Smoke — Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Humility & Honesty Balanced, classic (Habano) Wild Turkey 101 Question: What truth about myself do I need to face.

Humility begins where illusion ends. Honesty begins where self‑protection loosens its grip. Together they form the narrow gate through which the soul must pass if it hopes to see God clearly. Today’s Smoke asks for the truth we resist — the one that hides beneath competence, beneath habit, beneath the persona we polish for others. The Habano’s balance mirrors the spiritual equilibrium required: not collapse, not bravado, but the steady willingness to stand in the light.

And then comes the teaching, severe and merciful:

Accordingly, willing or not willing, the vision has nothing to do with it. Our Lord clearly regards nothing but humility and confusion of face, the acceptance of what He wishes to give, and the praise of Himself, the Giver… Our own efforts can neither make nor unmake them… We must therefore walk in His fear while we are living in this our exile.

This is the truth we must face: nothing essential is ours. Grace is not earned. Insight is not manufactured. Vision is not a reward. Everything is gift — and therefore everything is fragile. Humility is the recognition that God is the source of all that matters; honesty is the courage to admit how often we forget this.

Habano: balanced, unpretentious, revealing itself without performance.

Wild Turkey 101: straightforward, honest, incapable of disguise.

Together they form a sacrament of clarity.

What truth about myself do I need to face today — and am I willing to let God name it.

AUGUST 2 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Feast Of Our Lady of Angels

Judith, Chapter 11, Verse 1

Then Holofernes said to her: “Take courage, woman! Have no FEAR in your heart! I have never harmed anyone who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of all the earth.

Beauty meets the beast while he is reclining in bed. He wants her almost as much as Jerusalem.

Two Speeches[1]

Holofernes, servant of the King of Assyria, tells the apple of his eye assuming she serves his king to take courage. He is blinded to the fact that she serves the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and is a servant of Yahwah. Holofernes promises good treatment for a servant of Nebuchadnezzar. Judith answer is a mixture of cunning and truth. She states, “If you follow the words of your maidservant, God will successfully perform a deed through you, and my lord will not fail to achieve his designs.” She flatters and he loves it. In truth she states:

As for Achior’s speech in your council, we have heard it…So then, my lord and master, do not disregard his word, but bear it in mind, for it is true. Indeed, our people are not punished, nor does the sword prevail against them, except when they sin against their God.

But now their sin has caught up with them, by which they will bring the wrath of their God upon them when they do wrong; so that my lord will not be repulsed and fail, but death will overtake them. Because their food has given out and all their water is running low, they have decided to kill their animals, and are determined to consume all the things which God in his laws has forbidden them to eat.

They have decided that they would use the first fruits of grain and the tithes of wine and oil, which they had consecrated and reserved for the priests who minister in the presence of our God in Jerusalem—things which the people should not so much as touch with their hands.

As soon as I, your servant, learned all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to perform with you such deeds as will astonish people throughout the whole earth who hear of them.

As the Israelites did indeed hunger and thirst for food and water; let us hunger and thirst for our Lord in the Eucharist.

Copilot’s Take

Judith enters the tent not as a trembling captive but as a woman who knows the difference between counterfeit courage and the courage born of God. Holofernes speaks first, as evil often does, offering reassurance without righteousness, safety without sanctity. His words echo the primordial lie of Genesis — the serpent’s promise that fear can be banished without obedience. The Catechism names this pattern with clarity: evil flatters the ego, disguises itself as security, and invites allegiance to power rather than to truth (CCC 397, 675). Judith stands before him as the contradiction: beauty that refuses seduction, holiness that refuses flattery, truth that refuses to bow.

Her speech is a masterpiece of prudence; the virtue the Catechism calls the charioteer of all the others (CCC 1806). She speaks truth wrapped in strategy, not to manipulate but to expose. She recounts Israel’s spiritual condition with surgical precision: a people starving, tempted to consume what is consecrated, ready to treat holy things as common. This is not merely ancient Israel; it is the perennial human crisis. When hunger grows and pressure mounts, nations begin to eat their own sacred inheritance. America, too, faces a famine — not of bread, but of reverence. The drought is not material; it is moral.

The Catechism teaches that sin is the root of social disorder (CCC 1849–1851). Structures of sin grow from personal sin (CCC 1869). America’s turmoil is not first political but spiritual. We have abundance without gratitude, freedom without virtue, speech without truth, and outrage without repentance. Judith’s diagnosis of Israel becomes a mirror: when a people lose the sense of God (CCC 2084), they inevitably lose the sense of themselves. When they profane what is consecrated (CCC 2120), they profane their own dignity. When they treat holy things as common (CCC 2116), they treat one another the same way.

