by T. Stanfill Benns | Mar 28, 2021 | New Blog
+Palm Sunday+
I have promised a reader I would provide the necessary resources on preparing for the care and eventual death of loved ones who are Catholic. Having experienced such deaths twice now in a 14-month span I am more conscious than ever of how essential this information is for the faithful. Thankfully I had all the prayers and devotions I needed when the time came, and the suddenness of my grandson’s death spurred me on to find additional resources to answer questions I could not find the answers for, even in my more-than-adequate library. The death of those we love opens a door to the future life that for us was previously closed, and if we are to follow our loved ones there to the best of our ability and maintain those precious relationships, we have no choice but to learn how to successfully make that journey.
When death is anticipated, the best thing we can do is to make our peace with our loved one who is seriously ill or in danger of dying. Praying with them of course is the most important thing we can do. Answering their spiritual questions, if they have any, and sensing and calming their fears is also a comfort to both the dying and their relatives. Praying for them is the best way to prepare them and ourselves for what is approaching and will give the assurance on their death that we have done all we can to help them reach Heaven.
To do this we need the right tools. Fortunately I found nearly everything I needed from one religious goods catalog, and to the best of my knowledge all but one of these resources are still available from that same source, found at https://www.traditionalcatholicpublishing.com (see Sick and Dying/Deceased). The other most important booklet to order is Instructions for the Sick, Dying and Deceased, available from https://canisiusbooks.com/pryrbk.htm. I recommend buying three of these at a time, one for home, one for every woman’s handbag and one for the glove compartment of the car(s). Death does not just happen in hospitals as everyone knows, and fortunately for me during this time of COVID madness I was able to be with my love one and say the beautiful official prayers of the Church found in this booklet.
Other useful sources I have gathered are unfortunately out of print, but for those who need these works I will be happy to copy them for anyone who asks. One should be read before a loved one dies and this I hope to make available on the site soon. It is entitled, How to Grieve for One’s Dead, and warns of the wrong attitudes and pitfalls of grieving. Works on Purgatory and the joys of Heaven help those left behind learn how to best help their loved ones and prepare themselves for the long-awaited reunion in Heaven. One little work I discovered recently is entitled, My Child Lives, and for those who have lost children (or grandchildren) it is indispensable in helping heal the heartache of those early days when that sweet little face and voice is so noticeably absent.
One of the most consoling devotions, mentioned previously on this blog, is the one to the Poor Souls in Purgatory. As explained before, we the Church Militant live as members of the Mystical Body in close spiritual union with the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant. Works on Purgatory explain that the greatest act of charity one can perform is to pray for the suffering souls, who have so few now to pray for them. This devotion comes most naturally following the death of a loved one who is probably suffering in Purgatory. Such souls so desperately need our prayers and good works to relieve that suffering and obtain their release, when and as soon as God wills. And if a soul prayed for is not in Purgatory, those prayers are used by Our Lady to help other souls in need. We know so much about how life on earth works, what is expected of us and what we must do to stay alive, and so little about what we must do now, while there is yet time, to save our own souls – if we wish to ever join those we love in Paradise. The Poor Souls can no longer ask pardon for their sins or make reparation. We must be their voices. And at the same time, we must do all we can to amend our own lives and do penance, as the world around us grows darker and darker.
Prayer, penance and sacrifice has been the constant refrain echoed by Our Lady in nearly every apparition to children and holy people on earth. I find it very disturbing that so much emphasis is placed on the triumph of the Church and the coming peace so many expect, when this world is so evil beyond all description and so few are making reparation for their own sins and the sins of the world. Such expectations are not only presumptuous but are totally without solid foundation unless such penance is done. It makes no sense to expect peace while sin prevails and there is no public outcry, far less public penance. In the next blog I will explain some of the confusion that exists regarding private revelations and commentaries on the Apocalypse, even regarding the more reliable commentaries and private prophecies. Until then, please pray for the souls of your dearly departed and the souls of Larry and Tristen Benns.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Mar 8, 2021 | New Blog
Larry Kent Benns
July 25, 1951-March 1, 2021
A quiet and unassuming man with countless talents and abilities left this life March 1 and will be sorely missed and cherished always by his loving wife and four children.
Larry Kent Benns was born July 25, 1951 in Denver, Colo., the second son of William H. and Maxine D. Benns. He won awards in leather crafting and industrial arts in his high school years at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver and early on showed talent in the auto mechanics field, building racing engines as a hobby. After marrying his high school sweetheart Teresa Stanfill in Denver in 1969, he worked as a millwright at a local foundry and later worked for Monaghan/Hospal Corporation in Littleton, Colo., a manufacturer of medical respirators, as a precision machinist. During a brief stint as a modelmaker he also helped create the prototype for the first artificial kidney in a briefcase. He left the company to serve as a Machinery Repairman second class on the USS Coral Sea (1974 -1975), assisting in the evacuation of Vietnam and participating in the Mayaguez incident. He is a lifetime member of Disabled American Veterans.
Following his service in the Navy, he worked at Sterling Stainless Tube in Englewood, Colo., a hypodermic needle manufacturer, from 1977-1984. In 1984 he was hired as a preventive maintenance technician at Golden Aluminum Recycling (a division of Coors) in Ft. Lupton, Colo. supervising the repair of machinery used to manufacture and recycle aluminum cans. In 1991, he was transferred to the new Golden Aluminum rolling mill in San Antonio, Texas (ACX Technologies) as preventive maintenance supervisor. He later trained to serve as a vibration analyst for the company in the field of predictive maintenance and also was the department’s purchasing agent. He traveled nationally and internationally to keep abreast of the latest technology involving aluminum rolling mills and their furnace systems. He retired from the company in March, 1999.
During his working years, Larry dabbled in woodcarving and jewelry making. He also became a skilled blacksmith, studying under Al Morgan who replicated ironwork for the San Antonio missions and taught him the basics of creating Damascus knives. Following his retirement to La Garita, Colo. he built a solar-powered strawbale home, with the help of family and friends, from the ground up. He later added a garage/shop, undertaking amazing wood projects, handcrafting log furniture and creating Monet-style and other paintings, portraying the idyllic scenery of his native Colorado mountains. He also enjoyed collecting and building classic cars. He sold his Colorado property in 2020 to move to South Dakota to be close to his two sons during his final illness.
Larry is survived by his wife of 51 years, Teresa; sons Shane, Eathan, Josiah and daughter Aimee, also his brother Gary. He leaves behind 10 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren as well as several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and a beloved grandson, Tristen Kent Benns.
Larry was laid to rest at St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery in Hoven, S.D. Monday, March 8, 2021.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him; may he rest in peace, amen. may the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen. Please pray for the repose of Larry’s soul.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Feb 28, 2021 | New Blog
+St. David+
Sorry about my long absence from this blog. Just know that when I don’t post weekly, family obligations have intervened. I will try to post shorter pieces more frequently when I am able.
I am REALLY tired of all the CCP virus nonsense we keep being fed, including the supposed urgency of receiving a vaccine. I have never been a fan of vaccines from way back, when I received them as a child. They always made me ill and as an adult I stopped receiving them. My kids also would later show adverse reactions. Familial? Could be, but who will do the research to find out? They would rather waste our tax dollars studying how fast catsup drips.
