Trying to Get Our Attention

by Thomas A. Droleskey

A thunderstorm is passing over us in Florida as this is being written. Thunderstorms are just one of the ways in which Almighty God manifests His omnipotence in our daily lives. All the more so when you consider the fact that, despite a proliferation of theories, meteorological scientists and physicists have not yet fully explained the phenomena of thunder and lightning. Although there are different theories concerning the physical conditions that produce thunder and lightning, we can be assured that they exist in large measure because God is trying to get our attention to remind us that we, despite all of the advances in technology and various scientific discoveries, are not the masters of the world He created when He but spoke the word.

The forces of the natural world have been rent asunder by Original Sin. That is, the disobedience of our first parents, Adam to Eve, was so profound that the perfect balance and harmony that existed in nature itself was ruptured, demonstrating the fact that the disruption caused in human nature and in man's original relationship to God by Original Sin has far-reaching consequences in our daily lives. Each one of our Actual Sins causes disruptions and disorders in our own immortal souls and each one of Actual Sins further disturbs the elements of nature, which should give us some pause to consider the horror of sin and why we must abhor it in our daily lives and to seek make reparation for our sins--and those of the whole world--to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary as her consecrated slaves.

If one doubts that the elements of the world are not disturbed by the sins of men, as even some traditionally-minded Catholics do not seem to believe, then it would be advisable to do a "reality check" by considering these words written under the inspiration of the God the Holy Ghost by Moses in The Book of Genesis:

And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, It repented him that he had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noe found grace before the Lord. These are the generations of Noe: Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations, he walked with God. And he begot three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth.

And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity. And when God had seen that the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth,) He said to Noe: The end of all flesh is come before me, the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6: 6-13.)

 

God punished men by means of the Flood because of their persistence in sins. He deigned to save Noe and his family, commanding Noe to take with him two of every kind, one male and one female, of the species He had created. We do not need archeological evidence to "prove" the fact of the Flood, although such evidence abounds and, without a doubt, is useful. No, all we need to do is to accept the inerrant Word of God, Who inspired Moses to record for all posterity what had happened in the days of Noe. We also have the testimony of Truth Himself, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who said:

But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone. And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, And they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then two shall be in the field: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. (Matthew 24: 36-40)

 

We are indeed living in times similar to those of Noe. Men are making merry each day, oblivious to the need to convert or return to the Catholic Church, heedless of the necessity of seeking Absolution from a validly ordained Catholic priest for each one of their Mortal Sins committed after Baptism, scoffing at the Sacrament of Penance that Our Lord Himself instituted, as is recorded in the Gospel According to Saint John:

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (John 20: 21-23)

 

As the commentary in the Douay-Rheims Bible notes of verse twenty-three:

"Whose sins"... See here the commission, stamped by the broad seal of heaven, by virtue of which the pastors of Christ's church absolve repenting sinners upon their confession.

 

Thus it is, ladies and gentlemen, that natural disasters have always been a means used by God to get the attention of His children, reminding the just to persevere in a state of Sanctifying Grace and teaching the wayward and the wicked to reform their lives lest their die in states of final impenitence. The fact that particular persons may die or lose their life's material possessions, including their very homes, in a flash flood or an earthquake or a fire or during a hurricane or a tornado does not mean that they are particularly guilty of any Mortal Sin, only that each person must be prepared for their deaths at all times and take seriously their responsibility to live as Catholics in a state of Sanctifying Grace so as to be ready for the moment of their own Particular Judgments by making reparation for his own sins and those of the whole world as the consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

The ways of God are inscrutable. A soul who is in love with God as He has revealed Himself exclusively through His true Church accepts whatever crosses come his way each day, understanding that each has been fashioned from all eternity by the very hand of God Himself and is to be given back to Him with joy through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother. A soul who is in love with God as He has revealed Himself exclusively through His true Church understands that the graces won for us by the shedding of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, are sufficient to carry our crosses, which are sent to us to help us to make reparation for our sins--and those of the whole world, detaching ourselves from this passing world by longing more and more for the things of Heaven in this life as a preparation for the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for all eternity in Heaven.

The words of Holy Job come to mind here:

And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God.  (Job 1: 21-22)

 

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Himself put in this way in the Sermon on the Mount:

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.

