I believe that Russia will be the scourge of us, and then, after its conversion, will be the tool used by Our Lady to save us from the reign of evil under which we now suffer.
Read in full the speech Mary Ann posted over at Les Femmes the Truth blog. Read it with an eye to Fatima. Read it in light of the vision which the Third Secret, still unreleased, explains. Read it in light of the Bishop in White whom the children took to be the pope, and in light of the Holy Father walking through the half-ruined city of Rome on the way to his execution.
Pray that the Holy Father will at long last consecrate Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart as she requested.
Please, Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us and deliver us!
Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, one of my favorite Marian Feasts. In Spain, Our Lady is referred to as “Virgen de la Merced” (Virgin of Mercy), or simply as “La Merced” (the Mercy, or, Mercy). She is venerated under this title in Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of the New World.
Under this title she is Patroness of the Mercedarian order. This order, begun in Barcelona by St. Peter Nolasco in 1218, was founded with an eye towards mercy– real mercy– to the poor Christians captived by the Mohammedans. The full title of the order in English is the “Royal and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy of the Redemption of the Captives”. Hence the traditional title of today’s feast, Our Lady of Ransom. They established a church that was later designated a papal basilica in Barcelona, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (You’ve no doubt seen the Mary’s Fiat memes. Think about Our Lady’s much nicer car when you’re touring around in a Mercedes). There is a good page on the history of the order here.
Perhaps nowhere has she been venerated more than in Barcelona. “La Merced” in the local language is rendered “La Mercè”. She is Patroness of the city, and each year, on her feast day of September 24, the city holds a magnificent festival to celebrate. They celebrate as only Spaniards do, with intensity, passion and exuberance. There is a festival with its timeless traditions and fireworks. Lots of fireworks. The image at the top of this post is the city’s yearly poster for the event from 1957. Note the obvious image of Our Lord and Lady, the cross, the Sagrada Familia in the background, and the Spanish flags. Say what you will about El Caudillo, but the country was Catholic. Here is another poster from that era:
When my family first visited Barcelona in 1998, this fiesta (about which we knew nothing and thus for which were totally unprepared) was a revelation. It was so lively, and combined Catholic Marian veneration with city patriotism. On my old, obliterated blogger site, I posted some photos, but here are some of the more interesting customs, such as castellers:
Back in 1998, it was still an obviously Catholic country with Catholic sensibility. Of course as we all know, the rot was well on its way to destroying everything, but when we went out in the evenings, churches were open, with people going to confession and sizeable congregations praying the Rosary together. Church bells rang throughout the day. You could go to one of many stores that sold religious articles (and nationalist memorabilia if you were so inclined). It just felt Catholic, in Madrid most of all, but everywhere you went.
By 2002 when we returned, that feeling was palpably passing away. It wasn’t like you couldn’t walk into a Church, but the sizeable congregations weren’t there and the religious goods stores we remembered were closed. It didn’t feel anti-Catholic, but rather that it just didn’t matter in day-to-day life. Admittedly, these memories are not the basis for a logical argument, they are just what two tourists remember.
And as of our last trip to Barcelona in 2014, considering the political situation there, the place didn’t feel Spanish (even allowing for the regional Catalonian version thereof), let alone Catholic. There was some barely measurable menace or hostility in the air, which at the time I chalked up to the independence-from-Spain push, but now I recognize as the miasma of this current, demonic, anti-God hellscape in which we find ourselves. It is easier to recognize from our spot in the U.S., because of the lag time, growing ever shorter, between the European rush to suicide and our unthinking amble off that particular cliff.
Our last experience of Spain, on the Camino de Santiago in 2018, confirmed the analysis for us. Even while walking through some of the most still-religious parts of Spain–on THE CAMINO for crying out loud, an overtly religious activity– the historical Camino Churches were all LOCKED, unless Mass happened to be going on at the time. All of them were, until we reached the Cathedral itself. I keep wanting to write a post entitled, “The Camino of the Closed Doors”. Nearly five years later, I suppose I never will.
So, you may wonder, how did we get from then to now? How did it collapse so spectacularly in one generation? Actually, by now we know the answer all too well. The Mass was attacked, and the Church lost her most beautiful expression and her most powerful guardian. A certain council brought forth the regime of error and the era of libertines. But to give you sort of visual travelogue of the demise of the West, let’s look at some posters. Recall the two beautiful, and beautifully faith-filled posters for La Merced, above.
