Easter Meditation: The Women At Christ's Sepulchre

Easter is such a joyous Feast, celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death and the opening of heaven to mankind, that it cannot be celebrated in just one day.  Easter is celebrated the entire week, so each day is Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, etc. 

Below is the meditation from yesterday's traditional Breviary on the women who came to Christ's tomb early in the morning and were greeted by an angel who told them to fear not, that Christ was not there but had risen as he said he would.  St. Gregory the Great tells us that the story of these women symbolizes our walk with Christ, in that just as the women brought spices to Christ's grave, our good works are a sweet fragrance to our Lord.  The Roman guards were very frightened by the angel when he came and rolled back the stone, and they, who were supposedly afraid of nothing, even ran away.  This represented the fear of those who are opposed to our Lord compared with the love and acceptance shown to those who follow our Lord. 

The women going early in the morning to the grave are an inspiration to me because even though Jesus was dead, and as far as they knew, he was no longer there for them, their love for him was so great that they still served him.  After three days, a dead body would have a very bad smell, plus Jesus had been beaten so badly that it would have been worse than a normal dead body.  But that did not deter them at all.  Also, while Peter and the other apostles were hiding away from the Roman soldiers in fear of their lives, the women boldly went out without thought for their own safety to minister to Christ in the only way they could.  For this they were rewarded with a greeting from an angel of God, and were the first to receive the message that our Lord had risen.  They did not understand this message and Mary Magdalene was not convinced it was true until Christ Himself appeared to her and told her so.  But her lack of understanding was not counted against her or the other women.  And so our lack of understanding is not an impediment to us.  Intellectual understanding by itself will not save anyone.  It is only faith that counts, and that is what these women illustrated in their actions. 

A Homily by St. Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved brethren, ye have heard the deed of the holy women which had followed the Lord ; how that they brought sweet spices to his sepulchre, and, now that he was dead, having loved him while he was yet alive, they followed him with careful tenderness still. But the deed of these holy women doth point to somewhat which must needs be done in the holy Church. And it behoveth us well to give ear to what they did, that we may afterward consider with ourselves what we must do likewise after their ensample. We also, who believe in him that was dead, do come to his sepulchre, bearing sweet spices, when we seek the Lord with the savour of good living, and the fragrant report of good works. Those women, when they brought their spices, saw a vision of Angels, and, in sooth, those souls whose godly desires do move them to seek the Lord with the savour of good lives, do see the countrymen of our Fatherland which is above.  [Like the women who came to the sepulchre on that first Easter, even though we may not totally understand all that we do for our Lord, he will reward us in far greater measure than we can ever imagine as long as we proceed in faith.]

The Demons Cast Out Of Heaven

It behoveth us to mark what this meaneth, that they saw the angel sitting on the right side. For what signifieth the left, but this life which now is? or the right, but life everlasting? Whence also it is written in the Song of Songs : His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me. Since, therefore, our Redeemer had passed from the corruption of this life which now is, the Angel which told that his undying life was come, sat, as became him, on the right side. They saw him clothed in a white garment, for he was herald of the joy of this our great solemnity, and the glistering whiteness of his raiment told of the brightness of this holy Festival of ours. Of ours, said I? or of his? But if we will speak the truth, we must acknowledge that it is both his and ours. The Again-rising of our Redeemer is a Festival of gladness for us, for us it biddeth know that we shall not die for ever ; and for Angels also it is a festival of gladness, for it biddeth them know that we are called to fulfil their number in heaven.  [St. Augustine taught that one of the purposes of creating man was to replace the fallen angels who had rebelled against God and been cast out of heaven.  Therefore, the angels in heaven rejoice greatly that man has been saved to join them in heaven.]

On this glad Festival Day then, which is both his and ours, the Angel appeared in white raiment. For as the Lord, rising again from the dead, leadeth us unto the mansions above, he repaireth the breaches of the heavenly Fatherland. But what meaneth this, that the Angel said unto the women which came to the sepulchre : Fear not? Is it not as though he had said openly : Let them fear which love not the coming of the heavenly countrymen ; let them be afraid who are so laden by fleshly lusts, that they have lost all hope ever to be joined to their company. But as for you, why fear ye, who, when ye see us, see but your fellow-countrymen? Hence also Matthew, writing of the guise of the Angel, saith : His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. The lightning speaketh of fear and great dread, the snow of the soft brilliancy of rejoicing.

Easter Vigil Message: The Holy Father Warns Of Great Peril To The World

Christ Rising From The Dead

Today is Easter Sunday.  On Good Friday we commemorated the most solemn day of the Christian calendar, the day on which our Lord died on the cross for our salvation.  Today, Easter, we celebrate the most joyous day, for today Christ is risen and death is conquered.  Christ has opened the door to heaven for all mankind, and beckons us to follow Him.  Darkness and destruction have been lifted from the earth.  Our Lord has redeemed us, bought us back from the evil one.  We rejoice with the angels in heaven today.  As the Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15: "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"  Our Lord has conquered death not through violence or anger or hate, but through love.  He has given himself for us, and now we must give ourselves to him and to each other. 

But as we look around us, it certainly doesn't seem that anything has changed.  If anything, the world seems to be descending into more and more evil.  Man's inhumanity to man is reaching new heights, or should I say, depths.  The evil one seems to be the one who is winning. 

Our Holy Father, as usual, explains this far better than I can even begin to.  Here is his Easter Vigil message:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Easter is the feast of the new creation. Jesus is risen and dies no more. He has opened the door to a new life, one that no longer knows illness and death. He has taken mankind up into God himself. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, as Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians (15:50). On the subject of Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection, the Church writer Tertullian in the third century was bold enough to write: “Rest assured, flesh and blood, through Christ you have gained your place in heaven and in the Kingdom of God” (CCL II, 994). A new dimension has opened up for mankind. Creation has become greater and broader.

Easter Day ushers in a new creation, but that is precisely why the Church starts the liturgy on this day with the old creation, so that we can learn to understand the new one aright. At the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word on Easter night, then, comes the account of the creation of the world. Two things are particularly important here in connection with this liturgy. On the one hand, creation is presented as a whole that includes the phenomenon of time. The seven days are an image of completeness, unfolding in time. They are ordered towards the seventh day, the day of the freedom of all creatures for God and for one another. Creation is therefore directed towards the coming together of God and his creatures; it exists so as to open up a space for the response to God’s great glory, an encounter between love and freedom. On the other hand, what the Church hears on Easter night is above all the first element of the creation account: “God said, ‘let there be light!’” (Gen 1:3). The creation account begins symbolically with the creation of light. The sun and the moon are created only on the fourth day. The creation account calls them lights, set by God in the firmament of heaven. In this way he deliberately takes away the divine character that the great religions had assigned to them. No, they are not gods. They are shining bodies created by the one God. But they are preceded by the light through which God’s glory is reflected in the essence of the created being.

