These are prayers that all Catholics should be familiar with Here are a list of prayers taken from the 1885 Baltimore Catechism , which has been known ever since as a valuable tool for learning the Catholic faith. These are prayers that Catholic can use in their daily lives for much fruit. List of Prayers from the Baltimore Catechism The Lord's Prayer (Our Father) The Angelical Salutation (Hail Mary) The Apostles' Creed The Confiteor An Act of Faith An Act of Hope An Act of Love An Act of Contrition The Blessing before Meals Grace after Meals Prayers The Lord's Prayer (Our Father) Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. The Angelical Salutation (Hail Mary) Hail Mary, full of grace! the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. The Apostles' Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The Confiteor I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed, through, my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore, I beseech blessed Mary, ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, to pray to the Lord our God for me. May the Almighty God have mercy on me, and forgive me my sins, and bring me to everlasting life. Amen. May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant me pardon, absolution, and remission of all my sins. Amen. An Act of Faith 0 my God! I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three Divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy Divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that he will come to, judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be deceived An Act of Hope 0 my God! relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. An Act of Love 0 my God! I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured. An Act of Contrition 0 my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. The Blessing before Meals † Bless us, 0 Lord! and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen. Grace after Meals † We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, 0 Almighty God, who livest and reignest for ever; and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Fr. Nerinckx was a heroic missionary priest who brought many souls to God “Do not forsake Providence and He will never forsake you!” The churches founded by Fr. Nerinckx in Kentucky are as follows: Holy Mary’s, Calvary St. Vincent de Paul, New Haven St. Romuald, Hardinsburg St. Paul, Big Clifty St. Ignatius, White Mills St. Clare’s, Colesburg St. Charles, St. Mary’s St. Bernard, Clementsville St. Patrick’s, Mercer County St. Augustine, Lebanon St. Augustine, Grayson St. Anthony, Axtel And the renewed Holy Cross church which he helped build with his own hand on the site of the first Catholic church ever built in Kentucky, a log chapel constructed by the pioneers in 1792 A passage from Martin John Spalding’s Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions of Kentucky : “His labours in the arduous field upon which he had now entered were as great as their fruit was abundant. With his whole soul, he devoted himself to the work of the ministry. He even seemed to court labours and sufferings for their own sake. Of a powerful frame, and of herculean constitution, he never spared himself. His rest was brief, and his food was generally of the coarsest kind. He generally arose several hours before day, which hours he devoted to prayer and study. In fact, he seemed to be always engaged in mental prayer, no matter how numerous or distracting were his employments. “He appeared to live solely for God, and for his neighbour. Performing his duty was his daily bread. And though old age was fast creeping over him, yet he relaxed in nothing his exhausting labours. His soul was still fresh and vigorous; and God so preserved his health, that, even at the age of sixty, he seemed gifted with all the strength and vigour of youth. “He seldom missed offering up the Holy Sacrifice daily, no matter what had been his previous fatigues or indisposition. Often was he known to ride twenty-five or thirty miles fasting, in order to be able to say Mass. His missionary labours would be almost incredible, were they not still so well remembered by almost all the older Catholics of Kentucky. “His courage was unequalled: he feared no difficulties, and was appalled by no dangers. Through rain and storms; through snows and ice; over roads rendered almost impassable by the mud; over streams swollen by the rains, or frozen by the cold; by day and by night, in winter and in summer; he might be seen traversing all parts of Kentucky in the discharge of his laborious duties. Far from shunning, he seemed even to seek after hardships and dangers. “He crossed wilderness districts, swam rivers, slept in the woods among the wild beasts; and while undergoing all this, he was in the habit of fasting, and of voluntarily mortifying himself in many other ways. His courage and vigour seemed to increase with the labours and privations he had to endure. As his courage, so neither did his cheerfulness, ever abandon him. He seldom laughed, or even smiled; but there was withal an air of contentment and cheerfulness about him which greatly qualified the natural austerity of his countenance and manners. He could, like the great Apostle, make himself “all to all, to gain all to Christ.” ” An account of Father Charles Nerinckx’s last days written by Bishop Flaget: “After the arrival of [Father] Nerinckx at the residence of the Sisters, in Missouri, he wrote to me a most affecting letter, describing the good they had accomplished in that diocese, and the hopes which he entertained of their being one day useful to the Indians. Thence he went to visit an establishment of Flemish Jesuits, which is pretty numerous, and about ninety miles distant from the monastery. After spending some days of edifying fervor in the midst of those holy and beloved countrymen of his, he set out on his return to the monastery, and thence intended coming to Kentucky. Near St. Louis, he had an interview with an Indian chief, who promised to send him a great number of the young females of his tribe, to be educated by the Sisters. He made haste to carry this news to the monastery, and his heart burned within him, while his imagination pictured to itself the good prospect, which lay open to his hopes. “On his road, however, was a path to a settlement of eight or ten Catholic families, who had not seen a priest during more than two years. Desirous of doing all the good in his power, he assembled them, heard their confessions, gave them instructions, and celebrated for them the holy sacrifice of the mass. He was thus occupied, from a little after daybreak, until towards three o’clock in the evening. Seeing the good dispositions of those Catholics, he proposed to them to build a church, in order to encourage priests to come to them; a subscription was immediately opened by those present; out of his own small means he gave ten dollars; and signatures for over nine hundred dollars were instantly affixed to the sheet. “After all this exertion, in such broiling weather, he felt feverish symptoms. These continued the next day, but apparently much diminished. He wished to go to St. Genevieve, which was only fifteen or eighteen miles distant; and though the journey was short, still the exertion and the burning sun greatly increased the fever. The pastor of St. Genevieve (M. Dahman) received him with great kindness and affection. He was obliged to betake himself immediately to bed; the physicians came promptly, and paid him every attention; but to no purpose. “[Father] Nerinckx was, I trust, in the eye of God, ripe for heaven; and his Lord saw that it was time to bestow upon his faithful servant the recompense of his labors. He had the use of his reason to the last, and edified all who saw him by his piety and patience. On the ninth day of his sickness, about nine in the morning, he received the holy viaticum and extreme unction, after having made his confession; and about five in the evening, he breathed out his pure soul to return to its Creator, with entire resignation, and without a struggle.” Martin John Spalding concludes: “Fr. Nerinckx had reached his 63rd year; and, during the last forty years of his life, he had laboured for the glory of God and the good of his neighbour, with a constancy, an activity, and a zeal, seldom equalled, never, perhaps, surpassed. His whole life had been one continued voluntary martyrdom and holocaust. He contemned this world, and panted only for heaven; but he ardently wished to go to paradise with a numerous escort of souls, whom he had been instrumental in rescuing from perdition, and leading to salvation. This thought seemed to engross his whole mind and soul: and his life was but a carrying of it out. That God, whom he served so long and so faithfully, has no doubt long since crowned these lofty aspirations of His humble and heroic servant.” A passage from The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky , 1884: “The announcement of his death in Kentucky was the occasion of general sorrow among Catholics. He was personally known by the greater number of these, and where that was not the case, there were none who had not knowledge of his reputation for sanctity. The fact of his death was announced from the pulpit of the cathedral, Bardstown, by Bishop Flaget himself, and as he told the story of his life and death, of the services he had rendered to the diocese, and of the christian virtues that ennobled his character, his eyes overflowed and the tones of his voice were indicative of deep anguish. The cathedral congregation had seen less, possibly, of Father Nerinckx than any other in the State; but a stranger in their presence that day would have thought that the dead priest had been bound to them by long-established pastoral ties. Among the people of his own congregations there was felt much keener sorrow, but to this was added a sentiment that was akin to triumph. They had been served by a saint! — thus they reasoned — and they had now an intercessor in heaven who would pity them because they had been his children.” A section from Father Nerinckx’s will: “[Have] Zeal for souls — your own and that of so many desolate orphans and scholars — burning zeal of Jesus and Mary! Gain souls, hunt souls, catch souls, court souls, draw souls, pull souls, carry souls, deliver souls, shelter souls, buy souls! . . . Souls! Souls! and nothing but souls, for the love of Jesus, the owner of all souls! “…The writer’s wish is here set down on paper; may he hear it accomplished on earth, and may he see it rewarded in the company of the Friends of Mary in heaven! Amen! Amen!!” Prayer for God’s help: “O Jesus, Who didst inspire Thy servant, Charles Nerinckx, with boundless zeal for the salvation of souls, and who didst fill him with a compassionate love for Thee and Thy Blessed Mother, deign to make known to Thy Church that his labors were acceptable to Thee, and through the merits of Thy passion and death, and the intercession of Thy Mother, mercifully grant the favor which we now beg of Thee …(insert prayer intention)… Amen.” A passage from 1880s’ The Life of Charles Nerinckx  by Bishop Camillus Maes of Covington: “On the night of Father Nerinckx’ death, a very remarkable incident had taken place at the Convent of Bethlehem: “Sisters Benedicta Fenwick and Mechtildis Hayden were making the hour’s adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, when the latter, hastily rising off her knees, went to Sister Benedicta and said to her in a low voice, ‘Father Nerinckx is dead, I know he is. He is now in the presence of the Blessed Virgin whom he so tenderly loved on earth; and, in a short time, I shall follow.’​ Sister Mechtildis had been suffering for a long time from a cancer in the head, and was so very sick with consumption that she had to remain in bed the next day. On the evening of that day, August 13th, 1824, and whilst the corpse was being brought from Ste. Genevieve, a similar scene, as strongly savoring of the supernatural, and the truth of which is vouched for by Sister Eulalia Kelly, who was an eye-witness to the fact, occurred toward nine o’clock, P.M. Sister Mechtildis got out of bed and began running about the house, singing: ‘Praises to the Lord! Our dear Father Nerinckx is in heaven! Alleluia!’ Thinking that her suffering had made the poor sister light in the head, her companions did all they could to quiet her; but to all their entreaties she only answered; ‘Father Nerinckx is in heaven!’ About a quarter of an hour later, the messenger from Ste. Genevieve actually arrived, and brought them the first news of the death of their founder, adding that the funeral procession was on its way to Bethlehem, and would arrive there some time during the night.” An inscriptions on his grave at Loretto: ‘In memory of Rev. Charles Nerinckx, a native of Flanders, who died Aug’t. 12th, 1824, in Missouri. His remains were translated to Kentucky in 1833, by brother Charles Gilbert, at the request of the Loretto Society, and interred at this place by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Flaget, and the Rev. G. I. Chabrat, Superior of the Society.’ May God bless the Kentucky Holy Land well into the future and may we never forget the sacrifices and love of our founding father and apostle On August 12th, 2024 At 5–5:30pm, a great prayer rally will be held at the Sisters of Loretto cemetery, the home of Fr. Nerinckx’s grave. After, at 6:30pm, all are invited to travel the 10 minute drive to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where upon Calvary Hill, the giant hill with the cross, we will have a Great Novena session . On-fire Catholic leaders will give a talk about how we, as a community united in prayer, can make the next 9 years a great novena leading up to the 2,000th anniversary of the Catholic Church (2033). Can you believe we live at a time such as this? You do not want to miss this historic occasion.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1) It was the trick of the demons to make men believe in gods. The gods of the Pagans were evil — false idols. “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). Though man believes he doesn’t believe in gods, the Fallen still seek to deceive. They still yearn for our misplaced worship. And they just walked out of a theatre showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Are alien sightings just demonic possessions? “The demons of the air together with the Antichrist will perform great wonders on earth and in the atmosphere, and men will become more and more perverted. God will take care of His faithful servants and men of goodwill. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and all peoples of all nations will get to know the truth.” (Secret of Our Lady of La Salette to Melanie [1879 Version]) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — The Earth will be covered in darkness, and Hell will be loosed on Earth. The thunder and lightning will cause those who have no faith or trust in my Power, to die of fear. During these three days of terrifying darkness, no windows must be opened, because no one will be able to see the earth and the terrible color it will have in those days of punishment without dying at once…” (Blessed Anna Maria Taigi’s 1880 journal, a vision of the Three Days of Darkness) Both of these prophecies of the end time predict, and have an eerie focus, that the sky will be a major battleground in the last days. The Blessed Anna Maria Taigi says no windows must be opened when the earth becomes dark, for to look outside, into the sky, will cause death at once. Both of these excerpts come from writings from the 19th century. Though there are a few purported sightings of unidentified flying objects before the invention of the airplane, by far, by large, the UFO phenomenon didn’t start until the 20th century. In 1959, the famous psychologist Carl Jung wrote Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. Instead of trying to account for UFOs as a literal reality, he opted to see them instead as a psychic aspect, a fantasy of the unconscious. “If the round shining objects that appear in the sky be regarded as visions, we can hardly avoid interpreting them as archetypal images. They would then be involuntary, automatic projections based on instinct, and as little as any other psychic manifestations or symptoms can they be dismissed as meaningless and merely fortuitous,’ Jung wrote. There is no doubt that man’s sci-fi imagination, created by books and radio shows like The War of the Worlds, and films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, lead to this newfound superstition. One must also not underestimate the vast changes to society by the rapid technological progress at the time. The Second World War was a war of surprises. The term foo-fighter was created by pilots to describe the unknown aircraft they were seeing. Doctor Edgar Vinacke was assigned by the U.S. Navy to investigate the effects of a pilot’s vertigo. He writes in The Concept of Aviator’s “Vertigo”: “They are largely dependent upon their own experience, which must supplement and interpret the traditions about “Vertigo” which are passed on to them. When a concept thus grows out of anecdotes cemented together with practical necessity, it is bound to acquire elements of mystery. So far as “vertigo” is concerned, no one really knows more than a small part of the facts, but a great deal of the peril. Since aviators are not skilled observers of human behavior, they usually have only the vaguest understanding of their own feelings. Like other naive persons, therefore, they have simply adopted a term to cover a multitude of otherwise inexplicable events.” The Roswell Incident occurred on July 8th, 1947. The Air Force reported that they captured a “flying saucer”, which they retrieved after a farmer reported a crash on his ranch. Only a couple of hours later, the Army then announced that it was merely a weather balloon. The public interest in this case soon withered away. That was until 1978. That was the year Jesse Marcel, an officer who recovered the debris on the ranch, told a journalist that the weather balloon was a cover-up. Three years earlier, Orthodox monk, Seraphim Rose published Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. It is a masterpiece that engages with the rapidly changing religious aspect of man. In it, Rose tackles the New Age, Hinduism, the Charismatic movement, and the inevitability of Judgement Day. He also devotes a chapter to UFOs. “UFOs are but the newest of the mediumistic techniques by which the devil gains initiates into his occult realm. They are a terrible sign that man has become susceptible to demonic influence as never before in the Christian era. In the 19th century it was usually necessary to seek out dark seance rooms in order to enter into contact with demons, but now one need only look into the sky (usually at night, it is true). Mankind has lost what remained of basic Christian understanding up to now, and now passively places itself at the disposal of whatever “powers” may descend from the sky.” Rose outlines modern man’s science fiction imagination. “The center of the science-fiction universe (in place of the absent God) is man — not usually man as he is now, but man as he will “become” in the future, in accordance with the modern mythology of evolution.” It is ironic that Humanism, which began circa the time of the Renaissance in the 1300s, finds its final end in looking, projecting beyond the human. Humanists search for the extraterrestrial, in their gnostic hope that they will reveal secret knowledge, or that they will help man escape his mortality and suffering. Aliens are nearly always described as the final end of evolution: a god. “Among the characteristics of the “highly-evolved” creatures of the future are: