Daily Thoughts for Advent 2019

DAILY THOUGHTS FOR ADVENT

Tuesday December 24th
The Vigil of Christmas

Article 18
One Day to Go! Three Keys to Heaven ― The Third Key: Charity

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The King of the Castle―The Peak of the Mountain
Holy Scripture―whether it be Our Lord speaking, or the Apostles or Prophets―paints an awesome towering powerful picture of the virtue of Charity. Founded on Faith, driven by Hope―Charity is the fiery force that drives all virtues. It is life-giving soul to all virtues. It is the fuel that drives them. Without it―all is nothing. If you find that hard to believe, then simply read the words of Scripture.

First of all, you smacked right between the eyes by the simple yet profound fact that “God is charity!” (1 John 4:8). Scripture doesn’t say “God is Faith” or “God is Hope”, but it says that “God is Charity”! Therefore, God must hate all that is “not Charity.” Already in the Old Testament, we God command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). In the New Testament, Our Lord―Who is God Himself in the flesh―tells us that Charity or Love is the greatest and first among Commandments:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment! And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Mark 12:30-31).

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself!” (Luke 10:27).

“Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind! This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.’” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Without Charity We Are Nothing
Our Lord and God told us: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Since “God is Charity”, it logically follows that “Without Me (that is to say, Charity), you can do nothing!” Pretty logical, huh? St. Paul agrees and drives that point home powerfully: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Monday December 23rd

Article 17
Two Days to Go! Three Keys to Heaven ― The Second Key: Hope

Anchored in Hope
In the Western artistic tradition the symbol of Hope has been the anchor, the saving instrument of ships tossed around by the winds and waves on a stormy sea. When sailors throw the anchor and it grabs the solid sea floor below, it promises safety to the endangered crew.

More than the anchor itself, the simple event of its being thrown and its stabilizing effect on the ship is a fair image of the working of Hope. As fragile beings, we are tossed around by the winds and waves of the present. We need and want stability, and we find it by tying ourselves through the bond of hope to some future event. And through hope, we can find stability and meaning in our stormy present.

Mary is Our Anchor of Hope
Let us reflect upon these beautiful words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, from his homily on the feast of the Holy Name of Mary (September 12th):

“And the Virgin’s name was Mary.” Let us speak a little about this name, which is said to mean “star of the sea,” and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star. As a star emits a ray without being dimmed, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury. The ray takes naught from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from His Mother’s virginal integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the abyss, and, traversing the whole earth, gives warmth rather to souls than to bodies, cherishing virtues, withering vices. Mary is that bright and incomparable star, whom we need to see raised above this vast sea, shining by her merits, and giving us light by her example.

“All of you, who see yourselves amid the tides of the world, tossed by storms and tempests rather than walking on the land, do not turn your eyes away from this shining star, unless you want to be overwhelmed by the hurricane. If temptation storms, or you fall upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star: Call upon Mary! If you are tossed by the waves of pride or ambition, detraction or envy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If anger or avarice or the desires of the flesh dash against the ship of your soul, turn your eyes to Mary. If troubled by the enormity of your crimes, ashamed of your guilty conscience, terrified by dread of the judgment, you begin to sink into the gulf of sadness or the abyss of despair, think of Mary. In dangers, in anguish, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name be even on your lips, ever in your heart; and the better to obtain the help of her prayers, imitate the example of her life:

“Following her, thou strayest not; invoking her, thou despairest not; thinking of her, thou wanderest not; upheld by her, thou fallest not; shielded by her, thou fearest not; guided by her, thou growest not weary; favored by her, thou reachest the goal. And thus dost thou experience in thyself how good is that saying: ‘And the Virgin’s name was Mary.’”

Our Lady a Source of Faith, Hope and Charity
In Our Lady, we find a resource for strengthening all three theological virtues. The following quote is taken from one of the readings in the Masses of Our Lady, which shows that Mary's love for us is the sum and soul of her powerful intercession for us with Christ. Hence, absolute trust in Mary's help is a necessary part of the virtue of hope. “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue” (Ecclesiasticus. 24:24-25). That short passage is extremely deep and broad. “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope” manifests all the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. “I am the mother of fair love [Charity], and of fear, and of knowledge [Faith], and of holy hope [Hope].

Fr. Faber Encourages a Great Hope in Our Lady
Similarly to St. Bernard, Fr. Frederick Faber encourages us to a greater Faith in Mary, a stronger Hope of Mary and deeper Love of Mary. “One man has been striving for years [HOPING] to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith [HOPE]. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him [HOPE FOR HELP]; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappiness which feel almost incompatible with his salvation [HOPE]; and for all these things prayer [HOPE] appears to bring so little remedy.

“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to [LOVE OF] our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one [IMMENSE LOVE]. Mary is not half enough preached [FAITH=KNOWLEDGE]. Devotion to [LOVE OF] her is low and thin and poor. It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her. Its ignorance of theology [LACK OF FAITH=KNOWLEDGE] makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no Faith [HOPE] in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved [LOVE], that heretics are not converted [FAITH & HOPE], that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle [NO LOVE]; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented [NO LOVE], or souls enthusiastically evangelized [FAITH].

“Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background [FAITH NOT TAUGHT]. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them [FAITH NOT TAUGHT]. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to [LOVE OF] the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to [LOVE OF] His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of [THE FAITH] this peculiar devotion of St. Louis Grignon de Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Oh, if Mary were but known [FAITH], there would be no coldness [LACK OF LOVE] to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known [FAITH], how much more wonderful would be our Faith.” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Preface to True Devotion to Mary).

Hoping Now and Hoping for the Future
Hope here is to be thought of, not only as looking forward to Heaven―which will be granted us if we do our part in this life―but also and more especially, as having confidence in the power of God to straighten out our muddled lives, even now while we are still living. The first meaning, of this theological virtue, is certainly pointed toward the everlasting happiness that will fulfill the promises of Christ, but there is a nearer meaning of it, that looks to God’s Providence from day to day. It is this second sort of Hope that sanctity develops and brings to perfection. As part of this Hope that deveops and prefects our sanctity here below―God has chosen Mary and ruled that all His graces will pass through her hands. In that sense, we Hope in God through Mary and we expect God to respond to our Hope by helping us through Mary.

For instance, the clause “Thy kingdom come,” in the Our Father, expresses the long-distance Hope, whereas the clause “Give us this day our daily bread” expresses the local or immediate Hope. Likewise the words of the Hail Mary: “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”―the words “Pray for us sinners now” express an immediate Hope that focuses on the “here and now”; whereas the words “…and at the hour of death” express the long-distance Hope, which focuses on our future death. Sanctity touches both, but one of its more immediate effects is to enlarge the virtue of trust: the conviction that God is giving us our daily bread, and will go on doing so. It is a side of Hope that is very close to Faith, and, for this reason, it makes the same demands upon us as Faith does: perseverance and prayer and the single eye that looks below the surface for the things of God and refuses the worldly view. If “the just man lives by Faith” (Habacuc 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11), and if Charity is both the “bond” (Colossians 3:14) of the just man’s perfection and the “urge” (2 Corinthians 5:14) that sets him to work upon his perfection, then Hope is his greatest support. Most of our difficulties and failures come because we too easily lose heart.

Hope Faces and Accepts Difficulty and Mistakes
Now, Hope starts off by knowing that life is going to be difficult. It admits that―without grace―perfection is miles out of reach. It faces the idea of failure. It sees how there are bound to be disappointments and temptations all along the line. But Hope just goes right on trusting. A person who is strong in this kind of Hope, looks upon everything that comes along — even mistakes and serious failures — as being a chance not to be missed. Instead of sinking into a mood of despair and self-pity, such a person says simply: “This has turned out wrong, and everything is in a mess, and I have no idea how it is going to be put right―but I can still count absolutely on the Providence of God.”

You can readily see how, if we are to be saints, we shall need Hope at every step. Perhaps the most important stage, in a soul’s journey toward perfection, is the stage when a soul realizes that the whole of life lies in the hollow of God’s hand. From that point onward the soul can look at all the happenings, that take place, as one who looks down at them from a height―he is seeing them from God’s angle. So he never lets himself get upset; he is always ready for the next thing; he is never surprised at his own blunders. He refuses to worry about his own point of view, because he is far more concerned with God’s.

God Knows―You Don’t Need to Know
God is the only person who knows how your well you are praying or how your holiness is progressing―so why fuss and worry? God is the only person who can judge what sort of a character you really have―so why look into yourself so often and get discouraged and put on an act? God is the only person who can tell how far you have gotten in the journey toward Him―so why try to measure the distance and put in little flags to show that you are making the grade? Leave all that to God — in trust. It is not easy to do this―but then Faith and Hope are not easy virtues to practice in their perfection, and it is Faith and Hope that are the surest sign that the soul possesses Charity.

One of the chief differences between the saints and ourselves is that when things go wrong (and they never go absolutely right for very long), the saints take it for granted that God is treating them lovingly and wisely; we, on the other hand, jump at once to the conclusion that God, either does not mind what happens to us, or is handing out a punishment. Sanctity always gives God the benefit of the doubt. In fact, it gives Him the benefit of a certainty: He cannot go wrong―He has a plan and He never stops loving.

Stop Bleating and Trust the Shepherd
Remember how Our Lord spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16, 26-28). Try to see what this means. Forget about the pretty pictures of Jesus rescuing sweet little lambs, and just think for a minute what goes on in the mind of a shepherd who is good. Such a shepherd will want the best for his flock―whatever happens. If he has to lead his sheep over rough ground, it is only so that they may have better grass to feed on. If he steers them away from shrubs they want to nibble, it is only because he knows what plants are bad for them. If he allows them to stay out in the rain, it is only because they will get weak and flabby, unless they spend more time out in the open, than around a comfortable fire sheltered from the winds.

Go from thinking what is in the mind of a shepherd, who is good, to imagining what is in the mind of a sheep, who is good. Everyone knows that sheep are great at following. The better the sheep, the more ready it is to take the lead of the shepherd. In other words, the good sheep trusts. When the shepherd takes an unexpected path, the sheep tags on and does not question the direction. When the shepherd whistles for the sheepdog and sends it to round up the strays, there are no complaints about cruelty and about the horrible barking and about how much nicer the other dog was, before this one came along. Good sheep accept all these things as part of the business of being sheep. Still more, they accept them as part of the business of following a shepherd they trust.

True Hope Fosters True Courage
You can see, from what has been said above, that Faith leads to Hope and sanctity leads to courage. A person has to have great courage if he is to turn away from his own ideas about safety and trust himself to somebody else’s―even if that somebody else is God. That “trust” in God is Hope. But you have to understand that this courage is not the kind that is called “daring”. To be daring may be far more fun, and we admire the dashing hero, when we see him in a movie―but courage is far more pleasing to God. Daring may be no more than boldness, the exciting instinct that takes risks―whereas courage is a deliberately built-up state of mind. The saints are not daredevils, plunging about and lunging in and out because they love danger; they are cool and calm men and women, who go on and on serving God―because it is their duty to do so. This slow kind of courage is sheer virtue, and is all the more valuable to God, because it is so little noticed by human beings.

The saints are ready enough to take risks when the occasions come up — such as when they serve lepers, or expose themselves to persecution and martyrdom for the sake of spreading the Faith — but this is always because they take such risks in their stride, as being part of their service of God, and not because they see them as something glamorous. The saints are ready to become fools for Christ’s sake (1 Corinthians 4:10), but they do not have to be foolhardy. It is not that they want to make a name for themselves — either as heroes or as saints — but that they want to put God’s interests first―and they are prepared to go to any lengths to see that God’s interests are served.

Therefore, you could say that Faith enlightens the soul by informing it that God desires its holiness. Hope then―realizing that human power cannot achieve this―turns to God and hopes and trusts that God will help it progress in holiness. St. Louis de Montfort, in his book The Secret of Mary, enlightens us about our calling or vocation and presents to our Hope the means by which we can attain our calling:

“Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next (Matthew 5:48). It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.

“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God. The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say ‘not in the same measure,’ because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although, in His infinite goodness, He always gives sufficient grace to each soul. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).

The Nativity of Our Hopeful Sanctity
St. Louis continues: “It all comes down to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God. Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person (Luke 1:30). No patriarch nor prophet nor any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace. It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the “Mother of Grace.” God the Father, from Whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us (James 1:17), gave her every grace when He gave her His Son. Thus, as St. Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus. God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from Him that, according to St. Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills. As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father, but does not give Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an imposter and his father is the devil.

“Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians. A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor members without a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member of Jesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth, (John 1:14), he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ, which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicate it abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children. The Holy Ghost espoused Mary and produced His greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disowned her and so He continues to produce every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and through her” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).

Sunday December 22nd

Article 16
Three Days to Go! Three Keys to Heaven ― The First Key: Faith

Don’t You Wish You Had a Key to Heaven?
Who wouldn’t like to be given a key to Heaven! What a gift! Priceless! Out of this world! Worth giving your life for! Yet―believe it or not―God has not only given you a key to Heaven, but He has given you THREE keys to Heaven! “Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Before we embark on the examination of the first of these three keys―the key of Faith―let us listen to (without falling asleep) to the preciseness of St. Thomas Aquinas on these three keys―or three “Theological Virtues” as they called. Though it might be a little boring (in places) to read, such precision is extremely important in these days of “wishy-washiness” and sentimental emotional thinking. One of reasons that the Church in general, and each member of the clergy and laity in particular, find themselves in this mess of a Crisis of Faith and Morals that we are living through, is the sad fact that most people have ceased to think, reason, judge and act in a logical way. Instead, they think, reason, judge and act according to their feelings, emotions, impressions and imagination. Logic is guided and fueled by careful study and breadth of knowledge. Feelings, emotions, impressions and imagination need no study or breadth of knowledge―they just “shoot from the hip” or “shoot from the lip” by speaking out and acting out without thinking things out―because they no longer know how to think correctly and therefore they fail to act correctly. “The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge―but the mouth of fools bubbles out folly” (Proverbs 15:2). “The heart of the wise seeks instruction and the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness” (Proverbs 15:14). “The heart of fools is in their mouth: and the mouth of wise men is in their heart” (Ecclesiasticus 21:29). “The words of the mouth of a wise man are grace: but the lips of a fool shall throw him down headlong” (Ecclesiastes 10:12).

St. Thomas on the “Three Keys”
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, q. 62), writes: “the Divine Law contains precepts about the acts of faith, hope, and charity: for it is written (Ecclesiasticus 2:8, seqq.): ‘Ye that fear the Lord believe Him,’ and again, ‘hope in Him,’ and again, ‘love Him.’ Therefore Faith, Hope, and Charity are virtues directing us to God. Therefore they are theological virtues. The theological virtues direct man to supernatural happiness … Man’s happiness is twofold … One happiness is proportionate to human nature, a happiness which man can obtain by means of his natural principles. The other is a [supernatural] happiness surpassing man’s nature, and which man can obtain by the power of God alone … And because such [supernatural] happiness surpasses the capacity of human nature, man’s natural principles, which enable him to act well according to his human capacity, do not suffice to direct man to this [supernatural] happiness. Hence it is necessary for man to receive from God some additional principles, whereby he may be directed to supernatural happiness … Such principles are called ‘theological virtues’―first, because their object is God, inasmuch as they direct us in the correct and proper way to God; secondly, because they are infused in us by God alone; thirdly, because these virtues are not made known to us, except by Divine revelation, contained in Holy Scripture.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 62, art. 1).

“The object of the theological virtues is God Himself, Who is the last end of all … These virtues are called Divine … because, through them, God makes us virtuous and directs us to Himself. The reason and will are naturally directed to God … But the reason and will are not sufficiently directed to Him in so far as He is the object of supernatural happiness … They fall short of the order of supernatural happiness, according to 1 Corinthians 2:9: ‘The eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.’ Consequently, man needed to receive, in addition, something supernatural to direct him to a supernatural end. First, as regards the intellect, man receives certain supernatural principles, which are held by means of a Divine light―these are the articles of Faith, about which is Faith. Secondly, the will of man is directed to this supernatural end as something attainable—and this relates to Hope—and, as to a certain spiritual union [with God], whereby the will is, so to speak, transformed by that [supernatural] end—and this belongs to Charity.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 62, art. 2 & 3).

“It is by Faith that the intellect sees the object of Hope and Love [that object is God]. Hence in the order of generation, Faith precedes Hope and Charity. In a similar manner, a man loves a thing because he sees it as his good. Now from the very fact that a man hopes to be able to obtain some good through someone, he looks on the man, in whom he hopes, as a good of his own. Hence, for the very reason that when a man hopes in someone, he proceeds to love him. So in the order of generation, Hope precedes Charity. But in the order of perfection [the degree of perfection of each virtue], Charity precedes Faith and Hope―because both Faith and Hope are quickened by Charity, and receive from Charity their full complement as virtues. In this way Charity is the mother and the root of all the virtues.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 62, art. 4).

As an addendum to what St. Thomas explains, it can be said that we cannot hope in anything or love anything unless we FIRST KNOW of its existence―that is the role of Faith. It is through Faith that we know about God. The more we know, then the more we will hope and love. This truth is behind St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s comment that Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known. You cannot love what you do not know. You will not seek what you do not know. Knowing is NOT ENOUGH―it is merely theory. Theory must be put into practice in some way―it must be used―knowledge or theory is a seed that must be planted, watered and nourished so that can sprout and grow into something more than just knowledge or theory. Knowledge or theory must lead to a Hope of acquiring or achieving what is known. Without that Hope, no action will be taken―for any action will be seen as hopeless and therefore pointless. That Hope drives us on through all obstacles to obtain what we KNOW and LOVE. The love that sprouts from knowledge is merely an IMPERFECT LOVE―because we have not yet attained what we KNOW about and what we desire or LOVE. St. Thomas Aquinas says that one of the elements of love is a UNION of wills―therefore, if we cannot be united to what we love, then that love is imperfect, unrequited, unfulfilled. Union is a necessary completion or perfection for LOVE―and HOPE drives us on and on until we achieve that union.

A second addendum―which is very important for our modern society where “knowledge is power”―is the fact that Faith (knowledge) alone will not save us. It is the blossoming or sprouting of that Faith into Hope and finally Charity that will save us―as the following Scriptural quotes prove: “Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!’ Show me thy Faith without works―and I will show thee, by works, my Faith! Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well, but the devils also believe and tremble. Wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:17-26).

Another quote―that builds upon the previous one―tells us that “any old” works are not enough, but that any works that we do, must be done out of Charity, that is to say, out of a love of God and for God’s sake: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

We could easily paraphrase the above passage and apply it our Christmas preparations: “If I should have the most beautiful Christmas nativity scene or tallest Christmas tree in the neighborhood, but have not charity (a love of God and His Word), then I am nothing! If I should have the most brilliant display of Christmas lights that anyone has ever seen, but have not charity (a love of God and His Word), then I am nothing! If should prepare the most sumptuous Christmas dinner that anyone has ever tasted, but have not charity (a love of God and His Word), then I am nothing! If I should buy and distribute to others the best Christmas gifts they have ever received, but have not charity (a love of God and His Word), then I am nothing!”

Hence, we need to come to Christ’s crib at Christmas with the “Key of Charity”―but to unlock the doors that lead to that “Key of Charity”, we need the “Keys of Faith and Hope.” Having said that (and slept through the above), let us now turn our attention to the first of those “Three Keys”―the “Key of Faith”, or Theological Virtue of Faith, which is NOT AN END IN ITSELF, but a seed that needs to sprout and grow into HOPE and CHARITY (the subject of the next two articles before Christmas).

The Key of Faith―Faith is Key!
What then is this supernatural virtue of Faith which is the first and primary benefit we receive from the Holy Spirit? Without Faith everything else in Christianity is absolutely meaningless. Call it divine Faith. Divine Faith is the virtue or power which enables us to assent with our intellects to the truths revealed by God, not because we fully understand them all, but only on the authority of God―Who can neither deceive nor be deceived. We assent with our minds. We consent with our wills. We assent with our minds to believe everything which God has revealed. We consent with our wills to practice all that we must practice. St. Thomas Aquinas says: “To one who has Faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without Faith, no explanation is possible!”

God, through Holy Scripture, could put it any more clearly: “Without Faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). What part of that quote is it that we cannot understand? There is no way around that, there is no exception to that. The full quote reads as follows: “Without Faith, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God, must believe that He is, and is a rewarder to them that seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Other part of Holy Scripture re-affirm and confirm this truth: “All that is not of Faith is sin!” (Romans 14:23). “The just man liveth by Faith” (Romans 1:17). “By grace, you are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:8). “He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting. But he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith” (1 John 5:4). “And Jesus said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world! Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin!’” (John 8:23-24). “Woe to them who believe not God―they shall not be protected by Him!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:15).

Yet Our Lord and God knows that most will not believe Him and that most will not embrace the Faith entirely―picking and choosing only what appeals to them and satisfies them. “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” Luke 18:8). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).

Ignorance of the Faith
Faith is all about knowing the Word of God―what God has revealed, what God has taught and what God wants us to do. Our Lord Himself reinforced that fact at the Last Supper, when He said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). It takes a brave man or a fool to say: “I’m not interested in learning about Your words! I’m not interested in knowing what Your commandments are! I’m not interested in keeping Your commandments or following Your word!” Hell is full of such brave men and fools!

Pope St. Pius X also speaks of this damnation through neglect or lack of knowledge through ignorance: “We are forced to agree with those who hold that the chief cause of the present indifference and the serious evils that result from it, is to be found above all in ignorance of things divine … It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians, in our own time, who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. We refer not only to the masses or to those in the lower walks of life — but We refer to those especially who do not lack culture or talents and, indeed, are possessed of abundant knowledge regarding things of the world but live rashly and imprudently with regard to religion. It is hard to find words to describe how profound is the darkness in which they are engulfed, and, what is most deplorable of all, how tranquilly they repose there. They rarely give thought to God! … They have no conception of the malice and baseness of sin; hence they show no anxiety to avoid sin or to renounce it. And so they arrive at life's end in such a condition … and then calmly face the fearful passage to eternity without making their peace with God. And so Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment, suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’ … How many and how grave are the consequences of ignorance in matters of religion! It is indeed vain to expect a fulfillment of the duties of a Christian by one who does not even know them.” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Acerbo Nimis, 1905).

Are You Losing It? Our Lady warns of dangers to the Faith
Faith is absolutely necessary for salvation. This means in the simplest terms that it is simply impossible for us to get to Heaven unless, during life, we have believed in God. It is impossible to please God without Faith. “For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24).

That Faith is meant, not just for a few, but for the whole world, as shown by the following words of Our Lord: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). “He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me” (Luke 10:16). “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).

We have to believe ALL things, that is to say all the dogmas, that the Church teaches us, and not just some of them.

Yet, Our Lady, over the last few hundred years, has given us ample warning about a time when the Faith will be lost—lost by most people, lost by priests and religious orders, lost by bishops, and lost even by Rome itself.

Warning About the Faith at La Salette
Our Lady had the following tragic things to say at La Salette: “Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God.”

“Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”

Our Lady warns of those who “will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus, denying the existence of Heaven.”

“Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principal, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds … There will be a kind of false peace in the world. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin.”

“But the children of the holy Church, the children of My Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side, until they reach a fullness of years.”

“I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.”

“God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will.”

As to the Pope, Our Lady speaks of Faith being one of the weapons he must use:”may he, however, be steadfast and noble, may he fight with the weapons of Faith and love.”

The Church Speaks After La Salette
“The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts very new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatize from the Faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible; hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the Earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church.” (Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90)

Warning About the Faith at Fatima
Our Lady also warned about a future loss of the Faith, nay, more than that—a future mass apostasy throughout the world, when she revealed the so-called Third Secret of Fatima as a warning for our day.

In her fourth memoir, which was written from October-December 1941, Sister Lucy copied the first two parts of the Secret from the text of her third memoir, but added a sentence that is not found there. Sister Lucy gave us the first sentence of the Third Secret when she inserted into her fourth memoir the phrase “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” This sentence had not appeared in her previous memoir. Sister Lucy purposely inserted it into her fourth memoir to indicate to us what the final part of the Secret is about.

In 1943, after having been asked by Bishop da Silva to write down the text of the Third Secret, Sister Lucy was finding the task difficult. She declared to the bishop that it was not absolutely necessary to write out the text, “since in a certain manner she had said it.” Sister Lucy was very likely referring to the additional phrase she had inserted into her fourth memoir, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.”

The phrase, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved etc.” is a promise that the true Faith will be preserved in that country, although in its vagueness it does not state by whom. Yet, if in Portugal the true Faith will be preserved, what does that imply about the rest of the world? The Portuguese Father Messias de Coelho concluded that, “this allusion, so positive about what will happen among us, suggests to us that it will be different around us.”

Father Alonso, the official Fatima archivist had this to say on the Third Secret: “‘In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved’: The phrase most clearly implies a critical state of Faith, which other nations will suffer, that is to say, a crisis of Faith; whereas Portugal will preserve its Faith.”

In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If “in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved,” ... it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether.

► Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, said while still a cardinal:
“I am worried by the Blessed Virgin’s messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul…. I hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make her feel remorse for her historical past.

“A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask, “Where have they taken Him?” Cardinal Pacelli said this in 1931. He became Pope Pius XII in 1939.

► Pope Paul VI said: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977. Pope Paul was dead 10 months later).

► Pope Benedict XVI, while still Cardinal Ratzinger, said: “Yes, I have read [the Third Secret]. [It refers to] a radical call to conversion; the absolute seriousness of history; the dangers which threaten the Faith and the life of the Christian and therefore (the life) of the world” (Jesus magazine, November 11th, 1984).

► Fr. J. Schweigle, Pope Pius XII’s interviewer of Sr. Lucy, said:
“I cannot reveal anything of what I learned at Fatima concerning the Third Secret, but I can say that it has two parts: one concerns the Pope; the other logically (although I must say nothing) would have to be the continuation of the words: “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved” (The Whole Truth about Fatima, Vol. III, p. 74).   Pope Pius XII personally sent Fr. Schweigle to interrogate Sr. Lucia about the Third Secret in 1952.

► Fr. J. Alonso, the Church’s official archivist of Fatima from 1965-1981, said: “In the period preceding the great triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, terrible things are to happen. These form the content of the third part of the Secret. What are they? If “in Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved.” From this it can be clearly deduced from this that in other parts of the Church these dogmas are going to become obscure or even lost altogether. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy of the Church.

Cardinal Ottaviani said: “The message was not to be opened before 1960. I asked Sister Lucia, ‘Why this date?’ She answered, ‘Because then it will be clearer.’” Cardinal Ottaviani was the head of the Holy Office. He interrogated Sister Lucia in 1955.

► Cardinal Oddi said: “What happened in 1960 that might have been seen in connection with the Secret of Fatima? The most important event is without a doubt the launching of the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council. Therefore I would not be surprised if the Secret had something to do with the convocation of Vatican II… I would not be surprised if the Third Secret alluded to dark times for the Church; grave confusions and troubling apostasies within Catholicism itself.”

► Cardinal Ciappi, the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”

► Sister Lucia, in an interview with Fr. Augustine Fuentes, said: “Father, the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. And the devil knows what it is that most offends God and which in a short space of time will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus, the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way, the devil will succeed in leaving souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them….

“That which afflicts the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Heart of Jesus is the fall of religious and priestly souls. The devil knows that religious and priests who fall away from their beautiful vocation drag numerous souls to Hell… The devil wishes to take possession of consecrated souls. He tries to corrupt them in order to lull to sleep the souls of laypeople and thereby lead them to final impenitence….

“Father, let us not wait for an appeal to come from Rome, on behalf of the Holy Father, calling on the whole world to do penance; nor let us wait for it to come from our bishops in their dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already made frequent use of these means and the world took no notice. That is why each of us must now begin his own spiritual reform. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also every soul that God has placed on his path.”   (Fr. Augustine Fuentes, interview with Sr. Lucia of Fatima, on December 26th, 1957).

In a letter to Fr. Umberto Pasquale, who was very devoted to the cause of Fatima, Sister Lucy wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is without any doubt the consequence of the lack of the spirit of prayer. Foreseeing this disorientation, the Blessed Virgin recommended recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And since the Rosary is, after the holy Eucharistic liturgy, the prayer most apt for preserving Faith in souls, the devil has unchained his struggles against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused.”

Time to Take Action
Devotion to Our Lady and the Holy Rosary is the key and the answer to what is about to dawn upon us. “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart” said Our Lady at Fatima, and she also stated “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you.”

Our Lady and the Faith
We read, in St. Luke’s Gospel, of Our Lady’s Faith being greatly praised. When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, “and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she cried out with a loud voice, and said: ‘Blessed art thou among women, and ... blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord” (Luke 1:41-45).

The Believing Woman
Just as Mary is the Mother of Love and Hope, so she is also the Mother of Faith. St. Irenaeus says that this is so for a very good reason, for “the evil done by Eve’s unfaithfulness was remedied by Mary’s Faith.” Tertullian confirms this by saying that because Eve believed the serpent against the warning she had received from God, she brought death into the world; but because Mary believed the angel at the Annunciation, she brought salvation into the world. He puts it this way: “Eve believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. What Eve demolished by her foolish credulity, Mary restored by her genuine Faith.” St. Augustine says: “It was Mary’s Faith that opened Heaven to men, when she agreed to cooperate in the Incarnation of the Eternal Word.”

Richard of Saint Lawrence commenting on these words of Saint Paul from Corinthians: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife” (1 Corinthians 7:14), says: “Mary is the believing woman by whose Faith the unbelieving Adam and all his posterity are saved.”

It was as a tribute to her Faith that Elizabeth called Our Lady “blessed”--”Blessed are you that has believed, because those things shall be accomplished in you that were spoken by the Lord” (Luke 1:45). And Saint Augustine adds: “Mary was blessed more by receiving the Faith of Christ than by conceiving the flesh of Christ.”

Mary Saw Through All Appearances
Father Suarez says that the most Holy Virgin had more Faith than all human beings and angels together. She saw her Son in the crib at Bethlehem and believed that He was the Creator of the world. She saw Him flee from Herod and believed that He was the King of kings. She saw Him born, yet believed Him to be eternal. She saw Him poor and in need of food, and believed that He was the Lord of the universe. She saw Him lying on straw, and believed that He was omnipotent. She observed that He did not speak, and yet believed that He was filled with infinite wisdom. She heard Him cry, and believed that He was the joy of paradise. Finally, she saw Him in death, despised and crucified, and even though Faith wavered in others, she remained firm in the conviction that He was God.

Commenting on those words of the Gospel: “There stood, by the cross of Jesus, His Mother” (John 19:25), Saint Antoninus says: “Mary stood there, supported by her Faith, which she firmly retained in the divinity of Christ.” And this is the reason why, the saint adds, in the midst of the Tenebrae service in Holy Week, only one candle is left lighted.

The Light of Her Faith Shines On
With reference to this, St. Leo the Great applies to our Blessed Lady the words of Proverbs: “Her lamp shall not be put out in the night” (Proverbs 31:18). And with regard to the words of Isaias: “I have trodden the winepress alone, and...there is not a man with me” (Isaias 63:3), St. Thomas remarks that the prophet says “a man,”because of the Blessed Virgin, a woman, who never failed in Faith. St. Albert the Great assures us: “Mary displayed perfect Faith. Even when the disciples doubted, she did not doubt.”

Mary is Our Light
By her magnificent Faith, therefore, Mary merited to become “a light to all the faithful,” as St. Methodius calls her; and the “Queen of the true Faith,” as she is called by St. Cyril of Alexandria. Holy Church herself attributes the destruction of all heresies to the merits of Mary: “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for you alone have destroyed all heresies throughout the world.” St. Thomas of Villanova, explaining the words of the Holy Spirit: “You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse...with one of your eyes” (Canticles 4:9), says: “These eyes denoted Mary’s Faith, by which she pleased the Son of God so much”—for it is with eyes that we see and Faith is about seeing the truths about God.

Imitate Mary’s Faith by Works of Faith
St. Ildephonsus makes a point of urging us to imitate Mary’s Faith. But how can we do this? Faith is both a gift and a virtue. It is a gift of God because it is a light infused by him into our souls; it is a virtue inasmuch as the soul must strive to practice it. Hence Faith must not only be the rule of our belief, but the rule of our actions as well. That is why St. Gregory the Great says: “That man really believes who puts what he believes into practice.” And St. Augustine: “You say ‘I believe.’ Do what you say and then it will be Faith.” To live according to our belief is what is meant by the expression “to have a living Faith.” … “My just one lives by Faith”(Hebrews 10:38). The Blessed Virgin lived very differently from those who do not live according to what they believe. St. James declared: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

Actions Should Flow From Faith
Diogenes lighted a lantern and looked around for a man on Earth. But God seems to be looking for a Christian. Among the baptized on Earth, there are many who perform no good works at all. The majority are Christians only in name. The words once addressed by Alexander to a cowardly soldier should be applied to these people: “Either change your name or change your conduct.”

Father Ávila used to say: “It would be better to lock these poor creatures up as madmen. They believe that eternal happiness is in store for those who lead good lives and an eternity of misery for those who lead bad lives. And yet they act as if they believed nothing.” St. Augustine exhorts us to look at things with the eyes of Christians, that is, with eyes that see everything in the light of Faith. St. Teresa often used to say: “All sins come from the lack of Faith.” Let us therefore beg our Blessed Lady, by the merit of her Faith, to obtain a living Faith for us. “O Lady, increase our Faith!”

Faith Praised!
So often Our Lord would praise Faith in the Gospels: “Amen I say to you, I have not found so great Faith in Israel!” (Matthew 8:10) … “According to your Faith, be it done unto you” (Matthew 9:29) … “O woman, great is thy Faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt!” (Matthew 15:28) … “Be of good heart, daughter, thy Faith hath made thee whole” (Matthew 9:22) … “Thy Faith hath made thee safe” (Luke 7:50) … “Amen I say to you, if you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: ‘Remove from hence hither!’ and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:19) … “Amen, I say to you, if you shall have Faith, and stagger not, not only this of the fig tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Take up and cast thyself into the sea, it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21).

Faith Criticized!
He would also criticize and complain about a lack Faith: “O ye of little Faith?”(Matthew 6:30) … “Why are you fearful, O ye of little Faith?” (Matthew 8:26) … “O thou of little Faith, why didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31) … “Why are you fearful? Have you not Faith yet?” (Mark 4:40) … “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).

How’s Your Faith?
It would take a courageous person (or a fool) to stand up and say that they are satisfied with their level of Faith. More likely, we should imitate the Holy Apostles of Our Lord: “And the Apostles said to the Lord: ‘Increase our Faith!’” (Luke 17:5). Or we should cry out with the man, whose son Jesus cured: “I do believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23).

This is especially true today, in this faithless age, as foretold by Our Lady on several occasions: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” (Our Lady of La Salette). “At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated … As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private.” (Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador, 17th century).

However, there would be souls, promised Our Lady of Good Success, who would remain faithful and would preserve the treasure of the Faith and virtues. But these would suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom.

Our Lady to the Rescue
The fact is that Our Lord will help our unbelief, or doubtful believing—and today it is through Our Lady that He seeks to improve and strengthen our Faith. As St. Louis de Montfort says:

“We must examine and meditate on the great virtues which she practiced during her life, and particularly, first of all, her lively Faith, by which she believed without hesitation the angel’s word, and believed faithfully and constantly up to the foot of the cross” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).

“Our Blessed Lady will give you also a portion of her Faith, which was the greatest of all faiths that ever were on Earth. Greater than the Faith of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints put together. Now that she is reigning in Heaven, she no longer exercises this Faith, because she sees all things clearly in God by the light of glory. Nevertheless, with the consent of the Most High, in entering into glory she did not lose her Faith. She kept it for her faithful servants in the Church Militant.

“The more, then, that you gain the favor of that august Princess and faithful Virgin, the more will you act by pure Faith; a pure Faith which will make you care hardly at all about sensible consolations and extraordinary favors; a lively Faith animated by charity, which will enable you to perform all your actions from the motive of pure love; a Faith firm and immovable as a rock, through which you will rest quiet and constant in the midst of storms and hurricanes; a Faith active and piercing, which like a mysterious passkey, will give you entrance into all the mysteries of Jesus, into the last ends of man, and into the Heart of God Himself; a courageous Faith, which will enable you to undertake and carry out without hesitation great things for God and for the salvation of souls; lastly, a Faith which will be your blazing torch, your divine life, your hidden treasure of divine wisdom and your omnipotent arm; which you will use to enlighten those who are in the darkness of the shadow of death, to inflame those who are lukewarm and who have need of the heated gold of charity, to give life to those who are dead in sin, to touch and overthrow, by your meek and powerful words, the hearts of marble and the cedars of Lebanon; and finally, to resist the devil and all the enemies of salvation” (St. Louis de Montfort,True Devotion to Mary).

Fr. Faber speaks of the necessity of Mary for the Faith
“One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappiness which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy.

“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her. Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no Faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized.

“Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of St. Louis Grignon de Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith.” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Preface to True Devotion to Mary).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday December 20th & Saturday December 21st

Article 15
De-Paganize Christmas! Do This to Make Your Christmas Holy!

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Even Pagan-Patronizing Francis Protests about Pagan Advent-Christmas
It takes no genius to realize that Christmas―and its preparatory season of Advent―has been largely swamped and paganized by a worldly, commercial, sensual and materialistic culture. What Our Lady foretold many years ago―at Quito, Ecuador and at La Salette, France―Pope Francis confirms today.

What did Our Lady warn us about? She warned that “all the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world ... They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … As true Faith fades a false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin” (Our Lady of Good Success and Our Lady of La Salette).

So how does Pope Francis confirm that what Our Lady warned us about has actually come about? Why even quote Pope Francis―in view of his tendency to utter non-Catholic sentiments and even heretical sounding comments? Well, the reason is this―Pope Francis can be compared to the “cheapest store in town”, which you cannot really accuse of overpricing or overcharging. Likewise with Pope Francis “cheap version” of the Faith―you will not get a “cheaper deal” anywhere in town! Therefore, what Francis asks for, CANNOT BE THOUGHT OF ASKING TOO MUCH! He is one who asks for the least! Here are a few quotes―limited mainly to his comments about Advent and Christmas―over the last few years. This is “Bargain-Basement” Pope Francis asking for the lowest payment, selling for the lowest price―so those who love “shopping at Francis’” had better take note at what Francis is “charging” during Advent! How much more should we really be paying, or doing above and beyond the “cheapest price” on offer in “Francis’ Store”?

The Demands of "Bargain-Basement" Francis

► June 10th, 2013 Pope Francis said that “Man often runs the risk of trying to ‘bargain’, to take what is convenient for us, ‘a little of this, a little of that.’ It’s like making a fruit salad: a little of the Spirit and a little of the spirit of the world. However with God there is no halfway house―the person chooses either ‘one thing or the other.’ The Lord is clear: no one can serve two masters. One either serves the Lord or the spirit of the world. It is impossible to mix everything together.”

► September 29th, 2013 Pope Francis pointed out the destructive elements of worldliness: “How do some people, perhaps ourselves included, end up becoming self-absorbed and finding security in material things which ultimately rob us of our face, our human face? This is what happens when we become complacent, when we no longer remember God. If we don’t think about God, everything ends up flat, everything ends up being about “me” and my own comfort. Life, the world, other people―all of these become unreal, they no longer matter, everything boils down to one thing―having. When we no longer remember God, we too become unreal, we too become empty … Those who run after nothing become nothing. We are made in God’s image and likeness, not the image and likeness of material objects, of idols!”

► November 8th, 2013 Again Pope Francis attacks worldliness: “The Lord speaks to us again about the spirit of the world, about worldliness―how this worldliness works and how perilous it is. In his prayer after the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, Jesus besought the Father not to allow His disciples to fall into worldliness. Worldliness is the enemy, and the devil derives great pleasure in seeing us live according to its ways.”

► March 5th, 2015 Pope Francis compares worldliness to a drug that anesthetizes the soul: “Worldliness transforms souls, makes them lose consciousness of reality: they live in an artificial world, which they create. Worldliness anesthetizes the soul … Worldliness is a subtle sin, it’s more than a sin―it’s a sinful state of soul.”

► September 28th, 2015 Pope Francis lamented that “Today consumerism determines what is important. Consuming relationships, consuming friendships, consuming religions, consuming, consuming! ... Whatever the cost or consequences! A consumption which does not favor bonding, a consumption which has little to do with human relationships. Social bonds are a mere ‘means’ for the satisfaction of ‘my needs.’ The important thing is no longer our neighbor … The result is a culture which discards everything that is no longer ‘useful’ or ‘satisfying’ for the tastes of the consumer. We have turned our society into a huge multicultural showcase―tied only to the tastes of certain ‘consumers’―while so many others only ‘eat the crumbs which fall from the tables of their masters.’ This causes great harm!”

► December 24th, 2015 Pope Francis stated that “In a society so often intoxicated by consumerism and hedonism [= pleasure seeking], wealth and extravagance, appearances and narcissism [self-centeredness and self-love], [Jesus] calls us to act soberly―in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential … Amid a culture of indifference which not infrequently turns ruthless, our style of life should instead be devout, filled with empathy, compassion and mercy, drawn daily from the wellspring of prayer.”

► January 7th, 2016 Pope Francis said: “A Christian is one who ‘has’ the Holy Spirit and is guided by God. We abide in God and God abides in us by the Spirit which he has given us. Then the problem comes. Be mindful, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God. We should ‘test the spirits’―but what does it mean to test the spirits? … St. John tells us to ‘test the spirits’ in order to gauge where they come from … Indeed, the verb ‘to gauge’ is the most appropriate verb to truly determine whether what I feel comes from God, from the spirit that enables me to abide in God, or if it comes from the other one. Who is the ‘other one’―it is the antichrist … Either you are of Jesus, or you are of the world … Worldliness is the spirit which distances us from the Spirit of God … This means that I can feel many things inside, even good things, good ideas, but if these good ideas, if these feelings do not lead me to God who has come in the flesh, then they are not of God … If we don’t take the path of God, Who has come in the flesh, the path of the Son of God, Who became man in order to walk with us, then we are not on the path of the good spirit. Instead what prevails is the antichrist, worldliness, the spirit of the world.”

► December 4th, 2016 Pope Francis stated: “In the Gospel given this second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist’s invitation resounds: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ (Mattthew 3:2). These words are very important: “The Kingdom of God is in our midst!” Jesus says ... But what is this Kingdom of God, this Kingdom of Heaven? They are synonymous. We think immediately of the after-life: eternal life. But we do not need to wait for the Kingdom of God in the future―it is at hand ... The condition for entering and being a part of this Kingdom is to implement a change in our life, which is to convert, to convert every day, to take a step forward each day. It is a question of leaving behind the comfortable, but misleading ways of the idols of this world―success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price―and, instead, preparing the way of the Lord … With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is God Himself Who abides among us, in order to free us from self-interest, sin and corruption, from these manners of the devil: seeking success at all costs; seeking power to the detriment of the weak; having the desire for wealth; seeking pleasure at any price … We prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight, when we examine our conscience, when we scrutinize our attitudes, in order to eliminate these sinful manners that I mentioned, which are not from God: success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price.”

► December 3rd, 2017  Pope Francis stated: “In the Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to take heed and watch, so as to be ready to welcome him at the moment of his return. He tells us: ‘Take heed, watch ... for you do not know when the time will come.... Watch therefore ... lest he come suddenly and find you asleep’ (Mark 13:33-37). The person who takes heed is the one who, amid the worldly din, does not let himself be overwhelmed by distraction or superficiality … and, at the same time, wards off the allure of the many vanities with which the world is brimming and for which, now and then, time and personal and familial peace is sacrificed.”

► August 1st, 2918 Pope Francis said that idolatry is a human inclination that spares neither believers nor atheists and deprives people of life and love in exchange for slavery to unfulfilled dreams. Although wealth, fame, beauty and power differ from the idols of ancient times, they all require “a human sacrifice … For a career, children are sacrificed by neglecting them, or simply not having them … Beauty demands human sacrifice. How many hours are spent in front of the mirror? … Idols demand blood!” He said that Christians, like anyone else, can fall prey to the world’s “supermarket of idols,” relying on earthly goods rather than on the spiritual goods offered by God through prayer.

► September 4th, 2018 Pope Francis, in one of his daily homilies, said: “Man left to his own strength does not understand the things of the Spirit. There are two spirits, two ways of thinking, of feeling, of acting: that which leads me to the Spirit of God, and that which leads me to the spirit of the world. And this happens in our life: We all have these two ‘spirits,’ we might say. The Spirit of God, which leads us to good works, to charity, to fraternity, to adore God, to know Jesus, to do many good works of charity, to pray: this one. And [there is] the other spirit, of the world, which leads us to vanity, pride, sufficiency, gossip ― a completely different path. In the life of the Christian, then, we must fight in order to make room for the Spirit of God, and drive away the spirit of the world. And, a daily examination of conscience can help to identify temptations, to clarify how these opposing forces work. It is very simple: We have this great gift, which is the Spirit of God, but we are weak, we are sinners, and we still have the temptation of the spirit of the world. In this spiritual combat, in this war of the spirit, we need to be victors like Jesus. Every night, a Christian should think over the events of the past day, to determine whether vanity and pride prevailed, or whether he or she has succeeded in imitating the Son of God.”

► December 9th, 2018 Pope Francis, in his Angelus address, said that Advent is a time of waiting and expectation―this season also requires a “journey of conversion. To prepare the way for the Lord Who comes, it is necessary to take into account the demands of conversion.” Pope Francis explained that conversion requires changing your attitude: “It leads to humbly recognizing our mistakes, our infidelities, and faults.” The pope focused on the invitation of St. John the Baptist, who proclaimed a baptism of repentance as a voice of one crying out in the desert, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. The Baptist invited the people of his time to conversion with force, vigor, and severity.”

► December 24th, 2018 Pope Francis, decried consumerism and urged people to seek a simpler less materialistic life at a Christmas Eve Mass: “Let us ask ourselves: ‘Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity?’ … In our day, for many people, life’s meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects. An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive.”

► December 1st, 2019  Pope Francis said in his Advent homily, urged people to resist the excesses of consumerism in the period leading up to Christmas, calling it a virus that attacks Faith: “Resist the dazzling blinding lights of consumerism, which will shine everywhere this month [before Christmas], and believe that prayer and charity are not lost time, but the greatest treasures … This is the drama of today: houses full of things, but empty of children.” He warned against the selfish attitudes in a society where “consumerism reigns supreme. Consumerism is a virus that affects the Faith at its root―because it makes you believe that life depends only on what you have, and so you forget about God. The meaning of life is not to accumulate. When you live for things, things are never enough―greed grows and others become obstacles in the race, and so you end up feeling threatened and, always dissatisfied and angry … ‘I want more, I want more, I want more!’ One has many goods, but no good is done.”

► December 15th, 2019 Pope Francis, in his Angelus address, said that the Advent season is a time of conversion―to make space in one’s heart for Christ to come and fill it with joy: “Advent, a time of grace, tells us that it is not enough to believe in God―it is also necessary to purify our Faith every day … It is a matter of preparing to welcome ― not a fairy-tale character ― but the God Who calls us, involves us, and before Whom a choice is imposed! … The man of God looks beyond … Courage, do not fear! Behold your God ... He comes to save you! … And then everything is transformed: the desert blooms, consolation and joy take possession of fearful hearts, the lame, the blind, the mute are healed. This is what is accomplished with Jesus, as the Gospel of Matthew states: ‘The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are purified, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the Gospel is announced to the poor’ … Salvation envelops the whole man and regenerates him … But this new birth, with the joy that accompanies it, always presupposes a dying to ourselves and to the sin that is in us. Hence the call to conversion, which is the basis of the preaching of both the Baptist and Jesus! The Church offers us the time of Advent, in which we are called to awaken in our hearts a sense of expectation and to intensify our prayer.”

There you have it! The lowest asking price as offered and advertized in Pope Francis’ “Bargain-Basement Store”! The cheapest price you will find! How much more insistent and demanding would not the earlier, more traditional popes be? Yet the sad fact is that most people are not even paying Francis’ cheap, rock-bottom, asking price!

What’s Your Nearest Offer?
So how do your Advent preparations look when compared to some of the above quotes from Pope Francis’ “Bargain-Basement Store”? How far away are you from the “lowest asking price”? Are you “bartering” or “bargaining” with God? What’s your offer? What are you offering God this Advent? Does it come anywhere near Pope Francis’ “Bargain-Basement Store” asking price? God’s “asking price” is bound to be way and above Francis’ “discounted price”!

It would take a courageous person (or a liar) to insist that they have given God their maximum this Advent! The reality of the matter is that everyone has fallen short of giving God what could be given to God! As Our Lord points out: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants! We have [only] done that which we ought to do!’” (Luke 17:10). Holy Scripture adds: “God looked down from Heaven on the children of men―to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities! There is none that doth good!” (Psalm 52:2-4). And again: “The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways! There is none that doth good―no, not one!” (Psalm 13:1-3).

Let Our Lady Shine a Light on the Matter
The following words of Our Lady, spoken to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, can shed some light on our pitiful performances in piety and penance during this Christmas preparatory season of Advent.

“I warn thee again of the cunning vigilance of the serpent, who seeks to induce mortals to neglect the veneration and worship due to God and presumptuously to despise this virtue and what it implies. Into the minds of the worldly, he instills a most foolish forgetfulness of the Catholic truths, in order that divine Faith may not keep alive in them the fear and veneration of the Most High; and thus he succeeds in making them like to the heathens, who do not know the true God. Others, who strive after virtue and perform some good works, the enemy leads into a dangerous lukewarmness and negligence, wherein they overlook what they are losing on account of their lack of fervor. Those that concern themselves more earnestly about perfection, the dragon deceives with a certain coarse over-confidence, so that, on account of the favors they receive and on account of the divine mercy which they experience, they begin to consider themselves as special favorites of the Lord, forgetting the humble fear and veneration, which they ought to experience in the presence of Him, before whom, according to the teaching of the Holy Church, the powers of Heaven tremble.

“I wish thee also to ponder, what a horrible crime it is―in the eyes of the Lord, in mine, and in those of all the saints―that men should despise and neglect the frequent reception of the Holy Communion, and that they should approach it without preparation and fervent devotion. … What excuse can those men give in the Last Judgment, who have despised this ineffable love and blessing, which they had always present in the Holy Church, ready to fill them with the plenitude of His gifts, and who rather sought diversion in worldly pleasures and attended upon the outward and deceitful vanities of this earthly life?

“Human nature and that of the angels (even though they be devils) are subject to contrary and opposite conditions―for the spiritual nature is tireless, and that of mortals weak and so prone to fatigue, that it soon tires and succumbs in labor. As soon as it finds any difficulty in the practice of virtue it is discouraged and turns back; what it pursues with pleasure on one day, it contemns the next; what seemed agreeable today, it finds hard tomorrow; now it wishes, then again it does not wish; sometimes it is fervent, sometimes lukewarm. But the demon is never fatigued or weakened in his efforts at tempting souls. The Almighty, however, is not lacking in His providence; for He limits and restrains the power of the demons―so that they cannot pass the measure set for them, nor exert all their indefatigable powers for the persecution of souls. On the other hand He supports the weakness of men―giving them grace and strength to resist and overcome their enemies on the prescribed battleground.

“Hence the inconstancy of souls―in virtuously maintaining their position during temptation and in not bearing with fortitude and patience the inconveniences of doing good and fighting against the demons―is not excusable. The pull of passion―drawing man toward the sensible and pleasurable―suddenly presents itself across the path of duty and the demons, with diabolical astuteness, seek to exaggerate the hardship and disagreeableness of mortification―representing it as dangerous to health and life. Thus he deludes innumerable souls … This is a very common aberration of the worldly-minded, but which is very abominable in the sight of the Lord and myself. Hence it is, that many men are weak, wavering and indisposed toward the practice of virtue, or penitential mortification for their sins. And the very ones who are so weak in doing good, are strong in doing evil. In the service of the devil they are more constant and are ready to undergo much more difficult and arduous tasks in sinning, than the law of God commands for the practice of virtue. They show themselves tardy and imbecile in the work of saving their souls, but eager and strong to load upon themselves eternal damnation.

“Who is so dull and insipid as not to know the dangers of the worldly life, which is hampered by all the abominable and most wicked laws and customs introduced by the astuteness of the devil and the perversity of men? … Worldly honor is vain and without substance, and that it does not have any more stability than the flowers or herbs of the field … The vices of the world cause horror in Heaven itself, because the pride, the presumption, the haughtiness, the want of mortification, the anger, the covetousness, the conscious impurities and other wickedness in such souls force the Lord and the saints to withdraw from the sight of their monstrous distortion and rouse them to greater wrath … Do not allow thyself to desire worldly things … Die to the visible things, and be buried in self-knowledge and self-abasement, while thy soul sinks into the being of God.

“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find among those who have arrived at the way of the cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur.” (Words of Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God ).

Christ versus World―Gospel versus Worldly Christmas Slogans
Who do you believe? Talking of believing―at what level is your Faith? Are you led by the spirit of God or by the spirit of the world? Are you preoccupied mainly with God? Or are you preoccupied with matters of the world? Are you seeking spiritual riches? Or are you seeking material riches? Our Lady has some firm words to say on the matter―as revealed to the Venerable Mary of Agreda:

“Many blessings are contained in voluntary poverty, and all this the sons of the world are ignorant and deprived of, precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches and enemies of this holy and opulent poverty. They do not consider―although they feel and suffer―the heavy weight of riches, which pins them to the Earth and drives them into its very bowels to seek gold and silver in great anxiety, sleeplessness, labors and sweat, as if they were not men, but wild beasts that know not what they are suffering and doing. And if they are thus weighed down before acquiring riches, how much more when they have come into their possession? Let the countless hosts that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it; let their incalculable anxieties of preserving their riches, and much more, let the intolerable laws, which riches and those that possess them have foisted upon the world, testify what is required to retain them.”

“If, on the one hand, possessions throttle the spirit and tyrannically oppress it in its weakness, if they suppress the soul’s most noble privilege of following eternal goods and God Himself: it is certain on the other hand, that voluntary poverty restores to man the nobility of his condition and, liberating him from vile servitude and reinstating him his noble freedom and mastery of all things. The soul is never more a mistress of herself than when she despises them. Only then has she the more firm possession and makes the more excellent use of riches, when she gives them away or leaves them of her own free will; only then her appetite for them is best satiated, when she does not care to possess them. Then above all is the heart set free and made capable of the treasures of the Divinity―for which it is furnished by the Creator―with almost infinite capacity.

“Study diligently this divine philosophy and science of poverty, which the world forgets, and not only the world, but also many religious souls, who have promised it to God. Great is the divine wrath on account of this fault, and suddenly will the infringers receive heavy and unexpected punishment. By setting aside their voluntary poverty, they have alienated from themselves the spirit of Christ, my most holy Son, and all that We have come to teach men though our own abnegation and poverty. Although they do not now feel it―because the Judge delays and they enjoy the abundance which they desire―yet in the Day of Judgment they will find themselves overwhelmed and dismayed by the rigor of their punishment, greater than they ever expected, considered or imagined in their forgetfulness of divine justice.

“The temporal goods are created by the Most High for the sole purpose of sustaining life. Having attained this end, the need of them ceases. And as this need is limited, soon and easily satisfied, there is consequently no reason that the care for the immortal soul should be only fitful and temporary, while the hunger after riches should be so perpetual and unremitting―as it has come to be among men. It is the height of perverseness for man to mix up the end and the means―in a matter that is so important and urgent―that he ends up devoting all his time, all his care, all the exertion of his powers and all the alertness of his mind, to the life of his body, of which he knows not the duration nor the end, and that on the other hand, in many years of his existence he spare for his poor soul only one hour, and that very often the last and the worst one of his whole life.”

“How many men are not fascinated by their unbounded greed? All of them ordinarily stake their hopes on gold and material riches; and in order to increase them, they exert all the forces of their natural being. Thus they spend, in these vanities, all the time of their life, which was given them in order to gain eternal rest and happiness. They lose themselves in these dark labyrinths and mazes, as if they knew nothing of God and of His Providence. Thus they lose all, because they confide in the lying and deceitful prospects of their own efforts. This blind greed is the root of all evils (1 Timothy 6:20); for the Lord, incensed at such great perversity, permits the mortals to be entangled in the vile slavery of avarice, in which their understanding is darkened and their will hardened. Soon the Most High, for greater punishment, withdraws His kindly care as from creatures so detestable and denies them His paternal protection, thus letting them fall into what is the deepest misfortune that can befall man in this life.”

“My most holy Son is such a faithful Lover of souls that He hast set me as the teacher and living example of the love of humility and true contempt of worldly vanity and pride. He ordained also for His own glory as well as for my sake that I, His Servant and Mother, should be left without shelter and be turned away by mortals. He also sought destitution and poverty, not because He had any need of them for bringing the practice of virtues to the highest perfection, but in order to teach mortals the shortest and surest way for reaching the heights of divine love and union with God.”

Materialism Mutilates Christmas
Make no mistake about it―materialism mutilates and murders the true Christmas spirit. Materialism usurps the throne of Christ and proudly sits on throne ruling the world with pomp and majesty, riches and splendor. This kingly materialism demands the attention of all its subjects―leaving no time for attention to Christ. You will see for yourself how little Christ will be mentioned this Christmas in relation to all the materialistic pomp and splendor that everyone seeks to import into their Christmas celebrations. They are not really celebrating Christ’s Christmas, but Materialism’s ‘christmas’―which is a counterfeit ‘christmas’, a fake ‘christmas’, an imposter ‘christmas’. It is ‘christmas’ that blurs the focus on the real “Birthday-Boy” and makes everyone feel as though it is their own birthday―through the overwhelming gift-giving that takes place, whereby EVERYONE feels that they ARE ENTITLED to a gift, whereas they give no gift to Christ! Perhaps the only gift He gets is “lip-service” whereby we say at a few distracted prayers at Mass (because we are thinking of the festivities and gifts that follow) and sing a few carols (with no real sincere spiritual spirit).

As Our Lord Himself would later say: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). To which Holy Scripture could add: “Whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things!” (Philippians 3:19). God tries to sow the seed of His Word at Christmas, but some seed “fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them ... And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless” (Matthew 13:7, 22).

Our Lord’s encounter with well-intentioned rich young man is a perfect symbol and lesson for us all this Christmas: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 18:18-25).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday December 18th & Thursday December 19th

Article 14
Is Your Joy In Embers?

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Who Still Remembers Embers?
We sometimes say things like: “Our joys went up in smoke!” Our hopes “going down in flames.” We speak of being “reduced to ashes.” Of there being “nothing left but embers” and so on and so forth. Today, Wednesday, we enter the pre-Christmas Advent Ember Days―which are traditionally three days of more intense penance, namely Ember Wednesday, Ember Friday and Ember Saturday. How many folk “remember the ember”? Sadly, very few―even amongst the clergy. Our Lady’s lament, at La Salette, is all too sadly true: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence! They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish!”

As proof of the truth of this, one has to look no further that quasi-deliberate destruction of penance (which most Catholics joyously accept) since the Second Vatican Council, after which, Pope Paul VI, in his 1966 Apostolic Exhoration, Paenitemini, changed the strictly regulated Catholic fasting requirements (as always, under the guise of good). He recommended that fasting be appropriate to the local economic situation, and that all Catholics voluntarily fast and abstain―rather than being obliged by Church law to fast and abstain. He further recommended that fasting and abstinence be replaced with prayer and works of charity “in countries where the standard of living is lower.” With these changes, the obligatory fasting and abstinence of the Ember Days (of which there a total of 12 each year) were also demoted, or thrown-out (whichever way you want to look at it).

In the liturgical calendar of the Western Roman Catholic Church, Ember Days are four separate sets of three days, within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the course of the year, being seasonal, as they roughly fall in the seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall (Autumn). The 12 Ember Days are set aside for fasting and prayer. The Ember Days ― because of their spirit of fating and prayers ― were often seen as being particularly suitable for the ordination of clergy. In the original Latin, the Ember Days are known quatuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”), or formerly as the jejunia quatuor temporum (“fasts of the four seasons”). The four quarterly periods during which the ember days fall are called the “Embertides”―following the naming pattern as seen in other Church seasons: Christmastide, Eastertide, etc.

The Title ‘Embers’
The title “Ember Days” is a corruption of words from Latin title Quatuor Tempora, (meaning “four times”). The Latin name has remained in modern languages. In French and Italian the term is the same; in Spanish and Portuguese they are simply called Temporas. The German language converts them into Quatember―a word created by fusing and shortening the words Quattor and Tempora, which gives Quatempora and is further shortened and modified to give Quatemper or Quatember. From this, by the easy corruption of dropping the first syllable, a corruption which also takes place in some other words, we get the English word “Ember”. Other scholars prefer the view that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon word ymbren, which means “a circuit or revolution” (being a combination of the words “ymb” meaning “around”, and “ryne”, meaning a “a course, running”, which clearly relates to the annual cycle of the year. The word occurs in such Anglo-Saxon compounds as ymbren-tid (“Embertide”), ymbren-wucan (“Ember weeks”), ymbren-fisstan (“Ember fasts”), ymbren-dagas (“Ember days”). The word imbren even makes it into the acts of the Council of Ænham in 1009: jejunia quatuor tempora quae imbren vocant, “the fasts of the four seasons which are called “imbren'“. It corresponds also with Pope Leo the Great's definition, jejunia ecclesiastica per totius anni circulum distributa (“fasts of the church distributed through the whole circuit of the year”).

Purpose of the ‘Embers’
The Ember Days are the days at the beginning of the seasons―ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13th (feast of St. Lucy), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after September 14th (feast of the Exaltation of the Cross). The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.

The immediate occasion was the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding; hence their feriae sementivae, feriae messis, and feri vindimiales.

Origins of the ‘Embers’
The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December; the exact days were not fixed, but were announced by the priests, with there being a variety of local differences. The “Liber Pontificalis” ascribes to Pope Callistus (reigned 217-222) a law ordering the fast―but, in reality, it probably has an older origin. Pope St. Leo the Great (reigned 440-461) considers the Ember Days to be an Apostolic institution from the times of the Apostles of Christ. When the fourth season was added, cannot be ascertained, but we see Pope St. Gelasius I (reigned 492-496) speaking of all four by the end of the 5th century. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship on the Saturdays of Ember week―these were formerly given only at Easter.

Spreading the ‘Embers’
Before Gelasius, the Ember Days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread. They were brought into England by St. Augustine of Canterbury ; into Gaul and Germany by the Carlovingians. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the eleventh century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan. The Eastern Church does not know them.

Extinguishing the ‘Embers’
The traditional Latin Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember Days, retains in part the old practice of adding extra readings from Holy Scripture, in addition to the ordinary two (Epistle and Gospel). For the Ember Wednesdays there are three readings in total; for the Ember Saturdays six readings in total, and seven readings for the Ember Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.

With the revision of the liturgical calendar in 1969, the Vatican left the celebration of Ember Days up to the discretion of each national conference of bishops. They're still commonly celebrated in Europe, particularly in rural areas.

In the United States, the bishops' conference has decided not to celebrate them, but individual Catholics can, and many traditional Catholics still do, because it's a good way to focus on the changing of the liturgical seasons and the seasons of the year. The Ember Days that fall during Lent and Advent are especially useful to remind children of the reasons for those seasons.

Winter Embertide
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Gaudete Sunday (3rd Sunday of Advent) are known as “Advent Embertide,” and they come near the beginning of the Season of Winter (December, January, February). Liturgically, the readings for the Masses of these three Ember Days, follow along with the general themes of Advent, opening up with Wednesday’s Introit of Isaias 45: 8 and Psalm 18:2: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior. The heavens show forth the glory of God: and the firmament declareth the work of His hands.”

Wednesday’s and Saturday’s Masses will one and four Lessons, respectively, with all of them concerning the words of the Prophet Isaias except for the last lesson on Saturday, which comes from Daniel and recounts how Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago are saved from King Nabuchodonosor’s fiery furnace by an angel. This account, which is followed by a glorious hymn, is common to all Embertide Saturdays but for Whit Embertide.

The Gospel readings for the three days concern the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-28), Visitation (Luke 1:37-47), and St. John the Baptist’s exhorting us to “prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths” (Luke 3:1-6).

Furthermore, we read in the Psalms of wintry nature giving praise to God: “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion. Who giveth snow like wool; and scattereth mists like ashes. He sendeth his crystal like morsels! Who shall stand before the face of His cold?” (Psalm 147:12, 16-17).

Winter is a time of reflection, when human activity is stilled and snow blankets the world with silence. For the Christian, Winter symbolizes Hope: though the world now appears lifeless and makes us think of our own mortality, we hope in our resurrection because of the Resurrection of the One Whose Nativity we await now. How providential that the Christ Child will be born at the beginning of this icy season, bringing with Him all the hope of Spring! Also among our Winter feasts are the Epiphany and Candlemas, two of the loveliest days of the year, the first evoked by water, incense, and gold; the latter by fire.

Yes, despite the typical, unimaginative view of Winter, as a long bout with misery, the season is nevertheless among the most beautiful and filled with charms. The ephemeral beauty of a single snowflake … The pale blue tint of sky reflected in snow that glitters, and gives way with a satisfying crunch under foot … Skeletal trees entombed in crystal, white as bones, cold as death, creaking under the weight of their icy shrouds… The wonderful feeling of being inside, next to a fire, while the winds whirl outside … The smell of burning wood mingled with evergreen … Warm hands embracing your wind-bitten ones … The brilliant colors of certain winter birds, so shocking and startling against the ocean of white … The wonderfully long nights which lend themselves to a sense of intimacy and quiet! Go outside and look at the clear Winter skies ruled by the star constellation of Taurus, with the Pleiades on its shoulder and Orion nearby … Such beauty!

Is the “Tide” Coming Into Your Life?
We speak of “Embertide”, of “Christmastide”, “Passiontide”, “Eastertide” and “Whitsuntide”―but what does that mysterious word “tide” mean?

► THE NOUN: “Tide” ― In Old English the word “tid” meant “a point or portion of time, due time, period, season; feast-day, canonical hour.” A secondary meaning is based upon this, meaning “the rise and fall of the sea” (mid-14c.) probably originating via the notion of “fixed time,” specifically a “fixed time of high water.” Thus, words like “Christmastide” and “Eastertide” mean “Christmastime” and “Eastertime.”

► THE VERB: “To Tide” ― In Old English, the verb or action “to tide” meant “to carry” (as the tide of the sea does), from tide (n.). Earlier, “to tide” meant “to happen” (Old English; see tidings).

► THE NOUN: “Tidings” ― The noun “tidings” meant the “announcement of an event,” c. 1200, from late Old English the noun “tidung” meant an “event, occurrence, piece of news,” coming from the verbal noun in Old English “tidan” meaning “to happen,” or in part from Old Norse tiðendi (plural) “events, news,” from tiðr (adjective) meaning “occurring.” Hence we have in Holy Scripture the verse speaking of “glad tidings” ― the Archangel Gabriel uses the word in addressing Zachary: “And the angel answering, said to him: ‘I am Gabriel, who stands before God and am sent to speak to thee, and to bring thee these good tidings!’” (Luke 1:19). The angels use the word when telling the shepherds at Bethlehem of the birth of Christ: “And the angel said to them: ‘Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people!” (Luke 2:10). St. Paul uses the word in speaking of the Gospel event: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15).

Is Your Advent Full of "Good Tidings of Great Joy"?
What “tidings” (news, information) are you bringing into your Advent preparations? How are you spending “Adventide” (the time of Advent)? What are the “tidings” (events) that surround you? Is this “Adventide” a “high tide” or a “low tide”? Perhaps it is “high” and “low”! In fact, that is how it actually is for most people―the “high” is the expectancy of Christmas; the “low” is the penance of Advent and the realization that Christ is not coming to party, but to suffer! That is not the “script” that they expected, nor is the “script” that they want―most people will rewrite God’s script and replace with far more worldlier “script”.

Jesus Brings Trouble Upon Trouble
Jesus seems to bring nothing but trouble! As soon as Mary gives her “fiat” or consent to be the Mother of God, trouble starts brewing! Immediately after conceiving Jesus in her womb, she undergoes a dangerous 100 mile trek to go the assistance of her cousin St. Elizabeth, who is also with child. Let us remember that travel, in those days, was not the fast, secure, comfortable and safe undertaking that it is for us today. No cars, no buses, no trains, no planes. The usual means of travel was by foot. The roads were not paved, nor asphalted. There was no street lighting. No hotels or motels for overnight stops, with heating, running-water, electric lights, toilets, baths and showers; shelter from the cold, wind and rain. No guarantee of safety, with robbers abounding on those long lonely, uninhabited roads through desert and mountain stretches. No cell phone for emergencies; no police to come to the rescue; no convenience stores for the hungry, thirsty traveler.

Does God Care?
After making her the Mother of God and placing His Only-Begotten Son in her womb, why does God subject his most beloved and most precious masterpiece to a 100 mile walk; risking life and limb; having to sleep out in the open, exposed to the attendant bugs and reptiles that abound; eating little and walking much, etc. etc. It brings to mind the case of St. Teresa of Avila, who, as she is trying to go around the country in an effort to reform the Carmelite Order for the greater glory of God, ends up meeting with one setback after another, from persons, places things and the climate. Finally, in a pique of indignation, she questions God as to why on earth He is letting all these things happen to her when she is trying to work for His glory. The famous response she got was: “But Teresa, I treat all my friends like that!” To which she even more famously retorted: “Then I’m not surprised that You have so few of them!”

Then, right after the three month visitation with Elizabeth, Mary has to undergo the trials and pains of Joseph preparing to abandon her, because he had noticed that she was with child, and this was ‘tearing him up.’ Holy though they both were, God did not spare Mary or Joseph this excruciating torment and strain—until, finally, and angel tells Joseph what has really happened.

Reading some of the revelations that Our Lady has made to the mystics, we see that these two cases were not isolated bouts of suffering and trial, but a regular daily dose that God administered to them. Our Lady revealed to one of the mystics that there was not one day in her whole life that she did not suffer greatly, one way or another, for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls.

Bread and Butter
Suffering is the “bread and butter” of God’s friends. It is why Our Lord said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); and this was echoed by Our Lady to St. Bernadette, when she said that she would not make Bernadette happy in this world, but in the next. We can be sure that, humanly speaking, Bernadette was just as disappointed in hearing those words as the Apostles must have been at the Last Supper, when Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:20-21).

Advent in the Womb
During Advent, Mary carries Jesus in her womb; after Advent, she will carry Him in her arms; after Lent He will have died her arms. She knows that she is bringing Him into world, so that He may die for the world. She will give Him to the world, so that He may lead souls away from the world. She knows too, that He who made the world, will be hated by the world. The world of Mary’s womb, is more of a paradise that the world into which He will find Himself thrust.

Mother and Son
Children take on the attitudes, opinions, language, characteristics and manner of acting that they witness in their parents. We say: “Like father, like son!” ... “Like mother, like daughter!” It is only natural, and it is also supernatural. As Jesus died on the Cross, He addressed Our Lady and St. John, saying: “‘Woman, behold thy son!’ After that, He said to the disciple: ‘Behold thy mother!’ And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own” (John 19:26-27). From that hour, too, Mary took him for her son. Yet, as the commentators say, those words also apply to us. She is our mother also; and we are her children.

Living in Mary’s Womb
This reminds us of the words of St. Augustine, quoted by St. Louis de Montfort in hisTrue Devotion to Mary: “St. Augustine, surpassing himself, and going beyond all I have yet said, affirms that all the predestinate, in order to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, are in this world hidden in the womb of the most holy Virgin, where they are guarded, nourished, brought up and made to grow by that good Mother until she has brought them forth to glory after death, which is properly the day of their birth.” (True Devotion to Mary).

“God the Holy Ghost, being barren in God―that is to say, not producing another Divine Person―is become fruitful by Mary, whom He has espoused. It was with her, in her, and of her that He produced His Masterpiece, which is God made Man, and that He goes on producing daily, to the end of the world, the predestinate and the members of the Body of that adorable Head ... (True Devotion to Mary).

God Wants More Children Through Mary
“God the Father wishes to have children by Mary till the consummation of the world ... Just as in the natural and corporal generation of children there are a father and a mother, so in the supernatural and spiritual generation there are a Father, who is God, and a Mother, who is Mary. All the true children of God, the predestinate, have God for their Father and Mary for their Mother. He who has not Mary for his Mother has not God for his Father.” (True Devotion to Mary).

“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself in His members every day, by His dear Mother ... One and the same mother does not bring forth into the world the head without the members, or the members without the head; for this would be a monster of nature. So in like manner, in the order of grace, the head and the members are born of one and the same Mother; and if a member of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ―that is to say, one of the predestinate―were born of any other mother than Mary, who has produced the Head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but simply a monster in the order of grace.” (True Devotion to Mary).

“When Mary has struck her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she alone can produce, because she alone is the fruitful Virgin who never has had, and never will have, her equal in purity and in fruitfulness. Mary has produced, together with the Holy Ghost, the greatest thing which has been or ever will be―a God Man; and she will consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time. The formation and the education of the great saints who shall come at the end of the world are reserved for her. For it is only that singular and miraculous Virgin who can produce, in union with the Holy Ghost, singular and extraordinary things.” (True Devotion to Mary).

“When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His spouse. Nay, one of the greatest reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable spouse.” (True Devotion to Mary).

Similarly for us. If we want to follow Jesus and Mary to an eternal happiness, we must be prepared for temporal suffering: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.” We have to make a choice--God or the Devil; good or evil; Heaven or the world. There is not and cannot be any compromise or fraternity between them. When Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon”, He is not joking. When St. James writes: “know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4) he is not joking. When Jesus tells the young man: “Go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me” He is not joking.

We can be very easily brainwashed—by the devil, the world and the flesh—into believing the contrary. We rationalize, water-down, twist, filter, cover-up, ignore or forget those words of God and His saints that seem to command, demand and reprimand too much. We fallaciously argue and debate with ourselves, saying: “Hold on! Take it easy! Don’t go overboard! Remember that true virtue is a balance between two extremes—those of excess and neglect. So to be sure of being virtuous, I will not be excessively worldly, nor will I be excessively spiritual; and neither will I neglect the ways of the world, nor will I neglect God!”

Rejoice, O daughter of Sion, and be jubilantly glad, O daughter of Israel!
Behold, thy Lord cometh, and, in His day, a great light shall arise!

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday December 16th & Tuesday December 17th

Article 13
Let Your Joy Bubble and Spill Over into the Week!

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What Do You Seek?
Yesterday, we celebrated “Gaudete Sunday”―which you could translate as being “Joyful Sunday” or a “Sunday of Rejoicing.” What are we joyful about? Why are we rejoicing? Everyone seeks joy. Everyone wants to be joyful. Joy is synonymous with “happiness”―and St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that everyone was made for happiness and everyone seeks happiness. We all prefer a joyful person over a sad or depressed person―we would all like to be joyful rather than sad. Joy attracts―sadness repels. St. Thomas Aquinas says: “No man can live without joy. That is why one deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures”―which is the case for most persons today.

Everyone wants pleasure. More deeply, everyone wants happiness. Most deeply, everyone wants joy. Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit or soul, in the center of self, in the center of a person who is centered upon God. Joy is independent of the body and mind. True joy is based on the grace of God: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5).

Everyone seeks joy! But not everyone knows what joy looks like! There are many imaginary joys, but only one real joy. True joy is spiritual joy―for what is spiritual is also enduring and eternal. Of all the spiritual joys that there are to be found and experienced, there is none that comes anywhere near the joy of possessing and loving God. Faith, love, and joy are a package deal. You need Faith to love, and you need to love to find joy. Most people put their faith―not in God―but in man and what man can do and what man has done. Having put their faith in these things, consequently, it is these man-made things that they love and, from this it follows that they will find their ‘joy’ in these things―but it will not be a real joy―at best it will be pleasure for the body or happiness for the mind.

The false and fake joys of this world, of the flesh, of materialism are not of this quality. As Our Lord says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice―and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:19-21, 33). “For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink [which are material things]―but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost [which are spiritual things]” (Romans 14:17). “A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money: and he that loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them: so this also is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 5:9).

It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to see where most people seek their joys―they seek them in the material, physical, electronic and passing things of this life. Thus, whatever joy they may find in them, will end sooner or later, and those joys―though they seem to last quite long time now―will fade away when measured against the length of eternity. There exists a real danger that even well-meaning Catholics can lose the feeling of expectancy, prayerfulness, detachment and joyful anticipation that should animate our Advent, through careless routine, through worldliness, through the influential attitudes of worldly people, through the customs of the world. There is the danger that we become too readily satisfied with a false and fake joy―a materialistic giddiness―which all too readily animates most people in the pre-Christmas period. The true joy, the better joy, the higher joy―which is spiritual joy―is totally neglected by a world that is orientated towards the tangible, sensuous, physical and material.

Four Levels of Happiness
Some spiritual authors arbitrarily speak of four levels of happiness. These begin with selfishness and end with selflessness―they begin with focusing on personal happiness, first bodily, material and exterior happiness. Then, another level enters, which is personal interior happiness. After this, as the person hopefully matures and becomes wiser and less selfish, there enters the focus of relationships with others and the desire to give happiness to others. Finally, the crowning happiness is that a sincere relationship with God and the desire of giving happiness to God by doing His will in all things.

► On the first level of happiness, the source of happiness comes from external things: from a good meal or movie, a sports event, a concert, etc. These externals are centered on the self. It is a selfish happiness that indulges in things outside of myself, the exterior world, external objects, places, persons, things.

► The second level of happiness is gratification of the self. Happiness shifts from the outside to my inner world. This happiness comes from academic or financial success, position, prestige, etc. These achievements can give me control and power over others. By choosing to live on this level, my thoughts are focused on myself. In advancing my self-interests for their own sake, in comparing and contrasting myself with others, I play the “ego game” which often leads to admiration and popularity.

► If I ascend to the third level of happiness, the self is turned outward to others. When I allow others to make demands on my gifts and time, energy, and patience, I can bring happiness and joy to them. I wish them the good that I wish to myself. This “other-centered focus” energizes me as I choose to evoke the best in others. Living on this level can become a habit, even an instinct. In giving, I receive. Read Father Walter Ciszek’s two books, With God in Russia, and He Leadeth Me. Read Viktor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning. Both men were imprisoned and suffered in concentration camps: Ciszek, a Jesuit priest, in Soviet prisons, Frankl, an Austrian-Jew and neurological psychiatrist, in various Nazi concentration camps. Both lived on the third level of happiness, purposefully and in the most difficult of circumstances.

Fourth Level of Happiness
► The fourth and final level of happiness is the realization that God makes all things intelligible. God is the Mind and the Artist behind the Universe. Only Christianity can offer and lead to this level of happiness, for the Divine Person of Jesus Christ in the greatest of all relationships. All men and women thirst and hunger for God, even if not expressed in this way. Life is lived in God―it is for Him and in Him that we live, move and have our being. God puts order in my life. Every thought, activity, and deed is an act of fidelity and love. With St. Peter, the Christian asks: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life” (John 6:69). And St. Augustine speaks for the heart: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” (Confessions, Book 1, Ch. 1).

Where Did Our Lord Find Happiness and Joy?
He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. He does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. He comes not to live on Earth forever, but to forever detach us from this Earth. He prefers poverty over power; humility over honors; rejection over riches and suffering over splendor. His way is not our way, yet He Who called Himself “the Way” shows us wayward wayfarers the true way—and it is not a pleasant way, but the Way of the Cross.

Suffering is the “bread and butter” of God’s friends. It is why Our Lord said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); and this was echoed by Our Lady to St. Bernadette, when she said that she would not make Bernadette happy in this world, but in the next. We can be sure that, humanly speaking, Bernadette was just as disappointed in hearing those words as the Apostles must have been at the Last Supper, when Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:20-21).

The joy St. Paul urges us to practice is the spiritual joy, which comes from the knowledge that, as Christians, we are incorporated by baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ. Part of the ‘contract’ means having to take up your cross daily and carry it with joy, as did the Apostles, who “went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). This was simply the small print of the ‘contract’ that Jesus revealed at the Last Supper, when He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

Yet our joy should not only be a result of the crosses that come our way, but let us also stop for a moment to count our blessings and see how many positive reasons we have for rejoicing.

We are alive; we are probably reasonably healthy; reasonably well-off compared to the vast majority in this world who live in poverty or near poverty; we are most certainly much better off than the people who lived centuries ago; we are human beings who can think, reason and love; we have a body with many talents and gifts, we have a soul which is destined to last forever.

We have been redeemed and been given a chance to attain eternal happiness in Heaven; we have the means of going there and have a guarantee we will get there if we use those means. We are among the minority in this world who have been baptized; we are part of an even greater minority of the baptized who still practice the Faith; we are able to receive our God and Creator in Holy Communion—daily if we wish (in most cases); we have access to the Sacrament of Confession in the case we fall into mortal sin and lose, thereby, our chance of going to Heaven.

And while we battle and struggle on the road to Heaven, we are allowed to enjoy many temporal gifts offered us from the generous hand of a loving Father. Have we not reason to rejoice, to be glad? Indeed, can any true Christian be sad? Of course, we meet with snags and setbacks on the road. To reach the summit of the everlasting hills of Heaven we have to climb the rugged foothills that lead to the summit, but a true Christian will not moan and murmur because of that. It is only those who are going nowhere, those who are to remain forever in a lowly painful valley, who meet no obstacles and have no hills to climb. For them there is only the broad, wide road that leads downwards. We have a chance of going to Heaven and so we realize that every obstacle we overcome, every little summit we scale, is bringing us nearer to the lofty peaks where everlasting happiness and the “peace of God” will be our eternal reward together with an unending joy!

The Passion of Joy
Joy is one of the passions of the soul. The passions of the soul are very powerful, but they are also blind; they need to be correctly guided, and this guidance is expected to be given by the reason and the will (popularly known as the mind and the heart, as in the Scriptural command of loving God with your whole mind, heart, etc.). If this guidance is neglected, weak or erroneous, then mayhem results, but a mayhem that the passions find intoxicatingly and deliriously joyful.

Original Sin Turns Original Joy Sour
The passions of the soul are the following: love-hatred, desire-aversion, joy-grief; hope-despair, courage-fear, and anger. Adam and Eve, in the state of innocence, were not subject to the passions that have reference to evil, for they had to face no evil, present or threatening; therefore they were not subject to fear, grief, despair, anger, or inordinate desire. They had only such passions as refer to present and future good: joy, love, hope, orderly desire. And these passions of our first parents were, before the fall, perfectly subject and obedient to their reason and will, which, in turn, were perfectly subject and obedient to the enlightenment of God’s grace.

Once they had rebelled against God through their Original Sin, it was only fitting justice that God allow the inferior passions to rebel against the superior intellect and will, just as the inferior will and intellect rebelled against the superior grace of God, thus causing the inferior Adam and Eve to rebel against the superiority of God.

It is from that Original Sin that our passions beget their rebelliousness and it is from Original Sin that our intellect and our will find themselves wounded and weakened; no longer being in total domination over our passions, who now use false ‘reasoning’ in order to extort from our intellect and will an excess of what they feel will satisfy them. The passions are blind and need to be led by right reason and a strong will, when the passions overpower our reason and the will by their constant nagging and begging, then we have a case of the blind leading the weak—and as Our Lord says, they both fall into the pit (Matthew 15:14). “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Romans 7:19).

Blind Passions Cannot See True Joy
Our passions being blind, do not discern between good and evil; their measurement stick is not a moral measurement, but a measurement of pleasure: “Does this give me pleasure or does it not give me pleasure?” To the uncontrolled and unguided passions, moral good and moral evil do not enter into the equation. For them, if something is pleasurable then it is automatically good; if something is not pleasurable, then it is automatically evil. The result is what Holy Scripture warns us about: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).”Dearly beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doth good, is of God: he that doth evil, hath not seen God” (3 John 1:11).

Passionate Results
The results brought about by our blind passions are partially listed by St. Paul:”Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid.” (1 Timothy 3:1-5). Those who practice some or all of the above sins, find joy in them, but it is a misguided joy, a false joy, a sinful joy.

The Greedy Joy of the Passions
The passions are all about themselves and not the common good. Each one is like a gluttonous child taking his place at the dinner table—what results is a “free for all” grab and fight, unless the parents (reason and will) take charge and impose some discipline. Similarly, a child could eat ice-cream all day long and every day, or some other junk food of their choice—however, sickness or tooth decay will sooner or later show the existence of justice. Likewise, God will eventually step-in and with justice He will correct matters. Justice is giving someone their due, whether it be a good effect (a reward) or a bad effect (a punishment). “All things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean” (Ecclesiastes 9:2).

Happiness and Joy is Every Person’s Goal
Whether we admit it nor and whether we like it or not, we all have the same ultimate supreme good. Our last end is a complete and enduring satisfaction or fulfillment; such a fulfillment is called beatitude or happiness and joy. But all men do not agree about the precise things in which their fulfillment and consequent happiness are to be found. Some think to attain the end by becoming rich, some by enjoying pleasures, some by exercising power, some by being praised and honored, and so on.

The desire for happiness and joy is behind our ceaseless drive towards his supreme and universal good—which, in other words, means seeking something that is wholly complete, perfectly satisfying. The problem lies in the fact that we have different ideas as to what that supreme good is; and we also differ in our opinions on how best to obtain it. Even in our sinful acts, we are seeking what we imagine to be a ‘good’, that is, satisfaction, although we are perversely seeking it in the wrong place, with the wrong persons, with the wrong things, or in the wrong manner.

Everyone seeks fulfillment or satisfaction, happiness and joy. These are the feelings we wish to experience. But those feelings need an object for their fulfillment or realization; the object which, when possessed, will give us complete happiness and joy.

The Joy of Knowing and the Joy of Possessing
We cannot enjoy something that we either know nothing about, nor enjoy something that we do not, at least temporarily, possess. I cannot enjoy a conversation if I am not engaged in one; I cannot enjoy a meal unless I am eating one; I cannot enjoy the weather unless I am actually experiencing it; I cannot enjoy a thought unless I am thinking it, and so on and so forth.

St. Louis de Montfort asks that popular philosophical question: “Is it possible for man to love that which he does not know? Can he love ardently that which he knows but imperfectly? Why then is the adorable Jesus, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, loved so little? Because He is not known, or known but little. Very few of us, like St. Paul, make a sincere study of the supereminent science of Jesus, which is, nevertheless the most noble, the most consoling, the most useful and the most necessary of all sciences in Heaven and on earth” (Love of the Eternal Wisdom, St. Louis de Montfort).

Joy—the Icing on the Cake of Love
Joy is the fruit or the proverbial “icing-on-the-cake” that comes with possessing of being in the presence of what we love. Love is, in a certain sense, incomplete without the actual union with what we love. In fact, love is driven on powerfully to obtain the object of its love and will not find ultimate peace or joy until it successfully obtains the loved object.

Hence persons, who love food, are happiest and most joyful when they actually engaged in eating food. Lovers of music are happiest and most joyful when they are playing or listening to their favorite music. Sports lovers experience the height of joy only when they are actually engaged in playing or watching their favorite sport. Those who love drugs or alcohol will experience the greatest joy when they are actually united to and are consuming their beloved substance.

False Happiness and Fake Joy
However, our happiness is not to be found in wealth, whether this be natural wealth which serves our normal needs (such as food, clothing, housing), or artificial wealth (money) which provides us with the items of natural wealth. Wealth of any kind is a means for acquiring something else; it is a thing that serves; it does not fulfill. Therefore wealth cannot be the true last end of man and the object that will render him eternally and completely happy.

Nor can power supply us with perfect happiness and joy, because power, like money, is a means to achieving something further, it is not an end in itself, but a means to something else.

Nor can our full happiness be found in being honored, respected and loved on account of some of our qualities or excellence, nor can it be found in fame and glory, because all these things are imperfect, they are not universal (not everybody feels that way about us), nor are they enduring (their opinions about us may change). Any excellence in a man is in him by reason of some good already possessed; it means that he already has some degree of happiness. Honors come to him because of this happiness, and therefore honor, praise and respect cannot themselves be the elements of perfect happiness.

Our ultimate happiness does not consist in goods of the body--life, health, strength, beauty, agility, etc. for these goods preserve the body and its perfections. Merely to preserve life cannot be the end of life. Just like money and power, goods of the body are to be used as a means by reason (intellect and will) and not to be looked upon as end in itself, just like a ship is used by its captain; or a car by its owner. The car is a means of transportation and of carrying cargo, it is not there to be just looked at and enjoyed. The captain does not dock his ship in harbor to be admired, but to carry passengers or profitable cargoes to desired ports. Likewise the goods of the body are means to an end, and not complete ends in themselves. Besides, being a rational being as well as a bodily being; we can never be completely fulfilled and satisfied by bodily goods alone, for the soul ranks higher than the body.

Joy from Above, or Joy from Below?
In fact, no created good or creature can give us perfect happiness, for they all have limits and degrees that allow them to give only partial happiness and a passing joy. No created good is wholly perfect, in all areas and limitless in its degrees of fulfillment; only an uncreated and limitless good can be our ultimate end and joy. And this uncreated good is God.

However, if we listen to our passions more than we listen to God, then problems will arise. As already stated, happiness and joy are our ultimate goals, and if we no longer seek happiness and joy in the things that are above, then, nature abhorring a vacuum, will look for that happiness and joy the things that are below, for the hungry passion needs to be fed on something. If we refuse to eat healthy food, then we will by default eat junk food. Our Lord clearly tells us:

“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) ... “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). To which St. James adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). That is why St. Paul says: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).
No doubt friendship with the world, acceptance by the world, the ways of acting of the world, may bring us great happiness and joy, but it is not the happiness and joy of Heaven, it is not a true and enduring happiness: “

Obtaining that Heavenly Joy
True happiness and joy cannot be perfectly attained without rightness or rectitude in our will, where the will is conformed to and obedient to the guidance of grace and the teachings of Christ, Who tells us what to love and what not to love; what to seek and what not to seek. This sets our will in proper alignment with the supreme good, and makes our will love what it loves in perfect subordination to God. Without this subordination and perfection of our human will, we will never be perfectly happy.”But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12:31). “Not every one that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). “If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 15:10).

Love, when it is true, brings joy. But love is reciprocal (two-way-street); it means not just being loved, but loving in return; it means not just taking, but giving in return. “He that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him” (John 14:21). If we love Our Lord we must keep His commandments. This will bring, what is known as the “Joy of a Good Conscience.”

Happiness and Joy are Essentially in the Soul
Our ultimate happiness is essentially an operation of our soul: it is to know God with our intellect (our mind) and to love God with our will (our heart); both are faculties and actions of the soul. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole mind ... This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).

Therefore the body is not essential to our ultimate happiness. But there is a need in each soul to be in its own body, God made us that way. In the present life, a fit and healthy body is required for earthly happiness and joy, whereas a feeble and sick body is often the source of sickness and sorrow. In the after-life, though the body is not essential to the soul’s happiness and joy in Heaven, a body will be supplied to the soul at the general resurrection. Then the body itself will attain full perfection, but is will only be a secondary or accidental factor to the happiness and joy of Heaven.

Heavenly Joys without Food, Drink, Sleep and Belongings
External goods, such as food, drink, and property, which are required in due measure for earthly happiness, will not be required at all in Heaven. When souls and bodies are reunited at the general resurrection, our human bodies will be spiritualized and will no longer have material or animal needs. In Heaven, the fellowship of friends will not be essential to our happiness, for God will be all-sufficing. Nevertheless, friends will be loved and their fellowship will be enjoyed in God.

In the present earthly life we can reach a certain degree of happiness, but we cannot have perfect happiness. On earth limitations and drawbacks are associated with happiness. Only the vision, experience and possession of God can make us perfectly happy, and this vision cannot be had in earthly life.

Once we have attained this perfect joy and happiness, it cannot be lost. For perfect happiness fills up our capacity and all our desires for what is good; that there is no tendency remaining in us which might lead us astray and away from our joyful and happy state.

Rejoice, O daughter of Sion, and be jubilantly glad, O daughter of Israel!
Behold, thy Lord cometh, and, in His day, a great light shall arise!

Sunday December 15th

Article 12
Gaudete Sunday a Day of Spiritual Joy!

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Happy in Prison?
For some people, Advent―much like Lent―is a penitential prison or penitential penitentiary, in which they would rather not be! They feel imprisoned, constrained, cramped and straitjacketed by the Church’s recommendation to do penance. As regards the “Prison of Advent”, today―the Third Sunday of Advent―is called Gaudete Sunday. The title “Gaudete” originates from the reading at Mass on the Third Sunday of Advent, which is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, for the Church uses the passage from Philippians chapter 4, verse 4, which says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice!” The Church uses that phrase, both in the entrance hmyn and in the reading for the Third Sunday of Advent. To put it into its proper context, you need to know that St. Paul is writing this during the time of his imprisonment at Rome―and he is joyful despite that. Gaudete Sunday is the point in Advent when the traditional purple of Advent “lightens-up” and rose colored vestments are worn. Gaudete Sunday is the day upon which the Church encourages us to “lighten-up” a little and rejoice. To rejoice! What does it mean “to rejoice”? When we look at that word and break it down, we see that it is a combination of two things: (1) to show joy, (2) once again. If we simplify or divide the word “rejoice” into more understandable parts, we come up with the prefix “re-” and word “joy.” The prefix “re-” means to do something over again or do something once more after a relapse. Hence we have similar examples in the following words: re-think, re-do, re-paint, re-write, re-make, etc.

What is “Rejoicing”?
To “re-joice” means to put aside sadness, sorrow, despondency, discouragement and despair, and take up once again feelings of joy. People are sad and disheartened in poverty, but rejoice if somebody somehow alleviates their poverty, even if it is only for a short time. A nation can be discouraged and depressed in a war, but rejoices in victory, when the war is won, the enemy defeated and peace ensues.

Sin Brings Misery, Not Joy
Re-joicing, or having joy again, implies that we have lost our joy and then we find it again. Of course, we realize that the losing of joy is a consequence of sin: “Why art thou sad, O my soul? And why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God!” (Psalms 41:6). “And my soul is troubled exceedingly: but Thou, O Lord, how long? Turn to me, O Lord, and deliver my soul: O save me for Thy mercy's sake” (Psalm 6:4-5). “The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The sorrows of Hell encompassed me. In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God: and He heard my voice from His holy temple: and my cry before Him came into His ears” (Psalm 17:5-7). “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Because I was silent my bones grew old; whilst I cried out all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: I am turned in my anguish, whilst the thorn is fastened. I have acknowledged my sin to Thee, and my injustice I have not concealed. I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord: and Thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin” (Psalm 31:1-5). “Let them trust in Thee who know Thy Name: for Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, O Lord!” (Psalm 9:11). “I will rejoice in thy salvation” (Psalm 9:16). Once we have made war on sin and made peace with God, we will find our joy again.

Finding the Grace of God Once Again, Brings Joy
“Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:23-24). “What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing: and coming home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them: 'Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!' I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten coins; if she lose one coin, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying: 'Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin which I had lost!' So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance” (Luke 15:4-10).

The Joy of Penance
There is no true joy or happiness whilst we remain in sin and our guilt is not confessed and thus not forgiven. Yet there is still not full joy after confessing our sins if we have not paid for the debt of sin. Confession removes the guilt of sin; acts of penance pay for the debt for sin. When confession and penance are combined, they lead us to a greater joy. The more we humble ourselves in confession and the more we do penance, the more joy we get. “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance” (Luke 15:7). If penance brings joy to Heaven, it should bring joy to us on earth. The thought of penance makes some people sad—whereas it should be a source of great joy. For there can be no Heaven without penance: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). “Let him do penance for his sin” (Leviticus 5:5). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). “And I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent” (Apocalypse 2:21). “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3) and, once again we repeat, and it is worth repeating a thousand times: “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance” (Luke 15:7).

Profiting from the Joy Producing Season of Advent
The season of Advent originated as forty days of penance in preparation for Christmas. In the ninth century, the duration of Advent was reduced to four weeks and by the twelfth century the fast had been replace by simple abstinence. Despite these changes occurring over the centuries, Advent has (or should have, but this is less and less the case today) preserved most of the characteristics of a penitential season which made it a kind of counterpart to Lent. The third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, breaks through a season that is otherwise penitential to signify the nearness of the Lord’s coming. The reason we can be joyful on Gaudete Sunday, is partially because we have been doing penance and have increased our prayer and and intensified our spiritual life over the preceding days of Advent.

Guadete Sunday is further marked by a new invitatory (the opening phrase of the Divine Office or Breviary), the Church inviting the faithful to no longer merely adore “Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come”, but is now calling upon them to worship and hail with joy “The Lord is close at hand; come, let us worship Him.”

Advent is a time of expectation and preparation for the Christmas feast, as well as for the second coming of Christ, and the penitential exercises, suitable to this season, are thus on Gaudete Sunday suspended, for a while, in order to symbolize our joy and gladness in the Promised Redemption, which should never be absent from the heart of the faithful.

Woe if We Fail to Listen and Profit
But woe to us if we neglect to focus on these heavenly, divine things—immersing ourselves, instead, in the banal but brief attractions of the world! Many Catholics are but Catholic in name—superficial Catholics, ‘dressed’ as Catholics by their mechanical, rushed, distracted prayers of which Our Lord says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). These superficial Catholics will protest to Our Lord: “’Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then [the Lord] will profess unto them: ‘I never knew you—depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Every one therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:22-27).

“Curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee. For because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart, thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee” (Deuteronomy 28:45-48).

Deaf and Blind World
This is still true today—as a result of the world, as a whole, and a large part of the Church ignores the true spirit of Advent and Christmas (which is one of penance followed by a spiritual joy and celebration of the coming of Christ), then God will allow the world and the Church to fall under the yoke of their enemies. Our Lady foretells that governments will strive to abolish the true Faith and replace it with the yoke of materialism; that churches will be desecrated; many will abandon and lose the Faith; a bloody persecution of the Church will ensue; a greater part of humanity will be annihilated—all because of refusing to serve the Lord and accepting His yoke with joy. Instead, they found joy in the world and sadness in the service of the Lord.

Sr. Lucia speaks of this “not hearing the word of the Lord, nor the words of Our Lady” in her interview with Fr. Fuentes in 1957: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.”

“Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome, on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention. That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform ourselves spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also the souls that God has placed on our path.”

In 1970, speaking with Fr. Jose Valinho, Sr. Lucia adds: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave which is sweeping the world and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”

If People Would Only…
People could and would find so much joy in the service of God, rather than in the service of the spirit of the world—but they are blind to this. True joy can only be attained after being purified and purged from the spirit and contamination of the world. Our Lady of Good Success had said in 1634: “Prepare your soul so that, increasingly purified, it might enter into the fullness of the joy of Our Lord. Oh, if mortals, and in particular religious souls, could know what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live! Nor would they spare themselves any sacrifice in order to possess Him!”

With such a spirit, it is possible to find joy in sacrifice; joy in poverty; joy in persecution; joy in pain; joy in anything! This is akin to the joy of the souls who suffer the terrible fires of Purgatory—their joy is extreme, because they have finally acquired the spirit of a true Christian.

The Example of St. Paul
In like manner, sinful mankind can be sad and sorrowful at sight of its sins; for which it is paying through penance and piteously pleading for pardon and peace; yet the Divine deafness leaves them downcast and discouraged under the domination of devils. All this can be seen united in the person of St. Paul: (1) He was a great sinner who had persecuted Christians until converted by Our Lord Himself; (2) He penitentially practiced powerful penances and perseveringly prayed for the rest of his life in order to make amends; (3) yet God seemed to turn a blind-eye to his penances and deaf-ear to his prayers, as Providence showered him with suffering after suffering. In fact, the Lord had said to Ananias, just after Paul’s conversion: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). And suffer he did! Here is St. Paul’s partial list, written down by himself, of just a fraction of his sufferings:

“They are Hebrews: so am I. They are Israelites: so am I. They are the seed of Abraham: so am I. They are the ministers of Christ, I am more; in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity” (2 Corinthians 11:22-30). And now he finds himself in prison, and what does he say? He writes to the Philippians:

“Brethren: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety, but in every prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Philippians 4:4-7).

St. Paul’s Silver-Lined Cloud
This letter of St. Paul to the Christians of Philippi—his first converts in Europe—was written to them from his prison in Rome. When the Philippians, who were very attached to their Apostle, heard of Paul’s imprisonment, they sent one of the community, Epaphroditus, with a sum of money, and with instructions to remain with Paul, to help him in his needs. Epaphroditus became seriously ill in Rome and nearly died; when he recovered Paul sent him back and sent this letter with him to the Christians of Philippi. In it he thanks them and praises them for their generosity and true Christian love, he exhorts them to remain firm in the Faith, despite the present adversity of Paul being in prison. In the four verse extract, read at today’s Mass, St. Paul urges them to “rejoice always.” He repeats it to emphasize how important he thought it: “again I say rejoice.”

The joy St. Paul urges them to practice is the spiritual joy, which comes from the knowledge that, as Christians, they are incorporated by their baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ. Part of the ‘contract’ means having to take up your cross daily and carry it with joy, as did the Apostles, who “went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). This was simply the small print of the ‘contract’ that Jesus revealed at the Last Supper, when He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

Can You Spot Christ?
We need our supernatural glasses, or contact lenses, to see Jesus in our sufferings―but, as the old adage goes: “Where there is the cross, there too is Christ!” St. Paul understood this and that is why he can speak so joyfully and courageously of the cross and suffering:

“For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18) ... “That I may live to God: with Christ I am nailed to the cross” (Galatians 2:19) ... “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14) ... “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Romans 8:18) ... “I Paul...now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh” (Colossians 1:23-24).

This attitude of St. Paul is approved and ‘rubber-stamped’ by St. Peter, who writes: “If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, then rejoice, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:13).

St. Peter and St. Paul fully realize, understand and accept that God’s gifts of grace and His promise of future glory, are sufficient at all times to give us a ready and joyful acceptance of God’s will in adversity as well as in prosperity. St. Paul himself “rejoices” in his imprisonment, because his chains have turned out to be a means of spreading the Gospel, and are, for him, a means to his own salvation as well the salvation of others (1:12-20).

Rejoice—No Matter What
There are many lessons we may learn from these words of St. Paul written from a Roman dungeon to the Christians of Philippi, but the principal lesson and the one the Church wishes to place before us today is the lesson of joy. We must rejoice in the Lord—no matter what. For all that happens to us and around us, is only happening because God either wants it to happen (if it something good and not sinful) or God has allowed it to happen (if the action we suffer happens to be unjust or sinful). In all events, we must remember that nothing can happen without God’s permission. This should give us a similar attitude to suffering to that of St. Paul.

Yet our joy should not only be a result of the crosses that come our way, but let us also stop for a moment to count our blessings and see how many positive reasons we have for rejoicing.

We are alive; we are probably reasonably healthy; reasonably well-off compared to the vast majorty in this world who live in poverty or near poverty; we are most certainly much better off than the people who lived centuries ago; we are human beings who can think, reason and love; we have a body with many talents and gifts, we have a soul which is destined to last forever.

We have been redeemed and been given a chance to attain eternal happiness in Heaven; we have the means of going there and have a guarantee we will get there if we use those means. We are among the minority in this world who have been baptized; we are part of an even greater minority of the baptized who still practice the Faith; we are able to receive our God and Creator in Holy Communion—daily if we wish (in most cases); we have access to the Sacrament of Confession in the case we fall into mortal sin and lose, thereby, our chance of going to Heaven.

And while we battle and struggle on the road to Heaven, we are allowed to enjoy many temporal gifts offered us from the generous hand of a loving Father. Have we not reason to rejoice, to be glad? Indeed, can any true Christian be sad? Of course, we meet with snags and setbacks on the road. To reach the summit of the everlasting hills of Heaven we have to climb the rugged foothills that lead to the summit, but a true Christian will not moan and murmur because of that. It is only those who are going nowhere, those who are to remain forever in a lowly painful valley, who meet no obstacles and have no hills to climb. For them there is only the broad, wide road that leads downwards. We have a chance of going to Heaven and so we realize that every obstacle we overcome, every little summit we scale, is bringing us nearer to the lofty peaks where everlasting happiness and the “peace of God” will be our eternal reward together with an unending joy!

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday December 13th & Saturday December 14th

Article 11
You've Heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas
Well, Today Sees the Start of the Twelve Days of Pre-Christmas
(On Friday the 13th!!!)

This article is still to be finished. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

Superstitious?
Today, Friday, we start a Twelve-Day Countdown to Christmas Day. As of Friday, there are twelve days to go before the Twelve Days of Christmas begin! Actually, the Christmas season is Forty Days long―until February 2nd―but here we refer to the mini-season of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” ― or the kernel of Christmas ― that begins with Christmas Day (December 25th) and takes us to the feast of the Epiphany (January 6th). So, we have twelve more days of preparation left! How are your preparations going? Not so well? Well, today is the superstitiously dreaded “Friday the 13th”―but Our Lady is not superstitious, since she chose the 13th day of the month for her apparitions at Fatima, and, if you ever checked the calendar for 1917, then you will know that the apparition of Our Lady on July 13th, 1917, was―yes, you guessed it―it was “Friday the 13th” !!! So now you know! Anyway, trivia and superstition cast aside, let us get back to reality and the reality of preparing for Christmas! “Prepare and make thyself ready, and all thy multitude that is assembled about thee, and be thou commander over them!” (Ezechiel 38:7).

Prepare the Way of the Lord
The Advent liturgy speaks to us of “The voice of one crying in the desert: ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God!’” (Isaias 40:3). It says nothing about preparing the Christmas menu, or decorating the Christmas tree, or the Christmas shopping spree, or the Christmas gift-wrapping and gift-giving! That does not mean that those things are not a part of Christmas―but, as they say: “First things first!”

Many people look forward to Christmas―but do they look forward to Christmas for the right reasons? Many people are “in love” with Christmas, but are they really “in love” with the real “Birthday-Boy” of Christmas―Our Lord Jesus Christ―or will they treat Christmas as though it was their own birthday? They are “in love” with Christmas―but are they “in love” with Christ and Christ’s Mass at Christmas? “The first commandment of all is: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength!’ This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself!’ There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Mark 12:29-31). Notice that GOD COMES FIRST―self and neighbor are tied for “Second-Place.” Will Christ and God be in “First-Place” this Christmas? Will Christ and God be in “First-Place” among our Christmas preparations during this season of Advent? How much of Christmas are we planning to give to Christ? Will Christ even really be in Christmas? For some, yes―for others, no or very little!

“Prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only” (1 Kings 7:3). “It is the part of man to prepare the soul” (Proverbs 16:1). “They that fear the Lord, will prepare their hearts, and in His sight will sanctify their souls” (Ecclesiasticus 2:20). Never mind the food preparations so much―your soul preparation will be the sole thing Our Lord will be looking at and examining―not your Christmas menu or Christmas activities! “Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’” (1 Corinthians 10:7). “Seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink” (Luke 12:29). “Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:31-33). “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We can look upon Advent as an “angel of God” that He has sent to prepare for His coming at Christmas: “Behold I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face. And presently the Lord, Whom you seek, Whom you desire, shall come to His temple [your soul]. ‘Behold he cometh!’ saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachias 3:1). That is how we should look at Christmas―as Christ coming to the temple of our soul. It is the soul and the preparations of the soul, for the soul, that should take precedence over all those other material preparations which people seem to value most. “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are! … Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:18-17; 6:19).

The “Buyers and Sellers” of Christmas
Nobody can deny that Christmas has become commercialized. It is not the business of the soul that it ought to be―but has become a materialistic business, a commercial business, a time of “buying and selling” that inevitably “sells” Jesus down the river. The stores, malls and websites are the temples of Christmas and the number of worshipers, who excitedly rush there, far outnumbers the paltry few who unexcitedly and ‘boringly’ prepare for a true Christmas. The “buying and selling” that always escalates at this time of year, is not the selling of our possessions in order to buy Heaven, but the exact opposite―for it will lead many souls away from Heaven, for eternity! As Our Lord said to the well-intentioned, commandment-keeping, upright and virtuous rich young man―who had just asked Him what he should do to gain perfection and Heaven. Our Lord said what He would say to today’s “buyers and sellers”― ““Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:21-24).

Even more than that, Our Lord would drive the “buyers and sellers” out of their temples―the stores, malls and websites―and drive them into the churches for some real, long-lasting, eternally rewarding “buying and selling” at the feet of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament and in the Sacrifice of the Mass. It was Judas who “sold” Jesus into His Passion and Death―and it is Jesus Who “bought” us back from the devil and Hell by that same Passion and Death. At Christmas, He comes to die, not party and have fun―and He wants us to die with Him, that is to say, to die to the world and its worldliness; to die to devil and his Advent and Christmas temptations to worldliness and sinfulness; and to die to our own flesh with its triple concupiscence of (1) the concupiscence of the eyes, (2) the concupiscence of the flesh and (3) the pride of life. Roughly translated into “Christmas jargon” that would read as: (1) ogling, gawking, gaping and desiring all the many items that the world displays for us in these days leading up to Christmas; (2) indulging the body and its passions with all the merriment, feasting-not-fasting, indulging in more and more entertainment rather than prayer, spiritual reading and meditation; slobbering at the thought of the impending Christmas Babylonian food-fests, the wine, beer and spirits rather than the gifts of the Holy Spirit; pining for the parties and sumptuous socials rather than the chance of extra Masses and Holy Communions!

Our day and age, with its “buyers and sellers”, more truly deserves Our Lord’s anger than the “buyers and sellers” in the Temple in His day. On two different occasions Jesus had to “cleanse” the Temple in Jerusalem. The first time was early in His public ministry, as we read in the second chapter of St. John’s Gospel: “And the Pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found, in the Temple, them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers He poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And to them that sold doves He said: ‘Take these things hence and make not the House of My Father a house of traffic!’ And His disciples remembered, that it was written: ‘The zeal of Thy House hath eaten Me up!’” (John 2:13-17).

The second time was just days before His Passion and Death: “And entering into the Temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: ‘It is written: “My house is the house of prayer!” But you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Luke 19:45-46). “And Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves. And He saith to them: ‘It is written, “My House shall be called the House of prayer”― but you have made it a den of thieves!’” (Matthew 21:12-13).

Changing the Holiday Season into a Holy Day Season!
The world and its prince―the devil―have successfully changed Christmas from Christ’s Holy Day into a commercial holiday. The words Our Lord spoke while on Earth, are clearly seen to be true today: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also ... No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7).

Is Christmas Hated?
The first line of the first amendment in the United States Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This is a religious freedom that was clearly a legal priority of the men who drafted the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that everyone in the United States has the right to practice his or her own religion, or no religion at all. The founding fathers of the USA ― who themselves were of different religious backgrounds ― thought the best way to protect religious liberty was to keep the government out of religion. So they created the First Amendment ― to guarantee the separation of church and state. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits government from encouraging or promoting (“establishing”) religion in any way. That's why we don't have an official religion of the United States. This means that the government may not give financial support to any religion. In 1971, the Supreme Court decided Lemon v. Kurtzman which created three tests for determining whether a particular government act or policy unconstitutionally promotes religion. The Lemon test says that in order to be constitutional, a policy must:
(1) Have a non-religious purpose;
(2) Not end up promoting or favoring any set of religious beliefs; and
(3) Not overly involve the government with religion.

The freedom of religion has changed over time in the United States and continues to be controversial. Almost 230 years later, the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project has said the United States places a “moderate” level of restrictions on religious practice. According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. saw a marked increase in hostility toward religion―starting in 2009, and this level of hostility remained consistent in the following years.

Christianity and Christmas Craftily Compromised and Controlled
The Supreme Court has stated, in the 1984 case Lynch v. Donnelly, that a nativity scene, placed in the public square, is not a religious symbol―instead, it is an instance of what they called “ceremonial deism.” Ceremonial deism is when a government promotes nominally (in name only) religious statements or practices with the public understanding that these have been deemed to be merely ritual and non-religious through long customary usage. According to the court’s opinion, erecting a nativity scene in the public square does not encourage any religious belief, but instead, it reminds local townspeople of their unique American heritage. So, while nativity scenes have had a significant place in American history, two centuries of use has changed their meaning from a religious symbol to secular and commercial commodity. But a more straightforward definition of this “ceremonial deism” is this: “As long as no one believes in the thing the symbol signifies, displaying it in public does not violate the First Amendment freedom of religion clause.” In other words, it’s okay as long as you’re pretending! Yet ever since that time, there has been no shortage and no cessation of successful protests against Christmas nativity scene displays in public places and public buildings. You can search the internet and find many such instances where governmental institutions and schools have been forced to remove Christmas nativity scenes―and war rages between the committed Christians and the committed secularists or atheists.

Of course, it is not just the Christmas nativity scene that comes under fire from the secularists and atheists, but also praying in schools; likewise with the insistence on a morality based on the Ten Commandments; a refusal to allow religious exemption in conscience (especially for doctors and nurses) on matters like having to perform abortions, administering contraceptives, and other questionable moral practices; the increasing widespread governmental refusal to accept religious exemption in the forced vaccination of children; the legal persecution of those who refuse to cooperate with immoral actions and situations―such as refusing to ‘marry’ a same-sex couple in church, or refusing to employ persons who are publicly known to be immoral, etc.; or a refusal to teach state-accepted immorality as part of the school curriculum; and so on and so forth. The list is becoming longer and longer with each passing year. Evil is now looked upon as being a ‘good’, while good is looked upon as being evil; and insistence upon the true good and preaching what is really true and good is looked upon as being a “hate-crime” against evil doers. If religious groups receive federal funding or tax-exempt status, both proselytizing and criticism or endorsement of political activity are limited.

The bottom line is―“Look where separation of Church and State leads you!” The words of Holy Scripture come to mind: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ. Let us break Their bonds asunder and let us cast away their yoke from us!” (Psalms 2:2-3). That Old Testament quote is echoed by Saints Peter and John in the New Testament: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord and his Christ. For of a truth there assembled together, in this city, against thy holy Child Jesus, Whom thou hast anointed―Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel―to do what Thy hand and Thy counsel decreed to be done” (Acts 4:26-28). Echoed too, in these modern times, by Our Lady of La Salette, who foretold that “all the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds.”

The plan seems to be working. Pew Research Center shows that even though most Americans believe that elements of the biblical Christmas story reflect actual real historical events, nevertheless, the percentage expressing this view has dropped noticeably in recent years. In 2017, two-thirds (66%) say Jesus was born to a virgin, compared with 73% who said this in 2014; 75% believe he was laid in a manger, down from 81%. Similarly, the number of persons who say they believe that wise men, guided by a star, brought Jesus gifts — and that an angel appeared to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus — also have declined. A very slim majority of U.S. adults (57%) believe that all four of these things actually happened, down from 65% three years ago. Belief in these events has declined, not only among people with no religious affiliation, but among Christians as well. Overall, about one-in-five Americans (19%) now say none of these things actually happened. Thus, as Our Lady of La Salette said: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”

Catholics Catch Contagious Christmas Commercialism
As the saying goes: “You cannot put clothes in a smoky room without them taking on the smell of smoke!” Talking of smoke―have you heard of “second-hand smoke”? Second-hand smoke is a mixture of the smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe, and the smoke breathed out by the smoker. It contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds of those chemicals are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer. Health effects of secondhand smoke include: (1) ear infections in children; (2) more frequent and severe asthma attacks in children; (3) heart disease and lung cancer in adults who have never smoked. There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. Even low levels of it can be harmful. After only 5 minutes of exposure, the second-hand smoke that you inhale, stiffens the aorta as much as smoking a cigarette. After 20-30 minutes it causes excess blood clotting, as well as increases the buildup of fat deposits in blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke is not to allow smoking indoors.

What has been said just above is also applicable to the Faith of Catholics. As Fr. Salvany, referring to the USA, writes, in his book Liberalism Is A Sin, Catholics are surrounded and outnumbered by vast number of Protestants, Atheists and Pagans. They have to live amongst them and, consequently, they are like the clothes placed in a smoky room, or they are exposed to and forced to breath-in their “second-hand smoke”―that is to say, their Protestant, Atheistic, Pagan attitudes, behavior and propaganda (through the various media outlets: TV, internet, radio, books, newspapers and magazines―most of which are under the control of Protestants, Atheists or Pagans).

Fr. Salvany writes (the numbers he gives have been updated to reflect the current size of population: “The population of this country [USA] is at present something over 325 million. [2017 census]. Of these, 70 million are Catholics, and according to their claim [2017 stats], 150 million are Protestants, leaving a population of 105 million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all. Amongst the 150 million Protestants, every shade and variety of belief in the Christian dispensation find easy lodgment. In this scale of heresy, the adjustments of creeds are loose and easy. Lack of any decisive authority renders any exact standard of belief impossible. A Protestant may freely range from one end of the scale to the other and still be considered orthodox according to Protestant estimates. A loose indefinite belief in Christ, either as God redeeming the world, or even as a great ethical teacher, not God Himself, but sent by God, suffices to place the Protestant within the compass of his own standard of orthodoxy.

“Outside of these various bodies of loosely professed Christians stands a still larger mass of our population who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity as a creed, or who positively reject it. In practice, the distinction is of little importance, whether they hold themselves merely indifferent or are positively hostile. In other words, we have here to reckon with a body, to all practical purposes, that is infidel. This mass comprises over 35% of our population, holding itself aloof from Christianity, and in some instances virulently antagonistic to it.

[COMMENT: When you add together the Protestants with the non-believers, it produces a total in excess of 78 percent of our population, but currently enhanced to an even more frightening percentage by the vast majority of Catholics today—2017—around 80% (or 56 million) of the 70 million Catholics, who either do not practice their Faith at all, or irregularly, or who are ignorant of its teachings (especially with regard to morality) or in practice simply disregard those teachings—bringing the total of practical non-believing and infidel people, including bad Catholics, to around 97 percent, if we can presume there to be today approximately 14 million believing, regularly practicing Catholics in the USA out of a population of 325 million (2017 stats)].

“We live in the midst of this religious anarchy. Some [2017 stats] 255 million of our population can, in one sense or other, be considered anti-Catholic. From this mass—heretical and infidel—exhales an atmosphere filled with germs poisonous and fatal to Catholic life, if permitted to take root in the Catholic heart. The mere force of gravitation, which the larger mass ever exercises upon the smaller, is a power which the most energetic vigor alone can resist. Under this dangerous influence, a deadly inertia is apt to creep over the souls of incautious Catholics and is only to be overcome by the liveliest exercise of Catholic Faith. To live without harm amidst an heretical and infidel population, requires a robust religious constitution. And to this danger we are daily exposed, ever coming into contact in a thousand ways, in almost every relation of life, with anti-Catholic thought and customs. But outside of this spiritual inertia, our non-Catholic surroundings—a danger rather passive than active in its influence—beget a still greater menace.

“It is natural that Protestantism and infidelity should find public expression. What our [2017 stats] 255 million non-Catholic population thinks in these matters, naturally seeks and finds open expression. They have their organs and their literature where we find their current opinions publicly uttered. Their views upon religion, morality, politics, the constitution of society are perpetually marshaled before us. In the pulpit and in the press they are reiterated day after day. In magazine and newspaper they constantly speak from every line. Our literature is permeated and saturated with non-Catholic dogmatism. On all sides do we find this opposing spirit. We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear. From birth to death, it enslaves us in its offensive garments. It now soothes and flatters, now hates and curses, now threatens, now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes to us under the form of “liberality.” It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise. And it is under this aspect that we wish to consider it. For it is as Liberalism that Protestantism and Infidelity make their most devastating inroads upon the domain of the Faith. Out of these non-Catholic and anti-Catholic conditions thus predominating amongst us springs this monster of our times, Liberalism!” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin, chapter 1).

Our Faith in general, and things like our approach to Christmas in particular, have been affected by our breathing in the “second-smoke” of (1) an ever-increasing growth in Liberal Catholicism, (2) increasing Atheism, Agnosticism or Indifferentism, (3) an ever increasing Secularism and (4) an almost universal addiction to Materialism and Consumerism. The attitudes of these toxic “viruses” have had fatal effects upon the Faith of most Catholics.

Living in Denial
It is this that we have to convince ourselves of and admit that we have contracted the contagious disease―to a greater or lesser degree―that is everywhere around us. It is this that you have you get across to your “diseased” family members―who are oblivious to the fact that they are “diseased”, thinking themselves to be “normal”, just as person who is blind from birth initially thinks there is nothing wrong with them, imagining everyone else to be blind. On an academic level, there are people today who think they are intelligent―but if you were to compare them to people who lived a 100 years ago, they would look quite stupid alongside those persons. For example, as part of the entrance exam to enter one of the top universities at the start of the 1900s, you had to be able to debate with the professors (on a subject of your own choice) in either Latin or Greek! Similarly, you will find online an USA 8th Grade test, from the year 1912, that very few adults would even pass today―never mind 8th Graders (click here to view https://www.bullittcountyhistory.com/bchistory/schoolexam1912ans.html)

The same can be said for our knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith. Today, most people know less about the Faith than earlier generations; they pray less than earlier generations; they attend Mass less than earlier generations; they do less penance than earlier generations; they probably sin more than earlier generations (because the temptations are everywhere today, due to modern technology). Yet somehow they think they are better than earlier generations!

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday December 11th & Thursday December 12th

Article 10
Don't Avoid Our Lady of Guadalupe like Juan Diego!

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

1474
An Indian named Quauhtlatoatzin (the future Juan Diego) was born in Cuautitlan.

1476
Juan de Zumarraga (future bishop) was born in Spain.

1492
Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the Americas and named it San Salvador.

1514
The first Marian Shrine in the New World was established in the city of Higuey, first to be built on American soil.

1519
Hernan Cortez landed in Mexico.

1521
The capital city of the Aztecs falls under Cortez.

1524
The first 12 Franciscans arrive in Mexico City.

1525
The Indian Quauhtlatoatzin is baptized by a Franciscan priest. He received the Christian name of Juan Diego.

1528
Friar Juan de Zumarraga arrives in the New World.

1529
Juan Diego’s wife, Maria, became sick and died.

1531
Year of the apparitions to Juan Diego

1533
The first sanctuary was erected.

1541
Franciscan priest and early historian of New Spain “Motolinia” writes that some nine million Aztecs had become Christians.

1548
Death of Juan Diego.

1555
In the Provincial Counsel, the second archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar, formulated canons that indirectly approved the apparitions.

1556
Archbishop Montúfar began the erection of the second church.

1560
A document known as the Valeriano Relation is written by an Indian named Antonio Valeriano. Also known as the Nican Mopohua. (Between 1540 and 1580).

1564
An image was carried on the first formal expedition to the Philippine Islands.

1567
The new church ordered by Archbishop Montufar is completed.

1570
Archbishop Montufar sent to King Philip II of Spain an oil painted copy of the image of Guadalupe.

1571
Admiral Doria carried a copy of the image aboard ship during the battle of Lepanto and imputed to the Virgin of Guadalupe the victory over the Ottoman Empire forces.

1573
The “Primitive Relation” was written by the historian Juan de Tovar, who transcribed the story from a still earlier source, probably Juan Gonzalez, Bishop’s Zumarraga’s translator. (Discovered in the Mexican national Library Archives)

1647
The image is covered with glass for the first time.

1648
The priest Miguel Sanchez published in Mexico City, in Spanish, a work entitled “Image of the Virgin Mary, Guadalupan Mother of God”.

1649
Luis Lasso de la Vega published the “Huey Tlanahuicoltica”, telling the story in Nahuatl. It refers to earlier Nahuatl sources.

1666
A formal inquiry and investigation was conducted by the Church, from February 18th to March 22nd, in order to give authority to the tradition.

1695
The first stone of the new sanctuary was laid. The sanctuary was solemnly dedicated in 1709.

1723
Another formal investigation ordered by Archbishop Lanziego y Eguilaz.

1737
The Most Holy Mary of Guadalupe was chosen as the patroness of the city of Mexico.

1746
The patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe was accepted for all of New Spain, which then embraced the regions from northern California to El Salvador.

1746
The knight Boturini Benaducci promoted the solemn and official coronation of the image.

1754
Benedict XIV approved the patronage of New Spain and granted a Mass and Office proper to the celebration of the feast on December 12th.

1756
Famous painter Miguel Cabrera publishes his extensive study of the Image in the book “American Marvel”.

1757
The Virgin of Guadalupe was declared patroness of the citizens of Ciudad Ponce in Puerto Rico.

1767
The religious of the Society of Jesus are expelled from the Spanish dominions, and the image is carried to various parts of the world.

1895
Took place the coronation of the image, with pontifical authority and the attendance of a great part of the episcopate of the Americas.

1908
Pope Saint Pius X prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, where he entrusts Our Lady of Guadalupe with the protection of the Sovereign Pontiff and asks her intercession for the holy Church and the keeping of our faith,is enriched with an indulgence of five hundred days on his audience held on August 18th.

1908
Pope Saint Pius X granted indulgences which may be gained in any part of the world for prayer before a copy of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

1910
Pope Saint Pius X declared the Virgin of Guadalupe Patroness of Latin America.

1911
A church was built on the site of Juan Bernardino’s home.

1921
A bomb placed beneath the image exploded, causing great damage, but nothing happened to the tilma.

1924
A very important 16th century source documenting the miracle is found in Peru by anthropologist M. Saville. It is a pictorial calendar known as the Codex Saville and shows the image of our Lady located in the position representing the year 1531.

1928
A coronation of the image was made in Santa Fe, Argentina.

1929
First documented note of an apparent reflected image of a man’s head in the right eye of the Virgin, by photographer Alfonso Marcue.

1935
Pious XI extended the patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the Philippines.

1945
Pious XII stated that the Virgin of Guadalupe was the “Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas” and that she had been painted “by brushes that were not of this world”.

1946
Pope Pius XII declared her to be the Patroness of the Americas.

1951
Examination of the image by Carlos Salinas. Apparent reflection of a man’s head in the right eye of the Virgin observed.

1956
Dr. Torroela-Bueno, an ophthalmologist, examined the eyes of the Virgin on the tilma.

1958
Dr. Rafael Torija-Lavoignet published his study of the Purkinje-Sanson effect as exhibited in the Guadalupan image.

1961
Pope John XXIII prayed to her as Mother of the Americas. He addressed her as Mother and Teacher of the Faith to the peoples of the Americas.

1962
Dr. Charles Wahlig, O.D. announces the discovery of two images apparently reflected in the eyes of the Virgin when studying a photograph enlarged twenty five times.

1966
Pope Paul VI sent a Golden Rose to the Basilica.

1975
Glass was removed so the image could be examined by another ophthalmologist, Dr. Enrique Grave.

1976
Dedication of the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located four miles from central Mexico City.

1979
Dr. Philip Callahan takes 40 frames of infra-red photographs of the image. Later concluded that the original image is unexplainable as a human work.

1979
Pope John Paul II called her the “Star of Evangelization”, knelt before her image, invoked her motherly assistance and called upon her as Mother of the Americas.

1979
Dr. Jose Aste-Tonsmann announces the finding of at least four human figures apparently reflected in both eyes of the Virgin. Dr. Tosmann used sophisticated image processing techniques with digitized photographs of both eyes.

1988
The liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th was raised to the status of a feast in all dioceses in the United States.

1990
Juan Diego was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

1990
Pope John Paul II returns to the Basilica in Mexico City. Performed the beatification ceremony of Juan Diego.

1992
Pope John Paul II dedicated a chapel in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter’s Basilica.

1999
Pope John Paul II, during his third visit to the sanctuary, declared the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent.

2002
Juan Diego was canonized in a ceremony presided by His Holiness John Paul II in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on July 31st, 2002. It was John Paul II’s 5th pastoral visit to Mexico.

Before we look at Our Lady’s apparitions to Juan Diego in 1531, let us sketch a brief history of the Faith in the Americas in general and in Mexico in particular.

First Mass in South America
The first Mass recorded on continental South America occurred when the expedition of a Portuguese nobleman, Pedro Álvares Cabral, reached the coast of Brazil, where, at Porto Seguro, the Franciscan Fr. Henriques Soares de Coimbra offered Mass and erected a cross, on April 26th, 1500, naming the place Vera Cruz (which translates as “The True Cross”), and claiming it for the King of Portugal. Earlier Spanish expeditions along the continental coast appear to have been mainly occupied with charting and mapping the region, while also stopping to trade with natives for gold, pearls, and lumber.

First Mass in Puerto Rico
In March 1509, Juan Ponce de León, with a group of colonists, including priests, landed in Puerto Rico at “Caparra” (now Pueblo Viejo, in Guaynabo) and established a settlement there (the ruins remain and are a U.S. National Historic Landmark). That group’s first Mass would have been the first Mass that we can say was offered on what is now U.S. territory.

West Coast of South America
On the west coast of South America, Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s expedition reached the Pacific Ocean at the shore of the Bay of San Miguel on September 29th, 1513, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, at the sight of which the expedition’s chaplain Fr. Adrés de Vera chanted the Te Deum.

First Mass in Peru
Dominican priest Fr. Vicente de Valverde and secular priest Juan de Sosa accompanied Pizarro’s expedition to Peru in 1533 (two years after the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe) and offered Mass along the way. Pizarro’s earlier expeditions, from 1527-1531, may also have had priests accompanying them.

First Mass in Mexico
A priest named Gonzalez accompanied the expedition of Juan de Grijalva in 1518 that landed briefly at Yucatan and further along the coast of Mexico, as described by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who did not, however, record that Mass was offered there. Indeed, the priest appears in the narrative only to have assisted in helping the expedition locate and collect gold images of native deities that were then carried away.

The history of the Catholic Church in Mexico dates from the period of the Spanish conquest (1519–21). On Easter Sunday, in April 1519, Fr. Bartolomé de Olmedo, the chaplain of Hernan Cortés’s Spanish expedition to Mexico, offered a High Mass, in commemoration of the landing of the expedition two days prior, at the site of the settlement they founded― the town of Vera Cruz (which translates as “The True Cross”).

Uncertainty about Florida in 1522
In early 1522 (nine years before Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared), Ponce de León attempted, from Puerto Rico, to establish a settlement near Charlotte Harbor, on the west coast of Florida. But he was unable to do so, owing to the hostility of natives, who attacked and drove away the Spaniards, fatally wounding Ponce in the battle. The disaster occurred almost immediately upon their landing, but the brief account of the expedition by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, in his Historia general y natural de las Indias suggests that some days elapsed between their landing and the attack, during which time the priests accompanying the expedition tried to preach to the natives and come to terms with them, but to no avail. If the priests were indeed onshore for a few days, as Oviedo suggests, before being driven away, they may well have offered Mass there, at Charlotte Harbor, which would have been the first Mass offered on what would become the continental U.S. But if they did so, it was not noted in the spotty records that remain of the expedition.

Uncertaintiy about North Carolina in 1526
In June 1526 (five years before Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared), two Dominican priests, Antonio Montesino and Anthony de Cervantes, accompanied several hundred colonists under the leadership of Lucas Vasques de Ayllón from San Domingo and attempted a settlement upon the Atlantic coast of the mainland north of Florida. They first made land at Cape Fear (near present-day Wilmington, North Carolina) but chose to sail on, looking for a more salubrious spot, which they found and established the small settlement of San Miguel de Guandape (or Gualdape), North Carolina, where, during the summer and fall of 1526, they certainly did offer Mass.

Uncertainty about Florida in 1528
Panfilo de Navaez (including Alvar Nuñez Caveza De Vaca) put ashore at present day Stump Pass near Englewood on the Gulf Coast of Florida on Good Friday, April 10th, 1528 (three years before Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared), and the landing party was resting at an evacuated Indian village there on Easter Sunday, where Franciscan priest Juan Suarez would possibly have celebrated Mass.

When Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, it had only been 10 years since Hernando Cortez had conquered Mexico City in 1521. In 1523, Franciscan missionaries came evangelizing the Indian people. They were so successful that the Diocese of Mexico City was established in 1528. Take note also, that in North America, Jamestown, the first permanent English colony, was not established until 1607.

The Birth of Juan Diego―the future seer of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Juan Diego, of poor peasant stock, was born a pagan in 1474. He lived as a pagan until the time of the Spanish evangelization of his those pagan lands in the early 1500s. Juan Diego and many of his family members were among these early converts to the Faith. Juan Diego and many of his family members were among these early converts to the Faith. He was baptized “Juan Diego” in 1525, along with his wife, who was given the names “Maria Lucia”, and his uncle, who was baptized “Juan Bernardino.”

Satan’s Bloody Paganism
One must also not forget that Juan Diego had grown up under Aztec oppression. The Aztec religious practices, which included human sacrifice, play an interesting and integral role in this story. Every major Aztec city had a temple pyramid, about 100 feet high, on top of which was erected an altar. Upon this altar, the Aztec priests offered human sacrifice to their god Huitzilopochtli, called the “Lover of Hearts and Drinker of Blood,” by cutting out the beating hearts of their victims, usually adult men but often children. Considering that the Aztecs controlled 371 towns and the law required 1,000 human sacrifices for each town with a temple pyramid, over 50,000 human beings were sacrificed each year. Moreover, the early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children fell victim to this bloodthirsty religion.

In 1487, when Juan Diego was just 13 years old, he would have witnessed the most horrible event: Tlacaellel, the 89-year-old Aztec ruler, dedicated the new temple pyramid of the sun, dedicated to the two chief gods of the Aztec pantheon — Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca, (the god of hell and darkness) — in the center of Tenochtitlan (later Mexico City).

The temple pyramid was 100 feet high with 114 steps to reach the top. More than 80,000 men were sacrificed over a period of four days and four nights. While this number of sacrifices seems incredible, evidence indicates it took only 15 seconds to cut the heart out of each victim. (For more information, see Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Dr. Warren Carroll).

“And the land was polluted with blood,” by idolaters who sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils. “The heathens … served their idols … and they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils. And they shed innocent blood―the blood of their sons and of their daughters―which they sacrificed to the idols … And the land was polluted with blood” (Psalm 105:35-38).

Such was Mexico when Hernando Cortes arrived there in 1519. Some ten million native Nahuatl Indians formed a vast confederation of tribes at this time. These tribes were dominated by the powerful Aztecs who, for all their intelligence, industry, and valor, were equally barbaric, enslaved by an extravagant system of idolatry which placated its numerous gods with gruesome orgies of human sacrifice and cannibalism. For centuries torrents of blood literally flowed from the temple pyramids, with as many as 20,000 humans being sacrificed in one day.

Nevertheless, in 1520, Hernando Cortes outlawed human sacrifice. He stripped the temple pyramid of its two idols, cleansed the stone of its blood and erected a new altar. Cortez, his soldiers and Father Olmedo then ascended the stairs with the Holy Cross and images of the Blessed Mother and St. Christopher. Upon this new altar, Father Olmedo offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Upon what had been the place of evil pagan sacrifice, now the unbloody, eternal and true sacrifice of our Lord was offered. Such an action, however, sparked the all-out war with the Aztecs, whom Cortez finally subdued in August of 1521. In 1523, Franciscan missionaries came evangelizing the Indian people. They were so successful that the Diocese of Mexico City was established in 1528―three years before the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Cortes came and liberated the Nahuatls from their slavery to Satan, but because of the corruption of some of the Spanish rulers and because of the Aztec’s attachment to polygamy and other pagan practices, very few converted to Catholicism in the first decade of Spanish rule. Hernan Cortes had accomplished the subjugation of the proud Aztec nation. In the decade that followed―until the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe― around a million and a half of the indigenous population had already embraced baptism and the Faith of Christ. Yet many, many more were unconverted. The saintly Juan de Zumarraga, Mexico’s first bishop, could do little to convert the Aztecs, but he remained confident in the unfailing help of the Queen of Heaven, to whom he entrusted the future of New Spain.

Enter Juan Diego
Let us now turn our attention to the event of the day―the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, being her feast today―and look at the principal character or recipient of her apparition.

The year was 1531―which was 39 years after Columbus “discovered” America, 10 years after Cortés led the conquest of the Aztec empire at Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and 7 years after Franciscan missionaries began ministering to the locals, including Juan Diego, who was among the first to be baptized a Catholic. Born in 1474, Juan Diego was a 57 year old simple and God-fearing man―one of the few converts in the first 10 years. Juan was a simple and good man whose wife, Maria Lucia, had recently died, and who was caring for his sick uncle, Juan Bernardino. For 6 years he had devoutly practiced the Faith, walking 6 miles every morning to Mass, leaving his humble dwelling in Cuautitlan before dawn, on the outskirts of of what today has grown to be Mexico City, so as to arrive on time for Mass at the church of Santiago, in the barrio of Tlaltecloco. His well-trodden path led past a hill called by the Indians “Tepeyacac”.

A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to Mass This Morning...
On Saturday, December 9th, 1531, he began his usual pre-dawn journey on his way to Mass. As he neared the summit of the Tepeyac Hill, he raised his eyes to the summit of Tepeyacac, and saw, as it were, a white and shining cloud, and within it a rainbow of color, with rays of dazzling light. The Indian stood spellbound, yet unafraid, filled with a sweet amazement, and asked himself whether it were all a dream. He then heard a very wonderful music descending from the top of the hill― the sound of sweet singing. It sounded like the voices of a myriad of various different birds, singing together with such inexpressible harmony, that the Indian was overcome with wonder and delight, saying to himself: “What is this I hear and see? Where am I? By chance have I been transported to that Paradise of Delights where our race came into being? Or is it some heavenly country, hidden from the eyes of men?”

As he reached the summit, the singing stopped, but the Juan Diego remained in a kind of enchantment, gazing at the shining cloud above him on the hill. He then noticed a Lady standing there, who, in a gentle woman’s voice was saying: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.” Could he be hearing aright? Was the voice calling him? There it came again, this time more sweetly insistent: “Juan! Come closer!”

Gone was all hesitation. Excitedly, Juan Diego ran in the direction of where the voice was coming from― just below the shining cloud. And then Juan saw her! Within the shining cloud there stood a beautiful Lady. The radiance of her garments transformed into the likeness of precious jewels the stones beneath her feet, and the leaves of the hawthorn and nopal appeared clusters of rare emeralds on surfaces polished and glowing. The very soil had become a carpet of jasper, tinted in many colors.

Sent on a Mission
“My son, Juan Diego, whom I love tenderly, like a small and delicate child! Where are you going?” The Lady’s words were spoken in Nahuatl, the language of Juan’s people. Who can reproduce their delicacy of feeling in any other tongue?

“O noble Mistress and my Lady,” Juan answered, “I am going to Mexico, to the barrio of Tlalteolco, to hear the Mass, which the ministers of God present for us in His place.”

“Know, my beloved son,” replied the Lady, “that I am the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, for Whom we live and who is the Author of Life, the Creator of all things and the Lord of Heaven and Earth; who is everywhere. It is my wish that you build me a church on this site. Here, as the loving Mother of you and of your fellow men, I will show forth my living kindness and compassion for your people and for those who love me and seek me, and call upon me in their labors and afflictions. Here I will hear their cries and their petitions, I will comfort them and help them in their distress. In order that my will may be accomplished, you must go to Mexico, to the palace of the Bishop who resides there. You are to tell him that I sent you, and that it is my pleasure that he build me a church in this place. You will relate to him what you have seen and heard. And be certain of this―I will be grateful for what you do for me in this matter with which I charge you, and I will raise you up and make you renowned because of it. My son, you have heard my wish. Go in peace. And bear in mind that I will repay the labor and care that you employ; so in this matter exert all your strength.”

On his knees and with head to the ground, Juan Diego answered: “I go, most noble Lady and my Mistress, as your humble slave, to carry out your order.”

And so the Indian took leave of the Lady.

Heaven's Ways Are Rarely Smooth Ways!
He descended the western slope of the hill and took the road into the City of Mexico, a league distant. As he had promised the Lady, Juan went directly to the palace of the Bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga. He asked the servants to tell the Bishop he wanted to see him; but, because of the early hour, and because they saw only an Indian of the poorest class, the servants simply let him wait. Finally, however, struck by his patience, they let him in, to audience with the prelate. On his knees before the Bishop, Juan poured out his story. Bishop Zumarraga listened to the extraordinary tale and questioned Juan closely. In the end he sent the Indian away, telling him to return in some days.

Sorrowfully Juan left the palace. The Bishop, he felt, had not believed the story. What was more important to Juan Diego, he had failed to carry out the will of the Blessed Lady. With heavy heart he began the journey to his pueblo, Tolpetlac.

Why Me? Can't Someone Else Do This?
It was after sunset when he reached the summit of Tepeyacac. The Lady was waiting for him. As soon as Juan saw her, he prostrated himself in obeisance and began to speak. But what other tongue can adequately convey the beauty and gentleness, the courtesy, the delicate nuances, of Juan Diego’s native Nahuatl? Listen to how Jusm Diego politely ties to say "No!" to the mission Our Lady had given him::

“My well-beloved Daughter, my Queen and Lady most high! I did what you commanded me, although I did not talk to the Bishop until after a long wait. I gave him your message in the form you commanded me; he heard me calmly and with attention. But, from what I observed in his manner, and from the questions which he put to me, I gathered that he did not believe me; for he told me to come back at a later date, so that he might investigate the matter at length. He thinks that the church you wish to be built for you is a tale of my own making, or my own fancy rather than your will. So I pray you, for this work send some noble and important personage, worthy of respect, whom he will believe. For as you see, my Mistress, I am only a poor rustic, a lowly man of the people, and unsuited for this business on which you send me. Pardon my boldness, my Queen, if I have failed in the reverence due to your high station. Let not your wrath fall upon me, nor may my answer displease you.”

No Way José! Juan is the Man!
The Most Holy Mary listened to his tale with a benign countenance, and then answered: “Listen, my well-beloved son. Know you that I do not lack servants nor domestics under my command. For I have many whom I can send, if I wish, who will do what they are commanded. But it is fitting that you undertake this affair. It is through your intervention that my will and my desire must be done. So I ask you, my son, and I order you, to return tomorrow, to see and talk to the Bishop. Tell him to build me the church that I ask, and tell him that she who sends you is the Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God.”

“Do not be displeased, O Queen and my Lady,” Juan Diego replied, “at what I have said. For I shall go willingly and with all my heart to obey your command and to carry your message. I was not making excuses, nor do I fear the journey nor the task. But perhaps I shall not be received nor listened to; or perhaps the Bishop, once he has heard me, will not believe. Nevertheless, I shall do what you command me. And I shall be waiting, Lady, tomorrow at sunset in this place, to give you the answer. And so remain in peace, and may God watch over you!”

Even through the dim medium of a translation twice removed from the original tongue, the delicacy of expression of this humble, unlettered man comes to us clearly, to our wonder and delight. With reverence Juan Diego took his leave and continued on the way to his home in Tolpetlac. As far as we know, he said not a word to anyone about the matter. Perhaps, overcome by the events of the day and disturbed that the Bishop had not believed the events, he had decided to keep his own counsel for the time being.

If at first you don’t succeed, …
The next day, December the tenth, was Sunday, and Juan again went to the Church of Santiago in Tlaltelolco for Mass and the class in Christian doctrine which the Indian converts had to attend. Then he went again to the palace of the Bishop. Once more the servants made him wait a long time, but finally he was admitted.

Once more, prostrate and with tears and urgent words, Juan related to Bishop Zumarraga how for the second time he had seen the Mother of God in the same place that he had seen her the first time. That she was waiting for the reply to the message which she had given him earlier. That once again she had commanded him to go and tell the Bishop to build her a church on the very site where he had seen and talked to her. That he should tell the Bishop that she who sent him was the Mother of Jesus Christ and the Ever-Virgin Mary.

Sign it with Sign!
The Bishop listened with greater attention this time, and began to think that there might be something to the tale. He questioned and re-questioned Juan Diego very closely, warning him to weigh his words carefully. He asked Juan to describe the appearance of the Virgin, and satisfied himself that it could be neither dream nor imagination. Yet, as Bishop, he could not appear to accept lightly such a tale from the lips of a simple Indian. So he replied: “What you have told me is not enough to make me undertake the task that you request. Therefore, tell the Lady who sent you to give you other signs, by which I may know that it is the Mother of God who sent you, and that it is he will that we build her a church.”

“What sign would you like me to ask for?” said Juan.

The calmness and confidence of Juan Diego strangely disturbed the Bishop. The Indian spoke as though the sign were as good as granted. And so the Bishop answered: “Let the Lady choose whatever sign seems good to her.”

Then he summoned several of the most trusted servants in his household. Speaking to them in Spanish, which Juan did not understand, the Bishop told them to follow Juan without his knowledge, to report upon what he did and with whom he spoke. The servants followed Juan, easily keeping him in sight until he arrived at a little bridge crossing a stream, almost at the foot of Tepeyacac. Here the Indian disappeared from their sight, and although the servants looked everywhere, searching the hill on every side, Juan could not be found. They took him for either an impostor or a wizard, and returned to tell the Bishop what had occurred, asking him to punish the Indian if he should again come to the palace.

When Juan reached the summit of the hill, the Virgin was waiting for him. On his knees he told her what had happened: “…how,” as the most ancient account words it, “carrying out her command, he had returned to the palace of the Bishop and had given him her message. And that, after questions and cross-questions, the Bishop had said that this simple tale was not sufficient to make him take action in so serious a matter.”

Juan continued his relation: “I am to ask you, O Lady, for a particular sign, by which he may know that you sent me, and that it is your will that church for you be built on this site.”

Juan Day at a Time!
With loving words Mary commended the care and diligence of Juan. She told him to return on the next day, when she would give him a sign that the Bishop would believe. Juan promised to return, and took his leave of the Sovereign Lady.

But on the next day, Monday, December 11th, Juan was unable to keep his promise. Upon reaching his pueblo, he found that his uncle, Juan Bernardino, was seriously ill. The greater part of the day Juan spent in looking for a curandero (native medicine man) and when finally he found one, the latter’s ministrations only made the sick man worse. Juan Bernardino requested his nephew to go early on Tuesday to the Convent of Santiago at Tlaltelolco, for a priest who would administer the last rites of the Church. Before daybreak on Tuesday, December 12th, therefore, Juan Diego set out for Tlaltelolco. But when he arrived at the foot of Tepeyacac, and was about to take the trail over the hill, he recalled his neglected promise to the Lady. Thinking that she would reproach him, he determined to avoid a meeting by skirting the hill.

Avoiding Mary Doesn’t Work
But as Juan approached the spot where today there is a spring of sparking water, Mary came forth to meet him. Encompassed by a shining cloud, she came down the hill, directly across his path, and spoke: “Where are you going, my son, and what road are you taking?”

Struck with shame and fear, the Indian fell to the ground and answered: “My beloved Daughter and my Lady, may God watch over you! Do not be displeased at what I am going to tell you. Know, my Mistress, that one of your servants, my uncle, is gravely ill and about to die, and as he seems very weak I am going to the church of Tlaltelolco for a priest to confess and anoint him. After having discharged this duty I will return here to obey your command. Forgive me, I pray you, my Lady, and bear with me a little. I am not asking to be excused from doing what you have commanded, nor is it a false excuse I give you. Tomorrow I will return without fail.”

Trust Me!
Mary heard the Indian’s story with understanding in her face, and then spoke to him in this manner: “Listen, my son, to what I tell you now. Do not let anything worry or afflict you; do not fear illness nor any troublesome happening nor pain. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your life and health? Are you not in my embrace and in my prayers? What else do you need? Have no care nor worry about the illness of your uncle, for he will not die from it. Rest assured that he is already well.”

Consoled by the words of Our Lady, Juan replied: “Then send me, by Lady, to see the Bishop, and give me the sign of which you spoke so that he will believe me.”

And Mary answered: “My dearly beloved son, go up to the summit of the hill where you have seen me and talked with me, and cut the roses which you find there. Gather them into your cloak and bring them to me. I will tell you what you are to do and say.” Without another word Juan obeyed, although he knew that the rocky summit had never produced flowers, nor vegetation of any kind. But, arriving at the top, he found a beautiful garden of Castilian roses, fresh and fragrant and covered with dew. Laying out his tilma (mantle), he gathered into it as many roses as it would hold, and carried them to Mary. And Mary gathered up the roses and rearranged them in the mantle of Juan Diego, saying: “You see here the sign which you are to take to the Bishop. Tell him, by the sign of these roses, to do what I order him. And pay attention, my son, to what I am telling you, and know that I have confidence in you. Show no one on the way what you are carrying, nor open your cloak except in the presence of the Bishop, and tell him what I sent you for. This will convince him that he is to start work on my church.”

And so saying, the Virgin sent him away.

Third Time Lucky?
At the Episcopal palace, Juan Diego asked to see Bishop Zumarraga; but as before, the retainers saw only a humble Indian, and paid him little attention. Finally someone became curious about what he was carrying so carefully in his tilma, but Juan refused to show them. With some force they pulled at the cloak, and obtained a glimpse of the roses. At this discovery the retainers informed the Bishop, and Juan was brought into his presence. The Indian gave him Our Lady’s message, and added that he had brought from her the sign which the Bishop had demanded. When he let fall the ends of his mantle, a shower of roses covered the floor, and upon his garment was seen the image of Our Lady, just as Juan had seen her on the hill of Tepeyacac. The astonished Bishop venerated the miraculous image before his entire household and then bore it reverently to his private chapel.

Later, Juan was conducted, with signs of great respect, to the home of Juan Bernardino, by Spaniards who were commissioned to investigate the cure of the old man. Juan Bernardino related how the Most Holy Virgin had visited him at the very moment his nephew affirmed the cure had taken place, and had perfectly restored his health. The Virgin also told him “...that it was her pleasure for a church to be erected for him in the place where his nephew had seen her; and also that her sacred image was to be called Santa Maria de Guadalupe.”

Such is the story as it happened, told without embellishment. Why Our Lady called her image Guadalupe―she did not say, nor shall we know, until she herself or God reveals it to us. Tradition holds that Juan Diego asked our Blessed Mother her name. She responded in his native language of Nahuatl: “Tlecuatlecupe,” which means “the one who crushes the head of the serpent” (a clear reference to Genesis 3:15 and perhaps to the prominent symbol of the Aztec religion). “Tlecuatlecupe” when correctly pronounced, sounds remarkably similar to “Guadalupe.” Juan Bernardino, speaking the Nahuatl language, most probably called the Virgin Xanta Malia Tecuauhtlanopeuh, which signifies, “Saint Mary, she who appeared on the rocky summit.” At any rate, the title is not to be confused with that of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura, Spain, said to have been sculptured by Saint Luke, and representing the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin.

What we do know is that the Virgin of Guadalupe united the tribes and races of Mexico into a nation, for all recognize her as their Mother. Of the million and a half Indians baptized by 1531, almost all had been among the poor and the children. The noble Aztec families, mindful of their former glory, had nourished resentment of the Spanish conquerors and their religion. But with the miracle of Guadalupe, class distinctions were put aside―noble and commoner, landholder and peasant, cacique and tribesman―as persons from all classes embraced the Faith.

Six years after Tepeyacac there were nine million converts among the Indians, embracing the nucleus of all the nations among the tribes in the valley of Anahuac. Mexico thus became the first Christian nation of the American continent. The first little church was finished, and the miraculous image placed therein on the 26th of December, 1531. This temporary structure was replaced by one of adobe, built at the expense of Bishop Zumarraga, and finished in 1533. The sacred image remained there until November, 1622, when Archbishop Juan de la Serna solemnly blessed a new collegiate church on the site. In 1895 the reconstruction of that edifice was completed for the Pontifical Coronation of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 1931 a further reconstruction was carried out, to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the apparitions.

Mass Conversions to the Faith
Until 1531, the Sacrament of Baptism had been administered mainly to infants, because the overwhelming majority of Aztec adults had resisted the advances of the missionaries. However, as the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe began to spread throughout the country, great numbers of all ages and classes began to long for a new moral code, based on the example of the Mother of the “white man’s god”, who could now only be the Mother of the True God, their “clean Mother”, and who had captivated their minds and hearts with her radiant purity, virtue and love.

As a result, the few missionaries in the country were soon increasingly engaged in preaching, instructing and baptizing. The trickle of conversions soon became a river, and that river a flood which is perhaps unprecedented in the history of Christianity. During the Protestant Revolt in Europe around this same time, the Catholic Church lost over 5,000,000 Catholics to Protestantism, but their numbers were more than replaced in a few years by over 9,000,000 Aztec converts (9 million out of 10 million).

A famous Mexican preacher of the 19th century expressed this tidal wave of conversions as follows: “It is true that immediately after the conquest (of Cortes), some apostolic men, some zealous missionaries, mild, gentle conquerors who were disposed to shed no blood but their own, ardently devoted themselves to the conversion of the Indians. However, these valiant men, because of their fewness, because of the difficulty of learning various languages, and of the vast extent of our territory, obtained, in spite of their heroic efforts, but few and limited results.

“But scarcely had the Most Holy Virgin of Guadalupe appeared and taken possession of this her inheritance, when the Catholic Faith spread with the rapidity of light from the rising sun, through the wide extent and beyond the bounds of the ancient empire of Mexico. Innumerable multitudes from every tribe, every district, every race, in this immense country . . . who were grossly superstitious, who were ruled by the instincts of cruelty, oppressed by every form of violence, and utterly degraded, returned upon themselves at the credible announcement of the admirably portentous apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, recognized their natural dignity, forgot their misfortunes, put off their instinctive ferocity, and, unable to resist such sweet and tender invitations, came in crowds to cast their grateful hearts at the feet of so loving a Mother, and to mingle their tears of emotion with the regeneration of the waters of Baptism.”

The missionaries were all but overwhelmed by the endless multitudes clamoring for instruction and Baptism. Almost everywhere they traveled, entire families would come running out of their village, entreating them with signs to come and pour the water on their heads. When the numbers grew too numerous to cope with individually, the missionaries formed the men and women into two columns behind a cross-bearer. As they filed past the first priest, he briefly imposed on each the Oil of Catechumens. Holding lighted candles and singing a hymn, they would then converge on a second priest who stood beside the baptismal font. The columns would slowly wind back to the first priest where, with hands joined, husbands and wives would pronounce their marriage vows together, receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Several trustworthy contemporary writers note that one missionary, a Flemish Franciscan named Peter of Ghent, baptized with his own hands over 1,000,000 Mexicans! “Who will not recognize the Spirit of God in moving so many millions to enter the kingdom of Christ,” wrote Fr. Anticoli, S.J.: “and when we consider that there occurred no portent or other supernatural event ... to attract such multitudes, other than the apparitions of the Virgin, we may state with assurance that it was the Vision of the Queen of the Apostles that called the Indians to the Faith.”

From 1531 until the present day, a continuous stream of pilgrims has flowed through the doors of the church on Tepeyac Hill. It is estimated now that as many as twenty million pilgrims come to see the miraculous tilma every year.

The Miraculous Image
The Image of Our Lady that appeared on the tilma, which can still be seen in Mexico City today, is truly miraculous and has been the wonder of scientists for hundreds of years. The great majority of the miraculous aspects of the Image were not discovered until the 20th century, when the technology and archaeology made the discoveries possible. This is 400 years from the creation of the Image. All, after exhaustive investigation with sophisticated analytic detectors, have concluded that the work is beyond the power of men to produce.

The fabric, of which the tilma was made, should have deteriorated after 20 years, yet it is hundreds of years old and in good condition. This is impossible for science to explain.

Moreover, a painter would be incredibly foolish to choose an Indian’s tilma to work on and even more to paint right over the center seam of the cloak. And had the Virgin not turned ever so slightly to the right, the stitch would have divided her face. Just as astonishing is the fact that only the seam still holds the tilma together. The law of gravity does not allow a single flimsy cotton thread to bind two heavier materials of cloth for more than ten years, much less four hundred and fifty! In addition, the coarse weave of the tilma was utilized by the Artist in such a precise manner as to give depth to the face of the Image.

An analysis of the image shows that there was no sketch made prior to the image being produced, and that it was made without brush strokes. Modern science is unfamiliar with the substance used to produce the image. They were unable to find any trace of paint residue or dye of any sort on the Image. What produced the colors on Juan Diego’s cloak or how they were applied remains a total mystery of science. The Image still retains its original colors, even though it was unprotected by any covering during the first 100 years of veneration. The bluish-green color of Our Lady’s mantle is unique. It seems to be made of an unearthly shade that as yet no artist has been able exactly to match. The colors of the tunic and mantle are important ones in the Aztec hierarchical structure, ones typically reserved for the emperor.

Infrared radiation photography confirmed, besides the lack of paint and brush strokes, no corrections, no underlying sketch, no sizing used to render the surface smooth, no varnish covering the image to protect its surface. According to specialists of the Kodak Corporation in Mexico, the Image bears more resemblance to a color photograph than anything else. Study of photographic enlargements of Our Lady’s face have revealed the image of a bearded man, clearly identifiable in the eyes. Rigorous investigations by leading oculists found not only the image of the bearded man but all the optical imaging qualities of a normal human eye, such as light reflection, image positioning and distortion on the cornea.

The Virgin’s mantle is covered with stars which stunningly and accurately map out various constellations as might be seen in the Mexican sky. Even more remarkably, this “star map” on the mantle is in reverse: providing a view of the constellations from beyond them―as would be seen looking through them towards the Earth. The constellations are consistent with what astronomers believe was in the sky above Mexico City the day the Image was formed―December 12th, 1531.

Recent gynecological studies have also identified signs of pregnancy in the image and a special flower, the Quincunx, over the place where the heart of the unborn child would be. This flower is the Aztec symbol of the Lord of the Universe.

Some other amazing facts about the tilma that have been discovered over the centuries:

In 1785, a worker accidentally spilled nitric acid on the top right corner of the tilma. While it should have disintegrated the cactus fibers, it only left a small stain.

On November 14th, 1921, a bomb detonated beneath the tilma. It exploded with such force that a heavy cast iron crucifix was bent backwards, a nearby altar was destroyed, and the marble floor and windows 150 meters from the explosion were broken and damaged. The tilma and the glass that covered it—which was normal, non-bomb resistant glass—remained completely unharmed, even though it was closer to the bomb than the other destroyed listed above. The crucifix can still be seen in the museums of the shrine in Mexico City.

In 1929, it was discovered that Mary’s eyes reflect Juan Diego as Our Lady saw him. Further examinations by Dr. José Aste Tonsmann revealed not only Juan’s image, but those of the Bishop and his retinue kneeling before the image. Even though the fabric is course, the images of several people can be seen reflected in the eyes of the Virgin, just as they would be in a living person's eyes. The reflections even show a distortion, matching the curvature of Mary’s eye as well as the presence of the triple reflection (Samson-Purkinje effect) characteristic of all live human eyes. The placement of those images, and the distortion that is the effect of the curve of a normal eye, is impossible to reproduce on a flat surface.

The image changes color slightly according to the angle of the viewer, a phenomenon known as iridescence, a technique that cannot be reproduced with human hands.

Conclusion
The miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe is an unquestionable display of God’s love and mercy for the Mexican and American people. As she converted the hearts of the Aztec Indians, so let her convert our modern, worldly hearts to turn to her and her Son. Let us ask her help to restore modesty and decency and especially to bring about the end of the modern sacrifice of innocent humans to the altar of self-love―which is abortion. Let us ask her for help in fighting the neo-paganism of our day, which increasingly refuses to believe in God and His miracles, mocking them as legends and fanciful imaginings of uneducated people. Let us ask her to build “churches” in our own souls, in our homes, in our communities―both spiritual churches and material churches―to make up for the constant closure of churches and the ever-increasing apostasy from the Faith. Foster devotion to this Noble Virgin and Mother in your own life and the lives of others. Contemplating her, remember the following words of a prayer composed by Pope Pius XII, in which he declares the Virgin of Guadalupe the Empress of all the Americas: “For we are certain, that as long as you are recognized as Queen and Mother, Mexico and America will be safe.”

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday December 9th & Tuesday December 10th

Article 9
The Second Lap of Advent Has Begun! Are You Winded?

The Race for Heaven
You could say that our life on Earth is merely a race for Heaven. That is what St. Paul says and that is what the Church proposes at the start of Lent, by quoting St. Paul: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24)―that is why he says elsewhere: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12). Once the athlete or sports team loses a healthy fear of losing races or games, then defeat awaits around the next corner.

Our Lord Himself also speaks of incertitude of winning that race, when He warns: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23), elsewhere adding: “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14), which dovetails with St. Paul’s phrase, “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!”

When a coach decides to have “try-outs” for prospective members for his team, the vast majority will fail to impress him sufficiently in order to “get on the team.” Most aspirants find that there is massive gap between how good they imagine they are and how good (or how poor) they really are. The same is true with God. You could take the following quote from Holy Scripture and imagine God to be like a ‘coach’ seeking potential members for his team: “The Lord hath looked down from Heaven, upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, no not one. They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalm 13:1-3). Truly, “many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14)―God has His “try-outs” for Heaven, but few “make the cut” or “make the grade.”

The 'Unchosen Ones' Among the Chosen People
Our Lord (in Matthew 24:39) mentioned the time of Noe and the Ark, reminding us of how few were saved―“the flood came, and took them all away.” God had no qualms about eliminating most of the human race because of sin and wiped them off the face of the Earth—“It repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:6-7).

We see the same anger in God during the Exodus from Egypt on the journey to the Promised Land: “And again the Lord said to Moses: ‘See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’” (Exodus 32:9-10).

St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).

God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander and die in the desert so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions who had left Egypt actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think!

Are We Absent in Advent?
Today, we are on our journey towards Christ and Christmas through the ‘mini-desert’ of Advent―much like the Chosen People were journeying to the Promised Land through the desert―“but with most of them, God was not well pleased!” How pleased is God with our approach to Advent? Have we given ourselves over to murmuring and complaining like the Chosen People? God says:“How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel” (Numbers 14:27). The results were not good, as St. Paul says: “Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer!” (1 Corinthians 10:10). The very thought of having to do penance during Advent makes us murmur!

Have we imitated the Chosen People in their love of sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to play? “And rising in the morning, the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play” (Exodus 32:6). Arguably, you could say that this present generation is an “eat, drink and play” generation. Entertainment has replaced mortification during Advent. Even before Christmas has officially arrived, we have entered the “false start” period of “pre-Christmas Christmas parties”―office Christmas parties, school Christmas parties, family Christmas parties, etc. The tone that was set by Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small-Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, etc., has, like a virus or bug, infected our spiritual organism. Athletes and sports teams don’t win races and games by partying but by training hard―which is why St. Paul adds the following comment to his race analogy: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty! I so fight, not as one beating the air! But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection! Lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Castaways Cast Away Advent
Sadly, the “castaways” are plentiful―mainly because they never took their spiritual life and the knowledge and practice of their Faith very seriously. Of such, St. John Vianney says: “They do not wish to be damned, but neither do they wish to inconvenience themselves too much. They hope that they will be saved without having to do too much violence to themselves. They have the idea that God, being so good, did not create them for perdition and that He will pardon them in spite of everything! … What a very tragic life such people lead, who want to follow the ways of the world without ceasing to be the children of God!” (Sermons of St. John Vianney).

Such “castaways” cast away all thoughts of “doing a good Advent”―as St. John Vianney states further: “You will say to me, who are these people who are partly on God’s side and partly on the side of the world? Well, my dear children, let me describe them. I will compare them to dogs―who will run to the first person who calls them. You may follow them from the morning to the evening, from the beginning of the year to the end. These people look upon Sunday as merely a day for rest and amusement. They stay in bed longer than on weekdays, and instead of giving themselves to God with all their hearts, they do not even think of Him. Some of them will be thinking of their amusements, others of people they expect to meet, still others of the sales they are about to make or the money they will be spending or receiving.

“Because they will be going to church later, they will omit their prayers altogether, saying: ‘Oh, I’ll have plenty of time to say them before Mass!’ They always have something to do before setting out for Mass, and although they have been planning to say their prayers before setting out, they are barely in time for the beginning of the Mass itself. Since they still want to appear Christian, they will go to Mass, though it will be with infinite boredom and reluctance. The thought in their minds will be: ‘Oh, Lord, will this ever be over!’ You will see them in church, especially during the instruction, looking around from one side to the other, asking the person next to them for the time, and so on. More of them yawn and stretch and turn the pages of their prayer book, as if they were examining it in order to see whether the printer had made any mistakes. There are others, and you can see them sleeping as soundly, as if they were in a comfortable bed. The first thought that comes to them, when they awake, is not that they have been profaning so holy a place, but: ‘Oh, Lord! This will never be over! ... I’m not coming back any more!’ And finally there are those to whom the word of God (which has converted so many sinners) is actually nauseating. They are obliged to go out, they say, to get a breath of air or else they would die. You will see them, distressed and miserable, during the services. But no sooner is the service over―and often even before the priest has actually left the altar―than they will be pressing around the door, from which the first of the congregation are streaming out, and you will notice that all the joy, which they had lost during the service, has come back again.

“For such people there is no question of instruction, nor of the Rosary, nor of evening prayers. They look upon all these things as of no consequence. If you asked them what had been said during the instruction, they would say: ‘He did too much shouting ... He bored us to death ... I can’t remember anything else about it.... If it hadn’t been so long, it might have been easier to remember some of it ... That is just what keeps the world away from religious services ― they are too long!’ It is quite right to say ‘the world’ ― because these people belong to the camp of the worldly, although they do not know it.” (Sermons of St. John Vianney).

