Autumnal Equinox

Today was the first day of Autumn.  Today we have equal periods of light and darkness -- hence the term "equinox" -- and after today, the periods of darkness will exceed in length the periods of light.

It is unfortunate that, based on no discernable mandate from the Second Vatican Council, the post-conciliar Church tried to throw out the Ember Days, penitential days that mark the changing seasons.  The purpose of the Ember Days is to thank God for His bounty in nature, and to remind us to use His gifts in moderation and assist those in need.  As I have pointed out in this space, the changes of season are freighted with spiritual significance.  The vernal equinox coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation, the beginning of the end of the winter of Satan's reign.  It also coincides with Easter, which marks the decisive defeat of Hell, and takes place on the first Sunday on or after the first full moon on or after the equinox.  The summer solstice, when the days begin to shorten, coincides with the Nativity of John the Baptist, who said that he must decrease while the Savior increased.  The winter solstice coincides with Christmas, when the Light of the World enters the world and the days begin to lengthen.   

There is no precise correspondence between the autumnal equinox and any major feast; but since the autumnal equinox does coincide with the time of harvest, my own personal speculations lead me to connect it with the harvest of souls that will take place at the End of Time.  Our business in life is to strive to come out on the right side of that harvest: to be  in with the wheat that is gathered into the barn, and not with the tares that are bundled up and go to be burned.

Worldwide Adoration

Pope Francis asked that today, in honor of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, every parish in the world have a Holy Hour of adoration between 17:00-18:00 Rome time.  That was 9:00-10:00 a.m. here in the Mountain time zone, and very conveniently fills up the hour between the first two Sunday Masses at St. John's Cathedral.  The Host, placed in the cathedral's very beautiful, ruby-studded monstrance, was enthroned on the altar, surrounded by candles.  The hour ended with Benediction.  Plenty of Latin was involved.  

And, for the first time since I have attended the cathedral parish, silence reigned before Mass.  I am in the habit of arriving early on Sundays to pray the Rosary before Mass; but pretty soon, the cathedral fills up with people yapping and laughing and carrying on and generally behaving as though they were someplace else, until the noise becomes unbearable.  It is especially awful when there is a Baptism between Masses.  Today, however, a very different atmosphere prevailed.  Except for the occasional unavoidable noises, like coughs and sneezes, the cathedral was quiet.  People were on their knees, praying.  Some sat with prayer books or devotionals.  People coming in made every effort to do so silently.  If there was anyone there not praying, at least they weren't yakking, either.  

It should always be that way inside a church.  It's God's house, and the gate of heaven, and Jesus is always present there in the tabernacle.  Yet sadly, the uproarious din of the Novus Ordo Missae spills over into the hours outside of Mass, so that it's almost never quiet in churches, and hasn't been for a long time in a lot of places.  But the Blessed Sacrament, exposed in the monstrance and enthroned on the altar, makes a palpable difference.  We should have this hour of adoration every Sunday.  If the majority of Catholics -- even the Mass-goers -- no longer believe in the Real Presence, then bring them before their Eucharistic Lord, every Sunday before Mass, where they can have Him right in front of their eyes and be conscious of His presence.  He will take care of the rest.  

And I hope Pope Francis makes a habit of calling for worldwide Holy Hours.  This is a perfect use of our media of instantaneous communications.  Imagine a worldwide Holy Hour every month!  If this became a regular event, parishes would have the opportunity to adjust their Sunday Mass schedules if necessary, until Catholics in every parish on earth are kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament at the exact same hour, obtaining graces and blessings for themselves and the whole world.  This could not fail to have its effect.  Perhaps even, in the fullness of time, the conversion of every nation on earth.

In fact, we should write to the Holy Father and ask him.  Those who do not ask, do not receive.  Hopefully, some influential person will join in this petition.

April 29th: St. Catherine of Siena, O.P., Doctor of the Church

The Dominican Third Order is the only Third Order to have produced a Doctor of the Church, and she is St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast is today.  She only lived to be 33 -- the age at which Christ died on the Cross -- but her sanctity was such that she served as a counsellor to Popes, and did much to heal the Great Western Schism.  She is the patroness, among other things, against miscarriages (she was the youngest of 24 children) and of the Dominican laity, who especially honor her on her feast day.

Supertradmum has provided an excellent compendium of posts of information and spiritual reflections about and by Catherine of Siena.  And here is the Litany of Catherine of Siena:

LORD have mercy on us,
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Eternal Fountain of all being, have mercy on us.
Unspotted Mirror of God's Majesty, have mercy.
Love of the Father and of the Son, have mercy.
Sacred Trinity of Persons, in unity of essence, have mercy.
August Mary, tabernacle of God with men, pray for us.
Holy father Saint Dominic...
Saint Catherine of Sienna...
Saint Catherine, our holy Mother and Patroness...
Chaste Spouse of Jesus Christ...
Fervent lover of our Lord...
Faithful follower of the Cross...
Contemplative soul, instructed by the Holy Ghost...
Enemy of vanity...
Vanquisher of the evil one...
Pattern of obedience and docility...
Humble Catherine...
Rigidly austere...
Immaculate Catherine...
Most devout to the Blessed Sacrament...
Entirely devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus...
Lustre of Dominicanesses...
Heroically meek and patient...
Transcendently charitable...
Powerful in converting souls...
Mediatrix for sinners...
Angel of peace...
Guide in the interior life...
Replenished with eternal knowledge...
Filled with divine gifts...
Caught up to the Throne of the Divinity...
Following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth...
Encompassed with glory, and inebriated with the plenitude of the house of God...