communication by mental telepathy, ability to fly, materialize and dematerialize, transform the appearances of things or create illusionary scenes and creatures by “pure thought,” travel at speeds far beyond any modern technology, to take possession of the bodies of earthmen; and the expounding of a “spiritual” philosophy which is “beyond all religions” and holds promise of a state where “advanced intelligences” will no longer be dependent on matter. All these are the standard practices and claims of sorcerers and demons. A recent history of science fiction notes that “a persistent aspect of the vision of science fiction is the desire to transcend normal experience.” Let us look at a type of UFO report — the alien abduction. “There have been a number of cases, seriously reported by seemingly reliable people, of “abductions” by UFO occupants, usually for purposes of “testing.” Almost all evidence of these cases (if we exclude “contactees”) has been obtained by regressive hypnosis; the experience is so traumatic to the witnesses that the conscious mind does not remember it, and it is only some time later that such people agree to be hypnotized in order to explain some mysterious “time loss” in connection with their “Close Encounter” experience — the first part of which they do remember.” As reported by exorcists, memory loss, occurring during the affliction., is a key aspect of demonic possession. One loses control of the memory. In a research paper titled “Beyond dissociative disorders: A qualitative study of Polish catholic women reporting demonic possession”, memory loss is one of the most common experiences during a possession. “High absorption,” it says, “in inner experiences and trance-like states could also lead to memory problems. In stressful situations some participants stopped paying attention to what was happening around them and concentrated on bodily sensations or feelings.” “Some or many of the experiences, it may be, are the result of hoaxes or hallucinations; but it is simply impossible to dismiss all of the many thousands of UFO reports in this way. A great number of modern mediums and their spiritistic phenomena are also fraudulent; but mediumistic spiritism itself, when it is genuine, undeniably produces real “paranormal” phenomena under the action of demons. UFO phenomena, having the same source, are no less real.” (…) “It is a sign of the spiritual crisis of today that modern men, for all their proud “enlightenment” and “wisdom,” are becoming once more [Rose previously recounted stories of saints seemingly visited by UFOs] aware of such experiences — but no longer have the Christian framework with which to explain them. Contemporary UFO researchers, seeking for an explanation of phenomena which have become too noticeable to overlook any longer, have joined today’s psychic researchers in an attempt to formulate a “unified field theory” that will encompass psychic as well as physical phenomena. But such researchers only continue the approach of “enlightened” modern men and trust their scientific observations to give answers in a spiritual realm that cannot be approached “objectively” at all, but only with faith.” “And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth …” (Revelation 20:7–8) “ … the “message” of the UFOs is: prepare for Antichrist; the “savior” of the apostate world is coming to rule it. Perhaps he himself will come in the air, in order to complete his impersonation of Christ (Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:11); perhaps only the “visitors from outer space” will land publicly in order to offer “cosmic” worship of their master; perhaps the “fire from heaven” (Apoc. 13:13) will be only a part of the great demonic spectacles of the last times. At any rate, the message for contemporary mankind is: expect deliverance, not from the Christian revelation and faith in an unseen God, but from vehicles in the sky.” Since the sky is a place for the devil’s deception, a place for his coming “miraces”, Seraphim Rose recounts a quote by Symeon the New Theologian: “the struggler of prayer should quite rarely look into the sky out of fear of the evil spirits in the air who cause many and various deceptions in the air.” “In earlier centuries Christians were very cautious about strange and new phenomena, knowing of the devil’s wiles; but after the modern age of “enlightenment” most people have become merely curious about such things and even pursue them, relegating the devil to a half-imaginary realm” Rose concludes, after accounting most of the alien phenomenon to demons, that “[the Christian] lives in a world that is clearly fallen, both the earth below and the stars above, all being equally far from the lost paradise for which he is striving. He is part of a suffering mankind all descended from the one Adam, the first man, and all alike in need of the redemption offered freely by the Son of God by His saving Sacrifice on the Cross. He knows that man is not to “evolve” into something “higher,” nor has he any reason to believe that there are “highly evolved” beings on other planets; but he knows well that there are indeed “advanced intelligences” in the universe besides himself: these are of two kinds, and he strives to live so as to dwell with those who serve God (the angels) and avoid contact with the others who have rejected God and strive in their envy and malice to draw man into their misfortune (the demons). He knows that man, out of self-love and weakness, is easily inclined to follow error and believe in “fairy tales” that promise contact with a “higher state” or “higher beings” without the struggle of Christian life — in fact, precisely as an escape from the struggle of Christian life. He distrusts his own ability to see through the deceptions of the demons, and therefore clings all the more firmly to the Scriptural and Patristic guidelines which the Church of Christ provides for his life.” Do not put it past the demons to decieve humanity in such a way as appealing to their fantasies. They once appealed to our ancestors in Greece. The 2nd century Christian Justin Martyr once wrote about the Greek gods in his First Apology: “For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself. And when Socrates endeavoured, by true reason and examination, to bring these things to light, and deliver men from the demons, then the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in iniquity, compassed his death, as an atheist and a profane person, on the charge that “he was introducing new divinities;” and in our case they display a similar activity. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ; and in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue. Justin also tells an amazing tale of the demons, who were unable to predict Christ, but nonetheless having some intuition about who He would be from hearing the prophets, attempted to put forward their own god, Bacchus, the god of the grape (wine), after hearing from Mosesthat the Messiah would wash “His robe in the blood of the grape.” Martyr also examines the other gods (demonic idols) by this measure. “But those who hand down the myths which the poets have made, adduce no proof to the youths who learn them; and we proceed to demonstrate that they have been uttered by the influence of the wicked demons, to deceive and lead astray the human race. For having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come, and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, they put forward many to be called sons of Jupiter, under the impression that they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things which were said with regard to Christ were mere marvellous tales, like the things which were said by the poets. And these things were said both among the Greeks and among all nations where they [the demons] heard the prophets foretelling that Christ would specially be believed in; but that in hearing what was said by the prophets they did not accurately understand it, but imitated what was said of our Christ, like men who are in error, we will make plain. The prophet Moses, then, Was, as we have already said, older than all writers; and by him, as we have also said before, it was thus predicted: “There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until He come for whom it is reserved; and He shall be the desire of the Gentiles, binding His foal to the vine, washing His robe in the blood of the grape.” The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and gave out that he was the discoverer of the vine, and they number wine [or, the ass] among his mysteries; and they taught that, having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven. And because in the prophecy of Moses it had not been expressly intimated whether He who was to come was the Son of God, and whether He would, riding on the foal, remain on earth or ascend into heaven, and because the name of “foal” could mean either the foal of an ass or the foal of a horse, they, not knowing whether He who was foretold would bring the foal of an ass or of a horse as the sign of His coming, nor whether He was the Son of God, as we said above, or of man, gave out that Bellerophon, a man born of man, himself ascended to heaven on his horse Pegasus. And when they heard it said by the other prophet Isaiah, that He should be born of a virgin, and by His own means ascend into heaven, they pretended that Perseus was spoken of. And when they knew what was said, as has been cited above, in the prophecies written aforetime, “Strong as a giant to run his course,” they said that Hercules was strong, and had journeyed over the whole earth. And when, again, they learned that it had been foretold that He should heal every sickness, and raise the dead, they produced Aesculapius.” To conclude, prepare yourself for the end times. Your end-time could come today. Stay away from mortal sin. Stay in a state of grace. Pray for God’s mercy, so that you do not fall for the deception of demons. The end times will certainly see many “miracles.” “And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22)

If you read about the history of the British Isles during the 17th and 18th century, you will inevitably come into contact with the Jacobites. These brave men were the followers of King Jacobus (James II) and sought many different things. In England, they sought the restoration of the Old Religion, the triumph of the rights of the crown over parliament, and the return of Merry England. In Scotland, they not only fought for the Old Religion and way of life, but for the preservation of the last royal family native to the British Isles in the face of foreign families who sought the crown. Finally, in Ireland, they fought to defend their religion from heretical sects and to preserve their culture and people from the foreign invaders that sought to erase it. The Jacobite movement is often thought to be only relegated to the British Isles, however there is a significant amount of evidence to suggest otherwise. What might be most surprising to many is the Jacobites' existence in America. After all, is America not the nation of the free anti-monarchicals? The Jacobite struggle extended to the lands these kingdoms had across the sea in America. The story of the American Jacobites has often been overlooked but it can be just as interesting as that of their British counterparts. Among many other examples, it shows the rich history of monarchy in this country, standing in complete defiance to the republican mythos prevalent today. One of the earliest examples of Jacobite influence in America was King James II’s appointment of a Catholic to become Governor of New York. Thomas Dongan served as New York’s 5th Colonial Governor from 1683 to 1688. A Devout Catholic, Dongan granted protections to American Catholics which led to the flourishing of Pre-Reformation English Catholic practices in his colony. Another famous Jacobite of this time was Edmund Andros, the Governor of New England. Firmly loyal to James II, he set out to make the New English Puritans submit to the crown by enforcing King James’ will on the colony, this led to centralization of the colonies as the Dominion of New England. These Jacobite governments in America lasted until the Protestant Revolution in 1688 when King James was usurped by William of Orange, the Protestant Stadtholder of the Netherlands. The only colonies that truly welcomed the revolution were the New England Colonies with their large Protestant populations, meanwhile colonies like New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Carolina silently disapproved, probably out of fear of retribution. Maryland however openly proclaimed support for King James, which lead to the first Jacobite uprising spilling into the American colonies. The American Catholic Jacobites were led by Benedict Calvert and Henry Darnall, while the Protestant Williamites were led by John Coode and Nehemiah Blakiston. Ultimately the Jacobites were defeated and the Catholics of Maryland had to live under a regime that did not reflect them. Jacobite activity in the American Colonies remained underground throughout the 1714 and 1719 uprisings led by the son of James II, King James III. It is worth noting that some Jacobites did play a role in Post Stuart America. For example, the Colony of Georgia was founded in 1732 by James Edward Oglethorpe. He and his family were of Jacobite sympathies and he was named in honor of King James II and his son. Jacobite activity would remain dormant in America until after the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. Led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Son of James III and Grandson of James II), it was launched against the Hanoverian Dynasty, who had inherited the British Throne in 1714 from William of Orange and his successors. Despite having the upper hand at the beginning, the uprising ultimately failed which led to many finding refuge abroad. This led to many Jacobites moving to America and settling in areas like New York and North Carolina. These Jacobites would go on to play a noticeable role in Colonial American Society. Many of them interestingly pledged loyalty to King George III, who they saw as a Defender of Catholicism and a Jacobite Sympathizer. However, there was a faction of the remaining Jacobites in America which had very different plans in mind, which would become apparent in the American Revolution. Many Tories, the Traditionalist faction in mainstream Anglosphere politics, in the Continental Congress pondered the idea of crowning Prince Charles Edward Stuart as King of America if the nation were to become independent. Something to remember is that the idea of a republic had not yet fully developed in the American conscience. Ever since the colonies were founded, the American people were seen as one of Crown’s most loyal subjects, even after the Hanoverian Succession. However some have noted that you could find a notable Jacobite sentiment, most especially amongst English Recusants in Maryland and Scottish Highlanders in the Carolinas respectively. You could find some Jacobites within the Continental Army, most prominently General Hugh Mercer. Mercer was a surgeon in Prince Charles’ Army who fled to America following the conclusion of the 1745 uprising. Even after the Revolutionary War there were many in what would become the Federalists who proposed making the United States a Kingdom, with many different candidates considered. A letter was sent to Prince Charles (Now King Charles III), who was in Rome, relaying the offer. He said he would accept the Crown of America if France and Spain promised to support him. A Coronation for King Charles in Philadelphia, New York, or Baltimore was a real possibility as Catholic Prelates from France, Spain, or the Papal States could have been brought over with the help of his brother Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart. Several intellectuals at the time also noted that an underlying reason for why Americans’ respect for the ruling Hanoverian family was because of the fact they were Germans who had no connection to the English speaking world. This is what Dr. Samuel Johnson was referring to when he told General James Oglethorpe (Former Governor and Founder of the Georgia Colony) that King George III had a 'want of inherent right'. Unfortunately for both the American Tories and King Charles, Spain and France were not fully involved in the War of Independence yet. It did not help that the Jacobite movement itself was not united, this is because of the previously mentioned fact that many Jacobites had sworn loyalty to King George III. As Dr. Samuel Johnson previously pointed out, King George did not want to be seen as a mere constitutional monarchy and wanted to overturn many of the reforms that were implemented after the 1688 Protestant Revolution. He also had a favorable view towards Catholics, unlike his two predecessors, and worked to bring them back into British Society. The willingness of former Jacobites to swear loyalty to King George was aided by the works of Bishop George Hay, the Vicar Apostolic of the Lowlands District in Scotland. Bishop Hay, a former member of Prince Charles’ army, wrote extensively about the flaws of the American and French Revolutions using Jacobite Ideology in favor of King George. As a result, coupled with the many amnesties King George implemented, many Jacobites went on to join in the armies loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution. One of these former Jacobites was the famed Allan Maclean, who defended Quebec City from the Revolutionaries in 1775. All of these different factors led to the American Jacobites/Tories being disunited, paving the way for the American Whigs’ ascendency in government that allowed them to declare independence as the United States of America. Despite these countless setbacks, a second attempt to invite King Charles was made in 1782. A lawyer from New York, two brothers from Pennsylvania, and a gentleman from Maryland all sailed across the Atlantic to Florence to offer King Charles the American Crown. He refused the offer as he knew it was too late to make any formal claim. After the American Revolution and the death of Charles III, most Jacobites had abandoned any attempts to restore the Stuarts and were incorporated into what we now know as the Federalist Party. The only remnants of interest in Jacobitism possibly existed within the American Clergy as Charles’ brother, Henry Benedict Stuart (Better known as King Henry IX or Cardinal York) was a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. There certainly was a relationship between the American Clergy and the King-Cardinal because of his Ecclesiastical Grants in America and his patronage and connections with the English and Scottish Seminaries in Rome (which is where American seminarians would go to study) where he was recognized as King of Great Britain. One could come to the rational conclusion that the American Clergy (like their English and Scottish brethren) naturally recognized him as King due to his Stuart lineage and Catholic faith. However whatever remaining interest that was left in Jacobitism in America completely disappeared after 1807 when King Henry/Cardinal York passed away. It has only existed as a niche idea in some very small Catholic circles. The followers of King Jacobus, especially on this side of the Atlantic, are long gone now. However, believe it or not, there are still ways we see their influence today. One notable example is the architectural works of famed architect and avowed American monarchist Ralph Adams Cram. His Neo Gothic style of buildings that could be found in countless cities and towns across the country are the physical expression of the Catholic and Monarchical America he dreamed of. A tiny glimpse of how different things could have been.