What is the creation account saying here? Light makes life possible. It makes encounter possible. It makes communication possible. It makes knowledge, access to reality and to truth, possible. And insofar as it makes knowledge possible, it makes freedom and progress possible. Evil hides. Light, then, is also an expression of the good that both is and creates brightness. It is daylight, which makes it possible for us to act. To say that God created light means that God created the world as a space for knowledge and truth, as a space for encounter and freedom, as a space for good and for love. Matter is fundamentally good, being itself is good. And evil does not come from God-made being, rather, it comes into existence only through denial.   It is a “no”.  [St. Augustine explained that good can exist without evil, but there can be no evil unless there is good, because evil is the absence of good, or as the Holy Father explains, the absence of light, the True Light that is Jesus Christ.]

At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again: “Let there be light”. The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of Jesus’ passion and death, the night of the grave had all passed. Now it is the first day once again – creation is beginning anew. “Let there be light”, says God, “and there was light”: Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies. [This is the message of Easter - good has triumphed over evil.  Evil has been banished, and all those who cling to evil will be banished with it.  Come out of the darkness into the Light, the True Light of Jesus Christ.]  The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light. But this applies not only to him, not only to the darkness of those days. [John 1:9 says that Jesus is "the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world."] With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew. He draws all of us after him into the new light of the resurrection and he conquers all darkness. He is God’s new day, new for all of us.

But how is this to come about? How does all this affect us so that instead of remaining word it becomes a reality that draws us in? Through the sacrament of baptism and the profession of faith, the Lord has built a bridge across to us, through which the new day reaches us. The Lord says to the newly-baptized: Fiat lux – let there be light. God’s new day – the day of indestructible life, comes also to us. Christ takes you by the hand. From now on you are held by him and walk with him into the light, into real life. For this reason the early Church called baptism photismos – illumination.

Why was this? [Here the Holy Father gets to the heart of the cause of evil in the world, that fact that mankind rejects the light of Christ and chooses instead the darkness of his own understanding.]  The darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is the fact that he can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot see where the world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going, what is good and what is evil. The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general.  [The Holy Father is giving us a dire warning here, that because of the spiritual darkness we have chosen, the continued physical existence of our world is in peril.]  If God and moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other “lights”, that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk. Today we can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer visible. Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of enlightenment? With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the question of good, we can no longer identify. Faith, then, which reveals God’s light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God’s light to break into our world, opening our eyes to the true light.  [All of the great creations of mankind mean nothing without faith and belief in his Creator, and in fact, those manmade creations will actually lead to our destruction.]

Dear friends, as I conclude, I would like to add one more thought about light and illumination. On Easter night, the night of the new creation, the Church presents the mystery of light using a unique and very humble symbol: the Paschal candle. This is a light that lives from sacrifice. The candle shines inasmuch as it is burnt up. It gives light, inasmuch as it gives itself. Thus the Church presents most beautifully the paschal mystery of Christ, who gives himself and so bestows the great light. Secondly, we should remember that the light of the candle is a fire. Fire is the power that shapes the world, the force of transformation. And fire gives warmth. Here too the mystery of Christ is made newly visible. Christ, the light, is fire, flame, burning up evil and so reshaping both the world and ourselves. “Whoever is close to me is close to the fire,” as Jesus is reported by Origen to have said. And this fire is both heat and light: not a cold light, but one through which God’s warmth and goodness reach down to us.

The great hymn of the Exsultet, which the deacon sings at the beginning of the Easter liturgy, points us quite gently towards a further aspect. It reminds us that this object, the candle, has its origin in the work of bees. So the whole of creation plays its part. In the candle, creation becomes a bearer of light. But in the mind of the Fathers, the candle also in some sense contains a silent reference to the Church,. The cooperation of the living community of believers in the Church in some way resembles the activity of bees. It builds up the community of light. So the candle serves as a summons to us to become involved in the community of the Church, whose raison d’être is to let the light of Christ shine upon the world. 

Let us pray to the Lord at this time that he may grant us to experience the joy of his light; let us pray that we ourselves may become bearers of his light, and that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may enter our world (cf. LG 1). Amen

Pope Benedict XVI never ceases to amaze me with the depth of his thought and clarity of vision.  He makes his statements softly and without fanfare, and we must listen carefully to what he says.   He is giving us a very urgent message here which has relevance to every man, woman and child on this earth.  It truly is a message of life and death, of physical life and death, and of even far more importance, spiritual life and death.   The world ignores this message at its own peril.

GOOD FRIDAY - THE PASSION AND DEATH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR

Isaiah 53

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: 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:

3 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.

4 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.

5 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.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.

8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.

10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.

Today, Good Friday, is the most solemn day of the year for Christians.  Today we commemorate the crucifixion and death of our Lord and Creator, Jesus Christ, who came to this earth, taking on the form of a man, and spilling His Precious Blood to redeem us from the sure damnation that we all face.  The suffering Christ on the Cross is the picture of what love is all about - giving your life for others. 

I have posted a video below which takes scenes from Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.  As graphic and gruesome as this video may be, it still does not show the full extent of the suffering of our Lord.  Please watch this video in prayerful meditation, and then get down on your knees and gave thanks to our most beloved Lord Jesus for his great and awesome sacrifice, offering his Life on the Cross to pay for our sins. 

Pope Benedict XVI's Palm Sunday Sermon: Jesus Christ Is the Conquerer of Death

Christ Reigning from
the Throne of the Cross

What does it mean to truly follow Christ?   Pope Benedict XVI gives great insight into this question in his sermon given on Palm Sunday.  He starts out by telling us that Christ our King is going to Jerusalem to fulfill Scripture and to be nailed to the Cross, which the Holy Father calls "the throne from which he will reign for ever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption."  This is in direct contrast to what the world views as a king.  We see Christ nailed to the Cross, unable to even move, and yet the Holy Father tells us He is accomplishing the greatest work in the universe.  By His suffering, he is redeeming mankind from eternal damnation.  The Holy Father calls Christ "the conquerer of death." 

