Tooday is the Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) declared Our Lady to be the Mother of God. This is a doctrine that that the devil particularly hates, which is why he has raised up all manner of Protestant sects to attack it with a fury, requiring us to defend the doctrine of the Divine Maternity of Our Lady with all of the graces that she sees fit to send us through her loving hands as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

As Father Benedict Baur, O.S.B., explained in The Light of the World, Volume II:

"Fifteen hundred years have passed since Nestorius, a Patriarch of Constantinople, launched the heresy which taught that the person of Christ was different from the person of the Son of God. Nestorius asserted that Mary did not conceive nor bring forth the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, but only the man Christ. According to his teaching she was not the Mother of God, not a God-bearer, but only the mother of a mere man, in whom God dwelt only as in a temple.

A few years later after the beginning of the Nestorian heresy, a council was assembled at Ephesus (431 A.D.), which proclaimed that Mary had given birth to Jesus, who was, at one and the same time, God and man, having two natures but one person. God does not live in Him merely as in a temple, but the man Jesus is at the same time God. Mary is mother, not only of the humanity of Christ, but of the Son of God also. She is the Mother of God. The people of Ephesus awaited the decision of the council hall were opened and the decision was made known, the people greeted the Fathers with great rejoicing and accompanied them to their dwellings with flaming torches, crying out: 'Mary is the bearer of God; Mary is the Mother of God.' 

Today, fifteen hundred years later, we make the same joyful confession. "Mary is the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. The Gospel recounts an incident of His childhood during which He first refers to His divine origin. When Jesus was twelve years old, Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice. 'When they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not.' They believed Him to be in the company of relatives. But they were mistaken. After a long and anxious search they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors of the law. 'And His mother said to Him: Son, why hast Thou done to so us? Behold Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.' This rebuke shows the concern of a mother who has borne suffering with love. But Jesus meekly answers: 'Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?' He refers to His Heavenly Father, for He is Son of God. He was conceived, not by the power of man, but by the power of God (Offertory). When the angel had first brought the message to Mary, she had answered: Behold the handmaid of Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1: 38). And at her word, the only-begotten Son of God was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mother. We pray tribute to this mystery at the Communion, when we confess, 'Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father.' Blessed art thou, O holy Mother of God, who wert united to the Son of God in a most intimate union when thou didst bear Him in thy womb. "Mary provided the body for the Son of God, and he in return Christ filled the soul of Mary with the fullness of His spirit. Mary became wholly absorbed in Him and became like Him. She became united to Him in a most intimate union. 'Alleluia, alleluia. Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world cannot contain, enclosed Himself in thy womb, being made man, Alleluia.' 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.' " 'As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odor, and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches' (Epistle). The blossoms on this vine are the precious virtues of faith and humility which the Virgin exhibited when she received the message of the angel. She was resolute in her attachment to her virginity: "I know not man" (Luke 1: 34). Yet she is obedient to the will of God and speaks her fiat: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1: 38). "My flowers are the fruit of honor and riches," Christ the Lord. "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse," Mary, who is sprung from the house of David; "and a flower shall rise up out of his root," Christ, the Son of Mary (Gradual). Humanity and divinity are united in this one person. 'Come over to me, all yet that desire me, and be filled with my fruits' (Epistle). Mary does not keep her child for herself; she bequeaths Him to us when He is born at Bethlehem, when He is offered in the Temple, and when He offers Himself up on the cross. She gives Him to us again daily in Holy Communion. Mary has borne Christ for us. Together with her Divine Son, she has given us salvation and an abundance of grace. She stands even today at the throne of God as our advocate and or all-powerful intercessor, armed with irresistible intercessory power, the mother of all those who are in the state of sanctifying grace. "We renew our faith in the mystery of Mary's divine motherhood. 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.' God is thy child, having taken His humanity from thy flesh. " 'Come over to me . . . and be filled with my fruits,' for it is Christ Jesus whom I give you. He was first given to us when we were reborn through baptism: He is given to us today at Mass and Holy Communion: 'Hath He not also with Him given us all things?' (Rom. 8: 32.) Since Mary has given us all things through Christ, we today express our gratitude to her." (Father Benedict Baur, O.S.B., The Light of the World, Volume II, B. Herder Book Company, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1954, pp. 440-442.) 