For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be! No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6: 19-34)

Natural disasters are not only ways by which God gets our "attention" in order that we will understand our mortality and the reality of the Particular Judgment, He permits these to occur so that we can be more and more detached from material possessions, none of which count for anything at that moment of the Particular Judgment and do not define our identity or our worth while we live as members of the Church Militant on earth. While it is indeed a tragedy that a person might lose his home and possessions, requiring others to get out of themselves and to show true compassion for others in the midst of tragedy by performing the Corporal and, quite possibly, Spiritual Works of Mercy (which is another "hidden" spiritual benefit of disasters), we must remember that the greatest tragedy of all is to die in a state of final impenitence. Nothing we accomplish on the face of this earth matters if we die in a state of final impenitence. Nothing we fail to accomplish in material terms on the face of this earth matters if we die in a State of Sanctifying Grace. We must think supernaturally, not naturalistically, at all times in our lives.

As was noted a few days ago, the Catholics of the Fourteenth Century accepted the Black Death as a punishment from God for the sins of mankind. There is little such realization even in the minds of most Catholics today, largely as a result of conciliarism's de facto embrace of the heresy of universal salvation, which is itself an embrace of the anti-Incarnational errors of Modernity, stemming in large measure, although not exclusively, from the antinomianism (the belief that one can do and believe pretty much one one desires and still save his soul) that was born of Protestantism and the veritable potpourri of Judeo-Masonic sources. Most people today live in terror of natural disasters, desiring to prolong physical life as an ultimate end in and of itself so as to enjoy the fleeting pleasure offered in this passing, mortal vale of tears, being unwilling to accept the reality of death and the necessity of voluntarily renouncing legitimate pleasure in order to live penitentially so so to make reparation for one's own sins and those of the whole world, which is of the essence of Our Lady's Fatima Message.

Every sin we commit, no matter how small, requires a repayment to God of the debt incurred by its commission. Our Lord made this point in the parable of the ungrateful steward, one of the proofs that Holy Mother Church uses for the existence of Purgatory and the fact that one does not leave the fires of the Church Suffering until he has paid back every debt that he has incurred because of his sins:

Then came Peter unto him and said: Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith to him: I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt. But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest. And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.

Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him; and said to him: Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee? And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts. (Matthew 18: 21-35)

 

Cities and nations must be punished for the collective sins of their people, especially when cities and nations promote sin under cover of law under the guise of "popular sovereignty" or "civil liberty" or in the name of this or that naturalistic ideology (I know, an oxymoron, I know). It is thus good to review exactly what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha:

 

And when the men rose up from thence, they turned their eyes towards Sodom: and Abraham walked with them, bringing them on the way. And the Lord said: Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do: Seeing he shall become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed? For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgment and justice: that for Abraham's sake the Lord may bring to effect all the things he hath spoken unto him. And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous.

I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so, that I may know. And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom: but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord. And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked? If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked, this is not beseeming thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judgment.

And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. And Abraham answered, and said: Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes. What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt thou for five and forty destroy the whole city? And he said: I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty. And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of forty. Lord, saith he, be not angry, I beseech thee, if I speak: What if thirty shall be found there? He answered: I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty. I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten should be found there? And he said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. And the Lord departed, after he had left speaking to Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place. (Genesis 16: 16-33)

And he said to him: Behold also in this, I have heard thy prayers, not to destroy the city for which thou hast spoken. Make haste and be saved there, because I cannot do any thing till thou go in thither. Therefore the name of that city was called Segor. The sun was risen upon the earth, and Lot entered into Segor. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth.

And his wife looking behind her, was turned into a statue of salt. And Abraham got up early in the morning and in the place where he had stood before with the Lord, He looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country: and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19: 21-28.)

 

Are not the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha being promoted under cover of law and in many aspects of our popular culture today? Do we think that God is pleased with the fact that each of the four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance, including the sin of Sodom, is glorified in popular culture and actually protected by means of the civil law in many states of the United States of America. Is God pleased that the current presidential administration of the United States of America has voted to afford two militantly pro-perversity "non-governmental organizations" (NGOs) recognition at the United Nations?

 

BUSH BACKS OFFICIAL STATUS AT U.N. FOR MILITANT HOMOS

“The United Nations has accepted two radical gay-rights groups as official non-governmental organizations, or NGO’s. The vote to include them was made against the recommendation of a UN-panel. In favor: The United States.

“The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights and the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Quebec are now officially able to have input into United Nations policy. …

“The U.S. was among the nations that voted for the groups’ inclusion. Thomas Jacobson of Focus on the Family says it’s been U.S. policy since last year.”