Now let’s go forward some years. First, from 1992, the year of the Olympics in Barcelona, popularly thought of as Barcelona’s “coming of age” as a city in the modern world:
Pretty decent, as a poster, though secular. Fireworks. Columbus, not yet cancelled. Palm trees. The Spanish “Merced” now becomes the Catalan “Mercè”. Now on to the poster for 1998, the year I first visited the city:
Weak sauce, that. And barely had we cleared the area, than in 1999 this abomination was chosen:
Wow, there was zero warning of the Mohammedan re-invasion of Europe, was there? Prominent Arabic-style lettering and the crescent moon. I see churches but no crosses. Those are offensive, you know. Could it get worse? Oh, you know it can. Here is 2018, the year of our Camino:
Not only disregarding of the faith, but hostile to it. Lots of rainbow. Lots of girl power. Is there a straight man depicted in it? Seemingly no. Let’s keep going, to 2020:
Nothing says, “Come on out and celebrate!” like a dystopian poster of diabolically-masked girl (?) contemplating a cricket. Am I right? It is as though she’s thinking, “If I take off this mask I’m just going to have to eat this bug.” This poster is the perfect chronicle of the death of both cult and culture. And this isn’t the end. I’ll give you one more, the poster from this year. I think it perfectly portrays the ersatz globo-farcical anti-culture our betters have planned for us:
This, to me, is perfect for where we are now. Total communism. The name of the event is barely noticeable. It is not at all beautiful. The women with their ambiguously-sexed child are creepy as hell. There is a glimpse of the modern finish to La Sagrada Familia, but in the bottom left– is that a guard tower in our prison camp? And best of all, the laughable virtue signaling for sexual perversion and the glorious Ukrainian cause in the bottom right. Just what is this fiesta about?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is where we are. The great thing about traveling is that since you don’t live in the places where you travel, you get snapshots of change that help avoid incremental creep. I submit to you that these posters and our anecdotal travel experiences verify what we know from our faith and our intellects– that we as the civilization following Christendom have lost our way, and nearly completely.
Today we are as much captives as our poor ancestors were in Spain at the founding of the Mercedarian order. More so, because they were physically captived but they knew their faith was true. How many of us today believe in the Catholic Faith? How many of us are left to call upon La Virgen de la Merced? She is our Lady of Ransom, and we NEED RANSOMING.
She can ransom us. She will do it, if we heed her call to penance and the Rosary. She promised it. Today, on this beautiful feast of hers, beg her again and again– Our Lady of Mercy, ransom us from the slavery of sin and the reign of antichrist! She said it before: only she can save us. Lady of Mercy, save us!
As long as thou carriest about with thee thy mortal body, thou shalt feel weariness and heaviness of heart. Thou oughtest, therefore, while in the flesh, oftentimes to bewail the burden of the flesh, for that thou canst not unceasingly give thyself up to spiritual exercises and divine contemplation.
Daily thought in following Christ, New Marian Missal
Chapel of St. Hubert on the grounds of the Chateau d’Amboise
Today is the Feast of St. Eustace, or Eustachius, if you will. He is patron saint of hunters and also against family discord. I chose the photo above because of the nifty hunting motif on the frieze. And because it is one of my favorite memories, having visited Amboise with my wife and two of my daughters in 2014. As an aside, the chapel above contains the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci.
St. Eustace was martyred in A.D. 118 under Emperor Hadrian. He was a Roman general who converted after seeing the sign of the Cross over the antlers of a deer he was hunting. Kind of like this:
Now, Jaegermeister was not yet invented, so St. Eustace didn’t get any ideas from subliminal messaging, nor was he drunk. Instead, like Constantine, he saw the sign of the Son of God and knew he had. He gave Christ his grateful allegiance. All it cost him at first was the loss of his estates, and separation from his family at grievous cost.
Gotta love the pagans, you know. Because later, when he was useful to them, the Roman empire brought him back as a general and he led its troops to victory in battle. He was given back his rank and unexpectedly reunited with his family.
But, just like their modern counterparts in the NWO, once he served his purpose to them the pagans demanded he sacrifice to the deathvaxx and mother earth idols. He refused, loyal to the King of Kings.
Therefore, he and his reunited family were thrown to wild animals. The animals refused to eat them, so the emperor ordered the whole family to be put into a brazen bull to die in agony. They died, but the flames did not burn them up. Thus ended the earthly lives of these great early martyrs.
Maybe you’ll think of St. Eustace and companions when you are forced to down a shot of Jaegermeister at a friend’s house. Maybe you will face nothing more unpleasant in your life than that, but if you do it may be fitting training.