Heard some interesting things on the virus this week. One, a pediatrician commented on Fox News that he hasn’t seen any flu cases at all this year, something he says he finds quite odd. Could it be that the CCP virus was our regular seasonal flu, just a slightly more deadly version? I say slightly because no one is able to positively document just how many people have died from this virus, and we see deaths from the flu every year among the elderly and immuno-compromised. CCP deaths are a mixed bag — reports are that hospitals are paid tax dollars for each death. Where money is concerned, are we going to trust human beings prone to error and often fraud — especially seeing that hospitals are struggling to survive — to accurately report these deaths? You can if you like, but please forgive me if I bow out.
The second curious fact, also reported on Fox News, is that even after grandparents and grandchildren both are vaccinated for the virus, the “experts” still advise them not to mix socially. So why bother with a vaccine at all? Methinks this is not about running any risk of infection, at least not of the medical kind. The “infection” they are worried about is one of ideas — grams and gramps might impart some religious or politically conservative wisdom on the state of affairs today these kiddos just might take to heart. This is social engineering at its most insidious.
Double masks, topped off in some cases by a face shield, when this epidemic is waning anyway? Only a cognitively impaired head of state would be foolish enough to promote and model this behavior. Monkey see, monkey do, and what does that say about you?
Saw an alarming comment about the origins of social distancing. One person observed that in Satanic rituals, satanists wear masks and stand about six feet apart. This is the championing of the power and “godliness” of each individual apart from any group. It is a denial of the Mystical Body in favor of individualism. Sad thing is, the person making this comment was Protestant, and their idea of Christ’s Mystical Body encompasses all religions, the “invisible Church” heresy condemned by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi. The Body of Christ was divided long ago during the Protestant Reformation, and the dire consequences of this division are Liberalism and ultimately Progressivism. The history of this division and its culmination today is presented in the e-book Liberalism’s Shameful Legacy, available on this site.
Catholics are still struggling with the moral dilemma receiving any of the available vaccines entails — we said previously that some could receive it if they were convinced there are no risks that violate morals. However, it appears there are moral questions about all of the vaccines, so people had better be praying and doing their homework. DNA altering material, which reportedly has been used in the manufacture of nearly all the vaccines, is a major concern. When physical or spiritual harm could result, no one is bound to receive them. Here the old, tested rule holds: When in doubt, don’t.
I have often thought, since all this virus business began last year, how totally unChristian the entire approach to disease has become. When the Novus Ordo began de-emphasizing Christ’s Passion and death on the Cross, and overemphasizing his triumph over death with His Resurrection, suffering of any kind lost its value for Novus Ordo attendees. Of course this was entirely bound up in the destruction of the Latin Mass, the very re-enactment of the Passion, and the institution of the Novus Ordo Missae. It is pathetic to see the apprehension in the faces of young Novus Ordo adherents when devotion to the Passion of Christ is mentioned; they consider it macabre and psychologically unhealthy. And yet it is the greatest and most consoling devotion one could ever practice. They must not believe the Scriptures then, when Christ tells us that if we truly wish to follow Him, we must suffer as He suffered. In fact it is precisely those of us suffering in these times who must fill up what is wanting to His Passion.
In her vision of the Trinity at Tuy, Spain in 1929, when Our Lady came to ask for the Consecration of Russia, Lucia dos Santos stated that she was given the grace to understand the Trinity in a supernatural way. This vision, as represented by artists, disassociates the Holy Ghost from Our Lady in any way save that which is taught by the Church. The picture shows God the Father hovering over the head of His Son’s cross, with the Holy Ghost as a Dove emanating rays from the Father’s chest which descend on Christ’s head. From Our Lord’s side issues the Sacred Blood and the water which symbolizes His union with the Mystical Body, the Church. Beneath this stream reposes the Host, suspended above a Chalice, into which the Sacred stream flows.
Under the Chalice stands the Sorrowful Mother, her rosary in her hand. This is much like the vision of the Sacred Species the children saw when the Angel first appeared to them, and the significance is unmistakable. Again the Host and Chalice are suspended in mid-air, but in the later vision of Lucia dos Santos, Our Lady sadly stands beneath the suspended Body and Blood of her Son, as though extending the rosary to her children, while pointing to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. This positioning and gesture are but further proof that the Holy Sacrifice will be suspended and the faithful will only have recourse to the rosary and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They must offer themselves as the sacrifice, something Fr. Demaris reminds us we must do in his little treatise written in the 1790s:
“The Holy Eucharist had for you many joys and advantages when you were able to participate in this Sacrament of love, but now you are deprived of it for being defenders of truth and justice. Your advantages are the same, for who would have dared approach this fearsome table if Jesus Christ had not given us a precept, and if the Church, which desires that we fortify ourselves with this Bread of Life, had not invited us to eat It by the voice of its ministers, who reclothed us with a nuptial dress. All was obedience, but if we compare obedience by that which we are deprived of with that which led us there, it will be easy to judge the merit.
“Abraham obeyed in immolating his son, and in not immolating him, but his obedience was greater when he took the sword in his hand than when he returned it to its scabbard. We are obedient in going to Communion, but in holding ourselves from the sacrifice we are immolating ourselves. Quenched of the thirst of justice and depriving ourselves of the Blood of the Lamb which alone can slake it, we sacrifice our own life as much as it is in us to do. The sacrifice of Abraham was for an instant, an angel stopped the knife; ours is daily, every time that we adore with submission the Hand of God that drives us away from His altars, and this sacrifice is voluntary. It is to be advantageously deprived of the Eucharist, to raise the standard of the Cross for the cause of Christ and the glory of His Church.
“Observe, my children, that Jesus, after having given His Body, found no difficulty in dying for us. There is the action of a Christian in the persecutions, the Cross follows on from the Eucharist. Let not the love of the Eucharist drive us away from the Cross. It is to arise and make glorious advance in the grace of the Gospel, to go out from the Cenacle, to go to Calvary. Yes, I have no fear in saying it. When the storm of the malice of men roars against truth and justice, it is more advantageous to the Faithful to suffer for Christ than to participate in His Body by Communion. I seem to hear the Savior saying to us: “Do not be afraid to be separated from My table for the confession of My Name: it is a grace I give you, which is very rare. Repair by this humiliating deprivation that glorifies Me, all the Communions which dishonor me.”
Even those styling themselves Christians these days are anxious to avoid any suffering whatsoever, and generally welcome a vaccine if it would relieve them of the possibility of what for most amounts to an unpleasant respiratory illness. Primarily, it is the aged and already medically vulnerable who experience complications, even death. But then eventually, death comes for us all. Until vaccines became commonplace, mankind suffered through the various maladies that afflicted those on earth, and Catholics offered those sufferings to God in expiation for their sins. Cures were not expected for things on a regular basis. Minor illnesses were considered a part of life. Today, man must be spared everything, even the discomfort of a hangnail. It is as though these so-called Christians are saying that being gods themselves, they are better than that — greater than Christ Himself. For they should not have to suffer anythingin order to gain heaven, when Christ gave His very life to open Heaven to souls. This includes foregoing Mass and Sacraments when, as Fr. Demaris says, they dishonor Our Lord.
This rejection of all suffering for Christ’s sake contradicts everything we read in Holy Scripture, which teaches that Our Lord:
— Suffered excruciating pains on the Cross to open the Gates of Heaven.
— Warned us we would suffer persecution if we followed Him
— Encouraged us to suffer with Him
— Promised us that those who suffered persecution for justice’s sake would enter Heaven.