Brightness of Eternal Light, Have mercy on us.
Teacher of St. Catherine, Have mercy on us.
Increated Beauty, rewarder of St. Catherine, Have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, O blessed St. Catherine.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

O God, Who didst adorn blessed Catherine with a special privilege of purity and patience, and didst enable her to triumph over malignant spirits, and to persevere unshaken in the love of Thy Holy Name; grant, we beseech Thee, that by her example, contemning the world, and overcoming all its deceits, we may securely pass to the enjoyment of Thy glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Go to Confession!

What Jesus promised to those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion on (or near) Divine Mercy Sunday:

Our Lord Jesus said, "The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet...Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy."  [Saint Faustina, Diary, 699.]

The world, and especially what now passes for Christian civilization, is swirling down the toilet.  Less than a quarter century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West is reduced to decadence and confusion, and our enemies are openly threatening us with physical annihilation. Are we, as individuals, innocent in all this?  How can we have peace and order if we not only do not live in the state of grace but do not care whether we are in it or not?  "There can be freedom without justice," said Ven. Fulton Sheen, "and that is the basic reason why there is war today; men wanting to be free from discipline, and particularly from dependence on the Justice of God."

Don't miss tomorrow's opportunity, and especially don't miss your chance to go to confession.

A priest commented to me today that now is the time of mercy, but Jesus made clear to St. Faustina that this time is limited; indeed, it is running short.  Don't waste it.  We have no idea how much is left.  The one thing we will clamor for when disaster overtakes us is time.  We will not get it.

December 25th: Christmas

Though coming in the form of man, yet not in every thing is He subject to the laws of man's nature; for while His being born of a woman tells of human nature; virginity becoming capable of childbirth betokens something above man.  Of Him then His mother's burden was light, the birth immaculate, the delivery without pain, the nativity without defilement, neither beginning from wanton desire, nor brought to pass with sorrow.  For as she who by her guilt engrafted death into our nature, was condemned to bring forth in trouble, it was meet that she who brought life into the world should accomplish her delivery with joy.  But through a virgin's purity He makes His passage into mortal life at a time in which the darkness was beginning to fail, and the vast expanse of night to fade away before the exceeding brightness of the light.  For the death of sin had brought an end of wickedness which from henceforth tends to nothing by reason of the presence of the true light which has illuminated the whole world with the rays of the Gospel.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

Benedicta et venerabilis es, Virgo Maria: Quae sine tactu pudoris inventa es mater Salvatoris.  virgo Dei Genitrix, quem totus non capit orbis, in tua se clausit viscera factus homo.

Alleluia, alleluia.  Post partum Virgo inviolata permansisti: Dei Genitrix, intercede pro nobis.  Alleluia.

Blessed and venerable art thou, O Virgin Mary: who without loss of purity wert found to be the Mother of our Savior.  Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world cannot hold enclosed Himself in thy womb, and became man.

Alleluia, alleluia.  After His birth a Virgin entire thou didst remain: O Mother of God, intercede for us. Alleluia.

The Gradual of the Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens, from the Common of Feasts of the Blessed Virgin in the 1962 Missal

12/12/12

I like the last triply repetitive date of our lifetime is a feast of Our Lady.

December 9th: St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (Re-post)

Originally posted December 9, 2009.

In 1474, Cuauhtlatoatzin ("Talking Eagle") was born a member of the Chichimeca people and a subject of the Aztecs in what is now part of Mexico City, during an epoch that was destined very soon to end. When he was 18, Christopher Columbus landed in the New World. By the time he was 47, Spain had conquered the advanced yet blood-soaked Aztec Empire. However, within a decade, the Indians were laboring under crushing oppression at the hands of corrupt Spanish officials. The first Bishop of Mexico, the Franciscan Juan de Zumárraga, struggled vainly to defend his new spiritual charges, who were close to rebellion. The harried bishop begged the Blessed Mother for her aid.

It was in this turbulent time, less than five years after the conquest of the Aztecs, that the Talking Eagle encountered the religion of the Spaniards. Even as a pagan, he appears to have led a life of penance and contemplation that no doubt laid the groundwork for what was to come to him in later life. The Talking Eagle became one of the earliest indigenous converts to the Catholic faith, accepting Baptism together with his wife and taking the name of Juan Diego in about 1524. Every Saturday and Sunday, a barefoot Juan Diego walked 14 miles to Tenochtitlan to attend Mass and receive religious instruction. After the death of his wife in 1529, Juan Diego moved in with an uncle, Juan Bernardino, which left him with only nine miles to travel to pursue his faith.

