Must Be Disciplined or It Devours The film is a warning about ambition without boundaries.

4. Hospitality Pairing — A Night of Moral Chiaroscuro

Drink: A dark rum Old Fashioned — sweet, smoky, seductive, with a bite beneath the surface. Plate: Spiced walnuts and dried cherries — rich, sharp contrasts mirroring Jenny’s dual nature. Atmosphere: Candlelight and deep shadows — a room where beauty and danger coexist. Symbol: A broken hair comb — elegance fractured by misuse.