Jesus Warns
Our Lord—Who, in His own words, is “the way”—points out that way to us. During His Sermon on the Mount Our Lord said: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). Such a statement led one man to ask: “‘Lord, are there few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24). A further clarification is given when “Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).

Our Lord was born at Christmas―not to party and have fun―but to carry the cross and suffer. Simple, clear, blunt, brutal, stark and uncompromising. And in case some desired or needed further clarifications, Jesus adds: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me … He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it” (Matthew 10:37-39). “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting. And many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first … So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen!” (Matthew 19:29-30; 20:16).

History of Losers
Throughout history, from the earliest centuries, the Popes and Saints, the Doctors and Fathers of the Church, have echoed the above sentiments and imagery―here is a mere handful of quotes from the mountain of quotes available:

► St. Justin Martyr (100-165), Father of the Church: “The majority of men shall not see God, excepting those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.”

► St. Jerome (347-420), Doctor and Father of the Church: “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Savior intended to say: ‘The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown’” (St. Jerome: Commentary on Matthew: “Many begin well, but there are few who persevere”).

► St. Augustine (354-430), Doctor and Father of the Church: “It is certain that few are saved” (Sermon 111). “Take care not to resemble the multitude, whose knowledge of God’s will only condemns them to more severe punishment ... If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate” (Sermon 224).

► Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604): “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s feast-day―we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect?” (Gregory: “On the Gospels,” Homily 19. Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers)―which echoes St. Paul’s phrase: “All run indeed, but one receiveth the prize! So run that you may obtain!”

► St. John Climacus (579-606), Father of the Church: “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”

► St. Bede the Venerable (673-735), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Nor should we think that it is enough for salvation that we are no worse off than the mass of the careless and indifferent people, or that in our Faith we are, like so many others, uninstructed.” Again, St. Paul’s phrase echoes through time: “All run indeed, but one receiveth the prize! So run that you may obtain!”

► St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few… Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.” (Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers). Again, St. Paul’s phrase echoes through time: “All run indeed, but one receiveth the prize! So run that you may obtain!”

► St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church: “There are a select few who are saved” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).

► St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Doctor of the Church: “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell, especially those Lutherans ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!” (St. Teresa of Avila). Today, most Catholics resemble Lutherans more than they resemble true Catholics!

► St. John of the Cross (1524-1591), Doctor of the Church: “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow.”

► St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church: “Everyone desires to be saved―but the greater part is lost.” … “The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God” … “The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few. O God, too few indeed they are; yet among those few I wish to be!” … “The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost!” … “All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost. In fact, the Elect are much fewer than the damned, for the reprobate are much more numerous than the Elect” … “In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water but of sins, continually inundates the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved!”

► St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed” (John Mary: GOH p.37)

► St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Notwithstanding assurances that God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved, it remains equally true that only few will be saved; that only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.”

As you can see, the above witnesses are (1) saints, (2) most of them are Fathers, Doctors or Popes of the Church―thus the most reliable theologians, (3) they span just about every single century since the time of Christ. Taken as a whole, their message is very sobering and perhaps even frightening―but, as St. John Neumann states: “God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved!” However, as St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God.” As St. Anselm notes, few are those “who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night.”

Christmas is no joke! It is not party time, but a time of parting―parting from the multitude, parting from the world, parting from materialism. Christmas is not an end in itself, but merely a beginning―the beginning of the Way of the Cross. The Way of Cross already began for Christ at Christmas―He was rejected; He was born into poverty; He was hunted by the killer Herod; He had to flee His native country and live in exile; etc., etc. Let us not transform Christmas into a Hollywood or Disney sentimental epic―it is not that. It is the planting of the seed of salvation―and that seed of salvation is a seed of suffering, not partying, entertaining and having fun. That truth and the realization of that truth, knocks the wind out of the sails of many and most. It is not their idea of Christmas (which has been corrupted by the neo-pagan, materialistic, world-view of Christmas).

Waterproofed Against Grace and Insulated Against Hell
The world’s idea of Christmas is one that trashes what it regards are excess-baggage and practically useless―namely, Advent with its penance. If and wherever Advent is allowed to remain and is tolerated, then it a mere man-made, mushy, slushy, cotton-candy Advent that is not worthy of the name. Penance and sacrifice ‘buy’ the grace of God, ‘pay’ for past sin, and ‘purchase’ insurance against Hell. The problem is that the modern world prefers to live without God (and His grace) and scoffs at Hell (and the devil). In fact, for some, God is seen as “the enemy” and the devil is seen as “a friend”!

The devil has succeeded in ‘divorcing’ theory from practice in almost every Catholic walking this Earth. In theory they believe in Hell and Purgatory, but in practice they live as though there was no Hell or Purgatory. They believe that sin is costly, but they ‘purchase’ sin after sin all through the day―whether in thought, word, action or neglect and omission. They known in theory that the Holy Eucharist is the greatest thing this side of Heaven, but, when it comes to practice, they rarely or never go out of their way to visit the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass. In theory, they know how to make a good confession, but in practice, according to many saints, many people make bad confessions. If you don’t believe that, then why do most Catholics lose their souls and go to Hell? It is impossible to end up in Hell if you are confessing your sins correctly and sincerely! They know, in theory, that the Holy Mass is continuation of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, but, in practice, it looks as though they couldn’t care less―as they yawn, or daydream, or fidget, or do other things throughout Mass. Sadly, we have to apply to ourselves the words that Our Lord addressed to the Jews: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Mark 7:6-7). “Woe to them that are of a double heart and to wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that goeth on the Earth two ways!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:14).

Running Against the Wind
Coming back to St. Paul’s words: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24)―we have admit that, today, we are running into the wind, the wind of the world which blows relentlessly against us and all that Christianity stands for. Yet, as Our Lord stated, “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). The anti-Christian wind of the world blows violently against us―and we must meet that violent wind by violence to ourselves. We must overcome ourselves, overcome our timidity, overcome human respect, overcome our fears, overcome our sense of powerlessness, overcome our ignorance of the Faith, overcome our lukewarmness in the Faith―and then with a Faith that is strong and living, a Faith that is not only talking but also walking, with a Faith that is well-instructed we can then overcome the world and its false arguments: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4).

The battle will not be short and Our Lord demands perseverance, saying: “They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake … And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. You shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:9-13). “And you shall be hated by all men for My Name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). “You shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake. And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 24:9-13).

Sunday December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Article 8
Are You Immaculately Dressed for Heaven?

Do You Have Your Heavenly Garment?
No doubt you recall the parable that Our Lord told about the wedding feast, to which many were invited: “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants, to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: ‘Tell them that were invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner! My calves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready! Come ye to the marriage!”’ But they neglected, and went their own ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and, having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But when the king had heard of it, he was angry, and, sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city! Then he said to his servants: ‘The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy! Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage!’ And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good: and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests―and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said to him: ‘Friend, how camest thou in here not having a wedding garment?’ But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth! For many are called, but few are chosen!’” (Matthew 22:1-14).

The Fathers and Doctors of the Church are in common agreement that the “wedding garment” symbolizes sanctifying grace and charity―which cleanse us from the stain of sin and pay the debt owed to God for those sins. We are conceived and born into this world without sanctifying grace―that is what Original Sin is: an absence of sanctifying grace. We receive sanctifying grace for the first time in our baptism, which remedies Original Sin by pouring sanctifying grace into our soul at the moment the priest pours the water over us (water being a symbol of grace). Thus the Psalmist cries out: “Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!” (Psalm 50:4). If we have the misfortune to lose sanctifying grace by committing mortal sin, then we can regain sanctifying grace once again by making a good confession and we can remove the debt for sin by charity―“Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). Thus, the “wedding garment” of charity and grace makes a person fit for Heaven―for “there shall not enter into it anything defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27).

A Mother Clothes Her Children
We all know that is usually the mother who clothes her children and washes their dirty clothes―even though it might well be the father who pays for the clothes. Similarly, Our Lord “paid” for the “wedding garments” of grace by His Passion and Death―but is Our Lady, our Mother, who distributes those “wedding garments” of grace to whomsoever she pleases, for she is the Mediatrix of All Graces that Christ has earned for us―and, as St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly. To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such wise that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §24-§25).

The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget: “I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God! Neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion; for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be! No one, therefore, who is not entirely damned, is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy His mercy if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy―and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them. Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who, in this, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners” (taken from The Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Liguori).

Blessed and fortunate is the soul that is clothed with the grace of God by the Mother of God: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God―for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice He hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels!” (Isaias 61:10). We could put the following words into the mouth of Our Lady when she looks upon a sinner: “And I passed by thee, and saw thee …and I spread my garment over thee, and covered thy ignominy … and thou becamest mine. And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil. And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with violet colored shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen, and clothed thee with fine garments. I decked thee also with ornaments, and a chain about thy neck. And I put a beautiful crown upon thy head. And thou wast adorned with gold, and silver, and wast clothed with fine linen, and thou wast made exceedingly beautiful” (Ezechiel 16:8-13). “Behold I have taken away thy iniquity, and have clothed thee with change of garments!” (Zacharias 3:4). Thus, St. Alphonsus Liguori writes: “We believe that she opens the depths of the mercy of God, to whom she will, when she will, and as she will; so that not even the vilest sinner is lost, if Mary protects him” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

Sin versus Sanctity
God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. “Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and Thou canst not look on iniquity” (Habacuc 1:13). The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended. It was sin that led to banishment of the fallen angels to Hell, and it was sin led to Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden and to suffer and die. Both the Angels and our First Parents were created immaculate, that is to say, in a state of grace. Yet many of the angels failed to keep that grace, and both Adam and Eve lost that grace through Mortal Sin. God cannot tolerate sin. Sin is an attack upon the holiness and purity of God. Sin has to be eliminated and reparation has to be made.

Since Adam and Even listened to the devil and fell into sin, they thereby abused and threw away the gifts that God had given them: (1) the supernatural grace of God; (2) the possibility of never having to die; (3) the possibility of being free from any and all forms of suffering; (4) the harmonious submission and obedience of the soul to God’s grace, and the obedience of the body and its passions to the soul; and finally, (5) they weakened the infused knowledge that God had created them with, to the point that now they would experience a darkened intellect that finds learning difficult, a weak will that struggles with temptation, and rebellious passions. They had offended God in the name of humanity, all their future descendants would participate in the effects of that sin. As St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Truly, as St. Paul states later, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The gates of Heaven were closed. Humanity had failed the test through Adam and Eve. It is because we downplay sin in our own thoughts, that we have such a wrong notion about what sin really is. As the old, but very clear and simple, The Penny Catechism says: “It is the greatest of all evils to fall into mortal sin.” Another catechism, My Catholic Faith, states that “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God ... Although venial sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is nevertheless a great moral evil, next alone to mortal sin ... We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin.” (from the catechism My Catholic Faith).

After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. The passage in Genesis, which is called the Protoevangelium (“first gospel”), makes the first announcement of the Messias and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, because He “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”, makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Additionally, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the Woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the Mother of Christ, the “New Eve”. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: for she was preserved from all stain of Original Sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life. Heaven is only for saints―it is only for the stainless. If we are in any way stained, we shall not be admitted until we remove those stains.

Our Lord adds: “For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven―but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

To Get to Heaven, We Must Be Immaculately Dressed
As in the parable about the wedding feast, we must be immaculately dressed to get into Heaven. Those garments are essentially garments of holiness or sanctity―for it is ONLY SAINTS who go to Heaven. Holy Scripture is inflexibly clear on this matter: “He showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven, from God ... There shall not enter into it any thing defiled” (Apocalypse 21:10, 27). “For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person hath inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God” (Ephesians 5:5). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity” (Ephesians 1:4). “According to Him that hath called you, Who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy! Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31). “You shall be to Me a holy nation!” (Exodus 19:6). “For I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls by any thing upon the Earth” (Leviticus 11:44). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:26). “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy because I am the Lord your God!” (Leviticus 20:7).

We love things to be immaculate! We want things to be clean. We wash our dishes and scrub our pans; we wash ourselves and our clothes often; we seek and prefer to buy things that are immaculate, unused: whether it be a spouse in marriage, an article in a store, or a car we buy, or simply kitchen utensils that we use. If we can afford it, we prefer the immaculate and clean rather than the stained or damaged things.

That is why we speak of starting a “new life”; “turning over a new leaf”; looking forwards to buying a “new car”; or “making a new start.” Even Holy Scripture speaks of the “New Jersulalem” coming down from Heaven: “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God, and my new name” (Apocalypse 3:12). Further on, St. John writes: “And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband ... And He that sat on the throne, said: ‘Behold, I make all things new!’” (Apocalypse 21:2).

We need that cleanliness and purity to stand before God: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in His holy place? The innocent in hands, and clean of heart” (Psalm 23:3-4). “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). That is why we, who are not only born with Original Sin, but have added many more of our own sins besides, need to be cleansed and renewed in body, soul, mind and heart. “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin?’” (Proverbs 20:9). Rather, we have to cry out with the Psalmist: “Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels” (Psalm 50:12).

God is always willing to answer that prayer and to make us immaculate after sin, just as He made Our Lady immaculate before sin. As He preserved her from all stain of sin, so too He can preserve us from all future stain of sin—if we really want that and work together with Him to achieve that. “And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 11:19).

“For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in My commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses” (Ezechiel 36:24-29).

They say that a broken bone, once healed, can turn out to be stronger than it was before being broken; and God is the one “Who healeth the broken of heart, and bindeth up their bruises” (Psalm 146:16). But, to be healed, we need a change of heart. We cannot remain the same and expect God to do something with us: “Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles―and both are preserved” (Matthew 9:17).

“For behold I create new Heavens, and a new Earth: and the former things shall not be in remembrance” (Isaias 65:17). Like Mary, we must be filled with God’s spirit, and that is why we pray to that Holy Spirit of God, saying: “Come, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love! Send forth Thy spirit and we shall be created [or rather re-created] and Thou shalt renew [make new] the face of the Earth!” He sanctified Our Lady, He will sanctify us if we let Him and cooperate with Him. He made Our Lady immaculate―He will make us immaculate if we let Him and cooperate with Him.

Clothed with Penance―Cleansed by Penance
If we have sinned and thereby rejected and offended God, then we need to cloth ourselves with penance. “John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey” (Mark 1:4-6). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). “He that shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels … I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear” (Apocalypse 3:5, 18). “I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands … And one of the ancients said to me: ‘These that are clothed in white robes … These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb!’” (Apocalypse 7:9-14). “Take away the rust from silver, and there shall come forth a most pure vessel” (Proverbs 25:4).

The Power of Purity―the Invincibility of the Immaculate
“Blessed are the pure in heart [clean of heart], for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean! I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). We imagine ourselves to be better than what we really are―we are “a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12). Today’s world is besotted with impurity―as foretold by our Immaculate Mother: “The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success).

The more immaculate we are, the more pure we are, the less sin we commit, the more power we have over the devil, the world and the flesh and the more chance we have of attaining the salvation of our souls and reaching Heaven.

The more we sin, the more we open ourselves up to the influence and power of the devil, the world and the flesh. The more we fight temptation and the less we sin, the more we open ourselves up to the influence and power of God.

To be successful in our attempts to become increasingly immaculate, we need the help and intercession of the Original Immaculate—namely, Our Lady. We need the grace of God to fight temptation and sin, for Jesus said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5); and that grace of His comes through the immaculate hands of the Immaculate Heart of Mary―the Mediatrix of All Grace. The Church puts into the mouth of Mary, the words of the Epistle in the Mass of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th: “He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord” (Proverbs 8:35); and from the Epistle of the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception, the Church puts into Mary’s mouth these words: “He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting” (Ecclesiasticus 24:30-31).

The more devoted we are towards Our Lady, and the more we show that devotion, the more graces we will receive. Heaven will spoil no one―we have to work for our share of the grace of God. “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Our Lady said the same thing in her apparition as the Immaculate Conception to St. Catherine Labouré, by pointing out that all graces radiated to mankind through the jeweled rings on her hands, but that some rays, the dull ones that did not shine, gave out no rays of grace because people neglected to ask for them.

How many souls would not be in Hell right now if they had only asked Our Lady for the graces they needed to leave sin and become immaculate? How many souls would not be in Purgatory right now if they had only sought the necessary graces to live better lives while still on Earth? Will we fall among them―in Hell or Purgatory―because of our sloth, indifference or negligence? Let us rouse ourselves in this time of Advent and turn to our Immaculate Mother, asking for the graces we need to avoid, not only Hell, but also the fires of Purgatory―which the saints and popes say are the same fires as those of Hell.

The Immaculate Mother of God is Invincible Over Hell
The more immaculate we are, the more pure we are, the less sin we commit, the more power we have over the devil, the world and the flesh and the more chance we have of attaining the salvation of our souls and reaching Heaven. If that is true for us, how much more true is that not of the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God?

“The most terrible of all the enemies which God has set up against the devil is His holy Mother Mary. He has inspired her, even since the days of the earthly paradise–though she existed then only in His idea―with so much hatred against that cursed enemy of God, with so much ingenuity in unveiling the malice of that ancient serpent, with so much power to conquer, to overthrow and to crush that proud, impious rebel, that he fears her not only more than all angels and men, but in a sense more than God Himself” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).

“The length of her power, which she exercises even over God Himself, is incomprehensible ... her prayers and petitions are so powerful with God that they always pass for commandments with His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother ... the prayer of the humble Mary, that worthy Mother of God, is more powerful with His Majesty than the prayers and intercessions of all the angels and saints both in Heaven and on Earth ... God has empowered her and commissioned her to fill with saints the empty thrones from which the apostate angels fell by pride” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary).

In St. Louis’ book, The Secret of the Rosary, we have the confession of the devils that St. Dominic was exorcising. Forced by Our Lady to speak, the devils screamed: “Oh, you who are enemy, our downfall and our destruction, why have you come from Heaven to torture us so grievously? O advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of Hell, you who are a most sure path to Heaven, must we, in spite of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Oh, woe to us, princes of darkness. Then listen, you Christians. This Mother of Jesus is most powerful in saving her servants from falling into Hell. She is like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares, and makes our temptations useless and ineffective. We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints. We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with her faithful servants” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

In his Encyclical Ineffabilis Deus, proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on December 8th, 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX, points out that Mary’s power is in proportion to her purity and holiness: “Our ancestors in the Faith … have frequently addressed the Mother of God as immaculate, as immaculate in every respect―innocent, and verily most innocent; spotless, and entirely spotless; holy and removed from every stain of sin; all pure, all stainless, the very model of purity and innocence; more beautiful than beauty, more lovely than loveliness; more holy than holiness, singularly holy and most pure in soul and body; the one who surpassed all integrity and virginity; the only one who has become the dwelling place of all the graces of the most Holy Ghost … Eve listened to the serpent with lamentable consequences; she fell from original innocence and became his slave. The most Blessed Virgin, on the contrary, ever increased her original gift, and, not only never lent an ear to the serpent, but by divinely given power she utterly destroyed the force and dominion of the evil one … It was wholly fitting that so wonderful a Mother should … so completely free from all taint of Original Sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent ... and most completely triumphed over him, and thus crushed his head with her immaculate foot” (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Encyclical on the Immaculate Conception, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8th, 1854).

Around the same time as Blessed Pope Pius IX wrote his 1854 encyclical on the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Frederick Faber wrote: “What is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor ... It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized ... Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother ... Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior, her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Preface to True Devotion to Mary, by Fr. Faber).

Pope St. Pius X writes: “Can anyone fail to see that there is no surer or more direct road, than by Mary, for uniting all mankind in Christ and obtaining, through Him, the perfect adoption of sons, that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God? ... Nobody ever knew Christ so profoundly as she did, and nobody can ever be more competent as a guide and teacher of the knowledge of Christ ...The Virgin is more powerful than all others, as a means for uniting mankind with Christ ... She is a most sure and efficacious assistance to us for arriving at the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ ... [But], to be right and good, worship of the Mother of God ought to spring from the heart; acts of the body have here neither utility nor value, if the acts of the soul have no part in them. Now these latter can only have one object, which is that we should fully carry out what the Divine Son of Mary commands. For if true love alone has the power to unite the wills of men, it is of the first necessity that we should have one will, with Mary, to serve Jesus our Lord. What this most prudent Virgin said to the servants at the marriage feast of Cana, she addresses also to us: ‘Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye!’ (John 2: 5)” (Pope St. Pius X, Encyclical on the Immaculate Conception, Ad Diem Illum, February 2nd, 1904).

Tapping-In to the Power of Mary
We have spoken of the power of the Immaculate Virgin and Mother of God―let us now reflect upon the need to tap into that power to solve the miseries that the world is increasingly facing today, and the terrible punishments that those miseries are threatening to bring about on the whole of mankind.

Our Lady is the “umbrella” of all other solutions to the many crises facing the Church and civil society today. If we are seeking or proposing solutions that downplay, ignore or reject the Marian solution, then we are proverbially “shooting ourselves in the foot.”

In a 1957 interview with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia of Fatima said: “Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but she made me understand this for three reasons. The first reason is because she told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.

“The second reason is because she said to my cousins as well as to myself that God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.

“The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us, with a certain trepidation, the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with a certain trepidation, because, if you despise and repulse this ultimate means, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin consists of openly rejecting with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers” (Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima’s interview with Father Augustin Fuentes, December 26th, 1957)

► At the Miraculous Medal apparitions in 1830, Our Lady said: “The times are very evil ... The whole world will be plunged into every kind of misery ... It pains me that there are great abuses in regularity, that the rules are not observed, that there is much relaxation in the Communities”

► At La Salette, in 1848, Our Lady said: “Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves!”

► At Lourdes, in 1858, Our Lady, who later told Bernadette that she was the Immaculate Conception, tells Bernadette to “go to the fountain to wash, and that I was to pray for sinners.” Washing is something we do to make ourselves clean and immaculate; while the reference to sinners signifies their lack of spiritual cleanliness. They need prayers that will draw down the waters of grace than will wash them clean. It is penance that scrubs us clean and at Lourdes Our Lady said: “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners!” For with regard to Heaven, “there shall not enter into it any thing defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27).

► At Fatima, in 1917, Our Lady warned that we have sinned and offended God enough. It has to stop: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”

All these quotes show the negative side of the coin, whereby Our Lady wants us to leave sin behind. The flip side of the coin is that she wants us to be holy or immaculate. If we fail to become immaculate and scrub ourselves clean from the stain of our sins, then Purgatory will have to do it.

Our Lady glories in the conversion of sinners; in the rendering of what was stained to the ranks of the immaculate. She said to the Venerable Sr. Mary Villani: “Next to the title of Mother of God, I glory most in being named the Advocate of Sinners.” What does this Advocate plead on behalf of sinners? She pleads that they may be made clean, just like the man pleaded with Jesus in the Scriptures: “And behold a leper came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean’” (Matthew 8:2).

To obtain our own grace of cleansing from the leprosy of sin, we must seek and find Mary. “The Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and inseparable spouse, in any soul, the more active and mighty He becomes in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary). How much of Mary does the Holy Ghost find in your soul? How much time do you give to Mary in your life?

Our Choices and Chances are Limited
God could have worked out our redemption thousands of different ways―but He chose to redeem us through Jesus and Mary. If you want to save your soul, then you have no choice but to go to Jesus and Mary, or, as is often said, to Jesus through Mary. “Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts of Apostles 4:12). “Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!’” (John 14:6). Our Lord earned the graces of salvation for us and He chooses to distribute those graces to us through Mary―the Mediatrix of All Grace. In the words of St. Louis de Montfort, Our Lady “is the treasurer and universal dispenser of the merits and virtues of her Son, which she gives and communicates to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and in such quantity as she wills” (True Devotion to Mary, §206).

Mary is the Way Appointed by God
Take it or leave it! Like it or lump it! It is not going to change―you either take God’s appointed way to Heaven, or you take the highway to Hell. Many saints reinforce this God chosen necessity of Mary for our salvation. Our Blessed Mother holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation.

► St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”

► St. Bonaventure (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”

► St. Ignatius of Antioch (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”

► St. Alphonsus Liguori (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”

► St. Anselm (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”

► St. Antonine is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”

Our Lady or the Highway
Our Lady herself emphasized her God-given role in these “latter days” or “end times” of the world.

► In 1846, at La Salette in France, Our Lady revealed: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God ... The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family ... People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession.”

► In 1917, at Fatima in Portugal, speaking in the third person of herself, she said: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary … because only she can help you!”

► In 1973, at Akita in Japan, Our Lady essentially said the same thing: “The Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … I have prevented the coming of calamities … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

► In the early 1600s, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of Good Success stated: “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church will be finally free of his cruel tyranny!”

► In 1917, at Fatima, she promised: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” ― but at what cost? How many souls will have been lost and damned in the meantime? The increasing religious indifference, the widespread religious ignorance, the spreading cancer of Liberalism and Modernism, the pervading secularism and neo-paganism, the ever-growing apostasy and heresy within the Church and the idolatry of materialism and hedonism (pleasure-seeking) is claiming more and more souls for Hell with each passing day! Our Lady can help―but nobody really wants her help. That is what Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed already way back in 1957!

We Couldn’t Care Less!
“The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message―neither the good, nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them!” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima in an interview with Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).

This lack of interest in Our Lady’s messages and Our Lady’s help was already reflected in the “Miraculous Medal” apparition to St. Catherine Labouré at the convent of the Daughters of Charity on the Rue du Bac in Paris, France, in 1830. The Virgin Mary held in her hands a golden ball, which she seemed to offer to God, for her eyes were raised heavenward. Suddenly, her hands were resplendent with rings, set with precious stones of different sizes, three on each finger, that glittered and flashed in a brilliant cascade of light. So bright was the flood of glory cast upon the globe below that Catherine could no longer see Our Lady's feet. But some of the gems gave off no light at all. Mary lowered her eyes and looked fully at Sister Labouré. Her lips did not move, but Catherine heard a voice: “The ball which you see represents the whole world, especially France, and each person in particular.” Catherine was wondering why some jewels gave off no light. Just as she was thinking this, the Blessed Virgin turned her eyes on her and made her understand with what generosity and great joy she dispensed grace. But she indicated that there are graces for which she is not asked, and it is for this reason that some of the gemstones did not send forth rays of light: “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems, from which rays do not fall, are the graces for which souls neglect to ask.”

How Mary Helps Us
St. Louis de Montfort lists below five chief ways in which Our Lady exercises her charity towards those that love her and serve her: “Let us now turn to look at the [five] charitable duties which our Blessed Lady, as the best of all mothers, fulfills for the faithful servants who have given themselves to her …

► (1) “The first charitable duty towards her servants is that she loves them: ‘I love those who love me’ (Proverbs 8:17). She loves them: (a) because she is their true Mother, and a mother always loves her child, the fruit of her womb; (b) out of gratitude, because they effectively love her as their good Mother; (c) because, as they are predestinate, God loves them; (d) because they are entirely consecrated to her. She loves them tenderly and more tenderly than all other mothers put together. Throw, if you can, all the natural love which all the mothers of the world have for their children into the heart of just one mother for one only child. Surely that one mother will love that child immensely. Nevertheless, it is true that Mary loves her children still more tenderly than that one mother [filled with the love of all mothers of the Earth] would love that child of hers. She loves them not only with affection, but with efficacy [she gets things done and makes things happen]. She is on the lookout for favorable occasions to do them good, to advance and enrich them. She sees clearly all good and evil, all prosperous and adverse fortunes, the blessings and the curses of God; and then she so disposes things from afar that she may exempt her servants from all sorts of evils, and obtain for them all sorts of blessings: ‘She herself takes care of our interests,’ says a certain saint.

► (2) “The second charitable duty which our Blessed Lady fulfills toward her faithful servants is that she furnishes them with everything, both for their body and for their soul … As it is Mary who is the treasurer and dispenser of the gifts and graces of the Most High, she gives a good portion, and indeed the best portion, to nourish and maintain her children and her servants. She inspires them to do everything which Jesus Christ her Son has taught by His words and His examples … She makes them die to the life of the old Adam. She flays and strips them of their natural inclinations, their self-love, their own will and all attachment to creatures. She cleanses them of their spots, their vileness and their sins. She dresses them to the taste of God, and for His greatest glory … This good Mother strips us of our old garments; she cleanses us and so makes us worthy to appear before our heavenly Father. She clothes us in the clean, new, precious and perfumed—which she keeps in her house, that is, which she has in her own power, inasmuch as she is the treasurer and universal dispenser of the merits and virtues of her Son, which she gives and communicates to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and in such quantity as she wills; as we have seen before. She adorns them with the merits and value of their own actions. She kills and mortifies all that is impure and imperfect in them, but she neither loses nor wastes one atom of the good which grace has done there. On the contrary, she preserves and augments it … She bestows a new perfume and a new grace upon their garments and adornments in communicating to them her own garments, that is, her merits and virtues … Finally, she enables them to obtain the blessing of our heavenly Father … He recognizes in them the merits and the good odor of His Son and of His holy Mother, and so He gives them His double blessing, that is to say, of divine grace, which is the seed of glory; and then the good Father gives them their daily bread, and a sufficient abundance of the goods of this world. His Majesty, not content with blessing them in their person and their goods, blesses also those who shall bless them and curses those who shall curse and persecute them.

► (3) “The third good which Our Lady does for her servants is that she conducts and directs them according to the will of her Divine Son. Mary, who is the Star of the Sea, leads all her faithful servants into a safe harbor. She shows them the paths of eternal life. She makes them avoid the dangerous places. She conducts them by her hand alone the paths of justice. She steadies them when they are about to fall; she lifts them up when they have fallen. She reproves them like a charitable mother when they fail; and sometimes she even lovingly chastises them. Can a child obedient to Mary, his foster Mother and his enlightened guide, go astray in the paths of eternity? ‘If you follow her,’ says St. Bernard, ‘you cannot wander from the road.’ Fear not, therefore, that a true child of Mary can be deceived by the evil one, or fall into any formal heresy. There where the guidance of Mary is, neither the evil spirit with his illusions, nor the heretics with their subtleties, can ever come.

► (4) “The fourth good office which Our Lady renders to her children and faithful servants is to protect and defend them against their enemies. Mary hides them under the wings of her protection. She speaks, she stoops down to them, she condescends to all their weaknesses. To secure them from the hawk and vulture, she puts herself round about them, and accompanies them ‘like an army in battle array’ (Canticles 6:3). Shall a man who has an army of a hundred thousand soldiers around him fear his enemies? A faithful servant of Mary, surrounded by her protection and her imperial power, has still less to fear. This good Mother and powerful Princess of the Heavens would rather dispatch battalions of millions of angels to assist one of her servants than that it should ever be said that a faithful servant of Mary, who trusted in her, had to succumb to the malice, the number and the vehemence of his enemies.

► (5) “Lastly, the fifth and greatest good which Mary procures for her faithful clients is to intercede for them with her Son, to appease Him by her prayers, to unite them to Him in a most intimate union, and to keep them unshaken in that union … Furthermore, after Mary has heaped her favors upon her children and faithful servants, and has obtained for them the blessing of the heavenly Father and union with Jesus Christ, she preserves them in Jesus and Jesus in them. She takes care of them, watches over them always―for fear they should lose the grace of God and fall into the snares of their enemies―and makes them persevere to the end” (True Devotion to Mary, §201-§212).

So What Will You Do? Will Anything Change?
Like it or not―admit it or not―we are for the most part like the tree upon which Our Lord found no fruit. We bear more materialistic and worldly fruit than we bear spiritual and religious fruit! Yet the incident of Our Lord cursing the fruitless fig tree fails to trigger any change in us and is much like the proverbial “water that flows off a duck’s back”! Yet Our Lord and God will not tolerate “fruitless” Catholics for long―as is pointed out many times in Holy Scripture:

“I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman [farmer]. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away! And every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, so that it may bring forth more fruit! As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches! He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth” (John 15:1-6). As the saints over the centuries have told us―most souls end up withering and being cast into fire to burn eternally!

“He spoke also this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore: why cumbereth it the ground?” But he, answering, said to him: “Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it! And if, happily, it bear fruit! But if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down!”’” (Luke 13:6-9).

“And in the morning, returning into the city, Jesus was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, He came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19). “When they came out from Bethania, Jesus was hungry. And when He had seen afar off a fig tree having leaves, He came if perhaps He might find anything on it. And when He was come to it, He found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And, answering, He said to it: ‘May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever!’ And His disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem … And when evening was come, He went forth out of the city. And when they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter remembering, said to Him: ‘Rabbi, behold the fig tree, which thou didst curse, is withered away!’” (Mark 11:12-21).

Saturday December 7th, Vigil of the Immaculate Conception

Article 7
The Immaculate Conception and the Articulate Deception!

Today Comes Before Tomorrow
That seems a pretty obvious statement, doesn’t it? Today always comes before tomorrow! Yet there is a relation between the two. Have you ever heard of the saying: “Don’t put-off until tomorrow what you can do today”? Well, tomorrow (Sunday, December 8th) is the feast of the Immaculate Conception―and we should not put-off our preparations for that feast and thus we ought to prepare for tomorrow’s feast today. We do exactly that on so many other occasions―holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. ―so that we have everything “in place” and “ready to go” when that big day arrives. Let us ‘cook’ the idea of the Immaculate Conception in the oven of our minds today―so that when tomorrow comes, we have already prepared the material that we can nibble on throughout this glorious feastday. It is a little late to start thinking about the feast day only on the day itself―that reminds us of the parable about the wise and foolish virgins:

“Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us! But He answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:1-12).

You Have an Immaculate Mother
Talking of “virgins” ― let us spend some time talking and thinking about the Virgin of all virgins― the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Conception. Sadly, most Catholics today―especially young Catholics―are clueless to a greater or lesser degree about the Immaculate Conception.

Some think it is all about Mary conceiving Jesus in her womb―wrong! Others confuse the Immaculate Conception with the “virgin birth”―namely, the belief that Mary gave birth to Jesus while remaining a virgin―wrong! Yes, she was a virgin before and after giving birth―but that is not the Immaculate Conception!

Then there are those who think that the Immaculate Conception means that Mary’s mother, St. Anne, conceived Mary without having marital relations with her husband, St. Joachim―wrong! Mary was conceived in the womb of St. Anne according to normal rules of nature.

Getting a little more technical―some think that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception includes only Mary’s sanctification in soul at moment of her conception, but does not preserve her body from ALL EFFECTS of Original Sin (the triple concupiscence―namely, the concupiscence of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh and the pride of life―and being prone to disease, injury and death)―wrong again!

The Immaculate Conception preserved the Virgin Mary from the effects of Original Sin on both the body and soul. Mary was not subject to death or injury or disease, due to Original Sin―“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) … “By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). If she died at the end of her life, this occurred only because it was the will of God, and not because of any personal sin or Original Sin.

So What Exactly is the “Immaculate Conception”
Before we go further―and look at the what the “Immaculate Conception” should mean to us and how it should influence our lives―let us first get a clear idea of what exactly is this term, “the Immaculate Conception”.

In his encyclical, Ineffabilis Deus of December 8th, 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX pronounced and enforced the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Wherefore, in humility and fasting, we unceasingly offered our private prayers as well as the public prayers of the Church to God the Father, through his Son, that he would deign to direct and strengthen our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. In like manner did we implore the help of the entire heavenly host as we ardently invoked the Paraclete. Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: ‘We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.’” (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus of December 8th, 1854).

Woe to Unbelievers!
“Hence, if anyone shall dare—which God forbid!—to think otherwise than as has been defined by us, let him know and understand that he is condemned by his own judgment; that he has suffered shipwreck in the Faith; that he has separated from the unity of the Church; and that, furthermore, by his own action he incurs the penalties established by law, if he should are to express in words, or writing, or by any other outward means the errors he thinks in his heart” (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus of December 8th, 1854).

No Impulsive Dogma
Winding back just 5 years, to 1849, we see Blessed Pope Pius IX already perusing if the time was then right to make the dogmatic declaration concerning the Immaculate Conception. “There was in the entire Catholic world a most ardent and wondrous revival of the desire that the most holy Mother of God—the beloved Mother of us all, the immaculate Virgin Mary—be finally declared by a solemn definition of the Church to have been conceived without the stain of Original Sin ... “Many persons are now wondering why this honor has not already been accorded to the Blessed Virgin by the Church and the Apostolic See—an honor which the widespread piety of the Christian people so fervently desires ... Accordingly, We have appointed certain priests of recognized piety and theological learning, as well as several cardinals of the Holy Roman Church who are renowned because of their ability, piety, wisdom, prudence, and knowledge of the things of God; and We have directed them to make, carefully and thoroughly, a most diligent examination into this most important matter and then provide Us with a complete report”  (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Ubi Primum, on the Immaculate Conception, February 2, 1849).

The Pope goes on to say that this doctrine has been in the minds of Christians from antiquity: “This doctrine so filled the minds and souls of our ancestors in the Faith that a singular and truly marvelous style of speech came into vogue among them. They have frequently addressed the Mother of God as immaculate, as immaculate in every respect; innocent, and verily most innocent; spotless, and entirely spotless; holy and removed from every stain of sin; all pure, all stainless, the very model of purity and innocence; more beautiful than beauty, more lovely than loveliness; more holy than holiness, singularly holy and most pure in soul and body; the one who surpassed all integrity and virginity; the only one who has become the dwelling place of all the graces of the most Holy Ghost. God alone excepted, Mary is more excellent than all, and by nature fair and beautiful, and more holy than the Cherubim and Seraphim. To praise her all the tongues of Heaven and Earth do not suffice.”  (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Ineffabilis Deus, proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1854).

Our Lady’s Lourdes Confirmation
A little over three years after the dogmatic declaration on the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady makes a series of apparitions at Lourdes, in France, beginning on February 11th, 1858—at which time she ratifies and confirms the pope’s declaration by telling St. Bernadette that she was the Immaculate Conception.

Pope St. Pius X also weighed-in to the matter around 50 years later, by stating: “The Virgin was kept the more free from all stain of Original Sin because she was to be the Mother of Christ” (Pope St. Pius X, Encyclical Ad Diem Illum, on the Immaculate Conception, February 2, 1904).

Habemus Matrem
If, at the election of a pope, we can shout “Habemus papam!” meaning “we have a pope (‘father’)”, then, in regard to this dogmatic declaration, we can shout “Habemus Matrem—Habemus Matrem Immaculatam”, meaning “We have a Mother—an Immaculate Mother!” Even more than the pope is the Holy Father, Our Lady is the Holiest of mothers. The “immaculate” aspect is of great importance―for, as the spiritual masters teach, purity infuses an enormous power into the petitions we place before God and purity makes us extremely close to God: “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God!” (Matthew 5:8) … “Evil thoughts are an abomination to the Lord and pure words most beautiful” (Proverbs 15:26).

Why on Earth…?
Of all questions―such as “What? Where? How? When? Which? Why?”―the “Why?” is foremost. It concerns the “Final End” of matters. It is the king or queen of questions. So ‘what is the why’ of the Immaculate Conception? Blessed Pope Pius XII gives us the answer in the proclaiming encyclical of December 8th, 1954:

Before getting to the heart of the matter, he prefaces it with the following statement: “God, having foreseen from all eternity the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race, which would result from the sin of Adam, decreed, by a plan hidden from the centuries, to complete the first work of his goodness through the Incarnation of the Word. This He decreed in order that man, who had been led into sin by the cunning malice of Satan, should not perish. The eternal Father chose and prepared, for His only-begotten Son, a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom He would be born into this world. God loved her above all creatures and endowed her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts, so that this Mother, ever free of all stain of sin, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully” (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus of December 8th, 1854).

In other words, the height and depth, length and breadth of her ‘immaculateness’ is simply mind-blowing and beyond our puny capacities to grasp and understand. It is something that we should be in total awe over, yet, for many, if not most, there is only an indifference—an attitude of “So what?” “It’s just another title!” “Let’s just get on with life! I’ve got better things to do than try fathom out how immaculate she is!”

The Supreme Reason: The Divine Maternity
The Pope Pius IX goes on to explain the “Why?” of the Immaculate Conception: “And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent, with the glory of most sublime holiness, and so completely free from all taint of Original Sin, that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father will to give His only-begotten Son—the Son, the Father loves from His heart—and to give this Son in such a way that He would be the one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom the Son Himself chose to make His Mother; and it was from her that the Holy Spirit willed, and brought it about, that He should be conceived and born from whom He himself proceeds.” (Blessed Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus of December 8th, 1854).

St. Thomas Aquinas explains it by equating the means with the end. Mary is the means to the end—which is the Incarnation of God (or God taking on flesh). He could have done it many different ways, but since He chose to become incarnate through Mary, it was necessary that the means be the best possible means—and since with God nothing is impossible, He made sure that Mary was the best means available. St. Thomas puts it thus:

“Mary’s whole life was free from sin. For God so prepares and endows those whom He selects for some particular office, that they are rendered capable of fulfilling it, according to 2 Corinthians 3:6: ‘Who hath made us fit ministers of the New Testament.’ Now the Blessed Virgin was chosen by God to be His Mother. Therefore, there can be no doubt that God, by His grace, made her worthy of that office, according to the words spoken to her by the Angel (Luke 1:30), ‘Thou hast found grace with God, behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His Name Jesus.’ But she would not have been worthy to be the Mother of God if she had ever sinned.

“First, because the honor of the parents reflects upon the child, according to Proverbs 17:6: ‘The glory of the children are their fathers’; and consequently, on the other hand, the Mother’s shame would have reflected on her Son. Secondly, because of the singular affinity between her and Christ Who took flesh from her. And it is written (2 Corinthians 6:15): ‘What concord hath Christ with Belial?’ Thirdly, because of the singular manner in which the Son of God, ‘Who is the Divine Wisdom’ (1 Corinthians 1:24), dwelt in her, not only in her soul but in her womb. And thus, it is written (Wisdom 1:4): ‘Wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.’ We must therefore confess simply that the Blessed Virgin committed no actual sin, either mortal or venial; so that what is written (Canticles 4:7), is fulfilled: ‘Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee.’” (Summa Theologica, 3a, q. 27).

The Awesome Terrible Sanctity of God Detests Sin
God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. “Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and Thou canst not look on iniquity” (Habacuc 1:13). The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended.

It was sin that led to banishment of the fallen angels to Hell, and it was sin led to Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden and to suffer and die. Both the Angels and our First Parents were created immaculate, that is to say, in a state of grace. Yet many of the angels failed to keep that grace, and both Adam and Eve lost that grace through Mortal Sin. God cannot tolerate sin. Sin is an attack upon the holiness and purity of God. Sin has to be eliminated and reparation has to be made.

The Price and Pain of Sin
Since Adam and Even listened to the devil and fell into sin, they thereby abused and threw away the gifts the gifts that God had given them: (1) the supernatural grace of God; (2) the possibility of never having to die; (3) the possibility of being free from any and all forms of suffering; (4) the harmonious submission and obedience of the soul to God’s grace, and the obedience of the body and its passions to the soul; and finally, (5) they weakened the infused knowledge that God had created them with, to the point that now they would experience a darkened intellect that finds learning difficult, a weak will that struggles with temptation, and rebellious passions.

They had offended God in the name of humanity, all their future descendants would participate in the effects of that sin. As St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Truly, as St. Paul states later, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The gates of Heaven were closed. Humanity had failed the test through Adam and Eve. It is because we downplay sin in our own thoughts, that we have such a wrong notion about what sin really is. As the old, but very clear and simple, Penny Catechism says: “It is the greatest of all evils to fall into mortal sin.” Another catechism, My Catholic Faith, states that “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God ... Although venial sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is nevertheless a great moral evil, next alone to mortal sin ...  We are prone to look upon venial sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that it is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin.” (from the catechism My Catholic Faith).

The New Adam, the New Eve
After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. The passage in Genesis, which is called the Proto-evangelium (“first gospel”), makes the first announcement of the Messias and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the “New Adam” who, because He “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”, makes amends super-abundantly for the disobedience, of Adam. Additionally, many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the Woman announced in the Proto-evangelium as Mary, the Mother of Christ, the “New Eve”. Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: for she was preserved from all stain of Original Sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.

Immaculate Mary needs Immaculate Children
We all know the saying: “Like father, like son!” or “Like mother, like daughter!” or “He takes after his father!” and “She’s just like her mother!” Our Lord and Our Lady—the new Adam and Eve—want us to imitate them and Heaven. Of Our Lady, it can be said: “I am clean, and without sin: I am unspotted, and there is no iniquity in me” (Job 33:9) .... “My word is pure, and I am clean in thy sight” (Job 11:4). “I am without sin and am innocent” (Jeremias 2:35). We became her spiritual children at the foot of the Cross, and so we should take on the traits of our spiritual Mother. Children imitate their parents.

Jesus said: “Learn of Me…!” (Matthew 11:29) … “If you love Me, keep my Commandments” (John 14:15) … “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) … “I am the Lord your God: be holy because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44) … “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:26). St. Peter repeats that command in the New Testament: “According to Him that hath called you, Who is holy, be you also in all manner of conversation holy, because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). While St. Paul writes: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity” (Ephesians 1:4).

Only saints go to Heaven, that is the pedigree of the New Adam and Eve—we have to be immaculate to enter therein: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled” (Apocalypse 27:21). We have to be wholly holy, or “Holy, Holy, Holy” as we say in the Sanctus at Mass—which, incidentally, should remind of the three ever-increasing stages of holiness that we have to pass through: as beginners in holiness, (2) as proficients in holiness, and (3) as perfect in holiness. Purgatory will be necessary for even the slightest stains of sin or smallest unpaid debts for previously forgiven sin. For, as it was said above, God detests sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

“For the Highest hateth sinners, and hath mercy on the penitent” (Ecclesiasticus 12:3). “Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth: (1) Haughty eyes, (2) a lying tongue, (3) hands that shed innocent blood, (4) heart that deviseth wicked plots, (5) feet that are swift to run into mischief, (6) deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and (7) him that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). “I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue” (Proverbs 8:13).

The Articulate Deception of the World Opposes the Immaculate Conception of Mary
The devil and Mary are irreconcilable enemies―a fact already foretold by God after the first sin of Adam and Eve, what we now call “Original Sin”, after which God solemnly said: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life! I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed! She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’” (Genesis 3:14-15). Thus, Mary and devil are irreconcilable enemies.

The devil, however, is also the “prince of this world” and thus the world is also an enemy of God and Mary―as mentioned by Our Lord on several occasions: “For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing!” (John 14:30). “The prince of this world is already judged!” (John 16:11). “Now is the judgment of the world―now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31). How does Our Lord judge the world, of which the devil is prince? Jesus says: “My kingdom is not of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:4). “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11)―we forget that it is actually a good sign if the world does not ‘receive’ us or does not like us!

Exposing the Seductive Lies of the World
To His followers Jesus says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). In the parable of the Sower of the Seed, Jesus says: “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25). To His Father in Heaven, Jesus prays: “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me … I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14).

This inescapable and unpleasant truth―unpleasant to us because we love the world and want the world to love us―is further driven home by the Apostles: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We are blasphemed [by the world], and we are made as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all―even until now!” (1 Corinthians 4:13). “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “What fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God! As God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).

The Seductive Lies of the World are the Lies of the Devil
As Our Lord says of the devil and of worldly people: “The spirit of truth, the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). To the worldly-minded, who are thereby implicit slaves of the “prince of this world”, the devil, Our Lord says: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof!” (John 8:44). Yet those lies are very seductive lies―they promise a paradise on Earth, a life of ease and comfort, many useful possessions, etc.

Articulate Deceptions of the World
St. Louis de Montfort, in one of his lesser know books, Love of Eternal Wisdom, paints a very striking and clear picture of those who have been seduced by the lies of the world and the devil:

“Those who proceed according to the wisdom of the world are those who know how to manage well their affairs and to arrange things to their temporal advantage without appearing to do so; who know the art of deceiving and how to cleverly cheat without being noticed; who say or do one thing and have another thing in mind; who are thoroughly acquainted with the way and the flattery of the world; who know how to please everybody in order to reach their goal, not troubling much about the honor and interests of God; who make a secret but deadly fusion of truth with untruth, of the Gospel with the world, of virtue with vice, of Jesus Christ with Satan; who wish to pass as honest people but not as religious men; who despise and corrupt or readily condemn every religious practice which does not conform to their own. In short, the worldly‑wise are those who, being guided only by their human senses and reason, seek only to appear as Christian and honest folk, without troubling much to please God or to do penance for the sins which they have committed against His divine Majesty.
“The worldling bases his conduct upon his honor, upon what people say, upon convention, upon good cheer, upon personal interest, upon refined manners, upon witty jokes. These are the seven innocent incentives, so he thinks, upon which he can rely that he may lead an easy life. He has virtues of his own for which he is canonized by the world. These are manliness, finesse, diplomacy, tact, gallantry, politeness, sprightliness. He considers as serious sins such traits as lack of feeling, silliness, dullness, sanctimoniousness. He adheres as strictly as possible to the commandments which the world has given him:

(1) Thou shalt be well acquainted with the world.
(2) Thou shalt be an “honest” man.
(3) Thou shalt be successful in business.
(4) Thou shalt keep what is thine.
(5) Thou shalt get on in the world.
(6) Thou shalt make friends.
(7) Thou shalt be a society man.
(8) Thou shalt make merry.
(9) Thou shalt not be a killjoy.
(10) Thou shalt avoid singularity, dullness and an air of piety.

“Never was the world so corrupt as it is now, because it was never so astute, so wise in its own conceit, so cunning. It is so skillful in deceiving the soul seeking perfection that it makes use of truth to foster untruth, of virtue to authorize vice and it even distorts the meaning of Christ’s own truths to give authority to its own maxims. “The number of those who are fools according to God, is infinite.” The earthly wisdom spoken of by St. James, is an excessive striving for worldly goods. The worldly-wise make a secret profession of this type of wisdom when they allow themselves to become attached to their earthly possessions, when they strive to become rich, when they go to law and bring useless actions against others in order to acquire or to keep temporal goods; when their every thought, word and deed is mainly directed toward obtaining or retaining something temporal. As to working out their eternal salvation and making use of the means to do so, such as reception of the Sacraments and prayer, they accomplish these duties only carelessly, in a very offhand manner, once in a while, and for the sake of appearances” (St. Louis de Montfort, Love of Eternal Wisdom §76-§79).

Even the Good are Seduced by the Articulate Deceptions of the World
Even good people are seduced by some seductive aspect of the world―as we see in the real-life encounter between Jesus and good young rich man:

“And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’

“And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).

Which is why the Apostles write the following words of warning―which almost everyone chooses to ignore: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “God forbid that I should glory in anything, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world!” (Galatians 6:14). “This is the victory which overcometh the world―our Faith” (1 John 5:4). But sadly, the world has overcome the Faith in most cases today!

We Need to Clean Up Our Act
God never changes and His demands for holiness never change. In the Old Testament it says: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalms 33:15); and St. Peter repeats the same in the New Testament: “Let him decline from evil, and do good” (1 Peter 3:11). Our Lady even echoes this today, for at Fatima she said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” However, Sr. Lucia of Fatima tells us that: “the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them.” St. Paul clearly tells us: “Let no sin therefore reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12). Not even the slightest Venial Sin, for that still separates us from God and has to paid for—either here or in Purgatory, as Our Lord says: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).

“Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). But “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness” (Matthew 23:25).

Fatal Failure
Failure to clean up our act will have fatal consequences, as we already know: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it” (La Salette) … “As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead” (Akita).

We must cease being overly preoccupied with the things of the world, entertainment and amusement—all things that Our Lady has complained about—and begin to reform ourselves, to clean up our act. No matter how much we may have sinned—as with Mary Magdalen, the Good Thief, the Prodigal Son—there is a way back, but we have work hard and clean house. The foundation is prayer and penance—the things that Our Lady has insistently commanded in one apparition after another—there is no other way. We must pray VERY MUCH and we must do MUCH penance.

Detesting Sin and Worldliness
One of the chief contributors to the deluge of sin in the world today is the absence of a fear of God and a fear of offending God. This is there has to be a terrible, frightening chastisement—in order to re-establish the foundation of fear. Fear is essential, even when we love God—it is the foundation of the spiritual life. It is even one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost—a Fear of the Lord. As Holy Scripture says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 110:10). “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). “The fear of the Lord driveth out sin” (Ecclesiasticus 1:27). “The fear of the Lord hateth evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “The Lord hateth all abomination of error, and they that fear Him shall not love it” (Ecclesiasticus 15:13). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5).

“Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema” (Deuteronomy 7:26). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

This detestation of the spirit of the world and of the ways of the world is absolutely essential if we are clean house and clean-up our act. The source of sin has to be stopped, like a leak in a boat, or the boat (soul) will sink. Once the incoming flow of sin has been dealt, then we can deal with the flooded basement (soul) and start pumping the bilge out.

Grace Cleans and Beautifies
We say of Our Lady: “Hail, full of grace!” Grace perfects our human nature, it heals the wounds of sin, it strengthens our weaknesses, it pushes us on to higher heights. St. Louis de Montfort speaks of this cleaning of soul and the role of grace in his Secret of Mary, saying: “

“It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.

“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God.

“The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say ‘not in the same measure,’ because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary).

To find the Grace of God, we must discover Mary
St. Louis continues: “It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.

“I explain;
(1) Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person (Luke 1:30). No patriarch nor prophet nor any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace;

(2) It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the “Mother of Grace.”

(3) God the Father, from Whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us (James 1:17), gave her every grace when He gave her His Son. Thus, as St. Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus.

(4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from Him that, according to St. Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills.

(5) As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father, but does not give Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an imposter and his father is the devil.

(6) Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians. A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor members without a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member of Jesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth (John 1:14), he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ, which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicate it abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children.

(7) The Holy Ghost espoused Mary and produced His greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disowned her and so He continues to produce every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and through her.

(8) Mary received, from God, a unique dominion over souls, enabling her to nourish them and make them more and more godlike. St. Augustine went so far as to say that, even in this world, all the elect are enclosed in the womb of Mary, and that their real birthday is when this good mother brings them forth to eternal life. Consequently, just as an infant draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives according to its needs, so the elect draw all their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary.

(9) It was to Mary that God the Father said, ‘Dwell in Jacob’ (Ecclesiasticus 24:8,12) that is, dwell in my elect, who are typified by Jacob. It was to Mary that God the Son said, “My dear Mother, your inheritance is in Israel,” that is, in the elect. It was to Mary that the Holy Ghost said, “Place your roots in my elect.” Whoever, then, is of the chosen and predestinate, will have the Blessed Virgin living within him, and he will let her plant, in his very soul, the roots of every virtue, but especially deep humility and ardent charity.

(10) Mary is called by St. Augustine, and is indeed, the ‘living mold of God.’ In her alone the God-man was formed in His human nature without losing any feature of the Godhead. In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as human nature is capable of it” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary).

Friday December 6th

Article 6
Can You Hear the Bells in the Distance?
We are not talking about Christmas Bells!

The Liturgical Alarm Bells Ring!
Before we start straining our ears to hear the bells of Christmas, we should, perhaps, be unplugging our ears to listen to the alarm bells of Advent! The Church has aleady warned us on the First Sunday of Advent: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:11-14). No doubt we heard those alarm bells, but perhaps we just hit the "Snooze Button", turned-over, and went right back to sleep!

For Whom The Bell Tolls
Have you ever heard of the expression: “For whom the bell tolls.” Before radios, newspapers, and TVs, major town events were announce by the tolling of the bells. Bells were rung by churches in various rhythms and manners, each of which had a different meaning, to signal a variety of events and news. One of those was when a person died and, in older times, they rang the church bell to commemorate their life. Someone would then ask, “For whom does the bell toll?” and anyone who knew would tell them. In a sense, this saying indicates we all die someday. For Whom the Bell Tolls is also the title of a poem by John Donne (1572-1631), an English writer and poet. As a Catholic, living in a time when Catholicism was outlawed and illegal in England, he endured constant prejudice and harassment and was ultimately forced into joining the Anglican church by King James I.

There's some debate about what precisely what was meant by For Whom the Bell Tolls. Some think that Donne was simply pointing out people's mortality and that when a funeral bell was heard it was a reminder that we are nearer death each day, that is, the bell is tolling for us. Others view it more mystically and argue that Donne is saying we are all one and that, when one dies, we all die a little. We could also say that, today, the church bell tolls the spiritual death of one Catholic after another―claimed by the viruses of heresy and apostasy. Just as John Donne was forced into heresy―we too, perhaps, may follow suit at some time in the future, for, as they say: “There but for the grace of God go I!”―and prophecies warn that the vast majority of Catholics will lose or abandon the Faith at some future point in time. Though the Church, Herself, will never die―that does not mean that the Church will not lose most of her members. Here is the quotation in its context and not just in an isolated setting:

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls,
May be so ill,
As that he knows not it tolls for him;
And perchance I may
Think myself so much better than I am,
As that they who are about me,
And see my state,
May have caused it to toll for me,
And I know not that.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory* were,
As well as if a manor of thine own,
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

* “promontory” means a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water

Donne says that because we are all part of mankind, any person's death is a loss to all of us: “Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls―it tolls for thee.” The line suggests that we all will die―and then the bell will toll for each one of us. In a spiritual sense, “I am involved in mankind” conveys the truth that St. John Chrysostom speaks of, when he says that at our final judgment, we shall be judged for all that happened in mankind throughout the world during our lifetime!

Which Christ Would You Like To Encounter?
The Advent liturgy sounds the alarm! Wake up from the slumbers of the world and awaken yourself to words and way of Christ! Life is too short! We have a debt to pay! We have do away with sin! We have to prepare ourselves, not only to meet Jesus at Christmas, but also meet Him on Judgment Day. Now He comes offering mercy—and the price is penance. On Judgment Day He will come administering justice—and the price will be, for most, Purgatory or even Hell. In this short life we all have a heavy debt to pay! Part of that debt will include the terrible state of the Church today—and Christ will evaluate and judge us upon what we did during that crisis. St. John Chrysostom―a Father and Doctor of the Church―warns us that when we die, we shall be judged for all that occurred in world during our life! That sounds harsh and we would excuse ourselves by saying what can one person do in world that contains 7,000 million people? Yet prayer and sacrifice goes much further and farther than we imagine―and, quite frankly, there is far too little prayer and sacrifice being sent to Heaven on behalf of this “sinking” world, “for whom the bell tolls”! We could also say that the bell tolls the imminent justice that will fall upon the world from the hand of God. Let us not fritter our time away!

Don’t Count on a Long Life or Many More Years!
Adam lived to the ripe old age of 930 years! Our Lord died aged around 33 years. Our Lady is said to have died in her early to mid-sixties. St. Dominic Savio died aged 14 years. St. Maria Goretti was 11 years old when she was killed. Little Blessed Francisco of Fatima was only 10 years old when he died; Blessed Jacinta, his sister was only 9 years old. The Venerable Anne de Guigné was 10 years old.

Time waits for nobody. Time is precious. Time means more than money. Time and how it is spent, means the difference between Heaven and Hell. Death is the most untimely thing around. Death respects no one. Even in the forthcoming chastisement of which Our Lady has warned us, time and time again, she says that the good will die with the bad; and neither will priests be spared, but they will die with the laity.

That is why our time is so precious. That is why the Church chooses the words of St. Paul to open the season of Advent, the time of mercy, so that we can receive, plant, nurture and grow the spirit of Christ in our souls, and so prepare favorably for the time of our Final Judgment, when the time of mercy will cease, and the time of Justice will have arrived.

Putting-Off the World—Putting-On Christ
Advent is a time of preparation for the "putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ." It is a time of self-examination, of correction and confession; a time of serious spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, a time of spiritual betterment and improvement, a time of re-assessing our motives and values, a time of preparing the soil of our soul to receive the seed of sanctity that our Savior wants to sow.

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression.

A Serious Time
It is not a frivolous time―yet most people are deep in frivolity. It is not a time of worldly worry over the material and social side of Christmas―yet, sadly, that is exactly what most Catholics are doing. It was this material preoccupation—at the lucrative time of the Emperor Caesar Augustus' census and the 'tourist' swelling of Bethlehem as people returned to register—that blinded the Bethlehemites to the True Treasure that had arrived on their doorsteps, disguised as poverty and hidden in Mary's womb.

They thought they were rich, but in reality they were very poor. They thought Mary and Joseph were poor, but they were the richest people in Heaven and earth. They carried the only thing that really matters; the Bethlehemites sought many things, but missed the one essential thing.

When we total up the man-hours spent on the material and social side of Advent and its successor, Christmas, and then compare it to the man-hours that will have been spent on the spiritual side of Advent and Christmas, then I think most people would have to blush with shame.

Our Lord is not coming to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. He is not coming to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price, the price is giving up the worldly life. He comes not to live on Earth forever, but to forever detach us from this Earth. He prefers poverty over power; humility over honors; rejection over riches and suffering over splendor. His way is not our way, yet He Who called Himself “the Way” shows us wayward wayfarers the true way—and it is not a pleasant way, but the Way of the Cross. It is the way that takes away debt for sin and leads us away from the ways of the world to world of Heaven.

The West Goes Soft—the East Stays Tough
Our separated brethren, the schismatic Eastern Orthodox Church and the non-schismatic Eastern Catholic Church, still keeps Advent in the same spirit with which we in the West used to keep it, before relaxation followed upon relaxation. The so-called “Nativity Fast” is a period of abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches, in preparation for the Nativity of Christ, (December 25th).

Like the Western Advent, the Nativity Fast prepares Eastern Christians for the feast of Christmas. However, it differs in two significant respects: the Eastern fast runs for 40 days instead of four weeks (in Roman rite) or six weeks (in the Ambrosian rite). The main theme during this time of penance, largely focuses on proclamation and glorification of the Incarnation of God, whereas the Western Advent focuses on the two comings (or two advents) of Jesus Christ: His first coming at His birth and His Second Coming at the end of the world.

The fast is kept from November 15th to December 24th, inclusively. These dates apply to those Orthodox Churches which use the Revised Julian calendar, which currently matches the modern Gregorian calendar (that replaced the Julian Calendar).

For those Eastern Orthodox Churches which still follow the ancient Julian calendar (Churches of Russia, Georgia, Serbia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Mount Athos and Jerusalem), the Winter Lent does not begin until November 28th (on our Gregorian calendar) which coincides with November 15th on the Julian calendar. The Ancient Church of the East fasts from dawn till dusk, from December 1st until the 25th of December on the Gregorian calendar.

Sometimes the fast is called Philip's Fast (or the Philippian Fast), as it traditionally begins on the day following the Feast of St. Philip the Apostle (November 14th). Some churches, such as the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, have abbreviated the fast to start on December 10th, following the Feast of the Conception, by St. Anne, of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Fasting Physically and Spiritually
Through the discipline of fasting, practiced with humility and repentance, it is believed that by learning to temper the body's primary desire for food, that other worldly desires can be more easily tempered as well. Through this practice one is better enabled to draw closer to God, in the hope of becoming more Christ-like. While the fast influences the body, it is important to note that emphasis is placed on the spiritual facet of the fast, rather than mere physical deprivation. Orthodox theology sees a synthesis between the body and the soul, so what happens to one affects the other. The church teaches that it is not enough to fast from food; one must also fast from anger, greed and covetousness. In addition to fasting, almsgiving is also emphasized.

Taking Things Seriously
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the fast traditionally entails fasting from red meat, poultry, meat products, eggs, dairy products, fish, oil, and wine. Fish, wine and oil are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays, and oil and wine are allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The fasting rules permit fish, and/or wine and oil on certain feast days that occur during the course of the fast. These feast days are that of Evangelist St. Matthew (November 16th), the Apostle St. Andrew (November 30th), the Great-martyr St. Barbara (December 4th), St. Nicholas (December 6th), St. Spiridon and St. Herman (December 12th), St. Ignatius (December 20th), etc. The Nativity Fast is not as severe as the Great Lent Fast.

During the course of the fast, a number of lesser feast days celebrate those Old Testament prophets who prophesied the Incarnation; for instance: Abdias also called Obadiah (November 19th), Nahum (December 1st), Habacuc (December 2nd), Sophonias also called Zephaniah (December 3rd), Aggeus also called Haggai (December 16th), Daniel and the Three Holy Youths (December 17th). These last are significant not only because of their perseverance in fasting, but also because their preservation unharmed in the midst of the fiery furnace is interpreted as being symbolic of the Incarnation—the Virgin Mary conceived God the Word in her womb, without being consumed by the fire of the Godhead.

Tough Ending to a Tough Advent
The Eve of Nativity (December 24th) is a strict fast day, called Paramony (meaning "preparation"), on which no solid food is eaten until the first star is seen in the evening sky, or, at the very least, until after the (evening) Vesperal Divine Liturgy that day.

The All-Night Vigil on the night of December 24th consists of Great Compline, Matins and the First Hour. One of the highlights of Great Compline is the exultant chanting of "God is with us!" interspersed between selected verses from the prophesy of Isaiah 8:9-18, foretelling the triumph of the Kingdom of God, and 9:2-7, foretelling the birth of the Messiah ("For unto us a child is born...and he shall be called...the Mighty God....").

The Orthodox do not normally have a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve; rather, their Divine Liturgy for the Nativity of Christ is celebrated the next morning. However, in those monasteries which continue to celebrate the All-Night Vigil in its long form—where it literally lasts throughout the entire night—the conclusion of the Vigil, at dawn on Christmas morning, will often lead directly into the celebration of the Divine Liturgy (Holy Mass). When the Vigil is separate from the Divine Liturgy (Holy Mass), the Lenten fast continues even after the Vigil, until the end of the Liturgy the next morning.

Western Relaxation
As Dom Guéranger writes, in his Liturgical Year, in the volume on Advent:

“We find, as far back as the fifth century, the custom of giving exhortations to the people in order to prepare them for the feast of Christmas ... The oldest document in which we find the length and exercises of Advent mentioned [that] about the year 480, a fast three times a week, from the feast of St. Martin (November 11th) until Christmas. This interval of forty, or rather of forty-three days, was consecrated to penance, as though it were a second Lent, though less strict and severe than that which precedes Easter ... Later on, we find the ninth canon of the first Council of Mâcon, held in 582, ordaining that during the same interval between St. Martin's day and Christmas, the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, should be fasting days. Not many years before that, namely in 567, the second Council of Tours had enjoined the monks to fast [every day except Sunday] from the beginning of December till Christmas. This practice of penance soon extended to the whole forty days, even for the laity: and it was commonly called St. Martin's Lent.

“The obligation of observing this [Winter] Lent—which, though introduced so imperceptibly, had by degrees acquired the force of a sacred law—began to be relaxed, and the forty days from St. Martin's day to Christmas were reduced to four weeks. We have seen that this fast began to be observed first in France; but thence it spread into England, Italy, Germany, Spain and then other countries. The discipline of the Churches of the West, after having reduced the time of the Advent fast [to four weeks from forty days], so far relented, in a few years, as to change the fast into a simple abstinence. This much is certain, that, by degrees, the custom of fasting so far fell into disuse, that when, in 1362, Pope Urban V endeavored to prevent the total decay of the Advent penance, all he insisted upon was that all the clerics of his court should keep abstinence during Advent, without [sadly] in any way including others, either clergy or laity, in this law. St. Charles Borromeo also strove to bring back his people of Milan to the spirit, if not to the letter, of ancient times. Finally, Pope Benedict XIV, when archbishop of Bologna, following these illustrious examples, wrote a diocesan letter for the purpose of exciting in the minds of his diocesans, the exalted idea which the Christians of former times had of the holy season of Advent, and of removing an erroneous opinion which prevailed in those parts, namely, that Advent concerned religious only and not the laity. He shows them that such an opinion is, strictly speaking, rash and scandalous … The exterior practices of penance which formerly sanctified the season of Advent, have been, in the western Church, so gradually relaxed as to have become now quite obsolete except in some monasteries” (Dom Guéranger, Liturgical Year). [Today, most monasteries are totally ‘relaxed’].

Looking With Heaven’s Eyes
In this age of wanton materialism and luxury, of which Our Lady prophesied complainingly, which attitude would seem to be the one Heaven would desire to be seen on earth? The Western relaxation or the stricter Eastern discipline? We are of course abstracting from the fact that some of those practicing the stricter Advent are schismatics, but not all of them are, for the Eastern Catholic Churches still adhere to the strict Advent, though some have relaxed things.

What Heaven Dislikes
Which would Heaven prefer? If we need a yardstick with which to measure things with, then Our Lady’s comments at her apparitions may help us measure things: “During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from … the corruption of customs, unbridled luxury and extravagance … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs ... In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth ... People will think of nothing but amusement … They will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their … by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures … have neglected prayer and penance … Many hearts consecrated to God, in the priestly and religious state, will fall into lukewarmness … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... Civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. There is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls” (Our Lady of Good Success, Quito & Our Lady of La Salette).

Our Lord, following up on the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana, said to her: “The times will come when doctrine will be commonly known among the learned and the ignorant. ... Many religious books will be written. But the practice of the virtues and of these doctrines will be found in only a few souls; for this reason, saints will become rare. And precisely for this reason, My priests and My religious will fall into a fatal indifference. Their coldness will extinguish the fire of divine love, afflicting My Loving Heart with these small thorns that you see."

What Our Lord and Our Lady Recommend or Command
That was the negative or complaining part of Our Lady’s messages. Her positive part was the encouragement of penance and prayer, which works against the spirit of relaxation of these later modern times.

► At Quito, Our Lady of Good Success says: “[I wish] that men in the future might realize how powerful I am in placating Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner, who comes to me with a contrite heart. For I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love … Clamor insistently without tiring and weep with bitter tears in the privacy of your heart … O, if men only understood how to appreciate the time given to them and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!”

At Quito, Our Lord added: “Alas, if they only knew and were convinced of how much I love them and how much I desire that they should enter into the very depths of their souls! Then, without a doubt, they would find Me and would necessarily live the life of love, light and continuous union with Me to which they were not only called, but chosen!” Our Lord also assured Mother Mariana that He was greatly pleased by those souls who take upon themselves the sublime work of suffering for the sanctification of the clergy, by means of their prayers, sacrifices and penances, and He promised such souls a special glory in Heaven.

► At La Salette, Our Lady says: “If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually. And the rest of you think little of this. In vain you will pray, in vain you will act, you will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for the rest of you ... The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession … But the children of the holy Church, the children of my Faith, my true followers, they will grow in their love for God and in all the virtues most precious to me … God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … Do you say your prayers properly?”

► At Lourdes, the Blessed Mother commands: “Pray for sinners … Penance! Penance! Penance! … Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners.”

► At Fatima she says: “Do not be afraid, I will not harm you … Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart! I will never forsake you … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them. God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on, but only to wear it during the daytime.”

► At Akita she tell us: “Pray in reparation for the sins of men … Pray very much … I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and the ungrateful ... Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger … Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered together … Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary ... Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

That’s the Spirit!
That is the spirit of Our Lord and Our Lady; that should be the spirit of everyone who professes or pretends to follow them; that was the ancient spirit of the Church; that should be the spirit of Advent. The world sleeps it sleep of comfort and lukewarmness, yet the Church cries out with the voice of St. Paul: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:11-14). The alarm bell has been rung! Will we rise up to the battle, or will we hit the snooze button and return to the slumbers of lukewarmness?

Exorcists Call For Penance Because of Pope Francis
Additionally, we have the current terrible state of the Church calling for much prayer and penance on our part. In a joint statement on November 13th, 2019, four exorcists (who wish to remain anonymous) called on all Catholics to join in a day of reparation to drive out “any diabolic influence within the Church” that occurred as a result of the Pachamama ritual that Pope Francis attended at the Vatican at the onset of the Amazon Synod. According to the National Catholic Register, which first posted the statement, the exorcists said that Catholics are in the midst of “spiritual warfare” that is “happening with the Church itself” as evidenced by the events witnessed during the Amazon Synod. The exorcists asked Catholics to make December 6th (which is today) a day of reparation by praying the Rosary, offering prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and doing penance in the form of fasting, abstinence, or other mortifications.

► Here is the full statement of the four exorcists:

“In light of recent events regarding the Pachamama ritual in the Vatican Gardens, the subsequent procession of the idol into St. Peter’s, as well as placing the idols in St. Maria in Traspontina church, we are reminded of the words of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 10:20), ‘Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is anything? Or, that the idol is anything? But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.’

“The Psalms (95:5) tell us that ‘all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens.’ These events bring home the reality that (Ephesians 6:12) ‘our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.’ These events bring home the reality that we are in spiritual warfare and that warfare is happening within the Church, itself.

“We are, therefore, encouraging all Catholics who recognize the evil of the events to join us in a day of prayer and penance on December 6th, for the purpose of driving out any diabolic influence within the Church that has been gained as a result of these recent events — along with any other events.

“We are asking all of those who participate to do the following for this intention:
(1) say the Rosary;
(2) take on some form of penance, such as fasting, abstinence and other forms of mortification;
(3) to offer the prayers to the Sacred Heart, as seen below.
Other recommended acts which we encourage others to do for this intention is make a Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament and attend Mass that day, offering the merits of the Mass for this intention.”

Protest Against Pope Francis's Sacrilegious Acts
Vatican whistleblower Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò joined more than 100 other prominent Catholics, including priests, in signing a statement making it clear that pagan worship by Catholics is unacceptable and that Pope Francis should “repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins.”

Titled “Contra Recentia Sacrilegia”, (see full text in the paragraphs below) the document called on bishops to “offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals” and has been signed by over 4,500 prominent Catholics, including bishops, priests, seminary professors, university professors, philosophers, doctors, etc.

► Here is the full text of "Contra Recentia Sacrilegia":

We the undersigned Catholic clergy and lay scholars protest against and condemn the sacrilegious and superstitious acts committed by Pope Francis, the Successor of Peter, in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome.

These sacrilegious acts are the following:

● On October 4th, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama.
● He allowed this worship to take place in the Vatican Gardens, thus desecrating the vicinity of the graves of the martyrs and of the church of the Apostle Peter.
● He participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama.
● On October 7th, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter’s and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession.
● When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, where they had been sacrilegiously placed, and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on October 25th, apologized for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church. Thus, a new profanation was initiated.
● On October 27th, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar.

Pope Francis himself confirmed that these wooden images were pagan idols. In his apology for the removal of these idols from a Catholic Church, he specifically called them Pachamama, a name for a false goddess of mother earth according to pagan religious belief in South America.

Different features of these proceedings have been condemned as idolatrous or sacrilegious by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop José Luis Azcona Hermoso, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, and Bishop Marian Eleganti. Lastly, Card. Raymond Burke has given the same assessment of this cult in an interview.

This participation in idolatry was anticipated by the statement entitled “Document on Human Fraternity”, signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, on February 4th, 2019. This statement asserted that:

“The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives.”

Pope Francis’s involvement in idolatrous ceremonies is an indication that he meant this statement in a heterodox sense, which allows pagan worship of idols to be considered a good positively willed by God.

Moreover, despite privately advising Bishop Athanasius Schneider that “You [the Bishop] can say that the phrase in question on the diversity of religions means the permissive will of God…”, Francis has never corrected the Abu Dhabi statement accordingly.

In his subsequent audience address of April 3rd, 2019 Francis, answering the question “Why does God permit that there are so many religions?”, referred in passing to the “permissive will of God” as explained by Scholastic theology, but gave the concept a positive meaning, declaring that “God wanted to permit this” because while “there are so many religions” they “always look to Heaven, they look to God (emphasis added).” There is not the slightest suggestion that God permits the existence of false religions in the same way He permits the existence of evil generally. Rather, the clear implication is that God permits the existence of “so many religions” because they are good in that they “always look to Heaven, they look to God.”

Worse, Pope Francis has since confirmed the uncorrected Abu Dhabi statement by establishing an “interfaith committee“, which later received the official name of “Higher Committee,” located in the United Arab Emirates, to promote the “goals” of the document; and promoting a directive issued by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue addressed to the heads of all the Roman Catholic institutes of higher studies, and indirectly to Catholic university professors, asking that they give the “widest possible dissemination to the document”, including its uncorrected assertion that God wills the “diversity of religions” just as He wills the diversity of color, sex, race and language.

The rendering of worship to anyone or anything other than the one true God, the Blessed Trinity, is a violation of the First Commandment. Absolutely all participation in any form of the veneration of idols is condemned by this Commandment and is an objectively grave sin, independently of the subjective culpability, that only God can judge.

St. Paul taught the early Church that the sacrifice offered to pagan idols was not offered to God but rather to the demons when he said in his First Letter to the Corinthians:

“What then? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing? Or, that the idol is any thing? But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with demons. You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of demons: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:19-21).

By these actions Pope Francis has incurred the reproach uttered by the Second Council of Nicaea:

“Many pastors have destroyed my vine, they have defiled my portion. For they followed unholy men and trusting to their own frenzies they calumniated the holy Church, which Christ our God has espoused to himself, and they failed to distinguish the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols.”

With immense sorrow and deep love for the Chair of Peter, we beg Almighty God to spare the guilty members of His Church on Earth the punishment that they deserve for these terrible sins.

We respectfully ask Pope Francis to repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins and of all the public offences that he has committed against God and the True Religion, and to make reparation for these offences.

We respectfully ask all the bishops of the Catholic Church to offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals, and to warn their flocks that, according to the divinely revealed teaching of the Catholic Faith, they will risk eternal damnation if they follow his example of offending against the First Commandment.

November 9th, 2019

The Bell Tolls―Can You Hear It?
Thus, these cardinals, bishops, priests, professors, doctors and the like, are tolling the bell for the Faith. The Faith is in danger and more and more people are losing it on a daily basis! Do we care? God cares! God will judge us upon our response to that tolling bell! In that light, we do well to reflect upon the parable of the Goats and the Sheep:

“And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father! Possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me!’

Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King, answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me!’

“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me! Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord! When did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting!” (Matthew 25:31-46).

Thursday December 5th

Article 5
Going Round In Circles

Losing Time Going Round in Circles?
We have all had that experience where we feel we are “going round in circles”. To us, that seems a waste of time, we feel we are “spinning our wheels” and getting nowhere fast. The Church, too, has us going round in circles—liturgical circles—but these circles are supposed to get us somewhere fast, safe and sound. Even the Advent Wreath speaks to us of “going round in circles”!

These liturgical circles are none other than the continuous repetition of the Church’s Liturgical Cycle or Liturgical Year. Even though, in the choice of texts for the Liturgical Year, there exists the possibility of using many more readings from both Holy Scripture and the writings of the Saints, the Church nevertheless keeps repeating the same few specially chosen readings, year after year after year after year. Why?

We Repeat Ceaselessly
The answer, of course, is that essential things need to be repeated again and again. We eat—usually the same range of foods, though many more kinds of food exist—again and again; we need to drink water again and again, year after year—though other liquid beverages are available, lack of water will harm our quality and length of life; we use the same vocabulary and our favorite phrases over and over; we have established certain repetitive routines in our daily life, that are repeated almost every day of our life; we drive the same route to work/school/Sunday Mass every single time, every day of the week, even though alternative routes are possible; for a particular illness we take the same remedy again and again.

Sugar and Junk Food
All these things, if done correctly and regularly, will advance our well-being and keep us from harm. If the food we eat is nutritious God-made food and not man-made ‘junk-food’, then it will help us maintain and even improve our health; but if we give in to the temptation to fill ourselves with man-made ‘junk-food’ then, very quickly, good health will turn to ‘junk-health’. Similarly, if we neglect God’s water in favor of man’s soda, then, too, our health will quickly decline. More often than not, man-made things tend to offer a sweetness and sugariness far in excess of what God has naturally put into His produce. As we all know, too much sugar destroys our health.

The Church’s liturgy, like a good parent, knows what kind of spiritual food is good for its children and that is why she serves that food to us year-in-year-out, even though other spiritual food is available. But, as parents know, children have a preference for the sweet things and there often ensues a battle over what will be served and what will be eaten. Even the consumer market caters to the consumer’s ‘sweet-tooth’ by sweetening foods and drinks that should not be sweetened. A non-American, upon tasting American-produced meat for the first time, noticed that it had a sweet taste. He said that in his country, meat was not sweetened like this.

Spiritual Sweetening
This tendency of sweetening things has also crept into the spiritual life and the life of the Church as a whole. For example, in the early days of the Church, the penitential season of Advent used to start in early November, rather than the modern-day start-time of early December. Back then, it was a time of penance for a whole forty-days; but over time it has been reduced to a mere four weeks (and in most cases, when Christmas Day does not fall on a Sunday, the fourth week is invariably left unfinished, sometimes the fourth week is only two days long!).

In the old days, priests and religious were obliged to a strict fast; then the fast was reduced to a few days and, today, the fast is no longer obligatory. We see the same ‘sweetening’ during Lent, where now only two days of Lent oblige everyone, clergy and laity alike, to fast under pain of mortal sin—these two days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, whereas in the past everyone had to fast from Monday to Saturday all throughout Lent. Similarly with the fast before Holy Communion; it used to require fasting from midnight on the day you would receive Holy Communion, then it was reduced to three hours, then, later, in was reduced to one hour. In the early days of the Church, penances received in Confession were very severe—one single mortal sin would have a penance (saying a particular prayer, or fasting, or abstinence, etc.) imposed from anything from 1 to 25 years; nowadays a whole bunch of mortal sins only gets a penance of a few Our Fathers or Hail Marys.

Is Sweeter Better?
The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating!
Some may argue that sweeter is better; but has the Catholic world got better because of it? No! Never has sin abounded so much as it presently does in this ‘Sweet Age of the Church’. It has become so sweet that it provoked our sweet Mother, Our Lady, to come several times in various apparitions, over the last 180 years, to tell us to pray more, to do more penance, to mortify ourselves more and to offend God less, because we are becoming increasingly godless.

Despite Our Lord wanting all the world to be baptized--”Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20)—never has the world been so unmortified, unrepentant, unfaithful and un-Christian as it is today, and that includes the Catholic world too. Statistics show that most Catholics no longer to Sunday Mass regularly; they rarely go to Confession; their prayer time is minimal or non-existent; many no longer baptize their children; their moral values now increasingly accept things like contraception, divorce with remarriage, solitary sexual sins, lustful thoughts, and now even Sodom and Gomorrah lifestyles and abortion. Sweet, eh?

Our Lady’s Diet
This is why our sweet Mother says she can barely hold back the hand of her sweet Son anymore, from punishing the world! Just as any parent would, Our Lady warns of what will befall the world if it does not cease offending God and return to the less sweet diet of prayer and penance.

► At the Rue du Bac (1830) she said: “Times are evil in France and in the world. The side of Our Lord will be pierced anew. The Cross will be treated with contempt; they will hurl it to the ground. Blood will flow; they will open up again the side of Our Lord. The streets will run with blood ... The whole world will be in sadness. The whole world will be plunged into every kind of misery.”

► At La Salette (1846) she said: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much I can no longer keep hold of it … A great famine will come … others will do penance through hunger ... Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God ... blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... A general war will follow which will be appalling … The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession.” She insists on the not so sweet diet of PRAYER and PENANCE, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) ... “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

► At Lourdes (1858) she said: “I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next ... Pray for sinners ... Penance! Penance! Penance! … Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners.”

► At Fatima (1917) she said: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort ... Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart! ... You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved ... but if people do not cease offending God … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father … [Russia] will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.”

► At Beauraing (1932-33) she says: “Pray, pray very much … Pray always [she emphasized the word always] … I will convert sinners … I am the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven. Pray always!”

► At Banneux (1933) she says: “Pray much!”

► At Tre Fontane, Rome (1947) she said: “The Hail Marys that you pray with Faith and love are like golden arrows that go straight to the heart of Jesus … Pray much and recite the Rosary for the conversion of sinners, of unbelievers and of all Christians.”

What’s My Diet Like?
Is this Advent a growing time of prayer? How much are we praying? Our Lady keeps insisting on praying much and praying always. The modern world seems to have mistranslated her message from “pray much” to “play much”! That was the mistake of the children at Fatima, just before the second apparition of the Angel at Fatima. They had invented a quick method of praying the Rosary—merely saying the first and last words of the Hail Mary, “Ave Maria, Amen!” That gave more time for play. The Angel appeared to them, while they were playing near the well of Lucia’s house, and said: “What are you doing? Pray! Pray a great deal! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High.”

So you see, the message is consistent because the world consistently ignores prayer and penance; neglects the spiritual life and especially devotion to Our Lady—placing those things way down the in their list of daily priorities; the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is neglected and even rushed through; Holy Communion, our greatest treasure on earth, is not only neglected, but increasingly not believed in—with American statistics showing varying figures from 60% to 80% of Catholics no longer believing in the Real Presence! Direct sins against God and against the Faith are the worst sins man can commit—perhaps not the most subjectively embarrassing, but objectively the worst. God’s heavy hand is raised against us! As Our Lady prophesied, it will fall upon us.

The Advent Meal
That is why we have these seasons of penance, like Advent and Lent, for penance appeases the wrath of God, and the sweet words of the Rosary placate his ire: “If they do penance in their heart saying: ‘We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have committed wickedness!’ and return to Thee with all their heart and all their soul … and pray to Thee … then hear, Thou in Heaven, their prayers, and their supplications, and forgive Thy people, that have sinned against thee, all their iniquities” (3 Kings 47:50). On the other hand, “I gave her a time that she might do penance, but she will not repent” (Apocalypse 2:21). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

Let us ignore the world’s manner of spending Advent, and let us at least build our own little Advent Ark in which to place Jesus this Christmas! Noe had to ignore the world around him and patiently and laboriously build his Ark of Salvation. Have you ever thought much of the cradle or crib in which Jesus was placed at His birth? It is like a mini-ark, made of wood that would float in any deluge. The Cross was also made of wood and Jesus was lifted above the sinking world as He died upon it! Our Advent penances are crosses, but those crosses will also keep us afloat among a world that is sinking fast all around us—even the Catholic world!

Wednesday December 4th

Article 4
Are You in the Dark and Running Out of Time?

Bringing Light into Darkness
The commentators of Holy Scripture tell us that God waited until the world was in darkness before giving them the Light that was to be Christ. Christ will be born in the darkest time of the year, when the hours of light are very few and darkness rules most of the day. Christ is also born in the middle of the night. Night is symbolical of evil when the evil ones like to do their work under the secrecy of darkness, as Psalm 103 says: “it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the woods go about.” ... “I beheld in the vision of the night, and lo, a fourth beast, terrible and exceedingly strong, it had great iron teeth, eating and breaking in pieces, and treading down the rest with its feet” (Daniel 7:7).

The Darkness
Though we look upon Christmas as a season of light, the truth is, the time of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ was filled with darkness. Speaking of the future birth of the Christ child, centuries beforehand, Isaias says: “The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen” (Isaias 9:2). It was a time of gloom, anguish, and contempt for religion; a time when the Chosen People of God, once slaves in Egypt and in Babylon, were now enslaved in their own country under Roman rule. God chose a time for the coming of His Son, which would at a low ebb, a time of dejection and despondency, a time of impotence and powerlessness.

Thus, in order understand the full revelation of the light which came into the world, when Christ was born, we need to recognize and understand the darkness into which Our Lord was born. Today, we will consider some aspects of the darkness, aspects not out of God’s control, but rather allowed or ordained by God, so that Christ’s light would radiate all the more brilliantly.

The Absence of God
First, when Christ was born, the word of God had not been heard for four centuries. Malachias is the last book of the word of God in the Old Testament, written in the fifth century BC (The Books of the Maccabees are just books of history, but not prophetical books of the word of God). The Book of Malachias ends with the statement that God would send Elias the prophet as a forerunner for the Messias.

Now since the Messias has two “comings” ― the first being His birth in Bethlehem, the second being at the end of time—the first forerunner of the Messias was St. John the Baptist, whereas the forerunner for the second coming is widely held to be Elias himself. But from the time of Malachias’ prophecy, God had been silent until the prophecy was partially fulfilled in St. John the Baptist. And everyone knew it. Listen to some of the Jewish writers of the day who prove that point.

Babylonian Talmud: “After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel, but they still availed themselves of the voice from Heaven.”

The famous Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, in his writing Against Apion, says: “From Artaxerxes to our own times a complete history has been written, but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets.”

1st Book of Machabees: “So they tore down the altar and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until there should come a prophet to tell what to do with them.”

Without the word of God present among them, the people walked in spiritual darkness.

The People of God Slaves of the World
The second aspect of this darkness was that the Chosen People of God were under the oppressive rule of Rome. This is evident from the Gospel of St. Luke (2:1), which records the census taken up by Caesar Augustus. It was a blatant reminder that the people of Israel were owned by another. Likewise, Herod, a descendent of Edom (therefore a Gentile and a non-Jew), ruled in Jerusalem. Long gone were the days of a Davidic king. Soldiers walked the streets of Jerusalem; Roman guards, called to police the city of David.

In some ways, Israel had escaped exile. No longer did they live in Egypt or Babylon. But in many ways, they were exiles in their own country. Even their own temple was built by a foreigner—Herod the Great was a descendent of a rival nation. Political darkness reigned!

Internal Arguments and Fighting
The third aspect of darkness was that the nation of Israel was breaking-up. Four groups in Israel sought and fought to lead the people.

(1) The Pharisees resided in Jerusalem. They attempted to shape religious life in Israel through their traditions. Jesus had many run-ins with these legalistic Jews, who led astray the people of God (cf. Matt 23).

(2) Sadducees opposed the strict legalism of the Pharisees, and only embraced Moses law (the Torah, or the five first books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy). They rejected the resurrection, belief in angels, but still had an influential place in the temple and law courts.

(3) The Essenes, who lived in a commune near Qumran―they were the scribes who penned and preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls―lived an especially pure life. They devoted themselves to God, and prayed for God’s overthrow of Rome.

(4) The Zealots were a band of brothers who did not pray for change so much as they sought violent means of overthrowing Roman rule.

The result of these four competing sects in Judaism led to constant friction, only increased by the oppressive rule of Rome. Riots were common. Tension was unceasing. Darkness permeated Judaism.

What Goes Around Comes Around
Does that bear some resemblance to our day? You bet it does! And just as Mary was needed to bring Christ into their darkness way back then; so too is Mary necessary to bring Christ into our darkness today. Mary came before Jesus over 2,000 years ago; Mary must come again before Jesus in our darkness today. She is the Mother who gives the world her Child, without her, we will receive nothing. That is why we are, by God’s Providence, currently living what is called “The Age of Mary”—which began with Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 and which will ends its period of gestation or pregnancy with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. The knocking on the doors of the houses of Bethlehem is taking place all over again, as Mary seeks entrance into our minds, hearts and lives, in order to give birth to the Light of World into our own pervading darkness. Will we open the door? Will we let her in with her Child? Here is what St. John says of those to whom Christ tried to come over 2,000 years ago:

“In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:4-11).

Yet as the people of Bethlehem were preoccupied with themselves and their poor worldliness, and so refused entrance to Mary, today we find the modern world is doing the same thing. Just as it was around four centuries since the word of God was properly heard among the Israelites, so too we have over four centuries since the Protestant Revolution had been fully born in Europe by the end of the Sixteenth Century and at the start of the 1600’s. Likewise, as the Jews found several factions battling among themselves for the control of the people (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots), so too we have the Traditionalists, Conservatives, Liberals and Modernists fighting to control the Church today. Similarly, as the Jerusalem saw herself under Roman occupation, the New Jerusalem, the Church, finds herself today occupied also, as, in the words of Pope Paul VI, the smoke of Satan has entered into the Church. Today we have our own darkness as the Jews had theirs 2,000 years ago. What will our response be to the solution that God sends? We will accept it, or carry on doing our own thing and reject it?

Running Out Time?
Adam lived to the ripe old age of 930 years! Our Lord died aged around 33 years. Our Lady is said to have died in her early to mid-sixties. St. Dominic Savio died aged 14 years. St. Maria Goretti was 11 years old when she was killed. Little Blessed Francisco of Fatima was only 10 years old when he died; Blessed Jacinta, his sister was only 9 years old. The Venerable Anne de Guigné was 10 years old.

Time Waits For Nobody
Time waits for nobody. Time is precious. Time means more than money. Time and how it is spent, means the difference between Heaven and Hell. Death is the most untimely thing around. Death respects no one. Even in the forthcoming chastisement of which Our Lady has warned us, time and time again, she says that the good will die with the bad; and neither will priests be spared, but they will die with the laity.

Time is Precious
That is why our time is so precious. That is why the Church chooses the words of St. Paul to open the season of Advent, the time of mercy, so that we can receive, plant, nurture and grow the spirit of Christ in our souls, and so prepare favorably for the time of our Final Judgment, when the time of mercy will cease, and the time of Justice will have arrived. Those words of St. Paul that opened Advent for us were:

“It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:11-14).

Advent is Precious Time
Advent is a time of preparation for the “putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ.” It is a time of self-examination, of correction and confession; a time of serious spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, a time of spiritual betterment and improvement, a time of re-assessing our motives and values, a time of preparing the soil of our soul to receive the seed of sanctity that our Savior wants to sow.

Blind Bethlehemites
It is not a frivolous time; it is not a time of worldly worry over the material and social side of Christmas. It was this material preoccupation at the lucrative time of the Emperor Caesar Augustus’ census and the ‘tourist’ swelling of Bethlehem as people returned to register, that blinded the Bethlehemites to the True Treasure that had arrived on their doorsteps disguised as poverty and hidden in Mary’s womb.

They thought they were rich, but in reality they were very poor. They thought Mary and Joseph were poor, but they were the richest people in Heaven and earth. They carried the only thing that really matters; the Bethlehemites sought many things but missed the one essential thing.

On What Do You Spend Your Time?
When we total up the man-hours spent on the material and social side of Advent and its successor, Christmas, and then compare it to the man-hours that will have been spent on the spiritual side of Advent and Christmas, then I think most people would have to blush with shame—as they will on Judgment Day. For we risk the King saying to us:

If We Have No Time for God―God Will Have No Time for Us!
“Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me” (Matthew 25:41-43).

Lukewarm in Winter and at Christmas!
Harsh? Well, Our Lord complained of the lukewarmness, indifference, coldness and sacrilege of many souls to St. Margaret Mary, in His apparitions to her from 1673-1675: “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men … in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition … But the sole return they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness … Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt!”

It was also in the 17th century that Our Lady of Good Success complained of and condemned lukewarmness: “Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).

The existence of lukewarmness is not confined to the 17th century and the time of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque―lukewarmness has always been a problem (due to the effects of Original Sin) and has been both indirectly and directly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments: “This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify Me, but their heart is far from Me!” (Isaias 29:13). “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men!’” (Matthew 15:6-9).

And the fruit of lukewarmness is clearly stated in the Book of the Apocalypse: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).

Fire-Up the Fires of Advent!
Advent is that time to do penance. The time to heat up our lukewarmness into a fiery zeal; to refocus our blurred indifference into a sharp focus on spiritual matters and our salvation, rather than our relaxation and recreation. Our Lord’s words are clear and fiery: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37). “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

Great Possessions are a Great Distraction
So many of the world are so focused on money, wealth, pleasures and treasures that they see enticing them in the distance, that their farsightedness or long-sightedness prevents them from threading the eye of the needle with the thread of their soul. Their spiritual eyesight is all too blurred and they fail, time and time again, year after year, to use Advent well and pass through the eye of the needle. As Our Lord warned us: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:24).

In fact, it is worth reading the whole passage, for its context is very typical of the Advent-Christmas mentality seen in today’s modern world.

“Behold one came and said to Him: ‘Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Who said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ... The young man saith to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me.’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven’” (Matthew 19:16-24).

Now is the Time! Time Waits for Nobody!
So, to borrow the Church’s other opening line, from the season of Lent, when the Church again quotes St. Paul, saying: “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the time of salvation!” Which dovetails with the words quoted above from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans for the First Sunday of Advent: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.”

The Light of World cometh, let us not sleep without having prepared our lamps, like the foolish virgins, who were without oil at the crucial time, when the Bridegroom came, and, while they were scurrying to buy some oil, they were locked-out of the feast. Now is the acceptable time, now is the hour to fill the lamps of our souls with the spiritual oil needed to have a truly happy, holy and blessed Christmas. Noe did not build his ark at the last minute, but took much time to build it well. Let us do the same this Advent. Let us not worry about “sitting down to eat and drink, and rising up to play” (Exodus 32:6; 1 Corinthians 10:7), but let us rather “sit down to read and think, and kneel down to pray.”

Tuesday December 3rd

Article 3
Now is the "Acceptable Time" to be Unacceptable!

Now is the Acceptable Time ... (to Be Unacceptable!)
Here we are again! Advent has come round once more, knocking on the doors of our souls! When that ‘dreaded’ knock raps the door of our soul, then there are several ways in which we can respond.

• We can dive behind the couch or sofa, and pretend that we are not at home!
• We can open the door, say that we are too busy with our personal affairs and the holiday season, and then close the door with a "No thank you! Not this year!"
• We can invite Advent inside, but then hide it or shut in the spare room, or put it in the closet or basement—taking it out on rare or infrequent occasions.
• Or we can bring Advent inside and throw the world out onto the street.

Since Our Lady said at Akita that “the Church will be full of those who accept compromises”—it seems that the “politically correct” thing to do would be to compromise―which is what most Catholics will do―and tread a path that lies somewhere between worldliness and religiosity. Yet Our Lord said to Mother Mariana (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) at Quito, Ecuador:

“Alas! If men, and above all, priests and religious souls, would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life! ... Woe to souls like this! Woe!”

What is Acceptable to Man is Unacceptable to God
God’s high standards are way, way above the low standards of man. If Isaias is one of key figures of Advent, then let us listen to his words—or rather the words of God spoken through the prophet Isaias: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).

We find this same idea presented in the Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory, that we have been following (click here) throughout this month of the Holy Souls. In this book we read of the anonymous Sister M.G., whom God allowed to make certain revelations to a fellow religious sister. We take from those revelations some statements that pertain to high standards God sets for our perfection. These revelations impress upon our minds that if, on Earth, we refuse or ignore the high standards required by God, then we shall have to, in a certain sense, live our life again, so to speak, in the fires of Purgatory.

Purgatorial Remedial School
“When there are souls like mine—and that is nearly all whose lives have been so empty and who paid little or no attention to their salvation—then their whole life has to be begun over again in this place of expiation. The soul has to perfect itself all over again, and love and desire Him, Whom it did not love sufficiently on Earth .. God wants you to sacrifice yourself for Him without reserve … You can never do enough for Him … Live only for God … If you were as perfect as God wishes you to be, He would be ready to bestow many graces upon you ... The more you try to please Him, the more He will give you. He will never allow Himself to be outdone in generosity. On the contrary, He always gives more than is given Him.

“You grieve God when you do not think of Him. The union between you is like that between friends. Among friends, often one is preferred to all others. One understands us better and from him we keep no secret. If that friend noticed that we paid no attention to him, did not speak to him, or even cast a glance his way to show him that he is still our special friend, he would feel intense pain. Thus it is with God, as far as you are concerned! ... You forget the many and great graces that Jesus has given you. He pursues you from morning to night, and you avoid Him as much as you can. It is not proper for you to treat God thus, especially after He has been so kind to you! ... On Earth, people attach themselves to everything and everyone, except to Him, Who alone ought to have our love, and to Whom we refuse it. Jesus in the Tabernacle waits for souls to love Him and He finds none. Hardly one soul in a thousand loves Him as it should … Their prayers are said hurriedly and without attention, instead of speaking to Him from their hearts and saying words of friendship and gratitude for all His favors to them …

“Make it a practice to live in the presence of God with a pure intention … Never seek to please anyone by your actions, but God only. It is for Him that you must do everything. Let there be no human respect … God seeks devoted souls who will love Him for His own sake. These are very few … How small is the number of fervent religious who really have the spirit of their vocation — about one in fifty (that was back in 1875!!) … Alas, how many lives seem to be filled with good works and at death are found empty! This is because all those actions that appeared to be good―all those showy works, all that conduct that seemed irreproachable—all these were not done for Jesus alone. Some will have their eyes opened when they come here to this life (in Purgatory). On Earth they wanted to be made much of; to shine; to be thought of being very exact in religious observances; to be esteemed as perfect religious. This is the mainspring of so many lives. If you only knew how few people work for God and act for Him alone.

“When God wishes a soul to be entirely His, He begins by crushing it, very much as apples are crushed in the press — to extract its passions, its self-seeking, in a word, all its defects. When that soul is sufficiently broken, He reshapes it according to His will. If it is faithful, it is soon transformed. Only then does Jesus load it with His choicest graces and inundate it with His love.

“Souls belittle the Heart of God. They look upon Jesus as too difficult to approach and thus their love for Him remains cold. Their respect for Him has degenerated into a kind of indifference … Great sinners who were indifferent towards God, and religious who were not what they should have been are in the lowest stage of Purgatory. While they are there, the prayers offered up for them are not applied to them. Because they have ignored God during their life, He now in His turn leaves them abandoned in order that they may repair their neglectful and worthless lives.” (taken from the Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory).

Accept the Acceptable Time!
Don’t waste your time in this life any more! How many more Advents and Lents do you personally—or the world as a whole—have left? Every day, month and year is a step closer to the ultimate step—death for us personally and the chastisement during which hundreds of millions will die! As the Church, in her liturgy says at the start of Advent: “Brethren! Know that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day: not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and impurities, not in strife and envy! But put on the Lord Jesus Christ!” (Romans 13:11-14).

These words are echoed at that other season of penance—Lent—where the Church also says: “For He saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). How many more “acceptable times” do we have left before we “rise from the sleep” of our lukewarmness?

The Eleventh Hour Is Here!
Accept the cost of Heaven and the price of sin—a simple but serious reflection upon the readings about Purgatory should be enough to drive home into our cheap minds the expensive cost of getting to Heaven. Now is the time to pay for that ticket. Year after year the Master of Heaven has come—much like the master in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard—and has said: “About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them: ‘Why stand you here all the day idle? … Go you also into my vineyard!’” (Matthew 20:6-7). Just as it did for the Good Thief on the cross, “the eleventh hour” has come for the world, and perhaps for us too—since Our Lady warns that “the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful” (Our Lady of Akita), perhaps “because no one heeds her (Our Lady’s) message; neither the good nor the bad” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima).

What Price on Eternity?
Heaven offers us eternal life! Eternal life! Just let that word “eternal” sink in! Think about it for a while—but don’t take an eternity over it! That has been the dream of mankind—and, though they cannot make themselves live forever, they never stop trying to find ways that will make them live a bit longer! Live a “bit longer”—imagine the millions of dollars spent on research just to live “a bit longer”! God offers, not just “a bit longer” but ETERNITY—where a million, a billion years is not even a grain of sand among all the beaches of the world, or like a drop of water compared to the drops of water that make up all the world’s oceans. How can you put a price on freedom from death? It’s priceless!

What price eternity? In one sense, it is priceless; in another sense, it costs less than the millions expended on living “a bit longer”—Heaven is bought with spiritual currency and not the world’s currency (except alms). For money cannot buy Heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “[Peter and John] laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee!’” (Acts 8:17-21).

Wasting Time and Eternity
What a waste of time to spend one’s life pursuing riches and the comforts they can buy! Have we forgotten Our Lord’s encounter with the rich young man? “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” Our Lord then spoke those terrifying words—terrifying to our consumer society—“Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).

The Broad Wide Road of Materialism
Let us exit this broad wide road of materialism and consumerism before it makes of us material to be consumed by the fires of Hell! Let us take the narrow straight path of Heaven that few desire and even fewer embark upon. If we resemble the crowd, then we are probably heading for the same crowded destination. If we “stick-out like a sore-thumb” from the crowd, then it is likely that Heaven will give us a “thumbs-up” ! For the rest, it will be a "thumbs-down"!

Let us remember those woeful words of the soul from Purgatory, Sister M.G. to Sister Sister M. de L. C. (in the Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory): “On Earth, people attach themselves to everything and everyone, except to Him, Who alone ought to have our love, and to Whom we refuse it … On Earth they wanted to be made much of … Alas, how many lives seem to be filled with good works and at death are found empty! This is because all those actions that appeared to be good―all those showy works, all that conduct that seemed irreproachable—all these were not done for Jesus alone. Some will have their eyes opened when they come here to this life (in Purgatory).”

Time to AD-VENTilate Souls
When God strikes the world in wrath, then there will be (p)LENT(y) hyper-ADVENTilation going on! Wouldn’t it be better to avoid—or at least soften—the blow? Pope John Paul II said in Fulda, Germany, in 1980, that, sadly, we can no longer avoid the chastisement of God, but we can soften the blow—or do we want to be “macho” and prove that we can take all that God throws at us?

Hyper-ADVENTilating Pope
The Pope said: “If there is a message in which it is written that the oceans will flood whole areas of the earth, and that from one moment to the next millions of people will perish, truly the publication of such a message is no longer something to be so much desired … Many wish to know simply from curiosity and a taste for the sensational, but they forget that knowledge also implies responsibility. They only seek the satisfaction of their curiosity, and that is dangerous if at the same time they are not disposed to do something, and if they are convinced that it is impossible to do anything against evil” … At this point the Pope grasped a Rosary and said: “Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray, and ask for nothing more. Leave everything else to the Mother of God. We must prepare ourselves to suffer great trials before long, such as will demand of us a disposition to give up even life, and a total dedication to Christ and for Christ … With your and my prayer it is possible to mitigate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because only thus can the Church be effectively renewed. How many times has the renewal of the Church sprung from blood! This time, too, it will not be otherwise. We must be strong and prepared, and trust in Christ and His Mother, and be very, very assiduous in praying the Rosary.” (Pope John Paul II, Fulda, Germany, 1980).

The Politically Correct Church of “Luv” and “Mercy”
Today, all we here is “love, love, love” and “mercy, mercy, mercy” from most of the insane Liberal Church, which Our Lady has said will lose the Faith! It certainly is a comforting thought—sin all you want, because it doesn’t matter, for God will show you love and mercy, even if you don’t show Him love and mercy! This is the doctrine of the Church of One-Way-Street! God loves you, so you don’t have to worry about anything—least of all sin, because God will show you mercy: whether you want it or not, whether you like or not! Everyone is to be loved—no matter who they are, what they do, or how perverse they may be! We’re all on the One-Way-Street of ‘Love’ and ‘Mercy’ that leads to… ! Where do you think?

The Politically Incorrect Sweet Mother of God
Just in case our pride thinks that it can, let us think of the choice of words Our Lady has chosen to try and convince us of the opposite: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries” (La Salette) … “Nations will be annihilated” (Fatima). “It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead” (Akita) … “Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test?” (La Salette).

Will We Be Politically Correct or Incorrect?
Which message will be preach and give to others? Will it be a message of virtual-reality? Or a message of reality? When a person, who has cancer, goes to a doctor to confirm whether or not he has the disease—he expects the doctor to be truthful, regardless of how it may affect his feelings. If the doctor hides the truth and says: “Don’t worry! Go home and eat, drink and be merry!” then he does the sick patient a disservice. Things will only get worse.

The same applies to our environment with our family, relatives, friends and colleagues. If we condone, flatter, disregard, defend or keep silence over their spiritual diseases, then things will only get worse. Anything can be cured—“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18)—but God will not wave a magic wand of “Love” and sprinkle us with magic dust of “Mercy” while we just lay back, eating grapes and drinking champagne!

St. Paul says: “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).While Holy Scripture adds: “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). And Jesus says: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). All of these are politically incorrect statements—but they are true! As the reading from the Mass for the First Sunday of Advent said: “Brethren! Know that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep! For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed … Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” What will you do about it?

Monday December 2nd

Article 2
It's All About Mercy!

Advent is All About Mercy
The season of Advent is primarily a season of Mercy. The liturgical writers speak of this time of Mercy, in which we look with hope to Christ, who will come to redeem us and save us from sin. As Our Lord Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that The season of Advent is primarily a season of Mercy. The liturgical writers speak of this time of Mercy, in which we look with hope to Christ, who will come to redeem us and save us from sin. As Our Lord Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Advent is a perfect time to focus more on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Most people have heard of them; some may be able to name them all; most will only remember a few; some may not even know how many there are—yet they are integral part of our Faith. They are in part based on the terrifying picture painted by Our Lord, in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, dealing with the Sheep and the Goats―which is description of the Last Judgment, and therefore shows the importance that the Works of Mercy will play at that Judgment. Before we list the Works of Mercy, let us briefly remind ourselves of those words of Our Lord.

Sheep and Goats
“When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me! Then shall the just answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?’ And the King answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me.

“Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. I was a stranger, and you took Me not in: naked, and you covered Me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:31-46).

The Old Testament already pointed this out in part: “He that is inclined to mercy shall be blessed: for of his bread he hath given to the poor” (Proverbs 22:9). “He that showeth mercy to the poor, shall be blessed” (Proverbs 14:21). Since God does not change, neither does His truth change, and so Our Lord reiterates the same message in the New Testament, saying: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). To drive the point home, He also spoke of the Unmerciful Servant in a parable.

The Unmerciful Servant
The Unmerciful Servant wanted mercy, but did not want to show mercy. This is so true of most people, not only today, but of all times. We want mercy for ourselves to a high degree, and we refuse or are reluctant to show mercy to others, putting on our hat of judgment and righteousness! Our Lord’s words rebuke that attitude:

“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus sad to Him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

“But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence; and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

“Now his fellow servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:21-34).

A talent was 750 ounces of silver and so ten thousand talents came to 7,500,000 (7½ million ounces). At today’s silver prices―as of September 30th, 2019, silver was $17.50 per ounce (seventeen dollars, fifty cents)―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $131 million. The Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver—so a hundred pence would be a mere 12½ ounces of silver (or $218) compared to the larger debt of 7½ million ounces ($131 million)! Our Lord is painting a striking picture here. With the forgiveness of the large debt, it encourages us in seeing that even very grave sins can be cured and forgiven—showing the extreme kindness of the God of mercy. Even more importantly, it tells us be careful in harshly judging the sins of others. The above parable should go hand-in-hand with what Our Lord said in His Sermon on the Mount:

“Why seest thou the splinter that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the splinter out of thy eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5).

“Or how canst thou say to thy brother: ‘Brother! Let me pull the mote out of thy eye!’― when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye!” (Luke 6:42).

The Unmerciful Servant Needs Bi-Focals
The Unmerciful Servant, when it came to his own faults, was solely focused and hoped only in the mercy of his lord, and did not want justice to be applied to his faults. Yet, when the Unmerciful Servant came across someone who had offended or sinned against him, then he focused solely upon the application of justice, and totally disregarded the application of mercy. This is so true of so many human beings—when it to comes to our sins, mercy is the only consideration; but when it comes to the sins of others, then justice is the only consideration. The warnings from Our Lord are clear: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Judge not, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:1-2). Which is why St. Paul gives the sound advice of: “But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).

Spare Me, Lord, But Slaughter My Enemies!
We are always ready to say: “Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from Me” (Psalms 65:20). But when it comes to our neighbor (and even the sinner or an enemy is a neighbor, as Our Lord points out in the parable of the Good Samaritan—the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews), then we become like the Sons of Thunder: “Jesus sent messengers before His face; and going, they entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [to the ‘enemy’ city’]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven, and consume them?’ And turning, He rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!’” (Luke 9:52-56). He also said this elsewhere: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and insisted: “Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).

The Works of Mercy
Mercy, in this context, is said to be a virtue influencing someone to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another's misfortune. It is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas that although mercy is, as it were, the spontaneous product of charity, yet it is to be reckoned a special virtue that is distinguishable from charity. For Mercy is also linked to justice, because it softens justice. Obviously the necessity or need of others can be either of body or soul. Hence it is customary to list both corporal and spiritual Works of Mercy. The traditional enumeration of the Corporal Works of Mercy is as follows:

The Corporal Works of Mercy are :
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To shelter the homeless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.

It All Comes Down to Giving Alms—Materially or Spiritually
It will be seen from these divisions that the Works of Mercy practically coincide with the various forms of almsgiving. It is thus that St. Thomas regards them. The word “alms”, of course, is a corruption of the Greek eleemosyne (mercy). The doing of Works of Mercy is not merely a matter of suggestion; there is also a strict precept imposed, both by the Natural Law and the Divine law, commanding their performance. The Natural Law commands Works of Mercy based upon the principle that we are to do to others as we would have them do to us. The Divine command is seen in the most strict words of Christ, who points out that failure to comply with it, will bring about the supreme penalty of eternal damnation (see Matthew 25:41 above): Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:45-46).

In that parable of Our Lord’s, it is true, there is only direct and explicit mention of only the Corporal Works of Mercy. However, since the Spiritual Works of Mercy deal with a need or a distress whose relief is even more important as well as more effective for the grand purpose of man’s creation, the term “Works of Mercy” must be extended into the spiritual realm also. Besides there are the obvious references of Christ to such works as fraternal correction (Matthew 18:15) as well as the forgiveness of injuries (Matthew 6:14).

Adopt a Soul for Advent
This brings us to the ultimate purpose of this article—which is that of practicing one or several Corporal or Spiritual Works of Mercy during Advent, for Advent is all about Our Lord coming to save His lost sheep. Today, more than ever, souls have gone astray. Though material help is fine and sometimes (or often) needed, the good of the soul is more important than the good of the body. “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36). The Spiritual must have primacy over the Corporal. Besides, in the current economic climate, some find it hard to help themselves, never mind others! However, in the spiritual domain, we all have infinitely deep pockets—for we can give spiritual things to others, without losing any of it for ourselves. If I teach you something about your Faith, I do not lose anything of my own Faith—in fact, it enriches my Faith. If I include you in my prayers and other spiritual exercises, it costs me very little materially—and spiritually I am once again enriched. Thus we could all ADOPT A SOUL DURING ADVENT. It may be a family member, a relative, an acquaintance or a stranger; it could be a lukewarm practicing Catholic; in could be a fallen-away Catholic; it could be a non-Catholic; it could be somebody near or somebody at the other side of the world. No matter. What matters is that we will practicing the same attitude that Our Lord showed in coming to redeem us from our sins.

What we do and how much we do, is up to each and every one of us—some will be inclined to do a lot, some perhaps less. It could include having Masses offered for them; saying extra prayers; suffering providential things for them; offering self-imposed sacrifices for them; offering up our Holy Communions (in part or entirely); etc., etc.

Modern Spirituality is often a Selfish Spirituality
As we will see in the writings of Dom Guéranger, during this Advent season, the modern spiritual life has become very much a cocooned spiritual life, a life of private devotion, which ultimately leads to a “Me, Me, Me” spirituality. Yet we are only one tiny part of the Mystical Body of Christ and what happens to and in the Body at large, affects us to a greater or lesser degree. The Scriptural quote concerning Cain and Abel comes to mind: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered, ‘I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?’” (Genesis 4:9). Many know not the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ, many do not even care to know! But we are our “brother’s keeper” as witnessed by the words of Our Lady at Fatima, who said: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” Let us take these words to heart and do for others as we would wish others to do unto us!

This Time of Mercy Needs the Mother of Mercy
Though we might be very selfish with our mercy, Our Lady most certainly is not! This season of Advent is both a time of mercy and a time of Mary―and Mary is our Mother of Mercy! Our Lady, in the prayer and hymn Salve Regina, is called the “Mother of Mercy”―“Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope!” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his book, The Glories of Mary, quotes the words addressed by Our Lady herself to St. Bridget, by which Our Lady stresses her mercy:

“The Blessed Virgin herself revealed this to St. Bridget, saying: ‘As a mother who sees her son exposed to the sword of the enemy, makes every effort to save him, thus do I, and will I ever do for my children, sinful though they be, if they come to me for help’” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget: “I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion; for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast-off by God, that he may not return and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the ‘Mother of Mercy,’ and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them.” And then she concluded by saying: “Therefore, he shall be miserable―and for ever miserable in another life―who, in this life, being able to do so, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

St. Alphonsus adds: “This Mother of Mercy is all kindness and all sweetness, not only with the just, but also with sinners and those who are in despair; so that when she beholds them turning towards her, and sees that they are with sincerity seeking her help, she at once welcomes them, aids them, and obtains their pardon from her Son. She neglects none, however unworthy they may be, and refuses to none her protection; she consoles all; and, no sooner do they call upon her, than she hastens to their help. With her gentleness she often wins their devotion, and raises those sinners―who are most averse to God, and who are the most deeply plunged in the lethargy of their vices―that she may dispose them to receive divine grace, and at last render themselves worthy of eternal glory. God has created this his beloved daughter with a disposition so kind and compassionate, that no one can hesitate to have recourse to her intercession” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

“St. Bernard says: ‘O Lady, thou dost abhor no sinner, however abandoned mud vile he may be, when he has recourse to thee; if he asks thy help, thou wilt extend thy kind hand to draw him from the depths of despair.’ O ever blessed and thanked be our God, O most amiable Mary, who made thee so merciful and kind towards the most miserable sinners. Oh,
wretched are those who do not love thee, and who, having it in their power to seek help of thee, do not trust in thee! He who does not implore the aid of Mary is lost―but who has ever been lost that had recourse to her?” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

Sunday December 1st

Article 1
Advent! Godsent! Misspent? Repent!

The Meaning of Advent—The Reason for the Season
The name Advent comes from the Latin words, advenire (to come to) and adventus (an arrival), and refers to Christ’s coming into this world. The Lord is coming. However, it is every year at this time we celebrate his coming , and so there exists a real danger that through routine we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because, at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same old lukewarm routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.

The focus of Advent is by no means limited to just Christ’s first coming. An equal, if not more important theme found in the Advent Liturgy is the second coming of Christ, when He comes again to judge the world. Consequently, there is a double focus of, firstly, the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his first Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. In His first coming He comes as a child offering mercy. In His second coming He will come as a judge administering justice.

However, He is never merciful without being just, and He is never just without being merciful. Therefore, we must realize that to accept His mercy also requires that we accept His justice. He does not come to play, but to pay—pay for our sins. He does not come to enjoy life, but to give eternal life—and that comes at a price. He comes not to live on Earth forever, but to forever detach us from this Earth. He prefers poverty over power; humility over honors; rejection over riches and suffering over splendor. His way is not our way, yet He Who called Himself “the Way” shows us wayward wayfarers the true way—and it is not a pleasant way, but the Way of the Cross.

A New Beginning—A New Year—Another Chance!
Advent is not an end, but a beginning. Liturgically, Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical year. Even if it a beginning and not end, it should be, however, the end of our sinful life and the beginning to a holier more fervent life. It should be the beginning of the end of a life of sin and mediocrity—“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking an approximate 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. The Word of God will come incarnate―in the flesh―so we should focus on the Word of God during Advent. Scripture reading for Advent should reflect and emphasize a joyful expectancy for the Redeemer―also including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope of eternal life.

Losing the Spirit of Advent
The liturgical color for the season of Advent is purple for purple shows the majesty which heralds the coming of the King of Kings. Yet that King comes in order to do penance on behalf of mankind, which has grievously offended God—so purple in this sense is also a color symbolic of penance and suffering, since our King came to suffer and die for us. “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Luke 5:32). Christ would later remind us to join Him in that penance: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: ‘Do penance, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’” (Matthew 4:17). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). As Holy Scripture adds: “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). This modern-day age has almost totally put aside penance and taken to amusement and entertainment! Our Lady warned at Salette:

“Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance [in 1965, Pope Paul VI cut the Lenten penance of fasting by 95%, from 40 days to 2 days―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday], and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish … Demons will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls.

Penance is Our Daily Bread
Though we might not like its taste, penance is for us our daily bread. We have sinned and pay we must: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us” (1 John 1:10) and “unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). Our Lady of Akita reminded us that “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.” Let it not be said of us: “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). This prideful neglect of penance is what Our Lady complained of at La Salette, saying of the clergy—who should be leading the laity along the true path: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.” This lack of penance—both preached and performed—is what causes laxity, as Our Lady of La Salette said: “The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement!”

Daily Duty is a Daily Penance
In a letter dated February 28th, 1943, Sister Lucy addressed issues that concerned both Portugal and Spain. She wrote:

“The Good Lord will allow Himself to be appeased, but He complains bitterly and sadly about the very limited number of souls in the state of grace, disposed to deny themselves according to what the observance of His law requires of them. Here is the true penance which the Good Lord requests today: the sacrifice which everybody must impose on himself to lead a life of justice in the observance of His law. And He desires that this law be clearly made known to souls, for many give to the word ‘penance’ the sense of great austerities, and as they feel neither the strength nor the generosity for that, they get discouraged and let themselves go into a life of lukewarmness and sin. Our Lord told me: ‘The penance that I request and require now is the sacrifice demanded of everybody by the accomplishment of his own duty and the observance of My law.’”

The Bishop of Gurza, to whom the letter of 1943 was addressed, saw to it that this message was spread throughout Portugal and Spain, and, as a result, many benefited from its instructions. Through this message we see that God does not ask us for difficult and austere penances. He desires of us sacrifices that we can all perform, namely the observance of His laws and the fulfillment of our duties as determined by our state in life. Yet let us not make light of these “duties of state”—for they are far more numerous than we would like, or imagine them to be! If Lucia spoke of penance, let us look at the life of penance and duties of state that the three little children of Fatima followed! For, if as the axiom says: “The greater contains the lesser”—then we adults should have no problem in accomplishing what little children can accomplish!

The lives of the three children of Fatima were entirely transformed by the heavenly apparitions. While fulfilling the duties of their state with the greatest fidelity, those children seemed now to live only for prayer and sacrifice, which they offered in a spirit of reparation to obtain peace and the conversion of sinners. They deprived themselves of water during the periods of great heat; they gave their lunch to poor children; they wore around their waists thick cords that even drew blood; they abstained from innocent pleasures and urged one another to the practice of prayer and penance with an ardor comparable to that of the great saints.

St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, would cry out: “Men must do penance! If they amend their lives Our Lord will still pardon the world; but if they do not, the chastisement will come! … It is necessary to do penance!”—which is nothing other than what Our Lady of Lourdes commanded St. Bernadette: “Penance! Penance! Penance!” and on another occasion: “Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners!” and again: “Eat the grass as a penance!” and “Drink the [muddy] water from the spring!”

Sister Lucia Speaks About Jacinta
In her letter to the bishop, Sr. Lucia writes: “Your Excellency, as I told you in the writings I sent to you after I had read the book about Jacinta, she was greatly impressed by some things revealed in the secret. As a matter of fact, this was one of them. The vision of Hell frightened her so much that she did all the penances and mortifications she could to prevent more souls from going there.

“Now I shall answer the second question which is asked from all sides. How had Jacinta, still a child, understood such a spirit of mortification and penance, and how had she conquered it? In my opinion, it was, first of all, through a special grace God granted her through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and secondly, through the vision of Hell and the unfortunate souls falling into it. There are people, even devout ones, who are afraid to speak about Hell to children lest they frighten them, but God did not hesitate to show it to three children, one of whom was only seven years old. He knew she would be horrified to the point — I would say — of shriveling with fear.” (Words of Sr. Lucia of Fatima).

People Burning Like Wood in Fire
Lucia (of Fatima) continues painting her picture of her little cousin, Jacinta:

“Frequently she sat, meditating, on the ground or some stone, and began to exclaim: ‘Hell! Hell! How sorry I am for the souls that are going to Hell! And people burn there alive, like wood in fire!’ And quivering a little, she would kneel on the ground with her hands joined and say the prayer Our Lady had taught us: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of Hell, lead all souls into Heaven, especially those who are most in need of Thy Mercy!’

“Now you can understand why I got the impression that the last words of this prayer are concerned with souls who are most in danger of damnation or nearest to it. Jacinta stayed for a long time on her knees, repeating the same prayer. Every now and then, as if waking us, she called to me or her brother, Francisco. ‘Francisco, are you praying with me? We need to pray a great deal to save souls from Hell. So many are going there! So many!’

“At other times she asked: ‘Why doesn't Our Lady show Hell to sinners? If they saw it, they would never sin again and wouldn't have to go there. You must tell Our Lady to show Hell to all those people. (She meant the people staying in Cova da Iria at the time of the Apparition). You will see that they will be converted!” Some days later, a little despondent, she asked: ‘Why didn't you tell Our Lady to show Hell to those people?’

“ ‘I forgot,’ I answered.
“ ‘I didn't remember, either,’ she said sadly.

“Sometimes, she also asked: ‘What sins are committed by those people to make them go to Hell?’
“ ‘I don't know. Perhaps not going to Mass on Sundays, stealing, saying wicked words, cursing, swearing.’
“ ‘What would it cost them to keep quiet and go to Mass! I am sorry for sinners! Oh, if I could only let them see Hell!”

"Sometimes she hugged me and said: “I am going to Heaven, but you have to stay here. If Our Lady lets you, tell everybody what Hell is like, so that they can escape it by not committing sins.’

“Other times, after thinking for a while, she said: ‘So many falling into Hell! So many in Hell!’
“To reassure her, I said: ‘Don't be afraid! You are going to Heaven!’
“ ‘Yes, I am going there,’ she said calmly. ‘But I also want everyone to go there!’”

A Child with a True Penitential Spirit
Lucia continues: “When, to mortify herself, she didn't want to eat, I said: ‘Jacinta, come on, eat now!’

“ ‘No, I am offering this sacrifice for sinners who eat too much!’

“When she was sick but was going to go to Mass anyway, I said: ‘Jacinta, don't! You aren't able! And it's not Sunday today!’

“ ‘It doesn't matter. I will go for sinners who don't even go on Sundays!

“If she happened to hear any loud cursing, she covered her face with her hands and said: ‘Oh my God! These people don't realize this kind of talk might send them to Hell! Forgive them, Jesus, and convert them. They certainly don't know they are offending God. Oh, what a pity, Jesus! I will pray for them!”

“And she repeated the prayer Our Lady had taught us: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins! Save us from the fire of Hell’ etc.

What On Earth Are YOU Doing?
What on earth are you doing? Or, what are doing on earth? Hopefully, a little child, who is just starting out learning their catechism, could give us the answer to that question. Why are we here on earth? Why did God make us? God made us and put on this earth to KNOW Him, LOVE Him, SERVE Him in this world, so that we may be happy with Him in the next.

Another little child, Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima, goes beyond mere theory and fleshes-out that skeleton of a response with a real and practical proof and example of what it is to KNOW, LOVE and SERVE GOD!

We can make a little microcosm of the macrocosm (or a smaller model or the larger reality) and apply the above to Advent. What on earth are we doing during Advent? Why has God given us, through His Church, this season of Advent? Well, we can almost give the same answer as above: God gave us the season of Advent so that we might KNOW Jesus, LOVE Jesus and SERVE JESUS during Advent so that we might be truly and sincerely happy with Him throughout Christmas.

Christ is Coming—But Who the Heck Really Cares?
To the Israelites and Jews God gave all kinds of types, figures and prophecies of the “One Who is to come.” But as history teaches us, by the time Jesus was scheduled to come, most of the people had fallen into a religious superficiality, a spiritual blindness, and lukewarm indifference that left their minds, hearts, soul and strength so weak, that it could not recognize the Truth when it came; and, even though it was charmed and enchanted by the glamour of the shining miracles that Jesus performed, it was to them a sideshow, a superficial attraction, a titillation of the senses, much like Christmas is to most Catholics today. It’s mainly (but not entirely) about fun, presents, parties, visits, food, drink, entertainment, free-time off work and school—but of most, Jesus would say: “Their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). To paraphrase the opening of the Gospel of St. John by putting the words in Jesus’ mouth, it would read:

“From the beginning I was the Word, and I was with God, and I was God. All things were made by Me: and without Me was made nothing that was made. In Me was life, and I was the light of men. And I shone in their darkness, and the darkness did not understand Me. I was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. I was in the world, and the world was made by Me, and the world knew Me not. I came unto My own, and My own received Me not. But as many as received Me, I gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in My name. And I was made flesh, and dwelt among you, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-14).

Many Start, But Never Finish
“Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). Many start on the road to Heaven, but most prefer the broad road that is easy and leads downhill to Hell; few seek and find the narrow, rocky, thorny path that climbs steeply to Heaven (Matthew 7:13-14). God wants all souls to be saved, but most will not be saved, because even though they want the goal (Heaven), they reject the means that get us to Heaven. They create their own ‘make-believe’ religion, where everything is sweet, cozy, comfortable and conformable to worldly values. They forget God’s condemnation of the world: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

To strive for Heaven, means to go AGAINST the current of the world, or the current trends of the world. The underlying goal of the world is to either destroy suffering or to flee suffering. The underlying principle of Christianity is to embrace the Cross and to carry the Cross. The two camps are diametrically opposed. There can be no peace or truce between them. As Holy Scripture says: “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15).

Preparing for Christmas or Christmess?
Unfortunately, it is Belial and the unbeliever who have set the tone for modern day trends to be followed during Advent and Christmas, and the believers like shy, shorn, silenced sheep meekly follow in their footsteps. Hence it is that Jesus and Mary are not loved as much as ‘Joe’ and ‘Sally’ who throw the Christmas party; those visits to the tabernacle “lose-out” in favor of visits to the modern tabernacles of TV’s, movie-theaters, and computer screens; so that possibilities to receive the Bread of Life more often, during the Christmas vacation time, are passed by in favor of enjoying earthly food and drink at some friend’s or relative’s home. “Black Friday” was symptomatic of the “Black Days” that are to come between now and Christmas—a materialistic ‘black-hole’ that sucks-in and negates all spirituality and desire for Christ. This ‘black-hole’ of materialism transforms Christmas into a “Christmess” more and more with each passing year.

Truly, the following words of Christ apply more to our day than any other age in the history of the Church: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall he find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). It has to be said that there is less and less Faith found on Earth with each passing year! While those, who still retain the Faith, find that their Faith has been contaminated more and more with each passing year. Each Christmas becomes more of a Christmess.

DAILY THOUGHTS FOR
THE MONTH OF THE HOLY SOULS

Saturday November 30th

Article 30
The End Is Nigh!

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

Can’t Wait for the End!
Sometimes we look forward to the end of a thing; at other times we dread the end of a thing. We may desire that something we hate, ends quickly. We may want something that we love, to never end. If we are having a wonderful time, we don’t want the day to end. However, if we are having a miserable day, then we can’t wait for it to end.

The End is Only the Beginning
The same applies to life on Earth and life in Heaven. There are some people for whom the end of this earthly life cannot come too quickly. Yet there are others who dread the moment this earthly life must come to an end. The fact is we were made to die and from the very moment of our birth, we are in the process of working towards the end of our life—which in reality in our birthday, for we are born into eternity. But which eternity? Eternal joys or eternal pains and sorrows?

Look to the End
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us to look to the end in all things. The Imitation of Christ echoes that: “Very soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 23).

The fact that we are almost at the end of the month of the Holy Souls, doubly reminds us of the end of our own lives, combining the ideas of death with those of the end of the world. The Gospels of the Last Sunday of the liturgical year (the last Sunday after Pentecost), together with the Gospel of the First Sunday of the liturgical year (the First Sunday of Advent), both paint the terrible picture of the events that will occur at the so-called “End-Times” or “Last Days.”

Time of Mercy before the Time of Justice
The difference, in mind of the Church, being that on the First Sunday of Advent we are reminded of the End-Times and are told, that for a while, we can profit from God’s mercy; but on the Last Sunday of the liturgical year we are reminded of God’s imminent justice. This is very similar to Our Lady’s apparitions warning us of the future chastisements. Her apparitions are much like Our Lord’s coming at Christmas, for Our Lady gives us a time of mercy in which could avert the calamities to come by much prayer and penance—which earns mercy. However, if we fail to make use of that time wisely, then comes the justice: “The evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government — [you] will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects … The precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings” (Our Lady of Good Success & Our Lady of La Salette).

Yet this very justice will be a mercy, for, as we have seen, the torments of Purgatory are far, far, greater than whatever it is that we will have to experience and suffer in this life. We should gratefully remember that fact when God decides to open the faucets of His justice and allows it to flow over the Earth. We will be washed from our iniquities in that flow of justice, which, as Our Lady prophesies, will spare neither believers nor unbelievers, neither good nor bad, neither priest nor laity. Therefore, as Holy Scripture and many of the saints say―in all things look to the end: “Lift up your eyes to Heaven, and look down to the Earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the Earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and My justice shall not fail” (Isaias 51:6).

End-Times come with Death
With all this talk about the End-Times, we may lose sight of the fact that our “End-Times” may come sooner than we think—meaning that death may end our life at a time that we did not expect. There is a tendency, these days, to focus on the so-called “End Times” or “Last Days” of the world, that we forget our own personal “End Times” or “Last Days.” “For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Too many live, laugh, play, store up goods like there was no death and no accountability—but Our Lord has said that we shall be judged for every idle word we have ever spoken! “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).

Wise Counsel for the Future Concerning the Past
Thus, the Imitation of Christ, speaking of the end of life and account we shall have to give to God for all that we have done, counsels us:

“In all things consider the end; how you shall stand before the strict Judge from Whom nothing is hidden and Who will pronounce judgment in all justice, accepting neither bribes nor excuses. And you, miserable and wretched sinner, who fear even the countenance of an angry man, what answer will you make to the God Who knows all your sins? Why do you not provide for yourself against the Day of Judgment when no man can be excused or defended by another because each will have enough to do to answer for himself? In this life your work is profitable, your tears acceptable, your sighs audible, your sorrow satisfying and purifying.

“The patient man goes through a great and salutary purgatory when he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him than for his own injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others; when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete subjection to the spirit.

“It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to keep them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we keep for the burning.

“For a man will be more grievously punished in the things in which he has sinned. There the lazy will be driven with burning prongs, and gluttons tormented with unspeakable hunger and thirst; the wanton and lust-loving will be bathed in burning pitch and foul brimstone; the envious will howl in their grief like mad dogs.

“Every vice will have its own proper punishment. The proud will be faced with every confusion and the avaricious pinched with the most abject want. One hour of suffering there will be more bitter than a hundred years of the most severe penance here. In this life men sometimes rest from work and enjoy the comfort of friends, but the damned have no rest or consolation.

“You must, therefore, take care and repent of your sins now so that on the Day of Judgment you may rest secure with the blessed. For on that day the just will stand firm against those who tortured and oppressed them, and he who now submits humbly to the judgment of men will arise to pass judgment upon them. The poor and humble will have great confidence, while the proud will be struck with fear. He who learned to be a fool in this world and to be scorned for Christ will then appear to have been wise.

“In that day every trial borne in patience will be pleasing and the voice of iniquity will be stilled; the devout will be glad; the irreligious will mourn; and the mortified body will rejoice far more than if it had been pampered with every pleasure. Then the cheap garment will shine with splendor and the rich one become faded and worn; the poor cottage will be more praised than the gilded palace. In that day persevering patience will count more than all the power in this world; simple obedience will be exalted above all worldly cleverness; a good and clean conscience will gladden the heart of man far more than the philosophy of the learned; and contempt for riches will be of more weight than every treasure on Earth.

“Then you will find more consolation in having prayed devoutly than in having fared daintily; you will be happy that you preferred silence to prolonged gossip. Then holy works will be of greater value than many fair words; strictness of life and hard penances will be more pleasing than all earthly delights.

“Learn, then, to suffer little things now that you may not have to suffer greater ones in eternity. Prove here what you can bear hereafter. If you can suffer only a little now, how will you be able to endure eternal torment? If a little suffering makes you impatient now, what will hell fire do? In truth, you cannot have two joys: you cannot taste the pleasures of this world and afterward reign with Christ.

“If your life to this moment had been full of honors and pleasures, what good would it do if at this instant you should die? All is vanity, therefore, except to love God and to serve Him alone. He who loves God with all his heart does not fear death or punishment or judgment or hell, because perfect love assures access to God. It is no wonder that he who still delights in sin fears death and judgment. It is good, however, that even if love does not as yet restrain you from evil, at least the fear of Hell does. The man who casts aside the fear of God cannot continue long in goodness but will quickly fall into the snares of the devil” (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 24).

Waste Not, Want Not
If we do not waste our time, in the limited time we all have left (nobody lives forever), then we will not lacking in the mercy of God. However, if we foolishly waste our time, then death may overtake us before we have sufficiently paid the debt of our many sins. “Be not overmuch wicked: and be not foolish, lest thou die before thy time” (Ecclesiastes 7:18). “Thou hast shortened the days of his time: Thou hast covered him with confusion” (Psalms 88:46). “And he knoweth not what time shall pass, and that death approacheth, and that he must leave all to others, and shall die” (Ecclesiasticus 11:20). “Take ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:33). “Therefore I say, brethren; the time is short” (1 Corinthians 7:29). “Work your work before the time, and He will give you your reward in His time” (Ecclesiasticus 51:38). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). “The time is accomplished, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent” (Mark 1:15).

Don’t Imagine the Unlikely
You may think that after your death people will pray for you, offer many Masses for you and thus quickly deliver you from your purgatorial torments—but how many people truly and EFFECTIVELY pray for their nearest and dearest? Very, very few! And of those who do pray, HOW MUCH do they pray? People spend centuries in Purgatory! Once your children have died, who will pray EFFECTIVELY and MUCH for your soul? “Our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works. For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth” (Wisdom 2:4-5). O if we only had family members who resembled those of the Queen of Austria!

It is related in the Life of Queen Margaret of Austria, wife of Philip III, that in one single day, which was that of her obsequies, there was celebrated in the city of Madrid nearly eleven hundred Masses for the repose of her soul. This princess had asked for one thousand Masses in her last will; the King caused twenty thousand to be added to it. When the Archduke Albert died at Brussels, the pious Isabella, his widow, had forty thousand Masses offered for the repose of his soul, and for an entire month she herself assisted with the greatest piety at ten each day. (Father Mumford, Charité envers les Defuncts–Charity Towards the Deceased).

“He gave him the number of his days and time” (Ecclesiasticus 17:3). “Work your work before the time, and He will give you your reward in His time” (Ecclesiasticus 51:38). “The mercy of God is beautiful in the time of affliction, as a cloud of rain in the time of drought” (Ecclesiasticus 35:26).

Friday November 29th

Article 29
"Black Friday"―The New 'Good Friday'?

Aping God
The devil likes to “ape” God, that is to say, he likes to imitate aspects of God and God’s Church. Tertullian once said: “Diabolos est Dei simia,” and that basically translates into “The devil is God’s monkey (or ape).” What Tertullian meant was that the devil likes nothing better than to ape God. Satanists and secret societies are pretty big on copying or aping certain elements of Catholic religious ceremonies—the Black Mass is one such blasphemous example.

Black Friday
Talking of the word “black”, today happens to be what the world (in the USA world) calls “Black Friday” and it comes right after “Thanksgiving Day” which is always a Thursday. In recent years, most major retailers have opened very early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) sales in many British Commonwealth nations. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of Black Friday, but in the late 2000’s many had crept to 5:00 a.m. or even 4:00 a.m. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls) opened at midnight for the first time. In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8:00 p.m. This year, 2019, stores are even opening as early as 6:00 p.m., or earlier, on Thanksgiving Day.

Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since, with the exception of 2004. In past few years, retailers have been starting their Black Friday Sales on Thanksgiving Day, Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) and as early as Monday. Therefore, actual sales on Friday do not truly reflect the ‘Black Friday’ event as they get divided between several days. So Combined sales of Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday are now included in Black Friday numbers, since deals offered are advertised as part of the Black Friday Sale. As stores moved their Black Friday Sales onto Thanksgiving Day, they faced a backlash. To avoid the backlash, more and more stores are moving their sale ‘online’ on Thanksgiving Day, by still keeping their physical stores closed. As a result, Thanksgiving Day is emerging as one of the main days for online shopping. The Wednesday, or more specifically Thanksgiving Eve, has also emerged as another time when several stores start their Black Friday Sale.

According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, 174 million US consumers went shopping online or in-store last year (2018) over Thanksgiving weekend, which spans Thanksgiving Day through to Cyber Monday. That’s about 70% of all the adults in the US―if only 70% of adults would go to church on Sunday! Sixty six million people shopped on the Friday alone. And while the number of people choosing to do their shopping from their phones reached record highs last year, Walmart is still trying to lure in foot traffic by giving away millions of free cookies and coffee―the Catholic Church gives away the Holy Eucharist (Christ) for free, but has very little “foot traffic”! On and on it goes… As Our Lady of La Salette warned: “The people will only think of amusements!”

The New ‘Good Friday’
Black Friday masquerades as the first day of traditional Christmas shopping, during which crowds of consumers are drawn to special offers by retailers. The thought sprang to mind that this has an uncanny resemblance to our Holy Thursday and Good Friday, except that it tends to go in the opposite direction. Is “Black Friday” the new ‘Good Friday’? You could say so―for on Black Friday everyone is searching for goods! They are besotted by goods! They are dominated by the “feel-good-factor” which makes them feel good about getting a bargain―which they may not even really need! One could almost say that it is a parody. Here are the reasons that occurred in formulating this idea:

Comparisons
► The days are the same day: Holy Thursday and Good Friday / Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday.

► Holy Thursday is centered around the Last Supper; Thanksgiving in centered around the Thanksgiving meal.

► Good Friday and Black Friday are all about the world and materialism: Our Lord detaches Himself from the world and material things and dies to save souls; Black Friday is all about attaching oneself to materialism in order to save something too—money!

► Good Friday is frugal in its ceremony (the bare bones) and has somber black vestments; whereas Black Friday is all about opulence with its colorful glitz and glamour.

► The message of Good Friday is one of dying to this world—as Our Lord said: “I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Whereas the message of Black Friday is one of living for the world and grabbing all one can of this world.

► Good Friday is a day of obligatory fasting; while Black Friday for many is almost a day of compulsory spending and indulging. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday, even in cold freezing temperatures, in an effort to secure a place in front of the line and thus a better chance at getting desired items.

► Just as the Faith spread throughout the world, so too is Black Friday spreading throughout the world since really “taking-off” in the USA. Canada has started the Black Friday practice. Black Friday was the inspiration for the Mexican government and retailing industry to create an annual weekend of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning “the good weekend” in Spanish. Black Friday is also celebrated in the United Kingdom by major online retailers, and in 2014, more UK-based retailers have adopted the Black Friday marketing scheme than ever. In Panama Black Friday was first celebrated in 2012, as a move from the Government to attract local tourism to the countries capital city. In recent years, Black Friday has been promoted in Australia by online retailers. In 2012, after two years of disappointing results, several department stores in Brazil joined their foreign competitors in a successful Black Friday, which more than doubled the total revenue in comparison to the previous year. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors.

The Violence of Good Friday and Black Friday
We all know, of course, the extreme violence generated against Our Lord on Good Friday by the sinful passions of the Pharisees, Jews and Roman soldiers. Yet we also see those evil passions surge to the fore on Black Friday. Somehow money, things and greed combine to make a toxic poison for basic Christian charity―or even non-Christian charity and civility. In 2006, a man shopping at Best Buy was recorded on video assaulting another shopper in a dispute over an article that each wanted to buy. Unruly Walmart shoppers at a store outside Columbus, Ohio, quickly flooded in the doors at opening, pinning several employees against stacks of merchandise. Nine shoppers in a California mall were injured, including an elderly woman who had to be taken to the hospital, when the crowd rushed to grab gift certificates that had been released from the ceiling. If only people had the same passion for attending Masses, receiving Holy Communion and going to Confession!

In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 5:00 a.m. opening of the local Walmart. [Wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise for priests to find similar crowds outside their church on a morning, pining to get in!) As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and trampling a 34-year old employee to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim’s fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 9:00 p.m. the night before [what a massive mortification for mammon, but for God, no mortification is shown!]. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital. The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, “We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving.”

On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at the Toys “R” Us store in Palm Desert, California.

During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a Toys “R” Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object. A Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter. An Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by arguing with other Walmart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the store, but refused. A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Walmart stampede.

On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Walmart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to at least 10 people, who had been waiting hours for the store to open. It was later reported that the incident caused 20 injuries. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360 (a video game console). A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account stated that the store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people “in order to get an advantage,” according to the police. In an incident outside a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 a.m.

On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Walmart in Tallahassee, Florida during a dispute over a parking space.

On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint. In Romeoville IL, a police officer shot a suspected shoplifter driving a car that was dragging a fellow officer at a Kohl’s department store. The suspect and the dragged officer were treated for shoulder injuries. Three people were arrested.

These are just some incidents taken from the overall list―as shown on the website “Black Friday Death Count”―which manifests what obsessive materialism can lead to. The following list is merely a fraction of the full list, so as not to make the reading overly long and meaningless―you can skip the list if you wish, as the first few examples sufficiently paint the macabre picture of the results of materialistic obsession and greed:

2018      Man, 27, shot to death in parking lot in South Keys Ottawa
2018      Man wounded in shooting inside N.J. mall at the end of Black Friday
2018      Two people stabbed at Macy's in Destiny USA
2018      Glance at attractive woman sparked Memphis mall shooting
2018      One dead and 2 wounded— including 12-year-old girl— in Alabama mall shooting
2017      Black Friday altercation in Kmart leaves man with a shattered hip
2017      Black Friday Missouri mall shooting leaves teen seriously injured
2017      One male shot, one male stabbed at Willowbrook Mall on Black Friday
2017      Brawls close Alabama shopping center, one treated for injuries
2016      San Antonio man helped a woman being beaten in a Walmart parking lot, shot dead
2016      Shirtless man uses belt as a whip outside Vancouver Black Friday sale
2016      Woman hurt during stampede in South African mall
2016      One injured, one charged, after shots fired outside Wolfchase Galleria in Tennessee
2016      Policeman stabbed in the neck confronting shoplifter' in Leeds, UK
2016      Shopper opens fire, killing one, over Walmart parking spot in Reno, NV
2016      Black Friday kicks off with deadly shooting at New Jersey mall
2014      Thanksgiving shopper hit by car at Wyomissing Walmart
2014      Black Friday brawl at Kohl's in Tustin ends with 3 arrests
2014      UK Black Friday Madness: woman with broken wrist; head injury from fallen TV during 'scuffle'
2013      Shopper pepper sprayed, arrested in argument over TV at New Jersey Walmart
2013      Thanksgiving Day bargain shoppers send 11 year-old to hospital
2013      Teen returning home from Black Friday shopping fell asleep at wheel, killed in wreck
2013      Man Stabbed During Black Friday Event at Carlsbad Mall
2013      Newport, Arkansas Walmart employee injured during Black Friday sales
2013      Scenes of chaos during chain store's Black Friday sales in Northern Ireland
2013      Several injured in Black Friday-related shooting outside Kohl's in Illinois
2013      Black Friday: Virginia Man Stabbed In Walmart Parking Lot Over Space
2013      Rialto Walmart brawl sends one police officer to hospital
2013      Shopper carrying TV home from Target shot in Las Vegas
2012      Black Friday Shoppers Hit By Suspected Drunk Driver In Walmart parking lot
2012      Father charged in crash that killed daughters after Black Friday shopping
2012      Two people shot at Tallahassee Walmart over parking space argument
2012      Black Friday shoppers hit by suspected drunk driver in Walmart parking lot
2011      Girl trampled in Black Friday Walmart rush
2011      Black Friday worker rescued from canal after losing control of car due to exhaustion
2011      Black Friday: Target stampeded of shoppers step over Walter Vance as he collapses and dies
2011      Fights break out at Rome Walmart during Black Friday shopping
2011      Woman wounded in South Carolina Black Friday robbery attempt
2011      Off-duty police pepper spray North Carolina shoppers
2011      Shooting outside California Walmart, 1 wounded
2011      Los Angeles area Black Friday pepper-spray attack at Walmart causing 20 injures
2010      Transwoman assaulted at Kohl's Department Store in Jackson, TN
2010      Former Marine stabbed in Best Buy store by violent customer
2009      Clarksville woman trampled during Black Friday shopping
2008      Southern California Toys 'R' Us shooting leaves two dead
2008      Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
2006      10 injured in Southern California Black Friday mall stampede

Biggest Violence of All
But the biggest violence of committed on this Black Friday is the violence against the Faith. The whole spirit of Black Friday and what it represents, goes against the spirit of Christ and what He represents. Our Lord came to live in poverty, not in riches. He did not pamper His body by living in luxury, but lived a simple and mortified life: “Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). He explicitly told us: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21). “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God .. Wherefore, Go out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17).

Riches and Wealth Work Against Heaven
We see a clear example of this with the rich young man, who wanted to save his soul, yet also wanted to enjoy his possessions. Our Lord refused this two-facedness. Here is St. Matthew’s account: “And behold one came and said to him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:16-24).

The Religion of Money and Goods
Many have argued that the new priesthood today consists of scientists, professors, teachers and merchants, and advertisers, who are organized as a part of a new secular tradition—they are a parody or an aping of the Church, with its pope, cardinals, bishops and priests. They deny (or relegate) the existence of the supernatural and ridicule it. For them, what is primary is the material world. The world is their god and their teacher, and they gratefully bow down and worship the world and all that the world can supply by means of material goods and their offshoot, or side-effect—money. These ‘priests’ of the secular religion of materialism, preach throughout their ‘churches’ of schools, colleges; universities, in the media and in the stores. The scientist, or man of natural knowledge, or entrepreneur has become a mini-god, falling into the same trap of Adam of Eve—who wanted to be like unto God. The devil, who in the words of Our Lord, is the prince of this world that they adore, will only too willingly aid and abet them in their folly. As materialists, they see themselves as material producers and consumers of goods, the lifestyle and economics of consumerist capitalism seems natural. Hedonism (the doctrine that pleasure is the highest good) also seems natural, because as a body that has certain needs and wants, what that idiot of a psychologist Freud rightly called modern man ― “desire-producing-machine”, whereby life becomes primarily about the fulfillment of the desires of the body―the cult of the body.

Saints Peter and Paul Prophesied This
“Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid” (2 Timothy 1-5).

“In the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, saying:’ Where is His promise or His coming?’ … But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord delayeth not His promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the Earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up” (2 Peter 3:3-10).

Not of the World
Speaking of the devil, Our Lord said: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). “And Jesus said to the Jews [today read that as pagan scientists, pagan academics, and the pagan entrepreneurs]: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!’” (John 8:23). Of His followers, He says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world [Black Friday]” (1 John 2:16). To which St. John adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Besotted by the World
Today materialism has reached fever-pitch, even among so-called Catholics—who are really worshipers of mammon. As Our Lady said in her apparitions: “All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin ... The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride ... The priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity” (Our Lady of Good Success & Our Lady of La Salette).

An Insane Thirst and Attachment to the World
After the Last Supper, Our Lord went to the Garden of Gethsemane—after eating their Thanksgiving meal, many go to their Gardens of Getsomeforfree, the stores and shopping malls. Our Lord sweated blood thinking of His future passion and death for our sins—today’s souls sweat worryingly thinking about the deals and goodies that they might miss-out on. Our Lord said to His three Apostles: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” ― Today we say: “Could you not shop one hour with me?” Our Lord was sold by Judas for thirty pieces of silver—today many sell themselves to the world and mammon, for a few paltry idols on a shelf. Our Lord was arrested, tied-up and taken captive—today many are tied-up and captivated by things of the world that have arrested their attention. On the Cross Our Lord said: “I thirst!”--thirsting for souls. The world thirsts too, but it is not for Christ nor the spiritual, but it is an unquenchable thirst for the things that this world has to offer. Our Lord was nearly stripped of all that He had and was attached to the Cross by nails—yet souls do not want to be divested of their possessions (they want even more of them) and they are so attached to them that we could say that “they are nailed to them.”

“Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

Thursday November 28th

Article 28
Thanks a Million!―Thanks for What?―Think and Thank!

Think More to Thank More! Think Less and be Thankless!
We are basically a thankless race because we are a thoughtless race! If we would only think more we would also thank more! We are blind to the incessant and innumerable gifts with which God showers the world―both the good and bad alike: “Your Father, Who is in Heaven,” says Our Lord, “maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:45). As Holy Scripture adds: “For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).

This the incessant flow of innumerable gifts with which God showers the world requires―in justice and in charity―a sincere, heartfelt and constant flow of thanksgiving on our part. “Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). “Cease not to give thanks” (Ephesians 1:16). “We give thanks to God always … in our prayers without ceasing! … We give thanks to God without ceasing! … In all things give thanks; for this is the will of God” (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2:13; 5:18). “Giving thanks always for all things, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father” (Ephesians 5:20). “All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Colossians 3:17). “We are bound to give thanks always to God … We ought to give thanks to God always” (2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:12). “I give God thanks” (1 Corinthians 1:14). “First I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:8). “I give thanks to my God always” (1 Corinthians 1:4).

Blind, Ungrateful Man!
“When they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). How true are those words of the current “Holiday Season” into which the USA enters through the portal of Thanksgiving Day. In the USA, their national Thanksgiving Day celebrations kick-off a season of spending, socializing, eating, drinking and partying that will go until the end of the New Year’s Eve festivities. For the shops and stores it is the highest spending season of the year, with many taking 50% of sales in that highly materialistic period. Just as we have our 40 Days of Lent—the USA secular world has its 40 Days of Spent Money! We spend our 40 Days of Lent fasting—they spend 40 Days of Fast Living! Thanksgiving parties, soon to be followed by office or school Christmas parties in the lead up to Christmas, these are followed by the Christmas Week parties going from one place to another, culminated with the New Year’s Eve party.

In recent years, an increasing number of Americans have given up the worldly traditions of Christmas giving gifts and partying entirely, and many of them seem quite happy to have done so. Of course most people are still quite satisfied with the status quo, and there are many that will get very angry with you if you dare to suggest that the way that Americans celebrate Christmas has got way out of control and is quite opposed to the true spirit of Christ—you could even call it “Antichrist-mas”.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Take something away and something has to fill the gap. So we shouldn’t be surprised that when we turn away from or become indifferent to God, then it is natural to replace the 40-DAYS OF LENT—where we do without things—with the 40-DAYS OF pLENTy—where we stuff ourselves with things! For most Americans the biggest holiday of the year is all about the “stuff” they are going to buy, the “stuff” they are going to give and the “stuff” they are going to get! As a society, we are obsessed with things, but those things are never going to make us happy.

Slavery to Stuff & Addiction to Debt
Has there ever been a major holiday season more focused on materialism than the modern American Thanksgiving-Christmas 40-Day Season of (p)Lent(y)? Statistics show that Americans, on the whole, are spending more each year. Have incomes gone up accordingly? Of course not! In fact, real median household income in the United States has been experiencing a steady long-term decline. So in order to fund all of our Christmas spending, people have got to go into even more debt.

In fact, one Pew Research Center survey found that approximately 70% of all Americans believe that “debt is a necessity in their lives”. But then they have to work their fingers to the bone to try to make the payments on all of that debt, not realizing that debt systematically impoverishes them. It may be hard to believe, but if you have a single dollar in your pocket and no debt, you have a greater net worth than 25% of all Americans. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true!

Running-Up a Debt with God!
Never has the world sinned as much and as blatantly as it sins today―yet instead of penance, it practices extravagance. As Our Lady foretold: “The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... People will think of nothing but amusement … and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God!” (Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Akita).

As Our Lady revealed to Blessed Sister Elena Aiello (1895-1961)―mystic, stigmatic, victim soul, prophetess and foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief! These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil, because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Materialism marches on, ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs foretell that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind: only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth.”

This is why St. Jacinta Marto, once of the three Fatima seers, exclaimed to the Mother Superior of the religious-run hospital where she spent her last days before dying: “O flee luxury! Flee from riches! Love holy poverty and silence!

Another Kind of Debt We Owe God
Speaking of debts―there is another debt, other than the debt for sin, that we owe God. Few people ever think of it, but it is a debt that offends God greatly. What is that debt? It is the debt of gratitude and thankfulness! As already stated above― God showers the world with an incessant flow of innumerable gifts, favors and mercies. As Our Lord said, God even shows His kindness to those that are indifferent to Him, or who ignore Him, or even hate Him: ““Your Father, Who is in Heaven, maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:45). Every good gift ultimately comes from God―though God might use this or that person, or this or that aspect of nature to bring it to us. Yet, as a whole, we are extremely ungrateful or even ignorant of what God has done and is doing for us.

Thanksgiving on a Plate by St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica (IIa-IIae, Question 106), deals with the question of “Thankfulness or Gratitude.” He first of all points out that thankfulness or gratitude is something that is owed out of justice―he then later goes on to show that thankfulness and gratitude also stems from charity.

► GRATITUDE IS A DEBT IN JUSTICE―First of all the justice aspect. St. Thomas writes:
“Thankfulness a special part of justice (it is something that we owe for a gift or favor) … The nature of the debt to be paid by us, varies according to various different causes giving rise to our debt of gratitude … Now the cause of debt is found primarily and chiefly in God, because He is the first principle of all our goods. Secondarily we owe a debt to our father, because he begot us and raised us. Thirdly we owe a debt of gratitude to the person from whom general favors proceed. Fourthly a debt of gratitude is owed to a benefactor, from whom we have received particular and private favors, on account of which we are under particular obligation to him.

“Accordingly, since what we owe God, or our father, or a person excelling in dignity, is not the same as what we owe a benefactor from whom we have received some particular favor, it follows that after religion, whereby we pay God due worship, and piety, whereby we worship our parents, and observance, whereby we worship persons excelling in dignity, there is thankfulness or gratitude, whereby we give thanks to our benefactors … The virtue of thankfulness or gratitude answers to the moral debt by paying the debt spontaneously. Thanksgiving is less thankful when it is compelled. Friendship is preserved by repayment of favors, although repayment of favors belongs specially to the virtue of gratitude.”

► WHO OWES MORE GRATITUDE―THE SAINT OR SINNER? On the tricky question whether an innocent or just person is more bound to give thanks to God than the penitent―because the greater the gift one has received from God, the more one is bound to give Him thanks. Now the gift of innocence is greater than that of justice restored. Therefore it seems that the innocent is more bound to give thanks to God than the penitent sinner. Besides, the favor of divine grace is more continuous in the innocent person than in the penitent sinner―who has lost grace. St. Thomas replies as follows:
“On the contrary, it is written: ‘To whom more is forgiven, he loveth more … To whom less is forgiven, he loveth less’ (Luke 7:47). Therefore for the same reason he is bound to greater thanksgiving to whom more has been forgiven. Thanksgiving in the recipient must correspond to the favor granted by the giver―so that when there is greater favor on the part of the giver, greater thanks are due on the part of the recipient. The penitent is more bound to give thanks than the innocent, because what he receives from God is more gratuitously given―since, whereas he was deserving of punishment, he has received mercy and grace. Wherefore, although the gift bestowed on the innocent is considered greater objectively speaking, yet the mercy and grace bestowed on the penitent is greater in relation to him (subjectively)―just as a small gift bestowed on a poor man is greater to him than a great gift is to a rich man.”

► IS EVERYONE TO BE THANKED? On the question of whether a man is bound to give thanks to every benefactor? St. Thomas says:
“It is written: ‘In all things give thanks’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18). God turns all things to Himself because He is the cause of all. A benefactor is cause of the benefit. Hence the natural order requires that he who has received a favor, should repay the favor to his benefactor according to his means. Promptness enhances, delay discounts a favor … It is the height of malevolence to refuse to recognize a kindness … Gratitude is due even to a slave, when he does more than his duty … Kindness depends on the heart rather than on the deed, so too gratitude depends chiefly the heart. Hence, whoever receives a favor gratefully, has already begun to pay it back―and that we must be grateful for favors that we have received should be shown by the outpouring of our heart, not only in the benefactor’s hearing, but everywhere … There are many ways of repaying those who are well off, whatever we happen to owe them; such as good advice, frequent fellowship, affable and pleasant conversation without flattery.”

► WHEN TO REPAY? On the question of when to repay a favor, St. Thomas says that it is better to wait for an appropriate time rather than immediately return a favor:
“Some object that it seems necessary that a man is bound to repay a favor at once. For we are bound to restore at once what we owe, unless the term be fixed. Therefore a man is bound to repay a favor at once. Furthermore, a good action would seem to be all the more praiseworthy if it done earnestly and earnestness makes a person do his duty without any delay. Yet, I answer on the contrary! He that hastens to repay, is animated with a sense, not of gratitude but of indebtedness or obligation. Just as two things are to be considered in doing a favor―namely, the affection of the heart and the gift given―so also must these things be considered in repaying the favor. Do you wish to repay a favor? Receive it graciously! As regards the gift, one ought to wait until such a time as will be convenient to the benefactor. For, if instead of choosing a convenient time, one repays at once, favor for favor, it would not seem to be a virtuous, but a constrained or obligated repayment. For, he that wishes to repay too soon, is an unwilling debtor, and an unwilling debtor is ungrateful. Just as favors should be granted at a convenient time and without delay when that convenient time comes; and the same is to be observed in repaying favors.”

► WHAT COUNTS MORE―THE DISPOSITION OR THE DEED? On the question of whether, in giving thanks for a favor, we should look at the benefactor’s disposition or at the deed? In other words, should our focus be on the benefactor’s, intentions, attitude and sentiment that was behind the benefactor granting us a favor, or whether our focus should be on what was given to us or done for us? St. Thomas answers:
“We are sometimes under a greater obligation to someone who has given a little with a large heart, and has bestowed a small favor, yet willingly. Repayment of a favor depends more on the disposition of the giver than on the effect … A kindly action consists not in deed or gift, but in the disposition of the giver or doer … God alone sees person’s disposition in itself―but, in so far as it is shown by certain signs, we can also know it. It is thus that a benefactor's disposition is known by the way in which he does the kindly action―for instance through his doing it joyfully and readily.”

► DO I GIVE BACK MORE THAN I GOT? The last question St. Thomas considers is whether the repayment of gratitude should surpass the favor received? To this he answers:
“We should repay those who are gracious to us, by being gracious to them return, and this is done by repaying more than we have received. Therefore gratitude should incline to do something greater. Gratitude regards the favor received according the intention of the benefactor―who is deserving of praise for having freely conferred the favor without being bound to do so. Wherefore the beneficiary is under a moral obligation to bestow something freely in return. Now he does not seem to bestow something freely, unless he exceeds the quantity of the favor received―because, so long as he repays less or an equivalent, he would seem to do nothing freely or extra, but only to return what he has received. Therefore gratitude always inclines, as far as possible, to pay back something more … The debt of gratitude flows from charity, which the more it is paid the more it is due, according to Romans 13:8―‘Owe no man anything, but to love one another.’ Wherefore it is not unreasonable if the obligation of gratitude has no limit.”

Without God We Have Nothing!
The problem with modern man is that he is inflated and puffed-up with his false sense of “self-sufficiency”―which is seen in phrases such as “self-made-man”, “DIY or do-it-yourself”, “I did it my way!”, “I got to where I am by myself!”, “I’m independent, not dependent!”, etc., etc.

God answers: “What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) … “Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17) … “Without Me―you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) … “For if any man think himself to be something―whereas he is nothing―he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3) … “For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will” (Philippians 2:13).

In the Old Testament, we see Job blessed with many good gifts by God―for which Job is thankful and grateful―but which God allows Satan to take away from Job for no apparent or justified reason.

Job―a Patron Saint for Thanksgiving
On this Thanksgiving Day and materialistic weekend (Black Friday), you could do no better than take Job as a patron saint of thanksgiving. God had blessed Job with many material things: “There was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, and that man was simple and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil. And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. And his possession was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a family exceeding great: and this man was great among all the people of the east” (Job 1:1-3).

Sadly―as we all know―an abundance of material things easily leads to an abundance of sin. Though Job was not in any way inclined to this, he nevertheless feared that his children would not be able to virtuously handle such an abundance of wealth: “And his sons went, and made a feast by houses everyone in his own day. And sending, they called their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of their feasting were gone about, Job, rising up early, offered holocausts for every one of them. For he said: ‘Lest perhaps my sons have sinned!’ So did Job all days” (Job 1:4-5).

Job Experiences a “Black Friday” of a Different Kind
Just because we are ‘good’ and ‘just’―as was Job―does not mean that evil things will not befall us: “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth!” (Proverbs 3:12), for that adversity tests and proves the love of God in the person, “for the Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love Him with all your heart, and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 13:3). This is exactly what happened in Job’s case, as the following passage shows in a conversation between God and Satan:

“And the Lord said to him: ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job―that there is none like him in the Earth―a simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil?’ And Satan, answering, said: ‘Doth Job fear God in vain? Hast not Thou made a fence for him, and his house, and all his substance round about; blessed the works of his hands, and his possession hath increased on the Earth? But stretch forth Thy hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and see if he blesseth Thee not to Thy face!’ Then the Lord said to Satan: ‘Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand! Only put not forth thy hand upon his person!’” (Job 1:8-12).

So Satan, having been given power over Job and his possessions, goes away to try and prove his theory that Job will cease to love God when things cease to go well for him: “And Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Now upon a certain day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, there came a messenger to Job, and said: ‘The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabeans rushed in and took all away, and slew the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee!’ And while he was yet speaking, another came, and said: ‘The fire of God fell from Heaven and, striking the sheep and the servants, hath consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell thee!’ And while he also was yet speaking, there came another, and said: ‘The Chaldeans made three troops and have fallen upon the camels and taken them, moreover they have slain the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee! He was yet speaking, and behold another came in, and said: ‘Thy sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their elder brother! A violent wind came, all of a sudden, from the side of the desert, and shook the four corners of the house, and it fell upon thy children and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell thee!’ Then Job rose up, and tore his garments, and, having shaven his head, fell down upon the ground and worshiped God, and said: ‘Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there! The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away! As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!’ In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God” (Job 12:22).