Judith confronts evil not with fury but with holiness. She does not shout at Holofernes; she out-holies him. The Catechism insists that the saints are the true agents of renewal (CCC 828). Political movements cannot cast out demons; holy lives can. America does not need louder voices; it needs cleaner hearts. It does not need more anger; it needs more adoration. The Eucharist, the Catechism says, strengthens us against evil (CCC 1393), commits us to moral transformation (CCC 1397), and becomes the antidote to sin’s poison (CCC 1436). A nation that kneels becomes a nation that stands.

Judith’s final line is the mission statement of every believer in a dark age: “God has sent me to perform with you such deeds as will astonish people throughout the whole earth who hear of them.” Not deeds of violence, not deeds of political conquest, but deeds of holiness so luminous that the world cannot ignore them. America needs Judiths — men and women who refuse flattery, reject false courage, guard the consecrated, and hunger for the Eucharist with the desperation of a besieged city. Evil still reclines in its tent. The Church must still enter it.

And so, the Feast of Our Lady of Angels becomes a summons. Judith walked into the enemy’s camp with the serenity of a woman overshadowed by God; Mary walked into the world with the same overshadowing. Both confronted evil not with rage but with radiance. Both carried truth like a blade hidden beneath beauty. Both remind America that the confrontation with evil begins not in the public square but in the human heart, not in political victory but in Eucharistic fidelity. When a people hunger for God more than for power, evil loses its appetite.

ON KEEPING THE LORDS DAY HOLY^{^[2]}

CHAPTER V

DIES DIERUM

Sunday: The Primordial Feast, Revealing the Meaning of Time

CONCLUSION

84. Sustaining Christian life as it does, Sunday has the additional value of being a testimony and a proclamation. As a day of prayer, communion and joy, Sunday resounds throughout society, emanating vital energies and reasons for hope. Sunday is the proclamation that time, in which he who is the Risen Lord of history makes his home, is not the grave of our illusions but the cradle of an ever new future, an opportunity given to us to turn the fleeting moments of this life into seeds of eternity. Sunday is an invitation to look ahead; it is the day on which the Christian community cries out to Christ, "Marana tha: Come, O Lord!" (1 Cor 16:22). With this cry of hope and expectation, the Church is the companion and support of human hope. From Sunday to Sunday, enlightened by Christ, she goes forward towards the unending Sunday of the heavenly Jerusalem, which "has no need of the sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb" (Rev 21:23).

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Humility and its source in knowing that all goodness comes from the Spirit.

AT the Introit of the Mass, join with the Church in extolling the help of God, whereby we are defended against our enemies. “When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice from them that draw near against me, and He humbled them, Who is before all ages, and remains forever. Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me, and hear me.”

Prayer.

O God, Who dost particularly manifest Thy omnipotence by sparing and showing mercy, multiply Thy mercy towards us, that running to the possession of what Thou hast promised, Thou mayest make us partakers of heavenly goods.

EPISTLE, i. Cor. xii. 2-11.

Brethren: You know that when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema to Jesus. And no man can say, the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit: and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, Who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one, indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom: and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to another faith in the same Spirit: to another the grace of healing, in one Spirit: to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, to another divers kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as He will.

Explanation.

As the Holy Ghost gave on Pentecost the gift of tongues, so also, He imparted to the faithful many other gifts. This Holy Spirit works in different ways. He confers not only ordinary but extraordinary graces on whom He will, and how He will, as He finds it for the edification of the body of Christ, and whatever gift anyone receives he must use for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, without being elated by it, since he has received it only as a pure grace.

GOSPEL. Luke xviii. 9-14

At that time, to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, Jesus spoke this parable: Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers: as also is this publican; I fast twice in a week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven: but struck his breast, saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner! I say to you, this man went down into his house justified rather than the other, because everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Why did Jesus recite the parable of the Pharisee and the publican?

To warn us against pride, ambition, and vanity in our good works, which thereby lose all their merits; to teach us not to despise or judge any man, although he should appear most impious; finally, to show us that if we would be heard in our prayers, we must appear before God with an humble and penitent heart.

Why was not the Pharisee’s prayer acceptable to God?

