Before You Criticize a Priest, Consider This…

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/LSBzpz0edvwThis account is based on the story recounted in "Beauté du Moyen Age" by Regine Pernoud (Gautier-Languereau, 1971), and "Poetes et Prosateurs du Moyen Age" by Gaston Paris (Hachette, 1921).Illustrated by Helene A. Catherwood & A. Phillips.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the lighthouse video: https://youtu.be/866HC7g8ba8Though three men dwell on Flannan IsleTo keep the lamp alight,As we steered under the lee, we caughtNo glimmer through the night.Aye: though we hunted high and low,And hunted everywhere,Of the three men’s fate we found no trace,Of any kind in any place,But a door ajar, and an untouched meal,And an overtoppled chair."Flanan Isle" by Wilfrid Wilson GibsonThe Flannan Isles Lighthouse was operational for a little over a year when the Keepers disappeared in December of 1900. Off the Scottish coast and 21 miles west of the Isle of Lewis, lay the Flannan Isles named after St. Flannan the Confessor.He was of Irish nationality, but the precise period at which he lived is uncertain. What is known is that he became a monk at the monastery of Killaloe, and made a pilgrimage to Rome where Pope John IV consecrated him the first bishop of Killaloe. He was of noble birth, the son of King of Thomond in Ireland, who followed Flannan's example of holiness by later retiring and entering a monastery himself.The largest of these seven islands, at 38 acres, is Eilean Mor (meaning simply, “Big Island”). Here you can find the ruins of a chapel built by St. Flannan himself, which definitely indicates that the saint resided there at some period. The Flannan Islands have always been regarded by the people of Lewis with great veneration and pilgrims used to process around the chapel on their knees in prayer.Now the lighthouse is also situated on the same island as the chapel: its beam stretching forth to be seen as far 20 miles away.During the Lighthouse’s operation, fortnightly reliefs were carried out until the disaster of December 1900. Prior to the discovery that the men were missing, the light had not been seen on the islands from the nearest point on Lewis, 16 miles away, for 10 days.At the time three Lightkeepers were on duty at the lighthouse: James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur. There was one other Assistant Lightkeeper, Joseph Moore, but he was on shore duty in Brisklet.A steamer passing the lighthouse around midnight on December 15th noted that the light was not lit and recounted this when they arrived at port. However, this fact was not communicated to the Commissioners and the disappearance of the keepers was only discovered as a result of the routine visit by the Lighthouse Tender ship Hesperus, on December 26th, 1900.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/UtDkLyMOLYYHere are three stories of Soviet women in the Red Army that shatter the feminist notion of equality. It's taken from the book, "God's Underground."Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

“Treasures of wickedness shall profit nothing: but justice shall deliver from death” (Proverbs 10:2).Watch the video: https://youtu.be/5VWlo7vGjFcTHE TREASURE IN THE FORESTBy H.G. Wells.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Taken from the book, "Cowboy Life on the Sidetrack" by Frank Benton.Watch the video: https://youtu.be/qdeZjnsLHVsCheck out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the video:https://youtu.be/q7XaCx5Wo-Q“Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?" (Matt. 6:26).[The title of the booklet is: ARE YOU SCRUPULOUS?By Fr. Daniel A. Lord, S.J.An interview with Fr. Francis J. O'Boyle, S.J. in 1937.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/rKID10Dp84AThis story is written by August Derleth in 1953.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the livestream: https://youtube.com/live/YN9HBmNIKMw?feature=shareMez·zo·tintDefinition: a print made from an engraved copper or steel plate for the reproduction of paintings.Now please keep in mind, some of these stories are summarized or excerpts of the original stories by M.R. James. Maybe it will whet your appetite so that you will read the full stories.I added two additional lines of dialogue at the beginning of "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" for listener clarity, as I was very confused reading it the first time. I only read a slight excerpt of "A Warning to the Curious," because I was WAAY over my hour limit and the actual ending is VERY dark anyway. I don't want to spoil it, but it's kind of like the ending of Old Yeller.Mr. Montague Rhodes James was a medievalist scholar and provost of both King's College and Eton College.  His stories have a strong foundation in historical research with an element of truth at their core, making their plots almost believable. My highschool fencing instructor at St. Louis de Montfort Academy, Mr. Roark Mitzell, was enchanted with the writing style of M.R. James which departed from the goth ghost tales of the Victorian era. He told me that Professor James would attempt to teach history class to his students, but they would keep begging him to tell one of his historical ghost stories during class. I don’t know how he got such a reputation for spinning yarns, but I heard that he had made a deal with his students: if they had good marks, he would oblige them in making up a sufficiently chilling tale. He never had any intention of publishing these fictional digressions, until his students forced his hand to write them down and that’s how we have the books today.The main characters of his tales are often archaeologists or antiquaries. This was fitting, for in 1902, M.R. James himself discovered a manuscript fragment which led to excavations in the ruins of the abbey at Bury St. Edmunds, in which the graves of several twelfth-century abbots were rediscovered, having been lost since the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He also catalogued many of the manuscript libraries of the University of Cambridge and translated the Book of Baruch from its original Ethiopic in 1879.Being such an authority in the experiences of historical research puts him in a league all of his own when it comes to ghost stories and you feel as if you can just reach out and touch the characters of his gripping plots.I hope you enjoyed it. Sleep with the Angels and Rise with the Saints!00:00 "The Mezzotint"11:32 "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas"33:18 "A School Story"49:52 Excerpt of "A Warning to the Curious"Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/jVM_r93iKIkAdapted from Father Francis J. Finn's book, "Mostly Boys" (New York: BenzigerBrothers, 1896), p. 90–95.Check out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/zeT_7kWJTM0Keep in mind also, what Pope St. Pius X said, “Whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas.” So you can be respectful and kind while still rejecting heresy. Here's that video about Devotion to Mary I was talking about: https://youtu.be/0c-BpsDd_0EI'll be quoting extensively from THE DIGNITY AND DUTIES OF THE PRIEST by St. Alphonsus Liguori, a Doctor of the Church: https://www.saintsbooks.net/books/St.%20Alphonsus%20Maria%20de%20Liguori%20-%20Complete%20Works%20-%2012%20-%20Dignity%20and%20Duties%20of%20the%20Priest.pdfCheck out the YouTube channel, if you want: https://www.youtube.com/@catholicmenspodcast