With his attempts at turning Job against God having failed, “the Lord said to Satan: ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the Earth, a man simple, and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil, and still keeping his innocence? But thou hast moved Me against him, that I should afflict him without any cause!’ And Satan answered, and said: ‘Skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life! But put forth thy hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and then thou shalt see that if he will bless Thee to Thy face!’ And the Lord said to Satan: ‘Behold, he is in thy hand, but you must spare his life!’ So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with a very grievous ulcer―from the sole of the foot even to the top of his head: And he took a piece of a broken clay pot and scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill. And his wife said to him: ‘Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity? Bless God and die!’ And he said to her: ‘Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women! If we have received good things from the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?’ In all these things Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:3-10).

Job’s Friends See His Misfortune as a Punishment from God
Much like the three friends of Job, we interpret the evil that befalls others as some kind of punishment for their sins. This, of course, is partially true in everyone’s case― “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar” (1 John 1:10) … “For all have sinned [and] the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23; 6:23)―but we also suffer at the hands of God for other reasons too! It can be for the sins of others―family, relatives, friends, strangers or even the world. We can suffer at the hands of God in order to earn some great grace in the near future―whether for ourselves, others, or the Church in general, such as the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We also find ourselves suffering at the hands of God because He wants us to imitate His crucified Son, who Himself said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23)―and the carrying of a cross is synonymous with suffering. Our problem is that, unlike Job, we fail to see these truths lurking behind the sufferings that come our way―and we fall into immediate dissatisfaction and complaints―whereas, like Job, we should be full of thanksgiving for our crosses and sufferings!

Job’s three friends are fully convinced that troubles and sufferings are always a result of wrongdoing. They stigmatize Job’s protestations of innocence as mere hypocrisy and consider Job to be a great sinner, who has pretended to be ‘good’ but whose hypocrisy has been uncovered by God and justly punished by his present sufferings. Job is hurt by the suspicion of his friends. He protests that he is no evil-doer, that God punishes him against his just deserts. However, in the course of his protestations of innocence, he fails in reverence towards God, Who appears to him, not as being unjust, but more as a severe, hard, and somewhat inconsiderate ruler, rather than a kind Father. Taking into consideration that the language of the Old Testament Book of Job is poetic in nature, it is true that his expressions cannot be pushed too far, but the sharp reproofs of one of his friends, Eliu (Job 34:1-9, 36-37; 35:16), and of God Himself (38:2; 40:3-9), leave no doubt of Job’s sin of irreverence towards God for his sufferings. In answering his friends, Job emphasizes that God indeed is accustomed to reward virtue and to punish wickedness (27:7-23; 31:1-40). He rightly proves, however violently, that, in this world, the rule has many exceptions. Almost universally, he says, the wicked triumph and the innocent suffer (9:22-24, also chapters 21 & 24). Yet for all this Job, like his friends, regards all suffering as a punishment for personal sins―although he does not, as do his friends, consider his troubles and sufferings as a punishment for any serious sin. Yet Job looks upon the sufferings of the righteous as an almost unjust severity of God, which he inflicts for the slightest mistakes, and which the most virtuous man cannot escape (7:21; 9:30-21; 10:6, 13-14). Job’s expressions of depression and irreverence are only venial sins, which human beings can never fully avoid. Job himself says that his words are not to be taken too exactly, they are almost the involuntary expression of his pain (6:2-10, 26-27).

Job Passes the Painful Tests
Nevertheless, Job bore all the tests triumphantly, even those sufferings caused by his friends. No matter how terrible the persecutions of God were, Job held fast to Him (Job 6:8-10) and drew ever closer to Him (17:9). In the midst of his sufferings he praises God's power (26:5-14) and wisdom (chapter 28). Satan, who had boasted that he could lead Job into sin against God (1:11; 2:5), is discredited and defeated. The final part of the Book of Job, testifies expressly to Job's faithfulness (42:7-9). After much discourse (chapters 3 to 22) Job finally succeeds in silencing the three friends, although he is not able to convince them of his innocence. In a long discourse he solves the problem of suffering, which Job and his friends had failed to explain. He says that suffering―whether severe or light―is not always a result of sin; it is a means by which God tries and promotes virtue (36:1-21), and is thus a proof of God's love for his friends. The sufferings of Job are also such a testing (36:16-21).

In the last chapters of the Book of Job, God bears witness in a striking manner to the innocence of His servant―that is to say, Job’s freedom from serious sin. The three friends are commanded to obtain Job's intercession for their rash judgment and criticism, otherwise they will be severely punished for their uncharitable complaints against the holy sufferer. God forgives the three at the prayers and penances of Job on their behalf, and Job is restored to double his former prosperity.

“The Lord also was turned at the penance of Job, when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And all his brethren came to him, and all his sisters, and all that knew him before, and they ate bread with him in his house: and bemoaned him, and comforted him upon all the evil that God had brought upon him. And every man gave him one ewe, and one earring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. [Originally Job had seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses―see Job 1:3]. And he had seven sons, and three daughters. And there were not found in all the Earth women so beautiful as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. And Job lived after these things, a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children, and his children's children, unto the fourth generation, and he died an old man, and full of days” (Job 42:11-16).

Learning Gratitude From Job
Make no mistake about it―at some point in the future (perhaps sooner rather than later)―we will have undergo terrible sufferings, not just individually or here and there, but worldwide. Both Holy Scripture and prophecies confirm it. Our Lord Himself warns: “You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places: Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake. And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another … For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be!” (Matthew 24:6-10, 21; Mark 13:7-20; Luke 21:9-24). “And there shall be distress of nations upon the earth, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world!” (Luke 21:25-26).

Besides the many prophecies concerning the sufferings that await us, there are the repeated prophetic warnings of Our Lady at her modern-day apparitions―Quito, La Salette, Fatima and Akita: ““Many men in this world afflict the Lord … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness … If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.”

Can we drink of this chalice? “And Jesus said to them: ‘Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of―or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?’ But they said to Him: ‘We can!’ And Jesus said to them: ‘You shall indeed drink of the chalice that I drink of and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized, you shall be baptized!’” (Mark 10:38-39).

In the above mentioned apparitions, Our Lady makes it clear that the chief reason for the sufferings that are to come is the sinfulness of the world. We will mainly be punished for our sins of commission or omission―and not so much as a test of our love of God in our innocence! Yet―just like Job―we must see the just and merciful hand of God behind all the calamitous events that will befall us! Like the crucified Good Thief on Calvary, we must say: “Indeed we [are] justly [crucified], for we receive the due reward of our deeds!” (Luke 23:41)―and if we do, then we might well hear Our Lord’s response to that attitude: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise!” (Luke 23:43)―remembering Our Lord’s words elsewhere: “He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:13). “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 24:13).

Wednesday November 27th

Article 27
Thoughts of Thanksgiving―Food for Thought

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Here is Some Food for Thought!
Food seems to be an inescapable centerpiece of Thanksgiving Day. The traditional and classic Thanksgiving dinner includes old-time favorites that never change―roast turkey, turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. But the way these dishes are made or added to is everchanging because of food trends and different dietary requirements. Yet, as Our Lord Himself said: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). No doubt you have plenty of food amassed for your Thanksgiving Day dinner―so here is a some “food for thought” and not food for the belly! You might even want to serve it up on Thanksgiving Day itself―it might add some richness and flavor to the conversations that will be heard throughout the day!

Will the First Thanksgiving Please Step Forward!
In the USA, the secular holiday of “Thanksgiving” is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November (it used to be on the last Thursday of November). This recalls the fact that in 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is today thought to be the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.

The First Thanksgiving was Catholic
However, the real honor of the first Thanksgiving goes to the city of St. Augustine, Florida, which is the first and oldest city of present day United States. The Spanish Captain General Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his fleet of soldiers and colonists – accompanied by priests – landed on the coast of Florida on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8th, 1565 and the events that followed qualify it as the first official Thanksgiving Day in present day USA. Why? Because…

► It was the first permanent European settlement in North America. There had been other attempts by the Spanish to establish colonies in Florida and Texas, but all were short-lived.

► In an official ceremony Don Pedro Menendez came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain. One of the priests, Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who had gone ashore the previous day, advanced to meet him, chanting the Te Deum Laudamus and carrying a Cross, which Menendez and those with him reverently kissed. Then the 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians from the nearby village of Seloy, gathered at a makeshift altar, and a Mass in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was said.

► The Mass was followed by a feast shared by the Spanish and the Timucuan Indians. The Timucuans brought wild turkey, venison, oysters and giant clams, as well as maize, beans, squash, nuts and fruits. The Spaniards contribution wascocido, a stew made with pork, garbanzo beans and onions, along with biscuits, olive oil and red wine.

In his well-researched book on the State of Florida titled Cross in the Sand, Dr. Michael Gannon duly affirmed that this Mass and feast was “the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in the land.”

The Second Thanksgiving was also Catholic
The second Thanksgiving was in Texas. On January 26th, 1598, a Spanish expedition set out from Mexico with the aim of founding a new kingdom. Three months later, after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], it crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp south of present day El Paso, Texas. On April 30, a Mass of thanksgiving was said, and the valiant leader of the expedition, Don Juan de Oñate, took formal possession of the new land, called New Mexico, in the name of the Heavenly Lord, God Almighty, and the earthly lord King Philip II.

Then, after the Mass, the Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables abundant with fish, ducks and geese, and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers and colonists feasted. The celebration ended with a play enacting scenes of the native Indians hearing the first words of the Catholic Faith and receiving the Sacrament of Baptism.

The First Shall Be Last…
What is thought to be the first Thanksgiving, is therefore not quite so, but crosses the finishing-line a good 56 years after the first Thanksgiving in Florida, and 23 years after the Texan Thanksgiving. It came about after a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth in September of 1620, England, carrying 102 passengers — an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their Faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the New World.

After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village at Plymouth.

Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see the spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from an Abenaki Indian who greeted them in English.

Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants.

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”— the festival lasted for three days. Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 to mark the end of a long drought that had threatened that year’s harvest.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States. His successors John Adams and James Madison also designated days of thanks during their presidencies.

In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition. In 1827, a campaign was launched to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. This campaign lasted 36 years until Abraham Lincoln finally responded to the request in 1863. He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week, in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as “Franksgiving”, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Thanks be to God!
Holy Scripture is full of examples of the need and necessity of giving thanks to God, because, as Jesus says, with Him, we can do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Jesus, Himself, often gave thanks to God. We often see Him give thanks to God before performing a miracle. In the multiplication of loaves and fishes, Jesus, “taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke, and gave to His disciples” (Matthew 15:36). Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus gives thanks to God: “They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifting up His eyes said: ‘Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me!’ … When he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’” (John 11:41-43). Before the miracle of transubstantiation at the Last Supper, he also gives thanks to God: “And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them.” (Matthew 26:27).

“Give thanks whilst thou art living, whilst thou art alive and in health thou shalt give thanks, and shalt praise God, and shalt glory in His mercies” (Ecclesiasticus 17:27). Who out there needs no mercy? Who out there has not sinned? Who out there has not profited from the mercies of God? Who out there takes the mercies of God for granted without returning to Him to give profuse thanks? “O give thanks to the Lord, because He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever and ever!” (Daniel 3:89).

Thankful Leper Accepted
This reminds us of the encounter Our Lord had with the Ten Lepers: “And it came to pass, as Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain town, there met Him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off; and lifted up their voice, saying: ‘Jesus, master, have mercy on us!’ Whom when He saw, He said: ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests!’ And it came to pass, as they went, they were made clean. And one of them, when he saw that he was made clean, went back, with a loud voice glorifying God. And he fell on his face before His feet, giving thanks: and this was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering, said, ‘Were not ten made clean? And where are the nine? There is no one found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger!’” (Luke 17:11-18).

The “stranger” was a Samaritan, and the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews. Thus Our Lord performs a miracle for an “enemy” and He receives the thanks of an “enemy.” We have been enemies of God many a time through our sins and He has likewise shown mercy to us; but have we returned like the leper to give profuse thanks?

Thankful Pharisee Rejected
Yet not all thanksgiving is acceptable to God. We see this in the case of the Pharisee and the Publican, a parable wherein Our Lord rejected a form of thanksgiving: “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 exalts himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbles himself, shall be exalted” (Luke 18:11-14).

The Publicans were also “enemies” of the Jews. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were considered among the most pious and religious of all the believers in God. On the other hand, the publicans were branded as unfaithful and unjust extortionists. They were seen as the mafia of their day. You can see why, then, that Jesus’ conclusion of this parable literally stunned His audience. In the parable, the thanksgiving of the most pious and religious of all the believers in God was rejected.

Humble Thanks is Required
We see from this that humility must infuse our thanksgiving. The Leper prostrates himself flat on his face, a humble posture—whereas the Pharisee stand up proudly and speaks out proudly. As Holy Scripture says: “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord: though hand should be joined to hand, he is not innocent” (Proverbs 16:5) and Our Lady says in her Magnificat that God “hath regarded the humility of His handmaid” and “hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble” (Luke 1:48-52).

Perpetual Thanks in All Things
In the Preface of the Mass we are told that it is right and fitting to give thanks to God always and everywhere, at all times and in all places. Why? Because without Him, we can do nothing! (John 15:5). Do we? “We Thy people, and the sheep of Thy pasture, will give thanks to Thee for ever” (Psalm 78:13). Tobias”continued immoveable in the fear of God, giving thanks to God all the days of his life” (Tobias 2:14). “Therefore will I give thanks to Thee, O Lord!” (2 Kings 22:50).”Now therefore our God we give thanks to Thee” (1 Paralipomenon 29:13).

Let us thank Him before and after our meals: “And when they had adored God, and given Him thanks, they sat down together” (Tobias 11:12). Of course we thank Him for all the good things—but what about the bad things, the misfortunes, the illnesses, the failures? Let us thank Him in all adversity like Job, who continued to thank and bless God in sickness and poverty, not just in health and prosperity, saying: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

► “In all things give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
► “We ought always to give thanks to God” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
► “In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).
► “Giving thanks always for all things in the House of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-20).
► “One who does not feel grateful will abandon his rescuer” (Ecclesiasticus 29:17).

Tuesday November 26th

Article 26
Thoughts of Heaven

Heaven is Expensive
Heaven is expensive—any and every soul that has passed through Purgatory will tell you that. Let that be said in capital letters—EXPENSIVE! As St. Paul tells us: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). However, before we are let loose in Heaven, St. Paul also tells us that we have to ”fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called” (1 Timothy 6:12). For “the life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1) and “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). That is why Christ gives us the mark of a soldier in the Sacrament of Confirmation, so that we might be soldiers of Christ who fight to defend and obtain this heavenly Kingdom.

Thanksgiving & Christmas is an Expensive Time
This festive season can be a very expensive time—not just expensive financially, but even more expensive spiritually. In the USA, Thanksgiving is around the corner, and that means that the enemy is around the corner too! The enemy, as you know, is the devil, the world and the flesh. In fact, from now until Christmas is over, we enter a spiritual minefield. A minefield of worldliness, materialism, over-indulgence in food and drink, partying, sensuality, bad talk, etc. The world loves this period of time—in the USA, many stores experience over 50% of their annual financial turnover in this period of time. “Black Friday” can unwittingly lead to blackened souls with its materialism. The partying will leave many a person as a party to sin—for we are guilty of the sins of others in a variety of ways: provocation that leads to sin, partaking in the sin, praise or flattery of the sin, silence when witnessing the sin, concealing or defending the sin, etc. There will plenty of sin served up during this festive period! It is a time where the devil, the world and the flesh run rampant.

Not of the World
Speaking of the devil, Our Lord said: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). “And Jesus said to the Jews: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!’” (John 8:23). Of His followers, He says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). To which St. John adds: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why we are told: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

In the World, but not a Part of the World
Our Lord was in the world, but He sought to lead souls away from the world. He was in the world, and world rejected Him and hated Him. He was from Heaven, but all they wanted was the pleasure of Earth—but He said that they could not have both—they could not serve God and the world; they could not crave the riches of Earth and enjoy the riches of Heaven. They would have to choose one or the other. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11). He clearly said that He was not of this world: “I am not of this world!’” (John 8:23). “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

Detachment from the World
To the rich young man, Jesus said: “‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And again I say to you: ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 19:21-24). “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:21). Jesus tells us “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke 10:27), yet our heart is not in it; our heart is immersed primarily in the world and only secondarily in God. Very few are the souls in this world that love God wholeheartedly and unreservedly—most of those who end up being saved, only learn to love in Purgatory, because here below their love was divided between the world and God. For many, the world came first, God limped a way behind in second place. This is what will taking place in most places over the next 5 or 6 weeks.

A Babylonian Captivity
This modern age, with its materialism, sensuality, technology, gluttony, frivolity and spiritual poverty is like a Babylonian Captivity. We are captives of the modern world and, like many of the Chosen People in their Babylonian Captivity, our Faith is whittled-away by worldliness. When the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews ended (by Babylon being conquered by Persia), the Jews were released and allowed to return to Judea and Jerusalem. Very few of the Chosen People chose to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple and the City―for they were content and accustomed to the worldliness of Babylon. Similarly, very few Catholics want to rebuild the Temple of God, that is their soul―“Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)―for they are content and accustomed to the worldly world which surrounds them.

Yet those few, while in exile and captivity, constantly raised their minds and hearts to God. They lived among pagans, yet they lived in Heaven—so to speak. For their minds and hearts were in Heaven, even though their bodies were in exile and in captivity. In the Preface of the Mass the priest says: “Lift up your hearts!” and the response is: “We have raised them up to the Lord!” As Our Lord said: “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:21).

Too many are captivated by the offerings of the world, that they cannot lift up their hearts to God. As Our Lady said at La Salette: “Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.” They are like lead balloons—firmly planted on the Earth and going nowhere else. Religion for them is a mere insurance policy, for which they seek to pay the lowest rates possible—that is how much they rate God. They are slaves to their flesh, slaves to the world, and, consequently (though it shocks their sensibilities to be told so) they are slaves of the devil, who is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30). They have no clue about and no real desire for Heaven, they are content to scavenge for whatever little happiness they can lay their hands on here below. It is not that they don’t believe in Heaven, or don’t want to go to Heaven—it is just that Heaven can wait on them, for they are enjoying this life too much.

True Happiness
Perfect happiness cannot be found in this world. It certainly cannot be found in creatures, for they were not clothed with the power to give it. It cannot be found even in the practice of virtue, for God has, in His wisdom, decreed that virtue should merit, but never enjoy, perfect happiness in this world. He has solemnly pledged Himself to give “eternal life” to all who love and serve Him here on Earth. Our Lady told St. Bernadette the same thing: “I don’t promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next!” God has promised, in the next life, a happiness so unspeakably great, that the apostle who “was caught up into Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:4) and was favored with a glimpse of Heaven, tells us that mortal “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

This happiness, which is now so incomprehensible to us, is none other than the possession and enjoyment of God Himself in the Beatific Vision, as well as the perfect satisfaction of every rational craving of our nature in the glorious resurrection of the body. The fact that so few desire Heaven more than this Earth, is that they do not have a definite idea of the Beatific Vision, which is the essential ingredient of heavenly bliss.

We Imagine Heaven in Different Ways
When thinking upon the happiness in store for those who make it to Heaven, we tend to build up a Heaven of our own, which naturally takes the shape and color which our sorrows, needs, and sufferings lend to it. The poor man, for example, who has suffered much from toil and lack of the basics in life, looks upon Heaven as a place of rest, abounding with all that can satisfy the cravings of nature. Another, who has often endured the pangs of disease, looks upon it as a place where he shall enjoy perpetual health of body and mind. Another again, who, in the practice of virtue, has had all manner of temptations from the devil, the world, and his own flesh, delights in viewing Heaven as a place totally free from temptation, where the danger, or even the possibility, of sin shall be no more.

All these, and other similar views of Heaven, are true inasmuch as they represent it as a place entirely free from evil and suffering, and, at the same time, as an abode of positive happiness. Nevertheless, they are all imperfect views, because not one of them takes in the whole of heavenly bliss, such as God has revealed it to us. They all ignore the Beatific Vision, which is the essential happiness of Heaven.

But even among those who look upon Heaven as a place where we still see God, very few indeed understand what is implied in the vision of God. Many imagine that we shall simply gaze upon an object, whose surpassing perfection will make us happy, in a way that we do not yet understand here below—to some it might even seem to be too restrictive and boring. They do not fully understand what is meant by the Beatific Vision, although they view Heaven as a place where we shall see God.

Let us, therefore, try to understand what Faith and theology teach us about the Beatific Vision. We shall see that it is the essential happiness of the saints, which fills them with the purest and most complete satisfaction, and, moreover, that it is due to this Beatific Vision, that the saints can enjoy the additional or secondary pleasures, which cluster around the throne of God. Yet talking about Heaven can be a problem―for who has seen Heaven and can describe it? Nobody―except some occasional saint who has miraculously been granted some kind of ‘vision’ of Heaven. Consequently, all talk of Heaven has to be in the abstract, using imperfect analogies, producing foggy vague ideas and using intellectual words that are “too much” and “too difficult” and “boring” to the worldly, tangible, physical, material appetites of most Catholics. They cannot “stomach” such words, they make them feel nauseous and ready to “throw-up”. Nevertheless―just as most ultra-healthy foods are not sweet but bitter, not pleasant but sharp―so too with any discussion about Heaven. It somehow does not appeal to the appetite and the temptation is to leave it aside on the side of the plate―while we eat the sweet things instead! So pinch you nose shut, screw-up your face and here we go!

The Happiness in Heaven
Theologians divide the happiness of Heaven into two kinds of happiness ― essential and accidental. By essential is meant the happiness which the soul receives directly from God in the Beatific Vision of God. By accidental happiness is meant the additional pleasures or joys, which come to the saints of Heaven, from other creatures in Heaven.

Therefore, when Our Lord says, “There shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner doing penance” (Luke 15:7), He obviously means a new joy, an additional joy, which the saints and angels did not possess until they saw the sorrow for sin enter this or that sinner’s heart. The saints and angels were already happy in the Beatific Vision of God and would not have lost the slightest degree of their happiness―even if that sinner on Earth had never repented of his sins. Still, they experience a new joy, an additional joy, in each sinner’s conversion, because in each conversion they see God glorified; moreover, they have reason to look forward to having an additional brother or sister to share their bliss in Heaven.

Yet, although the blessed do rejoice in the conversion of the sinner, they do so by virtue of the Beatific Vision of God — without which they could receive no additional pleasure from creatures. Therefore, the Beatific Vision of God is not only the essential happiness of Heaven, without which there could be no other joy, but it is also that which gives to the saints the power of obtaining all the other inferior joys, with which God completes the happiness of His children.

A man who is gifted with perfect health of body and mind, not only enjoys life itself, but he likewise receives pleasure from the beauties of nature, from literature, amusements, and society. Now, suppose he loses his health and is thrown on a bed of sickness. He is no longer able to enjoy either life itself or its pleasures. What is all the beauty of earthly or physical objects to him now? What are amusements, and all the joys of sense, which formerly delighted him so much? All these things are now unable to give him any pleasure, because he has lost his health―and it was his health that enabled him and gave him the power of enjoying the pleasures of life. You won’t enjoy a party, or a concert, or anything else if you are in pain from a savage toothache, or migraine, etc. Therefore, we say that health is essentially necessary, not only to enjoy life itself, but also to relish its pleasures.

So, too, is it in Heaven. The Beatific Vision is necessary, not only to enjoy the very life of Heaven, but likewise to enjoy the accidental glory with which God perfects the happiness of His elect. What, then, is this Beatific Vision? Is it an eternal gazing upon God? Is it an uninterrupted “Ah!” or “Wow!” of admiration? Or is it a sight of such overpowering grandeur as to deprive us of consciousness and throw us into a state of dreamy inactivity? We shall see.

The Meaning of the Beatific Vision
“Beatific Vision” is composed of three Latin words: beatus, happy; facio, I make; and visio, a sight — all of which, taken together, make up and mean “a happy-making sight” or a “sight that makes one happy.” Therefore, in its very etymology (the study of how words have evolved), Beatific Vision means a sight which contains, in itself, the power of banishing all pain and all sorrow from the beholder, and of infusing, in place of them, joy and happiness. We shall now analyze this Beatific Vision and see of what it consists.

Theologians tell us that the Beatific Vision, considered as a perfect and permanent state, consists of three acts, which are essential to its integrity and perfection: (1) the sight, or vision, of God; (2) the love of God; (3) and the enjoyment of God. These three acts, although really different from each other, are inseparable, for, if even one of them is excluded, the Beatific Vision no longer exists in its integrity. Let us look at these three acts, one-by-one.

The Sight of God
“We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The sight, or vision, of God means that the intellect, which is the highest faculty of the soul, is suddenly elevated by the light of glory and enabled to see God as He is, by a clear and unclouded perception of His Divine Essence, It is, thus, a vision in which the soul sees God, face-to-face — not indeed with the eyes of the body, but with the intellect. For God is a spirit and cannot be seen with material eyes. If our bodily eyes were necessary for that vision, we would not be able to see God until the Day of Judgment, for it is only then that our eyes will be restored to us. Hence, it is the soul that sees God, but when it does, the soul sees Him more clearly and perfectly than we can now see anything with our material eyes.

This vision of God is an intellectual act, by which the soul is filled to overflowing with an intuitive knowledge of God, a knowledge so perfect and complete, that all the knowledge of Him attainable in this world, by prayer and study, is like the feeble glimmer of the lamp, compared with the dazzling splendor of the noonday sun.

This perfect vision, or knowledge, of God, is not only the first essential element of the Beatific Vision, but it is the very root or fountainhead of the other acts, which are necessary for its completeness. Thus we say, of the sun, that it is the source of the light, heat, life, and beauty of this material world, for, if the sun were blotted out from the heavens, this now beautiful world would, in one instant, become the dark and silent grave of every living creature. This is only a faint image of the darkness and sadness which would seize upon the blessed, if we could suppose that God would, at any time, withdraw from them the clear and unclouded vision of Himself. We say, therefore, that the vision of the Divine Essence is the root or source of the Beatific Vision.

Yet, although this is true, it does not follow that the vision of the Divine Essence constitutes the whole Beatific Vision, for the human mind cannot rest satisfied with knowledge alone, however perfect it may be. It must also love and enjoy the object of its knowledge. Therefore, the vision of God produces the two other acts which we shall now briefly consider.

The Love of God
The second element of the Beatific Vision is an act of perfect, unimaginable and inexpressible love. It is the sight or knowledge of God, as He is, that produces this love, because it is impossible for the soul to see God―in His divine beauty, goodness, and unspeakable love for the soul―without loving Him with all the power of its being. It would be easier to go near an immense fire and not feel the heat, than to see God in His very essence and yet not be set on fire with divine love.

It is, therefore, a necessary act — that is, one which the blessed could not possibly resist, as we now can resist and sadly do resist in this world. For, with our imperfect vision of God―as He is reflected from the mirror of creation―we can, and unfortunately do, withhold our love from Him—even when the light of Faith is superadded to the knowledge we might have of Him from the teachings of nature and creation that surround us: “Speak to the Earth, and it shall answer thee―and the fishes of the sea shall tell. Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord hath made all these things? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man” (Job 12:8-10). “For the invisible things of Him [God], from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and divinity―so that they are inexcusable. Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:20-21). This is not so in Heaven. There, the blessed see God as He is, and therefore, they love Him spontaneously, intensely, and supremely. Yet here on Earth, we are blind to God, bored with God and barely love God!

The Enjoyment of God
The third element of the Beatific Vision is an act of excessive joy, which proceeds spontaneously from both the vision and the love of God. It is an act by which the soul rejoices in the possession of God, who is the Supreme Good. He is the soul’s own personal God, the soul’s own personal possession, and in the enjoyment of Him, the soul’s cravings for happiness are completely gratified. Evidently, then, the Beatific Vision necessarily includes the possession of God, because without it, this last act could have no existence, and the true happiness of the blessed would not be complete, if we could suppose it to exist at all. A moment’s reflection will make this as evident as the light of day.

A beggar, for instance, gazes upon a magnificent palace, filled with untold wealth, and all that can gratify the senses. Does the mere sight of it make him happy? It certainly does not, because it is not and never can be his. He may admire its grand architecture and exquisite workmanship and thus receive some trifling pleasure; but, as he can never call that palace, nor its wealth, his own, the mere gazing upon it, and even loving its beauty, can never make him happy. For this, the possession of it is essential.

Again, the starving beggar gazes upon the rich man’s table loaded with every imaginable luxury. Does that mere sight of food relieve the pangs of hunger? It does not. It rather adds to his misery by intensifying his hunger, without satisfying its cravings. So it would be in Heaven, if we could imagine a soul admitted there and allowed to gaze upon the beauty of God, while not able to possess or enjoy Him. Such a sight would be no Beatific Vision for that soul.

The possession of God is, therefore, absolutely necessary in order that the soul may enjoy Him and rest in Him as its last end. Hence, the act of seeing God is also the act by which the blessed possess God and enter into the joy of their Lord. The blessed participate in the divine nature of God.

Intimate Union with God
But this is not yet all. We have been considering the acts by which the soul appropriates God to itself, but we must not forget that the active concurrence of God is as essential in the Beatific Vision as is the action of the creature. The Beatific Vision means, therefore, that God not only enables the soul to see Him in all His surpassing beauty, but also takes the soul to His bosom as a beloved child and bestows upon it the happiness which mortal eyes cannot see. It means, furthermore, that God unites the soul to Himself in so wonderful and intimate a manner, that, without losing its created nature or personal identity, the soul is transformed into God, according to the forcible expression of St. Peter, when he asserts that we are “made partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This is the highest glory to which a rational nature can be elevated, if we don’t count the glory of the Hypostatic Union and the maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (The Hypostatic Union refers to the union of the divine and human natures in the person of Christ).

Fire of Light and Love
In explaining this partaking of the divine nature in Heaven, theologians make use of a very apt comparison. If, they say, you thrust a piece of iron into the fire, it soon loses its dark color and becomes red and hot, like the fire. It is thus made a partaker of the nature of fire, without, however, losing its own essential iron nature. This illustrates what takes place in the Beatific Vision in relation to the soul. It is united to God and penetrated by Him. It becomes bright with His brightness, beautiful with His beauty, pure with His purity, happy with His unutterable happiness, and perfect with His divine perfections. In a word, it becomes a partaker of the “divine nature,” while it retains its created nature and personal identity.

Abstract words and reasoning, however, fail to convey a definite idea of this glorious happiness reserved for the children of God. Let us, therefore, have recourse to an illustration in the shape of a little parable. It will be as a mirror, wherein we shall see faint but true reflections of the Beatific Vision and should be easier on our digestive system!

Let’s Put it This Way...
A kind-hearted king, while hunting in a forest, finds a blind orphan boy, totally destitute of all that can make life comfortable. The king, moved with compassion, takes him to his palace, adopts him as his own, and orders him to be cared for and educated in all that a blind person can learn. It is almost needless to say that the boy is unspeakably grateful and does all he can to please the king. When he has reached his twentieth year, a surgeon performs an operation upon his eyes, by which his sight is restored. Then the king, surrounded by his nobles and amid all the pomp and magnificence of the court, proclaims him one of his sons and commands all to honor and love him as such. And thus, the once-friendless orphan becomes a prince and, therefore, a partaker of the royal dignity, of the happiness and glory which are to be found in the palaces of kings.

You cannot attempt to describe the joys that overwhelm the soul of this fortunate young man when he first sees that king, of whose manly beauty, goodness, power, and magnificence he had heard so much. Nor can you attempt to describe those other joys which fill his soul when he beholds himself, his own personal beauty, and the magnificence of his princely garments, of which he had also heard so much. Much less can you attempt to picture his exquisite and unspeakable happiness when he sees himself adopted into the royal family, honored and loved by all, together with all the pleasures of life within his reach. Each one may endeavor to imagine his feelings, joy, and happiness. We can only say that all this taken together is a like a beatific vision for him—but only in the natural order.

Here we find the three acts of the Beatific Vision―(1) the sight, or vision, of God; (2) the love of God; (3) and the enjoyment of God―well explained by the above story. The first is the sight of the good king in all his glory and magnificence; the second is the intense love which this sight produces; and the third is the enjoyment of the king’s society and all the happiness with which his adoption has surrounded him.

Monday November 25th

Article 25
How Will It All End?

What’s the Goal?
As we approach the end of this liturgical year, we are talking about ENDS. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that in all things we must look to the end. In other words,”What is the purpose of this?” … “Where is this leading to?” … “What will the outcome of this be?” …etc. St. Thomas then goes on to say that our end or goal is happiness—it is what drives the saint and drives the sinner—though the saint has a true idea of what happiness is, whereas the sinner has a false idea of happiness. We rightly desire happiness, but we desire the wrong kind of happiness. We rightly desire happiness, but we wrongly expect it to be in this world. We rightly desire happiness, but we are often wrong in the way we go about seeking it. We rightly desire happiness, but we are wrong in placing happiness of the body ahead of happiness of the soul. St. Thomas says that man can only have one ULTIMATE goal or end—according to right reason, It has to be God.

Only One Goal Possible
We cannot seek the happiness of God and Heaven, while simultaneously pursuing happiness in this world through fun and pleasure. Our Lord Himself said:”For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:21-24).

But, but, but…!
The following quote was encountered while researching material for this article:”It’s easy enough for a Christian to say, ‘Oh but we have HEAVEN to look forward to!!!’ But in the face of real suffering, especially when it seems pointless, that can ring rather hollow!” What is rather hollow is not the quote by the Christian, but the thinking of the critic who says: “in the face of real suffering, especially when it seems pointless, that can ring rather hollow!” There is NO SUFFERING that is pointless, since suffering is a punishment for sin as well as being a breeding ground for virtue; and because there is no suffering that falls outside the scope of Divine Providence—as Jesus Himself points out: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).

God is Behind Everything—Both Good and Evil
God wants good for us, but He also permits evils to happen to us, in order to bring good out of evil, and exact payment for our sins, as well as testing our virtue and helping us grow in holiness as a result of the evil. In the book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, we read: “Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must be taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. ‘Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives’ is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, ‘and God intervenes everywhere.’”

The Old Testament is more explicit. The book, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, continues:

“ ‘I am the Lord,’ He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, ‘and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.’ ‘It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,’ He said to Moses. ‘The Lord killeth and maketh alive,’ it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, ‘He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth.’ ‘Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?’ asks the prophet Amos. ‘Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,’ Solomon proclaims. And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture” (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence).

“Perhaps you will say that while this is true of certain necessary effects, like sickness, death, cold and heat, and other accidents due to natural causes which have no liberty of action, the same cannot be said in the case of things that result from the free will of man. For if, you will object, someone slanders me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me, how can I attribute his conduct to the will of God who, far from wishing me to be treated in such a manner, expressly forbids it? So the blame, you will conclude, can only be laid on the will of man, on his ignorance or malice. This is the defense behind which we try to shelter from God and excuse our lack of courage and submission” (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence).

“It is quite useless for us to try and take advantage of this way of reasoning as an excuse for not surrendering to Providence. God Himself has refuted it and we must believe on His word that in events of this kind as in all others, nothing occurs except by His order and permission. Let us conclude then with St. Augustine: ‘All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence, by His orders and under His guidance; and if from the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us attribute it to Divine Providence, show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it us without cause.’” (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence).

God is the Beginning and the End
Our soul was personally made by God and it was made for God. God is the”creator of all things, visible and invisible” as we say in the Creed. “There is one most high Creator Almighty” (Ecclesiasticus 1:8) …. “the Creator of all things” (Ecclesiasticus 24:12). “O Lord God, Creator of all things” (2 Machabees 1:24). God is the hand behind all creation, yet men sadly make His creation out to be gods—false gods—and seek their happiness, not in the one true God, but in the many false gods. “But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged Who was the Workman. But have imagined either the fire, or the wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the great water, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that rule the world[today, we could make a list of techonological, electronic gods]. With whose beauty, they, being delighted, took them to be gods. Let them know how much the Lord of them is more beautiful than they: for the first Author of beauty made all those things. Or if they admired their power and their effects, let them understand by them, that He that made them, is mightier than they: For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the Creator of them may be seen, so as to be known through them” (Ecclesiasticus 11:1-5). “But the worship of God is an abomination to a sinner” (Ecclesiasticus 1:32).

False Gods Bring a False Happiness
“They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 143:15). “Glory not in apparel at any time” (Ecclesiasticus 11:4). “Envy not the glory and riches of a sinner: for thou knowest not what his ruin shall be” (Ecclesiasticus 9:16). “For when he shall die he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him” (Psalm 48:18). So we say: “I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things” (Isaias 42:8). “The Lord hath delivered me from every evil work: and will preserve me unto His heavenly Kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

If the happiness that we want is that of this world, then God will comply and let us have a brief time of false happiness, which will lead to great unhappiness hereafter. “God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner God hath given vexation and superfluous care, to heap up things and to gather them together. And to give it to him hath pleased God: but this also is vanity and a fruitless solicitude of the mind” (Ecclesiastes 2:26). “The Lord reward him that doth evil according to his wickedness” (2 Kings 3:39). “For He will render to a man his work, and according to the ways of every one He will reward them” (Job 34:11). To those who suffer sorrows for the Kingdom of God, while the world rejoices, Our Lord says: “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

Evil Sent for a Good End
Sometimes, we are tempted to think that God must hate us when suffering follows suffering, and chastisement follows chastisement, but Scripture tells us otherwise:”He that loveth his son, frequently chastiseth him, that he may rejoice in his latter end” (Ecclesiasticus 30:1). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and, as a father in the son, He pleaseth Himself” (Proverbs 3:12). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). We also perceive our crosses as being evil and purveyors of unhappiness—yet if we want to follow Our Lord to eternal happiness tomorrow, we must carry that ‘unhappy’ cross today: “And Jesus said to ALL: ‘If any man will come after Me [to the happiness of Heaven], let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38).

Sorrow Leads to Happiness
The Pharisees cried out to the crucified Jesus:”Save Thyself, coming down from the cross!” (Mark 15:30). Yet the saints cry out to us: ““Save Thyself, remain on the cross!” At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke about happiness and unhappiness. He told His Apostles and disciples that they would find no happiness here below, because they were not of this world; but that they would find their happiness once they would be reunited with Him in Heaven, and that happiness nobody would ever take away from them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ... Now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you” (John 16:20-22). “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves” (Psalm 125:5-6). Which is essentially what Our Lady said to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next!”

“And as they led Jesus away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus” (Luke 23:26) … and Simon of Cyrene was at first unhappy, very unhappy about this. To him it was an evil, but it eventually brought him much good and happiness, even in this world—through that encounter with the cross and Jesus (for wherever Jesus is, there, too, is the cross), Simon eventually changed his life, became a saint, and his two sons became saints too—having attained their ultimate end in Heaven.

God—the Source of Good and Evil
Whatever God does in this world—whether it be perceived by us as good or evil—is meant to help us find our ultimate end, our ultimate purpose in life, which is reaching God in Heaven. God sends evil in order to bring us to good. Holy Scripture is full of incidents where this is shown to be the case: Adam and Eve are punished by over 900 hundred years of banishment; God cuts-off the gangrened limb of the world, and then purges and cleanses it by a flood in the time of Noe; the Chosen People are made to wander for 40 years in the desert as a punishment and a lesson for future generations not to grumble at the ways of God; Sodom and Gomorrha are destroyed by fire from Heaven as a lesson to mankind that sin does not pay; the idolatry of the Israelites is punished by the destruction of their Temple and the decades of Babylonian Captivity, as a lesson to posterity. All these events were directed by the hand of God, through His Divine Providence. Another act of God, the impending future Chastisement that Our Lady has warned us of many times, will also come from the hand of God. Yet we must see in all these events the LOVING hand of God, and not just a hand of justice. “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6).

A Case of “Either Or”
Punishment is always conditional—God can go either way: reward good, or punish evil. It is up to us as to what we will get—God rewards each man according to his works. In the Book of Ezechiel, we see God clearly state His policy:

“But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice, which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? But if the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity, according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? All his justices, which he hath done, shall not be remembered in the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and, in his sins, which he hath committed, in them he shall die.

And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel: Is it my way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? For when the just turneth himself away from his justice, and committeth iniquity, he shall die therein: in the injustice that he hath wrought he shall die. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment, and justice: he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth and turneth away himself from all his iniquities which he hath wrought, he shall surely live, and not die.

And the children of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Are not my ways right, O house of Israel, and are not rather your ways perverse? Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die, O house of Israel? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live” (Ezechiel 18:21-32).

“‘If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to My Name,’ saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yes, I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart’” (Malachias 2:2). “Understand these things, you that forget God; lest He snatch you away, and there be none to deliver you!” (Psalm 49:16-22).

Thus our sorrow and our happiness lays in our own hands and in the works of our hands. God is fair to us; yet we are not so fair to God! We live in the apartment of His world—rent free; we breathe his air—free of charge; we drink his water, eat his food, build with his materials, are cared for by His Providence in all things—and what do we do in return, unhappy creatures that we are, we sin every day and in many a way! Cease to sin and you will find happiness. Continue to sin, and you will find eternal unhappiness. As Our Lady said at Fatima: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”

The End of Sin in Unhappiness
“Envy not the glory and riches of a sinner: for thou knowest not what his ruin shall be” (Ecclesiasticus 9:16). “A wicked heart shall be laden with sorrows, and the sinner will add sin to sin” (Ecclesiasticus 3:29). “The sinner … shall be accursed” (Isaias 65:20).

The End of Suffering is Happiness
Jesus said: “Blessed are they that suffer” (Matthew 5:10). St. Paul adds: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come” (Romans 8:18). Being sinners, we have to suffer—there is no other way to pay the debt of sin. We pay through love or suffering. Though love may seem the less painful way of paying, true love brings true sorrow, which is heartbreaking. Penance is suffering—a willing suffering for past sins—and this brings much happiness in Heaven: “So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance” (Luke 15:10). Advent approaches and it is a time of penance—let not the modern-day watering down of our Faith throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let our penance be real penance, and not the candy-floss variety—which is light, sweet, fluffy but with no substance or satisfaction.

In all things, look to the end! “And …he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22).

Sunday November 24th

Article 24
How Will It All End?

In All Things, Look to the End
“Very soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come!” Thus says The Imitation of Christ (Book 1, chapter 23). At the end of this liturgical year, the Church has arranged her liturgy in such a way as to force us—lovers of the world—to think beyond the world and to look to our final end. The Church has arranged that the month of Holy Souls, with a reminder of their terrible sufferings, comes at the end of the liturgical year. We also have, as we draw to the end of the year, the fearsome Gospel readings concerning the end times, which can be found in Matthew chapter 24 and Luke chapter 21. These readings not only end the year, but they are also the Gospel reading for the start of the new liturgical year, on the First Sunday of Advent. We have combined below, all the three Gospel accounts of the end times, for maximum effect:

Jesus Speaks of the End Times
Jesus said to His followers: “And when you shall hear of wars and seditions, and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled; fear ye not and be not terrified: these things must first come to pass; but the end is not yet presently. Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be great earthquakes in diverse places, and pestilences, and famines, and terrors from Heaven. These things are the beginning of sorrows. But before all these things, look to yourselves, for they will lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, and you shall be beaten and dragged before kings and governors, for My Name’s sake for a testimony unto them. And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another. And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death. Brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake.

False Prophets
“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand. But a hair of your head shall not perish. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved. In your patience you shall possess your souls.

“And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed about with an army; then know that the desolation thereof is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains; and those who are in the midst thereof, depart out: and those who are in the countries, not enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and shall be led away as captives, into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles.

Abomination of the Desolation in the Holy Place
“And when you shall see the abomination of desolation, standing where it ought not, in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand: then let them that are in Judea, flee unto the mountains: and let him that is on the housetop, not go down into the house, nor enter therein to take anything out of the house: and let him that shall be in the field, not turn back to take up his garment. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray ye, that these things happen not in winter. For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be. And, unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but, for the sake of the elect which He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things.

Sun, Moon, Stars Change
“And immediately after the tribulation of those days, there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the Earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves. The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers that are in heaven, shall be moved. Men will be withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven: and then shall all tribes of the Earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much power and majesty. And He shall send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth? And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.

Look for the Signs
“See the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the Kingdom of God is at hand, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors. So you also, when you shall see all these things. But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone. And, as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then two shall be in the field: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill―one shall be taken, and one shall be left.

Eating, Drinking and Partying
“Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come. But know this ye, that if the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Wherefore be you also ready, because, at what hour you know not, the Son of man will come. Blessed is that servant, whom, when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: ‘My lord is long a coming!’ and shall begin to strike his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with drunkards. The lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not, and at an hour that he knoweth not. And shall separate him, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with over-indulgence and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For, like a snare, shall it come upon all that sit upon the face of the whole Earth. Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man” (combination of texts from Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13, Luke chapter 21).

The “Fifth Gospel”
Such is the solemnity and power of the Gospel—the Word of God! To commentate the above awesome passage, let us look to a work that is sometimes called “The Fifth Gospel”—namely, The Imitation of Christ. There are two chapters that fit in perfectly with this theme of looking at the end of world, the end times and the end of our life. They are both found in Book 1 and are consecutive chapters: they are Chapter 23 “Thoughts on Death” and Chapter 24 “Judgment And The Punishment Of Sin.” Without further ado, we leave the remainder of the article in the hands of the author of The Imitation of Christ.

The Imitation of Christ, Book One : The Twenty-Third Chapter
Thoughts on Death

Life Ends―Focus on that End
Very soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart, which looks only to the present, instead of preparing for that which is to come!

Therefore, in every deed and every thought, act as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience, you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow?

Long Life? Bad Life?
What good is it to live a long life, when we amend that life so little? Indeed, a long life does not always benefit us, but on the contrary, frequently adds to our guilt. Would that, in this world, we had lived well throughout one single day. Many count up the years they have spent in religion, but find their lives made little holier. If it is so terrifying to die, it is, nevertheless, possible that to live longer is more dangerous. Blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes and prepares for it every day.

If you have ever seen a man die, remember that you, too, must go the same way. In the morning, consider that you may not live till evening, and when evening comes, do not dare to promise yourself the dawn. Be always ready, therefore, and so live that death will never take you unprepared. Many die suddenly and unexpectedly, for in the unexpected hour the Son of God will come. When that last moment arrives, you will begin to have a quite different opinion of the life that is now entirely past and you will regret, very much, that you were so careless and remiss.

Prepare for Death Now
How happy and prudent is he who tries now, in life, to be what he wants to be found in death. Perfect contempt of the world, a lively desire to advance in virtue, a love for discipline, the works of penance, readiness to obey, self-denial, and the endurance of every hardship for the love of Christ, these will give a man great expectations of a happy death.

You can do many good works when in good health; what can you do when you are ill? Few are made better by sickness. Likewise they, who undertake many pilgrimages, seldom become holy.

Don’t Put it Off
Do not put your trust in friends and relatives, and do not put off the care of your soul till later, for men will forget you more quickly than you think. It is better to provide now, in time, and send some good account ahead of you, than to rely on the help of others. If you do not care for your own welfare now, who will care when you are gone?

The present is very precious; these are the days of salvation; now is the acceptable time. How sad that you do not spend the time, in which you might purchase everlasting life, in a better way. The time will come when you will want just one day, just one hour in which to make amends, and do you know whether you will obtain it?

Fear Now and You Won’t Fear Death
See, then, dearly beloved, the great danger, from which you can free yourself; and the great fear, from which you can be saved, if only you will always be wary and mindful of death. Try to live now in such a manner that at the moment of death you may be glad rather than fearful. Learn to die to the world now, that then you may begin to live with Christ. Learn to spurn all things now, that then you may freely go to Him. Chastise your body in penance now, that then you may have the confidence born of certainty.

Ah, foolish man, why do you plan to live long when you are not sure of living even a day? How many have been deceived and suddenly snatched away! How often have you heard of persons being killed by drownings, by fatal falls from high places, of persons dying at meals, at play, in fires, by the sword, in pestilence, or at the hands of robbers! Death is the end of everyone and the life of man quickly passes away like a shadow.

Who Will Pray For You If You Centuries in Purgatory?
Who will remember you when you are dead? Who will pray for you? Do now, beloved, what you can, because you do not know when you will die, nor what your fate will be after death. Gather for yourself the riches of immortality while you have time. Think of nothing but your salvation. Care only for the things of God. Make friends for yourself now by honoring the saints of God, by imitating their actions, so that when you depart this life, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.

Keep yourself as a stranger here on Earth, a pilgrim whom its affairs do not concern at all. Keep your heart free and raise it up to God, for you have not here a lasting home. To Him direct your daily prayers, your sighs and tears, that your soul may merit after death to pass in happiness to the Lord.

The Imitation of Christ, Book One : The Twenty-Fourth Chapter
“Judgment and the Punishment of Sin”

Consider the End
In all things consider the end; how you shall stand before the strict Judge from Whom nothing is hidden and Who will pronounce judgment in all justice, accepting neither bribes nor excuses. And you, miserable and wretched sinner, who fear even the countenance of an angry man, what answer will you make to the God Who knows all your sins? Why do you not provide for yourself against the day of judgment when no man can be excused or defended by another because each will have enough to do to answer for himself? In this life your work is profitable, your tears acceptable, your sighs audible, your sorrow satisfying and purifying.

Paying for Purgatory Now
The patient man goes through a great and salutary Purgatory, when he grieves more over the malice of one who harms him, than for his own injury; when he prays readily for his enemies and forgives offenses from his heart; when he does not hesitate to ask pardon of others; when he is more easily moved to pity than to anger; when he does frequent violence to himself and tries to bring the body into complete subjection to the spirit.

It is better to atone for sin now and to cut away vices than to keep them for purgation in the hereafter. In truth, we deceive ourselves by our ill-advised love of the flesh. What will that fire feed upon but our sins? The more we spare ourselves now and the more we satisfy the flesh, the harder will the reckoning be and the more we keep for the burning.

For a man will be more grievously punished in the things in which he has sinned. There the lazy will be driven with burning prongs, and gluttons tormented with unspeakable hunger and thirst; the wanton and lust-loving will be bathed in burning pitch and foul brimstone; the envious will howl in their grief like mad dogs.

Every Vice Punished Differently
Every vice will have its own proper punishment. The proud will be faced with every confusion and the avaricious pinched with the most abject want. One hour of suffering there will be more bitter than a hundred years of the most severe penance here. In this life men sometimes rest from work and enjoy the comfort of friends, but the damned have no rest or consolation.

Day of Judgment
You must, therefore, take care and repent of your sins now so that on the Day of Judgment you may rest secure with the blessed. For on that day the just will stand firm against those who tortured and oppressed them, and he who now submits humbly to the judgment of men will arise to pass judgment upon them. The poor and humble will have great confidence, while the proud will be struck with fear. He who learned to be a fool in this world and to be scorned for Christ will then appear to have been wise.

You Will Be Glad You Paid Now
In that day every trial borne in patience will be pleasing and the voice of iniquity will be stilled; the devout will be glad; the irreligious will mourn; and the mortified body will rejoice far more than if it had been pampered with every pleasure. Then the cheap garment will shine with splendor and the rich one become faded and worn; the poor cottage will be more praised than the gilded palace. In that day persevering patience will count more than all the power in this world; simple obedience will be exalted above all worldly cleverness; a good and clean conscience will gladden the heart of man far more than the philosophy of the learned; and contempt for riches will be of more weight than every treasure on Earth.

Then you will find more consolation in having prayed devoutly than in having fared daintily; you will be happy that you preferred silence to prolonged gossip.

Then holy works will be of greater value than many fair words; strictness of life and hard penances will be more pleasing than all earthly delights.

Suffer Little Things to Avoid Greater Ones
Learn, then, to suffer little things now that you may not have to suffer greater ones in eternity. Prove here what you can bear hereafter. If you can suffer only a little now, how will you be able to endure eternal torment? If a little suffering makes you impatient now, what will Hell fire do? In truth, you cannot have two joys: you cannot taste the pleasures of this world and afterward reign with Christ.

If your life to this moment had been full of honors and pleasures, what good would it do if at this instant you should die? All is vanity, therefore, except to love God and to serve Him alone.

He, who loves God with all his heart, does not fear death, or punishment, or judgment, or Hell, because perfect love assures access to God.

It is no wonder that he, who still delights in sin, fears death and judgment.

It is good, however, that even if love does not as yet restrain you from evil, at least the fear of Hell does. The man who casts aside the fear of God, cannot continue long in goodness, but will quickly fall into the snares of the devil.

(The above was taken from The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapters 23 & 24).

Saturday November 23rd

Article 23
Wil I Go To Purgatory?

“Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude” (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina).

Wishful Thinking!
A 2003 Harris Poll, that surveyed 2,200 U.S. adults, found that: 82% believed in Heaven, 69% believed in Hell, and less than 1% thought they would go to Hell. Unfortunately, the Harris Poll had no question as regards going to Purgatory. How is it that so many American Catholics imagine that nobody goes to Hell—and perhaps Purgatory too? Is our modern-age more saintly than past-ages? Do we sin less today than in ages of old? Most certainly not!

Out of Sight, Out of Mind!
The main reason would be, as the saying goes: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Over the last 50 years or so, the Four Last Things―Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell―are less and less preached and taught in schools and catechism programs. since Vatican II. The Modernist view on universal salvation (everybody is saved), for example, has become mainstream thinking, even among so-called Conservative Catholic scholars today. The Modernist theologian, Von Balthasar, boldly asked that since the Redemption of Christ was sufficient to have saved all sinners, why should it not be so? In the end, he proposed, one can entertain the possibility that Hell, if it even exists, is vacant. Another Modernist, Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J., assures us that the dead are not suffering, or even really gone:

“They do not leave us. They remain! Where are they? In darkness? Oh, No! It is we who are in darkness. We do not see them, but they see us. Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes…. Oh, infinite consolation! Although invisible to us, our dead are not absent… They are living near us, transfigured … into light, into power, into love.”

No Toleration for Hell or Purgatory
With all the white funerals, politically-correct sermons—that toast the deceased rather than say he could be toast—soften the mind and sensibilities to the point where the mention of Hell or Purgatory would be met with outrage and outcries:”How dare you even insinuate that my dear pappy could be in Purgatory! I feel that he is in Heaven right now! You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting that we need to pray for him in case he is in Purgatory! You must have a warped idea of God! My God is kind and sweet and loving—and He would never send anyone to Hell or even Purgatory, especially not my pappy!”

Hell and Purgatory are taboo subjects—they cannot be mentioned in Catholic circles anymore without causing consternation among many! They are more likely to let you get-away with an indecent joke that let to get-away with initiating talk on Hell or Purgatory! Yet, just because society no longer like to think and talk about Hell or Purgatory, does not mean they do not exist, and it will not make them go-away, like some unwanted guest, who is ignored and given the cold-shoulder until he leaves.

Get Real!
Well, leaving Hell aside for the moment, St. Padre Pio (just one of many) is of the opinion that most souls who will end up being saved, have to pass through Purgatory first: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude” (St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina). If I have to take sides—choosing between the Modernists Von Balthasar with Fr. Rahner against St. Padre Pio—I know where I would stand (even though wishful thinking would try to push me to the Modernist side). Reality is reality. God is just, holy and demanding, just as much as He is merciful, kind and indulgent. All the apparitions (though we don’t base our opinions solely on apparitions) have always showed the grim, painful face of Purgatory—no apparition has been seen laughing, holding a cigar and a champagne glass, boasting of what a great party was taking place in Purgatory! Purgatory exists and we are most likely to be just lucky enough to scrape in there by the skin of our teeth!

How Great is any Offense Against God?
Any offense against an Infinite God, whether great or small, is an infinite offense. Technically there is no such thing as venial sin, for again, any offense, great or small, against an Infinite God is infinite. In God’s great mercy, He does not send souls to Hell who have not offended him seriously, but they have offended Him in a lesser way and so He sends them to Purgatory―or rather, God gives them the true light by which to see and understand sin for what it really is, and the soul, depending upon how it sees itself in that light, willingly casts itself into either Hell or Purgatory—God does push anyone “over the edge.”

Again, the gravity of an offense, whether great or small, is measured, is determined, by the object at which it strikes, by the dignity of the person offended.”The gravity of the injury is measured according to the dignity of the person offended.” (Blessed Abbot Joseph Columba Marmion, O.S.B. 1858-1923). A venial sin is finite in its degree of evilness, but technically, since it is an offense against an infinite God, it is infinite in measure and gravity. But again, in God’s incredible and infinite Mercy, he does not send souls to hell for venial sin. However a venial sin of a friend of God is much more tragic and hurts, offends and wounds God more than a mortal sin of an enemy of God, because the ones you love hurt you the most far more than strangers or enemies.

The offense of a sin is not just measured by what kind of action it happens to be, it is also judged upon the importance of the person whom the sin hurts. Punching a stranger is not as serious as punching a friend. Yet punching the friend is not as serious as punching a family member. Yet that is less serious than punching a priest. However, punching the priest is less serious than punching the bishop or, even worse, punching the Pope. It’s the same power of punch, on the same place—the nose, but it gets ever more serious as the person is more important. Who is more important than God? All sin attacks God, whether directly or indirectly—”Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).

We Are Just a Grain of Sand
It is estimated that almost 2 people (1.8) die each second. Based on the 1.8 figure, that would mean that 108 people die each minute; and 6,480 die each hour; with 155,520 dying each day, or just over a million each week (1,088,640) and over 56 million (56,609,280) each year. That makes you feel kind of unimportant, doesn’t it? How true that is—we are but a tiny grain of sand on the beach of humanity! It brings home the words of Our Lord to Sr. Josefa Menedez, when He said to her:”Little still implies some being, but, Josefa, you are less than that, you are nothingness personified.”

How Many of Those Who Die Are Saved?
How many of those souls are saved and lost? There are varying opinions on that matter. Here is what Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., writes in his book Life Everlasting:

“Many works have been written on the number of the elect. We may refer particularly to the article in the Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique. Here we restrict ourselves to that which is certain, or at least very probable, in agreement with the great majority of theologians” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

The Mystery of This Number
“The number of the elect is known only by God. “The Lord knoweth who are His.” The liturgy says that this number is known to Him alone. This is reaffirmed also by St. Thomas. The end of the world will come when the number of the elect is complete, when the succession of human generations has reached its goal. This number in itself is very great: “I heard the number of them that were signed (of the servants of God), a hundred forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel.... After this, I saw a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and in the sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

“If we count both angels and men, the number of the elect seems to be higher than that of the reprobate. When we speak of men exclusively, the number of the elect remains a matter of controversy. Many Fathers and theologians incline to the smaller number of the elect, because it is said in Scripture: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Again: “Enter you in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction; and many there are who go in thereat; how narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it.” Still, these texts are not absolutely demonstrative.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

“Thus, following many others, Fr. Monsabre remarks: ‘If these words were intended for all places and for all times, then the opinion of the small number of the elect would triumph. But we are permitted to think that they are meant, directly, for the ungrateful time of our Savior’s own preaching. When Jesus wishes us to think of the future, He speaks in another manner. Thus He says to His disciples: “If I be lifted up from the Earth, I will draw all things to Myself.” “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church).” And showing us the results of the last judgment, He says: “The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting.”’ Fr. Monsabre continues: ‘Remark that He does not tell us definitely the number of the good and of the wicked. To those who demanded a clear pronouncement, He was content to reply: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many . . . shall seek to enter and shall not be able.” The rigorists will tell me possibly that Jesus here hides the mystery of His justice, in order not to frighten timorous souls. As for myself, I prefer to think that He hides here the mystery of His mercy, that we may avoid presumption.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting,chapter 32).

The Great Saints Says Most Are Lost
“The common opinion of the Fathers and ancient theologians is without doubt that those who are saved do not represent the greater number. We may cite in favor of this view the following saints: Basil, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Leo the Great, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas. Then, nearer to our own times: Molina, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez, Vasquez, Lessius, and St. Alphonsus. But they give this view as opinion, not as revealed truth, not as certain conclusion.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

Uncertainty
“In the last century the contrary opinion, namely, of the greater number of the elect, was defended by Father Faber in England, by Monsignor Bougaud in France, by Father Castelein, S.J., in Belgium. To conclude: some insist on the mercy of God, others on the justice of God. Neither one side nor the other gives us certitude. And the reasons of appropriateness which each invokes differ very much from the reasons of appropriateness invoked in favor of a dogma which is already certain by revelation, whereas here we are treating of a truth that is not certain.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

Changing Times Bring Changing Numbers
“Theologians in general are inclined to fill out what Scripture and tradition tell us, by distinguishing the means of salvation, given to Catholics, from those that are given men of good-will beyond the borders of the Church. Restricting the question to Catholics, we find the doctrine, generally held especially since Suarez, that, if we consider merely adults, the number of the elect surpasses that of the reprobate. If adult Catholics do at one time or another sin mortally, nevertheless they can arise in the tribunal of penance, and there are relatively few who at the end of life do not repent, or even refuse to receive the sacraments.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32). However today, very few receive the last rites, very few go to confession. We must fear the worst for our day! Besides, Our Lady of Fatima explicitly said that MANY souls go to Hell because there is nobody to pray and offer sacrifices for them—prayer and sacrifice is not exactly on the increase, but on the decrease. Today it is far less (per head) than it was when Our lady appeared and said this, back in 1917.

“The important thing is to observe the commandments of God. St. Augustine said, and the Council of Trent repeats: “God never commands the impossible. But He warns us to do what we can, and to ask of Him the grace to accomplish what we of ourselves cannot do, and He aids us to fulfill what He commands.” Let us put our confidence in Jesus Christ, “the victim of propitiation for our sins,” “the Lamb of God, . . . who taketh away the sin of the world.” “Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting, chapter 32).

We have too low an estimate of God, His holiness, His honor and His demands upon us. Furthermore, we shoot ourselves in the foot by underestimating the gravity of sin. We think most sins to be “sweet-nothings” whereas nothing could be further from the truth. We really need to shape-up, take things more seriously and start paying for the sins we have committed until now. It is the gross indifference of most Catholics that lends credence to St. Padre Pio’s statement: “Most of the souls who are saved pass through Purgatory before arriving at the fullness of beatitude”

Friday November 22nd

Article 22
Mercy & Purgatory

Consolation in Pain
It is true that all might not achieve such a high degree of Charity that all their temporal punishment for sin would be removed, but there is no one that cannot have confidence in the Divine Mercy. This Mercy is infinite, it imparts peace to all souls that keep it constantly before their eyes and confide therein. With regard to Purgatory the Mercy of God is exercised in a threefold manner:

(1) in consoling the souls;
(2) in mitigating or softening their sufferings;
(3) in giving to ourselves, here on Earth, a thousand means of avoiding those punishing fires.

God Consoles and God Loves
Firstly, we must not forget that God consoles the souls in Purgatory. These are the souls that are destined to be with Him forever in Heaven. It is He Himself that consoles them. Yet He also consoles them through the Blessed Virgin and through the holy angels. He consoles the souls by inspiring them with a high degree of Faith, Hope, and Divine Love— virtues which produce, in the suffering souls, a conformity to the Divine will, a resignation to their just plight, and a most perfect patience.

St. Catherine of Genoa says: “God inspires the soul in Purgatory with so ardent a movement of devoted love, that it would be sufficient to annihilate her, if she were not immortal. Illumined and inflamed by that pure Charity, the more she loves God, the more she detests the least stain that displeases Him, as well as the least hindrance that prevents her union with Him. Therefore, if she could find another Purgatory more terrible than the one to which she is condemned, that soul would plunge herself therein, impelled by the impetuosity of the love which exists between God and herself, in order that she might be the sooner delivered from all that separates her from her Sovereign God.”

St. Catherine continues: “These souls are intimately united to the will of God, and so completely transformed into it, that they are always satisfied with its holy ordinances. The souls in Purgatory have no choice of their own; they can no longer will anything other than what God wills. They receive with perfect submission all that God gives them; and neither pleasure, nor contentment, nor pain can ever again make them think of themselves.”

He Listened Too Late, But He Burns Peacefully
Fr. Schouppe, in Purgatory Explained, writes that St. Magdalen de Pazzi, after the death of one of her brothers, had gone to the choir to offer prayers for him, when she saw a vision of his soul subject to an intense suffering. Touched with compassion, she began to weep and cried out in pity: “Brother, both miserable and blessed at the same time! O soul afflicted and yet contented! These pains are intolerable and yet they are endured. Why are they not understood by those here below, who have not the courage to carry their cross? Whilst you were in this world, my dear brother, you would not listen to my advice, and now you desire ardently that I should listen to you. O God, equally just and merciful, comfort this brother of mine, who has served Thee from his infancy. Have regard to your clemency, I beseech Thee, and make use of Thy great mercy on his behalf. O God most just, if he has not always been attentive to pleasing Thee, at least he has not despised those who made profession of serving you with fidelity.”

The day on which she had that wonderful ecstasy, during which she visited the different prisons of Purgatory, seeing again the soul of her brother, she said to him, “Poor soul, how you suffer and nevertheless you rejoice! You burn and you are satisfied, because you know well that these sufferings must lead you to a great and unspeakable happiness. How happy shall I be, if I could avoid having to endure greater suffering! Remain here, my dear brother, and complete your purification in peace!”

This contentment in the midst of the most intense suffering cannot be explained otherwise than by the Divine consolations which the Holy Ghost infuses into the souls in Purgatory. This Divine Spirit, by means of Faith, Hope, and Charity, puts those souls in the disposition of a sick person who has to submit to very painful treatment, but the effect, of which is to restore him to perfect health. This sick person suffers, but he loves his salutary suffering. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, gives a similar contentment to the holy souls. In a sense, He enkindles in them the fire of His Love, which helps them fight fire with fire.

The Miracle of St. Stanislaus
Of this we have a striking example in Peter Miles, who was raised from the dead by St. Stanislaus of Cracow, but who preferred and asked to be allowed to return to Purgatory, rather than to live again upon Earth. The celebrated miracle of this resurrection happened in 1070. It is recorded in the Acta Sanctorum for May 7th. St. Stanislaus was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland, when the Duke Boleslas II governed Poland. The king was neglecting God and living too secular a life.

St. Stanislaus reminded the prince of his duties, but Boleslas was irritated and, to revenge himself, he stirred-up against Stanislaus the heirs of a certain Peter Miles, who had died three years previously after having sold a piece of ground to the church of Cracow. The heirs accused the saint of having usurped the ground, without having paid the owner. Stanislaus declared that he had paid for the land, but as the witnesses who should have defended him had been either bribed or intimidated, he was accused of stealing the property of another, and condemned to make restitution.

Then, seeing that he had nothing to expect from human justice, he raised his heart to God, and received a sudden inspiration. He asked for a delay of three days, promising to make Peter Miles appear in person, that he might testify to the legal purchase and payment of the land.

They were granted to him in scorn. The saint fasted, watched, and prayed God to take up the defense of his cause. The third day, after having celebrated Holy Mass, he went out accompanied by his clergy and many of the faithful, to the place where Peter had been buried. By his orders the grave was opened; it contained nothing but bones. He touched them with his crosier, and in the name of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, he commanded the dead man to arise.

Dead Men Walk
Suddenly the bones became reunited, were covered with flesh, and, in sight of the stupefied people, the dead man was seen to take the Bishop by the hand and walk towards the tribunal. Boleslas, with his court and an immense crowd of people, were awaiting the result with the most lively expectation. “Behold Peter,” said the saint to Boleslas; “he comes, prince, to give testimony before you. Interrogate him; he will answer you.”

It is impossible to describe the stupefaction of the Duke, of his councilors, and of the whole concourse of people. Peter affirmed that he had been paid for the ground; then turning towards his heirs, he reproached them for having accused the pious prelate against all rights of justice; then he exhorted them to do penance for so grievous a sin.

Which Do You Prefer—Purgatory or Earth?
Wishing to complete this great miracle for the glory of God, Stanislaus proposed to the deceased that, if he desired to live a few years longer, he would obtain for him this favor from God. Peter replied that he had no such desire. He was in Purgatory, but he would rather return there immediately and endure its pains, than expose himself to damnation in this terrestrial life. He implored the saint only to beg of God to shorten the time of his sufferings, that he might the sooner enter Heaven. After that, accompanied by the Bishop and a great crowd, Peter returned to his grave, laid himself down, his body fell to pieces, and his bones resumed the same state in which they had first been found. We have reason to believe that the saint soon obtained the deliverance of his soul.

That which is the most remarkable in this example, and which should most attract our attention, is that a soul from Purgatory, after having experienced the most excruciating torments, prefers that state of suffering to the life of this world; and the reason which he gives for this preference is, that in this mortal life we are exposed to the danger of being lost and incurring eternal damnation. He sees Purgatory as being a mercy that he does not want to relinquish.

The Help of Our Lady
The souls in Purgatory receive also great consolation from the Blessed Virgin. Is she not the “Comforter of the Afflicted”? And what affliction can be compared to that of the poor souls in the fires of Purgatory? Is she not the “Mother of Mercy”? And is it not towards these holy suffering souls that she must show all the mercy of her heart? We must not, therefore, be astonished that in the Revelations of St. Bridget the Queen of Heaven gives herself the beautiful name of “Mother of the Souls in Purgatory”. She said to St. Bridget, “I am the Mother of all those who are in the place of expiation; my prayers mitigate the chastisements which are inflicted upon them for their faults.” (Revel. S. Brig., lib. 4. c. 50).

Fear Not, My Son…
On October 25th, 1604, in the College of the Society of Jesus at Coimbra, Portugal, Father Jerome Carvalho died in the odor of sanctity, at the age of fifty years. This admirable and humble servant of God had always felt a lively apprehension of the sufferings of Purgatory. Neither the cruel scourgings which he inflicted upon himself several times every day, not counting those prompted each week by the remembrance of the Passion, nor the six hours which he devoted morning and evening to the meditation of holy subjects, seemed sufficient, in his estimation, to shield him from the chastisement which he imagined awaited him after death.

But one day the Queen of Heaven, to whom he had a tender devotion, decided to come herself to console her servant by the simple assurance that she was a Mother of Mercy to her dear children in Purgatory, and not only to those upon Earth. Seeking, later, to spread this consoling doctrine, the holy man accidentally let fall, in the ardor of his discourse, these words: “She told me this herself.”

Mary’s Powerful Intercession
It is related that a great servant of Mary, Blessed Renier of Citeaux, trembled at the thought of his sins and the terrible Justice of God after death. In his fear, addressing himself to Our Lady, whom he held as his great Protectress, who calls herself Mother of Mercy, he fell into an ecstasy, and saw the Mother of God interceding with her Son in his favor. “My Son,” she said, “deal mercifully with him in Purgatory, because he humbly repents of his sins.” “My Mother,” replied Jesus,”I place his cause in thy hands,” which meant to say, be it done to your servant according to your desires. Blessed Renier understood with unutterable joy that Mary had obtained his exemption from Purgatory.

Putting-Out the Flames with the Rosary
The Rosary is a key ingredient in all of this. We read in St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Secret of the Rosary, how great is the power of the Rosary in remitting temporal punishment due for our sins. Here are a few extracts:

When St. Dominic was performing an exorcism, through Our Lady’s intervention he got the devils to admit many things, one of them was the following: “Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy” (Secret of the Rosary, “Thirty-Third Rose”).

“Flammin and a great number of other writers tell the story of a young girl of noble station named Alexandra, who had been miraculously converted and enrolled by St. Dominic in the Confraternity of the Rosary. After her death, she appeared to him and said she had been condemned to seven hundred years in Purgatory because of her own sins and those she had caused others to commit by her worldly ways. So she implored him to ease her pains by his prayers and to ask the Confraternity members to pray for the same end. St. Dominic did as she had asked. Two weeks later she appeared to him, more radiant than the sun, having been quickly delivered from Purgatory by the prayers of the Confraternity members. She also told St. Dominic that she had come on behalf of the souls in Purgatory to beg him to go on preaching the Rosary and to ask their relations to offer their Rosaries for them, and that they would reward them abundantly when they entered into glory” (Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Ninth Rose”).

“Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and when he was given up for dead he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, ‘As a reward for the little service you did for me, in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.’” (Secret of the Rosary, “Eighth Rose”).

Thursday November 21st

Article 21
From Fear to Confidence and Mercy

Fear Leads to Mercy
We have the early part of the month of November looking at the rigors and severity of Divine Justice in the other life; they are frightening, and it is impossible to think of them without trembling—and that is a good thing, for as Holy Scripture says:”With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12). That fire, enkindled by Divine Justice, those excruciating pains, compared to which all the penances of the saints, all the sufferings of the martyrs put together, are as nothing, who is there that thinks he will be able to look upon them and not shudder from very fear?

This fear is salutary and conformable to the spirit of Jesus Christ. Our Divine Master desires that we should fear, and that we should fear not only Hell, but also Purgatory, which is a sort of mitigated Hell. It is to inspire us, with this holy fear, that He shows us the dungeons of the Supreme Judge, from which we shall not depart until we have paid the last farthing. (Matthew 5:26). We may say of the fire of Purgatory, that which is said of Hell fire: “Fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that can cast both soul and body into Hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Fear Leads to Better Things
Yet that fear can make us wise and make us change our lives—whereby we begin to love God more than we love ourselves: “Fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10) and “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). It is not the intention of our Lord that we should have an excessive and barren fear, a fear which tortures and discourages, a gloomy fear without confidence. No! He wishes that our fear should be tempered with a great trust in His mercy; He desires that we should fear evil in order to prevent and avoid it; He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervor in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other.”Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now,” says the author of the Imitation, “than to keep them for purgation hereafter.” (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 24). Moreover, if, despite our efforts to live a good life, and to satisfy for our sins in this world, we have well-grounded fears that we shall have to undergo a Purgatory, we must look forward to that possibility with unbounded confidence in God, Who never fails to console those whom He purifies by sufferings. For as we have said so many times already, God’s justice and mercy always work together.

Look to His Mercy
So after having frightened the living daylights out of ourselves (and hopefully the desire and attachment to sin too!) let us spend some time looking at the Mercy of God, which shines forth therein no less than His Justice. “His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him” (Luke 1:50). But let our attitude not be one of presumption upon His mercy—which is a sin—but a humble acknowledgment of our sinfulness and unworthiness of His Mercy. We are shown the right attitude by Our Lady’s Magnificat: “My soul doth magnify the Lord. Because he hath regarded the humility of His handmaid. Because He that is mighty, hath done great things to me and His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things [mercy being one of them]; and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy” (Luke 1:46-54).

God’s Perfect Balance
If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the tiniest faults, He does not inflict those punishments without, at the same time, softening them with clemency; and nothing shows better the admirable harmony of this Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most unimaginable Mercy. If Our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, “Such as I love I rebuke and chastise” (Apocalypse 3:19). With one hand He strikes, with the other He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance (Psalm 129).

This infinite Mercy of our Heavenly Father must be the firm foundation of our confidence; and, after the example of the saints, we must keep it always before our eyes. The saints never lost sight of it; and it was for this reason that the fear of Purgatory never deprived them of their peace and joy of the Holy Ghost. St. Lidwina, who so well knew the frightful severity of expiatory suffering, was nevertheless animated with that spirit of confidence, and tried to inspire others with the same spirit. One time she received a visit from a good and holy priest. While they were talking, together with other virtuous persons, the conversation turned to the sufferings undergone in the other life. The priest―as he looked at a woman holding a jar filled with grains of mustard-seed―remarked that he trembled when thinking of the fire of Purgatory. “Nevertheless,” he added, “I would be satisfied to go there for as many years as there are grains of seed in this jar; for then, at least, I would be certain of my salvation.”

“What are you saying, Father?” replied St. Lidwina. “Why do you have so little confidence in the Mercy of God? You wouldn’t say that if you had a better knowledge of what Purgatory is like, and of what frightful torments are endured there!”

“Let Purgatory be what it may,” replied the priest, “I persist in what I say!”

A while afterwards, this priest died, and the same persons, who had been present during his conversation with St. Lidwina, questioned the saint if God had revealed to her the priest’s condition in the other world. She replied, “The deceased is well off, on account of his virtuous life; but it would be better for him if he had had more confidence in the Passion of Jesus Christ, and if he had taken a milder view of the subject of Purgatory.”

A Balanced View
In what consisted this lack of confidence which met the disapproval of St. Lidwina? In the opinion which this good priest had that it is almost impossible to be saved, and that we shall enter Heaven only after having undergone innumerable years of torture. This idea is erroneous, and contrary to Christian confidence. Yes, of course, we know Our Lord’s reply to the question of whether only a few will be saved: “And a certain man said to Him: Lord, are they few that are saved? But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).

Savior of Losers and the Lost
Yet He came to seek and save those who were lost: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); and “if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). However this is no freebie―but requires a change of heart, a change of life, suffering and penance: “I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 11:19) … “If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die” (Ezechiel 18:21) … “Hath no man condemned thee? Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:10-11) … “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23) … “ I say to you―but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

Good Will
Our Savior came to bring peace to men of good-will, and to impose upon us, as a condition of our salvation, a yoke which is sweet and a burden which is not heavy. Therefore, let your will be good, and you will find peace, you will see all difficulties and terrors vanish. Good-will! That is everything! Be of good-will, submit to the Will of God, place his Holy Law above all else, serve the Lord with all your heart, and He will give you such powerful assistance that you will enter Paradise with an astonishing facility. Sounds too easy, eh? “I could never have believed,” you will say, “that it was so easy to enter Heaven!” Again, it must be repeated, to obtain for ourselves this wonder of Mercy, God asks on our part an upright heart, a good-will. That doesn’t mean to say there will be no pain, no sufferings, no crosses, no anxieties—but these are part of God’s will that must be borne with a good-will.

Good will consists, properly speaking, in submitting and conforming our will to that of God―Who is the rule of all good-will; and this good-will attains its highest perfection when we embrace the Divine Will as the highest good in our life, even when it imposes the greatest sacrifices, the most acute suffering. A soul, thus disposed, seems to lose the sensation of pain, and this is because the soul is animated with the spirit of love; and, as St. Augustine says, when we love we suffer not, or, if we suffer, we love the suffering.

The Power of Love
We have already spoken of the power of a perfect act of love and contrition, that is capable of taking away all the debt we owe for our past sins—this fire of love we must enkindle and make grow by our good-will attitude to all the firewood that God decides to throw on our little fire. Ouch!

The Imitation of Christ has a beautiful chapter on the effects of Divine Love, here are a few extracts for your fire:

“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. The noble love of Jesus spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity.

“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on Earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver.

“Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice. Love is mean and contemptible in its own eyes, devoted and thankful to God; always trusting and hoping in Him even when He is distasteful to it, for there is no living in love without sorrow. He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities.” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, chapter 5).

The Confessor of St. Margaret Mary writes…
St. Claude de la Colombière, of the Society of Jesus, confessor of St. Margaret Mary, possessed this loving heart, this perfect will, and in his Retrait Spirituelle he thus expresses his sentiments: “We must not cease to expiate the past disorders of our life by penance; but it must be done without anxiety, because the worst that can befall us, when our will is good and we are submissive and obedient, is to be sent for a long time to Purgatory, and we may say with good reason that this is a great evil. I do not fear Purgatory. Of Hell, I will not speak, for I should wrong the Mercy of God by having the least fear of Hell, although I have merited it more than all the demons together. Purgatory I do not fear. I wish I had not deserved it, since I could not do so without displeasing God; but, as I have merited to go there, I am delighted to go and satisfy His Justice in the most rigorous manner it is possible to imagine, and that even to the Day of Judgment. I know that the torments there endured are horrible, but I know that they honor God, and cannot prove an injury to the souls; that there we are certain never to oppose the will of God; that we shall never resent His severity; that we shall even love the rigors of His justice, and await with patience until it shall be entirely appeased. Therefore, I have given with my whole heart all my satisfactions to the souls in Purgatory, and even bequeath to others all the suffrages which shall be offered for me after my death, in order that God may be glorified in Paradise by souls who shall have merited to be raised to a higher degree of glory than myself.”

Paradise on Earth
See to what an excess of charity, the love of God and our neighbor carries us, once it has taken possession of the heart―it transforms, transfigures suffering in such a manner, that all its bitterness is changed into sweetness. “When thou shalt arrive thus far, that tribulation shall be sweet to thee, and thou shalt relish it for the love of Christ: then think that it is well with thee, for thou hast found a Paradise upon Earth” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, chapter 12). Let us therefore have great love for God, great Charity, and we shall have little fear of Purgatory. The Holy Ghost bears testimony in the depths of our hearts that, being children of God, we have no need to dread the chastisements of a Father if we truly seek to follow and do His will, and not our own.

Good Will = God’s Will
Our Lord Himself said: “I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38). “Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of me: that I should do thy will, O God … Then said I: ‘Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God!’” (Hebrews 10:7, 9). “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). “And He said: ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’” (Mark 14:36).

To us He says: “If you love me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) … “You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 15:14) … “And why call you Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” (Luke 10:27) and “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid!” (John 14:27).

Let our good and holy fear find itself enkindled with this holy love of God!

Wednesday November 20th

Article 20
Have Confidence!

Lack of Confidence
As we said yesterday, despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation the devil can employ. It saps us of our confidence. Of course, many of us have the wrong kind of confidence in the first place—we seek to have confidence in ourselves, rather than having confidence in God. But once discouragement or despondency sets in, the confidence quickly flies out the window—some temperaments may resist better and for longer than others, but everyone is prone to this temptation—and we must remind ourselves that it is a TEMPTATION—it is not a part of ourselves, it comes from outside of ourselves, like a virus. In other temptations the devil attacks one particular virtue: by despondency he attacks them all. In despondency there is nothing to lean upon: we feel that God is asking for that which are unable to give. We would like to turn to God, but the devil convinces us that we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our sins and pay for their debt, because we feel that God does not like us all that much after committing so many sins; thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, which is the final goal of the devil for the despondent soul.

Purgatory quickly becomes like a debt that has spiraled out of control. Yet we know that, with God, nobody can declare bankruptcy and get away without paying anything. Just as debt seems to crush the heart in our material life, so too does the debt of our sins crush us in relation to our spiritual life. Sometimes people cast all care to the wind and spend, spend, spend, while the credit card still works—knowing that they won’t be able to pay. The devil tries to make us sin, sin, sin, to the point where our hope and confidence of pardon is so low, that we fall into despair.

Any Debt Can Be Paid-Off, But…
First of all, we must remember the words of Scripture: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7). We cannot commit the sin of presumption—which is just as much a sin against hope as despair is—by sinning, sinning and sinning with the presumption that God will still show us His mercy. Read the sermon of St. Alphonsus Liguori on “On The Number Of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More”, from which we will just give a few extracts:

“You say: I am young: there are many who have committed more sins than I have. But is God on that account obliged to wait for your repentance if you offend him? In the Gospel of St. Matthew (21:19) we read, that the Savior cursed a fig tree the first time he saw it without fruit. ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And immediately the fig tree withered away.’ You must, then, tremble at the thought of committing a single mortal sin, particularly if you have already been guilty of mortal sins. ‘Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin’ (Ecclesiasticus 5: 5). Say not then, O sinner; ‘As God has forgiven me other sins, so he will pardon me this one if I commit it!’ Say not this; for, if to the sin which has been forgiven you add another, you have reason to fear that this new sin shall be united to your former guilt, and that thus the number will be completed, and that you shall be abandoned.”

Be Realistic, Be Confident
As was said yesterday, we cannot focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. St. Catherine of Genoa gave us that warning in her Treatise on Purgatory: “Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you? You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God, which you unceasingly exalt. Have not the boldness to say: ‘I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.’ Remember that the full confession and entire contrition which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by, you would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

Nevertheless…
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation. Hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with Faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling of despondency, which is opposed to hope, must be resisted strongly and CONFIDENTLY. God will forgive if we do not abuse His mercy, even though we will still have to pay—but what kind of person would want to get into Heaven on the back of a life of endless sin, without having settled his debts with God?

Ask With Faith and Confidence
No, as the Apostle, St. James, says, “Let him ask in Faith, nothing wavering” (1:6). The heart that prays with doubt and distrust shall obtain nothing. And we also know that Jesus Christ, whilst still on earth, granted miracles only when there was confidence: “Daughter, thy Faith hath made thee whole” (Matthew 9:22).

In Fr. Gottemoller’s book, Words of Love, which deals with Our Lord’s apparitions to three religious sisters (Sr. Josefa Menendez, Sr. Consolata Betrone and Sr. Mary of the Trinity), Our Lord says: “Let them [souls] give themselves up to thoughts of confidence, not fear, for I am a God of pity, ever ready to receive them into My Heart ... I make little account of all that [miseries and weakness], provided souls come to Me with confidence and love. … You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help … To those who ask with love, that is to say, with unlimited confidence, I cannot prevent Myself from granting even more, far more than what is asked … Oh, if you knew what My love is! And how I long for you to have confidence in it! … You will be lacking in help only when My Divine Heart will be lacking in power! …

“It often happens that good and pious souls, and very frequently also souls who are consecrated to Me, wound My Heart to Its very depths by some diffident phrase such as: ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ Open the Gospel and read there My promises. I promised to My sheep: ‘I will give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish forever, and no man shall pluck them out of My Hand.’ Do you understand? No one can take a soul from Me! Now read on: ‘That which My Father hath given Me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them out of the Hand of My Father.’ Do you understand? No one can snatch a soul from Me.... In all eternity they will not perish ... because I give them eternal life. For whom have I spoken these words? For all the sheep, for all souls! Why then the insult, ‘Who knows whether I will be saved?’ I have given assurances, in the Gospel, that no one can pluck a soul from Me and that I will give that soul eternal life, and so the soul cannot perish. Believe Me, Consolata, into Hell go only those who really wish to go there; for, though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.

“Oh, if instead of wounding My Heart with such distrust, you would give a little thought to the Heaven which awaits you! I did not create you for Hell, but for Heaven, not as a companion for the devil, but to enjoy Me in everlasting love! You see, to Hell go only those who wish to go there ... How foolish is your fear of being damned! After having shed My Blood in order to save your soul, after having surrounded your soul with graces upon graces all through your entire existence ... would I permit Satan, My worst enemy, to rob Me of that soul, at the last moment of her life, just when I am about to gather in the fruit of the Redemption and when, therefore, that soul is on the point of loving Me forever? Would I do that, when in the Holy Gospel I have promised to give the soul eternal life and that no one can snatch her from My Hands? How is it possible to believe such a monstrosity? You see, final impenitence is found only in a soul who purposely wishes to go to Hell and therefore obstinately refuses My mercy, for I never refuse to pardon anyone. I offer the gift of My immense compassion to all, for My Blood was shed for all, for all! No, it is not the multiplicity of sins which condemns a soul, for I forgive everything if she repents, but it is the obstinacy of not wishing to be pardoned, of wishing to be damned! Dismas on the cross had only one single act of Faith in Me, but many, many sins; he was pardoned in an instant, however, and on the very day of his repentance he entered into My kingdom and is a saint! Behold the triumph of My Mercy and of Faith in Me!” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).

Beautiful words, but words spoken to those who were sincere in their sorrow for sin and were trying to put things right—as Our Lord said: “I forgive everything if she repents ... You must do all that you can, and it is only after that, that you can count infallibly on My help ... Though no one can snatch a soul from Me, the soul may, through the free will granted her, flee from Me, may betray Me, deny Me, and so go to Satan of her own volition.” Repentance means sorrow for sin, a firm desire to change one’s life, and the desire to pay for the damage done. Our Lord adds: “Have confidence in Me! Trust Me always! You must have a blind confidence that I will fulfill all the great promises which I have made you, for I am kind, immensely kind and merciful, and ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.’” (Words of Love, Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, chapter 6, “Confidence”).

Confidence in the Sufferings and Merits of Jesus Christ
A soul that is addicted to despondency is swayed by fear, which prevents it from reflecting on the immovable foundations of confidence in God. We cannot therefore give her too many motives for overcoming that fear which harasses her incessantly. She will find a powerful one in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are as immense as the dignity of His person is infinite. This divine Savior, dying for all mankind, praying for all, offering for all His sufferings and His death, has merited for them all the graces which are necessary for them to overcome their spiritual enemy and to gain eternal happiness. These merits which Jesus Christ did not need for Himself He has given over to mankind. So that, according to St. Bernard, these merits become our own. And by offering them to the Father, we obtain that help which we need to strengthen us against the enemies of our salvation. It is from this principle that the Church, in all the prayers she makes to God, always invokes the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. The mercy is there, all we have to do is pay!

But I Have Sinned Too Much!
“But,” exclaims a soul, frightened at the thought of her many past offenses, “how must Our Lord and Savior look upon me, after the many outrages which I have committed against Him! Can He any longer interest Himself for one who has been so long His enemy?” Can a well-instructed Christian soul have any doubt on this point? Did not Jesus Christ Himself assure us that He came into the world to suffer and die for sinners; that He came chiefly to seek for sinners? Now, in the face of this assertion, will they still imagine that, because they are sinners, they will be refused the help they require to return to God? No, heaven and earth may pass away, but the promises of God shall not pass away unfulfilled. These promises relate to sinners, and if there had been no sinners, would Jesus Christ have suffered? Would He have submitted to a cruel death? The more sinful man is, the more strikingly are the mercy of God, and the power of the Savior’s merits displayed, Is there any blacker crime than the treachery of Judas? Yes, answers St. Jerome, there is one still more enormous, despair! Judas rendered himself more guilty in taking away his own life than in betraying his divine Master. The mercy is there for us, we must do what we can to pay for it. Christ will add His Blood and merits to our payments.

You Have To Beg For His Merits
Let us then never fear to have recourse to the merits of Jesus Christ. We honor them when we make use of them to obtain the helps which we need, since it was for this that Jesus Christ vouchsafed to acquire them and to give them over to us. It is in applying them to ourselves through prayer and good works, that we fulfill the end for which they were purchased. It would be a singular way of honoring them, the not daring to make use of them; it would be going directly against the end which our divine Savior proposed to Himself. In turning from His gifts as useless, we should not be evincing our esteem for them, but only proving our indifference.

Come to Me and Ask!
Since we acknowledge that we are poor, weak, and miserable, should we not seek to enrich and to strengthen ourselves, and to cure our evils? Jesus Christ offers Himself to accomplish these miracles in us, by offering His infinite merits. With loving tenderness He says to us, “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matthew 11:28). Is it not therefore against every principle, against every feeling, and still more against the intention of the Savior Himself to fear to have recourse to Him?

Temptation attacks the soul in every way. Through a sentiment of false humility a fear is conceived which fills the soul with dejection. Christian humility and sound reason require that we should recognize our unworthiness of heavenly benefits; but they do not require us to refuse those which are offered, or not to ask for those that have been promised to our prayers. Still more does the gratitude which we owe to Jesus Christ require that we should obey His will, in profiting by His sufferings, to obtain the graces which He has earned for us. Never can we honor Him more than in corresponding to the merciful designs which He had in immolating Himself for us and by suffering with Him for our sins.

Rely on Him, not Ourselves
On what could we rely to appease the justice of God outraged by sin, and to draw down His mercy, if not upon the merits of Our Savior? It is in presenting them to God that we may hope to disarm His anger. Just as He can see in us only that which must provoke His justice, so in His Son He only sees what solicits His mercy. This divine mercy is exercised in our behalf as soon as we, with sentiments of regret, present ourselves to Him, under the shadow of the Savior’s cross, and covered with His precious blood. And thus also is justice appeased. Mercy and truth, justice and peace make together a blessed treaty for us. In the language of the Psalmist: “Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed” (Psalm 84:11).

False Ideas And Feelings Which We Ascribe To God
It is because we judge God by our own weak human hearts, that we fear to exhaust His mercy. If a person to whom we have given important assistance, whom we have loaded with benefits, treats us with ingratitude, and, in return for kindness, heaps insults upon us, we turn away from him as unworthy of further notice; more especially if he has made use of our very benefits to injure us, we abandon him forever. We should consider we were acting against every dictate of common sense and prudence, did we continue to furnish him with arms to use against us.

The same feelings and judgment we ascribe to God, forgetting that His ways are as far removed from our ways as the heavens are from the earth. God bears with our wanderings because He is eternal and all-powerful, and He knows that the day of His justice will come, when all shall be brought into order, and forever.

Wrong Idea of God—Wrong Idea of Justice & Mercy
He is patient because He is infinitely good, and wishes to give us the means to return to Him. He who knows all things has seen from all eternity all our weaknesses, our ingratitude, and our reiterated falls. He has foreseen that we could not do anything of ourselves, much less return to Him without help; and that help He has prepared for us in the person of His Son, Jesus. He entreats us, He even commands us to call upon Him in all our wanderings, and He will assist us, He will be our propitiation; for it is in helping us and pardoning us that His mercy is exercised. Yet we still have to add our payments for sin to His generous contribution.

God Has Always Been Just and Merciful
This conduct God brought out in a striking manner toward the Jewish nation. Whenever they fell into idolatry, God punished them, to bring them back to their allegiance. When they abandoned their Lord to serve strange gods, He would deliver them over to their enemies, to be held in cruel bondage. Then, when bowed down by the miseries of their servitude, they lifted up their hearts to God and called upon Him with confidence, God sent them a deliverer to free them from the hard yoke under which they groaned. And so did they continue during a period of four hundred years, continually relapsing into idolatry, and as often experiencing the mercy of God when they called upon Him.

Judge from this if God will tire in pardoning us, if we turn to Him with a sincerely contrite heart. But if the conduct of God toward His Jewish people does not remove your fears, listen to the words of the Prophet-King, inspired by the Holy Ghost, who assures us that God will not despise “a contrite and humbled heart” (Psalm 1:19).

God Wishes to Pardon—Do We Wish to Pay?
When, terrified by the recollection of our sins, we have the thought or the wish to return to God, it is He who is then attracting us by His grace. Does He call us only that He may refuse to receive us? Who can think it? He told St. Peter to forgive after every offense, “I say not to thee, till seven times: but till seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22), and by this we may learn to know His dispositions in our regard. Ah! We little know the boundless tenderness of that divine Heart, if we judge of it by our own, or if we imagine that it ever ceases to care for us. So long as we are in this life we are under the law of mercy, and of that mercy we can ever avail ourselves. It is death only that places us under the law of immutable justice.

Repeated Falls?
Our repeated infidelities ought not to make us lose confidence in God—it is the lack of Faith that makes us fear.

God, Who is the tender Father of all His creatures, has taken every means to remove that excessive fear which would draw them from Him. To prevent the soul that has become sensible of its ingratitude and terrified at the view of its repeated relapses into sin, after so often obtaining pardon for them - to prevent such a soul from losing all hope and daring no longer to cry out to Him from the abyss into which it has again fallen, not only does He assure it, by the mouth of the Psalmist, ”That those who hope in Him shall never be confounded,” but He expressly declares the positive law of His mercy, and commands us to hope in Him.

God Is Faithful
This precept we cannot fully accomplish but with the help of His grace; and can the Almighty have made this precept and not wish to help us keep it? And can He fall to be touched by our obedience when we endeavor to do so? Can He turn away from us, when we call upon Him, as He has ordered us to do? NO; God cannot be otherwise than faithful to His promises. If we fail, it is because we have not asked with confidence, and because our Faith is weak.

Let the Holy Scripture here furnish you with another proof of this. St. Peter, at the order of his divine Master, confidently walks upon the waters. The wind rises, and the Apostle’s trust lessens; he fears, and immediately begins to sink, but the danger reanimates his confidence: Peter has recourse to his divine Master, who stretches forth His hand to save him from perishing. For our instruction Jesus let His Apostle know what danger he had been in, when He thus reproached him: “O thou of little Faith, why didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).

“If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). But you will still have to pay for them, for that is how we show our love and sorrow to Christ.

Tuesday November 19th

Article 19
Don't Feel Down or Depressed!

Despondency & Discouragement Come Disguised
Despondency or discouragement is the most dangerous temptation that the enemy of our salvation can employ. In other temptations he attacks some one virtue in particular, and shows himself openly: by despondency he attacks them all, but covertly. The snare is readily perceived in other temptations: one finds in religion, often even in reason, principles which condemn them. The knowledge of the evil, to which we cannot blind ourselves, conscience, and the truths of religion which are awakened, serve as helps to sustain us. But in despondency there is nothing to lean upon: we feel that reason does not suffice to enable us to practice all the good that God requires of us. On the other hand, we dare not hope to receive from God all the help we need to overcome our passions; thus we become discouraged and nearly reduced to despair, the very point to which the devil tries to lead the despondent soul.

This is easily and readily done by the devil in regard to our attitude to Purgatory. The goal of the devil is to make us sin as much as possible, while whispering to us that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!” (which is all true, but it is not ALL the truth), while at the same the devil blinds to the rest of the truth, so that we have no fear or problem sinning: “God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!”

Then, when we have sinned considerably, the devil tempts us despair of ever being able to get out of sin and ever being able to pay for our sin, by making us focus on the truth that:”God is just! God is exacting! God misses nothing! God will demand payment for each and every sin, even every idle word!” while at the same time blinding us the fact that “God is good! God is kind! God is loving! God is merciful! God is very forgiving!”

God Forgives—But Sin Must Be Paid For
Just like the devil makes us focus on one side of the coin and makes us ignore the other side, we also tend to focus exclusively on God’s mercy, while sweeping his justice under carpet. You cannot do that! As St. Catherine of Genoa says at the end of her Treatise on Purgatory:

“Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you?” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God, which you unceasingly exalt, not seeing that it is your resistance to His great goodness which will be your condemnation. His goodness should constrain you to do His will, not encourage you to persevere in your own. Since His justice is unfailing, it must therefore be in some way fully satisfied” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“Have not the boldness to say: ‘I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.’ Remember that the full confession and entire contrition which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by, you would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

As Our Lady of Good Success said to Mother Mariana, in Quito, Ecuador in the 17th century: “Prepare your soul so that, increasingly purified, it might enter into the fullness of the joy of Our Lord. Oh, if mortals, and in particular religious souls, could know what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live! Nor would they spare themselves any sacrifice in order to possess Him! O, if men only understood how to appreciate the time given to them and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador).

Modern Deformation of God
The idiocy of modern-day Catholics is to make God into a patsy or a pushover! Or such a kindly God, that He cannot refuse to forgive all the crimes committed against Him. They imagine that He does not get angry, nor does He take vengeance upon those who sin. If that is the case, then Our Lady must be telling some whopping lies about God when she says:

“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door … Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together ... Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the earth stained with crime. Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God” (La Salette).

“Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons … before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments … fire will rain from Heaven” (Quito) … “And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed … And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the earth will become desert-like” (La Salette).

Is Our Lady a Liar? Is Our Lord a Liar?
Is Our Lady lying about God? We just don’t like to hear these things, like children don’t like to see their parents angry—but then the solution is to stop doing what makes them angry? We are so wrapped-up in our own feelings, that we have no time for the feelings of God! We hate to hear about chastisements, but we don’t stop sinning.

Some modern-day Catholics, with the sugar-coated version of Christ, also make Our Lord out to be a liar, Who said that the ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him: “To let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me, who belong to Me, reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito, Ecuador). She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, “I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity.” With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era. Is Our Lord also lying? Of course not.

Despite the Justice, There Is Still Great Mercy
Yet Our Lady also offers the hand of mercy to those who sincerely seek to turn away from sin and are contrite: “I am in placating the Divine Justice and obtaining mercy and pardon for every sinner who comes to me with a contrite heart, for I am the Mother of Mercy and in me there is only goodness and love” (Quito) … “Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God” (Fatima). ““God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will … who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world” (La Salette). “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved” (Akita).

This reminds us of the poignant statement that Our Lady made to St. Bridget: “I am,” she said to her, “the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God. In the fire of Purgatory there is no suffering that through my intercession would not be more easily bearable than otherwise. Neither is there living on earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion; for everyone, if he receives nothing else through my intercession, receives the grace of being less tempted by evil spirits than he otherwise would be; no one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed [by which is meant the final and irrevocable malediction pronounced against the damned], is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy his mercy if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of mercy, and truly the mercy of God towards men has made me so merciful towards them.” And then she concluded by saying”Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.”

Accepting the Rough with the Smooth
It is important that we acknowledge and accept both sides of God—His justice and His mercy. It is our childishness and irresponsibility that hates to accept the side of justice, while wallowing on the side of mercy. The devil will happily assist us in this exercise. We will post, once more, at the end of this article, the hypothetical “Purgatory Calculator” so that we can see and shockingly see the side of justice—which hopefully scares sin right out of us and makes to start working hard to earn God’s mercy in the time that we have left in each of our lives. The justice, anger and chastisement is not meant to make us despondent, depressed or discouraged—but it is meant to give us a hatred of sin, a hatred of our past deeds, a hatred of future sin, and a great hope in the mercy of God, who nevertheless requires that justice be done. However, if we decide to pay now, rather than later, then we will experience a massive ‘discount price’ on justice. If we foolishly decide to pay after death, then we shall find ‘massive interest rates’ being added to our payments. So we have to hope that we can pay-off most of (or all of) what we owe here below—so that our ‘retirement scheme’ is truly “out of this world.” Hope and confidence in God are as much a commandment as faith and the other virtues.

Excessive Fear Blinds Us To Truth
The great danger of despondency is that―being deceived by an excessive fear which makes us blind to the truth, and being discouraged at the sight of difficulties or in seeing the difficulty in changes and efforts we would have to make, against which we find no resource in ourselves―we stupidly fail to see this despondency as the effect of temptation. Could we only see it in that light, we should beware of the suggestions that entertain it, and should get rid of our trouble more quickly and more easily.

Despondency is only a Temptation
Let it, however, be well understood that despondency is a temptation, and bears all the marks of being such ; for every feeling that is opposed to the law of God, either in itself or by the consequences it may have, is evidently a temptation. It is thus we judge of every temptation to which we are liable. If we have a thought against faith, a feeling against charity or some other virtue, we look upon it as a temptation; we turn away from it, and try to elicit acts opposed to the thought or feeling which has put us in danger of offending God.

Now, hope and confidence in God are commanded equally with faith and the other virtues. Therefore the feeling which is opposed to hope is as much forbidden as that which is against faith or any other virtue: it has thus every feature of a real temptation.

The law of God obliges us frequently to make acts of faith, hope, and charity; and hence forbids us all willful feelings contrary to these sacred and necessary virtues. How, then, can despondency be viewed otherwise than as a temptation, and even as a very dangerous temptation, since it exposes the Christian soul to abandon every work of piety?

Hope Is The Antidote
To make this danger clearer to you, consider the general course of conduct among men. Is it not the hope of success, of gaining some advantage, of avoiding some evil, or of satisfying some desire or passion, which makes them act , which keeps them going in all their labors, and animates them to overcome their difficulties? Take away from them all hope, and they would soon fall into inaction. None but a madman would strive for an object which he despairs of obtaining. In our spiritual life, despondency produces the same effect; it is founded on the same principle, the lack of a means to reach the end which we propose to ourselves. But this despondency is built upon a failure to see the truth of things, a failure to see the real reality, which is covered by our imagined reality or ‘wishful-thinking’ reality!

Feeble Efforts & Fear of Failure
When we lose all hope of overcoming the difficulties which we may find in the practice of any virtue, we do not try, or but feebly, to make the effort to do so. These insufficient efforts only increase our weakness, and being more than half overcome by despondency, we are easily led away by the passion that sways us. The sense of our weakness first throws us into doubt and into trouble. In that state, thinking only of the difficulty of the combat, we do not distinguish the principles that ought to guide us. The fear of not succeeding, prevents us from employing the means which God has given us, and we are thus defenseless against our enemy.

We are like a child who, seeing the approach of a giant, begins to tremble, and forgets that a stone thrown in the name of the Lord may knock him out and lay him flat. In the same way we forget that we have a powerful help in the goodness of a caring Father, upon Whom we have only to call, to be victorious in all our struggles.

We Rely Too Much On Ourselves
Why does despondency make such strong and fatal impressions on us? We are obviously convinced of our weakness, for we have often experienced it. We painfully feel the difficulty of trying to overcome ourselves, as we succeed but rarely. Filled with these sad and discouraging reflections of our lack of spiritual strength, and of the little that we do to please God, we consider it useless to have recourse to Him, Who, we think, will not listen to our prayer while we are in our present state. This is merely the sad evidence of the pride within the human heart, that would wish to owe to itself all the good which it does, and the happiness to which it aspires! And how opposed to the words of the Holy Ghost: “What hast thou, that thou hast not received?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)

Rely on God’s Mercy
In such a state we see and depend only upon our own efforts, so that our despondency diminishes, ceases, returns, or increases, according as we act well or ill. We do not reflect that it is only from the mercy of God we can hope for help, and not by our own merits; that when we have done well it is through the grace of God, which we have not merited, and that, in every circumstance, this mercy is ever ready to dispense to us the necessary grace.

However, we have to supply a basis for God giving us the grace of mercy, just as there had to be something for Our Lord to feed the 4,000 and the 5,000 people. We have to supply, so to speak, the meager “loaves and fishes” and He will take them and do much with them. As we already stated, it is like cents being changed into dollars, or even gold. Our loaves and fishes are our prayers and penances. We have to give a regular and steady supply of them to offset and feed the ‘thousands’ of days of punishment that our sins hungrily demand. God will work with us, but He will not do all the work without us. As one saint put it: “God will save man, but not without the cooperation of man.”

Imitate the Saints
When these desponding souls are told that they ought, after the example of the saints, to put all their confidence in God, they will at once answer that it is not surprising that the saints had confidence in God, since they were saints, and served God with fidelity: but that they have not the same right to feel that perfect confidence in Him which the saints had. They do not perceive that such reasoning is contrary to the principles of true religion.

Hope is only Found in God
Hope is a theological virtue, and its motive can be found only in God. These souls make it a human virtue when its source or motive is recognized in man or in his ways. The saints did not hope in God because they were faithful to God, but they were faithful to God because they hoped in Him. Otherwise the sinner could never make an act of hope, and yet it is that very act of hope which disposes him to return to God.

Great Humility
Observe that St. Paul does not say, I have obtained mercy because I have been faithful, but “Having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful” (1 Corinthians 6:25). Mercy always precedes the good which we do; and it is from mercy alone that we have the necessary grace to do any good at all. The saints never counted upon their works to strengthen their confidence in God, for they were ever mindful of the words of Our Savior: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants” (Luke 17:10).

The greater saints they were, the greater was their humility. Their humility allowed them to see only the perfection to which they had not yet reached. Unlike the Pharisee in the Gospel, they found nothing in themselves to warrant their confidence, but in the mercy of God they sought and found a confidence, the foundations of which could not be shaken. This was what supported them, and this it is which must encourage you, and reanimate your fainting strength. It is of the utmost importance for you to understand this truth, that you may not again fall into the snare which your enemy has so often laid for you.

The True Motive For Christian Hope
According to religion the motive of Christian hope, or of confidence in God, is the same for all men, saints and sinners. Hope, as we have already said, is a theological virtue, like faith and charity. Its motive, then, can be found only in God, and can rest only upon divine perfection. It follows, therefore, that we exclude from this motive our own merits. We do not hope in God because we have been faithful to Him, but we hope in Him that we may obtain the grace to be faithful.

God is Faithful to His Promises—He will Help
On what, then, is Christian hope founded, and what is its motive, according to religion? Pope Benedict XIV, in his form of the Act of Hope, has pointed out the divine perfections, which constitute this motive. The act is this: “O my God, I hope in Thee, because Thou art faithful to Thy all powerful promises, and because Thy mercies are infinite.” In this motive there is nothing human-all is drawn from God Himself. And could there be a stronger motive to strengthen us in hope and confidence in God?

We here find the mercy of God, who is more anxious to shower His gifts upon man than man is to receive them; who desires their real good and their salvation much more sincerely than they desire it themselves, since He restrains them by His grace, which of themselves they could not merit, and since He prepares for them aid proportionate to the trials to which He exposes them-an aid which they can obtain by prayer, and with it conquer the evil one. This mercy is so infinite, that all the malice of mankind cannot exhaust it; and, after having manifested itself so wonderfully in the gift which God has granted us, His only Son for our ransom, it will not refuse us the assistance which He desires to afford us in this priceless benefit.

Effects of Divine Mercy
The effects of this divine mercy have been promised to us, by the assurances which God has made us, of coming to our assistance, whenever we ask it, to work out our salvation. God, who is truth itself, cannot deceive us, and He is essentially faithful to the promises He makes His creatures. But we find in the Holy Scripture the most touching exhortations to have recourse to Him in our necessities, with the promise that He will be our support and our strength. How, then, can we have any anxiety or seriously entertain any fear that He will reject or abandon us, when we call upon Him with confidence? Would not this be accusing God of not keeping His promise? But that would be blasphemy.

It is true that to grant our prayer God requires that we should call upon Him with confidence—but should we deserve to obtain His benefits if we asked them with a doubting heart; doubting that very goodness of which we are experiencing the effect every instant of our lives, and in so many thousand ways?

Purgatorial Calculator
Below, once again, you will see the hyypothetical ‘Purgatorial Calculator’. Of course, there is no ‘black and white’ way that Purgatory is calculated, in a ridiculous kind of “one-size-fits-all” manner! The gravity of each sin is weighed, with it malice, deliberation, mitigating or aggravating circumstances, possibilities of avoidance, etc. The same sin, looking on the surface of things, will receive a varying degrees of punishment for different people. However, the purpose of the chart is to shock or spark us into action to try pay a massive debt with relatively little effort in this world (as compared to Purgatory) and this is what God would prefer in His mercy, rather than have to make us pay later through His justice.

Do Not Undervalue the Gravity of Sin
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.

As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).

Do Not Undervalue the Power of Love
While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?

One single act of perfect love combined with perfect contrition—sorrow for sin our sins out of a deep love of God and sorrow for having deeply offended someone who loves us so much—is enough to wipe out the entire debt for sin that we would have to pay in Purgatory! Yet that perfect love cannot be switched-on at will like a light-switch. That love must fed by many penances, sacrifices and mortifications; that love must grow through many prayers, readings and meditations. It is like a baby going and growing through all the different stages of life on its way to becoming an adult—babies are not microwaved, nor is love. It is the fruit of long years of effort.

Monday November 18th

Article 18
The Joy, the Pain, the Love and the Mercy of Purgatory

Connecting with Catherine
We turn, once again, to St. Catherine of Genoa for this look at the Joy, the Pain, the Love and the Mercy of Purgatory and we will quote a length from that beautiful Treatise on Purgatory that she wrote. Before we do that, a brief review (once again) of her life will not go amiss. Born at Genoa in 1447, and destined to die there in 1510, the life of St. Catherine of Genoa is an encouragement for all of us and also as an example for our children. Her lot in life is one that many can relate to, which makes her a ‘real-life’ kind of saint and not a ‘fairy-tale’ kind of saint.

Noble and Wealthy Family
St. Catherine’s parents were Jacopo Fieschi and Francesca di Negro, both of illustrious Italian birth. Two popes — Innocent IV and Adrian V — had been of the Fieschi family, and Jacopo himself became Viceroy of Naples. Catherine is described as an extraordinarily holy child, highly gifted in the way of prayer (who encourages children to pray these days?), and with a wonderful love of reading Christ’s Passion and of penitential practices; but, also, as having been a most quiet, simple, and exceedingly obedient girl. When about thirteen, she wished to enter the convent, but the nuns, to whom her confessor applied, having refused her on account of her youth, she appears to have put the idea aside without any further attempt.

Tough and Painful Marriage
At sixteen, she was married by her parents’ wish to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno. The marriage turned out wretchedly; Giuliano proved faithless, violent-tempered, and a spendthrift. He made the life of his wife a misery. Details are scanty, but it seems at least clear that Catherine spent the first five years of her marriage in silent, melancholy submission to her husband; and that she then, for another five, turned a little to the world for consolation in her troubles.

Lukewarm Lady Leaves Lukewarmness
The distractions she took were most innocent and not sinful; nevertheless, destined as she was for an extraordinary life, they had the effect in her case of producing lukewarmness, the end of which was such intense weariness and depression that she prayed earnestly for a return of her old fervor. Then, just ten years after her marriage, came the event of her life, in answer to her prayer. She went one day, full of melancholy, to a convent in Genoa where she had a sister, a nun. The latter advised her to go to confession to the nuns’ confessor, and Catherine agreed. She had barely knelt down in the confessional, when a ray of Divine light pierced her soul, and in one moment manifested to Catherine her own sinfulness and the Love of God with equal clearness. The revelation was so overwhelming that she lost consciousness and fell into a kind of ecstasy, for a space of time during which the confessor happened to be called away. When he returned, Catherine could only murmur that she would put off her confession, and go home quickly.

From the moment of that sudden vision of herself and God, the saint’s interior state seems never to have changed, save by varying in intensity and being accompanied by more or less severe penance, according to what she saw required of her by the Holy Spirit Who guided her incessantly. God granted to her an intimate knowledge of Purgatory and the state of souls detained there and the processes of purification. Here are some of her writings on the subject. We have reclassified them into four loose categories—which unavoidably overlap—of Joy, Pain, Love and Mercy. At the end, we include St. Catherine’s warning to mankind.

JOY

“That which man judges to be perfect, in the sight of God is defect. For all the works of man, which appear faultless, when he considers them, feels, remembers, wills and understands them, are, if he does not refer them to God, corrupt and sinful. For, to the perfection of our works it is necessary that they be wrought in us but not of us. In the works of God it is He that is the prime mover, and not man” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“These works, which God effects in the soul by Himself alone, which are the last operations of pure and simple love in which we have no merit, so pierce and inflame the soul that the body which envelops her seems to be hiding a fire, or like one in a furnace, who can find no rest but death. It is true that the divine love which overwhelms the soul gives, as I think, a peace greater than can be expressed; yet this peace does not in the least diminish her pains, nay, it is love delayed which occasions them, and they are greater in proportion to the perfection of the love of which God has made her capable” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“Thus have these souls in Purgatory great pleasure and great pain; nor does the one impede the other. There is no peace to be compared with that of the souls in Purgatory, save that of the saints in paradise, and this peace is ever augmented by the inflowing of God into these souls, which increases in proportion as the impediments to it are removed” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“I see that the souls in Purgatory behold a double operation. The first is that of the mercy of God; for while they suffer their torments willingly, they perceive that God has been very good to them, considering what they have deserved and how great are their offenses in His eyes. For if His goodness did not temper justice with mercy (satisfying it with the precious blood of Jesus Christ), one sin alone would deserve a thousand hells. They suffer their pains so willingly that they would not lighten them in the least, knowing how justly they have been deserved. They resist the will of God no more than if they had already entered upon eternal life.

“The other operation is that satisfaction they experience in beholding how loving and merciful have been the divine decrees in all that regards them. In one instant God impresses these two things upon their minds, and as they are in grace they comprehend them as they are, yet each according to her capacity. They experience thence a great and never-failing satisfaction which constantly increases as they approach to God. They see all things, not in themselves, nor by themselves, but as they are in God, on whom they are more intent than on their sufferings. For the least vision they can have of God overbalances all woes and all joys that can be conceived. Yet their joy in God does by no means abate their pain.

PAIN

“The soul, leaving the body, and not finding in herself that purity in which she was created, and seeing also the hindrances which prevent her union with God, conscious also that Purgatory only can remove them, casts herself quickly and willingly therein. And if she did not find the means ordained for her purification, she would instantly create for herself a Hell worse than Purgatory, seeing that by reason of this impediment she is hindered from approaching her end, which is God; and this is so great an ill that in comparison with it the soul esteems Purgatory as nothing. True it is, as I have said, like Hell; and yet, in comparison with the loss of God it is as nothing. Knowing, then, that Purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“The great importance of Purgatory, neither mind can conceive nor tongue describe. I see only that its pains are as great as those of Hell; and yet I see that a soul, stained with the slightest fault, receiving this mercy, counts its pains as naught in comparison with this hindrance to her love” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“The pain never diminishes, although the time does, but as to the will, so united is it to God by pure charity, and so satisfied to be under His divine appointment, that these souls can never say their pains are pains. On the other hand, it is true that they suffer torments which no tongue can describe, nor any intelligence comprehend, unless it be revealed by such a special grace as that which God has vouchsafed to me, but which I am unable to explain” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“Since the souls in Purgatory are freed from the guilt of sin, there is no barrier between them and God, except the pains they suffer, which delay the satisfaction of their desire. And when they see how serious is even the slightest hindrance, which the necessity of justice causes to check them, a vehement flame kindles within them, which is like that of Hell. They feel no guilt however, and it is guilt which is the cause of the malignant will of the condemned in Hell, to whom God does not communicate His goodness, and thus they remain in despair and with a will forever opposed to the good will of God” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“I repeat, it is the view of all these things which causes the pain of the suffering souls in Purgatory, not that they esteem their pains as great (cruel though they be), but they count as far worse, that opposition, which they find in themselves, to the will of that God, whom they behold burning for them with so ardent and so pure a love” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

LOVE

“So it is with the rust of sin, which is the covering of the soul. The rust of sin is the impediment, and this the fire continually consumes … In Purgatory the flames incessantly consume it, and as it disappears, the soul reflects more and more perfectly the true sun who is God. Its contentment increases as this rust wears away, and the soul is laid bare to the divine ray, and thus one increases and the other decreases until the time is accomplished” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“According as God finds the soul more or less freed from the hindrances of sin, it follows that, when He finds a soul that is returning to the purity and simplicity in which she was created, He increased in her the beatific instinct, and kindles in her a fire of charity so powerful and vehement, that it is insupportable to the soul to find any obstacle between her and her end; and the clearer vision she has of these obstacles the greater is her pain” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“And if a soul, retaining the slightest stain, were to draw near to God in the beatific vision, it would be to her a more grievous injury, and inflict more suffering, than Purgatory itself. Nor could God Himself, who is pure goodness and supreme justice, and the sight of God, not yet entirely satisfied (so long as the least possible purification remained to be accomplished) would be intolerable to her, and she would cast herself into the deepest Hell rather than stand before Him and be still impure” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“The souls in Purgatory are entirely conformed to the will of God; therefore, they correspond with His goodness, are contented with all that He ordains, and are entirely purified from the guilt of their sins. They are pure from sins, because they have in this life abhorred them and confessed them with true contrition, and for this reason God remits their guilt, so that only the stains of sin remain, and these must be devoured by the fire” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“And I know that the greatest misery of the souls in Purgatory is to behold in themselves aught that displeases God, and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they had consented to it. And this is because, being in the state of grace, they see the reality and the importance of the impediments which hinder their approach to God” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“I behold such a great conformity between God and the soul, that when He finds her pure as when His divine majesty first created her He gives her an attractive force of ardent love which would annihilate her if she were not immortal. He so transforms her into Himself that, forgetting all, she no longer sees aught beside Him; and He continues to draw her toward Him, inflames her with love, and never leaves her until He has brought her to that state from whence she first came forth, that is, to the perfect purity in which she was created” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“When the soul beholds within herself the amorous flame by which she is drawn toward her sweet Master and her God, the burning heat of love overpowers her and she melts. Then, in that divine light she sees how God, by His great care and constant providence, never ceases to attract her to her last perfection, and that He does so through pure love alone. She sees, too, that she herself, clogged by sin, cannot follow that attraction toward God, that is, that reconciling glance which He casts upon her that He may draw her to Himself” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“This love, with its unifying regard, is ever drawing these souls, as if it had no other thing to do; and when the soul beholds this, if she could find a yet more painful Purgatory in which she could be more quickly cleansed, she would plunge at once therein, impelled by the burning, mutual love between herself and God” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“From that furnace of divine love I see rays of fire dart like burning lamps towards the soul; and so violent and powerful are they that both soul and body would be utterly destroyed, if that were possible. These rays perform a double office; they purify and they annihilate. The soul, however, cannot be annihilated in God, but in herself she can, and the longer her purification lasts, the more perfectly does she die to herself, until at length she remains purified in God” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

MERCY

“At her creation the soul received all the means of attaining perfection of which her nature was capable, in order that she might conform to the will of God and keep herself from contracting any stain; but being directly contaminated by Original Sin, she loses her gifts and graces and even her life. Nor can she be regenerated save by the help of God, for even after Baptism, her inclination to evil remains, which, if she does not resist it, disposes and leads her to mortal sin, through which she dies again” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“God again restores her by a further special grace; yet, she is still so sullied and so bent on herself, that to restore her to her primitive innocence, without all those divine operations, she could never be restored. When the soul has reentered the path which leads to her first estate, she is inflamed with so burning a desire to be transformed into God, that in it she finds her Purgatory. Not, indeed, that she regards her Purgatory as being such, but this desire, so fiery and so powerfully repressed, becomes her Purgatory” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“This final act of love accomplishes its work alone, finding the soul with so many hidden imperfections, that the mere sight of them, were it presented to her, would drive her to despair. This last operation, however, consumes them all, and when they are destroyed God makes them known to the soul to make her understand the divine action by which her purity was restored” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“It is evident that the revolt of man’s will, from that of God, constitutes sin, and while that revolt continues, man’s guilt remains. Those, therefore, that are in Hell, having passed from this life with perverse wills, their guilt is not remitted, nor can it be, since they are no longer capable of change. Those in Purgatory, on the other hand, suffer the penalty only, for their guilt was cancelled at death, when they were found hating their sins and penitent for having offended the divine goodness. And this penalty has an end, for the term of it is ever approaching. O misery beyond all misery, and the greater because in his blindness, man regards it not! Oh, what peril attaches to sin willfully committed! For it is so difficult for man to bring himself to penance, and without penitence guilt remains and will ever remain, so long as man retains unchanged the will to sin, or is intent upon committing it” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“If by repentance, the souls in Purgatory could purify themselves, a moment would suffice to cancel their whole debt, so overwhelming would be the force of the contrition produced by the clear vision they have of the magnitude of every obstacle which hinders them from God, their love and their final end” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“And, know for certain that not one farthing of their debt is remitted to these souls. This is the decree of divine justice; it is thus that God wills. But, on the other hand, these souls have no longer any will apart from that of God, and can neither see nor desire aught but by His appointment” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“And if pious offerings be made for them by persons in this world, they cannot now note them with satisfaction, unless, indeed, in reference to the will of God and the balance of His justice, leaving to Him the ordering of the whole, who repays Himself as best pleases His infinite goodness. Could they regard these alms apart from the divine will concerning them, this would be a return to self, which would shut from their view the will of God, and that would be to them like Hell. Therefore they are unmoved by whatever God gives them, whether it be pleasure or pain, nor can they ever again revert to self.” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

ST. CATHERINE’S WARNING

“Would that I could utter so strong a cry that it would strike all men with terror, and say to them: O wretched beings! Why are you so blinded by this world that you make, as you will find at the hour of death, no provision for the great necessity that will then come upon you?” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“You shelter yourselves beneath your hope in the mercy of God, which you unceasingly exalt, not seeing that it is your resistance to His great goodness which will be your condemnation. His goodness should constrain you to do His will, not encourage you to persevere in your own. Since His justice is unfailing, it must therefore be in some way fully satisfied” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

“Have not the boldness to say: ‘I will go to confession and gain a plenary indulgence and thus I shall be saved.’ Remember that the full confession and entire contrition which are requisite to gain a plenary indulgence are not easily attained. Did you know how hardly they are come by, you would tremble with fear and be more sure of losing than of gaining them” (St. Catherine of Genoa).

Sunday November 17th

Article 17
The Mercies of God

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Mercy and Justice Stand Together
There are some who are mainly inclined to justice, and show little or no mercy. There are others who are inclined to mercy, but show little or no justice. Not so with God! He is extreme in both regards—which is something we find hard to grasp. “The Lord is merciful and just” (Psalm 114:5). We might think, “How can loving God keep souls that He loves, in the fires of Purgatory (which are the same as the fires of Hell), sometimes for centuries on end?” The reason we cannot see the mercy and justice in that action is because we have cheap notions about God and about sin — whereas both are extreme. God is extremely holy and honorable — sin is extremely evil and detestable. However, we neither honor and love God as much as we should; neither do we hate and flee sin as much as we should. The result is—if we can scrape in there by the skin of our teeth — Purgatory, which helps us finally understand both those extremes. Yet even Purgatory is an extremely merciful place, for nobody there is punished as much as they could be punished, and God grants consolations even amongst the terrible pain—like a parent trying to comfort a seriously injured child and then nursing him back to full health.

Mercy Now is Better Than Mercy Later
Even though Purgatory is a merciful price to pay for Heaven, God offers an even more merciful price to those who are still living here on earth. We can obtain mercy here below, as we have said, for mere cents on the dollar; whereas after this life, it will seem like we are paying thousands of dollars on a single cent! “I say to thee, thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59).”Let him do penance for his sin” (Leviticus 5:5). “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good” (Galatians 6:10).

Penance Pays Profitably
“And if they be converted in their heart and do penance, and pray to Thee, saying: ‘We have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have dealt unjustly!’ And return to Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul: Then hear Thou from Heaven and forgive Thy people, although they have sinned” (2 Paralipomenon 6:37-39). “And My people, upon whom My Name is called, being converted, shall make supplication to Me, and seek out My Face, and do penance for their most wicked ways: then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins” (2 Paralipomenon 7:14). “‘If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool,’ saith the Lord” (Isaias 1:18).”Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance” (Job 21:2). “I came to call sinners to penance” (Luke 5:32). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Do penance: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2).”God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). “If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord” (Ecclesiasticus 2:22). Penance is the price for sin that must be paid—either Present Penance, or Purgatorial Penance. Paying in the present is much easier, much shorter, much wiser.

We read in the book of Ezechiel: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die” (33:11) ... “If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? But if the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? All his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: in the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and in his sin, which he hath committed, in them he shall die” (18:21-24).

Even Our Lady stresses this need to pay for our sins before we die—whether by the name of penance, sacrifice or suffering—she has mentioned this repeatedly.”The leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance” (La Salette) … “Communities can only be preserved at the cost of much penance” (Quito) … “Penance! Penance! Penance!” (Lourdes) … “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger” (Akita) … “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices” (Fatima) … “Others will do penance through hunger” (La Salette) … “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you” (Fatima, the angel) … “You are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort … Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God” (Fatima).

Sister Lucia on Penance and Mercy
In her 1957 conversation with Fr. Fuentes, Sister Lucia said: “Father, we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call from our bishops in our dioceses, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already, very often, used these means and the world has not paid attention. That is why now it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually.”

On June 13th, 1929, Lucia saw another important apparition involving Mary as she was making a Holy Hour in the convent chapel at Tuy in Spain, as was her custom on Thursday nights from eleven to twelve. She was alone, praying the prayers of the Angel in the dim light of the sanctuary lamp when,

“Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side.

“These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. (It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames). Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy.’”

The Rosary and Mercy
“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved” (Akita) … “Say the Rosary every day … Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you … I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day” (Fatima).

St. Louis de Montfort speaks much of the Rosary and its merciful benefits: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never fading crown of glory’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if — and mark well what I say — if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins” (Secret of the Rosary: “A Red Rose”).

Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic and said: “Priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in His mercy could hardly refuse to give them His grace” (Secret of the Rosary: “Third Rose”).

Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary, so he used to hang a large Rosary on his belt, though he never said it himself. Nevertheless, his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary devoutly. One day the King fell seriously ill and, when he was given up for dead, he found himself, in spirit, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord was about to condemn him, when Our Lady came forward to speak in his favor. She called for a pair of scales and had his sins placed in one of the balances, while she put the large Rosary which he had always worn on the other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said through his example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins. Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said, “As a reward for the little service you did for me in wearing my Rosary, I have obtained a great grace for you from my Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See that you spend those years wisely, and do penance.”

Sister Lucia on the Rosary and Mercy
Sister Lucia stresses that so many mercies can come to us through the Rosary—it the tool or weapon of this age that we live in: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”

St. Thomas Aquinas on Mercy
St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “Mercy and truth are necessarily found in all God’s works … [also] justice must exist in all God’s works. Certain works are attributed to justice, and certain others to mercy, because in some justice appears more forcibly and in others mercy. Even in the damnation of the reprobate mercy is seen, which, though it does not totally remit, yet it somewhat alleviates, in punishing short of what is deserved. In the justification of the ungodly, justice is seen, when God remits sins on account of love, though He Himself has mercifully infused that love. So we read of Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47).” (Summa Theologica, 1a, q. 21, art 4)

In bestowing good on creatures, God manifests his goodness. In meeting the needs of creatures, he manifests his justice. In bestowing all that is useful, God manifests his liberality. And in giving what counteracts miseries and defects, God shows his mercy. In all the works of God, justice and mercy are manifest.

Mercy begets Mercy
St. Thomas spoke of Mary Magdalen, quoting Our Lord’s words concerning her:”Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). Our Lord had also said: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). These two—charity and mercy—are linked, for mercy is a room in the mansion of charity. When we show mercy, we practice charity. Hence, “charity [mercy] covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

This was also the message given to the Venerable Catherine Paluzzi, by a holy Religious, who died in her arms, but who was not admitted to eternal beatitude until after she had passed an entire year in Purgatory. Catherine Paluzzi led a holy life in the diocese of Nepi, in Italy, where she founded a convent of Dominicans. There lived with her a Religious named Bernardine, who was far advanced in the ways of the spiritual life. These two saints emulated each other in fervor, and helped each other to progress more and more in the perfection to which God called them. The biographer of Venerable Catherine compares them to two live coals that communicate heat to each other; and again, to two harps tuned to harmonize together in one perpetual hymn of love to the greater glory of God.

Bernardine died; a painful malady, which she bore with Christian patience, carried her to the grave. Catherine prayed much for the soul of her friend. An entire year elapsed when, on the anniversary of the death of Bernardine, Catherine being in prayer, saw a pit from which came volumes of smoke and flames; then she saw, coming out of the pit, a form surrounded by dark clouds. By degrees these dark clouds were dispersed, and the apparition became radiant with an extraordinary brilliancy.

In this glorious personage Catherine recognized Bernardine and ran towards her.”Is it you, my dearest sister?” said she, “But from where have you just come? What is this pit, this fiery smoke? Does your Purgatory end only today?” “You are right,”replied the soul; “for a year I have been detained in that place of expiation, and today, for the first time, shall I enter Heaven. As regards yourself, persevere in your holy exercises: continue to be charitable and merciful, and you will obtain mercy” (Diario Domenicano. Cf. Rossignoli, Merveilles, part 2, 51).

A Lack of Mercy will Lose God’s Mercy
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). “Who keepest mercy unto thousands: who takest away iniquity, and wickedness, and sin” (Exodus 34:7). “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32). “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). But “judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy” (James 2:13). This reminds us of the unjust and unforgiving steward, who was forgiven a large debt by his master, but then refused to forgive his neighbor a small debt.

“Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:23-35).

The Sin of Presumption
There are those who, ever-reminding themselves of the mercy of God, presume to sin wantonly, thinking that mercy will still be shown to them. This is not so! “Say not: ‘The mercy of the Lord is great, he will have mercy on the multitude of my sins!’” (Ecclesiasticus 5:6). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7).”Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Luke 4:12).

St. Alphonsus says: “The sinner who abandons himself to sin without striving to resist temptations, or without at least asking God’s help to conquer them, and hopes that the Lord will one day draw him from the precipice, tempts God to work miracles, or rather to show to him an extraordinary mercy that is not extended to the generality of Christians … He numbers the graces which he dispenses, as well as the sins which we commit. Hence, when the time which he has fixed arrives, God deprives us of his graces, and begins to inflict chastisement … When sins reach a certain number, God pardons no more … God is ready to heal those who sincerely wish to amend their lives, but cannot take pity on the obstinate sinner” (Sermon: First Sunday of Lent).

Now is the Acceptable Time
We read in the Old Testament: “Thus saith the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee’” (Isaias 49:8) and St. Paul echoes that in the New Testament, telling us that now is time, here on earth, to work out our salvation: “For God saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, with fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).

Remembering that the Lord is merciful to those who truly sorrow over their sins, seeking to repair the damage caused by them. “And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him” (Luke 1:50). “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy” (Joel 2:13). “I said: ‘O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee’” (Psalms 40:5). “Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for Thou art a merciful God, and have pity on us: for we have sinned before Thee” (Baruch 3:2). “And they called upon the Lord who is merciful, and spreading their hands, they lifted them up to Heaven: and the holy Lord God quickly heard their voice” (Ecclesiasticus 48:22).

Saturday November 16th

Article 16
The Joys of Purgatory

Feast of St. Gertrude—November 16th
Little is known of the early life of Gertrude. Gertrude was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia (within the Holy Roman Empire). At the age of four, she entered the monastery school at the monastery of St. Mary at Helfta (with much debate having occurred as to whether this monastery is best described as Benedictine or Cistercian), under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. It is speculated that she was offered as a child oblate to the Church by devout parents. Given that Gertrude implies in the Herald that her parents were long dead at the time of writing, however, it is also possible that she entered the monastery school as an orphan.

Gertrude was confided to the care of St. Mechtilde, younger sister of the Abbess Gertrude, and joined the monastic community in 1266. It is clear from her own writings that she received a thorough education in a range of subjects. She was thoroughly familiar with scripture, the Fathers of the Church such as St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, and also in more contemporary spiritual writers such as Richard and Hugh of St Victor, William of St Thierry, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Moreover, Gertrude’s writing demonstrates that she was well-versed in rhetoric, and her Latin is very fluent.

In 1281, at the age of twenty-five, she experienced the first of a series of visions that continued throughout her life, and which changed the course of her life. Her priorities shifted away from secular knowledge and toward the study of Scripture and theology. Gertrude devoted herself strongly to personal prayer and meditation, and began writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her monastic sisters. Gertrude became one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St. Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called “nuptial mysticism,” that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ. Gertrude died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, around 1302. Her feastday is celebrated on November 16th.

St. Gertrude and Purgatory
St. Gertrude the Great is invoked for souls in Purgatory and for living sinners. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well. However, we should realize that prayer should not be said mechanically or listlessly without any love, nor deliberately distracted, nor rushed—for this would be sinful, and it is hard to believe that sinful prayer is very effective, as it deserves, not a reward, but a punishment. So we should avoid treating prayers like this one as one would look upon a lucky charm.

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”

St. Catherine of Genoa
Passing from one Saint linked with Purgatory to another, we will look at the life and writings of St. Catherine of Genoa. Born at Genoa in 1447, died at the same place on September 15th, 1510, the life of St. Catherine of Genoa may be more properly described as a state than as a life in the ordinary sense. When about twenty-six years old, she became the subject of one of the most extraordinary operations of God in the human soul of which we have record, the result being a marvelous inward condition that lasted till her death. In this state, she received wonderful revelations, of which she spoke at times to those around her, but which are mainly embodied in her two celebrated works: the “Dialogues of the Soul and Body”, and the “Treatise on Purgatory”. Her modern biographies, chiefly translations or adaptations of an old Italian one which is itself founded on”Memoirs” drawn up by the saint’s own confessor and a friend, mingle what facts they give of her outward life with accounts of her supernatural state and “doctrine

Tough and Painful Marriage
St. Catherine’s parents were Jacopo Fieschi and Francesca di Negro, both of illustrious Italian birth. Two popes — Innocent IV and Adrian V — had been of the Fieschi family, and Jacopo himself became Viceroy of Naples. Catherine is described as an extraordinarily holy child, highly gifted in the way of prayer, and with a wonderful love of Christ’s Passion and of penitential practices; but, also, as having been a most quiet, simple, and exceedingly obedient girl. When about thirteen, she wished to enter the convent, but the nuns to whom her confessor applied having refused her on account of her youth, she appears to have put the idea aside without any further attempt. At sixteen, she was married by her parents’ wish to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno. The marriage turned out wretchedly; Giuliano proved faithless, violent-tempered, and a spendthrift. He made the life of his wife a misery. Details are scanty, but it seems at least clear that Catherine spent the first five years of her marriage in silent, melancholy submission to her husband; and that she then, for another five, turned a little to the world for consolation in her troubles.

The distractions she took were most innocent; nevertheless, destined as she was for an extraordinary life, they had the effect in her case of producing lukewarmness, the end of which was such intense weariness and depression that she prayed earnestly for a return of her old fervor. Then, just ten years after her marriage, came the event of her life, in answer to her prayer. She went one day, full of melancholy, to a convent in Genoa where she had a sister, a nun. The latter advised her to go to confession to the nuns’ confessor, and Catherine agreed. No sooner, however, had she knelt down in the confessional than a ray of Divine light pierced her soul, and in one moment manifested her own sinfulness and the Love of God with equal clearness. The revelation was so overwhelming that she lost consciousness and fell into a kind of ecstacy, for a space during which the confessor happened to be called away. When he returned, Catherine could only murmur that she would put off her confession, and go home quickly.

St. Catherine’s Treatise on Purgatory
From the moment of that sudden vision of herself and God, the saint’s interior state seems never to have changed, save by varying in intensity and being accompanied by more or less severe penance, according to what she saw required of her by the Holy Spirit Who guided her incessantly. No one could describe it except herself; but she does so, minutely, in her writings, which we will now examine. What follows is taken from her “Treatise on Purgatory”.

No Choice—No Remembrance—No Sadness
“As far as I can see, the souls in Purgatory can have no choice but to be there; this God has most justly ordained by His divine decree. They cannot turn towards themselves and say: ‘I have committed such and such sins for which I deserve to remain here;’ nor can they say: ‘Would that I had refrained from them, for then I should at this moment be in paradise;’ nor again: ‘This soul will be released before me;’ or ‘I shall be released before her.’ They retain no memory of either good or evil respecting themselves or others which would increase their pain. They are so contented with the divine dispositions in their regard; and with doing all that is pleasing to God in that way which He chooses, that they cannot think of themselves, though they may strive to do so. They see nothing but the operation of the divine goodness which is so manifestly bringing them to God that they can reflect neither on their own profit, nor on their hurt. Could they do so, they would not be in pure charity. They see not that they suffer their pains in consequence of their sins, nor can they for a moment entertain that thought, for should they do so it would be an active imperfection, and that cannot exist in a state where there is no longer the possibility of sin.

“At the moment of leaving this life they see why they are sent to Purgatory, but never again, otherwise they would still retain something private, which has no place there. Being established in charity, they can never deviate therefrom by any defect, and have no will or desire, save the pure will of pure love, and can swerve from it in nothing. They can neither commit sin, nor merit by refraining from it.”

Purgatory—A Place of Pain and Peace
“There is no peace to be compared with that of the souls in Purgatory, save that of the saints in paradise, and this peace is ever augmented by the inflowing of God into these souls, which increases in proportion as the impediments to it are removed. The rust of sin is the impediment, and this the fire continually consumes, so that the soul in this state is continually opening itself to admit the divine communication. As a covered surface can never reflect the sun, not through any defect in that orb, but simply from the resistance offered by the covering, so, if the covering be gradually removed, the surface will by little and little be opened to the sun and will more and more reflect His light.

“So it is with the rust of sin, which is the covering of the soul. In Purgatory the flames incessantly consume it, and as it disappears, the soul reflects more and more perfectly the true sun who is God. Its contentment increases as this rust wears away, and the soul is laid bare to the divine ray, and thus one increases and the other decreases until the time is accomplished. The pain never diminishes, although the time does, but as to the will, so united is it to God by pure charity, and so satisfied to be under His divine appointment, that these souls can never say their pains are pains.

The Pain of Purgatory
“On the other hand, it is true that they suffer torments which no tongue can describe nor any intelligence comprehend, unless it be revealed by such a special grace as that which God has vouchsafed to me, but which I am unable to explain. And this vision which God revealed to me has never departed from my memory. I will describe it as far as I am able, and they whose intellects our Lord will deign to open will understand me.

“The source of all suffering is either Original or Actual Sin. God created the soul pure, simple, free from every stain, and with a certain beatific instinct toward Himself. It is drawn aside from Him by Original Sin, and when Actual Sin is afterwards added, this withdraws it still farther, and, ever as it removes from Him, its sinfulness increases, because its communication with God grows less and less.

Increasing Fire of Charity
“And because there is no good except by participation with God, who, to the irrational creatures imparts Himself as He wills and in accordance with His divine decree, and never withdraws from them, but to the rational soul He imparts Himself more or less, according as He finds her more or less freed from the hindrances of sin, it follows that, when He finds a soul that is returning to the purity and simplicity in which she was created, He increased in her the beatific instinct, and kindles in her a fire of charity so powerful and vehement, that it is insupportable to the soul to find any obstacle between her and her end; and the clearer vision she has of these obstacles the greater is her pain.

The Barrier of Pain
“Since the souls in Purgatory are freed from the guilt of sin, there is no barrier between them and God save only the pains they suffer, which delay the satisfaction of their desire. And when they see how serious is even the slightest hindrance, which the necessity of justice causes to check them, a vehement flame kindles within them, which is like that of Hell. They feel no guilt however, and it is guilt which is the cause of the malignant will of the condemned in Hell, to whom God does not communicate His goodness, and thus they remain in despair and with a will forever opposed to the good will of God.

Penalties of Purgatory and Hell
“It is evident that the revolt of man’s will from that of God constitutes sin, and while that revolt continues, man’s guilt remains. Those, therefore, that are in Hell, having passed from this life with perverse wills, their guilt is not remitted, nor can it be, since they are no longer capable of change. When this life is ended, the soul remains forever confirmed either in good or evil according as she has here determined. As it is written: ‘Where I shall find thee,’ that is, at the hour of death, with the will either fixed on sin or repenting of it, ‘there I will judge thee.’ From this judgment there is no appeal, for after death the freedom of the will can never return, but the will is confirmed in that state in which it is found at death. The souls in Hell, having been found at that hour with the will to sin, have the guilt and the punishment always with them, and although this punishment is not so great as they deserve, yet it is eternal. Those in Purgatory, on the other hand, suffer the penalty only, for their guilt was cancelled at death, when they were found hating their sins and penitent for having offended the divine goodness. And this penalty has an end, for the term of it is ever approaching. O misery beyond all misery, and the greater because in his blindness, man regards it not!

“The punishment of the damned is not, it is true, infinite in degree, for the all lovely goodness of God shines even into Hell. He who dies in mortal sin merits infinite woe for an infinite duration; but the mercy of God has only made the time infinite, and mitigated the intensity of the pain. In justice He might have inflicted much greater punishment than He has done.

“Oh, what peril attaches to sin willfully committed! For it is so difficult for man to bring himself to penance, and without penitence guilt remains and will ever remain, so long as man retains unchanged the will to sin, or is intent upon committing it.

Finally Totally Conformed to the Will of God
“The souls in Purgatory are entirely conformed to the will of God; therefore, they correspond with His goodness, are contented with all that He ordains, and are entirely purified from the guilt of their sins. They are pure from sins, because they have in this life abhorred them and confessed them with true contrition, and for this reason God remits their guilt, so that only the stains of sin remain, and these must be devoured by the fire. Thus freed from guilt and united to the will of God, they see Him clearly according to that degree of light which He allows them, and comprehend how great a good is the fruition of God, for which all souls were created. Moreover, these souls are in such close conformity to God, and are drawn so powerfully toward Him by reason of the natural attraction between Him and the soul, that no illustration or comparison could make this impetuosity understood in the way in which my spirit conceives it by its interior sense. Nevertheless I will use one which occurs to me.

Finally a Hunger for God and Heaven
“Let us suppose that in the whole world there were but one loaf to appease the hunger of every creature, and that the bare sight of it would satisfy them. Now man, when in health, has by nature the instinct for food, but if we can suppose him to abstain from it and neither die nor yet lose health and strength, his hunger would clearly become increasingly urgent. In this case, if he knew that nothing but the loaf would satisfy him, and that until he reached it his hunger could not be appeased, he would suffer intolerable pains, which would increase as his distance from the loaf diminished; but if he were sure that he would never see it, his Hell would be as complete as that of the damned souls, who, hungering after God, have no hope of ever seeing the bread of life. But the souls in Purgatory have an assured hope of seeing Him and of being entirely satisfied; and therefore they endure all hunger and suffer all pain until that moment when they enter into eternal possession of this bread, which is Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our Love.

The Tag of Sin Designates the Destination
“As the purified spirit finds no repose but in God, for whom it was created, so the soul in sin can rest nowhere but in Hell, which by, reason of its sins, has become its end. Therefore, at that instant in which the soul separates from the body, it goes to its prescribed place, needing no other guide than the nature of the sin itself, if the soul has parted from the body in mortal sin. And if the soul were hindered from obeying that decree (proceeding from the justice of God), it would find itself in a yet deeper Hell, for it would be outside of the divine order, in which mercy always finds place and prevents the full infliction of all the pains the soul has merited. Finding, therefore, no spot more fitting, nor any in which her pains would be so slight, she casts herself into her appointed place.

Souls Throw Themselves Willingly Into Purgatory
“The same thing is true of Purgatory: the soul, leaving the body, and not finding in herself that purity in which she was created, and seeing also the hindrances which prevent her union with God, conscious also that Purgatory only can remove them, casts herself quickly and willingly therein. And if she did not find the means ordained for her purification, she would instantly create for herself a Hell worse than Purgatory, seeing that by reason of this impediment she is hindered from approaching her end, which is God; and this is so great an ill that in comparison with it the soul esteems Purgatory as nothing. True it is, as I have said, like Hell; and yet, in comparison with the loss of God it is as nothing.

No Gates to Paradise—Except Conscience
“I will say furthermore: I see that as far as God is concerned, paradise has no gates, but he who will may enter. For God is all mercy, and His open arms are ever extended to receive us into His glory. But I see that the divine essence is so pure—purer than the imagination can conceive—that the soul, finding in itself the slightest imperfection, would rather cast itself into a thousand Hells than appear, so stained, in the presence of the divine majesty. Knowing, then, that Purgatory was intended for her cleaning, she throws herself therein, and finds there that great mercy, the removal of her stains.

“The great importance of Purgatory, neither mind can conceive nor tongue describe. I see only that its pains are as great as those of Hell; and yet I see that a soul, stained with the slightest fault, receiving this mercy, counts its pains as naught in comparison with this hindrance to her love. And I know that the greatest misery of the souls in Purgatory is to behold in themselves aught that displeases God, and to discover that, in spite of His goodness, they had consented to it. And this is because, being in the state of grace, they see the reality and the importance of the impediments which hinder their approach to God.”

Friday November 15th

Article 15
Getting Rid of the Debt

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How Can We Reduce Our Debt?
Sin must be paid for; our debt must be settled—otherwise we cannot enter Heaven. If we die in a state of unconfessed, or unrepented, and thus unforgiven mortal sin, then the debt will be paid in Hell. If we neglect to pay for our confessed and forgiven sins in this life, then Purgatory awaits, and Jesus says: “Thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26). The obvious solution is to pay now, rather than later. Now we can pay at a greatly ‘discounted’ price; after death, it will be payments with high interest added; “for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel” (2 Paralipomenon 28:13). What payment plan will we choose? What payment plans are there to choose from?

Repayment by Pain & Repayment by Love
Upon Calvary, alongside the dying Christ, we see two sinners: one dying in pain, the other ‘dying’ out of grief-stricken love. One is a man, the other a woman. The man is St. Dismas; the woman is St. Mary Magdalen. We may call them saints today, but at the time they were great sinners being transformed into saints. They were living proof that “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy ... and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). Even though God is extremely just, He is also extremely merciful—but the time of mercy is now, while we are still living. After death comes the time of justice. If you want to experience His mercy—then ACT NOW and don’t put it off! “Thus saith the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee!’” (Isaias 49:8), and St. Paul repeats Isaias’ words, when he writes: “For He saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Free to Sin—So Why Pay by Penance?
One of the reasons why people rarely do penance is that they have lost sight of the price of sin. Sin, for most people, is no big deal! If you sin, they say, just go to confession and all is put right! That is bad theology! The only thing that is put right in the confessional is the removal of the guilt for sin (if we are sorry, of course). The debt for sin remains.

The meager, paltry penance that the priest gives to the penitent, is not the full price or cost of sin, but only a small portion of the penance that God demands from the sinner—it is like the first payment of a mortgage. The priests rarely give the heavy penances that once used to be given, because they fear we are too weak-willed to fulfill them. So they give us forgiveness for a token ‘down-payment’ and leave it to God’s justice to exact the rest of the payment, either by temporal punishment in this life, or by the horrendous fires of Purgatory in the next.

Another good way to look at the cost of sin, is not just to look at what it will cost us in Purgatory or, God forbid, Hell, but at what it cost our Savior in His Passion and Death. This is the best and most fruitful topic of meditation and contemplation, as testified by so many saints and spiritual writers. Most people do not fully grasp the extent of Our Lord’s sufferings; they gloss over them too readily and easily, just as they gloss over sin too easily.

Healthy Fear is Necessary
St. Teresa of Avila, in the second chapter of her autobiography, speaks of the dangers of a lack of fear: “I know from this the great advantage of good companions; and I am certain that if at that tender age I had been thrown among good people, I should have persevered in virtue; for if at that time I had found any one to teach me the fear of God, my soul would have grown strong enough not to fall away. Afterwards, when the fear of God had utterly departed from me, the fear of dishonor alone remained, and was a torment to me in all I did. When I thought that nobody would ever know, I ventured upon many things that were neither honorable nor pleasing unto God.”

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalms 110:10) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). “And from his infancy he taught him to fear God, and to abstain from all sin” (Tobias 1:10). For this reason—the loss of the sense of sin—we need to often reflect on the true price of sin, by reading accounts of some poor souls from Purgatory, who have been allowed, by Divine Justice and Mercy, to appear to those left on earth and manifest the rigors and punishments of Purgatory. Out of sight means out of mind; so we will bring into view what goes on in Purgatory, so we may draw salutary benefits from what God has deliberately allowed to be revealed to us.

The Dismal Pain of Dismas
Dismas has led a dismal life; being a thief, robber, and consequently probably a murderer too, he was doing ‘penance’ for his sins and proving the truth of the statement that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, there is another thief suffering and dying with him; he has the same history, he has the same sufferings, but he does not have the same fate. His sufferings will be of no use to him, for he does not accept those sufferings as a just wage for his sins. He could have paid his debt there and then, like the Good Thief, Dismas, but he preferred (knowingly or unknowingly) to pay his debt in Hell.

Dismas would pay his debt alongside Jesus; or rather, he would co-pay with Jesus, for, of himself, he could not pay for any of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, even though we might sin against neighbor — “as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). God is infinite, so any sin is consequently an infinite offense since it offends an infinite God. Therefore, it contracts an infinite debt, which finite man cannot hope to pay. It needs an infinite creature to be able to pay an infinite debt—Jesus is that infinite being, as an infinite God he can pay an infinite debt; as a human being He can pay the human debt for sin. Dismas merely co-pays, just as Our Lady co-redeems. We likewise have to co-pay—it is proof of our admission to guilt and proof of acceptance of responsibility and accountability.

Dismas pays primarily through his body: he is accepting of the pains and tortures of death as a just wage for his sins. It is not pain alone that saves him, it is pain processed and transformed by the soul into something above the natural, into something unnatural for him, into something supernatural. The pain breaks through into his soul and transforms him from a bad thief into a Good Thief who steals Heaven in the last lap of his life, with the last breath of his life. His was a payment plan of pain.

Yet, to say that Dismas died without love would be a grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened. He had to have some degree of love towards God in his heart for Christ to be able say to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). A variety of things will have contributed to breaking down any hardness of heart that he may have had—we will look at those at later point during Lent—but the pain of suffering undoubtedly opened and softened his heart, and prepared the soil of the soul to receive the seed of divine love. So, in the end, both death and love united in his life, to bring about his salvation.

The Mournful Love of Mary
The other sinner that we spoke of was Mary Magdalen, the sister of Martha, who according the traditional teaching of the Western (Roman) Church is the woman who was caught in adultery, the woman possessed by seven devils and the woman at the banquet of Simon the Leper who was weeping tears over Jesus’ feet, wiping them dry with her hair and anointing Jesus with precious alabaster. Like the thief, Dismas, she too was a great sinner.

However, her payment plan was of a different kind—she paid for her sins through love. Jesus Himself confirmed this, when at the banquet He said: “Why do you trouble this woman? Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Matthew 26:10; Luke 7:47). Her payment plan was based upon the Old Testament quote of: “Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12) and the same plan was carried over into the New Testament, as testified by St. Peter: “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). This is merely a reflection or an echo of the charity that led Jesus to lay down His life for our sins: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Like Dismas, Mary experienced a blend of love and pain on Calvary. The more she loved Christ, the more she felt the pain of what was happening to Christ. We know this from personal experience: the more we treasure a person or an object, the more agitated, sorrowful and pained we become when suffering a separation or its loss.

Love and Death United
Love and Death, the two things that seemed contradictory and irreconcilable, now find themselves united on Calvary. The words of Christ perform a marriage, so to speak, between Love and Death: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Death proves Love; and Love leads to Death. Our Lord proves His love for us by dying for us; and that love of His had to go to the very extreme, to the point of death itself. He could not raise the stakes any higher than that.

Similarly, Mary Magdalen ‘dies’ on Calvary with Christ. In a vaguely analogous way, as Christ dies mystically in each Sacrifice of the Mass, Mary dies mystically in an unbloody manner at the Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ’s heart is pierced, she feels the wound—since it is for her benefit and salvation that He undergoes all this, and it is her sins (ours too) that pierce that Sacred Heart. She knows that He is the ‘scapegoat’ for her sins. She knows that she should be in His place, sentenced to death and dying on the cross.

Just as Christ had spared her a painful physical death from being stoned to death for adultery, He now prevents her spiritual death by dying on the cross. Like a woman watching her child being slain (Massacre of the Innocents) and wishing that she could be slain in the place of her baby; Mary Magdalen must have wished that this Massacre of the Innocent One could have been prevented and that she could be slain in His place. She was grateful to Him when she escaped being stoned to death; she was grateful to Him again for His redeeming death—she died with Him out of love.

The best way to pay for our sins and quickest way to reduce their debt, is to both suffer and love—but the love is the soul and the suffering is merely the body. For even the bad thief suffered, but without love—and his end was not Paradise! As St. Paul warns us: “If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, then it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).

As Our Lady says at La Salette: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence.” And we can add the Scriptural verse: “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). Our Lady gave us the clear indication of the path that we have to take—one that will be enforced upon us anyway, if we refuse to take it, but then we will have less merit—she said at Fatima: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”

No matter how great the debt of your sins may be, God is prepared to accept mere cents on the dollar while you are still living. After death, the true price will be exacted. Better and wiser to pay now than pay later! But of you disagree with God over the price of sin, then you are unlikely to want to pay the price He is asking.

Thursday November 14th

Article 14
How Long Must I Stay Here, O Lord?

How Long Must I Stay Here, O Lord?

How Long Do Souls Remain in Purgatory?
The length of time souls are detained in Purgatory depends on:
(a) the number of their faults;
(b) the malice and deliberation with which these have been committed;
(c) the penance done, or not done, the satisfaction made, or not made for sins during life;
(d) Much, too, depends on the suffrages offered for them after death

What can safely be said is that the time souls spend in Purgatory is, as a rule, very much longer than people commonly imagine. We will quote a few of the many instances which are recounted in the lives and revelations of the Saints.

► St. Louis Bertrand’s father was an exemplary Christian, as we should naturally expect, being the father of so great a Saint. He had even wished to become a Carthusian monk until he learned that it was not God’s will for him. When he died, after long years spent in the practice of every Christian virtue, his saintly son, fully aware of the rigors of God’s Justice, offered many Masses and poured forth the most fervent supplications for the soul he so dearly loved. A vision of his father still in Purgatory forced him to intensify a hundredfold his suffrages. He added most severe penances and long fasts to his Masses and prayers. Yet eight whole years passed before he obtained the release of his father.

► St. Malachy’s sister was detained in Purgatory for a very long time, despite the Masses, prayers and heroic mortifications the Saint offered for her!

► It was related to a holy nun in Pampluna, who had succeeded in releasing many Carmelite nuns from Purgatory, that most of these Carmelite nuns had spent terms of from 30 to 60 years there!

► Carmelite nuns in Purgatory for 40, 50 and 60 years! What will it be for those living amidst the temptations of the World and with all their hundreds of weaknesses?

► St. Vincent Ferrer, after the death of his sister, prayed with incredible fervor for her soul and offered many Masses for her release. She appeared to him at length and told him that had it not been for his powerful intercession with God, she should have remained an interminable time in Purgatory.

► In the Dominican Order it is the rule to pray for the Master Generals by name on their anniversaries. Many of these have been dead several hundred years! They were men especially eminent for piety and learning. This rule would not be approved by the Church were it not necessary and prudent.

We do not mean to imply that all souls are detained equally long periods in the expiatory fires. Many have committed lesser faults and have done more penance. Therefore, their punishment will be much less severe. Still, the instances we have quoted are very much to the point, for if these souls who enjoyed the intimacy, who saw the example and who shared in the intercession of great Saints during their lives and were aided by their most efficacious suffrages after death were yet detained for such a length of time in Purgatory, what may not happen to us who enjoy none of these wonderful privileges?

Why Such a Long Expiation?
The reasons are not difficult to find ...

1. The malice of sin is very great. What appear to us small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. It is enough to see how the Saints wept over their faults. We are weak, it may be urged. That is true, but then God offers us abundant graces to strengthen our weakness, gives us light to see the gravity of our faults, and the necessary force to conquer temptation. If we are still weak, the fault is all our own. We do not use the light and strength God so generously offers us; we do not pray, we do not receive the Sacraments as we should.

2. An eminent theologian wisely remarks that if souls are condemned to Hell for all eternity because of one mortal sin, it is not to be wondered at that other souls should be detained for long years in Purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins, some of which are so grave that at the time of their commission the sinner scarcely knows if they are mortal or venial. Too, they may have committed many mortal sins for which they have had little sorrow and done little or no penance. The guilt has been remitted by absolution, but the pain due to the sins will have to be paid in Purgatory.

Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing (Matthew. 5:26).

The Saints committed few and slight sins, and still they sorrowed much and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins, and we sorrow little and do little or no penance.

VENIAL SINS
It would be difficult to calculate the immense number of venial sins that any Catholic commits.

► There is an infinite number of faults of self-love, selfishness; thoughts, words and acts of sensuality, too, in a hundred forms; faults of charity in thought, word and deed; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity and innumerable other faults.

► There are sins of omission which we pay so little heed to. We love God so little, yet He has a thousand claims on our love for the thousands of things he has done for us. Yet, we treat Him with coldness, indifference and base ingratitude. He died for each one of us. Do we ever thank Him as we ought? He remains day and night on the Altar, waiting for our visits, anxious to help us. How seldom we go to Him! He longs to come into our souls in Holy Communion, and we refuse Him entrance. He offers Himself up for us on the Altar every morning at Mass and gives oceans of graces to those who assist at this great Sacrifice. Yet many are too lazy to go to this Calvary! What an abuse of grace!

► Our hearts are mean and hard, full of self-love. We have happy homes, splendid food, warm clothing, an abundance of all good things. Many around us live in hunger and misery, and we give them so little; whereas, we spend lavishly and needlessly on ourselves.

► Life is given us to serve God, to save our souls. Most Christians, however, are satisfied to give God five minutes of prayer in the morning, five minutes at night! The rest of the 24 hours is given to work, rest and pleasure. Ten minutes to God, to our immortal souls, to the great work we have to do, viz., our salvation. Twenty‑three hours and 50 minutes to this transitory life! Is it fair to God?

It may be alleged that our work, our rest, our sufferings are done for God! They should be, and then our merits would be indeed great. The truth is that many scarcely ever think of God during the day. The one engrossing object of their thoughts is self. They think and labor and rest and sleep to satisfy self. God gets a very little place in their day and in their minds. This is an outrage to His loving Heart, which is ever thinking of us.

MORTAL SINS
Many Christians unfortunately commit mortal sins during their lives, but though they confess them, they make no due satisfaction for them, as we have already said.

► The Venerable Bede appears to be of the opinion that those who pass a great part of their lives in the commission of grave sins and confess them on their deathbed may be detained in Purgatory even until the Last Day. St. Bede lived in the 600 and 700’s and the last was a long way away!

► St. Gertrude, in her revelations, states that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance for them. may not benefit from and share in the ordinary suffrages of the Church for a very considerable time!

All those sins, mortal and venial, are accumulating for the 20, 30, 40, 60 years of our lives. Each and every one has to be atoned for after death.

PURGATORIAL MATH
We again take the extract from Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, which shows a hypothetical sin-calculator that goes towards showing how and why such long times are spent in Purgatory.

“Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his Treatise on Charity towards the Departed, bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, The just man falls seven times a day (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God. We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?

“Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten [venial] faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3,650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3,000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.

“Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.

“The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained, chapter 22, “The Duration of Purgatory”).

Purgatorial Calculator
Without trying to be silly, or artificial, we have decided to put Fr. Mumford’s statements into table form, so that we can more easily see and understand his message. We have gone with 7 venial sins a day (instead of his 10) based on Scripture: “For a just man shall fall seven times” (Proverbs 24:16). However, experience shows that on some days it is possible to commit seven venial sins, or even more, in an hour—a grumpy start to the day: we mutter when the alarm goes off; we utter a bad word when we stub our toe against something on the way to the bathroom, or when the shower water is too hot or too cold; we complain about the murky weather outside; we put-off our morning prayers or say them in haste or distractedly; we show irritability to the rest of the family at breakfast; we tell a “white lie” or two; we eat too much; we speed on the way to work; we complain about the traffic delays, the red lights, the other drivers, etc.

The tables below show at a glance the cost of such accumulated sin. Of course it is all hypothetical and all this varies with the differing gravity of each venial sin and upon the knowledge and state of the soul, e.g. priest or layman, adult or child, etc. For to whom more is given, more is expected.

Do Not Undervalue the Gravity of Sin
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.

As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).

How Saints Looked Upon Sin
If that is the value of sin, then what is the price we have to pay for sin? If St. Thomas Aquinas says that one single soul, in a state of sanctifying grace, is of more value than all the material wealth of the universe, the what price can we put on a soul that is, or has been, in a state of mortal sin? What price has to be paid to regain that state of grace? Is it any wonder that there are souls—like Amelia, the young friend of the three Fatima visionaries, of whom Our Lady said that she would burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! What is the cost of sin?!! Do the three Hail Marys, that the priest gives you in confession, pay for it? Far from it! It is a merely a down-payment for the damage sin has caused and the Church expects us to do additional penance to pay for our sins!

While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?

Do Not Undervalue the Gravity of Sin
“Be not without fear about sin forgiven” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance” (Matthew 3:8). “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite” (Luke 12:59). Sin is expensive, very expensive—it is the most expensive thing in the world because “Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”). If an eternal Hell is created to punish just one single Mortal Sin, how on earth can war, flooding, earthquakes, pestilence, disease, death or fire from Heaven be thought to be worse than Hell? No matter what punishment Heaven sends us, it will still be like being tickled in comparison to the punishment of Hell.

As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).

How Saints Looked Upon Sin
If that is the value of sin, then what is the price we have to pay for sin? If St. Thomas Aquinas says that one single soul, in a state of sanctifying grace, is of more value than all the material wealth of the universe, the what price can we put on a soul that is, or has been, in a state of mortal sin? What price has to be paid to regain that state of grace? Is it any wonder that there are souls—like Amelia, the young friend of the three Fatima visionaries, of whom Our Lady said that she would burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! What is the cost of sin?!! Do the three Hail Marys, that the priest gives you in confession, pay for it? Far from it! It is a merely a down-payment for the damage sin has caused and the Church expects us to do additional penance to pay for our sins!

While we are in this world, God mercifully accepts a lesser payment than shown in the hypothetical tables above. But when this life comes to a close, the mercy ceases and then the just amount will be collected. Let us not waste time in vain occupations, which can often be sinful too and so only add fuel to the fire—but let us take the rest of our life much more seriously than we have done until now. Remember the power of love—it is not so much the multiplicity of actions and penances that count, but the intensity of love and sorrow that we do them with: “for charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). However, to love much we must sin less—for how can we say we love someone if don’t cease mocking them and slapping them around, which is what Venial Sin essentially does?

Wednesday November 13th

Article 13
Twisting God's Arm or Forcing His Hand

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Bargaining With God
Can you imagine being bold enough to bargain with God? When you’re bargaining with a merchant, you hold the money and he holds the merchandise. You each have something the other person wants, so you have some bargaining power. But when it comes to God, He holds everything! He needs nothing! Who could imagine bargaining with the God of the universe? Yet, surprisingly, the first instance of intercessory prayer, found in the Bible, shows Abraham bargaining with God! At first you may think Abraham to be a bit brash to do such a thing. But, as you examine the story, you discover that God was actually encouraging Abraham in this bargaining or ‘arm-twisting’ prayer. God took the initiative by revealing His intent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha to Abraham, His friend, who was then moved by grace to pray for mercy, based on what he knew of God’s character, for a city that teetered on the brink of destruction.

Abraham Twists God’s Arm
“The Lord said: ‘The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous! I will go down and see―whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so―that I may know!’

“But Abraham stood before the Lord and, drawing nigh, he said: ‘Wilt Thou destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? And wilt Thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? Far be it from Thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked! This is not beseeming Thee! Thou, Who judgest all the Earth, wilt not make this judgment!’