It was during one of these journeys in 1531 that the veil between heaven and earth was drawn aside for the humble farmer and mat-weaver. The 16th-century native scholar Antonio Valeriano describes what happened on that day in the Nahuatl-language Nican Mopohua (1556), the oldest and most authoritative account of the Guadalupe apparitions:

On a Saturday just before dawn, he was on his way to pursue divine worship and to engage in his own errands. As he reached the base of the hill known as Tepeyac, came the break of day, and he heard singing atop the hill, resembling singing of varied beautiful birds.

Occasionally the voices of the songsters would cease, and it appeared as if the mount responded. The song, very mellow and delightful, excelled that of the coyoltototl and the tzinizcan and of other pretty singing birds. Juan Diego stopped to look and said to himself: “By fortune, am I worthy of what I hear? Maybe I dream? Am I awakening? Where am I? Perhaps I am now in the terrestrial paradise which our elders had told us about? Perhaps I am now in heaven?” He was looking toward the east, on top of the mound, from whence came the precious celestial chant; and then it suddenly ceased and there was silence. He then heard a voice from above the mount saying to him: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.” Then he ventured and went to where he was called. He was not frightened in the least; on the contrary, overjoyed.

Then he climbed the hill, to see from were he was being called. When he reached the summit, he saw a Lady, who was standing there and told him to come hither. Approaching her presence, he marveled greatly at her superhuman grandeur; her garments were shining like the sun; the cliff where she rested her feet, pierced with glitter, resembling an anklet of precious stones, and the earth sparkled like the rainbow. The mezquites, nopales, and other different weeds, which grow there, appeared like emeralds, their foliage like turquoise, and their branches and thorns glistened like gold. He bowed before her and herd her word, tender and courteous, like someone who charms and steems you highly.

She said: “Juanito, the most humble of my sons, where are you going?” He replied: “My Lady and Child, I have to reach your church in Mexico, Tlatilolco, to pursue things divine, taught and given to us by our priests, delegates of Our Lord.” She then spoke to him: “Know and understand well, you the most humble of my sons, that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows. And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me; you will accurately relate all you have seen and admired, and what you have heard. Be assured that I will be most grateful and will reward you, because I will make you happy and worthy of recompense for the effort and fatigue in what you will obtain of what I have entrusted. Behold, you have heard my mandate, my humble son; go and put forth all your effort.”

At this point he bowed before her and said: “My Lady, I am going to comply with your mandate; now I must part from you, I, your humble servant.” Then he descended to go to comply with the errand, and went by the avenue which runs directly into Mexico City.

To Juan Diego's great disappointment, Bishop Zumárraga, who had kept him waiting a very long time before granting him an audience, would not believe him. Dejected, he went back to the Lady on Tepeyac Hill and told her how he had been rebuffed. "For which I exceedingly beg, Lady and my Child," he said,

that you entrust the delivery of your message to someone of importance, well known, respected, and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf, and you, my Child, the least of my children, my Lady, you send me to a place where I never visit nor repose. Please excuse the great unpleasantness and let not fretfulness befall, my Lady and my All.

However, the Lady insisted that this important mission was for Juan Diego alone, and ordered him to go back and try again. He obeyed, and this time the bishop questioned him closely regarding what he had seen and heard, and told him to ask the Lady for a sign. When he returned to Tepeyac Hill after this second interview, the Lady told him to come back the next day, and then he would receive the sign that would convince the bishop to comply with her request.

But in the meantime, Juan Diego's uncle, Bernardino, became so ill that his life was despaired of, and Bernardino sent his nephew to fetch a priest. Knowing that the Lady would be waiting for him on Tepeyac Hill, Juan Diego avoided the place so that he would not be diverted from his urgent errand. But the Lady accosted him and asked him where he was going. When he told her, she said:

Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my embrace? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. Be assured that he is now cured.

She then told Juan Diego to climb to the top of the hill, where he found a variety of choice Castillian roses growing out of season and on a barren patch of land. He gathered them and brought them back to the Lady, who arranged them herself in his frail cactus-fiber tilma and told him to present them to the bishop. When, after yet another long wait, he finally saw the bishop, he unfolded the tilma, and the roses fell out; and as the roses scattered on the floor, the image of Our Lady as Juan Diego had seen her on Tepeyac Hill appeared on the tilma. This put an end to Bishop Zumárraga's doubts and convinced him that this was Our Lady's answer to his prayers.

In obedience to the Blessed Mother's request, a shrine was built at the foot of Tepeyac Hill, and the miraculous tilma was housed in the chapel. Juan Diego gave everything he owned to his uncle -- who had indeed been cured and had also seen the Lady at the very moment she told his nephew about his cure -- and moved into a small dwelling at the shrine, devoting himself to prayer, virtue, and the care of the shrine and the pilgrims who came to visit it. He received the then-extraordinary privilege of receiving Holy Communion three times a week, and died in the odor of sanctity on May 30, 1548 at the age of 74. Meanwhile, by means of the miraculous image -- not to mention the humility and obedience of her servant, Juan Diego -- the Blessed Mother won millions of souls for the Church, and averted the bloody rebellion that had loomed on the horizon in Mexico.