Because it was not a prayer, but rather a boast; for he praised himself, attributing his good works to himself, instead of giving God glory for them. Thus, despising and presumptuously judging others, he sinned the more against God, instead of making himself worthy of his praise.

Why was the prayer of the publican acceptable to God?

Because, though short, it was most humble and penitent. He did not, like the Pharisee, advance into the temple, but remained afar off, as though unworthy the presence of God and the fellowship of men. There he stood, with eyes cast down, in token that, for his sins, he was not worthy to look up to heaven; nay, he openly confessed himself a sinner, and in sorrow smote his breast, thereby punishing, as it were, says St. Augustine, the sins which had come from his heart. Let us, then, be afraid of vainglory, like St. Ignatius, who said, “They who praise me scourge me” and St. Hilary, who wept when he saw himself honored, because he was afraid of receiving his reward on earth. Learn to despise vainglory and think of what St. Augustine says: God is most high; exalt yourself, and He withdraws from you; humble yourself, and He comes down to you.” Seek in all things not your own but God’s glory; accustom yourself before every undertaking to raise your heart to God by making a good intention, and you will, like the publican, find grace before God.

Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula^{^[3]}, the Virgin under whose mantle Saint Francis of Assisi was wrapped; Mary's maternal protection made it possible for blessed Francis to experience an intense Presence of the Lord and to receive his vocation to rebuild the Church. Likewise, his intimate devotion to the Blessed Mother, under whose protection did he place himself to do the Lord's work did this place become holy for the members of the Franciscan family and for the Church universal. Without meeting Christ, little makes sense.

The Portiuncula is an ancient church dedicated to Mary under the title Our Lady of the Angels and is located in Assisi, Italy. It was a spot very dear to the heart of Saint Francis.

The Portiuncula is the place where Franciscanism developed, and where Saint Francis lived and died. Here he began and grew in his religious life; here he founded the Franciscan Order; here he manifested his love and great devotion to the Mother of God. When Francis knew he was dying, he requested to be brought to the Portiuncula to end his earthly life.

Saint Bonaventure had this to say about this devotion:

The Portiuncula was an old church dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God which was abandoned. Francis had great devotion to the Queen of the world and when he saw that the church was deserted, he began to live there constantly in order to repair it. He heard that the Angels often visited it, so that it was called Saint Mary of the Angels, and he decided to stay there permanently out of reverence for the angels and love for the Mother of Christ. This is also the place where St Clare took her vows and where Saint Francis died.

He loved this spot more than any other in the world. It was here he began his religious life in a very small way; it is here he came to a happy end. When he was dying, he commended this spot above all others to the friars, because it was most dear to the Blessed Virgin.

This was the place where Saint Francis founded his Order by divine inspiration, and it was divine providence which led him to repair three churches before he founded the Order and began to preach the Gospel.

This meant that he progressed from material things to more spiritual achievements, from lesser to greater, in due order, and it gave a prophetic indication of what he would accomplish later.

As he was living there by the church of Our Lady, Francis prayed to her who had conceived the Word, full of grace and truth, begging her insistently and with tears to become his advocate. Then he was granted the true spirit of the Gospel by the intercession of the Mother of mercy and he brought it to fruition.

He embraced the Mother of Our Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he put all his trust in her and took her as his patroness for himself and his friars.

Consider the words of an early biographer of Saint Francis of Assisi:

From there he moved to another place, which is called the "Portiuncula," where there stood a church of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God built in ancient times. At that time, it was deserted, and no one was taking care of it. When the holy man of God saw it so ruined, he was moved by piety because he had a warm devotion to the Mother of all good and he began to stay there continually. The restoration of that church took place in the third year of his conversion. At this time, he wore a sort of hermit's habit with a leather belt. He carried a staff in his hand and wore shoes. One day the gospel was being read in that church about how the Lord sent out his disciples to preach. The holy man of God, who was attending there, in order to understand better the words of the gospel, humbly begged the priest after celebrating the solemnities of the Mass to explain the gospel to him. The priest explained it all to him thoroughly line by line. When he heard that Christ's disciples should not possess gold or silver or money, or carry on their journey a wallet or a sack, nor bread nor a staff, not to have shoes nor two tunics, but that they should preach the kingdom of God and penance, the holy man, Francis immediately exulted in the spirit of God. "This is what I want," he said, "this is what I seek, this is what I desire with all my heart." The holy father, overflowing with joy, hastened to implement the words of salvation, and did not delay before he devoutly began to put into effect what he heard. (From The Life of Saint Francis by Thomas of Celano)

PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS

August Queen of Heaven, sovereign queen of Angels, you who at the beginning received from God the power and the mission to crush the head of Satan, we beseech you humbly, send your holy legions so that, on your orders and by your power, they will track down demons, fight them everywhere, curb their audacity and plunge them into the hell.