During this Lenten season, those piously commemorating Christ’s Passion and death who truly love God must not hesitate to offer up all their worries and concerns to make reparation to Our Lord. This includes the “safety” of vaccines, the danger of contracting the virus itself, the destruction of this country and the inability of receiving the Sacraments and sacramentals. By embracing, rather than shunning, all those little everyday grievances and annoyances we can make some small reparation for the many wounds suffered by Jesus today from those savagely attacking Him. If we cannot even watch one hour with Him, then who?
by T. Stanfill Benns | Jan 27, 2021 | New Blog
+St. Peter Nolasco+
“Our Lady of Mercy, ransom the captives, deliver us from all sin and from the bondage of the evil one!”
In these present times, it is difficult to know what exactly to say or do and especially, what to believe regarding the legitimacy of the rulers of this country. There are many false portrayals of events circulating, many individuals and groups who are beginning to reveal, by the scenarios they are promoting, exactly who they are and where they are trying to lead even sincere Catholics. It is a time of diabolical confusion and a prelude to the great dangers now being introduced as this country slides further and further into the Socialist/Communist abyss. Yet Socialism and Communism are only the outer layer of the onion peel, for closer to the core is found the true source of these evils as we were warned by the Roman Pontiffs long ago. These twin evils are the engines of the Secret Societies, used to enslave the masses by those operating at the highest levels of the Illuminati. This can be seen by studying the Masonic pyramid (see https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/articles/a-catholics-course-of-study/traditionalist-heresies-and-errors/papal-teaching-on-church-and-state/the-amazing-secret-behind-freemasonrys-triumph/) and thoughtfully considering all the organizations that lead to Masonry’s triumph.
Many of those among the Traditionalists believe they will see the victory of a holy king and holy pope at this time, but this would be possible only through the working of miracles. Yet the reign of such a king may have been forfeited, and with it the reign of the Holy Pope he was intended to defend. Karl von Habsburg became the emperor of Austria following the assassination of his uncle, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who cast the imperial veto during Pope St. Pius X’s election to prevent the election of Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. JP 2 created Habsburg a beatus, but this is no black mark on his holy life and his efforts to save Christendom. Was he working in league with the Angelic Pastor, the last Pope to be declared a Saint? Pope St. Pius X died in 1914 and Habsburg in 1922 at the age of 31. Both fought the forces of Modernism. Before his death, Pope St. Pius X supposedly told a Habsburg family member that Karl Habsburg, not his uncle Archduke Ferdinand, would be the next emperor, a man “sent from Heaven.” He may have made this statement after being informed by the Belgium seeress, Berthe Petit, that the Archduke would be assassinated. But neither this sainted pontiff nor Emperor Karl would live to fulfill the prophecy so many saintly seers predicted.
Perhaps, had von Habsburg lived into his later years, he would have been the Great Monarch who preserved Hungary from Communism (Karl also was Emperor of Hungary), rescued Cardinal Mindszenty and blew the whistle on the 1958 election as his uncle had done before him in 1903. But it was not to be. Our Lady appeared at Fatima in 1917, just five years before his death. Already the die had been cast and the world was entering the final phase of its downward spiral into Godlessness.
Certain biblical commentators agree that what has come to be known as “the peace of Fatima” will be granted to the Church. Long before Fatima occurred, saints, holy people, and theologians predicted a period of peace as well; and the popes have assured us of Our Lady’s victory, which implies peace. But one question remains unanswered: Our Lady predicated her promise on whether enough Catholics offered sacrifices, prayed the Rosary, and did penance. Can we trust the opinion of those writers who pretend that this promise was absolute rather than contingent upon the devotion manifested by the faithful? Not given what we know today regarding their orthodoxy. So this being the case, could Our Lord simply come suddenly to judge the world without first granting it peace? Given the extent of evil today, the world does not deserve to see the Church restored. While it does seem contrary to all the popes have taught concerning Mary’s triumph and the future of the Church to expect the Second Coming minus this peace, we cannot speculate upon God’s plans for His Church or think we completely understand what private prophecy is telling us.
It is true that we may have forfeited such a restoration by our wickedness. But as Rev. E. S. Berry said in his The Apocalypse of St. John: “Can we admit that a world steeped in paganism and torn with schism and heresy is the only result of Christ’s death on the Cross?” Berry then concludes it better reflects Christ’s glory and the perpetuity of His Church that She be restored rather than have it appear that the Church no longer existed when the world came to an end. As true as this may seem, the Church teaches nothing on this matter; in fact She is notably silent. This is because the secret of the Latter Days is contained in the little sealed book described in Apoc. 10; this could well be the Fatima secret never revealed. We were not meant to know God’s plans regarding us in these times until they slowly unfold. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. What seems reasonable to us in way of an outcome may not be God’s intention at all. We search the Scriptures and private prophecies, some by the Saints, for answers because nothing, or at least very little, is certain about these times.
One seer out of all the many, however, seems to have given us a better idea of what would happen to the Church, although her predictions sometimes seem to contradict each other. That seer is Marie-Julie Jahenny, the Breton (Nantes, France) mystic and victim soul who was imprinted with an impressive array of the various stigmatas. She was born in 1850 and died in 1941. A survey of the bulk of her prognostications regarding the Church in these times shows that she correctly predicted the two World Wars, Kulturkampf in Germany, and many other events. In 1881 she correctly described in detail the death of Melanie Calvat, the La Salette seeress, who died some 23 years later. Marie-Julie took the clergy to task for failing to spread La Salette, accusing them of actually prohibiting the Secret’s distribution and undermining its urgent warnings, especially where the clergy was concerned. She announced that “a distinct justice” is reserved for those obstructing Our Lady’s messages.
I choose to quote from her works here because in retrospect her prophecies have not received the attention in Traditionalist circles that, for example, those of Anna Catherine Emmerich or other holy people have received. And yet she is closest to our times and has been clearer and more accurate in her predictions than many others. Certainly divine revelation and papal teaching must always override anything in way of private revelations, and private revelations must always be taken with a grain of salt. Other writers may prefer not to quote Marie-Julie because she details at length the three days’ darkness which many now question as an actual event, some believing it refers only spiritually and not actually to the eclipse of the Church in these times. There also is the problem of conflicting revelations, but these may be explained by the fact, as one commentator points out, that Marie-Julie’s ecstasies were written down by several different people, at different times.
Therefore, the discrepancies can be attributed to incorrect transmission due to inadvertence, improper understanding of what was said or intended, actual misrendering of the message in places where it seemed to be too harsh, or did not agree with the understanding of the one recording the ecstasy, or other human errors. And certainly there is always the possibility that one or more of these transcribers were secret “send ins” who deliberately created doubt by their accounts, although this seems unlikely in this particular case. Such may have been the case, however, with one of those recording Anna Catherine Emmerich’s ecstasies, and this fact is even documented by an article in the American Ecclesiastical Review. Another issue is Marie-Julie’s predominant references in her ecstasies to the Great Monarch, which may have been prompted by a purely political (Monarchist) bias, one blemished by its own dangerous ties to secret societies, (unknown to the seer). All this remains to be seen, however, and only time can tell if it is simply a political preference embellished with other medieval era prophecies or has some basis in fact.
A caution here: a more recent “interpretation” of Marie Julie’s prophecies rules out any possibility the Papal See could currently be vacant, or has been vacant for many years, by referring to specific predictions and their timeline. This is to ignore the dogmatic teaching of the Church and give credence instead to a private revelation. These revelations can only confirm what is already known as truths taught by the Church; they cannot be used as a tool to gauge what will happen in the future or what has happened in the past. It is the duty of those studying the faith to first determine what the Church teaches regarding any given subject before taking statements made in any private revelation as valid. This is why we are free to believe them or not believe them, because Catholics must believe only what can be demonstrated as those things we are bound by the Church to believe.