“And the Lord said to him: ‘If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake!’

“And Abraham answered, and said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes! What if there be five less than fifty just persons? Wilt Thou, for five and forty, destroy the whole city?’
“And He said: ‘I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty!’
“And again he said to Him: ‘But if forty be found there, what wilt Thou do?’
“He said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of forty!’
“‘Lord!’, saith he, ‘be not angry, I beseech Thee, if I speak! What if thirty shall be found there?’
“He answered: ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there!’
“‘Seeing,’ saith he, ‘I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there?’
“He said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty!’
“‘I beseech thee,’ saith he, ‘be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more! What if ten should be found there?’
“And He said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten!’
“And after He had left speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed and Abraham returned to his place” (Genesis 18:20-33).

Sodom and Gomorrha Destroyed Anyway
After all that pleading and bargaining, Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed anyway―“And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth” (Genesis 19:24-25). Why? Because not even the most minimal, paltriest, cheapest, easiest condition was met―the finding of a mere ten men who were just and not like the sinful mass of sinners within Sodom and Gomorrha.

The Threat of Fire Today
The same fate faces the world today. God is angry with not just two cities, but with the whole world. Our Lady has warned that: “If there are not souls who by their lives of immolation and sacrifice appease the Divine Justice, fire will rain from Heaven … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them.” (Our Lady of Good Success) ... “Water and fire will give the earth’s globe convulsions … The fire of Heaven will fall and consume thee cities … And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of man’s pride and all will be renewed “ (La Salette) … “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate, that they will envy the dead” (Our Lady of Akita, 1973).

St. John the Baptist, the fiery preacher in the desert, also warns of punishment by fire: “He that shall come after me, is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12).

Our Lord also speaks of this punishing fire in Holy Scripture: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). “Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth … So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ‘Have ye understood all these things?’ They say to Him: ‘Yes!’” (Matthew 13:40-42; 13:49-51).

Beware of Provoking the Hand of God
Holy Scripture paints a fearsome picture concerning the consequences of provoking God: “Evils shall come upon you in the latter times, when you shall do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him by the works of your hands” (Deuteronomy 31:29). “They have provoked Me and have angered Me with their vanities” (Deuteronomy 32:21). “But [thou] hast done evil and hast made thee strange gods to provoke Me to anger, and [thou] hast cast Me behind thy back” (3 Kings 14:9). “And I will leave the remnants of My inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies: and they shall become a prey, and a spoil to all their enemies. Because they have done evil before Me, and have continued to provoke Me, even unto this day” (4 Kings 21:14-15). “Because they have forsaken Me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, to provoke Me to wrath with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall fall upon this place, and shall not be quenched” (2 Paralipomenon 34:25).

Forcing the Hand of God
Once provoked, God is forced to let His hand fall in justice: “Woe to you that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in your beds: in the morning light they execute it, because their hand is against God” (Micheas 2:1). “But thou that hast been the author of all mischief, shalt not escape the hand of God” (2 Machabees 7:31). “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Behold I will stretch forth My hand upon the Philistines, and will kill the killers’” (Ezechiel 25:16). “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Behold I will lift up My hand to the Gentiles’” (Isaias 49:22). “As I live, saith the Lord God, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out” (Ezechiel 20:33). “For there was the fear of death in every city, and the hand of God was exceeding heavy” (1 Kings 5:12).

Avoid Sin—Avoid the Fire!
It takes no rocket-scientist to work out the spiritual math in all this. It is quite simply this: sin = fire. And if 2+2=4, then sin + more sin = more fire. As Our Lord says:”And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9). “And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into Hell, into unquenchable fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished” (Mark 9:42-43). Talk about forcing God’s hand!!

Twist His Arm or Force His Hand?
Just as with Abraham, God is willing to let us twist His arm, but it means stopping a lifestyle that forces His hand. This has been made abundantly clear by Our Lady at her modern-day apparitions: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it … The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people” (La Salette, 1846) … “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity” (Our Lady of Akita).

Modern-Day Abrahams
The whole purpose of Our Lady’s apparitions is to decrease sin, encourage reparation and search for ‘arm-twisters’ who are prepared to do what Abraham did, and what Our Lady does continually—plead, intercede, beg and cry for mercy for the world and its sinners.

At Fatima, the angel said: “Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended … Above all accept and bear with submission all the suffering the Lord will send you” (Fatima, 1916). At Akita, Our Lady says: “I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair, by their suffering and their poverty, for the sinners and the ungrateful … With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger” (Our Lady of Akita).

At La Salette, Our Lady makes a rallying call, calling all the ‘arm-twisters’ to the fight: “I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!” (Our Lady of La Salette).

Purgatory and the World
What has been said above about the world, applies also to ourselves individually—with fire being the consequence. Instead of fire falling from Heaven to consume us (which still may well happen), we will fall into the fires of Purgatory. The reason is as above: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended” (Fatima, October 13th, 1917) … “Many men in this world afflict the Lord” (Our Lady of Akita). Why? How?

Our Lady says: “By their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures … for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth … Evil books will be abundant on earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... People will think of nothing but amusement” (Our Lady of La Salette).

The notion of penance has been drastically reduced. The Church has reduced Lenten penance to a fraction of what it used to be. The laws of fasting and abstinence have been greatly reduced. Lenten fasting has been reduced by 95% ― from 40 days down to 2 days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). The penances given in confession are so little that they cannot fail to communicate the idea that sin is only a trivial thing. And this is all done at a time when the amount of sin in the world is probably the greatest it has ever been―and is increasing daily. All this goes in the face of Our Lady’s messages requiring penance and sacrifice and Our Lord’s words: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).

Nobody Listens
That is what is so frightening in all of this—many (we hope) know of these dire warnings, yet nobody is doing anything (or very little) about it. What Sr. Lucia told Fr. Fuentes on December 26th, 1957, is so clearly and strikingly true: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad! The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them!” Not only is Our Lady’s Fatima message ignored, but all the messages from all the accepted apparitions are ignored. We just go on our merry way, preoccupied with daily living and the world!

Fire Seems to Be the Only Solution
We are tired of the spiritual! The material is more attractive! We can sit for hours enjoying the material, but we are complaining and whining after barely 30 minutes of the spiritual—Masses can’t end soon enough; likewise for our prayers and other spiritual exercises. A look back at history should be a warning: “In the meantime, there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And, when the Lord heard it, He was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp” (Numbers 11:1). “And a fire was kindled in their congregation―the flame burned the wicked” (Psalms 105:18).

Our Lord said: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). But all He finds is the fire of wickedness: “For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest” (Isaias 9:18).

“The Earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were moved, and shaken, because He was angry with them. A smoke went up from His nostrils, and a devouring fire out of His mouth: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon the cherubim, and flew: and slid upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness a covering round about Him: dropping waters out of the clouds of the heavens. By the brightness before Him, the coals of fire were kindled” (2 Kings 22:8-13).

Fiery Times Ahead—One Way or Another
God will kindle a fire for sure—it will be either a fire of love, or a fire in Purgatory to heat up lukewarm love, or the fire of Hell to repay a refusal to love. His fire is more powerful than the fire of wickedness, and if our world (and we with it) do not change, then God will kindle the whole Earth with fire! In a sense, God and Our Lady are pleading with us!

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha is not a fairy-tale, nor is the Flood in Noe’s time! What goes around, comes around! Like a parent with a lethargic teenager, Our Lady has told us time and time again—soon the words will end and the action will start.

As Pope John Paul II said in Fulda, Germany, in 1983—we can no longer avert what is coming, but we and mitigate it or soften the blow! It is not the unbelievers, apostates and sinners that are going to respond to Our Lady’s call—it rests in the lap of people like us. Our salvation, our Purgatory, our future depends upon whether we stir ourselves into action, or simply go with the flow!

Tuesday November 12th

Article 12
Is There A Middle-Road?

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One Road or Many?
Is there a middle road that we can take in our spiritual lives? Is there a middle road that can take us to Heaven? Is there road that is not too harsh on the feet—a road that winds and climbs gently, rather than the rugged, off-the-beaten-track road that seems too tough? We all know of the spiritual axiom that says: “Virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect”—is there then a road that steers the middle path, between excess and neglect? Furthermore, there is the saying “All roads lead to Rome”—which seems to suggest that there is more than one road to Heaven. Also, we have the phrase: “To Jesus through Mary” which means that perhaps there is a way to Jesus without Mary! Interesting questions!

The Road Map of Scripture
First of all, Holy Scripture speaks of only two final destinations for our spiritual journey—Heaven and Hell. Our Lord speaks of two roads leading to two different destinations when He says: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). Our Lord is the gate or door to Heaven:”Jesus saith to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!’” (John 14:6). “Jesus therefore said to them again: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’” (John 10:7). “I am the door. By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). “Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the stone which was rejected by you the builders, is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). But all this simply shows that Jesus is the one single door, the only door, by which we can be saved—but cannot many different roads lead to the same door?

The Road to Salvation
“You are saved through Faith” (Ephesians 2:18) … but “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20) … But Faith gives birth to Hope, which is also necessary for salvation: “We are saved by Hope” (Romans 8:24). It is hope that moves us to work towards our salvation and produce works worthy of salvation. However, works need the ‘soul’ of charity, otherwise they are dead and useless:

“If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

We cannot be saved without Faith, Hope and Charity. Thus, the three chief or foundational elements for our journey are Faith, Hope and Charity ― “There remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three: but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13), but, again, these are not three roads, but only the means to use on the road.

But is there a Middle Road?
It is not so much that there is a middle road, but a variety of degrees that are applied on the road to Heaven. When we seek a ‘middle-road’, we are really seeking to put less effort in our spiritual lives. The degree of effort should be growing as we grow older—much a child is expected to more physically as it grows older, from doing nothing and having everything done for it, to eventually have nothing done for it because it has to do it all by itself in adulthood. The same is true for the spiritual life—except that we must always remember that without God we do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Here is what Fr. Tanquerey says in his classic book, The Spiritual Life…

“Love alone unites us fully to God. It presupposes Faith and Hope, but it surpasses them. It lays hold of our entire soul, intellect, heart, will, activity, and delivers all unreservedly to God. It excludes mortal sin, God’s enemy, and makes us enjoy the divine friendship … The essence of love itself is devotedness. It is a firm determination of the will to give itself up to God, and, if need be,to make the entire sacrifice of self to Him and His glory, preferring His good pleasure to that of self and others … Worldlings, even when they have the Faith, often entertain very false ideas concerning perfection or, as they call it, devotion” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).

The Varying Degrees on the Road
“The degrees by which one is raised to perfection are numerous. According to the common doctrine, explained by St. Thomas, there are three principal stages or, as they are commonly called, three ways:(1) that of beginners or the Purgative Way, (2) that of souls already advanced, or the Illuminative Way, and (3) that of the perfect, or the Unitive Way.

The Lowest Degree―the Way of Beginners, the Purgative Way
(a) The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, mortal sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the Purgative Way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.

The Middle Degree―the Way of Proficients, the Illuminative Way
(b) The chief concern of those already advanced, the proficients, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in Charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the Illuminative Way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only mortal, but even venial sin.

The Highest Degree―the Way of the Perfect, the Unitive Way
(c) Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the Unitive Way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the theological virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the Earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ. These are only brief indications. Later on we shall resume them again and develop them in the Second Part of this work. There we shall take the soul from the first stage, that of the purification, to the transforming union that prepares it for the Beatific Vision” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).

The Road of Penance
“It is admitted, on all hands, that no one can afford, at any time, to put out of his life the spirit of penance, even though it may take different forms according to the different degrees of perfection. In the same manner, it is agreed that, in order to arrive at the Unitive Way [the highest stage of the spiritual life], one must exercise oneself more and more perfectly in the practice of both the moral and the theological virtues; that the gifts of the Holy Ghost, cultivated with care, endow the soul with a certain docility that renders it more submissive to the inspirations of grace” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).

Our Limitations
There are, however, limits to our perfection here on Earth. Beyond these we must not wish to go, for fear of falling back into a lower degree of perfection, or even lapse into mortal sin. It is certain that we cannot love God as He deserves to be loved. He is infinitely lovable, and, our hearts being finite, can never love Him, even in Heaven, except with a finite love. We can, therefore, and we must always strive to love Him more. According to St. Bernard, the measure with which to love God is to love Him without measure.

Let us not forget, however, that real love consists less in pious sentiments than in acts of the will [actions speak louder than words—and words and actions must be in harmony], and that the best way to love God is to make the will conform to His. On Earth one cannot love God uninterruptedly, nor unfailingly. One can, with the aid of special graces, avoid all deliberate Venial Sin, but not all faults of frailty. No one ever becomes impeccable, as the Church has declared on many occasions.

As Fr. Tanquerey says: “Behold, then, the whole of Christian perfection: love and sacrifice. Who cannot, with God’s grace, fulfill this twofold condition? Is it really so difficult to love Him Who is infinitely lovable and infinitely loving? The love that He asks of us is nothing extraordinary; it is the devotedness of love the gift of oneself consisting chiefly in conformity to the divine will. To want to love; is to love. To keep the commandments for God’s sake is to love. To pray is to love. To fulfil our duties of state in view of pleasing God, this is likewise to love. Even to recreate ourselves, to take our meals with the like intention is to love. To serve our neighbor, for God’s sake is to love. Nothing then is easier, God’s grace helping, than the constant exercise of divine love and through this, steady advance toward perfection” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life).

Love Must Translate Into Sacrifice
As for sacrifice, without doubt it seems hard. But we are not asked to love it for its own sake. It is enough if we love it for God’s sake, or, in other words if we realize that, here on Earth, one cannot love God without renouncing whatever gets in the way of His love. Then sacrifice at first becomes tolerable and soon it becomes even lovable.

Does not a mother, passing long, sleepless nights at the bedside of her sick son, joyously accept fatigue, when she has the hope and, more especially, when she has the certainty of thereby saving his life? Now, when we accept, for the sake of God, the sacrifices He demands, we have not only the hope, but the certainty itself, of pleasing Him, of giving Him glory and of working out the salvation of our own souls. This too is what the Mother of mothers, Our Lady, asked for at Fatima. She asked the three children: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.” Heaven is endlessly trying to turn up the heat, so to speak, of our love—so that we might be able to suffer more. To the worldling, that sounds surprising, shocking even scandalous, but just as the baby must grow into a man, so too must love of God grow into suffering for God.

School of Suffering
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple, then enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the blear-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur.”

To be able to do this, we have example and the help of the God-Man—Jesus Christ. Has He not suffered as much as and even more than we ourselves suffer, for the glory of His Father and the salvation of our souls? Shall we, His disciples, incorporated into Him in Baptism, nourished with His Body and Blood, shall we hesitate when we are called to suffer together with Him, out of love for Him and for His intentions? Is it not true that in the Cross there is immense profit, especially for loving hearts? “In the Cross” says the Imitation of Christ, “is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection from enemies. In the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit. In the Cross is height of “virtue; in the Cross is perfection, of sanctity” (Book 2, chapter 12).

Saint Augustine tells us: “There are no labors too great for loving hearts. In fact, one finds pleasure therein, as we observe in the case of the fisherman fishing, the hunter at the chase, the merchant at the market. For where there is love, there is no labor, or if there be labor, it is a labor of love.” Let us then hasten toward perfection by this path of love and sacrifice.

Degrees of Suffering
St. Bernard distinguishes three degrees of this virtue, corresponding to the three stages of Christian perfection: “The beginner, moved by fear, patiently bears the Cross of Christ; the one who has already made some progress on the road to perfection, inspired by hope, carries it cheerfully; the perfect soul, consumed by love, embraces it ardently.” Beginners, upheld by the fear of God, do not love pain, but rather seek to escape it. However, they choose to suffer rather than to offend God and, though groaning under the weight of the Cross, they resign themselves to carrying the Cross and they endure it in patience.

Those who have already made some progress, are sustained by the hope and the desire of heavenly things; and, though they do not yet seek the Cross, they willingly carry it with a certain joy, knowing that each new pang represents an additional degree of glory: “Going, they went and wept) casting their seeds. But coming, they shall come with joyfulness carrying their sheaves.”

The perfect, led by love, go even further. To glorify the God they love, to become more like our Lord, they go forth to meet the Cross, they long for it and embrace it lovingly, not because it is in itself lovable, but because it offers them the means of proving their love for God and. for Christ Like the Apostles, they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Like St. Paul, they rejoice in their tribulations: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

All Roads Lead to Rome, but…
Though all roads may lead to Rome, the only road to Heaven is that of Love and Sacrifice. We will judged on how much we have loved God and how much we have suffered with love for God. There are many, many texts of Holy Scripture that testify to this—here we list but a few: “Love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). That love requires sacrifices and brings sufferings: “Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you” (Matthew 5:44). That love calls for sacrificing the world in order to keep the Commandments: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). That love will be tested by suffering: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?” (Romans 8:35).

Cross
Therefore, if we wish to follow Our Lord on the road to Heaven, we must take the road of the Cross: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).”And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Perhaps it will even call upon us to give up our lives out of love for Christ: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Love
And all our works, if they are to be profitable, must be infused by this love: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

A Refusal to Suffer Brings More Suffering in Purgatory
The “Middle-Road” is exactly that—it falls in the middle between Heaven and Hell, which is Purgatory. By not wanting to “give-it-one’s-all” while here on Earth, the soul finds itself having to give more than it bargained for in Purgatory. It tried to get to Heaven for a reduced price, and without fully paying for its sins. As St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “For if the debt of punishment is not paid in full after the stain of sin has been washed away by contrition, nor again are venial sins always removed when mortal sins are remitted, and if justice demands that sin be set in order by due punishment, it follows that one who, after contrition for his fault and after being absolved, dies before making due satisfaction, is punished after this life. Wherefore those who deny Purgatory speak against the justice of God: for which reason such a statement is erroneous and contrary to Faith” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 1).

In Purgatory we suffer far more than we could ever have suffered on Earth. St. Thomas tells us that “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Appendix II, art. 2). Quoting St. Augustine, St. Thomas writes: “This fire of Purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world ... the pain of Purgatory, both of loss and of sense, surpasses all the pains of this life … The severity of that punishment is not so much a consequence of the degree of sin, as of the disposition of the person punished, because the same sin is more severely punished then than now” (Summa Theologica, Appendix I, q. 2, art. 1).

The “Middle-Road” tries to do things by halves, it half-loves God; it half-pays for its sins—but we are told to love God with our WHOLE heart, not part of it. Sadly, as authors like Fr. Faber and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange think, most Catholics are “middle-of-the-road” Catholics or worse, who, if they do not change, will find themselves in the middle of Purgatory!

Monday November 11th

Article 11
Cardinal Raises Resurrects His Dead Sister!

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Another Testimony from the Dead
Yesterday, we saw what a glimpse of Purgatory did for Drithelm, the man raised from the dead. It changed his whole value system. He was already living what we would call an exemplary Catholic life before he died, but he realized how woefully deficient it was. Given a second chance by God, he lived a life of total detachment from the world, immersing himself in prayer, extraordinary penances and the hardest labor.

We find something similar in the life of a Dominican nun who also happened to be the sister of a cardinal—Blessed John Baptist Tolomei. She was raised from the dead by her own brother, and gave a testimony of the rigor of God’s judgments.

Blessed John Baptist Tolomei, whose rare virtues and the gift of miracles has placed him on our altars, had a sister, Angela Tolomei, the heroism of whose virtue has also been recognized by the Church. She fell dangerously sick, and her holy brother, by earnest prayer, begged Our Lord to cure her. Our Lord replied, as He once did to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, that He would not cure Angela, but that He would do something more. He would raise her from the dead, for the glory of God and the good of souls.

Dead and Alive
Eventually, Angela Tolomei died, recommending herself to the prayers of her holy brother. Whilst she was being carried to the tomb, Blessed John Baptist, in obedience, no doubt, inspired by the Holy Ghost, approached the coffin, and, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, commanded his sister to rise up from the coffin. Immediately she awoke as from a profound slumber, and returned to life.

A Change of Approach to Life
That holy soul seemed struck with terror at what she had seen after death, and related such things concerning the severity of God’s judgments as make us shudder. She commenced, at the same time, to lead a life which proved the truth of her words. Her penance was frightful.

Not content with the ordinary practices of the saints, such as fasting, watching, hair-shirts, and bloody disciplines, she went so far as to cast herself into flames, and to roll herself therein until her flesh was entirely burnt. Her macerated body became an object of pity and of horror. She was censured and accused of destroying, by her excess, the idea of true Christian penance.

She continued, nevertheless, and contented herself with replying: “If you knew the rigors of the judgments of God, you would not speak thus. What are my trifling penances compared with the torments reserved in the other life for those infidelities which we so easily permit ourselves in this world? What are they? What are they? Would that I could do a hundred times more!”

Angela Was Not Even a Great Sinner
There is no question here, as we see, of the tortures to which great sinners, who converted before death, are subjected to in Purgatory (which must be far greater), but of the chastisements which God inflicts upon a fervent Religious for the slightest faults. As we said before, our valuations of Heaven and sin are way off the mark.

Yet, when we read accounts such as these, we still don’t change our misguided sense of values! Do we need to see Purgatory for ourselves, and put our big toe or finger in the fire—like a ‘doubting Thomas’—before we will do something different in our lives? The reply to that would be much the same as the reply given to the rich man—in the Parable about poor Lazarus and the Rich Man—who had died and found himself in Hell, while Lazarus went to Heaven:

The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’ s table, and no one did give him; moreover the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell. And lifting up his eyes, when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom: and he cried, and said: ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame!’ And Abraham said to him: ‘Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted; and thou art tormented.

“And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chasm: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.’ And he said: ‘Then, father, I beseech thee, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house—for I have five brethren—that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments.’ And Abraham said to him: ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them!’ But he said: ‘No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance!’ And he said to him: ‘If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead!” (Luke 16:20-31).

We have Purgatorial sermons galore given by saints; numerous books written on Purgatory, citing cases and incidents like these—but the world does not listen nor does it want to know. They do so at their own peril. But if they could only see a miracle like this for themselves, then they would certainly change! There have been miracles galore—the problem is a lack of faith, not a lack of miracles. As Our Lord said: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29) … “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Spirit or Flesh?
Let us be strong in our faith and follow the examples of faith that we have seen these last two day—those of two souls resurrected from the death, Drithelm and Angela Tolomei, whose faith was radically reformed after seeing the torments of Purgatory! As Scripture says: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).

We can well imagine that, during these recurring months of November, Heaven is trying, year after year, to light a fire in our hearts—but the wood is green and the fire won’t take hold. But if we don’t allow the Holy Ghost to enkindle in our hearts the fire of His love while we are still living on this earth, then our charity is going to have to fired-up by the fires of Purgatory after we die. In a nutshell, we were made to burn! Either we burn the debt of sins with the fires of love in our hearts here below; or we burn for the debt of our sins in either Purgatory or Hell. God wants us to do it the least painful way—what do we want to do? It’s a simple logical case of burn now, or burn later!

St. Catherina of Genoa Burned On Earth
St. Catherine of Genoa, according to the decree of her canonization, “while still in the flesh . . . experienced the fiery love of God, a love that consumed her, cleansing and purifying all, so that once quitted this life she could appear forthwith in God’s presence. As she dwelt on this love, the condition of the souls of the faithful in Purgatory, where they are cleansed of the remaining rust and stain of sin, became clear to her. She rejoiced in her union with God in this loving Purgatory, and so did the souls in Purgatory, she realized, who have no choice but to be there, and this because of God’s just decree.”

The Burning Fire of Love
Catherine (1447-1510) lived Purgatory in this world, not symbolically, but literally. She tried to put her inner experience in words, although “tongue cannot express nor heart understand the full meaning of Purgatory, which the soul willingly accepts as a mercy.” In spite of these limitations, her insights into Purgatory, based on her continuous experience of being consumed by an inner purifying fire, are most enlightening. She has been called the “theologian of Purgatory”; and St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), the famous bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Church and outstanding spiritual counselor, deemed her so-called Tract on Purgatory”wonderful and very seraphic” and the product of “pure inspiration and divine enlightenment.” (Catherine herself had declared that she had “seen all this in the divine light.”) The most important points of his own doctrine on Purgatory are almost literally the same as the affirmations of St. Catherine.

The fire of Purgatory, which comprises the sufferings of the “pain of loss” and the”pain of sense,” is the fire of the love of God enkindled in the soul right after death. Then it sees itself and all its “rust of sin”—which St. Catherine specifies as “the lower self in us .. . the inclination to evil . . . the soul’s self-centeredness . . . the many hidden flaws . . . [the soul’s unpaid] debt”—in the light of God’s Presence.

You Wanna Come In? Wait!
The soul that crossed the threshold to the next life, and is “determined to sin no more,” is forgiven by God, thus freed of sin and guilt. Then “it is close to its first creation . . . [so that its] instinct of beatitude asserts itself with such impetus and fiery charity that any impediment becomes unbearable.” Instinct of beatitude! This psychic instinct, “weakened by Original Sin,” is the soul’s inborn longing for purity, for infinite happiness, for God; it is certainly the deepest and most central instinct of the human soul (although, curiously, it hardly plays a role in current academic personality psychology). The purer the soul, the more this instinct is active. But according to St. Catherine, it is definitively released at this short, solemn, and deter-mining moment when the bodiless soul stands before God, Who has forgiven it its guilt and “tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to Himself with a fiery love that by itself could annihilate the immortal soul. In so acting, God so transforms the soul in Him that it knows nothing other than God; and he continues to draw it up into His fiery love until He restores it to that pure state from which it first issued. As it is being drawn upwards, the soul feels itself melting in the fire of that love of its sweet God.”

Painful Joy—Joyful Pain
In consequence, the soul is, on the one hand, “immersed in charity, incapable of deviating from it, [and] can only will or desire pure love. There is no joy, except that in paradise, to be compared to the joy of the souls in Purgatory. This joy increases day by day because of the way the love of God corresponds to that of the soul, since the impediment of that love is worn away daily.” This is the joy of loving God and being loved by God. On the other hand, this same love is inhibited by the remaining “rust of sin” that impedes the soul to immediately attain at its Bliss. Inhibited “fiery love” is the same as ardent longing, yearning, and utter thirstiness, and that means severe suffering. Here we come to St. Catherine’s explanation of the tormenting flames of Purgatory:

I Have Displeased God!
“The greatest suffering of the souls in Purgatory, it seems to me, is the awareness that something in them displeases God, that they have deliberately gone against His great goodness. . . . I can also see . . . that the divine essence is so pure and light-filled—much more than we can imagine—that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells than appear thus before the divine presence.” Hence “the soul ... aware that the impediment it faces cannot be removed in any other way, hurls itself into purgatory. . . . That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments so that it can be lifted up to God.”

Love Purifies
The purifying force of God’s love is the essence of Purgatory. “In considering how an impediment blocks our way to God, and for what just reasons . . . [it] is impeded, the soul feels within it a fire like that of Hell, save that it has no sense of guilt.”

The paradox of Purgatory is this: in comparison with God’s love, “the suffering of Purgatory is a small matter,” and yet, “this harmony with God’s will also brings about a very great suffering. Its comprehension is beyond all words or thoughts.”And again, “The overwhelming love of God gives [the soul] a joy beyond words. Yet this joy does not do away with one bit of pain in the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory.”

Museum of Purgatory
It is this unimaginable pain caused by the fire of love and longing that is communicated by all souls from Purgatory and tangibly demonstrated in the burn marks in the Museo del Purgatorio (Purgatory Museum). “A fire like that of hell”: in the opinion of St. Thomas, the proper fires of Purgatory and Hell are one and the same. Originally, the Jewish Gehinnom also referred to the fire of hell and Purgatory without distinction, a tradition that is still alive in the modern Orthodox Jewish religion, along with the awareness that “all the suffering of Job would not compare to an instant in gehinnom.” (This latter idea is also taught by St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and St. Bernard).

With respect to the torment of burning, many souls from Purgatory indeed manifest themselves in flames; however, not all of them do. But it is significant that those who show themselves not visibly ablaze may still give proof of their burning in leaving some visible token of their presence. For example, a soul who appeared to the great helper of the poor souls, Mother Anna Maria Lindmayer (1657-1726), the “Saint of Munich,” blew an ice-cold breath into her face, yet upon touching the sister’s foot with a finger, it left a deep burn.

The doctrine of St. Catherine puts our perception of the frightening, to some people even macabre pieces exhibited in the Museo del Purgatorio, in a more balanced perspective. Although the sufferings that left such concrete demonstrations of the souls’ pain cannot be minimized, still they do not tell us the full tale of Purgatory. St. Catherine elucidates that their sufferings “are endurable because of two considerations. The first is their willingness to suffer, the certainty that God has been most merciful to them in the light of what they deserved ... [they] accept the ordinance of God and would not think of doing otherwise. The other consideration that sustains those souls is a certain joy that is never wanting and that, indeed, increases as they come closer to God.”

Preach the Pain—Preach the Love
Her insight is echoed by St. Francis de Sales. He often reminded his priests that they should not only draw the attention of the faithful to the pain and punishment of the souls in Purgatory but also to “their perfect love of God” and to their joy of being in the state of grace and of being sure of their arrival at the blissful vision of God.”

Nonetheless, however mitigating these positive and encouraging considerations may be, they do not prevent a close look at the grim reality of Purgatory, as revealed by the apparitions of souls and their visible imprints, from causing the emotional reaction of shivering. We may suppose, however, that apart from stirring our compassion, this normal human reaction is also calculated to arouse a whole-some fear of sin. St. Catherine herself says that she “would want to frighten people, to cry out to each and everyone: ‘O wretches who let yourselves be blinded in this world and make no provision for this one most important need [your preparation for the next world]!’ . . . His justice will not be wanting.”

Sunday November 10th

Article 10
Dead Man Comes Back to Life and Scares the Life out of his Wife!

What a Loss!! What a Pain!!
According to common doctrine, the chief pain in Purgatory is the delay of the beatific vision. This delay is sometimes called “a temporary pain of loss” ― meaning the loss of God for a longer or shorter time. But, in the proper sense, the “pain of loss” is eternal, and hence found only in Hell.

These two pains of loss differ immensely in rigor, in duration, and in consequences. The damned have lost hope and charity; they blaspheme without ceasing; they have a will that is obstinately rooted in evil; they will never repent; they desire universal damnation in a spiteful way. The souls in Purgatory have assured hope and unlosable charity; they love God; they adore divine justice; they are confirmed in good; they repent profoundly; they love all God’s children.

This delay of the beatific vision in Purgatory differs notably from that which existed in Limbo before the death of Our Lord. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and the prophets, saw in this delay a punishment inflicted, not, properly speaking, on their person, but on human nature not yet perfectly regenerated. The time for deliverance by Christ the Redeemer had not yet arrived. This time has now arrived. Therefore the delay in Purgatory is truly a suffering, the chief of purgatorial sufferings.

Suffering in Purgatory and Suffering on Earth
Suffering in Purgatory is greater than all suffering on Earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by theological reasoning. Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: “That fire will be more painful than anything man can suffer in the present life.” St. Isidore speaks in the same sense. According to these testimonies and others similar to them, the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life.

St. Bonaventure says: “In the next life, by reason of the state of the souls there retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be, in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on Earth.” What he means is that for one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in Purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on Earth. But it does not follow that the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering. On this point St. Bonaventure is followed by St. Robert Bellarmine. According to Bellarmine, being deprived of the vision of God is without doubt a very great suffering, but it is sweetened and consoled by the assured hope of once possessing Him. From this hope there arises an incredible joy, which grows in measure as the soul approaches the end of its exile.

Many theologians, especially Suarez, rightly remark that the sufferings in Purgatory, especially the delay of the beatific vision, are of a higher order than our earthly sufferings, and, in this sense, we may say that the smallest suffering in Purgatory is more severe than the greatest suffering on Earth. The joy they have in the hope of deliverance cannot diminish the suffering they feel in being deprived of the beatific vision. We see this truth in Jesus crucified: the supreme beatitude, His love of God and of souls, far from diminishing His pains, augmented them.

St. Catherine of Genoa says: “Souls in Purgatory unite great joy with great suffering. One does not diminish the other.” She continues: “No peace is comparable to that of the souls in Purgatory, except that of the saints in Heaven. On the other hand, the souls in Purgatory endure torments which no tongue can describe and no intelligence comprehend, without special revelation.” As we recall, St. Catherine of Genoa experienced on Earth the pains of Purgatory.

Tough and Kind—Severe and Loving
This testimony of tradition is illustrated by the character of great saints. While they are more severe than ordinary preachers, they also have much greater love of God and souls. They show forth, not only the justice of God, but also His boundless love. A good Christian illustrates the same truth. A Christian mother, for instance, is severe, in order to correct her children, but the element that predominates is sweetness and maternal goodness. Today, on the contrary, it often happens that many parents lack both severity and love. Those persons who do not undergo Purgatory on Earth, will have it later on at a much more severe and painful level. Nor must we make too sharp a distinction between sanctification and salvation. If we neglect sanctification, we may miss salvation itself.

Isn’t God Going Overboard with Purgatory?
Many souls are in Purgatory who have sinned only venially. Can punishment so severe be proportioned to venial sins? St. Thomas replies: “Pain corresponds less to the gravity of the sin than to the disposition of the suffering soul. One and the same sin is punished more severely in Purgatory than it is on Earth. To illustrate. A man of delicate constitution suffers a scourging far more than a hardy man.”

Why is one and the same sin punished more rigorously in Purgatory than on Earth? The Church speaks of the two comings of Christ—His first coming was in mercy, His second coming will be in justice. While we live on Earth, we live in the time of mercy—yet we have to honest, confess our sins, change our lives and do penance to profit from this “time of mercy.” In this merciful period we are able to pay for sins—not at their true value, but at a vastly reduced rate.

If we neglect, put-off, or refuse to pay now at a reduced rate, then we will have to pay what is just when Christ comes the second time to judge us upon our death. While we are in this life, we have a weak understanding of the majesty and purity of God, and so we make light of sin. But when we die, the light of God will illuminate our minds and the separated soul will know much better than it did before, that God is the one thing necessary and that sin is the greatest evil there is.

Suffering for Sin Grows with Love of God
The more saintly a soul is, the more it loves God, the more it desires to see God and the more it suffers at being delayed in that desire. Pain corresponds to desire. Souls in Purgatory, desiring the beatific vision, suffer from its delay, just as on Earth the saints desire to die and to be with God. This normal consequence of intense love. But this great pain is compensated by their greater abandonment to Providence and their greater love of divine justice.

Suffering for sin grows with love of God. The reason you don’t feel the gravity of your past sins is that you only have a small love of God. Likewise the reason you complain when Divine Providence makes you suffer for your past sins is your small love of God. The more we love, then the more we weep over having offended the object of our love—God. The more we love, the more we want to make reparation and so the more we are prepared to suffer. We see this reflected somewhat in the chilling story of Drithelm, a good Christian who died and was resurrected to live out his Purgatory on Earth.

The Life of Drithelm
Fr. Schouppe writes:
If the pain of loss makes but a feeble impression upon us, it is far different with the pain of sense; the torment of fire, the torture of a sharp and intense cold, affrights our sensibility. This is why Divine Mercy, wishing to excite a holy fear in our souls, speaks but little of the pain of loss, but we are continually shown the fire, the cold, and other torments, which constitute the pain of sense. This is what we see in the Gospel, and in particular revelations, by which God is pleased to manifest to His servants from time to time the mysteries of the other life.

St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Bede testify…
Let us mention one of these revelations. In the first place, let us see what the pious and learned Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine quotes from the Venerable St. Bede. England has been witness in our own days, writes St. Bede, to a singular prodigy, which may be compared to the miracles of the first ages of the Church. To excite the living to fear the death of the soul, God permitted that a man, after having slept the sleep of death, should return to life and reveal what he had seen in the other world. The frightful, unheard-of details which he relates, and his life of extraordinary penance, which corresponded with his words, produced a lively impression throughout the country. I will now resume the principal circumstances of this history.

Drithelm was a Good Christian
There was in Northumberland, England, a man named Drithelm, who, with his family, led a most Christian life. He fell sick, and his malady increasing day by day, he was soon reduced to extremity, and died, to the great desolation and grief of his wife and children.

The latter passed the night in tears by the remains, but the following day, before his interment, they saw him suddenly return to life, arise, and place himself in a sitting posture. At this sight they were seized with such fear that they all took to flight, with the exception of the wife, who, trembling, remained alone with her risen husband.

He reassured her immediately: “Fear not,” he said; “it is God who restores to me my life; He wishes to show in my person a man raised from the dead. I have yet long to live upon Earth, but my new life will be very different from the one I led heretofore.”

Resurrected and Penitent
Then he arose full of health, went straight to the chapel or church of the place, and there remained long in prayer. He returned home only to take leave of those who had been dear to him upon Earth, to whom he declared that he would live only to prepare himself for death, and advised them to do likewise. Then, having divided his property into three parts, he gave one to his children, another to his wife, and reserved the third part to give in alms.

When he had distributed all to the poor, and had reduced himself to extreme poverty, he went and knocked at the door of a monastery, and begged the Abbot to receive him as a penitent Religious, who would be a servant to all the others.

Unbelievable Penances
The Abbot gave him a retired cell, which he occupied for the rest of his life. Three exercises divided his time prayer, the hardest labor, and extraordinary penances. The most rigorous fasts he accounted as nothing. In winter he was seen to plunge himself into frozen water, and remain there for hours and hours in prayer, whilst he recited the whole 150 psalms from the Psalter of David.

The mortified life of Drithelm, his downcast eyes, even his features, indicated a soul struck with fear of the judgments of God. He kept a perpetual silence, but on being pressed to relate, for the edification of others, what God had manifested to him after his death, he thus described his vision:

Drithelm Tells of His Vision
“On leaving my body, I was received by a benevolent person, who took me under his guidance. His face was brilliant, and he appeared surrounded with light. He arrived at a large deep valley of immense extent, all fire on one side, all ice and snow on the other; on the one hand braziers and caldrons of flame, on the other the most intense cold and the blast of a glacial wind.

“This mysterious valley was filled with innumerable souls, which, tossed as by a furious tempest, threw themselves from one side to the other. When they could no longer endure the violence of the fire, they sought relief amidst the ice and snow; but finding only a new torture, they cast themselves again into the midst of the flames.

“I contemplated in a stupor these continual vicissitudes of horrible torments, and as far as my sight could extend, I saw nothing but a multitude of souls which suffered without ever having repose. Their very aspect inspired me with fear. I thought at first that I saw Hell; but my guide, who walked before me, turned to me and said, ‘No; this is not, as you think, the Hell of the reprobate. Do you know, he continued, what place this is?’ ‘No,’ I answered. ‘Know,’ he resumed, ‘that this valley, where you see so much fire and so much ice, is the place where the souls of those are punished who, during life, have neglected to confess their sins, and who have deferred their conversion to the end. Thanks to a special mercy of God, they have had the happiness of sincerely repenting before death, of confessing and detesting their sins. This is why they are not damned, and on the great day of judgment will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Several of them will obtain their deliverance before that time, by the merits of prayers, alms, and fasts, offered in their favor by the living, and especially in virtue of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for their relief.’”

Such was the recital of Drithelm. When asked why he so rudely treated his body, why he plunged himself into frozen water, he replied that he had seen other torments, and cold of another kind.

If his brethren expressed astonishment that he could endure these extraordinary austerities, “I have seen,” said he, “penances still more astonishing.” To the day when it pleased God to call him to Himself, he ceased not to afflict his body, and although broken down with age, he would accept no alleviation.

Drithelm’s Life Produced Many Conversions
This event produced a deep sensation in England; a great number of sinners, touched by the words of Drithelm, and struck by the austerity of his life, became sincerely converted.

This fact, adds St. Robert Bellarmine, appears to me of incontestable truth, since, besides being conformable to the words of Holy Scripture: “Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat” (Job 29:19), the Venerable St. Bede relates it as a recent and well-known event. More than this, it was followed by the conversion of a great number of sinners, the sign of the work of God, who is accustomed to work prodigies in order to produce fruit in souls.

A Question of Penance
We are sinners and sinners must do penance! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves!” (1 John 1:8). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance” (Luke 5:32). “Do penance! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). “Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8). “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein were done the most of his miracles, for that they had not done penance” (Matthew 11:20). “I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).

Questions To Ask Yourself
(1) Do I REALLY WANT to change my life? This is a crucial question! Before performing some of His miracles, Our Lord would sometimes ask: “If you WANT!” We have to WANT to do something first before we DO it.

And then there are degrees of HOW MUCH we want something. We see this in the words of Our Lord to the young man who had many possessions. The young man WANTED to go to Heaven, but he also WANTED TO DO THE MINIMUM to get there. To his question on what he had to DO to get there, Our Lord said: “If you WANT to enter into life, keep the commandments!” (Matthew 19:17).

But then Our Lord tries to encourage him from merely doing the MINUMUM into doing the MAXIMUM, in other words to increase his desire, to increase his want. “Jesus said to him: ‘If you WANT to be perfect, go sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions.” (Matthew 19:21-22).

(2) Do I WANT to give myself entirely to God, Jesus and Mary? Do I REALLY WANT to give myself to them? Or am I attached to myself and the world so much, that what I am REALLY WANTING is to both save my soul, yet still remain attached to myself and things of this life?

This is the case with most people! They are primarily concerned about themselves and the world, they want dual-citizenship! They want to be ‘good’ citizens of the world, and ‘good’ citizens of Heaven.

Yet Our Lord said: “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the clothing?” (Matthew 6:24-25).

(3) We all know the saying: “He who desires the end, must necessarily desire the means to that end!” We know that is true in theory, just like we know we cannot serve God and mammon in theory; but, in practice, are we seeking to do the opposite?

Like most of the world, WE WANT THINGS FOR FREE! We want to get to Heaven; we want to avoid Hell; we want to save our souls—but we don’t want to do ALL that it takes to get there! We want a discount; we want a reduced fare; we want a ‘freebie’ if at all possible!

This is what the young man with many possessions wanted, and he could not bring himself round to sacrificing what Jesus asked for! It says in the Gospel that Jesus LOVED him! He must have sensed Jesus’ love in some way; yet he preferred his petty possessions (creatures) to Jesus (the Creator).

Sadly, most of us are the same. We may even ask the same question as Jesus’ followers asked, who had witnessed the encounter with the rich young man: “The disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Matthew 19:25). Jesus replied: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:28).

So, the good news is that IF WE NO LONGER WANT TO BE LIKE THAT; IF WE WANT TO CHANGE, even though we may FEEL powerless to change, then Jesus, through His Holy Mother, will bring about that miracle of grace within you. You have to WANT and you have to ASK! The grace will then come to help you DO, not without any pain, but it will help you with the pain too!

Make Resolutions
(1) I will not be discouraged by what I may see in examining myself and my surroundings. Discouragement comes from the devil, not from God. Discouragement is the devil’s chief weapon of paralysis.

(2) I will realize that without God I can do nothing — “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) — yet with the help of God, anything and everything is possible — “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:28).

(3) So even though I may FEEL that I don’t want to change, or if I may FEEL that I am not able to change, I will nevertheless ASK TO CHANGE, knowing that Our Lady of Fatima said that we can obtain all things through the Rosary. However, our Rosaries need to IMPROVE; we need to PRAY the Rosary more and SAY it less; we need to put more ATTENTION and more FERVOR into our Rosaries, remembering the words of St. Louis de Montfort, who says:

“In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (The Secret of the Rosary, “Forty-Second Rose”).

Saturday November 9th

Article 9
Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned!

Rome Burns
In July of 64 A.D., a great fire ravaged Rome For six days and seven nights the citizens of ancient Rome watched helplessly as their city burned. The Great Fire spread quickly and savagely, destroying 70% of the city. “Of Rome’s 14 districts, only four remained intact. Three were leveled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins,” writes a contemporary Roman historian, Tacitus. Of the approximate one million-person population, an estimated half was made newly homeless by the fire.

As is usually seen in such mass tragedies, rumors began to wind through the devastated streets. Reports emerged that some men seen fanning the flames claimed they were under orders. As a result of the tremendous losses, the Roman people, feeling the effects of paranoia, looked for someone who might be responsible for the fire. They blamed their emperor—Nero.

Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns
Some rumors speculated that Nero himself had set the fire, others that he had ordered it. Seeing as Nero, after the fire, rebuilt Rome in a new style more to his liking, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens, some believed he used the fire as an excuse for new construction. But perhaps the most interesting rumor that emerged from the Great Fire. According to a well-known expression, the decadent and unpopular Nero, “fiddled while Rome burned.” The expression has a double meaning: Not only did Nero play music while his people suffered, but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of crisis. When the Great Fire broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. Though he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust him.

In the face of such charges, Nero searched for a scapegoat for the fire. He chose the Christians and persecuted them ruthlessly, torturing and executing them in hideous ways. Despite this public spectacle, Nero still found himself blamed for the fire.

Obsessed with Music
The idea that Nero fiddled while Rome burned is odd. But a mad tyrant who preferred to play music rather than offer succor to his people isn’t unbelievable, and Nero was unquestionably cruel. However, music historians believe the viol class of instruments (an earlier ancestor of the fiddle) was not developed until the 11th century, with the fiddle coming along much later. If Nero played anything, it would probably have been the cithara, a heavy wooden instrument with four to seven strings—but there is still no solid evidence that he played one during the Great Fire. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Troy, while watching the city burn―maybe he sang and accompanied himself on the cithara; however, he stated clearly that this was unconfirmed by eyewitness accounts. Roman historians record that Nero had a real passion for the cithara. In conquered lands, Nero coordinated festivals that featured musical competitions on such dates that he could attend and compete in them all. Nero is said to have been very emotionally wrapped-up with these competitions. Nero’s interest in these musical competitions apparently bothered some of his rivals in the Senate, who found the idea of the emperor competing side by side with common musicians unseemly.

‘Roman Candles’
The story that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned conjures up images of the emperor, dramatically backlit by the flames from the burning city, alone, calmly playing his fiddle while his people cried out in suffering. This most certainly was his attitude as he enjoyed watching the Christians that he had arrested, slowly burning to death attached to posts in his pleasure gardens and coated with tar, so that they would burn better—hence the grotesque title to the firework, “Roman Candle” which is what those poor Christians were—live human candles! His persecution of the early Christians was the first the religion would endure, and it resulted in the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul, both of whom were executed during the persecutions.

Brutal Life, Brutal Death
The emperor has a well-documented history of brutality. He ascended to the throne after his mother killed his uncle; Nero later had her killed. In the face of blame for the Great Fire, he chose to look for scapegoats and found them in the Christians. Ultimately, the Great Fire helped bring Nero down. Discontent with his reign, his infantries threatened mutiny, and he was declared a public enemy by the Senate. Facing execution, Nero pushed a dagger into his throat and took his life four years after the fire.

Parallels with Purgatory
What is the point of this pagan historical account of Rome burning? Well, there are perhaps more parallels than one would first imagine. Of course, each one may draw something different and there may be many, many spiritual parallels to be found in this event and the ‘key players’ in the tragedy. We will look at a few to try a spark you and fire you up, so that you can draw your own analogies from the event.

Rome Burns
There are increasing numbers today who believe that Rome is beginning to burn down—metaphorically speaking! The Church has become increasingly worldly, with the fire of worldliness raging through the Church at an alarmingly increasing rate—not all the wood has caught fire, but much of it has and a lot it is burnt to ashes. Could we say that 70% of Rome (a.k.a. the Catholic Church throughout the world) has been destroyed? Perhaps so, with all the church closings and sales that have increased in the last 50 years; the constantly plummeting Mass attendance numbers; the falling numbers of Catholic births and baptisms; the massive loss of vocations over the last half-century, etc. Yes, perhaps 70% of the Church is destroyed as was Rome in 64 A.D. A passion for the world, rather than God, burns brightly and rages vehemently in the hearts of most Catholics today.

Half the Population Homeless
This is closely linked to what was said in the previous paragraph. Heaven is supposed to be our home and the Faith is the key to Heaven’s Gates, yet “many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). Many have been given the key to the gates at their Baptism, but have since thrown that key away. Our Lady says: “There will be many who will not believe … Many souls will be deprived of innumerable graces they need to make that great leap from time to eternity … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls ... Many will let themselves be led astray, because they have not worshiped the true Christ … There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me … Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness” (Our Lady at Quito, La Salette, Fatima & Akita). These words of our heavenly Mother merely reinforce the words of her Son: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Many men are called merciful: but who shall find a faithful man?” (Proverbs 20:6).

Ever-increasing numbers of Catholics are becoming ‘homeless’—they have made this world their home and know little or care little for their true home, Heaven. What are we doing for the ‘homeless’? Are fiddling while Rome burns? Are we too preoccupied with our personal slice of the pie of the world to care or do something for those that are ‘homeless’? We might be tempted to think or say those fateful words of Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer is found in Our Lord parable of the Sheep and the Goats: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was a homeless, and you took Me not in! … Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me.” (Matthew 25:41-43). Souls fall into Hell daily while the Catholic world fiddles with the world; souls burn daily in Purgatory while the Catholic world ignores them as it burns with a love of the world! We fiddle, souls burn!

Corruption of Nero and the Romans
Sister Lucia wrote to a priest nephew of hers, Fr. Jose Valinho in 1970: “I see by your letter that you are disturbed by the confusion of our time. It is sad indeed that so many persons let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave which is sweeping the world and that they are blinded to the point of being incapable of seeing error!”

Which is more or less what Our Lady foretold at La Salette: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that … several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls .. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... Evil books will be abundant on earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God.” Going back even further in time, we see Our Lady of Good Success foretelling similar things: “The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them … Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness.”

Much like Nero and the many among the Roman populous: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity” (La Salette). As the spiritual writers all state, impurity dulls and blinds the mind in relation to the things of God. Our Lord shows this by speaking of the reverse side of the coin: “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

“It Will Begin At The Top”
Because the Church becomes besotted by worldliness, sensuality and pleasure--”May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth” (La Salette). “Every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls” (Our Lady of Good Success). The final outcome of all this? “Rome will lose the Faith” (Our Lady of La Salette). Which is borne out by the recent comments of Cardinal Ciappi, in a personal communication to a Professor Baumgartner in Salzburg, Austria. Cardinal Ciappi was the Papal Theologian of Pope John Paul II, said: “In the Third Secret, it is foretold, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” The recent divisions over morality amongst the bishops and cardinals at the recent Synod in Rome (October) are a frightening indication of this burning of Rome!

Nero’s Persecution
The world has no problem with the following Scripture verse: “This world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4), but many Catholics do not have a problem with the enemy of God! “Let’s be friends” they say, “after all, our religion is one of love!” Which is what the world loves to hear as it ‘sweet-talks’ so many Catholics out of the Faith. These so-called Catholics not only bury the talent of the Faith that God has given them, but they also bury any uncompromising quotes like: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15) or “No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24).

Those whom the world cannot ‘sweet-talk’ into accepting a new gospel, they will no longer ‘sweet-talk’ but persecute and even put to death! They “will preach another Gospel contrary to that of the true Christ Jesus … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... The righteous will suffer greatly ... The good will be martyred … There will be desecration of holy places … Churches will be locked up or desecrated ... Churches and altars sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord ...The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them”“ (La Salette, Fatima, Akita).

A Divided City Falls
Our Lady, in several of her recent apparitions (La Salette and Akita especially) seems to speak of a division in the Church—something which is borne out by other revelations made to the mystics. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, in her vision of May 13th, 1820, says : “I saw how harmful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness … Then the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of their freedom. I saw many churches closed down, great miseries everywhere, wars and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took violent action.”

Fiddling While Souls Burn
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13th, 1917). Whether it is keeping souls out of the fires of Hell, or rescuing souls from the fires of Purgatory—the fire must be fought. That is the whole point and purpose of Our Lord’s coming: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) and He wants our help in this matter! If we are caught up with the world or ourselves, then we will not hear His voice or will deaden His voice. Too many fiddle while souls burn!

The Price of Not Helping
“For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap” (Galatians 6:8). Or as Scripture says: “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2). The moderns would say: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours!” Neglect to help the souls in Purgatory will result in our not being helped when we find ourselves there. Of this we have several proofs, taken from the Life of St. Margaret Mary. “I learned from Sister Margaret,” says Mother Greffier in herMemoirs, “that she one day prayed for two persons of high rank in the world who had just died. She saw them both in Purgatory. The one was condemned for several years to those sufferings, notwithstanding the great number of Masses which were celebrated for her. All those prayers and suffrages were, by Divine Justice, applied to the souls belonging to some of the families of her subjects[instead of her], which had been ruined by their injustice and lack of charity. As nothing was left to those poor people to enable them to have prayers offered for them after their death, God compensated these poor people in the manner we have related” [by taking the Masses offered for those two persons of high rank and applying them to members of their families].

Everyone Owns a Spiritual Treasure Chest
Indulgences are, in the Church, a true spiritual treasure laid open to all the faithful; from which all are allowed to take what they need—for themselves or for others, to pay their own debts and those of others. It was under this figure that God was one day pleased to show them to Blessed Mary of Quito (May 26th). One day, when in ecstasy, she saw in the midst of a large space an immense table covered with heaps of silver, gold, rubies, pearls, and diamonds, and at the same time she heard a voice saying, “These riches are public property; each one may approach and take as much as he pleases.” God made known to her that this was a symbol of indulgences (Fr. Rossignoli, Merveilles 29). We may say, with the author of theMerveilles, how culpable we are if, in such abundance, we ourselves remain poor and destitute and neglect to assist others. The souls in Purgatory are in such extreme necessity, they would beg us with tears in the midst of their torments; and we have the means of paying their debts by indulgences, and we make no or little attempt to do so. Their fire rages and we try put it out with what is equivalent to a glass of water!!

Oh, it’s so hard!
Does access to this treasury demand painful efforts on our parts, such as fasts, pilgrimages, and deprivation that is insupportable to our human nature? “Even though such were the case,” says Fr. Segneri, “we should submit to them.” Do we not see how men, for love of gold, in order to preserve a work of art, to save a part of their fortune or some precious possessions, expose themselves to the flames of a fire? Should we not do at least as much to save from the fires of Puragatory—which are, as Aquinas says, the same as the fires of Hell—those poor souls ransomed by the Blood of Jesus Christ? God’s divine goodness asks nothing so painful: it requires only such works as are ordinary and easy as having a Mass offered for the soul, praying some Rosaries, some Holy Communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the giving of an alms. And we neglect to acquire the most precious treasures by such easy means, and have no desire to apply them to our poor family, relatives and friends suffering in the flames of Purgatory.

Examples
In Fr. Schouppe’s book he speaks of Thomas of Cantimpre and an incident that happened in his own family. The grandmother of Thomas had lost a son in whom she had centered her fondest hopes. Day and night she wept for him and refused all consolation. In the excess of her grief she forgot the great duty of Christian love, and did not think of praying for that soul so dear to her. The unfortunate object of this barren tenderness languished amid the flames of Purgatory, receiving no alleviation in his sufferings. Finally God took pity on him. One day, whilst plunged in the depths of her grief, this woman had a miraculous vision. She saw on a beautiful road a procession of young men, as graceful as angels, advancing full of joy towards a magnificent city. She understood that they were souls from Purgatory making their triumphal entry into Heaven. She looked eagerly to see if among their ranks she could not discover her son. Alas! The child was not there; but she perceived him approaching far behind the others, sad, suffering, and fatigued, his garments drenched with water. “Oh, dear object of my grief,” she cried out to him, “how is it that you remain behind that brilliant band? I should wish to see you at the head of your companions.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

“Mother,” replied the child in a plaintive tone, “it is you, it is these tears which you shed over me that moisten and soil my garments, and retard my entrance into the glory of Heaven. Cease to abandon yourself to a blind and useless grief. Open your heart to more Christian sentiments. If you truly love me, relieve me in my sufferings; apply some indulgences to me, say prayers, give alms, obtain for me the fruits of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is by this means that you will prove your love; for by so doing you will deliver me from prison where languish, and bring me forth to eternal life, which is far more desirable than the life terrestrial which you have given me.” Then the vision disappeared, and that mother, thus admonished and brought back to true Christian sentiments, instead of giving way to immoderate grief, applied to the practice of every good work which could give relief to the soul of her son. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

The great causes of this forgetfulness, this indifference, guilty neglect, and injustice towards the dead, is lack of faith. For do we not see that true Christians, those animated by a spirit of faith, make the most noble sacrifices in behalf of their departed friends? Descending in spirit into those penal flames, there contemplating the rigors of Divine Justice, listening to the voice of the dead who implore their compassion, they think only how to give relief to those poor souls, and consider it their most sacred duty to procure for their parents and departed friends all the suffrages possible, according to their means and condition. Happy are those Christians; they show their faith by their works; they are merciful, and in their turn they shall obtain mercy. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

The Power of Almsgiving
The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, gives the preference to alms before fasting and prayer, when there is a question of expiating past faults. “Almsgiving,” he says,”possesses more completely the virtue of satisfaction than prayer, and prayer more completely than fasting.” This is why the great servants of God and the great saints have chosen it as a principal means of assisting the dead. Amongst them we may mention as one of the most remarkable the holy Abbot Raban-Maur (February 4th), first Abbot of Fulda, in the tenth century, and afterwards Archbishop of Mayence. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Father Trithemius, a well-known writer of the Order of St. Benedict, caused abundant alms to be distributed for the dead. He had established a rule that whenever a Religious died, his portion of food should be distributed among the poor for thirty days, that the soul of the deceased might be relieved by the alms. It happened in the year 830 that the monastery of Fulda was attacked by a contagious disease, which carried off a large number of the Religious. Raban-Maur, full of zeal and charity for their souls, called Edelard, the Procurator of the monastery, and reminded him of the rule established regarding the alms for the departed. “Take great care,” said he, “that our constitutions be faithfully observed, and that the poor be fed for a whole month with the food destined for the brethren we have lost.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Edelard failed both in obedience and charity. Under pretext that such liberality was extravagant, and that he must economize the resources of the monastery, but in reality because he was influenced by a secret avarice, he neglected to distribute the food, or did so in a manner far short of the command he had received. God did not leave this disobedience unpunished. (Fr. Schouppe,Purgatory Explained).

A month elapsed, when one evening, after the community had retired, he walked across the chapter-room with a lamp in his hand. What was his astonishment when, at an hour that the room should be unoccupied, he found there a great number of Religious. His astonishment turned into fear when, looking at them attentively, he recognized the Religious lately deceased. Terror seized him, an icy coldness ran through his veins and riveted him to the spot like a lifeless statue. Then, one of the dead brothers addressed him with terrible reproaches.”Unfortunate creature,” said he, “why didst thou not distribute the alms which were destined to give relief to the souls of thy departed brethren? Why hast thou deprived us of that assistance amid the torments of Purgatory. Receive, from this moment, the punishment of thy avarice; another and more terrible chastisement is reserved for thee, when, after three days, thou shall appear before thy God.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

At these words Edelard fell as though struck by a thunderbolt, and remained immovable until after midnight, at the hour when the community went to choir. There they found him half-dead, in the same condition as was Heliodorus of old, after he had been scourged by the angels in the temple of Jerusalem (2 Machabees 3). He was carried to the infirmary, where all possible care was lavished upon him, so that he recovered consciousness. As soon as he was able to speak, in the presence of the Abbot and of all his brethren, he related with tears the terrible occurence to which his sad condition but too evidently bore witness. Then adding that he was to die within three; days, he asked for the last Sacraments, with all signs of humble repentance. He received them with sentiments of piety, and three days later expired, assisted by the prayers of his brethren. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Mass for the dead was immediately sung, and his share of food was distributed to the poor, for the benefit of his soul. Meanwhile, his punishment was not at an end. Edelard appeared to Abbot Raban, pale and disfigured. Touched with compassion, Raban inquired what he could do for him. “Ah!” replied the unfortunate soul, “nowithstanding the prayers of our holy community, I cannot obtain the grace of my deliverance until all my brethren, whom my avarice defrauded of the suffrages due to them, have been released. That which has been given to the poor for me has been of no profit but to them, and this by order of Divine Justice. I entreat you, therefore, O venerated and merciful Father, redouble your alms. I hope that by these powerful means Divine clemency will vouchsafe to deliver us all, my brethren first, and afterwards myself, who am the least deserving of mercy.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Raban-Maur increased his alms, and scarcely had another month elapsed, when Edelard again appeared; but clad in white, surrounded with rays of light and his countenance beaming with joy. He thanked, in the most touching manner, his Abbot and all the members of the monastery for the charity exercised towards him (Vie de Raban-Maur; Rossignoli, Merveilles, 2). (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Hard Hearted Scrooges
What instruction does not this history contain! In the first place, the virtue of almsgiving for the dead shines forth in a most striking manner. Then we see how God chastises, even in this life, those who through avarice fear not to deprive the dead of their suffrages. I speak not here of those heirs who render themselves culpable, by neglecting to make the endowments which devolve upon them by last will and testament of their deceased relatives, a negligence which constitutes a sacrilegious injustice; but of those children or relatives who, through miserable motives of interest, have as few Masses as possible celebrated, are sparing in the distribution of alms, having no pity for the souls of their departed relatives, which they leave to languish in the horrible torments of Purgatory. It is the blackest ingratitude, a hardness of heart entirely opposed to Christian charity, and which will meet its punishment perhaps even in this world. (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Gold in Your Pocket or Purse
“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls” (Sr. Lucia).

Fiddling While Others Burn
So let us not neglect to use that powerful weapon, let us not fiddle with the world when we can be fiddling with our Rosaries. The more we fiddle with our Rosaries for the souls in Purgatory, the more God will have others fiddle with their Rosaries when it is our turn to burn there! That’s the kind of fiddling we like and want. In fact we hope that there will be thousands fiddling while we burn—fiddling with their Rosaries in compassion, and not fiddling on their fiddles in joy! Let us pray!

Friday November 8th

Article 8
A Better Way to Burn!

Why Burn in Purgatory if You Can Burn for Less Now?
What’s the point of paying for something with ‘big-bucks’ when you pay for it for mere cents on a dollar? Sure it’s discouraging to read about Purgatory—but there would be no worry about Purgatory if we would only do what we should be doing here below! Why burn in Purgatory when you can burn at a lower temperature and for a shorter time here below? What are we talking about? Well, the prayer that most of us probably say every day—or at least most days—gives us the answer: “Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love!” Love is the word—love is a fire. Our Lord Himself showed us this imagery and reality in His apparition to St. Margaret Mary.

Mercy Depends on Love
Love is the pinnacle of all virtues—“the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13)—and as such it deserves to be honored above all the others. Therefore, in Our Lord, we honor and adore His Sacred Heart which is the seat of His love for mankind. Mercy is a property or a child of love. St. Thomas Aquinas deals of Mercy under his section on Charity. As Psalm 144 says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). The Sacred Heart is all about those two pinnacles within God—His Love and His Mercy.

Our Lord Himself indicated this in His apparitions to St. Margaret Mary, especially in the fourth, called the “Great Apparition”. To what did He draw attention in the first place? To the Heart that beats in His breast and to the flames of love that surrounded that Heart. St. Margaret Mary says: “Discovering to me His Heart, He said to me: ‘Behold this Heart ...’” And what did He declare concerning this Heart? That It ineffably loves us and is sensible to the manner in which men repay Its love: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men. ... And in return I receive from the greater part of them nothing but ingratitude.”

What would the reward if men would only love the Heart that loved them? The reward would be mercy! As Jesus said of St. Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). Holy Scripture further cements this: “Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

Pre-Purgatorial Personal Payment Plan
We can choose our own payment plan for our sins—we can learn to truly and effectively love God here below, or we can learn in fires of Purgatory. Either way we burn, but burning now—with love—is better than burning later—in pain! “What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod; or in charity?” (1 Corinthians 4:21). In both places we will have to suffer—both here below and in the fires of Purgatory. Suffering is part of the master plan—“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). “For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). “He must suffer many things and be despised” (Mark 9:11). To which St. Paul adds: “If we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). “In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are straitened, but are not destitute. We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we perish not … For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” (1 Corinthians 4:8-9, 17). In other words, St. Paul says that whatever we suffer here below is only for a short time and is relatively light—compared to Purgatory—and it brings for us eternal glory while reducing our temporal punishment.

Thou Shalt Love!
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4‑5). To refuse to love, is to disobey God. Thou shalt love—or else. The Crisis of Faith in our thinking today, manifests itself as a Crisis of Love in our wills. Not believing, we can’t love; not loving, we stop believing. All God’s lesser commandments depend on His command to love. To disobey it, disqualifies us for all other tests, whereas obeying it, automatically leads us to do everything God wants us to do, and to avoid everything He doesn’t want us to do.

God is Love
God Himself is Charity, He is Charity Itself: “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). This charity God has shown to a world that has not deserved or merited it—it is not as though we had something first, that necessitated God to repay. “Who hath first given to Him, and recompense shall be made him?” (Romans 11:35). In fact, the world, by its sins, was more deserving of punishment and damnation than it was deserving of God’s charity! Yet that did not extinguish the charity of God.

A New Heart
“But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity” (Apocalypse 2:4). “Justify not thyself before God, for he knoweth the heart” (Ecclesiasticus 7:5). “The imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). “Who can say: ‘My heart is clean, I am pure from sin!’?” (Proverbs 20:9). “Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance, and do the first works. Or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance” (Apocalypse 2:4-5). “Return to the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 30:10).”Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6). “Covet ye therefore My words, and love them, and you shall have instruction” (Wisdom 6:12).

“Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels” (Psalm 50:12). “And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26). “God hath softened my heart, and the Almighty hath troubled me” (Job 23:16). “A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 50:19). “God gave unto him another heart” (1 Kings 10:9).

Let us take the words of God to heart! Let us beg Him to give us new heart! Let us admit that our present hearts are more often than not like stone, cold and hard! He who can change bread into His Flesh, can also change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Ask, and you shall receive!

Spiritual Cardiac Arrest
We have all, more or less, become spiritual cardiac patients, our every move is conditioned by the dread possibility of imminent spiritual heart failure. Loving in the face of the malice, that confronts us at every turn, is such uphill work, so great a strain, only the force and power of a divine command, driving us from behind, could keep us at it. Reason alone would tell us to relax. Lots of us have, and that hasn’t helped our environment, nor our spiritual life!

Once we lose that spark of love, and become lukewarm, it can be very, very difficult to regain the former level of love. We must guard and feed our love of God just like the ancients would zealously guard and feed their fires. They knew how difficult it was to create that first spark that led to the fire being kindled, so they give their utmost attention and care to preserving the fire that cost so much effort in the first place.

Love is at the Heart of the Answer
The heart of our spiritual life is love. Love is and has to be the soul of all that we do. “Let all your things be done in charity” (1 Corinthians 16:14). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Therefore, once again: “Let all your things be done in charity” (1 Corinthians 16:14) because “Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

Two Extremes
If there is one problem that hits most besieges most souls it is their attitude to the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Some are very presumptuous in heart, thinking that they can sin as much as they want and forgiveness will be automatically given; others tend to lose heart, thinking themselves unworthy of His mercy.

Do You Love Me?
“Jesus said to Simon Peter: ‘Simon son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?’ Peter said to Him: ‘Yes, Lord! Thou knowest that I love Thee!’” (John 21:15). Do we love Him “more than these”—more than all these things and distractions that surround in this world? If we wish to avoid Purgatory through our burning love, then it has to be a love that corresponds to what Our Lord and Holy Scripture commands and demands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). Purgatory comes about because souls fail to keep and honor those basic commands and demands. They only love God half-heartedly and they love the world sometimes wholeheartedly!

Love is Tough!
It’s hard to love. These days it doesn’t seem to come naturally any more—if it ever did. One act of perfect love of God can wipe away all the guilt and debt of temporal punishment due to sin—no matter how much one has sinned! Yet that act of perfect love, though not impossible, is not easy. We love the persons, places and things of this world more than we love God—or at least our love for them is more vehement than is our love of God. As Our Lord warned us, towards the End Times, evil would be so rampant that charity would grow cold: “Because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). As the fires of charity grow colder, the fires of Purgatory are being stoked up to be hotter.

There Can Be No Love Without Penance
If we have done wrong to someone we love, then we must make reparation. This is almost an absolute prerequisite of love. The souls in Purgatory are there because they wanted to love God without doing enough reparation or penance for having previously offended Him. Our Lord Himself warned us: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” and Jesus repeats Himself two verses later: “I say to you; except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3-5). “Therefore, saith the Lord God, be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin” (Ezechiel 18:30). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance” (Job 21:2).

Our Lord complained, already in His own day, that too few were doing penance: “Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida. For if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done penance long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10:13). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23).

St. John the Baptist, even before Jesus’ Public Ministry began, was preaching penance in the desert: “The word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:2-3).

Our Lord sent out His disciples to preach penance: “Jesus called the Twelve; and began to send them two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits … and He said to them: ‘Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them!’ And, going forth, they preached that men should do penance” (Mark 6:7-12). When the Apostles, despite being given power over devils, had failed to cast out a devil from a boy, they asked Our Lord why they had failed. He replied: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” – in other words, prayer and penance. (Matthew 17:20). This is why Our Lady, at Fatima, asks for the Rosary and sacrifices – in other words, prayer and penance.

Let us take a cue the example quoted from Holy Scripture: “He prayed to the Lord his God: and did penance exceedingly” (2 Paralipomenon 33:12). “Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

What Is Love?
What does it mean to love to Jesus? The first level of love is to keep His commandments: “If you love me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Fr. Tanquerey, in his renowned classic The Spiritual Life, writes:

Lowest Level of Love: “The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, mortal sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the purgative way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.

Middle Level of Love: “The chief concern of those already advanced, the proficients, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the illuminative way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only mortal, but even venial sin.

Highest Level of Love: “Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the unitive way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the theological virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ.” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §§ 341-343).

“And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezechiel 36:26). “Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love!” So that “charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

Thursday November 7th

Article 7
Taking the Heat!

Can’t Have It Both Ways!
What on earth is wrong with us?! We want to be allowed to do what we want, yet we despise hearing of the consequences of our actions! We throw a fit if our good actions are not acknowledged and rewarded, yet we throw a greater fit if our bad actions ARE noticed and rewarded (i.e., punished)! There is an interesting book entitled, Ideas Have Consequences, but even more so is it true that our actions have consequences.

As Holy Scripture says: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works”(Matthew 16:27). “And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God” (John 3:19-21).

A Lose-Lose Situation!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.

The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God.

The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering. The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24).

Taking the Heat!
The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.” St. Thomas Aquinas states: “The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell” (Summa Theologica, Supplement, Appendix II, Art. 1).

We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.

St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”

Admission Prices Are Different
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God.

Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.

Don’t Play the Credit-Card Game with Purgatory!
There are some who look at Purgatory much like they look upon their credit card—they will buy now (sin now) and pay later, thinking little of the interest rates. They forget that the interest rates for Purgatory are beyond their wildest imagination! St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world.

St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of the “Imitation of Christ” explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done her.”

Happy to Be Saved—But Painfully Happy!
However, before we get carried-away by exaggerated thoughts of “feeling-sorry-for-myself” doom and gloom, let us also remember that joyful and positive outlook of the souls in Purgatory. Another Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, renowned for his calming and soothing words, says:

“We may draw from the thought of Purgatory more consolation than apprehension. The greater part of those who dread Purgatory so much think more of their own interests than of the interests of God’s glory; this proceeds from the fact that they think only of the sufferings without considering the peace and happiness which are there enjoyed by the holy souls. It is true that the torments are so great that the most acute sufferings of this life bear no comparison to them; but the interior satisfaction which is there enjoyed is such that no prosperity nor contentment upon earth can equal it.

“The souls are in a continual union with God. They are perfectly resigned to His will, or rather their will is so transformed into that of God, that they cannot will but what God wills; so that if Paradise were to be opened to them, they would precipitate themselves into Hell, rather than appear before God with the stains with which they see themselves disfigured. They purify themselves willingly and lovingly, because such is the Divine good pleasure. They wish to be there in the state wherein God pleases, and as long as it shall please Him. They cannot sin, nor can they experience the least movement of impatience, nor commit the slightest imperfection. They love God more than they love themselves, and more than all things else; they love Him with a perfect, pure, and disinterested love. They are consoled by angels. They are assured of their eternal salvation, and filled with a hope that can never be disappointed in its expectations. Their bitterest anguish is soothed by a certain profound peace. It is a species of Hell as regards the suffering; it is a Paradise as regards the delight infused into their hearts by charity—Charity, stronger than death and more powerful than Hell ; Charity, whose lamps are all fire and flame. Happy state! More desirable than appalling, since its flames are flames of love and charity.” (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, chapter 9).

No Room for the “Sweet-Tooth”
Yet, we must not fall into our “sweet-tooth” tendency and suddenly extract and abstract all pains from Purgatory—just as God is extremely just while being extremely merciful, so too are the Poor Souls in extreme pain while being extremely happy. Such are the teachings of the Saints and the Doctors of Church, from which it follows that, if the pains of Purgatory are rigorous, they are not without consolation. When imposing His cross upon us in this life, God pours upon it the sweetness of His grace, and in purifying the souls in Purgatory like gold in the crucible, He soothes their flames by ineffable consolations.

Our God is an Extreme God
We must not lose sight of this consoling element, this bright side of the often gloomy picture which we are going to examine. This, as you can see, is the balance between the Justice and Mercy of God—Whose wisdom can do no wrong, nor can He deceive or be deceived. We must remember that God is extreme—for He is infinitely perfect, and perfection implies an extreme, for someone who is perfect is extremely good. Therefore, all the attributes of God are perfect to the extreme—wherefore, He has to be extreme in His Justice while at the same time being extreme in His mercy. Our puny minds cannot reconcile what seem like two opposites—justice and mercy—but that is just like our incapacity to grasp the notion of eternity. Let us also not deceive ourselves on the probable punishment due to our sins—whether here on earth (if we are wise to accept it) or in Purgatory (if we are foolish enough to refuse paying while in earth). It is because we have such a low estimation of what Heaven is and what it costs, which is compounded with our trivialization of sin, whereby we think it is insignificant in some cases—forgetting that our Faith teaches us that both Mortal Sin and Venial Sin are the two greatest evils in the world!

Pay Now, Not Later
As Fr. Schouppe writes, in Purgatory Explained: “God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure’, says the prophet, ‘and thou canst not look on iniquity’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the Sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, it is terrible.

“It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His name’ (Psalm 110:9); as though it would say, His Justice is terrible because His Sanctity is infinite. The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in nowise so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear.

“This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Wednesday November 6th

Article 6
Your prices are not My prices! My values are not your values!

The Price of Sin: Heaven’s estimation and our estimation
As God tells us through His prophet Isaias: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well transpose and paraphrase that into: “My idea of the gravity of sin is not your idea of the gravity of sin: nor is your estimation of the price of sin the same as My estimation of the price of sin, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so is my idea of its gravity exalted above your idea of its gravity, and My price for sin above your price for sin.”

Sin has to be extremely grave and pricey—even Venial Sin. This is seen from Divine Public Revelation in the form of Holy Scripture, and is seconded by what we know through Divine Private Revelation over the course of the centuries—which has been given by God to various saints and mystics.

The Price According to Scripture
In the very beginning of Holy Scripture, in the book of Genesis, we see God place a grave consequence on sin, when He tells Adam what will happen if Adam disobeys Him and eats of the ‘forbidden fruit’: “For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” (Genesis 2:17). “The wages of sin is death”(Romans 6:23). Sin was (and is) so grave, that each man would go to his grave because of the one single of Adam. St. Paul writes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Furthermore, God made an eternal, never-ending Hell the punishment for even one single, short-lived, temporary, brief, unconfessed and unrepented Mortal Sin—that is terrifyingly striking and underlines the gravity of sin. Our Lord tells us that perhaps most souls are lost and sent to this awful place: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’ … ‘Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. [14] How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!’ “(Luke 13:23-24; Matthew 7:13-14). Many lost for ETERNITY! Burning in Hell for ETERNITY! Why? Because of sin!

The Price According to the Catechism
It is not for nothing that the Catechism calls sin the greatest evil in the world!”Mortal Sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, and a greater evil than disease, or war ... Mortal Sin must be a most terrible thing indeed, to make a just and merciful God create Hell for the eternal punishment of sinners who die with even only one Mortal Sin” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 22, “Mortal Sin”).

As for Venial Sin, the same catechism says: “Although Venial Sin is not a grievous offense against God, it is, nevertheless, a great moral evil, next alone to Mortal Sin. We are prone to look upon Venial Sin as of no consequence, and to be careless about guarding against it, forgetting that IT IS SECOND ONLY IN EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO MORTAL SIN. In Holy Scripture we see, from many examples, how God regards Venial Sin. Even in this life He has punished it most severely. For only a slight doubt about God’s mercy, because of the wickedness of his people, Moses was punished. He was not permitted to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land [and died at its borders]” (The Catechism, My Catholic Faith, chapter 23, “Venial Sin”).

The Price According to the Private Revelations of Our Lady
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go ... Many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them” (Our Lady of Fatima). Speaking of our times, she says that “There will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost” (Our Lady of Good Success). “Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls” (Our Lady of La Salette).

In our folly, we ignore the only antidote to the gravity, poison and consequence of sin: “See and contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievious is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing”(Our Lady of Good Success).

Purgatory is Pretty Pricey Too!
We might think that Hell is expensive destination for an eternal vacation, but Purgatory, even though it offers shorter stays, is very pricey too! When we think of what we call dismissively—”Oh, it’s only a Venial Sin! I won’t go to Hell for that!”—we forget that Purgatory, in some respects, is like Hell, though not permanent! That’s a pretty pricey price to pay for a paltry ‘little’ sin—though that is only our estimation of sin, not God’s.

Expensive Trivia
In the book, The Life of St. Louis Bertrand, of the Order of St. Dominic, written Fr. Antist, a Religious of the same Order, and who personally lived with the saint, we read that in the year 1557, whilst St. Louis Bertrand resided at the convent of Valentia, a plague broke out in that city. The terrible plague spread rapidly, threatening to wipe out its inhabitants, and each one feared for his life. A Religious of the community, wishing to prepare himself fervently for death, made a general confession of his whole life to the saint; and on leaving him said, “Father, if it should now please God to call me, I shall return and make known to you my condition in the other life.”

He died a short time afterwards, and the following night he appeared to the saint. He told him that he was detained in Purgatory on account of a few slight faultswhich remained to be expiated, and begged the saint to recommend him to the community. St. Louis communicated the request immediately to the Prior, who hastened to recommend the soul of the departed to the prayers and Holy Sacrifices of the brethren assembled in chapter. Six days later, a man of the town, who knew nothing of what had passed at the convent, came to make his confession to Father Louis, and told him “that the soul of Father Clement had appeared to him. He saw, he said, the earth open, and the soul of the deceased Father come forth all glorious; it resembled, he added, a resplendent star, which rose through the air towards Heaven.”

Working-Out the Price of Purgatory
According to the common opinion of the doctors, the expiatory pains are of long duration. “There is no doubt,” says St. Robert Bellarmine (De Gemitu, lib. 2, c. 9), “that the pains of Purgatory are not limited to ten or twenty years, and that they last in some cases entire centuries. But allowing it to be true that their duration did not exceed ten or twenty years, can we account it as nothing to have to endure for ten or twenty years the most excruciating sufferings without the least alleviation? If a man was assured that he should suffer some violent pain in his feet, or his head, or teeth for the space of twenty years, and that without ever sleeping or taking the least repose, would he not a thousand times rather die than live in such a state? And if the choice were given to him between a life thus miserable and the loss of all his temporal goods, would he hesitate to make the sacrifice of his fortune to be delivered from such a torment? Shall we then find any difficulty in embracing labor and penance to free ourselves from the sufferings of Purgatory? Shall we fear to practice the most painful exercises: vigils, fasts, almsgiving, long prayers, and especially contrition, accompanied with sighs and tears?” (St. Robert Bellarmine). These words comprise the whole doctrine of the saints and theologians.

The Math of Sin
Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his “Treatise on Charity towards the Departed,” bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, “The just man falls seven times a day” (Prov. 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God.

We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery—we might even be capable of committing sin “seven times a minute” on a bad day, never mind “seven times a day”. Oh, how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?

Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.

Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.

A Low-End Estimate Only
The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries?

Years and centuries in torments! Oh! if we only thought of it, with what care should we not avoid the least faults! with what fervor should we not practice penance to make satisfaction in this world!

First Class, Business Class and Coach
Our flight to Heaven, on the plane of Purgatory, has three classes of seats: First Class, Business Class and Coach. It has pleased God to show, in spirit, the gloomy abodes of Purgatory to some privileged souls, who were then told to reveal these sorrowful mysteries for the benefit of faithful. One of this number was St. Frances of Rome, foundress of the Oblates, who died in Rome in 1440. God favored her with great lights concerning the state of souls in the other life. She saw Hell and its horrible torments; she saw also the interior of Purgatory, and the mysterious order or hierarchy that exists there.

Purgatory, she said, is divided into three distinct parts, which are like three large provinces of that kingdom of suffering. They are situated the one beneath the other, and occupied by souls of different orders. These souls are buried more deeply in proportion as they are more defiled and farther removed from the time of their deliverance.

The lowest region is filled with a fierce fire, but which is not dark like that of Hell; it is a vast burning sea, throwing forth immense flames. Innumerable souls are plunged into its depths: they are those who have rendered themselves guilty of mortal sin, which they have duly confessed, but have not sufficiently expiated during life. The servant of God then learned that, for all forgiven mortal sin, there remains to be undergone a suffering of seven years. This term cannot evidently be taken to mean a definite measure, since mortal sins differ in enormity, but as an average penalty. Although the souls are enveloped in the same flames, their sufferings are not the same; they differ according to the number and nature of their former sins.

In this lower Purgatory the saint beheld clergy and the religious consecrated to God. The clergy were those who, after a life of sin, had had the happiness of being sincerely converted; the religious, consecrated to God, were those who had not lived according to the sanctity of their state. At that same moment she saw descend the soul of a priest whom she knew, but whose name she does not reveal. She remarked that he had his face covered with a veil which concealed a stain. Although he had led an edifying life, this priest had not always observed strict temperance, and had sought too eagerly the satisfactions of the table.

The saint was then conducted into the intermediate Purgatory, destined for souls which had deserved less rigorous chastisement. It had three distinct compartments; one resembled an immense dungeon of ice, the cold of which was indescribably intense; the second, on the contrary, was like a huge caldron of boiling oil and pitch; the third had the appearance of a pond of liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver.

The upper Purgatory, which the saint does not describe, is the temporary abode of souls which suffer little, except the pain of loss, and approach the happy moment of their deliverance.

This, in essence, was the vision of St. Frances saw of Purgatory.

The Supermarket of Sin is Expensive
So, hopefully, we have a more objective and realistic idea of the price of sin—rather than the one the devil would like us to have, in order to order more items from his Supermarket of Sin. More objective than our own wishful fancies, based upon an exaggeration of the mercy of God, which has removed all notions of His justice. Our ideas have to be clear and true, otherwise our actions will not be correct and virtuous.

Of course, the devil will step-in with his trump card of discouragement—which does the opposite of what we mentioned above, and focuses solely on God’s justice with not the slightest mention or hope of mercy. This is equally false as focusing on His mercy without any thought to His justice. The first thing we have to get straight in our minds is the gravity of sin, and awfulness of offending God. Unless we do that, we will never change and will be lucky to eventually scrape into Purgatory!

As Holy Scripture says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18)—but at what price?

Tuesday November 5th

Article 5
Budgeting for Heaven and Avoiding Purgatory

Two Views of Purgatory
There have always been two views of Purgatory prevailing in the Church, not contradictory, the one of the other, but rather expressive of the mind and devotion of those who have embraced them. Yet the error lies in embracing either one of them, while neglecting to embrace both of them simultaneously. They are like two sides of a coin that have different images on each side—yet they are both an essential part of the coin, though standing on opposite sides.

The Grim View
The first view represents Purgatory as a Hell which is not eternal. Violence, confusion, wailing, horror, preside over its descriptions. It dwells, and truly so, on the terribleness of the pain of sense, which the soul is mysteriously permitted to endure. The fire is the same fire as that of Hell, our earthly fire is said to be like a mere painted fire compared to it. The sense of imprisonment and intense darkness, are additional features in the horror of the scene, which prepare us for that sensible neighborhood to Hell, which many Saints have spoken of as belonging to Purgatory. Then to this terribleness of the pain of sense, is added the dreadfulness of the pain of loss—which again is true, though it is not a permanent loss.

The beauty of God remains, in itself, the same immensely desirable object that it always was. But the soul is changed. All that in life, and in the world of sense, once distracted and dulled its desires for God, is now gone from it—it sees the truth of things like it never so them before, it understands like it never understood before—so that it now seeks God with an impetuosity and a frenzy that no imagination can possibly conceive. God is that light at the end of long, dark, excruciatingly hot tunnel, and that light grows brighter as the soul draws nearer. The very burning excess of its love and desire for God (which it should have had on earth) becomes the measure of its intolerable pain. What love can do, even on earth, we learn from the example of Father John Baptist Sanchez, who said that, if any morning he awoke and realized that would not die that day, then he would be a miserable as death at having to live her another day. To those horrors we might add many more which depict Purgatory simply as a Hell which is not eternal. Now all these aspects of Purgatory are true, but they are merely one side of a two-sided coin.

The Joyous View
The second view of Purgatory does not deny any one of the features of the preceding grim view, but it almost puts them out of sight, by the other considerations which it brings more prominently forward. In this view, the soul goes into Purgatory with its eyes fascinated and its spirit sweetly tranquillized, by the face of Jesus, which it glimpsed at the particular Judgment which it has undergone. That remembrance of that Holy Face remains with it, and pacify and tranquillize the terrors of its Purgatorial prison. In the sea of fire, into which it is plunged, it holds fast to that image. The moment that the soul saw that its own unfitness for Heaven, it wings its voluntary flight to Purgatory, like a dove to her proper nest in the shadows of the forest. No prison guards, no angels are needed to escort the soul to its prison. The soul’s understanding of the purity of God suffices.

Seriousness of Sin Sorrowfully Seen
In that moment of Judgment after death, the soul loves God most tenderly, and in return is most tenderly loved by Him. The soul is in punishment, true; but it is in unbroken union with God. St. Catherine of Genoa most positively says, “It has no remembrance, no remembrance at all of its past sins, or of earth.” Its sweet prison, its holy sepulcher, is in the adorable will of its Heavenly Father, and there it abides the term of its purification with the most perfect contentment and the most unutterable love—yet all the while suffering the most inexpressible pains.

God is All About Extremes
If God is to be perfect, He must be extreme, for perfection implies being extremely good at something. God is extreme in His mercy and extreme in His justice—and the soul reflects this with its extreme love under extreme suffering. As it is not teased or taunted by any vision of self or sin, so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single doubt of its own safety or security. It is now in a state of sinlessness—it cannot and will not ever sin again. It cannot even commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have the least movement of impatience. It can do nothing whatever which will in the least displease God. It loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by angels, and can only rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its own salvation.

Heaven Extremely Expensive
The soul now realizes what it refused or failed to realize on earth—that Heaven is not the cheap thing that most people made it out to be, thinking they could walk in after a few hastily said prayers and some distractedly heard Masses. Heaven, being the greatest place there is, also carries the greatest admission price—a price few were willing to pay on earth. Nor could they pay it, even if the wishfully desired to, for they had insufficient funds in the bank of their souls. Now they must earn and pay the full price—which could have been paid at a discounted rate here on earth, but it was judged, even then, as being far too high a price to pay! The world offered its wares and pleasures and a much cheaper rate, and so that is what most souls spent the time and effort on—the world.

Extremely Bitter-Sweet
Even the most bitter and excruciating agonies that it suffers, are accompanied by a profound unshaken peace, such as the language of this world has no words to tell. It has reached a pinnacle of suffering and a pinnacle of virtue—although now, it will no longer receive any reward for virtuously suffering, as it could have done on earth. It is forced to do what it should have done on earth—it is the most painful, yet most successful remedial school there is, having a 100% graduation record with a grade of 100%--for only saints can get into Heaven, and sanctity is total perfection; partial perfection is fodder for Purgatory.

No sooner has a soul, with the guilt of no mortal sin upon it, but owing to God a debt of temporal punishment, issued from the world, and been judged, than it sees itself eternally confirmed in grace and charity (according to St. Catherine of Genoa). It is incapable either of sinning or of meriting anymore; and it is destined, by an eternal and immutable decree, to enter one day as a king or a queen into the kingdom of the blessed, to see, to love, and to enjoy God, the perpetual fountain of all happiness.

Finally the Soul Detests Sin like it Should
In that instant of judgment, all the sins of its past are represented to the soul, whether mortal or venial, even though they have been already forgiven here below by contrition and the Sacrament of Penance. But after this temporary and instantaneous view of them, the soul remembers nothing more about them. St. Catherine’s words are: “The cause of Purgatory, which these souls have in themselves, they see once and for all, in passing out of this life, and never afterwards.” The reason of this exhibition of sins is, she teaches us, to enable the soul in that moment, by an act, no longer indeed meritorious, but nevertheless a real act of the will, to detest all its sins afresh, and especially those venial sins for which it had not contrition during life, either through the weakness of an imperfect heart, or through the accident of a sudden death, that so it may be strictly true, that no sin whatever is pardoned, unless the sinner makes an act of detestation of each and every sin.

Burning-Off the Rust of Sin
After this momentary view of sins and formal detestation of them, the soul sees in itself their evil consequences and these form, what the St. Catherine calls “the impediment of seeing God … The rust of sin is the impediment, and the fire keeps consuming the rust; and, as a thing which is covered cannot correspond to the reverberation of the sun’s rays, so, if the covering be consumed, the thing is at length laid open to the sun.

Burning Inside and Outside
As soon as the soul perceives itself to be acceptable to God, and constituted heir of paradise, but unable, because of this impediment, to take immediate possession of its inheritance, it conceives an intense desire to be rid of this hindrance, this double obligation of guilt and punishment. But knowing that Purgatory alone can consume these two obligations, and that it is for that very end God condemns the soul to fire, it desires itself to endure the punishment. St. Catherin of Genoa says that, “The soul separated from the body, not finding in itself this impediment which cannot be taken away except by Purgatory, at once throws itself into it with right good will. The souls in Purgatory have wills conformed in all things with the will of God, who therefore sheds on them His goodness, and they, as far as their will goes, are happy and cleansed of all their sin. As for guilt, these cleansed souls are as they were when God created them, for God forgives their guilt immediately who have passed from this life ill content with their sins, having confessed all they have committed and having the will to commit no more. Only the rust of sin is left them and from this they cleanse themselves by pain in the fire.”

If the soul did not find this punishment and purgation of Purgatory, to help the soul remove the rust of sin, there would instantaneously be generated in the soul a Hell far worse than Purgatory, because it would see that with this impediment of the stain of sin with its unpaid debt, it could not unite itself to God Who is its end. Wherefore, if the soul could somewhere find another Purgatory fiercer than this, in which it could the sooner get rid of this impediment, it would quickly plunge itself therein, through the impetuosity of the love it bears to God.

A Thousand Hells if Necessary
But this is not all. St. Catherine of Genoa goes on to teach that if the soul, laboring under this impediment, were free to choose between immediately ascending to paradise, and descending to suffer in Purgatory, it would choose to suffer, although the sufferings be almost as dreadful as those of Hell. These are her words: “Of how much importance Purgatory is no tongue can tell, no mind conceive. So much I see, that its pain is almost as if it were that of Hell; and yet I see also that the soul which perceives in itself the slightest flaw or mote of imperfection, would rather throw itself into a thousand Hells, than find itself in the presence of the divine Majesty with that defect upon it; and, therefore, seeing Purgatory to be ordained for the very taking away of these flaws, forthwith it plunges into it, and it seems by its bearing, as I see, to conceive that it finds there an invention of no little mercy, simply in the being able to get rid of this impediment.”

Too Late Have I Loved Thee!
When the righteous soul has thus arrived in Purgatory, losing sight of everything else, it sees before it only two objects—the extremity of suffering, and the extremity of joys. A most tremendous pain is caused by knowing that God loves it with an infinite love, that He is the Chief Good, that He regards the soul as His daughter, and that He has predestined it to enjoy Him forever in company with the Blessed: and hence the soul loves Him with a pure and most perfect charity. At the same time it perceives that it cannot see Him or enjoy Him yet, though it so intensely yearns to do so ; and this afflicts it so much the more, as it is quite uncertain when the term of its penal exile, away from its Lord and paradise, will be fulfilled. This is the pain of loss in Purgatory, of which the St. Catherine of Genoa says that it is “a pain so extreme, that no tongue can tell it, no understanding grasp the least portion of it. Though God in His favor showed me a little spark thereof, yet can I not in any way express it with my tongue.”

Finally the Soul Finds Joy in Suffering
Now let us examine the other object, the extremity of joy. As it loves God with the purest affection, and knows its sufferings to be the will of God in order to procure its purification, it conforms itself perfectly to the divine decree. While in Purgatory, it sees nothing but that this pleases God; it takes in no idea but that of His will; it apprehends nothing so clearly as the suitableness of this purification, in order to present it all fair and lovely to so great a majesty. Thus, St. Catherine of Genoa says: “If a soul, having still something left to be cleansed away, were presented to the Vision of God, it would be worse than that of ten purgatories; for it would be quite unable to endure that excessive goodness and that exquisite justice.” Hence it is that the suffering soul is entirely resigned to the will of its Creator. It loves its very pains, and rejoices in them because they are a holy ordinance of God. Thus in the midst of the ardent heats it enjoys a contentment so complete that it exceeds the grasp of human intelligence to comprehend it. “I do not believe,” says St. Catherine of Genoa, “that it is possible to find a contentment to compare with that of the souls in Purgatory, unless it be the contentment of the Saints in paradise. This contentment increases daily through the influx of God into those souls, and this influx increases in proportion as the impediment is consumed and worn away. Indeed, so far as the will is concerned, we can hardly say that the pains are pains at all, so contentedly do the souls rest in the ordinance of God, to whose will pure love unites them.”

Holily Wholly Indifferent
In another place, St. Catherine says that this inexplicable joy of the soul, while it is undergoing the indescribable Purgatory, springs from the strength and purity of its love of God. “This love gives to the soul such a contentment as cannot be expressed. But this contentment does not take away one iota from the pain; nay, it is the retarding of love from the possession of its object which causes the pain; and the pain is greater according to the greater perfection of love of which God has made the soul capable. Thus the souls in Purgatory have at once the greatest contentment and the greatest suffering; and the one in no way hinders the other.” As to prayers, alms, and Masses, she asserts that the souls experience great consolation from them; but that in these, as in other matters, their principal solicitude is that everything should be “weighed in the most equitable scales of the Divine Will, leaving God to take His own course in everything, and to pay Himself and His justice in the way His own infinite goodness chooses to select.”

Scraping into Purgatory by the Skin of our Teeth
I suppose there is none of us who expects to be lost and damned—how many in Hell actually thought they would end up there? We know and feel, with more or less of alarm, the greatness of the risk we are running by the life we are leading—lukewarm and at peace with many venial sins; but to expect to be lost would be the sin of despair. Hell is only practical to us as a motive of greater diligence, greater strictness, greater circumspectness, greater fear. It is not so with Purgatory. I suppose we all expect, or think ourselves sure, to go there. If we do not think much about the matter at all, then we must have some vague notion of going straight to Heaven as soon as we are judged! But if we seriously reflect upon it, upon our own lives, upon God’s sanctity, upon what we read in books of devotion, in the lives of the Saints, and the revelations that God has permitted to come our way by means of souls condemned to Purgatory, then I can hardly imagine any one of us expecting to escape Purgatory, and perhaps even feeling that it must be almost a stretch of the divine mercy which will get us even there in the first place! Now, if we really expect that our road to Heaven will be through the punishment of Purgatory, for surely its purification is penal, it very much concerns us to know what is common to both the views of Purgatory, which it appears prevail in the Church.

Budgeting for Heaven (or rather, Purgatory)
First, both these views agree that the pains are extremely severe, as well because of the office which God intends them to fulfil, as because of the disembodied soul being the subject of them. Both agree, also, in the length of the suffering.

Do You Have Enough Money and Supplies for 60 Years?
This requires to be dwelt upon, as it is hard to convince people of it, and a great deal comes of the conviction, both to ourselves and others. This duration may be understood in two ways: first, as of actual length of time, and, secondly, as of seeming length from the excess of pain. With regard to the first, if we look into the revelations of Sister Francesca of Pampeluna, we shall find, among some hundreds of cases, that by far the great majority suffered thirty, forty, or sixty years.

Long-Term Rentals
This disclosure may teach us greater watchfulness over ourselves, and more unwearied perseverance in praying for the departed. The old foundations for perpetual Masses embody the same sentiment. We are apt to leave off too soon, imagining with a foolish and unenlightened fondness that our friends are freed from Purgatory much sooner than they really are. If Sister Francesca beheld the souls of many fervent Carmelites, some of whom had wrought miracles in lifetime still in Purgatory ten, twenty, thirty, sixty years after their death, and still not near their deliverance, as many told her, what must become of us and ours? Then as to seeming length from the extremity of pain, there are many instances on record in the Chronicles of the Franciscans, the life of St. Francis Jerome, and elsewhere, of souls appearing an hour or two after death, and thinking they had been many years in Purgatory.

Our Trivial Faults Are Far From Trivial
Both views agree again in holding that, what we in the world call very trivial faults, are most severely dealt with in Purgatory. St. Peter Damian gives us many instances of this, and others are collected and quoted by St. Robert Bellarmine. Slight feelings of self-complacency, trifling inattentions in the recital of the Divine Office, and the like, occur frequently among them! Sister Francesca mentions the case of a girl of fourteen who was in Purgatory, because she was not quite conformed to the will of God in dying so young: and one soul said to her in Purgatory: “Ah, men little think in the world, how dearly they are going to pay here for faults that they hardly note there.” She even saw souls that were immensely punished only for having been scrupulous in this life; either, I suppose, because there is mostly self-will in scruples, or because they did not lay down the scruples when obedience commanded. Wrong notions about small faults may thus lead us to neglect the dead, or leave off our prayers too soon, as well as losing a salutary lesson for ourselves.

Broke and Begging
Then, again, both views agree as to the helplessness of the Holy Souls. They lie like the paralytic at the pool. It would seem as if even the coming of the angel were not an effectual blessing to them, unless there be some one of us to help them. Some have even thought they cannot pray. Anyhow, they have no means of making themselves heard by us, on whose charity they depend. Some writers have said that Our Blessed Lord will not help them without our cooperation; and that Our Blessed Lady cannot help them, except in indirect ways, because she is no longer able to make satisfaction; though I never like to hear anything our dearest mother cannot do; and I regard such statements with suspicion. Whatever may come of these opinions, they at least illustrate the strong way in which theologians apprehend the helplessness of the Holy Souls.

Stupid Notions of ‘Sanctity’!
Then another feature in their helplessness is the forgetfulness of the living, or the cruel flattery of relations who will always have it that those near or dear to them die the deaths of saints. They would surely have a scruple, if they knew of how many Masses and prayers they rob the souls, by the selfish exaggeration of their goodness. I call it selfish, for it is nothing more than a miserable device to console themselves in their sorrow. The very state of the Holy Souls is one of the most unbounded helplessness. They cannot do penance; they cannot merit; they cannot satisfy; they cannot gain indulgences; they have no Sacraments; they are not under the jurisdiction of God’s Vicar, overflowing with the plentitude of means of grace and manifold benedictions. They are a part of the Church, but without either priesthood or altar at their own command.

Lazy, Lukewarm and Blind
Those are the points common to both views of Purgatory; and how manifold are the lessons we learn from them, on our own behalf as well as on behalf of the Holy Souls. For ourselves, what light does all this throw on slovenliness, lukewarmness, and love of ease? What does it make us think of performing our devotions out of a mere spirit of formality, or a trick of habit? What diligence in our examens, confessions, Communions, and prayers! It seems as if the grace of all graces for which we should ever be importuning our dear Lord, would be to hate sin with something of the hatred wherewith He hated it in the garden of Gethsemane. Oh, is not the purity of God something awful, unspeakable, adorable?

Anger at Purgatory
But some persons turn in anger from the thought of Purgatory, as if it were not to be endured, that after trying all our lives long to serve God, we should accomplish the tremendous feat of a good death, only to pass from the agonies of the death-bed into fire, long, keen, searching, triumphant, incomparable fire. Sadly, your anger will not help you, nor alter the facts. But have you thought sufficiently about God? Have you tried to realize His holiness and purity in assiduous meditation? Is there a real divorce between you and the world, which you know is God’s enemy? Do you take God’s side? Are you devoted to His interests? Do you truly long for His glory? Is there a happy marriage between the theory of Catholicism and the practice of Catholicism in your life, or are they separated and divorced? Have you put sin alongside of our dear Saviors’ Passion, and measured the one by the other?

Surely, if you had, Purgatory would only seem to you the last, kind, unexpected, and inexpressibly tender invention of the obstinate love of God, which was mercifully determined to save you in spite of yourself. It would be a perpetual wonder to you, a joyous wonder, fresh every morning, a wonder that would be meat and drink to your soul, that you, being what you know yourself to be, what God knows you to be, should be saved eternally. Remember what the suffering soul said so simply, yet with such force, to Sister Francesca: “Ah! Those on that side of the grave little reckon how dearly they will pay on this side for the lives they live!”

Angry or Lucky?
To be angry, because you are told you will go to Purgatory! Silly, silly people! Most likely it is a great false flattery, and that you will never be good enough to even scrape into Purgatory at all! Why, positively, you do not recognize how lucky you are to be told of it, and told of it truthfully? None but the humble go there. St. Maria Crocifissa di Rosa was told that although many of the saints, while on earth, loved God more than some do even in Heaven, yet that the greatest saint on earth was not so humble as are the souls in Purgatory. I do not think I ever read anything in the lives of the saints which struck me so much as that. You see it is not good to be angry about Purgatory; for, as Fr. Faber says, those only are lucky enough to get into Purgatory, who sincerely believe themselves to be worthy of Hell.

Monday November 4th

Article 4
A Healthy Combination of Fear and Confidence!

Fires of Hell, but Focused on Heaven
“The word ‘Purgatory’ is sometimes taken to mean a place, sometimes as an intermediate state, between Hell and Heaven. It is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor “attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the vision of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Passions Were Satisfied; Justice Must Be Satisfied
“Purgatory is, then, a transitory state which terminates in a life of everlasting happiness. It is not a trial by which merit may be gained or lost, but a state of atonement and expiation. The soul has arrived at the term of its earthly career; that life was a time of trial, a time of merit for the soul, a time of mercy on the part of God. This time once expired, nothing but justice is to be expected from God, whilst the soul can neither gain nor lose merit. She remains in the state in which death found her; and since it found her in the state of sanctifying grace, she is certain of never forfeiting that happy state, and of arriving at the eternal possession of God. Nevertheless, since she is burdened with certain debts of temporal punishment, she must satisfy Divine Justice by enduring this punishment in all its rigor” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Lovers of Earth Banished to Earth
“Although Faith tells us nothing definite regarding the location of Purgatory, the most common opinion, that which most accords with the language of Scripture, and which is the most generally received among theologians, places it in the bowels of the earth, not far from the Hell of the reprobates. Theologians are almost unanimous, says Bellarmine, in teaching that Purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the earth, that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell. (Roman Cathechism, chapter 6, §1)” (Fr. Schouppe,Purgatory Explained).

Different Kinds of Hell
“When we say in the Apostles Creed that after His death “Jesus Christ descended into Hell,” the name Hell, says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, signifies those hidden places where the souls are detained which have not yet reached eternal beatitude. But these prisons are of different kinds. One is a dark and gloomy dungeon, where the damned are continually tormented by evil spirits, and by a fire which is never extinguished. This place, which is Hell properly so called, is also named Gehenna and abyss” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

The Hell of Purgatory
“There is another Hell, which contains the fire of Purgatory. There the souls of the just suffer for a certain time, that they may become entirely purified before being admitted into their heavenly fatherland, where nothing defiled can ever enter” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

The Hell of Limbo
“A third Hell was that into which the souls of the saints who died before the coming of Jesus Christ were received, and in which they enjoyed peaceful repose, exempt from pain, consoled and sustained by the hope of their redemption. They were those holy souls which awaited Jesus Christ in Abraham’s bosom, and which were delivered when Christ descended into Hell. Our Savior suddenly diffused among them a brilliant light, which filled them with infinite joy, and gave them sovereign beatitude, which is the vision of God. Then was fulfilled the promise of Jesus to the good thief: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

“A very probable opinion,” says St. Thomas, “and one which, moreover, corresponds with the words of the saints in particular revelation is, that Purgatory has a double place for expiation. The first will be destined for the generality of souls, and is situated below, near to Hell; the second will be for particular cases, and it is from thence that so many apparitions occur.” (Summa Theologica, Suppl., part. 3, ques. ult.).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

“The holy Doctor admits, then, like so many others who share his opinions, that sometimes Divine Justice assigns a special place of purification to certain souls, and even permits them to appear either to instruct the living or to procure for the departed the suffrages of which they stand in need; sometimes also for other motives worthy of the wisdom and mercy of God” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Fitting Fires of Hell
“Such is the general view concerning the location of Purgatory. Since we are not writing a controversial treatise, we add neither proofs nor refutations; these can be seen in authors such as Suarez and Bellarmine. We will content ourselves by remarking that the opinion concerning a subterranean Hell has nothing to fear from modern science. A science purely natural is incompetent in questions which belong, as does this one, to the supernatural order. Moreover, we know that spirits may be in a place occupied by bodies, as though these bodies did not exist. Whatever, then, the interior of the earth may be, whether it be entirely of fire, as geologists commonly say, or whether it be in any other state, there is nothing to prevent its serving as a sojourn of spirits, even of spirits clothed with a risen body. The Apostle, St. Paul teaches us that the air is filled with a multitude of evil spirits: We have to combat, says he, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Ephesians 6:12).” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

“On the other hand, we know that the good angels who protect us are no less numerous in the world. Now, if angels and other spirits can inhabit our atmosphere, whilst the physical world is not in the least degree changed, why cannot the souls of the dead dwell in the bosom of the earth?” (Fr. Schouppe,Purgatory Explained).

Fear and Confidence
“In order to be perfect, devotion, to the souls in Purgatory must be animated both by a spirit of fear and a spirit of confidence. On the one hand, the Sanctity of God and His Justice inspires us with a salutary fear; on the other, His infinite Mercy gives us boundless confidence” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Do You Realize the Holiness of God?
“God is Sanctity itself, much more so than the sun is light, and no shadow of sin can endure before His face. ‘Thine eyes are pure,’ says the prophet, ‘and thou canst not look on iniquity’ (Habacuc 1:13). When iniquity manifests itself in creatures, the Sanctity of God exacts expiation, and when this expiation is made in all the rigor of justice, it is terrible. It is for this reason that the Scripture says again, ‘Holy and terrible is His name’ (Ps. 110:7); as though it would say, His Justice is terrible because His Sanctity is infinite” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

The Tiniest Sin is Greatly Displeasing
“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in nowise so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the demands enormous atonement. This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Purpose to the Pain
“This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Fear, but with Confidence
“Let us, however, guard against excessive fear, and not lose confidence. Let us not forget the Mercy of God, which is not less infinite than His Justice. ‘Thy mercy, Lord, is great above the Heavens’, says the prophet (Psalm 107:5); and elsewhere, ‘The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient, and plenteous in mercy’ (Psalm 144:8). This ineffable mercy should calm the most lively apprehensions, and fill us with a holy confidence, according to the words, ‘In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to confusion’ (Psalm 70:1)” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

“If we are animated with this double sentiment, if our confidence in God s Mercy is equal to the fear with which His Justice inspires us, we shall have the true spirit of devotion to the souls in Purgatory. This double sentiment springs naturally from the dogma of Purgatory rightly understood a dogma which contains the double mystery of Justice and Mercy: of Justice which punishes, of Mercy which pardons. It is from this double point of view that we are about to consider Purgatory and illustrate its doctrine” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Sunday November 3rd

Article 3
Air-Conditioned, Climate-Controlled Purgatory!

Today’s Air-Conditioned Purgatory
Some people have the weirdest ideas about Purgatory. They amount of sins that they commit would make you think that they imagine Purgatory to be like a five-star hotel, with a bar and Jacuzzi in every room, air-conditioning and climate-control, Olympic size swimming-pool and golf-course thrown in. They sin more and more so that they can spend more and more time there! The Modernist or Liberal Catholic, may well accept the existence of Purgatory in theory, however, in practice, they live as though Purgatory is empty. Let’s face it, how many sermons do you hear on Purgatory these days? Even when they are preached, many ‘water-down’ Purgatory to a point where we think little of the sufferings of the souls detained there—as though they were merely stuck in a traffic jam or in slow-moving traffic on the road to Heaven! The Modernist and Liberal mentality is, in the words of Fr. Felix Salvany, in his book Liberalism is a Sin,

Offend God rather than Neighbor!
“The Catholic simply tainted with Liberalism is generally a good man and sincerely pious; he exhales nevertheless an odor of Liberalism in everything he says, writes, or takes up. This courageous man reasons, speaks, and acts as a Liberal without knowing it. His strong point is charity; he is charity itself. … How the devil must chuckle over the mushy charity held out as a bait to abet his own cause! … Charity is a supernatural virtue which induces us to love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God. … Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God’s sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore, to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin. Modern Liberalism reverses this order; it imposes a false notion of charity: our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards” (Fr. Felix Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin).

Hey! Nobody’s Perfect!
The result of this reversal of charity therefore sees people being prepared to see God offended rather than having to be ‘uncharitable’ by correcting the sinning neighbor! Unbelievable! Yet this modern behavior consequently allows mountains of sins to be piled-up under the pretext of what they think and protest is charity—all they really do is allow others to pile-up their Purgatory! “Sin now, burn later”—that’s their idea of charity. They help their neighbor pile-up the firewood with their excuses for not correcting others--”Everyone has their faults!” … “Nobody’s perfect!” … “It’s only a Venial Sin!” Huh? Only a Venial Sin? Well read some accounts of the suffering undergone in the fires of Purgatory for only Venial Sins! Then come back and say “only”! The entrance fee to Heaven is PERFECTION—as Our Lord Himself said: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), which echoes the Old Testament: “Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). Heaven is no place for mediocrity or half-baked Catholics—hence the need for the fires of Purgatory to full-bake the half-baked Catholics. Remember—many, if not most saints, had to pass to through Purgatory—with the exception of martyrs.

Dense Wood Burns Longer
They say that dense wood burns for much longer—well, these Liberals and Modernists with their fake and false notions of charity and sin, must be pretty dense. Therefore, if they manage to scrape into Purgatory, they will burn all the longer. The physician cauterizing his patient or cutting off his gangrened limb may nonetheless love him. Likewise the ‘cauterizing’ effect of Purgatory is an inexplicably painful act of mercy and love by God—God chastises those who He loves: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: ‘I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched [a sinner], and miserable [finding joy in the world, not God], and poor [in grace and merits], and blind [lukewarm], and naked [without virtues]. I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire tried [true charity], that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance” (Apocalypse 3:15-19).

As Penance Goes Down, the Temperature Goes Up
It is lack of penance that places souls in the terrible fires of Purgatory. Our Lord has warned us: product of confession is the receiving and doing of penance. “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

The dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church on the doctrine of Purgatory was specified in 1439 by the Council of Florence, which declared: “It has likewise been defined that, if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments.”

The Council of Trent later added: “If anyone says that, after receiving the grace of justification, the guilt of any repentant sinner is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out, in such a way that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be paid, either in this life or in Purgatory, before the gate to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened: let him be anathema.”

White-Weddings, okay! White-Funerals? You’re Kidding!
St. Paul said that in the last times there would be people with “itching ears” seeking after novelties and believing fables. Well, one of those fables is that Purgatory and Hell are empty—or almost empty. God is love, and love is sweet, and the sweet loving God in His loving sweetness cannot bear to send anyone to Purgatory, let alone Hell!

This novelty of funerals in white is a fable-feeding funeral—funerals in white used to be performed ONLY for children who had died below the “age-of-reason” and were thus incapable of committing sin—which meant that after death they went straight to Heaven, hence the “funeral in white” with the Mass being that of the Angels, not the Requiem Mass. Today, everyone gets a “White-Funeral” and everyone talks as though the deceased is already clinking glasses with the angels and saints in Heaven, at a homecoming party! Sadly, Heaven IS NOT filling up and Purgatory is NOT empty. In fact, the common opinion among theologians is that MOST SOULS, that end up going to Heaven, have to pass through the fires of Purgatory. As Scripture says: “There shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie …” (Apocalypse 21:27).

Full-Price Ticket to Heaven
The poor souls in Purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due to sin, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. There is also the problem of unrepented and unforgiven venial sin, for which the guilt and punishment were not removed before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.

Discounts Only On Earth
We can pay for damage of sin after death in Purgatory, or we can pay the penalties of satisfaction for sin on earth before death, which can be done by souls in a state of grace during the course of their whole life on earth. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and so can gain merit for this suffering; a soul in Purgatory cannot choose to do so and gains no merit for its suffering and no increase in its glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.

The Price is Right!
There are simply, or perhaps even too obviously, several basic reasons why souls have to undergo the terrible, yet at the same time joyful, sufferings of Purgatory. To keep things simple, let us enumerate them in a list form:

(1) Those who never lost the grace of God throughout their life, and died after having committed only venial sins in their life, but who were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins.

(2) Those who have committed mortal sins and therefore lost the grace of God, which they regained through the Sacrament of Confession, but like the case above, they were not sufficiently sorry for those venial sins, nor did sufficient penance for them, nor accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent them as a payment for their sins. Of course, mortal sin is much more expensive than venial sin, and so requires more penance than would be required for venial sin.

(3) The third group, of course, is a combination of the two previous groups listed above—those who have sinned both mortally and venially, and who have died with their mortal sins confessed and forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. These have an even greater debt for having committed a combination of both kinds of sins.

Each Size of Sin Has Its Price Tag
What modifies this is the personal number and kind of sin that has been committed. There is a hierarchy among sins, which only God can properly and correctly evaluate. Objective and subjective elements come into play to create almost infinite levels of gravity for the same species of sin—the sin of violence will be judged differently in each case: what was duration of the act of violence? What was its intensity? On whom was it inflicted? Was it in self-defense? What damage or injury was inflicted? Was there any sorrow? Was there any apology made? Was any reparation made? Did the behavior improve or cease?

A Just Judge Judges the Just
These are just a few of the many questions that need to be asked to form a correct and just judgment of the level of guilt involved. Thank heavens it God Who judges and nobody else? It would be hard enough to judge one single sin correctly, let alone the thousands or hundreds of thousands of sins that one single person has committed!

It is good to know that, in all of His judgments, God is always both merciful and just. He never applies His justice without mercy; and He never shows mercy without justice. If He would do so, then He would be lacking in one or the other virtue—but God is perfect and so He exercises both in perfect balance and with the utmost harmony. However, it is worth noting one of the psalms, from Holy Scripture, which says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 144:8-9).

Mercy in Hell?
Even those who are damned in Hell, realize that God is merciful to them, and has not permitted them to be punished to degree that they truly deserved—even though they will be punished for eternity. The time of punishment remains the same—eternity—but the degree or intensity of punishment has been reduced. A combination of justice and mercy.

Sweeping Purgatory Under the Carpet?
Unfortunately, our sense of values has been deformed and corrupted, and we have no real inkling of the gravity of sin, nor of the punishment that sin deserves. Furthermore, we have little idea of what Purgatory is really like. For many, it is like a taboo subject—let’s not talk about it, let’s talk about something more pleasant! But when we avoid looking at the doctrine and revelations about Purgatory, we risk harming ourselves by avoiding the issue of the gravity and consequence of sin. When we read and truly meditate upon what goes on in Purgatory, we cannot avoid being struck with a salutary and healthy fear of the consequences of even the most ‘trivial’ sin (if one dare call sin ‘trivial’) and the rigor of God’s justice, even though he simultaneously applies some of His mercy.

“Ouch” and “Ouch” again!
If you read Fr. Schouppe’s book, Purgatory Explained, you will read some very sobering passages about Purgatory. One of the things he points out is the fact that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell. He also points out that there is in Purgatory, as in Hell, a double pain—the pain of loss in the soul and the pain of the senses. The pain suffered by the loss of God, is greater than the pain of the fire, or any of the other tortures, that the soul suffers.

Massive Loss
The pain of loss consists in being deprived for a time of the sight of God, Who is our Supreme Good, for Whom our souls were made. In Purgatory, there is a thirst for God—which should have been there while living on earth, but the soul thirsted more for worldly things rather than God. The pain of sense, or sensible suffering, is the same as that which we experience in our flesh. Its nature is not defined by faith, but it is the common opinion of the Doctors that it consists in fire and other species of suffering.

Fearsome Fire—Hot as Hell
The fire of Purgatory, say the Fathers, is that of Hell, of which the rich glutton speaks when he says: “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). The same fire, says Pope St. Gregory the Great, torments the damned and purifies the elect. “Almost all theologians,” says the cardinal, St. Robert Bellarmine, “teach that the damned in Hell and the souls in Purgatory suffer the action of the same fire.” It must be held as certain, writes St. Robert Bellarmine, that there is no proportion between the sufferings of this life and those of Purgatory. St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, writes: “As to the suffering, it is equal to that of Hell.”

We know what a terrible thing fire is, and what pain is caused by the slightest burn, no matter how feeble the flame may be; how much more terrible must be that fire which is fed neither with wood, gas nor oil.

St. Catherine of Genoa, in her book on Purgatory, says: “The souls endure a torment so extreme that no tongue can describe it, nor could the understanding conceive the least notion of it, if God did not make it known by a particular grace.”

Perfectly Weighted Justice
As regards the severity of these pains, since they are inflicted by Infinite Justice, they are proportioned to the nature, gravity, and number of sins committed. Each one receives according to his works, each one must acquit himself of the debts with which he sees himself charged before God. Now these debts differ greatly in quality. Some, which have accumulated during a long life, have reached the ten thousand talents of the Gospel, that is to say, millions and tens of millions; whilst others are reduced to a few farthings, the trifling remainder of that which has not been expiated on earth. It follows from this that the souls undergo various kinds of sufferings, that there are innumerable degrees of expiation in Purgatory, and that some are incomparably more severe than others. However, speaking in general, the doctors agree in saying that the pains are most excruciating.

Terrible Time of Torment
St. Augustine believes that even though the souls in Purgatory will be saved, no doubt, after the trial of fire, but that trial will be terrible, that torment of Purgatory will be far more intolerable than all the most excruciating sufferings in this world. St. Thomas goes even further; he maintains that the least pain of Purgatory surpasses all the sufferings of this life, whatsoever they may be. The author of The Imitation of Christ explains this doctrine by a practical and striking sentence. Speaking in general of the sufferings of the other life, he says: “There, one hour of torment will be more terrible than a hundred years of rigorous penance done her.”

Crazy Catholics
Why, O why, do people want to pile up unnecessary punishment in the unimaginably painful and hot fires of Purgatory, which are in essence the fires of Hell, when they could avoid that by either not-sinning here below, or doing fitting serious penance for past sins. If people were physically burned on earth each time they committed a Mortal or Venial Sin, then sin would soon stop. Because there payment is deferred to a later time, they sin like crazy! They—and we—are crazy! You have to be—if you stop and think about it seriously!

Saturday November 2nd : The Feast of the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Article 2
Heavenly Real Estate!

Different Viewpoints
“Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God: for he is bountiful to forgive. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:6-9).

The way that we look at sin is not the way the God looks at sin. In our thoughts it is “no big deal”! Hey! Doesn’t the Bible say that we are all sinners? That’s the reality of things! After all, that’s what Confession is for! We sin; we confess; we’re forgiven; we go on with life! Well, yes and no.

Yes, we are all sinners—we are all born with Original Sin (the sin of our first parents that we did not commit, but we carry its consequences) and we all commit Actual Sin (our own personal sins that we actually commit).

Yes, the Bible does say that “A just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again”(Proverbs 24:16) and “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.” (1 John 1:8-9). But Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery: “Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more” (John 8:11). For, as Jesus points out in a parable, even though sins are forgiven, we will have pay for them to the very last farthing or cent: “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).

Holy but Poor
That is exactly the plight of the souls in Purgatory—we call them both “Holy Souls” and at the same time “Poor Souls”.

They are “holy” in the sense that they are destined for and guaranteed to go to Heaven—which is a place of incredible holiness. Yet, at the moment, they are “poor”—in the sense that they are not “wealthy” enough to enter Heaven, they have not yet “earned” Heaven due to a wasteful, negligent, lukewarm and sinful life here below.

They are far “holier” than we are here on earth, for now they are learning the beauty and need for suffering, and they are going through the most unimaginable and unspeakable sufferings in Purgatory with peace, patience and joy—which is how we are supposed to suffer here below, but we don’t do so in that manner. Yet at the same time they are “poor” because they have nothing to pay with to shorten their stay in Purgatory—they rely solely on our alms, that is to say our prayers, sacrifices and acts of charity for them.

We, humans, put too cheap a price on Heaven. It must be an insult to God to see us think, speak and act in that way. If we would only stop to think about what that piece of heavenly ‘real-estate’ really is like, then we would get a ‘reality-check’ and perhaps would “get real” about our spiritual life and our choices of where we want to go and what we are prepared to pay to get there.

PERKS OF PARADISE

If we had to pay for Heaven in financial terms—by dishing out the dollars—then few or perhaps nobody could afford it! Just imagine what Heaven offers:

What Price on Eternity?
Heaven offers us eternal life! Eternal life! Just let that word “eternal” sink in! Think about it for a while—but don’t take an eternity over it! That has been the dream of mankind—and, though they cannot make themselves live forever, they never stop trying to find ways that will make them live a bit longer! Live a “bit longer”—imagine the millions of dollars spent on research just to live “a bit longer”! God offers, not just “a bit longer” but ETERNITY—where a million, a billion years is not even a grain of sand among all the beaches of the world, or like a drop of water compared to the drops of water that make up all the world’s oceans. How can you put a price on freedom from death? It’s priceless!

What price eternity? In one sense, it is priceless; in another sense, it costs less than the millions expended on living “a bit longer”—Heaven is bought with spiritual currency and not the world’s currency (except alms). For money cannot buy Heaven, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “[Peter and John] laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, that by the imposition of the hands of the Apostles, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying: ‘Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost!’ But Peter said to him: ‘Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money! Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Do penance therefore for this thy wickedness; and pray to God, that perhaps this thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee!’” (Acts 8:17-21).

What a waste of time to spend one’s life pursuing riches and the comforts they can buy! Have we forgotten Our Lord’s encounter with the rich young man? “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).

Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette speaks of this vanity and danger:”Priests … will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain (GS) … who think only of piling riches upon riches (LS).” If priests and religious are doing this, it only encourages the laity to do it even more! God says:”Let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, for I am the Lord” (Jeremias 9:23-24). “Jesus said to His disciples: Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23-24).

What Price on No More Suffering of Any Kind?
Heaven offers us a life free from any illness or suffering. Imagine what kind of money people would pay for that kind of blessing and guarantee here on earth! Hundreds of thousands! Even millions! Look at the price of one surgical operation! Of course, insurance companies pay the largest chunk—but people pay insurance companies hundreds a month, every month! Americans consume 80 percent of the world’s supply of painkillers. Pain also appeared to be a major driver of health-care costs. Research has shown that Americans spent about $3,000 million in over-the-counter pain medications and another nearly $14,000 million on outpatient analgesics in 2004, the most recent data available. In 2011 Americans spent $300,000 million on all forms of medication.

What is the proportion of time and money spent on spiritual health? Very little. Less than 20% of Catholics take the medication of Holy Mass once a week; less than 4% take the medication of the Holy Rosary daily! I guess most Catholics don’t believe in “Holy-istic” medicine! Unfortunate. Even less is the number of Catholics who will suffer some regular penance—only to find themselves in REAL suffering in Purgatory, if they can scrape in there! “The Dogma of Purgatory is too much forgotten by the majority of the faithful; the Church Suffering, where they have so many brethren to succor, whither they foresee that they themselves must one day go, seems a strange land to them” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained). Of course, everyone suffers in this life—but very few seem to profit from that suffering if, as Our Lord, Our Lady and most theologians hold that most souls are lost. Two crucified thieves suffered alongside Christ on Calvary—one suffered well and his sufferings brought an eternal end to suffering in Paradise; the other suffered badly and it brought him eternal suffering in Hell.

As Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Understand the ignorance and error of mortals, and how far they drift from the way of light, when, as a rule, nearly all of them strive to avoid labor and suffering and are frightened by the royal and secure road of mortification and the Cross. Full of this deceitful ignorance, they do not only abhor resemblance to Christ’s suffering and my own, and deprive themselves of the true and highest blessing of this life; but they make their recovery impossible, since all of them are weak and afflicted by many sins, for which the only remedy is suffering. Sin is committed by base indulgence and is repugnant to suffering sorrow, while tribulation earns the pardon of the just Judge.”

What Price on Beauty?
No aging, no getting older, ‘wrinklier’, weaker, or ‘wobblier’. No matter in what state we die—old, bald, fat, ugly, deformed or ‘dandruffed’—in Heaven we will find ourselves in the prime of life (early adulthood years) and with perfections of body that vain people of this world would kill for! They fork out thousands of dollars trying to achieve a perfect body, and God will give it to us for free—if we are good! Here, on earth, billions is spent in the vain (for most) search for the perfect body, the beautiful face, hair care, hair restoration, etc. African Americans spent $507,000 million in 2009 on hair care and personal grooming items. In Britain women spend an average of $6,000 to $8,000 a year on beauty and maintenance. U.S. women spend on average between $12,000 to $15,000 every year on products and salon services. The amount of money spent annually on cosmetics in the United States is $8,000 million dollars! $20,000 million is spent in the U.S. annually on dieting, including diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries.

As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “Souls that allow themselves to be dazzled by the vanities of the world, even if they have the good fortune to escape damnation, will have to undergo terrible punishment. Let us open the Revelations of St. Bridget. We read there that the saint saw herself transported in spirit into Purgatory, and that, among others, she saw there a young lady of high birth who had formerly abandoned herself to the luxury and vanities of the world. This unfortunate soul related to her the history of her life, and the sad state in which she then was found: ‘Happily,’ before death I confessed my sins in such dispositions as to escape Hell, but now I suffer here to expiate the worldly life that my mother did not prevent me from leading!’

“She then added: “Alas! This head of mine, which loved to be adorned, and which sought to draw the attention of others, is now devoured with flames inside and out, and these flames are so violent that, every moment, it seems to me that I must die. These shoulders, these arms, which I loved to see admired, are cruelly bound in chains of red-hot iron. These feet, formerly trained for the dance, are now surrounded with vipers that tear them with their fangs and soil them with their filthy slime. All these parts of the body which I have adorned with jewels, flowers, and a variety of other ornaments, are now a prey to the most horrible torture! O mother, mother!’ she cried, ‘how culpable have you been in my regard! It was you who, by a fatal indulgence, encouraged my taste for display and extravagant expense; it was you that took me to theaters, parties, and dances, and to those worldly assemblies which are the ruin of souls!’” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Eplained).

“Blessed Mary Villani, a Dominican Religious, was transported in spirit to Purgatory. Among the souls that suffered there she saw one more cruelly tormented than the others, in the midst of flames which entirely enveloped her. Touched with compassion, Blessed Mary Villani questioned the soul, who replied: ‘I have been here for a very long time, punished for my vanity and my scandalous extravagance. Thus far I have not received the least alleviation. Whilst I was upon earth, being wholly occupied with my appearance, my pleasures, and worldly amusements, I thought very little of my duties as a Christian, and fulfilled them only with great reluctance, and in a slothful manner.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Eplained).

What Price on Happiness?
Happiness and joy beyond our wildest dreams will be ours. Though there will be no equality in Heaven, there will also be no envy, no jealousy, no pride, no anger, no lust, no greed, no resentment, no desire for revenge, no harboring of grudges, no suspicion, no fear, no arguing, no fighting, etc. What price would you pay to experience that on earth? You couldn’t pay for it, because it is priceless!

In 2000, the US population spent over $200 billion (200,000 million dollars) on entertainment—just to try find some happiness or joy—which is three times the amount spent on education. Other ‘Make Me Happy’ expenditures are $30,000 million on candy; $76,000 million on soda; $50,000 million on alcohol and $49,000 million on tobacco. That’s only the money side of it—how much time was spent indulging in these things? Our Lady’s complaints at Quito and La Salette are haunting: “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”

As Fr. Schouppe writes, in his book Purgatory Explained: “The venerable servant of God, Frances of Pampeluna, who was favored with several visions of Purgatory, saw, one day, a man of the world, who, although he had otherwise been a tolerably good Christian, passed fifty-nine years in Purgatory on account of seeking his ease and comfort. Another passed thirty-five years there for the same reason; a third, who had too strong, a passion for gambling, was detained there for sixty-four years. If God is severe towards the rich and the pleasure-seekers of the world, He will not be less so towards princes, magistrates, parents, and, in general, towards all those who have the charge of souls and authority over others.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Eplained).

You Won’t Miss Anything if by Dozing-Off!
In Heaven you won’t miss out on anything. You will have more time to do things than you ever had here on earth! Well, one reason for that is the “eternity factor” which makes a long-life on earth seem like a joke! The other factor is that you won’t sleep in Heaven (so get all the sleep you can now!), for there will be no need for sleep! That must be the worldly man’s dream, for whom “time means money”! The less you sleep, the more you can work and so the more money you can make—much like the stores that want to stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Heavenly Diet
The beauty of body in Heaven will be aided by a heavenly diet—which is a diet of no food at all! We won’t need to eat to sustain our bodies. That means no more having to grow, hunt or shop for food; no more check-out lines; no more slaving over a hot oven; no more dirty dishes to wash! Put a price on that! You can’t, it’s priceless!

So there we are, just a few of the “Perks of Paradise”! And we want all that for what price??? God will say: “You’ve gotta be kidding Me!” Your offer is a joke! When you develop a mature and real sense of values, then come back and we’ll talk about it!”

That was the attitude of most souls in Purgatory. It was a totally unrealistic view of Heaven and its value. In effect, they wanted to swindle God, by getting all the above and more besides, for a few paltry prayers; some soppy sacrifices; lukewarm lines of “Love ya!”; mediocre Masses; rushed Rosaries and the like.

That is not the way to treat God, nor will God let us get away with it—it’s not His way, though it might be ours. With these false expectations for Heaven, stemming from our self-love and pride, God could well tell us to go to “the other place.” Yet He knows what we are made of and He shows compassion:

“The Lord is compassionate and merciful: long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry: nor will He threaten for ever. He hath not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ... As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him: for He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust” (Psalm 102:8-14).

The Real Price of Real Estate
In that kindness, compassion and mercy, He seeks for a solution to our cheap and insulting offer for a piece of Heaven’s real-estate. The solution is Purgatory. As Fr. Schouppe says, in his book, Purgatory Explained:

“The Justice of God is terrible, and it punishes with extreme rigor even the most trivial faults. The reason is, that these faults, light in our eyes, are in nowise so before God. The least sin displeases Him infinitely, and, on account of the infinite Sanctity which is offended, the slightest transgression assumes enormous proportions, and demands enormous atonement.

“This explains the terrible severity of the pains of the other life, and should penetrate us with a holy fear. This fear of Purgatory is a salutary fear; its effect is, not only to animate us with a charitable compassion towards the poor suffering souls, but also with a vigilant zeal for our own spiritual welfare. Think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will endeavor to avoid the least faults; think of the fire of Purgatory, and you will practice penance, that you may satisfy Divine Justice in this world rather than in the next. Let us, however, guard against excessive fear, and not lose confidence.

“Let us not forget the Mercy of God, which is not less infinite than His Justice. Thy mercy, Lord, is great above the Heavens, says the prophet; and elsewhere, The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient, and plenteous in mercy? This ineffable mercy should calm the most lively apprehensions, and fill us with a holy confidence, according to the words: ‘In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to confusion.’ If we are animated with this double sentiment, if our confidence in God’s Mercy is equal to the fear with which His Justice inspires us, we shall have the true spirit of devotion to the souls in Purgatory.” (Fr. Schouppe, Purgatory Explained).

Friday November 1st : The Feast of All Saints

Article 1
Saints Alive!!!

Today is Your Feast Day!
Today is the feast of All Saints! Well, happy feast to you, dear saint! “Aw c’mon!” you say, “Stop joking around! I’m no saint and you know it!” Well, maybe―and probably you are no saint—but are you on the way to being a saint? Is that your goal in life? Is that—apart from the superior goal of glorifying God—the main focus of your life?

There’s Only One Way
“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).

Therefore, in Heaven, the saint is not someone extraordinary, the saint is someone who is ordinary, for there are only saints in Heaven—that is one thing that they all have in common, and something that is common is not extraordinary.

Saintly Common Denominator
Another thing that all the saints have in common is that they owe their sanctity, in part, to Our Lady. Explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly, they all depended upon Our Lady who is the Mediatrix of all Grace. It is through her that God has chosen to distribute all of His graces. Therefore, to pass the exam of sanctity; to achieve sanctity in this life on Earth and to avoid the remedial school of sanctity in Purgatory, we need to seek-out Mary, to find Mary, to work with Mary, to let Mary teach us, guide us, encourage us and lead to those heights of sanctity which God ear-marked for us on the day He first created our soul.

Your Saintly Calling
St. Louis de Montfort puts it so beautifully in his booklet, The Secret of Mary:
“Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next. It is certain that growth in the holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, words, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you and for which He is even now keeping you in being. What a marvelous transformation is possible! Dust into light, uncleanness into purity, sinfulness into holiness, creature into Creator, man into God! A marvelous work, I repeat, so difficult in itself, and even impossible for a mere creature to bring about, for only God can accomplish it by giving His grace abundantly and in an extraordinary manner. The very creation of the universe is not as great an achievement as this.

Heaven Ain’t Cheap, Ya Know!
It must be remembered that most saints have to pass through the fires of Purgatory before they are allowed admittance into Heaven—except, of course, martyrs, who would go straight to Heaven. But remember, too, that for martyrdom to ‘work’, the martyr has to be sorry for all his sins, otherwise the martyrdom would be in vain (in the case of unrepented mortal sin) and require Purgatory for unrepented venial sin. So even some martyrs could, in theory, pass some time in Purgatory if they refuse to be sorry for some of their venial sins.

And if the non-martyred saint has the grace and gift of going straight to Heaven after death, then rest assured that the saint has most certainly done his or her Purgatory here on Earth, by the trials, sorrows, anxieties, humiliations, persecutions, illnesses, pains and sufferings that they would have undergone before being granted such a great privilege.

Burn We Must!
At the end of the day, it is the degree of love for God in the heart of the soul that decides the fate of the soul: Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. Love or charity is what will be judged. As St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). To which Jesus adds: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47), while St. Peter affirms: “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Charity is a fire that burns sins in this world—if we refuse to burn here, we will burn in Purgatory or Hell, but burn we must!

The Remedial School of Saints
Which brings us to the subject of saints and life on Earth. We are all called to be saints, for only saints go to Heaven. We know this in theory, but it is frightening to see how few people try to live this out in practice. If we don’t successfully pass our “sainthood exam” here on Earth, then we will have to spend a long time in the remedial school of sanctity in the fires of Purgatory. Most people have an erroneous notion that Heaven will be populated by the saints on the one hand, and themselves—plain old Mr. and Mrs. so and so on the other hand. They seem to think that Heaven is a place for both sanctity and plain old mediocrity. FALSE! That could not be further from the truth!

Heaven’s Mixed-Bag of Saints
In Heaven, there are all kinds of saints: big and small saints; strong and weak saints; old and young saints; male and female saints; rich and poor saints; “never-sinned-much” saints and “sinned-a-lot” saints; quickly processed saints and slowly processed saints; saints from all kinds of different backgrounds, countries, times and circumstances. But the one thing they have in common is that they are SAINTS and NOT mediocre souls. The mediocre souls find a place in Purgatory, where they have to make up for lost and wasted time and misguided efforts.

How Will I Ever Become A Saint?
“Chosen soul, how will you bring this about? What steps will you take to reach the high level to which God is calling you? The means of holiness and salvation are known to everybody, since they are found in the Gospel; the masters of the spiritual life have explained them; the saints have practiced them and shown how essential they are for those who wish to be saved and attain perfection. These means are: sincere humility, unceasing prayer, complete self-denial, abandonment to divine Providence, and obedience to the will of God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).

“The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us to practice all these, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say “not in the same measure,” because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. A person who corresponds to great graces performs great works, and one who corresponds to lesser graces performs lesser works. The value and high standard of our actions corresponds to the value and perfection of the grace given by God and responded to by the faithful soul. No one can contest these principles.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).

Sanctity Needs Grace; Grace Comes Through Mary
“To find the grace of God, we must discover Mary. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God.” (The Secret of Mary by St. Louis de Montfort).

This truth was later most perfectly manifested by Our Lady’s apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré, in 1830, at the convent of the Sisters of Charity on the Rue du Bac in Paris, France. It is from these apparitions that we received the so-called “Miraculous Medal.” However, it is more formally known as “The Medal of Our Lady of Grace” and “The Medal of the Immaculate Conception.”

Our Lady herself stipulated the design of the medal, by showing St. Catherine a vision of what it was to look like. There are rays of light beaming forth out of the rings upon Our Lady’s fingers. St. Catherine asked what these rays of light were. Our Lady replied that they were graces. St. Catherine noticed that some rays were shining brilliantly, while other rays of light were dull, so she asked Our Lady what they meant. Our Lady replied that the bright rays were graces that God gave to people, but the dull rays were graces that God did not give to people. St. Catherine, disappointed, asked why God would withhold some graces from us. Our Lady simply replied that they are withheld from us because we don’t ask for them!

If Only I Would Have ...
The poor souls in Purgatory could have avoided those fires if they had only taken their life, their spiritual life, much more seriously. Grace and sanctity was not at the top of their shopping-list, nor did they ask Our Lady for the graces they would have needed to avoid being sent to Purgatory. The words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, already partially quoted above, perfectly represent this truth and we will repeat the aforementioned quote adding a further passage to it:

The Real Life, the One That Matters
“The interior life, thus conceived, is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists and astronomers, have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science, as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him.

“Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.

“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called the one thing necessary, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation.

“There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul.

“Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. 1, “Introduction”).

DAILY THOUGHTS FOR
THE MONTH OF THE HOLY ROSARY

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday October 30th & Thursday October 31st

Article 14
Is Halloween Really Hell-O-Ween Hiding Behind a Mask?

Three Days of Hell, Heaven and Purgatory
We have entered a period of time which, under the surface, could be said to be a battle between Heaven and Hell. October 31st―the eve of All Saints Day, which traditionally begins with the liturgy of First Vespers on (October 31st) the evening before All Saints Day (November 1st)―has been turned into a glorification of pagan and diabolical customs. We will therefore, over the course of three days, a triduum of sorts, look at Hell (Halloween), Heaven (All Saints Day) and Purgatory (All Souls Day).

Halloween or Hell-O-Ween?
Few people know the history behind Halloween—they prefer to stop at the sweet superficial aspect of it, and have little or no clue about its origins. They are happy to pass over it with “two-bit” phrases or vague platitudes while smiling at the quaintness of much of the customs.

In a nutshell, Halloween has pagan origins, which the Church tried to replace with a Christian overtone, and which now has reverted back to pagan overtones. One could almost say it parallels the fate of the Church—which was born in a time of pagan darkness, Christianized much of that darkness, and is not falling back into an increasingly pagan atmosphere.

The Gods of Gentiles and Pagans Are Devils
Holy Scripture clearly tells us that: “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils” (Psalm 95:5). “They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not” (Deuteronomy 32:17). “For you have provoked Him who made you, the eternal God, offering sacrifice to devils, and not to God” (Baruch 4:7). God tells them to stop this devilish and hellish practice: “And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to devils, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be an ordinance for ever to them and to their posterity” (Leviticus 17:7). Which leads St. Paul to warn us: “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15).

Pagan Celtic and Druid New Year
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient pagan Druid and Celtic festival of Samhain―variously pronounced as “sow-in”, “sah-win”, “sam-hayne” plus more. A Druid was a member of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples. The pagan Celts―who lived over 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France― It was the beginning of their new year and was generally celebrated on October 31st, but some preferred November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

Communication With The Dead
On the night of October 31st they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

It is one of the two “spirit-nights” each year, the other being Beltane. It is a ‘magical’ interval when the mundane laws of time and space are thought to be temporarily suspended, and the “Thin Veil” between the worlds is lifted. Communicating with ancestors and departed loved ones is thought to be easy at this time, for they journey through this world on their way to the “Summerlands”. It is a time to study the “Dark Mysteries” and honor the “Dark Mother” and the “Dark Father”, symbolized by the “Crone” and her aged “Consort”.

To commemorate the event, Druids (the Celtic ‘priests’) built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the pagan Celtic deities. Originally the “Feast of the Dead” was celebrated in Celtic countries by leaving food offerings on altars and doorsteps for the “wandering dead”. Today a lot of practitioners still carry out that tradition. Single candles were lit and left in a window to help guide the spirits of ancestors and loved ones home. Extra chairs were set to the table and around the hearth for the unseen guest. Apples were buried along roadsides and paths for spirits who were lost or had no descendants to provide for them. Turnips were hollowed out and carved to look like protective spirits, for this was a night of magic and chaos.

The “Wee Folke” became very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting humans. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. Traveling after dark was not advised. People dressed in white (like ghosts), wore disguises made of straw, or dressed as the opposite gender in order to fool the Nature spirits. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Human Sacrifice
“He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord: but he that shall sin against Me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate Me love death” (Proverbs 8:35-36).

There is a debate among scholars as to whether human sacrifices were performed during Druid/Celtic celebrations of Halloween. Of course modern druids will say that they were not. They say that the only evidence that this custom was practiced is a reference in an ancient Roman document by Julius Caesar (see below). We do know that human sacrifice was practiced among the Celts in ancient times because of several “bog men”, or mummies preserved in the peat bogs that show signs of ritual killing. Of course, there would be no remains of any humans that were sacrificed in the fire. At any rate, the word “bonfire” comes from a compound of the Middle English words bon (bone) and fir (fire) ... meaning a fire kindled upon bones.

The author Merle Severy, in his book The Celts (National Geographic, May 1977, pages 625-626), describes "the eve of Samhain... the start of the Celtic new year: “According to the Dinshenchas―a medieval collection of the lore of prominent places―firstborn children were sacrificed before a great idol to ensure fertility of cattle and crops. Samhain eve was a night of dread and danger. At this juncture of the old year and the new, our world and the otherworld opened up to each other. The dead returned, ghosts and demons were abroad, and the future could be seen.. . . Behind such Halloween games as bobbing for apples lie Celtic divination arts to discern who would marry, thrive, or die in the coming year. Behind the masks and mischief, the jack-o-lanterns and food offerings, lurk the fear of malevolent spirits and the rites to propitiate them.” Page 601 gives additional insight: “Tacitus tells us of the bloodstained Druid altars of Anglesey in Wales.”

Julius Caesar, speaking on Celtic sacrifices said: “The whole nation of the Gauls is greatly devoted to ritual observances, and for that reason those who are smitten with the more grievous maladies and who are engaged in the perils of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow so to do, employing the druids as ministers for such sacrifices. They believe, in effect, that, unless for a man's life a man's life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased; and in public, as in private life they observe an ordinance of sacrifices of the same kind. Others use figures of immense size whose limbs, woven out of twigs, they fill with living men and set on fire, and the men perish in a sheet of flame. They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supply of such fails they resort to the execution even of the innocent.”

The classical author, Diodorus Siculus, also reported scenes of human sacrifice by the Druids: “When they attempt divination upon important matters they practice a strange and incredible custom, for they kill a man by a knife-stab in the region above his midriff.” After the sacrificial victim fell dead ... “they foretell the future by the convulsions of his limbs and the pouring of his blood.”

The 1984 discovery of a sacrificial victim in Cheshire, England, helps validate the reality of ritualistic human sacrifice. The well-preserved young man had apparently belonged to an elite social class in the second century BC. After two sharp blows to the head, he had been strangled. Then, like the countless sacrifices to Aztec and Mayan gods, his body had been drained of the human blood needed to please and appease their gods

Here Come the Pagan Romans!
By 43 A.D., the pagan Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of pagan Roman origin were combined with the traditional pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain. Pagan + Pagan = More Pagan.

The first pagan Roman celebration was Feralia, a day in late October, when the pagan Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the pagan Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

Throw-Out Devil & Put In Christ!
Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled paganism. Paganism is commonly used to refer to various, largely unconnected religions from the time period before and after the birth of Christ. The Church found itself in direct conflict with centuries of pagan—and sometimes barbarically evil—customs. Many of these pagan and evil customs the Church sought to Christianize—this was often done by keeping the timetable or schedule but replacing the pagan with the Christian, the evil replaced by good.

For the first 300 years or so, Christianity was on the defensive and largely kept a low profile due to persecution. After the time of the Emperor Constantine, more freedom was obtained—though freedom and persecution alternated, ebbed and flowed. The persecutions produced so many martyrs, that there were not enough days in the year to give each martyr his feast day. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all.

On May 13th, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13th to November 1st. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the Church would make November 2nd to be “All Souls’ Day”, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holy day (holiday).

All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Mass (“hallow” means “holy” as in “hallowed by Thy Name”), much like “Candlemas” on February 2nd, means “The Mass of Candles”) and the night before it was celebrated with the singing of First Vespers (which always starts the celebration of great feasts on the evening prior to the feast), and thus began to be called All-hallows Eve and Hallow-even’ [ing], eventually becoming Halloween. The word ‘'Halloween'’, therefore, is a contracted form of ''Holy Evening'' and refers to the evening of All Saints Day (November 1st), when the Church traditionally remember the saints of bygone days; many of whom were persecuted, tortured, and/or died rather than renounce Christ.

Christianizing the Pagan Samhain
As northern Europe and the British Isles became Christianized, the Church saw that the pagan festivals still lured Christians to compromise their faith. Consequently, the Church in those areas designated October 31st and November 1st as the "Holy Evening" and Holy Day of All Saints Day. The Church not only sought to give Christians an alternative, spiritually edifying holiday; but also to proclaim the supremacy of the Gospel over pagan superstition.

There was no need to ''placate'' the spirits, or buy their way into the afterlife — eternal life is offered to all who believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ, Who shed His blood to reconcile us to God and bring us eternal life. Rather than fearing the ''tricks'' of those who have died, Christians reflected on the lives and deaths of those who were faithful and used them as role models for their own journey to the true after life and Heaven; and thanked God for preserving the saints in the midst of suffering and persecution.

As northern Europe and the British Isles became Christianized, the Church saw that the pagan festivals still lured Christians to compromise their faith. Consequently, the Church in those areas designated October 31st and November 1st as the "Holy Evening" and Holy Day of All Saints Day. The Church not only sought to give Christians an alternative, spiritually edifying holiday; but also to proclaim the supremacy of the Gospel over pagan superstition. There was no need to ''placate'' the spirits, or buy their way into the afterlife — eternal life is offered to all who believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ, Who shed His blood to reconcile us to God and bring us eternal life. Rather than fearing the ''tricks'' of those who have died, Christians reflected on the lives and deaths of those who were faithful and used them as role models for their own journey to the true after life and Heaven; and thanked God for preserving the saints in the midst of suffering and persecution.

The Evolution of Halloween
"Trick-or-treating" is a modern tradition that probably finds it's roots in the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of “soul cakes” was encouraged by the Church as a way to replace the ancient pagan practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given drinks, food and money—but the praying for souls gradually fell away into neglect. So it was a case of all pay, but no pray!

Dressing Up
"Dressing up" for Halloween gets it roots from the pagan custom of dressing up around the ‘sacred’(?) bonfire during the original Celtic festival. Some suggest, this practice originates from England, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world on Halloween. People thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes, so to avoid being recognized people would wear masks after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. In addition, these early English people, would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter or cause harm to their homes. A tradition obviously taken from the ancient Celtic pagans.

The Church would try to Christianize this “dressing up” and have folk dress up as saints. They would then organize a parade of saints on All Saints day.

Reaction and Action
Because of its Occult history and symbolism, many informed Christians avoid any activity that would appear to support, promote, or celebrate Halloween. Other Liberal Christians attempt to minimize the glorification of Halloween's Occult roots, by refusing to directly participate in costuming or activities where witchcraft, Satan, or demonic themes are prevalent. They feel that participation in Halloween and even trick-or-treating is acceptable if alternative costumes and themes are substituted. There is not total agreement among Christians concerning appropriate Christian responses to this pagan holiday.

Biblical Blast
The Bible has many warnings and examples of involvement with the Occult. Occult practices are an abomination to the Lord: “Neither let there be found among you any one that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard, nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead. For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) and Witchcraft was a crime punishable by death in the Old Testament: “Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live” (Exodus 22:18). The New Testament gives several examples of proper Christian response to the Occult: “And many of them who had followed curious [magical] arts, brought together their books, and burnt them before all” (Acts 19:19); “What fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils” (Psalm 95:5) … “They sacrificed to devils and not to God: to gods whom they knew not” (Deuteronomy 32:17). “And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works and served their idols, and it became a stumbling-block to them. And they sacrificed their sons, and their daughters to devils” (Psalm 105:35-37).

Wicca and Halloween
Just before reaching a conclusion on the subject, let us find out what Wicca, the official religion of witchcraft, has to say about Halloween. Perhaps they view the day as simple fun and innocent neighborhood activity? “Shock” should be the only word to describe what the truth actually is on the matter. Halloween is a real, sacred day for those who follow Wicca. In fact, it is one of two high and holy days for them. The Celtic belief of spirits being released is current, along with the worship of Samhain (the lord of death) – both are promoted as something to embrace on that day. There is no question that to those who believe and follow the practices of witchcraft, Halloween represents an opportunity to embrace the evil, devilish, dark side of the spiritual world.

Witch Way to Go
Here are some excerpts from a news report from ABC news (2009) on a typical witch!

“Patti Wigington is a soccer mom. She is the vice president of her local PTA. And she's a witch. This Saturday while her neighborhood outside Columbus, Ohio, is crawling with costumed witches in search of candy, Wigington and a group of other local witches will not be celebrating Halloween, but the new year festival Samhain, which also occurs October 31st. In her backyard, Wigington and six other local women, who make up her coven of witches, will stand in a circle, each holding a lit candle dedicated to a dead ancestor. They will offer an invocation in each direction of the four winds. They will build an altar upon which they will offer their deceased ancestors gifts of food and wine and "celebrate the coming of the dark half of the year… and do a ritual that honors death."

"Look," she says, “We welcome and celebrate the coming of the dark half of the year. It's at this time of year we communicate with the spirit world and we honor the spirit world," said Wigington, who writes extensively about her faith and hosts the page on paganism and Wicca at about.com. Wicca is a relatively new religion, which its practitioners say is based on ancient precepts. A hodgepodge of ancient European pagan practices and new age spirituality, Wicca is practiced by a small but growing number of Americans. In 2008, some 342,000 people identified themselves as Wiccans, up from 134,000 in 2001 and up significantly from 8,000 in 1990. Modern Wicca, which draws its practices mainly from pre-Christian Europe, was established in the U.K. in the 1950s. Its popularity coincided with an in interest in other ancient religions that emphasize beliefs in magic and nature.

“Magical religions ― paganism, Wicca, the earth-based religions – have really gone mainstream," said Wigington. "The witches in Harry Potter are not wiccans, but it gets interested in wondering if magic could be real. The best thing that ever happened to Wicca is that it went mainstream, and the worst that happened is that it went mainstream." The Rev. Don Lewis established the Witch School to train the next generation of practitioners of Wicca and other so-called natural religions. With some 250,000 students enrolled in online classes, the school recently moved its physical location from Illinois, to the a far more likely setting – Salem, Mass., home of the famous 1692 witch hunt. "Interest in Wicca has been building for years, but every year there is a spike in interest around Halloween. It's a huge advertising campaign the world runs for us," he said. The practitioners all stressed that Wicca is in no way associated with Satanism or devil worship. "Satan is a Christian concept," explained Fox. "We don't believe in him at all."

The Occult and Halloween
While Halloween masquerades as childish fun and frolic, it’s serious business in the occult world. Witchcraft, Wicca, Satanism and paganism believe, that on the night of Halloween, devils and spirits are unleashed. They perform their most hideous and potent rituals on the night of Halloween. Here are some testimonies from Satanists and writers on Satanism:

“Samhain: This is the Witch’s New Year and the primary Sabbat from which all others flow” (Silver RavenWolf, Teen Witch, p. 42). “Halloween is one of the four major Sabbats celebrated by the modern Witch, and it is by far the most popular and important of the eight that are observed. . . Witches regard Halloween as their New Year’s Eve, celebrating it with sacred rituals” (Gerina Dunwich, The Pagan Book of Halloween, p. 120).

Halloween is also among Satanism’s most cherished days. Anton LaVey, founder of The Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible writes: “After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (Witches Night, May 1st) and Halloween” (Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 96).

The Satanic High Priestess, Blanche Barton, on The Church of Satan web site, praises Halloween: “It [Halloween] gives even the most mundane people the opportunity to taste wickedness for one night. They have a chance to dance with the Devil ... I see Satanists all over the world meeting in small groups this night and Halloweens 500 years hence, to raise a glass to the Infernal Hosts.”

The Satanic Calendar decrees for Halloween: “One of the two most important nights of the year. . . Blood and sexual rituals. Sexual association with demons. Animal and human sacrifice—male or female.”

Former occultist Johanna Michaelsen reveals, “Halloween is also a prime recruiting season for Satanists.” (Johanna Michaelsen, Like Lambs to the Slaughter, p. 192).

Precautions and Praycautions
The first thing is to be convinced that your enemy exists. The devil exists and we do not talk to the devil, we do not play with the devil. Some dangerous things to avoid include spells, charms, curses, witchcraft, ouija boards, seances and anything having to do with the occult. These kinds of things, some of them innocently done at children’s parties, are not only strictly forbidden by the Catholic faith, but dangerous, in that they open us up to evil spirits, which are real and not just imaginary. Please don’t ever let your children/teens attend parties (especially popular at slumber parties) where there are seances and ouija boards and/or playing with spells and witchcraft. Ask beforehand what will be done at before allowing your children to attend parties. Witchcraft and spells are becoming more popular due to books and movies and somehow we need protect our children from these dangers of without getting them fascinated with them or making them seem interesting to them.

The chief spiritual weapons we have are, first of all, a state of grace—mortal sin puts us under the devil’s influence. Therefore frequent Confession and Holy Communion (in a state of grace) are the chief guardians of the state of grace. Much—once again, much prayer is another barrier—especially the prayer of the Holy Rosary—but well prayed, not just mechanically, routinely, hurriedly, distractedly said.

Remember the words of St. Louis de Montfort: “If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins ‘you shall receive a never fading crown of glory’ (1 Peter 5:4). Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if — and mark well what I say — if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins” (The Secret of the Rosary, “A Red Rose”).

Add to this the use and wearing of blessed sacramentals—especially the Brown Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the St. Benedict Medal—these are big guns among the sacramentals. You can also wear a blessed Rosary too! Holy Water is another powerful weapon, as is a blessed crucifix (both are used in exorcisms).

What Does Vatican’s Chief Exorcist Think?
Fr. Gabriele Amorth (born 1925, ordained a priest in 1954, became an exorcist in 1986, retired in 2000 as chief exorcist in 2000, died in 2016) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and former chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, who performed thousands of exorcisms. Fr. Amorth said: “Halloween is a trick of the devil. It is pagan, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. It the creation of a devil and an obstacle to holiness and disrupts the plans of God. The young people follow fads and the devil knows how to use them. To celebrate Halloween is to give the devil a ‘Hosanna’! Which, if loved, even if it’s only for one night, gives the devil a claim or rights over that person … I’m very sad to see that Italy, like the rest of Europe, is moving away from the Lord Jesus, and is even paying homage to Satan … Halloween is a kind of a séance, which is presented in the form of game. The cunning of the devil is here! If you notice everything is presented in a playful, innocent manner. Sin is no longer a sin in today’s world. But everything comes disguised in the form of a need, a freedom, or a personal pleasure. I think that society is losing its mind, losing the sense of the meaning of life, losing the use of reason, and is becoming increasingly sick. People have lost the Faith, and superstition, magic, Satanism, or ouija boards have taken its place, which then open all the doors to the presence of demons.” (Fr. Gabriele Amorth, former Vatican Chief Exorcist).

Tuesday October 29th

Article 13
The Purgatorial Month of November is Almost Upon Us!
Are Your Prepared for Purgatory?

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday October 27th & Monday October 28th

Article 12
Christ the King is Not a Popular Thing!
Christ is now the Uncrowned King!

“Thy Kingdom Come!” Really?
In response to growing secularism throughout the Catholic world, Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King through his encyclical letter Quas primas of 1925. The feast, coming towards the end of the liturgical year, symbolically points to the end of time, when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will be established in all its fullness to the ends of the Earth. While the encyclical, that established this feast, was addressed, according to the custom of the time, to the Catholic Bishops, Pope Pius XI wanted the feast to impact the laity.

The encyclical dealt with what the Pope described correctly as “the chief cause of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring.” The Pope explained: “We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.”

The Pope goes on to say: “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”

Yet Pope Pius XI’s encyclical, Quas Primas, on Christ the King, has been virtually ignored by the so-called Catholic nations and by the Catholic clergy. It was made out to be the greatest non-event in the entire history of the Church.

What is it that caused the Catholic clergy, and the bishops of the world in particular, to be so embarrassed by this encyclical that it was virtually ignored at the time of its promulgation, and has been all but forgotten in the post-Vatican-II epoch? What is it about this encyclical which caused its teaching to be passed over in silence, if not actually contradicted, by the Second Vatican Council? It is an incontrovertible fact that this Council conspicuously and, one must conclude, deliberately, failed to reaffirm the teaching of Quas Primas.

Clearing Up Some Calendrical Confusion!
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, commonly referred to as the Feast of Christ the King, is a relatively recent addition to the Western liturgical calendar, having been instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI for the Roman Catholic Church.

Since 1969, Catholics think of Christ the King as “the Sunday before Advent.” This was not the original intention of Pope Pius XI who set the date as the Sunday before All Saints: “Therefore by Our Apostolic Authority We institute the Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be observed yearly throughout the whole world on the last Sunday of the month of October ― the Sunday, that is, which immediately precedes the Feast of All Saints.”

Pope Pius XI wanted to associate the reign of Christ the King with All the Saints (November 1st). Sanctity, as all the Popes teach, is the means by which the Kingdom of Christ is established on Earth. On the Sunday before All Saints, says Pope Pius XI, all future Popes will annually consecrate all humanity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The intent is that this annual consecration would create more saints and bring about Christ’s reign “on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

However, in his 1969 motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis, Pope Paul VI later changed the date of the feast of Christ the King, from the Sunday before All Saints to Sunday before Advent. His Holiness Pope Paul VI gave the feast a new title “Our Lord Jesus Christ King of All” (Regis Universorum).

Since 1969, following the changed calendar coming in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the feast of Christ the King was moved to the final Sunday of Ordinary Time. Therefore, the earliest date on which it can occur is November 20th and the latest is November 26th. Traditional Catholics observe it on its original date, the last Sunday of October. Surprisingly, as regards Protestants, the Anglican, Lutheran, and many other Protestant churches adopted it referring to it as Christ the King Sunday. The Western rite parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, also observe it on the final Sunday of the ecclesiastical year, the Sunday before the First Sunday of Advent. Roman Catholics adhering to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (the Traditional Latin Mass) according to the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI, use the General Roman Calendar of 1960, and as such continue to observe the Solemnity on its original date of the final Sunday of October. So there you have it! Still confused? Never mind! It is the feast and homage to Christ as King that really matters! Yet sadly, pick what date you want, that feast has not brought the fruits for which Pope Pius XI had hoped.

Christ the King is not “The In-Thing”
Sadly—and tragically for mankind in the future—devotion, honor and homage to Christ the King has not grown. Instead, the secularism—which prompted the encyclical and the feast in the first place—has continued to grow unabated, to the point that it caused the collapse of the Catholic world, with Catholics leaving the Church in droves and regular Sunday Mass attendance plummeting, and the Sacrament of Confession falling into almost total disuse.

The chief reason behind the ignoring of the Social Reign of Christ the King is that politics has separated itself from religion, the State has separated itself from the Church, the world has separated itself from Heaven, and man has separated himself from God. What was once “one house” has now been divided and made into a “duplex” or “semi-detached” house. In North America, a “duplex” house is a single building having two apartments with separate entrances for two households. This includes two-story houses having a complete apartment on each floor and also side-by-side apartments on a single lot that share a common wall. In Britain, a “duplex house” is called a “Semi-detached house”—this is what politics and religion, or the State and Church, or man and God, have become: “semi-detached.”

Marriage and Christ the King
We could also liken the world’s relationship and our relationship to Christ the King through an analogy to the current plight of marriage throughout the world. Marriage on Earth is meant to be a reflection of our union with God―or especially our union with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ. “I will espouse thee to Me forever: and I will espouse thee to Me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations. I will espouse thee to Me in Faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord!” (Osee 2:19-20). It is hard to imagine someone loving, adoring, obeying and pleasing God if they cannot achieve that in an earthly, human, family setting!

Marital problems reflect God problems. The prevalence of adultery, separation and divorce is an indicator of how mankind acts in relation to God. We commit spiritual adultery by seeking to love something else, other than God and even love it more than God—and that something is the world. Holy Scripture calls such lovers of the world by the name “adulterers”, and just as adultery causes enmity between spouses, so too does spiritual adultery with the world, cause enmity with God: “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). Many seek a separation from God, so as to better enjoy the world! This is what Our Lord and King condemns, when He says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:19-24). Yet many do try to serve God and mammon—which is like trying to have a spouse and a lover―and can be likened to partially or sporadically practicing the Faith. Some even go further, and do not merely separate themselves from their spouse for a while, in order to be with the lover, but they want a divorce—a permanent cutting of the bond of marriage—which can be likened to apostasy from the Faith.

There are very, very few truly Catholic marriages in the world today—Our Lady even revealed to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima that most marriages (even back in 1917) were not of God and not pleasing to God! An overgrown selfishness and a near non-existent selflessness is one of the chief causes of such marriages. True love is more outgoing than incoming.

We Must Fight For Christ Our King
Following Christ our King means having to fight! “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Fight the good fight of faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast confessed a good confession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). “This is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). Yet Faith is not an end in itself, but a stepping-stone to love and charity: “If I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). We must fight for Christ the King primarily through love or charity: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ our King tells us: “You shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake!” (Matthew 10:22), yet “Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:11-12). “Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not. To no man rendering evil for evil. If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘Revenge is mine, I will repay,’ saith the Lord. But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good” (Romans 12:9-21).

What’s the Point?
Why do we celebrate Christ the King? Is He only King for a day? So many Catholics fly through feasts like this on “auto-pilot”—they know it is the feast day, but it is a feast only in name, and not in action. Yesterday was the feast of Christ the King—today is a different day! So put Christ back in His closet and let’s move on! Why should we do the opposite? The reason is simply a case of “agere contra” or “doing the opposite”! The world today, especially and increasingly over the last 200+ years (since the American and French Revolutions which triggered a domino-effect of Revolutions), the world has sought to throw-off the yoke of Christ—it rejects Christ, it rejects His Laws, it rejects His rightful social reign over nations and families.

“Thou hast broken My yoke, thou hast burst My bands, and thou saidst: ‘I will not serve!’” (Jeremias 2:20). “Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ. ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder: and let us cast away Their yoke from us!’ He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall He speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in His rage” (Psalm 2:1-5).

Catholics Burst Free of Christ
Today, many Catholics—even entire Catholic families—have broken loose from the saving bonds of Christ, preferring a ‘better deal’ that is offered by the world, and its invisible prince who works in its shadows—the devil. They forget Holy Scripture’s warning that the world is no friend, but an enemy: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4) and that their true king, Christ, has disassociated Himself from this world: “I am not of this world” (John 8:23). All those who are true Christians—not the fake ‘by name only’ Christians—Our Lord also disassociates from this world: “because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:14); but the fake, ‘by name only’ Christians He does associate with the world: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23).

The Great Escape
The Catholic world is on the verge—and already quite some way down the slippery slope—of a mass apostasy: a great escape from Christ. Vatican II opened the windows and doors of the Church to the world—in the hope that the world would “come-in”; but all that has happened is that the Catholics have “got-out”: they have left in droves in the last 50 years: thousands of priests left the priesthood, many of them married; the same goes for an even greater number of desertion among the male and female religious; those who are left have fallen-foul of many terrible vices that surfaced in the last decade or two, which lend credence to Our Lady’s prophecy that the clergy, the religious and the faithful will be inundated with impurity and become cesspools of impurity.