A footnote. Servant of God (now Venerable) Fulton J. Sheen was a great devotee of the Blessed Mother, and remarked that he prayed for the following intentions regarding his death: (1) that he "drop dead" at the age of 80; (2) that he die on a Saturday in honor of Our Lady, or (3) that he die on one of her feast days. In fact, he died in 1979 at the age of 84; on a Sunday; and not on a feast of Our Lady. He was disappointed on every count.

Or was he? The date of Fulton Sheen's death -- December 9th -- was the anniversary of the first apparition on Tepeyac Hill, and is now the feast of St. Juan Diego, whom Pope John Paul II canonized at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2002.

Another footnote upon re-posting.  Notice the timing of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  It was precisely at the moment that millions in Europe were falling into schism and apostasy under the influence of Lutheranism that Our Lady won millions of souls in the New World for the True Church.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.  St. Juan Diego, pray for us.

December 8th: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

From Supertradmum.

Elsewhere in this space, we have looked at the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, officially defined by Pope Piux IX in 1854.  We have looked at why the Immaculate Conception must be true, and we have looked at a popular Christmas song that Catholics should avoid because it denies the Immaculate Conception.  We also looked at the fact that Mary identified herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous as the Immaculate Conception at Lourdes, in 1858 -- just four years after the dogma was defined -- and that at the time, St. Bernadette did not understand what she meant.  This was a sign that Mary really did appear at the grotto, and that heaven approved the definition.

Now, in a world that grows uglier by the day under the sway of atheism, materialism and licentiousness, let us take the time to stop and consider the beauty of this dogma.  The Old Testament abounds with clues to Mary's surpassing purity, from the promise in Genesis of the woman who would crush the serpent's head to the Burning Bush of Exodus, to the Mother of Fair Love in Ecclesiasticus, to the all-fair woman in whom is no blemish and the lily among thorns in the Song of Solomon, to the virgin of Isaiah who would conceive and bear a son.  Each and every privilege of Mary, including her great sufferings, flows from the fact that God preserved her free from the dominion of Satan from the first instant of her existence.  In The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus Liguori says that Mary possessed the use of reason from the moment of her conception, so that she might love God and acquire merit even in her mother's womb; quoting St. Vincent Ferrer, he says that even before her birth, the sanctity of Mary surpassed that of all the saints and angels put together.  It is more than we can comprehend; and Mary is a creature, and not divine!  How much greater must the God be Who made her what she is.

The Gradual of the Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens, from the Common of Feasts of the Blessed Virgin in the 1962 Missal:

Benedicta et venerabilis es, Virgo Maria: Quae sine tactu pudoris inventa es mater Salvatoris.  virgo Dei Genitrix, quem totus non capit orbis, in tua se clausit viscera factus homo.

Alleluia, alleluia.  Post partum Virgo inviolata permansisti: Dei Genitrix, intercede pro nobis.  Alleluia.

Blessed and venerable art thou, O Virgin Mary: who without loss of purity wert found to be the Mother of our Savior.  Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world cannot hold enclosed Himself in thy womb, and became man.

Alleluia, alleluia.  After His birth a Virgin entire thou didst remain: O Mother of God, intercede for us. Alleluia.

Who could not love the woman, about whom such lines are written?  Who could not love the woman who inspired this beautiful hymn:

Inviolata, integra et casta est, Maria, quae es effecta fulgida coeli porta.  O Mater alma Christi carissima, suschipe pia laudum praeconia: nostra ut pura pectora sint et corpora, te nunc flagitant devota corda et ora.  Tua per precata dulcisona, nobis concedas veniam per saecula.  O benigna, O Regina, O Maria, quae sola inviolata permansisti.

Inviolate, immaculate, and chaste art thou, O Mary, who hast become the glowing gate of heaven.  O Mother of Christ, so kind and most dear, receive our devoted hymns of praise: that our minds and bodies may be always chaste, with fervent heart and tongue we now implore thee.  Obtain for us, through thy sweetly sounding prayer, pardon for ever.  O Mary, O thou tender Queen, who alone inviolate didst stay.

Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Oh, and by the way: 

DON'T FORGET TO GO TO MASS!  

Even if you are dispensed from the obligation in your diocese...go anyway.  It won't kill us to attend Mass two days in a row.

December 6th: St. Nicholas of Myra

In these evil days, when the United States and Europe have allowed themselves to be seduced by socialism and hedonism, we should invoke St. Nicholas of Myra.  We face hard times, and we shall not make it through them without help from heaven.  This was what Nicholas brought even during his life on earth; how much more powerful he must be from heaven.