This goes against the "feel good" message that so many preach about Christ, that he came to relieve the physical suffering of humanity.  Certainly that is part of the Gospel message, but ultimately, Christ's greatest concern is not to free us from physical suffering, but from sin and eternal death.  And the only path to that redemption is through the Cross, which is Christ's throne.  Christ calls to us from the Cross, His Throne.  We must go to the Cross with Him.

As always, there is tremendous depth and meaning to the Pope's sermon.  It is worth reading and re-reading to gain all the many insights which it contains.  I have highlighted a few things that stand out to me.  I am sure there is much I have missed. 

Full Text: Pope's Homily on Palm Sunday

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes up to Jerusalem in order to fulfil the Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will reign for ever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption. We know from the Gospels that Jesus had set out towards Jerusalem in company with the Twelve, and that little by little a growing crowd of pilgrims had joined them. Saint Mark tells us that as they were leaving Jericho, there was a “great multitude” following Jesus (cf. 10:46).

On the final stage of the journey, a particular event stands out, one which heightens the sense of expectation of what is about to unfold and focuses attention even more sharply upon Jesus. Along the way, as they were leaving Jericho, a blind man was sitting begging, Bartimaeus by name. As soon as he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he began to cry out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mk 10:47). People tried to silence him, but to no avail; until Jesus had them call him over and invited him to approach. “What do you want me to do for you?”, he asked. And the reply: “Master, let me receive my sight” (v. 51). Jesus said: “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” Bartimaeus regained his sight and began to follow Jesus along the way (cf. v. 52). And so it was that, after this miraculous sign, accompanied by the cry “Son of David”, a tremor of Messianic hope spread through the crowd, causing many of them to ask: this Jesus, going ahead of us towards Jerusalem, could he be the Messiah, the new David? And as he was about to enter the Holy City, had the moment come when God would finally restore the Davidic kingdom?

The preparations made by Jesus, with the help of his disciples, serve to increase this hope. As we heard in today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 11:1-10), Jesus arrives in Jerusalem from Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, that is, the route by which the Messiah was supposed to come. From there, he sent two disciples ahead of him, telling them to bring him a young donkey that they would find along the way. They did indeed find the donkey, they untied it and brought it to Jesus. At this point, the spirits of the disciples and of the other pilgrims were swept up with excitement: they took their coats and placed them on the colt; others spread them out on the street in Jesus’ path as he approached, riding on the donkey. Then they cut branches from the trees and began to shout phrases from Psalm 118, ancient pilgrim blessings, which in that setting took on the character of messianic proclamation: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (v. 9-10). This festive acclamation, reported by all four evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the longed-for Messiah has finally come. And everyone is there, growing in expectation of the work that Christ will accomplish once he has entered the city.

But what is the content, the inner resonance of this cry of jubilation? The answer is found throughout the Scripture, which reminds us that the Messiah fulfils the promise of God’s blessing, God’s original promise to Abraham, father of all believers: “I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you ... and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” (Gen 12:2-3). It is the promise that Israel had always kept alive in prayer, especially the prayer of the Psalms. Hence he whom the crowd acclaims as the blessed one is also he in whom the whole of humanity will be blessed. Thus, in the light of Christ, humanity sees itself profoundly united and, as it were, enfolded within the cloak of divine blessing, a blessing that permeates, sustains, redeems and sanctifies all things.  [Without Christ, humanity has no hope.]

Here we find the first great message that today’s feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations. The look that the believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing: a wise and loving look, capable of grasping the world’s beauty and having compassion on its fragility. Shining through this look is God’s own look upon those he loves and upon Creation, the work of his hands. We read in the Book of Wisdom: “But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men’s sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest all things that exist and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made ... thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living” (11:23-24, 26).

Let us return to today’s Gospel passage and ask ourselves: what is really happening in the hearts of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel? Clearly, they had their own idea of the Messiah, an idea of how the long-awaited King promised by the prophets should act. Not by chance, a few days later, instead of acclaiming Jesus, the Jerusalem crowd will cry out to Pilate: “Crucify him!”, while the disciples, together with others who had seen him and listened to him, will be struck dumb and will disperse. The majority, in fact, was disappointed by the way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. This is the heart of today’s feast, for us too. Who is Jesus of Nazareth for us? What idea do we have of the Messiah, what idea do we have of God? It is a crucial question, one we cannot avoid, not least because during this very week we are called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne. We are called to follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness, but the happiness of heaven, divine beatitude. So we must ask ourselves: what are our true expectations? What are our deepest desires, with which we have come here today to celebrate Palm Sunday and to begin our celebration of Holy Week?  [Here the Holy Father is speaking to those who feel that Christ's Gospel message is one of social justice, of enriching the earthly, material lives of humanity.  But as the Holy Father says, "we are called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne."  Our Lord did not choose physical comfort but suffering, and if we are to follow Him, we must choose this same Cross.] 

Dear young people, present here today, this, in a particular way, is your Day, wherever the Church is present throughout the world. So I greet you with great affection! May Palm Sunday be a day of decision for you, the decision to say yes to the Lord and to follow him all the way, the decision to make his Passover, his death and resurrection, the very focus of your Christian lives. [The Holy Father is urging the young people to choose not the way of materialism, which leads to death, but the Way of the Cross, which leads to life.  To do this, we must make Christ, not the things of this world, the center of our lives.]  It is the decision that leads to true joy, as I reminded you in this year’s World Youth Day Message – “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). So it was for Saint Clare of Assisi when, on Palm Sunday 800 years ago, inspired by the example of Saint Francis and his first companions, she left her father’s house to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. She was eighteen years old and she had the courage of faith and love to decide for Christ, finding in him true joy and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, may these days call forth two sentiments in particular: praise, after the example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with their “Hosanna!”, and thanksgiving, because in this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so great a gift, that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer, our entering into a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died and rose for us. The early Church Fathers saw a symbol of all this in the gesture of the people who followed Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem, the gesture of spreading out their coats before the Lord. Before Christ – the Fathers said – we must spread out our lives, ourselves, in an attitude of gratitude and adoration. As we conclude, let us listen once again to the words of one of these early Fathers, Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete: “So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye only for a few brief hours. But we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or with the whole Christ ... so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet ... let us offer not palm branches but the prizes of victory to the conqueror of death. Today let us too give voice with the children to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’” (PG 97, 994). Amen!

We must forsake this world and all of its ways and cling to the Cross of our Lord, to His Throne, if we are to be saved.