The Apotheosis of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Much of what is today the United States once fell under New France and New Spain, Catholic powers who named many cities after Catholic saints. The intricate interplay between religion and American culture has been a defining feature of the nation's historical landscape. The multifaceted tapestry of Christianity, with its diverse denominations, has profoundly molded American values, moral conduct, and societal developments. Among the religious forces that have significantly shaped the American experience, Roman Catholicism stands prominently alongside Protestantism. Initially a minor presence, Roman Catholicism gradually burgeoned in both scale and significance, ultimately emerging as one of the most influential catalysts in shaping American society. This influence reverberates through various facets, from social infrastructure and education to healthcare and democratic values. Roman Catholicism's Arrival and Expansion in America Roman Catholicism's roots in America trace back to the early sixteenth century, but its ascent to a formidable phenomenon commenced in the mid-1820s (Butler, Balmer, & Wacker, 2011). This pivotal turning point coincided with the arrival of the first waves of Irish immigrants on American shores. By the late 1840s, a staggering two million Irish Catholics, driven from their homeland by agrarian changes and the Irish potato famine, had sought refuge in the United States. This influx of Irish immigrants was soon followed by German arrivals in the 1840s and 1850s, and later by Italian immigrants in the 1870s. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the magnitude of this demographic shift had reached such proportions that it prompted the implementation of stringent immigration laws in the 1920s. Nonetheless, the impact was already deeply etched in the fabric of American society, with Roman Catholics estimated to constitute 17% of the population in 1906, compared to 10% in 1861 and a mere 2% in 1790, prior to the 19th-century wave of immigration (Portier, 2011). This transformative demographic shift exerted an inexorable influence on American society. First and foremost, these Catholic immigrants exhibited significant ethnic diversity, both among themselves and in comparison to the existing American populace. The presence of twenty-eight different languages spoken within the Catholic community by 1916 is a testament to this diversity (Butler & Stout, 1998). This diversity engendered tensions and, at times, open antagonism. For instance, the Irish, being the earliest arrivals and sharing a common language with the Americans, assimilated relatively seamlessly. However, the Germans faced more challenges in adapting to their new environment. As for Italian Catholics, they grappled not only with the language barrier but also with divergent understandings of Catholicism itself. Their religious practices were influenced by their distinct ethnic backgrounds, with some hesitancy in acknowledging the full authority of the Pope. In this milieu, ethnic diversity emerged as the primary force that bound together the Roman Catholic community, driven by the imperative of preserving their national identity amid a sometimes-hostile environment. These immigrants, facing disadvantages and an obligation to assist newly arrived fellow Catholics, played a pivotal role in establishing social infrastructure, including educational and medical institutions. These structures, initially intended to facilitate the adaptation of newly arrived co-religionists, would have a broader societal impact. Roman Catholicism's Role in Building Social Infrastructure The construction of social infrastructure was a significant hallmark of the Roman Catholic immigrant experience in America. While initially designed to serve the needs of the Catholic community, these institutions ultimately extended their influence beyond religious boundaries, contributing to the broader American society. One vital facet of this infrastructure was the educational system. Private Catholic schools, originally established to aid children who did not speak English, burgeoned into the largest such system in the world. These schools not only preserved ethnic identities but also imparted essential skills and knowledge to generations of Americans. The Catholic educational network left an indelible mark on the American educational landscape (Cawley & McCall, 2013). Another crucial component was the healthcare system, exemplified by institutions like the Sisters of Mercy (Butler et al., 2011). Catholic healthcare providers played an integral role in caring for the sick and vulnerable, leaving a lasting impact on the American medical establishment (Curran, 2007). Roman Catholic clergy and laity were deeply engaged in social activities, including labor struggles. Figures like Dorothy Day, a prominent Catholic convert and social activist, were instrumental in establishing homes and shelters for the impoverished. The Catholic community's active participation in the Civil War and both World Wars served to diminish their sense of alienation and solidified their presence within American society (Kolodiejchuk, 2016). Roman Catholicism's Transition from Alienation to Adaptation As the twentieth century dawned, the era of distancing and resistance began to yield to one of adaptation and integration into American culture. The persistent hostility mentioned earlier played a pivotal role in precipitating this shift, compelling immigrants to demonstrate their commonality with the broader American population. Simultaneously, the infrastructure erected primarily for the benefit of the Catholic community became increasingly conspicuous on a statewide scale. For example, the extensive system of private Catholic schools, originally designed to assist non-English-speaking children, gained recognition as a prominent educational institution. Similarly, the Catholic healthcare system, embodied by the Sisters of Mercy, continued to thrive, expanding its reach beyond the confines of the Catholic community (Curran, 2007). The Catholics' engagement in social activities, such as labor struggles, also contributed to their integration into American society. Figures like Dorothy Day epitomized this commitment, working to build homes and shelters for the marginalized (Miller, 2015). Participation in major conflicts, including the Civil War and both World Wars, further eroded the sense of alienation and fostered a sense of belonging within the broader American context (Kolodiejchuk, 2016). The Impact of Roman Catholicism on American Values Roman Catholicism's influence on American values underwent a complex transformation. Initially viewed with skepticism by the Protestant majority, the Catholic Church grappled with perceived contradictions between its canonical structure and democratic American values. While concerns were not entirely unfounded, by the early twentieth century, Catholic canon had notably relaxed in response to both external pressures and internal developments (Dolan, 2016). The major breakthrough came in the 1960s with the Second Vatican Council, conducted by Pope John XXIII between 1962 and 1965. This ecumenical council brought about significant changes that defined the incorporation of the Catholic Church into American culture. The Masses were allowed to be said in local languages instead of Latin, the authority of the Pope was lessened and distributed between local bishops, and, most importantly, the stance towards other Christian denominations changed from distancing to seeking common ground (O'Malley, 2008). This ushered in the modernization of Roman Catholicism in America. While some argue that these changes were more a result of Americanization than the influence of Roman Catholicism, the fact that these changes were the result of Vatican II suggests that the Catholic Church was at least partially responsible for the shifts (Dolan, 2016). In other words, the American society absorbing the Catholic society was also affected by this process. Conclusion Defining the intricate process of social change and distinguishing cause and effect is a complex endeavor. Some of the changes brought to America by Roman Catholicism can be conclusively deemed as unique, while others appear more like effects resulting from exposure to American culture. However, the impact of Roman Catholic immigrants on America in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is unmistakable. It benefited the social infrastructure, education, medicine, and the general principles of American religion. Roman Catholicism, alongside Protestantism, played a pivotal role in shaping American values and culture, leaving an indelible mark on the nation's history. This influence continues to endure, serving as a testament to the lasting impact of religious diversity in the United States. References Butler, J., Balmer, R., & Wacker, G. (2011). Religion in American life. New York: Oxford University Press. Butler, J., & Stout, H. (1998). Religion in American history. New York: Oxford University Press. Cawley, M., & McCall, J. (2013). American Catholic education: Theological and religious roots. New York: Routledge. Curran, C. E. (2007). Catholic social teaching, 1891–Present: A historical, theological, and ethical analysis. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Dolan, J. P. (2016). The Second Vatican Council's impact on American Catholicism. Theological Studies, 77(1), 190-204. Kolodiejchuk, B. (2016). Mother Teresa: A complete authorized biography. San Francisco: HarperOne. Miller, W. D. (2015). Dorothy Day: A biography. San Francisco: HarperOne. O'Malley, J. W. (2008). What happened at Vatican II. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Portier, W. L. (2011). Common threads: A cultural history of Catholics in the United States. New York: Orbis Books.

“we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God” -Pope St. John Paul II Each Thursday, millions of Catholics around the world pull out their Rosaries to pray the Luminous Mysteries. Although these mysteries predate me in existence (and the events they recall probably predate even my great-great grandparents), historically speaking, they are a fairly new and beautiful addition to the original set (the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious). Pope St. John Paul II instituted them in 2002, just at the turn of the century, in his apostolic letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”. And just like the others, they have served as a well-spring of spiritual truth, life, and love, and an inexhaustible, ever-green field for contemplation. They shed light on the public ministry of Christ, parts people feel they may be very knowledgeable about, and place them in a new, well-deserved, and even more contemplative focus. Each of these mysteries bears a particular spiritual fruit, which I will get to in a minute. But apart from the light that these mysteries bring into our hearts through contemplation on them, there is another thread that intimately ties them together. And that is the radical call to obedience. Let’s see how this plays out in each mystery. The First Luminous Mystery: The Baptism in the Jordan Spiritual Fruit: Openness to the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ, in profound humility, was baptized by John in the Jordan River. As He was the spotless Lamb of God, this of course was not necessary. In fact, John says that he himself should be the one getting baptized by Christ! However, Jesus undergoes this Baptism, not so much for Himself, as for us. He is the type of the New Man we hope to become. And in being baptized, He set a pattern for us to, “go and do likewise”. To be baptized as He was, and so become the sons of God. And so that we might receive the Spirit (in which, as St. Paul writes, we cry “Abba! Father!”), He tells His Apostles to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, all three Persons fully present at Jesus’ own baptism. In an age where Baptism is no longer seen by many Christians as essential, the light of this mystery shines on the importance of obedience to Christ’s command to be baptized, so that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The Second Luminous Mystery: The Wedding Feast at Cana Spiritual Fruit: To Jesus through Mary Jesus performs his first miracle at the Wedding Feast at Cana. Here, he turns water into wine, gladdening the hearts of all at the feast. But He does so at the prompting of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who notices that the newlyweds have run out of wine, and presents the situation to her Son. He, in turn, tells her His hour has not yet come. What follows is truly worthy of note. In an impeccable pronunciation of faith, she tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you”. A profound call of faith to faith. Oh that these words would be etched into our hearts! For we run to Mary, and she brings us and our intentions to the throne of grace, and tells us the same thing. “Do whatever He tells you.” And these are her last words in all of Scripture. In one sentence, the Virgin’s life is encapsulated. A life of trust and obedience. The Third Luminous Mystery: The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God Spiritual Fruit: Repentance and Trust in God. Jesus Christ commences His ministry, preaching repentance and belief in the Gospel. This mystery was incredibly central to Christ's mission, as well as ours today. Christ’s call for the sinners to repent are actually His first recorded words in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 1:15). But He calls on sinners not to just turn from their evil ways, but to turn to God, a God who can be loved and trusted. In this mystery, Christ teaches us that belief in the Gospel, the good news of salvation, is an integral and essential step in the spiritual order. This seed of trust in God’s power to save us from the yoke of sin and death, in turn bears the fruit of wholehearted obedience, which is more pleasing to Him than numerous burnt offerings and sacrifices (1 Samuel 15). The Fourth Luminous Mystery: The Transfiguration Spiritual Fruit: Desire for Holiness Jesus ascends Mount Tabor with His disciples, Peter, James, and John, and is transfigured before them. The preface of the Transfiguration in the Roman Missal beautifully illustrates the significance of this mystery, “...For after He had told the disciples of His coming Death, on the holy mountain He manifested to them His glory, to show, even by the testimony of the law and the prophets, that the Passion leads to the glory of the Resurrection…” Prominent figures of the Old Covenant (Moses and Elijah) and the New Covenant (Peter, James, and John) are present in this mystery, foreshadowing a fulfillment of the former and an establishment of the latter in and through the person of Christ. But probably most prominent is the Father’s voice heard distinctly from the cloud above, telling the Apostles (and all reading this story) to listen to His beloved Son. In this command, we hear the echoes of the Virgin from John 2:5. In both scenarios, Christ is revealed in His divinity, and we are called to listen to Him and obey Him. And even when this obedience brings us to the most difficult of places, we can be encouraged by the glory of that reward that “eye has not seen and ear has not heard”(1 Corinthians 2:9). For indeed the trial of the Passion is always followed by the joy of the Resurrection. The Fifth Luminous Mystery: The Institution of the Eucharist Spiritual Fruit: Adoration Jesus shares the Last Supper with His disciples, giving them His body and blood. In the Institution of the Eucharist, that symbolized in the Transfiguration is made real at this meal. Christ offers Himself to the Father and to the disciples as the New Passover Lamb, which will fulfill all the sacrifices of old, and usher in the New Covenant. His Apostles seated at table with Him, will become the priests of this new covenant, having received from Christ the command to “do this in remembrance of Him” (Luke 22:19-20). While our minds are brought to the mystery of this supper, we are also taken back to John 6, where Christ commands His disciples to eat His flesh and drink His blood, promising eternal life unto them that do (John 6:58). It was certainly a very radical call, and many of His disciples ceased to follow Him thereafter. Save, of course, the Twelve Apostles. And their response to this is one that very well sums up the life of faith, a life that trusts in God and in His Word. Peter replies, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” And so in the narrative of the Institution, we come to heed Christ’s call to the Paschal banquet of His flesh and blood. The question remains for us, will we trust and obey, just as the Apostles did? Or will we, like the other disciples, also go away? And so these are the events of Christ’s life put forth in the Luminous mysteries. We see in them the inevitable and unmistakable call to obedience. And that is because Christ Himself stands at the center of each mystery as our own model for the faith. For He Himself was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Are we?

