Controlling the Masses with False Opposites

by Thomas A. Droleskey

George Walker Bush is not known as a reader. In his days as Governor of the State of Texas (January, 1995-December 13, 2000) he was known to play video golf in his office most afternoons after he had exercised on a treadmill for two hours or so. However, it appears as though the forty-third President of the United States of America has been doing some reading after all, boning up on his understanding of the principle of the ability of truth to contradict itself in a paradigm of paradox. Yes, it is obvious that George Walker Bush has been reading Has Urs von Balthasar. Indeed, it is evident that Mr. Bush has been reading von Balthasar for years. I just had not figured this out until recently.

What do I mean? As always, I am glad you asked.

Look at the record. George W. Bush lives in a world of contradiction. He says he is "pro-life." However, he supports the systematic destruction of innocent human beings in their mothers' wombs in certain "exceptional" cases. When asked by Dr. Alan Keyes in a Republican Party presidential primary debate, broadcast live from Manchester, New Hampshire, in December of 1999, as to how he could call himself pro-life while supporting the killing of innocent babies in some circumstances, Governor Bush grimaced, visibly annoyed at having been forced to confront his own mutually contradictory position, and said: "I can't explain it. It's just how I feel." Bush does not realize that he is not pro-life, that he is simply less pro-abortion than others in public life who are unconditionally pro-abortion.

Bush also says that he wants to build a "culture of life" while he campaigns actively for politicians in the Republican Party who are unconditionally pro-abortion. How can one build a "culture of life" when one wants people who are committed to the execution of innocent children in their mothers' wombs under cover of law to be elected to public office?

Bush has been able to present himself as "pro-life" in large part because he has been enabled by Catholic sycophants, both clerical and lay, who have uttered not a word--and I mean not one blessed word--as the Bush Administration has increased funding for the chemical assassination of children in their mothers' wombs by means of "family planning programs," both domestically and internationally, constantly over the course of its five years and seven months in power.

Time and my own lack of energy (the article I posted yesterday took a lot of time to research and write) do not permit me to provide once again the laundry list of George W. Bush's consistent betrayal of the pro-life cause. I hammered away at Bush's anti-life record as Governor of Texas in the printed pages of Christ or Chaos in the late-1990s, being accused of wanting to elect Vice President Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., of not wanting the best for our country, of not being "realistic" in accepting the "lesser of two evils." Very few people wanted to even consider the incontrovertible facts of Bush's anti-life record. I, the messenger, had to be verbally assassinated (just as my review of the heterodoxy contained in the works of Joseph Ratzinger must be ignored in order to attack me for believing that some pope in the future will indeed declare negatively about the legitimacy of the conciliar popes; I am the problem, not the theological views of Joseph Ratzinger that are squarely in conflict with the defined teaching of the Catholic Church? All to you, Blessed Mother. All to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls).

This insanity has continued throughout Bush's presidency. The man can invade a foreign country on false premises and preside over the deaths of countless thousands of innocent human beings, unleashing a a torrent of sectarian violence as a result and still be called "pro-life." The man can do nothing to reverse the decision of the Food and Drug Administration to market the human pesticide, RU-486, the French abortion pill, and be hailed as a champion of life at Catholic Prayer Breakfasts! Absolute and total insanity.

The insanity of illogic and contradiction was on full display yesterday, August 21, 2006, during a nationally televised press conference from the White House. Although we do not have a functioning television in our motor home (and would not watch it if it functioned), I read the transcript of the press conference online shortly after it was concluded, learning that President Bush had been asked a question about the openness of the Acting Director of Food and Drug Administration, Andrew Eschenbach, who is awaiting confirmation in his position by a vote of the United States Senate, to making the Plan B "morning after" contraceptive available on an "over-the-counter" basis. Here is the exchange between President Bush and reported Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner:

Bill Sammon: Mr. President, some pro-life groups are worried that your choice of FDA commissioner will approve over-the-counter sales of Plan B, a pill that they say essentially can cause early-term abortions Do you stand by this choice? And how do you feel about Plan B, in general?

President Bush: I believe that Plan B ought to be -- ought to require a prescription for minors. That's what I believe. And I support the Andy's decisions.

(Yes, the "the Andy" is in the text of the news conference's transcript as recorded by The New York Times.)

This is, of course, obviously the influence of Hans Urs von Balthasar. The President has been getting his catalogues from Ignatius Press and securing copies of various works of the mentor of Benedict XVI. Here we have truth contradicting itself in a simple yet profound way: the President of the United States of America, a man who is sixty years of age, says in just one twenty-six words that he opposes over-the-counter sales of Plan B but supports the Food and Drug Commissioner's decisions, including those, it appears, that would directly contradict his opposition to over-the-counter sales for Plan B.