Our Enemies Give Us The Victory

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week in which we commemorate the Passion of Jesus Christ when he suffered and died to redeem us from sin.  This is the holiest week of the year in the Liturgical Calendar.  Palm Sunday is that day in which Our Lord entered Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of the scripture from Zachariah 9:9:  "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold thy king will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass."  Jesus was greeted with great rejoicing by those who had just seen him raise Lazarus from the dead.  But in only a few short days, many of these same people would be shouting for his death.  But if these people had not been calling for the death of our Lord, it is possible that we would not have a Saviour.  Read on for an explanation.

The Romans force Simon of Cyrene
to assist Jesus in carrying the Cross

In meditating upon the Stations of the Cross, I have always found the 5th Station, in which the Romans force Simon of Cyrene to assist Jesus in carrying the cross, to be very ironic.  The Romans did not force Simon of Cyrene to assist Jesus out of any compassion for our Suffering Lord.  It was to keep Jesus alive long enough to get Him to Calvary where they could nail Him to a Cross and crucify Him.  Yet, it was the Romans and Jews, the ones who wanted Jesus dead and out of the way, who were the people who enabled Jesus to successfully fulfill his mission of dying on the Cross and redeeming mankind.  The Apostle Peter, who professed great love and devotion to our Lord, actually tried to stop Jesus from dying, and our Lord's response to Peter was to call him Satan.  If Peter had been successful, we would not have a Saviour. 

I always took this lesson of the assistance of Simon of Cyrene to mean that often those who declare themselves our avowed enemies and seek only our destruction can sometimes be the very ones who will give us the help we need to succeed in gaining eternal life.  Those who love us the most are sometimes the ones who are more harmful to us in the long run.

In the traditional breviary today, there is a sermon from St. Leo the Pope in which he describes this ironic scenario in which Satan, by stirring up such hatred against Jesus, actually defeated himself.  It was Satan's intense desire to destroy Jesus through the Jews that Jesus was crucified and defeated our arch enemy and redeemed us from his hands.  As St. Leo says in his sermon:

But he was undone by his own malice. For he brought upon the Son of God that death which is become life to all the sons of man. He shed that innocent blood which was to become at once the price of our redemption and the cup of our salvation.

Here is the entire sermon.  Evil can never defeat our Lord, who actually uses evil to defeat itself.

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Leo the Pope

Dearly beloved, the Solemnity of the Lord's Passion is come ; that day which we have so desired, and which same is so precious to the whole world. Shouts of spiritual triumph are ringing, and suffer not that we should be silent. Even though it be hard to preach often on the same solemnity, and do so meetly and well, a priest is not free to shirk the duty of preaching to the faithful concerning this so great mystery of divine mercy. Nay, that his subject-matter is unspeakable should in itself make him eloquent, since where enough can never be said, there must needs ever be something to say. Let human weakness, then, fall down before the glory of God, and acknowledge itself unequal to the duty of expounding the works of his mercy. Let us toil in thought, let us fail in insight, let us falter in speech ; it is good for us to feel how inadequate is the little we are able to express concerning the majesty of God.

For when the Prophet saith : Seek the Lord and his strength ; seek his face evermore : let no man thence conclude that he will ever find all that he seeketh. For if he cease his seeking, he will likewise cease to draw near. But among all the works of God which weary the stedfast gaze of man's wonder, what is there that doth at once so ravish and so exceed the power of our contemplation as the Passion of the Saviour? He it was who, to loose mankind from the bonds of the death-dealing Fall, spared to bring against the rage of the devil the power of the divine Majesty, and met him with the weakness of our lowly nature. [Christ defeated Satan not with the nature of God, but with His lowly and weak Human Nature, a most cruel defeat for the Evil One.]  For if our cruel and haughty enemy could have known the counsel of God's mercy, it had been his task rather to have softened the hearts of the Jews into meekness, than to have inflamed them with unrighteous hatred. Thus he might not have lost the thraldom of all his slaves, by attacking the liberty of the One that owed him nothing.  [If Satan had not been blinded by his hatred of God and Goodness, he would have realized that allowing Christ to live would have given him victory. Killing Christ gave the victory to our Lord.] 

He shed that innocent blood which was to become at once the price of our redemption and the cup of our salvation. [It was our enemy, who wants all of us dead, who shed the Precious Blood that gives us Life.]  Wherefore the Lord hath received that which according to the purpose of his own good pleasure he hath chosen. And such was his loving-kindness, even for his murderers, that his prayer to his Father from the Cross asked not vengeance for himself but forgiveness for them.

The next time you are on the receiving end of persecution or cruelty and hatred of any sort, remember, this may very well be what will help you to gain eternal life. 

The Blatant Hypocrisy of Barack Obama

One of the biggest stories in the nation today is that of the tragic killing of 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Florida.  Martin, who was unarmed and was killed by a neighborhood watchman.  This story has escalated into a potential race riot because Martin was black and the neighborhood watchman is white.  The watchman claims he killed Martin in self defense.  He has not been arrested but there is an investigation being done, while "leaders" such as the New Black Panther Party and Al Sharpton are calling for everything from the arrest to the outright killing of George Zimmerman, the white shooter. 

Our President weighed in on this case, calling for a full investigation and then making what I consider to be a very strange statement coming from this most pro-abortion president: 

". . . my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. you know, if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon. and, you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. all right."

This statement is coming from the man who has pushed abortion more than any politician in our history.  When he was a state senator in Illinois, he used all his political might to stop the passage of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, an act designed to protect the survivors of abortion by ensuring they would receive medical care.  Obama said that by protecting survivors of abortion, "it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute. For that purpose, I think it would probably be found unconstitutional."  So Obama is basically saying here, if we protect these children, then we will have to admit that those other babies who are being successfully aborted are also children, and that would be unconstitutional!

Candidate Obama in 2008 made the infamous statement that he would never want his daughters to be "punished" with a baby, and that is why he would always fight to keep abortion legal.  Obama, as president, has pushed to fund abortions around the world, allowed free abortions to members of the US military, and has consistently and strongly supported Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider of abortions in the United States.

I regularly pray in front of two abortion mills which just happen to be in a predominately white neighborhood.  But the majority of women who go into these abortion mills are 90% to 95% African American.  As I have reported elsewhere on this blog, there are 3 black babies aborted for every two live black births in New York City.  That is over 60% of black babies who are being legally snuffed out.  The minority communities are targeted by abortionists, there can be no doubt of that. 