I submit this great saint’s example, timely as the Church’s examples always are, for your meditation today, pondering the trials and martyrdom which will likely await many of us. Pray for God’s strength, for we have none. And pray for the intercession of St. Eustace, who intercedes for us in Heaven.
Oremus pro invicem. St. Eustace and companions, pray for us!
As usual, I’m a bit late, but today’s saint, St. Hyacinth, has prompted me to write about the Enemy’s latest attack on the Holy Rosary.
The execrable publication The Atlantic published an absolutely sacrilegious screed against the Rosary. Frank Walker at Canon 212 first tipped me off to it by linking to a great piece at the One Mad Mom blog. My first thought was that the devil sure does hate the Rosary. The truth will out; the Truth is victorious over the Father of Lies. By this early salvo (not the first, of course) in the globalist freemasonic final push to antichrist, the enemy is compelled to tell us a very important truth: the Rosary is a weapon indeed. It is our weapon to defeat him. He doesn’t want us to use it. As Our Lady herself told us through her many apparitions, the Rosary is a most powerful weapon in the fight against satan and our protection against the loss of our own salvation. Can it be more obvious why satan hates the Rosary than to consider these words of Our Lady to Sr. Agnes at Akita?:
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 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. The only arms 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.
Mary earned and earns God’s favor through her many virtues, but perhaps most of all by her perfect humility. She is the great enemy of satan, who is destroyed through pride. We must pray the Rosary every day.
But, but… Why? Why this means? I don’t “get” anything out of it. It’s dry. I get more out of this or that devotion. Well, how about this? SHE wants it. HER SON wants it. How about we imitate her humility and in gratitude for this clear sign of our salvation, pray the prayer of the Rosary? Every day, as she asked. This powerful prayer (without prejudice to God’s omnipotence) is a sign of election. How many saints have told us so?
The interplay between the need to pray, particularly the Rosary, for our salvation and predestination is a mystery about which Mundabor wrote a thought-provoking post recently. I highly recommend it.
All this leads to our saint of the day, St. Hyacinth. The title of this post are the words she said to this great Dominican saint when the Mongols attacked Kiev. Consider this:
Saint Hyacinth is known to have performed numerous miracles. The one miracle that has been most associated with him was the result of the Tartars siege of the city of Kiev. Hyacinth gained a child-like and tender devotion to the Mother of God from Saint Dominic. To her he attributed his success, and to her aid he looked for his salvation. When Hyacinth was at Kiev, the fierce Tartars sacked the town. Hyacinth was celebrating the Mass and did not know of the onslaught and danger until the Mass ended. Without waiting to unvest, he took the ciborium in his hands and was fleeing the church. It is recorded that as he passed by an statue of Mary he heard a voice say, “Hyacinth, my son, why dost thou leave me behind? Take me with thee and leave me not to mine enemies.” Although the statue was made of heavy alabaster, Hyacinth took it in his arms and carried it away along with the ciborium with the Holy Eucharist. It is for this miraculous moment that Saint Hyacinth is most often depicted. The story continues that Hyacinth and the community that accompanied him came to the river Dnieper. There he urged them to follow him across the river. He led the way, and they all walked dry shod across the waters of the deep river, which then protected them from the fury of the Tartars. Polish historians are in agreement on this marvelous fact, although some of the writers confuse it with a similar crossing of the Vistula which happened earlier. A circumstance, which is recorded in connection with this miracle, renders it all the more remarkable. It is said that the footprints of the saint remained on the water, even after he had crossed the river; and that, when the stream was calm, they could be seen for centuries afterwards.
St. Hyacinth, member of the order of St. Dominic, to whom she gave the Rosary, a Saint invoked in hopeless cases, gives us the advice he himself heard in similarly dangerous times. He urges us to hear the words of Our Lady: “My son, why dost thou leave me behind? Take me with thee and leave me not to mine enemies.”
My own road to the particular judgement fills me with dread, but almost certainly not enough dread. I came late to doing anything to try to pray the Rosary daily. I say it poorly, and I am so easily distracted. But Mary has taken pity on me and patiently cares for me, protects me, and hits me over the head as often as I need it, without tiring. I know for a fact that if it were not for her I would have no chance to make it to Heaven. And yet, here she is, inviting, imploring me to continue to pray the Rosary every day. To go back to confession. To assist at Mass and receive the Sacraments while we have them. Because in the end, the only arms which will remain for us are the Rosary and the sign left by her Son.