Nicholas was a great worker of miracles: calming storms on the sea; curing the sick; relieving famines.  He saved innocents from being executed.  He not only converted many sinners; he rescued people from circumstances that would have led them to sin.  On one occasion, he provided dowries for three girls whose father, stricken with poverty, was about to sell them into prostitution.  We should pray for his help in these hard economic times, and ask him to obtain for us the means of providing for our needs and the needs of the poor.  We should also ask him to obtain the grace we need to avoid sinning in the name of economic necessity.

St. Nicholas even raised the dead.  The picture above shows the miracle of the three pickled boys.  An evil shopkeeper murdered, chopped up and pickled three boys; hearing of this disgusting deed, Nicholas brought the boys back to life, safe and whole, by his prayers.  Today, millions upon millions of babies are chopped up in their mothers' wombs.  We should invoke Nicholas, the patron of children, particularly for the protection of the unborn, and for the eradication of abortion and contraception from the face of the earth.  We should also invoke him for the resurrection of all who are dead in sin, and the grace for them to amend their lives permanently.

St. Nicholas, gentle and generous with children and sinners, was ruthless in the fight against false religion.  He personally destroyed sites dedicated to the worship of pagan gods.  He is famous for having punched the arch-heretic Arius at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.  Arius denied that Jesus was God, and spawned a heretical movement that all but destroyed the Church, so he deserved a lot more than just a sock in the kisser.  We should invoke St. Nicholas for the crushing defeat of all heresies and all the deadly ideologies that have cost the lives of millions over the last century.

St. Nicholas of Myra, Archbishop, was not merely Santa Claus.  He was indeed a great giver of gifts, but these gifts, whether spiritual or temporal, were always directed toward salvation.  We should ask him to obtain for us all those gifts that we need, especially those we don't know we need.  St. Nicholas of Myra, pray for us.

November 23: Bl. Miguel Pro, S.J. (Re-Post)

Here is a comparatively rare event in the history of the Church: a camera is witness to a martyrdom. The whole affair was orchestrated in 1927 by a fierce enemy of the Church whose savage blows only served to strengthen and glorify both her and the individual victims of his wrath.

A sketch of Bl. Miguel Pro's life brings to mind the story of his spiritual forbears, the martyr-priests in post-Reformation England. Like them, he lived at a time when his nation's leaders turned against the Church. The young Jesuit novice went into exile during the Mexican revolution; like many seminarians during the English persecution, Miguel Pro had to study for the priesthood abroad; he was ordained in Belgium on August 31, 1925. Like his English forbears, Fr. Pro conducted his ministry on the sly, and frequently in disguise.

Fr. Pro was known not only for his devotion and prayerfulness, but also for his wit, his playfulness and his good cheer, especially in the face of a distressing stomach ailment. He was much loved; however, he was eventually betrayed to the authorities and ultimately condemned to death on a trumped-up charge of attempting to assassinate the vice-president.

On the day of Fr. Pro's execution by firing squad, the fiercely anti-Catholic president Plutarcho Calles brought the press out to photograph the event, secure in the belief that he would thereby prove that impending death reduced Catholics to sniveling cowards. In the first photograph above, we see Fr. Pro praying, the picture of serenity in the face of the violent death from which he is only moments away. The next photograph shows Fr. Pro confronting the firing squad, sans blindfold, his arms raised in the form of the cross, with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other. Fr. Pro forgave his executioners; and as they took aim, he shouted his last words, "¡Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!)." The firing squad was so shaken by his courage that it succeeded only in wounding him; in the final photograph, a soldier dispatches the fallen priest at point-blank range.

Naturally, these photographs had the opposite effect to that intended; Plutarcho Calles ended up confiscating and outlawing them. And Calles obviously did not succeed in entirely destroying the camera's witness to Fr. Pro's courage, since they survive down to the present day.

Chaplet of Bl. Miguel Pro

Blessed Miguel, before your death, you told your friend to ask you for favors when you were in Heaven. I beg you to intercede for me and in union with Our Lady and all the angels and saints, to ask Our Lord to grant my petition, provided that it be God's Will. [Mention the request.]

We honor and adore the triune God. Glory be...

We ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. Come Holy Spirit...

We pray as Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father...
We venerate with love the Virgin Mary. Hail Mary...
All you angels, bless you the Lord forever.
Saint Joseph, Saint [name of your patron], and all the saints, pray for us.

Blessed Miguel, high spirited youth, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, loving son and brother, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, patient novice, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, exile from your homeland, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, prayerful religious, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, sick and suffering, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, defender of workers, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, courageous priest in hiding, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, prisoner in jail, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, forgiver of persecutors, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!
Blessed Miguel, holy martyr, pray for us. ¡Viva Cristo Rey!

November 15th: St. Albertus Magnus, O.P.