Oh, you can go to the bank with the knowledge that there will no criticism of President Bush from Priests for Life or leaders of the National Right to Life Committee, an off-shoot originally of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference (see Affirming the Merchants of Death, 2005), which takes no stand on contraceptives and supports the killing of babies in their mothers' womb in cases where it is alleged that a mother's life is endangered. Bush knows that he can contradict himself and still count on a bevy of enablers, some of whom are calculating, others of whom are self-aggrandizing, impressed with their entree to the corridors of the White House itself, to excuse him at every turn.

This is not the place to say "I told you so" or "I've been telling you so for seven years." What I do want to stress, however, is that the very false foundations of the United States of America (all right, now I've got the Americanists agitated again) have produced an environment of illogic and contradiction. Men need to subordinate their entire lives to the Deposit of Faith that Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church for its safekeeping and infallible explication. Men need to seek out the supernatural helps provided in the sacraments administered by the Catholic Church so as to enlighten their intellects to see the Deposit of Faith clearly and so as to strengthen their wills to act in accord with the Deposit of Faith in all circumstances of their lives, keeping in mind the moment of their own Particular Judgments. Men who do not, for one reason or another, have access to or belief in the Deposit of Faith safeguarded and taught by the Catholic Church and who do not feed their immortal souls with the life-giving helps found in the sacraments will inevitably founder on the shoals of confusion and illogic, which is now common in the conciliar church as it has "opened up" the doors a world that was born of the confusion and contradiction of Martin Luther and those who followed him.

What follows for men follows also for nations, as Pope Leo XIII pointed out in this passage from Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900:

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established ( by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,-and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue.

Pope Leo XIII reiterated these points just two years later in A Review of His Pontificate:

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely Wise, Good, and Just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men. It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barabrism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the States and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles.  It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine Assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, it makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the Commands which it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the teachings of the Gospel it does not reveal itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but it is still more the internal source of justice and charity, and the propagator as well as the guardian of true liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the true limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes. It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty. Not does it infringe upon the rights of justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity.

The framework of the Modern State, including the United States of America, is built around the fallacious premise that man can build the better society on his own powers, that, indeed, mere human reason alone is sufficient to improve the lot of man. All we need is "good will" and a sense of "brotherhood," concepts that are of the essence of Judeo-Masonry, of course. Men and nations who do not accept the authentic patrimony of the Catholic Church as it has been handed down over the centuries must perforce live in a fog of contradiction and confusion, which fog is used by the devil to keep them from entering the bosom of the true Church and thus seeing the world clearly through the eyes of the true Faith.

A world of "false opposites" thus takes the place of the authentic unity that is of the essence of Christendom. That is, lacking a belief that they and their nations must unite around the Catholic Church and the teaching that God Himself has entrusted to her, men look for "salvation" in a variety of different places. One of the most common places today is the political party, which is seen by most citizens as the vessel through which "change for the better" can be effect, heedless of the fact career politicians are, with some very few exceptions, men and women who believe that it is not necessary for there to be a reunion of the civil state with the guiding force of the Catholic Church, thus contributing to further decay and violence and confusion and contradiction in the midst of civil society.

These "false opposites" really do not oppose each other; they only appear to do so. Yes, Democrats support a whole laundry list of social evils, as Bishop Thomas Doran of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, alluded to in a recent newspaper commentary. So do Republicans, however. One political party appears to be better than another but this is not actually the case. The two major political parties both stand for the status quo as they pick our pockets to convince us we cannot exist without the various entitlement programs that they enact to dig even deeper into our pockets to enact and enlarge.

The leaders of both major political parties in this country are very much aware of this. They appear to be at loggerheads on various issues. However, this is all for show in order to garner contributions and to get votes so as to keep themselves in power. "Talking head" experts are thus employed by the twenty-four hour news channels in order to fan the flames of partisan reaction to this or that proposal or to this or that event. Most of these "experts," however, almost none of whom know anything about how to view the world through the eyes of the Catholic Faith (and the few who knew are too cowardly to discuss this over the airwaves, fearing a loss of support from Protestants and perhaps even the loss of their "designations" as experts to be "invited" to "inform" the viewing public on various issues.) People get all excited and agitated about the "discussions" that are held, not realizing that many of their false adversaries go out to dinner with each other after they have completed their on-air performances. It's all a show.