We can take those things predicted by Marie-Julie that we now know to be true as proof of her credibility, and leave other things, such as the three days darkness and Great Monarch, aside for the time being. One thing we do know: nothing in our current time period can be ruled out as too fantastical or too radical, given what we already know and have seen. The three days could easily be manipulated by those New Agers plotting to drastically reduce the population on earth, something God may allow to happen. But the results — that the good, not the bad, would survive — would be totally unintended by the planners. And while the revival of a monarchy in this time of nothing but democracies throughout the world may seem like a longshot, it is the model the Church prefers and on which She is built. Listed below is a summary of some of Marie-Julie’s more pertinent prophecies, taken from various sources.
– More than once, the seer pronounces “You have been warned!”
– “It must be that this reign of sin ends. Never has the earth and the world been in a similar condition. It must end, (sin and evil) or every soul will be lost!”
– Her beloved confessor, Mgr. Fournier, appeared to her after his death and announced: “Sorrow will extinguish the Church for a certain time and that time is written in Heaven.” Marie- Julie says: “There will be a complete and perfect overthrow of everything… All Church work will stop. There will be complete destruction and death.” The Church will exist “only as a structural organization,” but She will “continue in the Catacombs.” Jesus told her He would “carry away the Church with all her walls and ornaments.”
– Regarding the false Vatican 2 church, she prophesied that Church law would be violated by both priests and the people who follow them. Most priests and bishops will defect from the faith and the number of the faithful will be “very small… Ministers of God will be the first to apostatize.” In the 1880s Jesus told her: “Disciples not of my Gospel are now working hard to remake according to their ideas and under influence of the enemy of souls a mass that contains words odious in my sight… Religion will remain only in “the lone souls of a few who will be harassed and persecuted.” There will be a “new clergy” and “new mass… new preachers of new sacraments, new baptisms new confraternities… There will not remain any vestige of the Holy Sacrifice.” St. Michael told her Satan would have possession of everything and “all goodness, faith and religion will be buried in the tomb. So why have so few read and taken note of these words written so long go?
Next, we include as whole pages her later words to the faithful, taken from the Marquis de la Franquerie’s Marie-Julie Jahenny, the Breton Stigmatist https://archive.org/details/PropheciesOfMarieJulieJahenny/page/n5/mode/2up):
St. John of the Cross told Marie-Julie: “It is a sure sign that God loves us when He makes us suffer on earth. He who does not suffer, is not the true friend of God. The Lord admits us (into) His grace; thank him. Remember that when we feel the pains of life, we experience His grace. When the Lord begins a work in which He wants His glory to break forth, he surrounds it first with persecutions, the cross, neglect, all kinds of penalties. This is the real charm of the Finger of God. It is necessary that one who is in the friendship of the Lord be tested, that everything in his soul is purified.”
“Under the fury of the storm, what will you do? Wait, pray and do what God wants. Love God with all our heart, faithfully serve God, serve him through the obscurities that are in us, serve despite the darkness where God leaves us and where we need to walk, serve Him all the same. Even when the light of your soul is absolutely extinguished, do not lose heart, go through all the dangers, face the dangers and God will fill you with His grace and His comfort. Who can make us happy on earth, except the peace of God that lives within us, working in us, that prays in us? Without this peace, man becomes like one damned, he runs and precipitates himself into the first gulf that he meets, because it is the devastation inflicted within him by his unregulated passions. Yet this is what happens in many hearts.”
Marie-Julie also was told in her ecstasies: “To keep peace, there is one thing to do, it is to say what God wants, it is to obey the Will of God, it is nothing that can be found in the human creature. It is to be found in God, since He is the Treasure of all… Pray for the Church threatened by a conspiracy hatched by a horrible jealousy of perverted minds banded together to overthrow it. The storm is terrible, but the Church will remain infallible and its walls shall not be shaken. But there will be martyrs … Pray for the Church and ask God for the return of a lost family, a people corrupted, a degraded society. All are our brothers in the Lord. They are souls redeemed at the price of His Blood. Prayer is the only remedy.”
To this can be added nothing more. She has said it all, and it seems that now is the time she foretold and her remedies are those that may help us to endure what lies ahead. Catholic prophecy as a whole is insistent that the only one who can save us from this terrible chastisement is Our Lord Himself, working through His Blessed Mother. Man must do God’s will and obey His law, and God will do the rest. As Marie-Julie said, “When everything seems lost, then will be the time of victory.”
by T. Stanfill Benns | Dec 24, 2020 | New Blog
+Mary ChristMass and a blessed New Year!+
Introduction
This ChristMass will be one that American Catholics will not soon forget. Communist and third-world countries have long seen the unrest we are now experiencing but never in this country have we seen such chaos and confusion. In these times we must lift up our heads and search the heavens, imploring God to grant us the graces we need to save our souls. We have already seen the brightness of the Star of Bethlehem there, reminding us, perhaps, that we could soon see the cross of redemption fixed in the sky, telling us that Christ is on His way to visit the earth. Many now, both those calling themselves Catholic and non-Catholics alike, are speaking of the imminent arrival of Antichrist. But as explained many times in this blog and in website articles, the Man of Sin proper has already come and gone. All that remains is for those now continuing his system to open their final act on the world stage and complete the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Antichrist’s diabolical system is definitely in play here, as explained below in Daniel’s vision of the latter days. We have seen the land and sea beasts of Apocalypse, Chapter 13. But Daniel details for us the nature of the fourth beast or kingdom, as he calls it, from which these beasts issue, and that is the New World Order system we now see in action.
Daniel’s Visions (Chap. 7, vs. 15-28)
“My spirit trembled, I Daniel was affrighted at these things, and the visions of my head troubled me. I went near to one of them that stood by and asked the truth of him concerning all these things, and he told me the interpretation of the words, and instructed me: These four great beasts are four kingdoms, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most high God shall take the kingdom: and they shall possess the kingdom for ever and ever.
“After this I would diligently learn concerning the fourth beast. which was very different from all and exceeding terrible: his teeth and claws were of iron: he devoured and broke in pieces, and the rest he stamped upon with his feet: And concerning the ten horns that he had on his head: and concerning the other that came up, before which three horns fell: and of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and was greater than the rest. I beheld, and lo, that horn made war against the saints, and prevailed over them till the Ancient of days came and gave judgment to the saints of the most High, and the time came, and the saints obtained the kingdom.
“And thus he said: The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be greater than all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns of the same kingdom, shall be ten kings: and another shall rise up after them, and he shall be mightier than the former, and he shall bring down three kings. And he shall speak words against the High One and shall crush the saints of the most High: and he shall think himself able to change times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times, and half a time. And judgment shall sit, that his power may be taken away, and be broken in pieces, and perish even to the end. And that the kingdom, and power, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, may be given to the people of the saints of the most High: whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all kings shall serve him, and shall obey him.
“Hitherto is the end of the word. I Daniel was much troubled with my thoughts, and my countenance was changed in me: but I kept the word in my heart.”
Babylon in history
The history of God’s chosen people, taken as a whole, teaches some very straightforward and important lessons. Holy Writ provides the basic summary of the machinations of God’s enemies throughout history, from the earliest days of the Israelites up to our own day. While Satan wishes all things to appear new, there is very little variation on his original scheme to deprive man of eternal happiness with his Maker.
