Praise God in Heaven and His Holy Mother

A small thing, cosmically speaking. But huge for this city. Thank you, Mary!

P.S. stock up on rice and bottled water. The end is near.

The Man Is a Menace

Headline:

‘Let’s not wait for the theologians,’ says Pope Francis about sharing the Eucharist

How long before somebody does something?

I’ve Begun the Socci Book on the Question of Benedict’s Abdication

Thanks to the little drama over Dr. Kwasniewski’s review– and subsequent, brow-beaten, backpedalled editing of that review–of Antonio Socci’s book, “The Secret of Benedict XVI, I have ordered and have now begun to read this book.

One-and-a-half chapters in, I’m hooked.

More to come.

Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;

vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.

Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia ergo, advocata nostra,

illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.

Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,

nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.

R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti, da, ut cuius commemoratione laetamur; eius pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Bergoglio Hates Europe, or at Least His Masters Do

The headline, following significant victories by national sovereignty parties in EU elections, is this:

Pope Francis sounds racism alarm as EU nationalists win big

I suppose this could be a permanently pinned post.

The European order was saved by the Catholic faith in the wake of the destruction of the Roman Empire. The Church saved its history and preserved its future, culminating in the glory of Christendom. The remnants of order today, now that the last five centuries have decimated Christendom, are found in the existence of nation states with a meaningfully Catholic population. Of course this is on the way out, too, but the embers of that glorious flame of Christendom sometimes flare up, to the embarrassment of communists and globalists–like those in charge of the Vatican.

And so they call names. Racist. Hate. And they smear good people with the labels they themselves act out.

In France, Britain and Italy, those who love their countries made significant gains. And in Italy especially, where a simple politician did rebuke the putative pope by doing what Bergoglio would never do– holding up a Holy Rosary, kissing it with love of the Virgin, and consecrating his efforts, his life, his people, to Mary– the party of national sovereignty gained a majority.

The elitists are stunned, so Bergoglio calls the opponents of the elites “elitists” The would-be destroyers of the native races of each European nation call their targets of destruction “racists”. The man who lives behind walls, in a country with no immigration, decries walls.

He and his masters don’t want to save Europe. It is inconvenient to them, and they want to replace it.

Salvini, as did Pope Benedict XVI, cites the patrons of Europe, like St. Benedict. Bergoglio, like the UN, cites humanitarianism and centralized control.

I have no illusions that this, or any, political effort, will solve our problems. But I am firmly convinced that Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, will solve them, and will triumph over her, and our, enemies. Thats why this little effort, invoking her heart, catches my attention.

Can we not see how much good would follow the pope consecrating Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, as she has asked him to do?

Law. Logic. Feeling. Another Reasonable Call to Investigate this Mess.

Today’s Catholic internet news is this post from the blogger at That the Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill. Read it. I have canvassed this subject before. Others have parsed the law governing the abdication, conclave, and pontificate at issue. But I defy you to read this good, thorough, heartfelt plea from a faithful Catholic and tell me why the question of whether Benedict is or is not still pope is off limits.

I have no authority to say so if he is. But everything in me screams that we are in totally horrible, unprecedented waters. As the post states, if Francis is who they claim him to be, Christ’s promises have to be interpreted in a radically different way than we all grew up understanding them. Undoubtedly, those who adhere to the Francis is of course the pope position would retort exactly that. But it doesn’t FEEL right. It has NEVER felt right.

Yes, From where I sit I cannot decide whether Francis is pope. But the question is legitimate, and those charged with the care of souls have a DUTY to investigate, and to report to the faithful in a transparent way.

Read the whole thing. An extended quote:

The concerns the letter writers express about Pope Francis build a compelling case that Pope Francis is a heretic and wilfully so. I would add nothing nor take away from anything they have said about the man who daily, with more and more urgency, makes a mockery of all that Holy Mother Church holds as sacred, venerable and holy.

What I would say is that if it is the case that Pope Francis is a heretic, or can be spoken of as such, Holy Church somehow, sooner rather than later, needs to revisit the subject of why generations upon generations upon generations of Catholics have held this supreme moment of crisis to be an impossibility, because the Office is preserved by Christ Himself for the Salvation of souls and the preservation of the Most Holy Faith in the Church which He loves and for Whom He Himself gave Himself up to Death. This Church, the Catholic Church, the One True Church, His Bride it is which is imperilled by the man the Church and the World knows as Pope Francis. We must however know for certain whether ‘Pope Francis’ exists or whether we are confronting with his heresies ‘Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’. Yes, that is important.