Finally, there has been an absence of articles on this site, including republished reflections, because of problems accessing the internet that were entirely beyond my control. This is the first day that I have had full access to the internet since September 30, 2019, although I have had more than enough work to do with trying to fix the vexing problems of formatting my next book. Nevertheless, however, I will devote time today and tomorrow to addressing the latest Eugenio Scalfari assertion that Jorge Mario Bergoglio denies that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was indeed True God and True Man at the moment of His Incarnation or at any other time during thereafter prior to His death on the wood of the Holy Cross. This is simply a variation of Arianism. Thus, of course, I will prepare a little commentary about this for publication no later than Sunday, October 13, 2019. Thank you for your patience.

A blessed Feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us

An update on Saturday, October 12, 2019.

In the midst of dealing with a sudden onset of flu-like symptoms, I was trying to revise a reflection on the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima when my notebook computer, which I purchased eleven months ago, died. There were problems with the electric power cord beforehand. Methinks the device's motherboard got fried.

Thus, I am typing this on my phone to inform you that I am offline yet again! Oh well, penance is the path to Heaven.

I hope to be online again soon.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us

This is a  reflection on the life and the work of Saint Jerome, the great great Dalmatian who put the love of God above all else. Consider just one quotation from the work of this prolific writer and translator of the Bible into the Latin Vulgate:

"It is a smaller sin to follow evil which you think is good, than not to venture to defend what you know for certain is good. If we cannot endure threats, injustice, poverty, how shall we overcome the flames of Babylon? Let us not lose by hollow peace what we have preserved by war. I should be sorry to allow my fears to teach me faithlessness, when Christ has put the true faith in the power of my choice." (Saint Jerome, Prologue to the Treatise Against the Pelagians.)

How many traditionally-minded Catholics who are as of yet attached to the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who know for certain that it is not good to praise false religions or to enter places of false worship or to treat the "clergy" of false religions as having a mission from the true God of Divine Revelation to serve and save souls refuse to do what is good, that is, to defend the honor and glory and majesty God and His Sacred Deposit Faith in order to indemnify the author of Summorum Pontificum, Antipope Emeritus Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, whose successor, Jorge Mario Bergoglios, has laid bare for all the world to see that he is "worried" by those who "want to return to the past"?

We must always defend what we know to be true as servants of the greater honor and glory of God.

Saint Jerome did.

What's our excuse?

Finally, I ask for your prayers for my dear wife, Sharon, who turns but a mere fifty-six years of age of age today. Thank you.

As I am working on book projects full-time now, it will be a few weeks before the next original commentary is posted. Although I wrote voluminously about the Clinton impeachment proceedings in 1998 for The Wanderer and the printed pages of Christ or Chaos, I have learned much since then as I refuse to be drawn into the utter distraction represented by the totalitarianism of the "left" in their quest to eliminate the opposite camp of naturalism. This may appear to be a "struggle for liberty." 

However, it should be remembered that even the supposed "defender" of "liberty" in the White House believes that those who practice the sin of Sodom constitute a legitimate "identity" that must be recognized by the civil law. No matter the gross injustices in the natural order of things to which the president is being subjected by his fanatical opponents, the fact remains that no man who suppports the sin of Sodom as a civil right or who speaks profanely and blasphemously is going to enjoy the favor of Christ the King.  Our Lord i is leaving the naturalists to have after each other, and I, for one, am not going to contribute to the hysteria. A commentary about this situation will be written around the the Feast of Christ the King, but that commentary will center on the reasons for the current conflicts and not on the specifics of each twist and turn.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

This is a  reflection on the life and the work of Saint Jerome, the great great Dalmatian who put the love of God above all else. Consider just one quotation from the work of this prolific writer and translator of the Bible into the Latin Vulgate:

"It is a smaller sin to follow evil which you think is good, than not to venture to defend what you know for certain is good. If we cannot endure threats, injustice, poverty, how shall we overcome the flames of Babylon? Let us not lose by hollow peace what we have preserved by war. I should be sorry to allow my fears to teach me faithlessness, when Christ has put the true faith in the power of my choice." (Saint Jerome, Prologue to the Treatise Against the Pelagians.)