The book of Genesis records the history of Satan’s assault on man, and Ven. Mary of Agreda, in her “Mystical City of God,” portrayed him as the eternal protagonist from the very beginning. Satan’s primary failing, she explained, was envy of the Son whom God the Father announced would redeem the world. Until this announcement came, Satan himself had presumed primogeniture in Heaven. That another would assume flesh, outstrip his gifts of grace and usurp his favor with the Almighty enraged him. On realizing the intentions of God, he revealed the true extent of his envy and hatred of the Word. He expressed this by issuing his fateful boast to make the persecution and destruction of the Divine Word his eternal mission, citing the defilement of Mary Most Holy as the means to attain this end.
Addressing this blasphemy, the Father solemnly proclaimed the final victory would belong to the Immaculate Conception, who would crush Satan’s proud head. He then flung him and the followers he had recruited deep into the center of the earth, where the Evil One and his demons have never ceased to issue forth and persecute men.
The next confrontation came in Eden. There Satan, in the guise of a serpent, first unveiled his system of Gnosis (knowledge of things forbidden by God), telling Adam and Eve that knowledge of both good and evil would make them God’s equal. Again the Creator reminded Satan of his destruction by the Woman. For our first parents, who left us the ignoble legacy of original sin, the price of pride and disobedience was the loss of Paradise. But for those who followed the serpent, the wages of Gnosis were eternal death in Hell.
Not one to waste time, Satan soon found accomplices among Adam’s descendants willing to imitate his example and accept his occult knowledge. The heavenly image of Satan’s fall from favor was mirrored in Cain’s murder of his innocent, well-intentioned brother Abel. Abel, a shepherd, prefigured Christ, the Good Shepherd, offering the sacrifice of his first fruits. Cain, envious of his brother’s goodness and eager for material gain, offered God only what he felt he could afford to spare – an offering deemed unacceptable in God’s eyes. When God informed Cain of his shortcomings, he followed in Satan’s footsteps. While Satan had assailed the Word spiritually, Cain physically assaulted and murdered his brother, then denied his deed to God. Satan has been a liar and a murderer from the beginning, as Holy Scripture attests.
Branded and sent into exile as punishment for his sins, Cain did not have an equal in sinfulness until the days of Noe. Adding lewdness to the long list of Satan’s deceits, Cham or Ham, the son of Noe, sinned by laughing at his father’s nakedness after Noe unintentionally became drunk from the fruits of his first vineyard. Noe cursed Cham for his immodesty and the taint of this curse apparently filtered down to Cham’s grandson, Nemrod, ruler of Babylon.
As Babylon’s ruler, Nemrod denounced God, wishing to receive the honor and glory his subjects offered to God for himself. He authored secular humanism by teaching them that they could ascribe all these physical and intellectual gifts to themselves. Styling himself as the strongest and craftiest ruler of his day, Nemrod then became the first to demonstrate that might makes right, tyrannizing his people for his own ends. According to Hebrew and Oriental traditions given some credence by the Church, he founded the Sabaean religion, archetype of pagan belief. In it was encapsulated all pagan belief, from Babylonian times to the present. He taught the people of Babylon that the sky was a crystal ceiling, the patriarchs that had died and gone to heaven being the very planets in the sky. Deity became synonymous with nature and the force that accounted for the heavens and earth. Unable to spiritualize this creative force, the early apostates worshipped the reproductive forces in man and nature. (This is the true origin of the legends that atheists claim prove Scripture to be nothing more than one possible explanation of actual events.)
Now the Sabaeans believed that meteors and certain stones were pieces of these supposed patriarch-planets fallen to earth, and they began worshiping the stones as gods. In the early stages of their disbelief, before they were recognized as having completely apostatized from the One God, they would secretly use these stones to build their altars of sacrifice, unbeknownst to their fellow worshippers who offered sacrifice to the true God. As the convert, Rabbi Drach, explains: “Our fathers, sons of Sem, preserved in the sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem the Beth-el Stone of Jacob (Jacob’s ‘stone pillow’), and in this stone they worshipped the Messiah. This cult was imitated by our neighbors of Phoenicia, sons of Cham, who had a common language,” (“Trail of the Serpent,” by Inquire Within). Later, the stones worshipped by these early idolaters were chiseled into phallic and other shameful shapes and hidden from view, accounting early on for the secrecy inherent in the mystery religions. Remnants of this worship can be seen today in “worry” stones and “pet rocks.”
Before the apostasy fostered during Nemrod’s reign, God made known His intention to separate the various tribes of peoples, sending them into different lands so that His designs for populating the entire earth might be accomplished. Nemrod and his subjects set themselves against this plan by building the Tower of Babel, claiming, the ancient traditions related, that as punishment God would renege on His promise never again to destroy the earth by flood. They sought to unite as many of their people as possible to preserve the one language they feared to lose in separation.
Nemrod boasted his tower would reach the planet-gods of heaven. Like Satan, his father, he feared God would deprive him of his kingdom. He was desperately attempting to attract as many adherents to his new religious-politico empire as he possibly could. The infidelity occasioned by worshiping men as gods (the father-patriarchs and themselves) had resulted in the degradation of women, immorality and depravity. Before the tower was completed and Nemrod’s scheme could succeed, God changed the tongues of the various families so they could no longer understand one another and were forced to separate. Thus was the first attempt at one-world government and religion foiled by Divine intervention. But Nemrod’s people, the sons of Sem, continued to live between the Tigris and Euphrates. And from this continuation of the Babylonian empire arose the Egyptian and other pagan mystery religions.
Babylon is the code word used by early Christians to identify Rome. In the Apocalypse we find reference to the whore of Babylon and Babylon the Great, which is destined to fall; repaganized Rome and her earthly satellites. Chapter 13 of Apocalypse identifies three separate beasts that will manifest themselves during Antichrist’s reign. The sea beast is generally interpreted by Catholic commentators as Antichrist proper and the land beast as the false prophet, although some reverse these two roles. Then there is the third beast which is also the fourth kingdom, spoken of by Daniel the prophet. It also is referred to in Apoc. 17 as the whore of Babylon, across whose forehead is written “mystery.”
This kingdom is symbolized by a woman who rides the Antichrist beast, or in other words is carried along with him (the horns receive a kingdom WITH the beast, Apoc. 17:12). One specific king in particular will side with Antichrist and his system. Babylon the great is pagan Rome allied with Freemasonry, Socialism and Communism. This alliance began during the reigns of Roncalli and Montini and continues in our own day with Antichrist’s system. The false prophet (Angelo Roncalli, known as John 23) first prepared the way for Giovanni Montini (Paul 6) by making him a cardinal then announcing the calling of the false Vatican 2 council. Paul 6 was unmistakably identified in many ways with the number six, and this has been demonstrated in the writings of various authors, myself included, for decades. Scripture clearly tells us who Antichrist proper is, for this beast, Paul 6, usurped the papacy then abolished the Latin Mass when he who withholdeth was taken out of the way (Pope Pius XII). Antichrist has come, but the ultimate material reign of the system he established is about to be revealed. If it is represented by a particular political figure, so be it, but he must not be confused with Antichrist proper, who in every sense can be only a spiritual figure.