Litany of St. Albert the Great

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary,
Pray for us. (repeat after each line)
Holy Mother of God...
Holy Virgin of virgins...
St. Albert...
Man after the heart of God...
Zealous son of Mary...
Worthy son of St. Dominic...
Mighty defender of the Faith...
Solid rock of hope...
Burning Seraph of love...
Enlightened Cherub of wisdom...
Valiant defender of justice...
Sure norm of prudence...
Bright mirror of temperance...
Unshakable pillar of fortitude...
Living model of humility...
Shining example of poverty...
Pure lily of chastity...
True model of obedience...
Precious vessel of all virtues...
Zealous imitator of the Apostles...
Bright gem of Bishops...
Singular ornament of Doctors...
Special glory of the Order...
In anguish and in need...
In tribulation and in persecution...
In the hour of death...

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.

Pray for us, St. Albert,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: O God, who did richly adorn St. Albert with your heavenly gifts and decorated him with all virtues, grant that, following in his footsteps, we may persevere in your service until death and securely obtain an everlasting reward. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Dead Nation Walking

Yesterday's election should have been a no-brainer.  That Obama got into the White House in the first place on his prior record is bad enough; but that a majority of voters should re-elect him after he has spent the last four years promoting intrinsic evils, running this country into the ground, pandering to her enemies and openly opposing everything she stands for shows how far gone we are.  

Stark reality: the majority of voters in today's America simply do not recognize evil when they see it.  We are surrounded by evil, at home, at school, at work, on television, in popular culture, until it seems normal.  We take vice for virtue, and virtue for vice, or, at best, a form of mental illness.  We are mired in habitual sin, especially lust.  We equate the pursuit of sensual pleasures to the pursuit of happiness, and sensual pleasures are now more important to us than life itself.  Not only are we willing to kill ourselves and others in the name of pleasure; we will tolerate even the extinction of the human race.  In today's America, formerly illicit liaisons enjoy the protection of law.  Sodomitical unions take the place of natural relations, and concubinage takes the place of stable families.  And the land is awash in the blood of the unborn.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 1.21 million abortions in this country just in the year 2008.  That is more than the total number of Americans killed in the Civil War and both World Wars.  According to the same source, there were nearly 50 million abortions in the United States between 1973 and 2008.  That approaches the total number of people who perished in World War II.  These figures do not even take into account the numberless souls who are kept out of existence by contraceptives, many of which are abortifacients.

In the face of all of which the Catholic Church in America has remained silent.  For decades, with very few exceptions, American priests and bishops have not uttered a peep about the tsunami of spiritual sewage bearing down on their flocks.  The results are not surprising.  28% of women who have abortions identify themselves as Catholic.  98% of sexually experienced Catholic women have committed the sin of contraception.  Catholics are indistinguishable from non-Catholics in the rate of divorce.  Half of Catholic voters voted for Obama.     

America has turned her back on God and His law, and now He has decisively allowed her to be turned over to her enemies.  This is God’s judgment on the United States, because she will not stop offending Him.  And since the United States will now no longer offer refuge to the oppressed or keep the world’s barbarian warlords in check, it is also His judgment on the whole world for its sins.

There are no political solutions to our problems, only spiritual ones.  The words of Our Lady of Fatima are no less true now than they were 95 years ago.  We must repent, stop sinning, and do penance.  And we must pray the Rosary.  Every day.  Without fail.

All you Dominican saints, whose feast day is today, pray for us.

More on the Travesty of "Brain Death"

Nicholas Coke was born in 2009 without higher brain functions.  This is because all he had was his brain stem.  He was not expected to survive more than a few hours.  Indeed Nicholas did die -- two years and 11 months later.  Today, the Solemnity of All Saints, Nicholas Coke breathed his last.  

Nicholas defies the culture of death.  Having no brain, was he not "brain dead"?  Shouldn't he have been aborted?  Shouldn't his organs have been harvested for the sake of "worthier" children?  Yet his heart beat on its own; he breathed on his own; he could take nourishment and medication; he could respond to treatment; he moved; he grew; he smiled.  Persons who are dead can do none of these things, with or without machines, to which Nicholas was never hooked up.  Nicholas could neither see nor hear, but he gave signs of awareness that he was being held.  Clearly, the child had a soul, and was therefore very much alive, even though his faculties were severely impaired.  He had a soul, with all the gifts of the soul, dormant though they were in his frail body, even though he literally had no brain.  That is not supposed to be possible -- yet there he was!  Thank God Nicholas was born into a family that cherished his life.  He was surrounded by love, and touched hearts in his turn.

Nicholas Coke is not only a testament to love and life, but also a rebuke and a warning.  He is a rebuke to the arrogance of a society that purports to redefine death for the sake of convenience.  He is a warning that we have made ourselves the enemies of what God holds dear, and that sooner or later we will have Him to reckon with.

October 1st: St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Therese has been a patroness of mine since childhood.  I did not take nearly as much notice of her as she did of me.  She, in fact, chose me.  My earliest memories of her are staring at a big picture of her that hung on the wall of my mother's old bedroom at my grandparents' house.  It seems to me that I spent a lot of time contemplating that picture, whose eyes seemed to follow me around the room.

After my grandmother died, and my grandfather disposed of the old house, the picture was lost.  Then, more than 20 years later -- how, I can't say -- the picture came back into my hands, but with the frame broken.  I put it into one of those "frameless" frames.  The more I think about it, the more I think it deserves something better.