Just a bit of an impression I received from the gospel today for the Feast of St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney (Mass: Os Justi). Admittedly, the impression is fairly obvious, but it struck me forcibly when I read it.
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, Let your loins be girt about and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their master’s return from the wedding; so that when he comes and knocks, they may straight-way open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the master, on his return, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, and will make them recline at table, and will come and serve them. And if he comes in the second watch, and if in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants! But of this be assured, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would certainly have watched, and not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because at an hour that you do not expect, the Son of Man is coming.
Luke 12:35-40
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the third watch. All in God’s good time, of course, but does anybody doubt we are in the third watch?
Blessed are we if we are found ready! May it be so, dear Jesus!
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
Secret
O God, You Who have given us in one perfect sacrifice the fulfillment of the various sacrifices made under the Old Law, accept these sacrificial gifts offered You by Your devoted servants, and make them holy as You did the gifts of Abel, so that what each one of us has offered in praise of Your majesty may profit for the salvation of all.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
We are back in the ghetto of post-1969 suppression of our rights as Catholics. Read Quo Primum. Rest assured you have a right to the traditional Mass. The Real Mass. And then pray, resist, be at peace, ask Our Lady to act. Ask Our Lord to let her heart triumph, and that the true pope will be known, recognized, and reign gloriously.
The servants of satan in the hierarchy will fall. Rest assured. No matter what persecution comes, stay on the side of Christ and His Holy Mother.
“Since in the course of centuries the holy liturgy has been gaining more and more completeness, it is but natural that this precious mine should come to be further opened in honor of the Virgin Mother. The Order of Saint Francis, it would seem, as well as certain particular churches, such as Rheims and Paris for example— had already taken the initiative, when Urban VI in 1389 instituted today’s solemnity. The Pope counseled a fast on the vigil of the feast, and ordered that it should be followed by an octave; he granted for its celebration the same indulgences as Urban IV had, in the previous century, attached to the festival of Corpus Christi. The Bull of promulgation, stopped by the Pontiff’s death, was again taken up and published by Boniface IX, his successor on the Chair of Peter.
“We learn from the lessons of the office formerly composed for this feast, that the object of its institution was, as Urban conceived it, to obtain the cessation of the schism then desolating the Church. The Papacy, exiled from Rome for 70 years, had barely re-entered it, when hell, infuriated at a return which crossed all its plans, had taken revenge by ranging under two leaders the flock of the one sheepfold. So deep was the obscurity wherewith miserable intrigues contrived to cover the authority of the legitimate shepherd, that numbers of churches, in all good faith, began to hesitate, and ended at last in preferring the deceptive staff of a hireling. Thicker yet was the darkness to grow, till night should be so dense, that for a moment the conflicting mandates of three Popes would simultaneously spread through the world; whilst the faithful, struck with stupor, would be at an utter loss to discern accurately which was the voice of Christ’s true Vicar. Never had the bride of the Son of God been in a more piteous situation. But Our Lady, to whom the true Pontiff had turned at the first rising of the storm, did not betray the Church‘s confidence. During all those years while the unfathomable justice of the Most High let the powers of hell hold sway, she stood for the defense of holy Church, trampling the head of the old serpent so thoroughly under her victorious foot, that in spite of the terrific confusion he had stirred up, he was unable to sully the faith of the people. Their attachment was steadfast to the unity of the Roman See, whosoever might be, in this uncertainty, its veritable occupant. Thus the West, divided in fact, but in principle ever one and undivided, reunited herself spontaneously as soon as God‘s moment came for the return of light….
“It was now to be shown that such a return of nations, in the very midst even of the tempest, was indeed the work of her who had been called upon by the pilot, half a century before, to succor the bark of Peter. Even they of the fractious assembly of Basle gave proof of this, in a way which has unfortunately been too much overlooked by historians who undervalue the high importance that liturgical facts hold in the history of Christendom. When about to separate, these last abettors of the schism devoted the 43rd session of their pretended council to the promulgation of this feast of the Visitation, in the establishment of which Urban VI had, from the outset, placed all his hopes. Notwithstanding the resistance of some of the more obstinate, the schism may, from that hour, be said to have ended. The storm was subsiding; the name of Mary, invoked thus by both sides, shone resplendent as the sign of peace amidst the clouds, even as the rainbow in its sweet radiance unites both extremities of the horizon. ‘Look upon it,’ says the Holy Ghost, ‘and bless Him that made it: it is very beautiful in its brightness. It encompasseth the heaven about with the circle of its glory: the hands of the Most High have displayed it.’”
I. Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem, Lauda ducem et pastorem In hymnis et canticis. Quantum poses, tantum aude: Quia major omni laude Nec laudare sufficis.
2. Laudis thema specialis, Panis vivus et vitalis Hodie proponitur; Quem in sacrae mensa coenae Turbae fratrum duodenae Datum non ambigitur.
3. Sit laus plena, sit sonora, Sit iucunda, sit decora Mentis iubilatio. Dies enim solemnis agitur, In qua mensae prima recolitur Huius institutio.
4. In hac mensa novi Regis Novum Pascha novae legis Phase vetus terminat. Vetustatem novitas, Umbram fugat veritas, Noctem lux eliminat.
5. Quod in coena Christus gessit, Faciendum hoc expressit In sui memoriam Docti sacris institutis, Panem, vinum in salutis Consecramus hostiam.
6. Dogma datur Christianis, Quod in carnem transit panis Et vinum in sanguinem. Quod non capis, quod non vides, Animosa firmat fides Praeter rerum ordinem.
7. Sub diversis speciebus, Signis tantum, et non rebus, Latent res eximiae: Caro cibus, sanguis potus; Manet tamen Christus totus Sub utraque specie.
8. A sumente non concisus, Non confractus, non divisus Integer accipitur. Sumit unus, sumunt mille; Quantum isti, tantum ille: Nec sumptus consumitur.
9. Sumunt boni, sumunt mali: Sorte tamen inaequali, Vitae vel interitus. Mors est malis, vita bonis: Vide, paris sumptionis Quam sit dispar exitus.
10. Fracto demum Sacramento, Ne vacilles, sed memento, Tantam esse sub fragmento, Quantum toto tegitur. Nulla rei fit scissura, Signi tantum fit fractura, Qua nec status nec statura Signati minuitur.
11. Ecce panis Angelorum, Factus cibus viatorum, Vere panis filiorum, Non mittendus canibus. In figuris praesignatur, Cum Isaac immolatur; Agnus Paschae deputatur, Datur manna patribus.
12. Bone Pastor, panis vere, Jesu, nostri miserere, Tu nos pasce, nos tuere, Tu nos bona fac videre, In terra viventium. Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales, Qui nos pascis hic mortales, Tuos ibi commensales, Cohaeredes et sodales, Fac sanctorum civium. Amen.
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Sion, lift thy voice and sing: Praise thy Savior and thy King; Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true: Dare thy most to praise Him well; For He doth all praise excel; None can ever reach His due. Special theme of praise is thine, That true living Bread divine, That life-giving flesh adored, Which the brethren twelve received, As most faithfully believed, At the Supper of the Lord.
Let the chant be loud and high; Sweet and tranquil be the joy Felt to-day in every breast; On this festival divine Which recounts the origin Of the glorious Eucharist.
At this table of the King, Our new Paschal offering Brings to end the olden rite; Here, for empty shadows fled, Is reality instead; Here, instead of darkness, light.
His own act, at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, In His memory divine; Wherefore now, with adoration, We the Host of our salvation Consecrate from bread and wine.
Hear what holy Church maintaineth, That the bread its substance changeth Into Flesh, the wine to Blood. Doth it pass thy comprehending? Faith, the law of sight transcending, Leaps to things not understood.
Here in outward signs are hidden Priceless things, to sense forbidden; Signs, not things, are all we see:- Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine; Yet is Christ, in either sign, All entire confessed to be.
They too who of Him partake Sever not, nor rend, nor break, But entire their Lord receive. Whether one or thousands eat, All receive the selfsame meat, Nor the less for others leave.
Both the wicked and the good Eat of this celestial Food; But with ends how opposite! Here ’tis life; and there ’tis death; The same, yet issuing to each In a difference infinite.
Nor a single doubt retain, When they break the Host in twain, But that in each part remains What was in the whole before; Since the simple sign alone Suffers change in state or form, The Signified remaining One And the Same forevermore
Lo! upon the Altar lies, Hidden deep from human eyes, Angels’ Bread from Paradise Made the food of mortal man: Children’s meat to dogs denied; In old types foresignified; In the manna from the skies, In Isaac, and the Paschal Lamb.
Jesu! Shepherd of the sheep! Thy true flock in safety keep. Living Bread! Thy life supply; Strengthen us, or else we die; Fill us with celestial grace: Thou, who feedest us below! Source of all we have or know! Grant that with Thy Saints above, Sitting at the Feast of Love, We may see Thee face to face. Amen
Saint Louis Catholic 