Who can be compared to God? Oh, good and tender Mother, you will always be our love and our hope. Oh, divine Mother, send the Holy Angels and Archangels to defend me and to keep the cruel enemy far from me. Holy Angels and Archangels defend us, protect us. Amen.

The Pardon of Assisi or the Portiuncula Indulgence

The Holy Father made reference to this in his Sunday Angelus address:

... today is the feast of the "Pardon of Assisi," which St. Francis obtained from Pope Honorious III in the year 1216, after having a vision while he was praying in the little church of the Portiuncula. Jesus appeared to him in his glory, with the Virgin Mary on his right and surrounded by many Angels. They asked him to express a wish and Francis implored a "full and generous pardon" for all those who would visit that church who "repented and confessed their sins". Having received papal approval, the Saint did not wait for any written document but hastened to Assisi and when he reached the Portiuncula announced the good news: "Friends, the Lord wants to have us all in Heaven!". Since then, from noon on 1 August to midnight on the second, it has been possible to obtain, on the usual conditions, a Plenary Indulgence, also for the dead, on visiting a parish church or a Franciscan one.

St. Francis Asked and Obtained the Indulgence of Forgiveness

He awoke one night in 1216 at the Porziuncola and an inspiration stronger than usual prompted him to arise and go into the little chapel. He knelt in prayer and, as he prayed, our Lord, accompanied by His Mother, appeared to him and bade him ask for that which he desired most. "O God," he said, "although I m a great sinner, I beseech You to grant a full pardon of all sins to all who, having repented and confessed their sins, shall visit this church." And Jesus said to him: "Francis, you ask much, but you are worthy of greater things, and greater things you shall have."

Our Lord then granted Francis' request and told him to go to His Vicar for ratification of the indulgence. Honorius III, who was just beginning his Pontificate, was holding court at Perugia, and it was to him that Francis presented his petition.

Honorius was a spiritual, unworldly man, yet at such a request he hesitated. "Holy Father," Francis said urgently, "a little while ago I restored a chapel for you in honor of the Virgin Mother of Christ (the Portiuncula), and I beseech you to bestow on it an indulgence."

"For how many years do you want this indulgence?" the Pontiff inquired. "Holy Father," said Francis, "I ask not for years but for souls." "Just what do you want?" Honorius asked. "Holy Father," replied Francis, "the Lord has commanded me to ask you that all those who after confession shall visit the Portiuncula with contrite hearts may obtain full remission of the punishment due to the sins of their whole lives from the day of Baptism to the day they enter this church." Honorius pondered the extraordinary request, and said slowly three times: "I also, in the name of God, grant you the indulgence."

Honorius wanted to give Francis the document of the indulgence, but Francis saw no need for it. "What have you to show that this indulgence has been granted you?" the Pope asked in amazement as Francis prepared to depart for Assisi without any written confirmation of the great permission. "Holy Father," he replied, "Your word is enough for me. If this is the work of God, it is for Him to make His work manifest. I desire no other document. The Blessed Virgin Mary shall be the charter, Christ the notary, and the angels the witnesses." Some days later, before the Bishops of Umbria, Francis said: "Brethren, I want to send you all to Heaven!"

Conditions to Obtain the Plenary Indulgence of The Forgiveness (for oneself or for a departed soul)

1. Sacramental Confession to be in God's grace (during the eight days before or after);

2. Participation in the Holy Mass and Eucharist;

3. Visit to a Catholic Church (especially a Franciscan Church), followed by PROFESSION OF FAITH, in order to reaffirm one's own Christian identity;

4. Say the OUR FATHER, in order to reaffirm the dignity as child of God that one received in Baptism;

5. A prayer for the Pope's intention, in order to reaffirm one's membership in the Church, of which the Roman Pontiff is the foundation and sign of visible unity.

Novena in Honor of Saint John Marie Vianney^{^[4]}

Exquisite Purity

O Holy Priest of Ars, a witness of your life made this magnificent praise of you:

'We would have taken him for an angel in a mortal body."

You so edified others: the modesty and the exquisite purity radiated from your body. With such charm and with such enthusiasm you preached to others about these beautiful virtues which you said resembled the perfume of a vineyard in bloom.