A prayer devotion to the Three Holy Heats of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph My dear reader, I present to you the corporal method of devotion to the Three Most Holy Hearts. In humility, I wish to explain and instruct on how to say this chaplet. In doing so, I will also provide meditations and short readings to arouse devotion in the soul, if Our Good Father in heaven were to allow it. What is the Chaplet? This Chaplet is modeled after the Beads of the Sacred Heart, for no greater foundation for devotion is there than Jesus. It is composed of five groups of beads, arranged in order of six in each group. We begin with a crucifix, leading to a Pater bead, three Ave beads preceding to a Pater bead, leading to the centerpiece and going around into the five groups of six beads. These beads add up to a total sum of thirty three, the number of years Our Lord lived on earth. As with the Most Holy Rosary, the chaplet is given five mysteries, to mediate upon while pronouncing the prayers. This chaplet is different than most, as each group present a different prayer to be said, but this is no cause for alarm, or concern that it is overbearing. They are indulgenced prayers approved by Holy Mother Church, from the Raccolta, with the exception of two prayers, but still approved by a priest who has reviewed it. They are short, and easily memorized. The Chaplet We shall now begin with the Inroit, and the preceding prayers: I: Begin with the Sign of the Cross+ and on the Crucifix pray: “Almighty and Blessed Trinity, I offer unto thee this day my life, and all my works, toils and sorrows, joys and every beat of my heart for thy glory, in reparation for all offenses committed against thy sovereign majesty, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Pure Heart of her most chaste spouse, St. Joseph, in union with the Eucharistic and Most Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered throughout the world and in communion with all thy Angels and Saints, for thy glory and thy praise. Amen.” II: Pray the ‘Golden Arrow’; “May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the altar.” III: On the three beads after, pray; “Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy on Us!” “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!” “Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph, Pray for Us!” IV: Glory Be V: Announce The Mystery VI: Golden Arrow, before or after the brief meditation The Mysteries Mystery I: On the Love of the Most Holy Hearts for Souls and the Dying Meditation: “The loving Heart of Jesus loves us with a boundless love. The divine and uncreated love which possess that adorable Heart, is nothing else but God Himself. Now since God is unlimited, His love is also unlimited. Since God is everywhere, His love is everywhere, in all places and all things. Therefore the Sacred Heart of Jesus loves us not only in heaven, but He also loves us on earth. He loves us in the sun, in the stars and in all created things. He loves us in the hearts of all the denizens of heaven and in the hearts of all of all persons that have some measure of charity for us on earth.” (St. John Eudes, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pg 120.) “The fourth good office which Our Lady renders to her children and faithful servants is to protect and defend them. Rebecca, by her cares and artifices, delivered Jacob from all the dangers in which he found himself, and particularly from the death which his brother Esau would have inflicted upon him, because of the envy and hatred which he bore him; as cain did of old to his brother Abel. Mary, the good Mother of the predestinate, hides them under the wings of her protection, as a hen hides her chickens. She speaks, she humbles herself, she condescends to all their weaknesses, to secure them from the hawk and the vulture. She puts herself round about them, and she accompanies them, like an army on battle array, ut castrorum acies ordinata.” (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, St.Louis De Montfort, Pg 151-152) “Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.” (Lk 12:34). Saint Joseph has three treasures: Jesus, Mary and you. Nothing consumes the heart of St. Joseph other than these three treasures.” (Calloway, ‘Consecration to St.Joseph’, Pg 55) “Blessed Joseph! It is not without important reasons that you have been preferred to so many other saints, and honored as the special patron of dying persons, of those who are desirous of securing for themselves the greatest of all graces, that of a happy death.” (A Manual of Practical Devotion to St.Joseph Pg 104, Fr.Patrignani, S.J.) Considerations: How often do you tell Him; “I love you, Jesus.” Is it something that passes your lips every day? Do you consider how much He really loves those who have recourse to His Heart? Do you trust in Mary’s intercession and love for you? Do you believe that she wants you to be with Jesus more than you even do? Tell her; “My mother, if you wish, could you press a kiss to His fine head on my behalf?” Is St.Joseph frequently invoked during your day? How much do you think of this good father’s love for you as his own child? The Prayer for this Mystery: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you! Save Souls!” End with a Glory Be Mystery II: On the Love of the Most Holy Hearts for Poor Sinners Golden Arrow Prayer: “The people stood looking on. They that passed by, shaking their heads, blasphemed me. But they that stood around mocked Me: in like manner also, the chiefs of the priests, with the scribes and elders, insulted Me by derisive gestures. The soldiers, too, jeered at Me, and, adding insults, they offered Me vinegar. All, in fine, sated me with reproaches. And amidst all this, what was I doing, Child? What My Heart? Father! I exclaimed, unfolding My Heart, Father! Forgive them; they know not what they do: they know not how enormous is the crime which they are committing.” (Imitation of the Sacred Heart, Pg 348, Rev. Peter J. Arnoudt S.J.) “Would you know in the further manner of divine mercy lives and reigns in the heart of the Mother of Mercy? Listen to Saint Bonaventure, “Great was Mary’s mercy towards the wretched while she was living in exile here below; but immeasurably greater still now that she happily reigning in Heaven. She manifests this greater mercy through innumerable benefits, now that she possesses a clear insight into the numberless woes of mankind. She does not require past merits, but grants the petitions of all men, out of charity, and opens the bosom of her clemency to everyone. She relieves every need and necessity with an incomparable affection and tenderness of heart.” (Admirable Heart of Mary, St.John Eudes, Pg 127-128) “St. Joseph may be compared to the good father in the Gospel, who loves those among his children who obey, and are an honor to him, but whose tender and compassionate heart also yearns for the return of that ungrateful child who had abandoned and dishonored the best of parents. The meaning of this is, that if he grants favors to the just to enable them to advance in perfection, neither does he withhold his paternal care and solicitude from poor sinners.” (A Manual of Practical Devotion to St.Joseph Pg 120, Fr.Patrignani, S.J) Considerations: How often have you fallen into grave sin, and came back to Him in the Tribunal of Mercy? Do you think of all the times you’ve grieved His Heart? What about the love He says to you with the words; “Ego te absolvo?”, “I absolve you of your sins!” I forgive you, wipe away the stains upon your baptismal robe and declare you mine once more! Behold my heart! It burns for you! I am in love with you, I suffered for you, I am waiting for you! What of Our Lady? Do you ignore the sparks from her Motherly Heart that fall upon your cold, dead one? What of the tears she cries for you, pleading her Divine Son to stay His judgement? My Son, though this soul has offended thee, please, for me, stay thy arm and have mercy! For I love this soul, as my own child, and do not wish to see it fall into perdition! Does not St.Joseph not worry in anxious hope for you? He does! Like a good father waiting on a rebellious child, he prays and hopes for your return, never resting until you do. My Son, you were once lost for three days, and your mother and I searched anxiously for you, spending many restless hours and tears waiting to see your face once more, I ask, My Son, can you wait a little longer for this soul? Prayer for this Mystery: “My Jesus, Mercy!+Mother of Mercy, pray for us!+St. Joseph, pray for us!” End with a Glory Be Mystery III: On the Crucible of Love and Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Especially in the Blessed Sacrament Golden Arrow Prayer: “Believe in My love and My mercy. You have sinned against me; I forgive you. You have persecuted me; I love you. You have wounded me both by word and deed; still I wish to do you good and let you share all my treasures. Do not imagine I am ignorant of your state of soul. I know that you have despised my grace, perhaps even profaned My Sacraments. Yet you have from Me a full pardon.” (Way of Divine Love, Sister Josefa Menendez, Pg 402) “Love gives itself as food to its own and this food is the substance which gives them life and sustains them. Love humbles itself before its own… and in doing psoriases them to the highest dignity. Love surrenders itself in totality, it gives an profusion and without reserve. With enthusiasm, with vehemence it is sacrificed, it is immolated, it is given for those it loves. … The Holy Eucharist is love to the extreme of folly.” (Way of Divine Love, Sister Josefa Menéndez, Pg 352) “We reminded you in our former chapters of the first duties which Christians owe to Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist: faith in His real presence, and the obligation to adore Him. It will be well before proceeding further to consider the principal reasons why Our Lord instituted this august sacrament. An acquaintance with these reasons will enable us to appreciate more fully the love of Jesus Christ for us shown in the Eucharist. The Savior instituted this sacrament in order to be the companion of our earthly pilgrimage, our food at the Holy Table, and the victim offered to God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” (Prisoner of Love, Fr Xavier Lasance, Pg 39) Considerations: When the Host is lifted to The Father, do you not say; “My Lord and My God!” Do you not hail that Precious Blood shed for you on the cruel, adorable wood of the Cross? Look at Him! He condescends to veil Himself, infinite majesty He is, under the sacred species. Every day He calls you, burning brighter and hotter than any star in all of the universe combined. I say to you, if you combined every star and supernovae, it would never equal one angstrom, one iota, one atom, of fiery love and brightness of the Sacred Host during Holy Mass! Behold, your Lord and God in the hands of the priest, why, do you not come to Me with all your woes, your sorrows, your tears? I can burn them away, I can heal you, I can help you! Yet you stay away from me? Oh, soul, if only you loved! Even worse, reader, think of the times you approached His Majesty, with a cold and unbelieving heart. Woe, sorrow! What of the times you approached with grave sin upon your soul? Why do you persecute me? You eat my flesh and drink my blood with the coldness of a robber. You receive My Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in a state of sin! Why do you crucify me again and again? Happily, think of all the times The Eucharist was received, and believed in, and loved! The angels veil themselves before me, hell and all its fallen angels tremble and fall down in horror at the presence of My love and holiness! The Saints adore Me profoundly, and My Father is pleased at the sacrifice… for it is Myself offered to Him. Oh, Soul, you approach, I come to meet you… we are united, in a tender embrace, I in you, you in Me, I make my dwelling in thy heart! Behold, soul! In my nail scarred hands, I hold the universe, the cosmos, the planets, all of existence… your heart. I give you mine, am I not a generous lover, friend and father? O, I am, and so I give you myself to be strengthened, inflamed and forgiven! I love you! Prayer for this Mystery: “Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, on fire with love of us, inflame our hearts with love of thee!” End with a Glory Be Mystery IV: On the Crucible of Motherly Tenderness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Golden Arrow Prayer: “Thus does the Blessed Virgin love us with a most great and ardent love. In the first place, she loves us with the same love she has for God, seeing and loving God within us. The third theological virtue in Mary’s heart is not of another nature than the one in the hearts of the rest of the faithful which has as its sole object God and neighbor. It is true that this divine virtue is, in a sense, indescribably more ardent in the Blessed Virgin’s heart where its object is God instead of ourselves; nevertheless, it is substantially the same charity (though different in degree), and the Mother of Fair Love truly loves us with the same love wherewith she loves God Himself.” (Admirable Heart of Mary, St. John Eudes, Pg 215) “I maintain, in the second place, that the most glorious Virgin loves us with a supremely ardent love, because she loves us with the very same love with which she loves the God-Man, her divine son Jesus Christ, for she knows that He is our Head and we are His members, that we are therefore one with Him, as members are one with their head.” (Admirable Heart of Mary, Pg 215) “Mary’s charity is a love most zealous for the salvation of souls. This zeal gave the Blessed Virgin, from the beginning of her life, a most ardent desire to see the Son of God come into the world to save mankind from universal perdition of sin. This zeal made her offer many prayers, practice such mortifications and shed so many bitter tears to obtain the grace that the eternal Father might send His Son into the world to deliver us from the Considerations: When you pray the Rosary, do you not imagine yourself walking side by side with Our Lady? Are you not at her side, herself narrating the life of Jesus for you? My child, if only you truly knew how much God loves you, and how much I love you… you honor me with prayers and devotions, and I in return, laden the Divine Child with kisses on your behalf! If only you could see how much you’re loved! My Immaculate Heart burns for God, and for you! I am here, always a mother for you, always no matter what, ready to help you in affliction and temptation, always here… you are loved! Prayer for this Mystery: “Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation!” End with a Glory Be Mystery V: On the Crucible of Fatherly Love of the Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph Golden Arrow Prayer: “God wants you to rest in St. Joseph’s fatherhood. Saint Joseph will never abandon you. No matter what your experience of fatherhood has been, St. Joseph will always be there for you. He is your spiritual dad, and he loves you. He will never hurt you. He would give his life for you a million times over.” (Consecration to St. Jospeh, Fr.Calloway, Pg 78) “I cannot remember having asked Saint Joseph for anything which he did not obtain. I am quite amazed when I consider the favors our Lord has shown me through the intercession of this blessed saint, and the many dangers, both of body and soul, from which he has delivered me.” (The Truth about Saint Joseph, Fr. Maurice Meschler, S.J., on the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, Pg 144) “Inspired by the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church from the earliest centuries stressed that just as St. Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, that is, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model.” (St. John Paul II) Considerations: St. Joseph, O, Joseph… dear soul, how often do you have recourse to the Defender of Holy Church? Do you forget him at times? He never forgets you… My child, do you know my Chaste Heart yearns to see you in heaven? It does! I am a faithful father, loving… and caring. Even if you’ve never known the love of an earthly father… I’m here for you! I can help in all troubles, all anxieties, and sorrows. You have but to ask! When the enemy assails you, I can defend you, protect you! I only wish to see you with my Son, Jesus, as He wishes to be with you! Prayer for this Mystery: “Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph, crucible of chastity and purity, pray for us!” End with a Glory Be We have now come to the centerpiece, where that beautiful aspiration is now prayed; “Jesus Mary and Joseph, I give thee my heart and my soul, Jesus Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony, Jesus Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul out in peace with you.” Dear Reader, you may offer one Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, for the intentions of His Holiness, and the Bishop of your diocese if you so wish. This isn’t necessary, but it is completely optional. I also thank you for reading this little devotional, and if it but stirs up in your heart love for the Three Holy Hearts, I will consider myself the happiest of souls that another soul can love Jesus, Mary and Joseph more and more. Our Gentle Jesus, Mary and Joseph take care of you, and love you. +AMDG+ +JMJ+

“Go to Joseph! Have recourse with special confidence to St. Joseph, for his protection is most powerful, as he is the patron of the universal Church.” ~Blessed Pope Pius IX The Silent Saint, The Patriarch of Patriarchs, The Terror of Demons and Guardian of Virgins, and Spouse of the Blessed Mary. Saint Joseph is rightly proclaimed the Patron of the Universal Church. For it was he who protected Jesus and Mary from the cruel Herod, from poverty, from famine… The Head of the Holy Family! How do we even begin to expound on the greatness of this saint? First, let’s say this; The saint who stands next to the Blessed Virgin in glory; is not a priest, not a martyr, not a deacon, not a confessor, not a doctor of the church, not a pontiff… Saint Joseph was a father, a husband and a workman! Ponder on this… the saint who sits next to Jesus and Mary is not a cleric, nor a martyr… but a husband and a father. If Mary was a walking adoration chapel, carrying the Bread of Eternal Life within her virginal womb, than Joseph was the first of adorers, next to the magi, the shepherds and the wise men and three kings! Actually, Joseph was the first to adore the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the God-Man made incarnate within the womb of Mary! He was the first to lead the First Eucharistic Processions to Egypt and Jerusalem during Mary’s pregnancy, and we can also say, when Jesus was but a little boy, holding both their hands as they traveled. Let me not get ahead of myself, for this Saint is so good to us, by his prayers and intercessions, we should love him because he loves us dearly. This Saint, born of the royal blood of King David, had the supreme privilege of being wed to Mary, and father to Jesus Christ on earth, until his natural death. He had his own Annunciation (Gospel of St.Matthew 1:18-25), just like his blessed wife, he, was given the supreme dignity of taking her hand in marriage, and raising the very Son of God. “A just man,” (St. Matthew 1:19) Scripture calls him. God’s word declares St. Joseph to be a just man, eminent in virtue. Well, sure! By virtue of his proclamation and very vocation, he has to be just! He has to be pure and holy to marry the Blessed Virgin, and to raise the Sinless Lamb of God! Let us rebuke the heresy that Joseph and Mary had other children, for this attacks the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception and the dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady, and dishonors God greatly. It also takes away the title of Joseph Most Just and slanders his own virginity! Yes, dear reader, this most eminent Saint was a virgin before God, for His and Mary’s marriage was the heavenly model of marriage before God. Let me expound on this; Fr. Donald Calloway, in his book; “Consecration to St. Joseph,” speaks thus; “Your spiritual father is a gentleman. Saint Joseph is the first Christian gentleman; next to Jesus, he is the greatest example of masculine chastity. He was married to the most beautiful woman in the world, and he treated her with respect, dignity and reverence.” (Calloway, “Consecration to St. Joseph, Pg 46) The esteemed author says in the previous page; “Saint Joseph and Mary lived in what is called a “Josephite Marriage.” They were truly husband and wife, but they never engaged in sexual relations. Their vocation was to be untied in heart, mind, and soul, but never in body.” (Calloway, Pg 45) Joseph’s Most Chaste Heart, is at its core, a Crucible of Chastity. The marriage of Mary and Joseph was pure, spotless, full of superabundant love between two humans, that was the eminence of charity and chastity. As the dear author, Fr. Donald Calloway points out, that St. Joseph is a gentleman, the best example next to Jesus Christ, of masculine chastity. In Fr. Calloway’s work we continue to read; “”Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.” (Lk 12:34). Saint Joseph has three treasures: Jesus, Mary and you. Nothing consumes the heart of St. Joseph other than these three treasures.” (Calloway, Pg 55) Did you think when we see these plaster statues of the Lily-Staffed saint, that he’s just as cold and unfeeling in heaven? No! He loves you! He protects you! He wants what is best for you because God wills the best for you, and St. Joseph does the will of God! Believe me, I say to you, that St. Joseph is your spiritual father if you so wish him to be, for all you have to do is ask this great saint and God will grant you him as a patron and he will embrace you as a client and child. Why, my beloved reader, do you think that his heart is titled ‘Most Chaste?’ Because he possess the supereminence of this virtue, next to Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary! Following Fr. Calloway, we read; “Saint Joseph will help you have a chaste heart. Lust is the predominant vice at work in the hearts of men today. The world is filled with immoral and lust filled actions. These actions greatly offend God, ruin families, and cry out to heaven for justice. Did not Our Lady warn St. Jacinta of Fatima that many souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh?” (Calloway, Pg 55) I gave the above statistic for a reason; to show the scourge of lust on this world. To show the absolute unholy, filthy scourge that Lucifer and his apostate angels have unleashed on man and woman to destroy chastity and purity. Lucifer hates chastity and purity, for the sole fact that it is the Virtue that combats lust and gluttony, lack of temperance and control. He hates it because Our Lady and St. Joseph possess it super-eminently, and perfectly. Well, Our Lady will crush his head! (Genesis 3:15) Eve gave into his wiles, and Our Lady, the New Eve, corrected this mistake. Eve brought sin into the world by one action, Mary brought salvation into the world through her womb in one God-Man. So, there’s a reason why the Rosary, and all devotion to Our Lady is so dreadful to that prideful apostate angel. Especially devotion to St. Joseph, either through his rosaries or, his Seven Sorrows and Joys. We can see through these devotions the virtues of this eminent saint shine through, but His Most Chaste Heart, the fiery Crucible of Chastity, is the burning, molten core of love for purity and God. His litany names him the ‘Terror of Demons,’ and for good reason. It was Herod that sent his wicked soldiers to slay the newborn Jesus, and to rid the world of the King of Kings. For Herod was prideful, just a Lucifer was. St. Joseph fled through the night with Mary and Jesus multiple times to safety. He thwarted the devil’s plans, several times. He wields the Lily Staff, symbolizing his purity, which he uses to impale that ancient serpent and protect the Children of God. In one hand he wields the Lily Staff symbolizing his eminent chastity and sublime purity, in the other, The Divine King rests gently in his father’s arms, hand raised in benediction, blessing those who love this good father and angelic saint of God. We know as the Church Militant, that we are not obliged to adhere to private revelation, though it would be unwise to ignore the consensus of saints and mystics, whom by a very august grace, were revealed the lives of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We see in Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich’s divinely inspired and, with the full approval of Holy Mother Church, the visions of The Life of Jesus Christ, but especially the hidden life at Nazareth. “After the conception of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin experienced a great desire to visit her cousin Elizabeth. I saw her traveling with Joseph toward the south.” (Life of Jesus Christ, Pg 196) St. Joseph is a gentleman! He is the role model for all husbands, and fathers. What husband and father would even comprehend letting their wife go on a journey by herself, with child, across the state or country itself, without any form of defense or solace should she find herself in peril? Not St. Joseph! He was right at her side, to and fro, and with the greatest of love, zealously defended the Unborn Jesus. “It may, perhaps, have been an hour after the birth when Mary called St. Joseph, who still lay prostrate in prayer. When he approached, he fell on his knees, his face to the ground, in a transport of joy, devotion, and humility. Mary again urged him to look upon the Sacred Gift from Heaven, and then did Joseph take the Child into his arms.” (Life of Jesus Christ, Pg 227) I cannot imagine, with all sensible human faculties the emotions this good father felt, when he took into his arms his Lord, his God, his King, his son, and saw that seraphic face, from his chubby cheeks, to his closed eyes resting in Sacred Humanity. What of the Circumcision? Who of the first was to behold the Precious Blood flow? St. Joseph was seen it before this own eyes. What of the fear and anxiety when Mary and Joseph lost the boy Jesus in the temple for three whole days? “And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought the sorrowing.” (St. Luke 2:48) Do we forget that even the Blessed Mother called Joseph, Jesus’ father? Truly he was. How is this important? Let me explain: St. Joseph, from Jesus’ infancy, taught Him how to be a true gentleman, a true man. Everything Joseph did, Jesus emulated. Think about it. Do sons not emulate their fathers? Do they not look up to them in love and affection? Jesus worked alongside Joseph in his workshop, Joseph taught the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Author of the Law, how to work with His hands. Truly, this patriarch of patriarchs has a high place in paradise, and should be honored for the supreme and majestic grace he was privileged to be blessed with. Why a Patron of a Happy and Holy Death? “When Joseph was dying, Mary sat at the head of his bed, holding him in her arms. Jesus stood just below her near Joseph’s breast. The whole room was brilliant with light and full of angels. After his death, his hands were crossed on his breast, he was wrapped from head to foot in a white winding sheet, laid in an narrow casket, and placed in a very beautiful tomb, the gift of a good man.” (Life of Jesus Christ, Pg 330) How, in all good reasoning could the very picture presented to the imagination not cause the eyes of the soul to be wet with tears? There is no other human being who has ever lived, will live or is currently living, that will experience any death more sublime and full of divine charity than St. Joseph’s death. That is why Holy Mother Church proclaims him the patron of a holy death. What death could anyone reasonably ask for besides to die in the arms of Our Lady and Our Lord?

An investigation and a warning into a New Age theology, first put forth by Chardin, later espoused by Rohr, that has gone too far beyond the realm of Catholic orthodoxy Often in history, an apprentice will rise up after his master’s time is long gone. This student will perhaps appear to be original, but for those who remember the source of their ideas, they are but a mere echo. That is what Fr. Richard Rohr is like to Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Tiehard de Chardin arose during the great surge of modernism and its battle with the Church. He was condemned by the Magisterium in his time, yet his ideas lingered on, much so because they appeal to the modern scientific imagination. And now these ideas are starting to reemerge. It is imperative that we know the sources of these ideas and understand their hidden implications lest we be taken off guard by them. The Universe is the Body of God? See here how Rohr develops his theology from Chardin, taking things to the final end of this strange belief: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience." Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin “We are not just humans having a God experience. The Eucharist tells us that in some mysterious way, we are God having a human experience.” Fr. Richard Rohr, Universal Christ Firstly, we are not souls trapped in a body. That is the heresy of Manichaeism or Albigensian. No, God made us humans: body and soul. St. Augustine states: “If the world wasn’t necessary for us to learn the ways of God, God wouldn’t have created the world.” We, being physical creatures, learn about spiritual realities from the earth. Secondly, we are not God. It seems to me that some try to lower God from being the First Principle of all creation. Instead of acknowledging God as Creator, they wish to lower God to His creation. In doing so, they are seeking, in a Humanistic way, to proclaim that man is God. To continue along this path of investigation, we shall continue to look at The Universal Christ, Rohr’s newest book. It is telling that Fr. Rohr excludes a very important part of the following excerpt, quoted at the beginning of this book: (St. John of Damascus:) “I do not worship matter; I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take his abode in matter; who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God In his book, Rohr left out the final line: “I honor it (speaking of matter), but not as God.” It is once more telling that Rohr thought it appropriate to include this quote at the start of his book. He was trying to support a narrative. The fact that he leaves out the full clarity of the excerpt, as if to mislead, must put us on guard. Rohr’s Universal Christ furthermore states: “The universe is the Body of God, both in its essence and in its suffering.” This is completely against Catholic teaching. Vatican I, Session Three (On God and the Creator of All Things) clearly states, “If anyone says that the substance or essence of God and that of all things are one and the same: let him be anathema.” Thus, with this thinking, God the Creator is reduced to his creation. Suddenly, if the essence of creation is God, than man must be God. Of course, we know that is not so. “[Christ is a cosmic reality that is found] whenever the material and the divine co-exist—which is always and everywhere.” —Rohr “The Universe is the body of God…yes, it’s the second person of the Trinity in material form.” —Rohr Loosing God in the Ambiguity of “Awakening” "Most of the Catholics Christians I’ve met would for all practical purposes believe Jesus is God only, and we are human only. We missed the big point. The point is the integration, both in Jesus and ourselves." (Fr. Richard Rohr, Source) The most important part of the former quotation for our investigation is his conclusion: The point of the Incarnation and Resurrection is our integration in Jesus and ourselves. Rohr believes the point of life is to combine ourselves with Jesus in one whole. This reasoning sounds orthodox on the surface, however, instead of this reasoning being used in the Catholic sense, Rohr means to use it in the monistic way. Monistic, meaning that God and man are one, or that man is God. I may be coming too quick to my conclusion, but I pose the question: What else is the natural progression of this Chardinian/Rohr thought if not that man is God and that God is one with his creation? Rohr has already stated as much. It would help us now to bring in a few other peers of Rohr. By examining their line of thought, we can perhaps better understand Rohr. James Finley is a fellow member of Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation. Finley spent six years at the Abbey of Gethsemani before he became a psychologist. He is known for his book, “Merton’s Palace to Nowhere”, and he is also the voice of the popular podcast, “Turning to the Mystics.” In a recent interview, Finley was asked the question: “Is God real?” “I would say, God does not exist. There isn’t some infinite being called God who exists. God is the name that we give to the beginning-less, boundary-less, endless, infinite plenitude of existence itself. I am who am. God is that by which we are. And furthermore, God is a presence in an ongoing self-donating act that’s presencing itself and utterly giving itself away in and as the gift and the miracle of the intimate immediacy of our very presence. The closer we can start to get to it are these moments of awakening we spoke of earlier, like these awe moments of quickening…” We will touch on this error: “Moments of awakening” to our true self, or the realization that we are God. The idea of a “spiritual awakening” or “realization” stems from Eastern Buddhism. In their philosophy, they believe that God is within the human, in a panthiestic way. This idea of “realization” is not Christian. Repentance is what we have. We must conform ourselves to the God who is within our hearts, yes, but infinitely above us in His majesty. It is also noteworthy that Fr. Rohr once invited Marianne Williamson to one of his Center’s events. She is the author of the occult book “A Course in Miracles”. In this book, “it is taught that the crucifixion of Jesus has no meaning and was even wrong, because people think that sin doesn’t exist or is a lack of consciousness. After all, there’s nothing that keeps you separated from God, except for the thought that you are separated from God (...) Rohr endorses the teachings of Marianne Williamson on ‘A course in miracles’, in which she states that we are all in heaven now but we simply do not realize it because we haven’t found the illumination of the ‘God consciousness.’ ” (Stichting Promise) This illumination, or realization, of a “God consciousness” is a new age, Buddhist idea that is not Christian. At that, it is a Marxist idea, because it believes the progress is continual. In 1952, Fr. Teilhard wrote in a letter: “As I love to say, the synthesis of the Christian God (of the above) and the Marxist God (of the forward) – Behold! that is the only God whom henceforth we can adore in spirit and in truth.” Douglas Farrow, a theologian, remarks: “The Christ of Rohr includes, just as that of Teilhard, the whole creation. Jesus may be the unique Christ, but He is nevertheless just one example of the revelation of the Christ. It is a revelation, not a reconciliation, which we have to look for in Jesus” The New Yorker, speaking of Fr. Richard Rohr, builds dangerous assumptions on the foundations laid out: “According to his teachings, you don’t have to follow Jesus or practice the tenets of any formal religion to come by salvation, you just have to “fall in love with the divine presence, under whatever name.” If We Are God, There Is No Law That Is Above Us What is evident in many pagan cultures is that they fall short of Judeo-Christian morality. Man was and still is too dominated by concupiscence to imagine the tenets of Christianity by himself. Since God is above us, and He makes the law, Christianity is not something any worldly man would set in stone. While Hinduism seeks to escape from suffering, Christianity embraces suffering. In knowing that God suffered first for us, we find joy and peace. In knowing that God loves us and wills us to repent and come to Him, we pick up our cross and leave our former lives behind. Many heretics in ancient days, such as the Pelagians or Quietists, believed in a logic like this: We are capable of being the source of our own grace Whatever we will is lawful since we are capable of our own self determination We can therefore do evil and it can be good This is why many moderners who reject the ethos of Christianity reject original sin and the existance of Hell. Yes, it is pride to reject these things. “How dare anyone condemn me for doing these evil things that I chose to do?” To mention sin is to attack their pride. Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin had a problem with dogma of original sin. Evolutionary theory was his way to get around it. Christiancentury.org states: “Teilhard also aimed to show that the doctrine of original sin could be understood as the condition for the original act of creation. Evolution suggests that humans exist in a process of becoming, rather than being made perfect from the start. Adam and Eve are therefore best understood as images of sin, not as our biological ancestors. Paradise is a state of salvation open to all who live in unity with Jesus. Teilhard thought that attributing all sin to a single historical act that might, in fact, not have occurred was grossly immature. And to defend a version of the doctrine of original sin that ignored the evidence of reason and experience diminished its deepest meaning. Thus, Fr. Chardin was stripped of his teaching position in 1925 for denying Original Sin and the existence of Hell. It is Church teaching that Adam and Eve were are biological ancestors and that their disobedience is the cause of original sin, which, like DNA, passed down to their children. In the CAC article titled Heaven Is a Great Party, Rohr says. “God has always had a very hard time giving away God: No one seems to want this gift. We’d rather have religion, and laws, and commandments, and obligations, and duties. I’m sure many of us attend church out of duty, but gathering with the Body of Christ is supposed to be a wedding feast.” What is a true wedding feast but a high mark of man’s dignity? It has the laws of manners and decency. It has vows made before God. A religion without laws, commandments, obligations, duties, and virtues, without religion itself, is chaos. For now, let us conclude. Further Errors Appendix: The Dancing “God”? “I would believe only in a god who could dance.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra “More often than the sacred beings of other cultures, the gods of Hinduism and Buddhism dance. They express their creative and destructive energies through fluid rhythmic movements, setting the pulse of the universe. In benign moods they dance gracefully in divine play. In stern moods they dance with a force that, if fully unleashed, could destroy worlds. Sculpture and paintings depicting deities including Shiva, Krishna, and the elephant-headed Ganesha, together with video clips of dance performances, will illuminate these ideas.” —Sdmart Blog See: The Cosmic Dance of Shiva. Shiva, which means “nothingness”, is a dancing god who creates in the chaos of a dance. Speaking of this dance, called the Nataraja, Aldous Huxley said: “The whole thing is there, you see. The world of space and time, and matter and energy, the world of creation and destruction, the world of psychology…We (the West) don’t have anything remotely approaching such a comprehensive symbol, which is both cosmic and psychological, and spiritual.” The popular writer Sadhguru breaks this down clearly: “India is the only place where our gods must dance…This is because the closest analogy you can give to the phenomenon of creation is that it is like a dance. Today, modern physicists are using such words – they say creation seems to be in a dance. If you observe a dance, on the surface, there seems to be no logical coherence to what is happening. But if you look closely enough, there is a very profound system to the whole process. (...) You cannot understand the dance because everything that you understand will only be a wrong conclusion. But you can experience the aesthetic of the dance, or you can become the dance…If you become the dance, you become the divine…” Fritjof Capra (author of the Tao of Physics), Carl Sagan, and many other modern scientists are facinatined by this concept. Sagan, known for the series Cosmos, says that he liked to imagine the Nataraja was “a kind of premonition of modern astronomical ideas.” Religious ideas of the East have crept far into modern science, the new age, and Christianity itself. Fr. Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: Exploring the Mystery of Trinity: “Scientists are discovering this reality as they look through microscopes and telescopes. They are finding that the energy is in the space between the particles of the atom and between the planets and the stars. (Is this where his idea that the essence of God is in everything comes from?). They are discovering that reality is absolutely relational at all levels. When you really understand Trinity, however slightly, it’s like you live in a different universe. And a very good and inviting one!” Fr. Richard Rohr (Ibid): Trinity is the very nature of God, and this God is a circle dance, a centrifugal force flowing outward, and then drawing all things into the dance centripetally. In Hinduism, the idea of a dancing god enclosed in a circle is: god is the creator and creation, the dance and the dancer. Fr. Richard Rohr (Ibid): “If this God names himself/herself in creation and in reality then there must be a “family resemblance” between everything else and the nature of the heart of God.” Thus, the error. Many will try to claim this idea of a dancing “god” is based in the Fathers, by showing that they used the term “perichoresis.” However, this write up on Wikipedia explains why this is not so: "Perichoresis" is derived from the Greek peri, "around" and chōreō, "to go, or come". As a compound word, it refers primarily to "going around" or "encompassing", conveying the idea of "two sides of the same coin". Suggested connections with Greek words for dancing ("choreia", spelled with the short letter omicron not the long omega) are not grounded in Greek etymology or early Christian use, but are modern in origin.” — Further investigation of their belief in physics: “Before Albert Einstein propounded his theory of relativity in the early 20th century, it was assumed that matter could ultimately be broken down into indivisible indestructible parts. But when individual subatomic particles were smashed against each other in high-energy experiments, they didn’t scatter into smaller bits. Instead, they merely re-arranged themselves to form new particles using kinetic energy or the energy of motion: subatomic dynamism. “At the subatomic level, all material particles interact with one another by emitting and reabsorbing (i.e., creating and destroying) other particles. Modern physics shows us that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. For the modern physicist, then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter,” Capra wrote in a letter.” Appendix: Substitutionary Atonement Theory Rohr: "I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross is a revelation of the infinite and participatory love of God, not some bloody payment required by God’s offended justice to rectify the problem of sin. Such a story line is way too small and problem-oriented. “This theory of atonement ultimately relies on another commonly accepted notion—the “original sin” of Adam and Eve, which, we were told, taints all human beings. But much like original sin (a concept not found in the Bible but developed by Augustine in the fifth century), most Christians have never been told how recent and regional this explanation is or that it relies upon a retributive notion of justice” On the contrary: Council of Trent: “If anyone asserts that the transgression of Adam injured him alone and not his posterity, and that the holiness and justice which he received from God, which he lost, he lost for himself alone and not for us also; or that he, being defiled by the sin of disobedience, has transfused only death and the pains of the body into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul, let him be anathema, since he contradicts the Apostle who says: “By one man sin entered into the world and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.” [Rom. 5:12] Notes: Fr. Richard Rohr wrote a book called The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective. The Vatican document Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life, speaking of the Enneagram, says that “when used as a means of spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith.” More suspect quotes by Fr. Rohr: “The brilliance of Buddhism is that it put enlightenment front and centre, where as we [Christians] put ...salvation front and center, and its just messed up because Jesus was talking about enlightenment too, but we didn't let him do that, we turned him into an answer giver.” “When Christians hear the word “incarnation,” most of us think about the birth of Jesus, who personally demonstrated God’s radical unity with humanity. But in this book, I want to suggest that the first incarnation was the moment described in Genesis 1, when God joined in unity with the physical universe and became the light inside of everything. (This, I believe, is why light is the subject of the first day of creation, and its speed is now recognized as the one universal constant.) The incarnation, then, is not only “God becoming Jesus.” (Universal Christ) Fr. Chardin: “It has sometimes seemed to me there are three weak stones sitting dangerously in the foundations of the modern Church: first, a government that excludes democracy; second, a priesthood that excludes and minimises women; third, a revelation that excludes, for the future, prophecy.’ (Letter to Christophe de Gaudefroy, 7 October 1929) “Like the countless shades that combine in nature to produce a single white light, so the infinite modalities of action are fused, without being confused, the one single color under the mighty power of the universal Christ.” (Science and Christ) “Christ has a cosmic body that extends throughout the universe.” (Cosmic Life, 1916, XII, 58) “It seems we are now reliving after 1,500 years the great conflicts with arianism - with the big difference that we are now concerned with defining the relations, not between Christ and the Trinity, - but between Christ and a universe that has suddenly become fantastically large, formidably organic and more than probably poly-human (...planets - millions perhaps). And if I may express myself brutally (but expressively) I see no valid or constructive way out of the situation except by making through the theologians of a new Nicea a sub-distinction in the human nature of Christ between a terrestrial nature and a cosmic nature.” (Letter to Andre Ravier SJ, 14 January 1955, Lettres intimes, 452) “A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.” “Lastly, to put an end once and for all to the fears of 'pantheism’', constantly raised by certain upholders of traditional spirituality as regards evolution, how can we fail to see that, in the case of a converging universe such as I have delineated, far from being born from the fusion and confusion of the elemental centres it assembles, the universal centre of unification (precisely to its motive, collective and stabilising function) must be conceived as pre-existing and transcendent. A very real 'pantheism' if you like (in the etymological meaning of the word) but an absolutely legitimate pantheism-for if, in the last resort, the reflective centres of the world are effectively 'one with God', this state is obtained not by identification (God becoming all) but by the differentiating and communicating action of love (God all in everyone). And that is essentially orthodox and Christian.” (The Phenomenon of Man) This investigation is written without enthusiasm, but I think worth sharing to warn others about jumping into the works of these two priests, Fr. Richard Rohr and Fr. Teilhard de Chardin. If any false accusations are put forth, do excuse them. All said, I think the larger work stands as a warning worth hearing. May Fr. Rohr, let us pray for him, hold fast to the teachings of the Catholic Church and may Fr. Chardin rest in peace. May God bless you, dear reader!

NOTE: Lent has already begun, but it’s not too late to start a new fasting discipline. Join the Benedict Challenge test cohort here and get the quick-start guide for gradually adopting the original fasting protocol for the Church, as well as the Order of St. Benedict. Let’s be frank—Catholics today are not known for their fasting discipline. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all fasted for 40 days in preparation for their missions. Yet most of us can barely handle missing a single meal, let alone the one meal prescribed by Canon Law on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Did you know that the early Christians fasted this way every Wednesday and Friday? St. Anthony of Egypt took it a step further in the 3rd century and only ate every other day. And St. Benedict – the founder of Western monasticism – made daily fasting a core plank of his rule for all monks. For centuries, the Order of St. Benedict ate just one meal a day throughout most of the year, including Lent. Today, millions of people have rediscovered “OMAD” as a vital health practice – apart from the ancient Christian discipline. However, sadly, the trend has yet to catch on in the Catholic Church. Many Catholics feel comfortable giving up all kinds of things for Lent. We abstain from alcohol, Instagram, or chocolate. But we recoil at the thought of returning to the ancient traditions of plain old daily fasting (i.e., not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next). Bishops have made every concession to our modern frailty, even allowing two small meals or “collations” on the last two remaining fasting days on the calendar. Yet, before we chalk up fasting as an outdated tradition irrelevant to our modern existence, we should consider whether denying ourselves for a time might offer something more profound that we crave. One Meal a Day: A Pathway to Self-Mastery The human heart does not change. Sin, despair, vanity, and anxiety plague our souls. Temptation and indulgence of the flesh remain the devil’s tools. While the early Church grappled with lion attacks, we battle the beasts of endless digital distraction and a crisis of abundance. We are drowning in cheap calories and cheap content. Many of our physical ailments, from obesity to diabetes, stem from a spiritual root cause—the “throwaway culture” decried by Pope Francis. Jesus told his disciples that certain demons “do not come out except by prayer and fasting.” Perhaps the seeming uptick in demonic activity stems from the fact that modern believers are so reluctant to use these weapons together. This Lent, let’s fight back. A few years ago, after discovering the fasting Rule of St. Benedict, I began to explore the early history of fasting in the Church, and I was surprised at what I learned. Not only did the Church Fathers fast more rigorously than us moderns, but they also embraced a different understanding than the purely penitential view we often encounter. It was largely the extreme penitential practices of the Middle Ages that triggered the decline of fasting up to the present. Many Catholics feel comfortable giving up all kinds of things for Lent. We abstain from alcohol, Instagram, or chocolate. But we recoil at the thought of returning to the ancient traditions of plain old daily fasting In St. Benedict’s time and earlier, fasting meant eating one evening meal—not restricting yourself to coarse bread and moldy cabbage or engaging in death-defying 40-day fasts in the desert. It was an aid to focus and prayer and a complement to lives of self-dedicated service. It was meant to make communal living and other forms of sacrifice easier, not harder. Not only is this tradition accessible and doable for the average believer, but it also comes with profound physical and mental benefits. Those who fast experience a deep mental clarity. They live longer. Fasting heals us at a cellular level—clearing out the old junk that accumulates in our bodies—and re-orders our appetites at the most fundamental biological, hormonal, and psychological levels. Over the past three seasons of Lent, I have turned what I’ve learned into a practical program to reinstate this tradition. The Benedict Challenge guides participants through a 40-day journey modeled after the moderate yet rigorous rule instituted by St. Benedict for his monks in the 6th century. Originally presented as a video course in 2021, I refined the material into a 7-week roadmap for incrementally transitioning to eating just One Meal a Day by the end of Lent. Over the seven weeks, the fasting protocol transitions participants from the customary three meals (no snacking!) spread over 12 hours to eating just one meal a day by the end of Lent. Here’s how the program works: Following its namesake’s original rule, the Benedict Challenge’s essence is a return to the authentic monastic fasting tradition of One Meal a Day. It’s become popular to give up certain things for Lent. This protocol provides flexibility for additional abstinences from indulgences like sweets or alcohol (should you decide to eliminate them). However, these sacrifices should not obstruct fidelity to the central pillar of the One Meal a Day fast. General Rules: No snacking between meals. Abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. Single meal on Fridays (initially allowing collations). Week 1: Ash Wednesday Fasting: 12-hour window. Eating: 12-hour window, three meals. Ash Wednesday: One dinner. Week 2: Invocabit Sunday Fasting: 14-hour window. Eating: 10-hour window, 2-3 meals. Week 3: Reminiscere Sunday Fasting: 16-hour window. Eating: 8-hour window, 2-3 meals. Week 4: Oculi Sunday Fasting: 18-hour window. Eating: 6-hour window, two meals. Week 5: Laetere Sunday Fasting: 20-hour window. Eating: 4-hour window, 1-2 meals. Week 6: Judica Sunday Fasting: 22-hour window. Eating: 2-hour window, one meal. Week 7: Palm Sunday Fasting: 23-hour window (OMAD). No meat. Optional Fasting: “Black Fast” from Holy Thursday dinner to Easter Vigil. Easter: Feast Day. Continuing Tradition: Fast with one meal on Fridays and other traditional fasting days. Woven throughout is a system for identifying and overcoming our destructive habits (read: demons) through the discipline acquired from rigorous prayer and fasting. Lastly, the journal takes a page from my friend David Clayton’s book The Vision for You, providing a template for daily and weekly reflections about your vocation. Are you moving in the right direction? If not, why bother moving forward at all? I’ll be the first to admit that fasting and Lent do not initially scream “Fun!” I enjoy my breakfast of hamburger and eggs, washed down with coffee or tea containing liberal portions of cream and honey. However, something energetic and vital about fasting has been lost over time—something that the early saints knew well. The Catholic Church’s fasting discipline began to decline centuries ago, and this decline has accelerated in the past 100 years. Are you moving in the right direction? If not, why bother moving forward at all? I document the reasons behind this decline at the beginning of the book. However, my concern is less with the reasons for the death of Catholic fasting and more focused on practical ways we can reinvent fasting as a living tradition. There are many trendy guides to “intermittent fasting” for weight loss, life extension, etc. However, few connect these physical benefits to the more profound spiritual riches available through fasting. When coupled with prayer and sincere repentance (metanoia), I have found fasting to be vital in my spiritual life. I aim to contribute to reviving this lost tradition – making it accessible for modern Catholics seeking a clear rule rooted in the wisdom of the saints. Join the Test Cohort Since Lent has already started, and the book/journal takes a few days to ship, I have prepared a temporary abridged PDF version for the I AM Catholic readership with the essential roadmap and the first two weeks of the journal. I invite you to join a test group for the program and provide feedback. If you join, you’ll receive: Advance access to the fasting roadmap First two weeks of the daily journal + the first four book chapters. A link to a private group where I’ll be hosting weekly informal video calls for support and accountability Opportunity to shape future iterations of the program There is no cost except a commitment to attempt the first week and share any feedback. If you’re feeling lukewarm about your current direction and are open to a deeper encounter with the living God, I hope you’ll join me for the next 40 days. Charlie Deist is a writer living in rural Northern California with his wife and three children. You can follow him on X (@chdeist) or Substack

Two things you can do with that strange necklace your grandma once gave you In the 13th century, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic. She gave him a rosary and told him to tell Christians to pray it. Before that, similiar beaded necklaces were used by monks. They would use the beads to keep track of how many prayers they said, as well as how many they had left to pray for the day. The great thing about the rosary is that it can be prayed anywhere! Even if you don’t have a necklace, you can keep track of the prayers with your ten fingers. I also have a rosary ring that I use to pray as I do my daily walks. Praying the rosary will transform your spiritual life! Today, I will show you two different things you can do with it. The Rosary Note: The Rosary should become a daily habit of yours. Practice saying it every single night, every single morning, or anytime you prefer. It only takes 15–20 minutes. You can also split the rosary up into five parts if you are short on time. Say for example, you can pray the first two decades at noon and the final three decades before you go to bed. When you pray the rosary, you are meditating on the life and death of Jesus, placing yourself alongside his mother Mary. You are asking her to show her son to you. Mary is like a microscope by which you will see the infiniteness of Jesus clearer. There are four variations of the rosary — the Joyful Mysteries, the Luminous Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. It is recommended by the Church to pray certain mysteries on certain days of the week. The Joyful Mysteries are prayed on Monday and Saturday (and on Sundays of Advent) The Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesday and Friday (and on Sundays of Lent) The Luminous Mysteries are prayed on Thursday The Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday and Sunday Withing the four different mysteries, there are five mysteries each. You pray these five, one for each decade, depending on the day. It will be helpful to memorize the 20 mysteries(or you can use this list as a reference when you pray): The Joyful Mysteries 1st Mystery — The Annunciation to Mary Mary learns from the Angel Gabriel that God wishes her to be the mother of God and humbly accepts. (Luke 1:26–38) Fruit of the mystery: Humility 2nd Mystery — The Visitation of Elizabeth Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth andis praised by her as “blessed among women.” (Luke 1:39–56) Fruit of the mystery: Love of Neighbor 3rd Mystery — The Birth of Jesus Mary gives birth to Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem. (Luke 2:1–20) Fruit of the mystery: Poverty 4th Mystery — The Presentation of baby Jesus Mary and Joseph present Jesus to His Heavenly Father in the Temple of Jerusalem forty days after His birth. (Luke 2:22–39) Fruit of the mystery: Purity of Heart and Body 5th Mystery — The Finding in the Temple After searching for three days, Mary and Joseph find the twelve-year-old Jesus sitting in the Temple discussing the law with the learned doctors. (Luke2:42–52) Fruit of the mystery: Devotion to Jesus The Sorrowful Mysteries 1st Mystery — The Agony in the Garden The Agony in the Garden: The thought of our sins and His coming suffering causes the agonizing Savior to sweat blood. (Luke 22:39–44) Fruit of the mystery: Obedience to God’s Will 2nd Mystery — The Scourging at the Pillar Jesus is stripped and unmercifully scourged until His body is one mass of bloody wounds. (Matt. 27:26) Fruit of the mystery: Mortification 3rd Mystery — The Crowning with Thorns Jesus’s claim to kingship is ridiculed by putting a crown of thorns on His head and a reed in His hand. (Matt. 27:28- 31) Fruit of the mystery: Courage 4th Mystery — The Carrying of the Cross Jesus shoulders His own cross and carries it to the place of crucifixion while Mary follows Him sorrowing. Simon of Cyrene also helps the exhausted Jesus towards the end so that he does not collapse. (Luke 23:26- 32) Fruit of the mystery: Patience 5th Mystery — The Crucifixion Jesus is nailed to the cross and dies after three hours of agony witnessed by His Mother. (Matt. 27:33–50) Fruit of the mystery: Sorrow for our Sins The Luminous Mysteries 1st Mystery — The Baptism in the Jordan river Jesus is baptized. As he comes up from the water, the heavens are opened for him, and he sees the “Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.” (Matthew 3:16–17) Fruit of the mystery: Openness to the Holy Spirit 2nd Mystery — The Wedding at Cana At a wedding in Cana, Mary says to Jesus that the wine has ran out. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servers, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” The water is then turned into wine. (John 2:1–5) Fruit of the mystery: To Jesus through Mary 3rd Mystery — The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God (Sermon on the Mount) Jesus the Beatitudes to many. “‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”(Mark 1:15) Fruit of the mystery: Conversion 4th Mystery — The Transfiguration “After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:1–2) Fruit of the mystery: Desire for holiness 5th Mystery — The Institution of the Eucharist (the Last Supper) “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’” (Matthew 26:26) Fruit of the mystery: Adoration The Glorious Mysteries 1st Mystery — The Resurrection Jesus rises from the dead on Easter Sunday, glorious and immortal, as He has predicted. (Matt. 28:1–7) Fruit of the mystery: Faith 2nd Mystery — The Ascension Jesus ascends into Heaven forty days after His resurrection to sit at the right hand of God the Father. (Luke 24:50–51) Fruit of the mystery: Hope 3rd Mystery — The Descent of the Holy Ghost (Pentecost) Jesus sends the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues on His Apostles and disciples. (Acts 2:2–4) Fruit of the mystery: Wisdom 4th Mystery — The Assumption of Our Lady Mary’s soul returns to God and her glorified body is taken up into heaven and reunited with her soul. Fruit of the mystery: Devotion to Mary 5th Mystery — The Coronation of Our Lady Mary is crowned as Queen of heaven and earth, Queen of angels and saints. Fruit of the mystery: Grace of a happy death Prayers There are also a few prayers that you will say as you meditate on the mysteries. The Sign of the Cross In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Apostles Creed I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Our Father Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Hail Mary Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Glory Be Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Fatima Prayer O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven especially those who are most in need of your mercy. Hail, Holy Queen Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. 