Here it is, seen for the first time online -- best quality I could manage considering the lighting.

  

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

August 8th (New Calendar): Holy Father Dominic



Today is the Memorial of St. Dominic de Guzman, on the new calendar.  On the preconciliar calendar, his feast is August 4th.

Some interesting facts about St. Dominic:

-- The name "Dominic" means "belonging to God."  Before his birth, his mother, Bl. Juana de Aza, had a vision of her unborn son as a dog with a torch in its mouth, lighting the world on fire (see the picture above).  It is perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not, that the name of the Order he founded would turn out to be a pun on Domini canes, "hound of God."

-- The Rosary is an ancient devotion based on the Psalms.  The daily recitation of the Psalms was a practice of religious life centuries ago.  Since this was not practicable for the average working layman, the recitation of 150 Hail Marys was substituted -- one for each Psalm.  This is why the Rosary is also known as Mary's Psalter.*  St. Dominic is credited with giving us the Rosary in its present form, particularly the coupling of the vocal prayers with meditations on the Mysteries of Christ's life.  It was given to him by Our Lady, as a weapon against heresy when all his own efforts came to nothing. 

-- St. Dominic worked many miracles, including curing the sick and raising the dead.  One of his most notable miracles took place during a debate with the Albigensians, when he put both their works and the works of the Church to a trial by fire.  When he put writings containing their doctrines into a fire, they burned up at once; but when he put writings containing Catholic doctrine into the fire, they survived.

-- St. Dominic walked so far in his missionary travels over Europe that he is known as "God's Athlete."

-- At his baptism, a star was seen to shine from baby Dominic.  This is why St. Dominic is frequently portrayed with a star over his forehead, and why he is the patron of astronomers.  How fitting that the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity should coincide almost exactly with his feast on the preconciliar calendar!  No doubt his intercession played a role in its perfect landing.  God is reflected in all of creation, and therefore the study of nature enables us to know Him better.  This is why the Church has always supported legitimate scientific pursuits.  One of St. Dominic's greatest sons, St. Albertus Magnus, was a naturalist. 

-- At his death, which he foretold, St. Dominic consoled his grieving brethren by promising them to do them an abundance of good from heaven. 

Fulfill, O Father, what thou hast said, and help us with thy prayers.

*Thus, the Rosary, right down to the number of Hail Marys in the traditional 15-decade Rosary, is based squarely on Scripture.  This is the answer to the Jimmy Swaggart theorem of the Rosary, which holds that because it contains 10 Hail Marys to 1 Our Father, this proves that Catholics prefer Mary to Jesus 10 to 1. 

Midsummer

Today was the summer solstice, when the sun reached its highest point in the sky, making this the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  From here on out, the days will grow shorter.  

And so, this is a fitting time for the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is celebrated on Sunday.  It shows that John's declaration that he must decrease while Jesus increased was in fact chosen from the beginning to be the theme of his whole life.  As John's decrease was signaled at his birth by the summer solstice, so Jesus' increase was signaled at His birth by the winter solstice, when the hours of daylight begin to increase.

Nor is that the end of the astronomical coincidences.  The vernal equinox heralds the Annunciation -- when the Spring of the Incarnation dissipates the winter of hell's dominion over the world -- and of course also Easter, when new life springs up even from the grave itself.

None of this is the product of chance.  The God of Order arranged it so.

Divine Mercy Sunday and Lifeboats

My daughter, tell the whole world about My Inconceivable Mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender Mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My Mercy.

Diary of St. Faustina

On April 15, 1912, the Divine Mercy reached even the doomed passengers of the "unsinkable" Titanic.  The ship failed to carry the necessary number of lifeboats, but God fitted her out with three lifeboats, each of which could carry to eternal life everyone who approached them: Fr. Joseph Benedikt Peruschitz, O.S.B., a German Benedictine on his way to work at a new monastic school in Minnesota; Fr. Juozas Montvila, a young Lithuanian priest on his way to take over a parish in America (the location is in dispute); and Fr. Thomas Byles, an English priest on his way to officiate at his brother's wedding in New York.  All of these priests refused seats on lifeboats, preferring to help the other passengers to safety, hear confessions, grant absolution, and prepare those who were to die to meet God.  When last seen, Fr. Byles was leading the doomed passengers in the Rosary.  How fitting that the last Masses these martyrs of charity celebrated was the Mass for Low Sunday -- what would later become today's Feast of Divine Mercy.

A religious on board the Titanic escaped via lifeboat -- the lifeboat of obedience.  Br. Francis Browne, S.J., boarded the ship at Southampton for Cobh, Ireland.  He fell in with some wealthy passengers who offered to pay his way to America.  When he wired his provincial for permission to continue on to the States, he received the terse reply: "Get off that ship."  Because he obeyed, Br. Browne was not aboard the Titanic during its fatal collision with the iceberg in the north Atlantic.  He went on to be ordained into the priesthood, and served as a military chaplain with Fr. Willie Doyle, S.J., the saintly Trench Priest of World War I, extending the Divine Mercy even into the hell of No Man's Land.  Fr. Browne died in 1960; to the end of his days he carried in his wallet the wireless message that had saved his life through religious obedience.