Lust Blinds the Soul
As the spiritual masters teach us, lust blinds the mind, whereas “Blessed are the pure for they shall see God”; which blindness Our Lady speaks of, saying: “The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty ... There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of ... making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way, corrupting many of them ... The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence ... These corrupted priests and religious persons ... straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments ... Without virginity it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success & Our Lady of La Salette).

Days of Self-Service
All this is the result of having shaken-off the yoke of Christ, of having uncrowned Him and having placed the crown on the world, some person in the world, or themselves. O abominable pride! “Never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning” (Tobias 4:14).

Pride reigns in place of the humble Christ! Christ is not served—we now serve the world and ourselves. Which is very apt in these days of “self-service” that we see in stores, restaurants and gas-stations. It is a serious thing to usurp the throne of Christ, steal His crown, and cast Him out of the world! What else but calamity can result from this—both calamity for the world and calamity for individuals. Pride stems from self-love―and the bottom-line for most people is that they loves themselves far more than they love God. Hence, they tend to please themselves before they seek to please God. Love is an inescapable aspect of human life―but love has to be well-ordered and correctly valued. Our Lord tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God above all things and to love Him with our whole being: mind, heart, soul and strength.

The Law Of Divine Love Is The Standard For All Human Actions
St. Thomas Aquinas, in one of his conferences, says: “It is evident that not all are able to labor at learning and for that reason Christ has given a short law. Everyone can know this law and no one may be excused from observing it because of ignorance. This is the law of divine love. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).

“This law of love should be the standard for all human actions. In the case of products of human manufacture, each product is considered right and good when it conforms to a standard. So also each human act is considered right and virtuous when it conforms to the standard of divine love. ‘A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another’ (John 13:34-35). But when a human act does not conform to the standard of love, then it is not right, nor good, nor perfect.

“This law of divine love accomplishes in a person four things that are much to be desired.

“First, it is the cause of one’s spiritual life. For it is evident that by the very nature of the action what is loved is in the one who loves. Therefore whoever loves God possesses God in himself; for scripture says, Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. It is the nature of love to transform the lover into the object loved. And so if we love God, we ourselves become divinized; for again, ‘Whoever is joined to God becomes one spirit with Him.’ St. Augustine adds: ‘As the soul is the life of the body, so God is the life of the soul.’ Thus the soul acts virtuously and perfectly when she acts through charity, and, through charity, God lives in her; indeed, without charity she cannot act; for Scripture says: ‘Whoever does not love, remains in death.’ If a person possesses all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but lacks charity, that person has no life. For it matters not whether one has the grace of tongues, or the gift of faith, or any other gift such as prophecy; these do not bring life without charity. Even if a dead body should be adorned with gold and precious jewels, it nevertheless remains dead. Holy Scripture says this clearly: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing!’ (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

The second point about charity is that it leads to the observance of the divine commandments. Our Lord says: ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments!’ (John 14:15). Gregory the Great says that charity is not idle. For charity is present if one is occupied about great things; but if one is not so occupied, charity is not present. We see a lover do great and difficult things because of the one loved, and that is why the Lord says: ‘If any one love Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23). Whoever keeps this command and the law of divine love, fulfills the whole law.

“A third point about charity is that it provides protection against adversity. For misfortune cannot harm one who has charity; rather it becomes useful to that person; as Holy Scripture says: ‘All things work for good for those who love God’ (Romans 8:28). Furthermore, misfortune and difficulties seem pleasant to the lover, and our own experience verifies this.

“A fourth point about charity is that it truly leads to happiness, since eternal blessedness is promised only to those who have charity. For all other things are insufficient without charity. You must note that it is only the different degrees of charity, and not those of any other virtues, which constitute the different degrees of blessedness. Many of the saints were more abstemious than the Apostles, but the Apostles excel all the other saints in blessedness because of their higher degree of charity.” (From a conference by St. Thomas Aquinas, Opuscula, In duo praecenta).

Stop and Think of the Consequences of Christ Being King!
Words often glibly slip from our tongues without much thought being given to them. It is the same with prayers—we sometimes don’t even remember saying our prayers. Christ our King speaks of this inattentiveness, glibness, indifference and superficiality when He complains: “Jesus said to them: ‘Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me”’” (Mark 7:6).

This especially applies to our calling Jesus “King” without really realizing what are the consequences of our calling him a “King.” As they say, “Words are cheap” and the honor, homage and service we render to Christ the King is also cheap! Have you noticed the way or manner with which most people say “I love you” to their nearest and dearest? It is often a glib, superficial, half-hearted statement that is routinely and glibly used—much like the superficial and basically dishonest question we ask many times a week, or even many times a day—namely, “How are you doing?” Do we REALLY want to know how people are doing? We would be shocked and disappointed if someone suddenly decided to take up 15 to 30 minutes of our time in proceeding to tell us how they really doing, instead of giving the equally dishonest common reply of “Fine, thanks!” This kind of routine creeps into our relations with God in general, or Christ the King in particular. So much of our so-called ‘devotion’ is mere routine, that we try to camouflage as a real love and devotion. We are doing nothing other than what Our Lord complained of—we are merely honoring Him with our lips, while our hearts are far from Him.

Whose Side Are You On? Who Are You Rooting For?
The basic idea behind the “Social Kingship” of Christ is extremely easy to understand: God or the Devil. We either accept God and submit ourselves to His authority, or we revolt and say “Non serviam!” like Satan. Either we bend our knee before Jesus our Lord (Philippians 2:10), or we drink one of the many flavors of the Kool-Aid of Materialism, Atheism, Hedonism (pleasure-seeking), etc. We are either “for “ Christ the King, or we are “against” Christ the King—there can be no neutrality, no spectators—Christ our King said so Himself: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth! … Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 12:30; 10:32-33). Unlike our words—which often from our lips and not from our heart—these words of Our Lord come from both His lips and His Heart and we should take them to heart and engrave them in our hearts!

Sr. Lucia reveals the same thing—that we must choose either Christ or the devil, and that there can be no neutrality and no mere non-committal spectating or ‘fence-sitting’ in our days: “Father, the Blessed Virgin … told me that the Devil is engaging in a battle with the Virgin, a decisive battle. It is a final battle where one side will be victorious and the other will suffer defeat. So, from now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground.”

This comment--“From now on, we are either with God or we are with the Devil; there is no middle ground”―is not just applicable to Catholics, but to the whole world. Christ is King—not only of Catholics, not only of Christians, not only believers in a God―but Christ is even King over pagans.

King of Everyone and Everything
In Quas primas, his encyclical on Christ the King, Pope Pius XI reaffirmed Church teaching that civil States and Nations, as well as individuals, must submit themselves to the rule of Christ the King. In affirming this fundamental truth of our Faith, Pope Pius XI was not referring simply to Catholic nations, or even to Christian nations, but to the whole of mankind. He stated this truth unequivocally by quoting a passage from the encyclical Annum sacrum of Pope Leo XIII:

“The empire of Christ the King includes, not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons, who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian Faith: so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.”

Twofold King
All men, both as individuals and as nations, are subject to the rule of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King, and this for two reasons. Firstly, Christ is our King because He owns everyone—He is our creator: “All things were made by Him: and without Him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3). Secondly, Christ is our King because He has redeemed us, rescued us, ransomed us, bought us back from slavery to sin and the devil by paying the price of the ransom with His Precious Blood: “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins” (Colossians 1:14).

Firstly, because, as God, He is our Creator. Psalm 32 summarizes the correct Creator-creature relationship in the following inspired terms: “Let all the Earth fear the Lord: and let all the inhabitants of the world be in awe of Him. For He spoke and they were made: He commanded and they were created.” God is our Creator. We are His creatures. Without Him we would not exist. We owe Him everything, and He owes us nothing. Those who are created have an absolute obligation to love and serve their Creator. This obligation is unqualified; there is no question of any possible right on the part of any man at any time to withhold his obedience.

A King Betrayed by a Betraying Council
In a world wherein we speak so often of “religious liberty” and the “separation of Church and State,” it is difficult for us to conceptualize such a social reign of Christ. The language of the Church herself has been nuanced to such an extent that we strain to find even the faintest echoes of Quas Primas (1925) forty years later in Dignitatis Humanae (1965), Vatican II’s declaration on religious freedom. The teaching of this encyclical was ignored and passed over, if not actually contradicted, by the Second Vatican Council. It is an indisputable fact that the Second Vatican Council conspicuously and, one must conclude, deliberately, failed to reaffirm the teaching of Quas primas in which Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the unbroken teaching of his predecessors, saying that States as well as individuals, must submit themselves to the rule of Christ the King.

It is very tempting, in a world that has grown so small, and which experiences so much cultural cross-pollination, to embrace, as though it was a matter of law, an “every religion is equal” religious indifferentism. How do we account for the differing faiths of so many people in melting pots like America? America was founded in large part on the principle that the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” And yet, is this not the very kind of attitude that Pope Pius XI warned against, when he admonished rulers not to neglect “the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ”?

Indeed, Pope Pius XI observed the result of failing to do so even in his own time:

“The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them. It was then put under the power of the state and tolerated more or less at the whim of princes and rulers. Some men went even further, and wished to set up in the place of God’s religion a natural religion consisting in some instinctive affection of the heart. There were even some nations who thought they could dispense with God, and that their religion should consist in impiety and the neglect of God. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences.”

“The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against His Christ: ‘Let us break Their bonds asunder! And let us cast away Their yoke from us!’ He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall He speak to them in His anger, and trouble them in His rage!” (Psalm 2:2-5).

Is this not the situation we find ourselves in today? Vicious, savagely immoral governments are all that is to be found now in the post-Christian West. Catholics are reduced to pleas for the very sort of religious liberty the Church once condemned as an error, and are forced to embrace the essentially anarchic principles of libertarianism, all out of desperation to preserve their ability to simply continue to exist “ignominiously on the same level” with other, false religions. Meanwhile, pagan and occult practices are on the rise — not underground, but in the open — because no logical excuse exists by which the secular state can deny them the same freedom as any other religion already given equal footing in the public square.

Like Father, Like Son―Like Mother, Like Daughter—Like Nation, Like Citizen
The proverb―“Like father, like son”—is based on the Latin phrase: “qualis pater, talis filius”—of which a more correct translation reads: “As the father was, so shall the son be!” The female equivalent--“Like mother, like daughter”—finds its source in Holy Scripture: “Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter!’” (Ezechiel 16:44).

Everyone is heavily influenced by their family, relatives and surrounding environment. It is natural and instinctive for children to copy their parents. The same is true, to a certain extent, of our environment and its culture. There is a lot of truth to the famous saying: “You cannot put clothes in a smoky room without them taking on the smell of smoke.” If you are immersed in a Liberal environment, then you will increasingly take on traits of Liberalism. If you surround yourself with pagans and paganism, you will begin to accept certain pagan values. If a Catholic family is lukewarm, it will more likely produce souls for Hell rather than Heaven. A French say—that some attribute to St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars—says: “A saintly priest will produce a holy parish. Whereas a holy priest will only produce a good parish. However, a good priest will produce a lukewarm parish, but a lukewarm priest will produce a parish of devils.” The principle being that your subordinates will usually be at a lower standard or level to where you are.

Liquid can eat through metal! Someone found this hard to believe until they saw it with their own two eyes. A person had a metal pot with some stains on the bottom. They put chlorine bleach in the pot and left it for a few days. They were surprised after the second day when they noticed what appeared to be rust spots developing in the pot. Over the next couple of days, the rust spots grew. After about 4 days, they finally dumped the chlorine out. Most of the stain was gone, but when they held the pot up to the sunlight, there were a number of small holes in the bottom of the pot. The pot said “stainless steel” on the bottom, created by the JA Bornschaft Company. So there you have it: Proof that you should not attempt to clean metal pots (at least Stainless Steel ones) with chlorine bleach! However, the moral of true story is that no matter how tough and strong you may imagine your Faith to be, it can be corroded and eroded if it is immersed in a hostile, or worldly atmosphere. The soft liquid eroded the hard steel! Food for thought!

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Saturday October 26th & Sunday October 27th

Article 11
Why Your Sacramentals Don't Work For You

The Engine Won’t Start!
You can have the fanciest car in town―but it is of little use to you if the engine won’t start, or if you have no gasoline in its tank. You can have a powerful computer―but if there is a power outage and your battery is flat, then it is pretty useless. Something similar to this can happen in our use of Sacramentals. You can have can have one Sacaramental or one hundred Sacramentals―you still need some kind of “power-source” or “energy” in order to make them work for you.

Sacramentals are not unlike the Sacraments in that they are channels of grace and can obtain for us these benefits:
(1) Actual graces
(2) Forgiveness of venial sins
(3) Remission of temporal punishment
(4) Health of body and material blessings
(5) Protection from evil spirits

How do Sacramentals Work?
The power of Sacramentals, then, depends greatly on (1) the devotion of both the priest who gives the blessing and (2) the devotion of the person who is receiving the Sacramental. Sacramentals depend on the prayers of the Church, the prayers of the blessings that are imposed on them, and the merits of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother, and the Saints. Of themselves Sacramentals do not save souls, but they are the means for securing heavenly help for those who use them properly.

Regarding blessed objects of devotion, it is good to remember that it is the blessing the priest gives an object that makes it a Sacramental. The blessing gives God ownership over the object and dedicates it to Him, and He then works through it. This is why it is very important to have Sacramentals blessed―without the blessing they do not hold any of the graces of benefits promised by the Church. To believe otherwise is to degrade the Sacramental to the level of a good luck charm. It is superstition to hold that the grace and spiritual benefit one may receive comes from the Sacramental itself; all grace comes from God. A Sacramental is merely a channel through which He has chosen to work.

Sacramentals obtain favors from God (1) through the prayers of the Church, offered for those who make use of them, and (2) through the devotion they inspire. Since they are blessed objects, Sacramentals should always be treated with reverence and devotion. It is a custom of Catholics to kiss a Rosary or Scapular that they have accidentally dropped on the ground. The Sign of the Cross or a genuflection should be made deliberately and prayerfully.

How can mere material things help us on the way to Heaven? How can water, metal, or a piece of cloth help save our souls? You must always remember that Sacramentals, in themselves, have no power to save or help us. It would be superstitious to say they had any such power. But things like a crucifix, a holy picture, a statue, a candle, do excite spiritual thoughts and intense spiritual feelings in those who use them correctly. They excite the fear and love of God; they arouse trust and hope in His mercy; they awaken sorrow and joy in the Lord. Their value lies in the fact that they have been set aside by the Church for sacred purposes, by the power of the Church’s official prayer, and by the merits of Christ, preserved and distributed by His Church.

The efficacy or effectiveness of Sacramentals depends on the power of the Church’s impetration (entreaty, intercession or beseeching), and not solely on the devotion of the subject who uses them. We say that the Sacraments work “ex opere operato,” that is, in virtue of the outward signs that are performed, e.g. the pouring of water while saying the words of Baptism; or making the Sign of the Cross over a penitent while saying the words of absolution. On the other hand, we are accustomed to hear that the Sacramentals work “ex opere operantis” ― which means according to the degree of the intensity of devotion in those who use them. Yet this is only part of the truth. The thing is cast in an altogether different light when it is stated in full precision, namely, that the Sacramentals work “ex opere operantis Ecclesiae,” which means that their efficacy is in first place dependent on the power of the Church’s intercession, and only secondly on the intensity of the devout dispositions of the person possessing or using the Sacramental.

Lack of Esteem Results in Lack of Power
If it is true that, in the world of today, the worldliness of most people has led to very low evaluation and appreciation of the seven Sacraments of Christ, then surely it can be said, all the more readily, that the Sacramentals fare even worse. If a certain measure of humility and simplicity is needed by man to recognize God at work with, and in, and for us in the greater mysteries, the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, it is required even in greater measure to recognize His action in those consecratory acts which are lesser than those seven, namely, the Sacramentals. For a long time the Sacramental acts such as the many consecrations and blessings of the Church have been, if not actually disdained or despised, looked upon with apathy and indifference by most Catholics. In all honesty―how many people seek to have the priest bless their home; or give them blessings for the sick; or have Rosaries, medals, statues and images blessed? A minority!

What requires stressing here is that men should not belittle the Sacramentals! Why? Because of the fact that they owe their institution in greatest part―not to the positive will and act of Christ―but instead to the will and act of the Church. For in the light of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, both have a sacred origin, the Sacraments from the person of the historical Christ, the Sacraments from the Mystic Christ, the Mystical Body of Christ--Christ living and working in His Mystical Bride, the Church. The Sacramentals are very aptly designated as extensions and radiation of the Sacraments. Both are sources of divine life; both have an identical purpose, divine life. They have, moreover, an identical cause or source―which is the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; although the Sacraments differ from Sacramentals in nature, effectiveness, and intensity.

Although we have stressed the truth that the Sacramentals derive their efficacy chiefly from the intercessory power of the Church, we should not minimize the role played by man’s own subjective dispositions. The Sacraments, too, for that matter, demand something of the individual recipient―at the very least that the subject place no obstacle in the way of grace. But, in the case of the Sacramentals, man’s cooperation has a very large part to play if they are to attain their full purpose. Their function is to provide an atmosphere in which the virtue of religion can thrive, and to produce a psychological reaction in man, to raise his thoughts and aspirations out of the realm of profane and worldly things, and up to the realm of the sacred, to fix his heart on the things of the spirit, to impress on his consciousness God’s will for him and God’s providence always hovering over him.

Sacramentals are Helps to Salvation, Not Guarantees of Salvation
The tendency of many―or even most―people, is to see in the Sacramentals (especially such as the Brown Scapular) a ‘magical’, automatic, unconditional guarantee of salvation―looking upon the Scapular as a kind “holy lucky rabbit’s foot” or “holy lucky horseshoe”! They falsely imagine that there is no effort demanded and required on their part―that the mere possession and wearing of this “holy lucky object” has some kind of “abracadabra” power to open the gates of Heaven―no matter what! We might apply here what St. Alphonsus says about devotion to Mary in general: “When we declare that it is impossible for a servant of Mary to be lost, we do not mean those who by their devotion to Mary think themselves warranted to sin freely. We state that these reckless people, because of their presumption, deserve to be treated with rigor and not with kindness.”

Sacramentals are a “Quid Pro Quo”
You could―in a broad sense―say that the Sacramentals work on a “quid pro quo” basis. “Quid pro quo” is a Latin phrase that literally means “something for something”―in the sense of “you get nothing for nothing” and is used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is dependent upon the other; “a favor for a favor.” Phrases with similar meanings include: “give and take”, “tit for tat”, and “you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours” and “one hand washes the other”.

Holy Scripture says more or less the same thing in various ways: “All things therefore whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them” (Matthew 7:12) … “As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner” (Luke 6:31) … “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” {Galatians 6:8) … “He that soweth iniquity shall reap evils” (Proverbs 22:8) … “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings” (2 Corinthians 9:6) … “With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again” (Matthew 7:2). If it true, as Our Lord says: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom loveth less, less is forgiven” (Luke 7:47)―then you can also say: “Many graces are given to him who loves much, but less graces are given to him who loves less!” That is pretty much how the Sacramentals work―the more we love, the more devotion we show, the more intense we are―then the more we get through the Sacramentals, the more we get out of them.

The Parable of the Talents and Sacramentals
Even though the Parable of the Talents has nothing to do with Sacramentals―the principle that Our Lord teaches in that parable is just as applicable to the matter of Sacramentals as well as all God’s gifts. The principle being that we are meant to diligently work with and draw profit out of what gives us. Here is the parable―you could, in your mind, substitute the word “Sacramental” for the word “talent”.

“For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug into the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

“But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: ‘Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord!’

“And he also that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord!’

“But he that had received the one talent, came and said: ‘Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine!’ And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! Thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed! Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury! Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents! For to everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away! And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).

Have You Buried Your Sacramentals?
Are your Sacramentals dead and buried? Now, of course, once Sacramentals have deteriorated so much that they can no longer be used―for example Scapulars―they should not be just thrown away, but they should either BURNED or BURIED. Yet that is not what we mean here by the phrase: “Are your Sacramentals dead and buried?” By this we mean, “Are you Sacramentals, in effect, useless―bring you little or no profit?” Are they effectively “dead” by not having any effect on your life and your needs? Did you receive them and then, like the man who buried his talent, fail to use them?

Such is the approach and attitude of most Catholics―they don’t mind having Sacramentals, but they will not use them correctly. Their house might be loaded with blessed Crucifixes, Statues, Images, Rosaries, Scapulars, Medals, Holy Water, etc., but that is it and it goes no further than that―they are like a “Sacramental warehouse” where these objects and stored but not used as they were meant to be used. It is similar to a person who has tons of books on the shelves, but few or none of them in the mind or memory. They have them, they store them like trophies, but they rarely or never read them―they just sit there and gather dust. The person has the potential to become intelligent (books on the shelf), but never becomes intelligent―because the books remain on the shelf and are not transferred into the mind and memory. It is like having a cupboard full of food, yet dying of starvation.

Use It Or Lose It
Do we have to use Sacramentals? Does a Catholic HAVE TO wear a Scapular, or use Holy Water, or pray the Rosary? Strictly speaking, no. The Sacraments are necessary for salvation―but the Sacramentals are not necessary for salvation. Nevertheless, the prayers, blessed objects, sacred signs and ceremonies of Mother Church are means to salvation, they promote things that can lead to our salvation, they are helps on the road to salvation.

In a very broad and loose sense, you could compare Sacraments and Sacramentals to “Divine Public Revelation” (which is made up of Tradition and Scripture) with “Divine Private Revelation”. We HAVE TO accept and believe certain parts of “Divine Public Revelation” in order to be saved―but DO NOT HAVE TO believe “Divine Private Revelation” in order to saved, but we can sin through imprudence and presumption by neglecting the helps that Heaven gives to us through “Divine Private Revelation.”

Neglect of the Sacramentals leads to a loss of the graces attached to them. The Church not only sets things aside for a sacred use, she also attaches definite benefits and blessings to certain objects and good works. Many Sacramentals have indulgences attached. An indulgence is the taking away, outside of confession, in whole or in part, of the temporal punishment due to sin which is already forgiven. Yet, as already stated above, these indulgences will not “kick-in” by themselves―you have to make efforts to enliven, enkindle, invigorate and intensify your Faith and devotion. Too many folk falsely imagine that there is no effort demanded and required on their part―that the mere possession and wearing of this “holy lucky object” has some kind of “abracadabra” power to open the flood gates of grace in Heaven―no matter what! Wrong! As you sow, so you reap! The more you put into it―the more you get out of it!

Stirring-Up Our Sacramental Use
We must, first of all, be honest with ourselves―we suffer from spiritual sloth and thus, as an offshoot of that, we suffer from Sacramental sloth. Most people are “spiritual minimalists” who seek to get what they can with only minimal spiritual exertions and exercises. Thus only 2% to 3% of American Catholics pray the Rosary daily. Thus weekday Masses are so poorly attended, spotting a person in the pews is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack! We might have blessed crucifixes, statues and images around the house―but things like the fridge, the smartphone, the laptop or tablet, and the television get more attention. Unless we admit to this “spiritual sloth” or religious indifference, then we will not take any steps to remedy the problem.

Alcoholics Anonymous and Secret Spiritual Sloths
Once we are ready to admit to our “spiritual sloth” or religious indifference or lukewarmness―the next step is to admit the problem time and time again, many times a day. Of course this will make us feel uncomfortable―nobody likes to admit there is something wrong with them―but it is a little like the Sacrament of Confession, if we do not admit and confess our wrongdoing, then we cannot enter upon the road of forgiveness and amendment. Furthermore, just admitting our “spiritual sloth” or religious indifference or lukewarmness just once, is like sweeping everything under the carpet―we need visibility, transparency and regular ‘medication’ in order to heal and change. Take a leaf out of the TWELVE STEP system used by Alcoholics Anonymous to help persons recover from their addiction―in this case, it can be used to help Catholics recover from their “spiritual sloth” or religious indifference or lukewarmness and help them profit more from the Sacramentals the Church offers as helps for their sanctification and salvation. The co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous―Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith―though not Catholics themselves, were deeply influenced by Catholic theology―with Bill Wilson accepting, for over 20 years, spiritual direction from a Catholic priest, Fr. Edward Dowling―a Catholic non-alcoholic who profoundly influenced AA in its early days. Although his involvement with AA was only one of many apostolic and charitable works, his influence on AA was considerable.

The “Twelve Steps” Can Be “Sacramental Recovery Steps”
Alcoholics Anonymous emphasizes a remedy to alcoholism based on the “moral and spiritual regeneration” of its members. Reduced to a simple formula, the Alcoholics Anonymous approach looks like this:
(1) Problem: the alcoholic lacks the personal power to control his drinking.
(2) Solution: there is an external source of power that can remedy the problem.
(3) Action: the Steps provide a means for tapping into that power.

An Alcoholics Anonymous old-timer observed that “the Twelve Steps are twelve tools that will fit any nut.” The philosophy behind the Twelve Steps supposes that alcoholics are spiritually and emotionally cut off from the God, and that they must repair the harm they have done to that relationship and so re-establish that connection. The Twelve Steps, then, are the means by which that relationship is mended. That is almost identical to the problem/solution/action that manifests itself in our misuse/non-use/abuse of Sacramentals―we have cut ourselves off from God to some degree and do not value God-given Sacramentals. We must repair the harm done and re-establish and mend that relationship. Let us briefly look at the so-called Twelve Steps and see how we can use and apply them to our misuse/non-use/abuse of Sacramentals.

STEP 1 : We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
An indifference, lack of appreciation, lack of devotion and non-use of Sacramentals is often allied to an addiction to the world and its intoxicating ‘goodies’―which besiege and besot our minds and hearts. We need to admit our powerlessness in overcoming the world and the truth of Our Lord’s words: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24) and St. John’s words: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) and the words of St. James: “Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).

STEP 2 : We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
We need to realize that only God can restore us to or lead us to true sanctity. We need to admit our powerlessness in overcoming the world and the truth of Our Lord’s words: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and “And behold a leper came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean!’” (Matthew 8:2). The leper had Faith in Christ’s power and St. John adds: “This is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4).

STEP 3 : We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.

STEP 4 : We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

STEP 5 : We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

STEP 6 : We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

STEP 7 : Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

STEP 8 : We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

STEP 9 : We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

STEP 10 : We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

STEP 11 : We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

STEP 12 : Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Thursday October 24th & Friday October 25th

Article 10
Protect Home and Self by Sacramentals

This article is still being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

The Means of Protection are Many
Some years ago, two women were touring a desert region in southwest USA. Unfortunately, they had wandered off from their party and were lost. For two full days they tramped and tramped in search of a road or a house―but to no avail, nothing was found. Totally exhausted, parched with thirst and aching with hunger, they felt could not walk another step. One of them―in true womanly fashion―took out her make-up compact in order to try and repair the damage done by sun, heat and dust. She suddenly noticed that the sun flashed off the mirror. This gave her an idea. If she would continue to flash the sun in her mirror, then perhaps someone might see the reflected light and investigate what it was. They flashed the mirror in all directions. Eventually, the rescuers who had been alerted about the missing women, saw the flashes, hurried to the source, and saved the two ladies. Who would have thought that such a simple thing as a mirror could save human lives? This essential piece of ‘female equipment’ did not directly save their lives, but it was the indirect means―the instrument for attracting attention and bringing help.

The Sacramentals are something like that. Of themselves and by themselves, they do not automatically save soul―but they are the means that can be used for obtaining heavenly help and protection for those who use them properly. So what is a Sacramental? A Sacramental is a sacred object, or religious action, which the Catholic Church―in imitation of the Sacraments―uses for the purpose of obtaining spiritual favors, especially through the prayer and power of the Church given to Her by Christ. A Sacramental is anything that is set apart or blessed by the Church, which is meant to provoke good thoughts and to be a help to devotion, and thereby secure grace, as well as taking away venial sin, or the temporal punishment due to sin.

The Nature of Sacramentals
Before we get into particular Sacramentals, their power and relating some of the accounts where they have obtained Heaven’s help and protection―in some cases in a truly miraculous manner―let us first of all correctly understand what a Sacramental is; and then look at how Sacramentals differ from the Sacraments.

Let us begin with an explanation of the nature of Sacramentals and what they are. The word “Sacramental” might easily be mistaken for the word “Sacrament”―but they are two different types or classifications, even though they both are mainly concerned with grace.

Sacramentals operate in a manner similar to the above story of the two women lost in the desert. You could loosely compare a Sacramental to the mirror in the woman’s handbag. It was used to attract attention, it relied on the light of the sun in the sky, it gave hope, it obtained help and it saved their lives. Similarly, a Sacramental exists for attracting the attention of Heaven or God, it relies the power of God in Heaven, it gives us hope of assistance by God’s grace, it will draw down grace in proportion to how well we use it, and it exists to be of a help in the saving of our souls. To better understand this, it is necessary to look at how Sacramentals work and how they differ from Sacraments.

The Difference Between Sacraments and Sacramentals
Let us now, in short sharp style, examine the differences between the Sacraments and the Sacramentals:

(1) The Sacraments were instituted by Christ Himself; the Sacramentals were instituted by Christ’s Church.

(2) The Sacraments are limited to the seven instituted by Christ, namely, Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony; the Sacramentals are numerous and varied, according to the directions of Mother Church.

(3) The Sacraments produce grace directly in the soul, if there is no obstacle on the part of the recipient; the Sacramentals do not produce grace directly and of themselves―they produce grace indirectly by disposing and preparing the soul for this divine gift.

(4) The words used in the Sacraments, except in Extreme Unction, positively declare that God is producing certain effects in the soul; the prayers used in the Sacramentals merely ask God to produce certain effects and to grant certain graces.

(5) The Sacraments give or increase sanctifying grace; and the Sacramentals are the means to actual graces.

The Various Types of Sacramentals
After having differentiated between Sacraments and Sacramentals, let us now briefly look at the various types of Sacramentals the Church offers us.

Sacramentals can be divided into four general classifications: (1) prayers, (2) blessed or holy objects, (3) sacred signs, and (4) religious ceremonies. Some Sacramentals are a combination―they fall into two or more classes. The ROSARY, for example, is a blessed object and a prayer. The SIGN OF THE CROSS is a Sacramental that is both a prayer and a sign. The CRUCIFIX, PICTURES and statues are blessed objects. The ceremonies performed in the various Sacraments are also Sacramentals, like the extending of the hands in Confirmation.

Blessed Crucifixes, Statues and Images
Among the different four types Sacramentals, the chief importance is allocated to blessings of persons, meals, objects, and places. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In Christ, Christians are blessed by God the Father “with spiritual blessings” (Ephesians 1:3). This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the Name of Jesus, usually while making the holy Sign of the Cross of Christ―the Sign of the Cross also being a Sacramental, being both a sign and a prayer at the same time.

There are many people who might have crucifixes, statues and images of Our Lord, Our Lady, the Saints or Angels in their homes―but they have FAILED TO GET THEM BLESSED BY THE PRIEST. It is like ensuring your security and safety in the home by owning a gun―but having no ammunition for it. The blessing of objects imparts a power and efficacity to the blessed objects which, in a certain sense, load our ‘spiritual weapon’ with graces. It is well worth reflecting on the words of the blessing, which give us some indication of the power of the words used in the blessing―for they are not mere empty words, but power-giving words.

For example, in blessing the crucifix, the priest will say (the following is only one small part of the blessing): “Holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, be pleased to bless + this cross, that it may be a saving help to mankind. Let it be the support of Faith, an encouragement to good works, the redemption of souls; and let it be consolation, protection, and a shield against the cruel darts of the enemy … and may all who kneel and pray before this cross in honor of Our Lord find health in body and soul.”

If you are lucky enough to have the priest use the more solemn blessing of the crucifix from the Roman Ritual, then, in addition to the above mentioned words, you will the find the following extracts:

“It is indeed fitting … that we should always and everywhere give thanks to You, O holy Lord … For, among Your visible creatures, even fruitful trees never cease to praise and bless Your holy and awesome Name … You beautified the Garden of Eden with the tree of life, and, by its fruit, You warned our first parents to beware of death and to seek everlasting life. Condemned as we were to a just death, by the touch of the forbidden tree, You mercifully recalled us from death to life by Jesus Christ, our Lord and God. Therefore, sanctify with a blessing this sign [the crucifix], wrought and raised up for the faithful’s devotion in remembrance of that first holy standard on which You conquered by the precious Blood of Your Son. May all who kneel before it, experience true compunction and obtain forgiveness of their transgressions; and … may they seek only what pleases You, and speedily obtain what they request. Grant … that, as often as we gaze upon and call to mind the triumphant sign of Your divine humility, which crushed the pride of our foe, we may be filled with Hope and be strengthened against the wiles of that same foe, and receive greater grace to live humbly and devoutly in Your sight. And on that dreadful judgment day, when this glorified sign of our redemption shall appear in the heavens, may we pass from death to life, and deserve to see the everlasting joys of a blessed resurrection.

“God, who by the gibbet of the holy cross, a one time instrument of punishment for criminals, restored life to the redeemed, grant that Your faithful people may find in it a strong support, who see in it their standard of battle. Let the cross be for them a foundation of Faith, a pillar of Hope, a safeguard in adversity, an aid in prosperity; let it be victory amid enemies, a guard in cities, a shield in the country, a support in their homes. By it may the Good Shepherd keep His flock unharmed … May all weakness, all infirmity, and all assaults of the enemy, flee and be kept far from Your creature, man, that he may never again suffer from the sting of the ancient serpent … May this wood be sanctified … And may the blessing of this wood remain ever in it, so that all who kneel in prayer before this cross in God’s honor may have health in body and soul … We appeal to Your tender-hearted mercy, asking that … this cross … serve as a reminder of Your victory and our redemption, a victorious and glorious sign of Christ’s love. Behold this unconquerable sign of the cross by which diabolical power was destroyed and human liberty restored, which once was a symbol of shame, but now by Your grace has been turned into a symbol of honor; which once punished the guilty with death, but now absolves criminals from their debt.

“And, as the world’s guilt was expiated by that cross, so may Your servants merit deliverance from sin by this cross, as they honor it in praise of You. Under the protection of the true cross, may they advance step by step as victors. Here on the cross may the splendor of Your only-begotten Son, our Lord, sparkle in the gold of Your glance; may the renown of His death on the wood shine out; may our redemption from death, the purification of our life, be reflected in the effulgent crystal of the cross. Let the cross be a safeguard and assurance to its followers; let it unite them in Faith with the people of all nations, bringing them together in peace and in hope, advancing them in victories, increasing their good fortunes, helping them for all time to advance toward everlasting life, thus assuring their happiness in this life, and leading them by its mighty power to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.”

The blessing used for statues and images is much less elaborate and less eloquent―but no less important. Hey! The words used to baptize someone are not very elaborate and eloquent―yet look what power they have! They have the power to remove all trace of sins―Original Sin and Actual Sin, remove all debt for sin, and open the gates of Heaven! So do not put stock in mere word content alone―put stock in Him Who is to be found behind those words―God Himself!

“Almighty everlasting God, who do not forbid us to carve or paint likenesses of your saints, in order that whenever we look at them with our bodily eyes we may call to mind their holy lives, and resolve to follow in their footsteps; may it please you to bless and to hallow this statue (or picture) … And grant that all, who in its presence, pay devout homage to your only-begotten Son (or the blessed Virgin, or the glorious apostle, or martyr, or pontiff, or confessor, or virgin) may by His (or his or her) merits (and intercession) obtain your grace in this life and everlasting glory in the life to come; through Christ our Lord.”

The Blessing of Rosary Beads
Similar to the principle indicated above―about meditation being the ammunition for the Rosary―Rosary beads that are not blessed are like a person whose immune-system has been compromised and weakened. Blessed Rosary beads become a Sacramental of the Church―something that draws down the grace of God. Non-blessed Rosary beads and are just bits of wood and metal―with no in-built power to draw down any grace at all. SO GET THEM BLESSED!

Furthermore, it well worth looking at what the Church gives to you through Her blessing of your Rosary beads. Here are some relevant extracts from that rite of blessing:

“Almighty and merciful God, … we humbly beg You in your boundless goodness to bless + and to hallow + these Rosaries, which Your faithful Church has consecrated to the honor and praise of the Mother of Your Son. Let them be endowed with such power of the Holy + Spirit, that whoever carries one on his person or reverently keeps one in his home, or devoutly prays to You, while meditating on the divine mysteries, according to the rules of this holy society, may fully participate in all the graces, privileges, and indulgences which the Holy See has granted to this society [of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary]. And may he always and everywhere in this life be shielded from all enemies, visible and invisible, and at his death deserve to be presented to You by the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, laden with the merits of good works; through Christ our Lord.”

On a side note, it is recommended that you find someone who makes Rosaries to make you a custom-made “Sacramental Rosary.” You may well ask what is a “Sacramental Rosary”? Well, even though there is no such “official” title for such a Rosary, when you think about it, you could actually have a Rosary made with Sacramentals―at least in part. The choice of what “parts” you use is totally up to you―however, here are some visual images along the lines of what is being recommended.

You can use the regular beads (wooden, metal, glass, etc.) for the “Hail Mary beads”, but for the “Our Father and Glory Be beads” it is recommended that you use small St. Benedict Medals. For the centerpiece (where the chains for the 5 mysteries are joined to the crucifix chain, you can use a Miraculous Medal. For the crucifix itself, use a “St. Benedict Crucifix” which is a standard crucifix that incorporates the St. Benedict Medal. If this seems problematic, then the next step might be said to be more problematic―which is that of trying to find a priest who will not just give your “Sacramental Rosary” a mere general blessing for the Rosary, but will actually give, in addition to the Rosary blessing, the particular Roman Ritual blessing assigned to (1) the crucifix for your Rosary, (2) the Miraculous Medal that is the centerpiece for the chains, (3) the 7 St. Benedict Medals on your Rosary―1 medal on the crucifix and the other 6 serve as the “Our Father/Glory Be” beads. The St. Benedict Medal is the longest of them all, but the solemn Rosary blessing is not just a short “one-liner” either! You are talking about 4 different blessings that may take around 4 to 5 minute in total, or longer, depending upon whether your priest is a “speedster” or recites prayers respectfully and slowly. Sadly, though it should not be so, most priests will be irked at having to do four blessings and will probably tell you one will suffice―namely, the Rosary blessing only.

The Blessing of the Miraculous Medal
Our Lady herself presented St. Catherine Labouré with the design for the popularly titled “Miraculous Medal”―though its proper title is “The Sacred Medal of Mary Immaculate” or “The Sacred Medal of the Immaculate Conception”. It was on the evening of Saturday, November 27th, 1830, when all the Sisters of Charity at the convent on the Rue du Bac, Paris, were gathered in the chapel for their evening meditation. Suddenly, Catherine's heart leapt with anticipating joy. She had heard a rustling, that faint swish of silk she could never forget, the sound of Our Lady’s gown as she had walked in an earlier apparition to St. Catherine Labouré! Now she heard that familiar sound again—and there was the Queen of Heaven, there in the sanctuary, standing upon a globe. Though others were in the chapel, only Catherine saw Our Lady. Catherine took note of every detail of the Blessed Virgin’s dress. She remarked that her robe was of silk, “of the whiteness of the dawn,” the neck of it was cut high and the sleeves plain, that she wore a white veil which fell to her feet. Her hands were resplendent with rings set with precious stones of different sizes―three on each finger―that glittered and flashed in a brilliant cascade of light. So bright was the flood of glory cast upon the globe below that Catherine could no longer see Our Lady's feet.

Sometimes the Medal of St. Benedict is also incorporated into a crucifix, as seen above.

But some of the gems gave off no light at all. While Catherine was wondering why some jewels gave off no light, the Blessed Virgin turned her eyes on her and made her understand with what generosity and great joy she dispensed grace. But she indicated that there are graces for which she is not asked, and it is for this reason that some of the gemstones did not send forth rays of light: “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems, from which rays do not fall, are the graces for which souls neglect to ask.”

At this moment, the golden ball vanished from Mary's hands; her arms swept wide in a gesture of motherly compassion, while from her jeweled fingers the rays of light streamed upon the white globe at her feet. Then a change took place in what Catherine was seeing.

An oval frame formed around the Blessed Virgin, and written within it in letters of gold Catherine read the words: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The voice spoke again: “Have a Medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence.”

The Medal revolved around, and Catherine saw the reverse side of the Medal that she was to have made. It contained a large “M” surmounted by a bar and a cross. Beneath the “M” were the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword. Twelve stars encircled the whole. And then the vision was gone.

Here are some extracts from the blessing and investiture with “The Sacred Medal Of Mary Immaculate”, or “The Sacred Medal of the Immaculate Conception”, commonly known as the “Miraculous Medal”:

“Almighty and merciful God, who by the many appearances on earth of the Immaculate Virgin Mary were pleased to work miracles again and again for the salvation of souls; kindly pour out your blessing + on this medal, so that all who devoutly wear it and reverence it may experience the patronage of Mary Immaculate and obtain mercy from You; through Christ our Lord.”

The priest sprinkles the medal with holy water, and presents it to the person, saying:

“Take this holy Medal; wear it with Faith, and handle it with the devotion due to it, so that the holy and immaculate Queen of heaven may protect and defend you. And as she is ever ready to renew her wondrous acts of kindness, may she obtain for you in her mercy whatever you humbly ask of God, so that both in life and in death you may rest happily in her motherly embrace."

The priest continues:

“Lord Jesus Christ, who willed that your Mother, the blessed Virgin Mary conceived without sin, should become illustrious through countless miracles; grant that we who ever seek her patronage may finally possess everlasting joys.”

The Blessing of the St. Benedict Medal
Who better, than a Benedictine monk, is there to give us an explanation of the Medal of St. Benedict? And among Benedictines, who better than the renowned abbot of Solesmes, Dom Guéranger? He has written a booklet that gives a very thorough and detailed account of the history and miracles of the Medal of St. Benedict, as well as an enlightening explanation of the all the letters and symbolism that can be seen on both sides of the Medal. The entire booklet runs to scores of pages, and we will share only the essentials here.

God, in order to assist us in our necessities, in His wisdom and providence, sometimes makes use of extremely simple means, thus to keep us in humility and filial confidence. The Church, which is guided by His Spirit, delights in imitating this, and hence she communicates the divine power, which she possesses, to those objects which she sanctifies as helps and consolations for her children. Every Christian should look on the Medal of St. Benedict with respect, and, when he hears of any of those heavenly favors of which it has been the instrument, he should give thanks to God, Who authorizes us to make use of His Son’s Cross as a shield of protection, and to rely with confidence on the assistance of the Saints in Heaven. During life, they will be placed in circumstances when they will feel that they need a special help from Heaven—let them, at these times, have recourse to the Medal of St. Benedict, as so many Christians have the habit of doing; and if their Faith be strong and simple, they may depend on the promise of Our Lord—such faith shall not go unrewarded.

There is a great wish on the part of many Catholics to have clear ideas regarding the St. Benedict Medal. We will begin with a description of the Medal. A Christian needs only to reflect for a moment on the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ, in order to understand how worthy of respect a Medal is, on which that Cross is represented. The Cross was the instrument of the world’s redemption. St. Paul tells us that the sentence of our condemnation was fastened to the Cross, and blotted out by the Blood of our Redeemer. In a word, the Cross, which the Church salutes as our only hope, “Spes Unica,” is to appear at the last day in the clouds of Heaven, as the trophy of tine victory of the Man-God. Animated by sentiments of the purest religion, the primitive Christians had, from the very beginning of the Church, the profoundest veneration for the image of the Cross. When, after three hundred years of persecution, God had decreed to give peace to His Church, there appeared, in the heavens, a Cross, on which were these words, “In this sign shalt thou conquer;” and the Emperor Constantine, to whom this vision was granted, had his army go to battle, under a standard bearing the image of the Cross, with the monogram of the word “Christ.” This standard was called the Labarum. The Cross is an object of terror to the wicked spirits; they cannot endure its presence; they no sooner see it, than the let go their prey and take to flight.

The honor of appearing, on the same medal with the image of the Holy Cross, has been given to St. Benedict. St. Gregory the Great tells us how, by the Sign of the Cross, Benedict, overcame his temptations, and broke the cup of poisoned drink which was offered to him, thus unmasking the wicked design of those who had plotted to take away his life. When the Evil Spirit, in order to terrify his Religious, made the Monastery of Monte Cassino appear to be on fire, St. Benedict immediately dispels the artifice, by making over the fiery phantom this same Sign of our Redeemer’s Passion.

The disciples of St. Benedict have had a like confidence in this sacred Sign, and have worked innumerable miracles by it. Let it here suffice to mention St. Maurus giving sight to a blind man, St. Placid curing many who were sick, St. Richmir liberating captives, St. Wulstan preserving a work man in the very act of falling from the top of the Church-tower, St. Odilo drawing out from a man’s eye a splinter of wood, which had run through it; St. Anselm of Canterbury driving away from an old man the horrid specters which were tormenting him in his dying moments; St. Hugh of Cluny quelling a storm; St. Gregory the Seventh arresting the conflagration at Rome, etc.—these, and a thousand other such miracles, which are related in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, were all worked by the Sign of the Cross.

The glory and efficacy, of the august instrument of our salvation, have been celebrated with enthusiasm by the children of the great Patriarch Benedict; they loved to extol it, for their hearts were full of gratitude towards it. Not to speak of the Little Office of the Holy Cross, which St. Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, used to recite, and which was also said in choir in the abbeys of St. Gall, of Reichenau, of Bursfeld, etc.; the Blessed Rhabanus Maurus and St. Peter Damian consecrated their talent for Poetry in singing the praises of the Holy Cross; St. Anselm of Canterbury has written its praises in the form of most exquisite prayers; Venerable Bede, St. Odilo of Cluny, Rupert of Deutz, Ecbert of Schonaugen, and a long list of others of the Order, have left us Sermons on the Holy Cross; Eginhard wrote a Book in defence of the worship paid to it against the Iconoclasts, and Peter the Venerable defended, a set Treatise, the use of the Sign of the Cross which had been at tacked by the Petrobrusians.

Such are in brief the facts which give to the person and name of St. Benedict a special connection with the Holy Cross; it is, therefore, with a most evident appropriateness that the Figure of this Holy Patriarch has been put on the same Medal with the Image of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE LETTERS, WHICH ARE INSCRIBED ON THE MEDAL
Besides the two Images of the Cross and—St. Benedict, there are also inscribed on the Medal a certain number of Letters, each of which is the initial of a Latin word. These words compose one or two sentences, which explain the Medal and its object. They express the relation existing between the Holy Patriarch of the Monks of the West and the sacred sign of the Salvation of mankind, at the same time that they offer the faithful a formula, which they may make use of, for employing the virtue of the Holy Cross against the evil spirits.

Those mysterious letters are arranged on that side of the medal on which is the Cross. Let us begin by noticing the four which are placed near the Cross, one at each of the outward corners: C S P B that is: Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti; in English: “The Cross of Holy Father Benedict.” These words explain the nature of the Medal.

On the perpendicular line of the Cross itself, are these letters: C S S M L they stand for these words : CRUX SANCTA SIT MIHI LUX; in English: “May the Holy Cross be my Light.”

On the horizontal line of the Cross are these letters: N. D. St. M. D. the words which they imply are: NON DRACO SIT MIHI DUX; in English: “Let not the Dragon be my guide.”

These two lines put together forum a pentametre verse, containing the Christian's protestation that he confides in the Holy Cross, and refuses to bear the yoke which the devil would limit upon him.

On the rim of the Medal there are inscribed several other Letters; and first the well-known Monogram of the holy name of Jesus, IH St. Faith and our own experience convince us of the all-powerfulness of this divine Name. Then below, beginning at the right hand, the following letters: V. R. St. N. St. M. V. St. M. Q. L. I. V. B. These initials stand for the two following verses. VADE RETRO, SATANA; NUNQUAM SUADE MIHI VANA. SUNT MALA QUAE LIBAS; IPSE VENENA BIBAS. in English: “Begone, Satan! And suggest not to me thy vain things; the Cup thou profferest me is evil; drink thou thy poison.”

These words are supposed to be said by St. Benedict; those of the first verse when he was suffering the temptation in his cave, and which he overcame by the Sign of the Cross; and those of the second verse, at the moment of his enemies offering to him the draught of death, which he discovered by his making over the poisoned cup the Sign of Life. The Christian may make use of these same words as often as he finds himself tormented by temptations and insults of the invisible enemy of our salvation. Our Savior sanctified the first of these words, by Himself making use of them “Begone, Satan!” — "Vade retro, Satana". Their efficacy has thus been tested, and the very Gospel is the guarantee of their power. The vain things, to which the devil incites us are disobedience to the law of God; they are also the pomps and false maxims of the world. The cup proffered us by this angel of darkness is evil, that is sin, which brings death to the soul: instead of receiving it at his hands, we ought to bid him keep it to himself, for it is the inheritance which he chose for himself. (Excerpts from an explanation of the St. Benedict Medal by Dom Gueranger).

Let us now take a look at some extracts from the prayer of blessing for the St. Benedict Medal:

“I cast out the demon from you, creature medals, by God the Father almighty, who made the heavens and the Earth and the seas and all that they contain. May all power of the adversary, all assaults and pretensions of Satan, be repulsed and driven afar from these medals, so that they may be, for all who will use them, a help in mind and body … Let all who will wear them, with hearts intent on good works, deserve to obtain health of mind and body, Your holy grace, and the indulgences that have been granted to us. And may they escape, by Your merciful help, all attacks and wiles of the devil, and finally appear in Your presence sinless and holy … Lord Jesus Christ … by Your sacred passion, expel all attacks and wiles of the devil from the person who devoutly calls on Your Holy Name, using these words and signs ascribed to You. May it please You to lead him (her) to the harbor of everlasting salvation, You who live and reign forever and ever.”

The Blessing of Holy Water
In the Liturgy, and especially in the Sacraments of the Church, outward signs are mainly symbolic of the effects which they produce in the soul. Thus the pouring and washing with water in Baptism is symbolic of cleansing the soul of Original Sin and pouring in of sanctifying grace. The bread under the form of which the Blessed Eucharist is received is a symbol of food for the soul, and so on. In the same way Holy Water is a beautiful, profound symbol of its significance and its effects on body and soul.

Pure water is clear and transparent. In it the heavens are reflected, the light of the sun, and the light of the stars. Similarly our souls should radiate purity that in them may be clearly reflected the heavens of faith, the sun of divine charity, and the starlight of the Christian virtues.

Water cleanses and purifies. Holy water reminds us that our souls have been washed and made pure by the water of holy Baptism, and thereby we have been received into the community of the children of God. Every time we sign our foreheads with Holy Water, we are reminded of our holy baptismal vows and of the obligation then undertaken, to keep our souls pure. So too Holy Water is a constant exhortation to purge our hearts from sin by penance and reparation. For this reason pious Christians when taking Holy Water, pray: “Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, O Lord, and I shall be cleansed; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.”

Water quenches our thirst and refreshes us, it irrigates and revives the earth, falling from the heavens as rain or dew, Holy water is a symbol of the dew of divine grace which refreshes our souls and fructifies our work, so that it becomes a service of God.

Water cools the hot air and extinguishes fire. Holy water should remind us that we must cool the ardor of our passions and extinguish the fire of inordinate desires.

The salt which is mixed with the water during the blessing bears a threefold symbolic meaning. In the first place, salt preserves from corruption. Our souls should be preserved from the corruption of sin, especially grievous sin and kept fresh and pure throughout our lives as children of God. Again, salt has always been regarded as a symbol of wisdom. But Christian wisdom leads to a wholesome fear of God and thence to a love of God. Finally, salt imparts an agreeable taste to food to which it is added; and so, too, virtue makes our souls pleasing to God.

Finally, let us consider the many Signs of the Cross which the priest makes over the elements when blessing the Holy Water and mixing the salt with it; and how we ourselves make the sign of the cross when we take Holy Water. The meaning of this is that all the graces and helps which we receive from God have been merited for us by the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on the Cross and flow to us from this source.

Let us also draw some hope, comfort and strength from the words used in the blessing of Holy Water, which are also a lesson and instruction to us as regards the purpose and power of Holy Water. First of all the priest performs an exorcism over the salt, after which he blesses the salt. Then he exorcises water and blesses it. Finally, he mixes the blessed salt and blessed water with the blessed salt to finish the process of making Holy Water. Here are some key extracts from the rite of blessing.

"I exorcise thee, creature of salt, by the living + God, by the true + God, by the holy + God, by that God who ordered thee [salt] to be put by Eliseus the prophet into the water, that the barrenness of the water might be healed; that thou mayest become exorcised salt for the salvation of those that believe; and that thou mayest be for the healing of soul and body to all those receiving thee, and that there may be banished from the place in which thou hast been sprinkled every kind of hallucination and wickedness, or wile of devilish deceit, and every unclean spirit, ... O Almighty and eternal God, we humbly implore Thine infinite mercy, that this creature of salt which Thou hast bestowed for the use of mankind may be blessed +and sanctified + through Thy mercy, that it may make for health of mind and body to all who partake of it; and that what ever is touched or sprinkled with it may be freed from all uncleanness, and from the assaults of the evil spirit. ...

"I exorcise thee, creature of water, in the Name of God the Father Almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, that thou mayest be made exorcised water for the banishment of every power of the enemy, and that thou mayest be able to uproot and cast out that enemy himself, together with his rebel angels ... O God ... fill this element ... with Thy power and blessing, so that this creature of Thine may be endowed with divine grace to drive away devils and to cast out diseases; that whatever in the houses or possessions of the faithful may be sprinkled by this water may be freed from everything unclean and delivered from what is hurtful. Let no spirit of pestilence or baleful breath abide therein; let all the snares of the enemy who lieth in wait be driven forth; and let everything that threatens the safety or peace of the dwellers therein be banished by the sprinkling of this water; so that the health which they seek by calling upon Thy holy Name may be guarded from all assault."

[The Priest puts blessed salt thrice into the water crosswise, saying:]

"Let salt and water mingle together in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen ... O God, the giver of invincible strength, and King of irresistible power, ever wonderful in triumph, Who holdest in check the power of the enemy, Who overcomest the fury of raging enemies, Who by Thy might gainest the victory over all their guile; we humbly pray and beseech Thee, O Lord, to look upon this Thy creation of salt and water, to bless it in Thy mercy and hallow it with the dew of Thy loving kindness: that wherever it be sprinkled and Thy holy Name shall be invoked in prayer, every assault of the unclean spirit may be baffled, all fear of the venomous serpent cast out, and the presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere vouchsafed to us who entreat Thy mercy."

From all this we see how inspiring Holy Water is. It is true that only the Catholic who is imbued with holy Faith can understand these truths and receive the grace that is derived from its use. Only the believing Catholic can have a right understanding of the beneficial operation of Holy Water on body and soul.

The Blessing of Candles
There are various different rites of blessing for candles in the Roman Ritual. The commonly used blessing is as follows:
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, bless + these candles at our lowly request. Endow them, Lord, by the power of the Holy + Cross, with a blessing from on high, you who gave them to mankind in order to dispel darkness. Let the blessing that they receive from the sign of the Holy + Cross be so effectual that, wherever they are lighted or placed, the princes of darkness may depart in trembling from all these places, and flee in fear, along with all their legions, and never more dare to disturb or molest those who serve you, the almighty God, who live and reign forever and ever."

Another blessing is the one used for candles to be used by the Rosary Society, and this reads as follows:

Lord Jesus Christ, the true light that enlightens every man who comes into the world, by the prayers of the blessed Virgin Mary, your Mother, and the fifteen mysteries of her Rosary, pour out your blessing + on these candles and tapers, and hallow + them by the light of your grace. Mercifully grant that as these lights with their visible fire dispel the darkness of the night, so may the Holy + Spirit with His invisible fire and splendor dispel the darkness of our transgressions. May He help us ever to discern with the pure eye of the spirit the things that are pleasing to you and beneficial to us, so that in spite of the darkness and pitfalls of this world we may come at last to the unending light. We ask this of you who live and reign forever and ever.

Yet another blessing is that which is given to candles to be used for the blessing of throats on the Feast of St. Blaise (February 3rd). The relevant excerpts are as follows: “God, almighty … we implore Your majesty that, overlooking our guilt and considering only his merits and intercession, it may please You to bless + and sanctify + and impart your grace to these candles. Let all men of Faith, whose necks are touched with them, be healed of every malady of the throat, and being restored in health and good spirits let them return thanks to You in your holy Church, and praise Your glorious Name which is blessed forever … After blessing the candles on the feast of St. Blaise, the priest holds two candles fastened like a cross to the throat of the person kneeling before him, and says: “By the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every malady of the throat and from every possible mishap; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.”

MULTIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Saturday October 19th to Wednesday October 23rd

Article 9
Is Your Home Spiritually Protected?

Holy Scripture on Protection and Destruction
There are numerous instances in Holy Scripture where we see the both the protection of God and the destruction of God come into play. Before we look at the individual examples―which begin with God’s protection of Noe and his family, while at the same time we God’s destruction of the rest of the world―let us first of look at God’s own words that lay down the general principles governing His protection and destruction. We find the entire 26th chapter of the Book of Leviticus laying down those principles in no uncertain terms―which we do well to absorb into the depths of mind and memory. Here is an abbreviated version of that chapter of Leviticus:

The Two Sides of God—Protection and Destruction—Mercy and Justice
“If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. You shall eat the oldest of the old store, and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then …” (Leviticus 26:3-14) … then, for not “paying the price”, God says:

“I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you the beasts of the held, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. I will bring your cities to be a wilderness, and I will make your sanctuaries desolate, and will receive no more your sweet odors. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41). That is the abbreviated version―you would not waste your time reading the full version.

A Clear Principle of Protection and Destruction
Herein the principle of God is clear―obey Me and I will give you my protection you; disobey Me and you will experience increasing destruction. “Ah!” you may say, “but that was the Old Testament! Things are different now!” Such a complacent attitude is based more upon wishful thinking rather than solid theology! That principle of God’s is true for the Old Testament, the New Testament and in our own day.

In the New Testament we see Jesus prophesy the total destruction of Jerusalem at some future date―which was fulfilled in 70 AD: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as the bird doth her brood under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold your house shall be left to you desolate! … The days will come in which there shall not be left a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down!” (Luke 13:34-35; 21:6)―in that fateful Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, over 1 million Jews were killed, among whom tens of thousands were crucified!

Today, Our Lady announces the same old principle―both at La Salette in 1846 and at Akita in 1973―she warneds of the consequences of our increasing sinfulness and neglect of God: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (La Salette, 1846).

“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead!” (Akita, 1973).

So what’s new? Nothing! “With the Father of lights there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17).

We All Want Protection―But God Is Not Mocked, Nor Fooled
Who doesn’t want protection? We all―deep down―want or even crave the protection of God. “Be not deceived! God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). If you will be faithful to God, then God will be faithful to you: “Their hope is on Him that saveth them, and the eyes of God are upon them that love Him” (Ecclesiasticus 34:15). “God is a buckler [= a shield] to them that hope in Him” (Proverbs 30:5).

This protection of God is heralded all throughout Holy Scripture. Perhaps one of the most comforting of Psalms is Psalm 90, wherein the protection of God is the theme throughout the entire psalm. For your comfort, here it is:

“Thou art my protector, and my refuge! My God, in Him will I trust! For He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word. He will overshadow thee with His shoulders: and under His wings thou shalt trust. His truth shall compass thee with a shield! Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night, or the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee. But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked. Because Thou, O Lord, art my hope!

“Thou hast made the most High thy refuge. There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling. For He hath given His angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon. Because he hoped in Me I will deliver him! I will protect him because he hath known My Name. He shall cry to Me, and I will hear him! I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him!” (Psalm 90:2-15).

What is emerging here is the need for a Faith, Hope and Love of God in order to secure His help and protection. For elsewhere in Scripture, God speaks about being deaf to the cries of some folk: “They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear My words: so these, likewise, have gone after strange gods, to serve them! Wherefore, saith the Lord, Behold I will bring in evils upon them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to Me, and I will not hearken to them!” (Jeremias 11:10-11). God is here speaking of His very own Chosen People! Yet He has no problem turning a deaf ear to them and punishing them severely.

Passover Protection but Desert Destruction
The one and the same Chosen People―in the time of Moses―received both astounding protection as well as awful destruction. When the appointed time came for the Exodus from Egypt under Moses, we see the awesome level of protection that God gave to His Chosen People by (1) preserving them during the Passover of the Avenging Angel, that killed all the first-born children, cattle and beasts in Egypt, (2) the miraculous protection shown by God to the Chosen People in preserving them from the pursuing Egyptian army, by parting the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to cross, and then drowning their pursuers by bringing the divided waters back into place, (3) God preserved the Chosen People for forty years by miraculously feeding them for forty years―and remember, they were not a handful of people, but anywhere from 4 million to 6 million in number! That is an awful lot of food providing to do on a daily basis! There were many more incidents of protection and preservation, let these suffice as an example.

Yet the very persons that God initially protected, He had no problem destroying―due to their murmuring, complaining, dissatisfaction, disobedience and rebellion. “And the Lord being angry against Israel, led them about through the desert forty years, until the whole generation, that had done evil in his sight, was consumed” (Numbers 32:13). Why did God do this? Because the Israelites refused to enter and conquer the Promised Land out of fear of its inhabitants and a lack of trust in God’s help and protection:

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Send men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers!’ Moses did what the Lord had commanded … And when they were gone up, they viewed the land from the desert … And they that went to spy out the land returned after forty days, having gone round all the country … and said: We came into the land to which thou sentest us, which in very deed floweth with milk and honey as may be known by these fruits! But it hath very strong inhabitants, and the cities are great and walled!’ ... In the meantime, Caleb, to quieten the murmuring of the people that rose against Moses, said: ‘Let us go up and possess the land, for we shall be able to conquer it!’ But the others, that had been with him spying, said: ‘No, we are not able to go up to this people, because they are stronger than we!’ And they spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed” (Numbers 13:2-33).

“Wherefore the whole multitude crying wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: ‘Would God that we had died in Egypt and would God we may die in this vast wilderness, and that the Lord may not bring us into this land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led away captives. Is it not better to return into Egypt?’ And they said one to another: ‘Let us appoint a leader, and let us return into Egypt!’ … But Josue and Caleb, who themselves also had viewed the land, tore their garments, and said to all the multitude of the children of Israel: ‘The land which we have gone round is very good! If the Lord be favorable, He will bring us into it, and give us a land flowing with milk and honey! Be not rebellious against the Lord! And fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them! The Lord is with us, fear ye not!’ And when all the multitude cried out, and would have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses: ‘How long will this people detract Me? How long will they not believe Me despite all the signs that I have wrought before them? I will strike them therefore with pestilence, and will consume them!” (Numbers 14:1-12).

As a result of their murmuring, complaining, lack of trust, disobedience and rebellion, God pronounced a sentence of destruction against those who provoked that attitude and those who participated in it (which was almost everyone): “And the Lord said: ‘As I live, the whole Earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. But all the men that have seen My majesty, and the signs that I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now ten times, and have not obeyed My voice, they shall not see the land which I promised to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted Me behold it! My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed Me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it! Tomorrow, remove the camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea!’

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ‘How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel! Say therefore to them: “As I live, saith the Lord, according as you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you! In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie! All you, that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against Me, shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up My hand to make you dwell therein―except for Caleb and Josue. But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey to the enemies, will I bring in [into the Promised Land], so that they may see the land which you have despised. Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness! Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall bear your fornication, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed in the desert! According to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the land― a year shall be counted for a day. And forty years you shall receive your iniquities, and shall know My revenge! For as I have spoken, so will I do to all this wicked multitude, that hath risen up together against me: in this wilderness shall it faint away and die!”’” (Numbers 14:20-35).

Perilous Presumption for Protection!
St. Paul―in speaking of the plight of the Chosen People under Moses―warns us not to fall into vain presumption on God’s protection, citing the many presumptuous elements they vainly counted on: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert! Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).

Our Lord Himself similarly warned us against such presumption when He said: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:21-27).

What Must We Do To Ensure God’s Protection?
The bottom-line is you get what you pay for! Just as it is with insurance, so too it is with God. You can “buy” the basic, minimal, very limited protection policy. Or you can “pay more” and get a more comprehensive, more encompassing, higher level of protection.

Let us not expect God to start performing “Protection Miracles” on our behalf at the drop of a hat! There is a principle of theology we need to drill into our minds and hearts, and it is this― “God will not do the extraordinary when the ordinary will suffice!” In other words, God has already given us ORDINARY means of protection for our use, which, in most cases, suffice to take care of us and to protect us. We have the Sacraments and Sacramentals. We have plentiful sources of grace―both sanctifying grace and actual grace. Grace not only perfects nature, but grace protects nature. All is down to grace―as Our Lord said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). He is not going to rain apples and oranges from the sky―like manna in the desert―when there are seeds that we can plant, nurture and grow into apple trees and orange trees in order to get our fruit. The ordinary means are possible and thus the extraordinary means will not be activated. It is this context that Sister Lucia of Fatima revealed the protective power of the Holy Rosary, when she said:

“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls!” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).

In other words, God is not going to blow the boat along when we can row the boat. He expects us to play our part and do our work―as Our Lord says: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). That very phrase is loaded! Loaded with violence in the sense of intensity as well as “doing violence” to ourselves, to our own opinions, our thoughts, our words, our desires, our actions, etc. In other words, the “violence” of mortification (which literally means “putting to death”, the Latin word mors, mortis meaning “death” as in “mortality” (the state of being subject to death), “mortal wound” (a fatal injury causing or liable to cause death). “moribund” (a person at the point of death), “mortuary” (a place where dead people are kept), etc. The whole purpose of the spiritual life is dying to ourselves so that we may live totally for God. “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die―itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).

Which is why St. Paul writes: “For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain!” (Philippians 1:21) and “If you live according to the flesh, you shall die! But if, by the Spirit, you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live!” (Romans 8:13) … “For we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death? For we are buried together with Him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ: For in that He died to sin, He died once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. So do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 6:2-11). To die to sin―as St. Paul says―requires a violent struggle. Hence “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).

The Two Chief Weapons of Protection and Attack
Like Christ, it is under the cross that we suffer and do violence to our innate love of comfort, ease and pleasure; and like Christ, it on the cross that we die to our selves so that we might live for God. Christ’s death on the cross was violent, intense, sorrowful―it was a chalice He did not really want to drink, but accepted it as His Father’s will: “Father, all things are possible to Thee! Remove this chalice from Me! But not what I will, but what Thou wilt!” (Mark 14:36). To us He says what He said to James and John: “Jesus said: ‘Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?’ They said to Him: ‘We can!’ He said to them: ‘My chalice indeed you shall drink!’” (Matthew 20:22-23) … “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). In the cross is protection; in the cross is consolation; in the cross is salvation! As the liturgy of the Church so rightly says: “In cruce salus!” ― “In the cross is salvation!” … “Ave crux, spes unica!” ― “Hail O cross, our sole hope!”

Thus, in the Rosary and in the Cross we have two chief sources of grace and protection. This is what Our Lady tried to communicate to us in her modern day apparitions―especially at Fatima and Akita―where she stressed the need for suffering and the need of Rosary: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it … Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary … because only she can help you!” (Fatima July 13th, 1917) … “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices” (Fatima August 19th, 1917) … “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort” (Fatima May 13th, 1917) … “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger” (Akita, August 3rd, 1973) … “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son!” (Akita, October 13th, 1973).

What is that “Sign left by my Son”? It is, of course, the Sign of the Cross in all its fullness and plenitude―the Sign of the Cross as in the Sacrifice of the Cross renewed in every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; the Sign of the Cross as in the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament, which comes from the Sacrifice of the Mass; the Sign of the Cross as in our own personal crosses which we have to carry, both as a payment and penalty for our own sins, and which we must also carry for the good of Holy Mother Church and the conversion of sinners, for “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Already centuries beforehand, St. Louis de Montfort had said more or less the same thing―as we can read in his writings, especially in his book, The Secret of the Rosary, wherein he states:

“If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, you shall receive a never‑fading crown of glory. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if ― and mark well what I say ― if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §4). St. Louis then reports the incident where Our Lady forced the devils to admit the following to St. Dominic: “This Mother of Jesus is most powerful in saving her servants from falling into Hell! She is like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares, and makes our temptations useless and ineffective! We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints. We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with her faithful servants! Many Christians who call on her at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary standards are saved by her intercession. And if that Marietta (it is thus in their fury they called her) did not counter our plans and our efforts, we should have overcome the Church and destroyed it long before this, and caused all the Orders in the Church to fall into error and infidelity. Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §104).

We are always seeking novelties―new ways of doing things, new pastimes, new recipes and foods, new drinks, new clothes, new cars, new appliances, new friends, new this and new that. Yet in order to gain Heaven and gain Heaven’s protection, it is “more of the same old, same old” stuff―prayer and penance, or looking at the box from another angle, the Rosary and the Mass with Holy Communion, or from another angle, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or another angle being the First Fridays and First Saturdays, or another angle, suffering or carrying the cross of Christ with Mary’s help. Whichever way to look at it, from whichever angle you approach, it is “more of the same old, same old!” Yet the same is true for our natural and physical life―in order to stay alive and live it is always a case of “more of the same old, same old” air that we breath every few seconds of our entire life, and “more of the same old, same old” water that we have to drink every single day all life long. Nothing ever changes, just “more of the same old, same old.” With other things, we can vary them, change them, abstain from them for a while―but we cannot abstain or do without air and water.

Likewise with prayer and penance, the Rosary and the Mass with Communion, devotion to Jesus and Mary, etc. We neglect those things at our own risk. Without those things we compromise, not only our spiritual safety and protection, but even our physical, material, financial well-being. For as Our Lady of Good Success said: “Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).

Multiple Other Sources of Protection
There are, of course, many other powerful means and sources for obtaining the protection of Heaven in our many different needs―and these need to be briefly examined. The following items are NOT placed in any specific order according to power, efficiency, usefulness, range, popularity, etc. They are merely listed in the order that they come to mind.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament
Yes, we have already spoken about these―but the let us not forget that every blessing, even the blessings given to the Sacramentals and even the Sacraments themselves, draw their power from the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary―which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass perpetuates, repeats and re-presents each and every time it is validly offered in time and in space (meaning “every time” and “everywhere” it is offered). The fruits of the Mass are Holy Communion (which we receive during Mass) and the Blessed Sacrament (which remains once Mass is over).

We DO NOT profit enough from these things―we do not attend Mass enough; we do not receive Holy Communion often enough, nor well enough; we do not visit the Blessed Sacrament enough; nor do we spend enough time with the Blessed Sacrament; nor do we spend enough time preparing for Holy Communion, nor enough time giving thanks after Holy Communion. The end result is that we do not get the massive plenitude of graces that are on offer in this the greatest and most efficacious of all the Sacraments, which not only contains grace, but also the Author of all grace. Much as in physical exercise, start to increase the ‘load’ that you will lift―gradually add to the number of Masses you are resolved to participate in―beginning with an extra one or two a month, then an extra one or two each week, and perhaps even to the point of attending Mass every day or on most days! Yes, it will cost you something―it will be painful to give up this and that to be able to attend Mass―but, as they say with physical exercise: “No pain, no gain!”

The Holy Rosary
Just like the Holy Mass, Holy Communion and the Blessed Sacrament―the Holy Rosary is not prayed enough, nor is it prayed well-enough whenever it is prayed. It cannot be stressed enough that MEDITATION IS THE LIFE AND SOUL OF THE ROSARY. Our Lady herself has said that―as reported by St. Louis de Montfort in his book, The Secret of the Rosary: “Our Lady taught Saint Dominic this excellent method of praying and ordered him to preach it far and wide so as to reawaken the fervor of Christians and to revive in their hearts a love for our Blessed Lord. She also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision― ‘When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer’ ― For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §61). St. Louis also adds: “The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from Heaven upon the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvelous spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all virtues. The more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer, the more enlightened in mind we become, the more zealous in heart, the stronger against all our enemies” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §51).

However, only around 2% of Catholics pray the Rosary daily―and how many of that meager 2% actually MEDITATE the mysteries? Sadly, the number would fit in with what St. Louis de Montfort says of the number of friends of the Cross there are in the world: “The elect who are willing to be made conformable to the crucified Christ by carrying their cross are few in number. It would cause us to faint away from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number. It is so small, that among ten thousand people, there is scarcely one to be found, as was revealed to several Saints, among whom St. Simon Stylites, referred to by the holy Abbot Nilus, followed by St. Basil, St. Ephrem and others. So small, indeed, that if God willed to gather them together, He would have to cry out as He did in days of old, through the voice of a prophet: ‘Come ye together one by one’ (Isaias 27:12), one from this province and one from that kingdom” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to Friends of the Cross, §14).

It would probably not be too wide of the mark―using the above figures or numbers―to say that out of every half-a-million, or 500,000 Catholics, only 10,000 (2%) SAY the Rosary (just saying the vocal prayers), while there will be ONLY ONE PERSON out of 10,000 “sayers” of the Rosary (as St. Louis says: “among ten thousand people, there is scarcely one to be found”) who will actually MEDITATE THE MYSTERIES of the Rosary. Remember this―meditation is NOT merely announcing the title of the mystery, meditation is NOT vaguely having a foggy indistinct picture of the mystery in your mind; meditation is NOT even thinking about the mystery to a greater depth. None of these things―though not wrong in themselves and good in themselves―qualifies as being meditation. True meditation is an in-depth CONSIDERATION OF THE MYSTERY THAT IS COMPLETED BY TAKING A CONCRETE RESOLUTION―OF SOME KIND―TO MAKE SOME CHANGES TO ONE’S LIFE. In other words, for a period of thinking, or reading, or listening to something spiritual, to qualify as a meditation―there has to be a RESOLUTION, a DECISION, an ACT OF THE WILL to PUT INTO PRACTICE something that has been learned from the thinking, or reading, or listening to spiritual things. It might mean beginning something, or stopping something. It could be beginning/stopping certain thoughts, words, actions or omissions, etc. Without that concrete resolution, without that fruit―it remains merely an act of pious thinking, or spiritual reading, or interesting listening, but without any real fruit coming out of it. It would be like reading about how to cook a certain meal, then buying the ingredients, then cooking the meal―but then, instead of actually eating it, you merely walk away from the table and leave it uneaten.

Finally, as we pass on to the subject of other blessed articles, it is important to mention the usefulness and advisability of having all your Rosary beads blessed. More on that iin the next article.

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, October 16th, 17th & 18th

Article 8
Francis, Putin, Mary, Russia and Our Plight

This article is still to be finished. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

A Real Conundrum ― A Catholic Caldron ― A Veritable Stew!
What a stew we find ourselves in! “Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble” ― a phrase which derives from “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble!” ― as spoken by the Three Witches in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, which is at the beginning of Act IV, Scene 1. In a certain sense you could say that the scene portraying the Three Witches is symbolic of the scene faced by the Church today. No longer do the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity seem to rule and guide, but Three Witches seem to have taken the Trinity’s place!

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1
SCENE: A dark Cave. In the middle, a caldron boiling. Thunder.

1st WITCH: Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed. (brinded - having obscure dark streaks or flecks on gray)
2nd WITCH: Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whined.
3rd WITCH: Harpier cries: 'tis time! 'tis time!

1st WITCH: Round about the caldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.--
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one;
Sweltered venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charmed pot!

ALL WITCHES:   Double, double toil and trouble! Fire burn and caldron bubble!

2nd WITCH: Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,

ALL WITCHES:   Double, double toil and trouble! Fire burn and caldron bubble!

3rd WITCH: Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches' mummy; maw and gulf (gulf = the throat)
Of the ravined salt-sea shark;
Root of hemlock digged in the dark;
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Slivered in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab, (drab = prostitute)
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, (chaudron = entrails)
For the ingredients of our caldron.

ALL WITCHES:   Double, double toil and trouble! Fire burn and caldron bubble!

2nd WITCH: WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

The Symbolism of the Witches
As commentators on Macbeth say: “The intervention of the supernatural is a common motif in Shakespeare’s plays. Macbeth provides the most obvious example. An understanding of the witches and witch symbolism leads to a better understanding of the play. The witches symbolize the following: (1) They symbolize the darkness and depravity of the human soul, the part of the soul that bends itself toward evil and darkness; (2) The witches influence the external forces that tempt humans; (3) More specifically, the witches symbolize the darkness that resides in Macbeth’s heart; (4) The witches are an outward manifestation of Macbeth’s wickedness and the horrible acts he commits.

“When the play begins, the witches enter with thunder and lightning. A storm is coming. This already foreshadows something dark and ominous. The first witch asks when they will meet again, “In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” (1.1.2). In Shakespeare’s time, witches were associated with Satan and evil in general. As part of the folklore about witches, it was also believed that they could cause bad weather. So, quite literally, they could change the landscape and the environment. In other words, they could cause things in the world to become dark and evil. They set the stage with a general sense of evil.

“The first and second witches mention Grimalkin and Paddock. These are called “familiars” which are attending evil spirits. With the storm and the attending evil spirits, the witches are imbuing the world with darkness, storms, and evil. The scene ends with all three chanting: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair! Hover through the fog and filthy air!” (1.1.10-11). Again we have the repetition that the environment has become filthy and evil. With these final lines, the witches indicate that what had been good (“fair”) will become evil (“foul”). This foreshadows Macbeth's descent from a loyal Thane to a murderous tyrant. He was fair and will become foul. The witches symbolize this shifting in the world from foul to fair. The line “Double, double toil and trouble” speaks of their wish to increase the trials and hardships of the human race (Catholic Church?).

“There is always debate as to whether they cause Macbeth's downfall or whether they simply plant the idea in his mind. The latter supports the idea that they put evil in the air and that they put greed and ambition in his mind, leaving it up to him to act upon these thoughts.”

Huh? Where Is This Leading To?
Now at this point, you may well be asking: “What on earth have Shakespeare, Macbeth and the Three Witches got to do with Francis, Putin, Mary, Russia and ourselves? Has this article taken a wrong turn somewhere? Please explain!”

Well, as they say: “There is nothing new under the sun!”―which actually is not a new saying but is found in the Old Testament in Holy Scripture, where it says: “Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: ‘Behold this is new!’―for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us” (Ecclesiastes 1:10).

Not only have Pope Francis’ critics been speaking of a potential schism emerging in the Catholic Church in the near future―but even Pope Francis himself has said he might be the cause of a schism. This division within the Church brings to mind the English Schism under King Henry VIII in 1534. Henry was the father of Mary Tudor and Elizabeth―both of whom became queens of England after Henry’s death. Shakespeare, in his play Macbeth, would covertly cast the evil “Lady Macbeth” as a symbol of “Queen Beth” or Queen Elizabeth. The so-called “English Reformation”―which was nothing other than the English Catholic Church’s schism from Rome―could be said to be representative of the current “Vatican Reformation” under Pope Francis―which is nothing other than the Modern Catholic Church’s schism from “Eternal Rome” and seems to be well on its way to fulfilling the prophecy of Our Lady of La Salette, who warned: “Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.”

So, let us first of all look at the chief players in that yo-yo period of the “English Reformation” so that we draw similarities to the current “Vatican Reformation” that is taking place before our very eyes. The "Three Witches" of the "Vatican Reformation", with their cry ― "Double, double toil and trouble! Fire burn and caldron bubble!" ― will make their appearance later in the article!

► KING HENRY VIII, 1491-1547 (King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547)―takes the English Catholic Church into schism because the Pope would not annul Henry’s first marriage. He would end up having six wives! The first marriage lasted a childless 24 years and Henry got it annulled; the second lasted 3 years and ended in an annulment and beheading; the third lasted 16 months and she died after childbirth; the fourth lasted 6 months and was annulled; the fifth lasted 15 months and ended with a beheading; the sixth wife survived because Henry himself died! Henry would have heartily agreed with and accepted Pope Francis’ desire to allow remarried divorcees to receive the Sacraments. Unfortunately for Henry, the popes of that time were not of the same mindset as Pope Francis!

► QUEEN MARY TUDOR, 1516-1558 (Queen of England 1553-1558; daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon; half-sister to Queen Elizabeth of England)―re-establishes the English Catholic Church and reunites it to Rome.

► QUEEN ELIZABETH I,  1533-1603 (Queen of England 1558-1603; daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife; half-sister to Mary Tudor)―Elizabeth undoes the work of the Catholic Queen Mary and establishes an English Protestant church―hence going a step further than her father, Henry VIII. Upon Mary's death in 1558, Elizabeth I took the English throne. Elizabeth became a determined opponent of papal control and re-introduced separatist ideas. In 1559, the English Parliament recognized Elizabeth as the Church’s supreme governor, with a new Act of Supremacy that also overthrew the remaining anti-Protestant legislation. Elizabeth presided over the “Elizabethan Settlement”―which was an attempt to satisfy both the Puritan and Catholic forces in England within a single national Church. Elizabeth was eventually excommunicated in 1570 by Pope Pius V, finally breaking communion between Rome and the Anglican Church.

► WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 1564-1616, was not yet born when King Henry VIII (1491-1547) schismatically separated the English Catholic Church from Rome and declared himself its head in 1534. Henry had already been dead for 17 years before Shakespeare was born. Neither was Shakespeare born to see the Mary Tudor (1516-1558) become Queen of England in 1553 and her aggressive attempt to reverse the English (Protestant) Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. During her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions―which resulted in the Protestants giving her the title “Bloody Mary.”

Neither was Shakespeare around at the time of Mary Tudor’s death in 1558, after which her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, at the beginning of the 45-year Elizabethan era. Upon succeeding Mary Tudor to the throne of England, one of Elizabeth’s first actions as queen, was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she made herself the Supreme Governor―thus imitating the antics of her father, King Henry VIII, who had made himself the head of the Catholic Church in England, but who had did not become Protestant, yet remained schismatic. Shakespeare would have been a mere boy of 13 at the time of Elizabeth’s death―but, as a secret practicing Catholic, Shakespeare would have to endure the persecutory legislation that had been enacted against Catholics. Like the hidden and secret Christian symbols of the early Catholic Church’s persecution days under Rome, known as the “Catacombs Era”― Shakespeare’s plays are full similar hidden and secret signs and comments regarding the Catholic Faith and its persecution in an increasingly Protestant England.

As we proceed, we shall see Pope Francis practicing similar tactics to the anti-Catholic English monarchy (except, of course, Queen Mary Tudor) and Francis’ demeaning mockery and harsh criticism of traditionally-minded Catholics is similar to Henry’s and Elizabeth’s treatment of traditionally-minded Catholics in Tudor and Elizabethan England in the 16th century. As they say―if you do not know your history, you will be forced to learn it by repeating the mistakes of history. That is exactly what is happening today―we have been so dumbed-down by entertainment of all kinds that we no longer have any real depth of historical knowledge―it is boring and not entertaining; it taxes the mind rather than titillates the mind. This dumbed-down state has so weakened the mind that we can no longer recall and understand the past, and we have trouble seeing and understanding the present. Hence things like the Second Vatican Council and its implications; the various Synods that have occurred and their implications; the theological utterances of modernist clergy and the events within the Catholic Church are mostly beyond the comprehension or understanding of most Catholics―which is great for the enemy and plays right into their hands.

The Devil’s Caldron―The Devil’s Stew
The devil is a “slow-cooker”―because the frog will stay in the caldron as long the heat does not increase too quickly. As the saying goes: “Little by little one goes a long way!” ― and little by little the devil has a field day. The modern-day stew―that we find ourselves in―has been bubbling for centuries. Little by little the devil has been adding the ingredients to his infernal stew. As regards our current day defection from God―you could say that pot started boiling with Humanism.

Stir in Some Humanism
Humanism was being born in the mid-1200s as St. Thomas Aquinas was dying (1274). Humanism is commonly stated to have been born in 1264 with Dante―though Dante was not a fully fledged Humanist, but a mixture of the old and the new. Humanism was a return to the past in the search of perfection. The past that Humanism sought to return to was the time of the Greeks and the Romans. Humanism did not directly oppose religion―some Humanists actually thought that their return to classical times―the era of Ancient Greece and Rome―would benefit religion and seductive case was made out for that argument. However, even the common dumbed-down guy on the street should be able to see that there is no hint of the Divine in the word “Humanism”―human is about man―HuMANism. It wasn’t that Humanists rejected God, but they focused upon man, upon man’s ancient achievements, man’s knowledge, man’s skills and capabilities, man’s dignity and honor, etc., more than they focused upon God. Humanist thinkers also began to consider humanity more as creators, world-changers, who made their own lives (self-made man) and who should not be trying to imitate Christ but finding themselves. Humanism, in seed form, contained all the garbage that we now have to deal with. From Humanism sprang Rationalism, Liberalism, Protestantism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Hedomism, Communism, Capitalism and Paganism.

Humanism was as a cultural movement, aesthetic, literary and educational―it was a liberation from the old dominant way of thinking. It was taking from the ancient world to reform the “modern” and giving a worldlier, more human outlook, focusing on the ability of humans to act for themselves and not just blindly follow a religious plan. Humanists believed God had given humanity options and potential―and humanist thinkers had to act to make the most of this. The promoters of this new form learning―Humanism―believed that there was great knowledge to be found in the ancients of Greece and Rome, which could bring new ideas to achieve these aims. Humanism began to affect culture and society. It ignited and powered, in large part, what we now call the “Renaissance”. However, its tentacles did not stop at the Renaissance―but have reached out and firmly grasped and held each successive century since then.

Humanism spread across Europe. By the 1500s, Humanism was the dominant form of education. Humanism gradually penetrated and overran most of the universities of Europe―and thus it was almost impossible for the “movers and shakers” of Europe to escape from Humanism and its almost obsessive focus on man in general, and on the classical antiquity of Greece and Rome. God, as it were, had to take a seat at the back of the class! Today, Humanism is alive and kicking―that is to say kicking God further and further way from having any relevance in today’s humanity.

King Henry VIII was a Humanist. St. Thomas More was a Humanist. Martin Luther was a Humanist. Queen Elizabeth I was a Humanist. Shakespeare, to a certain extent, was a Humanist. Humanism was also favored by the popes. Pope Nicholas V (1447-55), sought to restore the glory of Rome by the collection of books and manuscripts (particularly Greek) and by the erection of buildings. Pope Pius II (1458-64) was a Humanist himself and had won fame as poet, orator, interpreter of ancient Greek writings, and showed himself in various ways a patron of literature and art. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) re-established the Vatican Library. Under Pope Leo X (1513-21) Humanism and art enjoyed a second golden age.

Today, Pope Francis shows those same individualistic Humanist and Earth or world focused tendencies that led to Rationalism, Liberalism, Protestantism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Hedonism, Communism, Capitalism and Paganism. On November 10th, 2015, speaking in Florence, the Pope said: “I don’t want to design in the abstract a ‘new humanism,’ a certain idea of man, but to present with simplicity some features of the practical Christian humanism that is present in the ‘mind’ of Christ Jesus … a new humanism in Christ Jesus … A Christian’s humanity is not narcissistic or self-centered, but always goes out to others, which leads us always to work and to fight to make the world a better place!” On March 24th, 2017, Pope Francis addressed European leaders and said: “As leaders, you are called to blaze the path of a new European humanism!”

On September 12th, 2019, speaking of next year’s Vatican meeting with world leaders and religions ― in May, 2020, on the theme “Reinventing the Global Educational Alliance”― Pope Francis Francis announced that he is hosting an initiative for a “Global Pact” to create a “new humanism.” The Pope said that “A global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism … This will result in men and women who are open, responsible, prepared to listen, dialogue and reflect with others, and capable of weaving relationships with families, between generations, and with civil society, and thus to create a new humanism!” ― more like a new Protestantism!

We Are Not Shocked Because We Are Humanists Ourselves
Why does this not shock us very much? Because we are all bitten and smitten with the virus of Humanism―not the original version of Humanism (which sought to return to and learn from the Greeks and Romans), but the principle that eventually motivated Humanism, which was giving more of a focus to human things than divine things. Is that not our case today? If you disagree, then simply look at the time people spend on the human in comparison to the time they spend on the divine. In fact, for many of them, the human has become divine! The objects of their focus have become their idols. Just look at the time spent ‘worshiping’ in front of the screen―TV screen, computer screen, smartphone screen, tablet screen, video-game screen, etc. ― and your objections will be obliterated. We have, you see, become more Humanist than religious―the human aspect of our life has replaced the spiritual side of our life as the main object of focus. Just like the original Humanists, we do not disbelief in God, nor do we hate God, but we simply don’t have too much time to spare for God amidst all our enjoyable and obligatory Humanistic activities.

Thus Humanism could, in a very broad sense, be said to be the “Witches Broth” into which (pardon the pun) will be placed and out which will come the ingredients that go into making the “Witches Stew”― Rationalism, Liberalism, Protestantism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Hedonism, Communism, Capitalism and Paganism―and we have all tasted or even gobbled-down some of that “Witches Stew” in our own lives. Some of us may have vomited it out, others will have swallowed it and assimilated it. Yet just as we are all sinners― “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8) ― we are all, to one degree or another, also Rationalists (for we rationalize away our sins and create excuses in our minds); we are also Liberals (for we always seek to think, say and do what WE want to do and not so much what God wants us to do); we are also Modernists (for we are seeking ways that will allow us and excuse us in adapting and modifying the Faith to suit our personal family culture); we are also Protestants (in that we “protest” at some of the demands of the Church and, like Luther, seek the wrong means in combating the abuses in the Church); we are all Hedonists (in that we seek to get as much pleasure as we can out of life―with little care about mortification, penance and sacrifice); we are all Capitalists (in that we seek to accumulate more and more money and possessions); and perhaps we are also like Pagans (in that our religious life is reserved mainly for Sunday, but for the rest of the week we live like the pagans that surround us).

This all starts with placing “Humanistic” or “Human” values above divine or spiritual values. Since we live in an overwhelmingly Humanistic world―focused on man, the physical, the material, the economic, the social―it is hard to fight against this tsunami of Humanism. Just look at the agenda of the Amazon Synod of Bishops―it is heavily Humanistic, placing the desires and needs of humans above the desires and needs of God. The whole tone of the Synod has descended from what it should be―predominantly spiritual and eternal considerations―down to the level of merely human, economic, ecological, cultural level. The same is true of the lives of most of us! In a sense, we are made up of the “human” and the “divine” ― we have a human body and soul, but we have been divinized by sanctifying grace, which is the indwelling of God through grace in our soul. The soul is more important than the body―the divine is more important than the human. Yet, as the devil always tries to do, these values have been inverted or reversed―and we now find ourselves focusing (humanistically) more on the body than the soul. That is why Humanism―and all its derivatives or branches―seem normal, acceptable and without threat or danger to us.

Humanistic Henry and Futuristic Francis
This brings us back to King Henry VIII―or as we could call him “Humanistic Henry.” Henry had been raised in a traditional Catholic environment (at least exteriorly traditional Catholic), but a Catholic environment which had already―for over 200 years―been increasingly veering towards, if we could coin a phrase, “Humanistic Catholicism” rather than “Divine Catholicism”―a Catholicism that was increasingly allowing human considerations and human goals to be placed on the same level as―or even above―divine considerations or the goals of God. In other words, Humansim quickly led to a serving of God and mammon―something that was condemned by Our Lord: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

King Henry VIII was a ‘traditional’ Catholic “mammonizer” and womanizer. Henry was an extravagant spender, using the proceeds from the dissolution of the monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament. He also converted the money that was formerly paid to Rome into royal revenue. Despite the money from these sources, he was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance. As a womanizer, Henry was a ‘traditional’ Catholic went through six wives, and numerous mistresses. When Henry failed to produce a male heir to the throne in his 23 year marriage to Catherine of Aragon―the first male child, Henry, died at two months; the next two babies, both boys, were stillborn; the next bay, Mary, survived but saddened Henry because she was not the male heir he wanted; the next baby was a girl who died at birth―Henry sought the ill-fated annulment in his marriage with Catherine. The pope refused to grant an annulment and after much argument, King Henry was persuaded, in 1534, to make himself the head of the Catholic Church in England, overriding the authority of the pope. Thus the schism occurred that separated Catholic England from Rome.

Talking of schisms―prophecies tell us that we are headed for a big whopper of a schism sometime in the future: the greatest schism in the history of the Church! Pope Francis’ namesake, St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), prophesied: “There will be an uncanonically elected pope who will cause a great Schism, there will be diverse thoughts preached which will cause many, even those in the different orders to doubt, yea, even agree with those heretics, which will cause such universal dissension and persecutions that, if those days were not shortened, even the elect would be lost ... Those who preserve their fervor and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the Earth.” The attitudes and behavior of Pope Francis are, in no little way, in line with that prophecy. Francis blasts and ridicules Traditional and Conservative Catholics, while being kind and gentle with Liberals, Modernists, Protestants and Pagans! He is not far from showering the Traditionalists and Conservatives with (as St. Francis foresees) “injuries and persecutions, as rebels and schismatics”, all the while thinking that he is “rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the Earth.”

The ‘traditional’ Catholic King Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution. He frequently used charges of treason and heresy to quell dissent, and those accused were often executed without a formal trial. Pope Francis is also getting to be well-known for his radical changes (or at least a great desire for radical changes) to the Catholic Faith―as is seen by his subtle pushing to allow non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion; by the radical Modernist tone taken by the Synods of Bishops he has organized; also shown by his leanings towards Marxism and Communism as a result of his childhood in a Socialist Argentina and long-time association with a Communist woman who acted as Francis’ mentor for many years; shown also by the continuation of the post-Vatican II policy of false ecumenism and tacit or implicit acceptance of all religions as being capable of saving souls.

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday, Monday & Tuesday October 13th, 14th & 15th

Article 7
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Are You Taking Your Medicine?
Here we are, almost halfway through October and fast approaching the fires of Purgatory! Furthermore, we find ourselves living in a sick world, surrounded by many different viruses and bacteria of a theological, spiritual and moral kind. Concerning this sick atmosphere that surrounds us, it is well worth reminding ourselves of those true and prophetic words of Fr. Salvany, the author of the book Liberalism Is A Sin, in which he speaks of such a toxic atmosphere:

Bugs and Germs Everywhere!
“Physical science tells us that floating through the atmosphere are innumerable disease germs seeking a suitable nest in which to settle and propagate and that we are constantly breathing these germs into the lungs. If the system be depleted or weakened, the dangerous microbe takes up its abode with us, and propagating its own kind with astonishing rapidity, undermines and ravages our health. The only safeguard against the encroachments of this insidious enemy, which we cannot escape, is a vigorous and healthy body with adequate powers of resistance to repel the invader.

Spiritual Bugs and Germs Are Even Worse!
“It is equally true that we are subject to like infectious attacks in the spiritual order. Swarming in the atmosphere of our spiritual lives are innumerable deadly germs, ever ready to fasten upon the depleted and weakened soul and, propagating its leprous contagion through every faculty, destroy the spiritual life. Against the menace of this ever-threatening danger, whose advances we cannot avoid in our present circumstances, the ever-healthy soul alone can be prepared. To escape the contagion, the power of resistance must be equal to the emergencies of the attack, and that power will be in proportion to our spiritual health. To be prepared is to be armed, but to be prepared is not sufficient; we must possess the interior strength to throw off the germ. There must be no condition in the soul to make a suitable nest for an enemy so insidious and so efficacious as to need only the slightest point of contact whence to spread its deadly contagion.

An Open Door to Bugs and Germs
“It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a disguise often calculated to deceive the unwary and incautious. Intellectual sluggishness, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, and complaisance (wanting to please others), or even virtues, such as, benevolence, generosity, and pity towards others, may be the unsuspected way open to the foe, and lo and behold, we are surprised to find him in possession of the citadel!

Bugs in Disguise
“That we may know our danger, we must appreciate the possible shapes in which it may come. Here is just the difficulty; the uniform of the enemy is so various, changeable, sometimes even of our own colors, that if we rely upon the outward semblance alone, we shall be more often deceived than certain of his identity. As we are addressing ourselves to those who live amidst the peculiar circumstances of our American life, and, as the spiritual and moral conditions, which exist in this country, make up the moral and spiritual atmosphere in which we have our being, it is in the relation of our surroundings to ourselves, as well as of ourselves to our surroundings, that we shall find the answer to our question.

[According to the 2017 census] the population of this country [USA] is at present something over 325 million. Of these, 70 million are Catholics, and 150 million are Protestants, leaving a population of 105 million or more who do not profess any form of Christianity at all―a mass who are either absolutely indifferent to Christianity as a creed or positively reject it. This mass comprises over 35 percent of our population, holding itself aloof from Christianity, and in some instances virulently antagonistic to it.

[When you add together the Protestants with the non-believers, it produces a total in excess of 78 percent of our population, but currently enhanced to an even more frightening percentage by the vast majority of Catholics today—2017—around 80% (or 56 million) of the 70 million Catholics, who either do not practice their Faith at all, or irregularly, or who are ignorant of its teachings (especially with regard to morality) or in practice simply disregard those teachings—bringing the total of practical non-believing and infidel people, including bad Catholics, to around 97 percent, if we can presume there to be today approximately 14 million believing, regularly practicing Catholics in the USA out of a population of 325 million (2017 stats)].

Wading Through Heretical and Anti-Catholic Swamps
“We live in the midst of this religious anarchy. Some [2017 stats] 255 million of our population can, in one sense or other, be considered anti-Catholic. From this mass—heretical and infidel—exhales an atmosphere filled with germs poisonous and fatal to Catholic life, if permitted to take root in the Catholic heart. The mere force of gravitation, which the larger mass ever exercises upon the smaller, is a power which the most energetic vigor alone can resist. Under this dangerous influence, a deadly inertia is apt to creep over the souls of the incautious and is only to be overcome by the liveliest exercise of Catholic Faith. To live without weakening amidst an heretical and infidel population requires a robust religious constitution. And to this danger we are daily exposed, ever coming into contact in a thousand ways, in almost every relation of life, with anti-Catholic thought and customs. But outside of this spiritual inertia, our non-Catholic surroundings—a danger rather passive than active in its influence—beget a still greater menace.

“It is natural that Protestantism and infidelity should find public expression. What our [2017 stats] 255 million non-Catholic population thinks in these matters, naturally seeks and finds open expression. They have their organs and their literature where we find their current opinions publicly uttered. Their views upon religion, morality, politics, the constitution of society are perpetually marshaled before us. In the pulpit and in the press they are reiterated day after day. In magazine and newspaper they constantly speak from every line. Our literature is permeated and saturated with non-Catholic dogmatism. On all sides do we find this opposing spirit. We cannot escape from it. It enfolds and embraces us. Its breath is perpetually in our faces. It enters in by eye and ear. From birth to death, it enslaves us in its offensive garments. It now soothes and flatters, now hates and curses, now threatens, now praises. But it is most dangerous when it comes to us under the form of “liberality.” It is especially powerful for seduction in this guise. And it is under this aspect that we wish to consider it. For it is as Liberalism that Protestantism and Infidelity make their most devastating inroads upon the domain of the Faith. Out of these non-Catholic and anti-Catholic conditions thus predominating amongst us springs this monster of our times, Liberalism!” (Fr. Salvany, Liberalism Is A Sin, chapter 1).

Current Chameleon Papal and Episcopal Liberalism
In 1884, when Fr. Salvany (1844-1916) wrote his book, Liberalism Is A Sin, he most certainly could not imagined Rome to be in grip of Liberals and Modernists over 120 years later―such thought would have been unthinkable and scandalous. Yet here we are―over 120 years later―living in a Liberal and Modernist stranglehold. The virus of Liberalism and Modernism has infected most of the Catholic world. On a side note, viruses are smaller than bacteria and can't survive without a living host. A virus attaches itself to cells [Catholics?] and usually reprograms them to reproduce itself. Also, unlike bacteria, most viruses do cause disease.

In fact, one very holy, but longtime deceased bishop, said that we are all Liberals―the only difference is in the degree of our Liberalism and whether we are becoming more Liberal, or less Liberal. Yet, he argued―as Fr. Salvany argues―that you cannot live in a overwhelmingly Liberal and Protestant and neo-pagan world without taking on some of its stench. It is worth mentioning that almost every Catholic today―who calls themselves “Conservative” or “Traditional”―is infected with the virus of Liberalism. True Conservatism and true Traditionalism has been watered-down so much that what passes for “Conservative” or “Traditional” today, would have been classified as “Liberal” 60 or 70 years ago! The world has become so Liberal that Liberalism seems to be normalcy. Let’s compare it to obesity―if most of the world became obese, then fatness would be perceived as being normal, and so only grossly obese people would be called “fat”, whereas the vast majority of fatties would no longer be called “fat” but “normal”.

Fr. Salvany was a contemporary of St. John Bosco (1815-1888), and it is worth mentioning that St. John Bosco prophesied of these terrible times, stating that chaos and much damage would result from and Ecumenical Council of the Church that would be held in the 20th century. In a well-known prophecy, made in 1862, exactly 100 years before the disastrous Second Vatican Council started, St. John Bosco predicted the Second Vatican Council and its disastrous impact on the Church. The relevant portion is “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady.”

Where is that Eucharistic and Marian Devotion?
Yet the “boat of Peter” or “Ark of Peter” does not seem to be sailing in that direction―Eucharistic Devotion and Marian Devotion―despite occasional utterances of the “lip-service” kind, which Our Lord emphatically condemns: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Pope Leo XIII, for many years, wrote an encyclical each year on the Holy Rosary and Devotion to Our Lady. We are supposed to be living in the “Age of Mary”―yet the Church does not reflect that on a global scale. Similarly with the massive levels of disbelief among Catholics with regard to the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist (anywhere from 50% to 80% depending on where you live), you would think that the Church and recent popes would do something on a global scale―at least write encyclicals year after year―to reinforce believe in the Eucharist and refute the arguments of agnostics and atheists―yet nothing is done, except occasional utterances that are mere “lip-service.”

Yes―there have been papal encyclicals issued; there have been Eucharistic Congresses organized; there have been various decrees on Eucharistic discipline issued―but, by their fruits you shall know them, and they have not produced good fruits on the whole, belief in the Real Presence continues to plummet.

Yes―Pope Francis has said things like: “Every time that we participate in the Holy Mass, we hasten heaven on earth in a certain sense because from the Eucharistic food ― the Body and Blood of Christ” and “The Eucharist is … the Sacrament of His Body and His Blood given for the salvation of the world” and again, “We must not get used to the Eucharist and go to Communion out of habit―No! … It is Jesus, Jesus alive, but we must not get used to it: it must be every time as if it were our First Communion!”

Yet despite that ardent Eucharistic emphasis, critics say that Francis has undermined and endangered traditional Catholic beliefs about the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In 2018, a major doctrinal argument arose in Germany, where roughly a two-thirds majority of the Germany’s bishops favored a set of guidelines allowing the reception of Holy Communion by Protestant spouses of baptized Catholics under at least some circumstances. Some German bishops vehemently objected, forcing a Vatican meeting on the subject, Francis essentially left the decision to the discretion of the conference and its members. Additionally, rumors earlier in 2019, indicated that Francis may be getting ready for an ecumenical Communion service with Protestants, in particular Lutherans, the details of which have been entrusted to an informal working group.

In the past, the Church has insisted upon the need for theological agreement before Christian unity or Eucharistic sharing could be possible―in other words, for the Protestants to return to the Catholic Faith. Yet today, the false spirit of ecumenism has taken over. As a result, the Catholic Church is involved in extensive and complex theological dialogues with other Christian churches. The Liberals insist that these dialogues have made ‘great progress’ in dealing with issues raised by the Reformation, but new issues (women’s ordination, gay marriage, abortion) have arisen that divide the churches. There is no longer a desire to bring Protestants back to the truth and the Catholic Church―but now they are trying to create a “truth” that is acceptable to everyone and allows everyone to remain in the religion of their choice.

In June of 2019, on the flight back to Rome from his trip to Romania, Pope Francis told reporters: “Ecumenism is not getting to the end of discussions, it’s done walking together” ― this fits with his famous statement that “Facts are more important than ideas.” During the flight, Francis further explained: “There is already Christian unity! … Let’s not wait for the theologians to come to agreement on the Eucharist!” Some Liberal and progressive Catholics have considered this to be evidence that the pope may be open to granting full Eucharistic Communion to non-Catholics.

Francis and Mary
Yes―Pope Francis does have a devotion to Mary despite what many critics might insinuate without really researching the matter. Marian devotion is stronger in Latin America than anywhere else, as confirmed by the constant presence of pilgrims in the shrines of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, Our Lady of the Miracles of Caacupé in Paraguay and Our Lady of Copacabana in Bolivia. Those who have known former Cardinal Bergoglio for a long time understand well that his Marian devotion, far from being a recent manifestation, is a long-established devotion.

From the time he was studying for the priesthood, in the 1980s, Pope Francis has a special devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. While studying in Germany in the 1980s, he discovered this devotion at the Church of St. Peter am Perlach in Augsburg. In the church, there is a painting, dating from around 1700, that depicts Mary in Heaven surrounded by angels. She stands on the crescent moon crushing the head of the serpent, Satan. She holds a long white ribbon and is untying a large knot―one of several on the ribbon. This devotion had a profound impact on the devotional life of Pope Francis. Years later, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he introduced and encouraged the devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. The devotion was so intensely popular throughout Argentina and Brazil that the British Guardian called it “a religious craze.”

Father José Daniel Blanchoud, rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lujàn, the patron saint of Argentina, stated: “When he was cardinal in Buenos Aires, he used to come to the shrine and stay there to receive young pilgrims on weekends” adding that Cardinal Bergoglio used to hear the confessions of these young pilgrims and celebrate Mass for them.

The opening moments and months following his papal election, manifested a devotion to Our Lady.

On his first public appearance a few hours after his election, on March 13th, 2013, Pope Francis manifested his Marian devotion, when, after saying the three prayers, among which was the Hail Mary, and giving the Urbi et Orbi blessing (i.e. blessing to the City of Rome and the world), the newly elected Pope greeted the faithful and anticipated his plan for the following day by simply saying: “Tomorrow I wish to go and pray to Our Lady that she may watch over the city of Rome.”

The next day, Francis chose to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major). Cardinal Abril y Castelló at Vatican Radio, referring to the papal visit of March 14th, 2013, said: “He decided to visit the Basilica, not only to thank the Blessed Virgin, but — as Pope Francis said to me himself — to entrust her with his pontificate, to lay it at her feet. Being deeply devoted to Mary, Pope Francis came here to ask her for help and protection.”

On March 14th, 2013, the day after his election, Francis chose to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major). Cardinal Abril y Castelló at Vatican Radio, referring to the papal visit, said: “He decided to visit the Basilica, not only to thank the Blessed Virgin, but — as Pope Francis himself said to me — to entrust her with his pontificate, to lay it at her feet. Being deeply devoted to Mary, Pope Francis came here to ask her for help and protection.”

On March 14th, 2013, the day after his election, Francis chose to visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major). The basilica enshrines the venerated image of Salus Populi Romani, depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary as the help and protectress of the Roman people. Cardinal Abril y Castelló, referring to the papal visit, said: “He decided to visit the Basilica, not only to thank the Blessed Virgin, but — as Pope Francis himself said to me — to entrust her with his pontificate, to lay it at her feet. Being deeply devoted to Mary, Pope Francis came here to ask her for help and protection.”

On March 15th, 2013, the second day after his election, during his first meeting with the cardinals in the Clementine Hall on March 15th, Pope Francis stressed his link with Mary and the role he ascribes to Jesus’ Mother. He said: “I entrust my ministry and your ministry to the powerful intercession of Mary, our Mother, Mother of the Church. Under her maternal gaze may each one of you walk happy and docile on your path, listening to the voice of Her divine Son, strengthening your unity, persevering in your common prayer and bearing witness to the true Faith in the constant presence of the Lord.”

On Palm Sunday, March 24th, 2013, during the second recitation of the Angelus of his pontificate, the Holy Father again showed his Marian devotion by invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin “to accompany us during Holy Week.”

Then, forty days after his election, Pope Francis again visited St. Mary Major to lead the recitation of the Rosary on the first Saturday of May, 2013, the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and the Saturday dedicated to the Immaculate Heart devotions as requested by Our Lady of Fatima―in order to take official possession of the Basilica as he had done for the Basilicas of St. John Lateran (April 7th, 2013) and St. Paul Outside the Walls (April 14th, 2013). “Mary is the mother,” said the Pope during the recitation of the Rosary, “and a mother’s main concern is the health of her children … Our Lady guards our health … helps us grow, face life and be free.”

Pope Francis’ references to Our Lady and comments on devotion to her, did not stop there. It has to be admitted that he has regularly and consistently made reference to her throughout his papacy. Yet all of this leads to a very perturbing question and a series of troubling observations. If he truly devoted to Our Lady, then why does he not use the power of his office to promote devotion to her throughout the entire world and not just to a few observers and listeners. Did Our Lady not say at Fatima the following? “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world!” (June 13th, 1917) and the following month: “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart!” (July 13th, 1917). Now, if you allegedly have a great devotion to Our Lady, and, on top of that, you are the pope, then surely your devotion to Our Lady will push you to fulfill her and God’s requests―especially since, as pope, you command all the Church and can organize, utilize, mobilize, emphasize and popularize whoever and whatever you want! No? So why hasn’t Francis done this? Frankly speaking, something smells fishy. Let us take a look at the flip-side of Francis’ Marian devotion.

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Thursday, Friday, Saturday, October 10th, 11th, 12th

Article 6
Have You Miscalculated?

What’s Your Math Like?
Life without the Faith is a grave handicap to salvation. Yet you could also say that Faith without Mathematics could also be a grave handicap to salvation! Please pardon the puns―but are you counting on salvation? Do you reckon you’ll get to Heaven? What are the odds or percentages of being saved? Have you calculated the cost of Heaven? How much effort are you spending in getting there? How many sins have you committed? Are you adding sin upon sin, or worse still, multiplying them? How much penance have you done?

Mathematics and Our Lord
Even Our Lord “does His math”―we see that in the number of the Twelve Apostles He chooses; the Seventy-Two disciples He appoints; the Three favorite disciples He elects (Peter, James and John)―all of which correspond with important mystical numbers. The list could be expanded and explained to furnish enough material for several books―but that is not the chief purpose here. Let it suffice to say that God has always been mathematically precise in all that He does―whether it be giving the measurements of the Ark to Noe; or the measurements of the Temple to Solomon; or the precise amounts for things to be used in the multiple sacrifices He commanded the Chosen People to offer.

The Mathematics of Sin
Our Lord even uses mathematical precision in His parables―even when talking about sin. One such classic example is the parable of Unjust Steward, who had an enormous debt that he owed his master. Being threatened with imprisonment, he begged for mercy and was forgiven a large debt by his master, but then later refused to forgive his neighbor a small debt. Our Lord could have been generic and vague about the debt, but He was mathematically precise:

“Therefore is the kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts” (Matthew 18:23-35).

A talent was 750 ounces of silver and so ten thousand talents came to 7,500,000 (7½ million ounces). At today’s silver prices―September 30th, 2019, silver was $17.50 per ounce (seventeen dollars, fifty cents)―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $131 million. The Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver—so a hundred pence would be a mere 12½ ounces of silver (or $218) compared to the larger debt of 7½ million ounces ($131 million)! Our Lord is painting a striking picture here. With the forgiveness of the large debt, it encourages us in seeing that even very grave sins can be cured and forgiven—showing the extreme kindness of the God of mercy. Even more importantly, it tells us be careful in harshly judging the sins of others. The above parable should go hand -in-hand with what Our Lord said in His Sermon on the Mount―for Our Lord knows that we are always calculating the sins and faults of others more than we calculate our own sins, so He states:

“Why seest thou the splinter that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the splinter out of thy eye!’ ― and behold there is a plank in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5). “Or how canst thou say to thy brother: ‘Brother! Let me pull the mote out of thy eye!’― when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye!” (Luke 6:42).

Holy Scripture also speaks ‘mathematically’ about adding sin to sin: “The sinner will add sin to sin! … Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin:!” (Ecclesiasticus 3:29; 5:5). While Our Lord speaks mathematically about calculating the debt for sin: “Thou shalt not go out thence, until thou pay the very last mite!” (Luke 12:59)―a “mite” was the smallest coin of least value. The Gospel of Mark specifies that two mites (Greek lepta) are together worth a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin. A lepton was the smallest and least valuable coin in circulation in Judea, worth about six minutes of an average daily wage.

Do You Own a Sin-Calculator?
As we are merely three weeks away from the Purgatorial month of November, wherein we (hopefully) remember the Poor Holy Souls in Purgatory―who are there because they miscalculated the price for sin and miscalculated the need for penance or the value of their penance―it is an ideal time to check our calculations to see if they are miscalculations. With all this ‘wonderful’ technology and abundance of ‘apps’ (internet/computer applications), you would have thought that someone would have designed an “app” that helps you calculate your debt for sin. In reality―seeing some of the extremely sophisticated computer applications out there, as well as the current birth of “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence”―it would be a “piece of cake” or “child’s play” to design to such a “debt-for-sin-calculating-application” or “sin calculator”. Come to think of it―why hasn’t anyone done so already? Hey―if you know a competent computer programmer/application designers, then put them on the right track and get them at it!

While we are all waiting for someone to come up with an “sin-debt-app”, here, for the time being, is a “prehistoric” or “historic” DIY (Do It Yourself) manual “app” that you can use―if your math is up to scratch! If you math is bad, then use a regular calculator to work it out for you. The following chart is MINOR modification of the calculations for the debt of sin, which you will find in Fr. Schouppe’s, fantastic yet frightening book, Purgatory―sometimes listed or titled as Purgatory Explained. It was first published in 1893 and is still being published today―but by how many people is it read? One has to realistically estimate that very few read it, because―as Pope Pius XII and many popes after him have said― “People have lost the sense of sin!” If you have lost the “sense” of sin, then you have lost the sense of the “price for sin”, and if you lost all sense of the price of sin, then you will find it impossible to calculate your own debt for sin. So, for those who perhaps lost all sense of what sin could cost―a little further below is a chart based upon, but slightly modified, what Fr. Schouppe quotes in his book, which is actually an estimation created by a fellow Jesuit priest of earlier times―Fr. James Mumforf, S.J. As Fr. Schouppe writes: “Father James Mumford, of the Society of Jesus―who was born in England in 1605, and who struggled during forty years in the cause of the Church in that country, given up to heresy―composed a remarkable work on Purgatory, which obtained a large circulation, and effected a great good among souls.”

Ancient Sin-Calculator
Fr. Schouppe continues: “According to the common opinion of the doctors, the expiatory pains are of long duration. “There is no doubt,” says St. Robert Bellarmine (De Gemitu, lib. 2, c. 9), “that the pains of Purgatory are not limited to ten or twenty years, and that they last in some cases entire centuries. But allowing it to be true that their duration did not exceed ten or twenty years, can we account it as nothing to have to endure for ten or twenty years the most excruciating sufferings without the least alleviation? If a man was assured that he should suffer some violent pain in his feet, or his head, or teeth for the space of twenty years, and that without ever sleeping or taking the least repose, would he not a thousand times rather die than live in such a state? And if the choice were given to him between a life thus miserable and the loss of all his temporal goods, would he hesitate to make the sacrifice of his fortune to be delivered from such a torment? Shall we then find any difficulty in embracing labor and penance to free ourselves from the sufferings of Purgatory? Shall we fear to practice the most painful exercises: vigils, fasts, almsgiving, long prayers, and especially contrition, accompanied with sighs and tears?” These words [of St. Robert Bellarmine] comprise the whole doctrine of the saints and theologians.

Father Mumford, of the Company of Jesus, in his «Treatise on Charity towards the Departed», bases the long duration of Purgatory on a calculation of probability, which we shall give in substance. He goes out on the principle that, according to the words of the Holy Ghost, “The just man falls seven times a day” (Proverbs 24:16), that is to say, that even those who apply themselves most perfectly to the service of God, notwithstanding their good-will, commit a great number of faults in the infinitely pure eyes of God. We have but to enter into our own conscience, and there analyze before God our thoughts, our words, and works, to be convinced of this sad effect of human misery. Oh! how easy it is to lack respect in prayer, to prefer our ease to the accomplishment of duty, to sin by vanity, by impatience, by sensuality, by uncharitable thoughts and words, by want of conformity to the will of God! The day is long; is it very difficult for even a virtuous person to commit, I do not say seven, but twenty or thirty of this kind of faults and imperfections?

“Let us take a moderate estimate, and suppose that you commit about ten faults a day; at the end of 365 days you will have a sum of 3,650 faults. Let us diminish, and, to facilitate the calculation, place it at 3,000 per year. At the end of ten years this will amount to 30,000, and at the end of twenty years to 60,000. Suppose that of these 60,000 faults you have expiated one half by penance and good works, there will still remain 30,000 to be atoned for.

“Let us continue our hypothesis: You die after these twenty years of virtuous life, and appear before God with a debt of 30,000 faults, which you must discharge in Purgatory. How much time will you need to accomplish this expiation? Suppose, on an average, each fault requires one hour of Purgatory. This measure is very moderate, if we judge by the revelations of the saints; but at any rate this will give you a Purgatory of 30,000 hours. Now, do you know how many years these 30,000 hours represent? Three years, three months, and fifteen days. Thus a good Christian who watches over himself, who applies himself to penance and good works, finds himself liable to three years, three months, and fifteen days of Purgatory.

“The preceding calculation is based on an estimate which is lenient in the extreme. Now, if you extend the duration of the pain, and, instead of an hour, you take a day for the expiation of a fault, if, instead of having nothing but venial sins, you bring before God a debt resulting from mortal sins, more or less numerous, which you formerly committed, if you assign, on the average, as St. Frances of Rome says, seven years for the expiation of one mortal sin, remitted as to the guilt, who does not see that we arrive at an appalling duration, and that the expiation may easily be prolonged for many years, and even for centuries? Years and centuries in torments! Oh! if we only thought of it, with what care should we not avoid the least faults! With what fervor should we not practice penance to make satisfaction in this world!” (Fr. Francis Xavier Schouppe, S.J., Purgatory Explained, Part 1, Chapter 22, “The Duration of Purgatory”).

Your Manual DIY “Sin-Debt-App” Calculator
Here, now, is the aforementioned promised DIY manual “sin-debt-app” calculator―which is based on the above-mentioned text of Fr. Schouppe/Fr. Mumford. It is slightly modified and rounded-off to make calculation easier. Notice that for Venial Sin, there are three possibilities―(1) spending ONE HOUR in Purgatory for NON-EXPIATED Venial Sin, or (2) spending ONE DAY in Purgatory for NON-EXPIATED Venial Sin, or (3) spending TWO DAYS in Purgatory for NON-EXPIATED Venial Sin. As regards Mortal Sin―the length of time is that which Fr. Schouppe quotes as being revealed to St. Frances of Rome, which is SEVEN YEARS in Purgatory for EACH Mortal Sin that has already been CONFESSED, FORGIVEN, but NOT FULLY EXPIATED.

Now, of course, theologically speaking―all this is subjective, but nevertheless indicative. For you have know that not all Mortal Sins can be calculated to be the same in “price”―so to speak. A murder, or abortion, or theft of millions, is not quite the same as not fasting or abstaining from meat on a day of fast and abstinence, or stealing a couple of hundred dollars. Furthermore, each person’s culpability for sin varies as to their individual dispositions and the circumstances surrounding the sin and its occasion. Hence the calculations, in the tables below, are merely indicative of terrible cost of sin in general and are not meant to be precise calculations for each and every possible Mortal or Venial Sin. Remember, though, Fr. Schouppe says that this approximation is to be regarded as “lenient in the extreme.

As you can see―sin is not cheap, even when calculated conservatively and leniently! The above chart, to some degree, drives home the truth that we MIGHT BELIEVE in theory, but MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT BELIEVE in practice. The truth that is being spoken about is one that our catechisms tell us: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).

Getting Rid of Debt
There are several chief ways in which we can get rid of our debt for sin. The greatest of all is that of (1) charity. Close behind charity we have (2) the showing of mercy, and (3) the practice of penance.

Paying With Your CHARITABLE Credit Card
► The power of CHARITY to forgive sin is well stated by Holy Scripture and Our Lord Himself. In the Old Testament we read: “Charity covereth all sins!” (Proverbs 10:12) and Our Lord says, in speaking of Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much!” (Luke 7:47), which obviously made an impression on St. Peter, who later writes: “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). St. Paul has that famous passage that speaks of the crucial need for charity: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

This is why the Church teaches that a perfect act of contrition (which is sorrow for sin based on a deep love of God rather than a fear of God’s punishments) has the power to remove all the guilt for sin as well as all the temporal punishment for our sins in this life or in Purgatory―in other words, charity, if deep enough, can be direct ticket to Heaven, no matter what we may have done. We see that charity in the case of Mary Magdalen―a woman who had been possessed by seven devils.

► THE COUNCIL OF TRENT says the following: “That sorrow for sins committed should be so profound and supreme that no greater sorrow could be thought of, will easily appear from the considerations that follow. Perfect contrition is an act of charity, emanating from what is called filial fear; hence it is clear that the measure of contrition and charity should be the same. Since therefore the charity which we cherish towards God is the most perfect love, it follows that contrition should be the keenest sorrow of the soul ... Further, it should be noted that since, as St. Bernard says, there is no limit or measure to charity, there should no limit to the hatred of sin ... Besides, our contrition should not only be the greatest, but also the most intense, and so perfect that it excludes all apathy and indifference ... If, however, our contrition be not perfect, it may nevertheless be true and efficacious ... Our contrition may also be true and efficacious, although unaccompanied by tears. Penitential tears, however, are much to be desired and commended.” (Penance: Qualities of Sorrow for Sin).

► FR. DOMINIC M. PRUMMER, O.P., in his manual on Moral Theology says: “The sacramental penance is the means whereby the sinner compensates for the temporal punishment due to sin ... The amount and nature of the penance must be determined by the kinds of sins confessed and by the condition of the penitent ... Therefore a grave penance should be imposed for a grave sin ... But there are just causes permitting the imposition of a smaller penance than usual” among those reasons he lists “deep and unusual contrition”. This unusual contrition has to mean a high degree of contrition, i.e. above mere attrition and most probably an intense degree of perfect contrition. This means that at least some of the temporal punishment has already been taken away by the “unusual contrition” shown by the penitent. A lesser degree of contrition would then merit a greater penance since it would have taken away less of the temporal punishment due. In other words, both lesser and higher degrees of perfect contrition take away the eternal punishment and restore divine grace, but a lesser degree of perfect contrition will remit less temporal punishment, whereas a greater or more intense degree of perfect contrition will remit much, if not all, the temporal punishment due.

► FR. HERIBERT JONE O.FM. CAP., J.C.D., in his manual on Moral Theology states that: “Sacramental satisfaction is some penitential work imposed by the confessor in confession, through which atonement for sin is made to God and the penitent is granted a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin ... Its efficacy is not only >ex opere operantis’, but also >ex opere operato’ ... Wherefore, in itself, a grave penance must be imposed for grevious sins ... [However] intense sorrow of the penitent [etc] are some of the reasons sufficient to excuse the priest from imposing a grave penance.” Why? Because the intense sorrow has wiped away much, if not all, of the temporal punishment due the sins the penitent has confessed.

FR. EDWIN F. HEALY S.J., S.T.D., in his Manual on Moral Theology says the following: “Through sacramental absolution, the guilt of all the sins for which the penitent has at least attrition and the eternal punishment for grave sins are canceled, but God does not always remit, by the same act, the temporal punishment which should be inflicted upon the penitent. Does it ever happen that temporal punishment is canceled in its entirety in the Sacrament of Penance? Very probably it is completely remitted when the penitent receives the sacrament with perfect contrition for all his sins, mortal and venial ... There are many circumstances which the confessor takes into consideration when imposing a penance. He may assign a slight penance for many grave sins if the penitent manifests extraordinary sorrow...”

► FR. H. NOLDIN S.J., in his Manual on Moral Theology says that little penance is to be given: “If the penitent is seen to be intensely contrite; that the contrition is of such power, as to take away all temporal punishment, or a great part of it...” Note that he says “intensely contrite” (In the original Latin, he uses the word “valde”, which means intensely, very much, greatly―Cassels Latin Dictionary) thus meaning an intense degree of perfect contrition, so much so that it takes away totally, or at least a great part of, the temporal punishment due to sin. Hence, he too affirms that intense contrition (which must mean intense perfect contrition, not mere attrition) can remove the entire temporal punishment due to sin, but he speaks of intense or great contrition ― which seems to indicate a high degree of perfect contrition.

► CANON GEORGE D. SMITH, in his book The Teaching of the Catholic Church, also speaks of, and distinguishes, these degrees: He says that a basic act of perfect charity (contrition) is not difficult to make (though elsewhere he says we should think it is overly easy to make one). Then speaking of this act of perfect charity (contrition) he says: “No habit could be more valuable for the man who is day by day struggling against mortal sin. For if he chance to fall, an act of perfect charity (with, of course, the implied intention of seeking later the sacramental absolution as commanded) will at once produce that disposition of soul which induces God to restore sanctifying grace, so that his sin is forgiven. So far we have described an act of charity of the lowest grade of intensity. A more intense act is within the capacity of the Christian enjoying ordinary grace. By this the will rejects etc ... Finally there is an advanced stage of charity which leads the soul to identify its will as completely as possible with that of God; which reaches out, in the yearning of love, to suffer for and with the Beloved; which welcomes such adverse circumstances as befall or contrives self-immolation, as satisfaction for sin or expression of love.”

Hence we see that there is an act of perfect charity, which perfect though it be, is nevertheless the lowest grade and that there are successive degrees of charity that build upon it. However, that charity does not just focus on God alone, but also on our neighbor― “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself” (Luke 10:27-28). Charitable deeds and works have the power to remove the debt owed for past sins: “For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting” (Tobias 12:9). “Water quencheth a flaming fire, and alms resisteth sins” Ecclesiasticus 3:33).

Paying With Your MERCIFUL Credit Card
Another way to pay off our debt for sin is by showing mercy. In His Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord said: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful!” (Luke 6:36). “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy!” (Matthew 5:7). “If you will not forgive, neither will your Father that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:26). “If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him: and if he do penance, forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day be converted unto thee, saying, ‘I repent!’― forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4) ― you can’t put it any clearer than that! Holy Scripture adds: “Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy!” (Colossians 3:12). “Be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another―even as God hath forgiven you in Christ!” (Ephesians 4:32).

We can be notoriously selfish and one-sided when it comes to mercy―we want and expect mercy from God, but we show far less mercy to others. Rather than blame ourselves, we try to blame others. This goes against the age-old counsels of the spiritual life―which tell us to be hard on ourselves and merciful to others.

Yet we read of St. Peter―who perhaps was sick and tired of some particular person repeatedly offending him―asking Our Lord how far this mercy and forgiveness should be stretched. Peter―being a choleric―probably had a “short-fuse” and wanted to vent against that neighbor. “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce. At today’s silver prices, a hundred pence would be just over $200): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant! I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:21-35).

Again, remember―as already said above―a talent was 750 ounces of silver and so ten thousand talents came to 7,500,000 (7½ million ounces). At today’s silver prices―September 30th, 2019, silver was $17.50 per ounce (seventeen dollars, fifty cents)―that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $131 million. The Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce of silver—so a hundred pence would be a mere 12½ ounces of silver (or $218) compared to the larger debt of 7½ million ounces ($131 million)!

How true a picture is that of what we are experiencing in the world today! There is far more mercy for self than for neighbor! There is far more finger-pointing at the neighbor than ourselves! Yet we have the nerve and audacity to say every day―or very often―the Our Father, in which we proclaim: “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!” Furthermore, in the Hail Mary, we proclaim that we are sinners: “Pray for us sinners!” we say! Then, when praying the Hail Holy Queen, we proclaim Mary to be our “Mother” and call her “Mother of Mercy”―if we are her spiritual children, then we should also be “Children of Mercy” as she is our “Mother of Mercy”!

Paying With Your PENITENTIAL Credit Card
A third way to pay off our debt for sin is by practicing penance. Our Lord Himself said: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32) … “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3) … “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance” (Luke 15:7).

Even before Our Lord preached penance, “in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying: ‘Do penance! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! … Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance! … Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!’” (Matthew 3:1-10).

The Doauy-Rheims Bible Commentary says that by the words “Do penance” (Latin: Paenitentiam agite), according to the use of the Scriptures and the Holy Church Fathers, does not only signify repentance and amendment of life, but also punishing past sins by fasting, and such like penitential exercises.

In the Book of the Apocalypse, concerning the End Times, we read the verse: “Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:19). The Old Testament adds: “Let him do penance for his sin” (Leviticus 5:5). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance” (Job 21:2). “There is none that doth penance for his sin” (Jeremias 8:6). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride: but His eyes are upon his ways” (Job 24:23). “If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men” (Ecclesiasticus 2:22).

“The soul that sinneth, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die” (Ezechiel 18:20-21).

“ ‘As I live, saith the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel? … And if I shall say to the wicked: “Thou shalt surely die!”― and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice, and if that wicked man restore the pledge, and render what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: then he shall surely live, and shall not die. None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be imputed to him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall surely live!’” (Ezechiel 33:11-6).

Yet the modern-day Catholic Church has downplayed penance, cheapened penance, reduced obligatory penance and rarely preaches penance. Ever since Pope Paul VI, by his 1966 apostolic constitution, Paenitemini, officially reduced the obligatory 40-days of Lenten fasting to a mere 2-days of fasting―Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―which is a 95% discount on penance―the message that filters down to the “grass-roots” Catholic in the pew, is that penance is no longer such a big deal. Yet for Heaven it is a big deal―Our Lady, in these modern centuries, has repeatedly asked for penance and warned of the consequences of failing to do penance.

► OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS lamented the neglect shown to the Sacrament of Penance (Confession―which, after we have confessed our sins, imposes penances on us): “See and contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievious is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing!” Our Lady added that religious “communities can only be preserved ― while they exist ― at the cost of much penance!”

► OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE, similarly, bemoaned a neglect of prayer and penance: “By their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance … People will think of nothing but amusement!”

► OUR LADY OF LOURDES, insisted on the need for penance. On one occasion, she emphatically demanded: “Penance! Penance! Penance!” On another occasion, she told St. Bernadette to eat grass and wash her face in mud as a penance for sinners.

► OUR LADY OF FATIMA asked the three little children, Lucia (10 years old), Francisco (9 years old) and Jacinta (7 years old) if they would accept sufferings as a penance for the conversion of sinners: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!”

► OUR LADY OF AKITA said much the same thing: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering―for the sinners and the ungrateful. In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross and beloved souls, who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger. I desire this…”

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Tuesday October 8th & Wednesday October 9th

Article 5
Never Mind the "Fake News"! What About the "Fake Pews"?

Trumped-Up Fake News
President Donald Trump often blows the trumpet about “fake news.” It is true that he is sometimes the object of trumped-up “fake news”―but it is also true that Trump’s trumpet will often blow “fake news” too! He gives as good as he gets―the “fake news” emanates from both sides. He criticizes “fake news” while at the same time he himself trumpets his own version of “fake news”―this is a paradox, a contradiction, a two-facedness, a hypocrisy. One of the classic example uses of the word “paradox” is given in the following sentence given by the Cambridge Dictionary: “It’s a strange paradox that people who say you shouldn’t criticize the government, criticize it as soon as they disagree with it.”

Pharisaical Paradoxes and Catholic Contradictions and Holy Hypocrites
Okay―we know what a Pharisee is, but what is a paradox? A paradox is defined as “(1) something that is contrary to general opinion; (2) something that is self-contradictory that at first seems true; (3) a person, thing, situation or action that seemingly has contradictory qualities or phases.” A paradox is a logical puzzler that contradicts itself in a baffling way. For example, take this paradoxical mind-bender: “This statement is false.” If you think it’s true, then it must be false, but if you think it’s false, it must be true. Now that's a paradox! “This statement is false” is a classic example, known to logicians as “the liar’s paradox.” Paradoxical statements may seem completely self-contradictory, but they can be used to reveal deeper truths. When Oscar Wilde said: “I can resist anything except temptation!” ― he used a paradox to highlight how easily we give in to tempting-things, while imagining that we can hold firm and resist them. Synonyms for the word “paradox” include such words as: contradiction, dichotomy, incongruity.

Pharisaical Paradoxes and Paradoxical Pharisees
Taking the above definition of “paradox” that says: “a person, thing, situation or action that seemingly has contradictory qualities or phases” ― we can apply it to the Scribes and Pharisees, who were serious students of the Jewish Religion and God’s Law, who scrupulously kept the precepts of the Law and the times for prayer, yet despite doing all these visibly good things, Our Lord “calls them out“ saying: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith! These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone! Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness! Thou blind Pharisee! First make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whitened sepulchers, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness! So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!” (Matthew 23:23-28).

Our Lord pointed out―as the definition of “paradox” says―that “Pharisees and their actions had contradictory qualities or phases.” In their pride, they only showed their good face, but hid their bad face―which is contrary to truth and is a lie, hence Our Lord, on another occasion calls them liars and children of the devil who is the father of lies: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him! When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof!” (John 8:44).

On another occasion, Our Lord chooses the Pharisees as subject matter for one of His parables: “To some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others, he spoke also 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!’” (Luke 18:9-14). The paradoxical Pharisee seemed good on the outside, but all of his exterior goodness was ruined by his interior pride. This is a major danger to all Catholics and a major fault of most Catholics―as will now be explained.

Contradictory Catholics and Paradoxical Prayers
Whether it be Catholics or people of some other false religion, or even people of no religion―everyone thinks themselves to be FAR better than they ACTUALLY ARE. That is why go to Confession so little; go to extra Masses so little; do so little by way of penance, sacrifice and mortification; pray so little; meditate so little; do so little spiritual reading; etc., etc. Our bottom-line attitude is one of “I don’t need all these medicines and spiritual ‘health foods’ because I am in pretty good shape! I might be no saint, but I am not like most people!” That was exactly the mindset of the Pharisee in the above parable―he was not like 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!”

If you have ever taken the time to dig a little deeper than the superficial coating or surface element of this parable, you will have uncovered that fact that the Pharisee was actually doing FAR MORE than what the Jewish religious laws demanded of him. The law demanded that he ONLY TITHE ON TWO THINGS out of many―the choice being his―but this Pharisee was TITHING ON EVERYTHING, that is to say, he was paying 10% of the value of all articles that were in list of items that came under the tithe. Yet in Our Lord’s parable, he was NOT JUSTIFIED.

You could transpose or transfer those circumstances to the present Catholic world, and have a Catholic doing FAR MORE than is even demanded―for example: “I don’t just go to Sunday Mass every week, but I go to Mass every day of the week! I pray the full 15-decade Rosary at least twice a day! I fast at least once a week! I abstain from meat, not only on Fridays, but also no Wednesdays and Saturdays! I wear the Brown Scapular, the Miraculous Medal, the St. Benedict Medal and a crucifix! I meditate each day! I make an examination of conscience each day! I do some spiritual reading each day! I am not like the rest of men―pagans, Protestants, Liberals, Modernists, sinners, etc.!”

The above list is just as impressive as the Pharisees list was impressive―but it does not, of itself, automatically justify us. Pride destroyed the Pharisees good works―and what is pride but a love of self. When love of self fills the soul, there is little or no room for love of God or love of neighbor―hence the “I am not like the rest of men!” It doesn’t matter what you do or how much you do it―if you it with pride and self-love, then your works are corroded, contaminated, corrupted. St. Paul, in essence, says that very thing when speaking of the importance of charity―which, in ultimate analysis, is the opposite of a love of God, because pride is a inordinate, excessive love of self: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Pride―the DNA of Hell and Satan
The world oozes pride and tries to feed our pride―whereas God wants us to continually put the weed-killer of humility on our pride― “Everyone that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted!’” (Luke 18:9-14). We see this implied in the following parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why encumbereth it the ground? But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it! [humble it for a time]. And if happily it bear fruit―but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down! [humble it perpetually]’” (Luke 13:6-9).

St. Augustine, commenting on this fig tree, says: “In this tree then he entitles those, who through the whole range of time would not bear fruit; and for this cause the axe was hanging over the unfruitful tree. The gardener intercedes for it, punishment is deferred, that help may be administered. Now the gardener who intercedes, is every saint who within the Church prays for those who are without the Church. And what does he pray? ‘Lord, let it alone this year also; that is, in this time of grace, spare the sinners, spare the unbelievers, spare the barren, spare the unfruitful! I will dig about it, and put a basket of dung about it! If it bear fruit, than all is well! But if not, you shall come and cut it down!’ You shall come: When? You shall come in judgment, when You shall come to judge the quick and dead. Meanwhile they are spared. But what is the digging? What is the digging around the tree, if not the teaching of humility and repentance? For a ditch is low ground. The basket of dung? Understand its good effects. It is filthy, but it produces fruit. The gardener's filth is the sinner’s sorrows. They who repent, repent in filthy robes―if, that is, they understand correctly, and repent in truth. To this tree then is it said: ‘Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” (St. Augustine, Sermon 60 on the New Testament).

The Dung of Humility
We see this link between dung and humility in Queen Esther: “And when she had laid away her royal apparel, she put on garments suitable for weeping and mourning. Instead of divers precious ointments, she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body with fasts―and all the places in which before she was accustomed to rejoice, she filled with her torn hair!” (Esther 14:2). Pride is the DNA of Satan and Hell―whereas humility is the DNA of God and Heaven, which is why Our Lord said: “Learn of Me―because I am meek, and humble of heart!” (Matthew 11:29). There is a connection between meekness and humility―meekness is the opposite of anger, and why do we get angry? We get angry (if it is unjustified anger) because of PRIDE for things will not go the way we want them to go. Pride, of course is the opposite of humility―hence you see the indirect connection between humility and meekness (no anger, no pride).

Humiliating Dung as a Punishment and Reward for Sin
Throughout Scripture, dung is seen as the reward and punishment for pride and obstinate sinfulness. “Fear not the words of a sinful man, for his glory is dung!” (1 Machabees 2:62). God symbolizes sin by dung―and if we love sin, God will throw dung at us: “Neither shalt thou bring any thing of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema, like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anathema” (Deuteronomy 7:26). “They that were fed delicately have died in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet have embraced the dung!” (Lamentations 4:5) “The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body―by which the dung is cast out―with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed!” (Deuteronomy 28:27). “Therefore behold I will bring evils upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will sweep away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as dung is swept away till all be clean” (3 Kings 14:10). “The flesh of Jezabel shall be as dung upon the face of the Earth in the field of Jezrahel, so that they, who pass by, shall say: ‘Is this that same Jezabel?’” (4 Kings 9:37).

To His prophet Ezechiel, God commands that Ezechiel make up for the sins of God’s Chosen People and God speaks of eating dung as an atonement for the filthiness of sin: “‘And thou, O son of man, thou shalt lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, and thou shalt take upon thee their iniquity … Take to thee wheat and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof … and thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes: and thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the dung that cometh out of a man!’ And the Lord said: ‘So shall the children of Israel eat their bread all filthy among the nations whither I will cast them out!’ And He said to me: ‘Behold I have given thee neat’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt make thy bread therewith!’” (Ezechiel 4:1-15).

To His prophet Sophonias, God speaks of the punishment He will inflict for sin: “I will distress men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as earth, and their bodies as dung!” (Sophonias 1:17).

To His prophet Jeremias, God speaks of punishing His people for their sins, saying: “The carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country … They shall die by the death of grievous illnesses: they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be buried, they shall be as dung upon the face of the Earth: and they shall be consumed with the sword, and with famine: and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the Earth!” (Jeremias 9:22; 16:4).

To His prideful, hypocritical, lax priests, God says: “O ye priests, this commandment is to you. If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to My Name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will send poverty upon you, and will curse your blessings, yea I will curse them, because you have not laid it to heart. I will cast My shoulder against you, and I will scatter upon your face the dung of your solemnities, and it shall take you away with it!” (Malachias 2:1-3).

Hence St. Paul tells us that we must look upon the things of this world as mere dung, compared to the knowledge of the things of God: “Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

Focused on Dung and Not on Heaven!
It may sound odd, strange, excessive or even obnoxious to say that we are focused on dung and not Heaven―but by digging a little deeper, it will be seen to be perfectly true and not paradoxical. St. Paul, above, has said that the things of this world are “as dung”. We live in this world of dung―and the world is an enemy of God, as Christ Himself has said: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him!” (John 14:16-17). If you cannot see the opposition that Christ places between Himself and the world, then you are incredibly blind or willfully blind!

Furthermore, Our Lord says: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25). When Our Lord Himself was tempted by the world, He refused the temptation: “The devil took Him [Jesus] up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve!”’” (Matthew 4:8-9).

Holy Scripture adds: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).

All of this clearly, irrefutably, irrevocably drives home the fact of the divide, the chasm, the opposition that exists between the world (with its prince, the devil) and Heaven (and God). There can be no “fence-sitting”, or “straddling” them both with one foot in each camp. As Our Lord says: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30).

Because we live in this world of “dung”, we unavoidably―like a farmer―take on the smell of dung, or the smell of this world. We take on the spirit of the world, to a greater or lesser degree, because we live in this world of “dung” and regularly mix with people who love working with that “dung”. You cannot leave clothes for long in a smoky room, without them taking on the smell of smoke. Likewise, you cannot live, work and socialize in a world of “dung” without taking on the smell (attitudes) of that “dung.” As Holy Scripture says: “They are of the world―therefore of the world they speak, and the world heareth them!” (1 John 4:5). Thus, to paraphrase that using St. Paul’s statement that everything of this world is “as dung”―you could say: “They are of the world of dung―therefore of the world of dung they speak, and the world of dung heareth them!”

St. Augustine, speaking about the kinds of conversations heard at church gatherings, says: “If indeed one could see the things spoken at each gathering, by men, by women, you would see their words more unclean than that dung. Therefore I entreat you to change this evil custom, that the church may smell of ointment. For while we lay up in the church perfumes for the senses, we use very little diligence to purge out, and drive away the uncleanness of the mind. What then is the advantage? For we do not so much disgrace the church by bringing dung into it, as we disgrace the church by speaking such things one to another, about gains, about merchandise, about petty tradings, about things that are nothing to us, when there ought to be choirs of angels here, and we ought to make the church a heaven, and to know nothing else but earnest prayers, and silence with listening. This then let us do at any rate, from the present time, that we may both purify our lives!” (St. Augustine, Homily 88 on St. Matthew).

Dung Seekers and Dung Throwers
Sadly, what makes up the conversation of most Catholics is―not heavenly, spiritual, godly things―but earthly, worldly, material, physical things. Their minds are filled with “dung” and thus their attitudes are the same. Hence their preoccupation with seeking-out the dung in other people’s lives and then the throwing of dung―by gossip, or detraction, or calumny (behind their back), or contumely (meaning “insults to their face” or “insults in their presence”).

There is no shortage of “dung” in this world or this life! Yet the problem is that we focus on the “dung” in other people’s lives and not on the “dung” in our own lives―which can be very convenient! For is we can a smell that is greater than ours―then that smell might just mask our smell and distract attention away from it! The simple solution to cover up our own smells is to find smellier smells than our smell! Once you have found greater and smellier dung than your own, the next job is to throw it and have others throw it back at its producer! As they say: “Attack is the best form of defence!”

Which is exactly what the world of “dung”―and all its media outlets―does. The world does not want to rid itself of its own “dung” (its many sins), because it enjoys wallowing in them. Christ and His Church preaches the ideal of sanctity―which entails washing away the “dung” of one’s sins by Confession, penance and prayer and not returning, like a dog, to smell its own dung or vomit: “As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly!” Proverbs 26:11). The only way it can “level the playing field” is by finding “dung” in the lives of those wishing to saints, wishing to get to Heaven. Hence the world―and all its media outlets―plays the hypocrite by seeking out as much “dung” as it can within the Church, while smugly sitting on the “dung” of its own fabrication―media immodesty, blasphemy, calumny, detraction, pornography, etc., governmental legislation favoring abortion, contraception, same sex unions, contraception, divorce, etc.

To these Our Lord addresses these words: “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again! And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the mote out of thy eye!’ and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye!” (Matthew 7:1-5). Which you can easily paraphrase into: “Judge not, that you may not be judged―for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged! With what measure of dung you cast at others, it shall be measured to you again! And why seest thou the dung that is in thy brother’s life; and seest not the dung that is in thy own life? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me show you the dung in your life!’ and behold a ton of dung is found in your own life? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the dung from thy own life, and then shalt thou be able to cast dung from thy brother’s life and not cast dung at his life!”

It’s a Dung Deal
Yet the world will not do that―and, sadly, that attitude has entered the lives of many, if not most, Catholics. Read the Catholic internet forums, read the blogs, listen to the phone conversations, read their e-mails, listen to their parking lot conversations or whispers. The facts speak for themselves―Catholics have taken on that worldly tendency of sitting on their own dung while exposing the dung of others. They make their own dungeon where they will be forced to wear their own dungarees! The chief reason for this is that they―like the world and its media―will find themselves more comfortable, feeling less guilty in their own “dung” and will not be obliged by conscience to change, if they can find as much “dung” as possible in the lives of those who are (or who are trying to be) good. Thus they try to “level the playing field” and avoid having to change.

We see something similar to this with the Scribes and Pharisees, who had caught a woman in the act of adultery―which many Church Fathers associate with Mary Magdalen. They hauled her off to Our Lord to see if He would condone her being stoned to death―for that is what the Law of God, given to Moses, commanded. “And the Scribes and the Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery―and they set her in the midst, and said to Him: ‘Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery! Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone such a one! But what sayest Thou?’ And this they said tempting Him, that they might accuse Him. But Jesus, bowing Himself down, wrote with His finger on the ground. When, therefore, they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said to them: ‘He that is without sin [dung] among you, let him first cast a stone [cast dung] at her!’ And again stooping down, He wrote on the ground. But they, hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus, lifting up Himself, said to her: ‘Woman! Where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?’ Who said: ‘No man, Lord!’ And Jesus said: ‘Neither will I condemn thee! Go and now sin no more!’” (John 8:3-11). This calls to mind the words of Holy Scripture from the Old Testament: “He raiseth up the needy from the dust and lifteth up the poor from the dunghill―that he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory!” (1 Kings 2:8).

Fake Pews of Catholics Preaching Fake News
All of this bring us back to the initial comments above―Trumped-up Fake News, Pharisaical Paradoxes and Catholic Contradictions and Holy Hypocrites. Our Lord came to preach the “Good News” of the Gospel, but many of today’s Catholics have created their own “Fake News” of the Gospel. Just as the Pharisees tweaked and perverted the initial Law and Religion of God as given to Moses―so too have Catholics tweaked and perverted the “Good News” of Christ by their “Fake News” of convenience and preference. This is not only true of Liberals and Modernist like Pope Francis, Cardinal Kasper et al, but it is also true of many Conservatives and Traditionalists who have created their own version of the Faith, just as the Conservative Pharisees did in the time of Christ.

Francis has tweaked the “Good News of Christ” and preaches his tweaked and twisted version of the “Fake News of Francis.” All Liberals and Modernists, like Francis, have their own “Fake News Gospel”―each according to his personal Liberal or Modernist bent or tendency―which is a more or less watered-down Gospel, updated Gospel, science-friendly Gospel, lax and lukewarm Gospel, ever-changing chameleon Gospel, etc. Likewise for the Conservatives and Traditionalists―they will compromise or not compromise according to their tastes, preferences, prejudices, or ignorance―some more, some less. Between them all you have all the shades of gray from black to white.

What complicates matters is the general ignorance of most Modernists, Liberals, Liberal-Conservatives, Conservative-Liberals, Conservative-Traditionalists and Strict Traditionalists―as a whole, everyone is dumbed-down, even the clergy, compared to the clergy and laity of 60 to 70 years ago. Most of them barely read any serious theological works and so lack the overall spiritual muscle to correctly argue their position―though Modernists and Liberals do not even hold the correct position, but most Conservatives and Traditionalists are clueless on many important issues. Consequently, what should be a calm, well-thought-out, logical argument, by default or lack thereof, descends into a name-calling, insult throwing, mud-slinging, emotional tirade. “Wisdom is too high for a fool” (Proverbs 24:7). “Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the fool is next to confusion” (Proverbs 10:14). “In the mouth of a fool is the rod of pride!” (Proverbs 14:3). “The lips of a fool intermeddle with strife: and his mouth provoketh quarrels” (Proverbs 18:6). “The mouth of a fool is his destruction: and his lips are the ruin of his soul!” (Proverbs 18:7).

Each to His Own Dung
The devil is well-versed in trapping all of the shades of Catholicism―from the black of Modernism all the through Liberalism, Conservatism to the white of Traditionalism. Though Pope Francis might reverse the color scheme there―attributing black to Traditionalism and white to Modernism! Nevertheless, no matter what shade of Catholic you may be―the truth remains incontrovertible, inescapable and irrefutable. We are all sinners! We all have our dung! Whether we be Pharisee or Publican, saint or sinner―for, as St. Augustine says, “every sinner has a past!” St. Peter was a sinner. St. Paul was a sinner. The Apostles were sinners. St. Mary Magdalen was a sinner. All the popes―good and bad―were sinners. Maybe you’re not―but Holy Scripture says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us! If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). St. John tells us that we need to acknowledge our sins, our unworthiness, our wretchedness and repent by confessing our sins.

St. Ambrose, taking up that idea, says: “Repentance must be taken in hand not only anxiously, but also quickly, lest perchance that father of the house in the Gospel who planted a fig-tree in his vineyard should come and seek fruit on it, and finding none, say to the vine-dresser: ‘Cut it down! Why does it encumber the ground?’ (Luke 13:7). And unless the vine-dresser should intercede and say: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit — well; but if not let it be cut down!’ {Luke 13:8-9). Let us then dung this field which we possess, and imitate those hard-working farmers, who are not ashamed to satiate the land with rich dung and to scatter the grimy ashes over the field, that they may gather more abundant crops. And the Apostle teaches us how to dung it, saying: ‘I count all things but dung, that I may gain Christ!’ (Philippians 3:8) and he, through evil report [dung cast at him] and good report [praise thrown upon him], attained to pleasing Christ. For he had read that Abraham, when confessing himself to be but dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27), in his deep humility found favor with God. He had read how Job, ‘sitting on a dunghill’ among the ashes (Job 2:8) regained all that he had lost (Job 42:10). He had heard in the utterance of David, how God raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill: ‘Raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting up the poor out of the dunghill’ (Psalm 112:7). Let us then not be ashamed to confess our sins unto the Lord. Shame indeed there is when each makes known his sins, but that shame, as it were, ploughs his land, removes the ever-recurring brambles, prunes the thorns, and gives life to the fruits which he believed were dead!” (St. Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church, “Concerning Repentance”, Book 2).

Too Busy With the Dung of Others
The problem is that we too busy seeking the dung [sins[ in the lives of others, and throwing it at them or spreading it around. We have no time for our own dung [sins]. It is easier to point out the dung of others than to focus upon and admit the dung [sins] in our own lives. Furthermore, we will tolerate tons of dung in our lives, but will not tolerate much in the lives of others. St. Peter epitomizes this when he basically asks Our Lord, “How much dung (sin) must I take from others?” In the Gospels we read: “Then came Peter unto Jesus and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus saith to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’” (Matthew 18:21-22).

Our Lord refers to it another way: “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man: but what cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man! … Do you not understand, that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the privy?” [privy = toilet] (Matthew 15:11, 17). “Everything from without, entering into a man, cannot defile him―because it entereth not into his heart, but goeth into the belly, and goeth out into the privy, purging all meats. But the things which come out from a man, they defile a man. For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile a man!” (Mark 7:18-23).

The Sewers of the City and the Sewers of the Church
We have to get rid of our dirt and our dung for hygienic reasons. We wash our dishes, our hands, we go to the restroom. City sewers are there to carry away your dung―they help you get rid don’t leave it to you to deal with it. They don’t fine you for it, they don’t rub your nose in it. They expect you to have dung and they are there to help you get rid of it.

The same is true of the Church―She knows that we are all tainted by the Sin (dung) of Original Sin and that we are all sinners (dung producers)― “If we say that we have no sin [no venial dirt or mortal dung], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us! If we say that we have no sin [no dirt or dung], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [dung], He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins [dirt or dung], and to cleanse us from all iniquity [dirt or dung]. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). St. John says, “If we confess our sins [dung], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins [dung], and to cleanse us from all iniquity [dung]” ― thus the Church offers us the Sacrament of Confession ― which you could compare to a “spiritual restroom” or “spiritual toilet” where we can excrete (confess) our dirt (venial sin) or dung (mortal sin) and get rid of it; or a “spiritual bathroom” where we are washed clean of our sins [dirt or dung]. The Church does not―like the world―rub our noses in our sins [dirt or dung], but the Church helps us eliminate our sins and washes us clean of our sins in the Precious Blood of Jesus.

This brings us back to Peter asking Our Lord how much forgiveness he ought to show towards his neighbor: “Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices of $16 an ounce, that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $112 million). And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce. At today’s silver prices, a hundred pence would be just over $200): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant! I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:21-35).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday October 6th & Monday October 7th,
October 7th is the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Article 4
Before Building-Up Your Rosary, You Must First Dig Down Deep!

State of Disrepair?
Basically, the world is in a state of disrepair because Rosary praying is in a state of disrepair. We are the architects and builders of our own mess! If we choose to ignore Our Lady’s demands and commands, then Heaven is not going to turn a blind-eye and excuse our indifference, insolence and negligence. We have chosen not to make our bed a bed of roses through the Rosary, therefore we must lie in that unmade bed of thorns. What is there about Our Lady’s demands and commands that is so hard to understand? “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests!” Heck! Even a child can understand that! It’s not a vocabulary problem―it’s a problem of stubborn selfishness, deliberate deafness, painful procrastination and a rebellious refusal that will inevitably lead to the consequent chastisement. Yes, the world is in a state of disrepair because Rosary praying is in a state of disrepair.

The Frog in the Saucepan Will Just Not Pray!
Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heated pan of water that boils to his death because he would not jump out of the gradually heated water―we are about to boiled to death by the gradually increasing conflicts, persecutions, repressions, constraints and ceaseless chipping-away at the Faith, because we will not jump into action. Like the frog, we wallow in the warmer and warmer worldly waters being heated up by the devil and the world. We feel comfortable in them―too comfortable to pray, or at least too comfortable to pray well and with intensity. Our prayers come from froggy throats and are more of a mere lip-service than cries of heartfelt intensity. In our comfort, as Our Lady of La Salette says, we “have neglected prayer and penance” because, as she adds, “people will think of nothing but amusement!”

We submerge our heads and ears into those warm waters of worldliness so that we cannot hear the consequences that Our Lady of La Salette lists as a consequence of our negligence: “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” And whose fault is that? Ours! Never mind playing the Adam and Eve game of passing the buck―the buck stops with everyone who knows how to pray the Rosary and refuses to do it. Not just one Rosary, but many Rosaries―just as St. Francisco Marto was told by Our Lady of Fatima that he would not get to Heaven until he had prayed MANY Rosaries. That is why Our Lady of Akita says in 1973: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!”

Ya Get Wot Ya Pay For!
Excuse the spelling, but the multimedia used cliché ― “Ya Get Wot Ya Pay For” ― is equally applicable to how we say or pray our Rosaries ― You will get what you pray for ― You will get as much as you pay [pray]! If you pray each bead in manner that is worth mere pennies ― don’t expect big bucks or much help from Heaven! You need to pray in a way that will change the value of each bead ― from pennies to nuggets of gold. To get that gold, you will have to dig deep! Gold does not grow on trees, waiting to picked―gold is deep underground, waiting to be mined! To mine means to dig. So dig you must and you must dig deep! It is worth the dig when you think of the reward ― Heaven. As Holy Scripture says: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field. Which a man having found, hid it, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again the Kingdom of Heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46). “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly! … A decade said recollectedly will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting!” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of the Rosary, §116, §127).

Short Powerful Punches
The vocal part of the Rosary consists of a few very short prayers, but they have a most powerful effect. The Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be form the backbone and are the essence of the Rosary. If these simple prayers are used well—and are prayed slowly and with devotion—then a good foundation is laid and marvelous results can flow forth. But mark well the words “prayed slowly and with devotion”! That can be a real challenge, even for the best of folk! God is not mocked, and, therefore, we should pray in a manner that manifests our seriousness about what we are doing, and shows that we really want to pray, thereby, saying what we mean, and meaning what we say! Then, a simple prayer can be powerful and will simply produce powerful results.

We see these powerful “punches” in action against the devil, as St. Louis de Montfort relates in his book, Secret of the Rosary, which we should take to heart―for, today, the devil has been well and truly unleashed in the world.

St. Louis writes: “When St. Dominic was preaching the Rosary near Carcassone, an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil. The Saint exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people; it appears that over twelve thousand had come to hear him speak. The devils who were in possession of this wretched man were forced to answer St. Dominic’s questions in spite of themselves. St. Dominic put his Rosary round the neck of the possessed man and asked them who, of all the saints in Heaven, was the one they feared most, who should therefore be the most loved and revered by men.

At this they let out such unearthly screams and, speaking through the mouth of the Albigensian, pleaded in a heart‑rending voice: “Dominic, Dominic, have pity on us, we promise you we will never harm you. You have always had compassion for sinners and those in distress; have pity on us, for we are in grievous straits. We are suffering so much already, why do you delight in increasing our pains? Can’t you be satisfied with the pains we now endure? Have mercy on us, have mercy on us!”

St. Dominic was not in the least moved by the pathetic words of those wretched spirits, and told them he would not let them alone until they had answered his question. Then they said they would whisper the answer in such a way that only St. Dominic would be able to hear. The latter firmly insisted upon their answering clearly and audibly. Then the devils kept quiet and would not say another word, completely disregarding St. Dominic’s orders.

So he knelt down and said this prayer to Our Lady: “Oh, most glorious Virgin Mary, I implore you by the power of the Holy Rosary command these enemies of the human race to answer my question.”

No sooner had he said this prayer than a glowing flame leaped out of the ears, nostrils and mouth of the possessed man. Everyone shook with fear, but the fire did not hurt anyone. Then the devils cried, “Dominic, we beseech you, by the Passion of Jesus Christ and the merits of His holy Mother and of all the saints, let us leave the body of this man without speaking further; for the angels will answer your question whenever you wish. After all, are we not liars — so why should you want to believe us? Do not torment us any more, have pity on us.”

“Woe to you, wretched spirits, who do not deserve to be heard,” St. Dominic said, and kneeling down he prayed to the Blessed Virgin: “O most worthy Mother of Wisdom, I am praying for the people assembled here, who have already learned how to say the Angelic Salutation properly. I beg you for the salvation of those here present, compel these adversaries of yours to proclaim the whole truth here and now before the people.”

St. Dominic had scarcely finished this prayer when he saw the Blessed Virgin near at hand surrounded by a multitude of angels. She struck the possessed man with a golden rod that she held and said: “Answer my servant Dominic at once!” It must be noted that the people neither saw nor heard Our Lady, only St. Dominic.

Then the devils started screaming: “Oh, you who are enemy, our downfall and our destruction, why have you come from Heaven to torture us so grievously? O advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of Hell, you who are a most sure path to Heaven, must we, in spite of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Oh, woe to us, princes of darkness. Then listen, you Christians. This Mother of Jesus is most powerful in saving her servants from falling into Hell. She is like the sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares, and makes our temptations useless and ineffective.

“We have to say, however, reluctantly, that no soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations of all the saints. We fear her more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with her faithful servants. Many Christians who call on her at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary standards are saved by her intercession. And if that Marietta (it is thus in their fury they called her) did not counter our plans and our efforts, we should have overcome the Church and destroyed it long before this, and caused all the Orders in the Church to fall into error and infidelity. Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you that nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins by which they obtain pardon and mercy.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §101 to §103).

Praying It Slowly With Devotion is a Well-Aimed Punch
“Then St. Dominic had all the people say the Rosary very slowly and with great devotion, and a wonderful thing happened: at each Hail Mary, which he and the people said, a large number of devils issued forth from the wretched man’s body, under the guise of red‑hot coals. When the devils had all been expelled and the heretic completely delivered from them, Our Lady, although invisible, gave her blessing to the assembled company, and they were filled with joy” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §104).

Let us take heart from this wonderful incident, and make a resolution to reform ourselves by praying our Rosaries better. Let us pray them more slowly, more deliberately, and with more devotion.

Digging for Rosary Gold
As Our Lady herself said, it is the meditation that is the soul of the Rosary. “Our Lady taught Saint Dominic this excellent method of praying and ordered him to preach it far and wide so as to reawaken the fervor of Christians and to revive [resurrect] in their hearts a love for our Blessed Lord. She also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and Passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation, and which distinguishes it from other devotions” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §61).

The meditation that is the soul of the Rosary and a soul is precious, valuable, worth more that the whole world: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21).

When it comes to “digging” for material for gossip, hobbies or other worldly matters, such as news, sports, food, drink, fashion, and other such trivia―we can spend lots of time “digging”. Yet when it comes to “digging” for information on the Mysteries of the Rosary―it more like a work crew where one man is digging and the other 99 just standing around watching him dig. In fact, as regards “digging” for material for meditation on the mysteries, it is more like 1 person “digging” and 10,000 standing around being totally indifferent while browsing their smartphones! People just don’t care! They think they are ‘saints’ by merely mechanically mumbling the prayers of the Rosary―while their minds are either numb or somewhere else! We need to break-free from these chains of indifference and start complying with Our Lady’s wishes―which are, not to merely SAY the Rosary, but to PRAY the Rosary―and that is only achieved when we MEDITATE on its mysteries.

Merely announcing the title of the mystery and then have some vague, nebulous, half-focused thoughts on what happened in the mystery ― (thoughts that could be summed-up in one single short sentence) ― is NOT a meditation. It is barely pious thinking! MEDITATION―for it to be worthy of its name―entails a thorough examination of some part of the mystery (digging-deep) and then, for it to qualify as a MEDITATION, a resolution of some kind has to be taken. A resolution to change something, start doing something, stop doing something, doing something better, doing something less, etc., etc. It can bear upon yourself or others. It can be in relation to persons, places or things. Nothing is excluded from being a potential element of a resolution. THAT IS MEDITATION―a thorough spiritual examination of something followed by the formulation of a RESOLUTION that you are going to PUT INTO PRACTICE and not merely consigned to the “Seen It but have nothing about it” compartment of your mind. It is mind-boggling that priests, religious, teachers and even parents fail to comprehend that truth―and if they do comprehend it, then they are doubly guilty for not preaching or teaching that truth to those in their care (parishioners, students, children).

No Gold Diggers―Only Grave Diggers―We Dig Our Own Grave
You know―sometimes we need to sit-down and seriously what we are asking from Heaven (the Holy Trinity, Our Lady, the Angels and Saints) and what it is that we are giving in exchange for what we want! For goodness sakes! We are asking for ETERNAL LIFE! A life full of every good a person could expect! Total joy! Total happiness! Total peace! A live where everyone TRULY loves each other! No agendas, no recriminations, no two-facedness, no gossip, no envy, no jealousy, no anger, no suspicion, no resentment, no vengeful thoughts, no evil thoughts! A life where there is no illness, no deformity, no pain, no suffering, no sorrow, no death! A life ―for the more materially minded among you―where you won’t have to go to work, won’t have to pay mortgage payments, won’t have to pay taxes, won’t have to pay for the utilities, won’t have worry about maintenance and repairs, won’t have to buy anything nor pay for anything! The list could go on for pages and pages! AND YOU EXPECT TO GET THAT AND A WHOLE LOT MORE FOR THE PITIFUL PAYMENTS YOU HAVE MADE SO FAR FOR YOUR ETERNAL RETIREMENT FUND? Imagine what you have to pay in this world to secure a fraction of what God offers to the few who will make it to Heaven! And why will only a few make it to Heaven―it is not because God does not have enough room in His House! It is simply down to the fact that people DO NOT WANT TO PAY WHAT GOD ASKS FOR! Is God asking too much? Is the price too high? Is it beyond the means of most folk? NO! The price―in comparison to what you get―is a pittance! Yet we are SO CHEAP that we don’t even want to pay a “ROCK BOTTOM PRICE”―somehow, as though it was a Social Security benefit, WE EXPECT IT FOR FREE! Hence it is that, rather then dig for spiritual gold, we instead choose to dig our own graves―eternal graves―where we “die to God” but “live for the world and its prince, the devil (hiding behind the ‘nice’ world).” It is not what God wants, but it is what we get for our negligence and “cheapness”!

The Sole Soul Solution
We need to put a stop to all this! We need to change! The Rosary, as Our Lady has said, is to be the instrument of that change, a solution (or soul-ution) to our problems. Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed that truth, when she said in her December 26th, 1957, interview with Fr. Fuentes: “As for the Holy Rosary, Father, in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary. This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is ― be it temporal or above all spiritual ― in the spiritual life of each of us, or the lives of our families, be they our families in the world or Religious Communities, or even in the lives of peoples and nations. I repeat, there is no problem, as difficult as it may be, that we cannot resolve at this time by praying the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will save ourselves, sanctify ourselves, console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls!”