I think that the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida is a very tragic event, and there can be no winners in this case at all.  But does no one care about the thousands and thousands of black babies that are torn apart, burned alive and otherwise killed in their mothers' wombs every day in this country?  Why aren't Al Sharpton and the New Black Panthers marching on these killing fields and demanding that they be shut down?  How many of those babies, who are never allowed to take their first breath, would look like our President? 

The hypocrisy of not only President Barack Obama but all others who look the other way while there is a genocide going on right under their own noses is absolutely breathtaking.  If they do not oppose the killing of babies in their mothers' wombs, they have no right to speak out on this tragic case in Florida.

The Feast of the Annunication

Hail Mary, Full of Grace,

The Lord is With Thee,

Blessed Art Thou Among Women
And Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus 

Today is the magnificent Feast of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to our Blessed Mother Mary.  This is the day that we bow down in gratitude not just to the Trinity, who chose Mary as the ark of salvation, the virgin who would give birth to her own Creator.  We also honor the Virgin herself for saying "Yes" to the incarnation.  She was and is an intricate part of our salvation.  As St. Louis de Montfort said, "Christ came into the world through Mary, and through Mary he must reign in the world." 

This is especially galling to the enemy, Satan.  It was through a woman that Satan brought sin and death into the world, and it is through a woman, through her seed, that God brought salvation to mankind.  Mary, that most beautiful and most perfect creation of God, crushes the head of Satan, as prophesied in Genesis 3:15 - "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."  And it all starts with her "yes" to the angel Gabriel, as told in the first chapter of Luke:

26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29 Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever.

33 And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

35 And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren:

37 Because no word shall be impossible with God.

38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Here is a wonderful explanation of the meaning of true devotion to Mary from Father John Hardon, S.J. 

St. Louis de Montfort
Apostle of Mary for Today

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Great Catholic Books Newsletter
Volume I, Number 6

On the occasion of the second millennium of Mary's birth, Pope John Paul II emphasized the importance of a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. He singled out St. Louis de Montfort as a prime example of what this means.

He proposes consecration to Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments. I am pleased to note that in our own time, too, many manifestations of this spirituality and devotion are not lacking.

If there is one feature of the present Pope's pontificate, it is his emphasis on the need for devotion to the Blessed Virgin to stem the tide of global secularism in the modern world. It is easy to dismiss the Pope's Marian spirituality as a pious eccentricity. But Pope John Paul II is too intelligent and too experienced not to know that only supernatural means can halt the advance of unbelief in what he calls "the materially super-developed nations" in Western society. In one conference after another, in one document after another, the Pope insists: only a renaissance of Mariology in thought and practice can restore once Christian nations to their original commitment to the Son of Mary.

It is in this context that we should look more closely at the Marian teaching of St. Louis de Montfort. What needs to be underlined is what de Montfort calls the True Devotion to Mary.

There is no lack of Marian piety among Catholics today. There is no lack of books, periodicals, pamphlets and brochures on the Blessed Virgin. What Louis de Montfort emphasized 200 years ago needs to be clarified more than ever in our day.

In his treatise on the True Devotion, St. Louis identifies seven forms of false devotions to the Blessed Virgin and the false devotees of Our Lady. I would single out two kinds of spurious devotion to Mary to which, our modern age is especially prone. Says St. Louis de Montfort:

External devotees are persons who make all devotion to our Blessed Lady consist in outward practices. They have no taste except for the exterior of this devotion, because they have no interior spirit of their own. We have still to mention the false devotees of our Blessed Lady who are the hypocritical devotees. They cloak their sins and sinful habits with her mantle in order to be taken by men for what they are not.

Suppose we look at these two forms of Marian devotion which de Montfort called erroneous. They deserve all the attention we can give them if we are to hope for the transformation of the modern world, through Mary, which the present Holy Father is so earnestly advancing.

Interior Devotion

St. Louis warns Catholics against identifying devotion to Mary with outward Marian forms of piety. 

Of course we human beings are a composite of body and soul. We are to externalize our practice of prayer. We are to use our hands and our lips and move our bodies when we engage in the Liturgy and in personal acts of piety. The problem, de Montfort would say, is that devotion to the Blessed Virgin consists in much more than these externals.

Interior devotion to our Lady means many things, but it means especially the imitation of her virtues, and among these especially her unshaken faith, her absolute confidence in God and her utterly selfless charity toward others.

UNSHAKABLE FAITH.  Mary's faith was immovable from the Annunciation to the Crucifixion. She never doubted for a moment that the Child she conceived was her God. Elizabeth's greeting to her as, "Mother of My Lord" was an expression of Mary's own deep faith in the Divinity of her Son.

How many Catholics who say their rosaries and recite their Hail Marys realize that their most fundamental devotion to Mary is an absolute and unqualified faith that Jesus Christ is literally the Incarnate Son of God.

Reread the letters of St. John the Apostle who took care of Christ's mother after His Ascension. In one verse after another John tells us who belongs to Christ and who belongs to the devil. The one who belongs to Christ is the one who believes that Jesus, the Son of Mary is the Son of the living God. The one who belongs to the devil is the antichrist; he denies the Incarnation and rejects the Divinity of Mary's Son.

As we look at the modern world, we see that this is the heart of the crisis in so many dechristianized countries. Lip service may still be given to the Apostle's Creed. But, in practice, the Christ of the Gospels has been demythologized and become just another religious leader alongside Buddha, Mohammed and Mahatma Ghandi.

ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE IN GOD. Building on her unshakable faith, Mary trusted in God as no human had ever done before or since. Our boundless confidence in God is an essential part of our imitation of Mary.

She never wavered in her confidence that Christ would overcome the bodily death inflicted by His enemies. Since the first century, Saturday has been commemorated as Mary's Day. She alone among the followers of Christ was absolutely sure, during the first Holy Saturday, that there would be an Easter Sunday.

During the fifteen years that Mary remained on earth after her Son's Ascension, she saw the young Church persecuted, rejected and martyred. It was part of God's providence that she should literally mother the infant Mystical Body of Christ by strengthening the early Christians as they shared in the Passion of her Son.

How we need this Marian inspiration today! We are living in the Age of Martyrs with millions dying for their Christian faith, more than ever in the Church's 2000 years of history. Bishops and priests, religious and the laity, the married and the single, the young and the old must either practice something of the heroic trust in God that Mary had or become further casualties in the Christless cultures of the 20th Century.