0 clement, 0 loving, 0 sweet Virgin Mary! Pray for us, 0 holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Closing Rosary Prayer O God, whose only-begotten Son, by his life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life; grant, we beseech you, that we who meditate upon these mysteries of the most holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Praying the Rosary Intro: With the crucifix in your hand, cross yourself, while saying the Sign of the Cross. With your fingers still on the cross, say the Apostles Creed. Next, move your fingers to the first bead, directly above the cross, and say an Our Father. Move your finger to the first of the three beads in the middle, between the cross and the medallion. Pray a Hail Mary on each of these three middle beads (these represent prayers for the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Think of these things as you pray.). Now, move your fingers to that chain and pray a Glory Be. Decades: The rest of the rosary consists of sets of a bead, ten beads, and then a chain. The ten Hail Mary prayers are a decade and they are proceeded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be and the optional Fatima Prayer, which Mary said to include while you pray the rosary. The bead right before crossing the medallion is the one we will start with. Announce the first mystery to yourself, or to others if you are praying together, and began an Our Father. As you say this Our Father, and until you finish the decade, meditate on the first mystery of whatever set you have chosen (chosen depending on the day or season), for example: the 1st Glorious Mystery, The Resurrection The prayers are purposely repetitive so that you can focus on meditating on the mystery. Once you memorize the prayers, it will be easier to meditate on the mysteries. Think of the event your current mystery is dedicated to. Each mystery holds innumerable Christian truths. You are trying to uncover them, with Mary’s help. You can close your eyes and pretend that you are there. Imagine yourself standing by Jesus as He is beaten. Imagine yourself watching Jim during his baptism. The possibilities are endless. For the ten beads that are close to one another, pray a Hail Mary while touching each of the beads. After the Hail Marys are said, touch the chain and say a Glory Be and then the Fatima Prayer. You did it! That was a decade. Now move your finger to the next bead that is separated by extended lengths of the chain and announce your next mystery. Pray the remaining four decades in the same way you prayed the first decade. Closing: Once you have finished all five decades, put your fingers on the medallion. Say a Hail, Holy Queen then the Closing Rosary Prayer. Now, you have the choice to be done, as you have officially completed the rosary, or to continue with some final closing prayers. Many Catholics say the Saint Michael Prayer or a prayer to St. Joseph. You can also add in any other prayers you want to. Lastly, with the crucifix in your hand, cross yourself, while saying the Sign of the Cross. Bring the cross to your lips and kiss it! Extra Tips: — A rosary is good to keep in your car, pocket, or purse. Take one with you where ever you go! If you are stressed, use it to give you peace. Say it while you are driving or while you are in a waiting room. Say it while you watch the sun go down or while you walk across town. — Each bead, decade, and complete rosary, that you pray can be dedicated to something. I have heard of people praying for a separate family member of theirs on each bead of a decade. If you have a habitual sin that you are trying to defeat, dedicate your rosary to defeating that sin. The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy The chaplet can be prayed with the same rosary! This is a much shorter collection of prayers that can be done in less than ten minutes. But don’t rush it! It is good to pray this for peace in the world or for an end to a specific war or disease. If you love the rosary, you will love this. It is also good for beginners who are having trouble with the slightly more complicated rosary. Let’s begin! Prayers The Eternal Father Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. For the Sake Of . . . For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. Holy God Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world. St. Faustina’s Prayer for Sinners (Optional Opening Prayer) O Jesus, eternal Truth, our Life, I call upon You and I beg Your mercy for poor sinners. O sweetest Heart of my Lord, full of pity and unfathomable mercy, I plead with You for poor sinners. O Most Sacred Heart, Fount of Mercy from which gush forth rays of inconceivable graces upon the entire human race, I beg of You light for poor sinners. O Jesus, be mindful of Your own bitter Passion and do not permit the loss of souls redeemed at so dear a price of Your most precious Blood. O Jesus, when I consider the great price of Your Blood, I rejoice at its immensity, for one drop alone would have been enough for the salvation of all sinners. Although sin is an abyss of wickedness and ingratitude, the price paid for us can never be equaled. Therefore, let every soul trust in the Passion of the Lord, and place its hope in His mercy. God will not deny His mercy to anyone. Heaven and earth may change, but God’s mercy will never be exhausted. Oh, what immense joy burns in my heart when I contemplate Your incomprehensible goodness, O Jesus! I desire to bring all sinners to Your feet that they may glorify Your mercy throughout endless ages (You can also just say the remainder of this prayer instead of including the first section. Either way is optional. Many just say the “O Blood and Water” parts.) You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! St. Faustina Prayer (Optional Closing Prayer) Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. (You can exclude the second half of this prayer if you want) O Greatly Merciful God, Infinite Goodness, today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy — to Your compassion, O God; and it is with its mighty voice of misery that it cries out. Gracious God, do not reject the prayer of this earth’s exiles! O Lord, Goodness beyond our understanding, Who are acquainted with our misery through and through, and know that by our own power we cannot ascend to You, we implore You: anticipate us with Your grace and keep on increasing Your mercy in us, that we may faithfully do Your holy will all through our life and at death’s hour. Let the omnipotence of Your mercy shield us from the darts of our salvation’s enemies, that we may with confidence, as Your children, await Your Son’s final coming — that day known to You alone. And we expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to heaven. Praying the Chaplet Holding the crucifix in your hand, make the Sign of the Cross. With your fingers on the first bead, Pray the optional St. Faustina’s Prayer for Sinners if you choose. You can also just pray the following prayer if you want: O Blood and Water, which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You! On the second bead, pray an Our Father. On the third bead, pray a Hail Mary. On the fourth bead, pray the Apostles Creed. On the final, fifth bead, pray an Eternal Father. On the first ten beads, the first decade, pray the “For the Sake Of” prayer. After that, on the next bead that is separated between the extended lengths of chain, pray another Eternal Father. You will continue the rest of the chaplet by praying ten “For the Sake Of” prayers and then a Eternal Father. Closing: On the medallion, pray three Holy God prayers. Then you can say the Optional Closing Prayer. Finish by moving your fingers down to the cross and then cross yourself while saying the Sign of the Cross. Kiss the cross. You’re done! Source (EWTN) for the descriptions of the mysteries. Source (USCCB) for “fruits of the mysteries.”

After the weakening of religion and tradition, man has returned to the spoiled fruits of the past Photo by dyanawingso from unsplash In 380 AD, Christianity was made the official religion of Rome by Emperor Theodosius. For the next thousand years, and then some, Christianity shaped humanity and made it better. The history of the West is Christianity; it built the West. Medicine? Scholastics? Art? Architecture? Music? Law? Politics? Christianity. What happens when you take Christianity out of the world? You return to what there was before it — Paganism. The Descent of Man Christianity’s dominance began to erode from a variety of factors — the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, and Industrialization. By 1900, after a previous century of Darwin, Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche, the world of the Middle Ages was almost gone. The Great War marked the end of the Old World. It was a war so barbaric, so terrible, that humanity could not comprehend it. Instead of trying to comprehend what happened, and what led to such a horror, the Roaring Twenties were ushered in by the constantly accelerating change in the world— an age of hedonism: think The Great Gatsby, Paris, and the degeneracy of destitute Berlin. It was only a matter of time before the shadow of war once again came over the world. World War 2 was even worse than World War 1. That war consisted of over-industrialized, rationalistic, and militaristic, countries such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. To those countries, human dignity mattered little. The theorists who called World War 1 “The War to End All Wars” were dead wrong. War had only gotten worse. Whereas wars in the Middle Ages, such as the Crusades, actually made sense — they were fought over territory or other purposes— these new wars with machine guns, tanks, and trenches were complete bloodbaths. There was little honor; in them, man showed himself to be a monster. If the 19th century was man’s attack on God, “disproving” Him with evolution, reason, heliocentrism, and relativism, the 20th century was God’s attack on man, proving him not to be the god he thought he was, but a creature capable of evil — the guard in the concentration camp, the pilot in the Luftwaffe, the eugenist, a Stalin, a Hitler, a Mao, a man capable of all things. What made Fyodor Dostoevsky the prophetic writer he was, a writer who predicted the Underground Man (a resentful person who lashes out at society), the radical (the communist revolutionaries), the nihilist and the relativist (with his book Crime and Punishment, he forecasted killers who kill for no reason because they believe life has no purpose or morality), was that he saw firsthand, while in a Siberian prison, how evil man could be. Man is stained by sin, and can only be made good, with much fear and trembling. After the 20th century, the most evil century in the history of man, for anyone to believe that man is born pure they have to be ignorant, or intentionally blind, to what happened before. Far from being made better, by enlightenment, reason, and science, man has only become more evil; and he has increasingly resorted to trying to justify that he is not evil. While the world is relatively peaceful today, that peace is held by a thread. Above us, the sword of Damocles hangs. Pernicious Confusion The philosopher Charles Taylor says that we live in a “Secular Age.” The defining consequence, Taylor says, of this disenchantment of the world is that it is now nearly impossible to believe in God; whereas, in the Middle Ages, it was nearly impossible to not believe in God. I would argue that, while you can disenchant the world with science, it is impossible to desymbolize the world. That is because man experiences the world with patterns, symbols, and order. You don’t look or touch a tree and think that it is a random assortment of atoms and elements. No, you experience it as a tree (a tree qualified as a tree because there are other things like it). This is the Aristotelian view of the world. Things exist as they are. We understand the world because we are part of the world. Note that Christianity, specifically Thomism, is a direct continuation of the Aristotelian tradition. Before Aristotle, there was Plato, who thought the “forms” of things existed outside of things. René Descartes, in the 17th century, is the continuation of Plato. Descartes thought that the human soul existed outside of the body — and was skeptical of the outside world’s existence. His confusion can explain much of the transgenderism we see today — or those who believe that they were born something other than what their physical body is. Modern thinkers such as the relativists believe that morality, right and wrong, depends on the individual person’s opinion instead of being an objective thing. But think: Do you determine what a tree is? Or does the tree, which exists as a physical thing, tell you what it is? The tree tells us what it is when we perceive it. That is why we all have the same experience of a tree — I don’t think a tree is a mountain and you don’t think it is a flower. We both have a similar belief of what a tree is — a tree is a tree. You don’t determine what a tree is; the tree determines how you will experience it by existing as it does. Morality is no different than trees. Most humans have the same idea of what is right and what is wrong. That is because morality is objective. We don’t determine what morality is; we are subjected to it much the same way we are subjected to the experience of a tree when we perceive it. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is in the object perceived. Disorder World Economic Forum Agenda Contributor Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, said that: “There are no gods, no nations, no money and no human rights, except in our collective imagination.” As well as: “Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.” While it’s okay to be wrong, he is dangerously wrong. I make that claim because Harari is a powerful man, because of whom the WEF is associated with, from world leaders to CEOs. Unsurprisingly, he is also one of the leading proponents of transhumanism. Taking into account Descartes, transhumanism can be seen in the light of being a push towards abnormality, derived from the belief that there is no objective order. Harari doesn’t believe there are objective human rights, or morals, because he deceives himself. He denies his own experience of the world. He is a human; yet he yearns to be an “enlightened” cyborg. It is not natural to cut your arm off, purposely, and replace it with a stronger robotic arm — it is a diabolic attack on the natural order of the world. Your arm, counter to what Descartes might have said, is you, though not the whole of you. You are your body; and your body is you. Transhumanism, then, in the sense that it seeks to carve and change the natural body, is an attack on the natural, and thus a denial of life, since all of life, or our experience of the world, comes from the natural order. Modern Pagans The modern world, as St. John Paul II called it, is a culture of death. Our society believes that the individual, not the majority, not the patterns, the symbols, and images, not the natural order, determines what is right. Prevalent abortion and euthanasia are an extrapolation of prevailing "individual rights". People who support such things are espousers of abnormalities of the natural order. In nature, a mother carries a child to birth; and she dies a death, in time. In modern, unnatural society, since she is supported by others who think like her, a mother can kill her child, because she doesn’t want it, and choose to die when she wants. Someone once said that “The most dangerous place for a baby to be in America is in their mother’s womb.” The aborted child who can not yet speak has no say if he lives, not because he can not speak or cry, but because he requires a mother to care for and deliver him. The mother’s opinion, since there are apparently no objective truths, as Yuval Noah Harari would say, can be whatever she wants it to be; and it will be her own “truth.” Frankly, abortion shares much of the same horror of the pagan’s child sacrifice. Moloch was the god to whom the Canaanites sacrificed children to. The times before Rome adopted Christianity were not much different than the times which we now live in. Those were superstitious times. Are our own times not superstitious? Superstition has become more common in humanity since the downfall of Christianity. It started with the burning of witches, which was a product of superstitious Protestants. Now, we have young women who act like witches, with their crystals, and with their astrology. Charlemagne outlawed witch burning when he was the Holy Roman Emperor in the 9th century. Witch burning is not a thing of the Middle Ages, but of the Pagan Age, before 400 AD, and the Modern Age, which began after 1500. But superstition is not only related to witches. You wouldn’t have to look further than the coronavirus to see superstitious people; think about all of the protective measures. Even the alien sightings, conspiracy theorists, and ghost hunters, are a reflection of the rise of superstition. Next, we have Gnosticism. Gnosticism, which is the belief in secret knowledge, revealed to only a select few, seems to have made a comeback with the tide of modern relativism. It can also be seen with the Protestants who think they can interpret the Bible themselves; and the Protestants and agnostics who don’t go to church at all yet believe they can fully understand God on their own. Tattoos and drugs, which are so common today, wouldn’t be that rare in Pagan Britain, before it was converted to Christianity. Neither would rampant sexual depravity be rare in the Pagan lands. People nowadays partake in things that prostitutes in the Middle Ages would be ashamed to do. Something as benign as walking has reverted to the pagan past. In the Middle Ages, people enjoyed and appreciated nature, believing it to be beautiful in and of itself, created by God. Now, people walk through nature and have a distorted Romanticist perception of nature where they become inebriated by it, because of the supposed effect they receive from it — think the German Romantics, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman. Lastly, the barbarism, brutality, and senseless killing, that we saw last century, are similiar to the ancient Pagan wars; and murderers who kill in the most horrible ways, showing no respect to human dignity, are ancestors not of the Christians but of the pagans. There are numerous other examples I could point to, but I hope for now you at least have something to think about and ponder. Ultimately, I hope I convinced you that Paganism has returned. “Indeed, the only cause of their [Rome] perishing was that they chose for their protectors gods condemned to perish.” ― St. Augustine, The City of God

This method of prayer is both simple and profound: the life of the Christian is forged by a prayer of the heart The Desert Fathers were famous for their acts of devotion to Jesus Christ. Among these many devotions was the habit known as the Jesus Prayer. This prayer at first glance is a short, simple prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This is repeated over and over again. However this simple prayer in reality is a deep, multifaceted path to the deepest possible relationship with Christ. The Prayer The three primary parts of the Jesus prayer that are worthy of consideration are the words, the technique, and the goal of the prayer. By understanding all three part. we can come to a deeper understanding of the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and a path to a deeper relationship with Christ. Beginning with the words, the prayer is the entirety of the gospel in one line. The prayer acknowledges our sinfulness, Christ's role as the Lord of our lives, and our need for His Mercy. The goal thus of repeating the Jesus prayer is to engrave upon the very heart of a person the truth of the Gospel. Dealing next with the issue of the technique there are many different approaches to how one may engage with the Jesus Prayer. Some practitioners find it helpful to tie the prayer to their breeding, inhaling to the first part of the prayer, and exhaling through the second. Some find it better to repeat the prayer out loud over and over again. Most find helpful the use of a tool called a prayer rope. All practitioners, no matter their technique, seek ultimately to make the prayer a de facto part of how they live their lives. This would in its ideal form mean that a person always, no matter what they were doing throughout their day, would be repeating the Jesus prayer. The final segment worthy of consideration when it comes to the issue of the Jesus Prayer is the issue of its goal. Through the Jesus prayer we dissolve away our sinfulness to the simple repetition of the prayer itself. Through the Jesus Prayer, we seek a relationship with true Christ, where what we were is lost and replaced with a new man: this is the constant prayer of the heart described by Saint Paul in the Scriptures. The goal of the Jesus prayer is intrinsically mystical and thus intrinsically impossible to explain. However this poor man's attempt is in short: the shaping of the cold stone of the human heart into a living beautiful statue through the simple repetition of the Gospel message. It is for this reason that the Jesus Prayer is perfect for Lent. We seek through the process of Lent to leave behind our old selves and to embrace a deeper connection to Christ. So join with the Desert Fathers. Undertake the practice of the Jesus Prayer. Reform who you are as a man. Leave the old man behind.