Look for God's Mercy in every situation.  Every situation.  It really is there.

April 13th: Bl. Margaret of Castello, O.P.

The hippies of the '60s and '70s prided themselves (and some of them still pride themselves) on being "counter-cultural" just because they shunned barbers, smoked dope, wore draw-string pants and primitive jewelry, and could sit through an entire Joan Baez concert without wanting to slit their wrists.  But when it comes to being counter-cultural, the spoiled, disaffected children of middle-class America have nothing on Bl. Margaret of Castello.  Consider:

-- Margaret was short, hunchbacked, clubfooted and blind.  She met no ideals of physical beauty, either in her own time or in ours.  We, on the other hand, write off the physically ugly.

-- Margaret's parents shunned her, isolated her, imprisoned her, abused her, yet she bore it all cheerfully and patiently.  Even after they abandoned her, she would not hear a word said against them.  We, on the other hand, covet "victimhood" status, milking it for all it's worth; we pick constantly at the sores of injuries, real or imagined; we sue at the drop of a hat; we demand "reparations" for injustices of the distant past from the descendants of those who may or may not have had a hand in such injustices. 

-- Margaret sought always to do what was right, no matter what it cost her or what other people thought of her.  We, on the other hand, drop our principles as soon as they become inconvenient, or there is something to be gained by dropping them.

-- Margaret possessed a passionate nature, yet she embraced virginity.  We, on the other hand, embrace immodesty, promiscuity, depravity and even unnatural acts, all while viewing virgins as objects of pity.

Margaret's was a life that today would be considered as worthless.  Had she been conceived in 2012, once her obvious deformities turned up on an ultrasound, she would stand a fair chance of being suctioned out of the womb in pieces in the name of "compassion."  Yet she is a beata of the Church.  How many would-be great saints have we aborted and contracepted out of this world in order not to be "burdened" with them? 

What a fitting patroness of Life, and against abortion and contraception, Bl. Margaret of Castello would be.  Perhaps it is for just such a depraved time as this that she has waited 700 years to be raised to the altar. 

Easter Sunday: The Resurrection and the Five Wounds

Why is the risen Christ always represented with His Five Wounds from the Crucifixion?  Why, if His flesh is now glorified, should His Wounds not have healed?

Trust St. Thomas Aquinas to have answers.

Of course Jesus could have healed His Wounds; yet He has chosen not to.  The Wounds of the Crucifixion remain on Jesus' glorified Body:

1. For His own glory, as trophies of His victory.  

2. To prove to His disciples the truth of His Resurrection.

3. To show to the Father the manner of death that He, our Intercessor, suffered for our sake.

4. As proof of His Mercy to those redeemed by His Blood.

5. For the conviction of the reprobate in the day of judgment, to show them the means of salvation of which they would not avail themselves.

Have a blessed Easter!

March 7th: Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. (Pre-Conciliar Calendar)

One of the (very few and far between) advantages of having two calendars in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church is that, occasionally, one gets to honor a favorite saint twice in one year.  Such is the case with my friend and illustrious brother in St. Dominic, Thomas Aquinas.  It seems fitting to be able thus to honor the Angelical, and to beg his intercession at a time when vile assaults are being launched against the Eucharist, to which he was so touchingly devoted.  

Here again, and none the worse for having been posted before, is the Litany of St. Thomas of Aquin, published in 1913 in The Dominican Manual: A Selection of Prayers and Devotions.

O THOU, the Most High, have mercy on us.

Mighty One of Jacob, have mercy on us.

Divine Spirit, have mercy on us.

Great Triune God, have mercy on us.

Glorious Mother of the King of kings, pray for us.
Saint Thomas of Aquin, pray for us.
Worthy child of the Queen of Virgins...
Aquinas most chaste...
Aquinas most patient...
Prodigy of science...
Silently eloquent...
Reproach of the ambitious...
Lover of that life which is hidden with Christ in God...
Fragrant flower in the parterre of St. Dominic...
Glory of Friars Preachers...
Illlumined from on high...
Angel of the Schools...
Oracle of the Church...
Incomparable scribe of the Man-God...
Satiated with the odour of His perfumes...
Perfect in the school of His Cross...
Intoxicated with the strong wine of His charity...
Glittering gem in the cabinet of the Lord...
Model of perfect obedience...
Endowed with the true spirit of holy poverty...

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: grant us peace.

Ant.— Oh, how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory, for the memory thereof is immortal, because it is known with God and man, and it triumpheth crowned for ever.
V. Oh! what have I in heaven, or what do I desire on earth?
R. Thou art the God of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Prayer:

O God, who hast ordained that blessed Thomas should enlighten Thy Church, grant that through his prayers we may practise what he taught, through Christ our Lord. Amen.