UTTERLY SELFLESS CHARITY. It is not for nothing that Mary has been presented as the perfect model, after Christ, of selfless generosity to others. This generosity was deeply interior and was shown especially in her patient cooperation with Jesus in His Redemption of a sinful world.

Charity has many meanings. It has also been cheapened almost to no meaning among people who have made an idol of self. But one meaning of Marian charity had better be understood in our self-idolizing times. If we love someone we are willing to suffer for the one we love and with the one we claim to love. Christ's sufferings were brought on by the envy and malice of His enemies. This, in fact, is the principal meaning of the Passion. It is pain endured from hostile persons, whose hostility is the main source of suffering. What Christ experienced was not only or mainly the physical experience in His Body. His worst agony was rejection by those He loved and hatred by those for whom He was willing to die.

Mary shared in Christ's Passion. This was her compassion, suffering interiorly as only the loving heart of a Mother could participate in the sufferings of her Child.We hear so much nowadays about love. It has become almost a cliché for authenticity and even in Christian circles, a substitute for faith. But love on Marian terms is nothing if not patient endurance at the hands and eyes and lips and thoughts of persons whom we love but do not love us correspondingly in return.

Here especially, True Devotion to Mary is the imitation of Mary's loving patience with the persecutors of her Son. They are persecuting Him still in the person of His followers. And it is our privilege to follow Mary's example of utterly selfless charity in the practice of utterly patient love.

VIRTUOUS SINCERITY. St. Louis de Montfort stigmatizes certain devotees of Mary with hypocrisy. He says they cloak their sins with her mantle in order to be taken for what they are not. A great apostle of Mary, Padre Pio, claimed that the single most devastating sin of modern man is hypocrisy.

True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin dare not be a mask for sinful habits that are covered by a veneer of piety.

As we read the True Devotion to Mary we may be shocked by the strong language that the author uses to describe what he calls hypocrisy. However, we begin to see what he means when we read what Christ said to the Scribes and Pharisees of His day. He was merciless in denouncing their lives of pretense and their sham observance of the externals of the Mosaic Law.

All of this we can apply, with humility, to ourselves. Authentic devotion to the Blessed Virgin must be the expression of a life of virtue. In essence, devotion is dedicated love. Our love of Christ, following the example of Mary, must be real. This means it must be lived in obedience to His teaching and in the observance of His commands. Otherwise, it becomes a substitute for true devotion to Mary which means the true following of Christ.

Marian Synthesis 

To understand the True Devotion, we must see it as devotion to the Incarnate God. Even de Montfort's idea of becoming a slave of Mary becomes intelligible only if it is understood as an expression of one's total consecration to Mary's Son. Our Christian dedication must be lived by "performing all one's actions through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary, so as to perform them more perfectly through Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus, and for Jesus" (True Devotion, 258). Thus, the act of consecration composed by St. Louis is addressed to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom.

The bedrock of the True Devotion is the following of Christ after the example of Mary, as inspired by Mary and made possible by the graces she receives through the intercession of her Divine Son.

There is no surer path to Christ than through His Blessed Virgin Mother, the one who never left his side and never wavered in her faith.  To honor Mary is to honor her Son.  She is the one who intercedes for us before his throne.  She is the one who stays at our side as we carry our cross just as she stayed at the side of her Beloved Son. 

It is impossible to honor Mary too highly, for every honor and devotion we give to her goes directly to her Son. 

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners,

Now and at the hour of our death.  Amen

Mary will walk with us
just as she walked with her Son

Welcome to Babylon, Tim Tebow!

In a city of 8 million people, we here in the Big Apple have pretty much seen everything and we tend to take it all in stride.  It takes an awful lot to shake up New Yorkers.  But this city has been galvanized by a 24-year old professing Christian named Tim Tebow and the fact that he is now going to be second string quarterback for the New York Jets.  He has been on the front pages of all of the newspapers and the top story in all the rest of the media in New York.  I personally, as a resident of New York City, could not be more thrilled.  As I have posted previously, I am not a pro sports fan.  I couldn't care less who does and does not play for the New York Jets or any other sports team.  It didn't phase me in the least when the New York Giants won the Superbowl. 

But I have made a big exception with Tim Tebow because of his very real belief in Jesus Christ and the wondeful positive message he sends to the world just by being alive.  Even those who have no use for him admit that he is the real deal.  There is nothing phony about Tim Tebow.  And in my mind, his most important message to the world is that of the sanctity of life.  His mother became quite ill while she was pregnant with him, and the doctors strongly advised her to get an abortion because he was going to be severely handicapped.  She refused, and as we can all see, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this strong and healthy young man. 

I don't think it's any accident that Tim Tebow, whom I have called "Gods Answer to Abortion", is now coming to the abortion capital of the United States, where over 40% of all preganancies end in abortion, and where there are approximately 89,000 abortions performed every year.  In the Black community, there are 3 abortions for every 2 live births.  The numbers are staggering.  There is a website devoted solely to the abortions done in New York City called nyc41percent.com. 

None of what I have read or heard about Tim Tebow has mentioned the abortion issue, but I can tell you without a doubt it is in the back of many liberal minds. 

One of the fairest editorials I have read about Tebow coming to New York City is from . . . . THE NEW YORK TIMES!  Yes, folks, that newspaper that so many revile as being the devil's newspaper, and in far too many ways, it is just that.   But once in a while they will surprise, and I was very pleasantly surprised with the following editorial by Ross Douthat:

Tebow in Babylon

By ROSS DOUTHAT

THE Prophet Jonah was sent to Nineveh. St. Paul was sent to Athens, Macedonia, Rome. And now Tim Tebow has been sent to New York City.

There was a moment last week when it looked as if the trade shipping Tebow from the Denver Broncos to the New York Jets might somehow fall through — that Tebow might end up a Jacksonville Jaguar instead, with a guaranteed starting job, a heavily evangelical fan base, and none of the insanity involved in eclipsing Jeremy Lin as the most famous Christian athlete in Babylon-upon-the-Hudson.

O ye of little faith. Did you think that the Lord God of Hosts, having raised Tebow up as a Gideon of the gridiron, would pass up the opportunity to put his faithful servant to the test? Did you think that the angelic screenwriters responsible for scripting last year’s succession of Tebow-related improbabilities had nodded off after the Broncos were dispatched in the A.F.C. playoffs? Did you think that the archons and demiurges who preside over America’s culture war would be content to let Tebow fade into obscurity — some red-state-friendly endorsement deals, a few 6-10 finishes, and then early retirement and a lifetime of under-the-radar charity work?