Our Lady, herself, has already indicated that at Fatima on July 1th, 1917: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary … because only she can help you!” She reiterated that truth at Akita, in 1973: “The only weapons that will remain for you will be the Rosary and Sign left by my Son!”

The Rosary is a Seed of Devotion to Mary
The Rosary itself is not the be all and end all of devotion to Mary—it must be looked upon as merely being a seed that potentially contains a true devotion, but that seed must be planted and must grow and grow, much like the mustard seed that Our Lord speaks about in the Gospel: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32). You could also say that even though the Rosary is not by itself a true devotion to Mary, nevertheless, a true devotion to Mary cannot be true if there is no true devotion to the Rosary.

There can be no doubt that Heaven intends the Rosary to be a universal tool and remedy for all problems we can possibly face. Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed this to Fr. Fuentes in 1957, when she said: “Prayer and sacrifice are the two means to save the world. As for the Holy Rosary, Father, in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary. This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is ― be it temporal or above all spiritual ― in the spiritual life of each of us, or the lives of our families, be they our families in the world or Religious Communities, or even in the lives of peoples and nations. I repeat, there is no problem, as difficult as it may be, that we cannot resolve at this time by praying the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will save ourselves, sanctify ourselves, console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls. Then, there is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, holding her as the seat of mercy, goodness and pardon and the sure door to enter Heaven.”

Seed Gone To Waste!
Unfortunately, the seed of the Rosary is a seed that has gone to waste in the case of most Catholics. Only 2% of American Catholics pray the Rosary each and every day—which is what Our Lady has always demanded. In the very first Fatima apparition, Lucia asked Our Lady: “Will I go to Heaven?” To which Our Lady replied: “Yes, you will go.” Lucia asked: “And Jacinta?” Our Lady said: “She will go too!” Then Lucia asked: “And Francisco?” At this point Our Lady was hesitant and silent for a moment, and then at last she said: “He will also go, but he has to pray many Rosaries first!” This demand for Rosaries was also made at all the other apparitions: “Say the Rosary every day (June)… Continue to pray the Rosary every day (July) … Pray, pray very much … Continue to say the Rosary every day (August) … Continue to pray the Rosary (September) … Continue always to pray the Rosary every day (October). In 1973, Our Lady of Akita added: “Pray very much … Pray with fervor (July) … Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger … Be faithful and fervent in prayer to console the Master (August) … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary” (October).

Are You A “Doubting Thomas”?
Sometimes you may find it hard to believe that such a little simple thing like the Rosary can be called a weapon. Yet that is what the Popes and Saints of the Church tell us. Perhaps it is our scientific, materialistic, skeptical age that influences our way of thinking, or it may be that we are a “Doubting Thomas”, who hasn’t personally witnessed any Rosary miracles, and so we think to ourselves “Unless I experience or see a miracle myself, I will not believe!”

Yet, I am sure, those miracles happen more often than we imagine throughout the world of devout Rosary clients. Most are perhaps miracles of grace, some will be physical miracles. Let us not think for one moment that our skepticism limits the power in any way.

Pope Pius XI wrote that “The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin . . . It serves admirably to overcome the enemies of God and of religion.”

St. Padre Pio used to say that “The Rosary is the weapon!”

In a letter to Dom Umberto Maria Pasquale, an Italian Salesian priest, Sister Lucia of Fatima wrote: “The decadence which exists in the world is without doubt the consequence of a lack the spirit of prayer. It was in anticipation of this confusion that the Blessed Virgin recommended the recitation of the Rosary with such insistence. And, as the Rosary is, after the Mass, the most appropriate prayer for preserving the Faith in souls, the devil has unleashed his struggle against it. Unfortunately, we see the disasters he has caused ... We must defend souls against errors which can make them stray from the good road. I cannot help them other than by my poor and humble prayers and my sacrifices; but you, Fr. Umberto, you have a much more extended field of action to develop your apostolate. We cannot and we must not stop ourselves, nor allow, as Our Lord says, the sons of darkness to be more wise than the children of Light ... The Rosary is the most powerful weapon for defending ourselves on the field of battle.”

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday October 4th & Saturday October 5th

Article 3
Resurrecting Your Rosary From The Dead!

What Are The Odds?
What is your Rosary like? No, not the beads―but how you use them! The odds are stacked heavily on the side of your Rosary being either “sick”, “dying” or “dead”! That is the case for most people in the world today―and even way back in the time of St. Louis de Montfort (1673-1716), who, if you did not realize or connect, lived at the same time as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690). She was 26 years old when St. Louis was born―and St. Louis lived for a further 26 years after St. Margaret Mary died.

What’s the Connection?
Making the connection―not just in years, but in spiritual circumstances. It was during this time, that Our Lord, as the Sacred Heart, appeared to St. Margaret Mary on December 21st, 1674 and also during the 13 months. Thus, St. Louis de Montfort was almost two-years old at the time of that first apparition―being born on January 31st, 1673. Just as a side note, St. Margaret Mary’s feast day is coming up soon―October 17th.

What’s the Point?
The chief point of Our Lord’s messages to St. Margaret Mary concerned the lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, coldness and indifference being shown to Him at that time―and, sad to say, but that attitude has continued to exist to our very own times. That same attitude― lukewarmness, tepidity, torpor, coldness and indifference―is also, obviously, shown to Our Lady in general and the Holy Rosary in particular. Our Lord complained to St. Margaret Mary: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me … This is more grievous to Me than all that I endured in My Passion. If they would only give Me some return of love, I should not reckon all that I have done for them, and I would do yet more if possible. But they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good.”

The same could be said of Our Lady and her Holy Rosary. She has continually―in her apparitions―stressed the importance and need for the Holy Rosary, but, with the Sacred Heart, she can just as well say: “And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness! … They have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good!” That is, essentially, what Our Lady communicated to Sr. Lucia of Fatima, who relayed the following message to us:

“Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them!” (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).

Do Not Be Ashamed!
Do not be ashamed to admit that your Rosary―that is to say your manner of praying the Rosary―is sick, dying or dead. Yes, you may be at fault―most likely you are at fault―but when you go to a doctor or physician, it is wise to report and admit all that has happened in leading up to the injury. That way, he can make a proper diagnosis and take the proper procedures and apply the correct remedies to help you out of your discomfort, disease or illness. When it concerns the faults of ourselves―pride tends to conceal and humility tends to reveal. When it concerns the faults of others, the opposite is true―pride tends to reveal and humility tends to conceal.

Our Lord said to one of His mystics: “If you saw yourself as I see you―then you would die in terror!” If Our Lord said that to someone a mystic―someone who had by that very title made much progress in the spiritual life―then what would Our Lord or Our Lady say to us about how we pray, or say, the Rosary? We already have a hint through the words Our Lady addressed to the two seers at La Salette―the fourteen year old Melanie Calvat and the eleven-year-old Maximin Giraud―when she asked them: “Do you say your prayers properly, my children?”

Let us interject here the words of St. Louis de Montfort: “It is not so much the length of a prayer as the fervor with which it is said which pleases God and touches his heart. A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly. Most Catholics say the Rosary, either the whole fifteen mysteries or five of them, or at least a few decades. Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should. It is a good thing to think over how we should pray if we want to please God and become more holy” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §117).

As Our Lady of Good Success, she would complain: “O if only human beings knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity!” (Our Lady of Good Success).

Clothing Our Lady With Rosary Rags
This is why we read, in St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Secret of the Rosary, of many occasions where Our Lady rebukes those who pray the Rosary badly, carelessly or indifferently:

“We earnestly advise everyone to say the Rosary: the virtuous, that they may persevere and grow in the grace of God; sinners, that they may rise from their sins. But God forbid we should ever encourage a sinner to think that Our Lady will protect him with her mantle if he continues to love sin, for it will turn into a mantle of damnation which will hide his sins from the public eye. The Rosary, which is a remedy for all ills, would then be turned into a deadly poison. ‘Corruptio optimi pessima.’ The learned Cardinal Hugues tells us that one should be as pure as an angel to approach the Blessed Virgin and say the Angelic Salutation. One day, Our Lady showed herself to an immoral man, who used to say the Rosary regularly every day. She showed him a bowl of beautiful fruit, but the bowl itself was covered with filth. The man was horrified to see this, and Our Lady said to him, ‘This is the way you are honoring me. You are giving me beautiful roses in a dirty bowl. Do you think I can find them pleasing to me?’” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §118).

“We read in the life of Blessed Hermann of the Order of the Premonstratensians, that, at one time, when he used to say the Rosary attentively and devoutly while meditating on the mysteries, Our Lady used to appear to him resplendent in breathtaking majesty and beauty. But, as time went on, his fervor cooled and he fell into the way of saying his Rosary hurriedly and without giving it his full attention. Then one day Our Lady appeared to him again, but this time she was far from beautiful, and her face was furrowed and drawn with sadness. Blessed Hermann was appalled at the change in her, and Our Lady explained, ‘This is how I look to you, Hermann, because this is how you are treating me; as a woman to be despised and of no importance! Why do you no longer greet me with respect and attention while meditating on my mysteries and praising my privileges?’” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §120).

“Blessed Alan de la Roche and other writers, including St. Robert Bellarmine, tell the story of how a good priest advised three of his penitents, who happened to be sisters, to say the Rosary every day without fail for a whole year. This was so that they might make a beautiful robe of glory for the Blessed Virgin out of their Rosaries. This was a secret that the priest had received from Heaven. So the three sisters said the Rosary faithfully for a year, and on the feast of the Purification Our Lady appeared to them at night when they had retired. St. Catherine and St. Agnes were with her, and she was wearing a dress brilliant with light, on which was written in letters of gold the words: ‘Hail, Mary, full of grace.’ Our Lady approached the eldest sister and said, ‘I greet you, my daughter, who have greeted me so often and so well. I want to thank you for the beautiful robes you have made me!’ The two virgin saints who accompanied Our Lady also thanked her and all three disappeared.

“An hour later, Our Lady, with the same two companions, entered the room again, but this time she was wearing a green dress which had no gold lettering and did not shine. She went to the second sister and thanked her for the robe she had made by saying her Rosary. But since this sister had seen Our Lady appear to the eldest sister much more magnificently dressed, she asked the reason why. Our Lady answered: ‘Your sister made me more beautiful clothes, because she has been saying the Rosary better than you!’

“About an hour after this, she appeared to the youngest of the sisters wearing tattered and dirty rags. ‘My daughter,’ she said, ‘I want to thank you for these clothes you have made me!’ The young girl, feeling ashamed, cried out, ‘O my lady, how could I have dressed you so badly! I beg you to forgive me. Please grant me a little more time to make you a beautiful robe by saying my Rosary better!’ Our Lady and the two saints vanished, leaving the girl heartbroken. She told her confessor everything that had happened and he urged them to say the Rosary for another year and to say it with more devotion than ever.

“At the end of this second year, on the same day of the Purification, Our Lady, clothed in a magnificent robe, and again attended by St. Catherine and St. Agnes, wearing crowns, appeared to them in the evening. She said to them, ‘I have come to tell you that you have earned Heaven at last, and you will all have the great joy of going there tomorrow!’ Then the vision faded. That same night they became ill and sent for their confessor, and received the last sacraments, after having thanked him for the holy practice he had taught them. After Compline, they departed from this life.

“Some important truths can be learned from this story: (1) How important it is to have a good director who will counsel holy practices, especially that of the Holy Rosary; (2) How important it is to say the Rosary with attention and devotion; (3) How kind and merciful is the Blessed Virgin to those who are sorry for the past and are firmly resolved to do better; (4) How generous she is in rewarding us in life, at death, and in eternity for the little services that we render her with fidelity” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §128).

Time to Change―Time to Heal―Time to Resurrect
There is no better time than October for changing the miserable way we pray the Rosary―for healing the blind, sick and limp way in which we pray―for resurrecting our Rosaries from tomb into which we have allowed them to fall by our lack of meditation: For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §61).

Essentially, there are two main categories that you can focus upon―that of QUANTITY and that of QUALITY. It is the latter of the two―QUALITY―that must be given attention first of all, before we think about quantities of Rosaries. What good is making hundreds and thousands of articles if they are defective and will be returned to you with a demand for reimbursement? This is why St. Louis de Montfort writes in The Secret of the Rosary: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly” (§116) … “The holy and learned Jesuit, Father Suarez, was so deeply aware of the value of the Angelic Salutation that he said he would gladly give all his learning for the price of one Hail Mary well said” (§54) … “When the Rosary is well said, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer. But it is also the hardest prayer to say well and to persevere in, owing especially to the distractions which almost inevitably attend the constant repetition of the same words” (§122) … “Take care that your crown is not appropriated by another who has been more faithful than you in saying his Rosary every day. It was yours, God had prepared it for you; it was yours, you had already half obtained it by your Rosaries well said. But because you stopped on the way when you were running so well, another has left you behind and got there first; another who is more diligent and more faithful has paid, by his Rosaries and good works, what was required to obtain that crown. You began your race well; who has hindered you? Who has prevented you from having the crown of the Holy Rosary? Alas, none other than the enemies of the Rosary, who are so numerous” (§146).

Praying Well
“In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? How can we expect him to be pleased if, while in the presence of His tremendous majesty, we give in to distractions, like a child running after a butterfly? People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: ‘Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently!’ (Jeremias 48:10).” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §119).

“Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers to us, ‘What you have just said is worthless. It is useless for you to say the Rosary. You had better get on with other things. It is only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you are saying; half‑an‑hour’s meditation or some spiritual reading would be much better. Tomorrow, when you are not feeling so sluggish, you’ll pray better; leave the rest of your Rosary till then.’ By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether or to say it less often, and we keep putting it off or change to some other devotion” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §123).

Resurrected―Revived―Regenerated Rosaries
“Our Lady taught Saint Dominic this excellent method of praying and ordered him to preach it far and wide so as to reawaken the fervor of Christians and to revive [resurrect] in their hearts a love for our Blessed Lord. She also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and Passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation, and which distinguishes it from other devotions” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §61).

Rosary Racers
“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin. The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance more or less against our will.

“It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before. Dear friend, I beg you to restrain your natural precipitation when saying your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and Hail Mary, and a smaller one after the words of the Our Father and Hail Mary which I have marked with a cross, as follows:

Our Father Who art in Heaven, + hallowed by Thy Name, + Thy kingdom come, + Thy will be done + on Earth as it is in Heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[We may well add the “Glory Be” following St. Louis’ method: Glory be to the Father, + and to the Son, + and to the Holy Ghost, + as it was in the beginning, + is now and ever shall be, + world without end. Amen.]

At first, you may find it difficult to make these pauses because of your bad habit of saying prayers in a hurry; but a decade said recollectedly in this way will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, §126, , §127).

First Things First
As St. Louis de Montfort says above, it is important to get the mechanics right first before anything else―you must fix the car first before you can think of driving it here and there. Likewise with the Rosary, you must fix the way you say it―too quickly, or too distractedly―before you can start to focus on the meditation side of it. In other words, make sure your Rosary ‘engine’ runs smoothly and STOP SPEEDING and KEEP YOU EYES ON THE ROAD. Almost everybody prays the Rosary too quickly―they would never dream of speaking to their nearest and dearest at such a hurried tempo! Prayer is a conversation with Heaven and not verbal diarrhea. If we do not hold conversations with those around us by continually uttering sentences quickly without stopping to pause or draw a breath, then it is even more important not to do so when addressing Heaven. Drive into your mind and heart St. Louis words: “It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words” (§126) … A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly!” (§116) … A decade said recollectedly will be worth more than thousands of Rosaries said in a hurry, without pausing or reflecting! (§127) … We must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin” (§127).

In order to set and achieve this “Rosary Speed Limit”, it is necessary to talk about it OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Old habits die hard―and the bad habits that we contracted in areas that we find boring (e.g., the Rosary), are even harder to break. Most persons―especially older children and teens―find the Rosary boring and pointless. It is chore that they reluctantly do because they are told to do it. Left to themselves, most would never say the Rosary―it has to be a “Shotgun Rosary” or nothing. Yet even though they may look upon it as a “Shotgun Rosary” (meaning that they are forced to say the Rosary), that does not mean that the beads must be fired-out as fast as bullets fly out of a shotgun! Explain why the Rosary should be said more slowly, more deliberately, more respectfully―and point out the irreverence and dishonor that shown towards God and Our Lady by racing through it. Don’t just tell them in a “shotgun” manner―ask them if they understand why you are advocating a improved manner of praying the Rosary, ask them if they agree with this. If you wish to use it―there is a ROSARY SPEED LIMIT poster (as well as other Rosary posters) on the downloads page [click here for the downloads page]. These posters can continue to do your talking for you once you have stopped, serving as reminder of what you will have said.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday October 2nd & Thursday October 3rd

Article 2
Living the Rosary!

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

Wanted! Dead or Alive!
In most cases, we prefer a thing to be living rather than dead―unless it’s a deadly snake, scorpion or spider! In that case, we probably would like to see it dead than alive! Joking aside, it is nevertheless true that in most cases we prefer a thing when it is living, rather than have it dead. You yourself would prefer to be alive rather than dead. You prefer your spouse and children to be alive rather than dead. We prefer a garden of living trees, plants and vegetation rather than a garden of dead trees, plants and vegetation. You prefer to see your pets alive rather than dead―okay, okay, there are some families where some love the pet and others hate the pet! On the whole, life brings joy and happiness, while death brings mourning and sadness.

You could say the same thing for the Holy Rosary. There are such things as a “living Rosary” and a “dead Rosary”. Now of course you may have heard of―and even participated in―a “Living Rosary” in the sense or format of 15 persons forming a Rosary union whereby each person agrees to pray one single decade each for that Rosary union. This is a good way to get people started in praying the full Rosary by themselves―but, even though “half-a-loaf is better than none”―Heaven certainly expects far more than one mere decade a day!

What is a Living Rosary?
The devotion began in France in 1826, when Venerable Pauline-Marie Jaricot formed the Living Rosary Association. She was inspired to pull together groups of 15 persons who would each be responsible for praying one decade of the Rosary each day, so that the full 15-decade Rosary would be prayed each day by the group. The aims of the Living Rosary were two; to bring the people of France to a prayerful way of life and distribute Catholic literature and devotional articles. The Living Rosary Association grew rapidly in France and spread to other countries during her lifetime and for years thereafter. The original Living Rosary Association slowly declined―just our quality and quantity levels in praying the Rosary also slowly decline―however, the tradition has been revived in a variety of forms.

► 1905: The Guild of the Living Rosary of Our Lady and St. Dominic is an Anglican guild of intercession using the traditional Rosary (Yes, some Anglicans do pray the Rosary). It was founded in England in October 1905 by the Anglican minister, Reverend S.E. Serle. In the early years the Guild suffered persecution for its practices, and was forbidden the use of Anglican churches. The Guild is Anglican-based, but membership is open to any Christian. It is a ministry within the larger Society of Mary, an Anglican devotional society. Members are asked to pray just one decade of the Rosary each day with a special intention. Intercession sheets with the intentions are distributed three times a year.

► 1962: The Living Rosary of Our Lady of Walsingham was established in 1962 by the Guardians of the Holy House of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham as part of The Order of Our Lady of Walsingham. Each day the Rosary is said in the Shrine at 6.00 p.m. The Shrine Church has fifteen altars, each one dedicated to a Mystery of the Rosary under the patronage of a particular saint.

► 1986: The Universal Living Rosary Association was founded by Patti and Richard Melvin of Dickinson, Texas, who based the Association on Jaricot's Little Manual of the Living Rosary Association. The Association revived the practice of organizing 15 persons to each pray one of the 15 Decades of the Rosary.

► Another way of conducting the Living Rosary―one that used to be popular in some schools or parishes―saw the each bead (or Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be) of the Rosary assigned to a number of people praying the Rosary together at some gathering, with each assigned individual representing a bead.

However, it is not these kinds of “Living Rosary” that this article intends to address.

A Living Rosary is a Rosary that is Lived!
By a “living Rosary”―in the scope of this article―is meant a Rosary that is taken so seriously that it has a concrete impact in our lives. First of all, a “living Rosary” would be one that is meditated, thought over, chewed (not in the real sense―unless you have chocolate or berry beads), digested, and assimilated. It means discovering the almost infinite number of wonderful examples given by the personages involved in each mystery and learning form them, being inspired by them, desiring to imitate them in our own way. Secondly, a “living Rosary” is the natural progression of the first stage of meditation, by putting into practice in our everyday lives some aspect, some example, some truth, some encouraging thing that we uncovered in our meditation.

Most people simply “SAY” their Rosary. Very, very few actually “PRAY” or meditate their Rosary, which means studying the mystery, thinking about the mystery, learning from the mystery and resolving to put into practice something learnt from that mystery. Without this meditation aspect of the Rosary, the Rosary never really “comes to life”―but remains a “dead Rosary.” The Rosary could be compared to seeds―you could them your “Rosary Seeds” instead of “Rosary Beads”―which you need to plant in the soil of your soul or mind; bury them deep in your mind and heart; water them and nourish them with your thoughts and Hail Marys; so that they can sprout and shoot our spiritual roots into the soil of your soul, so that a “tree of life” can grow and bear much fruit.

Living Rosaries and Dead Rosaries
Our Lady, in fact, refers to the difference between a “Living Rosary” and a “Dead Rosary” as reported by St. Louis de Montfort, in his book, The Secret of the Rosary :

“Our Lady taught Saint Dominic this excellent method of praying and ordered him to preach it far and wide so as to reawaken the fervor of Christians and to revive in their hearts a love for our Blessed Lord. She also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation, and which distinguishes it from other devotions” (The Secret of the Rosary, §61).

Uncooked Food and “Uncooked” Rosaries
If we were to treat our daily food like we treat our daily Rosary, then we would soon become sick and die! To merely SAY the Rosary is like buying food at the store and taking it home, putting it on the counter―but never preparing it, never cooking it, just looking at it and then walking away! To PRAY the Rosary means not only buying the food, but also preparing it, cooking it, eating it, chewing it, swallowing it, digesting it and assimilating it!

Ready-Made-Meals and Micro-waved Rosaries
To merely announce the title of the decade and perhaps a verse of Holy Scripture that is relevant to the mystery―is like buying a ready-made frozen meal at the store, placing in the microwave for a few seconds on the high setting and then quickly gobbling it down. Not very healthy! Not very beneficial! Yet that is the “fast-track” way in which most people approach the Rosary. St. Louis de Montfort puts it this way:

“Above all, do not fail to offer up each decade in honor of one of the mysteries, and try to form a picture in your mind of Jesus and Mary in connection with that mystery … We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you.”

We read in the life of Blessed Hermann of the Order of the Premonstratensians, that at one time when he used to say the Rosary attentively and devoutly while meditating on the mysteries, Our Lady used to appear to him resplendent in breathtaking majesty and beauty. But, as time went on, his fervor cooled and he fell into the way of saying his Rosary hurriedly and without giving it his full attention. Then one day Our Lady appeared to him again, but this time she was far from beautiful, and her face was furrowed and drawn with sadness. Blessed Hermann was appalled at the change in her, and Our Lady explained, ‘This is how I look to you, Hermann, because this is how you are treating me; as a woman to be despised and of no importance. Why do you no longer greet me with respect and attention while meditating on my mysteries and praising my privileges?’” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

It is this slipshod, slack, speedy saying of the Rosary that is guaranteed to produce little or no results, as St. Louis points out: “Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin. The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance more or less against our will. It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

Back to Basics!
Coaches of sports teams will often be heard saying: “Let’s get back to the basics! Let us start again by doing the simple things right!” The same can be said of our Rosary recitation. It is amazing how we slip into and feel comfortable with our faults and failings when they slither in slowly and lead us into lukewarmness little-by-little. As the saying goes: “Little-by-little one goes far!”―and little-by-little we end up going further and further away from fervor and God. The devil knows that we have a tendency not to worry about and ignore what we deem to be “little things”―thus he prefers to advance his wicked work little-by-little, in the hope that we will never be stirred into correcting what we regard as being trivial.

What Got Us Into This Mess
Fr. Faber has a very appropriate passage in his book, Growth in Holiness, where he portrays this “little-by-little” slide into lukewarmness: “The spiritual life … issues simply in one of two states, lukewarmness or fervor. Either we are lukewarm, or we are fervent. There is nothing in the spiritual life which arrests our attention so forcibly as lukewarmness, because of the unusual language in which it has pleased God to express His ineffable disgust with it ― “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot! But, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16) ― The diseases and evils of the body are in a great degree typical of the miseries and misfortunes of the soul. If we seek the correlative of lukewarmness, we shall find it in blindness. It is a blindness which does not know even its own self, and does not suspect that it is blind, or that other men see better than itself!” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness).

Fr. Faber then proceeds to expose the three principal causes by which we gradually and almost imperceptibly (blindly) slide into lukewarmness: “This blindness is owing principally to three causes: (1) the frequency of venial sins, (2) habitual dissipation of mind and (3) the ruling passion. The frequency of venial sins is like traveling in the wilderness, where the bright air is imperceptibly filled with fine sand. Habitual dissipation of mind is like reading in the sunshine, and living in a light too strong for our eyes. The ruling passion is an external violence which menaces us and makes us shut our eyes, and have them always shut, that we may not see what it would like to hide―and so, when we open them after long being used to darkness, it is the very light itself which blinds us” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness).

Fr. Faber then passes from the three principal causes of lukewarmness to the immediate results of this blindness, which are also three in number--strange how these “threes” dovetail with the three sets of mysteries of the Rosary―the Joyful, the Sorrowful and the Glorious! Anyhow, Fr. Faber writes:

“(1) In the first place conscience becomes untrue. The body does not move firmly and in a straight line in the dark. So the conscience also must see in order to keep its balance. But if we falsify the oracle [wise advice], and still believe it, what is the consequence but error and corruption everywhere? If the light that is in us be darkness, says Our Lord, how great is that darkness! So first there comes a false conscience.

“(2) Bad instincts grow stronger. But in proportion as conscience becomes dark, and so cold, and finally numb, in the same proportion the bad instincts of the human spirit, like owls at night, get more far‑sighted, animated and vivacious. These instincts lead us with uncommon tact to avoid anything which will restore animation to the conscience. For their purpose it had best remain under chloroform for life. Thus they make us shrink from anything like vigorous spiritual direction. We suspect we shall be awakened, and driven, and made too good. Discretion, that is, the discretion of the blind conscience, tells us this shrinking is wisdom and sagacity. We must, it says, be moderate in everything, but of all things amazingly moderate in the love of God. So in hearing sermons, reading books, cultivating acquaintances, patronizing works of mercy, it draws back from everything that is likely to come too near or hit too hard. It is the old story of the earthen jug and the brazen jar, as they went down the stream together. Here is the second result of this blindness, which renders the cure still less likely. Indeed it is a characteristic of tepidity that everything we do, while we are in that state, has a tendency to confirm us as incurable.

“(3) Out of the two preceding results flows a third, which is a profane use of the Sacraments. To go to Holy Communion when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied with laudanum would be fair types of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments. Thus frequent or even daily Communion seems to have only a negative effect upon us. We do not know how bad it might be without it; and that is all. Weekly confession gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. Matters look as if they had come to a standstill, if there were any such phase of the spiritual life. But no! We are blind men, whose faces have been turned unwittingly. We are retracing our steps; and the only wonder is that the easier task of going downhill does not by its contrast make us suspicious of some mistake. Alas! We are asleep as well as blind. The finest things we do now are no better than feats of somnambulism [sleep-walking]” (Fr. Faber, Growth in Holiness).

Applying Fr. Faber’s Observations to the Rosary
We can slightly modify Fr. Faber’s examples in order to apply them to how we look upon and say our Rosaries. First of all comes a blindness as to the value of the Rosary, a blindness as to the way the Rosary should be prayed, and a blindness about the content of the mysteries of the Rosary. This is already a venial sin of irreverence or indifference or both.

This blindness leads to a dissipation of the mind, whereby, instead of entering deeply into the mysteries of each Rosary mystery, our mind is distracted and dissipated by a multitude of other thoughts and distractions. This adds to and multiplies the venial sins in regard to the Rosary.

Once this dissipation of mind is allowed to repeat its intrusion, confusion and dilution of the Rosary and its recitation, it quickly becomes our ruling passion during the Rosary, which now rules us, subjugates, enslaves us, weakens us and demoralizes us. As Fr. Faber says, it “makes us shut our eyes [to the content and depth of the mysteries of the Rosary], and have them always shut, that we may not see what it would like to hide [namely our sinfulness and lukewarmness, which the mysteries inevitably shine a light upon] ―and so, when we open them after long being used to [our deliberate self-imposed and desired] darkness, it is the very light itself which blinds us!” ― meaning, that the meditation of the mysteries is too much for us, too painful for our eyes that have become comfortably adjusted to our preferred and self-inflicted spiritual darkness.

Consequently, our conscience becomes untrue―we end up with false evaluations of the things that we do. We imagine our hurried, distracted, hurried, half-hearted, ‘meditationless’ Rosary to be pleasing in God’s eyes and so we comfortably remain embedded in our comfortably venially sinful Rosary. We “sleep-walk” through our Rosary―or should it be “sleep-talk” through the Rosary. We are saying it, but are not really aware of what we are doing!

Our bad instincts, or bad-Rosaries, grow more frequent and stronger, sinking their poisonous roots deeper into our souls, because we will not weed-out our bad habits or tendencies of praying too quickly, praying distractedly, praying with meditating on the mysteries. Before long, a weed has grown into a bush, and soon it will be a tree!

From the above faults, comes the third―a profane use of the Rosary, as Fr. Faber says of the Sacraments, it can also be said of the Rosary―we say the Rosary “when we are physically drowsy, yawning and half asleep, or to make our general confession half stupefied would be fair types of the way in which we morally use the Sacraments [pray the Rosary.] Thus frequent or even daily Communion [Rosaries] seems to have only a negative effect upon us. We do not know how bad it might be without it; and that is all. Weekly confession [Rosaries] gives us no additional power over our commonest imperfections. Matters look as if they had come to a standstill, if there were any such phase of the spiritual life. But no! We are blind men, whose faces have been turned unwittingly. We are retracing our steps; and the only wonder is that the easier task of going downhill does not by its contrast make us suspicious of some mistake. Alas! We are asleep as well as blind. The finest things we do now are no better than feats of somnambulism [sleep-walking]”

It is an extremely sad state of affairs when hardly anybody in the world prays the Rosary daily―in the USA, daily Rosary Catholics are a tiny minority, anywhere from 2% to 4% of Catholics. Worse still, out of that meager 2% or 4%, almost nobody MEDITATES their Rosary, they MERELY SAY IT. Our Lady stated that for our age, the Rosary was to be the “be all and end all” of all solutions. Yet nobody is using it! No wonder there are no solutions to the enormous problems we face today! A Rosary that should be “living” and fighting, is sadly “dead” or dying.

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday September 29th, Monday September 30th & Tuesday October 1st

Article 1
Be a "Rosary Prepper" and a Survivor!

This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.

Read and Follow These Instructions Before Assembling the Item
Following instructions is important to make tasks simpler, to ensure things are done effectively, to eliminate confusion and to save time. When instructions are properly followed, things work well. People who follow instructions show that they are cooperative, intelligent and dependable, while not following instructions can lead to life and death situations that may end tragically.

When people do not follow instructions properly, it can cause chaos and great frustration in any type of environment. In order to follow instructions, a person must listen well, read carefully and ask questions if necessary. When a person does not follow instructions, he finds that finishing tasks is much more difficult. If a single person on a team does not adhere to instructions, then the entire team suffers on some level. Tasks that are done properly the first time do not have to be redone, so one saves time and effort by following instructions each time a task is tackled.

Following instructions can preserve one’s health and well being, and it is a necessary skill for a quality life. Rules are necessary for every well-functioning society. Professionals that do not follow instructions place themselves and other people at a greater risk for injury and death.

► As one Health Service instructor writes: “During my school days, I often dove into a test without carefully and completely reading all the instructions. The result? Often wrong answers to questions that I could have easily answered correctly. This tendency to skip reading the instructions carries over into other areas for my life. For instance, the assemble yourself furniture can quickly become a disastrous frustration when the instructions are left in the corner, nuts and bolts are all over the floor, and I think I know what I am doing. I will never forget the day, many years ago when my five year old finally showed me the pictures on the instructions to guide me in the process of assembling her new bookcase. As the years have passed, I have realized that instructions are for my own good. Every once in a while, however, this tendency, to ignore them, will raise up its ugly head. I am again reminded to listen to or give good instructions for a well completed task.”

► Another case is as follows: “Some time ago, after an embarrassing situation, I learnt the importance of reading instructions before operating something new. I had bought a new PC and upon getting it home had excitedly connected everything, while totally ignoring the instruction manual. When I turned my new computer on, nothing happened.
After an hour of frustrating nothing, I rang the supplier to complain that my new PC did not work.
“Did you read the instructions,” the receptionist asked?
When I admitted I had not, she said she would take me through them. “Please read with me,” she said, as if I was the fiftieth person she had said the same thing to that day.
First paragraph: “Your new computer was tested before shipment. However, to protect it during transport, the power protection button has been activated. Step 1: Switch the power protection button to ‘OFF'. ”
When I did this, my new computer immediately sprung to life.”

► A third scenario is as follows. An engineering instructor writes:
“Even if many universities do not admit students to formal engineering programs until their junior year, most of these engineering schools provide some mechanism for students who have decided upon an engineering career as they enter the university. The preliminary engineering courses that these students enroll in can begin the process of retraining students to learn the benefits of following instructions and the necessity of this activity in the real world. Early in the engineer’s academic career, simple techniques can be utilized to focus students on the need to continue the practice of following instructions. One of the important issues is to make students actually see the importance and not just lecture on the need to follow instructions. One technique is to have students write their own instructions on how to create an object, for example, a paper airplane. They are not allowed to mention anything that will give the receiver of the instructions any indication that what they will have to create from the instructions is a paper airplane. By separating members of the class and using different colors of paper for the information to write instructions on how to build the paper airplanes, students will all feel that they are providing instructions on totally different projects. When the instructions are exchanged, no talking can be allowed and students must follow exactly the instructions given. At any point where they cannot continue the instructions―because those instructions fail to give adequate directions―they must stop.

“These uncompleted airplanes can then be investigated and more improved instructions can be added within group discussion. All of this provides a quick message that if instructions are incomplete or incomprehensible, thenno one can follow them. Students―by attempting to build the airplane with the instructions―also quickly understand the importance of having a complete set of instructions in their work. The instructor―in the above paper-airplane building instruction scenario― is not required to force students to listen to diatribes on the problems created when people do not follow instructions. The instructor, on the other hand, can simply sit back and let the discussion unfold among the class members on why or why not a particular set of instructions accomplished the task of allowing a piece of paper to be transformed into a flying machine.”

► A fourth scenario―which is linked to the Rosary―is the following testimony of an experienced combat firearms instructor:
“We use various selection processes in our classes, selection meaning which group a student may fall into during class. While we have several groups―the one you want to avoid is “high risk” [likewise, you want to avoid “high-risk” Catholics who either “shoot” with their mouth or cannot follow instructions]. A high risk student is someone who consistently displays behavior that can put himself or other classmates in danger. You obviously don’t want these types of students, but―as firearms training continues to become popular and concealed carriers increase―it’s a subject that must be addressed. The aspect of safety is central to everything we do―lip service is not tolerated.

“The snowball theory: I remind students tragedies are not the result of a single action. They are the culmination of several seemingly insignificant actions adding up to a tragedy. An important point to understand is many accidents [damnations] are preventable. Through careful evaluation of previous accidents we take away lessons learned. We take these lessons and create corrective strategies, in order to prevent them from happening again to the best of our ability. After providing clear and concise instruction, at some point we as instructors must trust the students to act safely [and carry out those instructions as instructed and not according their own personal interpretations].

“It is this trust we need in order to move forward. It starts the moment we meet a student with the very basic ability to follow instructions. Some instructions can be followed “loosely”, while others must be followed strictly. As an instructor you must enforce safety [of souls and their salvation] and there is very little margin for error. It is rare to get a student who deliberately fails to follow instructions. Many times they want to, but … are overwhelmed with learning new skills and pressure to do well. When so much is going [too busy with the world and fun] on they cannot process all the information in a timely manner or in the correct sequence bad things can happen.

I don’t get too wrapped around the axle these days, but every now and then you’ll see me jump someone’s ass. I don’t care much about how you load your firearm―my instructions are to safely load your firearm and then protect your eyes and ears [for Catholics it is a case of be careful about who you listen to and what you look at]. No big deal if you choose to load a magazine then cycle the slide or lock the slide and release it using the slide stop ― I don’t care! However, when the instructions are to observe your trigger finger straight on the pistol’s frame and off the trigger guard― that’s non-negotiable.

As part of our safety protocol―in our Concealed Carry Tactics classes―we have students visually confirm their finger is off the trigger. There are only two ways the firearm can discharge―either you press the trigger with your finger or the trigger is pressed by a foreign object. There are two times your finger could inadvertently press the trigger, as you are drawing and as you’re re-holstering. We try to eliminate the possibility of a negligent discharge as a result of improper trigger finger placement during both phases. I had one student who either kept forgetting, or wouldn’t follow instructions as I had to repeatedly correct him on the line. So, if he is having difficulty with these simple instruction is it reasonable to expect more problems? The answer is yes! We ask students to visually inspect their holster prior to inserting the muzzle then re-holster with control. The student in question felt it was acceptable to shove the pistol into his holster after continued corrections. Why is this a big deal? Think back to the earlier comment about the little, insignificant actions that add up. Since this was a concealment class we had a variety of cover garments throughout. Each provided challenges, but the safe protocol for re-holstering was the same. When I watch a student fail to confirm their trigger finger, fail to confirm any holster obstructions―then shove this pistol into their holster without looking it’s a problem. Luckily nothing bad happened―but not by providence. Safety [and salvation] is non-negotiable and if you cannot follow the simplest of instructions―like what equipment is required for class, and then cannot follow safety protocols while in class―don’t be surprised by the results” [injury, death, damnation].

Following God’s Instructions
God taught this concept to Moses when He said: “Assemble the people... When all Israel come together in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou shalt read the words of this law before all Israel, in their hearing, and the people being all assembled together―both men and women, children and strangers, that are within thy gates―that hearing they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and keep, and fulfill ALL the words of this law; so that their children, also, who now are ignorant, may hear, and so fear the Lord their God all the days that they live” (Deuteronomy 31:11-13).

Our Lord also drilled-home this same concept to His Apostles: “Going therefore, teach ye ALL nations … Teaching them to observe ALL things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Our Lady implies the same thing at the Marriage Feast at Cana, when she tells the waiters to DO EVERYTHING that her Son will tell them do: “His mother saith to the waiters: ‘WHATSOEVER he shall say to you, do ye!’” (John 2:5)―the word “whatsoever” meaning “anything and everything” or “ALL”.

If instructions are important to God they should be important to us. Our Lord says: “Do these things and thou shalt live!” (Luke 10:28).

Noe was considered to be just and righteous because he followed instructions. “And Noe did all things which God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22). Noe was a “survivor”―when just about everyone else perished―because he did everything just as God commanded him. Following God's instructions exactly is considered an essential part of the spiritual life that should lead to eternal life, which means being one of the “few spiritual survivors” who make it to Heaven and not part of the great masses, who did not follow ALL the instructions, and end up (or down) in Hell.

Instructions and Assumptions and Presumptions
The problem with most people―almost all people―is that they hear the instructions and then do their own thing by mixing-in their personal preferences and tastes to the commands and instructions of God. In other words, they “water them down” into something more potable, more tasty, more to their own liking. This is also true of the Faith as a whole. That is how Protestantism acts. That is, basically, how heresies and schisms start. People assume and presume that they can tinker with, modify and change the commands and instructions of God. That is why most souls lose their souls. Never was a truer word said by God than this: “My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). To those words you can well add: “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand!” (Matthew 13:13). “Hear, O foolish people and without understanding―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember!” (Mark 8:18). “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house, who have eyes to see and see not; and ears to hear and hear not―for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2).

Nothing has changed from those Old Testament and New Testament times, which is when those words were spoken. Our Lady has the same lament and complaint with regard to what she has said. Sr. Lucia of Fatima reveals. In 1957, a very grave looking Sister Lucia spoke with Fr. Fuentes in the December 26th, 1957, interview, saying:

“Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of goodness, but without paying mind to this Message [presumtption]. The bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement already falling on them presently; they also continue on their path of badness, ignoring the Message [presumtption]. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way.

“The chastisement from Heaven is imminent. The year 1960 is on us, and then what will happen? It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance before then. I cannot give more details, because it is still a secret. By the will of the Blessed Virgin, only the Holy Father and the Bishop of Fatima can know the secret. Both have chosen, however, not to open it in order not to be influenced by it [presumtption].

“This is the third part of the Message of Our Lady, which still remains secret until 1960. Tell them, Father, that the Blessed Virgin said repeatedly ― to my cousins Francisco and Jacinta as well as to me ― that many nations would disappear from the face of the Earth, that Russia would be the instrument of chastisement from Heaven for the whole world if the conversion of that poor Nation is not obtained beforehand …”

The “Kool-Aid” of Hell
Our indifference―and our own false assumptions and presumptions―perches our soul precariously on the edge of the precipice of that place into which the predominant number of souls have fallen, namely Hell. It is in the devil’s best interests to keep us in that mental twilight zone, numbed and dumbed to the real realities that lie behind the cloud of smoke which is our false reasoning, assumptions and presumptions. He does not want us think too much about what salvation entails. He provokes us to think unreal, imaginary, far-fetched thoughts such as “universal salvation”, “universal mercy”, “no-pain-salvation”, “effortless salvation”, “cheap flights to Heaven”, a “Can’t Do Anything Except Ignore and Forgive” God, etc., etc. We readily and easily imbibe and drink this Satanic “Kool-Aid”, licking our lips in lukewarm satisfaction with our lukewarm lives―forgetting that God has vowed to vomit out the lukewarm from His fervent Mouth: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot! I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-116). Yet even those words roll off our thick-skinned souls like the proverbial water off a duck’s back―we have become “waterproofed” to the graces, words and warnings of God in our false assumptions and vain presumptions.

What fuels and further adds to those false assumptions and vain presumptions is the “herd mentality” or presumption of there being some kind of “safety in numbers”―whereby we look at the vast majority of Catholics around us and notice that they are doing little more, or even less than the lukewarm efforts we are putting into producing our mediocre merits by anemic amounts of spiritual exercises. The devil loves to have drink the “Kool-Aid” of “safety in numbers” while blinding us to the fact that Our Lord said the EXACT OPPOSITE: “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they FEW that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for MANY, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).

“Enter ye in at the narrow gate! For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and MANY there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and FEW there are that find it! … Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. MANY will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone, therefore, that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:13-27).

Very Few Live Like the Few!
All of the above is not a pleasant message to hear. It is not a pleasant message to pass on and give to others. It’s not quite the party conversation piece is it? If you feel crowded at a party, just start talking about the above and you will quickly find yourself with plenty of space and room. Yet that unpleasant message is the most crucial and most important thing that anyone and everyone needs to hear! Are your children hearing it? Are you passing on the message to them? Are your students hearing it? Are you teaching the message to them? Are your parishioners hearing it? Are you preaching the message to them? In most cases the answer will be an embarrassed “No!” or an embarrassed silence.

The saints had no problem communicating that unpleasant message―here are just a few (29) quotes from the “big guns” or “big ‘uns” from among the Saints, Blesseds and Venerables, in chronological order, coverning almost EVERY SINGLE CENTURY [click here is you want more ― there are enough quotes to fill 9 pages]:

► St. Justin Martyr (100-165), Father of the Church: “The majority of men shall not see God, excepting those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.” (St. Justin Martyr, Father of the Church: First Apology, XXI).

► St. Arsenius (Egyptian deacon 345-450): “Brethren, the just man shall scarcely be saved. What, then, will become of the sinner?” (Life of Arsenius).

► St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Doctor and Father of the Church: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you! Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved! I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!” Elsewhere he says: “I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous.”

► St. Jerome (347-420), Doctor and Father of the Church: “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who WALKED along the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who FOUND that narrow way” (Jerome: “Commentary on Matthew…Many begin well, but there are few who persevere”). Meaning that few FIND the path and even FEWER actually take the path after finding it. Jerome goes on to say: “Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.”

► St. Augustine (354-430), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Take care not to resemble the multitude―whose knowledge of God’s will only condemns them to more severe punishment!” .... “It is certain that few are saved” (Sermon 111; also Against Cresconius). “If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate” (Sermon 224:1) …. “Not all, nor even a majority, are saved. . . They are indeed many, if regarded by themselves, but they are few in comparison with the far larger number of those who shall be punished with the devil” …. “Beyond a doubt the elect are few” …. It is certain that few are saved”…. “If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate.”

► St. Remigius of Rheims (437-533): “Among adults there are few saved because of sins of the flesh. […] With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned!” (Regimus: Book 1, with Cyprian).

► St. John Climacus (579-606), Father of the Church: “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few.”

► St. Bede the Venerable (673-735), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Nor should we think that it is enough for salvation that we are no worse off than the mass of the careless and indifferent, or that in our Faith we are, like so many others, uninstructed” …. “Christ's flock is called ‘little’ (Luke 12:32) in comparison with the greater number of the reprobates.”

► St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many! And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few! … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!” (Fr. Martin Von Cochem, The Four Last Things, p. 221. Anselm, Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers).

► St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church: “There are a select few who are saved” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).

► St. John of Avila (1499-1569): “Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God's will only condemns them to more severe punishment.”

► Ven. Louis de Granada (1505-1588): “A greater number is lost through false confidence, than through excessive fear.”

► St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552): “Ah, how many souls lose Heaven and are cast into Hell!” (Francis: Letters and Shorter Works)

► St. Philip Neri (1515-1595): “So vast a number of miserable souls perish, and so comparatively few are saved!”

► St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Doctor of the Church: “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell, especially those Lutherans ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!”

► St. John of the Cross (1524-1591), Doctor of the Church: “Behold how many there are who are called, and how few who are chosen! And behold, if you have no care for yourself, your perdition is more certain than your amendment, especially since the way that leads to eternal life is so narrow.”

► St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), Doctor of the Church: “It is granted to few to recognize the true Church amid the darkness of so many schisms and heresies, and to fewer still so to love the truth, which they have seen, as to fly to its embrace.”

► St. Vincent de Paul (1580-1660): “Ah! A great many persons live constantly in the state of damnation!” (cf. Voice of the Saints, Francis W. Johnston, London: Burnes and Oats, 1965.)

► Ven. Mary of Agreda (1602-1665): “That those who walk in the way of salvation are the smaller number is due to the vice and depraved habits imbibed in youth and nourished in childhood. By these means Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls, and continues thus to hurl them into Hell every day, casting so many nations from abyss to abyss of darkness and errors, such as are contained in the heresies and false sects of the infidels” … “The majority of souls appear before the Judgment empty-handed. They did nothing good for eternity.”

► St. Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727): “The number of the damned is incalculable.”

► St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “Be one of the small number who find the way to life, and enter by the narrow gate into Heaven. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost. Do not be deceived; there are only two roads: one that leads to life and is narrow; the other that leads to death and is wide. There is no middle way” (The Love of Eternal Wisdom, p.133) “The number of the elect is so small – so small – that, were we to know how small it is, we would faint away with grief: one here and there, scattered up and down the world!” (Letter to Friends of the Cross).

► St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church: “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost” …. “The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Way of Salvation and Perfection, 311). “The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few. O God, too few indeed they are; yet among those few I wish to be!” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, 494). “The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death, 174). “All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost. […] In fact, the Elect are much fewer than the damned, for the reprobate are much more numerous than the Elect” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death, 407-8; The Great Means of Salvation and Perfection, 129). “In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water but of sins, continually inundates the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Sermons).

► St. Benedict Joseph of Labre (1748-1783): “Yes, indeed, many will be damned; few will be saved… Meditate on the horrors of Hell which will last for eternity because of one easily-committed mortal sin. Try hard to be among the few who are chosen. Think of the eternal flames of Hell, and how few there are that are saved…I was watching souls going down into the abyss as thick and fast as snowflakes falling in the winter mist!”

► Blessed Anna Maria Taigi, (1769-1837): “The greater number of Christians today are damned. The destiny of those dying on one day is that very few ― not as many as ten ― went straight to Heaven; many remained in Purgatory; and those cast into Hell were as numerous as snowflakes in midwinter.”

► St. John Marie Vianney (1786-1859): “The number of the saved is as few as the number of grapes left after the vineyard-pickers have passed” (John Mary Vianney: GOH p.37). “We shall find out at the day of judgment that the greater number of Christians who are lost were damned because they did not know their own religion” (Sermons of the Cure of Ars, page 99). “Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days! See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.” (St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars, Patron Saint of Parish Priests).

► St. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860): “Cast a look round the world, just observe the manner of living, of speaking, and you will see immediately whether the evil of sin is known in the world or whether any attention is paid to it. Not counting those who live deliberately irreligious and wicked lives, how few are those―who pass themselves as being good and who approach the Sacraments―are aware of the great evil that sin is, and the great ruin it brings with it. It must necessarily happen that, because of this certainly culpable ignorance, in which most men live, that an enormous number will come to be damned, because no sin is pardoned which is not detested, and it is impossible to detest sin properly if it is not known as such.”

► St. John Neumann (1811-1860): “Despite assurances that God did not create any man for Hell, and that He wishes all men to be saved―it remains equally true that only few will be saved; that only few will go to Heaven; and that the greater part of mankind will be lost forever.”

► Lucia Santos of Fatima (1907-1958?): “Taking into account the behavior of mankind, only a small part of the human race will be saved […] many will be lost” (The Secret of Fatima: Fact and Legend, Joaquin Maria Alonso, CMF, p.106; Fatima, The Great Sign, Francis Johnston, p.36).

► St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima (1910-1920): “Lucia found Jacinta sitting alone, still and very pensive, gazing at nothing. ‘What are you thinking of, Jacinta?’ ‘Of the war that is going to come. So many people are going to die. And almost all of them are going to Hell!” (Our Lady of Fatima, William Walsh p. 94; p. 92 in some versions)

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday September 27th & Saturday September 28th

Article 14
Let's Do Better This Year!

USA Rosary Stats and Facts
Statistics on how many people pray the Rosary are hard to find. Most of the following statistics for the USA are taken from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. Even their last thorough set of Rosary stats are over 11 years old―coming from 2008. They give some snippets in later years, but do not provide as thorough a coverage as in 2008. It is said that everyone can manipulate statistics to fit their prejudiced arguments. The following stats are unlikely to fall into that category ― though it is only on the Day of Judgment that one will know for certain. From Heaven's perspective, the following stats are not good. From Hell's perspective, they are wonderful.

● A majority of adult Catholics―52% or around 5 out of 10―say they pray the Rosary. This number includes both those who pray it often all the down to those who pray it only once a year.
● 8% ― or 8 out of 100― Catholics pray the Rosary at least once a week, but not daily.
● 4% ― or 4 out of 100― Catholics said they prayed the Rosary every day.

Among those who rarely pray the Rosary…
● 62% ― or around 6 out 10 ― women say they pray the Rosary at least once a year.
● 42% ― or around 4 out 10 ― men say they pray the Rosary at least once a year.
● 73% ― or around 7 out of 10 ― Pre-Vatican II Catholics pray the Rosary at least once a year.
● 72% ― or around 7 out of 10 ― of Catholics who regularly attend Sunday Mass pray the Rosary at least once a year.
● 23% ― or around 2 out of 10 ― of Catholics who regularly attend Sunday Mass pray the Rosary once a week or more often.

► USA Rosary Praying Stats for All Catholics―Including Those Who Attend Mass Regularly and Those Who Do Not

FREQUENCY                               2001      2008
Every day ?%         4%
More than once a week                5% 2%
Once a week 4% 2%
Almost once every week 2% 3%
Once or twice a month 10% 5%
Only a few times a year 23%       20%
Less than once a year 10%       16%
Never prays the Rosary 46%       48%

► 2008 USA Rosary Praying Stats for Those Regularly Attending Mass ONCE A WEEK OR MORE OFTEN

FREQUENCY
Every day 11% ― which is 11 in 100 or around 1 in 10 persons.
More than once a week 6% ― which is 6 in 100 or around 1 in 17 persons.
Once a week 6% ― which is 6 in 100 or around 1 in 17 persons.
Almost once every week 6% ― which is 6 in 100 or around 1 in 17 persons.
Once or twice a month 12% ― which is 12 in 100 or around 1 in 9 persons.
Only a few times a year 31% ― which is 11 in 100 or around 3 in 10 persons.
Less than once a year 12% ― which is 12 in 100 or around 1 in 9 persons.
Never prays the Rosary 16% ― which is 11 in 100 or around 1 in 6 persons.

► 2008 USA Rosary Praying Stats for Those Regularly Attending Mass LESS THAN ONCE A WEEK BUT AT LEAST TWICE A MONTH

FREQUENCY
Every day                            5% ― which is 5 in 100 or around 1 in 20 persons.
More than once a week 1% ― which is 1 in 100 persons.
Once a week                       1% ― which is 1 in 100 persons.
Almost once every week 6% ― which is 6 in 100 or around 1 in 17 persons.
Once or twice a month 6% ― which is 6 in 100 or around 1 in 17 persons.
Only a few times a year   27% ― which is 27 in 100 or around 1 in 4 persons.
Less than once a year      18% ― which is 18 in 100 or around 1 in 6 persons.
Never prays the Rosary   35% ― which is 35 in 100 or around 7 in 20 persons.

► 2008 USA Rosary Praying Stats for Those Regularly Attending Mass A FEW TIMES A YEAR OR LESS

FREQUENCY
Every day                            2% ― which is 2 in 100 or around 1 in 50 persons.
More than once a week 1% ― which is 1 in 100 persons.
Once a week                       0% ―
Almost once every week 1% ― which is 1 in 100 persons.
Once or twice a month 2% ― which is 2 in 100 or 1 in 50 persons.
Only a few times a year   12% ― which is 12 in 100 or around 1 in 9 persons.
Less than once a year 17% ― which is 17 in 100 or around 1 in 6 persons.
Never prays the Rosary   65% ― which is 65 in 100 or around 13 in 20 persons.

► The older USA Catholics are, the more likely they are to pray the Rosary
● 73% of the Pre-Vatican II Generation,
● 58% of the Vatican II Generation,
● 44% of the Post-Vatican II Generation,
● 39% percent of the Millennial Generation

► By the Year 2015 ...
● By the year 2015, only 16% of parents ― around 3 in 20 ― pray the Rosary at least once a month (7% at least once a week).
● Weekly Mass attenders are most likely to pray the Rosary at least once a year (68%).
● Among the few who still pray the Rosary, half say they typically do so with their family (18% of all Catholic parents) and half do not (18% of all Catholic parents).
● 64% ― or over 6 in 10 ― of parents do not pray the Rosary.
● Among these respondents who never pray the Rosary, the most common reasons cited for not doing so were having no desire or need to pray it (39%), never learning or forgetting how to say it (24%), and time issues (17%).

Statistical Summary Selection
Let us look at some takeaways from the mass of stats shown above.
● In 2008―and things have not improved since then, but have become much worse, especially with the internet smartphone explosion since around 2010―but in 2008, among those who attended Mass once a week or more often, there were just about 60% (59%) ― or 6 out of 10 Catholics ― who only prayed the Rosary once a month, or less often, or never. That is REGULAR MASS GOING CATHOLICS!
● In 2008, of those who only attended Mass less than once week but at least twice a month, there were 80% ― or 8 out 10 Catholics ― who only prayed the Rosary once a month, or less often, or never.
● In 2008, of those who only attended Mass only a few times a year, there were 94% ― or 19 out 20 Catholics ― who only prayed the Rosary once a month, or less often, or never.

In 2008, only 24% attended Mass once a week or more; 48% attended a few times month and 28% attended rarely or never (CARA statistics). Superimposing the above Rosary statistics on top of those Mass attendance statistics, and trying to "cross-reference" their statistics, results in the following overall daily Rosary recitation for certain groups (not all of them―hence the total does not come to 100%).

► USA Daily Rosary Numbers
Obviously, the best scenario is the “Daily Rosary” scenario. How many Catholics, overall (including practicing and non-practicing) pray the Rosary daily?
Once a week Mass attenders praying a daily Rosary = 11% = 11 out of 100
Twice a month Mass attenders praying a daily Rosary = 5% = 5 out of 100
Few times a year Mass attenders praying a daily Rosary = 2% = 2 out of 100
Adding all that together gives a total number of persons praying a daily Rosary as = 18 out of 300 persons = 6%

► USA Praying the Rosary Once or Twice a Month Numbers
Not good―but better than nothing. Once or twice a month hardly expresses any kind of love or compliant obedience to Our Lady’s requests! How would an employer view an employee who only does what is asked of him once or twice a month? Nevertheless, the numbers for these persons are as follows:
Once a week Mass attenders praying a Rosary once or twice a month = 6% = 6 out of 100
Twice a month Mass attenders praying a Rosary once or twice a month = 6% = 6 out of 100
Few times a year Mass attenders praying a Rosary once or twice a month = 2% = 2 out of 100
Adding all that together gives a total number of persons praying a Rosary once or twice a month as = 14 out of 300 persons = just over 4%

► USA Praying the Rosary Few Times a Year, Less than Once a Year, or Never
If the previous level was not good, then this is the “pits”―will it help them? Very little. Few times a year is more of an insult than anything else―and is not even an attempt at showing love or compliant obedience to Our Lady’s requests! Again, put in a secular setting, how would an employer view an employee who only does what is asked of him only a few times a year, or never? Nevertheless, the numbers for these persons are as follows:
Once a week Mass attenders praying a Rosary only few times a year, less, or never = 59% = 59 out of 100
Twice a month Mass attenders praying a Rosary only few times a year, less, or never = 80% = 80 out of 100
Few times a year Mass attenders praying a Rosary only few times a year, less, or never = 94% = 94 out of 100
Adding all that together gives a total number of persons praying a Rosary only few times a year, less, or never = 233 out of 300 persons = 78%

Even the Worse Than All That is the Fact That…
If you thought thing could not get worse, then you have merely looked at the QUANTITATIVE aspect of HOW MANY people are praying the Rosary, but have overlooked and ignored something far more important than the mere quantitative aspect. What is that? It is the QUALITATIVE aspect of HOW WELL people pray the Rosary―for does not Our Lord complain that: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). Could not Our Lady say the same?

In fact, St. Louis de Montfort addresses this point in his book, The Secret of the Rosary, wherein he writes:

“A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly. Most Catholics say the Rosary, either the whole fifteen mysteries or five of them, or at least a few decades. Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should … In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin.

“How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? How can we expect him to be pleased if, while in the presence of his tremendous majesty, we give in to distractions, like a child running after a butterfly? People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: “Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently” (Jeremias 48:10).

“Being human, we easily become tired and slipshod, but the devil makes these difficulties worse when we are saying the Rosary. Before we even begin, he makes us feel bored, distracted, or exhausted; and when we have started praying, he oppresses us from all sides, and when after much difficulty and many distractions, we have finished, he whispers to us ― ‘What you have just said is worthless. It is useless for you to say the Rosary. You had better get on with other things. It is only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you are saying; half‑an‑hour’s meditation or some spiritual reading would be much better. Tomorrow, when you are not feeling so sluggish, you’ll pray better; leave the rest of your Rosary till then.’ ― By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether or to say it less often, and we keep putting it off or change to some other devotion.

“Take great care to avoid the two pitfalls that most people fall into during the Rosary. The first is the danger of not asking for any graces at all, so that if some good people were asked their Rosary intention they would not know what to say. So, whenever you say your Rosary, be sure to ask for some special grace or virtue, or strength to overcome some sin.

“The second fault commonly committed in saying the Rosary is to have no intention other than that of getting it over with as quickly as possible. This is because so many look upon the Rosary as a burden, which weighs heavily upon them when it has not been said, especially when we have promised to say it regularly or have been told to say it as a penance more or less against our will.

“It is sad to see how most people say the Rosary. They say it astonishingly fast, slipping over part of the words. We could not possibly expect anyone, even the most important person, to think that a slipshod address of this kind was a compliment, and yet we imagine that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! Small wonder, then, that the most sacred prayers of our holy religion seem to bear no fruit, and that, after saying thousands of Rosaries, we are still no better than we were before.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday September 25th & Thursday September 26th

Article 13
One Week to Go! Are You Ready?

How Would You Feel If …?
Imagine your reaction and how you would feel if your bank told you that they would multiply by 100 whatever amount you deposited into your bank account―not just once, but every single time henceforward! Or imagine being told by your gas or electricity supplier that your next payment would be accounted as 100 times the actual payment that you would make―not just once, but always! Wow! Who would not be thrilled and overjoyed at such a deal?

Wouldn’t it be nice if God would do the same thing for us? God is God, isn’t He? Does not Our Lord and Holy Scripture confirm, on several occasions, that “the things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27) … “And Jesus said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:26) … “And Jesus looking on them, saith: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God―for all things are possible with God!’” (Mark 10:27) … and the Angel Gabriel said to Our Lady at the Annunciation: “No word shall be impossible with God!” (Luke 1:37).

Talking of “no word” being impossible to God, triggers several instances where a mere word by God―and sometimes by God’s mere representatives―suddenly and immediately brought about some happening or miracle that would normally take years and superhuman efforts to achieve. We think of the times that Jesus calmed violent storms and winds in an instant: “Jesus saith to them: ‘Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm” (Matthew 8:26). “And rising up, Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea: ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm” (Mark 4:39)―a few words, and immediate results! We even see something similar in the case of God’s prophet, Jonas, who was caught up in a terrible storm on the sea: “And they said to Jonas: ‘What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea flowed and swelled!’ And Jonas said to them: ‘Take me up and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you! For I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you!’ … And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging” (Jonas 1:11-12, 15).

Another instance where God multiplies “utility payments” or “bank-deposits” is seen in the two separate miracles involving the multiplication of loaves and fishes, with the 1feeding of the four-thousand and also five-thousand men--for those who think it is one and the same miracle, with it being hard to count the exact number of persons, please note that it is St. Matthew who mentions the two miracles in two successive chapters of his Gospel―chapters 14 and 15―so they are clearly two separate occasions.

“And Jesus called together His disciples, and said: ‘I have compassion on the multitudes, because they continue with Me now three days, and have not what to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way!’ And the disciples say unto Him: ‘Whence then should we have so many loaves in the desert, as to fill so great a multitude?’ And Jesus said to them: ‘How many loaves have you?’ But they said: ‘Seven, and a few little fishes!’ And He commanded the multitude to sit down upon the ground. And taking the seven loaves and the fishes, and giving thanks, He broke and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the people. And they did all eat, and had their fill. And they took up seven baskets full, of what remained of the fragments. And they that did eat, were four thousand men, beside children and women” (Matthew 15:32-38).

“The multitudes followed Jesus on foot out of the cities. And He, coming forth, saw a great multitude and had compassion on them, and healed their sick. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying: ‘This is a desert place, and the hour is now past! Send away the multitudes, that going into the towns, they may buy themselves food and drink!’ But Jesus said to them: ‘They have no need to go! Give you them to eat!’ They answered Him: ‘We have not here, but five loaves, and two fishes!’ He said to them: ‘Bring them here to Me!’ And when He had commanded the multitudes to sit down upon the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to Heaven, He blessed, and broke, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up what remained, twelve full baskets of fragments. And the number of them that did eat, was five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:13-21).

Ah! If Jesus would only multiply our bank accounts in His compassion!

Bargaining with God for “Cut-Price-Deals”
So if God can do what is impossible for men (and for banks and the utilities companies), then why not hope for a “hundredfold” payment plan or deposit plan with God? Who would dare ask for one? Would God even consider giving one? Could we try force His hand with the Scriptural quote: “But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day!” (2 Peter 3:8)? So could we not try and get Him to agree that “one day of penance will be counted as a thousand days of penance”? Or that “one Sunday’s attendance at Mass will be counted as a thousand Sundays of Mass attendance”? Or that “one prayer will be counted as a thousand prayers”?

God “Cuts-Us-A-Deal” But There Are Few Takers!
Actually―in case you did not know―God HAS “cut-us-a-deal” and “made us an offer we cannot refuse”―but, sadly, most actually DO REFUSE the deal and toss aside the bargain! Holy Scripture even tells us that from the earliest times of the world, God has always been open to “cutting-us deals” or giving us “bargains” that are simply unbelievable.

Abraham “Cuts-a-Deal” with God
We see one instance where, due their innumerable sins, God was ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha―when Abraham steps in and tries to “cut-a-deal” with God:

“Abraham stood before the Lord, and, drawing nigh, he said: ‘Wilt Thou destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish with the rest? And wilt Thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just men, if they be therein? Far be it from Thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked! This is not beseeming Thee! Thou, Who judgest all the Earth, wilt not make this judgment!’ And the Lord said to him: ‘If I find in Sodom fifty just men within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake!’

“And Abraham answered, and said: ‘Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes! What if there be five less than fifty just persons? Wilt Thou, for forty-five, destroy the whole city?’ And the Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five!’

“And again Abraham said to Him: ‘But if forty be found there―what wilt Thou do?’ The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of forty!’

“‘Lord!’ saith Abraham, ‘Be not angry, I beseech Thee, if I speak! What if thirty shall be found there? The Lord answered: ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there!’

“‘Seeing,’ saith Abraham, ‘I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord! What if twenty be found there?’ The Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty!’

“‘I beseech Thee’ saith Abraham, ‘be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more! What if ten should be found there? And the Lord said: ‘I will not destroy it for the sake of ten!’ And the Lord departed after He had left speaking to Abraham―and Abraham returned to his place” (Genesis 18:22-33).

Moses “Cuts-a-Deal” with God
Even though God had led His Chosen People out of Egypt, as St. Paul later explains that “with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert” (1 Corinthians 10:5)―because of their idolatry and faithlessness. God was ready to destroy them on several occasions, but Moses stepped-in to plead with Him and “cut-a-deal”.

“And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: ‘Arise! Make us gods! That may go before us! For as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him!’ And Aaron said to them: Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me. And the people did what he had commanded, bringing the earrings to Aaron. And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders' work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: ‘These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt!’ And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims, and the people sat down to eat, and drink, and they rose up to play.

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Go, get thee down! Thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned! They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst show them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it. See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’

“But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: ‘Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation kindled against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: “He craftily brought them out, that He might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the Earth!” Let Thy anger cease and be appeased upon the wickedness of Thy people! Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants―to whom Thou swore by Thy own Self, saying: “I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever!”’ And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken against His people. And Moses returned from the mount, carrying the two tables of the testimony in his hand, written on both sides” (Exodus 32:1-15).

Purgatorial Deal―One Hell of a Deal!
Fast-forwarding to the times of the Catholic Faith―we see God give a phenomenal deal with regard to the afterlife. God could have a straight “black and white” policy with regard to Heaven and Hell. Sin and you go to Hell. Avoid all sin and you go to Heaven. He would well within in His rights by doing so―for sin, whether it be venial sin or mortal sin, is the greatest evil in the world. You would expect that, after having committed the greatest evil in the world, there was only one place you could expect to go―Hell. Satan and the fallen angels were condemned to Hell for one single sin. The saints tell us―and apparitions of the damned seem to substantiate this―that there are many souls in Hell today for having committed one single mortal sin. How so? Why so? Well―simply because they were not repentant and sorry for their mortal sin and would not confess it, or would confess it incorrectly, or lied about it.

How many sins have we committed in our lifetime? How many mortal sins? How many venial sins? The main problem is that we fail to grasp and accept the fact the sin―even the proverbial “teeny-weeny venial sin”―is the greatest evil in the world. Our catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).

How many “greatest evils” have we piled-up in our lives? How great must be the debt we owe God! How many times have we deserved Hell? The thought should―but sadly it doesn’t―make us tremble! Yet rather than send us to Hell, God has created Purgatory―which, as the saints say, has the same fire as that of Hell, nevertheless ends at some point. However, to reach the “safety-net” of Purgatory, we must still die in a state of sanctifying grace. The reason we go to Purgatory is that, even though we may have sincerely, truthfully, accurately and correctly confessed our sins―whether mortal or venial―we have not sufficiently paid the price for sin through penance or love. Hence the soul is sent to Purgatory to pay those debts.

Yet the deal that God offers is even greater than that of Purgatory! There is no need to go to Purgatory―a soul could and should go straight to Heaven, even if they have sinned! How? Either through performing great penances, or through a great love of God and neighbor―or both. The Good Thief was told he would go to Paradise that very same day―he was accepting his horrible fate in a true spirit of penance, saying: “‘We receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil!’ And he said to Jesus: ‘Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy Kingdom!’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise!’” (Luke 23:41-43). What a great deal! He admitted and confessed his sins sincerely and took what was coming for them.

Similarly in the case of Mary Magdalen, of whom Our Lord said: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much!” (Luke 7:47)―reinforcing the words of Holy Scripture: “Charity covereth all sins!” (Proverbs 10:12)―a lesson that St. Peter later recalls and repeats in his epistle: “Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins!” (1 Peter 4:8). Another great deal! How many profit from it? How many take it up? How many practice it? It would seem not very many―since as Our Lord, Our Lady and the saints tell us: most souls are lost!

Modern-Day Deal―Mary’s Deal
We could list many more “Divine-Deals” throughout the history of mankind―some large-scale, others small-scale, some before the time of Christ, others after the time of Christ―but both time and space prohibit that. Let us, instead, turn to the focal point of this article― “There is little time left! Are you ready?” In starting this article, there was one week left before the beginning of the month of the Holy Rosary. Are you really ready for a month that could not only be called “The Month of the Holy Rosary” but also “The Month of the Heavenly Deal”!

Sr. Lucia of Fatima has revealed the deal to us by saying: “The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary, to such an extent, that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or, above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves, we will sanctify ourselves, we will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”

The Saints have many times proved the truth of those words and the Rosary has itself proved their truth by being the source of numerous miracles in the history of mankind since its advent. Some miracles have been striking and have benefitted many―these have been written in annals of history. Other miracles have been more personal and some of them known only to a few or just simply to their recipient―but these are no less a miracle. We think of the Battle of Lepanto. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The miraculously peaceful withdrawal of Russian troops occupying Austria in the 1950s. The overthrow of the imminent Communist-Socialist government in Brazil in the 1960s. All of these were striking on a large scale. Yet there are many “little” miracles―whether physical miracles, spiritual miracles, miracles of grace, financial miracles, health miracles, etc. that are available to one and all―if only they would use the Rosary as it is really meant to be used.

This is what we need to focus on for this month of October―the Month of the Holy Rosary. This is what we have so badly neglected in bygone years. Our Rosaries―if we even say them―are poor and pale imitations of Heaven’s “blueprint” for the Rosary. It is hardly surprising that we achieve so little with them! As St. Louis de Montfort writes, in his book, The Secret of the Rosary:

Making Better Use of Your Rosary This Coming Month of October
“A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly. Most Catholics say the Rosary, either the whole fifteen mysteries or five of them, or at least a few decades. Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should … To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace, or at least be fully determined to give up sin, for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin. The stronger our Faith the more merit our Rosary will have. This Faith must be lively and informed by charity; in other words, to recite the Rosary properly it is necessary to be in God’s grace, or at least seeking it” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

“In order to pray well, it is not enough to give expression to our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary, but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. How can we expect God to listen to us if we ourselves do not pay attention to what we are saying? How can we expect him to be pleased if, while in the presence of his tremendous majesty, we give in to distractions, like a child running after a butterfly? People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: “Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently” (Jeremias 48:10) ” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

“When the Rosary is well said, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer. But it is also the hardest prayer to say well and to persevere in, owing especially to the distractions which almost inevitably attend the constant repetition of the same words. Of course, you cannot say your Rosary without having a few involuntary distractions; it is even difficult to say a Hail Mary without your imagination troubling you a little, for it is never still; but you can say it without voluntary distractions, and you must take all sorts of precautions to lessen involuntary distractions and to control your imagination” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

“To do this, put yourself in the presence of God and imagine that God and his Blessed Mother are watching you, and that your guardian angel is at your right hand, taking your Hail Marys, if they are well said, and using them like roses to make crowns for Jesus and Mary. Our imagination, which is hardly still a minute, makes our task harder, and then of course there is the devil, who never tires of trying to distract us and keep us from praying. To what ends does not the evil one go against us while we are engaged in saying our Rosary against him. Remember that at your left hand is the devil, ready to pounce on every Hail Mary that comes his way and to write it down in his book of death, if they are not said with attention, devotion, and reverence” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

“Our Lady also taught it to Blessed Alan de la Roche and said to him in a vision, “When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.” For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

“Above all, do not fail to offer up each decade in honor of one of the mysteries, and try to form a picture in your mind of Jesus and Mary in connection with that mystery … We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that, not having known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind, Jesus will reject him on the Day of Judgment with the reproach, ‘I tell you solemnly, I do not know you!’ (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday September 23rd & Tuesday September 24th

Article 12
Swimming in a Swamp that We'd Rather Not Be In!

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Want to Swamped with Information?
Talking of swamps―what is a swamp? It is one of those countless words that we use while only having a vague idea of it―much as we are with the Faith! Is a swamp a good thing or a bad thing? Are swamps advantageous or disadvantageous? Would you love to live in a swamp or hate to live in a swamp? Would you like to be swamped with definitions and explanations? No? Well never mind―we can’t always get what we want and that is especially true of the weather and the environment we have to live in―and the weather and environment play a massive role in creating swamps.

Since the Pope wants the Synod to talk about ecology―let us jump on the papal bandwagon too! In Ecology, also called bio-ecology, or environmental biology there are four kinds of wetland. A “SWAMP” is a forested wetland often partially or intermittently covered with water. A “MARSH” is a wetland that mainly grows grasses rather than trees, as in the case of the swamp. A “BOG” or “bogland” is a wetland that accumulates peat, which is a deposit of dead plant material and is basically a “muddy” wetland of acidic surface soil, low in minerals and nutrients. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire. A “FEN” is a kind of mire, similar to a bog, but fens are usually fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater and their water is pH neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients, usually dominated by grasses similar to marshes. So now you know! Swamped with information! Bogged-down with facts! Finding all this to be no “fen” at all, but tediously boring!

If you wants “rivers” of information, then know that the largest swamp in the world is the Amazon River floodplain. Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.

Historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies, or woodlands. They have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to gain more land usable for planting crops. Yet scientists now realize that swamps and other wetlands are critically important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life, and that they are often breeding grounds for a wide variety of species. Wetlands play a number of functions, including water purification, water storage, processing of carbon and other nutrients, stabilization of shorelines, and support of plants and animals.

Derived Meanings of “Swamp”
The word “swamp” does not merely have a physical or ecological meaning―looking at the notion of a swamp analogically or metaphorically, our culture has come up with a variety of moral meanings for the word “swamp”. Some of those meanings indicate the “submerged under water” element of the swamp, other meanings focus on the unpleasant, dirty, muddy, mired idea of the swamp; while others focus on the nasty bacterial side or the creepy, crawly, dangerous animal and insect dwellers within a swamp. Thus you get moral meanings of swamp such as:

(a) a difficult or troublesome situation or subject; a situation or place fraught with difficulties and imponderables―as in a financial swamp.
(b) to become submerged, flooded, inundated, burdened; overwhelmed―as in “She was swamped with work.”
(c) to be made helpless
(d) to be numerically outnumbered by something―as in being swamped by applications or phone calls.
(e) to be plunged or caused to sink in something, as if in a swamp.

Whichever way you look at it―even if swamps and other wetlands are ultimately beneficial to mankind―they are not nice places to be in. The same can be said about the swamp of the crisis in the Church today. Yes―we can profit from it, it can work to our ultimate benefit―but it is not a nice experience and, like any swamp, it can be a decidedly deadly experience if we are not careful and well-prepared.

The Swamp of Liberalism and Modernism
Today, we are living in the middle of, and wading through, an omnipresent (all times) and ubiquitous (all places) swamp of Liberalism and Modernism―which, put together, is basically a spirit of “think what you want―say what you want―do what you want―change what you want”. It has penetrated everywhere―politics, academics, official media, social media, fashion, sport, culture, the workplace, the home and, of course, the Church. Most people are so ignorant that they do not even realize that “they’ve got it”―meaning that they are Liberals and Modernists to one degree or another. It has become such a permanent fixture that it is now looked upon as being “normal”―and anyone who is not a Liberal or Modernist (very few) are looked upon as being “abnormal”. Just as a person’s legs can barely be budged in a swamp―likewise, a person’s mind can barely think when immersed in the swamp of Liberalism and Modernism―it is so dense, so sticky, without any solidity or firmness. You try to grasp it―and it squirms and squelches out of your grasp.

There is obviously the “bad guy” swamp, but there is also a “good guy” swamp―the former gives birth to the latter. The “bad guys” have created a swamp by their actions―the “good guys” create a swamp by their reaction. The “bad guys” by their bad motives, bad doctrine, bad lives and bad deeds have created a worldwide swamp―which nobody can really avoid and everyone has to pretty much live in it and walk through it. The “good guys” can react in one of two ways―they can either start draining the swamp by battling it in the correct way, or they add more to it.

The Swamp of Swamps
The ultimate swamp―apart from the swamp of Hell―is the swamp of the world and worldliness. It is from this swamp that all other swamps get their existence. Our Lord and the Apostles are brutally clear about the dangers of wandering into this swamp:

“And He spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’ And He said to His disciples: ‘Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? O ye of little Faith! Seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!’” (Luke 12:16-31).

St. Matthew re-echoes the same message about the dangers of getting caught-up in the swamp of the world and worldliness: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24).

We see the otherwise good and well-intentioned rich young man caught-up in and deeply sunk into the swamp of worldly possessions and interests: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).

On the same note, Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Voluntary poverty is a generous renunciation and detachment from the heavy burden of temporal things. It is an alleviation of the spirit, it is a relief afforded to human infirmity, giving the heart freedom to strive after eternal and spiritual blessings. All this and many other blessings are contained in voluntary poverty, and all this the sons of the world are ignorant and deprived of―precisely because they are lovers of earthly riches and enemies of this holy and rich poverty. They do not consider―although they feel and suffer―the heavy weight of riches, which pins them to the Earth and drives them into its very bowels to seek gold and silver in great anxiety, sleeplessness, labors and sweat. And if they are thus weighed down before acquiring riches, how much more when they have come into their possession? Let the countless hosts that have fallen into Hell with their burden, proclaim it! Let their incalculable anxieties of preserving their riches, and much more, let the intolerable laws, which riches and those that possess them have foisted upon the world, testify what is required to retain them!

“Great possessions thou must renounce as superfluous; thou dost not need them and it is a crime to keep them for no purpose … To possess more than is necessary creates unrest and affliction of spirit … What can the world give thee, even when it esteems thee and exalts thee most? And what dost thou lose, if thou despise it? Is its favor not all vanity and deceit (Psalm 4:3)? Is it not all a fleeting and momentary shadow, which eludes the grasp of those that haste after it? Hence, if thou hadst all worldly advantage in thy possession, what great feat would it be to despise it as of no value? For I assure thee, there is no more acceptable gift to the Most High than voluntary poverty. There are very few in the world in our days who use well the temporal riches and offer them to their God and Lord with generosity and love … The poor of the Lord, so numerous in our day, experience and give witness how cruel and avaricious human nature has become; since in their great necessities they are so little helped by the rich. This gross uncharitableness of men offends the Holy Ghost … As if all things had been created for the individual use of the rich, they appropriate them to themselves and deprive the poor … It is most lamentable that while the rich might purchase eternal life with their possessions, they abuse them to draw upon themselves damnation as senseless and foolish creatures! This evil is common among the children of Adam; and therefore voluntary poverty is so excellent and safe a remedy.

“If, on the one hand, possessions throttle the spirit and tyrannically oppress it in its weakness, if they suppress the soul’s most noble privilege of following eternal goods and God Himself: it is certain on the other hand, that voluntary poverty restores to man the nobility of his condition and, liberating him from vile servitude and reinstating him his noble freedom and mastery of all things. The soul is never more a mistress than when she despises them, and only then has she the more firm possession and makes the more excellent use of riches, when she gives them away or leaves them of her own free will; only then her appetite for them is best satiated, when she does not care to possess them. Then above all is the heart set free and made capable of the treasures of the Divinity” (Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).

Never before, in the history of mankind, has the swamp of worldliness, luxury, abundance of goods and entertainment been so readily available on such a widespread worldwide scale. Never has this swamp been so deep! It is in vain that we protest that we have not sucked into this swamp―almost every soul is caught in it―some on the banks, some in the very middle, some up to their ankles, other to their knees, others up to their chin.

Swamp of Ignorance
One has to wonder what will be the effect of our even increasing reliance on that the newly developed technological craze of “AI” which is the abbreviation for “Artificial Intelligence”? Since the 1980s we have had access to calculators of various types. Today, we can include not only computers and smartphones ― which are attached to our hip 24/7 ― but these have now compromised our sovereignty (being in control) even more by the arrival of the “new kid on the block” ― or should that read: “new king on the block” alias “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence” (or just plain old “Arty” to his friends). Yet, as they say, “here is the rub”! Could “AI” not only stand for “Artificial Intelligence”, but also for “Artificial Ignorance”? Now that’s a thought, huh?

Does all this (excessive) love of and reliance on modern technology makes us fall out love and cast aside plain old theology? In other words, does our love for technology lessen our love for God? Does our reliance on “Artificial Intelligence” in technology, reduce our “Natural Intelligence” and methodology? By relying on “Artificial Intelligent” robots―anywhere from super-calculators, GPSs (Global Positioning Satellites), and now the new craze of robot assistants such as “Google Assitant” or Amazon’s “Alexa” or Microsoft’s “Cortana” or Apple’s “Siri” or Samsung’s “Bixby”―by all this ever-increasing reliance on the these robotic “Artificial Intelligence” assistants, are we becoming more and more like ignorant robots in the process? Is “Artificial Intelligence” in machines leading to “Artificial Ignorance” in mankind? For, as the saying goes― “Use it or lose it!” If you don’t exercise muscle, you lose muscle. If you don’t exercise mental muscle, you lose mental muscle. Like body flexibility, mental flexibility (“plasticity” in official ‘lingo’) requires stretching and exercise for maintenance. Once we delegate our mental exercises to a machine, then we are signing our own eventual intellectual death warrant―we introduce a “brain drain” whereby our increasing dependency on the “Artificial Intelligent” machine, will mean an increasing “Artificial Ignorance” in man. “Use it or lose it!”

Recent research in human intelligence tests has discovered that the earlier trend that saw people steadily obtaining higher IQ scores through the 20th century has suddenly stopped. An analysis of some 730,000 IQ test results by researchers from the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Norway reveals that on the whole, the IQ for people peaked during the mid-1970s, and has significantly declined ever since. The researchers examined the IQ test scores of 18- to 19-year-old Norwegian men who took the tests as part of their national, compulsory military service. The research lasted for almost 40 years―from 1970 to 2009, over 730,000 (almost three-quarters of a million) IQ test results. These studies suggest that changes in lifestyle could be the reason or cause behind these lower IQs―such as the way children are educated, the way they are raised, the occupations they are allowed to have, the types of play they engage in, whether they read books or not, and so on. It is almost indisputable that modern generations have become more “play orientated” than “orientated”; more “entertainment orientated” than “intellectually orientated”―they play more than they think, and when they think, they think of playing. Thought becomes superficial. Study is neglected. Knowledge of worthwhile things decreases as knowledge of trivia increases (the mind can only hold so much and no more). All of this dovetails with the advent or explosion of technological devices from the early 1960s (when TV became commonplace in all households), through the 1990’s (when the digital cell phones and internet was commonplace) to the 2010s (when smartphones became commonplace). Nowadays, the average age worldwide for being given your own personal smartphone is 11-years-of-age! Is it that smart?

“Bread and Games” Lead to the Swamp of Ignorance
The world is the devil’s playground―actually, it is, as Our Lord says, his princedom―for the devil is the prince of theis world. Thus, the devil will use the world to create a swamp into which he will and entice you―but he will make his swamp appealing, not repulsive―it will be attractive rather than repelling. The phrase “bread and circuses” or “bread and games” comes from Latin “panem et circenses” ― it critiques superficial appeasement or a fake peace based on superficialities, or as one dictionary defines it: “something, like extravagant entertainment for example, that is offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.” The idea behind it is that people can be easily pacified by food and entertainment―that It’s just too difficult to get upset when your belly is full and your mind is distracted. When the people are well-fed and having fun, they will be too contented or lazy to protest against those in charge or those who are annoying them.

The phrase is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD. Juvenal used it to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies the erosion or creation of IGNORANCE of a population’s notion of civic duty as a priority in life―being replaced by a lust for “bread and circuses” or “bread and games”. Juvenal, speaking of the Roman people, writes: “They follow fortune, as always. They discarded their responsibilities long ago … for the people who once handed out power, political office, command of the legions, everything, now holds itself in check and anxious hopes for only two things ― bread and circuses” (Juvenal, Satire, 10, 72 – 81).

The above phrase means―in today’s terms―that at times politicians and powerful people will try to take away the constitutional rights of people by sedating their minds and paying them off with plastic chips. They give you some cheap food and easy entertainment, while they take away your civic rights. The government policy of Roman Emperors, in the later stages of the Empire, was to give away both free bread (and other food) and free entertainment to titillate and placate the larger number of people who were otherwise being poorly served by their government. Thus we see that the use of distractions and propaganda as a means of diversion of the mind of the people to a different state of reality (virtual reality)―one which is defined by the ruling classes, the politicians and the political parties―is not something new. Today, the Roman “bread and circuses” or “bread and games” could be social security benefits or bank loans or credit cards that go into the modern day policy of titillating and placating by means of “money and entertainment” or “food and the internet” or “entertainment and smartphones” or “booze/drugs and social media” or whatever else―the truth is that everyone has their own version of bread and circuses” or “bread and games” that distract them from the more important things in life―especially the duties they owe God and the salvation of their souls. That is why most souls are lost―for the devil supplies them with all the bread and circuses” or “bread and games” that they could possibly want―see the triple temptation of Our Lord by Satan, where Satan offers him “bread”, “fame” and “riches”:

“And when Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter coming said to Him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!’ Who answered and said: ‘It is written, “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!”’ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to him: ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written: “That He hath given His angels charge over Thee, and in their hands shall they bear Thee up, lest perhaps Thou dash Thy foot against a stone!”’ Jesus said to him: It is written again: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!”’ Again the devil took Him up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:2-11).

Swamp of Immorality
“Who, indeed, will deny that knowledge should be joined to holiness of life” (Pope St. Pius X). Today, we are satisfied with knowledge alone―and a knowledge of trivial (entertaining) things rather than the really important (boring) things―holiness of life is not a priority, but a far distant secondary non-obligatory accessory or option. Once you step into the swamp of “bread and circuses” or “bread and games”―where your belly is full and your mind is distracted; where the people are well-fed and having fun―then the “Swamp of Immorality” is only a step away. The spiritual writers and moral theologians tell us that gluttony and greed in food and drink lead to lust and immorality. Our Lady of Fatima alerted us to the fact that, in these modern centuries, the sin that damns most souls is that of impurity.

Each sin has its own special effects. As said above, gluttony leads to impurity. What does impurity lead to? St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the sins which directly cause spiritual blindness are all mortal sins pertaining to lust. In this matter, the Angelic Doctor follows Pope St. Gregory the Great. But what is it about sins of the flesh, and lust in particular, which causes spiritual blindness? St. Thomas says that “The mind comes to understand truth through an abstraction from sensible phantasms or images. Thus, the more a man’s mind is freed from those phantasms, the more thoroughly will it be able to consider intelligible realities. On the other hand, the more a man’s intellect is fixed on the sensible realities, the less he will be able to understand the essence of things ― since the essence is invisible and immaterial.”

St. Thomas Aquinas continues: “Now it is evident that pleasure fixes a man’s attention on that which he takes pleasure in. Now carnal vices―namely gluttony and lust―are concerned with pleasures of touch in matters of food and sex; and these are the most impetuous of all pleasures of the body. For this reason these vices cause man’s attention to be firmly fixed on corporeal things, so that in consequence man’s operation, in regard to the intelligible (abstract or spiritual) things, is weakened; more, however, by lust than by gluttony, forasmuch as sexual pleasures are more vehement than those of eating and drinking. Wherefore lust gives rise to blindness of mind, which excludes almost entirely the knowledge of spiritual things.” (Summa Theologica, IIa-IIae, q. 15, art. 3).

Thus, it is precisely sexual sins which lead to this spiritual blindness ― for lust directs all our attention to the things of Earth and makes us blind to the things of Heaven. Today, no matter where we turn, we are literally bombarded with impure images―TV programs and commercials, Cable, Movies, Magazines, Newspaper advertisements, and most especially the easy access to Internet via the laptops, tablets and smartphones—the sources never end! It is like an avalanche that has started and in full force. There is barely anything in the world that fights more fiercely against growth in the spiritual life than giving in to impurity by thought, word or deed.

Swamp of Indifference

Swamp of Recrimination and Accusation

Swamp of Lukewarmness

Swamp of Technology

Swamp of Gossip

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday September 20th & Saturday September 21st & Sunday September 22nd

Article 11
Who Do We Think We Are Fooling? Only Ourselves!

Have Catholics Gone “Quackers”?
O how frustrating, deflating, yet aggravating it is to behold Catholics who will just not be told, that the life they live will very soon bring the very thing that, in their heart of hearts, they know to be true but about which they will nothing do! Our Lady can speak till she’s as blue in the face as her robe of grace, but whatever she may say, always flows away like water off a duck’s back and from Catholics there is heard not a quack! Yet soon that Catholic ‘duck’ will be out luck, as God, in His ire, will send from Heaven great fire, which those ‘ducks’ will roast and they will be toast―for they failed to hear, when Our Lady did appear, her words of warning which now will bring mourning. Because, as Jesus said in His Jerusalem lamentation: “Thou hast not known the time of thy visitation!’” (Luke 19:44). The Jews neglected and refused to listen to Jesus―which led to the utter destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD―just as Jesus had prophesied:

“If Only You Had Known..”
“And when Jesus drew near, seeing the city [Jerusalem], he wept over it, saying: ‘If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation!’” (Luke 19:41-44) … “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate! … Amen I say to you there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed!” (Matthew 23:37-38; 24:2). Why? Because they would just not listen! In one ear and out the other―the word of God they sought to smother! Likewise, the Church and perhaps we ourselves, have also sought to smother the words of God’s Mother. Yes―we have heard them, we remember them, we can regurgitate them―yet we have a tendency to smother them.

“What goes around, comes around” and “history repeats itself”―if we will not learn our history and learn from history, then we will be doomed to learn our history by repeating history. If we fail to listen to Heaven, then Heaven will fail to listen to us! “‘So shall they cry, and I will not hear!’ saith the Lord of hosts” (Zacharias 7:13). “They have filled the land with iniquity, and have turned to provoke Me to anger! Therefore I also will deal with them in My wrath: My eye shall not spare them, neither will I show mercy: and when they shall cry to My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them!” (Ezechiel 8:17-18). “And the Lord said to me: ‘I conjured your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt even to this day I conjured them, and said: “Listen ye to My voice!” And they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear: but walked every one in the perverseness of his own wicked heart! They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear My words. So these, likewise, have gone after strange gods, to serve them. Wherefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring in evils upon them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to me, and I will not listen to them. And they shall go and cry to the gods to whom they offer sacrifice [computers, laptops, smartphones, TVs, Artificial Intelligence of Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, etc.], and they shall not save them in the time of their affliction. Therefore, do not thou pray for this people, for I will not hear them in the time of their cry to Me, in the time of their affliction!’” (Jeremias 11:6-14).

Quackers, Crackers, Nuts and Insane
“What goes around, comes around!” What we do to others, will be done to us! “History repeats itself” ― and we are on the verge of receiving a whopping history lesson, one that will never ever be forgotten―for, as Our Lady of Akita says: “In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.” Yet we know all that―we’ve read it a hundred times―we’ve heard it a thousand times―and no matter how many more times we will hear it, it will still flow off us like water off a duck’s back! We have gone “quackers” or “crackers”, “nuts” or “insane”! We are like the typical modern-day teenager, who just digs the heels in, and grits the teeth, and listens to the criticism or command for the umpteenth time with the grim resolution of outlasting the parents or teachers and forcing them into eventual submission and silence through an obstinate refusal to take on board what is being said to them and complying with those instructions or commands.

The words of Our Lord are even more appropriate for our day than they were back then: “Seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive!’ For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:13-15).

As Our Lady said to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “The foolishness of men makes them stupid and deaf … Keep in mind always the misfortune of the imprudent and foolish virgins, who, in their thoughtless negligence, rejected wise counsel and cast aside fear, instead of being solicitous; and, when afterwards they sought to make up for it, they found the door of salvation closed against them (Matthew 25:12). What foolishness is it, when men pursue so blindly the deceitful and vile delights of the senses, and when they abhor so much all that pertains to suffering for Christ and for the good of their soul … Men are lost in forgetful rest and sleep, as if there were no vigilant and powerful enemies. This dreadful carelessness arises from two causes: on the one hand men are so taken up with their earthly and sensible being, that they do not feel any other evils except those concerning the animal nature in them; all that is interior is harmless in their estimation. On the other hand, since the princes of darkness are invisible and unperceived by any of the senses and since carnal men neither touch, nor feel, nor see them, they forget the fear of them … Since the number of fools is infinite, the number of the reprobate should also be uncountable, is there any wonder that the demon should be inflated by his triumphs in the perdition of so many men? … Attend to my counsels, follow my instructions and receive my warnings; for if thou pass them by unheeded, I will cease to speak to thee!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

Ignorance Our Greatest Enemy
Pope St. Pius X once said that the greatest enemy of the Church was not Protestantism, nor paganism, nor the Masons, or some other body or group. He said that the greatest enemy of the Catholic Church was IGNORANCE. For it is the ignorance of Catholics that allows all kinds of false teachings and pitiful morals to enter into the fold. We know things, but we know too little. We know things, but too vaguely. We are content with a mere superficial knowledge of the Faith. We argue emotionally and not logically, using “two-bit” phrases haphazardly with an air of pretended intellectualism. That is why Catholics have succumbed to apostasy today. They are too dumb to know better and they don’t really want to know better, for the world and its worldliness offers a better package deal! How can the ignorant help the ignorant? How can the blind lead the blind? “Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is compassed with infirmity” (Hebrews 5:2).

Pope St. Pius X―in various different encyclicals, letters, speeches and comments―repeatedly points out the terrible consequences that religious ignorance has upon the state of Faith in today’s world. Who is he speaking about? Bishops and priests? Yes--but also the laity. He is speaking about YOU―even though you were not even born at that time.

Yes―You Could Label Many as Being This! But Is This You Too?
The Pope writes: “It must be confessed that the number of the enemies of the cross of Christ has in these last days increased exceedingly, who are striving, by arts, entirely new and full of subtlety, to destroy the vital energy of the Church … We allude to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself … who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, and thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, put themselves forward as reformers of the Church; and boldly attack all that is most sacred in the work of Christ … They express astonishment that We number [them] among the enemies of the Church ... They easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward … They lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and they possess a reputation for the strictest morality ... This has given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and allow no restraint; and relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’ that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy! … If we pass to the intellectual causes of Modernism, the first which presents itself, and the chief one, is ignorance. Yes, these very Modernists who pose as Doctors of the Church, who puff out their cheeks when they speak of modern philosophy, and show such contempt for scholasticism [traditional theology], have embraced the one [modern philosophy], with all its false glamour, because their ignorance of the other [traditional theology] has left them without the means of being able to recognize confusion of thought, and to refute sophistry” (Pope St. Pius X, encyclical Pascendi).

Do we not see this in our midst today? Do we not see in our own selves today? “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs, not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams [virtual reality] !” (Isaias 56:10). Most priests have a woeful knowledge and even revulsion for traditional theology―which filters down to the laity, whose knowledge of theology (in most cases) is even more pitiful and wretched―yet that does not stop them from “pontificating” and “preaching” from their “keyboard pulpits” in “electronic forums” to a worldwide congregation of “Google theologians” who, by their own contributions in the “forums collection baskets” clearly manifest the truth of the statement: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!” As Christ says, God will go through those “forum collection baskets” and analyze every word posted there: “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak [or type and post], they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). Most of these “keyboard warriors” and “internet inquisitors”―with their partial knowledge, magisterial musings, precipitous presumptions, rash judgments, shoot-from-the-lip tendencies―fall into the above descriptions given by Pope St. Pius X: “Many belong to the Catholic laity … who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology … put themselves forward as reformers of the Church; and boldly attack all that is most sacred in the work of Christ … There is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink or which they do not thrust forward … They lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and they possess a reputation for the strictest morality ... This has given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and allow no restraint; and relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’ that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy!”

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday September 18th & Thursday September 19th

Article 10
Living-Out the La Salette Sell-Out!

September 19th is (was) the feast of Our Lady of La Salette

Living-Out the Sell-Out? Huh?
Yes, it might be best to explain the terminology before proceeding any further. There are three elements here:

(1) The first element is La Salette and Our Lady’s apparition there on September 19th, 1846―the feast is on our doorstep and will enter as we write―in which Our Lady warned of certain detrimental and catastrophic things that would threaten the Church in the future, while also indicating some of the causes that would ultimately lead to those catastrophic events.

(2) The second element is the “Sell-Out.” “Selling out” is a common expression for the compromising of a person’s integrity, morality, authenticity, or principles in exchange for personal gain, such as money, power, recognition, acceptance, etc. A “sellout” also refers to someone who gives up, or disregards, or ignores someone or something for another thing or another person. The term could also be used as 'sold out' depending on the context. In political movements a "sellout" is a person or group claiming to adhere to one ideology, only to follow these claims up with actions contradicting them, such as a revolutionary group claiming to fight for a particular cause, but failing to continue this upon obtaining power.

(3) The third element is the “Living-Out” of the “Sell-Out”―meaning the deliberate choice to accept the “Sell-Out” (either willingly or reluctantly) and thus either refuse to or neglect to do anything about the “Sell-Out” and trying to reverse its path or course.

Those of us living today were not living at the time of the apparition (first element), nor were we living at time of the initial “Sell-Out” (the second element), but we most certainly are living in the present era which is “Living-Out” the prophecies made by Our Lady of La Salette, and we are also “Living-Out” the dire consequences of the “Sell-Out” (the third element).

Living Out of Touch with Reality
If there is one thing that most Catholics have in common these days―it is not a common Faith as one would like to think―but the thing they have in common is that most of them are out of touch with reality. Virtual reality has become reality―and reality has become virtual reality. The chief culprit behind this reversal of values―as often is the case―is the devil, who is always seeking to reverse and overturn the values of God and the Faith.

However, the devil―being the prince of the world―will use the world and its resources to achieve his work. Hence, modern technology has been the main purveyor and supplier of “virtual reality”―either hard-core virtual reality, or the ‘softer’ version that sees reality mixed with virtual reality. Being the “father of lies”―as Jesus calls him―the devil or Satan sows his ‘cockle’ of lies amid the ‘wheat’ of truth, twisting, exaggerating, modifying, watering-down, re-defining, etc. anything he possibly can of the truths and morality sown by God. As the saying goes: “Repeat a lie enough times and they will believe it!”―which is exactly what the devil (the prince) and world (the princedom) do with great success.

The word Satan is derived from the Hebrew verb “Satan”, which means “to oppose” and so from it comes the general meaning of “adversary.” The word devil comes from the way the wicked spirit goes about his work. It comes from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate.”

Catholics today―being so poorly education and lacking any real desire for furthering and deepening their knowledge of the Faith and the truths of God―readily buy into the “off-the-shelf”, “user-friendly” and “easily affordable” and “ready-to-use” gadgets that promote “virtual reality”, “watered-down ‘reality’”, “tailor-made ‘reality’”, “palatable ‘reality’” and “easily digestible ‘reality’” that is made available to them wherever they may go and turn.

We have become “media-Catholics” who no longer think for ourselves, but let the “media” think for us. We are fed lies―or, at best, modified (“media-fied”) truths―that lead to Catholic mediocrity (or “mediacrity”)―which is certainly not what is meant by the Latin phrase: “In media stat virtus”―meaning “Virtue stands in the median, or middle” as in between neglect and excessiveness. Idiomatically, “good practice lies in the middle path” between two extremes. The media has become the Magisterium of the modern-day Catholic―who no longer thinks with the mind of the Church, but with the mind of the media. Hence they are “living out” of the Church and have “moved-in” with the media or the world which controls the media, or the devil who controls the world.

Our Lord says that we cannot “stand in the middle” when it comes to God and the world: “You cannot serve God and mammon―Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). Sadly, most Catholics today beg to differ―for the time they give to mammon far exceeds the time they give to God―and there is nothing short of a cataclysmic catastrophe that is going to change that! Their minds are made up―and the daily routine of their lives proves it beyond all reasonable doubt―even though, in vain theory, they might try to argue otherwise.

Even otherwise “good” Catholics have succumbed to the addiction to virtual reality―and while they still go to Mass, still ‘say’ the Rosary, still do other Catholic things―they have taken and swallowed the bait of the tasty electronic sound-bites and video-bites that the various media offer them. They spend infinitely more time meditating on ‘truths’ on their screens than meditating on the truths of the Faith. Which is partially what Our Lady meant and foretold at La Salette, when she said: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them … As true Faith has faded and false light brightens the people … People will think of nothing but amusement!”

Which, on a side-note, is why priests, teachers and parents seek to make religion “amusing” and “entertaining”―hence the “Guitar Masses”, “Clown Masses”, “Entertaining Masses”, “Fun-Based Religion Classes”, etc. that seek to flavor the chalice of the Lord and the cross of Christ, with an abundance of sugar. The faux-pas (wrong step) taken by the Second Vatican Council―with its loudly proclaimed and widely heralded “aggiornamento” (modernization, bringing up-to-date) for the Church―only served to pour gasoline onto a fire sparked by Satan some time before―hence the post-Vatican II statement (or lament) by Pope Paul VI, on more than one occasion, that through some crack the smoke of Satan had entered the Church and had even reached the highest places. Today―around 50 years after those papal comments―the Satanic fire was well engulfed the entire Church―and has even entered the most Traditional and Conservative ‘rooms’―and most people are happily standing around that fire warming themselves with their “media-machines” in hand and eyes glued to the screens. They fail to see the “real reality” of what is happening, for they have bought into the “virtual reality” interpretation of reality.

“Living-Out” a Lie
We may well imagine that we are “living in the truth”―but we might well be “living-out a lie”! How so? Most of the Catholics who still regularly go to Sunday Mass, who might pray the Rosary daily or on most days, who try to stay in a state of sanctifying grace, etc. ― these Catholics look upon themselves much in the same way as the Pharisee looked upon himself in Our Lord’s parable about the Pharisee and Publican:

“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 every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted!” (Luke 18:10-14).

Isn’t it strange how we always look to compare ourselves with those who are worse than we are?!! We rarely, if ever, compare ourselves to those who are much better than we are―or, if we do, then it leads to envy and fault-finding and nit-picking as we try to knock them of their ‘pedestal’. Instead of practicing a “holy emulation” of them, we are more likely to practice an “unholy calumniation” or “unholy defamation”―just so that we can take the “shine” off their reputation and make ourselves look a little better by reducing the distance between “them and us”. We are lazy and loath to change―we have found our comfort zone and wish to stay there. Yet our secret (or not so secret) pride cannot bear someone better than ourselves showing-up our mediocrity or lukewarmness―hence the need to belittle, knock-down, smear, question and cast doubt on those who truly are superior to us. The same can be said, not just of persons, but of events―especially if those events threaten us with having to make major changes to our comforttable lives. One such event was the apparition of Our Lady at La Salette, on September 19th, 1846. La Salette is an exremely worrisome apparition, a frightening apparition and a very demanding apparition. It is an apparition with a message that most certainly does not leave us sitting comforatably in our self-made comfort zones. It is an apparition that most would like to forget and sweep under the carpet.

The La Salette Contoversy―An Apparition Feared and Smeared
Of all the most recent modern-day apparitions of Our Lady, it is perhaps La Salette that has caused the most controversy! Is it true or is it not? In the immediate aftermath of the apparition, in a certain sense, all Hell broke loose! Some believed the children, others did not—yet isn’t that “par-for-the-course” with Our Lady’s apparitions? Among those who believed was St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars—who had spoken with one of the two seers—Maximin Giraud.

There has always been controversy over the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at La Salette on September 19th, 1846, and in particular over the secret parts of the message of Our Lady. But that controversy came to a head in 1999, when Fr. Michel Corteville discovered the original letters of the two visionaries, addressed to Pope Pius IX in 1851, which had been buried in the Vatican archives for decades. Critics of the various versions of the Secret of La Salette, published by the seers Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud in later years, felt vindicated when they learned that the original versions were much shorter. Their triumph was short-lived, however, as Fr. Corteville soon published a thorough and scholarly study of the Apparition and Message of La Salette, which demonstrated that the visionaries intentionally revealed their secrets by degrees—the later versions being logical amplifications of the earlier. The entire story of this controversy, which has been much overshadowed by the controversy over the Third Secret of Fatima, is both fascinating and complex.

Attacks on the Secret of La Salette
The La Salette devotion and particularly, the Secret of La Salette, stirred up so much hostility against the seers Melanie and Maximin, that, to this day, the reputations of those devout souls are still called into question. Fierce hostility to the Secret soon developed within a certain coterie or clique of the clergy, possibly where Masonic infiltration had been most effective. Melanie and Maximin became the targets of vicious attacks, particularly among members of the French hierarchy. Interestingly, the Bishops, who had most violently opposed the young seers and the La Salette devotion, were stopped “dead” in their tracks, according to the following account of that time:

“In 1846, in a municipality of the Isère (La Salette), the Virgin appeared to two little children: Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat-Mathieu ... Four French Bishops devoted themselves to the work of suffocating the belief [in La Salette] among the population. But they all died in tragic and mysterious circumstances. Bishop Ginovuhac of Grenoble, who had confined the young Melanie in an English convent in order to silence her, died shortly afterwards in a madhouse. His successor, Bishop Fava, who also did everything possible in order to halt the dissemination of the [La Salette] devotion, was found dead, stretched out on the floor, stripped, with disfigured eyes, and clenched fists. Bishop Gilbert of Amiens (and later, Bordeaux), who had said: ‘The secret of La Salette is nothing more than a tissue of profaneness, lies, and exaggeration,’ shortly after August 16th, 1889, was found dead in his room, also having fallen to the floor. And, during his funeral, his coffin crashed from the catafalque.

“Archbishop Darboy of Paris, who personally interrogated Maximin, causing him great psychological disturbance in order to learn the secret of the Virgin, and, being perturbed by not obtaining it, had said to the boy: ‘The words of your beautiful Lady contain stupidity, as stupid as will be your secret!’ This brought the response from the boy: ‘It is as true, that I have seen the beautiful Lady, as I am certain that before three years are out, you will have been shot!’ The time for the revolutionary movement of the Communes had not yet come, nor had it been foreseen by the complacent and careless France of the Second Empire. But, on May 24th, 1871, this prediction also came true: the Archbishop was shot by the Communards of Paris.” (Fr. Luigi Villa, “La Salette; 19 settembre 1846 [‘I fatti sonoYfatti’],” Chiesa Viva, No. 143, November 1972, page 4).

After stating the history of the Apparition, Fr. James Spencer Northcote, in his booklet, A Pilgrimage to La Salette, published in 1852, writes of the cautious way in which the shepherds’ stories were received:

“Our readers may easily imagine the cross-examination to which they (Melanie and Maximin) were subjected. Still, nobody could succeed in shaking their testimony―they steadily persisted in repeating the same thing over and over again to all inquirers, answered all their questions with a readiness and simplicity truly surprising, and disposed of all their objections with the ease and ingenuity of the most practiced advocates; in a word, though their evidence stood alone and unsupported, yet it was impossible to throw discredit upon it by any contradictions or inconsistencies in their manner of giving it.

The mayor of the village came and questioned her; he questioned the boy also in a separate apartment; he then brought them face to face, and gravely told them that what they had been saying was clearly a lie, and that God would punish them very severely if they persisted in repeating it. He exhorted them, therefore, to confess the imposture, and promised to shield them from all punishment. His eloquence was entirely thrown away; the children said they must do as the Lady had told them and proclaim the fact. Next he offered them money to bribe them into silence; it was in vain; and lastly he threatened them with imprisonment and other punishments; but this too was equally inefficacious, and the magistrate returned to his home baffled and perplexed, and perhaps half disposed to be convinced.

“Daily experience shows us how the most plausible tale is often made to break down, or at least to seem to break down, under the pressure of some skillful cross-examination; but in this instance there was nothing of the kind; the witnesses could not be brow-beaten; the story kept its ground. Persons, priding themselves upon their prudence perhaps, again and again made offers to the children of large sums of money, if only they would hold their tongues and say no more about it; but their answer was uniformly the same, namely that they had been specially charged by “the Lady” to cause it to be told to all the people, and that they must obey this command.

“We must not omit to mention another circumstance also which tended greatly to give credibility to the children’s words, namely that an intermittent fountain at the spot where this “Lady” first appeared, and which on that day and for some time previously had undoubtedly been dry, was found to be flowing copiously on the following morning, and had never since ceased; nor has it ceased up to the present day, though previously to the apparition it flowed only at rare intervals, after a heavy fall of rain or the melting of snow upon the mountains.”

Rabid French Ecclesiastical Opposition
Many years later, Melanie would have the Secret of La Salette printed (at her own expense) in its entirety, but had to go to the heel of the Italian peninsula to find a bishop who would approve of her project. Monsignore Salvator Grafen Zola, the Bishop of Lecce, Italy, granted Melanie an imprimatur for the first publication of the entire contents of the Secret. But most of the copies that Melanie would distribute throughout France were later confiscated by confessors who, under orders of the French Church, demanded the surrender of the booklets from their penitents, as a condition for absolution. Eventually, the French hierarchy threatened Rome with the cut-off of “Peter’s Pence” (financial support for the urgent needs of the Pope) unless the Vatican would agree to curtail officially the circulation of the Secret, even though its dissemination had been favored by Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII.

From 1879 to 1900, several books foretelling the reign of Antichrist, perhaps inspired by the Secret of La Salette, had been published by highly respected clergy and laymen in the Church. This included Bishop Salvator Grafen Zola, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (the eminent English Cardinal who drafted the decree on papal infallibility for Pope Pius IX at the First Vatican Council), and Frederick William Helle. By 1910, the references to a long-suffering Pope, Rome becoming the seat of Antichrist, the true Church being eclipsed and other clues concerning the end-times attack against the papacy, formed a common thread between the classical interpretations of Scripture prophecy and the most recent warnings from Heaven. These kinds of details, found in the genuine, modern-day, Marian prophecies, would always generate the greatest opposition from the Church’s enemies, who had infiltrated her structures. For they threatened to expose the satanic plot, and the long-time goal of the Masonic Lodge’s agents in the Vatican, of usurping and controlling the papal chair.

Masonic Infiltration of the Post-French Revolution Church
The antagonism of the Masonic-dominated French clergy, by which the French seers had been buffeted, and even shunned by some officials in Rome, was obviously generated by the Secret itself. For the Secret came very close to divulging the Lodge’s occult plan to overthrow the papacy, to suppress the Mass, and to destroy the Church (“Tolle Pappam; Tolle Missam; Tolle Ecclesiam.”—Take the Papacy, Take the Mass, Take the Church).

The Secret warned that “the Church will be in eclipse.” The word “Eclipse” means hidden; covered up; seeming to disappear. The Holy Scriptures say: “Where there is Peter, there is the Church.” That the obscuration of the Pope was the prerequisite step for taking away the Mass and the Church seems to have been foretold by Melanie. She understood that Peter would be hidden along with the Church, and that his “eclipse” would be a prelude to the disappearance of the Mass. For, in commenting on this part of the secret, Melanie said to the French Fr. Paul Combe:

“The Church will be eclipsed. At first, we will not know which is the true pope. Then secondly, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will cease to be offered in churches and houses; it will be such that, for a time, there will not be public services any more. But I see that the Holy Sacrifice has not really ceased: it will be offered in barns, in alcoves, in caves, and underground.” (Fr. Paul Combe: The Secret of Melanie and the Actual Crisis, 1906, Rome, p.137).

One must take into account that, since the French Revolution of 1789, the Masonic and anti-religious elements in France had the upper-hand. Infiltration of the Church was no rare thing. It should be remembered that, despite the strong measures taken against Masonry by Pope Leo XIII, Cardinal Rampolla, a secret 33rd degree Freemason, had risen through ranks of the hierarchy of the Church and eventually became Pope Leo XIII’s Secretary of State, having thus attained the second highest office in the Church. He was one of the two chief candidates for the papacy, after the death of Pope Leo XIII—but was defeated in the conclave election by Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto (who would take the name “Pope Pius X”). From key posts, which they had already occupied 100 years, Luciferian agents, employed as high Vatican officials, were in position to smother these heavenly warnings, by discouraging several true popes from taking appropriate action on them.

The Background to La Salette
1789 was only the beginning of the French Revolution, which was marked by persecution of the Church, as well as by a series of conflicts and governments. In that year, the reigning King, Louis XVI, remained in power by compromising with the various forces of the revolution. By 1791 Louis XVI had agreed to become a “constitutional” monarch. By 1792 he was executed by guillotine. Then began the Reign of Terror, which was marked by thousands of executions ordered by the Revolutionary Government.

The First Republic proved to be as inept as it was evil. This led to its take-over by General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, who had himself proclaimed Emperor in 1804. At his demise, a weakened and restricted monarchy was temporarily restored, but with many compromises with the Liberals and revolutionaries. The revolutionary spirit has taken over France―at least in its ruling sections. Freemasonry began to take an increasing stranglehold on France.

Local Bishop Makes Thorough Examination
It did not take long after the 1846 Apparition for the local Bishop to see the need of conducting a formal investigation. The process would drag on for five years, with much careful, prudent and painstaking inquiry being made, before any pronouncement was officially made concerning the genuineness or falsity of the Apparition.

Fr. James Spencer Northcote, in his booklet, A Pilgrimage to La Salette, next describes in detail the painstaking prudence of the Bishop of Grenoble, whose diocese includes La Salette, in forbidding, under penalty of excommunication, any of the clergy from publicizing any new miracle, without his authorization or that of the Holy See.

But whilst the Bishop (De Bruillard) was thus enforcing a wise caution on his clergy, he was far from being an unconcerned spectator of what was going on. He had already removed the parish priest of La Salette (who had ‘rashly’ preached about the Apparition) to another parish, and substituted a priest brought from a distance; the Bishop now required all the clergy of the neighborhood and of his own episcopal city, and all others whom he knew to be travelling in that direction, to institute the most careful inquiries upon the spot, and to communicate the results to him without delay. He studied with great diligence the mass of documents which were thus forwarded to him; and in consequence of what he learned in this way, he appointed two commissions, early in December 1846, and another in July 1847, to draw up a report for him, and to advise him whether or not he should pronounce any decision on what was said to have happened.

On the 15th of December, 1846, these reports were presented, and they were perfectly unanimous in the advice they gave; advice characterized by that extreme caution and prudence which are so uniformly found in ecclesiastical decisions on matters of this kind, but the very reverse of which Protestants, in their ignorance, habitually attribute to them. Both the Canons and the Professors advised his Lordship to abstain from giving any decision whatever: he could not, they said, given an unfavorable decision, for the whole affair was very plausible, and such as they should certainly be disposed to believe at once if it were only an ordinary and natural event that was being called in question; and moreover, it had produced none but purely beneficial effects; it had excited the devotion of the people, and made them more exact in the performance of their religious duties; it had entirely removed in the neighborhood where it had happened the faults complained of—the swearing, the desecration of Sunday, etc. The Bishop could not, therefore, declare the story to be false, and prohibit all belief in it.

On the other hand, it rested on the authority of two children, who might possibly be either deceiving or deceived; and the personage who was supposed to have appeared to them had not required them to communicate it to the ecclesiastical authorities; there was no obligation, therefore, on the part of the Bishop to give any judgment at all; and considering that all eyes were upon him, and what a serious thing it was to pronounce in such a matter, they counseled a complete silence, “to leave those who were satisfied with the sufficiency of the proofs that could be alleged, free to believe it, yet not to censure those who, from a contrary motive, refused or withheld their belief.”

Matters remained in this state for a considerable time; that is to say, there was no official interference on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities, either in the way of encouragement or otherwise, for a period of 6 or 7 months. But meanwhile the story spread far and wide, and found many to credit it; priests, and even bishops, came from a distance, examined for themselves, returned home, and sometimes published an account of their visit, uniformly pronouncing themselves in favor of the reality of the apparition. Rumors of miraculous cures wrought at the fountain, or elsewhere, upon persons drinking of the water of the fountain and calling upon the intercession of Our Lady of La Salette, grew and multiplied. Pilgrims from various parts of France and Italy, and even from Spain and from Germany, began to arrive in large numbers. The affair was growing serious; it arrested the attention of the government, at that time by no means inclined to look favorably upon anything that savored of religious devotion and enthusiasm...

Accordingly on the 22nd of May, 1847, the children were summoned by order of the higher authorities. They were examined both separately and together; and after a solemn warning from magistrates to declare the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they each repeated, almost word for word, the narrative which they had already given...

Two months later, July 19th, 1847, the Bishop of Grenoble again appointed another commission, a second commission that would follow up on the work of the first commission of 1846, with authority to institute the most rigid examination, and to collect all possible further information upon the subject, both as regarded the history of the event itself, and also the authenticity of any miracles which professed to have been wrought in connection with it. This commission would meet regularly to discuss the latest findings. The eighth and last session was held on the 13th of December; in it divers objections and difficulties were started and solved, the remainder of the report was adopted, and the Bishop declared the conferences to be now closed, saying that he reserved to himself the right of pronouncing his solemn judgment upon the matter that had been under discussion, at such time as he should deem most suitable.

One feature in the case yet remained which might seem to afford a convenient shelter for doubt and suspicion. “Nothing can be easier,” it was objected, “than for the children to say that they have been entrusted with a very precious secret; but as long as they steadily refuse to communicate to any man living what that secret is, we are at liberty to doubt whether they really have any secret at all; we have no proof of it, and therefore we shall disbelieve it...” However, the pastoral solicitude of the Bishop of Grenoble was not satisfied until he had removed even this stumbling-block from the way of the weakest members of his flock.

Accordingly, early in the month of July (1851), the aged prelate sent for the two children, and explained to them that all visions and revelations and supernatural events of whatever kind that happen in the Church ought to be fully and completely submitted to the Holy Pontiff; that as head of the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, it belonged to him to judge in these matters; he therefore required them, under obedience to his authority, to commit to writing the secret which they said our Blessed Lady had confided to them, and he on his part would charge himself with the responsibility of sending the letters by faithful messengers to Rome.

As soon as the children were satisfied by the Bishop’s arguments that it was their duty to obey him in this matter, they sat down at different tables, and wrote their respective letters without the smallest hesitation, and exactly as if they had been copying what they wrote from some original before them. They signed and sealed their letters, and the Bishop entrusted them to the vicar-general of his diocese (Canon Gerin) and another priest (Abbé Rousselot) to carry to Rome. On the 18th of the same month these precious missives were placed in the hands of the Holy Father (Blessed Pope Pius IX) by the persons we have named.

His Holiness immediately read them in the presence of the messengers, but, of course, without communicating to them any of their contents: he said he must read them again at his leisure, and then added, “These are scourges for France, but Germany and Italy, and many other countries, deserve the same;” and he went on to assure the Abbé Rousselot that his books (containing the report of the Bishop’s commission and its supplement, already mentioned) had been examined by the Promoter of the Faith, and were approved of. Thus fell to the ground the last reasonable excuse for doubt. The secret which these two poor ignorant children had professed to be entrusted with, and which for five years they had so jealously and so successfully guarded against the pertinacious efforts of thousands of curious inquirers, was no fiction, but a reality; a reality sufficient to engage and to satisfy the mind of the Holy Pontiff, and therefore more than sufficient to assure all reasonable men that at least it was no idle invention of the children themselves.

At length, therefore, on the 19th of September, 1851, the 5th anniversary of the apparition, after so many years of careful and patient investigation, the Bishop issued a formal authoritative decision, and in a pastoral letter, solemnly declared the apparition to be a certain and unquestionable fact, which none of the clergy or faithful of the diocese are hereafter at liberty publicly to contradict or call in question; that it may be preached and commented upon in the pulpit, but that no prayers or hymns, or other books of devotion connected with it, may be printed without the episcopal approbation, given in writing; and that a church and house of refuge for pilgrims shall be immediately begun on the site of the apparition, for which purpose alms are solicited from all the faithful.

La Salette Attacks and Stranglehold
It did not take long after the 1846 Apparition for the anti-Catholic press to launch its first attacks. These first attacks were answered eloquently by a British Catholic author, James Spencer Northcote, who went to the trouble of making a pilgrimage to La Salette himself, gathering thereby an abundance of first-hand testimony and evidence. We give here a number of excerpts from his excellent booklet, A Pilgrimage to La Salette, published in 1852—only six years after the date of the Apparition:

”The (London) Times newspaper, that great organ of public opinion in this country (England), alternately its master and its slave, had solved these questions only a few days before we left England in its own peculiar style... It may be summed up in these words: “a monstrous imposture” and “a notorious falsehood” on the part of the priests; “the grossest credulity and the most groveling superstition” on the part of the people. This is at least a compendious mode of writing history, and extremely convenient wherever it is not desirable that people should be left to form their own conclusions from an honest and detailed account of all the facts and circumstances of the case. Protestant controversialists would have us believe that it is a matter which can be summed up in a half dozen words. Some idle tale of a dream, or vision, or miraculous cure is first invented by a designing priest, or imagined by some weak-brained enthusiast; then the ignorant and superstitious people instantly believe it; the bishops and clergy move heaven and earth to encourage their credulity; and behold, the whole thing is done … Such is the popular Protestant idea on matters of this kind.”

The various facets of Freemasonry are, of course, secret societies. As Pope Leo XIII pointed out in the Encyclical Humanum Genus (1884): “Candidates are generally commanded to promise—nay, with a special oath, to swear—that they will never, to any person, at any time or in any way, make known the members, the passes, or the subjects discussed.” Therefore it is almost impossible to determine with certainty how many Freemasons succeeded in infiltrating the ranks of the clergy in France. But given that the French Revolution put Freemasons in power, and that the terms of the Concordat, unfortunately, gave the government a role in the selection of candidates for the French ecclesiastical hierarchy, it is not difficult to surmise that at least some of the French clergy—even bishops—were Freemasons. Clearly such persons would not be in favor of the Apparition of La Salette and the Secret.

Opposition to La Salette was brewing even within the diocese of Grenoble and the archdiocese of Lyons. This opposition was fueled in part by the explosive political situation in France—the unrest which led to the 1848 revolution, which replaced the “citizen-king” Louis-Philippe with Louis Napoleon III. The unrest and the ensuing coup led to an ever widening gap between those in the Church who favored a return to legitimate monarchy and those who favored the republic/empire under Napoleon III. The royalists were frequently accused of trying to use La Salette and the undisclosed Secret as propaganda to support their cause. Liberals were accused of opposing La Salette and the Secret for fear that it might condemn them.

Opposition to La Salette was also fueled by the so-called Incident of Ars, which eventually served to bolster belief in the Apparition. This latter event centered on the doubts suffered by the renowned Curé of Ars, St. John Marie Vianney, after an interview with the seer Maximin. The best information we can have of this strange event is from Maximin himself, taken from an interview which he gave to Mlle. des Brulais for her book on La Salette.

Fr. Raymond, the assistant priest to St. John Vianney, noticing that the Saint now had doubts about La Salette, lost no time in spreading the news. He even reported it to the Archbishop of Lyons, Cardinal Bonald. This Cardinal was one of those Liberal fence-riding clerics, who stupidly imagined that the new republic of France would guarantee the liberty of the Church. He convinced himself that the Apparition at La Salette, and especially the Secret, were inventions of the royalists (who wanted a return to the old French monarchy) to promote their cause. So, he duly announced this welcome news from the pulpit. It made the newspapers, and the enemies of La Salette misused the name and reputation of St. John Marie Vianney to cast doubt upon the authenticity of La Salette.

Their efforts were in vain, however. The investigation conducted by the Bishop of Grenoble, which had already started, continued, in spite of this opposition, and ended with a verdict approving of the authenticity of the Apparition. As to the holy Curé, his anxiety increased greatly when he heard of this decision. He bore this cross for eight years, until October of 1858—only some ten months before his death. The Saint himself related how he regained his faith in the Apparition:

“For about a fortnight I had been experiencing a great interior trouble, and my soul felt as if it were being dragged over a rough road. Then I made an act of faith in respect to the Apparition, and at once my soul recovered its tranquility. I also desired to see a priest of Grenoble in order to confide to him what had taken place within me. The following day a distinguished ecclesiastic of that town arrived here (Canon Gerin). He came into the sacristy and asked me what one should think of La Salette. I replied: ‘One may believe in it.’ I was in need of money to complete the requisite sum for the foundation of a mission. I prayed to Our Lady of La Salette to procure the money for me, and I found just what was needed. I looked upon the incident as miraculous.” (Procès apostolique ne pereant, p. 897, as quoted by Trochu, ibid., pg. 386.)

Now it was Cardinal Bonald who requested of Bishop de Bruillard that the seers should inform the Pope of their Secrets. Perhaps he hoped that it would be an obvious ploy of the royalists. He even wrote of his suspicions to Pope Pius IX. But again, all was in vain, for the Holy See whole-heartedly approved of the decision of the Bishop of Grenoble, and, indeed, the revelation of the Secrets to the Pope appears to have encouraged this approbation.

Pro-La Salette Local Bishop Retires
Less than one year after formally approving of the Apparition of La Salette, Bishop d Bruillard, then 87 years old, announced his retirement. The French Emperor of the Republic of France, Louis Napoleon III, who had been in power only half a year, pressed for the nomination of his friend Achille Ginoulhiac to be the next Bishop of Grenoble. Not surprisingly, Ginoulhiac was of a much different stamp than his predecessor, Bishop de Bruillard, who, as a young priest, had often risked his life giving the Last Sacraments during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794) in the French Revolution. On the other hand, Ginoulhiac was suspected by the Vatican of having Gallican tendencies. He did, however, assure Bishop de Bruillard that he would continue to promote the Apparition and pilgrimages to La Salette. His nomination was then approved, and Ginoulhiac became Bishop of Grenoble on May 7th, 1853. He then began acting according to a very recognizable pattern—promoting the Apparition, but frustrating the attempts of the seers to fulfill what they believed was the mission entrusted to them by Our Lady.

Pro-La Salette Bishop Replaced by Anti-La Salette Bishop
The trouble began when Bishop Ginoulhiac, in August of 1853, demanded that the seers divulge their entire Secrets to him. He may have heard rumors that the children had not written their entire Secrets, when they were asked to reveal them to Pope Pius IX in 1851. Melanie and Maximin had, once again, to struggle with their consciences to obey. Their new versions were somewhat longer than the originals—Melanie’s significantly longer than Maximin’s. The new versions contained statements clearly critical of Napoleon III, which were not in the originals—but Ginoulhiac did not know that. He therefore concluded that the Secrets were inventions of the royalists (who wanted France to go back to a pre-Revolution monarchy), and that the seers had to be silenced. He was also infuriated by the reluctance shown by Melanie to reveal her Secret to him.

The Persecutor Bishop
Melanie, who in 1850 had entered the Convent of the Sisters of Providence in Corenc, a suburb of Grenoble, was unanimously approved by the Sisters to take her vows in October of 1853. But Bishop Ginouhliac would not allow this. Instead, he sent her, in 1854, to the Convent of the Daughters of Charity in Vienne, France, and then eventually to a cloistered Carmelite Convent in Darlington, in the north of England. Critics of La Salette like to accuse Melanie of capriciousness (sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior), on account of these changes of residence; but the best evidence is that they were due to the machinations of Bishop Ginoulhiac. He wanted her far away from Grenoble and silenced in a cloister.

Maximin had entered a junior seminary to begin studying for the priesthood, when he was only fifteen years old. Historical evidence suggests that he was not a good student, but there is no evidence of any serious misbehavior. He did however like to tell imaginative stories. This was all that Bishop Ginoulhiac needed to hear to help him with his anti-La Salette position. So, in May of 1854, he accused Maximin of “deliberate lies” and had him dismissed from the seminary.

At the same time, Bishop Ginoulhiac was striving to please both Napoleon III and Pope Pius IX. In May of 1854, he met with his friend in the French government, the Minister of Culture, and assured him that the Secrets of La Salette were “inane” (silly, foolish, stupid). Shortly thereafter, however, he was called upon to denounce the publication of a booklet attacking La Salette, and to punish the authors―which was the last thing he personally wanted to do. The irony is that the authors had originally submitted their work to Cardinal de Bonald, who, with the agreement of Bishop Ginoulhiac, sent it to the Pope, in order to try and discredit La Salette. When the authors, in the meantime, published it without ecclesiastical authorization, Bishop Ginoulhiac was placed in the position of having to defend the Apparition by attacking the publication of the La Salette “put-down”. Therefore, in November of the same year, 1854, Bishop Ginoulhiac was forced to send a pastoral letter to all the clergy of Grenoble. In it, against his personal beliefs and will, he confirmed the devotion to Our Lady of La Salette and condemned the libelous booklet. But, as a “side-swipe”, he also took the occasion to denounce the “indiscretion” and “conceit” of Maximin, as well as the “attachment to her own opinion” and “singularity” (seeking to stand out and be noticed) of Melanie.

The following May, 1855, at the public coronation of Our Lady of Laus, by Cardinal Donnet, the preacher deliberately omitted mention of La Salette as a Marian Shrine. Bishop Ginoulhiac admitted to the Cardinal that he, too, did not believe in La Salette, but was not able to refute the approbation (approval, acceptance, endorsement) of his predecessor, Bishop de Bruillard. The Cardinal repeated this to others, and eventually Ginoulhiac had to deny the rumor, of which he himself had been the cause.

The Anti-La Salette Bishop and the Fake Mystic
Bishop Ginoulhiac was imprudent enough to listen to a woman with a dubious reputation as a mystic, Pauline de Nicolay, who was antagonistic to Melanie. This capricious and ill-tempered woman gave herself artificial stigmata with gum arabic, according to the testimony of one of her servants, Angelina (as noted in the Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). In June of 1854, she supplied the catch-phrase that Ginoulhiac needed to get through his dilemma. She wrote in a letter to him, “Poor Melanie… there is in her some illusion, and alas, worse than illusion! Her mission is at an end, while yours is beginning!”

This fact is extremely important, because this catch-phrase has been used over and over by the critics of La Salette (and even by some ill-informed promoters of La Salette criticism), as if it were the verdict of the Church. Bishop Ginoulhiac made use of it at the gathering of pilgrims, on the anniversary of the Apparition, September 19th, 1855. He declared: “The mission of the children is ended; that of the Church begins. Let them (Melanie and Maximin) go where they will, let them wander about the world, let them even become bad Christians, let them disown what they have been declaring to the entire world, let them trample under foot all the graces they have received and will receive, all that cannot reflect on the reality of the Apparition, which is certain, canonically proven and will never be seriously shaken.”

The clear suggestion is that the seers are capriciously wandering about, and on the verge of losing their souls—this, to prevent them from fulfilling their mission.

Bishop Ginoulhiac had apparently sent Melanie to England under false pretenses. Melanie wrote in a letter to Fr. Melin, the curé of Corps, “He told me that I was going to England for some time and that he would recall me soon.” Melanie wrote this just after she was sent in September of 1854, so it is very unlikely that she was making this up. As the years went by, Bishop Ginoulhiac saw to it that she would have no more means of communication. Perhaps he knew that she intended to reveal the rest of her Secret in 1858. He even ordered, under penalty of interdict (forbidden to say Mass, attend Mass, or give or receive the Sacraments), Melanie’s former confessor, Fr. Faure, to turn over to him any letters he may have received from her. Melanie found herself unable to fulfill what she believed was her express mission from Our Lady.

Melanie and the Pope
Finally, after much difficulty, she was able to extricate herself from this situation. She sent a manuscript of her full Secret to Pope Pius IX, who dispensed her from her obligations as a Carmelite. This manuscript has never yet been recovered from the Vatican Archives―until 1995 (more on that later). Melanie returned to France, intent on fulfilling her mission. But for the time being she had to stay away from La Salette and Grenoble:

“...[T]he Bishop of Darlington [England] told Melanie that Bishop Ginoulhiac had written him that if she ever returned to France, she would be excommunicated in his diocese” (Mary Alice Dennis, Melanie and the Story of Our Lady of La Salette, p. 98).

In short it may be fairly said that if Melanie and Maximin had to lead “wandering lives,” it was due in great part to the machinations of Bishop Ginoulhiac. When Melanie did return to La Salette years later, she found the new Bishop of Grenoble, Mgr. Fava, was of much the same mind as Bishop Ginoulhiac―anti-La Salette. It will come as no great surprise then, that Bishop Ginoulhiac, who later became the Archbishop of Lyons, sided with the most bitter opponents of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility at the Vatican Council in 1870. Along with a number of other malcontents, he left Rome early, rather than take part in the ceremony of the Promulgation of the Dogma.

We close this segment with one more anecdote, from the book by Mary Alice Dennis, Melanie and the Story of Our Lady of La Salette, concerning the troubles caused to the seers by Bishop Ginoulhiac:

“Melanie remembered a similar trip (to La Salette) many years ago, when Bishop Ginoulhiac was the Bishop of Grenoble. She was in the stagecoach talking with some pleasant ladies from that city when one said to her, 'Did you know that the Shepherdess of La Salette is now crazy?'
“'Are you sure?' asked Melanie gently.
“'Oh, yes, very sure!' the second lady said. “It was Bishop Ginoulhiac himself who told us.”
“After Melanie had left the stagecoach at Corps, another passenger said to the ladies, “That was the Shepherdess herself whom you were talking to.” The good ladies were left in a state of confusion and embarrassment.
“Melanie had not lost her mind, but Bishop Ginoulhiac’s mind clouded over, and he died insane!” (Mary Alice Dennis, Melanie and the Story of Our Lady of La Salette, p. 123).

From 1851 onwards, Melanie was stigmatized on her hands.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday September 16th & Tuesday September 17th

Article 9
Upcoming Amazon Synod Springing Sly Surprises?

Amazon? Huh? Do You Mean the Website?
For most people, the word “Amazon” brings to mind only the internet giants Amazon―where you can buy a “ton of stuff” online. Fewer people think of the Amazon Rainforests―and even fewer could tell you where they are―and fewer still could roughly draw on a map the extent or boundaries of those Amazon Rainforests. Yet it is funny how things can be connected! What is there in common between the Amazon website, the Amazon Rainforests and today’s Catholic Church―especially the Church’s upcoming Amazon Synod? Hang on in there and you will soon see the surprising answer!

If you go to the Amazon―the website, not the rainforests―you will find on their homepage their FOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES: “Amazon is guided by four principles: (1) customer obsession rather than competitor focus, (2) passion for invention, (3) commitment to operational excellence, and (4) long-term thinking.”

Another website states that the Amazon Rainforest landscape contains:
(1) One in ten known species on Earth
(2) Around 1.4 billion acres of dense forests, half of the planet’s remaining tropical forests
(3) Over 4,100 miles of winding rivers
(4) More than 2.6 million square miles in the Amazon basin, about 40% of South America

With tongue in cheek―but many a true word is said in jest―you could combine the above four guiding-principles of the electronic internet and computing giants Amazon, with the contents of the gigantic Amazon Rainforests and come up with a sketch of the Catholic Church as it is today.

As for the connection with the Amazon Rainforest landscape (compare it to the above):
(1) Catholics make up a little less than one in ten people on Earth
(2) Around 1.4 billion “dense” Catholics (knowing little about their Faith) populate the world.
(3) Over 400,000 priests(rivers of grace) populate the world ―okay, so we add couple of “zeros” but that is like adding nothing at all―for “zero” is “nothing”.
(4) Around 40% of all the world’s Catholics live in South America

As for the connection with the Amazon technology giant and its four guiding principles, you could say that the Catholic Church today:
(1) Is guided by “customer obsession” or the obsessive modern desires of worldly Catholics, rather than being Faith-focused.
(2) Has a passion for invention―meaning “inventing” a new religion that has less and less to do with the Catholic Faith that we once knew.
(3) Is committed more to “operational excellence” (meaning practical and pastoral things) rather than doctrinal and dogmatic things.
(4) Is guided by the “long-term thinking” and long-term planning of the Modernists and Liberals and Communists that have infiltrated the ranks of the Church and now have a stranglehold on the Church.

Amazing Amazonian connections, huh?

Before You Talk the Talk―Know What You Talk About―Know Your Subject
If there is about to be an “Amazon Synod” in the Catholic Church―then it must have something to do with the Amazon, right? The Church does not name its Synods alphabetically like the National Weather Service, official weather bureau of the United States, names the hurricanes each year―beginning with the letter “A” for the first, “B” for the second―as in the 2019 names: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humbert and counting.

What is the Amazon Synod all about? If the Church has called it the “Amazon Synod” or “Pan-Amazon Synod”, then it must be something to do with the Amazon and “Amazonians”, don’t you agree? So what do you know about the Amazon? Where on Earth is the Amazon? Who lives there? Why all the interest by the Catholic Church on the Amazon? If this is so important―why hasn’t the Church dealt or discussed it before? Why, all of sudden, now? If you don’t know your subject or are ignorant about what is being discussed, then anyone could tell you anything and you would just nod, accept it and believe it. So before we go any further, for the very few folk (or very many folk) who are clueless about the Amazon--thinking it to be a online shopping website that gives you good deals and cheap prices―let us just fill in a few blanks (and blank stares) on the subject of the real and original Amazon, that is to say the Amazon Rainforests

This will read a little like the account of the Days of Creation in the Book of Genesis.

(1) First of all―surprise, surprise―Amazon is NOT a country, but a region that overlaps into several different countries.

(2) Secondly, its location is in South America―in the northern part of the continent―covering a little over 2 million square miles and spanning nine countries, namely Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana.

(3) Thirdly, the majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

(4) Fourthly, the Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.

(5) A remarkable example of the Providence of God is that more than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus, important for plant growth. The yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods.

(6) Recent anthropological findings have suggested that the Amazon region was densely populated. Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in AD 1500, divided between the more densely populated coastal settlements and more sparsely populated inland settlements. A complex civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. Many of these populations existed along whitewater rivers―where they had good means of transportation, excellent fishing, and fertile floodplain soils for agriculture. However, when Europeans arrived, these were the first settlements to be affected and infected, since Europeans used the major rivers as highways to the interior. In the first century of European presence, the Amerindian population was reduced by 90 percent. It is believed that civilization was later devastated by the spread of diseases from Europe, such as smallpox. Most of the remaining peoples lived in the interior of the forest: either pushed there by the Europeans or traditionally living there in smaller groups. By 1900, the population had fallen to 1 million and by the early 1980s it was less than 200,000.

(7) Today, despite the population decimation, natives peoples still live in American rainforests, although virtually all have been affected by the outside world. Instead of wearing traditional garb of loin cloths, most Amerindians wear western clothes, and many use metal pots, pans, and utensils for everyday life. Some groups make handicrafts to sell to tourists, while others make routine trips to the city to bring foods and wares to market. Almost no native group obtains the majority of its food by traditional nomadic hunting and gathering. Nearly all cultivate crops, with hunting, gathering, and fishing serving as a secondary or supplementary food source. Usually a family has two gardens: a small house garden with a variety of plants, and a larger plantation which may be one hectare in area planted with bananas, manioc, or rice. These plantations are created through the traditional practice of slash and burn, a method of forest clearing that is not all that damaging to the forest if conducted in the traditional manner. Today virtually no forest Amerindians live in their fully traditional ways, although there are still several dozen groups living in voluntary isolation. The “uncontacted tribes”, as they are popularly known, mostly live in Brazil and Peru. The number of indigenous people living in the Amazon Basin is poorly quantified, but some 20 tmillion people in 8 Amazon countries and the Department of French Guiana are classified as “indigenous”. Two-thirds of this population lives in Peru, but most of this population dwells not in the Amazon, but in the highlands―so 20 million is really a false figure if you are talking about the actual Amazon Rainforest population and are excluding the populations of the cities.

Amazonians of Today Reflect the Catholics of Today
Strangely enough, if you research a little into the life of today’s Amazonians, you will find that they are victims of the same thing as Catholics―namely, worldliness. Most Amazonians have embraced worldliness and thus they have become “hybrid Amazonians”―some more, some less―blending worldliness with their ancients traditions, while only a minority of Amazonians are trying to still live exclusively according to their ancient traditions (let us add the word “pagan” here, for that is what most of their traditions are: “pagan traditions”). The same is true for Catholics―most Catholics have embraced worldliness and only a minority are still trying to live by the Catholic traditions of old, preferring instead to live in a hybrid Faith―partially traditional, largely worldly.

Thus, some Amazonians still live much as did their ancestors thousands of years before them. Some tribes, deep in the rainforest, remain out of contact with the modern world. In early 2011, Survival International released footage of a tribe living on the border between Brazil and Peru. Their food, medicines and clothing come primarily from the forest. Aerial monitoring of the tribe over 20 years suggests that they grow their own vegetables, including pumpkin, bananas, manioc and maize, although this is probably supplemented with meat from animals hunted in the forest.

These communities organize their daily lives differently than our culture. Most tribal children don't go to schools like ours. Instead, they learn about the forest from their parents and other people in their community. They are taught how to survive in the forest. They learn how to hunt and fish, and which plants are useful as medicines or food. Some of these children know more about rainforests than scientists who have studied rainforests for many years! Besides hunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing, Indigenous people also plant small gardens for other sources of food, using a sustainable farming method called shifting cultivation. First they first clear a small area of land and burn it. Then they plant many types of plants, to be used for food and medicines. After a few years, the soil has become too poor to allow for more crops to grow and weeds start to take over. They then move to a nearby uncleared area. This land is traditionally allowed to re-grow for 10-50 years before it is farmed again. Indigenous people revere the forest that, until the present, has protected them from outsiders and given them everything they need. They live what is called a sustainable existence, meaning they use the land without doing harm to the plants and animals that also call the rainforest their home.

Indigenous peoples have been losing their lives and the land they live on ever since Europeans began colonizing their territories 500 years ago. Unknowingly, the first European explorers to what is now called Latin America brought diseases such as small-pox, measles and even the common cold to which Europeans had developed varying degrees of immunity but to which indigenous peoples had no immunity at all since none of them had never been exposed to these diseases before. As a result of those encounters, over ninety percent of the native peoples died from diseases that today we regard as minor and even then were fatal to only a small fraction of Europeans. Time and time again, contact has resulted in disaster for Brazil’s uncontacted tribes. These very isolated peoples have not built up immunity to diseases common elsewhere, which is why they are so vulnerable. It is not unusual for 50% of a tribe to be wiped out within a year of first contact, by diseases such as measles and influenza.

However, until about forty years ago, the lack of roads prevented most outsiders from exploiting the rainforest and entering indigenous territories. These roads, constructed for timber and oil companies, cattle ranchers and miners, have opened up vast areas for outsiders to grab and exploit and have made possible the destruction of millions of acres of rainforest each year. Although indigenous people have lived on their lands for thousands of years, they do not own it, because they have not filed “deeds” of land and do not possess “title.” Therefore governments and other outsiders do not recognize their rights to the land. Because of land colonization by non-indigenous people, many local groups were forced into sedentary lifestyles and became peasants. They have no other choice but to move to different areas, sometimes even to the crowded cities. They often live in poverty because they have no skills useful for a city lifestyle and little knowledge about the urban culture. Today, most Amerindian tribes live in indigenous reserves called resguardos, where they practice a lifestyle that integrates both traditional and modern elements. Inhabited centers and cities in Amazonia have rapidly increased in number due to migration to the suburbs, so that today between 70% and 80% of the population resides in these centers and cities. Few live in complete seclusion from the modern world. For example, some make a living from tourism, and/or need to visit the local markets to supplement what they grow in their plant gardens.

The Amazonians, Religion and Paganism
Survival International estimates that the area is home to around 400 tribes of indigenous people, each with their own culture, language and distinct territory. Due to the difficulty to get to many of these areas, many of these tribes have developed very differently. The majority of Amazon cultures practice some form of animism (the attribution of a soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena). This belief system sees the rainforest as the home of spiritual life, with every flower, plant and animal containing its own spirits. The Yanomani tribe of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil perform rituals using hallucinogenic drugs prepared from the bark of the virola tree to see the spirits. Shamans use the power of the spirits to heal members of the tribe and to call for harm to befall enemies.

A current exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger, states that the world’s preoccupation, preference and pursuance of pornography and all kinds of sexual immorality in thought, word and deed, has opened and will continue to open the doors of Christian souls to paganism and its acceptance and its embrace: “Exorcists know that the introduction into the occult is almost always accomplished through immorality, especially immorality in the areas of the sixth and ninth commandments[.] … The previous generation’s slow descent into the sexual depravity of the prior generation, fueled by a prolific pornography industry, has opened the door to the spirit of paganism. The trajectory of moral depravity and curiosity in occult matters will result in the next generation wanting or actually having open worship of other ‘gods.’”

Is it a coincidence that―after the Synod of Bishops on the Family and publication of Amoris Laetitia, both of which directly and indirectly attacked the Sixth Commandment―the Amazon Synod’s working document has entered into the shadows of an open “neo-paganism”?

For in a 64-page, 157-paragraph, 45,000-word working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the Amazon Synod in October of 2019― titled “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology” ― which will take place in October 2019 on the Pan-Amazonian region of South America, which includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Suriname ― the Church has unveiled a brazenly “neo-pagan” text that eerily praises pagan rituals (§87) and “Faith in the God Father–Mother Creator” (§121) and “dialogue with the spirits” (§75).

Pope St. Pius X warned against this universal acceptance of all religions and no religions in his papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, where prophetically wrote: “For the Modernist Believer, on the contrary, it is an established and certain fact that the divine reality does really exist in itself and quite independently of the person who believes in it. If you ask on what foundation this assertion of the Believer rests, they answer: ‘In the experience of the individual.’ … In the religious sentiment one must recognize a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the very reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God's existence and His action―both within and without man―as to excel greatly any scientific conviction. They [Modernists] assert, therefore, the existence of such a real experience, and one of a kind that surpasses all rational experience. If this experience is denied by some, like the rationalists, it arises from the fact that such persons are unwilling to put themselves in the moral state which is necessary to produce it. It is this experience which, when a person acquires it, makes him properly and truly a believer [therefore even pagan ‘experiences’ have to be accepted―which is what increasingly being done by the modern Church today].

“How far off we are here from Catholic teaching we have already seen in the decree of the First Vatican Council. We shall see later how, with such theories, added to the other errors already mentioned, the way is opened wide for atheism. Here it is well to note at once that, given this doctrine of ‘experience’, united with the other doctrine of ‘symbolism’, every religion, even that of paganism, must be held to be true. What is to prevent such experiences from being met within every religion? In fact that they are to be found is asserted by not a few. And with what right will Modernists deny the truth of an experience affirmed by a follower of Islam? With what right can they claim true experiences for Catholics alone? Indeed Modernists do not deny but actually admit, some confusedly, others in the most open manner, that all religions are true. That they cannot feel otherwise is clear. For on what ground, according to their theories, could falsity be predicated of any religion whatsoever?” (Pope St. Pius X, papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, §14).

The Amazon Synod Could Produce an Amazon Schism!
The current modern Catholic Church’s internal criticisms, disagreements, debates, splits and accusations of heresy, continue to find their way into the public forum―something that would never have happened 60 years ago and would not have even been dreamed of or deemed possible. Yet here we are today, caught in the public media crossfire between Liberal-Conservatives and Liberal- Modernists. The staple-diet today seems to be Vatican Vendettas, Cardinals Crossfire, Fatherly Feuds, Hierarchical Heretics, Synodal Smokescreens, Dogmatic Double-crossing, Faith Fragmentation, and lots more. Never a dull moment with each Synod-Sin-Nod. With every passing Synod, sin gets more and more nods of agreement.

Perhaps Rome should take a leaf out of the National Weather Service hurricane naming “play-book” and name each successive Synod alphabetically after some sin or deficiency: Aggiornamento (Vatican II’s “modernization” slogan), Brainwashing, Compromising, Democratic, ‘Ecumaniacal’, Faithless, Godless, Homosexual, Immoral, Jargonistic, Kosher, Liberal, Modernist, Noncombatant, Obfuscating (creating confusion), Prayerless, Questionable, Revolutionary, Sly, Traitorous, Unspiritual, Vacillating, Worldly, X-Rated, Yielding and Zigzagging.

Denounced and Condemned by Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider
So what has this latest Synod brewed-up for the Church? This latest “brew” is more than just “a storm in a teacup”―it risks cracking the teacup or even breaking it! Why? Well, it seems that this particular “brew” has things in it that just don’t mix―or shouldn’t be mixed! The Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (which is the Latin title that Rome always gives to its preparatory working documents for its Synods of Bishops) was released in June of 2019. On September 12th, 2019, CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE and BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER pointed out SIX HERESIES — implicit and explicit — contained in the Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (which is the Latin title that Rome always gives to its preparatory working documents for its Synods of Bishops). The working document (Instrumentum Laboris), which is 147 paragraphs long, discusses the Amazonian approaches to theology and ways of thinking. Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider stated that foremost among these falsehoods contained in the Instrumentum Laboris, or preparatory working document, is an “implicit pantheism” promoting “a pagan socialization of ‘Mother Earth,’ based on a cosmology of the Amazonian tribes.” The preparatory working document paints indigenous peoples as models of “good living” who enjoy a “harmony of relationships” between “the whole cosmos — nature, men, the supreme being” and “various spiritual forces.”

Other key personages in the Church―who are not yet Modernist in their stance―have also criticized or even condemned the Amazon Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris (the preparatory working document). CARDINAL GERHARD MUELLER, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 and 2017, is also critical of the some of the ideas presented in the Instrumentum Laboris. He writes:

“Key terms are not clearly defined and then excessively deployed: what is meant by a « synodal path », by « integral development », what is meant by a « Samaritan, missionary, synodal, open » Church? By « a Church reaching out », the « Church of the Poor », the « Church of the Amazon », and other such terms? … Has the Church of Christ been put by her Founder, as though she was some kind of putty, into the hands of bishops and popes, so they may now – illuminated by the Holy Spirit – rebuild her, into an updated instrument with secular goals, too? The structure of the text presents a radical U-turn from … Catholic theology.

“The relationship between Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition on the one hand, and the Church's Magisterium on the other, has been classically determined … Thus, Holy Scripture and Tradition are constitutive principles of knowledge … The Magisterium, on the other hand, is merely active in an interpretative and regulative manner … In the case of the Instrumentum Laboris, however, the very opposite is the case. The whole line of thought revolves, in self-referential and circular ways, around the latest documents of Pope Francis' Magisterium, furnished with a few references to John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Only little is quoted of Holy Scripture, and the Church Fathers barely at all … Next to the confusing of the roles of Magisterium on the one side and of Holy Scripture on the other, the Instrumentum Laboris even goes so far as to claim that there are new sources of Revelation … For 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has infallibly taught that Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are the only sources of Revelation and that no further Revelation can be added in the course of history … A “cosmovision” with its myths and the ritual magic of Mother “Nature,” or its sacrifices to “gods” and spirits which scare the wits out of us, or lure us on with false promises, cannot be an adequate approach for the coming of the Triune God in His Word and His Holy Spirit … In the formation of future pastors and theologians, shall the knowledge of classical and modern philosophy, of the Church Fathers, of modern theology, of the Councils now be replaced with the Amazonian “cosmovision” and the wisdom of the ancestors with their myths and rituals? The cosmos, however, is not to be adored like God, but only the Creator Himself. We do not fall on our knees before the enormous power of nature and before “all kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8), but only before God, “for it is written, the Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Matthew 4:10) It is thus that Jesus rejected the diabolical seducer in the desert … Rather than proposing an obscure approach comprised of vague religiosity and a futile attempt to turn Christianity into a science of salvation by sacralizing the cosmos, nature’s biodiversity and ecology, one must turn to the very center and origin of our Faith.” (Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

Denounced and Condemned by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller
Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, for three decades a professor of Church history, and was president of the International Commission for Contemporary Church History from 1998 until 2006―on June 27th, 2019, ten days after Rome published its Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming October Amazon Synod―issued a strong denunciation and critique and denunciation of the Instrumentum Laboris. He unambiguously and boldly spoke of “heresy” and “apostasy” and “departure from Divine Revelation”, and “suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly.” Here are some extracts from that public condemnation.

Cardinal Brandmüller writes: “It is truly astonishing that―contrary to former assemblies―the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will deal exclusively with a region of the Earth whose population is just half that of Mexico City, that is to say, 4 million. This also raises suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly … In principle, we must ask why a synod of bishops should deal with topics which, at best, (as is now the case with three quarters of the Instrumentum Laboris) relate only marginally to the Gospels and the Church. Clearly, there is an encroaching interference here by a synod of bishops into the purely secular affairs of the Brazilian state and society. What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church? More importantly―what professional expertise authorizes an ecclesial synod of bishops to express itself on such topics?

“Furthermore―throughout the Instrumentum Laboris―one finds a very positive assessment of natural religions, including indigenous healing practices, etc., even mythic-religious practices and cult forms. In the context of the call for harmony with nature, for example, there is even talk about “dialogue with the spirits” (§75) … The result is a natural religion masquerading as Christianity.

“It is impossible to conceal that the ‘synod’ intends, above all, to help implement two most cherished projects that heretofore have never been implemented: namely, the abolition of priestly celibacy and the introduction of a female priesthood ― beginning with female deacons. In any event, it is about “identifying the type of official ministry that can be conferred on women … in the Church” (§129 a 3). In a similar manner, “room is now opening up to create new ministries appropriate to this historical moment. It is the right moment to listen to the voice of the Amazon…” (§43). But the fact is omitted here that, in the end, John Paul II also stated―with highest magisterial authority―that it is not in the power of the Church to administer the Sacrament of Holy Orders to women. Indeed, in two thousand years, the Church has never administered the Sacrament of Holy Orders to a woman. The demand which stands in direct opposition to this fact shows that the word ‘Church’ is now being used purely as a sociological term on the part of the authors of the Instrumentum Laboris, thus implicitly denying the sacramental-hierarchical character of the Church.

“The Instrumentum Laboris burdens the synod of bishops and ultimately the Pope with a serious break with the Deposit of Faith. Such a break consequently implies the self-destruction of the Church or the change of the Mystical Body of Christ … We are witnessing a new form of the classical Modernism of the early twentieth century … a concept of dogmatic development that is sharply opposed to the genuine Catholic understanding … It is to be emphatically stated that the Instrumentum Laboris contradicts the binding teaching of the Church on decisive points, and is therefore to be qualified as heretical. Inasmuch as the fact of Divine Revelation is here even being questioned or misunderstood, one must also speak of apostasy … The use of Christian words and concepts cannot obscure the fact that, regardless of their original meaning, they are being used merely as empty words. The Instrumentum Laboris for the Amazon Synod constitutes an attack on the foundations of the Faith, in a way that has heretofore not been thought possible. It must therefore be firmly and decidedly rejected.” (Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, June 27th, 2019).

Continued Denouncements and Condemnations
Two months later, on August 28th, 2019, both Cardinal Brandmüller and Cardinal Burke sent separate letters to their
fellow members of the College of Cardinals, expressing their serious concerns regarding the working document (Instrumentum Laboris) for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the pan-Amazonian region.

► CARDINAL WALTER BRANDMÜLLER wrote: “Some points of the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris seem not only in dissonance with respect to the authentic teaching of the Church, but even contrary to it … The nebulous [vague, imprecise, confusing] formulations of the Instrumentum, as well as the proposed creation of new ecclesial ministries for women and, especially, the proposed priestly ordination of the so-called ‘viri probati’ [subtly meaning “married men”] arouse strong suspicion that even priestly celibacy will be called into question … The sole fact that Cardinal (Claudio) Hummes is the president of the synod and thus will exercise a grave influence in a negative sense, suffices to have a well founded and realistic concern, as much as in the case of bishops Erwin Kräutler [a long time lobbyist for married priests], Franz-Josef Overbeck [an advocate for change in the Church’s teaching on priestly ordination and sexual morality]., etc. … We must face serious challenges to the integrity of the Deposit of the Faith, the sacramental and hierarchical structure of the Church and its Apostolic Tradition. With all this has been created a situation never before seen in the Church’s history, not even during the Arian crisis of the fourth and fifth century.” Brandmüller added that all cardinals must consider how they will react to “any heretical statements or decisions of the synod … I would hope, therefore, that Your Eminence, for your part, will seize this opportunity to correct, according to the teachings of the Church, certain positions expressed in the Instrumentum Laboris of the pan-Amazonian synod.”

► CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE, also wrote to fellow cardinals on August 28th, telling them that he “shares completely the deep concerns of Cardinal Brandmüller on the upcoming Synod on the Amazon, based upon its Instrumentum Laboris … a long document marked by language which is not clear in its meaning, especially in what concerns the Deposit of the Faith … It contradicts the constant teaching of the Church on the relationship between the created world and God, the uncreated Creator, and man, created in the image and likeness of God to cooperate with him as guardian of the created world … The Instrumentum Laboris characterize the teaching regarding the unicity and universality of the salvation brought by Christ alive in the Church as relative to a particular culture and emblematic of what they call ‘petrified doctrine’ (§38) … The truth that God has revealed Himself fully and perfectly through the mystery of the Incarnation of the Redeemer, the Son of God, is obscured, if not denied … Cardinal Brandmüller indicated in his letter the serious difficulties regarding the ordained ministry and perfect continence of the clergy. These proposals, as the cardinal indicates, attack the ‘hierarchical-sacramental structure’ and ‘the Apostolic Tradition of the Church’ … The disturbing propositions of the Instrumentum Laboris … portend an apostasy from the Catholic Faith.”

► CARDINAL RAINER WOELKI, the Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, in his sermon for the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8th), stated that the “priesthood has not been invented by man, but goes back to the mandate of Our Lord … If we take this seriously, it becomes clear that therefore the question about the priesthood of women is not a question which lies in our power of disposition … Pope John Paul II has decided upon this question in a binding manner and for the entire Church already in 1994 … in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, saying that ‘The Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women … Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful!’ (Pope John Paul II, 1994).”

Cardinal Woelki spoke these words at a time when intense debates are taking place in Germany about the possibility of ordaining women to the priesthood. On September 9th, 2019, the German bishops’ news website published a report, according to which several Catholic children and youth organizations from Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have called for the female priesthood. According to the view of these young people, women are being set aside in the Catholic Church, and therefore these people protest that “the Church cannot not stand in the way of the vocation of women to the priesthood by denying them the Sacrament of Holy Orders.” Cardinal Woelki, who recently visited the United States, warned in an interview about the dangers of the Catholic Church in Germany turning into a “German national church” and entering into a schism.

Liberal-Conservatives Call for Anti-Amazonian Prayer and Fasting
On September 12th, 2019, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider issued a call for prayer and fasting to prevent them being approved. They propose that clergy and laity “pray daily at least one decade of the Holy Rosary and to fast once a week” for such intentions over a 40 day period, from September 17th to October 26th. They add that “no one” can say they were not aware of the “gravity of the situation” and so excuse themselves from “taking appropriate action” for love of Christ and His Church. Given such a threat, they call on “all members” of the Church to “pray and fast” for her members “who risk being scandalized, that is led into confusion, error and division” by the synod text. They write that “every Catholic, as a true soldier of Christ” is called to “safeguard and promote the truths of the Faith” lest the synod bishops “betray” the synod’s mission which is to assist the Pope in the “preservation and growth of Faith and morals.”

Regardless of where you stand on the wide-ranging spectrum of belief and convictions and attitudes―all the way from staunch Traditional Catholic, to mildly Traditional Catholic, to Conservative Catholic, to Conservatively Liberal Catholic, to Liberally Conservative Catholic, to Liberal Catholic, to Liberal-Modernist Catholic, to Modernist Catholic―the fact is that the Catholic Church is gradually crumbling, Holy Mother Church is being repeatedly raped of Her dogmas and abused in Her beliefs, Her children are being increasingly “spiritually aborted”. We are living-out the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a modern format. Will be like the Priest and the Levite, who saw the half-dead, beaten, naked and robbed victim laying at the roadside ―but chose to ignore him and walked-by, minding their own business, concerned only about their own affairs. Or will we, like Good Samaritan, stop what we are doing and do something for the good of the victim―Holy Mother Church? Perhaps it is time to wake-up and fast and pray?

The words of Our Lord come to mind from another parable―that of the Sheep and the Goats, where the goats are condemned to Hell for DOING NOTHING: “Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they also shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting!” (Matthew 25:41-46).

Over the last two centuries―like the proverbial frog in gradually heated pot of water― we have been slowly stewing and pickling in the brine of Liberalism and Modernism. That process has been markedly speeded-up since the Second Vatican Council. Now the ‘Conservative’ (really Liberal-Conservatives) are crying: “Wolf!”―but they fail to see that they have contributed to the birth and rearing of that “Wolf” which was allowed to enter the flock of Our Lord’s sheep and the sheepfold of the Church―the birth of the wolf being the Second Vatican Council, of which St. John Bosco prophesied in 1862, exactly 100 years before the disastrous Second Vatican Council began in 1962. St. John Bosco predicted the Second Vatican Council and its disastrous impact on the Church. The relevant portion is: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady.”

Like Cain, we will protest in vain: “And the Lord said to Cain: ‘Where is thy brother Abel?’ And he answered: ‘I know not! Am I my brother's keeper?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the earth! Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the Earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand!’” (Genesis 4:9-11). Holy Mother Church is being bled to death of her teachings, truths, dogmas and disciplines―and most prefer to keep sitting in front of their TV’s, browsing their smartphones or laptops, enjoying their social gatherings, sports, games and pastimes. What answer shall they give on the Day of Judgment? “Was I my brother’s keeper?”

Regardless of who you think is to blame for the mess that we find ourselves in today―something must be done about it and you must do something about it. If you come home to find your house burgled and in a messy disarray; or flooded; or on fire―regardless of who burgled it, messed it up, caused it to be flooded, or led to it catching fire―you have to clean up the mess and repair the damage. The same is true for the “House of God”―the Church. It is your Church as much as any other Catholic’s. We are in a mess! Where are you?

Sunday September 15th
The Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Article 8
Seven Swords of Sorrow! What's the Point?

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Let the Sorrowful Hearts Speak
It is providential that today's feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 15th) immediately follows the feast of the Finding and Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th)—for just as Jesus and Mary were inseparable in their sufferings, so too are they inseparable in these two adjacent feasts. It is only fitting that we let our Sorrowful Mother and her Sorrowful Son—the Man of Sorrows—do most of the talking, while we, like Mary Magdalen place ourselves at their feet—either listening attentively to their words, or weeping sincerely over their feet for our may sins.

Our Lord Wants…
Our Lord, in speaking to His visionary, the Francican Tertiary, Berthe Petit, commanded: “Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced with sorrow that transfixed My Own Heart ... My Mother’s Heart has the right to the title of Sorrowful. I desire that it be set before her title of Immaculate, because she herself has won it. The Church has recognized what I Myself did for My Mother: her Immaculate Conception. Now it is necessary, and it is My wish, that this title, which is, by right, My Mother’s, should be understood and recognized. This title she earned by her identification with all My sufferings, by her sorrow, her sacrifice, her immolation on Calvary, and indeed for the salvation of mankind.”

“My desire flows from My love on Calvary. In giving John to My Mother as a son, I entrusted the whole world to her Sorrowful Motherhood.”

“The title of Immaculate belongs to the whole being of My Mother and not specially to her Heart. The title flows from my gratuitous gift to the Virgin, who was to give Me birth. My Mother has acquired, from her Heart, the title of ‘Sorrowful’ by sharing generously in all the sufferings of My Heart and My Body—from the crib to the cross. There is not one of these Sorrows which did not pierce the Heart of My Mother. Living image of My crucified Body, her virginal flesh bore the invisible marks of My wounds, as her Heart felt the Sorrows of My own. Nothing could ever tarnish the incorruptibility of her Immaculate Heart. The title of ‘Sorrowful’ belongs, therefore, to the Heart of My Mother, and more than any other, this title is dear to her, because it springs from the union of her Heart with Mine in the redemption of humanity. This title has been acquired by her through her full participation in My Calvary, and it precedes the gratuitous title ‘Immaculate’ which My love bestowed upon her by a singular privilege.”

“The time is now ripe and I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let this prayer be uttered by every soul: ‘Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.’ Let this prayer dictated by My Love as a supreme succor be approved and indulgenced, no longer partially and for a small portion of My flock, but for the whole universe, so that it may spread as a refreshing and purifying balm of reparation that will appease My anger. This Devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith and hope to broken hearts and to ruined families: it will help to repair the destruction: it will sweeten sorrow. It will be a new strength for My Church, bringing souls, not only to confidence in My Heart, but also to abandonment to the Sorrowful Heart of My Mother.”

