ATTENTION: shameless post Those of you who know me, Pebble, know very well that subtlety is not amongst my many wonderful traits (and apparently, neither is humility). But I do tend to be somewhat honest at least. Jokes aside, I could once again use the help of my followers and friends. I'm trying to help my new boss and friend get her business account noticed by the algorithm here on X but the algorithm says no because the account is new. So I'm going to war with the algorithm and I could use a few crusaders. You don't need a horse or a sword (although that would be cool. It's certainly optional). You just need to follow @SVSDesignco. The more followers we have, the more we are liked by the algorithm and the more people notice us. That's basically it. If you could follow our account, you'll get to see some useful and interesting posts and help your fellow Catholics beat the algorithm beast. If, on the other hand, you are looking for the actual Crusades, you may wish to respectfully contact the pope. Thank you in advance. I very much appreciate all your help and God bless you all. P.s. If you do have horses and swords, I'd like to see some photos!

Please pray for Sam 🙏❤️

I hearby officially announce that my life has been so busy that I refuse to gather data and form an opinion on this entire matter. Yes, it happens sometimes. "I really don't have the time or will to look into this" is a very valid Catholic excuse when it comes to certain Church news. Therefore, you all are on your own with this one; I shall offer no pebbles of wisdom here 😉

In your charity, please pray 🙏

I went to TED to sell eugenic murder as healthcare and mercy. The genetic lottery is wildly unfair. Why should a dice roll decide your life? Let my company decide your death instead. Can't walk? You're better off dead. Can't talk? You're better off murdered. Won't make it to your first birthday? Just let us poison or dismember you now and be done with it. My mother was blind. I wish she had been aborted, in which case I wouldn't exist and my merciful company may not be here either but I digress. So, my mother was blind and nobody killed her. How tragic. Anyways, get your babies tested and quickly kill them in the womb until a genetically perfect one comes along. Thank you for attending my TED talk. And remember - always stay empathetic and merciful.

People thinking that Natural law refers to whatever animals do in their kingdom will never be not funny to me.

A 10-year-old boy cried when he saw how big the neighbour's spinach was. He attempted to look away from the garden, as he usually did, to gaze somewhere in the distance, to march on, to stay composed but he couldn't this time. He just couldn't. He sat down on the hard soil and sobbed. Tears can't always be prevented. His own mother had a garden as well, and there was spinach there too, but it was never allowed to grow. As soon as the first tiny spinach leaves broke the ground to grow towards the sun, the starving boy and his siblings would pluck each tiny leaf and devour it on the spot. The boy was my grandfather and the Second World War took away whatever little they had had before. The war had taken their father and brother, their small house and very modest livelihood, their security and their peace. *** My grandfather often told us the story about how he cried over the neighbour's lush spinach. I was just a little girl when I imagined a skinny 10-year-old sobbing on the ground. I was a little girl who refused to eat spinach and asked for french fries instead. To some children, spinach is punishment. To others, it is life. Hearing my grandpa's story, I felt really bad. I stopped asking for fries and instead ate my spinach. It still tasted like grass to me, but I used my own shame and gratitude as condiments. They made the spinach edible. *** I have never been hungry in my life. Sure, I have been hungry in a way a growing teenager is when the lunch is a little late. I remember being really hungry after my C-sections. This was the extent of my discomfort but I've never really experienced starvation. What have I got to complain about then? That I have many bills? That we still haven't bought a single chandelier for my house? What trivialities compared to a child sobbing over hunger, a kind of hunger that twists the stomach into knots and makes legs wobbly? Life is like that. Nobody can guarantee that my children one day won't be in my grandfather's shoes. Any control and financial security I may achieve can be swept away with the wind, destroyed in a war or a natural disaster, devoured by an illness, taken away suddenly. *** My grandfather, his siblings and their mum survived the war. They survived literally fighting to get some food, devouring their tiny spinach, setting up bird traps, feeding on dandelions. God allowed them to suffer and yet, His Providence saved their lives and rewarded them with lots of great food later on in life, granted them many blessings and big, loving families. I have nothing to fear. If needs be, I shall set up bird traps and eat dandelions. At least dandelions are plentiful here and God never seems to run out of a desire to create more. I shall attempt to be like St. Paul, getting used to having and not having. And when life takes away french fries and offers me grassy spinach instead, I shall be grateful.

I'm looking at the protests happening around Europe (not in my own country) and there seem to be many takes on them. Some claim it is mainly immigrants; others, that this is somehow connected to Russia. Some say the protests are spontaneous, born out of anger with the rising costs of life. I've seen people say the protesters are either extreme leftists or extreme rightists, being paid by certain political factions within or even outside of Europe. I have no opinion on any one of these theories because it would be difficult to reach a conclusion based on what the media (including social media) says. The only thing I know is that some (perhaps even many) people take part in these activities merely so they can steal, loot or express their violent tendencies in an illicit manner. I do attempt to look at things from the Catholic perspective. I am wary of any type of revolutionary spirit, even if the aim behind it were noble. If there was a huge protest or uproar against abortion out in the streets, I would not be a part of it because the mob always attracts those who don't care about any cause and only care about their own interests. There is something about mobs almost inevitably developing a mind of its own, making it incredibly easy even for otherwise virtuous people to lose all moral inhibitions. Strong passions of the mob are never guided by reason, instead replacing it with emotional impulses and reactive behaviour. Those who say these protests are God's chastisement are correct, I believe. But the chastisement has been happening for a long time and not only in Europe. The whole immigration situation in Europe and the US is chastisement. The rising costs of life, and in particular housing, are a form of chastisement. Unjust wars, broken and disfunctional justice systems, the spread of the LGBTIQ agenda, the crises within and outside of the Catholic Church, it's all God trying to wake us up. For decades, or even longer, we lived in a complacent manner, with our full tummies resting comfortably behind white picket fences, taking Catholicism seriously only when it applies to the hierarchy, or the so-called progressives. We believed we earned our comfort, we deserved our peace, we worked hard for our pleasures, our hearts silently divided between what the world has to offer and what Christ has to offer. And what is it that Christ has to offer? It's a cross. The one we often scoff at. Abraham bargained with God to save Sodom. 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 righteous people in the town would have saved Sodom. But God could not find 10 righteous people. Could He find 10 righteous in Europe today? Or in the US? I'm not sure but what I do know is that I most likely wouldn't be among the 10 and it really, really scares me. The reason for the chastisement should horrify us much more than the actual form of the chastisement. No protest will save us, no political party and no legal action. We have reached the point in which all roads lead to Niniveh. To do what the people of Niniveh did is the only solution to our problems. Want to save Europe or the US? Become one of the 10 righteous men and stop wasting your time on worldly means. This doesn't mean people should stop all political or legal struggles, but it does mean that these struggles that have long been in the foreground of our actions need to become the background to our sanctification. Just get down on your knees and say you have sinned. Give the part of your heart that still belongs to this world fully over to God. Thank Him for His chastisement because it is a great grace and an amazing opportunity to start taking God and salvation seriously for once.

I can't find a flaw in this argument.

Ah yes, the persistent challenge of abandoning heterodoxy and supporting the orthodox view. How very challenging and heated indeed. I guess the solution is to replace the word "heterodox" with "pastoral" and we get to keep whichever interpretation of the very clear teaching we want. Because "irregular situations" and "lived experience", apparently.