Above all, did you think that Tebow himself, with his distinctive mix of missionary zeal and “give me the ball” confidence, would duck the Gotham opportunity? That he would pull a LeBron James and take his talents down to Florida instead?

No, this was where the Tebow story was always destined to end up. Denver was his Galilee; New York will be the Roman Colosseum. Or to be pop cultural rather than scriptural: Denver was District 12 in Suzanne Collins’s Panem, and the Meadowlands will be the Hunger Games arena.

New Yorkers are a sophisticated lot, and the Tebow hype will afford them plenty of opportunities for eye-rolling. The sophisticated football fan will tell you that Tebow is a bad-to-mediocre quarterback with a few unusual skills who rode a lucky streak to undeserved fame; the rest is just the standard media fantasy about “intangibles” and “grit” dressed up with spirituality.

The sophisticated atheist will inform you that in a vast and complicated cosmos, there will inevitably be temporary patterns that give the appearance of some divine design. But it would be even more ridiculous for a secular-minded football fan to root against Tebow than for a religious fan to root for him: in a godless, random universe, failure is no more metaphysically significant than success. (Or as Grantland’s Brian Phillips put it: “If you’re against Tebow, you can’t read too much into Tebow’s failures, or else Tebow has already won.”)

The sophisticated Christian, meanwhile, may be a little embarrassed by the whole Tebow business. A sophisticate’s God doesn’t care about trivia like who wins football games. A sophisticate’s theology doesn’t depend on what some musclehead does with the pigskin.

But let’s be unsophisticated for a moment. Why is Tim Tebow such a fascinating and polarizing figure? Not just because he claims to be religious; that claim is commonplace among football stars and ordinary Americans alike. Rather, it’s because his conduct — kind, charitable, chaste, guileless — seems to actually vindicate his claim to be in possession of a life-altering truth.

Nothing discredits religion quite like the gap that often yawns between what believers profess and how they live. With Tebow, that gap seems so narrow as to be invisible. (“There’s not an ounce of artifice or phoniness or Hollywood in this kid Tebow,” ESPN’s Rick Reilly wrote last year of the quarterback’s charitable works, “and I’ve looked everywhere for it.”) He fascinates, in part, because he behaves — at least in public, and at least for now — the way one would expect more Christians to behave if their faith were really true.

But the fascination doesn’t end there. Tebow’s religion doesn’t just promise a path to personal transformation. It claims that every human life is actually a story with an Author, and that a genuinely Christian life should make that divine Authorship manifest.

So in Tebow’s case, the link between faith and football can’t actually be broken. The more that his professional career seems like, well, a storybook — with exciting up and downs, new opportunities and unexpected twists — the more credible his faith in providence becomes.

Note that “a storybook” is not the same as “an inevitable success.” In Christian theology as in young-adult fiction, even the author’s most beloved characters can suffer pain, temptation, failure, exile. The lives of the saints often end in martyrdom. The gentle, brutalized Peeta Mellark is as much the hero of “The Hunger Games” as the indomitable Katniss Everdeen.

So even the most pious of Jets fans shouldn’t expect a Super Bowl title. But if their new quarterback’s story really has an Author, they’re in for a pretty interesting ride.

Ah, Ross, you summed it up beautifully. Despite Cardinal Dolan's protestations that New York City is not modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, it is exactly that.  It can be no accident that the most high profile Christian in the land is now in one of the most secular cities in the world. He needs all the prayers and support he can get, and I intend to support him in any way I can. 

St. Benedict - Patron Saint of the Politically Incorrect?

Yesterday, March 21, was the Feast Day of St. Benedict Abbot, born around 480 A.D.  He is not very well known, and his feast day is no longer celebrated in the Novus Ordo calendar.  But we still celebrate him on the Traditional Calendar.  Below is the story of his life taken from the Traditional Breviary.  St. Benedict's story struck me as the story of someone with tremendous courage who was not afraid to stand up for what he knew was right, even when such a stand put his life in danger.  In our days of political correctness, he would be demonized as intolerant and bigoted.  There is only one sin left in our society, and it is that of intolerance.  But intolerance is a sin only when it is directed towards what use to be called sin, such as immorality, lying, stealing, cheating, etc.  Tolerance of "what was formerly known as sin" is now seen in our world as loving and compassionate - after all, we are all merely victims of our circumstances and environment.  And the taboos of the past - such as homosexuality, adultery, promiscuity, etc. - are nothing more than the neuroses of repressed people. 

St. Benedict's story also tells us how he dealt with severe temptation - he rolled around in thorns until the physical pain drove out the temptations of the flesh.  This is in direct contradiction to the philosophy of the modern world which says, "If it feels good, do it."  This "feel good" philosophy is directly from Satan himself, and can and does lead to our destruction, both physical and spiritual. 

So here is the story of St. Benedict from yesterday's Matins:

Benedict was born of a noble family at Norcia, and studied letters at Rome. Desiring to give himself to Christ Jesus, he betook himself to a very deep cave at the place now called Subiaco. In this place he lay hid for three years, unknown to all except the monk Romanus, by means of whom he received the necessaries of life. While he was in the cave at Subiaco, the devil one day assailed him with an extraordinary storm of impure temptation, and to get it under, he rolled himself in brambles till his whole body was lacerated, and the sting of pain drove out the sallies of lust. At last the fame of his holiness spread itself abroad from the desert, and some monks came to him for guidance, but the looseness of their lives was such that they could not bear his exhortations, and they plotted together to poison him in his drink. When they gave him the cup, he made the sign of the Cross over it, whereupon it immediately broke, and Benedict left that monastery, and retired to a desert place alone.

Nevertheless his disciples followed him daily, and for them he built twelve monasteries, and set holy laws to govern them. Afterwards he went to Cassino, and brake the image of Apollo which was still worshipped there, overturned the altar, and burnt the groves. There, he built the Church of St. Martin and the little chapel of St. John ; and instilled Christianity into the townspeople and inhabitants. He grew in the grace of God day by day, so that being endowed with the spirit of prophecy he foretold things to come. When Totila, King of the Goths, heard of it, and would see whether it really were so, he sent his spatharius before him, with the kingly ensigns and attendance, and feigning himself to be Totila. But as soon as Benedict saw him he said : My son, put off that which thou wearest, for it is not thine. To Totila himself he foretold that he would go to Rome, would cross the sea, and would die after nine years.