GWB DRAWS THE LINE TO EXCLUDE PEDOPHILES

“ ‘There was a decision made that the US would support non-governmental organizations that were homosexual and lesbian based as long as there were not direct connections to pedophilia.’

“As NGO’s, the groups will have a say in UN decisions and international policy. ‘They can do enormous damage. The primary battles that we’ve had for years at the UN are over sexual issues and over the construct of the family.’ ” Source: Steve Jordahl, Focus on the Family’s Family News in Focus, 7/30/07

BUSHIES ARE CONSISTENTLY SOFT ON SODOMY

“Austin Ruse, the director of C-Fam, a UN focused pro-family group, responded to the Bush Administration’s decision. ‘We are distressed that the Bush administration continues to cast these votes for radical homosexuals. The vote is to be condemned,’ Ruse told

LifeSiteNews.com. Ruse pointed out that this is not the first time that the current administration has chosen to vote in favor of pro-homosexual groups. …

“Asked why he thought that the Bush Administration would [choose] to alienate its supporter base in this way, Ruse responded, ‘There is a large and influential homosexual lobby within the state department.’

“Americans for Truth also issued a statement asking, ‘Why the President would alienate his conservative, pro-family base at this critical juncture. This continues Bush’s misguided policy of recognizing homosexuality-based “rights” organizations at the U.N.’ ” Source: John Jalsevac, www.LifeSiteNews.com, 7/31/07 (Howard Phillips Issues and Strategies Bulletin, Number 819, August 15, 2007, 9520 Bent Creek Lane, Vienna, VA 22182.)

 

Although the subject of a separate commentary at some point in the next week, this particular decision of the administration of President George W. Bush is not shocking. It is not surprising. A commentary written in early-2001 tried to warn Catholics about the fact that naturalists who do not understand the horror of sin will do what comes all too naturally to them: appease various constituency groups without any regard for the rights of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen--and thus of the good of the souls for whom Our King shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross. What exactly has been done to reverse, for example, the September, 2000, decision of the Food and Drug Administration to permit the marketing of the human pesticide, RU-486? Nothing. Indeed, the Bush administration has permitted "over-the-counter" sales of a "morning after" abortifacient to women over eighteen years of age.

This is what I wrote six and one-half years ago:

Secretary of Health and Human Services-designate Tommy Thompson is one of the scores of politicians who have traded for years on an undeserved reputation for being pro-life. As is the case with most supposedly pro-life politicians, he supports the killing of innocent unborn children in certain cases and should not be called pro-life. However, the National Right to Life Committee and its various state affiliates have spun reality so utterly that the average pro-lifer has been convinced that it is permissible to kill the innocent unborn in certain circumstances. Thompson is not pro-life. If anyone doubts that flat statement, consider the proof offered below.

Thompson supports embryonic stem-cell research and transplantation. He has called it vital work and has arbitrarily characterized it as moral and ethical. As most of you know, stem-cell research involves the removal of cells from living embryos for various research and transplantation purposes. The embryos, little human beings, many of whom are conceived artificially in test tubes, are then killed when the cells are removed. That is a monstrous Hitlerian nightmare. However, “pro-life” Tommy Thompson supports that monstrous, barbaric practice. Bush is on record in opposition to federal funding for stem-cell research. However, it is quite telling that he appointed a man who believes in such research as vital and ethical to be secretary of health and human services.

Thompson has also caused a furor over the French abortion pill, the human pesticide, RU-486, which the Food and Drug Administration, an agency within HHS, authorized for marketing in September during the presidential campaign. Speaking during his Senate confirmation hearings on January 19, Thompson promised a review of the “safety” of RU-486. As The New York Times reported on January 20:

“I do not intend to roll back anything unless it is proven to be unsafe,” Mr. Thompson said in response to a question from Hillary Rodham Clinton, the new Democratic senator from New York. But he quickly added, “Safety concerns are something that’s in question.” The Food and Drug Administration, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, has determined that RU-486 is safe and effective in inducing abortion. But Mr. Thompson, an opponent of abortion, said that the approval of the drug “was contentious, was controversial.”After the hearing, Mr. Thompson was asked about the safety of the drug RU-486. “It should be reviewed, and that’s what I will do,” he told reporters. He was asked to describe the safety concerns. “I don’t know the specifics,” he said. “People have told me there are some safety concerns. If there are, we want to review them.”