“It is hearts that must be changed. This will be accomplished only by the Devotion proclaimed, explained, preached and recommended everywhere. Recourse to My Mother under the title I wish for her universally, is the last help I shall give before the end of time.”

“This is the last help which I give before the end of time: the recourse to My Mother under the title which I desire shall be hers throughout the whole world.”

“In the hour of triumph” Our Lord said to Berthe one day “it will be made clearly manifest that I Myself have inspired, in those whom I have freely chosen, a devotion similar to that given to My own Heart. It is as a Son that I have conceived this devotion for My Mother. It is as God that I impose it.”

“Let every soul cry out: Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.”

Fatima and the Sorrowful Heart of Mary
Our Lady explicitly spoke of her Sorrowful Heart at her fifth apparition at Fatima:”Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel” (Our Lady at Fatima, September 13th).

By 1925, Lucia, who was now 18, had become a postulant with the Sisters of St. Dorothy at Pontevedra in Spain, and on Thursday December 10th, 1925, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus on a little cloud, appeared to her in her cell. Lucia recounted that Mary rested her hand on her shoulder, while showing her a Heart encircled by thorns in her other hand. The Child Jesus spoke first: “Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

Then Mary said: “My daughter, look at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

Listen to Your Mother
The following passages are all excerpts taken from the words spoken by Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, as recounted in her book, Thy Mystical City of God.

Many Called, Few Chosen…Why?
“By the divine teaching, thou knowest the mysteries of the Passion and Death of Christ and the one true way of life, which is the Cross; and thou knowest that not all who are called, are chosen. Many there are who wish to follow Christ, but very few truly dispose themselves to imitate Him; for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross they cast it aside. Laborious exertions are very painful and averse to human nature according to the flesh. On this account there are so many among mortals, who seek the flesh and the continual indulgence of its pleasures. They ardently seek honors and fly from injuries: they strive after riches, and despise poverty; they long after pleasure and dread mortification. All these are enemies of the Cross of Christ and with dreadful aversion they fly from it” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

Deluded Christians Fooling Themselves
“Another deceit has spread through the world: many imagine that they are following Christ their Master, though they neither suffer affliction nor engage in any exertion or labor. They are content with avoiding boldness in committing sins, and place all their perfection in a certain prudence or hollow self-love, which prevents them from denying anything to their will and from practicing any virtues at the cost of their flesh. They would easily escape this deception, if they would consider that my Son, although He well could do it, He chose not a life of softness and ease for the flesh, but one full of labors and pains; for He judged his instructions to be incomplete and insufficient, if He failed to teach them how to overcome the demon, the flesh and their own self. He wished to inculcate, that this magnificent victory is gained by the Cross, by labors, penances, mortifications and the acceptance of contempt: all of which are the trademarks and evidences of true love and the special watchwords of the predestined” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

Giving “Bottom-Dollar’ for Heaven
“Tell me then, my daughter: if my Lord and Master has made Himself the Life and the Way for men through His Passion and Death, is it not evident that, in order to go that way and live up to this Truth, they must follow Christ crucified, afflicted, scourged and affronted? Consider the ignorance of men who wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they expect to reign with God without suffering, or imitating His Passion, without even a thought of accepting any part of His Suffering and Death, or of thanking Him for it. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as those of Eternal Life, while Christ their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments, in order to enter Heaven and to show them, by His example, how they are to find the Way of Light” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

Our Lady is Angry and Incensed!
“All the faithful in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness, when they have the Passion and Death of my Divine Son before their eyes. What then are the thoughts of the Angels and Saints, and what are my thoughts, in beholding this world and the small return made by heartless and ungrateful men for all our pains; and the lack of attention displayed by mortals through their lukewarmness and negligence? I am much incensed to find so few who console me and who try to console my Son in His sorrows. This hardness of heart will cause great confusion to them, on the Day of Judgment; since they will then see, with irreparable sorrow, not only that they were ungrateful, but were also inhuman and cruel towards my Divine Son, towards me and towards themselves” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

“I tell thee truly, only my intercession and the merits of His, Son, which I offer to the Eternal Father, can delay the punishment and placate His wrath, and delay the destruction of the world and the severe chastisement of the children of the Church, who know His will and fail to fulfill it” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

False and Fake Piety
“Weigh in thy heart, how much it cost my Lord to reconcile mankind to the Eternal Father and regain for them His friendship. Weep and afflict thyself that so many should live in such forgetfulness! And that so many should labor, with all their might, at destroying and losing what was bought by the Blood of God. Awaken in thy heart the deepest grief, that, in His Holy Church, there should be many followers of the hypocritical and sacriligious priests who, under cover of a false piety, still condemn Christ; that pride and sumptuousness, with other grave vices, should be placed in authority and exalted, while humility, truth, justice and all virtues be so oppressed and debased, while avarice and vanity should prevail. Few know the poverty of Christ, and fewer embrace it. Holy Faith is hindered, and is not spread among the nations, on account of the boundless ambition of the mighty of this earth. The Faith, in many Catholics, is inactive and dead, and, what should be living, is near to death and to eternal perdition. The counsels of the Gospel are forgotten, its precepts trodden under foot, true charity is almost extinct”(Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

The Science of Saints
“My daughter, in all that thou art made to understand and write concerning these mysteries, thou drawest upon thyself, and upon mortals, a severe judgment, if thou dost not overcome thy pusillanimity, ingratitude and baseness, by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of Jesus crucified. This is the great Science of the Saints, so little heeded by the worldly, it is the Bread of Life and the Spiritual Food of the little ones, which gives Wisdom to them and the lack of which starves the lovers of this proud world . In this science I wish thee to be studious and wise, for with it thou canst buy thyself all good things. My Son and Lord taught us this Science when He said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no one cometh to My Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). “ (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

The School of Saints
“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine Science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple enter into this school, in which alone is taught the Doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

“By such standards must thou measure the value of suffering, which the worldly will not understand. Since they are unworthy of heavenly knowledge, they despise it in proportion to their ignorance. Rejoice and congratulate thyself in thy sufferings, and whenever the Almighty deigns to send thee any, hasten to meet it and welcome it as one of his blessings and pledges of his glorious love” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

Don’t Just Listen ... Do Something
“With meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was” (James 1:21-24).

Mourning and Weeping in This Valley of Tears
We may well often pray the “Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy…”, but we often skate or skim over the words without much thought. On this feast of Our Lady of Sorrows—who is also the Mother of Mercy—it would be good to consider and reflect upon the connection between sorrow, suffering, mourning and weeping with mercy. It is the “mourning and weeping in this valley of tears” that brings mercy to us. Everyone in this “valley of tears” has to face sorrows, pains and anxieties that are innumerable and infinite in variety. Crosses light and crosses heavy are the staple diet for all of us. The young suffer, the old suffer; the bad suffer, the good suffer; Catholics suffer, non-Catholics suffer. The world tries to find cures for suffering, but God will not allow total and widespread cures, because there happens to be total and widespread sin—and suffering is the price for sin.

Suffering, if borne patiently, becomes easy and light. Suffering, if accepted with calmness and for God’s sake, loses its entire sting. If received badly, in the spirit of revolt and with repugnance, it is intensified a hundredfold, and becomes almost intolerable.

Furthermore, these sorrows and pains, which most of us would gladly be rid of, are in truth God’s greatest graces. They are a little portion of His Passion that He wants to share with us and which He asks us to bear for love of Him and as penance for our sins. For, if by sin we showed a hatred or dislike of God, then by humbly suffering, we show our love for God and our willingness to pay for the damage we have done.

It Pays to Suffer—Refusal is More Expensive
Often, we experience the truth of this proverb: “He that is impatient, shall suffer damage: and when he shall take away he shall add another thing” (Proverbs 19:19)—meaning that if we remove one suffering that God sends us, then we oblige God to send another suffering to replace it, for suffer we must. Throw away one cross, and you’ll find that God gives you another one—sometimes an even heavier one!

St. Augustine tells us that the very same sufferings (illnesses, persecutions, poverty, failures, etc.) lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Purgatory or Hell. The only difference with these sufferings is the attitude and manner in which souls accept them—or, as is more often the case, reject and despise them. The same illness will save one person, yet damn another; the same poverty will bring eternal happiness to one, but eternal misery to another.

The two thieves, crucified with Jesus, show this mystery in its fullness. The Bad Thief, not really caring about the wrong that he has done, tells Jesus that if He is the miracle worker that everyone says He is, then He should get the three of them out of the painful mess that they find themselves in. Whereas the Good Thief reprimands the Bad Thief, and reminds him that they are both guilty of sin and, therefore, they both deserve the crucifixion that they are undergoing. One accepts his suffering and does not want to escape it; the other hates his suffering and will do anything to get out of it. Obviously, it is the spirit of the Good Thief that we have to imitate—and if we suffer correctly and humbly, we also may well hear the words of Jesus addressed to us at our death: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The Innocent and Guilty Suffer
“Ah!” you may say, “but I am not as evil as those two thieves!” Maybe, but then look at Our Lord and Our Lady. They were as innocent as the two thieves were guilty, yet who has suffered as much Our Lord and Our Lady have suffered? Look at some of the saints, are you as good as they were? Yet some of them suffered far, far more than anything we will be asked to suffer! What we all forget is that not only mortal sins, but venial sins too, are the two greatest evils in the world. If they are the greatest evils, then they also have the greatest price attached to them. We pay the price by suffering—whether it is for mortal sin or venial sin.

So the best attitude is one of humble acceptance, as shown the innocent Jesus in His Agony in the Garden. There He was presented with a chalice of suffering of which He had earlier said: “Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?” (Matthew 20:22). Now, faced with that chalice, “He fell upon His face, praying, and saying: ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt’” (Matthew 26:39) … “Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). The human nature of Jesus, which is like ours in all things except sin, recoils at the thought of suffering, yet the human reaction bows to the supernatural reaction as He says “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

An Absence of Love Makes Suffering Hell
When we fail to see the need for suffering, suffering can become Hell on Earth. Love requires suffering. Love is tested and proved by suffering. As Our Lord said: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—the ultimate suffering is death or the laying down of one’s life. If we love God as we ought—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30)—then we should love suffering. Why? Because Jesus said: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15)—and what did He command? He commanded this--“And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’ … Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 9:23; 14:27)—and what is the cross? The cross is suffering—the cross and suffering are like two sides of the same coin. If you want to pay for your sins, you need that coin—actually you need lots of those coins! We need to see that and accept and even love it.

Love is the Painkiller in Suffering
St. Thomas Aquinas states that one of the effects of love is a union of wills. Those that love, pursue the same goals, they desire the same things. Our Lord loved His Father, and, when faced with the prospect of His horrendous Passion and Death, even though in His human nature He was terrified and He preferred not to drink of that chalice, He united His will to that of His Father, saying: “Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42). Our Lady at the Annunciation, faced with the prospect of being the Sorrowful Mother of the Man of Sorrows, replied: “Be it done to me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:48). Our Lord, teaching us the Our Father, gave us the words: “Thy will be done!” (Matthew 6:10).

Accept all the sufferings, sorrows, pains and disappointments of life, be they great or small: ill health, loss of goods, the death of your dear ones, heat or cold, rain or sunshine, as coming from God. Bear them calmly and patiently for love of Him and in penance for your sins. Of course one may use all his efforts to ward off trouble and pain, but when one cannot avoid them, let him bear them manfully. Impatience and revolt make sufferings vastly greater and more difficult to bear.

Christ’s life and actions are so many lessons for us to imitate. The greatest act in His life was His Passion. As He had a Passion, so each one of us has a passion. Our passion consists in the sufferings and labors of every day. The penance God imposed on man for sin, was to gain his bread in the sweat of his brow. Therefore, let us do our work, accept its disappointments and hardships, and bear our pains in union with the Passion of Christ. We gain more merit by a little pain than by years of pleasure.

Learn to Suffer From the Candles
We see candles used all the time in the liturgical functions of the Church—especially during Holy Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. In a certain sense, these candles teach us how to suffer. The candles are being melted away the heat of the flame. The wax that the candles ‘weep’ and drip, is symbolic of tears of sorrow for sin. The diminishing size of the candles as they burn with the flame of love and sorrow, is a symbol of humility, as St. John the Baptist, the prophet of penance who burned in the scorching desert heat, said: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). As Our Lord increases in our lives, our wants and desires for the things of the world must decrease—and this brings sorrow and suffering. As our acceptance of His will increases, then our debt for sin proportionately decreases. As our awareness of the sinfulness of our lives increases, then our pride proportionately decreases. As our awareness of the gravity and consequences of sin increases, then our desire for sin decreases. As our mourning and weeping and sorrow for sin increases, then our love for the world and its worldliness and comforts decreases. As our love for God increases, then our fear of God decreases. The candles is increasingly decreased as it descends from standing proudly tall, to eventually being just or heap or mound of burnt-out wax that is finally extinguished, having given its all by shining its flaming light (Faith) and giving-off its burning warmth (Charity) to all those in its presence. A candle is useless if it does not burn, and it has served its purpose, or fulfilled its mission if it is not burnt-out. And if that candle had a soul and could speak, then it would speak of its pain and suffering in being consumed and annihilated the fire of the flame. It is much the same in the Parable of Talents. The man who buried his talent in the ground and returned it with no profit to his lord, was rebuked and chastised.

Suffering is the Bread and Butter of a Christian Life
Suffering is the “bread and butter” of God’s friends. It is why Our Lord said: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24); and this was echoed by Our Lady to St. Bernadette, when she said that she would not make Bernadette happy in this world, but in the next. We can be sure that, humanly speaking, Bernadette was just as disappointed in hearing those words as the Apostles must have been disappointed at the Last Supper, when Jesus said to them: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:20-21).

Learn From St. Paul How To Suffer
Sinful mankind should be sad and sorrowful at sight of its sins; for which it is paying through penance and piteously pleading for pardon and peace; yet the Divine deafness leaves them downcast and discouraged under the domination of devils and the world, of which the devil is prince. All this can be seen united in the person of St. Paul: (1) He was a great sinner who had persecuted Christians until converted by Our Lord Himself; (2) He penitentially practiced powerful penances and perseveringly prayed for the rest of his life in order to make amends; (3) yet God seemed to turn a blind-eye to his penances and deaf-ear to his prayers, as Providence showered him with suffering after suffering. In fact, the Lord had said to Ananias, just after Paul’s conversion: “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). And suffer he did! Here is St. Paul’s partial list, written down by himself, which is just a fraction of his sufferings:

“They are Hebrews: so am I. They are Israelites: so am I. They are the seed of Abraham: so am I. They are the ministers of Christ, I am more; in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity” (2 Corinthians 11:22-30). And now he finds himself in prison, and what does he say? He writes to the Philippians:

“Brethren: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety, but in every prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Philippians 4:4-7). The joy St. Paul urges them to practice is the spiritual joy, which comes from the knowledge that, as Christians, they are incorporated by their baptism into the Mystical Body of Christ. Part of the ‘contract’ means having to take up your cross daily and carry it with joy, as did the Apostles, who “went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). This was simply the small print of the ‘contract’ that Jesus revealed at the Last Supper, when He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20).

Let’s Look at the Queen of Suffering
There can be no doubt that, after Our Lord, nobody has had as much suffering piled on their plate as Our Lady—the Mother of Sorrows—who was chosen to be the mother of the “Man of Sorrows” of whom Holy Scripture says in speaking of His Passion: “There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness: and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity. And His look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed” (Isaias 53:2-5).

Our Lady, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, spoke of the constant, perpetual sorrows of her life. Our Lady was given, already in her childhood, an insight into this “Man of Sorrows” who was to come: “I understood by divine light, that the incarnate Lord was to suffer a most cruel death and was to be bound most shamefully. Whenever I was alone during my childhood I placed myself in the form of a cross, praying in imitation of Him; for I knew that my Beloved was to die in that position, although I did not know then that the Crucified was to be my Son. In all the difficulties, which I underwent after I was born into the world, I was resigned and contented. Therefore, when anything was wanting of the necessaries of life I remained in peace and contentedness and deemed it all perfectly reasonable and proper in my regard, since I had merited none of the gifts and could justly be deprived of all of them … At times it was necessary for me to suffer and to be afflicted in the lower part of my soul, or in my sensitive faculties; at other times again I suffered want, loneliness and interior dereliction” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

Our Lady Tells Us To Suffer
Continuing with Our Lady’s words, as spoken to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady urges us “to abhorrence of the earthly vanities, to desire of being despised by creatures, to joyful suffering, to love of the cross and an earnest and generous acceptation of it; it will move thee to seek the last place, to love those that persecute thee … Ponder and meditate without intermission upon that, which my most holy Son suffered, so that thy soul be a participant in his sorrows … He began to suffer, and as soon as He was born into the world He and I were banished by Herod into a desert, and his sufferings continued until He died on the Cross … Understandest that my Son, and I with Him, in our ardent love, embraced the way of the Cross and suffering for the whole course of our natural life” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

“I came into Egypt, where I knew no relations or friends, in a land of foreign religion, where I could offer no home or protection or assistance to my Son, whom I loved so much. It can easily be understood, then, what tribulations and hardships we suffered, since the Lord permitted them to come over us. Thou canst not understand with what patience and forbearance we accepted them; and even the angels cannot estimate the reward I merited from the Most High by the love and resignation with which I bore them, and which were greater than if I had been in the greatest prosperity” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

Since, therefore, We suffered so much for creatures and for their salvation, I desire thee to imitate Us in this conformity to the divine will … Let the pious memory of his sufferings engender in thee such a disgust and abhorrence of all earthly pleasures that thou despise and forget all that is visible … All that thy earthly inclinations demand, refuse to thyself, although they may be small and lawful in themselves; turn thy back on all sensible things, seeking only to love and to suffer … Suffer with a magnanimous heart, and labor to increase the possessions of thy Lord and Master, namely, souls, which are so precious in his sight and which He has purchased with his life-blood. Never shouldst thou fly from labors, difficulties, bitterness and sorrows, if by any of them thou canst gain a soul for the Lord … Seek no rest or consolation on Earth, except to suffer and die for Christ” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

Love and Esteem Sufferings and Tribulations
“Renew many times, in the secret of thy heart, thy esteem for the blessing of tribulations, which the hidden providence of God dispenses for the justification of mortals. These are more valuable than precious stones and gold, more sweet than the honeycomb, to those who know how to hold them in proper esteem. I wish thee to remember that to suffer and to be afflicted―with or without one’s fault―is a benefit of which one cannot be worthy without special and great mercy of the Almighty. Moreover, to be allowed to suffer for one’s sins, is not only a mercy, but is demanded by justice. However, the great insanity of mortals, nowadays, is in desiring and seeking after advantages, benefits, and favors agreeable to their senses, and in sleeplessly striving to turn away from themselves, that which is painful, or which includes any hardship or trouble. It would be to their greatest benefit to seek tribulations diligently, even when unmerited―yet they strive by all means to avoid them, even when merited, and even though they cannot be happy and blessed without having undergone such sufferings” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

“By such standards must thou measure the value of suffering, which the worldly will not understand. Since they are unworthy of heavenly knowledge, they despise suffering in proportion to their ignorance. Rejoice and congratulate thyself in thy sufferings, and whenever the Almighty deigns to send thee any kind of suffering, hasten to meet it and welcome it as one of his blessings and pledges of his glorious love. Furnish thy heart with magnanimity and constancy, so that when occasion of suffering is given thee thou mayest bear it with the same equanimity as the prosperous and agreeable things. Be not filled with sadness, for the Lord loves those that are equally ready to give as to receive. He signalizes and distinguishes thee as his own with the signs of his friendship which are no other than the tribulations and trials of suffering” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

“Eternal rest is incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its attainment. He is not a true son of his father, who does not imitate him, nor he a good disciple, who does not follow his master, nor he a good servant, who does not accompany his lord; nor do I count him a devoted child, who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. But our love for the eternal salvation of men obliges us, who see them forgetful of this truth and so adverse to suffering, to send them labors and punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the way of salvation. And yet even all this is insufficient, since their inclinations and their blind love of visible things detains them and makes them hard and heavy of heart” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

Peace in Suffering
“If the passing labors and sufferings of life are accepted with joy and with serenity of heart, they spiritualize the creature, they elevate it and furnish it with a divine insight; by which the soul begins to esteem affliction at its proper value and soon finds consolation and the blessings of mortification and of freedom from disorderly passions. This is the teaching of the school of the Redeemer, hidden from those living in the world and from those who love vanity” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

The Crucible of Suffering
“Unless gold is untouched by the furnace-heat, the iron by the file, the grain by the grinding stone or flail, the grapes by the winepress, they are all useless and will not attain the end for which they are created. Why then will mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? If they were incapable and unworthy of attaining to the crown and reward of the infinite and eternal Good when innocent, how can they attain it, when they are in darkness and in disgrace before the Almighty? In addition to this, the sons of perdition are exerting all their powers to remain unworthy and hostile to God and in evading crosses and afflictions, which are the paths left open for returning to God; in rejecting the light of the intellect, which is the means of recognizing the deceptiveness of visible things … Consider the ignorance of men who wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they expect to reign with God without suffering or imitating his Passion, yea without even a thought of accepting any part of his suffering and Death, or of thanking Him for it. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life, while Christ their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

The Science and School of Suffering
“Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who truly dispose themselves to imitate Him; for as soon as they feel the sufferings of the Cross they cast it aside. Laborious exertions are very painful and averse to human nature according to the flesh; and the fruits of the spirit are more hidden and few guide themselves by the light. On this account there are so many among mortals, who, forgetful of the eternal truths, seek the flesh and the continual indulgence of its pleasures. They ardently seek honors and fly from injuries: they strive after riches, and contemn poverty; they long after pleasure and dread mortification. All these are enemies of the Cross of Christ, and with dreadful aversion they fly from it, deeming it sheer ignominy, just like those who crucified Christ, the Lord … Another deceit has spread through the world: many imagine that they are following Christ their Master, though they neither suffer affliction nor engage in any exertion or labor. They are content with avoiding boldness in committing sins, and place all their perfection in a certain prudence or hollow self-love, which prevents them from denying anything to their will and from practicing any virtues at the cost of their flesh” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from The City of God).

Saturday September 14th
The Feast of the Finding and Exaltation of the True Holy Cross

Article 7
The Power of the Cross!

The Sign of the Cross
The “Sign of the Cross” is not a sign of our times. Rather than make the Sign of the Cross, most Catholics prefer to sign into their social media account, or sign into their e-mail account, or sign into some website they subscribe to, etc. They get more of a “buzz” and more of “a kick out of that” than they get out of signing into God’s “site” with a Sign of a Cross.

The Sign of the Cross used to be made numerous times every day―nowadays there are some Catholics who don’t even make it once a day, or, at best, only a few times a day. For a true Catholic, the very first moment of the day would (should) begin with the making of the Sign of Cross at the very first moment of waking―after which they would hit the floor with their knees and “post” a few prayers on God’s “website” (Heaven) or “e-mail” God those prayers. Nowadays, it is the new god on the block―the smartphone―that gets that privilege, with an overwhelming number of persons admitting that the first thing they do upon rising is check and/or use their smartphone for one reason or another―if nothing other than to simply turn off the alarm that woke them, but that often leads to a brief check for this, that or the other―text messages, e-mail, weather, etc.

The true Catholic―if they didn’t make several additional Signs of the Cross during morning prayers (which some prayers might include as part of the prayer)―would end their morning prayers with another Sign of the Cross. The Sign of the Cross would next be met at the breakfast table or just before eating, when the Sign of Cross would be made before and after saying “Grace Before Meals”―and repeated twice again once the meal was finished by making the Sign of the Cross before and after “Grace After Meals.”

Soon after that, before driving to work or school, two more Signs of the Cross would be made―before and after saying a “Prayer for the Road.” At school, the Sign of the Cross would be made numerous times―at several times at morning assembly prayers, before and after each class of the day, before and after the noontime Angelus (during which we specifically mention the Cross: “we may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection,” etc.), and made many times at weekday Mass, which used to be a daily occurrence in Catholic schools. On that note, please note that during a Mass (the Latin Mass), the Sign of the Cross is made over 50 times. More Signs of the Cross would follow at lunch and the afternoon classes. More Signs of the Cross would come on the drive back home and even more Signs of the Cross would occur at the evening meal, the family Rosary, night prayers, and a final Sign of the Cross before falling asleep.

The Symbol Remains―The Sincerity Has Disappeared―Superficiality Replaces It
Today, however, such a description, as stated above, rarely exists in reality―the norm is quite the opposite. Very few would disagree and argue with the statement that most of the world is superficial. Superficiality has almost become the DNA of the world. We see it in politics, in business, in social life, in the depth of knowledge, in the conveyance of feelings, in casual day-to-day conversation, even in home and family life. The obvious and inevitable offshoot of all this superficiality is that we become superficial in our religion, in our Faith, in our spiritual life, and with God. The externals are still there―the Crucifixes, the Rosary Beads, the Medals, the Mass, etc. ― but the life or soul of these things is missing, the sincerity has disappeared, superficiality has appeared, and all these external signs are reduced to quasi-superstitious symbols―even though nobody would dare to call them that or admit to having that attitude.

Here is an interesting observation from a USA Catholic visiting the largest Catholic country in the world―Brazil: “An interesting choreography, of sorts, can be seen during rush hour, in front of the church Nossa Senhora da Paz, in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. There, among the evening stream of pedestrians, cars, and buses, many people, both outside and inside vehicles, face the church when passing in front of it and do the sign of the cross in a perfectly timed and almost automatic movement. For an outsider, this would appear to be a natural occurrence in the world’s largest Catholic nation, but as some Brazilians will readily admit, such displays should not be considered signs of a devoted Catholic population, but superficial manifestations. ‘Everybody says they are Catholic, but nobody really is,’ a local friend told me. ‘Futebol (soccer) is more of a religion than Catholicism.’ … Should we take this as the modern pretense we see elsewhere? … Religious practices in the country, starting with Catholicism, have all incorporated, and even been created from, interactions with practices and traditions from all the others … It is true that many people who identify as Catholics are not practicing Catholics. But then, like my friend admitted, almost nobody really is.”

How often do we forget why we are attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and become concerned only over whether other people see how much we give in the offertory, or how well we sing hymns, or how seemingly devout we appear during Mass? For most persons, their mind and heart is not fully engaged in the Holy Sacrifice―the mind and heart wander and the Holy Sacrifice quickly becomes a superficial sacrifice. The same is often true for Holy Communion. The same is often true for our confessions. The same can be said of our prayers and (if we even make any) meditations. They are mechanical, routine, automatic, with little or no supernatural feelings or desires. They are more of a chore than an enthusiastic passion. Instead of passionately waiting for them to happen or begin, we passionately can’t wait until they are over and done with!

We see this superficiality manifested by rushed, inattentive, half-made genuflections before the Blessed Sacrament; or hasty, half-made Signs of the Cross; or rushed, distracted prayers and Rosaries; speedy, fast-track Masses; express-lane Communions; micro-waved vague confessions; soulless and heartless hymns―all of which is closer to being a “Catholic-Assembly-Line” that a true spiritual living of the Faith. We kneel, we join our hands in prayer, we bow, we genuflect, we make signs of the cross, we carry Rosaries, we wear scapulars, we say prayers, we go to Mass, we receive Holy Communion, etc. ― but all of these things are mere externals, ecclesiastical etiquette, but these actions are merely like feathers without a bird underneath them. There is little thought and little understanding of the purpose, significance, symbolism and spirituality of these things―they are mere externals that smugly satisfy our superficial Faith. A five-year-old child is taught to make a sign of the cross, to say a certain prayer, to use holy water, to answer a catechism question―such as “What is God? God is a spirit!”―without really knowing or understanding all that these things mean, represent, symbolize and effect. For a five-year-old child, this is fine, it is only a beginning―but we should not remain in the childish state of knowledge and understanding―it is only skin deep, superficial. It is of such a superficiality and immaturity that Our Lord speaks, when He says: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Most Catholics today are “lip-service” Catholics living in a spiritual “express-lane” in their prayer life, and using the “fast-check-out-lane” after Holy Communion and Mass.

That is classic immaturity―to perform the externals (looking to be mature), while interiorly we are distracted, disconnected, disorientated like an immature child, who is told to apologize and begrudgingly spits out the words “I’m sorry!!!” when it is clear that those words come only from the lips and not the heart. Part of maturity is acceptance of responsibility―immature people are always making excuses, “passing-the-buck”, pointing the finger at others and blaming someone or something else other than themselves. In confession, they will ‘confess’ or tell the sins of others as much (or even more than) their own sins―all of this comes from a lack of maturity or lack of an ability to accept responsibility.

The Superficiality of Immaturity and the Immaturity of Superficiality
We often neglect to dig deeper, to think more, to reflect on what is going on inside us and around us and are too busy to slow down to be with God. As a result, we run the high risk of remaining stuck as spiritual infants, failing to develop into spiritually/emotionally mature adults in Christ. As St. Paul writes: “Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians 14:20). In other words, St. Paul is saying: “Do not think like mere children, but if you are going to imitate children, then imitate their lack of maliciousness that comes from their thoughtlessness―but in your own thoughts, be mature and not childish!” Elsewhere St. Paul adds: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Corinthians 13:11). Nowadays, adults still act like children, want to play like children, react to disappointments like children and make excuses like children. The side-effect of this is a neglect of the Cross of Christ―for children are usually more protected from difficulties, stresses, strains and are usually exempt or excused from heavy and hard labor.

Taking the above quote from St. Paul about being a child―you could add to it another quote or two from St. Paul, so that it reads thus: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Corinthians 13:11) “that I may live to God―with Christ I am nailed to the Cross” (Galatians 2:19) … “God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14) … “The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom! But we preach Christ crucified―unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles it is foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23) ... “Be ye followers of me, brethren … For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ―whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things” (Philippians 3:17-19).

When you care for earthly things, worldly pleasures, comfort and ease, fun and entertainment, then you instinctively develop a dislike for the cross and suffering, or even a detestation for the cross and suffering. In this age of technology and comfort, we have become a generation of cross avoiders and cross voiders. We run from the cross, and, if we cannot escape it, we make it void by our complaints, whine, moans and groans. This reminds us a little of St. Simon of Cyrene, who didn’t want to carry Jesus’ cross, but was forced to do so: “And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon―him they forced to take up His [Jesus’] cross” (Matthew 27:32). Most people in this world do not want the cross―and so God forces the cross upon them by His Divine Providence. But what is God forcing them to take? Poison? No, the cross is no poison, but healthy medicine―even though it tastes bitter. But many medicines do taste bitter―even natural medicines in the form of food―for as they say: “Bitter is better” in many if not most cases. Garlic is bitter, cayenne is sharp, lemon is bitter, ginger is sharp, many herbs are bitter―yet they are among the best medicines that we have. Yet, the “thoughts and ways of the Lord” (Isaias 55:8-9) become abhorrent, unfair, too difficult, too demanding, too bitter, too sharp―to the point that we are tempted to cry out with the Chosen People of old: “The way of the Lord is not right!” (Ezechiel 18:25)―to which God answers: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?”

Hence the liturgy for the Mass of the Exaltation of Holy Cross, states: “It behooves us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection: by Whom we are saved, and delivered” (Entrance Hymn or Introit) … “Through the sign of the Holy Cross protect Thy people, O Lord, from the snares of all their enemies” (Offertory Verse) … “O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, Who didst establish the salvation of mankind on the tree of the Cross” (Preface) … “Deliver us from our enemies, O our God, through the sign of the Cross” (Communion Verse).

Don’t Bury Your Talent―Don't Bury Your Cross!
Undoubtedly you know the Parable of the Talents, where the Lord gives to each of his servants a number of talents according to the capabilities, expecting them to use and work with what they have been given in order to show some profit―to one the Lord gives 5 talents, to another 2 talents and to a third only 1 talent. The one who received 5 talents produced a profit of an additional 5 talents; the one with two talents produced 2 more talents; but the servant who was given 1 talent, buried it in the ground and was profitless (Matthew 25:14-30). You could just as well substitute the word “Cross” for the word “Talent”―for God gives everyone crosses of different types and numbers according to their capabilities, just as the Lord gave his servants differing numbers of talents according to their capabilities. Are we “working” on our crosses, are we “profiting” from our crosses, or are we “burying” our crosses―that is to say, are we throwing them away, getting rid of them, burying them?

Without that Cross of Christ there is no salvation—hence the liturgy gives us phrases such as: “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”). One day―as has been prophesied―you may not have the Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion available to you, because it will have been “taken away”—but the cross will never be taken aways, it is always available to you and always will be available to you until the day you die (whether you want that cross or not). If you bury your cross—like the man who buried his talent in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30)—then your salvation is dead and buried! Just like that man, who buried the talent, we risk hearing the words: “And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed! Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:26-30). Our crosses are far more precious than any talents (money) that we have― the talents, spoken of in the Gospel, denote money and not skills or abilities. We cannot buy our way into Heaven with money (except by giving alms), but we can buy Heaven with the cross.

This is why Our Lord says emphatically: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). There is absolutely no “wiggle-room” in those words—no loophole, no escape clause, no compromise—it is a “non-negotiable” fact. There is no salvation outside Christ and He is to be found on the Cross—that is why we have the Crucifix overlooking every altar and the Stations of the Cross peering down upon us from all sides—in season and out of season, during Lent and outside of Lent, before Good Friday, during Good Friday and after Good Friday―the message is ever the same: “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”). Yet we must be aware of the danger that St. Augustine speaks of― St. Augustine tells us that the same crosses lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. By this he means that some souls accept their crosses and sufferings—like the ‘Good Thief’ on the cross; whereas others refuse their crosses and sufferings and seek to escape them—like the ‘Bad Thief’ on the cross. The ‘Good Thief’ ended up in Paradise, the ‘Bad Thief’ did not! Likewise, the same temptations will lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. It depends upon whether the temptation is powerfully rejected or gladly accepted.

It’s a Cross to Put God First
It is not easy putting God first in our lives. In fact, it is hard to consistently put God first in our lives. In other words, it is a cross to put God first in our lives. Most Catholics are slowly slipping down the slippery slope away from God. They no longer treasured the divine and have replaced it with the human. Now we are even slowly slipping down the slippery slope away from the human aspect of life and leave it behind for mere material things, i.e. our job, our hobbies, the smartphone, the computer, etc. It is amazing to see those who have first of all abandoned God for the large part of their lives, now also abandoning their family and friends for their material electronic parent-teacher-and-buddy-all-rolled-into-one, which is their smartphone and its ever growing Artificial Intelligence. We leave the feet of God to sit at the feet of mere people; and then leave them to play with things—and sometimes sinful things. We hate being Marys and so we become Marthas: “Now it came to pass, as they went, that Jesus entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful, and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!” (Luke 10:38-42).

Morning Cross or Morning Coffee?
We used to be taught to make a Sign of the Cross upon waking up and then to hit the floor on our knees for a few short prayers, before our habitual morning routine which would include even more prayers, once we were dressed. It would be interesting to see what the statistics would show on prayers being said upon our first moment of waking. If we can manage a mumbled, half-asleep, “Morning, honey!” to the beloved spouse, then we can surely manage a “Morning, Lord!” to our beloved Maker and Provider. Our reaction or action towards God, first thing in the morning, may not be an all-defining moment that measures our spiritual attitude, but it certainly does reveal a lot. If we are not in the habit of greeting God first thing in the morning, then we will probably feel awkward or hypocritical starting now—but we have to start somewhere! When you have fallen-out with someone, the first words of reconciliation might not be very endearing or even believable—but I guess it’s much like going to Confession and telling God we’re sorry for some sin—for the 100th time! If we begin the new habit, however clumsily or awkwardly, it will soon start to make us feel a little different. Above all, try not to put the refrigerator, coffee machine, TV, radio, computer, or bar of soap, before God. It might not mean a lot to you now, but when you die, you’ll be glad you did. If God is to come first in our lives, then it is only natural (or supernatural) that He comes first “first thing in the morning”!

Don’t Fit God Around Your Schedule—Fit Your Schedule Around God
This is another “biggie” where we show that our practice is not aligned with our theory about putting God first. So many people do what THEY want to do first, and fit God in somewhere—almost as if they were doing God a favor! Fitting God into the schedule can be a pain and a cross for most people. Whenever they do throw God some crumbs (few minutes) from the many hours in their day, they say or think in effect: “Hey, God! Aren’t I good? See! I can fit you into my busy schedule!” The modern-day person is sometimes big on scheduling—computers and smart-phones have all the apps you need to schedule everything: they have the thing beeping a warning ‘x’ number of minutes in advance; pop-ups on the screen reminding you of your appointments, multiple alarm functions that allow to set tens and tens of alarms each day, or repeated weekly, etc. You would think that people would program in an alarm to ring in time for the Angelus three times a day; or perhaps a beep on the hour, every hour, for a prayer ejaculation honoring God; or set alarms that remind everyone that a certain time each day is Rosary time; or select as a tune for the phone ringer that is perhaps a hymn (it can be done) and so raise the mind to Heaven each time the phone rings. What we are trying to say is that God should be scheduled into the day at fixed times, rather than have Him hang around to see if you can “fit Him in somewhere between appointments or clients.”

We have set times, some of which are inflexible, but when it comes to God, there is no set time for God—we’ll just get round to Him when we can. Can you imagine Sunday Mass only starting when everyone in the parish manages to get there? Sunday Mass has a certain time—and you have to arrange the rest of schedule to fit in with that time. God’s time will not change from Sunday to Sunday. When we fail to give God a fixed time ourselves, but leave it flux, it is another clear sign that God does not really come first in practice, even though we insist He is first, in theory. We need to nail ourselves to God like Christ was nailed to His Cross―but that would make too many people angry and cross, which would cross the boundaries they have laid down for the presence of God in their lives―only so much of God and no more!

Don’t Bother Going to Find the Cross―Stay Where You Are and It Will Find You!
You don’t have to go anywhere special to find a cross―the cross will find you. It is as though God has programmed the cross to say: “Don’t call us―we will call on you! Don’t come looking for us―we will find you, we will come to you, we will come to your home!” The following passage from The Imitation of Christ indicates this in speaking of temptations―that there is no escape from them. Here is that passage―except the word “CROSS” has been inserted in place of the word “TEMPATION”, which is not wrong in itself, for all temptations are but just one kind of many crosses that we have to endure and put up with:

“So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and the cross. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” No one is so perfect or so holy as not to have a cross to carry; man cannot be altogether free of the cross. Yet crosses, though troublesome and heavy, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many crosses and trials to profit by them, while those who would not carry them, became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that crosses and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us — in sin we were born. When one cross or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness. Many people try to escape crosses, only to find greater ones. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will get used to them and be able to carry them―but only by the help of God rather than by your own strength. Often take counsel when burdened with a cross; and do not be harsh with others who are fall under the cross, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled. Often we do not know what we can stand, but the cross shows us what we are. Some have great crosses in the beginning of their conversion, others toward the end, while some are troubled almost constantly throughout their life. Others, again, are given only light crosses, according to the wisdom and justice of Divine Providence Who weighs the status and merit of each and prepares all for the salvation of His elect. We should not despair, therefore, when we are under a cross, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with it that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and cross for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit. In crosses and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. When a man has no cross to carry, it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress. Some are frequently overcome by small crosses in order that, humbled by their weakness in small trials, they may not presume on their own strength in great ones” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 13).

In another chapter, The Imitation of Christ adds:
“If you do not steadily set your heart on Me, with a firm will to suffer everything for My sake, you will not be able to bear the heat of this battle or to win the crown of the blessed. You ought, therefore, to pass through all these things bravely and to oppose a strong hand to whatever stands in your way. For to him who triumphs heavenly bread is given, while for him who is too lazy to fight there remains much misery. If you look for rest in this life, how will you attain to everlasting rest? Dispose yourself, then, not for much rest but for great patience. Seek true peace, not on Earth, but in Heaven; not in men or in other creatures, but in God alone. For love of God you should undergo all things [crosses] cheerfully, all labors and sorrows, temptations and trials, anxieties, weaknesses, necessities, injuries, slanders, rebukes, humiliations, confusions, corrections, and contempt. For these are helps to virtue. These are the trials of Christ’s recruit. These form the heavenly crown. For a little brief labor I will give an everlasting crown, and for passing confusion, glory that is eternal. Do you think that you will always have spiritual consolations as you desire? My saints did not always have them. Instead, they had many afflictions, temptations of various kinds, and great desolation. Yet they bore them all patiently. They placed their confidence in God rather than in themselves, knowing that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come. And you — do you wish to have at once that which others have scarcely obtained after many tears and great labors? Wait for the Lord, act bravely, and have courage. Do not lose trust. Do not turn back but devote your body and soul constantly to God’s glory. I will reward you most plentifully. I will be with you in every tribulation” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 35).

In a similar vein, you could take the words of Our Lady, as revealed to Venerable Mary of Agreda: “My most holy Son and myself are trying to find among those who have arrived at the way of the cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple, then enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. Earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible with this wisdom; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur. If this doctrine were not most valuable and secure, We would not have taught it by word and example. This is the light, which shines in the darkness (John 1:7), loved by the elect and abhorred by the reprobate” (Our Lady to Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).

On that point, let us end the section with the wise words of The Imitation of Christ, from that inimitable chapter entitled “The Royal Road of the Cross”, wherein it says:

“To many souls, the saying, ‘Deny thyself, take up thy cross and follow Me,’ seems hard, but it will be much harder to hear that final word: ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.’ Those who hear the word of the cross and follow it willingly now, need not fear that they will hear of eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge. Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no salvation of soul nor hope of everlasting life, except in the cross.

“Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. He Himself opened the way before you in carrying His cross, and upon it He died for you, that you, too, might take up your cross and long to die upon it. If you die with Him, you shall also live with Him, and if you share His suffering, you shall also share His glory. Behold, in the cross is everything, and upon your dying on the cross everything depends. There is no other way to life and to true inward peace than the way of the holy cross and daily mortification. Go where you will, seek what you will, you will not find a higher way, nor a less exalted but safer way, than the way of the holy cross. Arrange and order everything to suit your will and judgment, and still you will find that some suffering must always be borne, willingly or unwillingly, and thus you will always find the cross. Either you will experience bodily pain or you will undergo tribulation of spirit in your soul. At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself.

“You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself. The cross, therefore, is always ready; it awaits you everywhere. No matter where you may go, you cannot escape it, for wherever you go you take yourself with you and shall always find yourself. Turn where you will — above, below, without, or within — you will find a cross in everything, and everywhere you must have patience if you would have peace within and merit an eternal crown.

“If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall be no more suffering, but here there shall be. If you carry it unwillingly, you create a burden for yourself and increase the load, though still you have to bear it. If you cast away one cross, you will find another and perhaps a heavier one. Do you expect to escape what no mortal man can ever avoid? Which of the saints was without a cross or trial on this earth? Not even Jesus Christ, our Lord, Whose every hour on earth knew the pain of His passion. “It behooveth Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, . . . and so enter into his glory.” How is it that you look for another way than this, the royal way of the holy cross?” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12, “The Royal Road of the Cross”).

Your Nearest Station of the Cross is Your Nearest and Dearest
As said above―you don’t have to go anywhere to find the cross―not that there are many seekers of the cross in the first place! There are wore who seek to flee the cross than those who seek to find the cross! Nevertheless, even those who flee the cross, find that they have failed miserably―for God’s Providence sees to it that everyone is planted in the soil of the cross, no matter who they are, or where they are, or what they are. The nearest cross that you will find is in your nearest and dearest―that is to say, your own family. If, as The Imitation of Christ says, each man is a cross unto himself, then likewise is it true that each family is a cross to each family member. Our Lord even indicated this when He said:

You are probably like most families—where there are some who want to put the spiritual first and some do don’t; where some will try improve their spiritual life and some who won’t. That’s nothing to get embarrassed about, or to try and sweep under the carpet—it’s par for the course and Our Lord foretold it:

“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53).

“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household! ... And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death! And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake! ... He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me! And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:35-38; Mark 13:12-13).

It is a cross to battle one’s own family members, or relatives, or friends, or colleagues—but it has to be done, for we cannot love them more than God, and we cannot follow their mistaken way over God’s true narrow path. The above quote of Our Lord’s cannot be too often repeated in these day of Liberal compromise, which preaches the very opposite of what Our Lord preaches.

“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36; Luke 12:51-53). “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38).

It is the carrying of the Cross that saves us, not the carrying of a feather. Our Lord says that we will be hated for His Name’s sake, whereas He could have had it that we would loved for His Name’s sake. He could have said that all households would be united because of His teachings, but He said that all households would be divided. In having to stand up for and confess someone, it has to be Him that we stand up for and confess, even if it means hurting the feelings of family—for He has said that anyone who loves family more than Him, is not worthy of Him.

But, but, but… I don’t want to ... I can’t divide the family!
Your family will be divided anyway—probably is already, and most are possibly/probably on the wrong side of the line: the side of lukewarmness, indifference, worldliness and spiritual negligence. At least that’s the opinion of most of the spiritual masters! Why else are most souls lost? “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36; Luke 12:51-53). “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38). Who do you want please? God or your family? If your family does not please God as much as it ought, will you also displease God by allowing your family to remain displeasing, just so that they will be pleased by not being made to please God more? Pleeeease!!

Peace with God or Men?
We all want to live in peace with those around us—but that peace has to take second place to our being at peace with God. Sin—whether it be Mortal or Venial—is not being at peace with God, for both those sins are punishable in the own way and in different degrees. Both those sins—even Venial Sin—are the two greatest evils in the world and are offensive to God. If we make peace with sin—even Venial Sin—then we are at peace with offending God and at peace with committing the greatest evils in the world. Lukewarmness is, by definition, peace with Venial Sin. If we, and if our family members, are committing Venial Sins but are actively and currently fighting those sins, then that is a good sign; but if we or they are at peace with Venial Sin and make no efforts to lessen, eradicate and destroy Venial Sin, then we are not at peace with God, but at enmity with God. If we, and our family members, are fighting the worldly spirit, then it is a good sign; but if we have made peace with certain aspects of worldliness, then we are at enmity with God, because “whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

Never Mind the Protestant Reformation―We Need a Catholic Reformation
We have become as worldly as Hell―and who the Hell cares? Hell is about the only one that cares―and rejoices to boot! We need a Catholic Reformation―a spiritual reformation to counter the worldly deformation that has hit the vast majority of Catholics, Catholic families, Catholic schools, Catholic parishes and the Catholic Church as a whole. The Church has periodically gone through periods of reform―especially in the post-Protestant Reformation period―or more properly called the “Protestant Revolution”―which began in the 1520s. It is from these reforms, or revitalizations, that we can and must take inspiration for our current need for universal reform.

One such branch of reform was seen with the Carmelites―who are supposed to be Our Lady’s “Commandos” or “Navy Seals” or “SAS”―in other words, her elite troops. Unfortunately, by the time of the Protestant Reformation (Revolution), the Carmelites―like most religious orders―had lost much of their vitality, power and strength. Read St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography, and you will clearly see that to be true. It is no wonder that Our Lady of Good Success starts appearing during these times (late 1590s to mid-1600s) and laments the state of many things, besides giving a dire picture of the future (our days).

In the 1560’s, after St. John of the Cross joined the Carmelite order, St. Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to former stricter rule of prayer and penance―which is what Catholic families and parishes should be aiming at today. St. Teresa of Avila and St. John wanted to restore the purity and strictness of the now lax Carmelite Order, by restarting observance of its “Primitive Rule” of 1209, observance of which had been relaxed by Pope Eugene IV in 1432. Under this Rule, much of the day and night was to be spent in the recitation of the choir offices (prayers), study and devotional reading, the celebration of Mass and times of solitude. For the friars, time was to be spent evangelizing the population around the monastery. Total abstinence from meat and lengthy fasting was to be observed from the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14th) until Easter. There were to be long periods of silence, especially between Compline (the night prayer) and Prime (morning prayer). Coarser, more simple religious habits, than those worn since 1432, were to be worn. They were to follow the rule against the wearing of shoes (also watered-down in 1432). It was from this last observance that the followers of Teresa among the Carmelites were becoming known as “discalced”, i.e., barefoot, differentiating themselves from the non-reformed friars and nuns. The Discalced Carmelites also faced much opposition from other unreformed Carmelite houses. Many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John’s own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell, six feet by ten feet, and beaten three times a week by the monks. You will face the same reaction when you try tighten-up the family rule to include more prayer and penance! Only in the 1580s―after almost 20 years of battling―did the Discalced Carmelites gain official approval of their status. Yet they carried that cross bravely and resolutely all that time―the cross will always win in the end.

Earning Your Stripes
Just as religious Orders become lax and need to reformed, so too do Catholic families become lax and need to be reformed. In yesterday’s article, we saw Our Lady and Our Lord complain about this laxity. Our Lady of Good Success laments the “relaxation in the convent” and Our Lord complains to Mother Mariana (to whom Our Lady of Good Success was appearing) that “times will come when doctrine will be commonly known among the learned and the ignorant. ... but the practice of the virtues and of these doctrines will be found in only a few souls; for this reason, saints will become rare. And precisely for this reason, My priests and My religious will fall into a fatal indifference. Their coldness will extinguish the fire of divine love, afflicting My Loving Heart with these small thorns that you see … If men, and above all, priests and religious souls, would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, and small habitual imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me.... But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing!” Our Lord is demanding a tightening-up of things—much like He demanded of the Carmelite Order and the Franciscan Order; much like the improvement in discipline that the Council of Trent (1545–1563) demanded all across the board throughout the Catholic Church.

“Who will do this for my family?” I hear you ask. Well, there is no better person present other than you; and there is no better time like the present! After all, are you not a Soldier for Christ? Count yourself lucky if your family doesn’t keep you locked in your room and doesn’t beat you with whips three times a week—as the Carmelite brothers of St. John of the Cross did to him!! Or if they do, then at least you can say, with many a promoted soldier, that you managed to “earn your stripes”!!!

Tightening-Up the Rivets of the Cross
In the science of physics, The Second Law of Thermodynamics―otherwise known as The Law of Entropy―basically says that everything in the universe is gradually ‘winding-down’, unless there occurs some outside (external) intervention to a thing that will either slow down, stop or reverse the process. Thus the meal you just cooked will start “winding-down” and begin to get coller and cooler―unless you intervene and place it in the oven to keep it warm or to reheat it. Likewise, your memory of your catechism will gradually wane and decrease, unless there is an intervention by you or somebody else who takes the catechism and reads it to you (or you read it for yourself)―but without that external catechism book being read to refresh your memory, your knowledge of it will decrease.

Similarly, we “wind-down” in our spiritual life. An obvious and blatant case in point is seen whenever (if ever) we go on a spiritual retreat. The retreat is the outside or external intervention―the oven, if you like―that “reheats” or “warms-us-up” spiritually. Yet, as anyone who has been on retreat, only too well knows―the “heat of the retreat” soon wears-off and we gradually slide back into being our lukewarm selves.

The work of improving anything, or most things, is always a cross, always costing us something, always painful to a greater or lesser degree. An athlete who wants to improve the time in which it takes them to run a 100 yards or meters, or a mile, or even a marathon―will have to put their body through pain in order to improve. As they say: “No pain, no gain!” Anyone who wants to tighten things up, and seeks to give more to God, will encounter the opposition―such as that listed above―both from their own lukewarm nature and from those persons who surround them. Family improvements are a typical example of this. One parent may decide that things have deteriorated too much and will seek to tighten things up. The result will almost always be one of opposition―complaining, whining, mocking, arguing, etc. But if you don’t tighten-up, then Our Lord will stand against you! It reminds us of His words in Scripture: “Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). “For he that shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation: the Son of man also will be ashamed of him, when he shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

So when that religious division that Our Lord speaks about― “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation. Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household”— when that religious division comes to your family, then who will you stand with? Family or Christ? Will you dump the Cross or take up the Cross? When your family is divided over religious matters—will you take the broad, wide, easy road or the stricter narrow road? Will you dump the Cross or take up the Cross? What is Our Lady advocating in her apparitions—the easy road or the harder road? Will you dump the Cross or take up the Cross? Will you do the Liberal thing, and side with both sides? We all come to the crossroads at some point in our life―taking the wrong road can be fatal.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Thursday September 12th & Friday September 13th
for the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary

Article 6
The Purpose of a Name! The Power of a Name!

Name that Feast!
On the day of this day’s largely forgotten or ignored feast―the Holy Name of Mary (September 12th)―let us ponder a little and reflect upon the purpose and power of names. However, before we temporarily lose sight of the name of “Mary” while doing so, let us first of all―in honor of her name―absorb a few inspiring lines written on her holy name. In one of his homilies for the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, St. Bernard (1090-1153) reformer of the Benedictine Order and founder of Cistercian Order, Abbot and Doctor of the Church, writes:

“ ‘And the Virgin’s name was Mary’ (Luke 1:27). Let us speak a little about this name, which is said to mean ‘star of the sea’, and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star. As a star emits a ray without being dimmed, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury. The ray takes naught from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from His Mother’s virginal integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the abyss, and, traversing the whole earth, gives warmth rather to souls than to bodies, cherishing virtues, withering vices. Mary is that bright and incomparable star, whom we need to see raised above this vast sea, shining by her merits, and giving us light by her example.

“All of you, who see yourselves amid the tides of the world, tossed by storms and tempests rather than walking on the land, do not turn your eyes away from this shining star, unless you want to be overwhelmed by the hurricane. If temptation storms, or you fall upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star: Call upon Mary! If you are tossed by the waves of pride or ambition, detraction or envy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If anger or avarice or the desires of the flesh dash against the ship o f your soul, turn your eyes to Mary. If troubled by the enormity of your crimes, ashamed of your guilty conscience, terrified by dread of the judgment, you begin to sink into the gulf of sadness or the abyss of despair, think of Mary. In dangers, in anguish, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name be even on your lips, ever in your heart; and the better to obtain the help of her prayers, imitate the example of her life. Following her, thou strayest not; invoking her, thou despairest not; thinking of her, thou wanderest not; upheld by her, thou fallest not; shielded by her, thou fearest not; guided by her, thou growest not weary; favored by her, thou reachest the goal. And thus dost thou experience in thyself how good is that saying: ‘And the Virgin’s name was Mary.”

The Church commemorates numerous occasions on which It invoked the name of Mary and received her heavenly protection. During the pontificate of Pope Innocent III, Saint Dominic Guzman established the Order of Preachers to combat the Albigensian heresy that all material things were evil. He trained his priests to live a holy life, to use their minds, and to pray the Rosary. On September 12th 1213, the Christian forces under Simon de Montfort won a decisive victory over the heretics at Muret in southern France. Likewise, on the first Sunday of October, the Church recalls the victory of the Christian naval forces under Don Juan of Austria against the 300-odd ships of the Moslem Turk, Selim II, in 1571. Again on September 12th 1683, after a forced march begun in Poland on the August 15th feast of the Assumption, the Polish king, John Sobieski, turned back the 300,000 Moslem invaders besieging Vienna. And, once again, on August 5th 1716, under the patronage of Mary, Our Lady of the Snows, Prince Eugene claimed her victory at Peterwardein; shortly thereafter raising the siege of Corfu and later reclaiming Belgrade. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary was inscribed in the calendar of the Universal Church by Pope Innocent XI “as a perpetual memorial of the great blessing of that signal victory won at Vienna in Austria over the cruel Turkish tyrant who had been grinding down the Christian people.”

Today we stand in need of innumerable victories in many different domains―religious, political, cultural, social, financial, etc. ― all of which have become slaves of the devil, the world and sinfulness. It is once again to Mary that we must turn―for God has ruled that in our day and age, she is one who is lead us to victory once again.

Name That Person!
There is no one more qualified or better in handing-out names than God Himself. There are two ways in which God gave a name to a person in the Bible. Some people were given a name before they were born (or shortly after), while others were renamed by God later in life. In biblical times, a person’s name carried great deal of significance, and was VERY important. A person’s name could be chosen based on number of things. For example, something reflecting: how God had played a role in his birth, his character, his future life, his birth order, a physical trait, where he was born, and more. When God gave names, it generally reflected something to do with Him.

Firstly, here is list of persons whom God named personally―even if God uses an angel as a messenger, the name is not the angel’s personal choice, but the angel merely relays and delivers the name that God has chosen. Besides these following names, it is universally presumed (though not mentioned in the Bible) that the name “Adam” was given by God Himself:

► ISMAEL: “Behold, said he, thou art with child, and thou shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Ismael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction” (Genesis 16:11). Ismael means: “God hears.”

► ISAAC: “God said to Abraham: ‘Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him for a perpetual covenant, and with his seed after him” (Genesis 17:19). Isaac means “laughter.” Thus the name God gave signified what would happen in the future.

► JEZRAHEL: “The word of the Lord, that came to Osee and the Lord said to Osee: ‘Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications―for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord!’ So he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him: ‘Call his name Jezrahel―for, yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel!’” (Osee 1:1-4). Thus the name God gave signified what would happen in the future.

► LO-RUHAMAH: “And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him: ‘Call her name, “Without Mercy”―for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them!’” (Osee 1:6).

► LO-AMMI: “And she conceived, and bore a son. And the Lord said: ‘Call his name, “Not my people”―for you are not my people, and I will not be yours!” (Osee 1:9). Thus the name God gave signified what would happen in the future.

► JOHN THE BAPTIST: “And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. [12] And Zachary seeing him, was troubled, and fear fell upon him. [13] But the angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John!’ … Now Elizabeth's full time of being delivered was come, and she brought forth a son … And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him by his father’s name―Zachary. And his mother answering, said: ‘Not so! But he shall be called John!’ And they said to her: ‘There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name!’ And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And demanding a writing table, he wrote, saying: ‘John is his name!’” (Luke 1:13, 1:57-63). The name John means “God is gracious”, or “God has shown a favor” in the sense of “God is kind”.

► JESUS: “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son: and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. For He shall save his people from their sins … And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. And he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His Name Jesus” (Matthew 1:20-21,24-25); “And the angel said to her: ‘Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His Name Jesus!’ … And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised, His Name was called Jesus―which was called by the angel, before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke 1:31; 2:21). The name Jesus means “Savior”. The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name “Yeshua”, which is based on the Semitic root meaning “to deliver; to rescue.”

Now, here is a list of the people whose name was changed by God to a new name:

► ABRAM to ABRAHAM: “Abram fell flat on his face. And God said to him: ‘My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham―because I have made thee a father of many nations. And I will make thee increase, exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee!’” (Genesis 17:3-6). The name Abraham therefore means “father of many nations.”

► SARAI to SARA: “God said also to Abraham: ‘Sarai―thy wife―thou shalt not call Sarai, but Sara. And I will bless her, and of her I will give thee a son, whom I will bless, and he shall become nations, and kings of people shall spring from him” (Genesis 17:15) The name Sara means “royal lady” or “princess.”

► JACOB to ISRAEL: Jacob had wrestled all through the night with the angel sent to him by God. When dawn came, the angel “said to him [Jacob]: ‘Let me go! For it is break of day!’ He [Jacob] answered: ‘I will not let thee go unless thou bless me!’ And the angel said: ‘What is thy name?’ He answered: ‘Jacob.’ But the angel said: ‘Thy name shall not be called Jacob, but Israel―for if thou hast been strong against God, and how much more shalt thou prevail against men!’ … And [later] God appeared again to Jacob, after he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria, and He blessed him, saying: ‘Thou shalt not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name!’ And He called him Israel” (Genesis 32:26-28; 35:9-10).

► SOLOMON to AMIABLE TO THE LORD (beloved of the Lord): “And David comforted Bethsabee his wife, and went in unto her, and slept with her: and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him. And He sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and called his name, Amiable to the Lord, because the Lord loved him” (2 Kings 12:24-25).

► SIMON to PETER: “Jesus saith to them: ‘But whom do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered and said: ‘Thou art Christ―the Son of the living God!’ And Jesus, answering, said to him: ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona! Because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven! And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!’” (Matthew 16:15-18).

So What About the Name “Mary”
Holy Scripture succinctly mentions Our Lady’s name in the phrase: “And the virgin’ s name was Mary” (Luke 1:27)―which is part of the account of Annunciation. Those few words encapsulate that short sweet name of Mary! Yet though the name is short―there has been no shortage of discussion and debate over the meaning of the name “Mary”! Because ancient texts of the Egyptian and Judeo-Aramaic languages omit vowels, scholars often argue over possible meanings of words. Context and etymology are essential factors to unlocking the correct meaning. Nonetheless, ambiguity often persists, such as the meaning of the name Mary. The word “maris” in Latin means “sea” and is quite similar to “Maria”. St. Louis de Montfort alludes to this in his book, True Devotion to Mary, wherein he writes: “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary (Maria).”

However, the name Mary is clearly not Latin in origin, but finds its roots in the Egyptian name, Miriam. Here is where the etymology becomes complicated―because there are over 100 possibilities of what the name Miriam means in Egyptian. Possible meanings range from “bitterness,” “beautiful,” and “love.” Yet strangely enough―or should we say “providentially”―all of those interpretations, and others besides, are most fitting for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Because ancient texts of the Egyptian and Judeo-Aramaic languages omit vowels, scholars often argue over possible meanings of words. Context and etymology are essential factors to unlocking the correct meaning. Nonetheless, ambiguity often persists, such as the meaning of the name Mary. The word “maris” in Latin means “sea” and is quite similar to “Maria”. However, the name Mary is clearly not Latin in origin, but finds its roots in the Egyptian name, Miriam. Here is where the etymology becomes complicated―because there are over 100 possibilities of what the name Miriam means in Egyptian. Possible meanings range from “bitterness,” “beautiful,” and “love.”

Consequently, it is helpful to look at the Hebrew version of “Miriam”, which is“Miryam” or “Maryam”. Wide variations also exist in the meaning of the name “Maryam”, such as “rebellion,” and “sea of bitterness.” Keeping in mind that a name represents the soul in Hebrew, and some persons argue that such translations are unacceptable for a young girl―but is that true? Are they unacceptable? More on that in a moment. The second part of this name, “yam”, does, in fact, mean “sea”; however, the first part, “mar”, has several possible meanings. “Mar” literally means “bitter”, which is why some believe that “Maryam” means “bitter sea” or “sea of bitterness”. Nonetheless, in Hebrew, the adjective follows the substantive, which means “bitter sea” would appear as “Yam mar” and not “Mar yam”.

Miryam [or Maryam] was the name of the sister of Moses; and the ancient rabbinical scholars seeing in it a symbol of the slavery of the Israelites at the hands of the Egyptians, held that Miryam was given this name, because she was born during the time of the oppression of her people—a time of “bitterness”. The Old Testament, being the chronicle of the ”Time of Expectation” of the Redeemer, is filled with various “types,” or foreshadowings of people and events which would be made manifest during the ”Time of Redemption,” when Christ walked the earth. Yet we can only look at them ”through a glass darkly,” so to speak, under the guidance of the Catholic Church, which alone possesses the authority to interpret the sacred texts. Miryam [or Maryam], the sister of Moses is a “type” or prefiguration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Miryam was a prophetess, who sang a canticle of thanksgiving, after the safe crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army; Mary prophesied in her canticle, the Magnificat, that all generations would honor her by calling her “blessed”, and she sang of how God would overturn the proud and raise-up the humble. Miryam supported her brother, Moses, the liberator of his people; just as Mary, as the Co-Redemptrix, united her sufferings to those of Jesus on Calvary, for Mary labored alongside the Redeemer, the true Liberator of His people. Just as Jesus was the “antitype” [i.e., the fulfillment] of Moses, so was Our Lady the “antitype” of Miryam, the fullest realization of the courageous woman standing beside, and laboring with, the one who comes to free captives.

Eusebius of Caesarea, who composed a dictionary of proper names in the Bible, translated “Maryam” as “drop of the sea.” When St. Jerome (4th century AD) translated this dictionary into Latin, he rendered “drop of the sea” as “stilla maris”. Some believe that a scribal error caused “stilla” to become “stella”. However, Jerome elsewhere made a case for “Star of the sea,” by suggesting that “mar” was a contraction of “ma’or”, which means “luminary” or “star”.

Spiritual Significance―Is Mary Our GPS to Heaven?
As citizens of the 21st century, navigating our way with GPS, we little realize how vital the North Star was to travelers in previous times. This trustworthy star guided sailors across the sea and travelers across the desert. Because it remains apparently fixed in the same location throughout the night, it served as a sure reference point in the heavens. Unlike shooting stars―that dazzle the eyes for a moment and fade away―the North Star remains steady. In her role as a caring Mother, Mary likewise is comparable to this constancy.

Purity, radiance, and beauty ― such qualities of a star are also applicable to the Virgin; however, the North Star fits her in particular because of its role as a guide to travelers. As our life on earth is similar to a tempestuous sea journey, so Mary remains firm in the heavens, guiding souls to the eternal shores. Byzantine Christians call her Hodegitria or “She who knows the way.” According to their understanding, as well as Catholic understanding, she knows the way to Jesus and to Heaven.

As the Romans thought of the god Polaris as occupying the north pole of the heavens, so Christians think of Mary as occupying the center of Heaven, as the greatest of the saints. “One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars. For star differeth from star in glory” (1 Corinthians 15:41). Though there are brighter stars than Polaris, its location is the reason for its importance. For Christians, Mary’s importance is primarily because of her proximity to God, as Jesus’ mother. Contrary to a common belief among Protestants and pagans, Catholics do not worship Mary; rather, they venerate her as the Mother of Jesus and the greatest of saints.

"Stella Maris": Development During the Middle Ages
The understanding of Mary’s name as Star of the sea took firm hold among Western Christians during the Middle Ages. St. Isidore, a seventh-century bishop from Seville, reaffirmed this understanding in his Etymologiae. In the eighth century, St. Alcuin of York dedicated a Marian altar with the inscription, lux et stella maris, “light and star of the sea.” St. Paschasius Radbertus wrote in the ninth century that the “Star of the Sea” should be our guide to Christ, “lest we capsize amid the storm-tossed waves of the sea.”

Some of the most beautiful Gregorian chants that emerged during the Middle Ages, such as Ave Maris Stella (9th century) and Alma Redemptoris Mater (12th century), include this image. The latter hymn, Alma Redemptoris Mater, sung during Advent, says, “Loving mother of the Redeemer, who remains the open gate of heaven and star of the sea, help the fallen people who strive to rise again.”

St. Bernard (11th century), composed an inspired homily regarding Mary as Star of the Sea. He recommends that all who are traveling on the troubled waters of life should look to Mary. “Mary’s name is said to mean, ‘star of the sea,’” he says, “If the winds of temptation surge, if you run aground on the shoals of troubles, look to this star, call upon Mary! If you are tossed by the winds of pride or ambition or detraction or jealousy, look to this star, call upon Mary! If anger, greed, or the allurements of the flesh dash against the boat of your mind, look to Mary! In dangers, in straits, in perplexity, think of Mary, call upon Mary… Let her name be always in your mouth, and in your heart, and if you would ask for and obtain the help of her prayers, do not forget the example of how she lived.”

As the Scholastic Era developed, several important theologians supported this meaning of Mary’s name. St. Bonaventure says for instance, “This name is most fitting for Mary, who is to us a star above the sea. She guides to a landfall in Heaven those who navigate the sea of this world…Well do we compare Mary to a star of the sea, because of her shining purity, her brightness, all that she does for us.” St. Thomas Aquinas endorsed this understanding of Mary’s name, saying, “Thus the name ‘Mary,’ which is rendered ‘Star of the Sea,’ suits her, because just as sailors on the ocean are guided to a harbor by a star, so Christians are guided to glory by Mary.” The Carmelite Order, founded principally to honor the Virgin Mary, developed strong devotion to this image. Stella Maris is the name of their principal monastery located on Mt. Carmel in Israel.

There is No Mary Without Sorrow or Bitterness
Those theological “sugar seekers” or “sugar eaters”, who seek or prefer to reject the “negative” sounding interpretations of the name “Mary” or “Maryam” or “Miriam” ― meaning the interpretations that refer to the name as “bitter sea” or “sea of bitterness”―fail to understand the whole Theology of Redemption.

Already from the beginning of the human race―with Adam and Eve―we have this “taste of bitterness” due to sin and the payment for sin: “And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:17-19). Is that sweet or bitter? Well, it’s bitter-sweet―for through that bitterness comes the sweet chance of salvation and Heaven.

Just before their Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were commanded to eat the Paschal lamb with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs These bitter herbs consisted of such plants as chicory, bitter cresses, hawkweeds, sow-thistles and wild lettuces, which grow abundantly in the peninsula of Sinai, in Palestine and in Egypt: “And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce” (Exodus 12:8). They were later commanded to repeat this eating of the Paschal lamb and bitter herbs as they wandered through the desert for 40 years. The purpose of this observance was to recall to the minds of the Israelites their deliverance from the bitter bondage of the Egyptians. The 40 years of wandering in the desert was a punishment for failing to enter the Promised Land at the first command of God. So they were made to pay for this rejection of God by 40 years of bitterness before finally entering the sweetness of the Promised Land. “The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying: ‘Let the children of Israel make the phase [phase = eating of the lamb and bitter herbs] in its due time … In the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, they shall eat it with unleavened bread and wild lettuce [a bitter herb]” (Number 9:1-11).

Later, we again see the connection between Mary and bitterness. “Mary [Maryam or Miriam] the prophetess, the sister of Aaron [and Moses], took a timbrel in her hand: and all the women went forth after her with timbrels and with dances. And she began the song to them, saying: ‘Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea!’ And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went forth into the wilderness of Sur: and they marched three days through the wilderness, and found no water. And they came into Mara [meaning “bitterness”―Mara? Mary?], and they could not drink the waters of Mara, because they were bitter: whereupon he gave a name also agreeable to the place, calling it Mara, that is, bitterness. And the people murmured against Moses, saying: ‘What shall we drink?’ But he cried to the Lord, and he showed him a tree [a symbol of the Tree of Christ’s Cross and the Holy Eucharist that comes from the Sacrifice of Calvary―the Mass], which when he had cast into the waters, they were turned into sweetness” (Exodus 15:20-25). “Was not bitter water made sweet with wood?” (Ecclesiasticus 38:5). “There bitter fountains were made sweet for them to drink, and for forty years they received food from Heaven” (Judith 5:15). So too does frequent assistance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist sweeten the Lord’s Cross that everyone, without exception, has to carry.

Let Us Not Screw Up Our Faces at the Bitterness―Lest We Screw-Up Our Salvation
Thus there should no revulsion, nor reticence, nor rejection of the interpretation of the name “Mary” or “Maryam” as meaning ”Bitter sea” (mara = bitter; yam = sea). In the prayer, Hail Holy Queen, do we not include both elements of bitterness and sweetness? We say “poor banished children of Eve” (bitter, huh?), and “mourning and weeping in this valley of tears” (bitter, huh?), and “this our exile” (bitter, huh?)―and then we ask Our Lady―calling her “Sweet Virgin Mary”―to turn her eyes of mercy towards us. Do we speak of this life as “the sea of life” on which we sail? The waters of this “sea of life” are mainly made up from our “bitter tears” that fill up this “valley of tears.”

The interpretation given by St. Bonaventure, also calls to mind Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows and the sword which “pierced” her soul on Calvary, recalling the lamentation of the mother-in-law of Ruth, who had lost a husband and two sons: ”Call me not Noemi [meaning, beautiful], but call me Mara, [meaning, bitter] for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness” (Ruth 1:20). Maror are ”bitter herbs,” such as are found on the seder plate at a Passover meal.

We say of people that “they have a hard shell, but a soft center”, or that they are “hard on the outside but soft on the inside”, or that “their bark is worse than their bite”―meaning that, like a candy that we suck-on, once we have melted the exterior, we find something different in the interior. Things can be “bitter-sweet” or “sweetly-bitter”. The external coating of sin―though often sweet in taste―has a very bitter center by its consequences, thus it is “sweet-bitter”―sweet at first, but bitter in the end. Whereas the Cross of Christ, though it has bitter exterior, once we have “sucked on it” for a while, we finally penetrate its sweet interior. St. Simon of Cyrene was much like this―he was forced to carry the Cross of Christ and initially chaffed and complained under it, but gradually he came to understand, appreciate and love the Cross of Christ― “bitter-sweet”, being bitter in the beginning, but sweet in the end.

Our Lord repeatedly says: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25). “Whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel, shall save it” (Mark 8:35). “For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24). “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).

“I do not promise to make you happy in this world (negative), but in the next (positive)!” says Our Lady to St. Bernadette at Lourdes. In other words, you will have bitterness in this life (negative), but sweetness in the next (positive)―which is pretty much the same thing as Our Lord said: “He who seeks to save his life (positive) will lose it (negative), but he who loses his life (negative) for My sake, will find it (positive). Dying to self is bitter―but spiritually it eventually brings sweetness. The negative leads to a positive.

All God’s Creation Has a Positive-Negative
Everything that God has created has a “positive element” and at the same time a “negative element.” Just like the Sun, and other Planets (and batteries) have a magnetic field with a positive and negative polarity, so too does the Earth―whereby the North Pole has a negative polarity and the South Pole a positive polarity. Similarly, in the seasons, we have a polarization between the positivity of maximum heat (summer-time) and the negativity of minimum heat (winter-time). In each person’s life there is the positivity of birth and the negativity of death―and during the life that comes in between birth and death, we have the positivity of health and the negativity of illness; the positivity of joys and the negativity of sorrows; the positivity of success and the negativity of failure; the positivity of being liked and the negativity of being disliked. There can be no life without both the positive and the negative―likewise there cannot be any eternal life in Heaven without the positive and negative.

Thus, looking at the name of Mary, we see that it must inescapably contain both bitterness and sweetness. To a certain extent we see this in her titles―not least the titles by which Our Lord and God wish Mary to be invoked by in our day and age―the “Sorrowful [negative/bitter] and Immaculate [positive/sweet] Heart of Mary.” The various statements made by Our Lord to His visionary, the Belgian Franciscan Tertiary, Berthe Petit. In October, 1920, Our Lord exalted the merits of the Sorrows of His Mother in these terms:

“The title of ‘Immaculate’ [a positive aspect] belongs to the whole being of My Mother and not specially to her Heart. This title flows from my gratuitous gift to the Virgin who was to give Me birth. My Mother has acquired for her Heart the title of Sorrowful by sharing generously in all the sufferings of My Heart and My Body from the crib to the cross. There is not one of these Sorrows which did not pierce the Heart of My Mother. Living image of My crucified Body, her virginal flesh bore the invisible marks of My wounds as her Heart felt the Sorrows of My own. Nothing could ever tarnish the incorruptibility of her Immaculate Heart. The title of `Sorrowful’ [a negative aspect] belongs therefore to the Heart of My Mother, and more than any other, this title is dear to her because it springs from the union of her Heart with Mine in the redemption of humanity. This title has been acquired by her through her full participation in My Calvary, and it precedes the gratuitous title `Immaculate’ which My love bestowed upon her by a singular privilege.”

On other occasions Our Lord said to Berthe Petit: “The time is now ripe and I wish mankind to turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother” … “The world must be dedicated to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother, as it is dedicated to Mine!” … “It is My wish that the nations should turn to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother. Let one and the same cry arise from every soul: Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!” … “Recourse to My Mother under the title I wish for her universally, is the last help I shall give before the end of time!” … “My Church will revive through the spread of the Devotion and the Consecration which I wish to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother” … “Recourse to My Mother, will bring about, above all, the conversion of a multitude of straying and sinful souls―the pity of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will implore Mercy for them from My Heart.”

Saintly Explanations
Throughout the centuries, Saints and scholars have put forth different interpretations for the name “Mary.” A mixture of etymology and devotion has combined to produce an interesting array of meanings:

In his book, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, St. John Eudes (+1680) offers meditations on seventeen interpretations of the name “Mary” ― taken from the writings of ”the Holy Fathers and by some celebrated Doctors.” Among these various interpretations are “God born of my race,” (St. Ambrose); ”Rain of the sea, falling at convenient time and season,” (St. Peter Canisius); “Myrrh of the Sea,” (St. Jerome); and “The hope of those who voyage on the stormy sea of this world.” (St. Epiphanius) It is quite clear—from Scripture, Tradition and history—that the Church owes so much to Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer and our Mother “in the order of grace.” How does the gratitude and affection of her spiritual children manifest itself in the beautiful Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, and what does this cherished name mean to those who love and venerate the Mother of God?

“Mary means enlightener, because she brought forth the Light of the world. In the Syriac tongue, Mary signifies Lady” (St. Isidore of Seville +636).

“This most holy, sweet and worthy name was ‘eminently fitted to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin. For Mary means a bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted Lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men, she is the Star of the sea; to the angels, she is Illuminatrix; and to all creatures, she is Lady” (St. Bonaventure +1274).

The interpretation “Lady” for Mary was also proposed by St. Jerome, based on the Aramaic word, mar, meaning “Lord”. This would render the meaning “Lady” in the regal or noble sense, as in “Lord and Lady.” Catholic sensibility, however, recognizing in Mary the simple dignity of a Mother, as well as the grandeur of a Queen, did not hesitate to add an affectionate touch to this majestic title. Mary is not just “Lady”, she is “Madonna” or “Notre Dame” meaning, she is “Our Lady”. This aspect of Mary --“Lady” or “Mistress” — is close to Our Lord’s Heart.

“Let me say something concerning this name also, which is interpreted to mean ‘Star of the Sea’, and admirably suits the Virgin Mother.” (St. Bernard +1153).

“Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary’s maternal intercession” (St. Thomas Aquinas +1274).

“God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas or ‘maria’ [Latin for’ sea’]. He gathered all His grace together and called it Mary or Maria ... This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the Saints call the ‘treasury of the Lord.’ From her fullness all men are made rich” (St. Louis de Montfort +1716).

This fascinating—and very, very Catholic—desire to explore the meaning and depths of the holy name of ”Mary” is not merely a pious pursuit, unrelated to any theological concerns. In the various interpretations set forth, a wealth of Marian doctrine is made manifest, not in the clinical language of theology, but in rich, colorful meditations on Our Lady’s name, and sacred truths are explored and taught in language easily comprehended and appreciated by all.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Tuesday September 10th & Wednesday September 11th

Article 5
The Gift of Fear! Are You Afraid of Being Afraid?

Fear of Fear
Is fear a bad thing? There a mocking words and statements that cast fear in a bad light―such as: “You coward! You’re afraid, aren’t you?” or “You scaredy cat!” or “Scared out of your wits!” or “Shook like a leaf”, etc. All of these are among the more polite but most definitely negative comments or disparaging comments about fear. Additionally, nobody looks favorably upon a fearful soldier or policeman―who are supposed to be guardians of country and city. Courage is looked upon as a virtue―while fear is looked upon as a vice. Courage in battle is rewarded with medals and honors―fearful cowardice in battle is rewarded with a court martial and dishonor. Fear most certainly seems have “nothing going for it” and is looked upon as being despicable―to the point where many are afraid to be afraid.

Even Holy Scripture jumps on the bandwagon of condemning fear! “The Lord said to me: ‘Fear him not!” (Deuteronomy 3:2) … “Fear them not: for the Lord your God will fight for you!” (Deuteronomy 3:22) … “Thou shalt not fear them, because the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee―a God mighty and terrible!” (Deuteronomy 7:21) … “If thou go out to war against thy enemies, and see horsemen and chariots, and the numbers of the enemy’s army greater than thine, thou shalt not fear them: because the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt!” (Deuteronomy 20:1) … “Fear not, nor be ye dismayed at their sight―for the Lord thy God He Himself is thy leader, and will not leave thee nor forsake thee! … And the Lord, Who is your leader, He Himself will be with thee! He will not leave thee, nor forsake thee! Fear not, neither be dismayed!” (Deuteronomy 31:6-8) …

All the Main Characters of God Were Afraid
Furthermore, we see most of the chief instruments of God falling into fear―Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, and the list goes on down to Our Lady, St. Joseph and all the Apostles―even Jesus Himself was afraid!

► In the case of ADAM, we see the very first humans afraid and hiding from God after their Original Sin: “And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: ‘Where art thou?’ And he said: ‘I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself!’” (Genesis 3:9-10).

► ABRAHAM was greatly afraid on several occasions, which led to God telling him not to fear: “The word of the Lord came to Abram [not a typo―God would later change his name to Abraham] by a vision, saying: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great!’” (Genesis 15:1). The fact that God has to command Abram not to be afraid, tells us that Abram WAS afraid.

► Abraham’s son ISAAC was likewise afraid “when a famine came in the land … And the Lord appeared to him and said: Go not down into Egypt, but stay in the land that I shall tell thee. [3] And sojourn in it, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee … So Isaac abode in Gerara … And he went up from that place to Bersabee, where the Lord appeared to him that same night, saying: ‘I am the God of Abraham thy father; do not fear, for I am with thee: I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake” (Genesis 25:1-24)

► The same is seen in the case of JACOB, the son of Isaac: “Jacob was greatly afraid [of his brother Esau pursuing him]; and, in his fear, he divided the people that were with him” (Genesis 32:7). God has to repeatedly tell Josue not to be afraid: “The Lord said to Josue: Fear not, nor be thou dismayed!” (Josue 8:1) … “And the Lord said to Josue: ‘Fear them not! For I have delivered them into thy hands―none of them shall be able to stand against thee!’” (Josue 10:8) … “He said again to them: ‘Fear not, neither be ye dismayed, take courage and be strong!” (Josue 10:25) … “And the Lord said to Josue: ‘Fear them not! For tomorrow I will deliver all these to be slain in the sight of Israel!” (Josue 11:6).

► MOSES, after he had killed an Egyptian fled in fear: “After Moses was grown up, he saw an Egyptian striking one of the Hebrews, his brethren. And he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And going out the next day, he saw two Hebrews quarrelling: and he said to him that did the wrong: ‘Why strikest thou thy neighbor?’ But he answered: ‘Who hath appointed thee prince and judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian?’ Moses feared, and Pharao heard of this and sought to kill Moses―but he fled from his sight, and abode in the land of Madian” (Exodus 2:11-15).

Moses was also afraid to take on the responsibility of leading the Israelites out of Egypt: “Moses said: ;I beseech Thee, Lord! I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before: and since thou hast spoken to Thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue!’” When God told Moses what he had to say to the people, “Moses answered and said: ‘They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: “The Lord hath not appeared to thee!”’ Then the Lord said to him: ‘What is that thou holdest in thy hand?’ He answered: ‘A rod!’ And the Lord said: ‘Cast it down upon the ground!’ He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent: so that Moses fled from it!” (Exodus 4:1-3).

► JOSUE, who succeeded Moses as the leader of the Chosen People, the Israelites, was told by God to put all fear away of having to conquer the Promised Land by battle: “After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Josue and said to him: ‘Moses My servant is dead! Arise and pass over this Jordan―thou and thy people with thee―into the land which I will give to the children of Israel … As I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee! I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee! Take courage, and be strong … Take courage and be very valiant! Behold I command thee, take courage, and be strong! Fear not and be not dismayed―because the Lord thy God is with thee in all things whatsoever thou shalt go to!’” (Josue 1:1-9). The fact that God has to tell Josue repeatedly to be courageous signifies that he was lacking that courage to some extent and was anxious and perhaps afraid.

► OUR LADY must have been in some fear or anxiety about her vow of virginity and the message from God, through the Archangel Gabriel, that she was designated to the Mother of the Son of God. “And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary!” (Luke 1:30).

► ST. JOSEPH, too, was afraid on several occasions: “When Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child―of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: ‘Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost!” (Matthew 1:18-20). Later, after having fled from King Herod and living in exile in Egypt, “when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: ‘Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child!’ Who arose, and took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go there: and, being warned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee” (Matthew 2:19-22).

► The APOSTLES were also afraid on numerous occasions: “And they seeing Jesus walk upon the sea, were troubled, saying: ‘It is an apparition!’ And they cried out for fear. And immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying: ‘Be of good heart! It is I―fear ye not!’” (Matthew 14:26-27). During the transfiguration of Jesus―on Mount Thabor―Peter, James and John heard “a voice out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him!’ And the disciples, hearing it, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and said to them: ‘Arise, and fear not!’” (Matthew 17:5-7) … “And Peter answering, said to Jesus: ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias!’ For he knew not what he said―for they were struck with fear” (Mark 9:4-5). “And when He entered into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered with waves, but He was asleep. And they came to Him, and awaked Him, saying: ‘Lord, save us! We perish!’ And Jesus saith to them: ‘Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then, rising up, He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm” (Matthew 8:23-26).

► JESUS also showed a fear on occasions. At one point during His public ministry, Jesus refused to go to Jerusalem for fear of the Jews who were plotting and trying to kill Him: “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him” (John 7:1). Then, on the eve of His Passion and Death, we see that was overcome with fear: “Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples: ‘Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray!’ And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. Then He saith to them: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death! Stay you here, and watch with Me!’ And going a little further, He fell upon His face, praying, and saying: ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me! Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt!’” (Matthew 26:36-39) … “And He taketh Peter and James and John with Him; and He began to fear and to be heavy. And He saith to them: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death! Stay you here, and watch! And when He was gone forward a little, He fell flat on the ground; and He prayed, that if it might be, the hour might pass from Him. And He saith: ‘Abba, Father! All things are possible to thee! Remove this chalice from Me―but not what I will, but what Thou wilt!’” (Mark 14:33-36) … “And going out, He went, according to His custom, to the Mount of Olives. And His disciples also followed Him. And when He was come to the place, He … was withdrawn away from them a stone's cast; and kneeling down, He prayed, saying: ‘Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me―but yet not My will, but Thine be done!’ And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:29-44).

Fear of the Lord
Among all this talk of fear being bad and being condemned, we are struck and stuck with an apparent contradiction. Why? Well, because one of the GIFTS of God, one of the GIFTS of the Holy Ghost is the GIFT OF FEAR! More precisely, it is called the GIFT OF FEAR OF THE LORD. It is with the lowest Gift on the totem pole of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. Holy Scripture tells us that “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16) and “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). Our two faculties of the soul are the intellect (mind) and the will (heart). The highest level or pinnacle for each of them is love for the heart (will) and wisdom for the mind (intellect). Fear is the necessary foundation or platform for both love and wisdom.

God is love—“He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity” (1 John 4:8)—and we must fear losing that love or charity of God: “The Lord spoke to me, saying: ‘Call together the people unto Me, that they may hear My words, and may learn to fear Me all the time that they live on the earth, and may teach their children!’” (Deuteronomy 4:10). “That thou mayest fear the Lord thy God, and keep all His commandments and precepts … Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him only” (Deuteronomy 6:2; 6:13). “I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you shall fear: fear ye Him, who after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5).

Various Kinds of Fear
How can there be a Gift of Fear? Is not charity at the root of all the Gifts? And do not the Scriptures say that perfect love excludes fear? How is it possible, then, that fear of God can come from the profound and divine root of charity?

In order to understand this we must do a little analyzing. There are various kinds of fear: there is fear of pain and fear of blame; there is also a fear of the world that makes us conform to the world and forget the holy commandments of God and commit sin — fear, that is, of some earthly, temporal evil. How many there are who separate themselves from God through such earthly fear!

Worldly Fear
Worldly or mundane fear is that which dreads the loss of temporal goods, such as riches and honors. Innocent in itself, it becomes injurious when we prefer to sin rather than lose these goods. History is replete with cruelties that worldly fear has caused.

It is the fear of a Pilate who condemned Jesus to death because he feared to lose the esteem of Caesar. It is the fear of a Herod who put the Holy Innocents to death, because he feared for his crown. It is the fear of a Pharaoh who dreads the multiplication of the Israelites in Egypt. It is the fear of thousands of young men and women today, who deny their religion and abandon their most sacred duties, the frequentation of the Sacraments and the sanctification of Sunday, on account of human respect.

Carnal Fear
Carnal fear is that, of bodily inconveniences, fear of sickness or of death carried to the extent of losing the goods of the soul. It is the fear of a Peter denying his Master, lest he meet the same fate. Ah, how many Peters has the course of ages not seen? It is indeed lamentable how the sight of torture, or the fear of death, turns the mind from the thought of Heaven, and to preserve the body, the soul is lost: “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24).

This is a common fear. Do we not see it every day dictating recourse to sinful means in order to avoid the ordinary inconveniences of life? We witness it many times daily—perhaps from ourselves too! A lie here and there to avoid something, or to get an advantage; afraid to correct others for fear of reprisals or fear of losing one’s popularity; sleeping on the job and misusing our employer’s time; conforming to the world for fear of being an outcast, etc., etc.

Servile Fear
There is another fear that keeps us from sin and brings us close to God, but which is imperfect: theologians call it “servile fear,” the fear of punishment. Servile fear is the fear of God because of the punishment He dishes out to sinners; it is the avoiding of sin purely and simply because there is a Hell. There is no doubt that this fear keeps us many times from falling into sin; but the motive is of an inferior order, and without the nobility proper to love. Servile fear is not the Gift of Fear of God.

Filial Fear
There is another fear that is called filial. It consists in the repugnance that the soul feels at the thought of being separated from God. This fear comes from love. It is true that perfect love casts out a certain type of fear, but there is also a fear that is, we might say, the basis of love. Whosoever desires, whosoever loves, experiences a profound fear of being separated from the loved one, of displeasing him. Love cannot be conceived of without this fear. One who loves deeply has a fear that is above all other fears — fear of separation from the beloved. This is the Gift of Fear which is directed by the Holy Ghost.

In a more perfect sense filial fear is the beginning of wisdom, because, in order to possess divine wisdom, we need to unite ourselves so closely to God that nothing can separate us from Him. The Gift of Fear unites us with God in this way. It hinders us from ever separating ourselves from the Beloved, and in that sense it is the beginning of wisdom.

Fear of the Lord Delivers From Fears
The Fear of the Lord is necessary that we may work out our salvation; it is necessary for us lest we degrade ourselves to the level of brute creation. It is the only guardian of our liberty and of our honor, because it alone is capable of delivering us from all other fear, from servile, worldly and carnal fear.

The first service rendered by the Gift of Holy Fear is to deliver us from this shameful tyranny. Servile gives way to filial fear, that fear to offend God because He is so good; it is always accompanied by confidence and love. As for worldly and carnal fear they no longer possess an illegitimate dominion, as filial fear either absorbs or banishes them. It regrets, deplores one and only one thing—sin.

This Fear of the Lord is, moreover, the only safeguard of that for which the whole world strives, liberty. Man cannot live without fear. If he does not fear God, he fears creatures, and if he fears a creature he is a creature’s slave; for, his freedom and his dignity belong to him whom he fears. To fear aught else except God, is to be under the yoke of tyranny. This is not understood by those who pretend to freedom by shaking off the yoke of God. In vain are revolutions begun; they but plunge their slaves into deeper distress. He alone is free who fears God; for, where the Spirit of God is, there, too, is liberty. Hence, we should only “fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The Spirit of God unites us to Himself in such a way that He infuses in us an instinctive, profound, efficacious horror of being separated from God. This fear overrides all other fears.

From Fear to Love—Or a Fear of Love
As briefly mentioned above, Holy Scripture tells us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7) and “The fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16). We have two basic powers of the soul―the power to KNOW and the power to LOVE―which are often represented by the words INTELLECT, MIND, REASON, etc., all of which refer to the power of KNOWING. As for the power LOVING, words that are often used to represent that are HEART, WILL, VOLITION, etc. Thus you will hear phrases like “mind and heart”, or “intellect and will”, or “reasoning and volition”, etc. All of these are speaking about the same thing―the soul’s power to KNOW and to LOVE.

Let us then turn to FEAR and try and see how fear can be “the beginning of wisdom” (which is the pinnacle of knowing) and how fear can be “the beginning of God’s love” (which is the highest form of love). For let’s face it―who wants to live in fear all the time when wisdom and love are available? Mankind cannot live without love―mankind was made for love―in fact, mankind was made BY love, for “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and God made mankind. “And God said: ‘Let us make man to Our image and likeness!’ … And God created man to His own image―to the image of God He created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: ‘Increase and multiply, and fill the Earth!’” (Genesis 1:26-28). If “God is charity” then the image of God must also be charity. “And every one that LOVETH, is born of God, and KNOWETH God” (1 John 4:7)―we again see that link between KNOWING and LOVING.

Life seems meaningless without love--but then we cannot love what we do not know Hence the inseparability of wisdom and love, or knowledge and love, or understanding and love. Fear is merely a starting point or departure point that is meant to bring us to the destination of wisdom and love. How can this happen? How does it happen? That is what we now want to examine.

If “the fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16), then fear must be like a tiny seed that is meant to grow and change its appearance from seed to tree and then that tree must grow further until it produces its sweet fruit. When God made Adam and Eve in His image―the image of charity and love―they had to grow in that image of charity and love throughout the rest of their lives. The command that God gave Adam and Eve― “Increase and multiply, and fill the Earth!”―was not just to populate the world with people, but to increase and multiply HIS IMAGE, the image of charity and love, therefore, to increase and multiply in charity.

Yet charity is precious―like gold, to which it is often compared. If someone has much gold, they also need good security to avoid losing the gold or having the gold stolen. God gave Adam and Eve the necessary security. “And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And He commanded him, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat! But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat! For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!’” (Genesis 2:15-17). Thus God takes Adam―made in the image of God, that is to say, charity―and plants Adam, or the image of charity, in the soil of fear: “For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!” The soil of fear is not meant to restrict the growth of Adam’s love, but it is there to preserve his love. As long as Adam remains in that soil of fear, his love will grow and will be preserved. If he removes himself from that soil of fear, then his love will die.

We this salutary need of fear in the incident in which Our Lord shoed St. Teresa of Avila her place in Hell for her past sins if she remained lukewarm. St. Teresa herself relates the event in Chapter 32 of her autobiography:

“Some considerable time after Our Lord had bestowed upon me the graces I have been describing, and others also of a higher nature, I was one day in prayer when I found myself in a moment, without knowing how, plunged apparently into Hell. I understood that it was Our Lord’s will I should see the place which the devils kept in readiness for me, and which I had deserved by my sins. It was but a moment, but it seems to me impossible I should ever forget it even if I were to live many years … I cannot describe that inward fire or that despair, surpassing all torments and all pain. I did not see who it was that tormented me, but I felt myself on fire, and torn to pieces, as it seemed to me; and, I repeat it, this inward fire and despair are the greatest torments of all … Our Lord at that time would not let me see more of Hell. Afterwards, I had another most fearful vision, in which I saw the punishment of certain sins. They were most horrible to look at; but, because I felt none of the pain, my terror was not so great. In the former vision, Our Lord made me really feel those torments, and that anguish of spirit, just as if I had been suffering them in the body there. I know not how it was, but I understood distinctly that it was a great mercy that Our Lord would have me see with mine own eyes the very place from which His compassion saved me ...

“I have at other times dwelt on the various torments of Hell―though not often, because my soul made no progress by the way of fear … I was so terrified by that vision―and that terror is on me even now while I am writing―that, even though it took place nearly six years ago, the natural warmth of my body is chilled by fear even now when I think of it. And so, amid all the pain and suffering which I may have had to bear, I remember no time in which I do not think that all we have to suffer in this world is as nothing. It seems to me that we complain without reason. I repeat it―this vision was one of the grandest mercies of our Lord. It has been to me of the greatest service, because it has destroyed my fear of trouble and of the contradiction of the world, and because it has made me strong enough to bear up against them, and to give thanks to Our Lord, who has been my Deliverer, as it now seems to me, from such fearful and everlasting pains. Ever since that time, everything seems endurable in comparison with one instant of suffering such as those I had then to bear in Hell. I am filled with fear when I see that―after frequently reading books which describe in some manner the pains of Hell―I was not afraid of them, nor made any account of them. Where was I? How could I possibly take any pleasure in those things which led me directly to so dreadful a place as Hell? Blessed for ever be Thou, O my God! And, oh, how manifest is it that Thou didst love me much more than I did love Thee! How often, O Lord, didst Thou save me from that fearful prison! And how I used to get back to it contrary to Thy will!” (St. Teresa of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, Chapter 32).

Fear and Love
Thus Holy Scripture says: “Fear is not in charity: but perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain. And he that feareth, is not perfected in charity” (1 John 4:18). Note here that it speaks of “perfect charity” and not “imperfect charity”―it says: “He that fears is not perfect in charity”―but it DOES NOT SAY that he who fears HAS NO charity. It means that there is a stage of growth in charity which is not yet perfect and that fear can be present. Therefore, fear CAN EXIST with imperfect charity, but not with perfect charity. This is the case for just about every human being walking this Earth―for our charity is not yet perfect. Usually, such “perfect charity” is only found in Heaven and in Heaven there is no fear anymore―but in this world we can always grow more and more in love and there is always an underlying feeling of fear of many dangers that might make lose our love―which shows that even though it may on the way to “final perfection” and may have even entered the beginnings of perfection, there is still room for more growth and thus still room for more perfection. In proportion to how much we grow in the love of God, our focus on fear will diminish―without ever, strictly speaking, casting fear out of our soul. For it is only in Heaven that we arrive at a totally perfect charity, and, as said above, in Heaven there is no longer any fear. Until you reach Heaven, you shall―to one degree or another―“with fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12).

God Himself seems to indicate the terrible consequences of a lack of fear in the following quote from Holy Scripture: “The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).

The same thing is proved from the perspective of the Sacrament of Confession―wherein we have two basic forms of contrition―attrition and contrition. Attrition is inferior to contrition. ATTRITION is sorrow for sin that is primarily based upon FEAR―namely fear of being condemned to Hell, fear of God’s temporal punishments in this life, etc. It is sorry for sin on a mainly SELFISH basis―it does not look at what it has done to God by sin, but mainly at what the consequences are to SELF, that is to say, the risk of Hell and punishment in this life. It has little or no thought about how much it might have offended God, because in a practical way (perhaps not theoretically) it loves itself more than God―hence its love is imperfect and it is driven more by fear for self than love of God. On the other hand, CONTRITION is sorrow for sin that is primarily based upon a love of God, and the sorrow is not mainly due to any potential punishments due to self, but the sorrow is mainly over having offended someone whom is greatly loved, namely God. This does not mean that there is no thought of self in the equation, but self is clearly relegated to second place behind God. Very few people are primarily sorry for sin out of a love of God, but mainly out of a fear of the potential punishments that will come as a consequence of their sins.

There are various ways in which we can look upon fear―with its necessity and usefulness. One way is to see fear as a medicine or perhaps a “not-so-nice” tasting supplement that we take to help preserve our health (which, in the spiritual life, is our charity). We put up with the “not-so-nice” taste knowing the benefits it brings.

Another way to see fear is like the foundations of a building―it is absolutely necessary for foundations to be there. It is like the “rock” that Our Lord speaks of in building your house―rather than building on sand. Digging and laying the foundations is not a pleasant side to the building process―you even feel that you are going in the wrong direction―down rather than up. Yet your building may not last long without them. Once laid―you can then build on them and hide them, but you cannot and must remove them or destroy them. The same can be said for fear―a foundation of the spiritual life.

“Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:24-27).

Resetting the Fear Button
Our day and age has progressively and increasingly lost its sense of a fear of God. This is why―if you analyze them from a perspective of fear―all of Our Lady’s modern-day (1600s and later) apparitions have mainly been an endeavor to reset our “fear buttons” or to give us a “fear-implant”. That idea clearly shows itself to be true when you consider the chief quotes from Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Akita:

“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness … If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God, etc. etc.”

Has Our Lady succeeded in “resetting the fear buttons”? Sadly, no! The very thing she warned against has actually happened―“If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them”―that is where we find ourselves! Yet still there is very little fear of God in the minds and hearts of the vast majority of mankind―and since there is little fear of God, there is little love of God, for “the fear of God is the beginning of His love” (Ecclesiasticus 25:16).

Perhaps it is time you reset the “fear buttons” in your family (or school, or parish). How do you do that? Simply repeat the fearful things that Our Lady has been repeating to the world―again, and again, and again. Speak of sin and the consequences of sin; speak of no more pardon from God if sin increases in number and gravity; speak of horrific world and individual chastisements; tell them that “God is not mocked!” (Ephesians 6:7); speak to them of the eternity and pain of Hell; speak to them about these things whether they like it or not―Our Lady did―unless, of course, you know of a better approach and method than that of Our Lady’s!

Yet, always bear in mind while you are speaking of these NEGATIVE things, that God never manifests or acts in JUSTICE without, at the same time, bringing His MERCY into play. So, in talking of the NEGATIVE things of Hell, sin, chastisements and such things, also show them the MERCIFUL option of Heaven and its eternal rewards―but tell them that the reward of Heaven is not Social Security benefit or handout or freebie. Heaven has to be won, and, as Our Lord says: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) and that “Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23) ... “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). Heaven has a price and is not freebie―until they wake up to the high price of Heaven, they will most likely be destined for the “other place.” Thus, you need to puncture their illusions and delusions by reminding them of the cold, brutal, inescapable facts of life and tell them to “Be dead with Christ from the elements of this world” (Colossians 2:20). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Who are they friends with―the world, or God? You cannot be friends of both. Hopefully you can reset their “fear buttons”―most don’t, most don’t even try! Now that is frightening!

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday September 8th & Monday September 9th
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Article 4
Glory to God in the Highest!
And Peace and Joy to Mary's Servants!

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Masterpiece Unveiled―Masterpiece Ignored or Unknown
Today is the day! The Masterpiece of God was unveiled! The angels rejoiced! Mankind was clueless as to the importance of that unveiling! “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” as they say. God saw the beauty of His masterpiece. The angels saw the beauty of His masterpiece. Humans would only say of Mary what they said of Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man: “‘Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? Are not also his sisters here with us?’ And they were scandalized in regard of Him” (Mark 6:3) … “and they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth, and they said: ‘Is not this the Son of Joseph?’” (Luke 4:22) … “And coming into His own country, He taught them in their synagogues, so that they wondered and said: ‘How came this Man by this wisdom and miracles? Is not this the carpenter's Son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence therefore hath He all these things?’ And they were scandalized in His regard. But Jesus said to them: ‘A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house!’ And He wrought not many miracles there, because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:54-58).

A Secret Masterpiece―Hidden From the Worldlly
Likewise would Mary the Masterpiece remain hidden from almost everyone who saw and encountered her―for as St. Louis de Montfort writes:

“Mary was singularly hidden during her life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her “Alma Mater”—“Mother secret and hidden.” Her humility was so profound that she had no inclination on Earth more powerful or more constant than that of hiding herself, from herself as well as from every other creature, so as to be known to God only. He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from all human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption. Even her parents did not know her, and the angels often asked one another: “Who is that?” (Canticles 3:6; 8:5) because the Most High either had hidden her from them, or if He did reveal anything, it was nothing compared to what He kept undisclosed.

“God the Father consented that she should work no miracle, at least no public one, during her life, although He had given her the power to do so. God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her. God the Holy Ghost, though she was His faithful spouse, consented that His Apostles and Evangelists should speak very little of her, and no more than was necessary to make Jesus Christ known. Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High, the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son, who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favor her humility; calling her by the name of “woman” (John 2:4; 19:26), as if she were a stranger―although in His heart He esteemed and loved her above all angels and all men. Mary is the “sealed fountain” (Canticles 4:12), the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe, not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature, no matter how pure, allowed to enter into that sanctuary except by a great and special privilege” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §2―§5).

The same thoughts are echoed in St. Louis de Montfort’s book, The Secret of Mary, wherein he writes:

“There is not, and there never will be, either in God’s creation or in His mind, a creature in whom He is so honored as in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting even the saints, the cherubim or the highest seraphim in Heaven. Mary is God’s garden of Paradise, His own unspeakable world, into which His Son entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take His delight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in. He created a second world—Paradise—for the Blessed. He created a third for Himself, which He named Mary. She is a world unknown to most mortals here on Earth. Even the angels and saints in Heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration of a God, Who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, His chosen world, that they exclaim: “Holy, holy, holy” unceasingly (Isaias 6:3). Happy―indeed sublimely happy―is the person to whom the Holy Ghost reveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him true knowledge of her. Happy the person to whom the Holy Ghost opens this enclosed garden (Canticles 4:12) for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Ghost gives access to this sealed fountain, where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, §19―§20).

Dogs, Swine and Holy Pearls―You Get What You Deserve
If Our Lord can say: “Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you!” Matthew 7:6)―then all the more true must that be of Mary, even though she is the Refuge of Sinners and Mother of Mercy. Everyone―even the most vile sinner―can benefit from Mary’s basic intercession and mercy, but her ‘pearls’ are reserved in proportion to those who are really devoted to her. Our Lady loves everyone, sinners included (but she despises their sinful behavior)―but she loves even more those that truly love her. Isn’t that just plain old common sense? A doctor in the Emergency Room of a hospital will try to save everyone who is admitted―but he will “pull-out all the stops” if one of those patients happens to be a family member or a close friend. We do not merely want to be “patients” of Our Lady―we want to be part of the “family”! For she does more for “family” than she does for strangers.

That might ‘shock’ or ‘scandalize’ some folk in today’s modern (false) notion of “equal rights for everyone because we are born equal”―but with God there are no equal rights because there is no equality. If you imagine an infinite staircase―then every single person who has ever existed is standing on that staircase, but no people are found on the same step―with God there is no equality. We must not mistake “equal rights” with “equal opportunities”―God gives everyone the opportunity to save their souls―but God does not equip everyone with the same skills, graces and circumstances―these will always differ and thus be unequal. When Our Lady does more for some and less for other, she is merely following the commands of Holy Scripture that tell us do good to everyone, but not in equal measure: “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Galatians 6:10). That is all part and parcel of the virtue of justice―which gives to everyone according to their merits―punishing the evil and rewarding the just―and, in each case, the punishment or reward will not be equal in any two persons.

In the Parable of the Talents―not everyone of the servants is given the same amount: “A man, going into a far country, called his servants and delivered to them his goods. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to everyone according to his proper ability” (Matthew 25:14-15)―thus no equality. The profits they made were also unequal― “And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug into the earth and hid his lord's money” (Matthew 25:16-18). This is only to be expected, as Holy Scripture says: “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more!” (Luke 12:48).

The Stagnation Syndrome
Thus, far more is expected from Catholics than non-Catholics; likewise, far more from priests and religious than laity. Unfortunately, we think we are giving enough already! We feel as though we are doing enough! We do not want to give more, do more, pray more, study more, learn more. We think that we are doing better than most. So we end up spiritually “treading water” or “twiddling our thumbs” in self-satisfaction. Our Lord tells us that God will not accept stagnation in the spiritual life, but that He is always expecting and demanding more from us: “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:1-2).

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ways of the Spiritual Life (now renamed as The Three Conversions of the Spiritual Life), writes of the danger of this stagnation or lack of progress in the spiritual life:

“This is what the Fathers have so often asserted: “In the way of God, he who makes no progress, loses ground.” Just as the child who does not grow does not merely remain a child but becomes an idiot, so the beginner who does not enter upon the way of proficients when he ought to, does not merely remain a beginner, but becomes a stunted soul. It would seem, unhappily, that the great majority of souls do not belong to any of these three categories, of beginners, proficients or perfect, but rather to that of stunted souls! At what stage are we ourselves?”

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange echoes this point in his longer work, The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, saying: “All the masters of the spiritual life agree on this maxim: ‘He who does not advance, falls back.’ But it sometimes happens, because retrogression takes place imperceptibly, that a few, who have already made some progress, allow a considerable period to elapse before they realize that they are falling back.”

The problem is that we look around and compare ourselves―not to those who are better than us, holier than us, more knowledgeable than us―but to those who are worse than us! In doing so, we fall into the same trap that the Pharisee fell into in one of Our Lord’s parables, who compared himself to those who were worse than he was―namely, the Publican: “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 every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted!” (Luke 18:10-14).

The Dangers of Curiosity and Spiritual Pride
This pride that Our Lord exposes in the above parable, often manifests itself through curiosity and leads to spiritual blindness. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange explains it thus:

“Curiosity is a defect of our mind, says St. Thomas, which inclines us with eagerness and precipitation toward the consideration and study of less useful subjects, making us neglect the things of God and of our salvation. This curiosity, says St. Thomas, is born of spiritual sloth in respect to divine things, and makes us lose precious time. Whereas people who have little earthly learning, but are nourished with the Gospel, possess great correctness in judgment, there are others who, far from nourishing themselves profoundly with the great Christian truths, spend a great part of their time carefully storing up useless, or at least only slightly useful, earthly knowledge which does not at all form the judgment. They are afflicted with almost a mania for collecting worldly knowledge. Theirs is an accumulation of knowledge mechanically arranged and unorganized, somewhat as if it were in a dictionary. This type of work, instead of training the mind, smothers it, as too much wood smothers a fire. Under this jumble of accumulated [earthly] knowledge, they can no longer see the light of the first principles, which alone could lift up their souls to God, the Beginning and End of all things. This heavy and stupid intellectual curiosity about earthly things, as St. John of the Cross says, is in this sense the opposite of contemplation.

“Spiritual pride is a more serious disorder than curiosity. It gives us such confidence in our reason and judgment that we are not very willing to consult others, especially our superiors, or to enlighten ourselves by the attentive and benevolent examination of reasons or facts which may be urged against us. This state of mind leads to manifest imprudent acts that will have to be painfully expiated. It leads also to asperity (sharpness) in discussions, to stubbornness in judgment, to disparagement which excludes in a cutting tone all that does not fit in with our manner of seeing things. This pride may lead a person to refuse to others the liberty he claims for his own opinions, and also to submit only very imperfectly to the directions of the supreme Shepherd, and even to attenuate and minimize dogmas under the pretext of explaining them better than has been done hitherto.

“These defects, especially pride, may finally lead us to spiritual blindness. Holy Scripture often speaks of this spiritual blindness. Christ was saddened and angered by the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees (Mark 3:5) and finally said to them: “Woe to you blind guides ... You tithe mint and anise and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith ... Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:16,23 ff). In St. John's Gospel (John 12:40) we read that this blindness is a punishment of God, who withdraws light from such as do not wish to receive it (Romans 2:8). There are sinners who, by reason of repeated sins, no longer recognize the signified will of God manifested in a striking manner; they no longer understand that the evils which befall them are punishments of God, and they do not turn to Him. By natural laws alone, they explain these misfortunes as things that afflict a number of people at the moment. They see in them only the result of certain economic factors, such as the development of machinery and overproduction which results from it. They no longer take into account that these disorders have above all a moral cause and come from the fact that many men place their last end where it is not―that is to say, not in God Who would unite us, but in material goods which divide us. Spiritual blindness leads the sinner to prefer in everything goods that are temporal rather than eternal goods. It prevents him from hearing the voice of God.

“Spiritual blindness is a punishment of God which takes away the divine light because of repeated sins. But there is also a sin by which we voluntarily turn away from the consideration of divine truth by preferring to it the knowledge of that which satisfies our concupiscence of our pride (St. Thomas, Summa, IIa IIae, q. 15, art. 1). It takes all penetration away from us and leaves us in a state of spiritual dullness. Such a condition is a chastisement, and no heed is paid to it. As St. Augustine says: “If, when a thief stole money, he lost an eye, everybody would say that it was a punishment of God; you have lost the eye of your mind and you think that God has not punished you” (Commentary on Psalm 47). It is surprising at times to find among Christians men who have great literary, artistic, or scientific culture, but who have merely a rudimentary and superficial knowledge of the truths of religion, a knowledge mingled with many prejudices and errors. It is a surprising disproportion, which makes them, as it were, spiritual dwarfs.”

In such persons as described above, there is no joy in spiritual things. Thus feast days―such as the recent Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas―bring little or no spiritual joy and peace to their souls. They can only find joy in material, earthly things―not in spiritual, heavenly things. They are like a fish out of water in religious and spiritual waters―but come to life when the conversation turn to earthly, material or worldly matters.

On the contrary, the truly humble souls―who realize that you cannot serve God and mammon, and who understand that the world is an enemy to God and therefore to them also―they have sought to empty themselves of the world so as to make room for Christ. They are those who have placed their heart in Heaven, which they see to be their real and only treasure. Such souls find great joy and peace in all things that relate to God, religion and the Faith. They look forward to and enjoy religious feasts in a way similar to the worldly ones who look forward, enjoy and talk about worldly events. It is such souls that can hope, one day, to attain to a sincere and true devotion to Our Lady, for “No creature, no matter how pure, is allowed to enter into that sanctuary except by a great and special privilege” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §2―§5). “Happy the person to whom the Holy Ghost opens this enclosed garden (Canticles 4:12) for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Ghost gives access to this sealed fountain, where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, §19―§20).

TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Thursday September 5th & Friday September 6th & Saturday September 7th

Article 3
Don't Just Think It! Do It!

The Life of the Mind
What we say or do is only the “tip of the iceberg” of what we think. In other words, the vast majority of our life is more interior than it is exterior. Exteriorly, we only show a fraction of what is going on in the interior of our mind, soul and heart. We cease speaking after a while, we stop doing things after a while―but we never stop thinking and conversing with ourselves in the secrecy of our mind. “There are many thoughts in the heart of a man” (Proverbs 19:21).

Our thoughts are invisible and impenetrable to others―even though in various ways we may consciously or unconsciously betray our thoughts―but our thoughts are not invisible and impenetrable to God. “And when Jesus knew their thoughts, answering, He said to them: ‘What is it you think in your hearts?’” (Luke 5:22). “And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’” (Matthew 9:4). “But He knew their thoughts …” (Luke 6:8), “But Jesus seeing the thoughts of their heart …” (Luke 9:47), “But He, seeing their thoughts, said …” (Luke 11:17), etc. “For I know the thoughts of your heart” (Ezechiel 11:5). “For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the thoughts of minds” (1 Paralipomenon 28:9). “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men―that they are vain” (Psalm 93:11). “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain” (1 Corinthians 3:20). “They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened!” (Romans 1:21).

The word “vain” comes from the Latin word “vanus”―meaning empty. That is the truer sense of the word “vain” than our current understanding of the word “vain” as having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth―which, of course, is empty of truth, for as Our Lord says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5) and “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do!’” (Luke 17:10)―and, as Holy Scripture adds: “For who distinguisheth thee? Or what hast thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Furthermore, there can often be a “divorce” or difference between what we say or do about a matter and what we REALLY think about a matter. “Deceit is in the heart of them that think evil things” (Proverbs 12:20). “Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?” (James 2:4). “And Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand!’” (Matthew 12:25). If we lead a “divided life”, where our words and actions do match our real thoughts, then we are a “house divided against itself” which “shall not stand.” Though it is tough, we need to think more before we speak, and then say what we think―without any ambiguity, compromise, craftiness, subterfuge, or ulterior motives. For, as Holy Scripture says, “His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his Earth―in that day all their thoughts shall perish!” (Psalm 145:4). “For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the thoughts of minds” (1 Paralipomenon 28:9). “Now very shortly I will pour out My wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish My anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes!” Ezechiel 7:8).

What Do We Think?
What do we think about? Well, as God tells us through Holy Scripture, we think empty (vain) things. Furthermore, since words and actions follow thoughts―we consequently say empty things and live empty lives! “For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile a man!” (Mark 7:21-22). We do not think in a way that God would have us think―we think as we like to think and not as God would like us think. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9).

We think more about ourselves than we think of God. “Who will set scourges over my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over my heart, that they spare me not in their ignorance, and that their sins may not appear” (Ecclesiasticus 23:2)―meaning, in simpler phrasing, “I wish I could be whipped for my thoughts, so that wisdom could discipline my mind. I would not want to be spared when I am wrong; I would not want a single sin to be overlooked!” or “Who will set whips over my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over my mind, so as not to spare me in my errors, and not overlook my sins?”

Once again, as Holy Scripture says: “Let them see and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and not follow their own thoughts and eyes going astray after divers things” Numbers 15:39). “The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together―there is none that doth good, no, not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Psalm 13:1-3).

Thinking is the Root of Our Problems
Most people think that they think well enough―yet their thoughts, and the resulting words and actions that come from those thoughts, lead most of them to their damnation. Today, many think that what used to be called “good” is actually evil; and that what used to be called “evil” is actually okay and good. We see this clearly in such things as cohanitation, fornication, contraception, abortion, divorce and remarriage, same-sex relationships and marriages, drug use, etc. ― all of these things are now looked upon as being ‘good’ by increasing numbers of people. Whereas calling sin a sin, and calling error as error, heresy as heresy, evil as evil―all of this has now become a “hate crime”, “hate speech” and “hate thoughts”! In the realm of religion, increasing numbers think that all religions lead to God, they think that everyone goes to Heaven; they think that sin―if there still is such a thing―is only a sin if spoken or performed by some action, but they think that their thoughts are harmless, regardless of what they might think about; they think that they themselves are the judges of good and evil―saying: “What is wrong for you, is right for me and is not wrong at all!” They who think this way, think wrong!

“And they said: ‘We will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart!’” (Jeremias 18:12)―which is exactly what we are doing today, following our own thoughts and opinions, our own personal preferences and desires. “Thus have you spoken, for I know the thoughts of your heart!” (Ezechiel 11:5). “They will not set their thoughts to return to their God―for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord!” (Osee 5:4)―which is the case today, where, as Our Lady said, most marriages are not of God, cohabitation increases daily, and sexual sins have sky-rocketed―all of which underlines the truth of Our Lady’s words when she said the sin that damns most souls today is the sin of impurity―whether in thought, word or action. Yet most people think all of these sins are nowadays acceptable, for times have changed and morals have changed with the times. They who think this way, think wrong!

Yet Holy Scripture has already condemned such thoughts, saying: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness―that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). “For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in” (Wisdom 1:5). “Their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts!” (Isaias 59:7). “How long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?” (Jeremias 4:14). “The Lord will search out your thoughts!” (Wisdom 6:4). “Inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly” (Wisdom 1:9). “Evil thoughts are an abomination to the Lord!” (Proverbs 15:26). “For perverse thoughts separate from God” (Wisdom 1:3).

What Does God Think of Our Thoughts?
There is so much focus on what we think about things personally, that the thoughts of God are largely or totally ignored: “When they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks―but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened!” (Romans 1:21). Yet it is what God thinks that is the most important―for God will be the judge of all our thoughts (and words and actions) one day―and our salvation and damnation will not depend upon what we think, but what God thinks. “Hear, O Earth! Behold I will bring evils upon this people―the fruits of their own thoughts―because they have not heard My words, and they have cast away My law” (Jeremias 6:19).

It is never too late to change our thinking! Holy Scripture points this out numerous times―let these brief quotes suffice and give a mere echo to the abundance of many more such quotes: “Let thy thoughts be upon the precepts of God, and meditate continually on His commandments: and He will give thee a heart” (Ecclesiasticus 6:37). “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and return to our God―for He is bountiful to forgive! For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways―saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:7-9).

Think Not Above Your Station
Sometimes―or perhaps often―we think ourselves to above that station in which God has placed us, and we seek knowledge of things that are not our concern or that are beyond our abilities. This is sadly the plague of the modern world. Science is not satisfied with its own parameters and limits―but seeks to intrude into the field of religion and morality―pontificating as though it was God. This is true of many other domains of knowledge―politics intrudes into religious matters, dictating what can and what cannot be done, whereas it is the Church that should be giving those principles to the State, and not the other way round. This disease trickles down to grass-roots levels, and thus the laity start to dictate to the clergy what should and should not be done; parents do the same to the school; children do the same to their parents; employees do likewise to their employers. It really has become a case of “power from below”―but if you look below the “below”, then you descend down to Hell and see that it is the power of Satan―who is always seeking to reverse or inverse true values and godly principles―that is behind all of this “power from below” and “power to the people”, for, as Our Lord pointed out, all power should come from above and not below. “Jesus answered [Pilate]: ‘Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above!’” (John 19:11).

Today, the devil has successfully tempted people into the pitfall that he successfully presented to Eve: “In what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!” (Genesis 3:5). Thus, in our own day and age, we can see that many have taken a big bite out “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Having taken a bite of this “forbidden fruit” they know pretend to know everything, they inquire into everything, they judge everything―they have become as gods. O foolish people! “Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability―but the things that God hath commanded thee, think on them always, and in many of His works be not curious” (Ecclesiasticus 3:22).

Hence is it that we see so many “armchair popes”, or “keyboard cardinals”, or “anonymous Fathers and Doctors of the Church”―all of whom have done and completed their theological studies at the Online Pontifical Academy of Google. They are the modern self-styled and self-appointed Spanish Inquisition of the 21st century―they haul anyone and everyone, who might be suspect of anything, before their internet courts and endlessly torture and cross-examine them before the jury of the internet world.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Tuesday September 3rd & Wednesday September 4th

Article 2
There Is No Other Way! Don't Even Try Searching!

Your Way Is Not Heaven’s Way!
Just how stupid can Catholic become?!! They think they know enough―but they know very little! They think they are on the way to Heaven―but (ignore that political correctness) most of them are on the way to Hell. They ignore God’s and the Church’s teachings and commandments―instead they create their own “Disneyland Dogmas”. They put the world before God in this life―but expect God to put them before everything in the next life and “let them off” what they deserve. They invent their own way to Heaven―while rejecting the ONLY WAY to Heaven. Insanity! Stupidity! Recklessness! Spiritual Suicide! What makes matters worse is that, today, even the clergy and the religious of the Catholic Church have adopted such an attitude―which can be seen right to the very top.

They have probably never read or heard the following quotes―or, if they have, they have merely plugged their ears, closed their eyes, while singing out loud: “La! La! La! La! La! La! I can’t hear you!” Yet as these words of God in Holy Scripture show, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).

“Jesus Christ of Nazareth … is the stone which was rejected by you the builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other! For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved!” (Acts 4:10-12). Jesus is the way! He Himself said the same thing: “Jesus saith to him: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!” (John 14:6). “If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin!” (John 8:24). Is that so hard to understand? Yet today, many in Catholic Church proclaim you can be saved in any religion―even if you have no religion―just follow your own religion and be as good as you can! Insanity! Stupidity! Recklessness! Spiritual Suicide! Such statements and attitudes ARE NOT CATHOLIC, but, as in the fairy tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes (a.k.a. The King With No Clothes, or The Invisible Suit of Clothes), everyone believes the lie and pretends to see what cannot be seen. As Our Lady of Good Success lamented: “…and those who should speak out will be silent.”

False Religions, False Prophets, False Teachers, False Doctrine
Today it is politically correct to “go along to get along” with all religions and even no religions. “Ecumenism” and “Dialogue” are the “buzzwords” of the day. This was not the case for Pope St. Pius X―who reigned from 1903 to 1914. During the Modernist crisis, Pope Pius X was approached by some cardinal advisers who asked him to reconsider his condemnation of the Modernist heresy. Shouldn’t he adopt a more conciliatory tone? Wouldn’t the Church be better served by fruitful dialogue? The humble yet Herculean pope famously retorted: “You want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don’t count or measure the blows, you strike as you can!” Isn’t this how we expect a father to sound when his children are at risk? Especially Holy Fathers? The British politician Winston Churchill said something similar about the stupidity of dialogue with our enemies―when, faced with advisers who pleaded for negotiations rather than war with Hitler, he bellowed: “One does not reason with a tiger when one’s head is in his mouth!” ― and “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) and the instrument, with which the devil seeks to devour you, is the world of which he is the prince and ruler. Yet most Catholics don’t even wait to be devoured by the devil and the world―they jump right into the mouth of world by ‘devouring’ all the world can offer.

Pope St. Pius X’s Birthday Present for Our Lady
It was not by chance or fluke that Pope St. Pius X wrote and published his encyclical, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Feeding the Flock of the Lord) on the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, September 8th, 1907. The opening paragraph is bold, strong and uncompromising―something that our cowardly, weak and compromising Church of today could learn from:

“The office divinely committed to Us of feeding the Lord’s flock has especially this duty assigned to it by Christ―namely, to guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the Faith delivered to the saints, rejecting the profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called. There has never been a time when this watchfulness of the supreme pastor was not necessary to the Catholic body; for, owing to the efforts of the enemy of the human race, there have never been lacking “men speaking perverse things” (Acts 20:30), “vain talkers and seducers” (Titus 1:10), “erring and driving into error” (2 Timothy 3:13). Still it must be confessed that the number of the enemies of the cross of Christ has in these last days increased exceedingly, who are striving―by arts, entirely new and full of subtlety―to destroy the vital energy of the Church, and, if they can, to overthrow utterly Christ’s kingdom itself. Wherefore We may no longer be silent, lest We should seem to fail in Our most sacred duty” (Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis).

“Delay in this matter is rendered necessary especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church’s open enemies; they lie hid―a thing to be deeply deplored and feared―in her very bosom and heart, and are the more mischievous, the less conspicuously they appear. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, nay, and this is far more lamentable, to the ranks of the priesthood itself, who, feigning a love for the Church, lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology, nay more, thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church, and lost to all sense of modesty, pride themselves as being reformers of the Church; and, forming more boldly into line of attack, attack all that is most sacred in the work of Christ, not sparing even the person of the Divine Redeemer, whom, with sacrilegious daring, they reduce to a simple, mere man” (Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis).

The Poison Spreads
What Pope Pius X says of the clergy above, is now true of parents and teachers―and consequently also true of their charges, their children and their students―they have become, as the Pope says, “partisans of error … lacking the firm protection of philosophy and theology … thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church.” Those parents and teachers should―as the title of this encyclical suggests―be “feeding the flock of the Lord” entrusted to them. Yes, they are feeding them―but what are they feeding them? The poisonous junk and vanity of the world, while the “bread” that is the “word of God” is left to rot, having been put aside. Both parents and teachers―and consequently children and students―are being fed the politically correct poison of the world, which today claims that the calling of sin as being something evil and calling sinners by the title “sinners” is akin to a hate crime, punishable by fines or imprisonment. You can be anti-Christian, but you cannot be anti-Sin-of-any-kind (place here whatever deviancy or sin you care to mention). “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil! That put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20).

Living the Age of Lies
All this false esteem for false religions is nothing other than “esteem for the devil”―who Our Lord says is the “prince of this world” (John 12:31) and the father of lies. What Our Lord says to the Jews is equally applicable to all false religions: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own―for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (John 8:44). “Such false apostles are deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder: for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).

The following passage, though somewhat lengthy (but since when was reading Scripture harmful?), sums the point up perfectly―Our Lord says: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets [false religions], who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? [Or truth from Protestants and pagans?] Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. [False religions beware!] Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that saith to Me ― ‘Lord! Lord!’― shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord!’ Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And everyone that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:13-27).

Great is the Fall
Pope St. Pius X speaks of this “great fall” that Our Lord alludes to: “They express astonishment … that We number such men among the enemies of the Church … accounting them the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For as We have said, they put their designs for her ruin into operation not from outside the Church, but from within the Church; hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church … They lay the axe, not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the Faith and its deepest fibers. And having struck at this root, they proceed to disseminate poison through the whole tree, so that there is no part of Catholic truth from which they hold their hand, none that they do not strive to corrupt. Further, none is more skillful, none more astute than they, in the employment of a thousand noxious arts; for they double the parts of rationalist [worldling] and Catholic, and this so craftily that they easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink, or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance. To this must be added the fact, which indeed is well calculated to deceive souls, that they lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality. Finally―and this almost destroys all hope of cure― their very doctrines [personal opinions] have given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and suffer no restraint; and, relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’ that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy.”

What do the above theoretical words of Pope St. Pius X look like in concrete terms, in practical examples? We see what he speaks about very clearly in today’s examples of “Catholicism”―or should it called “Decatholicism” as in “decaffeinated” coffee―whereby the potent parts of the Faith have been chemically (humanly) filtered-out and watered-down as caffeine is filtered-out and watered-down during the decaffeination process by use of chemical solvents and water. That is why today, after being “spiritually decaffeinated” or “decatholicized”, many if most of today’s Catholics have had the “dogmatic caffeine” removed from their minds and hearts by a constant washing in the solvents Rationalism, Liberalism, Modernism and Technology and the waters of worldliness. Consequently, they no longer believe in the Real Presence (many don’t even know what that refers to), nor do they believe in the Church’s teaching on marriage, preferring, instead, to adhere to the poisonous perverted definitions cooked-up and given to them by the world (and its prince, the devil). They will not accept the Church’s teaching on the sinfulness of contraception, abortion, fornication and masturbation ― preferring to accept and practice them, while telling everybody that it is not sinful if you don’t think it to be sinful. They no longer accept the Ten Commandments―neither in theory, nor in practice.

Breaking Tablets of Stone or Electronic Tablets
They must have been pretty technologically savvy in the time of Moses, because just as we have electronic smartphones and tablets today, we read that Moses had two tablets in his possession, but they were not electronic tablets, but tablets of stone! He got his two tablets from God, but broke the tablets of stone on which God had engraved the Ten Commandments: “And when Moses came near to the camp, he saw the [golden] calf, and the dances: and, being very angry, he threw the tablets [of stone] out of his hand, and broke them at the foot of the mount. And laying hold of the calf which they had made, he burnt it, and beat it to powder, which he mixed into the water, and gave thereof to the children of Israel to drink” (Exodus 32:19-20).

► They break the First Commandment every day by the multiple hours spent idolizing their smartphones, tablets and laptops, while giving a mere few minutes to the God they should be idolizing, worshiping and loving with their “whole heart, and whole soul, and whole mind, and whole strength” (Mark 12:30). It is a fact that the average American spends only 9 minutes a day in prayer interacting with God (to use modern jargon), but the average American adult (not just Catholics but counting everyone) spends more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media. American adults spend three hours and 48 minutes a day on computers, tablets and smartphones. 62% of that time is attributed to app/web browsing on smartphones. Television still accounts for most media usage, with four hours and 46 minutes spent watching TV every day in the first quarter of this year. “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before Me!” (Exodus 20:2-3). Yet, today, those strange gods are held before us for hours on end!

► They break the Second Commandment every day―which, for those who may have forgotten it, is “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Exodus 20:7)―which also includes all that is connected to God and deserving of esteem, such as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels and Saints, and various aspects of religion and religious service, for “God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). Yet today, even among Catholics, God and the things of God are mocked. Mocked in speech, mocked in gestures, mocked in fashion, mocked in music, mocked on television, mocked on the internet and social media. Woe to those internet and television moguls, woe to the internet forum owners and moderators, woe to parents and teachers, who allow such things be filmed, recorded, worn, sung, said and posted! We are not just guilty of sin by committing it, but we are also guilty in 9 chief ways of the sins of others: (1) by Counsel; (2) by Command; (3) by Consent; (4) by Concealment; (5) by Partaking; (6) by Provocation; (7) by Praise or Flattery; (8) by Silence; (9) by Defense of the Evil Done.

► They break the Third Commandment―which in case you have forgotten, is “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day” (Exodus 20:8)―which, of course, is our Sunday―the day of Lord’s resurrection. The chief ways in which to keep Sunday holy are first of all to fulfill the obligation, under pain of mortal sin, of attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―which today, only around 20% (1 in 5) of Catholics actually do. The next way is to sanctify the Sunday by partaking in more spiritual activities than you have time for during the rest of the week. Yes, Sunday might be called “a day of rest”―but it is not a rest from God! Sadly, most people do not give that extra time to God, but to worldly activities―which are far more fun and less boring that spiritual activities.

► They break the Fourth Commandment―which in case you have forgotten, is “Honor thy father and mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee” (Deuteronomy 5:16). This commandment also includes the honoring and showing respect to the office of all superiors that are over us. If you read what is on the internet today―honor and respect is way, waaayy, wwaaaayyy, down the list―even on Catholic websites, especially blogs and forums. The default attitude seems to one of dishonor and disrespect. What is their excuse for this dishonor and disrespect? It is as Pope St. Pius X writes: "They easily lead the unwary into error; and since audacity is their chief characteristic, there is no conclusion of any kind from which they shrink, or which they do not thrust forward with pertinacity and assurance. To this must be added the fact, which indeed is well calculated to deceive souls, that they lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality. Finally―and this almost destroys all hope of cure―their very doctrines [you can insert the word "personal opinions" here] have given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and suffer no restraint; and, relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’ that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy.”

► They break the Fifth Commandment―which in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13). Never before have we seen so much killing as in these modern latter-day centuries! In the USA, at 2014 abortion rates, one in twenty women (5%) will have an abortion by age 20, about one in five (19%) by age 30 and about one in four (24%) by age 45. Since Roe versus Wade saw the introduction of legalized abortion in the USA in 1973, there have been over 61,500,000 abortions. Worldwide, since 1980, there have been over 1,547,000,000 (1,547 million or over 1.5 billion) abortions. The World Health Organization numbers on abortion say that around 40 million to 50 million abortions are committed worldwide each year. If it is 40 million then that comes out to 1.2 abortions per second. If it is 50 million, then that translates to 1.6 abortions per second. Nowadays, with the abortion pill, killing becomes more “civilized” and less bloody―there is nothing like a DIY abortion to encourage even more killing! Yet killing does not start and end with abortion―there are numerous acts of violence, attempted murder and actual murder that take place daily―though that worldwide approximate annual average of around 500,000 murders, pales into relative insignificance when compared to the 50 million murders of babies through abortion―which is 100 times greater.

► They break the Sixth Commandment―which, in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Infidelity within marriage is the number one reason for divorce. Our Lady of Fatima revealed that impurity―in all of its many forms―was the most frequent cause behind the damnation of souls. Adultery is on the rise. The chief instigator is no longer the man, for woman are becoming bolder in that regard. Yet adultery is hard to pin down in statistics―who is going to admit to it? Anonymous surveys show far greater numbers for adultery than “face-to-face” surveys. The statistics that emerge undoubtedly are the proverbial “tip-of-the-iceberg”. Those who have admitted adultery in surveys show that the trend is fairly even for men and women―with around 20% of men and 19% of women admitting adultery at least once in their married lives. Yet around 7% responded that they would prefer not to answer the question―which points more in favor of guilt rather than innocence, for the innocent would have no problem answering the question with a “NO” answer. So one can confidently guess that around 1 in 4 married persons has been guilty of adultery at least once. For men, fifty seems to the number here! Over 50 million married men in the United States are currently cheating on their wives. About 50% of cheating husbands have multiple affairs. More than 50% of cheating husbands never admit to cheating. More than 50% of unfaithful husbands witnessed their fathers cheat on their mothers. Yet this Sixth Commandment is not only about adulterous actions―but all impure actions. Meaning that it included solitary sexual sins, fornication before even marrying, homosexuality, etc. Today, there seems to be no problem and no “hang-up” about breaking this commandment.

► They break the Seventh Commandment―which, in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15). Theft is on the increase to the point of almost becoming socially and culturally acceptable― with slogans being bandied around such as: “Hey! Everyone does it! It’s expected! They calculate for that!” or “Do it but don’t get caught!” Theft is closely associated with lying―thus someone will deliberately falsify and lie about the amount of time they have put in at work so as to get (“steal”) more money; or they will lie about how much the parts cost (“stealing”) when fixing, repairing or replacing something; or they will lie about the quality of something in the hope of charging a much higher price (“stealing”) for a article or commodity; or they will charge an inflated hourly rate (“stealing”) for work done; or they will lie about their circumstances in order to get more benefits (“stealing”) from an agency; or they will lie about their expenses (“stealing”) in order to charge more for their work or to pay less taxes, etc., etc. The list is endless. Yet financial stealing is not the only kind of stealing. We can steal the ideas of people―commonly referred to an “intellectual property” these days. We can also steal the health of people, by deliberately doing things that will compromise and damage their health. We can steal the good name of a person―even a sinner is entitled to a good name believe it or not―that is why the Church preserves the good name of all the sinners whose confessions are heard. Today, we see a tactic―and it has to be deliberate and calculated―that seeks to destroy everyone’s good name, whether it be of those in the Church, or in politics, or in the media, or in sport, or whatever field a person may be in. If you ever take time to think, research, study and reflect, then you will a connection between this tactic and that of Communism (and, of course, those who are behind Communism and all the other anti-Christian organizations that they have sprouted). This ideological subversion is a long-term process involving four stages: (1) demoralization, (2) destabilization, (3) crisis and (4) normalization. The worldwide attacks on everyone’s good name is a DELIBERATE DEMORALIZATION that has for its goal the DESTABILIZATION of the masses, which in turn is the next step before DELIBERATE CRISIS CREATION that will lead to the enemy proposing the solution and terms for its own idea of NORMALIZATION. You attack all the leaders and representatives and heroes of the people―demoralize the people by showing these leaders to be unworthy specimens, which then leads to lack of trust, lack of esteem and lack of confidence in them, which then destabilizes all authority by pitting the people against the authorities, which then leads to anarchy, conflict, rebellion, revolution and a full-blown crisis. The enemies then step-in with their solution―which is totally tailor-made to their own evil designs. Clever and successful so far―because the people are dumbed-down and addicted to entertainment and fun so much, that they cease exercise their thinking capacities in the right direction and right areas―as Our Lady of La Salette lamented: “They will think only of amusements!”

► They break the Eighth Commandment―which, in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). This is not just lying about your neighbor (the technical name for lying is CALUMNY), but it also includes revealing the actual faults and sins of your neighbor (the technical name for this is DETRACTION). This is the ‘paradise’ or ‘cornucopia’ of the internet bloggers and ‘forum-ists’―even Catholic ones―who revel in pointing out anybody’s and everybody’s faults, failings, sins and scandals―as Pope St. Pius X writes: “… they lead a life of the greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality. Finally―and this almost destroys all hope of cure―their very doctrines [personal opinions] have given such a bent to their minds, that they disdain all authority and suffer no restraint; and, relying upon a false conscience, they attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’ that which is in reality the result of pride and obstinacy.” O how the devil must love them! Satan, the devil, of course, as Our Lord says, being both an “accuser” and a “father of lies”. Incidentally, the word “Satan” is derived from the Hebrew verb “Satan”, which means “to oppose” and so from it comes the general meaning of “adversary.” The word “devil” comes from the way the wicked spirit goes about his work. It comes from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate.” Such souls would do well to listen to the words of Pope St. Pius X, from his encyclical letter, E Supremi, where he writes: “It is vain to hope to attract souls to God by a bitter zeal. On the contrary, harm is done more often than good by taunting men harshly with their faults, and reproving their vices with asperity!” When one gives St. Pius X a serious hearing, his words are hard. They would probably entail the shuttering of most blogs and websites, especially a lot of the popular ones. Yet Holy Mother Church has canonized Pope Pius X for a reason. Yet these pretentious crusaders persist in their “attempt to ascribe to a ‘love of truth’” their bitterness, anger, vitriol, detraction, calumnies, scandal-mongering―all of which somehow lack the charity and mercy of Christ who said: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), “I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13), “Forgive, if you have anything against any man; that your Father also, Who is in Heaven, may forgive you your sins! But if you will not forgive, neither will your Father, that is in Heaven, forgive you your sins!” (Mark 11:25-26).

► They break the Ninth Commandment―which, in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid” (Exodus 20:17). If, as pointed out above, adultery and sexual impurity is so common―then how much more common must adultery or impurity of the mind be by comparison? Some people do not want to take the risk of committing adultery or fornicating physically―for fear of being found-out and caught―but they have little or no problem being adulterous or fornicating in the secret chambers of their mind and heart! Some even think that there is no harm in that, because they are not actually doing something to somebody else! Our Lord already answered that one when He said: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28)―which, of course, applies not only to men, but also to women. You can doubtlessly estimate that the impure sins of the mind VASTLY outnumber the impure sins committed by actions. A person could have tens, or hundreds of impure thoughts each day―which exceed by far the number of times they could possibly commit those sins physically with someone else. Our Lady, it must be stressed again, said that most souls are damned for sins of impurity than for any other kind of sin―and, of those sins of impurity, the number committed in the secrecy of the mind and heart are the most common of all. It makes one think of the words that Our Lady spoke to Blessed Elena Aiello in the 1950’s (which were nowhere near being as impure as the 21st century). Our Lady, in an apparition on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 1956, said: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Materialism marches on ever fomenting bloody strifes and fratricidal struggles. Clear signs portend that peace is in danger. That scourge, like the shadow of a dark cloud, is now moving across mankind: only my power, as Mother of God, is preventing the outbreak of the storm. All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth.”

► They break the Tenth Commandment―which, in case you have forgotten, is “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his” (Exodus 20:17). This closely linked to the very general and broad idea of gluttony―which extends beyond the limits of merely being applicable to food and drink, to being applied to any and all objects. Our current consumer crazy world merely feeds this covetousness or avarice―creating an addictive attitude to anything and everything. Nothing escapes being coveted and its sister of addiction―food, drink, alcohol, drugs, money, clothing, electronic goods, household goods, cars, houses, jobs, etc., etc. Witness the phenomenal amounts of money exchanging hands in buying things at Christmas and the quasi-religious ‘Holy Week’ or ‘Holey Week’ of sorts, beginning with Thanksgiving Day and the sales that follow on “Black Friday”, “Small Business Saturday”, “Still-to-Named Sunday”, and “Cyber Monday”―all of which constitute a secular ‘Holy Week’ or a ‘Holey Week’ that burns a hole in your pocket. Once we have our “idols” in our possession, then we dote over them for many cumulative or aggregate hours a day―as already stated above―the average American (not just Catholics but counting everyone) spends only 9 minutes a day in prayer interacting with God, but the average American adult spends more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media. As Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette lamented: “During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth …The people will only think of amusements! … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost!”

Our Lord preached detachment FROM the world, not attachment TO the world:
“And He spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’ And He said to His disciples: ‘Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat; nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment. Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they? And which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? If then ye be not able to do so much as the least thing, why are you solicitous for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. Now if God clothe in this manner the grass that is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more you, O ye of little Faith? And seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink: and be not lifted up on high. For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!’” (Luke 12:16-31).

Similarly, in a real life incident with a rich young man who had many possessions:
“And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday September 1st & Monday September 2nd

Article 1
What a Month! What a Beautiful Month! What a Sorrowful Month!

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Stupendous September!
This beautiful month is sandwiched between the month of the Immaculate Heart (August) and the month of the Holy Rosary (October). It contains some beautiful feasts and landmarks. On September 7th, we commemorate the founding of the Legion of Mary, in Dublin, Ireland (1921). The next day, September 8th, we celebrate Our Lady’s birthday—the most important birthday in history, after that of Our Lord. On September 12th, we celebrate the Holy Name of Mary—the most powerful Name after that of Jesus. The following day, September 13th sees the commemoration of one of Our Lady’s six apparitions at Fatima in 1917, as well as the feast of the original Our Lady of Guadalupe of Spain (not Mexico). The day after, on September 14th, we have the Swiss feast of Our Lady of the Hermits, also known now as Our Lady of Einsiedeln—though Our Lady would not be pleased if we forgot to mention that the same day sees the feast of the Holy Cross. This feast of the Holy Cross beautifully and fittingly prefaces and introduces the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the following day, September 15th. Four days later, on September 19th, we celebrate Our Lady of La Salette, whose prophecies and warnings are so crucial and applicable to our days. September 24th sees a multiple celebration of Our Lady of Ransom (known also as Our Lady of Mercy) and Our Lady of Walsingham, England. A real harvest festival of feasts of Our Lady! Check the Calendar section for the other feasts of Our Lady during September (click here).

Removing Thorns & Swords
As we enter this month, dedicated to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary, let us try to console her Sorrowful Heart and make some reparation for our own, as well the world’s, sins against the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. The many blasphemies, the mockery, insults, disbelief, indifference, negligence and lukewarmness are like the seven swords of sorrow that pierce her Sorrowful Heart. Her Heart was not made for this, but it was made to be known, explained, honored, served, consoled, praised and loved. Let us use this month of September to try to do just that.

If lukewarmness is so revolting to God, that He is willing to vomit the lukewarm out of His mouth (Apocalypse 3:15-16), then it must be equally revolting to Our Lady. If we wish to prepare well for her birthday, on September 8th, then we need to be in a better disposition of soul. The more devoted we are, the more our birthday greetings and presents will receive a warm welcome. Let us not be of those whom Our Lord condemns, saying: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).

Falling Into September?
We usually―in the Northern Hemisphere―associate the month of September with the beginning of fall (autumn). In North America, autumn traditionally starts on September 21st and ends on December 21st. Meteorologists (and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere) use a definition based on Gregorian calendar months, with autumn or fall being September, October, and November in the northern hemisphere. Popular culture in the United States associates Labor Day, the first Monday in September, as the end of summer and the start of “autumn” or “fall”.

On a Side Note: One Season―Many Names
We seem to have a fault―in these modern days of superficiality― of taking words for granted and using them without really understanding them, reflecting upon them, or knowing their origins and deeper meanings. So, on a side note―always wishing to educate and not just inform―let us fall into the word autumn and see what we can harvest!

During the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. Both “autumn” and “fall” were born in Britain, and both emigrated to America. If “fall” and “autumn” seem to be “one name too many”―then hold on to your hat lest it “fall” from your head! For we may call it “fall” or “autumn” today, but, once upon a time, the season that comes after summer, but before winter, was referred to simply as “harvest.” The name was used to reflect the time when farmers gathered their crops for winter storage, roughly between August and November. The word “harvest” comes from the Old Norseword “haust” meaning “to gather or pluck.” Before the 16th century, “harvest” was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day (as in the Dutch “herfst”, German “herbst” and Scots “hairst”).

However, in the early 1600s, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living and working in towns, the word “harvest” fell out of use―it lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping and gathering the fruits of the land.

The word “autumn” was used as far back at the 1300s (by Chaucer), and Shakespeare often used the word in his plays, as in Midsummer Night’s Dream, where one character describes the cycle of the year, “The spring, the summer, the childing autumn, angry winter.” The word “autumn” comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu-, and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. It was borrowed from the Etruscans by their neighboring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus. After the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalized to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of the use of the word “autumn” as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.

The alternative word “fall”―for the season of “autumn”―traces its origins to old Germanic languages. Why do we call it “fall”? The word “fall” comes from the Old English word “fiæll” or “feallan” which means “to fall or to die.” However, these words all have the meaning “to fall from a height” and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th-century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like “fall of the leaf” and “fall of the year.” City dwellers began to use the phrase “fall of the leaf” to refer to the third season of the year when trees lose their leaves. Over time, the phrase was shortened to “fall”―because “fall of the leaf” is a little clunky to use in common parlance.

While the term “fall” gradually became obsolete in Britain, it gradually became the more common term in North America―even though “autumn” was, by far, the more popular term for quite a long time in America. In fact, the word “fall”, in the meaning of “autumn” and not in the sense of falling-off something―wasn’t even entered into a American dictionary until 1755, when Samuel Johnson first entered it in his Dictionary of the English Language. By the middle of the 1800s, American English and British English had diverged in many ways, and so had “fall” and “autumn”. One early American lexicographer, John Pickering, noted in his entry for “fall”: “A friend has pointed out to me the following remark on this word: ‘In North America the season in which this [the fall of the leaf] takes place, derives its name from that circumstance, and instead of autumn is universally called the fall.’” (John Pickering, A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States of America, 1816). Today, American English uses the word “fall”, while British English uses “autumn” almost exclusively―though each understand and accept the use of one or the other.

What’s the Point?
So what was the point of all that lexigraphic drivel? (“lexigraphy” means “the art or practice of defining words”). Was it mere intellectual inflation or inflammation? Or is there some purpose to it all? Well, as St. Thomas Aquinas says, nothing happens by chance. God created the four seasons and God’s Providence has created the liturgical seasons of the Church. God’s Providence has arranged the birth and death of His saints in selected seasons and God has ruled that certain feasts and festivals would occur in such and such a season, or at this or that time. Just as this current or fast-approaching season has many names―”fall, autumn, harvest season”―likewise has God arranged for this season to be especially fruitful with many feasts of Our Lady that “fall” in a short period of time which we should “harvest” and store in the barns of our minds and hearts.

The above mentioned multitude of Marian feasts―from the August feasts of the Assumption (Aug. 15th), Our Lady’s 4th apparition at Fatima (Aug. 19th), Our Lady of Knock (Aug. 21st), the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Aug. 22nd), Our Lady of Czestochowa (Aug. 26th)―to the September feasts of the birth of the Legion of Mary (Sep. 7th), the Nativity of Our Lady (Sep. 8th), the feasts of the Holy Name of Mary (Sep. 12th), Our Lady of Guadalupe in Spain (Sep. 13th), Our Lady’s 5th apparition at Fatima (Sep. 13th), Our Lady of Einsielden also known as Our Lady of the Hermits (Sep. 14th), the Seven Sorrows of Mary (Sep. 15th), Our Lady of La Salette (Sep. 19th), and Our Lady of Walsingham (Sep. 24th), Our Lady of Ransom or Our Lady of Mercy (Sep. 24th), Our Lady of Victory (Sep. 26th)―to be topped-off by the October feasts of the Holy Rosary (Oct. 7th), the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Oct. 11th), Our Lady of Aparecida (Oct. 12th), and her final apparition at Fatima (Oct. 13th)―have all been wisely and providentially foreseen and arranged by God―and God always does things for a purpose.

That is a very high concentration of Marian feasts―major feasts and not minor ones―within a period of less than 8 weeks―or 20 feasts in 60 days to be precise. That is a very high concentration of Marian feasts by anyone’s reckoning―1 in every 3 days. This fact will have passed most people by―who are not in the slightest way concerned or interested in Our Lady’s feast day―for whom one day is much like another, until it comes to their own birthday, or wedding anniversary, or some other important day in their own lives.

So What IS the Point?
If you stop to think and compare all this to the proverbial “big-picture” view―putting these Marian feasts alongside the seasons of the year and the liturgical seasons of the Church and comparing all that to the age or life of the world―then the following could be said to emerge from the fog by piecing together some key points or phrases from what occurred on these Marian feasts and apparitions―like a Marian jigsaw puzzle, which, when put together, speaks out a very clear and forceful message.

► Our Lady’s Assumption into Heaven (feast Aug. 15th) speaks to us of the primacy of Heaven over the world. We were made for Heaven, not for this world and certainly not for Hell. Yet most souls are falling into Hell, because they have reversed the true order and value of things―valuing life on Earth more than a potential life in Heaven. She wants us to focus on the next life, not on this life―this is why she said to St. Bernadette of Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next life.” Similarly, at Fatima, Our Lady wants the children to focus on Heaven by telling them that will go to Heaven. Life on Earth may be our occupation―but Heaven should be our preoccupation.

► Our Lady of Ransom or Our Lady of Mercy (feast Sep. 24th) saw the establishment of a religious order for the redemption of captives. Its members would undertake to deliver Christian captives and offer themselves, if necessary, as payment. This is most relevant today―for the vast majority of souls are held captive by the devil, the world and the concupiscences of their own flesh.

► Our Lady of Fatima, speaking of her Immaculate Heart (feast Aug. 22nd), said: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved!”

► Our Lady of Fatima, speaking of herself as Our Lady of Rosary (feast Oct. 7th), said: “I want you to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, because only she can help you.”

► Our Lady of Fatima, during her final apparition on Oct. 13th, produced the miracle she had earlier promised―the Miracle of the Sun. Most of the 70,000 people witnessing the extraordinary miracle of the sun, thought the world was ending. Though it did not end―Our Lady revealed to Sr. Lucia that we are indeed living in the “Latter Days of the World” or “End Times”―thus it was fitting and appropriate that she end her final apparition at Fatima with a miracle that provoked thoughts and fears of the end of the world.

► Our Lady of Akita (final apparition Oct. 13th) said: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son.”

► The Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Oct. 11th), reminds us that Our Lady is not a distant observer who is indifferent to our plight on Earth and the threats to our salvation. She is a MOTHER and her mother’s love is unimaginable in its intensity, as she revealed at La Salette, saying: “I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”

► Our Lady of Walsingham (feast Sep. 24th), said: “Whoever seeks my help there will not go away empty-handed.”

► Our Lady of Aparecida (feast Oct. 12th) symbolically tells us to “piece together our devotion to her” which is like a body without a head at this moment in time. The story is that three Brazilian fishermen were out fishing with no success. Finally, one of them, João Alves, threw out his net and drew in the body of a small clay statue of Our Lady, with its head missing. Later that day, in a different place on the river, he dropped his net and pulled in the head of that same statue. After that, the fish filled the nets of the three fishermen. It was the beginning of a river of graces for the area. In a sense, we have thrown Our Lady into the river after having decapitated devotion to her. We need to restore that devotion by reattaching the head to its body―instead of running around like “headless chickens” or “headless devotees” and we will find her to be a river of grace for ourselves also.

► Our Lady of the Rosary (feast Oct. 7th) is, as Our Lady said at Fatima, the only one who can help us now. You could say the Rosary is like our spiritual lifeblood that keeps our soul alive and healthy―no blood, no life. You could imagine each Rosary that you pray as being a long chain of beads, tied to all the other Rosaries you have prayed―making a network of Rosary arteries and veins throughout your body or your soul. Sr. Lucia of Fatima revealed that Our Lady informed her that “in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary. This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is ― be it temporal or above all spiritual ― in the spiritual life of each of us, or the lives of our families, be they our families in the world or Religious Communities, or even in the lives of peoples and nations. I repeat, there is no problem, as difficult as it may be, that we cannot resolve at this time by praying the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will save ourselves, sanctify ourselves, console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” That is why Our Lady, in many of her apparitions, has greatly insisted on the Rosary, with words such as: “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary …because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … etc.”

DAILY THOUGHTS FOR
THE MONTH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Double Day Article : Friday August 30th & Saturday August 31st

Article 17
What to Get for Our Lady on Her Birthday (September 8th)

No “Last-Minute Shopping” for Our Lady
On September 8th, we celebrate Our Lady’s birthday—the most important birthday in history, after that of Our Lord Jesus Christ (December 25th). Are you preparing for that “second-greatest-birthday-in-the-history-of-the-world”? Were you even aware that is coming up and is only 9 days away? A lot of people tend to be “last-minute” people―they leave everything to the “last-minute” thinking that they can still do a “good job” in “the blink of an eye” or “in a jiffy”! This is often seen to be case in the proverbial case―but true case―of the “Last Minute Christmas Shopper.” When you really stop and think about what is involved in “last-minute-shopping” and what it reveals―you have to admit that the message it sends is one of “Right now, I have much more important things to do than shop for this-or-that, or so-and-so!” In other words, you have put whoever or whatever you have to shop for, way down the list of your priorities―you want to do other things first before tackling the shopping business.

Just Another Old Day!
What does Our Lady’s birthday mean to you? Will it be “just another day” that will passed doing “the same old things” with little or nothing to make that day special and important? Will everyone just “go their own way” doing the weekend things they like to do? Providentially, God has seen to it that this year Our Lady Our Lady’s birthday falls on a SUNDAY! A day when the vast majority of people do not have to work, a day that should already by a “religious day” since it is “The Lord’s Day.” It is also “a day of rest”―a day when many things are set aside. Therefore, God’s providence has already done most of the work for you this year―by seeing to it that the birthday of His Most Holy Mother falls on a day (Sunday) when you should have more time to honor her than if was some weekday and workday!

Raw-Deal Meal
Sometimes, even our earthly mothers get a “raw-deal” on their birthdays! O yes, sure, they get a birthday card, perhaps some flowers, an extra kiss and a hug, perhaps they are taken out for a meal―but often they end up cooking their own meal, looking after guests, doing the house-cleaning before the birthday and the clean-up after the birthday. Often the family and guests have more of a fun time than the beleaguered mother! Her birthday ends up being like a few fish thrown to the dolphin in the pool to the keep the dolphin happy! What scraps will we be throwing at Our Lady on her birthday?

Masterpiece Ignored
Will that day be an important day for you? Does Our Lady really matter to you? How important is she to you? Is she a central part of your life? Is she like “family”, or is she merely a “visitor”? St. Louis de Montfort says that she is God’s masterpiece― “Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High … where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe, … where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable. She is the magnificence of the Most High” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §5 & §6). If an artist paints a masterpiece and you ignore it, think little of it, are indifferent to it―then what an insult that is to the artist! Now when that “artist” is God―the insult becomes an infinite insult to God, because God is infinite!

It is highly likely that in most homes, Our Lady’s birthday will fare no better than Our Lord’s birthday fares at Christmas. It is sad to think that in most homes, Our Lady’s birthday, just like Christmas, will see less prayer and spiritual reading than usual—whereas the opposite should be the norm. How many homes will pray MORE on Our Lady’s birthay? For the 2% to 4% of Catholic American households who are thought to pray the Rosary daily―will they manage a full 15 decade Rosary, or at least another 5 decades on top of the norm? Of the 25% or so Catholics who are Sunday regulars at Mass, how many will carry the religious ceremonies and spirit home with them and inject it into the festivities that should be there on Our Lady’s birthday? There are many, many way we can sanctify Our Lady’s birthday —and we will look at these ways during the remaining days—but how many will have the courage to run the gauntlet of human respect and insist upon them with family, relatives and visitors? Yes, we should “lay on a spread”―that is to say, have something special on the food and drink menu for Our Lady’s birthday―but even that is done, unfortunately and sadly, the food, the drink, the entertainment, etc., will take precedence in most homes—and we are forced to ask the thorny question: “Whose birthday is it anyway?”

The Lady’s Lament
We would do well to DAILY ponder the following lament of Our Lady at La Salette: “I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”

To the Venerable Mary of Agreda Our Lady said something similar: “I will also promise them my continual and efficacious intercession with my most holy Son, if they do not displease me! For this purpose thou shouldst exhort them to continual love and devotion toward me, engrafting it in their hearts; in being thus faithful they will attain all that thou wishest for them, and much more―for I will obtain it for them.”

Displeasing Our Lady
How do we “displease” Our Lady? By ignoring her words, by ignoring her commands, by ignoring her suggestions, by ignoring her messages. A child who acts in this manner cannot honestly say that it loves its mother. Obedience is an effect of love. Acting promptly is an effect of the presence of love.

The bottom line in the spiritual life is LOVE. Devotion is a child of love. St. Francis de Sales, in his book, Introduction to the Devout Life, writes: “Devotion consists in a high degree of real love …  In fact, all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God―and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God, though not always of the same kind. In so far as divine love enriches us―it is called GRACE, which makes us pleasing to God. In so far as it gives us the strength to do good―it is called CHARITY. But when it grows to such a degree of perfection that it makes us not only to do good, but rather moves us to do it carefully, frequently and promptly―it is called DEVOTION … In short, devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly; and, just as charity leads us to a general practice of all God's Commandments, so devotion leads us to practice them readily and diligently. Therefore, we cannot call him, who neglects to observe all God’s Commandments, either good or devout, because in order to be good, a man must be filled with love, and, to be devout, he must further be very ready and apt to perform the deeds of love … The difference between love and devotion is just that which exists between fire and flame―love being a spiritual fire, which becomes devotion when it is fanned into a flame―and what devotion adds to the fire of love, is that flame which makes love become eager, energetic and diligent, not merely in obeying God's Commandments, but in fulfilling His Divine Counsels and inspirations” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, Chapter 1).

Likewise, therefore, the obedience in keeping the Commandments is also a child of love― “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). What is true of Our Lord is equally true of Our Lady. If we truly love her, we will keep her words, we will do what she says.

No Real Love―No Real Devotion
If there is little or no love, there cannot possibly be any devotion―or at least no true devotion―since, as St. Francis de Sales says: “Devotion consists in a high degree of real love ... all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God [or in this case, Our Lady]―and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God” [or Our Lady]. Faulty, or fake and false devotions are “ten-a-penny” and make-up the vast majority of “made-up” or “make-up” cosmetic devotion that hides the ugliness underneath. St. Louis de Montfort speaks of those false devotions to Our Lady―in his True Devotion to Mary―listing them as seven in number: (1) the critical devotees; (2) the scrupulous devotees; (3) the external devotees; (4) the presumptuous devotees; (5) the inconstant devotees; (6) the hypocritical devotees; (7) the interested devotees. All of these are faulty, false or fake. They are not true devotions for they come not from a true love of Mary, but from a love of self. Hence their love is not fervent, but lukewarm. Let us not be of those whom Our Lord condemns, saying: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).

You can imagine the pain a mother feels when her children―even though they turn up at her birthday―nevertheless are glib, insincere, superficial and hypocritical in the “lip-service-only” congratulations on her birthday and likewise with their protestations of “I love you, mom!” It is merely the “politically correct” thing to say and do―without there being any real heart and sincerity behind what they are saying and doing. The mother knows that and she feels the pain in her motherly sensitivity but does not show it due to her heroic stoicity or stoicism. They say that the more perfect a person is, then the more sensitive they are―thus, Our Lord, who was the most perfect of all, was also the most sensitive of all. Our Lady comes second in perfection and sensitivity. Like her Son, she keenly and deeply feels our inconsideration to her, our neglect of her, our indifference towards her, our lack of real love and devotion in her regard. Is it not the time to put that right? Is it not time to try and give her what she deserves?

Time to Turn to Mary
In the same book, Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales makes a timely encouragement, as we approach the birthday of Our Lady, to devotedly turn to her AT ALL TIMES and in ALL OUR NEEDS: “With a special love, give honor, reverence and respect to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary. As the Mother of Jesus, our Brother, she is truly our mother. Let us therefore turn to her for help. We are her little children, so let us, with complete confidence, throw ourselves in her arms. At every moment, in every circumstance, let us call to this loving mother. Let us ask earnestly for her motherly love. With our hearts full of a true filial love for her, let us strive to imitate her virtues.”

In the case of a good person, it is only natural for a child to imitate the virtues of its mother―a bad child will imitate the vices of its mother. If you have ever read The Mystical City of God, by the Venerable Mary of Agreda, you will have noted that Our Lady continually insists that her example be imitated. The proverb― “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” ― means that a person imitates someone else because they admire that person or value what that person is doing. Another version adds a phrase at the end of that proverb, saying: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness!” ― and that sums up our self and Our Lady ― we are mediocrity personified and she is greatness personified. Much as Christ became man to make us like unto God―Our Lady wants to raise us out of our mediocrity and make us holy and acceptable to God. She was born to bring God to man―on this her upcoming birthday―let her be truly born in your life and soul, so that she can bring you to God.

What to Do and How to Prepare
► The first thing to do is to CONCRETELY, DEFINITELY, IRREVOCABLY, UNCHANGINGLY and ABSOLUTELY SET ASIDE SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH FOR OUR LADY. It is the birthday of the Mother of God. It is the birthday of your spiritual mother. It is the birthday of her who has said: “I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”

► The second thing to do is to tell everyone that everyone is staying at home (and perhaps invite other relatives and friends―as you would for any family member’s birthday―for Mary is “family” is she not? You hope to part of her “family” in Heaven, don’t you?). Make the phone calls, send the texts and e-mails THIS WEEKEND. Commit yourself! It is the best way to guarantee that it will happen―because other people have been told about and will expect it to happen.

► The third thing to do is to create some kind of loose schedule for Sunday, September 8th. Be “loose” and plan more generally than specifically―because you may get a better idea on what to actually do on the day as a result of who will accept and who refuses your invitation. Then you can plan more specifically based upon what you know of the persons who will be accept your invitation and will attend Our Lady’s birthday party.

► The fourth thing to do is to invite everyone to PREPARE SPIRITUALLY for Our Lady’s birthday. You could send out the link to the NOVENA IN PREPARATION FOR OUR LADY’S NATIVITY [click here]―if it is started today, then you get a full nine days up to and including Our Lady’s birthday. Or you could send out some other prayers that last a lesser time―for example a TRIDUUM OF PRAYERS (which means “prayers for three days”), or ask them to pray an extra Rosary in her honor; or pray the LITANY OF LORETO (the Litany of Our Lady); or some other prayers. The whole point is to PLACE THE SPIRITUAL ABOVE THE MATERIAL PREPARATIONS―for the spiritual is more important than the material, just as the soul is more important than the body, and the life and welfare of the soul is more important than the life and welfare of the body. Thus, both Our Lady and all the participants will appreciate and enjoy her birthday all the more if they will have prepared spiritually and prepared for a prolonged period of time. It will mean that you are honoring her more with your heart than your lips, more with your prayers than your belly.

► The fifth thing to do is to plan a balanced schedule for the day―and, as said above, make it general plan, much like giving “chapter headings” for what will take place, rather than listing things in “fine details”. With it being a Sunday, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ends up, fortunately, being a “Shotgun-Mass”―meaning everyone is obliged to and bound to attend it. However, you could ask that everyone makes an Act of Consecration to Our Lady at some point during Mass―it could be before Mass, during Mass at the Offertory, or after the Consecration, or after Holy Communion, or after Mass at Our Lady’s side altar, statue or image―or, even better, multiple times: meaning before, during and after Mass―just as you would probably say “Happy Birthday” to somebody several times on the day of their birthday.

► The sixth thing to do would be ask everyone to make their Holy Communion, on September 8th, in honor of Our Lady. Later this coming week, we will publish potential texts and examples of what to do and say during such a Holy Communion.