Some months before he departed this life, Benedict forewarned his disciples on what day he was to die ; and he ordered his grave to be opened six days before he was carried to it. On the sixth day, he would be carried into the Church, where he received the Eucharist, and then, in the arms of his disciples, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, and wrapt in prayer, he gave up the ghost. Two monks saw his soul rising to heaven, clothed in a most precious garment and surrounded with lights, and One of a most glorious and awful aspect standing above, whom they heard saying : This is the way whereby Benedict, the beloved of the Lord, goeth up to heaven.

The Glory of St. Benedict

Whitney Houston
in her last hours on earth

I think of the recent death of Whitney Houston, who lived a hedonistic lifestyle where she did whatever she wanted.  This did not give her the freedom she was looking for, but instead enslaved her until her addictions finally killed her at the age of 48. Would she have done better to roll around in the thorns as St. Benedict did?  Certainly it would have been better for her soul than putting cocaine up her nose and guzzling pills and booze.  Am I advocating such severe mortifications as those engaged in by St. Benedict?  No, of course not.  But we have to learn to say no to our own lusts and do whatever it takes to turn away from sin.  We must, as our Lord commanded, take up our cross and follow him.  If we do, like St. Benedict, we will one day rise in glory to our Creator.

American Freedom - Down The Toilet

During the past 10+ years, since the attacks of 9/11, we have seen our constitutional rights increasingly eroded.  First there was the Patriot Act, which took away our 4th Amendment right because the Act allows surveillance without probable cause.  We have warrantless surveillance, extended by Obama.  We have the TSA either groping or radiating us at the airports.  Here in New York City, we are told that we can have our bags searched at any time in the subway and there is nothing we can do about it.  We have cameras watching our every move. 

All of this is completely unconstitutional, and too many Americans, sadly, are accepting it because they are told it is the only way to be safe.  On December 31, 2011, Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law, which gives him and any future president the power to order the military to take any American into indefinite custody without a charge, trial or conviction. 

Now we have a new Executive Order signed by the President on March 16, 2012, which gives the government the ability to take anything and everything away from us. 

Let's face it, folks, we live in a de facto dictatorship, and it's only going to get worse. 

Here is an article describing the newest attack on our freedom.

New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness

Brandon Turbeville

Activist Post

In a stunning move, on March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.

Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.

The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order exploits the “authority” granted to the President in the Defense Production Act of 1950 in order to assert that virtually every means of human survival is now available for confiscation and control by the President via his and his Secretaries’ whim.

The unconstitutionality of the overwhelming majority of Executive Orders is well established, as well as the illegality of denying citizens their basic Constitutional and human rights, even in the event of a legitimate national emergency. Likewise, it should also be pointed out that, like Obama’s recent Libyan adventure and the foregone conclusion of a Syrian intervention, there is no mention of Congress beyond a minor role of keeping the allegedly co-equal branch of government informed on contextually meaningless developments.

As was mentioned above, the scope of the EO is virtually all-encompassing. For instance, in “Section 201 – Priorities and Allocations Authorities,” the EO explains that the authority for the actions described in the opening paragraph rests with the President but is now delegated to the various Secretaries of the U.S. Federal Government. The list of delegations and the responsibility of the Secretaries as provided in this section are as follows:

(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

One need only to read the “Definitions” section of the EO in order to clearly see that terms such as “food resources” is an umbrella that includes literally every form of food and food-related product that could in any way be beneficial to human survival.

That being said, “Section 601 – Secretary of Labor” delegates special responsibilities to the Secretary of Labor as it involves not just materials citizens will need for survival, but the actual citizens themselves.

Obviously, the ability of the U.S. government to induct and draft citizens into the military against their will is, although a clear violation of their rights, not an issue considered shocking by its nature of having been invoked so many times in the past. Logically, this “authority” is provided for in this section.

However, what may be shocking is the fact that Section 601 also provides for the mobilization of “labor” for purposes of the national defense. Although some subsections read that evaluations are to be made regarding the “effect and demand of labor utilization,” the implication is that “labor” (meaning American workers) will be considered yet one more resource to be seized for the purposes of “national defense.” The EO reads,

Sec. 601. Secretary of Labor. (a) The Secretary of Labor, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of other agencies, as deemed appropriate by the Secretary of Labor, shall:

(1) collect and maintain data necessary to make a continuing appraisal of the Nation's workforce needs for purposes of national defense;

(2) upon request by the Director of Selective Service, and in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, assist the Director of Selective Service in development of policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services;

Notice that the language of the EO does not state “in the event of a national emergency.” Instead, we are given the term “purposes of national defense.” This is because the “authorities” assumed by the President have been assumed not just for arbitrary declarations of “national emergency” but for peacetime as well. Indeed, the EO states this much directly when it says,

The head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense is delegated the authority of the President under section 107(b)(1) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2077(b)(1), to take appropriate action to ensure that critical components, critical technology items, essential materials, and industrial resources are available from reliable sources when needed to meet defense requirements during peacetime, graduated mobilization, and national emergency.

Presidential Executive Orders have long been used illegally by Presidents of every political shade and have often been used destroy the rights of American citizens. Although history has often come to judge these orders as both immoral and unconstitutional, the fact is that the victims of the orders suffered no less because of the retroactive judgment of their progeny. It is for this reason that we must immediately condemn and resist such obvious usurpation as is currently being attempted by the U.S. government.

Nevertheless, some have no doubt begun to wonder why the President has signed such an order. Not only that, but why did he sign the order now? Is it because of the looming war with Iran or the Third World War that will likely result from such a conflict? Is it because of the ticking time bomb called the economy that is only one jittery move or trade deal away from total disintegration? Is it because of a growing sense of hatred of their government amongst the general public? Is there a coming natural disaster of which we are unaware? Are there plans for martial law?

Whatever the reason for the recent announcement of Obama’s new Executive Order, there is one thing we do know for sure - “It wouldn’t happen here” has been the swan song of almost every victim of democide in modern human history.

I actually lay all the blame for the disintegration of the United States and all of the other horrors that are happening in the world at the feet of the Catholic Church.  Why?  Because we have not done our duty as the ark of salvation.  We have been given the Keys to the Kingdom, and instead of sharing it with the world, we've just tried to blend in with everyone else and hide what we are - the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ.

And certainly the most obvious act of disobedience of the Church is not to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1960 when she asked us to do so.  Everything that has happened in the church and the world since then is a direct consequence of that disobedient act.  And leaders in the Catholic Church must answer for all of the horror and evil that has ensued and is still to come.