Excuse me? “Safety concerns”? Sure, the human pesticide is unsafe for women. That’s been proven over and over again. However, it is more than unsafe for a preborn human being; it is deadly. Why is it so difficult to speak about the actual reality of what abortion does: namely, to kill a human being, whether by surgical dismemberment or chemical poisoning? And I don’t want to hear that a nominee won’t get confirmed if he speaks about such nasty little realities. People listen to confirmation hearings. And those who are steeped in cultural relativism need to have their consciences disturbed by articulate, cogent defenses of the standards of objective justice founded in truth. The reason that a pro-lifer is opposed to RU-486 is that it is a means to kill a human being, a handiwork of God’s love, in his mother’s womb. Moreover, as noted earlier, it is never possible to immunize women from the physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences of killing their unborn children, no matter what procedure or chemical is used to do so. Get a Grip on Reality (The article, written when I was still a semi-indulterer and long before I started to examine the sedevacantist thesis, contains qualified words of support for what appeared to be the reinstatement of the Reagan-era "Mexico City policy," prohibiting the use of American taxpayer dollars by international "family planning" organizations to perform or to refer for surgical abortions in their overseas facilities. The actual policy, issued in April of 2001, permits employees of these nefarious organizations to meet with their "clients" on their free time outside of the organizations' facilities, meaning that referral for abortions can be done as long as it is not done on the "grounds" of these organizations, making the policy a complete and total sham designed to fool "pro-life" voters. See also No Rational Basis, March 12, 2001.)

The Bush administration, which visited death and devastation of epic proportions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and only mildly whimpered about the death and destruction that the government of Israel visited upon the Lebanese people last year, is not pro-life. It funds the chemical assassination of preborn children by means of abortifacient contraceptives here and around the world, heaping red hot coals upon this nation's debt to God. Even the much vaunted partial, condition ban on partial-birth is a sham, as I have noted in several other commentaries. God is all-merciful. Indeed. However He is also just. He will forgive iniquities. Individuals must seek out forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance to be Absolved of their own sins. Nations must quit promoting and funding grave sins in order to lessen the punishment that they will suffer as a result of crimes already committed.

How many children have been killed by means of surgical abortion in the United States of America since 1965? According to statistical extrapolations by made the American Life League, over forty-six million children have been killed in this country since 1965 by means of surgical abortion  Another 550 million have been killed as a result of chemical abortifacients. Leaving aside the horrors of rock music and popular entertainment and religious indifferentism and cultural pluralism and corporate/banking usury, these sins stagger the human mind. How do you think they look according the Mind of God Himself?

Ninive at least, repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: Arise, and go to Ninive the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive, according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days' journey. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day's journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed. And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.

And the word came to the king of Ninive; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying: Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish? And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not. (Jonas 3: 1-10)

 

To the utter shame of most, although not all, of the "bishops" of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, it is the occasional fundamentalist Protestant preacher or commentator who talks about the need of national repentance for the promotion of various sins. Indeed, the thorough-going reprobate who has the complete support of Joseph Ratzinger (who would never let Tarcisio Bertone, the conciliar Vatican's Secretary of State, have made his recent comments about how "well" the conciliar "bishops" in the United States of America have handled the scandals of priest-perverts that they helped to manufacture), one Roger Mahony, denied that the devastating January 17, 1994, Northridge, California, earthquake might have been caused by the prevalence of pornographic film makers in Northridge. Roger Mahony, a complete conciliar revolutionary, does not think even for one little moment that is might be ven remotely possible that such grievous sins might contribute to an earthquake along a theretofore unknown fault-line. And, similarly, conciliarists dismissed the September 26, 1997, earthquake that devastated the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, just one month shy of after the infamous "Assisi Day of Peace," wherein Karol Wojtyla presided over a veritable assortment of the friends of Ba'al, who offered "worship" to their false gods, as totally unrelated to the sacrileges that had taken place there.

The crimes being committed by the nations of the world at present are the result, of course, of fallen human nature, which worked great damage even during the era of Christendom, as Pope Pius XII noted in Summi Pontificatus, October 10, 1939:

The present age, Venerable Brethren, by adding new errors to the doctrinal aberrations of the past, has pushed these to extremes which lead inevitably to a drift towards chaos. Before all else, it is certain that the radical and ultimate cause of the evils which We deplore in modern society is the denial and rejection of a universal norm of morality as well for individual and social life as for international relations; We mean the disregard, so common nowadays, and the forgetfulness of the natural law itself, which has its foundation in God, Almighty Creator and Father of all, supreme and absolute Lawgiver, all-wise and just Judge of human actions. When God is hated, every basis of morality is undermined; the voice of conscience is stilled or at any rate grows very faint, that voice which teaches even to the illiterate and to uncivilized tribes what is good and what is bad, what lawful, what forbidden, and makes men feel themselves responsible for their actions to a Supreme Judge.