Pope Pius XI, writing before the advent of television, knew that the apparent conflict between political parties was all about power and money and influence, not about the common good pursued in light of man's Last End. He wrote the following in Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, December 23, 1922:

To these evils we must add the contests between political parties, many of which struggles do not originate in a real difference of opinion concerning the public good or in a laudable and disinterested search for what would best promote the common welfare, but in the desire for power and for the protection of some private interest which inevitably result in injury to the citizens as a whole. From this course there often arise robberies of what belongs rightly to the people, and even conspiracies against and attacks on the supreme authority of the state, as well as on its representatives. These political struggles also beget threats of popular action and, at times, eventuate in open rebellion and other disorders which are all the more deplorable and harmful since they come from a public to whom it has been given, in our modern democratic states, to participate in very large measure in public life and in the affairs of government. Now, these different forms of government are not of themselves contrary to the principles of the Catholic Faith, which can easily be reconciled with any reasonable and just system of government. Such governments, however, are the most exposed to the danger of being overthrown by one faction or another.

The show that is the false opposition of the two major political parties in his country is one that keeps many believing Catholics from concentrating first and foremost on their interior lives, from learning more about the authentic patrimony of the Catholic Church that has been flushed down the Orwellian memory hole by conciliarism, which has embraced the ethos of the Modern State in the name of "religious liberty" and a "healthy secularity." Time that should be spent in praying the Rosary or by making visits to the Blessed Sacrament is wasted on a near-hysterical concern over various "current events" that are going to get worse and worse until some pope actually consecrates Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, thus inaugurating the Reign of Mary Immaculate.

We must not allow the false oppositions to control our lives. Certainly wee can and must take concrete measures to try to retard various social evils as best we can, principally by not participating in them ourselves. We must also, under the direction of a good Traditional Catholic priest, try to be a prayerful witness of Our Lady as we pray her Most Holy Rosary in front of abortuaries and seek to prevent women from killing their children as we pray in reparation for the crimes committed in this country and around the world daily against the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law.

We must also recognize, however, the the problems of Modernity, as I have tried to point out for so long now, are the logical and inexorable consequences of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by Martin Luther and John Calvin and Henry VIII and, following in their wake, the sons of the "Enlightenment" and the brothers of the "Lodge" and all who followed in their sorry, defiant wake. We are not one election or two elections or three elections away from "solving" our problems. We need to concentrate on petitioning Our Lady, principally through her Most Holy Rosary, which is the chief spiritual weapon we have been given after th Holy Sacrifice of the Mass itself.

Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort taught the following in True Devotion to Mary:

It is through the most holy Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ came into the world, and it is also through her, He has to reign in the world.

Mary was singularly hidden during her life. It is on this account that the Holy Ghost and the Church call her Alma Mater--Mother secret and hidden. Her humility was so profound that she had no inclination on earth more powerful or more constant than that of hiding herself, from herself as well as from every other creature, so as to be known to God only.

He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated in all respects poor and of no account. He took pleasure in hiding her from human creatures, in her conception, in her birth, in her life, in her mysteries, and in her resurrection and Assumption. Even her parents did not know her, and the angels often asked one another: Who is that? (Cant. 3:6, 8:5), because the Most High either had hidden her from them, or if He did reveal anything, it was nothing compared to what He kept undisclosed.

God the Father consented that she should work no miracle, at least no public one during her life, although He had given her the power to do so. God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her. God the Holy Ghost, though she was His faithful spouse, consented that His Apostles and Evangelists should speak very little of her, and no more than was necessary to make Jesus Christ known.

Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High, the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son, who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favor her humility calling her by the name of woman, (John 2:4, 19:26) as if she were a stranger, although in His heart He esteemed and loved her above all angels and men. Mary is the sealed fountain, the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more magnificently and more divinely than in any other place in the universe, not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature, no matter how pure, allowed to enter into that sanctuary, except by a great and special privilege.

I say with the saints, the divine Mary is the terrestrial paradise of the New Adam, where He was made flesh by the operation of the Holy Ghost, in order to work there incomprehensible marvels. She is the grand and divine world of God, where there are beauties and treasures unspeakable. She is the magnificence of the Most High, where He hid, as in her bosom, His only son, and in Him all that is mot excellent and most precious. Oh, what grand and hidden things that might God has wrought in this admirable creature, as she herself has done great things to me. (Luke 1:49) The world knows them not, because it is both incapable and unworthy of such knowledge.