Two trends in Scripture commentary
Commentators seem to be caught up in two different excesses in predicting Antichrist’s reign. Some deny anything that would seem to support the Protestant contention that Antichrist could in any way be identified with the papacy. They enter into long and drawn-out explanations as to why these Protestant teachings on the pope as Antichrist are heretical and not a true fulfillment of the prophecies. This is true and perhaps it was necessary to some extent, but it should not eclipse the actual situation today, but they do not explain that it could have an entirely Catholic interpretation. No one is saying a true pope is or could ever become Antichrist. We are saying that a man who is only posing as a true pope became Antichrist, one who was never validly elected and could never, therefore, have continued the papal succession. None of the commentators even considered this with the exception of Rev. E. S. Berry, who believed the false prophet would “probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne [mentioned in Apoc., Ch. 12]. Of course this is true, for it is exactly what Roncalli did. What Berry misses is that the Antichrist himself will also be a false pope.
The other excess is related to the above but varies from it somewhat. These commentators hold that the papacy can never cease to exist, despite what Henry Cardinal Manning and others (including Fr. Berry) teach regarding he who withholdeth. Some teach a pope could actually become a heretic and still remain pope (material-formal); others believe that some bishop of Novus Ordo origin could “turn’ and be elected a true pope without ever possessing apostolic succession, contrary to all Church law and teaching. The first excess group fears to finger Montini as Antichrist because they believe it comes too close to the papal antichrist theory, a heresy, even though Pope Paul IV tells us exactly how such a thing could happen in his Cum ex Apostolatus Officio. The second excess group isn’t worried about heresy; they long ago compromised themselves by accepting men as their “clerics” who had no valid claim to either apostolic succession or a mission granted by the Church. They are a new non-Catholic religion with new minsters who parody Mass and Sacraments but can transmit nothing. They secretly realize their lack of jurisdiction for their clergy poses a valid threat to their membership, so they must have a pope to make it appear they can function validly and “prove” the Church still exists.
Both groups would necessarily need to style any man considered Antichrist as a political figure to satisfy their needs and prejudices as well as their illogical conclusions. But the Church does not deal in politics and the affairs of the secular world; She deals only in the spiritual realm. Antichrist proper can project a material manifestation but only if it is firmly held and understood by Catholics that his primary role is and must be spiritual since it is the spiritual realm that he so profoundly impacts. He ruled as an imposter stripping the Church of all that Christ established on earth. No political figure could ever hope to effectively deceive the elect and seduce the faithful by doing such a thing from outside the confines of the Church; he would be seen as the enemy. No; it would need to be done from within, with at least the appearance of authority, to fulfill Scripture prophecy completely. This is not to say that these prophecies will not and cannot have a secondary more literal fulfillment, but in actuality it is only an extension of the initial spiritual fulfillment.
What we may be seeing in the formation of the New World Order is the open and undeniable cooperation of Francis with the conspirators, for is he not also Antichrist by extension, being in his direct line of descent? Remember that the devil wishes to impersonate Christ perfectly; he too shall have his own satanic succession and each one of his “pontiffs” will be a mirror image of Antichrist with all the same power, just as St. Peter was. But this succession is the system of Antichrist, for only one of these men could be the actual Man of Sin according to the Church, and we know this man had to be Montini, in all likelihood. Holy Scripture gave us all the signs we needed to identify him, and the disappearance of the papacy cannot be explained unless we admit his existence. The whore of Babylon lent her power to the evil governments of the world when Roncalli/Montini embraced Freemasonry, Socialism and Communism. This is only the culmination of that alliance, with a formal acceptance now coming from Francis. But the betrayal of the Church began long ago, even before the death of Pope Pius XII. Francis’ role is to fulfill the Protestant claims that the Church was indeed Antichrist, alienating non-Catholics with sympathies toward Catholicism, in order to wipe out the Church’s salvific mission forever. Traditionalists will play the role of the true Church and deceive any remaining elect. Eventually the powers that be will tire of Rome’s affiliations and Apocalypse predicts they will destroy the city, a physical fulfillment of the longstanding spiritual reality. Then even the semblance of any religion will disappear and Satanism will fill the void.
When will Christ interrupt this chain of events? That is His carefully guarded secret. Below we will quote a Novus Ordo work which refers to the writings of St. Louis Grignon de Montfort, writings of this saint not otherwise available to us. The work is from Fr. Andrea D’Ascanio OFM Cap., at the Marianum Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Rome. It consists mainly in quotes from de Montfort, but certain comments on these writings, where they remain in keeping with the faith, have also been retained.
Abbreviations used to cite Montfort’s works:
LCM Letters to Members of the Company of Mary; LEW, The Love of Eternal Wisdom; L Letters; LFC, Letters to the Friends of the Cross; FP, Fiery Prayer; RM, Rule for the Missionary Priests of the Company of Mary; SR, The Secret of the Rosary; SM, The Secret of Mary; TD, Treatise on True Devotion to Mary and RHP, Rules for the Holy Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Saumur. Fr. D’Asconio’s text is below.
“Who will these servants, slaves and children of Mary be?” They are those the Spirit has chosen so that “his holy Mother may be known, honoured and loved as never before” in the last times, at the conclusion of the ancient battle between the woman and the serpent, between her offspring and the serpent’s offspring (Gen 3,15). At that time Mary’s power will be revealed, right when Satan will try to strike her “heel”, that is ‘ses humbles esclaves et ses pauvres enfants’ to whom she will convey her grace. They will be the great saints of the last times who, “in union with Mary, will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ” (TD 54).
“Their main characteristic will be a profound inner life; following John’s example they “stay at home with their mother” (TD 196) devoted to prayer, following the example and in the company of she who has always loved meditation and prayer. Their main concern must be their own interior perfection, “compared to which all other work is mere child’s play,” (TD 196). They will live the first and only commandment of Love by seeking God with all their heart, with all their mind and with all their strength, like the first monks and hermits who abandoned the world in order to achieve complete unity with Him… They will go out into the world only to carry out the duties of their status following the will of God their Father and Mary their Mother.” (This is the connection to St. John the beloved disciple we have referred to in previous blogs. He and Our Lady are with us today — TSB)
“In one of his works of 1919, P. Lhomeau, commenting on the apostles of the last times according to Monfort, thus summarizes what the Church means by “last times”: “Christian language refers to the “last times” as a period of indeterminate length which can involve years or centuries, in which any kind of catastrophes or events, especially the misfortunes of the Church, its downfalls and victories. In the end, everything will be extreme and, so to speak, terminal in character, and will prepare for the second coming of Christ (…). That is what we call parousia. This return of Christ is the object of our faith; and the Master Himself ordered us to watch and wait (…). Its date is in the secret of God.” There has been much talk on the meaning of Montfort’s expressions concerning the second and last coming of Jesus, which theologians have interpreted in different, and at times contrasting, ways. According to Montfort’s most profound commentator there are two deluges, a ‘fiery deluge of pure love’ which will convert all men and also a ‘divine fire of his anger’ which ‘will reduce the whole world to ashes.’
