A New (in a sense) Coloring Book and further plans

I have just put together a new set of coloring pages, making my Titles and Apparitions of Mary Coloring Book, which is available for ten dollars.

I must point out that all of these pages are included in the Liturgical Calendar Coloring Book, so if you have that or intend to get it, don't buy this!

My eventual plan is to write companion texts for both the Liturgical Calendar Coloring Book and this Marian one. The one for the Calendar is underway. One thing is, one they're written, I'll want to get imprimaturs on them, and that might take some doing. That brings me into a subject for reflection as I, as aforementioned, undertake to write more about Catholic matters on this here blog. I'll ramble on below the cut.

In medieval times when all of Western Civilization was ordered around the Church and her authority was clearly proclaimed and generally respected, only clergy were allowed to preach, and to do so in an area they had to have authorization from the local bishop.

This was as it should be. Those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders are the representatives of the Church; they are the means through which God acts in her to make available to men the clear path to Him: the sacraments, and their teaching authority comes from the Apostles through the bishops, who have a line of succession all the way back to the Apostles.

The thought of this fact held me back from joining the "Catholic blogosphere" for several years, even though I like to write rambling essays and have a degree in Catholic theology from a university that is actually orthodox where I was taught by extremely erudite and zealous-for-the-faith professors like Fr. Daniel Callam and Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. I am a laity and a woman; I am not authorized to preach. There was also the fact that most Catholic bloggers said things that were repellent to me: outright heresy and dissent, condescending or saccharine attitudes, or wholesale condemnation as intrinsically evil of things that I love and that only become baneful in excess: comics, video games, Japanese animation -- which, chosen well and taken in moderation, can elevate the mind and express Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. I didn't want to be likewise repellent and drive people away from the Faith, neither did I want to get embroiled in the fights that erupt on Catholic blogs. So I tried to keep my blog just to art, with its goals being to glorify God and to help me earn a living.

But now, I fear it may be the duty of every Catholic who actually believes and endeavors to follow what the Church actually teaches to speak out in every way possible. The purpose of the requirement for permission from the bishop to preach was to try to stop heresy. But now, tons and tons of bishops are heretics, and they are not being disciplined or silenced in any way. The current Pope, I am sad to say, clearly does not want to teach what the Church actually teaches. So, it is up to every individual member of the Faithful to try to tell others the real Truth of the Faith, according to the Catechism, the teachings of the orthodox Fathers and Doctors going back to the Apostles, and the words of Our Lord.

Souls are being lost as members of the Church are being encouraged to engage in mortal sin and then to commit sacrilege by receiving the Blessed Sacrament in such a state. (I will have much more to say about this.) First of all we must pray and make reparations, but we must also speak out. When I do so, I don't have the authority of a priest or bishop. That authority means one should listen to one's pastor and bishop and obey them unless they tell you to sin. (Which many are doing now.) But no one has to listen to or obey me. I will only be worth listening to insofar as I convey the Truth that the Church has already taught for millennia.

And the art will continue. Striving for Beauty too! (They are One.)