► The seventh thing to do is to prepare the “soil” of your mind and soul for Our Lady by “weeding-out” the world and “planting seeds” of Our Lady throughout this entire week that leads up to her birthday on Sunday, September 8th. You can do this in many different ways. First of all add some short little prayers to Our Lady onto your usual devotions and prayers. It might be the recitation of the Angelus (morning, noon and evening), or perhaps the Memorare prayer (Remember O most loving Virgin Mary, that never was it know that anyone who had recourse to …etc.), or it could be the daily singing of some hymn to Our Lady, etc. Another way to “plant seeds” of Our Lady would be to make a daily reading from anyone of the countless books that there are in print about Mary―many of which are available for free online; or take various extracts for your reading from other internet resources; or you could focus on the chief virtues of Our Lady, as listed by St. Louis de Montfort in his True Devotion to Mary: “particularly her profound humility, her lively Faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin” (True Devotion to Mary, §108). If you need help with this latter option, this website will give you some daily assistance, in the days that follow, by providing you with meditative material and spiritual readings on those then chief virtues.

► The eighth thing to do is to focus on imitating the chief virtues of Our Lady, as listed by St. Louis de Montfort in his True Devotion to Mary: “particularly her profound humility, her lively Faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin” (True Devotion to Mary, §108). You could divide up the chief ten virtues among family members―keeping the allocated virtue throughout the whole build-up to Our Lady’s birthday. Or you could pick “a virtue per day” if you wish. If you need help with these options, this website will give you some daily assistance, in the days that follow, by providing you with meditative material and spiritual readings on those then chief virtues as well as ideas on how to practice those virtues in multiple scenarios.

► The ninth thing to do is to focus on the chief apparitions of Our Lady as we lead up to her birthday. A suggestion―and it merely a suggestion, for you can do as you like, change the order or even ignore the idea―would be:
Sunday, September 1st: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico) 1531
Monday, September 2nd: Our Lady of Good Success (Quito, Ecuador) late 1500s and early 1600s
Tuesday, September 3rd: Rue de Bac 1830 (Paris, France) the Miraculous Medal apparitions
Wednesday, September 3th: La Salette (France) 1846
Thursday,September 5th: Lourdes (France) 1858
Friday, September 6th: Fatima (Portugal) 1917
Saturday, September 7th: Akita (Japan) 1973

► The tenth thing to do is to prepare a little altar or oratory (place of prayer) for Our Lady’s birthday. It does not have to be an entire room, any dignified part of a room is acceptable if a separate exclusive room is not available. Decorate it with the best things that you have―cloth to cover the table; your best or favorite statue or image of Our Lady placed on it; candles and flowers to surround it; perhaps even have votive lights burning before it throughout the entire period, day and night, leading up to Our Lady’s birthday. As regards prayer―ensure that some prayers are guaranteed to be said before your little shrine or altar to Our Lady each and every day. Similarly, a little shrine could erected in your garden in readiness for her birthday.

► The eleventh thing to do is to gradually finalize the actual schedule you will use on Our Lady’s birthday. Here is an example of what you could do―but your own imagination and ingenuity will most likely better these very basic ideas:

(1) Start the day of Sunday, September 8th, with a decent amount of FAMILY PRAYER before going to Sunday Mass―even if, or especially if, your family is not accustomed to saying morning prayers together as a family. This morning prayer session could include (a) the Daily Morning Offering, (b) an Act of Consecration to Our Lady, (c) at least one decade of the Rosary, but preferably all five decades of the Joyful Mysteries, for, on this day, you should aim at praying all 15 decades of the Rosary (or an extra 15 decades on top of the Rosaries you would normally pray) in honor of Our Lady and as present to her―otherwise you would not be giving her anything more than on every usual day, (d) make a short reading of one or a few paragraphs from anyone of the many books available on Our Lady, (e) follow the reading with the recitation or singing of the first Angelus of the day―morning, noon and evening―use bells if you have them, which are sounded during the invocations that precede each of the three Hail Marys, (f) finish with a hymn to Our Lady. All of this should take no more than around 30 minutes―give or take a few minutes.

(2) On the way to church for Sunday Mass, refrain from any worldly, trivial or vain talk and discussions, but sanctify the drive by either prayers being recited or someone reading something from a book on Our Lady―or even both. Alternatively, or additionally, you could have an informal discussion about Our Lady―which, if you have read a passage from a book, could be based upon that reading. The possibilities are really endless and go well beyond these meager suggestions.

(3) Arrange to do something special at church for Our Lady―either before, during or after Mass. You could recite, once more, your Act of Consecration to Our Lady as a family at her side altar. Or you could suggest that every family member write his or her own special prayer to Our Lady for her birthday―and then each of you could silently recite that personal prayer to Our Lady, either before, during or after Mass. Receive and offer your Holy Communions in honor of Our Lady. If the parish priest agrees and allows you, then you have a mini-hymn singing session to honor Our Lady after Mass. Or, even more daringly, get the priest to agree to Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in honor of Our Lady, or even a little procession in her honor―though you might have to pay in advance for getting the priest’s agreement by doing lots of penance, fasting and praying beforehand.

(4) On the way home from Sunday Mass, perhaps there is a little shrine of Our Lady’s that you could visit on her birthday. If not, then perhaps there is a church somewhere nearby that is dedicated to Our Lady―meaning that it has Our Lady’s name or one of her many titles incorporated in the name of the church, e.g. Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Immaculate Conception, Queen of Angels, Queen of Peace, Our Lady of Fatima, etc. Make a short stop there and recite some prayers or sing some hymns in her honor―this could be an opportunity for praying the next 5 decades of the Rosary―-the Sorrowful Mysteries―or you could pray them later.

(5) Upon arriving home, it will probably be not too far from midday―which would allow you to pray the midday Angelus. Use the bells once again as you did during the morning Angelus. Remind everyone that this is Our Lady’s birthday and the focus is on her today. As a sacrifice for her, you could and should postpone all worldly activities for this one day―such as avoid watching worldly TV shows, listening to worldly music, going out to participate in worldly activities, etc.

(6) At some point you will have to eat lunch or dinner―make it a real banquet in honor of Our Lady. There are many possibilities by way of menus that could reflect a profound and beautiful symbolism of Our Lady, while also being delicious in the process. More on that later. Hopefully, without promising anything, the website might be able to present with a whole menu consisting of many courses, all of them symbolizing and reflecting Our Lady in some way―together with a print-out explanation of how and why the ingredients are symbolic of Our Lady. This is a mammoth task―thus no promises are made. Even if an entire multi-course menu might not be completed in time for Sunday―meaning designed and published several days before her birthday to allow for purchase of items and preparation of food―then at least some recipes will be available in good time.

(7) Get everyone involved in some way for preparing for an afternoon or evening with Our Lady. This coming week could be used productively in preparing a little family concert in her honor during her birthday. The concert could include hymns, songs, poetry, musical instruments (solo or as a group) or even recitations (speeches) about Our Lady’s miracles, interventions, apparitions, etc., or little thumbnail talks about certain saints who had a great devotion to Our Lady, recounting and relating how they showed their devotion to her.

(8) The concert could be followed by watching a movie about Our Lady. There are several available out there―but you need to plan early and act quickly to secure or rent one―unless you already have those movies in your library or possession.

(9)  After the movie you could recite the remaining five EXTRA decades of the Rosary―the Glorious Mysteries―which should be additional to the decades you are accustomed to praying each day―otherwise where is the special present for Our Lady?). After the Rosary, you could recite or sing the evening Angelus―once again using bells in the manner described above.

(10) The evening meal could again contain foods that are symbolic of Our Lady―and this symbolism should be explained to those present at the meal, for they would otherwise be clueless and ignorant of the spiritual aspect of the meal.

(11) Finally, before retiring for the night, the night prayers (if you are used to saying them as a family) should have a very definite Marian flavor injected into them―to distinguish them and raise them a notch above the night prayers you are accustomed to praying. To finish night prayers, another short and inspiring reading from a book on Our Lady would be ideal as a last thought of the day. If you are accustomed to reading bedtime stories to the young ones before turning out the light, make sure you have a wonderful story based on Our Lady prepared.

All of the above constitutes the EXTERNAL ASPECTS of what is meant by TRUE DEVOTION to Our Lady, but these are mere pieces of firewood that need an interior flame of love to really set alight a true fire of devotion―for someone could perform all the above exteriorly or externally while having no real interior love or devotion while doing so. If you think the above is overwhelming, then realize that the word DEVOTION is a word that indicated a HIGH DEGREE of love and attention, as indicated above by St. Francis de Sales in his book, Introduction to the Devout Life, in which he speaks of and describes TRUE DEVOTION as follows:

“Devotion consists in a high degree of real love …  In fact, all true and living devotion presupposes the love of God―and indeed it is neither more nor less than a very real love of God, though not always of the same kind. In so far as divine love enriches us―it is called GRACE, which makes us pleasing to God. In so far as it gives us the strength to do good―it is called CHARITY. But when it grows to such a degree of perfection that it makes us not only to do good, but rather moves us to do it carefully, frequently and promptly―it is called DEVOTION … In short, devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly; and, just as charity leads us to a general practice of all God’s Commandments, so devotion leads us to practice them readily and diligently. Therefore, we cannot call him, who neglects to observe all God’s Commandments, either good or devout, because in order to be good, a man must be filled with love, and, to be devout, he must further be very ready and apt to perform the deeds of love … The difference between love and devotion is just that which exists between fire and flame―love being a spiritual fire, which becomes devotion when it is fanned into a flame―and what devotion adds to the fire of love, is that flame which makes love become eager, energetic and diligent, not merely in obeying God’s Commandments, but in fulfilling His Divine Counsels and inspirations” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, Chapter 1).

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday August 28th & Thursday August 29th

Article 16
An Adult Devotion! Not For "Big-Babies"!

“Grown-Ups” and “Big-Babies”
Children can’t wait to “grow-up” and adults often act like “big-babies”―it is one of the paradoxes of life, where children hanker after adulthood and adults hanker after their childhood! The adults who are “big-babies” could argue―by twisting the meaning of Our Lord’s words―that we meant to be “big-babies” so to speak: “And Jesus said: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 18:4). Our Lord, of course, is not advocating that adults act immaturely as children do, but He is telling adults to have the humble dependence that a child has on its parents, and to have that same humble dependence on God the Father, in place of the spirit of independence and self-sufficiency that plagues most souls and nations today.

An even greater mess occurs when not only do children want to be adults and adults want to be like children―but when boys want to be girls and girls want to be boys and some don’t know what they are! You could say that the world is growing into a gigantic and catastrophic “identity crisis” which is a perversion of the way that God wanted things to be. It brings to mind the perversion of Sodom and Gomorrha―and that did not end well, with fire and brimstone raining down from Heaven and destroying them all. Fairy tale? Legend? Scaremongery? Well―just live a little longer and find out for yourself if Our Lady’s warnings for our day are fairy tales, legends or scaremongery―for she has clearly warned, as Our Lady of Good Success, La Salette, Fatima and Akita, that:

“From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women ... The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! Tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption ... Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … It will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them … Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities … Nations will be annihilated … Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful.” Who wants to watch scary movies when you will soon be able to actually live through one! Virtual reality shows will having nothing on this one! The punishment of Sodom and Gomorrha will be a mere side-show compared to the one that is coming―a mere “trailer” for “movie” to come―except that it won’t be a movie and it won’t be a time for “big-babies”!

We Know the Antidote―But Don’t Dote On It
Of course, we all know the antidote but refuse to dote on it. The antidote is devotion―devotion to Our Lady in general and devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart in particular―but who the hell cares? Well, Hell cares! Hell cares so much to the point that it has almost extinguished all fiery devotion to ashes, or at least has left it in some places are mere smoldering embers giving off some lukewarm heat and some faint barely visible wisps of smoke rising heavenwards.

Devotion Reduced to Ashes―Time to Rise From the Ashes
Yes, devotion to Our Lady is largely ignored and in ashes. As Fr. Faber so correctly writes in his Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary: “Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. Mary is not half enough preached. It is frightened out of its wits by the sneers. It is always a slave of human respect and carnal prudence. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no Faith in itself. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines.”

We need to rise―like the proverbial phoenix―from the ashes. The phrase―“rise like a phoenix from the ashes”―is based on a story that goes back thousands of years. The expression is a simile, which means it is a phrase used in a sentence that is a comparison of one thing with something else using the word like or the word as. A simile may compare two things with qualities that do not seem related, though there must be some similarity that is either real or symbolic.

“To rise like a phoenix from the ashes” means to emerge from a catastrophe in a state of being that is stronger, wiser, and more powerful. An example of “rising like a phoenix from the ashes” is someone who opens a new, successful business after his previous business has failed. Another example would be someone resolutely and bravely building a new house after his previous house has been destroyed by a tornado. The phoenix bird is a mythical bird from Greek mythology. It was a feathered creature of great size with talons and wings, its plumage radiant and beautiful. The phoenix lived for 500 years before it built its own funeral pyre, burst into flame, and died, consumed in its own fiery inferno. Soon after, the mythical creature rose out of the ashes, in a transformation from death to life. Christianity adopted the depiction of the phoenix rising from the ashes as a symbol of rebirth and eternal life―beginning with Christ Himself through His death and seeming failure, followed by His successful resurrection from that death. The phrase “rise like a phoenix from the ashes” is often shortened to “rise like a phoenix”, or even “rise from the ashes.”

The Church Will Rise From Its Ashes
This is exactly what Our Lady says will happen―after we have duly punished and flattened to the ground: “In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those―whom the merciful love of my Most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration―will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this Faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed … There will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests as well as that of other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom … Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church will be finally free of his cruel tyranny ... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!

“God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days!  May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!

“And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).

Families Rising From the Ashes
If the Church will be reduced to apparent ashes―then that means that most families will be reduced to ashes. In fact, most families have been reduced to ashes already! From what Holy Scripture, Our Lord, Our Lady and many of the saints say―it has always been the case, as most families go from being reduced to ashes by the fires of worldliness and sin, to the eternal fires of Hell where they will continue to burn. It is a truth that should not shock us―though it should sadden us. Our Lord Himself warned: “For many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 22:14). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Our Lord forewarned the critical state families would find themselves in―with some family members choosing to follow Him and His teaching, while other family members would resist Him and His teachings: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).

“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53).

“Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).

“And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death!” (Mark 13:12). “And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death!” (Luke 21:16).

Why will all this happen? Because of a lack of devotion to God in general and to Our Lady in particular―for, as she has said, only she can help us now: “Continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you!” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 1917). “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved” (Our Lady of Akita, October 13th, 1973).

Yet, we have plugged our ears and blinded our minds to these truths. How true are the words of God for our times: “The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together … They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways!” (Psalm 13:1-3).

Time to Start Rising From the Ashes
In case the discouraging thoughts of impossibility―Satan’s favorite “trump card”―should paralyze our efforts before we even start, let us remember some incredible examples of “the phoenix rising from its ashes” in the personages of some big sinners who became great saints―one of which we celebrate today, on August 28th, being St. Augustine. For those discouraged about achieving sanctity, there can be no better thing than to read and study the lives of the great sinners who became great saints. They are walking proof of the words of God in Holy Scripture, Who said: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). Let us look at some big sinners “rising out of the ashes” of sin―for the greatest sinners can become the greatest saints. Or, more precisely, the greatest sinners MUST become the greatest saints—so that their great debt for sin can be paid-off by their great penances and virtues of holiness.

► St. Mary Magdalen: Possessed by Seven Devils & Adulteress
Around the time of Our Lord, we think of St. Mary Magdalen, who was possessed by seven devils and caught in adultery. The notion of Mary Magdalene being a repentant sinner, can be traced at least as far back as St. Ephraim the Syrian, in the fourth century, and became the generally accepted view in Western Christianity after the homily of Pope Gregory I (“Gregory the Great”) in about 591. We would find it difficult to find a greater sinner than Mary Magdalen. She was possessed by seven devils and her life of sin was no secret, but well-known by the community. Yet after all that, Holy Scripture tells us: “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus” (John 11:5). It does not say: “Jesus loved Martha and Lazarus, and only tolerated or put up with Mary.” No! St. John says “Jesus loved … Mary!” The New Testament God is no different from the Old Testament God: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23). “Go then and learn what this meaneth, ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice!’ For I am not come to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). “They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill” (Matthew 9:12). She ended up being tremendously devoted to both Our Lord and Our Lady.

► St. Dismas: Robber & Thief
St. Dismas isn’t a saint in the usual or strict sense—for he was never canonized by the Church—but rather a saint by local tradition instead. As the story goes, Dismas asked for Jesus Christ to remember him while he was being crucified next to him. A clue to his past lies in Dismas’ patronage, for he is the patron saint of reformed thieves. Tradition has it that he was converted on Calvary by the prayers of Our Lady.

► St. Callixtus: Thief & Embezzler
St. Callixtus of Rome lived a life of many sins before being taken under the wing of Victor I, a second century pope. Callixtus was a Roman slave whose petty theft and reckless investments resulted in being sentenced to forced labor in the mines of Sardinia. He embezzled money and started a public riot, amongst other criminal affairs, but left that all behind early in the third century when he reformed. Released from the mines by a general pardon, he returned to Rome where Pope St. Victor I gradually brought him to repentance. . He was ordained a priest, served as administrator of one of the catacombs, and ultimately Callixtus went on to become a pope himself, but died a martyr shortly thereafter. His Roman catacombs can be toured today.

► St. Hippolytus: Heretic & First Antipope
Hippolytus was an arrogant, unforgiving man who believed that Christians guilty of mortal sin should be expelled from the Church and never readmitted. In his pride, Hippolytus permitted his followers to elect him as the Church’s first anti-pope. Inspired by the true pope’s holiness, Hippolytus eventually repented of his own sin and was reconciled to the Catholic Church.

► St. Mary of Egypt: Seductress & Whore
At age 12 Mary (344-421) ran away from home to Alexandria, the most exciting city in the Roman Empire. She became an accomplished seductress, who took special pleasure in corrupting innocent young men. Mary was an expert seductress who ensnared any man who caught her eye. Once, on a whim, she joined a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. By the time the ship reached its destination, Mary had seduced the entire crew and all of the pilgrims. She traveled to Jerusalem where a supernatural force prevented her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In Jerusalem she realized the enormity of her sins Filled with remorse, Mary sought the Mother of God’s intercession and made a good confession. In penance, Mary lived out her conversion as a hermit, alone in the Jordanian desert.

► St. Augustine: Fornicator and Worldling
Augustine was son of Patricius, a well-to-do pagan, whose ideal of life was to get the most out of it he could, without being too particular as to the means. Patricius, at the age of forty, had married Monica, a girl of seventeen, a Christian on both her father’s and her mother’s side. This marriage alone would seem to imply a certain laxity of Faith in the family; the fact that Monica owed most of her religious and moral training to an old nurse confirms it. Three children were born to them, Augustine the first, but none of them were baptized. Augustine grew up among pagan children, apparently in a pagan school, and his morals from the first were no better than theirs. He could steal, he could cheat, he could lie with the best of them; to do these things cleverly and successfully was a mark of talent rather than of vice. Patricius saw that Augustine had an excellent mind and a wonderful disposition for learning, and with a view to his future preferment, spared nothing to breed him up a scholar. He was sent to Madaura, a prosperous city thirty miles away.

Here he was his own master; the longing he had always had to do just what he liked, without hindrance from anyone, was allowed free scope. He fell also into vanity, pleasing himself with the pride of surpassing his companions at play, and loving to have his ears scratched with vain praises. A worse curiosity drew him to the dangerous entertainments of those who were older—public shows, plays, and other diversions of the theatre. The most fatal sin was the vice of impurity, into which he fell in the sixteenth year of his age. He was led into this by reading impure plays in Terence, by sloth, by frequenting stage entertainments, and by bad company and example. The consequences were inevitable. Augustine came home from Madaura addicted to the lowest vices. His father who looked upon the same excess as a proof of manhood. The next step in Augustine’s career was to Carthage― the center of learning and pleasure in North Africa, and Augustine craved for both. There he lived, from the age of seventeen, learning and loving as he wished, for there was no one to check or guide him. “I went to Carthage,” he wrote later, “where shameful love bubbled round me like boiling oil.” Augustine plunged himself headlong into the filth of impurity. At about the age of 17, Augustine began an affair with a young woman in Carthage. Though his mother wanted him to marry a person of his class, the woman remained his lover for over fifteen years and gave birth to his son Adeodatus (372–388). In 385, Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order to prepare himself to marry a ten-year-old heiress. He had to wait for two years because the legal age of marriage for women was twelve. By the time he was able to marry her, however, he had decided instead to become a priest.

► St. Moses the Black: Cut-throat & Gang Leader
Moses was chief of a violent gang of bandits. Fleeing from law enforcement, he took refuge in a monastery. Moses was inspired by the monk’s example and converted. He took a vow never to raise his hand against another human being, even in self-defense. After years of overcoming temptation, Moses was killed by Berber raiders.

► St. Pelagia: Dancer & Courtesan
The beautiful, teenage Saint Pelagia would have been every parent’s nightmare. As legend has it, she was a dancer and courtesan (prostitute) by her early teens. Pelagia’s conversion occurred all of a sudden, following a chance encounter with Saint Nonnus, the bishop of Edessa. The young girl was baptized, gave away her possessions to the poor and lived as a hermit for the rest of her life.

► St. Olga: Murderess
When a neighboring tribe assassinated her husband, Olga (c.879-969), princess of Kiev, went to war. Olga slaughtered her husband’s murderer and she massacred virtually the entire tribe; the few who did survive, she sold into slavery. Years later, while in Constantinople, to make an alliance with the emperor, Olga visited a church, encountered the splendor and beauty of Christianity and was in awe of the magnificence of the liturgy. She took instruction, was baptized and returned to Kiev, zealous to convert her people. Olga tried very hard to convert her people, but hardly anyone would listen to her. Even her family rejected Christianity. Olga died believing that as a missionary, she was a failure. Yet, she planted a seed of Faith which flourished. Today, Catholic and Orthodox Christians of Russia and Ukraine hail her as “Equal to the Apostles.”

► St. Vladimir: Murderer and Rapist
Olga’s grandson Vladimir (956-1015) became prince of Kiev by murdering his older half-brother. Then he raped his sister-in-law and added her to his harem of several hundred women. He built a new temple to all the gods; and sacrificed a father and his son to the false gods. When the emperor at Constantinople sought his help in putting down a rebellion, Vladimir demanded as his reward the emperor’s sister as his wife (actually, the unhappy woman would be Vladimir’s eighth wife). The emperor countered that Vladimir must convert to Christianity. In order to marry the emperor’s sister, Vladimir accepted Christian baptism. Everyone suspected that once he was back in Kiev, Vladimir would return to his old ways, but the grace of baptism changed him. His zeal for the Faith knew no limits and his efforts helped spread Christianity across Russia and Ukraine. He dismissed his extra wives and his harem, tore down the pagan temple, and launched a vigorous campaign to convert his people. The Faith his grandmother, Olga (see above) planted flourished under Vladimir.

► St. Margaret of Cortona: Rich Man’s Mistress
Margaret was only twelve when she became Arsenio’s mistress. After years of cohabitation, she realized her sins when she discovered Arsenio’s murdered corpse. Full of the grace of conversion and determined to start a new life, she went to Cortona where the Franciscans ministered to penitent sinners. There, Margaret pursued a life of prayer, penance, and good works.

► St. Angela of Foligno: Worldly and Flirtatious
Angela was beautiful, wealthy, and vain. As a rich man’s wife she wallowed in luxury. Her passions were expensive clothes and flashy jewels, extravagant meals and rare wines. She dressed and acted in ways that would provoke envy among women and sexual desire among men. When she was not indulging herself, she spent hours gossiping with her friends and maligning her neighbors. In her autobiography Angela discloses that in 1285 she did something so bad that for the first time in her life she began to live in fear of Hell. Her biographers speculate that Angela committed adultery, and given the intensity of her guilt and shame that seems likely. Near de spair, she prayed to St. Francis of Assisi to help her. As Angela prayed the saint appeared to her. “Sister,” St. Francis said, “if you would have asked me sooner I would have complied with your request sooner. Nonetheless, your request is granted.” That same day Angela offered a sincere confession to a priest. As she stepped from the shadowy interior of the church into the bright sunlight of the piazza, Angela resolved to begin a new life. She sold her fine clothes and jewels to relieve the suffering of Foligno’s poor. After the death of her husband, she gave away all her wealth, associated herself with the Franciscans, and with a handful of other holy women dedicated herself to tending the poor and the sick. Blessed Angela’s life teaches us a timeless lesson about our weakness and God’s mercy. All that he requires is that we repent and make a sincere effort to do better in the future.

► St. Thomas Becket: Rich and Cruel
As chancellor of England under Henry II, Thomas Becket (1118-1170) became obscenely wealthy. His wardrobe was larger and more expensive than the king’s. He even had his own private navy. In spite of all his wealth, Becket was cold-hearted and never gave anything to the poor. All that changed after Becket was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. He gave away all his possessions. He welcomed the poor at his table. And he became a champion of the independence of the Church, for which he was murdered in his own cathedral by four of King Henry’s knights.

► St. Philip Howard: Playboy and Gambler
Son of one of the wealthiest noble families in England, Philip Howard (1557-1595) could afford any pleasure he liked — and he liked them all. At court he was a notorious playboy, gambler and fop. He ran up enormous debts, then sold off his wife’s property to settle them. On one occasion he said publicly that he did not really consider himself to be married. In 1581, he joined other members of the court at the Tower of London, to see a debate between several Anglican ministers and a prisoner, the Jesuit priest, St. Edmund Campion. Although the ministers were armed with books and assistants, Father Campion was alone and had only his memory to rely on, yet he did so well in the debate, that the government canceled the debate before a verdict could be given. Inspired by Father Campion, Howard reconciled with his wife, and they both returned to the Catholic Faith. When they tried to leave the country secretly for the Continent of Europe, where they could practice Catholicism freely, they were stopped and Howard was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He died there 10 years later.

► St. Camillus of Lellis: Drinker, Gambler & Whore-Lover
Camillus de Lellis was born in Italy in the middle of the 16th century. A hot-tempered, troublesome child, he joined the army when he was 16, though his aggressive behavior only grew after that. Camillus was a mercenary soldier with all the worst habits— drinking, gambling, swearing, chasing prostitutes. Years of sinful acts followed before his wholehearted reform in 1575. When his father called for a priest on his deathbed, Camillus began to rethink his life. Guided by St. Philip Neri, his spiritual director, Camillus turned away from sin, dedicated himself to the sick, and formed a religious congregation for nursing the poor. Years of sinful acts followed before his wholehearted reform in 1575. When his father called for a priest on his deathbed, Camillus began to rethink his life. Guided by St. Philip Neri, his spiritual director, Camillus turned away from sin, dedicated himself to the sick, and formed a religious congregation for nursing the poor.

Rising From Ashes of Sin Through Grace and Mary
These sinners “rose from the ashes” and got to Heaven, but they had to make themselves acceptable first! Who knows how much time they may have spent in Purgatory in addition to having suffered for their sins AFTER conversion. With God nothing is impossible—unless we stubbornly resist and reject His graces that move us to change! And there we have that key word―GRACE. Without God’s grace we can do nothing! That means NOTHING! What part of the word NOTHING do you not understand? Utter, total, inescapable dependence―even for those who hate God, for: “Your Father, Who is in Heaven, maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust!” (Matthew 5:45).

That grace of conversion―and any and every grace―God has chosen to give to us through Mary, whom the Church calls the “Mediatrix of All Grace”―meaning that all graces that are given to mankind pass through her hands, so to speak. If we have a problem with that, then our theology is weak and faulty―as Fr. Faber says of the minds of those who contest and dispute Mary’s role in our salvation: “Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy.”

As St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church and teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish!” Another Doctor of the Church, St. Bonaventure, adds: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins!” St. Ignatius of Antioch, a Father of the Church and a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”

This is echoed by Our Lady’s words to St. Bridget of Sweden: “Do not forget me! For I am forgotten and ignored by many! I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed (by which is meant the damned in Hell), is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy His mercy if he invokes my aid. Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

St. Alphonsus then writes: “St. Bernard says: ‘O Lady, thou dost abhor no sinner, however abandoned and vile he may be, when he has recourse to thee; if he asks thy help, thou wilt extend thy kind hand to draw him from the depths of despair.’  [St. Alphonsus then adds] O ever blessed and thanked be our God, O most amiable Mary, who made thee so merciful and kind towards the most miserable sinners. Oh, wretched are those who do not love thee, and who, having it in their power to seek help of thee, do not trust in thee! He who does not implore the aid of Mary is lost―but who has ever been lost that had recourse to her?” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

The Master Devotee Explains the Masterpiece
St. Louis de Montfort explains it thus:
“The grace and help of God are absolutely necessary for us, but we are sure that grace will be given to all, though not in the same measure. I say ‘not in the same measure,’ because God does not give His graces in equal measure to everyone (Romans 12:6), although in His infinite goodness He always gives sufficient grace to each. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God. I explain―
(1) Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person (Luke 1:30). No patriarch nor prophet nor any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace;
(2) It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace and, because of this, she is called the “Mother of Grace.”
(3) God the Father, from Whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us (James 1:17), gave her every grace when He gave her His Son.
(4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from Him that, according to St. Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills.” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of Mary, §5 to §10).

In his book, True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis further explains:
“Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High … Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exodus 3:14). Therefore, that grand Lord never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything. Nevertheless, God having willed to start and to complete His greatest works through the most holy Virgin ever since He created her—we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only begotten to the world. Whatever sighs the patriarchs may have sent forth, whatever prayers the prophets and the saints of the Old Law may have offered up to obtain this treasure for full four thousand years, it was only Mary who merited it and found grace before God (Luke 1:30) by the force of her prayers and the eminence of her virtues.

“The Son of God became man for our salvation; but it was in Mary and by Mary. God the Holy Ghost formed Jesus Christ in Mary; but it was only after having asked her consent. If we examine closely the rest of our Blessed Lord’s life, we shall see that it was His will to begin His miracles by Mary. He sanctified St. John in the womb of his mother, St. Elizabeth, but it was by Mary’s word. No sooner had she spoken than John was sanctified; and this was His first miracle of grace. At the marriage of Cana He changed the water into wine, but it was at Mary’s humble prayer; and this was His first miracle of nature. He began and continued His miracles by Mary, and He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary. God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea (mare). He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it “Mary” (in Latin: “Maria”, which is another Latin word for “sea” ).  This great God has a most rich treasury in which He has laid up all that He has of beauty and splendor, of rarity and preciousness, including even His own Son―and this immense treasury is none other than Mary, whom the saints have named the Treasure of the Lord, out of whose plenitude all men are made rich. God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly.

“To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such wise that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §5 to §25).

St. Louis then sums up, saying: “After that, we must cry out with the saints―De Maria numquam satis—[meaning]―Of Mary there is never enough! We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love, and still more service. After that, we must cry out with the Apostle [St. Paul], ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor man’s heart comprehended’ (1 Corinthians 2:9) the beauties, the grandeurs, the excellences of Mary—the miracle of the miracles of grace” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §10 to §12).

To which can be added the words of Fr. Faber:
“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor … Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no Faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized. Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines.

“Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignion De Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul, will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior―her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Fr. Frederick Faber, Preface in his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary).

But Where’s the List of Things to Do?
“Okay! Okay! Okay!” you say, “But where is the list of the things that we have to do for a devotion to Mary?” The answer to your question is a four-letter-word. It is LOVE. Do whatever you want, but do it with love. The Father and Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo, in his homily on the First Epistle of St. John (chapter 4, verses 4 to 12), writes: “Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: ‘LOVE, AND DO WHAT YOU WILL’― whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.”

St. Paul paints a picture of the contrary, saying that whatever we do WITHOUT LOVE is totally useless and profitless from a spiritual supernatural perspective: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

That is why ONE SINGLE ACT OF PERFECT LOVE TOWARDS GOD can wipe away―not only the guilt of decades of mortal and venial sin―but it will also wipe away ALL THE TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT DUE TO THOSE SINS UP TO THAT POINT IN TIME, which would have to paid by suffering and penance in this life, or in the next―whether in Purgatory or, God forbid, in Hell. Hence Our Lord could say of Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much!” (Luke 7:47)―which is also echoed elsewhere in both the Old and New Testaments: “Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). We may have sinned beyond all measure―yet we should not lose hope or confidence in obtaining mercy and forgiveness. St. Augustine tells us that “The measure of love is to love without measure”―hence, if have unfortunately sinned without measure, we should now love without measure.

Increase the Quality Before the Quantity
Sadly, the modern consumer world has made us think more in terms of quantity than quality―because the world churns out cheap goods by the million and quality goods by the dozen. We think “more is better”―but that is not the case if all those “more” things are of cheap quality. Math tells us that, just as 1 + 1 = 2; likewise, cheap + cheap = two cheap or too cheap. Listening to a bad joke twice does not make it good. Taking an additional sip of a bad wine does not make it good. Our Lord says: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16-20). Likewise, a badly said Rosary will not bear good fruit; nor will a well said Rosary bear bad fruit.

St. Louis de Montfort, in another of his books, The Secret of the Rosary, writes: “A single Hail Mary said properly is worth more than a hundred and fifty said badly. Most Catholics say the Rosary [no longer true in our day and age]. Why is it then that so few of them give up their sins and make progress in virtue, if not because they are not saying them as they should! To say the Holy Rosary with advantage, one must be in a state of grace [and therefore in charity], or at least be fully determined to give up sin―for all our theology teaches us that good works and prayers are dead works if they are done in a state of mortal sin [which is an absence of charity]. The stronger our Faith is, the more merit our Rosary will have. This Faith must be lively and informed by charity [meaning “penetrated by” or “steeped in” charity]. In order to pray well, it is not enough to express our petitions by means of that most excellent of all prayers, the Rosary―but we must also pray with great attention, for God listens more to the voice of the heart [which is the voice of love] than that of the mouth. To be guilty of willful distractions during prayer would show a great lack of respect and reverence; it would make our Rosaries unfruitful and make us guilty of sin. People who do that forfeit God’s blessing, which is changed into a curse for having treated the things of God disrespectfully: “Cursed be the one who does God’s work negligently” (Jeremias 48:10).

“Our Lady said to Blessed Alan de la Roche in a vision: ‘When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.’ For the Rosary said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation … We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate [with our heart = love] upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful [= lacking love] to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for [= little love for] all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world!” (St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary). The words of St. Augustine could be fittingly added here: “Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.” The same is true with regard to Our Lady.

The Exterior or External Elements of a Devotion to Our Lady
Let us then look at the exterior aspects and the interior aspects of devotion―the quantity and quality of what should be done―the various different exercises or actions that are a necessary part of our devotion and the manner, or fervor in which we should carry them out. In other words―the body and soul of our devotion to Mary. Just as the body must be exercised and fed healthy foods, likewise the soul should be exercised and fed healthy foods. What are those foods? What are those exercises? That is what we will not look at. THE KEY POINT TO REMEMBER IS THAT IT IS NOT SO MUCH WHAT WE DO OR HOW MUCH WE DO THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR―BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO WORK UPON IS THE LOVE THAT WE DO IT WITH.

● Make a Morning Offering through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
● Make a Morning Meditation (or at some other point during the day) on something related to Our Lady.
● Pray Morning Angelus, Midday Angelus and Evening Angelus (if possible with family).
● Daily Mass and Holy Communion (if possible)―especially all the main feast days of Our Lady
● Visit to the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible throughout the week―even it means a slight detour when driving somewhere else. The visit does not have to be long―it’s the thought that counts. If physical visits are not possible, then make a spiritual visit to the church from wherever you are―home, work, school, etc.
● Pray the 15 decades of the Rosary daily (preferably with the mysteries being meditated and not merely said without meditations). Do not be afraid of praying and meditating only one decade at a time―this will prevent super-long meditated Rosaries of 5 decades in one session.
● Make a daily Examination of Conscience; and perhaps add a brief “Examen” (check-up) of your predominant fault several times a day.
● Do some daily spiritual reading on the mechanics of the Spiritual Life and its various stages, its growth, different virtues, practices, pitfalls, temptations, etc.
● Do some daily reading specifically on Our Lady from one of the many books available.
● Read a short daily extract from St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary or The Secret of Mary (to keep the idea of what a true devotion consists of before your eyes)
● Practice a daily variation in other prayers to Mary (there are hundreds of prayers to be found)
● Make good use of statues and images of Our Lady―perhaps making a little altar to her in the home or classroom; and a shrine in the garden.
● Organize Our Lady study sessions―these could be among family members only, or for an extended group. Once a week or once every other week would be an ideal frequency.
● Propagate and distribute Rosaries, Scapulars, Miraculous Medals, Marian literature, etc.
● Make sure to have many Marian conversations at home―which will make Our Lady a central part of family life.
● Recall, read about or talk about Marian miracles―monthly, or weekly, or daily.
● Follow her feast days and prepare something for her feast days―honoring her in both a spiritual and material way.
● Organize or go to processions in her honor.
● Have Masses offered in her honor
● Make pilgrimages to her shrines (or at least make a pilgrimage in spirit―a spiritual pilgrimage―by reading about her shrines).
● Compose prayers in her honor.
● Compose hymns in her honor.
● Draw or paint pictures in her honor.
● Write and/or distribute flyers or pamphlets about her.
● Spread the True Devotion Consecration by St. Louis de Montfort.
● Spread other Marian devotions.
● Create a Marian Cookery Book―using the symbolism of foods to reflect Our Lady and her virtues.

As always, the above exercises are a mere TIP OF THE ICEBERG of possible exercises. The Holy Ghost working upon your creative imagination will suggest countless more ways in which to exercise, grow and perfect you devotion to Our Lady.

► St. Louis de Montfort, in his book True Devotion To Mary, gives the following lists:

● There are several INTERIOR PRACTICES of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the principal ones:

(1) to honor her as the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to esteem her and honor her above all the other saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man;
(2) to meditate on her virtues, her privileges and her actions;
(3) to contemplate her grandeurs;
(4) to make acts of love, of praise, of gratitude to her;
(5) to invoke her cordially;
(6) to offer ourselves to her and unite ourselves with her;
(7) to do all our actions with the view of pleasing her;
(8) to begin, to continue and to finish all our actions by her, in her, with her and for her, in order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ, our Last End. We will presently explain this last practice.6

● True devotion to Our Lady also has several EXTERIOR PRACTICES, of which the following are the principal ones:

(1) to enroll ourselves in her confraternities and enter her congregations;
(2) to join the religious orders instituted in her honor;
(3) to proclaim her praises;
(4) to give alms, to fast and to undergo outward and inward mortifications in her honor;
(5) to wear her liveries, such as the Rosary, the Scapular or the little chain;

(6) to recite with attention, devotion and modesty the holy Rosary, composed of fifteen decades of Hail Mary’s in honor of the fifteen principal mysteries of Jesus Christ; or five decades. We may also say a chaplet of six or seven decades in honor of the years which we believe Our Lady lived on Earth; or the Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin, composed of three Our Fathers and twelve Hail Mary’s, in honor of her crown of twelve stars or privileges; or the Office of Our Lady, so universally received and recited in the Church; or the little Psalter of the hHoly Virgin, which St. Bonaventure composed in her honor; or fourteen Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s in honor of her fourteen joys; or some other prayers, hymns and canticles of the Church, such as the Salve Regina, the Alma, the Ave Regina Coelorum, or the Regina Coeli, according to the different seasons; or the Ave Maris Stella, the O Gloriosa Domina, the Magnificat, or some other practices of devotion, of which books are full;

(7) to sing, or have sung, spiritual canticles in her honor;

(8) to make a number of genuflections or reverences, while saying, for example, every morning, sixty or a hundred times, Ave Maria, Virgo Fidelis (“Hail Mary, Faithful Virgin”), to obtain from God through her the grace to be faithful to the graces of God during the day; and then again in the evening, Ave Maria, Mater Misericordiae (“Hail Mary, Mother of Mercy”) to ask pardon of God through her for the sins that we have committed during the day;

(9) to take care of her confraternities, to adorn her altars, to crown and ornament her images;

(10) to carry her images, or to have them carried, in procession, and to carry a picture or an image of her about our own persons, as a mighty arm against the evil spirit;

(11) to have copies of her name or picture made and placed in churches, or in houses, or on the gates and entrances into cities, churches and houses;

(12) to special and solemn consecrate ourselves to her in manner.

There are NUMEROUS OTHER PRACTICES of true devotion toward the Blessed Virgin, which the Holy Ghost has inspired in saintly souls and which are very sanctifying; they can be read at length in the Paradise Opened to Philagius of Father Barry, the Jesuit, in which he has collected a great number of devotions which the saints have practiced in honor of Our Lady—devotions which serve marvelously to sanctify our souls, provided they are performed as they ought to be, that is to say:

(1) with a good and pure intention to please God only, to unite ourselves to Jesus Christ as to our Last End, and to edify our neighbor;
(2) with attention and without voluntary distraction;
(3) with devotion, equally avoiding precipitation and negligence;
(4) with modesty, and a respectful and edifying posture of the body.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday August 26th & Tuesday August 27th

Article 15
The Whole Caboodle! Here is Your Devotion Toolbox!

All You Can Eat! And It’s Entirely Free!
Imagine walking past a top-class restaurant and seeing a sign at its entrance saying: “Walk Right In! Eat All You Want! All You Can Eat For Free! At No Cost To You!” Most people would not think twice about entering that restaurant and “tucking-in” or “gorging” themselves on whatever they could find. They would eat more that would usually eat―because it is being given away for free. Even if there was a charge of $1 for the deal, most people would snap-it-up immediately.

Now, as you well know, Our Lord said to the devil: “It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God!” (Luke 4:4) … “It is written, ‘Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!’” (Matthew 4:4). Our Lord is here referring to Old Testament Scriptures, where Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s “All You Can Eat” service during their 40 years of wandering in the desert, when God miraculously fed them for free with manna that fell from Heaven: “He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which neither thou nor thy fathers knew―to show that not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

In a certain sense, the same “All You Can Eat” offer is being made by Our Lady’s top class restaurant ―Devotion to Mary. Everything is “laid-on-plate” for you! You are almost “spoon-fed”! It costs you nothing but the time it takes to “eat” what she has to offer―and the menu is so varied, it would take you days to read through it! Yet, very strangely, Our Lady’s restaurant is almost deserted! Most of the tables and chairs are unoccupied. The parking lot is almost empty.

Yet across the road, Satan’s Sinburger Eatery and Drive-Thru is thriving like you could never imagine! Satan is offering everything for free and no cost to the customer―at least not for now―it is a case of “Eat All You Want And Pay Later!” Satan’s parking lot is jam-packed, there are long-lines at the door waiting for a vacant table, the Drive-Thru is like a long-winding snake or serpent, stretching back out of the parking-lot with its tail several miles down the road! Every item on the menu is smeared with Satan’s Sinful Sauce―a very addictive concoction made up of special Satanic blend of the Seven Deadly Sins―and everything is freshly baked, roasted, toasted, seared and sizzled, smoked and barbecued on Satan’s Fires of Hell. The crowds can’t get enough of it and keep coming back for more―hence Satan’s Sinburger Eatery and Drive-Thru is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, each and every year―it will only close at the End of the World, when Christ will come to audit and settle accounts.

The Devotion Supermarket―The Whole Caboodle
However, if we do not want to eat at Our Lady’s restaurant―and quite frankly, Satan’s Sinburger Eatery is not an option―then we should at least shop for our spiritual food at Our Lady’s Devotion Supermarket. Most of foods are free―or very reasonably priced―and almost all of them have an eternal shelf-life or longevity, for they never spoil, rot, grow stale or moldy. Once you have them―they keep forever and a little goes a long, long way!

To begin with, let us just do a “devotion dump” of everything there is―or at least a large number of things. Afterwards, you can pick and choose what you want―much like shopping in a supermarket, where you see absolutely everything put on display in dozens of aisles, from which you take what you need or want. So, though the list may seem overwhelming, it is not expected―as in the supermarket―that you ‘buy’ everything. However, the richer a person is, the more they are inclined to buy. Similarly, the “richer” we are in Charity, the more we will be inclined to do―as the passage from The Imitation of Christ indicated in the previous article: “Love … makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. Love of Jesus [Mary] spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect ... Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls!” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 5).

A Word of Warning!
Nobody can ever give you complete list of devotional practices in relation to Our Lady! If anyone pretends to do so, then they are insanely proud or just plain insane! Not that the list is infinite―only God is infinite―but try counting all the grains of sand on all the shores and sea beds of the world and you’ll get the idea! There are a certain number of kinds of foods in the world―but the way each person uses, combines and prepares those foods makes the possible variations and combinations uncountable. Similarly with vocabulary―there are only so many words in any language―yet no two people say the identical same things all day long and all year long! You should look upon, approach and use the following VERY LIMITED LIST of devotional practices with that in mind.

The following list―for the sake of sanity―HAS to be short and limited, but its purpose is not be totally inclusive, but to be indicative and suggestive and hopefully inspiring of further ideas that should spring to mind in reading through it. It is like giving you a list of words and allowing you to combine them as you wish and in a manner than meets and satisfies your daily schedule, environment, temperament, and even more importantly, THE CURRENT LEVEL OF YOUR DEVOTION (or lack of it). A weak person cannot lift heavy weights, nor will a strong person gain much satisfaction or benefit from lifting light weights. As our devotion grows―so should our devotional “workload” or “lifting-weight” grow with it. Some of the following suggestions will seem impossible to the devotionally weak―and others will seem ridiculously easy and insignificant to the devotionally strong.

Horses for Courses―Gauge the Age
Start small and build up your devotional workload as you grow stronger. Nobody can possibly imagine or dream of doing all these things―just as nobody can possibly imagine and cream of eating all the things they see in a supermarket―yet they still go into the supermarket, they still shop there, and they do not feel overwhelmed because they are not expected to buy everything, use everything and consume everything! The same applies to the following list.

The list will begin with devotional items and practices for BABIES & INFANTS, it will then pass onto devotional items and practices for CHILDREN, and will finally cover devotional items and practices for ADOLESCENTS & ADULTS. As they say in philosophy― “The greater contains the lesser!” ― meaning that adults can easily practice some of those things that are listed for babies, infants and children, but as philosophical axiom states: “One cannot give what one has not got!” ― which in this case means that a young child does not have the strength, endurance, knowledge and prudence of an adult and obviously cannot be expected to practice the harder aspects of devotion until they naturally increase in strength, endurance, knowledge and prudence. However, having said that, look at what the three children of Fatima―Lucia (aged 10), Francisco (aged 9) and Jacinta (aged 7) achieved! They managed to more than many adults have ever done!

This Week's Special Offers From The Devotion Supermarket

► The Baby Department
Our Lady’s Devotion Supermarket has “food” not only for adults―but also for babies and children. Just as in our physical life we are never too young to consume food and drink―likewise in the spiritual life nobody is ever too young to be fed the food and drink of devotion to Our Lady. A baby relies on its mother from the very beginning―if that is true in physical life, we must also make it to be true in the baby’s spiritual life. Even babies can be “fed” some very basic, easily “digestible” spiritual devotional food―however, it takes a DEVOTED parent to even think of doing so and it takes DEVOTION to keep doing so!

You might be surprised or shocked at the thought of teaching babies, or introducing babies to certain devotional practices in relation to Our Lady (and Our Lord for that matter). If that is the case, then you are forgetting that a baby is beginning to learn things from the very first moment of its existence! To simplify matters―and especially since babies are more passive (meaning they have things done to them) as opposed to being active (doing things for themselves), it obviously stands to reason that any introduction to a devotion to Our Lady will be more passive (the parent doing devotional things to the baby) rather than active (the baby doing those things for itself)―however, babies are quick to notice things and to copy things, so this valuable time in their lives should not be wasted. The principle or thought might have escaped you―but babies, like all humans, have been gifted with the FIVE SENSES―they see, they hear, they touch, they taste and they smell. It is important to channel the seeds of devotion through ALL THESE FIVE CHANNELS, so that religiosity―without them understanding anything about it―becomes a familiar, daily, frequent and inseparable part of their little incipient lives. Hence, you have to intelligent and creative about the way that you use relgion, its words, its signs, its sounds, its objects, etc., in channeling them into the baby's mind, heart and soul through its five external senses.

CONSECRATING THE BABY TO OUR LADY―If the priest who baptized your baby was “worth his salt”, then he will have consecrated your baby to Our Lady immediately after the baptism. This was―and still SHOULD be, but isn’t―the recommended (though not obligatory) practice before the Church hit the proverbial ceiling-fan after the Second Vatican Council. If your baby was not consecrated to Our Lady (and your child is still a baby―we speak of physical age and not maturity), then you should either approach the priest to see if he would formally do so, or, if he refuses or you think it highly unlikely that he would agree, then simply do the act of consecration yourself. Which act of consecration? There are many to found online―even in the Novenas to Our Lady on this website [look under “Prayers” and then “Novenas”]―just simply take the “best of” or the most appropriate parts or wording from those various consecrations and create your own personalized consecration for your baby. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you repeat the prayer of consecration over the baby at regular intervals―monthly, weekly or even daily.

THE USE OF SACRAMENTALS―The Church has given us Sacramentals (these are not to be confused with the Seven Sacraments) as a source and means of obtaining God’s grace. The long list of Sacramentals includes things like the the ritual blessing of objects (statues, pictures, Rosaries, Scapulars, medals, water, foods, vehicles, houses, etc.). Some of those blessed objects then, in turn, become Sacramentals for us―such as holy water, Rosaries, Scapulars and medals. All of this is a clue and indicator as to their possible use in the daily life of the developing, “grabbing-everything”, “putting-everything-in-the-mouth”, ever curious, all noticing baby.

Another Sacramental that is often overlooked and forgotten is the making of the SIGN OF THE CROSS―which was performed over your baby many times during the ceremony of Baptism. Many of the mothers of future saints―from the very first days of the baby’s life outside the womb― would take the baby’s tiny hand and make the baby trace the Sign of the Cross upon itself. This would not be an occasional practice, but it would be done many times a day―especially when the rest of the family would make the Sign of Cross before and after family prayers, before and after family meals, etc. In this way, a grace-attracting, grace-giving Sacramental is being ingrained into the baby’s daily routine. The Sign of the Cross could be made before and after breast-feeding; before and after diaper changes; whenever the baby awakes from sleep, or is put to sleep; when the baby starts crying, etc. Yet as often as possible, the making of the Sign of the Cross should be accompanied with something that visually brings Our Lord or Our Lady to mind―such as showing them a crucifix, statue or picture.

Likewise with the use of HOLY WATER―the baby could be made to dip its hand in the Holy Water before making the Sign of the Cross. The baby could be sprinkled with Holy Water at certain times throughout the day―though, as with the Sign of the Cross, the sprinkling should somehow be associated with Our Lord or Our Lady, which can be done by pointing to a crucifix, statue or picture of Them.

This brings us to the frequent use of CRUCIFIXES, STATUES & PICTURES of especially Our Lord and Our Lady―whom the baby should come to recognize and call by name, Jesus or Mary, just as much as the baby recognizes and calls its parents by the name of “momma” and “dada”―although in a baby dialect that may or may not sound like the real thing! It is important not to confuse the baby with many different images of Our Lord and Our Lady―otherwise it will start to call everyone “Jesus” or “Mary”! Introduce other images of Jesus and Mary once the baby is comfortable with the originals. Show the baby how to kiss the crucifix, statue or image―and say out loud: “Jesus I love you!” or “Mary I love you!” During the course of the day, often point out the crucifix on the wall and speak out the Name “Jesus” when you do. The same for statues and pictures. Have a statue next to you when you breast-feed, diaper change, etc. Or do these things near to where the crucifix, statue or picture is normally kept. You can also make a regular visit to the statue or image at Our Lady’s altar after each and every Mass―thus accustoming the baby to regularly seeing that image of statue of Our Lady. All in all, the purpose or goal is to let the baby see that Our Lord and Our Lady are really and truly part of your family, and thereby making the baby feel comfortable and home in their presence. You should also have the baby, as it becomes an infant, place flowers before the images and statues of Our Lord and Our Lady in your home or garden. All of this is gradually preparing the child's soul for a future more mature relationship with Jesus and Mary.

ROSARY BEADS, SCAPULARS & MEDALS should also be introduced in these early years―with obvious vigilance that they are not left unattended with things like medals―which they can easily put into the mouth and swallow! But partial exposure while supervised is recommended―teaching the baby to reverence them as much as is possible for a baby, teaching the baby to kiss the crucifix, scapular or medal. Enrollment in the Brown Scapular usually was done at the time of child’s First Holy Communion―though the child could be enrolled at an earlier age. However, it is not a bad thing―even advisable seeing the state of the world today―to have a baby wear certain blessed medals, such as the Miraculous Medal or the St. Benedict Medal. Some parents―especially when the child is still a baby, prefer to attach these medals to clothing rather than have a chain around the baby’s neck. The Miraculous Medal also has a ritual of enrollment in addition to its blessing―this could be done already at this stage or the child could be enrolled when they are older―but the Miraculous Medal should be word in either case.

The repeated use of SHORT PRAYERS or ONE-LINERS is also recommended―especially making sure that those prayers or one-liners contain the words Jesus and Mary.

Similar to the uses of spoken prayers or vocal prayers is the use of HYMNS or CANTICLES or little extracts of the sung parts of the MASS, such as the Kyrie Eleison, or opening lines of Gloria in Excelsis Deo, or Sanctus, or Agnus Dei―things that already accustom and familiarize the baby to what it will later hear during Mass―which will then make the baby more comfortable and accepting of those new surroundings. Why sing silly secular songs to the baby when there is a whole gamut of beautiful, soothing, spiritual melodies that we can draw from. If you do not possess a sweet, soothing singing voice―or cannot keep to the melody without going “flat” or “sharp” and are likely to “butcher” the beauty of the hymn, then play a CD, DVD or tape of some hymns or even Gregorian Chant in the background, or while putting the baby to sleep, or even whilst it sleeps.

If we are talking about audio electronics―then let us take the short step over to visual electronics, where there is a large religious source to be found in DVDs and VIDEO TAPES. Why sit a baby in front of a screen showing Disney characters when more would be done for the baby’s soul by exposing it to religious characters? Though, by comparison to the secular material out there, religious material is miniscule―nevertheless there is enough of it to use OCCASIONALLY to channel religious content into the baby’s soul by one of its five senses―namely, vision. The baby cannot understand Disney yet, but Disney it is forced to watch―so why not give it some healthier “food” instead of “junk food” that will be or no help to its growth in a knowledge, love and service of God?

You could write a whole book on this topic of babies and religion, but that is not the purpose of this article. Hopefully this mere “tip of an iceberg” triggers you creativity and imagination―for those who still have babies or grandparents who still have to deal with babies―to dig deeper and come up with your own modifications and derivations to the little that has already been said. However, link the above to some kind of living reality, let us take a page out of Fr. François Trochu’s biography of St. John Vianney and you will see some of the above “theory” put into “practice” in very earliest days of St. John Vianney’s life.

The Baby and Infant John Vianney
“Soon [the baby] John began to notice things. His mother took pleasure in pointing out to him the crucifix and the pious pictures … When the little arms became strong enough to move with some ease, she guided the tiny hand from the forehead to the breast, and from the breast to the shoulders [thus making the Sign of the Cross]. The child soon grew into the habit of doing this, so that one day―he was then about fifteen months old―his mother, having forgotten to help him to make the Sign of the Cross before giving him his food, the little one refused to open his mouth, at the same time vigorously shaking his head. Marie Vianney guessed what he meant, and, as soon as she had helped the tiny hand, the pursed-up lips opened spontaneously.

“His was one of those dispositions that are easily directed towards God. From the age of eighteen months, when the family met for night prayers, he would, of his own accord, kneel down with them―maybe merely from natural imitativeness―and he knew quite well how to join his little hands in prayer. Prayers ended, his pious mother put him to bed, and, before a final embrace, she bent over him, talking to him of Jesus, of Mary, of his Guardian Angel. In this way did the fond mother lull the child to sleep … John hardly ever left his mother’s side, busy as she was; on her part, she began the task of her little son’s education whilst doing her housework, teaching him in a manner that could be readily grasped by his childish mind. In this way she taught him the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” together with some elementary notions of God and of the soul … The little one, who was very wide awake for his age, would himself ask naive questions. What interested him most was the sweet mystery of Our Lord’s birth at Bethlehem and the story of the manger and the shepherds. These familiar talks were sometimes prolonged far into the night. For the sake of hearing the story of the Bible, John was willing to sit up late with his mother and Catherine―the most devout of his sisters.

“The boy had a Rosary which he greatly prized. Gothon, his sister, who was eighteen months younger, took a fancy to her brother’s beads, and, of course, wished to get possession of them. It came to a scene between brother and sister; there was screaming, stamping of feet, and even a preliminary skirmish, when suddenly, full of grief, the poor child ran to his mother. Gently, but firmly, she bade him give the beads to Gothon “Yes, my darling, give them to her for love of the good God.” John, though bathed in tears, immediately surrendered his precious Rosary. For a child of four this was surely no mean sacrifice! Instead of petting and fondling the child with a view to drying his tears, his mother gave him a small wooden statue of Our Lady.

“The rude [meaning “very basic”] image had long stood on the mantelpiece of the kitchen chimney, and the little one had often wished to possess it. At last it was his, really his! What joy! “Oh how I loved that statue!” he confessed seventy years later; “neither by day nor by night would I be parted from it. I should not have slept had I not had it beside me in my little bed . . . the Blessed Virgin was the object of my earliest affections; I loved her even before I knew her.”

“Some of his contemporaries, his sister Marguerite in particular, have related how, at the first sound of the Angelus, he was on his knees before anybody else. At other times he might be found in a corner of the house kneeling before the image of our Lady, which he had placed on a chair. Children do not fall victims to the foolish disease called human respect. Wherever he happened to be, whether at home, in the garden, in the street, John, following the example of his mother, was in the habit of “blessing the hour”―that is, so soon as he heard the clock strike the each hour of the day―he would cross himself and recite a “Hail Mary,” ending with another sign of the cross.

“Some women of the neighborhood, hearing the [four-year-old] child praying aloud, said to his parents: “He knows his litanies well. You will have to make him either a priest or a Brother.”

“Marie Vianney may not have had any inkling of the wonderful future of her favorite child; none the less, the beauty of his soul was precious in her eyes, and she spared no pains to keep from him the very shadow of sin: “See, my little John,” she used to say, “if your brothers and sisters were to offend the good God, it would indeed cause me much pain, but I should be far sorrier were you to offend Him.”

“Her little John was no ordinary child. Even before the powers of his mind had reached their full development, the privileged child of grace had made the first step out of the common way, for this seems to be the true explanation of the following occurrence.

“One evening―he was then about four years old―John left the house unnoticed. As soon as his mother became aware of his absence, she called to him by his name―but no answer came. With ever-increasing anxiety she looked for him in the yard, behind the straw rick and the piles of timber. The little one was not to be found. Yet he never failed to answer the very first call. As she proceeded in the direction of the stable, where he might be hiding, the distracted mother suddenly remembered with horror that deep pond full of murky water, from which the cattle were wont to drink! But what was her surprise when she beheld the spectacle that now presented itself to her eyes? There, in a corner of the stable, among the cattle peacefully chewing the cud, was her boy on his knees, praying with folded hands before his little statue of Our Lady. In an instant she had caught him in her arms, and, pressing him to her heart: “Oh my darling, you were here!” she cried, in a flood of tears. “Why hide yourself when you want to pray? You know we all say our prayers together!” The child, unable to think of anything but his mother’s grief, exclaimed: “Forgive me, mamma, I did not think! I will not do it again!”

“Mrs. Vianney was a woman of “eminent piety.” If at all possible, she would go to daily Mass. Catherine, her eldest daughter, accompanied her as a rule, but soon her favorite companion came to be the little four-year-old, whose precocious piety caused him to relish the things of God. Whenever the bells of the church nearby, announced that Mass was about to be said, John entreated his mother to let him go with her. The request was granted. She placed him before her in the family pew, and explained to him what the priest was doing at the altar. The child soon developed a love for the sacred ceremonies. However, his attention was divided: the embroidered vestment of the celebrant entranced him, whilst he was wholly overcome with admiration for the red cassock and white surplice of the altar boy. He, too, would have liked to serve at the altar, but how could his frail arms lift that heavy Missal? From time to time he turned to his mother; it was an inspiration merely to see her so absorbed in prayer, and as it were transfigured by an interior fire.

“In subsequent years, when people congratulated him on his early love for prayer and the Church, he used to say with many tears: “After God, I owe it to my mother; she was so good! Virtue passes readily from the heart of a mother into that of her children. A child that has the happiness of having a good mother, should never look at her or think of her without tears!” (Fr. François Trochu, The Curé D’Ars, St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney).

Warnings From Scripture and Our Lady
The above theory and practice show and prove the point that used to be made by the Jesuits―when they were still in a healthy spiritual state, now no longer―that if they could educate a child before and up to the ages of 7 or 8 years-old, then they could almost guarantee the future salvation of that child. Holy Scripture s peaks of the same principle, saying: “It is a proverb: ‘A young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it!’” (Proverbs 22:6). “As the days of thy youth, so also shall thy old age be!” (Deuternonomy 33:25). Too many parents spiritually waste the time of their babies and infants―time lost may never be regained and may even end up with not only being “time lost” but also a soul lost! “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord” (Isaias 54:13). “These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: And thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). “From thy infancy thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation!” (2 Timothy 3:15).

As Our Lady instructed the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Parents are naturally bound to instruct their children, from their infancy, in this knowledge of God and to direct them with solicitous care, so that they may at once see their ultimate end, and seek it … They should with great watchfulness withdraw them from the childishness and puerile trickishness―to which depraved nature will incline them if left without direction. If the fathers and mothers would be solicitous to prevent these vanities and perverted habits of their children, and would instruct them, from their infancy, in the knowledge of their God and Creator, then they would afterwards easily accustom them to know and adore Him … The proper education and instruction of children will do much toward making them more free and habituated to the practice of virtue, since thus they will be accustomed to follow the sure and safe guiding star of reason from its first dawn …

“I wish to warn thee of the cunning of Satan for the destruction of these works of the Lord. From the very moment in which mortals begin to have the use of their reason, each one of them is followed by many watchful and relentless demons. For as soon as the souls are in a position to raise their thoughts to the knowledge of their God and commence the practice of the virtues infused by Baptism, these demons, with incredible fury and astuteness, seek to root out the divine seed; and if they cannot succeed in this, they try to hinder its growth, and prevent it from bringing forth fruit by engaging men in vicious, useless, or trifling things. Thus they divert their thoughts from the Faith and from the pursuit of virtues, leading them to forget that they are Christians and diverting their attention from the knowledge of God. Moreover the same enemy instills into the parents a base neglectfulness and carnal love for their offspring; and he incites the teachers to carelessness, so that the children find no support against evil in their education, but become depraved and spoiled by many bad habits, losing sight of virtue and of their good inclinations and going the way of perdition. That those who walk in the way of salvation are the smaller number, is due to the vice and depraved habits imbibed in youth and nourished in childhood. For that saying of Deuteronomy is very true: “As the days of thy youth, so also shall thy old age be” (Deuteronomy 33:25).

“Hence the demons gain courage and increase their tyrannical influence over souls in the early years of man’s life, hoping that they will be able to induce men to commit so much the greater and the more frequent sins in later years, the more they have succeeded in drawing them into small and insignificant faults in their childhood. By these they draw them on to a state of blind presumption; for with each sin the soul loses more and more the power of resistance, subjects itself to the demon, and falls under the sway of its tyrannical enemies. The miserable yoke of wickedness is more and more firmly fastened upon it; the same is trodden underfoot by its own iniquity and urged onward under the sway of the devil from one precipice to another, from abyss to abyss (Psalm 41:8): a chastisement merited by all those, that allow themselves to be overcome by evildoing in the beginning. By these means Lucifer has hurled into Hell so great a number of souls and continues so to hurl them every day” (Taken from The Mystical City of God).

Therefore, if you have babies or infants in your care, take heed and put into practice the points made above. It is never too early a time to sow seeds of devotion to Our Lady in the soul of a child. Woe to those who neglect to do so―for, in place of the potential tree of devotion, they will instead soon find the weeds and thorns of the world, which will soon begin to gradually but relentlessly choke all spirituality from the soul and replace it with worldliness.

This Week's Special Offers From The Devotion Supermarket

► The Childhood Department
If you have done the shopping in the “Baby Department” early and in good time, and put your purchases to good use by planting the seeds of devotion in the soul of during the baby and infancy stage, then the childhood period should go more smoothly―for you will have limited the weeds of worldliness and will have already instilled a respectful and reverential attitude to the things of God from the very earliest years. If not, then you have work to do―weeding to do―planting to do. If the child has grown thus far on “junk food” then you can imagine how difficult it is wean such a child from “junk food” and have it accept “healthy food”!

Up to this point―during babyhood and infancy―the child’s exposure and growth in devotion to Our Lady has been “passive” (meaning that more has to be done for the child because the child can do very little for its own devotional growth). You could, broadly-speaking, call it “spoon-fed devotion”, where everything is presented to the child and the child simply slurps it in and swallows it. The older the child becomes, the more it becomes “active” while still remaining to a large degree “passive” too. In fact, the “active” (I do it) and “passive” (someone does it to me) stages are ever-present, even in adulthood―but in babyhood the “active” is almost at zero level, while the “passive” is almost 100%. As the baby passes through infancy and into childhood, the “active” part of its life increases―not only year by year, but week by week. Once the child is able to do certain things by itself and for itself; once the child’s reasoning and comprehension starts to develop, then the ways and methods of inspiring and cultivating a devotion to Our Lord and Our Lady allow for a much broader and much more mature approach. It is similar to the nutrition given to the child. As a baby, solids were extremely limited and most foods were in the form of liquids or reduced from solids to liquids. Once the child develops teeth and is able to chew, then solids are introduced on a regular basis. Similarly, when the child’s mind or intellect develops “intellectual teeth” that enable it to “intellectually chew things over”, then a whole new broad spectrum of materials come into play for furthering and deepening the child’s religious devotion.

However, since the mind is still immature and in its formative stages, the intellectual material has to be prudently simplified or “watered” down―much as in France, for example, children of a certain age would be allowed to drink a LITTLE wine at certain meals together with their parents, but the wine would be watered-down, that is to say, mixed with a large amount of water. As one long-time deceased bishop used to say, “It is much harder to teach the Faith to little children than older children or adults―because you have to have a mind that can simplify what is often complicated and present it in a way that us understandable without having sacrificed, discarded or modified that which is essential.”

Don’t Waste Time―Wait and It’s Too Late!
Generally speaking, once a child begins to understand and reason, then it of the utmost importance to seek and try ensure that this early development of the child is good and holy, that is godly and God-centered rather than worldly and fun-centered. As you probably know by experience―with your own children or by observing the children of others―this is far easier said than it is done! In fact, the rate of failure in this matter far surpasses the few meager successes that can be found scattered around only here or there. This brings to mind St. Louis de Montfort’s lament in his Letter to the Friends of the Cross, where he writes:

“A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God from among ten thousand who have reason and sense for their only guide. He is truly divine, raised above reason and thoroughly opposed to the things of sense, for he lives in the light of true faith and burns with love for the Cross … Do you really know the voice of God and grace from the voice of the world and human nature? Do you distinctly hear the voice of God, our kind Father, pronouncing His threefold curse upon everyone who follows the world in its concupiscence: “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the Earth” (Apocalypse 8:13) … Dear Brethren, these are the two groups that appear before you each day, the followers of Christ and the followers of the world. On the right is our loving Savior’s group is barefooted, thorn-crowned, robed in His blood and weighted with a heavy cross. There is ONLY A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW HIM, but they are the bravest of the brave. To the left is the world’s group, the devil’s in fact, WHICH IS FAR SUPERIOR IN NUMBER, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions and paved with gold and silver … To the right, THE LITTLE FLOCK that follows Jesus can speak only of tears, penance, prayer and contempt for worldly things ... Worldlings, on the contrary, rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. ‘Enjoy life, peace and pleasure!’ they shout, “Enjoy life, peace and pleasure! Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play! God is good, He did not make us to damn us, God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves; we shall not be damned for that; away with scruples; we shall not die!’ And so they continue” (St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross).

So What’s on Offer? ― What Can You Use and Do?
At this point―as with adulthood―as they say, “The sky’s the limit!” … “You are spoilt for choice!” Yet there is still enormous failure despite the resources and choices. As the proverbial saying goes: “You can lead a horse to water―but you cannot make it drink!” There are mountains of materials available to help kindle the bonfire of devotion―especially in this day and age, with the universal availability of many inexpensive books, internet resources that cost nothing but the time to research them, and the wide variety of self-education channels that are available besides books and internet, such as DVDs, CDs, video tapes, audio tapes, interactive media, etc.

So Many Resources―But So Much Failure!
Yet those devotional bonfires are not burning―especially among children―for statistics show that MOST CATHOLIC CHILDREN end up leaving the Faith entirely, or at least cease practicing it regularly, by the time they leave high school, college or university―OVER 90%. Something has gone wrong somewhere―and it is in childhood that the seeds of that apostasy or falling-away have been sown. Such things do not happen overnight―the child has been gradually “falling-out-of-love” with the Faith for a long, long time beforehand. The problem is essentially and basically this―a lack of TRUE and DEEP knowledge of Faith, a lack of TRUE devotion and TRUE spirituality on the part of parents (and teachers and priests) has, like a virus, spread to and contaminated the children―“Behold, everyone that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter!’” (Ezechiel 16:44).

Furthermore, what God said in the Old Testament, is today 10 times more applicable than it was back then: “The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together … They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways!” (Psalm 13:1-3). Most are infected by the world because they have become disaffected with religion―the world has become their religion. Both children and parents gorge themselves on the world for hours every day―God receives mere scraps of time by comparison. A half-hearted, half-knowledgeable and dispirited Christianity―much like a half-hearted and dispirited team―can never and will never be victorious. That is why, speaking of the so-called “End Times”―which Our Lady told Lucia of Fatima, are our times―Our Lord laments: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Moreover, will He find Faith in the children of today?

Our Lady of Good Success already warned us: ““From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement.”

Are We Fighting a Losing Battle?
With most souls ending up in Hell; with most children leaving the Faith or ceasing to regularly practice the Faith; with attendance at Holy Mass on Sundays continually dropping universally―one has to ask the question: “Are we fighting a losing battle?” Yet that is perhaps the wrong way to phrase the question! We should be asking: “Why are we losing this battle?” More precisely, “Why are we losing a battle that we should be winning!” For as Holy Scripture says: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31) … “The Lord God, Who is your leader, Himself will fight for you, as He did in Egypt in the sight of all!” (Deuteronomy 1:30). “The Lord your God Himself will fight for you, as He hath promised!” (Josue 23:10). “Fear them not: for the Lord your God will fight for you!” (Deuteronomy 3:22).  “Our God will fight for us!” (2 Esdras 4:20). “Because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, and will fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you from danger” (Deuteronomy 20:4). “Be of good courage and let us fight for the city of our God: and the Lord will do what is good in his sight!” (2 Kings 10:12).

So why are we losing the battle? Why are we losing our children in the battle? Why are our children losing their Faith? Or are in the process of losing their Faith? The answer is quite simply the same answer that St. Augustine (feast day August 28th) gave to the question: “Why are our prayers not answered by God?” He gives three chief reasons: (1) because we pray for what is bad, (2) we pray badly, and (3) we are bad. In our case, we are losing the battle for similar reasons: (1) because we are fighting over the wrong things, (2) we are fighting in the wrong or bad way, using the wrong weapons, and (3) we are bad and therefore unworthy of God fighting for us.

Sole Solution to the Soul-ution
Yes―we have countless books on the Faith in general and devotion to Our Lady in particular. Yes―we have religion and catechism taught in Catholics schools and on Sundays in Catholic parishes. Yes―there are even religious movies and documentaries available for viewing. Yes―countless sermons have been heard on Sundays. Yes―families have some form of religious customs and spiritual exercises that they adhere to in their homes. Yet, as Fr. Frederick Faber writes in his Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary. Ponder these words carefully and resolve to do something about them―too much is at stake by neglecting to do so!

“All those who are likely to read this book [True Devotion to Mary], love God, and lament that they do not love Him more; all desire something for His glory—the spread of some good work, the success of some devotion, the coming of some good time. One man has been striving for years to overcome a particular fault, and has not succeeded. Another mourns, and almost wonders while he mourns, that so few of his relations and friends have been converted to the Faith. One grieves that he has not devotion enough; another that he has a cross to carry which is a peculiarly impossible cross to him; while a third has domestic troubles and family unhappinesses which feel almost incompatible with his salvation; and for all these things prayer appears to bring so little remedy.

“But what is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one. Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no Faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls which might be saints wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them. It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines. Yet, if we are to believe the revelations of the saints, God is pressing for a greater, a wider, a stronger, quite another devotion to His Blessed Mother. I cannot think of a higher work or a broader vocation for anyone than the simple spreading of this peculiar devotion of the Venerable Grignion De Montfort. Let a man but try it for himself, and his surprise at the graces it brings with it, and the transformations it causes in his soul [and the souls of his children], will soon convince him of its otherwise almost incredible efficacy as a means for the salvation of men, and for the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! Oh, if Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our Faith, and how different would our Communions be! [and how different would our children be!]. Oh, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how much less worldly should we [and our children] be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole Lord and Savior, her dearest and most blessed Son!” (Fr. Frederick Faber writes in his Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary).

Spiritual Thermodynamics & Spiritual Entropy
You have to be totally convinced of that―otherwise your life will not show it, and your children will not know it, and your children will not accept it or practice it. That is the reason why today’s children are so irreligious and so worldly―it is primarily because of their parents, who have no devotion, or have a fake or faulty devotion in the first place; and secondarily because of their teachers, who likewise have no devotion, or have a fake or faulty devotion; and thirdly, because of the priests and religious in their lives who have no devotion, or have a fake or faulty devotion. As the axiom goes: “You cannot give what you do not have!” Likewise, in the science of physics, there is an axiom called “The Second Law of Thermodynamics”, sometimes known as “The Law of Entropy” or, more simplistically, “The Law of Decay.”

The word “thermodynamics” comes from two root words: “thermo”― meaning heat, and “dynamic”― meaning power. Thus, the Laws of Thermodynamics are the Laws of “Heat Power.” Why are we talking about this obscure thing in the first place? Well, “Heat Power” brings to mind the idea of “Devotion Power” or “The Power of Devotion”―which, actually, comes down to the “The Power of Love” or “The Power of Charity”―and do we not relate the ideas of “love” and “charity” with the idea of “heat”? Yes, we do! We speak of “a burning love” and “a fiery love” ― we even pray to the Holy Ghost: “Enkindle in our hearts the fire of Thy love!”

“The Second Law of Thermodynamics” refers to the tendency for everything in nature to move towards and reach its most disorderly state. In other words, it is all about “things winding down”, or “things decaying or deteriorating”, or “things becoming increasingly disordered and less ordered.” The implications of “The Second Law of Thermodynamics” are considerable. Like a wind-up clock, the universe is winding down, as if at one point it was fully wound up and has been winding down ever since. The question is who wound up the clock? God, of course. God put total order in the universe―and man, through sin, has put disorder (that is to say, chaos) into the universe. Each sin that is committed, increases the disorder and chaos in the universe and decreases the order within the universe. Through the domino effect of disordered sin, or sinful chaos, the universe has been winding down. Even man, because of sin, was doomed to “wind-down” to eventual death.

This is where the other word used above―“entropy”― comes into play. “Entropy” is defined as unusable energy within a closed or isolated system―such as the universe for example. Put more simply, “entropy” measures disorder or chaos or decay within things or systems. As usable energy decreases and unusable energy increases, “entropy” is said to increase. To better understand that, think in terms of water temperature―as water grows more cold, it automatically becomes less hot. Or think of it in health terms―as someone becomes more sick, they become less healthy. Spiritually, when someone becomes more sinful, they become less virtuous; as they become more ignorant, they become less knowledgeable; as they become more lukewarm, then become less fervent. In simple terms, the less entropy (disorder or chaos or decay) that is present in any system, means that there is more order present within the system. On the other hand, the more entropy (disorder or chaos or decay) there is, the less order there is to be found. Entropy is a measure of disorder, chaos, decay or deterioration within any closed system.

The universe is constantly losing usable energy and never gaining. In simple terms, you see this in our human bodies deteriorating or winding-down and becoming weaker and more sick with increasing age. Cars do not get better with age, but gradually “wind-down” by having all kinds of mechanical failures and break down with time―unless there is some outside human intervention in the form of car maintenance and repair. Likewise, building do not improve with age, but “wind-down”―unless there is some outside human intervention in the form of building maintenance and repair. The same applies to the whole universe. We logically conclude the universe is not eternal. The universe had a finite beginning ― the moment at which it was at “zero entropy” (meaning that it was in most ordered possible state, with no disorder or chaos present).

Everything is winding down―and we even see that with our Faith, which will wind down to the point that Our Lord spoke of, when He said: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8). Everything will consequently and inescapably wind down―unless there is an external intervention from somewhere―which is the intervention of God, His Providence and His Grace. This will help you to better understand the famous quote―which actually implicitly embodies “The Second Law of Thermodynamics”―found in the Soul of the Apostolate, by the Trappist monk, Jean-Baptiste Chautard: “A holy priest makes a fervent people; a fervent priest a pious people; a pious priest a fairly good people; a fairly good priest, a godless people.”  Which you could expand to read as follows: “A saintly priest will produce a holy parish. Whereas a holy priest will only produce a fervent parish. A fervent priest will merely produce a good parish; while a good priest will produce a lukewarm parish. However, a lukewarm priest will produce a parish of devils.” The same applies in relation to parents (priest) and their children (parish), as well as teachers and their students.

Devotional Entropy
Applying all of the above to the question and matter at hand―namely, planting, enkindling, growing and perfecting devotion to Our Lady in children―it should have struck you by now that unless there is some outside intervention upon the children, then what little (if any) devotion they have will inevitably “wind-down”, deteriorate and decay. Who hasn’t seen countless such cases where a child, who perhaps had a sincere devotion to prayer at the age of 4 or 5, grew up to almost lose that prayerfulness by the end of their teen years? Sadly, the cases are countless! What went wrong? In most cases the “outside intervention” was either totally lacking, or infrequently shown, or was of very poor quality.

Most priests, parents and teachers have accustomed themselves to “run of the fumes” of devotion, as their “gas-tank” of devotion is almost always invariably “empty”. They rarely stop by the various “gas-stations” of devotion―and whenever they do, they put in too little “gas of devotion.” Thus they never ever go very far along the spiritual road to Heaven, preferring the short distances of worldly travel. Thus they have little “gas of devotion” to spare to give to their parishioners, children or students.

Furthermore, the quality of “gas” that they have is of the “cheap” kind―which does much harm to their “spiritual engine”, the soul, clogging it up and causing continual misfiring and loss of pulling-power. They barely crawl along when they should be speeding along! Such a “vehicle” inspires little confidence in their children, who prefer the more attractive worldly models they see zooming around everywhere.

Here is Your List―A Case of Love or Lose
As already stated earlier―the list of possibilities wherewith children can be helped to grow in a devotion to Our Lady is truly limitless―for, as they say: “There are nine ways to skin a cat!” but there are nine-million ways in which to sow and grow a devotion to Our Lady. It is not so much what you choose to do, or how many things you choose to try―what really matters and what truly strikes a chord in the mind and heart of the child is seeing a sincere love in you, who are the “Sower of the Seed.” If there is no real spark of love or devotion in you towards Our Lady―then don’t even dream of your child getting one! It is not what you do, but the love and devotion that you do it with that really counts. It is for this reason that the Legion of Mary Handbook states:

“The materialistic systems profess the love and service of man. They have preached a hollow gospel of fraternity. Millions have believed that gospel. In its name, they deserted a religion which they thought to be inert, and they submitted enthusiastically to despotisms. They were convinced that their new leaders loved them best; so they followed them, and now they are trying ardently to induce all mankind to join them. They seem to be in the ascendant. And yet the position is not a hopeless one. There is a way of bringing back to Faith those determined millions, and of saving countless other millions. That hope lies in the application of a great principle which rules the world, and which the Saint of Ars, John Vianney, has stated thus: “The world belongs to him who loves it most, and who proves that love!”  Those millions will never listen to the enunciation of the truths of Faith. But they cannot help seeing, and being moved by a real Faith which operates through a real heroic love for all men. Convince them that the Church loves them most, and they will turn their back on those who rule them now. They will return to Faith in spite of everything. They will even lay down their lives for that Faith. No common love can conquer men thus! Neither will it be accomplished by a mediocre Catholicism, which can hardly preserve itself. It can be done by a Catholicism which loves Christ its Lord with all its heart, and then sees Him and loves Him in all men of whatsoever description. But this supreme charity of Christ must be practiced on such a scale that they, who look on, are driven to admit that it is indeed a characteristic of the Church, and not merely the acts of some sublime members of the Church. Therefore, it must be exhibited in the lives of the general body of the laity” (Legion of Mary Handbook, §159).

For Younger Children

► READING―Reading the lives of child saints―especially those in whose lives Mary played a major role. Hence you have wonderful examples given to children by the three seers of Fatima: Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. Their lives should not only by “dryly” read, but their lives should also be part of a regular discussion and debate in family or at school. There are MANY books available that deal with Fatima and the three children―and their age range (10 years old, 9 years old and 7 years old) is ideal for children below the age of adolescence. Other such saints include St. Bernadette of Lourdes; Melanie and Maximin at La Salette.

Sadly, there are VERY FEW books out there that simplify St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary in a style and simplicity that easily “digested” by children. There is a book entitled Leading Little Ones to Mary, which decent though it is, still does little by way of faithfully and simply reflecting the key concepts of St. Louis. Perhaps with time such a book will appear. However, the simplification of St. Louis de Montfort’s short booklet, The Secret of Mary, should not be too difficult for most parents and teachers. Another good book, that is very understandable for the child’s mind, is St. Louis de Montfort’s The Secret of the Rosary. There are of course many more books out there. Whichever you choose, you should aim at short daily readings, and also have a variety of books to read from―so that it is not the same book every single day until it is completed. In fact, if you keep the reading short―a few paragraphs or one long paragraph―then there is nothing to stop you from reading from different books, several times a day, for two or three minutes at a time. Especially important is reading to children LAST THING AT NIGHT before they go bed or to sleep. This helps to partially clear all other useless and vain thoughts from the mind and leaves (hopefully) a spiritual or religious thought in their mind before they fall asleep.

However, regardless of what you read and how often you read―if you yourself have little or no real devotion to Our Lady, then that will very quickly be picked up by the child, who will sooner or later see the hypocrisy in it, of which we are all guilty of in more than one way―in effect saying: “Do not do as I do, but do as I say!”―this could well repel the child from embracing a true devotion to Our Lady and being content with a false or faulty one instead.

► PRAYING―Even though spiritual reading is already a prayer―for, as St. Thomas Aquinas says: “Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God” in any way whatsoever―vocal prayers are of great importance, for they are, in a sense, a direct communication or conversation with God, Our Lord, Our Lady, the angels and the saints. Moreover, Our Lady came at Fatima to insist upon the vocal prayer of the Holy Rosary, saying that, not only should it be prayed every day, but adding―both at Fatima and Akita―that we should pray the Rosary a lot: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!” Furthermore, Our Lady does not just address herself to adults (Akita), but also to young children (Fatima)―thus the daily Rosary is a daily requirement for children too. Additionally, 9-year-old Francisco was told that one daily Rosary was insufficient for him and that he would have to pray many Rosaries―which he humbly did.

Nevertheless, it has to be admitted that the Rosary, not only can be, but will be boring to every child―unless you do something to “pep” it up, to “spice” it up, to “flavor” it―just as you do with the food that you eat. You do buy a piece of meat and just slam it on the plate of your child without first seasoning and cooking it! Well, if Jesus says: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!” (Matthew 4:4)―then your Rosary is the “bread of the word of God” and you must prepare it before you eat it and feed it to others. In fact, what better incentive is there to begin meditating the Rosary yourself―for your food becomes the food your children―much like a mother eats and drinks herself, and then breast-feeds her babies.

A word of caution, though, has to be given. With young children, avoid falling into the two extremes of meditation―(1) avoid making the meditation TOO SHORT, which would be like a few drops or rain in a drought, and (2) avoid making the meditation TOO LONG and perhaps even avoid meditating every single mystery, which would then make the whole 5-decade Rosary too long for a young child. Either divide your 5-decade Rosary into 5 periods of the day (which can be difficult on school days, but ideal if you home-school), or pick one “juicy” mystery that is easy to meditate and give it “center-stage” and all the “spotlights” during the 5-decade family Rosary. For children, the use of pictures or imagery or even a short clip from a religious movie (with caution for it could distract instead of inspire) is highly recommended―for this is akin to spicing, seasoning and flavoring your food, except here you flavor and season the 15-course meal of the Holy Rosary.

Another way is too pick one mystery as the focal point of the whole day―asking everyone to think about it during the day, while at work or at school, and then, before the family Rosary in the evening, sit down and have “meditative discussion” about who has uncovered what points or treasures during the day. These are just “sparking suggestions” that could and should “spark” a whole bunch of “offshoot ideas” on how to best make the Rosary come alive and be made interesting, informative and life-changing for you and your child or student.

As for other prayers―as St. Augustine says, practice the liberty of the children of God. Approach prayer as you would food―eat healthily, meaning say prayers that will feed the needs of your life and avoid prayers that mean nothing to you and do not dovetail with your circumstances, hopes, needs, problems or tribulations. Also, as with food, eating a little but often throughout the day, is better than eating everything in one single meal. Thirdly, give the children something of what they like―but also give them some “greens” and things they might not like, but which will do them a lot of good. Do not feed them sugar all the time, but sparingly―for as they say, “Bitter is better” and we get to Heaven through the Cross and not through Comfort.

► THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AND THE HOLY EUCHARIST―Finally, a word on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as part of devotion to Our Lady. The Blessed Virgin Mary was stood at the foot of the Cross as her Son dies upon it. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a perpetual re-presentation or re-enactment of the bloody Sacrifice of Calvary in a mystical and unbloody manner upon our altars. It is the greatest treasure that we have in the spiritual treasure chest of prayers―after which come The Divine Office (the Breviary) which is the Public Prayer of Christ and His Church, and then comes the Holy Rosary. If your children or students have little or no love for the Mass, then whose fault is that? It is to a large degree your fault as a parent or as a teacher. If you are meant to educate Christ’s little ones― “Jesus said to them: ‘Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to Me―for the Kingdom of Heaven is for such!’” (Matthew 19:14)―then you can bet your life on the fact that Christ wants them to know and love His greatest gift to them: the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross upon Calvary, and upon the altars of the Catholic Church. Your job is to see to it that those “little children” truly know and love that Holy Sacrifice. However, yet again, you cannot give what you have not got! You cannot “wax lyrical” with praise for the Mass if you yourself barely love it and rarely attend it. Furthermore, you have to be ready to “comply” with your child’s wishes (if they ever occur) to go and attend an extra Mass outside of the customary Sunday Mass―that will put you and your values under scrutiny! What excuse will you have in saying: “No, we can’t! Because we have to … [go somewhere else, do something else]” What is more important than the Mass? You risk having your false sense of values exposed by your child!

The “offshoot” or “product” or “consequence” of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Holy Eucharist―which comes into being during the consecration of the Mass. The Holy Eucharist remains after Mass is over by what we call the “Real Presence” of Jesus with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Just like the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is the greatest thing we have this side of Heaven. We all know that in theory―or we should know that. Yet what happens in practice? Does our practice live up to the theory? If it is the greatest thing we have this side of Heaven, why is it the greatest negligence this side of Heaven? Why are the churches empty? They are empty because our minds and hearts are empty! We never read about the Mass or the Blessed Sacrament―either privately or as a family. We never talk about the Mass or Blessed Sacrament in family―but we talk about everything else that is of lesser importance. We know little or nothing about the history of the Mass or the prayers of the Mass or the Blessed Sacrament―that is why we talk so little of the Mass or the Blessed Sacrament. If you do not have a great, fervent love for the Holy Mass and the Blessed Sacrament―do you think God will wave a magic wand and magically give such a love to your children or students? As the Church teaches― “God does not do the extraordinary when the ordinary suffices”―and, ordinarily, your efforts and teaching should suffice―but they will not suffice if they are insufficient! As one venerable bishop used to say: “The whole Faith can be taught from the vantage point of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or even from the vantage point of Our Lady”―but who is there that does that?

► SPIRITUAL CONVERSATIONS―Such spiritual conversations are an informal and sometimes extremely powerful way of both ‘praying’ (raising the mind and heart to God) and allow for more flexibility and ingenuity in penetrating, detoxifying and influencing the child’s naturally worldly mind. Parents and teachers grossly neglect such opportunities for furthering the growth of Faith and devotion. For Holy Scripture commands: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). God and links to God can be found in every single thing that exists in this world―but you have to have a mind that can ssee those links―and that only comes with the practice of constantly looking for those links―but THEY ARE THERE! “But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged Who was the workman” (Wisdom 13:1). However, once again, you cannot just “turn-it-on-at-the-flick-of-a-switch”―such spiritual conversations can only sound sincere if they are coming from a mind that is striving to live in the presence of God continually―which, sad to say, is rare today, as most people live continually in the presence of their smartphone, tablet, laptop or TV screen. “They are of the world: therefore of the world they speak” (1 John 4:5).

► SPIRITUAL LISTENING―Just as one measly multi-vitamin pill, taken once a week, is unlikely to overcome a disease―likewise, one “multi-vitamin sermon” on Sunday is not going to detoxify anyone from sinfulness and worldliness. The Sunday sermon is an “off-the-peg” piece of “spiritual clothing” that vainly hopes to be a perfect “fit” for everyone in sitting and yawning in the pews. It is not going to happen! Yes―some things are “universal” in that they apply to everybody―but everybody is also different with different weaknesses and failings. “Tailor-made” is always better than “off-the-peg”―and it is parents and teachers who see the child at close quarters―they have, so to speak, a better “measurement” of the child or student.

This leads to two points―the first one is that the parent or teacher should be spending time in researching spiritual materials that are a “perfect-fit” for each child―and then, once having made a “suit of clothes” from all these pieces, they should―week-in-and-week-out―deliver what they discover to the child by personally talking to, encouraging, warning, reprimanding or praising, and guiding that child. Not to do so is to ill-equip a child or student for what will then be an extremely difficult and dangerous, if not impossible journey to Heaven. Yes―if you have brought a child into this world, then you have brought a child into this world to know, love and serve God and to finally attain God in Heaven. Who is going to do that if not you? You do this on a material and physical level―feeding, clothing, sheltering, teaching and protecting your child! Why is it not done with even greater zeal and effect on the spiritual level―which is the more important level? The same applies to teachers! Why are you a Catholic teacher? For the money? For the praise? For the fun of fit? A teacher is a “stand-in” for THE TEACHER―Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus Christ (and Our Lady and everything else that pertains to the Faith) so low and so neglected on the list of things that you have to do? It is an enormous privilege to be called into the ranks of Catholic Teachers―who could be said to be, in a loose sense, “The (Lay) Apostles of Our Lord.” And what did Our Lord command His Apostles to do? “Going therefore, teach ye all nations … Teaching them to observe ALL THINGS whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

“All things” is not “some things” or “the things that interest you” or “the things that you prefer” or “the things you think they will like”, etc. What part of ALL is it that you do not understand? That is why Our Lady of Fatima gave both “sugar and spice”―she told the children they would go to Heaven, yet she showed them a vision of Hell―of which Sr. Lucia of Fatima said that they would have died on the spot seeing it, had not the grace of God kept them alive! Just think about that for a minute! She showed a life-threatening vision of Hell to a 10-year-old, a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old! If she did that in America today, parents would sue Our Lady for emotional cruelty to their children! Who is there that speaks about Hell today? It is almost a taboo subject, a “hate-crime”, an act of “terrorism”. Yet Hell is part and parcel of the “ALL THINGS” that Our Lord commanded MUST be taught, not just all children, but to all nations.

All the other things that are usually mentioned as a part of devotion to Our Lady―this or that prayer; this or that novena; this or that Rosary (regular Rosary or Seven Sorrows Rosary); this or that image and statue; this or that medal; this or that book; this or that pilgrimage; this or that spiritual exercise, procession, etc. ― and the particular list would number thousands ― all depends ultimately on having the “spark” of devotion in our souls. It is like a bonfire―you can bring all the wood that you can find, you can make it the largest bonfire the world has ever seen, you can stack the wood a mile-high―but if you cannot create a spark to light it, then it is useless. The spark must come from somewhere. The odds are that the fire of your devotion is deficient, insufficient to light a bonfire of devotion in others. So before you try heal others―heal yourself: “Physician, heal thyself!” (Luke 4:23). “My son, in thy sickness neglect not thyself, but pray to the Lord, and he shall heal thee!” (Ecclesiasticus 38:9).

Providential Feasts and Examples
Providentially, at this moment in time, August 27th, we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph Calasanctius―whose life dovetails with the subject we are addressing, namely, the instruction and education of children. While he was still a child he used to call his companions together and teach them the mysteries of the Faith and prayers. He became a priest because of a vow he had taken, and he consequently led a life of great austerity, chastising his body with vigils and fasting, and spending day and night in prayer and the contemplation of heavenly things―which is exactly what has been recommended above to one degree or another. When he had received from God the commission to devote himself to the education and formation of boys―especially poor boys―in the knowledge and love of God, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who took, as their special work, the task of teaching boys. Because of this work, he underwent innumerable labors and hardships with an invincible spirit. The Collect or Prayer for the August 27th feast of St. Joseph Calasanctius, is especially appropriate for this topic: “O God, Who wast pleased to provide a new help for thy Church by raising up Thy holy Confessor Joseph to train up the young in the spirit of understanding and godliness, we beseech thee for his sake, and by his prayers, to grant us the grace always so to work and so to teach, that we may finally attain unto Thy everlasting joy.”

You may think all this is impossible! You may think it is too late to change your children or repair the damage caused by your negligence and ignorance. Well think again! Think of St. Augustine (feast day August 28th) who was wayward form his childhood, yet who not only converted, not only became a priest, not only became a bishop, not only became a saint, but also entered the saintly ranks of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church! What is impossible with men is possible with God. Our Lady said to Archangel Gabriel: “‘How shall this be done, because I know not man?’ And the angel answering, said to her: ‘No word shall be impossible with God!’” (Luke 1:34-37). “And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:26). “And in all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive!” (Matthew 21:22).

Sunday August 25th

Article 14
How To Build a Soul-Saving Devotion!

Without This―You’re Going Nowhere But Hell!
What is Hell? The theologians of the Church define Hell as the absence of God―while Heaven is the presence of God. What is God? Holy Scripture tells us that “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8). Therefore, the absence of God is the absence of Charity or Love―and what is the absence of Love or Charity? What is the opposite of Love? It is hatred. Hence the absence of God in Hell automatically entails the presence of hatred.

You could also argue that “Hell on Earth” is the absence of God in the soul. God lives in the soul by Sanctifying Grace (the soil for all virtue) and Charity is the God living and growing in the soul through Sanctifying Grace. When Mortal Sin drives God out of the soul―we have “Hell on Earth”, even though we might not feel the pain due to intoxication of the Mortal Sin or many Mortal Sins committed.

Devotion―whether to God, Our Lord, Our Lady or the angels and saints―requires the state of Sanctifying Grace and the presence of the supernatural virtue of Charity for devotion to exist and deserve the name of “devotion.”

Sanctifying Grace and Charity
Does the loss of Sanctifying Grace bring with it the loss of the supernatural and theological virtue of Charity? Because Charity is infused into the soul at Baptism, along with Sanctifying Grace, it is often identified with the state of grace (being in possession of Sanctifying Grace). The theological virtue of Charity is inseparably connected with Sanctifying Grace. Theological Love or Charity is substantially identical with Sanctifying Grace, or at least inseparable from it, and hence both are gained and lost together, they stand and fall together. This is an article of Faith. To lose Sanctifying Grace, therefore, is to lose theological Love or Charity. Though they are not identical, nevertheless, it is clear that both Charity and Sanctifying Grace must stand or fall together, hence the expressions “to fall from grace” and “to lose charity” are equivalent.

A person who has lost the supernatural virtue of Charity has lost the state of grace―even though he may still possess the virtues of Hope and Faith. It is also an article of faith (Council of Trent, Sess. VI, can. xxviii, cap. xv) that theological Faith may survive the commission of mortal sin, and can be extinguished only by its diametrical opposite, namely, infidelity. It may be regarded as a matter of Church teaching that the theological virtue of Hope also survives Mortal Sin, unless this Hope should be utterly killed by its extreme opposite, namely the sin of despair, though probably it is not destroyed by it second opposite, the sin of presumption.

Mortal Sin is essentially a hatred of God and God Commandments― “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15) … “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father: and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21) … “If any one love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him” (John 14:23) … “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:24) ... “You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 15:14) … “If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do abide in His love” (John 15:10).

Thus, since hatred is the opposite of love or charity, Mortal Sin drives out Charity from the soul, together with its roots or soil―which is Sanctifying Grace. Thus, a person in a state of Mortal Sin still has knowledge of God; the person can still speak about God; do good things and even be helpful and naturally charitable to other people―but all this is SUPERNATURALLY useless, and will receive no heavenly reward, and, if the person dies in that state of Mortal Sin―which is an abiding enmity with God, an implicit or even explicit hatred of God―then there is no entry into Heaven (the home of love), but a banishment to Hell (the home of hatred).

Grace is increased as charity increases, and vice versa. Every increase or decrease of Sanctifying Grace must also entail a corresponding increase or decrease of the supernatural and theological virtue of Charity. Furthermore, the degree of heavenly glory enjoyed by a soul after this life, will be in proportion with the measure of Charity which the soul possessed at death. For grace and glory bear a proportional relation to each other―like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, grace is turned into glory in Heaven.

Measured and Judged on Our Charity
Since “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8), Charity must be the greatest virtue and the Love of God must be the first and foremost focus of Charity. This is confirmed by Our Lord: “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment!’” (Matthew 22:37-38). Holy Scripture confirms this elsewhere: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing! … And, now, there remain Faith, Hope, and Charity, these three―but the greatest of these is Charity” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 13).

Thus we see that regardless of what magnificent things we may know, say, do or achieve―all of them are rendered useless, profitless, empty and shallow if they are not animated and driven by Charity―a love of God. Charity is not a human virtue, nor a natural virtue, it is not human love, but it is the supernatural virtue, infused into the soul at Baptism, by which we first and foremost love God above all things for His own sake, and then secondarily, love our neighbor as ourselves as part of our love of God and because of God, because our neighbor’s soul was made by God and made in the image and likeness of God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself ... This do, and thou shalt live!” (Luke 10:27-28).

Devotion Needs Grace and Charity to Live
A person who is in a state of mortal sin, may well seem to be pious, devout, charitable, knowledgeable, zealous, etc. ― but in God’s eyes all those things are supernaturally DEAD, even though they seem alive to everyone who witnesses them. From a distance, a corpse and a sleeping person seem to be alike―but the likeness is only on the exterior, for interiorly, the soul, which is the principle and cause of life for the body, has left the corpse, but is still present in the sleeping person.

Thus it is with devotion. Exteriorly, a person may seem to be , devout, charitable, knowledgeable, zealous, etc., but this devotion, though seemingly alive naturally, is dead supernaturally and will not be counted as devotion by God. The problem today―and perhaps throughout all past ages―is that we focus more (or only) on the externals and disregard the interior. To attempt to try a build a devotion to Our Lady on externals alone, is to fail before you start. St. Louis de Montfort tells us that what gives “life” to devotion is the INTERIOR and not the EXTERIOR. Not that externals are to be ignored and neglected. For we ourselves are a mixture of BODY (externals) and SOUL (interior), but a body without a soul is merely a corpse. St. Louis de Montfort says much the same for the Holy Rosary: “The Rosary―said without the meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation―would almost be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form, which is the meditation.”

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart (or Our Lady) Must Come From the Heart
The previous two articles have discussed the THEORY and the PRACTICE of DEVOTION TO OUR LADY. The Apostle of Devotion to Our Lady―St. Louis de Montfort―tells us that the key or the essential aspect of devotion to Our Lady is its interior aspect: “Now, as the kingdom of Jesus Christ consists principally in the heart or the interior of man—according to the words, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)—in like manner the kingdom of our Blessed Lady is principally in the interior of man; that is to say, his soul. And it is principally in souls that she is more glorified with her Son than in all visible creatures, and so we can call her, as the saints do, the Queen of All Hearts … God wishes that His holy Mother should be at present more known, more loved, more honored than she has ever been. This, no doubt, will take place if the predestinate enter (by the grace and light of the Holy Ghost), into the interior and perfect practice which I will disclose to them … External devotees are persons who make all devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior side of this devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. They will say quantities of Rosaries with the greatest haste; they will hear many Masses distractedly; they will go, without devotion, to processions; they will enroll themselves in all her confraternities—without amending their lives, without doing any violence to their passions, or without imitating the virtues of that most holy Virgin. They have no love but for the sensible [exterior or external] part of devotion, without having any relish for its [interior] solidity ...

“We must, in a few words, give the characteristics of true devotion. It must be: (1) interior, (2) tender, meaning confident, (3) holy, (4) constant, and (5) disinterested.

(1) INTERIOR―True devotion to Our Lady is interior; that is, it comes from the mind and the heart. It flows from the esteem we have for her, the high idea we have formed of her greatness, and the love which we have for her.

(2) CONFIDENT―It is full of confidence in her, like a child’s confidence in his loving mother. This confidence makes the soul have recourse to her in all its bodily and mental necessities, with much simplicity, trust and tenderness. It implores the aid of its good Mother at all times, in all places and above all things: in its doubts, that it may be enlightened; in its wanderings, that it may be brought into the right path; in its temptations, that it may be supported; in its weaknesses, that it may be strengthened; in its falls, that it may be lifted up; in its discouragements, that it may be cheered; in its scruples, that they may be taken away; in the crosses, toils and disappointments of life, that it may be consoled under them. In a word, in all the evils of body and mind, the soul ordinarily has recourse to Mary, without fear of annoying her or displeasing Jesus Christ.

(3) HOLY―True devotion to Our Lady is holy; that is to say, it leads the soul to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her profound humility, her lively Faith, her blind obedience, her continual prayer, her universal mortification, her divine purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness and her divine wisdom. These are the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin.

(4) CONSTANT―True devotion to Our Lady is constant. It confirms the soul in good, and does not let it easily abandon its spiritual exercises. It makes it courageous in opposing the world in its fashions and maxims, the flesh in its weariness and passions, and the devil in his temptations; so that a person truly devout to our Blessed Lady is neither changeable, irritable, scrupulous nor timid. It is not that such a person does not fall, or change sometimes in the sensible feeling of devotion. But when he falls, he rises again by stretching out his hand to his good Mother. When he loses the taste and relish of devotion, he does not become disturbed because of that; for the just and faithful client of Mary lives by the Faith (Hebrews 10:38) of Jesus and Mary, and not by natural sentiment.

(5) DISINTERESTED―Lastly, true devotion to Our Lady is disinterested; that is to say, it inspires the soul not to seek itself, but only God, and God in His holy Mother. A true client of Mary does not serve that august Queen from a spirit of lucre and interest, nor for his own good, whether temporal or eternal, corporal or spiritual, but exclusively because she deserves to be served, and God alone in her. He does not love Mary just because she obtains favors for him, or because he hopes she will, but solely because she is so worthy of love. It is on this account that he loves and serves her as faithfully in his disgusts and dryness as in his sweetness and sensible fervor. He loves her as much on Calvary as at the marriage of Cana. Oh, how agreeable and precious in the eyes of God and of His holy Mother is such a client of our Blessed Lady, who has no self-seeking in his service of her! But in these days how rare is such a sight!” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §105 to §110).

Creating a Body and Soul―Or Putting Life into a Corpse
God created both the body and soul of Adam and Eve and launched them into the world. Our Lord also raised dead bodies to life by restoring to those bodies the live-giving soul that had departed. Similarly with ourselves―perhaps we never had a devotion to Our Lady to being with and so we are in need of both the body and soul of such a devotion. Or perhaps we once had a devotion to Our Lady, but which has since ‘died’ over the years and is now soulless, standing in need of a resurrection. God wants life, not death: “For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:32). “As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die?” (Ezechiel 33:11). Our Lord says: “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10)―but there are not many takers of the offer, which is why Our Lord adds: “And you will not come to Me that you may have life!” (John 5:40).

Your dying or dead devotion can and must be resurrected or rejuvenated. You need a living devotion like you need the air you breathe―it needs to be there constantly, every minute, every second of the day. Only such a devotion is truly worthy of the name “devotion”―all other forms of ‘devotion’ are merely corpses or inferior stages leading to a full-bloodied, mature, true devotion―much like babies, infants, children and teenagers are not adults, but are gradually growing and developing into eventual adults.

Known by the Exterior
God knows us perfectly and entirely as we really are and not what we SEEM to be like: “For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the thoughts of minds” (1 Paralipomenon 28:9). Other people judge us by appearances―is why we are often so superficial and focus more on appearances and worry about how others will see us, and how we appear to others: “For man seeth those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart!” (1 Kings 16:7). Our Lord says: “Judge not according to the appearance!” (John 7:24). Nevertheless, Jesus adds: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:16). Holy Scripture, though, adds a warning: “Do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ!” (Galatians 1:10). We need external works, but they must be done from the right interior motives―the glory of God and not a glorification of one’s own reputation and standing. “The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works!” (Matthew 16:27). “I am the Lord who search the heart and tests the minds―Who give to everyone according to his way, and according to the fruit of his works” (Jeremias 17:10). It is our words and actions, our body size, body shape and body features, our tone and pitch of voice, our clothing and accessories, our works and achievements, etc. that make us known and recognizable to others. People see all our exterior manifestations and try to work out, guess, know and understand our interior thoughts and attitudes from them. Furthermore, a dead man cannot speak, walk, build, make or achieve anything―a dead man is a mere corpse without a soul. It is the soul that gives life, energy, direction and purpose.

Similarly, we can have a multitude of exterior pieces or parts of what we call “devotion”―say Rosaries, attend Masses, have lots of Scapulars and other sacramentals, read many spiritual books, have many statues and pictures of Our Lord, Our Lady and the angels and saints, have many religious books on our shelves, distribute many religious flyers, pamphlets, books and handouts―all of these are EXTERNAL manifestations of a possible presence of devotion in our lives. However, TRUE DEVOTION is the soul behind all these things and this TRUE DEVOTION, as St. Louis de Montfort says above, is an INTERIOR thing that uses all these other EXTERNAL objects and things to practice its devotion. Thus you can have a TRUE DEVOTION without necessarily having all those externals or practicing all those externals, but you CANNOT HAVE A TRUE DEVOTION WITH THE EXTERNALS ALONE, without the INTERIOR devotion in the soul animating them and using them.

It is similar to what St. Thomas Aquinas says about CONTEMPLATION (which is interior) and ACTION (which is exterior). St. Thomas says that of the two, contemplation is superior and action is inferior―much like the soul is superior and the body is inferior. Yet, what can make contemplation even more perfect is the putting into practice by actions the things that you have contemplated. Hence, Holy Scripture, in the same vein, adds: “Receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves! … Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!’― show me thy Faith without works; and I will show thee, by works, my Faith. Thou believest that there is one God! Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble! But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 1:21-22; 2:17-26).

Thus―even though theoretically we can have an INTERIOR DEVOTION to Our Lady without external words, works and actions―the interior devotion is perfected by the practice of many kinds of external manifestations of our interior devotion. As Jesus says, God expects to see fruit―and lots of it! “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away―and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit!” (John 15:1-3).

Stoking-Up the Fires of Devotion
Yet those external practices―without any interior devotion―would be like a body without a soul, in other words, a corpse. Therefore, at all times, the interior devotion must be given primary attention, it must be always ‘stoked-up’ and receive a continual stream of new ‘coals’ upon its fire, to prevent that interior fire of devotion going-out and being extinguished. Jesus speaks of this fire when He says: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth! And what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49)―which is why we pray to the Holy Ghost: “Come O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in us the fire of Thy love!” It the fire of that love produces devotion and drives devotion along energetically and constantly―for devotion is a HIGH degree of love, it is an INTENSE love. In The Imitation of Christ we find a chapter entitled “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love” (Book 3, Chapter 5)―which is, in effect, a perfect description and definition of devotion. As you read this passage, in your mind simply substitute the word DEVOTION for the word LOVE:

“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. Love of Jesus {Mary] spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity. Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver. Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle. Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice.”

After that beautiful spiritual passage, it would almost seem to be banal and crude to post the definition of “devotion” as listed in various dictionaries―but to show you how well the above passage brings to life the dry definition, here, once again, is the compilation of various definitions from several dictionaries. The dictionaries define “devotion” as “strong love, deep loyalty, or great enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause; religious fervor; the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal; profound dedication; consecration; earnest attachment to a cause, person, or thing; the strong love that you show when you pay a lot of attention to someone or something; the loyalty that you show towards a person, job etc, especially by working hard for the person, or cause, or thing; ardent, often selfless affection and dedication, as to a person or principle.”

Thus a TRUE DEVOTION will not be able to keep its devotion “under-wraps” and “locked-up” in the confines of the soul. It will wish to burst forth and manifest that true devotion in a variety of ways―not for the motive of self-glorification, nor the motive of being noticed (though unavoidably it will be noticed)―but simply out of natural and supernatural exuberance of love and devotion. Let us now look at the many external/exterior ways that we can manifest our devotion to Our Lady―always remembering that IT IS NOT WHAT OR HOW MUCH WE DO THAT MATTERS, BUT THE DEGREE AND INTENSITY AND PURITY OF LOVE THAT WE DO IT WITH―which is why it is said that one single sigh of Mary’s is worth more than all the combined prayers and sacrifices of the angels and saints.

DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday August 23rd & Saturday August 24th

Article 13
Put Your Heart Into It!
Part 2 : The Practical Side to Devotion to Our Lady and Its Growth

After Talking the Talk, You Must Walk the Walk!
Talk is easy. Talk is cheap! It’s the walk that ultimately matters. Not that there should be no talk―before action or practice, there must always be theory. We think before we speak. We plan before we act. Yet it is pointless knowing how to save your soul and get to Heaven if you do not put into practice what you know. Heaven’s “entrance exam” is not so much on theory, but on practice. If you knew how to get to Heaven, but failed to put that knowledge to good use by putting it into practice, then, as Our Lord says, “that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes!” (Luke 12:47).

As Holy Scripture says: “Receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls! But be ye DOERS OF THE WORD, and NOT HEARERS ONLY, deceiving your own selves! For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a mirror. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was!” (James 1:21-24).

Concerning Our Lady’s Fatima message―about praying the Rosary and establishing a devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary throughout the whole world―we have mainly be HEARERS of the word, and NOT DOERS of the word. We have all heard of what she said―but we have done little or nothing about it. Sr. Lucia of Fatima said: “The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on the road of goodness with their life of virtue and apostolate without paying mind to this Message―they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners, the bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement about to fall upon them presently, also keep following the road of evil through sin, ignoring the Message, because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them. But you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way!” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957). This chastisement would not happen if we were all DOERS of the word and not HEARERS ONLY.

Don’t Bury Your Talent―Use It
As in the Parable of the Talents, we have all been given a certain amount of graces (talents, if you like) with which to work and produce a profit (the salvation of our souls and the souls of others)―some are given more graces (talents) because God expects more from them (a higher degree of sanctity), others are given less. Yet everyone has been given a sufficient amount for their salvation. If we―like the man who received one talent―bury in the earth (by worldliness, earthly concerns) our ‘talent’, then the same fate awaits us as is seen in this Parable:

“For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way dug into the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

“But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: ‘Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord!’

“And he also that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two!’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord!’

“But he that had received the one talent, came and said: ‘Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine!’ And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant! Thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed! Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury! Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents! For to everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away! And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness! There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:14-30).

IAre we that unprofitable servant? t was at our Baptism that God placed in our souls the talents necessary for our salvation. Most have not used them as God wanted―that is why is most are damned. Devotion to Our Lady is a talent God is giving to everyone, as revealed by Our Lady of Fatima― Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it … You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved!”

Use It―Or Lose It!
Devotion to Our Lady is a most precious ‘talent’―but we must, as they say, USE IT OR LOSE IT―meaning , use devotion to Our Lady to save your soul, or risk losing your soul. As Our Lady of Fatima said: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it!” It takes an extremely brave person―or an absolute stupid idiot―to ignore, disregard and refuse to put into practice what Our Lady requests or commands. As St. Albert the Great (a Doctor of the Church and teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.” Another Doctor of the Church, St. Bonaventure, adds: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins. St. Ignatius of Antioch, a Father of the Church and a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”

This is echoed by Our Lady’s words to St. Bridget of Sweden: “Do not forget me! For I am forgotten and ignored by many! I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the gate of entrance for sinners to God; neither is there living on Earth a sinner who is so accursed that he is deprived of my compassion. No one, therefore, who is not entirely accursed (by which is meant the damned in Hell), is so entirely cast off by God that he may not return and enjoy His mercy if he invokes my aid. Therefore he shall be miserable, and forever miserable in another life, who in this life, being able, does not have recourse to me, who am so compassionate to all, and so earnestly desire to aid sinners.” (quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary).

St. Alphonsus then writes: “St. Bernard says: ‘O Lady, thou dost abhor no sinner, however abandoned and vile he may be, when he has recourse to thee; if he asks thy help, thou wilt extend thy kind hand to draw him from the depths of despair.’  [St. Alphonsus then adds] O ever blessed and thanked be our God, O most amiable Mary, who made thee so merciful and kind towards the most miserable sinners. Oh, wretched are those who do not love thee, and who, having it in their power to seek help of thee, do not trust in thee! He who does not implore the aid of Mary is lost―but who has ever been lost that had recourse to her?” (St. Alphonsus Liguori, Glories of Mary).

Down to the “Nitty-Gritty”
Let us now get down to the “nitty-gritty” or the “nuts-and-bolts” of what a devotion to Our Lady must look like and what has to be done. This, of course, cannot be dealt with extensively and fully in a single article―it would require several books to be written, each book dealing with one of the several degrees of devotion that St. Louis de Montfort speaks about: “As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form, it will not be equally understood by everybody. Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §119). To cover all the “steps” or degrees of devotion to Mary is such a great and complicated task, that it brings to mind the closing words of the Gospel of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in speaking about Our Lord’s life: “There are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). Perhaps, at some future date, God-willing, a series of pages on this website could be consecrated to dealing with and guiding souls through the various degrees of increasing intensity in a devotion to Our Lady. Nevertheless―in the meantime―let us at least give a summary, or a kind of table of contents, or “big-picture” view of what those stages look like, without actually descending into the details that are so essential for practicing a “True” Devotion to Mary.

Before Beginning―Look at the End!
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the end comes before the beginning! Huh? Yes, by that St. Thomas means that before you start anything, you need to know where you are going, your need to know the target, the destination, the goal, the end has to be in sight. Before you start building a house, you must have the end in sight―which means the end product must have already been designed and already put into place by means of architectural drawings or “blueprints”. Before you start coaching a sports team, you need to have the end in your mind on the style of play and the tactics that will be used―then you work on reaching that goal or end by various coaching methods. An artist will first make sketches of his proposed painting or sculpture before starting work on it. The requirements for becoming a doctor in the U.S. may vary by specialty―but, in general, doctors need to complete a 4-year undergraduate degree program, spend 4 years in medical school, and then complete 3-7 years of residency training before they are eligible for medical licensing―budding doctors need to know what kind of training they are expected to undergo and pass. Holy Scripture also refers to the end coming first, when it says: “For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it―lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, saying: ‘This man began to build, and was not able to finish!’” (Luke 14:28-30).

Take Devotion Seriously―Or End Up in Serious Trouble
THE VERY FIRST THING WE MUST CHANGE IN PRACTICE IS THE WAY WE THINK! Whether you are aware of it or not; whether you have forgotten it or not; whether you like it or not―you are SOLDIER OF CHRIST by virtue of the Sacrament of Confirmation that you have received. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1) and you must either fight or be killed. Most do not want to fight this spiritual warfare―hence most are killed in warfare and consequently damned. “Fight the good fight of faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).

By opting to follow Our Lady, by devotion to Mary, you, the Soldier of Christ, are choosing to fight for Christ in the regiment of Our Lady. Her soldiers are elite soldiers―they are the equivalent of the United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets); or the United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams (commonly known as Navy SEALs)― the U.S. Navy SEALs are an elite unit, more exclusive and harder to be admitted to than the U.S. Marines. In the UK, you have the elite British Army’s Special Air Service (SAS); the British Commandos which evolved into the SAS after the Second World War. Our Lady is the greatest and best person God ever created―so it is only fitting that her soldiers have the desire to be the greatest and best soldiers within the Catholic Church. The demands are great, but the rewards are even greater. Do not insult Our Lady by enlisting with the intention of doing little or nothing for her on the field of battle! That is the overriding and underlying thought that should govern all of us in our devotion to Our Lady. It is not a joke―it is a serious business―the business of saving our souls and saving many other souls in this field of battle.

There is No Middle Path―No Neutrality
Perhaps it is oversimplifying things, but essentially there are only two kinds of persons―WINNERS and LOSERS. The winners go to Heaven―the losers go to Hell. There is NO IN-BETWEEN, there are NO SPECTATORS―everyone finds themselves on the battlefield and we either side and fight with Christ, or we decide not to fight and side with Satan (either implicitly or explicitly). Our Lord Himself says: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven! But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 10:32-34). “He that is not with Me, is against Me―and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30).

The problem with most people is that they do not see themselves as being in middle of a battle; they do not see the world as their enemy; their end or goal or target is not primarily to save their souls and get to Heaven, but to have a pleasant life here on Earth. They fight more for money and possessions than they fight for salvation and souls. Is it really surprising that most souls are lost? Unless you change your attitude from the very beginning, you will inevitably be a casualty on the battlefield―either seriously wounded (Purgatory) or even killed (Hell). Most are killed. The fight for salvation is violent―“The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12)―and that is why Our Lord speaks, not of entertainment, nor comforts, nor pleasures, nor fun and games, but He speaks only of the Cross: “And Jesus said to ALL: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). How many priests REGUALRLY drill home that message to their parishioners? How many parents drill home those truths to their children on a REGULAR basis? How many teachers REGUALRLY teach those truths to the students? Is it really surprising that most souls are lost?

Our Lady’s Ways and Thoughts Are Not Our Ways and Thoughts
Our Lady, in speaking to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, essentially reiterates the same message: “To be allowed to suffer for one’s sins, is not only a mercy, but is demanded by justice. Behold, however, the great insanity of the children of Adam nowadays, in desiring and seeking after advantages, benefits, and favors agreeable to their senses, and in sleeplessly striving to turn away from themselves all that which is painful, or includes any hardship or trouble. It would be to their greatest benefit to seek tribulations diligently, even when unmerited, yet they strive by all means to avoid them, even when merited, and even though they cannot be happy and blessed without having undergone such sufferings. If gold is untouched by the heat of the furnace, or the iron is not grated by the file, or the grain is not crushed by the grinding stone or flail, or the grapes are not crushed by the winepress, then they are all useless and will not attain the end for which they are created. Why, then, will mortals continue to deceive themselves, by expecting, in spite of their sins, to become pure and worthy of enjoying God, without the furnace or the file of sorrows? If they were incapable and unworthy of attaining to the crown and reward of the infinite and eternal Good when innocent, how can they attain it, when they are in darkness or error and in disgrace through sin before the Almighty? In addition to this, the sons of perdition are exerting all their powers to remain unworthy and hostile to God and in evading crosses and afflictions―which are the paths left open for returning to God! … The signs of His friendship, are no other than the tribulations and trials of suffering …

“By such standards, my daughter, must thou measure the value of suffering, which the worldly will not understand. Since they are unworthy of heavenly knowledge, they despise it in proportion to their ignorance … My most holy Son and myself are trying to find among those who have arrived at the way of the cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this divine science and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple enter into this school, in which alone is taught the doctrine of the cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur … The greatest wisdom for souls consists in the knowledge of the cross, in the love of sufferings, and in putting this knowledge into practice by bearing afflictions with patience. If the condition of mortals were not so low, they would covet sufferings!”

It is Our Lady who speaks those words! If we profess (or pretend) to be devoted to Our Lady, then we should also accept, believe, hold on to and love all that she says―don’t you think? The bottom line to all this is that our ideas of devotion to Our Lady are not her ideas of what devotion is all about―much like God says in Holy Scripture: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). “And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore: Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? … And you say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ I will judge every one of you according to his ways!” (Ezechiel 18:25, 29; 33:20).

An Overview of the Steps or Degrees of Devotion to Our Lady
St. Louis de Montfort―the Apostle of True Devotion to Our Lady―gives us that brief overview of devotion to Our Lady with its varying degrees--without, unfortunately, elaborating on them: “Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?”

We see here FOUR steps or degrees mentioned―with the initial state, where souls “stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further” not even being counted as an “official” or “bona-fide” step or degree. Shockingly and sadly, St. Louis affirms that the greater number of souls, who think they are “devoted” to Our Lady, are not really devoted at all! These, in his book True Devotion to Mary, he classifies among the “False Devotees” who practice a “False Devotion” to Our Lady (cf. True Devotion to Mary, §90 to §104). That most souls “devotees” are not really devotees at all, is not surprising, since Fr. Faber is of the opinion that most souls are lukewarm, and Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange is of the opinion that most souls are not even beginners in the spiritual life! While those who are beginners, mistakenly and proudly imagine themselves to be at a much higher level than they actually are! O how we deceive ourselves! All of this stresses the grave and indispensable need for us to change the way we are accustomed to thinking and seeing things―and to see things, not our way, but Heaven’s way. This is very clearly seen in the way that the U.S. Marine Corps treats its new recruits―they have to change the way the recruits think and see things, otherwise they will never achieve the levels required to qualify and graduate as a Marine.

Jon Davis―a Marine sergeant, Iraq veteran, and weapons instructor―explains: “The most important single thing to know about boot camp is that it is 100% designed to reprogram children and civilians into warriors … Some of the ways that this is done is through a series of extremely well-planned and timed events that, by themselves, are meaningless, but when strategically combined together will change a person … The newly arrived recruits find themselves being yelled at before they ever set foot off the bus. Within 5 minutes of arrival, 200+ individuals with no group training at all, have been trained by drill instructions on how to: listen and learn while at boot camp, respond to instruction, stand in formation, and move as a unit … This is just the first five minutes. There are three more months of this … Individuality is repressed―as they will spend the next three months dressed the same, act the same, and look the same ... Now we move on to something else very important and why I say that it is “psychological” retraining. You go through the next few days running from place to place, doing this, that, this, that and you won’t even realize ... you haven’t slept in three days. Yeah, you will go about three days without sleep upon arrival. The whole time you are completely exhausted while running on adrenaline and hearing over and over, that you are inferior. Inferior to real Marines, which you aren’t yet. You aren’t thinking about it, but it is sinking in. You are completely tired and these things build up. Without realizing it, you start to believe that that which is being told to you is true, that there is a weakness in you and that you are less than perfect. In your current state, you believe them and that you must change to be good enough. There are many habits that kids and civilians possess, that have to be unlearned … Boot camp, and particularly that of the Marines, is made to psychologically change a child into someone capable of performing under combat situations. In most cases, it is intended to take from them the aspects of their civilian lives―that only make life harder for them in the military and sometimes get them killed―to be no longer part of the calculation. The yelling, the sleep deprivation, and being cut-off from friends and family, are all part of the process of becoming a warrior. Normal people can’t do the things warriors are asked to do. They can’t imagine it and shouldn’t be forced to. But there are those that do. For these people though, there must be a transition from “civilian” to “warrior.” Boot camp is the means of that evolution, and every part of it is necessary.”

The U.S. Marines website comments: “On these proving grounds, we reveal who has the fight in them to continue when others quit. To dig even deeper when there’s nothing left to give. To prove the fighting spirit running through them will outlast the physical, mental and moral battles in front of them. For 13 weeks, these are the battles that must be won. Face your fears. Or live in fear. Marines confront theirs head on, enduring what scares them—until it doesn’t. Recruits who board our bus step into the unknown where they are given a quick introduction to fear at one of two Marine Corps Recruit Depots at Parris Island, SC, or San Diego, CA. Fear of the unfamiliar is the first of many fears they must battle. Throughout recruit training, the sense of doubt that exists inside every recruit is quickly replaced with a sense of urgency. There’s no time to hesitate, and there’s no time for second-guessing. Recruits must win in the midst of doubt, as this Nation cannot afford to place its trust in those who doubt themselves. What you’re really made of can only be revealed at the brink of exhaustion. Marine Recruit Training will take you there. Only those who possess the never-quit spirit required of every Marine will find the strength they never knew they had, the will power they never knew they needed, and the commitment to find that second wind even when it hurts to breathe to overcome the Marine boot camp requirements. Recruit training is filled with intense stress born from profound friction. Alongside this stress will be the pressure of proving to your Drill Instructors that you are fit to continue. Those who prevail over every physical and mental battle will have developed an instinctual response—to meet heightened stress with the focus to win. The road to becoming a Marine is filled with obstacles. Recruits will not only battle external forces, they will battle forces within themselves to test their mental and physical limits. Only those with the fighting spirit rise above the chaos and overcome fear, doubt, exhaustion, will earn the honor of defending this nation as a United States Marine.”

Devotion is Demanding
The requirements of Christ and Our Lady are no less stringent and demanding than the requirements for entry into the Marines or any other elite fighting unit in this world. You need to remember Our Lord’s complaint against His followers when He said: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8)―meaning that we have much to learn from the worldly folk in the way that they dedicate, commit, pursue and attain their worldly goals and ambitions―if only the “children of light” would show as much zeal for the spiritual things as the worldly show for material things. Our Lord’s words, concerning His zealous enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees― “I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20)―could fittingly be changed to: “Unless you zeal and efforts exceed those of the Marines (or Navy Seals, or Green Berets, or SAS, etc.), you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” Once again―it has to be stressed that “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1) and you must “Fight the good fight of faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12), for “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). We cannot be minimalists in our devotion. We cannot procrastinate. We cannot calculate. We cannot negotiate. We cannot exaggerate. We cannot manipulate.

That is why the Church on Earth is called “THE CHURCH MILITANT”―militant is an adjective that is defined by dictionaries as “engaged in warfare or combat; aggressively active; combative and aggressive in support of a religious, political or social cause, and typically favoring extreme, violent, or confrontational methods.” We have ceased to think in this way―that is why, before we any further practical steps, we must change the way we think and start to think the way the God and the Church of old would have us think! That is of utmost importance―for even if we exert much effort, enterprise and zeal, it will be useless if we are going in the wrong direction, following erroneous principles. Devotion needs direction―a correct direction―otherwise it becomes a dangerous destructive and diabolically disorientated devotion.

Devotion to Our Lady is automatically and inescapably a devotion to the battle. She herself said at La Salette: “I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!”

Thus we need to always remember that by being members of the Church Militant, we are engaged in a perpetual warfare―sometimes visible, sometimes invisible; sometimes with the devil, at other times with the world; and always with ourselves and within ourselves. “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you” (1 John 3:13). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you” (John 15:18) … “It hateth Me because I give testimony of it that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:7). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12).

The Weapons for the Fight
Since, according to St. Louis de Montfort, there are four degrees in devotion to Mary, this means that there has to be a progressive growth in devotion with passing time. These different degrees of devotion must also obviously entail a variety of weapons for the combat which change as we advance from one degree to another. This change is not only limited to the type of weapon used, but also to the level of skill and efficiency with which we use those weapons. The basic weapons were already outlined by Our Lord when He said of the devil: “This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting!” (Mark 9:28). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times” (Luke 21:36). That is basic military weaponry issued by Heaven―prayer and fasting, or, if you want, “prayer and sacrifice” or “prayer and mortification”. Our Lady of Fatima still required the use of these basic weapons almost 2,000 years later at Fatima in 1917, when she said: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you? … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … Pray the Rosary every day! … Continue to pray the Rosary every day! … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners! … etc.”

Yet the weapon of penance (or sacrifice, or mortification) includes a wide variety of types of weapon. It also includes a wide variety of different skill levels in using those weapons. Some will use them well, others will use them clumsily. The same has to be said of prayer―some will pray well, others badly. So even though the weapon might be powerful in itself―ultimately, it is only as good as the person using it. Children will have a different level of prayer to that of adults. The lukewarm will pray less effectively than the fervent. Those who have read about and studied the spiritual life will, most likely, be better in employing spiritual weapons than the ignorant. Priests and religious should fare better than the laity―though that is not always the case, sadly. There are an infinite number of other circumstances that will have a bearing on how well we use those basic weapons. Thus in one and the same family, there will be multiple levels of spirituality. You must be careful to maintain and increase your own and each other’s levels without falling into the grave error of catering to “the lowest common denominator” and reducing all levels to cater for the lowest level. You are only as good or strong as your weakest link―therefore the weakest link should be raised in its levels, rather than reducing the higher levels down to the level of the weakest link. For example, just because the “weakest link” cannot endure a Rosary being lengthened in time by the inclusion of meditations on the mysteries, this is no reason for abandoning the meditation of them just to please the “weakest link”. If necessary, divide the 5 decades of the Rosary into 2 or 3 or 4 or even 5 separate sessions―and include the meditation in that way. The same goes for all other spiritual exercises.

The Degrees of Devotion Linked to the Three Stages of the Spiritual Life
God cannot contradict Himself. Truth can only be one. The stages or steps or degrees of devotion to Our Lady cannot be opposed to or differ from the general steps or stages by which we progress through the spiritual life. For centuries, the saints and masters of the spiritual life have basically―with slight modifications on the part of one person or another―that there are THREE chief stages to the spiritual life, each of which is further subdivided. The American school system of 12 Grades (plus kindergarten) divided amongst the THREE more general divisions of LOWER SCHOOL, MIDDLE SCHOOL and HIGH SCHOOL, is a perfect analogical fit to the THREE WAYS or STAGES of the spiritual life―which are called: (1) The Way of Beginners; (2) The Way of the Proficient, and (3) The Way of the Perfect.

Other authors prefer to call “The Way of Beginners” by another name―“The Purgative Way”―which indicates that Beginners must be primarily concerned with purging themselves of attachment to sin and purging their soul of the debt for past sins by the practice of penance. They then call “The Way of the Proficient” by the name “The Illuminative Way”―which indicates the illuminative or enlightening effect of God starting to work upon the purged soul, revealing to the soul lights of which it was previously unworthy of, due to its attachment to sin. They then call “The Way of the Perfect” by the name “The Unitive Way”―signifying that the soul finally arrives are true and sincere union with God, having totally detached itself from the wiles of the devil, the addiction to sin, the pull of temptations, the attachment to the world, the flesh and one’s own pride and self-will.

This is a mere “thumb-nail” sketch of the Three Ways of the Spiritual Life―which you can find more fully and beautifully explained in Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s two-volumed work, entitled The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life (which can also be found online as a PDF document) and also Fr. Adolphe Tanquerey’s book The Spiritual Life. There are other works too that give a full and comprehensive overview of the “Three Ways”―which are obligatory and inescapable stages that every single soul must pass through if they wish to get to Heaven. Few people desire to read and familiarize themselves with the path to Heaven―it is surprising then that most souls are lost?

Here is another brief overview of “The Three Ways” by the famous Benedictine monk, Dom Chautard, from his book The Soul of the Apostolate―which, incidentally, was one of Pope St. Pius X’s favorite bedside books that he would read daily.

The Stages of the Spiritual Life That Lead From Sin to Sanctity

1. HARDENED IN SIN   (NOT EVEN A BEGINNER IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE).
► MORTAL SIN: Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
► VENIAL SIN: Many. Complete acceptance of this sin. Not even thought of as a sin.
► PRAYER: Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.

2. SURFACE CHRISTIANITY   (NOT EVEN A BEGINNER IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE).
► MORTAL SIN: Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven. The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at almost every possible occasion or temptation. Confession almost without contrition.
► VENIAL SIN: Many. Complete acceptance of this sin. Not even thought of as a sin.
► PRAYER: Mechanical; either inattention, or always dictated by temporal interest―such souls enter into themselves rarely and superficially.

3. MEDIOCRE PIETY   (NOT EVEN A BEGINNER IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE).
► MORTAL SIN: Weak resistance. Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned and makes good confessions.
► VENIAL SIN: Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant. Hence tepidity of the will. Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to root it out, or to find it out, when it is concealed.
► PRAYER: From time to time, prays well. Momentary fits of fervor.

4. INTERMITTENT PIETY   (THE FIRST WAY―THE WAY OF BEGINNERS―THE PURGATIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Loyal resistance. Habitually avoids occasions. Deep regrets if there is a fall into mortal sin. Does penance to make reparation.
► VENIAL SIN: Sometimes deliberate. Puts up weak fight. Sorrow only superficial. Makes particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
► PRAYER: Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation. Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt or as soon as there is business to attend to.

5. SUSTAINED PIETY   (THE FIRST WAY―THE WAY OF BEGINNERS―THE PURGATIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never. At most, very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise. And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal. It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
► VENIAL SIN: Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it. Rarely deliberate. Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation. Consistent “particular examen”―which is an examination of conscience that focuses on one’s most frequent sins and particular faults―but as yet aiming only at avoidance of deliberate venial sin.
► IMPERFECTIONS: The soul either avoids uncovering them so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them. Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
► PRAYER: Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective. Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.

6. FERVOR   (THE SECOND WAY―THE WAY OF PROFICIENTS―THE ILLUMINATIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never deliberate. By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence. Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Wants nothing to do with them. Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God. Sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once. Frequent acts of renunciation. Particular examen (see #5 above for explanation) aims at perfection in a particular virtue.
► PRAYER: Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity. Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.

7. RELATIVE PERFECTION (THE SECOND WAY―THE WAY OF PROFICIENTS―THE ILLUMINATIVE WAY)
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Guards against them energetically and with much love of God. They only happen with half‑advertence.
► PRAYER: Habitual life of prayer even when occupied in external works. Thirst for self‑renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love. Hunger for the Eucharist, and for heaven. Graces of infused prayer, of different degrees. Often, passive purification.

8. HEROIC PERFECTION   (THE THIRD WAY―THE WAY OF THE PERFECT―THE UNITIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Nothing but the first impulse.
► PRAYER: Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena. Pronounced passive purifications. Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness. Prefers suffering to joys.

9. COMPLETE PERFECTION OR COMPLETE SANCTITY (THE THIRD WAY―THE WAY OF THE PERFECT―THE UNITIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Hardly apparent.
► PRAYER: Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage. Purifications by love. Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations. (Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories).

Deciphering St. Louis de Montfort’s Four Steps or Stages in Devotion to Our Lady
Since St. Louis de Montfort has not formally, clearly and explicitly elaborated on what he actually and precisely means by the four steps of devotion in the following phrase and only paragraph that deals with those steps in all of his writings―we are left with the task of deciphering and deducting what each of those steps might contain. Since God, His revelation and teachings, and the teachings of the Faith cannot contradict each other―this means that the answer to the question of what each step of devotion contains, must be found in what already has been revealed and accepted in other areas of Church teaching. Hence the allusion and brief description of the “Three Ways” or “Three Stages” or “Three Ages” of the interior or spiritual life―for devotion is part and parcel of the spiritual life.

To be indifferent to these things; to neglect to study these things; to “blow-off” the importance of such things; to refuse to consider these things is both an insult to God and His Church―who places them at our disposal as a road map to Heaven―and it also runs the risk of incurring eternal damnation as both a punishment and a consequence for having refused to consider, study, learn and remember the map to Heaven that God in His kindness has given us. As Jesus says: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

There can be no excuse for ignoring or refusing this Road Map to Heaven under the pretext of it being too difficult to understand (it is not at all difficult), or by thinking that it is only meant for mystics (it is meant for everyone―saint and sinner alike), or by saying that it is unobtainable or cannot be found (“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened!” ― Luke 11:9-10). We study, learn, remember and put into practice far more complicated concepts and information in our earthly, material, worldly lives―computers, car mechanics, DIY projects, cooking, first aid, etc. If our minds can embrace earthly complexities, then they can also embrace heavenly ones. “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light” (Luke 16:8)―meaning that the worldly put in far more thought and effort into their worldliness than the children of God put into their spiritual life and the seeking and obtaining of salvation.

Linking “Three Ways” to “The Four Steps”
Now we come to the interesting―yet difficult―part of linking the “Three Ways of the Spiritual Life” (as sketched-out above) to the mysterious “Four Steps of Devotion to Mary” mentioned by St. Louis de Montfort. As was said earlier, there can be no contradiction in the things of God. Since devotion to Mary is an element or part of the spiritual life, therefore there has to be some kind of “dove-tailing” or compatible connection between “The Three Ways” and the “The Four Steps”. The passage in question, where St. Louis speaks of “The Four Steps”, reads as follows: “As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form, it will not be equally understood by everybody. Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §119).

Before even mentioning the Four Steps, St. Louis gives a general indication as to the level of spirituality present in those souls who are not even on the First Step of devotion. He writes: “Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step.”  The words―“Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further”―are easily linked to those who are not even beginners in the spiritual, that is to say those who have not yet entered “The Way of Beginners” (also known as “The Purgative Way” or “The First Way”)―and St. Louis says that these ‘devotees’ of Our Lady “will be the greatest number”, that is to say the vast majority of those who claim to have a devotion to Our Lady. These souls are OUTSIDE THE WAY OF BEGINEERS because, as St. Louis says, they “will stop at what is exterior” but the spiritual life is primarily all about the interior―thus it is also called “The Interior Life”―as St. Louis also states: “the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form.”

These “exterior devotees” or “superficial devotees” of Our Lady correspond to Dom Chautard’s Levels #2 & #3 ― that is to say #2 SURFACE CHRISTIANITY and #3 MEDIOCRE PIETY (as shown in the chart above). Those who are merely living a “SURFACE CHRISTIANITY” consider Mortal Sin as an easily forgivable trifle which they regularly confess almost without contrition; whose prayers are routine, mechanical, full of distractions and inattention, on “auto-pilot” so to speak, and who rarely enter into themselves to focus, learn, study and practice a true interior spiritual life. Thus, whatever prayers they say, end up being “wide of mark” or “missing the target” and are therefore very limited in what obtain. Those “second-rate” prayers are usually motivated by seeking temporal things, cures from illnesses, help in troubles, and protection in danger―hence they are mainly self-centered prayers and minimally God-centered prayers or Our Lady-centered prayers―they seek to obtain things from God (or Our Lady). rather than give glory to God (or Our Lady). Whereas those in the next group, “MEDIOCRE PIETY”, show a weak resistance to Mortal Sin, hardly ever avoiding its occasions, but who, nevertheless, seriously regret having sinned and make good confessions. Yet they are deeply immersed in Venial Sin, thinking little of it, hence their tepidity of the will. As for prayer, from time to time, they pray well, but they are like a misfiring engine, with momentary fits of fervor.

St. Louis then speaks of The Four Steps of Devotion to Our Lady―but, unfortunately and sadly, he gives no description of the first three steps and only mentions them by name― Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance [to the fourth step and final step] as to make this devotion his habitual state?”  Since St. Louis gives us the short phrase “Lastly, who will advance so as to make this devotion his habitual state”―which, by the use of the word “lastly” meaning “finally”, seems to indicate an arrival at some kind of destination―as in “we finally arrived”―and it seems to suggest some kind of “perfection” or “peak” or “pinnacle”. In comparing it to “The Three Ways of the Spiritual Life”―the point of arrival, the “perfection” or “peak” or “pinnacle” of the spiritual life is found in “The Third Way”, which is “The Way of Perfection”, also called “The Unitive Way.” So, taking St. Louis’ phrase― “Lastly, who will so advance [to the fourth step and final step] as to make this devotion his habitual state?” ― we have to take this and compare it to the various descriptions listed by Dom Chautard above. The key word here is “habitual” and that seems to point to Dom Chautard’s Levels #7, #8 and #9, , which are described as follows and both include the idea of having "finally" arrived or "at last" having arrived at some kind of PERFECTION:

#7. RELATIVE PERFECTION (THE SECOND WAY―THE WAY OF PROFICIENTS―THE ILLUMINATIVE WAY)
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Guards against them energetically and with much love of God. They only happen with half‑advertence.
► PRAYER: Habitual life of prayer even when occupied in external works. Thirst for self‑renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love. Hunger for the Eucharist, and for heaven. Graces of infused prayer, of different degrees. Often, passive purification.

#8. HEROIC PERFECTION   (THE THIRD WAY―THE WAY OF THE PERFECT―THE UNITIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Nothing but the first impulse.
► PRAYER: Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena. Pronounced passive purifications. Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness. Prefers suffering to joys.

9. COMPLETE PERFECTION or COMPLETE SANCTITY  (THE THIRD WAY―THE WAY OF THE PERFECT―THE UNITIVE WAY).
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Hardly apparent.
► PRAYER: Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage. Purifications by love. Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations. (Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories).

Thus, we have now accounted for or eliminated THE FIRST THREE STAGES, Levels #1, #2 and #3, of Dom Chautard’s above list of 9 levels, ranging from sin to sanctity, as being insufficient and lacking in quality to be equated with St. Louis de Montfort’s FIRST STEP in devotion to Our Lady.

Furthermore, we have accounted for and associated THE LAST THREE STAGES, Levels #7, #8 and #9, of Dom Chautard’s list of 9 levels, ranging from sin to sanctity, as being of a sufficiently high level as to be equated with St. Louis de Montfort’s LAST STEP or FOURTH STEP in devotion to Our Lady.

By the process of elimination, that leaves THE REMAINING THREE STAGES, Levels #4, #5 and #6, of Dom Chautard’s list of 9 levels, ranging from sin to sanctity, to fill the FIRST THREE STEPS of St. Louis de Montfort’s levels in devotion to Our Lady. Hence Dom Chautard’s Level #4 would be the equivalent of St. Louis’ FIRST STEP. Dom Chautard’s Level #5 would be the equivalent of St. Louis’ SECOND STEP. Dom Chautard’s Level #6 would be the equivalent of St. Louis’ THIRD STEP. All of this is appropriate and fitting for the first three steps of devotion to Our Lady, for Dom Chautard’s Level #4 is called “INTERMITTENT PIETY” which is understandable for the FIRST STEPS in devotion. Dom Chautard’s Level #4 is called “SUSTAINED PIETY” which indicates a growth in devotion. Dom Chautard’s Level #5 is called “FERVOR” which is appropriate to describe St. Louis’ THIRD STEP which has not yet quite reached the perfection of the FOURTH and FINAL STEP.

Thus, St. Louis de Montfort's phrase―“As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form, it will not be equally understood by everybody. Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §119)―can be arguably and debatably clarified in the following way:

FIRST STEP OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY (Dom Chautard’s Level #4)
► MORTAL SIN: Loyal resistance. Habitually avoids occasions. Deep regrets if there is a fall into mortal sin. Does penance to make reparation.
► VENIAL SIN: Sometimes deliberate. Puts up weak fight. Sorrow only superficial. Makes particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
► PRAYER: Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation. Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt or as soon as there is business to attend to.

SECOND STEP OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY (Dom Chautard’s Level #5)
► MORTAL SIN: Never. At most, very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise. And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal. It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
► VENIAL SIN: Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it. Rarely deliberate. Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation. Consistent “particular examen”―which is an examination of conscience that focuses on one’s most frequent sins and particular faults―but as yet aiming only at avoidance of deliberate venial sin.
► IMPERFECTIONS: The soul either avoids uncovering them so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them. Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
► PRAYER: Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective. Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.

THIRD STEP OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY (Dom Chautard’s Level #6)
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never deliberate. By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence. Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Wants nothing to do with them. Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God. Sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once. Frequent acts of renunciation. Particular examen (see #5 above for explanation) aims at perfection in a particular virtue.
► PRAYER: Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity. Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.

FOURTH STEP OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY (Dom Chautard’s Levels #7, #8, #9)
► MORTAL SIN: Never.
► VENIAL SIN: Never.
► IMPERFECTIONS: Guards against them energetically and with much love of God. They only happen with half‑advertence and are gradually eliminated totally.
► PRAYER: Habitual life of prayer even when occupied in external works. Thirst for self‑renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love. Hunger for the Eucharist, and for heaven. Graces of infused prayer, of different degrees. Often, passive purifications that keep increasing in intensity. Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness. Prefers suffering to joys, eventually leading to an ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.

In the next article, we shall look at how we grow from the lowest level of devotion to the highest, linking a whole variety of external or exterior practices that can serve as an aid to increasing the crucial interior devotion which is what really classifies any devotion as a “true” devotion and removes it from the category of a “false” devotion or “half-baked” devotion.

Thursday August 22nd
Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Article 12
Put Your Heart Into It!
Part 1 : The Theory Behind Devotion to Our Lady
The next article will be deal with the practical side

Come On! Enough’s Enough! Time to Get Going!
Come on! Let’s be honest! What we call our “devotion” to Our Lady is really a half-hearted effort at best! Are you really going to insist that your “devotion” to Mary is the best you can offer? Are you saying that it cannot be improved? Are you insisting that it is firing on all cylinders and is “maxed-out” at 100%? Fr. Faber’s words, in his Preface to his translation of St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary, pretty much hit the nail on the head, and nail us to the floor without any excuse. We face so many problems, setbacks, sufferings and failures in our lives―yet the medicine or remedy stares us in the face and we ignore it, or take too little of it. As Faber says: “What is the remedy that is wanted? What is the remedy indicated by God Himself? If we may rely on the disclosures of the saints, it is an immense increase of devotion to our Blessed Lady; but, remember, nothing short of an immense one! Mary is not half enough preached! Devotion to her is low and thin and poor! It is always invoking human respect [afraid of what other will think or say] … wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary so that even Protestants may feel at ease about her! Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy! It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be! It has no faith in itself! Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelized! Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background! Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them! It is the miserable, unworthy shadow which we call our devotion to the Blessed Virgin that is the cause of all these wants and blights, these evils and omissions and declines!”

We should read that passage EVERY SINGLE DAY before or after we make our Morning Offering. For the uninitiated―the Morning Offering is not the early morning cup of coffee, or even breakfast―the Morning Offering is the prayer which we recite daily upon rising, offering all that we think, say or do, to God through the Sorrowful and Immaculate of Mary. Reading the above passage of Fr. Faber’s can be much like a “pep-talk”, an encouragement, a reminder or even a slap in face (now that will wake you up!) that sets a goal before us and points us in the direction in which we ought to go. You can, of course, choose any other passage or reading―but the main thing is that each day we arise ready for combat; ready to fight for a greater, better, more consistent, more fervent, more sincere, more powerful, more noble devotion to the wonderful Mother of God.

Our Lady Deserves It!
Have no doubts about it―Our Lady is interceding, praying, working for your salvation (and everyone’s salvation) in such an intense, fervent and consistent manner that we could not possibly imagine. She deserves some kind of recompense or payment for her unremitting efforts, don’t you think? At La Salette, Our Lady said: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this CONTINUALLY! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!”

Neglect of Devotion Leads to Damnation
To the Venerable Mary of Agreda, Our Lady said: “I am the most pure Mother and that I receive with maternal affection all those who, FERVENTLY AND DEVOUTLY, desire to be my children and servants in the Lord. By the love which He has given me, I shall embrace them with open arms and shall be their Intercessor and Advocate … God, in His kindness, wishes to offer this opportune remedy to men, in order that all of them may seek help and eternal salvation through my intercession … . In the beatific vision, I pray without ceasing for the salvation of my clients … It should teach them to seek my most kind and powerful intercession and to fear the judgments of the Most High; for in this lies an efficacious means of salvation … One of the reasons why men should call me Mother of Mercy, is the knowledge of my loving desire, that all be filled with the flood of grace and taste the sweetness of the Lord, as I myself. I call and invite all to come with me to the fountain of the Divinity. Let the most poor and afflicted approach, for, if they respond and follow me, I will offer them my protection and help, and I will intercede for them with my Son … If they obey me in this I offer them my protection, and I will constitute myself their Mother, to be their help and defense. And I will also promise them my continual and efficacious intercession with my most holy Son―if they do not displease me.

“For this purpose you should exhort them to a CONTINUAL LOVE AND DEVOTION TOWARD ME, engrafting it in their hearts! … Let therefore mortals beware, lest I, in the Day of Judgment, most justly refuse my intercession to those, who have foolishly despised and forgotten so many and so great favors and blessings, the results of the divine love of my Son and my own! What answer, what excuse or evasion shall those then bring forward, who have been so well informed, so much admonished and enlightened by the truth? How can these ungrateful and pertinacious mortals expect mercy of the most just and righteous God, when He has given them sufficient and opportune time, invited them so often, called them, waited and worked for them, and conferred upon them immense blessings, while they abused and wasted all of them in the pursuit of vanity? Fear this, the greatest of all blindnesses.

“What then are the thoughts of the angels and saints, and what are my thoughts in beholding this world and all the faithful in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness, when they have the Passion and Death of my divine Son before their eyes, and when they have me, for their Mother and Intercessor and His most pure life and mine for an example? I tell thee truly, only my intercession and the merits of His Son, which I offer to the eternal Father, can delay the punishment and placate His wrath, can retard the destruction of the world and the severe chastisement of the children of the Church, who know His will and fail to fulfill it. But I am much incensed to find so few who condole with me and try to console my Son in His sorrows. This hardness of heart will cause great confusion to them on the Day of Judgment; since they will then see, with irreparable sorrow, not only that they were ungrateful, but also inhuman and cruel toward my divine Son, toward me and toward themselves.

“All these blessings I procure for Christians from Heaven in our times; and if not all experience them, it is not because I do not solicit them, but because there are very few of the faithful who call to me WITH ALL THEIR HEART and who dispose themselves toward meriting and reaping the fruit of my maternal love. I would defend them all from the dragon, if all would call upon me and if all would fear the pernicious deceits of the devil, by which they are ensnared and entrapped to eternal damnation. In order that all may wake up to this frightful danger, I now give them this new reminder. I assure thee, that all those, who damn themselves―after the death of my Son and in spite of the benefits and favors procured by my intercession―will suffer greater torments in Hell than those who were lost before His coming and before I was in the world. Thus, those who from now on understand these mysteries and despise them to their loss, shall be subject to new and greater punishments … All those DEVOTED to me, who should call upon me at the hour of death, constituting me as their Advocate in memory of my desiring to imitate my Son in death and my happy Assumption into Heaven, shall be under my special protection in that hour, shall have me as a defense against the demons, as a help and protection, and shall be presented by me before the tribunal of His mercy and there experience my intercession ... The Most High still wishes to give generously of His infinite treasures and resolves to favor those who know how to gain my intercession before God. This is the secure way and the powerful means of advancing the Church, of improving the Catholic reigns, of spreading the Faith, of furthering the welfare of families and of states, of bringing the souls to grace and to the friendship of God.

“How much my intercession and the power I have in Heaven is worth has never been hidden in the Church, for I have demonstrated my ability to save all by so many thousands of miracles, prodigies and favors operated on behalf of those DEVOTED to me. With those who have called upon me in their needs I have always shown myself generous, and the Lord has shown Himself generous to them on my account. Yet, though many are the souls whom I have helped, they are few in comparison with those, whom I could and am willing to help.”

Need More References?
Just in case you need to see some more references before making up your mind to enter into Our Lady’s FULL-TIME EMPLOYMENT, instead of remaining a mere PART-TIME EMPLOYEE, here are the testimonies of some great saints―some of them are even Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Our Blessed Mother holds such a place in the economy of our redemption that some do not hesitate to state that devotion to her is a necessary condition of salvation.

● ST. ALBERT THE GREAT (a Doctor of the Church), says: “They who are not thy servants, O Mary, shall perish.”

● ST. BONAVENTURE (a Doctor of the Church) repeats the same thought when he says: “They who neglect the service of Mary shall die in their sins.” And again: “For them, from whom Mary turns away her face, there is not even a hope of salvation.”

● ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (a Father of the Church), a martyr of the second century, writes: “A sinner can be saved only through the Holy Virgin who, by her merciful prayers, obtains salvation for so many who, according to strict justice, would be lost.”

If a lack of devotion to her is a mark of eternal reprobation a constant love for her must be a sign of eternal salvation. Many spiritual writers state that devotion to Mary is a sign of predestination.

● ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI (a Doctor of the Church) says: “It is impossible that a servant of Mary be damned, provided he serves her faithfully and commends himself to her maternal protection.”

● ST. ANSELM (a Doctor of the Church) writes: “He who turns to thee and is regarded by thee cannot be lost.”

● ST. ANTONINE is of the same opinion. He says: “As it is impossible for them from whom Mary turns away her eyes of mercy to be saved, so it is necessary that they to whom she turns her eyes of mercy and for whom she intercedes to be saved and glorified.”

Troubleshooting, Repairing, Improving Our Devotion
You may want to take some notes or copy and paste what is about to written. Without being overly dramatic about it, it may make a massive difference to your chances of salvation and avoidance of damnation. Not having come across anything as detailed and comprehensive elsewhere―either in books or online―it is a safe bet to say that you will not find something like this anywhere else―or only after many hours of fruitless searching―and that is very, very sad. For, in a certain sense, Heaven has placed salvation on a plate for us, but we stubbornly refuse to eat from that plate. We want cookies, cakes, chocolates and ice-cream, but not the healthy (eternal) life-giving fare that Heaven has served-up.

PART ONE ― THE THEORY

Firstly, Be Honest About Your Devotion―Or Lack Of It
When you are sick―and our devotion is most certainly sick, or, at least, not very fit and healthy―you go to a doctor. You diagnosis (what’s wrong with you) and prognosis (prediction of the probable outcome of a disease or disorder) largely depends upon your honesty with regard to your symptoms―meaning, that you should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The clearer the picture that can be obtained of your disease, the more favorable will be the probable outcome of the treatment. If you PRETEND or LIE about aspects of your disease, then you severely risk and jeopardize the hopes of a cure. We live in a cosmetic world, a “make-believe” world, a superficial world that is paranoid about façades and appearances and not too concerned about what lies behind that façade. We show one face in public―at work, at school, in the parish, socially―and there is another face that is kept out of sight in the secrecy of the home. Being brutally honest with yourself may be painful now―but it could well avoid far greater pains in Purgatory, or, God forbid, in Hell. When buying a building, the state of the foundations is of equal or even greater importance than how nice and beautiful the house appears to be. Our Lord hints at that when He says:

“Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:24-27).

With that said―let us now refresh our minds over that nebulous (vague, hazy, unclear) word called “devotion.” There is little point in talking about “devotion” if we do not know what it really means, or only have vague nebulous idea of its meaning! The dictionaries define “devotion” as “strong love, deep loyalty, or great enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause; religious fervor; the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal; profound dedication; consecration; earnest attachment to a cause, person, or thing; the strong love that you show when you pay a lot of attention to someone or something; the loyalty that you show towards a person, job etc, especially by working hard for the person, or cause, or thing; ardent, often selfless affection and dedication, as to a person or principle.”

These are just some of the many varied definitions given by dictionaries. Does that sound like you? Is that how your relationship to God, or Our Lord, or Our Lady could be described? Of course not! There are many other things in your life that receive more devotion (more time, more thought and more effort) than Our Lady! You might, of course, be better than some people, but there will be many people who are better than you―which means there is not only room for improvement, but also a need for improvement. The further away you can move from the cliff-edge that falls into Hell, the better will be your chances of avoiding damnation and obtaining salvation. A brutal and honest appraisal of your current position is crucial to that. We all have a tendency to make mountains out of molehills when it comes to the deficiencies and failings of others―but we make molehills out of mountains when it comes to our own deficiencies and failures. It is not for nothing that St. Ignatius of Loyola insists, in his Spiritual Exercises, that we must know ourselves―saying, as many before and after him have said: “Know thyself!”

Growing Your Devotion, Growing in Devotion
If you think your “devotion” to Our Lady is sufficient and not deficient―then you should be encouraged to go and take another look! Take off those rose-tinted glasses, remove the smoke-and-mirrors, and look more closely! The following words of Our Lord shed a little light on the matter: “When you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do!’” Luke 17:10). Also, His words at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:1-2). God is never satisfied―He is always seeking more fruit, seeking more improvement, seeking more growth.

In this life, we never stop growing (or decreasing) in devotion, grace and sanctity―until the day we die. In our growth in devotion, grace and holiness, there is no “finishing-line” after a certain number of laps, or miles, or years―like the age of retirement is the “finishing-line” for a person’s working-life. Likewise, there is nobody who can say that they have reached peak―like climbing Mount Everest―for everyone is capable of growth while they live, even Our Lady, though “full of grace” at the Annunciation, never ceased to grow in devotion, grace and holiness throughout her whole life. At each stage of her life she “full of grace”―but since as she grew, her devotion, grace and holiness grew along with her―being a “greater fullness” with each passing day, week, month and year. It is even said of Our Lord: “And the Child grew and waxed strong, full of wisdom; and the grace of God was in Him … And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men” (Luke 2:40, 52). To “advance” in age, wisdom and grace, means to “grow” in age, wisdom and grace―our devotion should advance and grown with age.

Understanding the Growing Process
Nothing is mechanical about devotion. It all has to be willed, deliberately undertaken, and developed. The grace to be devoted is most certainly available and ever present, but its development depends on how generously you respond to it — on how much you want to respond to it. Yet, having said that, the process by which you sow or plant your devotion and then nurture and grow it, is not a haphazard, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants process, but a logical process that follows certain supernatural and spiritual rules. Anyone can plant a seed―but the successful outcome of it growing into a plant or a tree is greatly enhanced by some basic knowledge of gardening or horticulture.

Where does devotion come from? Well, if devotion is―as defined above―“strong love; deep loyalty; earnest attachment to a cause, person, or thing; great enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause; religious fervor; profound dedication; selfless affection”―then how does all that arise? It is no rocket-science, but common sense that tells us that we cannot love what we do not know; and that we cannot be attached to a person, thing or cause if we nothing about that person, thing or cause; and that there can be no profound dedication to an unknown person, thing or cause. Therefore, KNOWLEDGE MUST COME FIRST.

This is common sense, for when we speak of a person who is dedicated to gardening, or cooking, or DIY projects, or in following a sports team, or a sport, or a musical band, or a TV show, or fashion, or whatever it may be―it invariably and automatically means that they KNOW A LOT about the topic. You cannot love what you do not know! This is why St. Thérèse of Lisieux (of the Infant Jesus, a.k.a. The Little Flower) used to say that Jesus is so little loved because He is so little known. Fire needs a fuel for it to burn―devotion needs knowledge for its fuel. If your car has no gasoline―no matter how good a car it is, it is going nowhere until you supply it with gasoline. Likewise, your devotion is going nowhere without supplying it with the fuel of knowledge about the thing you are supposed to be devoted to! Hence, what St. Thérèse of Lisieux says of Jesus, can also be said of our devotion to Our Lady―Mary is so little loved, because she is so little known. We read so little about her, we talk so little about her, we think so little about her―it is hardly surprising that our devotion’s gas tank is empty!

Planting the Seeds of Devotion
Our Lord would often use agricultural and horticultural analogies to make a point. He speaks of good trees and bad trees; fig trees; vines and vineyards; various kinds of seeds―wheat, cockle, mustard seeds; fruits and harvests, etc. For the purpose of our devotion, let us begin with sowing of the seed. Our Lord speaks of the Word of God as being a seed. The Word of God gives knowledge of God, without which there can be no hope in God, nor love of God. The same is true of devotion to Mary―without words about Mary there can no knowledge of Mary, and, consequently, there can be no hope in Mary, nor love and devotion towards Mary.

This is why St. Louis de Montfort―in speaking of True Devotion to Mary―calls this devotion a “Tree of Life”, adding that “Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother who produces it.” He goes on to say: “the Holy Ghost compares us to (1) trees planted along the waters of grace, in the field of the Church, who ought to bring forth their fruit in their seasons; (2) to the branches of a vine of which Jesus Christ is the stock, and which must yield good grapes; (3) to a good land of which God is the Husbandman, in which the seed multiplies itself and brings forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold … One reason why so few souls come to the fullness of the age of Jesus Christ is that Mary is not sufficiently formed in their hearts. He who wishes to have the fruit well-ripened and well-formed must have the tree that produces it―he who wishes to have the fruit of life, Jesus Christ, must have the tree of life, which is Mary … If Mary, who is the tree of life, is well cultivated in our soul by fidelity to the practices of this devotion, she will bear her fruit in her own time, and her fruit is none other than Jesus Christ.”

St. Louis de Montfort continues: “How many devout souls do I see who seek Jesus Christ, some by one way or by one practice, and others by other ways and other practices; and oftentimes, after they have toiled much throughout the night, they say, ‘We have toiled all night, and have taken nothing!’ (Luke 5:5). We may say to them: ‘You have labored much and gained little’―Jesus is yet feeble in you! But by that immaculate way of Mary and that divine practice which I am teaching, we toil during the day, we toil in a holy place, we toil but little.”

Planting is Pointless Without Weeding
If you want to plant, you must first dig and prepare the soil by clearing the soil of large rocks and roots; remove the remnants of vegetable and other roots and vines; dig out any large perennial weeds. The same is true for planting the seeds of a devotion to Mary―you must remove such things that are incompatible with a devotion, which in simple terms means removing the worldly elements from your life and rocks of mortal sin and stones of venial sin, the weeds of various vices and bad habits you may have contracted over the years; and the perennial weeds of worldly television, worldly internet, worldly social media, worldly music, worldly fashions, worldly occupations, etc. Tough? Yes! But not as tough as having to spend time in the fires of Purgatory or, God forbid, Hell.

This weeding-out the world from the garden of our soul has been sufficiently well commanded in Holy Scripture: “He that received the seed [the words of God] among thorns, is he that heareth the word [of God], and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word [of God], and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7).

Many try to plant the seeds of a devotion to Mary, without sufficiently weeding-out the world from their soul―thus, what Our Lord says above, inevitably happens: “He that received the seed [of devotion to Mary] among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word [of God], and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22). St. Louis de Montfort also alludes to this when he writes: “As the essential of this devotion consists in the interior which it ought to form, it will not be equally understood by everybody. Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §119). You could look at that passage as being varying degrees of weeding-out the world―from partial weeding all the way through varying degrees to a total weeding-out. Unless your heart is totally in Heaven, you risk not getting there―as Jesus says: “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:21-24).

Don’t Presume Anything!
The above quote of St. Louis de Montfort― “Some will stop at what is exterior in it, and will go no further, and these will be the greatest number. Some, in small number, will enter into its inward spirit; but they will only mount one step. Who will mount to the second step? Who will get as far as the third? Lastly, who will so advance as to make this devotion his habitual state?”―is eerily akin to the quotes from Holy Scripture, which say: “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16) and “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23) ― “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).

Thus we see that merely having the made the True Devotion Consecration to Mary is no guarantee of salvation, unless we not only plant the seed of the True Devotion―which St. Louis says is the point at which most people stop―but then we tend to, nurture, grow and render fruitful that tree of devotion―which, St. Louis indicates, is something that very few people actually do. That is the great danger―to start and not to finish. To think that planting is enough, without making the efforts to grow to maturity and perfection what we have planted. That is like a soul that thinks it enough to be merely baptized and goes no further. Or like the soul that merely learns a little of the Faith in religion classes while still at school, but neglects to continue studying the Faith once they have graduated. “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16) or many are called―like the Israelites in Egypt who were called to the Promised Land during the Exodus under Moses―but few make it―for only two families out of the original millions who had left Egypt, actually entered the Promised Land, the rest of the Israelites who entered were born on the way during the 40 years of wandering in desert which was imposed as a punishment by God for their refusal to enter the Promised Land at the first time of asking. Don’t forget that they were God’s very own CHOSEN PEOPLE―yet, as St. Paul writes: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea: And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. BUT WITH MOST OF THEM GOD WAS NOT WELL PLEASED―for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Philippians 2:12).

Summary of the Theoretical Section
We have, in the above paragraphs, seen the need for a brutal honesty as regards the level of our devotion to Our Lady-stating that it is, most probably, a long way from being what Heaven expects it to be. We have also seen the inescapable and necessary link between Our Lady and salvation. It is not that she is the only path to salvation―for there is no salvation without Jesus Christ, Who is our Savior―but Mary is the path to Jesus Christ, the best, the most influential and most efficacious means of securing Christ’s favor and mercy. We have also looked at the meaning of the word “devotion” and seen that it a “cut-above-the-average”, a very high level of dedication, commitment, loyalty, enthusiasm, energy and love―meaning that it is not easily acquired. We also saw that devotion first requires knowledge―for we cannot love what we do not know, and we will not be devoted to what we do not love. Thus, devotion is a growth process, that begins with the planting of the seeds of knowledge, which should sprout into shoots of love and grow into a solid tree of devotion. We also saw, according to St. Louis de Montfort, that there are degrees of devotion―he lists four, without really describing them in any detail―but he does say that most people will not pass beyond the first degree, which is that of making the True Devotion Consecration to Mary―which they shelve with an attitude of “been there, seen it, done it.” This is largely insufficient, but he says very few enter the other three levels of devotion. We must see the devotion as a progressive growth―if or once we stop growing, then we compromise, risk and endanger our salvation.

In Part Two of this article, we shall deal with the practical aspects of devotion to Our Lady and trace a course from the planting of the initial seed of devotion to its higher levels―the stages that St. Louis says hardly anyone enters or attains.