The saints have said admirable things of this holy city of God; and, as they themselves avow, they were never more eloquent and more content than when they spoke of her. Yet, after all they had said, they cry out that the height of her merits, which she has raised up to the throne of the Divinity, cannot be fully seen; that the breadth of her charity, which is broader than the earth, is in truth immeasurable; that the length of her power, which she exercises even over God Himself, is incomprehensible; and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded. O height incomprehensible! O breadth unspeakable! O length immeasurable! O abyss impenetrable!

Every day, from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary! The nine choirs of angels, men of all ages, sexes, condition and religions., the good and the bad, nay, even the devils themselves, willingly or unwillingly, are compelled by force of truth to call her Blessed. Saint Bonaventure tells us that all the angels in Heaven cry out incessantly to her: "Holy, holy, holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin;" and that they offer to her millions and millions of times a day, the Angelical Salutation, Ave Maria, prostrating themselves before her, and begging of her in her graciousness to honor them with some of her commands. Even Saint Michael, as Saint Augustine says, although the prince of the heavenly court, is the most zealous in honoring her and causing her to be honored, and is always anxiously awaiting the honor of going at her bidding to render service to some of her servants.

The whole earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities. Many cathedrals are consecrated to God under her name. There is not a church without an altar in her honor, not a country nor a canton where there are not some miraculous images where all sorts of evils are cured, and all sorts of gifts obtained. Who can count the confraternities and congregations in her honor? How many religious orders have been founded in her name and under her protection? How many members in these confraternities, and how many religious men and women in all these orders, who publish her praises and confess her mercies! There is not a little child who, as it lisps the Hail Mary, does not praise her. There is scarcely a sinner who, even in his obduracy, has not some spark of confidence in her. Nay, the very devils in Hell respect her while they fear her.

After that, we must cry out with the saints: "Of Mary there is never enough." We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect, still more love and still more service. . . .

It is with a particular joy that my heart has dictated what I have just written, in order to show that the divine Mary has been up to this time unknown, and that this is one of the reasons that Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be. If then, as is certain, the knowledge and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ are to come into the world, they will be but a necessary consequence of the knowledge and the kingdom of the most holy Virgin Mary, who brought Him into the world for the first time, and will make His second advent full of splendor.

Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort explained the Secret of Mary:

It consists in giving oneself entirely and as a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through Mary; and after that to do all that we do, through Mary, with Mary, in Mary and for Mary. I shall now explain these words.

We should choose a special feast day on which we give, consecrate and sacrifice to Mary voluntarily, lovingly and without constraint, entirely and without reserve: our body and soul, our exterior property, such as house, family, and income; and also our interior and spiritual possessions; namely, our merits, graces, virtues, and satisfactions.

It should be observed here, that by this devotion the soul sacrifices to Jesus, through Mary, all that it holds most dear, things of which even no religious order would require the sacrifice; namely, the right to dispose of ourselves, of the value of our prayers and alms, of our mortifications and satisfactions. The soul leaves everything to be freely disposed of by Our Lady so that she may apply it all to her own will for the greater glory of God, which she alone knows perfectly.

Yes, Our Lady is our sure refuge in these times of civil and ecclesiastical crisis, when men act as though logic and truth and even the authentic patrimony of the Catholic Church can be "re-thought" to make it acceptable to "modern" man. Never fear. Our Lady is with us. We must take refuge in the love of her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, out of which was formed the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We must pray, very fervently, for the victims of Modernity in the civil realm and for the progenitors of Modernism in the ecclesiastical realm. We must never lose heart as we endeavor to keep fast to Our Lady's Fatima Message in our own lives so that we may glory in her company in the Beatific Vision of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, where there are no "opposites," where everything points to Jesus through Mary.

A blessed feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to you all.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Lawrence the Deacon, pray for us.

Saint Anne, pray for us.

Saint Joachim, pray for us.

Saint Stanislaus, pray for us.

Saint Hedwig, pray for us.

Saint Ceslaus, pray for us.

Saint Stanislaus Kostka, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Blessed Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Blessed Francisco, pray for us.

Blessed Jacinta, pray for us.

Sister Lucia, pray for us.

 

A Solemn Act of Consecration to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, Pope Pius XII

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Amen.

 

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil.  Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil.  Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with  the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven.  That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels.  Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.  Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory.  That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.  These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered.  Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory.  They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude.  Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church.  Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations.  Amen.

Verse: Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers.

Response: The Lion of the Tribe of Juda has conquered the root of David.

Verse: Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord.

Response: As we have hoped in Thee.

Verse: O Lord hear my prayer.

Response: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Verse: Let us pray.  O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls. 

Response:  Amen.