“The reign especially attributed to God the Father lasted until the Flood and ended in a deluge of water. The reign of Jesus Christ ended in a deluge of blood, but your reign, Spirit of the Father and the Son, is still unended and will come to a close with a deluge of fire, love and justice. When will it happen, this fiery deluge of pure love with which you are to set the whole world ablaze and which is to come, so gently yet so forcefully, that all nations, Moslems, idolaters and even Jews, will be caught up in its flames and be converted? None can shield himself from the heat it gives, so let its flames rise. Rather let this divine fire which Jesus Christ came to bring on earth be enkindled before the all-consuming fire of your anger comes down and reduces the whole world to ashes.” Is it possible that God won’t grant Mary’s heartbroken request for this prophet, in which she lives and fully identifies with? The time has not come yet. Before the altar of the Trinity, Mary will keep alive this fiery cry which her servant raises up in the name of the Church and of humanity and its effects will be seen in the most difficult moments of the last Church. (This is an echo, it seems, of the conditional Fatima promise. No one can be certain that the necessary conditions of this promise were ever fulfilled by a sufficient number of people praying OR by the consecration made by Pope Pius XII. — TSB)
“Saint Louis Mary pays the high price of a prophet who spiritually lives the dramatic final battle between good and evil; he has realized that in order to accomplish his salvific plan “Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints” (TD 47) and he asks for its fulfilment with all the strength of his being… Montfort understands that there is something mysterious in God’s plan which he can’t figure out: “No one knows how and when this will come to pass, but we do know that God, whose thoughts are further from ours than heaven is from earth, will come at a time and in a manner least expected, even by the most scholarly of men and those most versed in Holy Scripture, which gives no clear guidance on this subject,” (SM 58).
“Montfort [repeats] often that the final battle will take place above all in man’s inner soul… In “heaven”, that is in the dimension of the spirit, the “sun” which is God “will be darkened”: this is the result of a century of theoretical and practical atheism in which man has wanted to banish God, renewing on earth the ‘non serviam’ which already resounded in heaven. It is the dreadful ‘silence of God’ dreaded by Israel. As a result, ‘the moon shall not give her light’: the Church, which reflects the light of the sun which is God, will enter into a profound crisis whose most visible sign will be ‘the stars which will fall from heaven’. In God’s heaven the ‘stars’ are the priests (“You are the light of the world…” Matt. 5:14). (Pre-V2 Scripture commentators identify the stars as bishops or the hierarchy in general – TSB).
“From post Vatican II until today about 100,000 priests have abandoned their ministry, and this exodus doesn’t show signs of coming to an end. ‘The powers of heaven shall be moved’: The heavens are the souls of men who, having become orphans because they have lost their Father and Mother, will find themselves in a profound moral and spiritual chaos. This situation is already clear as well. ‘And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. And then shall all tribes of the earth mourn’. The only sign of the Son of man is the Cross. This sign will appear impressed with fire in every soul. In suffering, all souls will comprehend their ingratitude and neglect for this crucified Love, they will mourn and they will be saved.” (This is the true value of being deprived of Mass and Sacraments and of the very Church Herself, this mourning. Many style it as the condemnation of stay-at-home Catholics, but instead it is the opportunity to work out our salvation — TSB.)
“The last times are those of the greatest moral decay in which we are living and of which Montfort prophesies. This vision makes his great supplication to God the Almighty Father spring from his heart: “Be mindful, Lord, of your Congregation, when you come to dispense your justice. (…) Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah? Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven? Is it not true that your kingdom must come? Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church? Are not the Jews to be converted to the truth and is this not what the Church is waiting for? All the blessed in heaven cry out for justice to be done. And the faithful on earth join in with them and cry out: Amen come, Lord!” (FP 5). (End of de Montfort book quotes.)
Conclusion
It may appear strange to speak of Christ’s Second Coming on the eve of His birth, but the Gospel for the first Sunday of Advent itself opens the season with this reminder. Nor should we lose sight of it during the ChristMass season, especially when the signs of its close approach are so frighteningly apparent. The above paragraphs, however, should give much comfort to those who must endure these terrible trials and tribulations, for perhaps, without even knowing it, we have followed de Montfort’s advice and hopefully classify as the lovers of Jesus and Mary he describes. May the love of the Christ Child live ever in your hearts and may we all pray for a safe and peaceful New Year.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Dec 8, 2020 | New Blog
+Feast of the Immaculate Conception+
Now that we have entered the season of Advent and are preparing for the birth of Our Lord, I have been thinking about the feast of some 14,000 Holy Innocents, and how their martyrdom mirrors in many ways the situation in which we find ourselves today. On first read this may seem to be a strange remark. But Christ granted these infants admission to Heaven, even though they were unbaptized, because they were totally innocent, and they suffered and died for Him. Of course, they were baptized in their own blood, a sure ticket to Heaven, and we know well that “baptism” of blood and desire is sufficient to merit salvation according to the Church’s teaching on this matter. But it was a merciful act on God’s part because they died in the process of prophecy being fulfilled, God’s will on earth being done, regarding the Incarnation.
From all eternity, the times in which we live today were ordained to complete the course of the Church on earth. I say our own situation is analogous to the Holy Innocents because like them, we have been caught up in a storm of persecution against the Son of God and all He stood for. And this precisely because God wills that the Scriptures be fulfilled, even though it may cost us dearly in way of our loss of all spiritual direction, Mass and Sacraments and any normal Catholic existence. In our last blog we explained how Christ is with us unto the consummation simply because we yet exist, profess His name and do our best to try to accept His holy will that Mass and Sacraments, indeed the Church Herself, be unavailable to us at this time. In the prophecy predicting the shepherd would be struck, (Zacharias 13:7), God says He will turn His hand to the little ones.
In Christ’s prediction of this same event, the first part of this prophecy is repeated again (see Matt. 26:31), but in this passage Christ says, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed.” Rev. Leo Haydock interprets the passage in Zacharias as follows: “Christ takes care of his little flock, and always is one with the Father.” In the Matt. 26:31 version, he notes that “I will strike” means that Christ’s death (and the vacancy of the Holy See) means that these trials and sufferings are “directed by God.” He quotes from Luke 12:32 which reads: “Fear not little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom.” Citing St. Bede, Haydock writes on this verse: “In order to console us in our labors, he commands us to seek only the kingdom of Heaven and promises that the Father will bestow it as a reward upon us.” So in these difficult times, Christ grants us leeway if we but obey His law and seek not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly one.
Another instance of Christ’s mercy to those caught up in the fulfillment of His mission to save souls is the miracle He worked in Gethsemane. When an apostle (most believe it was St. Peter) stepped up to defend Him as He was being accosted by the soldiers and the Jewish officials, slicing off the ear of the high priest’s servant, Jesus restored the man’s ear, objecting, “How can the Scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?” It seems that Our Lord was unwilling that anyone who was an innocent bystander to the fulfillment of God’s will regarding His Passion (and that of His Church) should be harmed for His sake. We are not innocent as the holy babes of Bethlehem were nor even the high priest’s servant, who undoubtedly was acting only at Caiaphas’ behest. But we are haplessly caught up in this end times unraveling of prophecy and God well knows our plight. As the author of the little tract, They Have Taken Away My Lord, Fr. Demaris writes: “To love God and fear Him alone, such is the lot of a small number of the elect. It is this love and this fear that makes martyrs by detaching the Faithful from the world and attaching them to God and His Holy Law. To support this love and this fear, in your hearts, watch and pray… God needs nobody but Himself to save us when He so desires.”
Of course, none of the above means that any Catholic can grow lax in the practice of religion, believing God will somehow grant him leniency because of our present situation. We cannot abandon prayer and penance or believe we will somehow be forgiven for our sins outside the usual channels. But we have the right to believe that we have been assigned an important part in the Church’s existence because Holy Scripture and the Roman Pontiffs tell us so. We are described as a royal priesthood and living stones in 1 Peter 2, 4-10. The Apocalypse tells us that we are priests and kings (Apoc. 1:6; 5:10) and we are told that we shall reign on the earth (Apoc. 5:10). Commenting on these verses, Rev. Leo Haydock writes: “Every good Christian, in a less proper sense, may be called a priest inasmuch as he offers to God what… may be called sacrifices and oblations. Christians are a royal priesthood because they are invited by Christ to reign in his kingdom… All Christians may justly be styled kings and priests of God,” when they triumph over their passions and worldly temptations, also “by the continual offering they make on the altar of their hearts by means of the prayers they daily offer up to God.”