How many traditionally-minded Catholics who are as of yet attached to the structures of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who know for certain that it is not good to praise false religions or to enter places of false worship or to treat the "clergy" of false religions as having a mission from the true God of Divine Revelation to serve and save souls refuse to do what is good, that is, to defend the honor and glory and majesty God and His Sacred Deposit Faith in order to indemnify the author of Summorum Pontificum, Antipope Emeritus Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, whose successor, Jorge Mario Bergoglios, has laid bare for all the world to see that he is "worried" by those who "want to return to the past"?

We must always defend what we know to be true as servants of the greater honor and glory of God.

Saint Jerome did.

What's our excuse?

Finally, I ask for your prayers for my dear wife, Sharon, who turns but a mere fifty-six years of age of age today. Thank you.

As I am working on book projects full-time now, it will be a few weeks before the next original commentary is posted. Although I wrote voluminously about the Clinton impeachment proceedings in 1998 for The Wanderer and the printed pages of Christ or Chaos, I have learned much since then as I refuse to be drawn into the utter distraction represented by the totalitarianism of the "left" in their quest to eliminate the opposite camp of naturalism. This may appear to be a "struggle for liberty." 

However, it should be remembered that even the supposed "defender" of "liberty" in the White House believes that those who practice the sin of Sodom constitute a legitimate "identity" that must be recognized by the civil law. No matter the gross injustices in the natural order of things to which the president is being subjected by his fanatical opponents, the fact remains that no man who suppports the sin of Sodom as a civil right or who speaks profanely and blasphemously is going to enjoy the favor of Christ the King.  Our Lord i is leaving the naturalists to have after each other, and I, for one, am not going to contribute to the hysteria. A commentary about this situation will be written around the the Feast of Christ the King, but that commentary will center on the reasons for the current conflicts and not on the specifics of each twist and turn.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

oday is the Feast of the Dedication of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel and the Commemoration of the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

We need Saint Michael's intercession more now than ever before. We need his help in our own daily battles with the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And, of course, we need his help with to remain faithful to the true Faith without making any concessions at all to conciliarism or its false officials who blaspheme God so regularly, so boldly, so repeatedly and with a chorus of bobble heads making excuses for them in their sins against the First and Second Commandments.

Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us and keep us!

Today is the feast of the great Saint Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, who was murdered by his own brother, who hated the fact that that he, King Wenceslaus, was everything that he, Boleslaus, hated, namely, pious and devoted, a servant of Christ the King, a just ruler who ruled to advance the common temporal good in light of man's Last End. Boleslaus hated the fact that his brother, our dear saint, loved the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and baked the Eucharistic bread with his own hands. This should give us pause for reflection in our own circumstances today when so many of our own relatives and one-time friends and acquaintances might hate us simply for being Catholic, no less Catholics who try, despite our sins and failings, to adhere to everything taught by Holy Mother Church from time immemorial. Saint Wenceslaus was a king who was prostrate before THE King, Christ the King, in life who adores him in Heaven face to face. 

I have no less than two different professional publishers working on fixing the formatting problems in my forthcoming book,"To Live in the Light of Eternity, Volume 1." Stay tuned. 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Wenceslaus, pray for us.

Today, Thursday, September 26, 2019, is the Feast of the North American Martyrs, the eight Jesuits who gave up their lives for the Holy Faith in what are now parts of Canada and upstate New York between 1642 and 1649, and the Commemoration of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian.