God can allow a great delusion to be sent among the people of God from within the bosom of the Church. God permitted Martin Luther to do precisely this. Yes, in His “permissive will”, God can allow a great delusion which will lead souls to believe their own grievous errors. Catholics have not previously accepted that God would permit that this scandal would originate from His own Vicar. Saints and scholars have raised the possibility as one to be studied, but the belief that it could happen has never been either partially or universally accepted. Yes, there is your paradigm shift. That is the real reason you and I suffer so much. Every aspect of our Faith is under attack, including our belief that the Pope will not, by God’s Providence, lead the People of God along the broad road to perdition.

Therefore, if we are going to accuse the man who leads, not merely promotes, the destruction of Christian faith and morals, by subterfuge mainly, but sometimes in a brazen and naked manner, a man who does this in any possible way he can without giving away his evil plan entirely or unmasking himself completely, a man who instills within the Church, at all levels, unprecedented fear and who micromanages a tyranny of relativism from what we are led to believe is the very summit of the Church, if we are going to accuse that man of heresy, that man divinely appointed with supreme authority in the Holy Church of God, whom no man, no authority on Earth can judge, well, we had better be 100% certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that that man is the Pope.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Consecration of oneself to Jesus Christ, Wisdom Incarnate, through the hands of Mary

Eternal and incarnate Wisdom, most lovable and adorable Jesus, true God and true man, only Son of the eternal Father and of Mary always Virgin, I adore you profoundly, dwelling in the splendor of your Father from all eternity, and in the virginal womb of Mary, your most worthy Mother, at the time of your Incarnation.

I thank you for having emptied yourself in assuming the condition of a slave to set me free from the cruel slavery of the evil one. I praise and glorify you for having willingly chosen to obey Mary, your holy Mother, in all things, so that through her I may be your faithful slave of love. But I must confess that I have not kept the vows and promises which I made to you so solemnly at my baptism. I have not fulfilled my obligations, and I do not deserve to be called your child or even your slave. Since I cannot lay claim to anything except what merits your rejection and displeasure, I dare no longer approach the holiness of your majesty on my own. That is why I turn to the intercession and the mercy of your holy Mother, whom you yourself have given me to mediate with you. Through her I hope to obtain from you contrition and pardon for my sins, and that Wisdom whom I desire to dwell in me always.

I turn to you, then, Mary Immaculate, living tabernacle of God, in whom Eternal wisdom willed to receive the adoration of both men and angels. I greet you as Queen of heaven and earth, for all that is under God has been made subject to your sovereignty. I call upon you, the unfailing refuge of sinners, confident in your mercy that has never forsaken anyone. Grant my desire for divine Wisdom and, in support of my petition, accept the promises and the offering of myself which I now make, conscious of my unworthiness. I, an unfaithful sinner, renew and ratify today through you my baptismal promises. I renounce forever Satan, his empty promises, and his evil designs, and I give myself completely to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him for the rest of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have been till now.

This day, with the whole court of heaven as witness, I choose you, Mary, as my Mother and Queen. I surrender and consecrate myself to you, body and soul, as your slave, with all that I possess, both spiritual and material, even including the value of all my good actions, past, present, and to come. I give you the full right to dispose of me and all that belongs to me, without any reservations, in whatever way you please, for the greater glory of God in time and throughout eternity.

Accept, gracious Virgin, this little offering of my slavery to honor and imitate the obedience which Eternal Wisdom willingly chose to have towards you, his Mother. I wish to acknowledge the authority which both of you have over this pitiful sinner. By it, I wish also to thank God for the privileges bestowed on you by the Blessed Trinity. I declare that for the future, I will try to honor and obey you in all things, as your true slave of love.

O admirable Mother, present me to your dear Son as His slave, now and for always, so that He who redeemed me through you, will now receive me through you. Mother of mercy, grant me the favor of obtaining the true Wisdom of God, and so make me one of those whom you love, teach and guide, whom you nourish and protect as your children and slaves.

Virgin most faithful, make me in everything so committed a disciple, imitator, and slave of Jesus, your Son, incarnate Wisdom, that I may become, through your intercession and example, fully mature with the fullness which Jesus possessed on earth, and with the fullness of His glory in heaven. Amen.

–by St. Louis-Marie de Montfort

No, Not Remarkable; Just Basic Common Sense

I call your attention to this article at The American Conservative. It describes the perfectly natural horror that a Catholic– in this case, Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited— experienced upon having the Mass stolen from him, and replaced with the Novus Ordo Missae.

The author describes it thusly:

Waugh’s words in response to this revolution are arresting: “Church-going is now a bitter trial,” he wrote. Elsewhere he said, “the Vatican Council has knocked the guts out of me.” To a friend, he wrote, “I have not yet soaked myself in petrol and gone up in flames, but I now cling to the Faith doggedly without joy.” In another letter to a cleric, he sought to know the least he was “obliged to do without grave sin.” This is remarkable, coming from one of the most famous Catholic writers of the 20th century, one who had previously adored the Mass.