In a document we have quoted before, entered into the Acta Apostolica Sedis, (meaning it is binding on Catholics), Pope Pius XII tells us we not only can but must take up all the duties of the hierarchy in their absence. The pushback from certain accusers, despite this papal pronouncement, pretends what we advocate is akin to the NO’s elevation of the laity to clerical status, but they entirely miss the point here. We are not elevating ourselves to anything – we have been placed in a position that leaves us no choice but to either slink into the shadows and cower there indefinitely or obey the Roman Pontiff and behave as the Christians Pope St. Peter describes. If anyone would read the papal documents written on Catholic Action they would quickly see that the popes not only requested but commandedCatholics to engage in Catholic Action, to compensate for the shortage of priests and to reach out to the laity on their own level, not from a clerical level. This is nothing new.
In his little booklet, written to console French Catholics in the 1790s following the Constitutional church crisis in France, Father Demaris, a professor of theology and missionary of St. Joseph, wrote: “Don’t be surprised if in our own time, we see what St. Cyprian saw in his: that most of the faithful succumbed. To love God and fear Him alone, such is the lot of a small number of the elect. It is this love and this fear that makes martyrs by detaching the Faithful from the world and attaching them to God and His Holy Law. To support this love and this fear, in your hearts, watch and pray… It is by Faith that the Faithful are united. In probing this truth, we find that the absence of the Body does not break this unity, since it does not break the ties of Faith, but rather augments it by depriving it of all feeling… The circumstances where these laws [regarding the reception of the Sacraments] do not oblige, are those where God’s Will manifests itself to obtain our salvation without the intermediary of Man… God needs nobody but Himself to save us when He so desires.” So Fr. Demaris believes that in such times it is not the Mass and Sacraments that unite the faithful, but faith alone. The liturgy being taken away does not break the bonds of faith itself!
St. Anthony Mary Claret was also a champion of lay autonomy regarding the promotion of the faith, in a day and age when this was not at all popular. He repeats in his writings what was said above: “The Christian is anointed as priest, prophet and king.” The sacrifice they offer should not be limited to the Mass, but “we must also offer ourselves as victims for the glory of God and in satisfaction for our failings.” He even relied on the assistance of a woman religious to outline an ambitious plan to elevate the spiritual life of religious, the clergy and the laity. While the Novus Ordo authors who have written books on St. Claret’s life claim him as a forerunner of the “spiritual renewal’ of Vatican 2, it was never St. Claret’s intention to engage the laity in liturgical reform or the modernization of the Church. The title to his treatise to restore the Church to its pristine holiness indicates just the opposite: Notes for a Plan to Preserve the Beauty of the Church. St. Anthony preached a renewal “of ministerial action and exact fidelity to the Gospel,” not liturgical renewal. The plan for this long overdue restoration stressed obedience to “the Holy Law of God,” clerical appreciation of a life of poverty and the urgent need for the spiritual renewal of both superiors and their charges in seminaries and religious communities. Had this been accomplished, Vatican 2 could have been avoided altogether.
Then there was his promotion of parish libraries run by the laity without the supervision of the clergy, who he felt needed to dedicate themselves to more important duties. He established a great many of these throughout Cuba and also ardently supported and promoted a Catholic press. St. Claret wrote that lay persons needed to be in charge of these libraries because “they have a greater opportunity to be involved among the people — the pastors and other priests are occupied with matters of their own ministry. It seems that in these last times God wishes laypersons to play an important role in the salvation of souls.” And in his addresses to the laity on Catholic Action, this was also the teaching of Pope Pius XII, the pontiff who elevated St. Anthony Mary Claret to sainthood. Precisely because it is morally and physically impossible to have such libraries or any organization approved or directed by the hierarchy, according to Henry Cardinal Manning this relieves one of any obligation to seek such an approval. We also have the permission of Pope Pius XII, who said that to engage in such an apostolate, “…is perfectly justified even without a prior explicit ‘mission’ from the hierarchy,” (The Mission of the Catholic Woman, Sept. 29, 1957). As mentioned above, Pius XII directed the laity to assume all the duties of the hierarchy in their absence, but he cautioned that in doing this the laity could not undertake anything “against the explicit and implicit will of the Church, or contrary in any way to the rules of faith or morals or ecclesiastical discipline.”
St. Anthony also believed that we were fast approaching the end of the world, expressed in the title of another of his treatises: The Present Epoch Probably Considered the Last of the World. He was told by our Lord that he was the eagle announcing the woes in Apocalypse and he believed that the religious congregation he established was sent to prepare the world for the Second Coming. In his autobiography he explains how Jesus told him he would “fly throughout the world and speak of the great punishments that are approaching.” This was in reference to the passage of Apoc. 8: 13 and the eagle who would proclaim the woes: “Woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the three great chastisements that are to come.” He was then given to understand that these were Protestantism, Communism; love of pleasure, money, independence of mind and of will and the great wars and their consequences. Thus is his prophecy now realized in what we are experiencing today. He also was made to understand on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy (Ransom) that his congregation was to spread the Gospel and devotion to the love of Jesus and Mary everywhere. Part of his preaching and that of his congregation, was, predictably, against the dangers of Communism and Socialism. It is ironic, then, that this Satanic system has reigned in Cuba for so many years.
It is interesting to read the principles of Socialism St. Claret condemns in his autobiography, as they are so applicable to what we see today. They are listed as follows:
- Man should acknowledge no father or mother but the earth.
- Kings and ministers of state are nothing but tyrants and have no right to tell others what to do. We are all equal.
- Politics is nothing more but a game to get control of the land, honor, financial interests etc. of the people.
- There is no law but the law of the strongest.
- The earth belongs to no one; all things come from it, and all things are for everyone and belong to everyone.
- The rich are scoundrels, thieves and loafers who do nothing but loaf, eat and lust… The workers must rise up and finish off these drones of society. (He gives quite a bit of space to their rants against the rich and the resentment workers have against those who employ them but have none of the niceties in life and do well to just barely survive.)
- The rich have enjoyed the land. Now it is time for us to enjoy it and divide it among ourselves… [The rich] robbed the people of their property. It is only right to reclaim what is ours.
All this St. Anthony witnessed while yet living in his native Spain. He noted that the Socialists accomplished much in a short while by using persuasive arguments, lobbing insults and making threats. They steeped those who followed them in immorality and led many away from religion.
Sadly, we may be long past the time that anything could be done to successfully evangelize others, including the faithful. We have now reached a crossroads where it will either be one world rule or a rebirth of the Church, which, as we have stated before, would need to be effected by a miracle. It seems fitting today to post this article because St. Anthony was such a devoted client of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his congregation being that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He also had great hopes for America, writing: “America is a great and fertile field, and in time more souls will enter Heaven from America than from Europe. [Europe] is like an old vine that bears little fruit, whereas America is a young vine.” One of the last things he told the members of his congregation before his death was to establish houses in America. It is said that when St. Brendan first glimpsed the shores of North America, he called it the land of the blessed. Let us all pray that, facing the fight of our lives, we will either win that battle and live to see better days or die defending God, family and country.