This brief reflection speaks volumes about the contrast between the life and martyrdom of the eight men killed between 1642 and 1649 and the conciliar "saints". Each of the North American Martyr (Isaac Jogues, Rene Goupil, Jean Lalande, Gabriel Lalemant, Noel Chabanel, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, and John de Brebeuf) shed their blood to Catholicize the upper reaches of North America. They were not interested in "inculturating" the Catholic liturgy with the pagan superstitions and barbaric practices of the Iroquois. They were concerned only about attempting to convert the heathens to the true Faith and to plant the seeds for the conversion of the land in which their noble missionary work had taken them.

Can we do any less than they?

We must seek to "keep it Catholic" at all times as we seek to plant the seeds for the conversion of this nation to become the Catholic States of America.

I continue to deal with the frustraing process of getting my next book uploaded for publication. The sticking point has been the size of the cover, and I drove to a print shop yesterday in an attempt to resolve this problem. The man who worked on the project has over forty-three years of experience in graphics and printing. Thus far, however, it appears that each of three different sizes he prepared with great care are being rejected, thus thwarting the book's publication. This is penance, and it is penance that I must embrace as I continue to solve this "issue" once and for all. Obviously, this is all very consuming.

Finally, the impeachment circus is in town. I will write about this circus in a few weeks when some of its acts have been performed. Here is a prediction, however: IF President Donald John Trump is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, the final vote tally in the United States Senate will be around sixty to sixty-four votes in favor of conviction, seven to three votes shy of removal the president from office. A lot of Republicans are tired of the president, and they are more than willing to ditch him.

No matter what happens, however, this is all a side show that demonstrates yet again the simple truth that  Error Divides, Catholicism Unites.

Our Lady of the North American Martyrs, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us!

Saint Rene Goupil, S,J.,  pray for us.

Saint John Lalande, S,J., pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemant, S.J., pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, S.J., pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, S.J., pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, S.J.,  pray for us.

Saint John De Brebeuf, S.J., pray for us.

Saints Cyprian and Justina, pray for us.

Given the work that I have been doing on my newest book project, original articles are at a standstill for a little while longer. 

Indeed, I have come to the difficult and vexing problem of formatting the text of my forthcoming book, To Live in the Light of Eternity, Volume 1, and have to deal with the problems posed by page margins and the coordination of the pagination provided by the Table of Contents. Such technical matters may be quite easy for some. They are very difficult for this simpleton. It is my hope, though, to spend most of the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, Tuesday, September 24, 2019, resolving these matters as the book itself is ready for publication.

Thus, you see, I have been very busy. There is as of yet, however, nothing tangible to present to readers at this time despite the work of recent days.

What I can present you, however, is a brief, republished reflection on the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom.

Our Lady of Ransom, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ called Levi from his duties as a collector of tribute for Caesar to follow Him. Levi quit his position as a tax collector to become a collector of souls for God and His true Church. Saint Matthew wrote His Gospel to convince his fellow Jews to accept Our Lord as the Divine Redeemer and to convert to the true Faith, Catholicism.

This is quite a contrast with the work of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who esteems Talmudic Judaism as an instrument of "justice" although it denies the Sacred Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ and wages warfare upon those who seek to restore the Social Reign of Christ the King, to say nothing of the fact that many of its rabbis,including his pal Abraham Skorka, support abortion and perversity under cover of the civil law. Quite a difference. It's the difference between fidelity and apostasy, between Catholicism and conciliarism.

The first of several book projects that are being prepared concurrently with each other is nearing publication. These projects are occupying my time, which is why original articles will be scarce for a while. The time, I believe, for websites such as this one to remain visible online is quite limited. There will come a time, especially after either the 2020 or 2024 elections, when more formal, state-sponsored, censorship will accompany the corporate censorship of the Silicon Valley stooges of Georoge Soros.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Matthew the Apostle, pray for us.

Today is the Feast of the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary in September and the commemorations of the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost and of Saint Nicomedes.