Pardon me, but this is a dodge. The New Mass has killed faith.

If I had been cognizant then of the satanic robbery of my patrimony at the time, I would have lost my.

When Will Catholics Defend Themselves?

As I write this, Notre Dame is burning, and will almost certainly be totally destroyed. As I write this, there is no definitive cause of the blaze. It is of course best to wait until the cause is established. I merely note the speed with which the government-beholden media pointed to the possibility that it “could” be linked to the ongoing restoration work. I also note that Paul Joseph Watson ran a story that a worker at the Cathedral claims it was intentionally set. You have to consider the sources for both versions, and wait and see. One thing is certain: should this be an intentional act, by a Muslim especially, the media will not be quick to acknowledge it, and will likely blame Catholics for inciting it by their “hate”.

I am not the only one who sees a metaphor in the loss of this magnificent church in honor of the Mediatrix of All Graces. It may or may not be a direct product of the death of Western Civilization– in other words, Catholic Civilization. But at least it is a symptom of it.

We have a Church that has been taken over by either a) the most anti-Catholic pope in history; or, b) the most anti-Catholic antipope in history. The hierarchy has totally sold out to the world, most of them exuberantly, most of the rest cowardly, and a very few “good” ones meekly. The wolves are among the sheep and NOBODY will do anything about it.

We are left to shift for ourselves.

The UK is long gone. France, like most Western European nations, is under seige. The U.S. is just a few years behind. Nobody does anything. Donald Trump campaigned, in his inimitable way, on the promise of doing something, ANYTHING, about it. We elected him. The results have been mixed at best. But still.

Who will do anything to protect Catholics from the satanic mob that howls for our blood? Bergoglio? Please. Benedict? Obviously not. The good bishops? No, but they will write a cogent obituary explaining how we were right and probably should not have been killed.

Where is our hope? Of course, our hope is in the Lord, and victory is certain. Of course, our hope is in Our Lady, her triumph, predicted at Fatima, is certain.

But is that it? Pray your Rosaries and wait for death? That’s it? Let Mary sort it out?

How far we are from the Crusades, Lepanto, Vienna and the victory in Spain.

Our Lady of Fatima, how long? And what can we do until you act?

Bonus Lent

In my mind I have been dividing time into periods before and after October 2017, the 100th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima. Not in a systematic way, of course, but it just feels to me that every day since then, the consecration of Russia not having been done, is a day of God’s mercy tinged with a foreboding of the justice to come. This feeling of mine grows, and as last November was the 100th anniversary of the final death of Christendom, another sad marker is passed.

And so, as the Church’s liturgical year rolls on, this year has felt, to me, like a great big unearned bonus. Bonus Christmas. And now, Bonus Lent. I thoroughly enjoyed the celebration of the bonus Christmas, and I intend to thoroughly make good use of this bonus Lent. After all, no man can say when it will be his last, nor even if he will outlive it.

Some thoughts by smarter and holier men:

The observance of Lent is the very badge of the Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God’s glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, and of private woe.

–Pope Benedict XIV, Constitution Non Ambigimus, 1745

More than a hundred years have elapsed since this solemn warning of the Vicar of Christ was given to the world; and during that time, the relaxation he inveighed against has gone on gradually increasing. How few Christians do we meet who are strict observers of Lent, even in the present mild form!

And must there not result from this ever-growing spirit of immortification, a general effeminacy of character, which will lead, at last, to frightful social disorders? The sad predictions of Pope Benedict XIV are but too truly verified. Those nations, among whose people the spirit and practice of penance are extinct, are heaping against themselves the wrath of God, and provoking His justice to destroy them by one or other of these scourges– civil discord, or conquest.

–Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, c.1850

The modern fast, of course, is nothing compared to the fast Dom Gueranger calls ‘mild’ in the mid-19th Century. That is the decision of the Church, who, out of concern for the weakness of her children, has over the ages allowed for relaxation of the Lenten fast (which is of Apostolic institution), and given freely of dispensations in various times and places. It is the decision of the Church what must be obligatory, for she speaks for Christ.  She has allowed such latitude that our present obligatory penitential requirements for Lent (fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstinence on all Fridays during Lent) ought to be easily and eagerly accomplished.

Yet even this seems too much. Again, Gueranger:

The word of God is unmistakable: unless we do penance, we shall perish (Luke 13:3). But if our ease-loving and sensual generation were to return, like the Ninivites, to the long-neglected way of penance and expiation, who knows but that the arm of God, which is already raised to strike us, may give us blessing and not chastisement? 

A good point, and one reinforced by today’s Lesson from Joel 2: 12-19:

[12] Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. [13] And 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, and ready to repent of the evil. [14] Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God? [15] Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, 

[16] Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bride chamber. [17]Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord’s ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? [18] The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people. [19] And the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.