The denial of the fundamentals of morality had its origin, in Europe, in the abandonment of that Christian teaching of which the Chair of Peter is the depository and exponent. That teaching had once given spiritual cohesion to a Europe which, educated, ennobled and civilized by the Cross, had reached such a degree of civil progress as to become the teacher of other peoples, of other continents. But, cut off from the infallible teaching authority of the Church, not a few separated brethren have gone so far as to overthrow the central dogma of Christianity, the Divinity of the Savior, and have hastened thereby the progress of spiritual decay.

The Holy Gospel narrates that when Jesus was crucified "there was darkness over the whole earth" (Matthew xxvii. 45); a terrifying symbol of what happened and what still happens spiritually wherever incredulity, blind and proud of itself, has succeeded in excluding Christ from modern life, especially from public life, and has undermined faith in God as well as faith in Christ. The consequence is that the moral values by which in other times public and private conduct was gauged have fallen into disuse; and the much vaunted civilization of society, which has made ever more rapid progress, withdrawing man, the family and the State from the beneficent and regenerating effects of the idea of God and the teaching of the Church, has caused to reappear, in regions in which for many centuries shone the splendors of Christian civilization, in a manner ever clearer, ever more distinct, ever more distressing, the signs of a corrupt and corrupting paganism: "There was darkness when they crucified Jesus" (Roman Breviary, Good Friday, Response Five).

Many perhaps, while abandoning the teaching of Christ, were not fully conscious of being led astray by a mirage of glittering phrases, which proclaimed such estrangement as an escape from the slavery in which they were before held; nor did they then foresee the bitter consequences of bartering the truth that sets free, for error which enslaves. They did not realize that, in renouncing the infinitely wise and paternal laws of God, and the unifying and elevating doctrines of Christ's love, they were resigning themselves to the whim of a poor, fickle human wisdom; they spoke of progress, when they were going back; of being raised, when they groveled; of arriving at man's estate, when they stooped to servility. They did not perceive the inability of all human effort to replace the law of Christ by anything equal to it; "they became vain in their thoughts" (Romans i. 21).

With the weakening of faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and the darkening in men's minds of the light of moral principles, there disappeared the indispensable foundation of the stability and quiet of that internal and external, private and public order, which alone can support and safeguard the prosperity of States.

It is true that even when Europe had a cohesion of brotherhood through identical ideals gathered from Christian preaching, she was not free from divisions, convulsions and wars which laid her waste; but perhaps they never felt the intense pessimism of today as to the possibility of settling them, for they had then an effective moral sense of the just and of the unjust, of the lawful and of the unlawful, which, by restraining outbreaks of passion, left the way open to an honorable settlement. In Our days, on the contrary, dissensions come not only from the surge of rebellious passion, but also from a deep spiritual crisis which has overthrown the sound principles of private and public morality.

 

As a result of the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King and the rise of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry (and all, related naturalistic philosophies, economic theories and political ideologies), most people today have a "reprobate sense," as Saint Paul described in his Epistle to the Romans:

For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them. (Romans 1: 26-32)

 

The crimes of Modernity certainly have contributed to the natural disasters of our present age. So have the crimes of the Modernism advanced by the counterfeit church of conciliarism. Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres put it this way:

While the founding mothers admired Mother Mariana's perfect observance of the rule and practice of virtue, there were other sisters who were stirred by jealousy. Mother Marina suffered insults and persecutions form those sisters without ever trying to justify herself or protest. Only at the foot of the Tabernacle did she confide her secret sorrows to her Beloved. One day in 1582, as she was praying before the altar, she saw the Tabernacle open and Christ Himself emerged, suffering as He had at Golgotha. The Blessed Virgin, at His feet, was shedding tears of pearls. Mother Mariana asked her, "My Lady, am I do blame for this sadness?"

"No, she replied, "it is not you, but the criminal world." Then as Our Lord began His Agony, she heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying, "This punishment will be for the 20th century." She saw three swords hanging over the head of Christ. On each was written, "I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity." With this, she was given to understand all that would take place in the present era.