We are called to meditate on the Seven Dolors of Our Lady every day of our lives. While there are many good meditations on the sufferings of Our Lady, including those provided by the revelations of Anne Katherine Emmerich and the Venerable Mary of Agreda, the late Father Frederick Faber has given us much food for inspirational meditation in his The Foot of the Cross, published originally as The Dolors of Mary in 1857. Consider this brief excerpt from Father Faber's reflections:

"But let us make the world stand still, and see how it looks. If our common love for God, which is so poor, is irritated by the sight, what must Mary have suffered? For what is irritation to our weakness to her would be the most deep and transcending sorrow. God comes to His creation. It does not stir. It cannot. It lies in the hollow beneath Him, and has no escape. He comes in the beauty of a mercy, which is almost incredible, because it is so beautiful. But seemingly it does not attract the world. He draws nigh. Creation must do something now. It freezes itself up before His eye. He may have other worlds, more fertile, more accessible to Him, than this. In the spiritual tropics, where the angels dwell, He may perhaps be welcome. But not here. This is the North Pole of His universe. He shed His life's blood upon it, and it would not thaw. It is unmanageable, unnavigable, uninhabitable for Him. He can do nothing at all with it, but let His sun make resplendent colored lights in the icebergs, or bid the moon shine with a wanner loveliness than elsewhere, or fill the long-night sky with the streamers of the Aurora, which even the Esquimaux, burrowing in his hut, will not go out to see. The only difference is that the material pole understands its business. which is to make ice in all imaginable shapes; whereas we men are so used to our own coldness, that we do not know how cold we are, and imagine ourselves to be the temperate zone of God's creation." Our sins helped to thrust those Seven Swords of Sorrow through and through Our Lady's Immaculate Heart at various points during her life, including during her Divine Son's Passion and Death. We must resolve never to grieve her Immaculate Heart again as consider our joy and our privilege to live penitentially as the consecrated slaves to her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the same Immaculate Heart. (Father Frederick Faber, The Foot of the Cross, the Dolors of Mary.)

We can help to make reparation for our sins that have grieved the Immaculate Heart of Mary if we pray more and more Rosaries each day, if we help to propagate devotion to her Seven Dolors. Indeed, Our Lady promises us the following graces if we promote devotion to her Seven Dolors:

1) I will grant peace to their families

2) They will be enlightened about the divine mysteries.

3) I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.

4) I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.

5) I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.

6) I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.

7. I have obtained (This Grace) from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.

As a terrible sinner, I am counting on my own promoting of devotion to the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary to help me just a little bit at the moment of my Particular Judgment.

What about you?

The next original article to be posted on this site is almost done. Indeed, it has been formatted for posting. However, although there is not much work to do on it, there is just enough to delay until late this afternoon. Another, briefer commentary should appear on Sunday. Thank you,

Finally, please remember the soul of the late Father John Joseph Sullivan, who was my seminary professor at Holy Apostles Seminary in the 1983-1984 academic year, on this day, which would have been his one hundred second birthday had he not died in May of 2000.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all of the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

A blessed Feast of the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all.

Our Lady of Dolors, pray for us.

Saint Nicomedes, pray for us.

The Saviour of the world hung on the wood of the Holy Cross:

Ecce lignum Crucis, in quo salus mundit pependit (Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world. (Adoration of the Cross, Good Friday Liturgy.)

The Cross of the Divine Redeemer was displayed prominently on street corners and in the nooks and crannies of every village in Europe during the era of Christendom. There is no "expiration date" on the Cross of the Divine Redeemer's relevance to the life of any man or of any nation.

We must lift high the Cross in our own daily lives and we must plant it firmly in the soil of our nation without any apology whatsoever as Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal and social order.

We must also remember that Our Lady stands at the foot of her Divine Son's Most Holy Cross in every true offering of Holy Mass just as she stood at the foot of the Holy Cross on Good Friday. She stands with us as we bear our own crosses in our daily lives. We must, therefore, seek the assistance of the Mother of God in lifting high her Divine Son's Holy Cross in our daily lives, praying as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit.

The cross is ever present in each of our lives, and for this we must say with Saint Francis of Assisi, Deo gratias!

Penance is the path to Heaven.

We do our penances by carrying our crosses with gratitude.

Isn't it great to be a Catholic?

Hail, O Holy Cross! Hail!

A blessed Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross to each of you.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.