Please I beg you to join your entreaties to those of Mary Immaculate and Saint Philomena in order that I guard always, as God asks me, the purity of my heart. You, who have directed so many souls towards the heights of virtue, defend me in temptations and obtain for me the strength to conquer them.

Holy Priest of Ars, I have confidence in your intercession. Pray for me during this novena especially for ... (mention silently your special intentions).

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.

Let Freedom Ring Day 27 Freedom from Gluttony

The Benefits of a Feasting & Fasting Diet for optimal health

The mindset and lifestyle of most of us is one of excess. As a society, we are simply accustomed to it. Fasting, for most, seems a rather foreign concept and that’s unfortunate. There is mounting anecdotal and scientific evidence that shows a wide range of benefits to be had from intermittent fasting or being in a fasted state.

There is even some scientific evidence supporting an occasional feast. Combining fasting and feasting creates several benefits at a cellular and molecular level. In fact, it can change gene expression and profoundly improve the way you look, feel and function. Many of these benefits are tied directly to the fact that the hormone leptin increases with an over-intake of food.

Do you think the Catholic Church may have something great with the seasons of feasts and fasts?

Does being a catholic makes you Phat?

Around the Corner-Be not fat but Phat.

Make a holy hour today. You might find this work — My Eucharistic Day — from the Catholic Culture Library helpful. It was compiled from the writings of Saint Peter Julian Eymard with the permission and encouragement of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.^{^[5]}

Today in honor of the Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving your day to God. To honor God REST: no shopping after 6 pm Saturday till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.

Bucket Item trip: Mariazell, the Top Pilgrimage site in Austria

While your there “horse around”

Foodie National Panini Month

Classic Tafelspitz - National Dish of Austria

Try Andalusian Rolled Beef

Spirit hour: Los Angeles cocktail

Daily Devotions

Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Restoring the Church

Religion in the Home for Preschool: August

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

Drops of Christ’s Blood

Universal Man Plan

Rosary

[1]The Collegeville Bible Commentary, 1986.

[2]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=419

[3]https://www.facebook.com/notes/100-katolikong-pinoy/the-feast-of-our-lady-of-the-angels-obtain-the-pardon-of-assisithe-portiuncula-i/418548719644/

[4]http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1129

[5]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2022-08-02

A ROYAL SCANDAL (1945) — VOSE Edition

Tallulah Bankhead • Charles Coburn • Anne Baxter • William Eythe Directed by Otto Preminger • Produced by Ernst Lubitsch • A Satire of Power, Loneliness, and the Theater of Rule

A Royal Scandal transforms Catherine the Great’s court into a chamber of intrigue, seduction, and political farce — a place where power is both intoxicating and isolating. Tallulah Bankhead’s Catherine is a monarch of appetite and wit, a woman whose authority is theatrical, strategic, and tinged with melancholy. Her lovers are ornaments, her ministers are schemers, and her throne is a stage on which she performs sovereignty with razor‑sharp humor.

William Eythe’s Lt. Chernoff enters this world like a spark — earnest, idealistic, and dangerously honest. His presence disrupts the palace’s choreography of deceit. Anne Baxter’s Countess Jaschikoff becomes the emotional hinge: loyal, wounded, and quietly ambitious. Charles Coburn’s Chancellor is the embodiment of Lubitsch’s sly charm — corrupt, delightful, and indispensable.

The VOSE lens reveals the film’s deeper resonance: beneath the comedy lies a meditation on loneliness at the summit of power. Catherine’s flirtations mask her fear of betrayal; her laughter hides her longing for loyalty. In late summer, when the Church contemplates the Queenship of Mary, the film’s contrast becomes luminous — earthly rule built on desire and manipulation versus heavenly rule built on humility and fidelity.

🎞️ Film Card — A Royal Scandal (1945)

A Royal Scandal (1945) • 6.7/10 IMDb • 94 min

Catherine the Great navigates coups, corrupt ministers, and romantic entanglements when an idealistic young officer brings news of rebellion. Court intrigue, seduction, and political absurdity collide in a palace where power is a performance and affection is a liability. Historical • Satire • Court Intrigue

Director Otto Preminger Producer Ernst Lubitsch Writers Lajos Bíró, Melchior Lengyel (play Die Zarin) Stars Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, William Eythe Studio 20th Century‑Fox Notable Bankhead’s Catherine — imperious, witty, and unexpectedly vulnerable.