The Holy Virgin continued: "My daughter, will you sacrifice yourself for the people of this time?" Mother Mariana replied, "I am willing." And immediately the swords moved away from the agonizing Christ and buried themselves in the hear of Mother Mariana, who fell dead through the violence and pain. (Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D., Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for Our Times, Tradition in Action, Inc., second edition, 2000, p. 27.)

 

Following Mother Mariana's "mysterious death and resurrection," Our Lady spoke to her again:

"Thus do I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, in what is today the Colony and then will be the Republic of Ecuador, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! It will be difficult to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, and also that of Confirmation. Making use of persons in positions of authority, the devil will assiduously try to destroy the Sacrament of Confession ...

"The same thing will happen with Holy Communion. Alas! How deeply I grieve upon manifesting to you the many and horrible sacrileges--both public and also secret--that will occur from such profanations of the Holy Eucharist! Often during this epoch, the enemies of Jesus Christ, instigated by the demon, will steal consecrated hosts from the churches so that they might profane the Eucharistic Species. My Most Holy Will will see Himself cast upon the ground and trampled upon by irreverent feet" . . . .

"Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but especially for those of priests and religious persons. For the latter are called by the perfection of their state, to be the salt of the earth, the masters of truth and deflectors of divine wrath. Straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God, they quicken the rigor of the punishments. . . . (Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for Our Times, pp. 44-45; 63)

 

We should not be surprised, therefore, by the outbreaks of various natural disasters as they are instruments of God's justice. They are also, however, instruments of His ineffable mercy, providing survivors (and those in other parts of the world who become aware of various disasters) an opportunity to amend their lives and return to Him through His Catholic Church before they die sudden and sacramentally unprovided-for deaths. We must remember that there is nothing we can suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer during His Passion and Death, remembering also how our sins caused Seven Swords of Sorrow to be thrust through the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Dr. Horvat put it this way in Our Lady of Good Success: Prophecies for Our Times:

It is almost impossible for us to understand the next phase of the life of the novice Mariana de Jesus Torres. Hidden in the Heart of her Spouse, she was inflamed with a desire for a life of immolation and sacrifice. Our Lord Himself told her the practices she should carry out during the free hours of the community schedule and the penances she should perform each week. Her severe disciplines, sacrifices, fasting and prayer, all described in chapters of the manuscript, appear daunting to the man of our century, who finds suffering something to avoid, or, at best, to endure as austerely as possible.

Suffering is highly ennobling. On this road of suffering in union with Christ, man finds the fullest meaning of his life, and he discovers that frequently it is in the great sufferings of life, accepted with a supernatural disposition, that he can find a joy which the greatest pleasures do not give. Further, he discovers in suffering an interior state that makes him capable of soaring to heights impossible for one who does not suffer. Only when man embraces great sufferings can his horizons expand to grand metaphysical and religious heights and his spirit advance to a superior state. At the end of Mother Mariana's life when her sanctity was acknowledged in the community and convent, she would look back with nostalgia and sigh for the days of persecution and suffering. (p. 26.)

 

While we pray for those who have been victimized by various natural disasters so that they will know temporal relief from their sufferings, we must pray as well that they and many others will see God's merciful hand trying to direct their paths to Him through His Catholic Church, which, at present, is suffering her Divine Spouse's mystical burial, scattered in the catacombs as she was in her infancy. It is through the trials of the present day, however, that Holy Mother Church will know a glorious resurrection, whether before or on the Last Day, manifesting the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to which cause we must be assiduous in our lives of prayer and penance and sacrifice and mortification, remaining ever faithful to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary and ever prompt in the duties attached to our enrollment in her Brown Scapular, ever desirous of helping souls by giving them blessed Miraculous Medals and Green Scapulars.

God wants our attention at every moment of our lives as the consecrated slaves of His Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Does He have it in our own lives?

 

All to you, Blessed Mother. All to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls!

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and the hour of our death. Amen.

Our Lady of Fatima, 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 Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us.

Saint Bartholomew, pray for us.

Saint Philip Benizi, pray for us.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, pray for us.

Saint John Eudes, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us, pray for us.

Saint Agapitus, pray for us.

Saint Helena, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.

Saints Monica, pray for us.

Saint Jude, pray for us.

Saint John the Beloved, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint  Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Lucy, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Saint John Mary Vianney, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint John of the Cross, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Saint Rita of Cascia, pray for us.

Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

Father Maximilian Kolbe,M.I., pray for us.

 

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.