Preparing the soul to serve God and making one's love pure “When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so little by little he gains his end at last.” St. Philip Neri St. Augustine in the City of God talked about the two cities, the city of man and the city of God, the city of vanity and the city of salvation. To be a citizen in the city of God, only God knows whether you are genuinely seeking an authentic union with Him. In the spiritual life as Christians, Christianity by default demands perfection out of us. To be an authentic Christian is to be in constant union with God, who is the maker of all things, where our will becomes His will. Our fidelity to Him is reflected in the way we live our life, and conduct ourselves both privately and professionally. This authenticity is the main reason why people of little or no faith would be attracted to you as a person and the institution you represent, the Catholic Church. This maturity in the Christian faith requires strong asceticism where we strip ourselves of attachments to certain things, objects, pleasures and sins to be instruments of His will in our lives, and to be truly free. This spirit of cleansing the soul can be reflected in fine art or sacred architecture where we as Christians were building and making better music, art and architecture in the 16th century and the contemporary counterparts we find today. This virtue, excellence and integrity is a reflection of an intimate relationship with God, where our failures as human beings are rooted out and we become a vessel of His presence in our lives. St. John of the Cross, said for beginners in the spiritual life “For a clearer understanding of this and of how truly imperfect beginners are, insofar as they practice virtue readily because of the satisfaction attached to it, we will describe, using the seven capital vices as our basis, some of the numerous imperfections beginners commit. Thus we will clearly see how very similar their deeds are to those of children. The benefits of the dark night will become evident, since it cleanses and purifies the soul of all these imperfections.” Today, the Catholic Church faces immense challenges both within and externally. We also live in a time of immense confusion and death that seeks to do us immense harm both within the Church and in the culture. The great Saints such as St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Joan of Arc, St. Benedict of Nursia and St. Therese of Lisieux, showed us the way to remove the distractions of the world and focus on eternity. It is this discipline that spiritual purgation seeks to foster within us as we move from a state of dysfunctional behavior to a state of excellence in virtue, chastity and charity. As the great St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “A person who rails at God in adversity, suffers without merit; moreover by his lack of resignation he adds to his punishment in the next life and experiences greater disquietude of mind in this life.” It is our duty as Christians to be concerned with God and with the higher things than to be trapped within our own excessive sinfulness and selfishness. For this excellence of soul which God nurtures within us is to be united to the all powerful, all conquering God, whose love is endless.

This is the inspiring tale of St. Paphnutius of Thebes, a Desert Father monk who stood his ground against Roman Emperors and Arians Unlike a martyr, a confessor is someone who suffers all things for Christ yet does not suffer a physical death. A confessor suffers what is near to a real and tangible spiritual death for Christ, a complete surrender to Him, yet they are not granted the solace of His immediate presence but the prolonged separation from the source of their courage and the aim of their efforts. For the confessor who desired death above all,  “I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me,” as St. Ignatius of Antioch remarked (1), life itself must seem to be a impediment to these living saints, that is unless they embrace all of life as suffering. The Master: Saint Anthony the Great There was in Thebes, in the land of Egypt where empires go to die, a man who was likely in his mid to late twenties. His name was Paphnutius. Now there was an older hermit, also in Thebes, named Anthony. Paphnutius and other young men his age were once lucky to spot the hermit as he passed through town, or so they thought. A man dressed in blackish garb, capped with a loose hood, said that he was not the great Anthony. At first, what the curious Paphnutius believed to be humility was the truth. This was not the rumoured St. Anthony the Great. After that moment, another man dressed the same, though younger, but somehow more palid and stern looking, asked Paphnutius and his friends where to find the items they were sent to purchase. “You will not find them here,” Paphnutius said. “Follow me.” After a circuit at the marketplace, the strangers loaded up the items on their camel. Paphnutius, by this time, must have been struck by their sereneness. He must have asked a question about its origin, and must have received an answer, though unfortunately for us, both his question and the answer were lost to time. Nonetheless, we know that Paphnutius and many other eager young men who sought spiritual contentment left their former lives and left for the desert. These were the first of men who would be called monks. Taking impulse from the verse “to give up all things and follow me,”  monks left all behind to grow closer to the Lord. These men sought to suffer for Christ, who suffered for them, by carrying their own cross. Self imposedly, they made their cross harder to carry. What is known as ascetisim began to develop. In the early years, there quickly began to widen a gap between what is acceptable and what was extreme. Nevertheless, Paphnutius grew spiritually in an environment such as this, where nearly all men were saints or trying to become one. While there is no record of Paphnutius' early life, it is known that he – like many other men of his day – became a disciple of the monk Saint Anthony of the Desert, whose direction of a community of fellow hermits marked the beginning of traditional Christian monasticism. The Bishop and the Emperor Having spent several years pursuing spiritual illumination in the austerity of the desert under Anthony's direction, Paphnutius was eventually chosen to become a bishop for the Upper Thebaid region. This placed him in direct conflict with Maximinus Daia (2), the Roman imperial ruler of Egypt and Syria from 305 to 313 A.D., who persecuted the Church in the far regions and attempted to undermine it by strengthening the institutions of paganism. Under Emperor Maximinus Daia's rule, Paphnutius had his left leg partly mutilated and his right eye put out, in an unsuccessful effort to make him renounce his Catholic faith. Not yielding before torture, he was condemned to manual labor in the mines. Imperial policy toward Christians shifted between 311 and 313, in the midst of a power struggle between the various co-emperors of the time. The Emperor Constantine began to embrace the faith in 312, and he proclaimed its legality the following year, during which Maximinus Daia also died. When peace was restored to the early Catholic Church, St. Paphnutius returned to his flock as their much beloved bishop, where he nurtured their souls. Yet, this peace was short lived. The Arian heresy was entering into Egypt. St. Paphnutius and the Arians St. Paphnutius arrived at the great Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. By then, he was greatly esteemed himself, after a life of being a zealous defender of the faith and having the title of confessor. Constantine the Great, during the Council, would often talk with St. Pahpnutius in private, never letting him leave his company without kissing honorably the saint's empty eye socket: an abyss which was yet a beacon full of the powerful Christian faith. Many years later, Saint Paphnutius was also in contact with the young and likewise zealous Saint Athanasius, once travelling with him to the Council of Tyre in 355. The old and wise Saint Paphnutius died after a long life dedicated to Christ. His feast day is on the 11th of September. Saint Paphnutius, pray for us, Footnotes: 1. The Epistle of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Roman Church (108 A.D. ) 2. Daia (Daza) was emperor from 310 to 313 A.D. He became embroiled in the civil wars of the Tetrarchy between rival claimants for control of the empire, in which he was defeated by Licinius If you enjoyed this story, do purchase our edition of The Life of St. Anthony, a riveting biography of the father of monasticism Experience the Desert Father's LENT course: https://www.iamcatholic.co/challenge-page/desert-fathers-lent-course

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Public Domain Why was infant baptism common practice for the first 1500 years of Christianity? Well, the answer is simple. Baptism replaced the old physical sign of being a believer, circumcision. When was circumcision done amongst the Jews? When they were babies. Why can people not be baptized twice? For the same reason you can’t be circumcised twice. The sweet softness of the New Covenant replaced the harshness of the Old Covenant. Those of the Anabaptist or Baptist faiths, mostly located in America, deny the simple history and theology of infant baptism because they claim “infant baptism is not in the Bible!” It’s not? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. For the promise is unto you, and to your children… (Acts 2:38–39) There were five entire households baptized in the Bible (Acts 10, Acts 16x2, Acts 18, 1 Corinthians 1)! Not one included a child? Among the 120 people baptized at Pentecost, not one was a child? Why Is Baptism Necessary To Enter Heaven? Baptism cleanses all sin. All are born with original sin. Original sin, like DNA, is passed down hereditarily. All are descendants of Adam, the first man. Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned. (Romans 5:12) Jesus said that all who enter Heaven must be baptized. No exceptions. Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5) Luckily, there exist three types of baptism: by desire, by blood, and by water. The penitent thief on the cross, St. Dismas, was baptized by desire, and not with water — as he was nailed to a cross. He asked Jesus to remember him when he entered his kingdom. And Jesus replied: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Many of the early Christian martyrs, some who become Christian at the moment of their death in the arenas, didn’t have time to get baptized before they were killed. The early Church testifies that there is something called Baptism by Blood. However, we should not take God’s mercy for granted. If you are able to, get baptized as soon as possible. If you are a parent, baptize your children as soon as you can. Baptism by water is how God imparts grace, it is how one becomes a Christian, and it physically implants a mark on the soul. The biggest objection by deniers is that Christians must personally believe before they can be baptized. Babies, who are not responsible for the sins of their fathers, are not responsible for their own beliefs. A parent, who guards and guides every single aspect of the baby’s life, must take responsibility for them. It is their duty. Babies can’t feed themselves, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fed. Babies can’t clothe themselves, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be clothed. And babies can’t save themselves, it doesn’t mean their parents shouldn’t baptize them. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (I Corinthians 7:14). What Did the Early Christians Say About Infant Baptism? Origen: “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit” (Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [A.D. 248]). “Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin [original sin]. . . . In the Church, baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants. If there were nothing in infants which required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of baptism would seem superfluous” (Homilies on Leviticus 8:3 [A.D. 248]). St. Hippolytus: “Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them” (The Apostolic Tradition 21:16 [A.D. 215]). St. Cyprian: “As to what pertains to the case of infants: You [Fidus] said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, that the old law of circumcision must be taken into consideration, and that you did not think that one should be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day after his birth. In our council it seemed to us far otherwise. No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born” (Letters 58:2 [A.D. 253]). “If, in the case of the worst sinners and those who formerly sinned much against God, when afterwards they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one is held back from baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back, who, having but recently been born, has done no sin, except that, born of the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of that old death from his first being born. For this very reason does he [an infant] approach more easily to receive the remission of sins: because the sins forgiven him are not his own but those of another” (ibid., 58:5). St. Irenaeus: “He [Jesus] came to save all through himself; all, I say, who through him are reborn in God: infants, and children, and youths, and old men. Therefore he passed through every age, becoming an infant for infants, sanctifying infants; a child for children, sanctifying those who are of that age . . . [so that] he might be the perfect teacher in all things, perfect not only in respect to the setting forth of truth, perfect also in respect to relative age” (Against Heresies 2:22:4 [A.D. 189]). Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’?” So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:13-14) Then the little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. And the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:13-14)

An exploration of Church teaching on mysticism and prayer 2 Peter 2:18: For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. Colossians 2: “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Mystici Corporis Christi, Pope Pius XII, 1943: “Grave errors with regard to this [Catholic] doctrine are being spread among those outside the true Church, and that among the faithful, also, inaccurate or thoroughly false ideas are being disseminated which turn minds aside from the straight path of truth. “For while there still survives a false rationalism, which ridicules anything that transcends and defies the power of human genius, and which is accompanied by a cognate error, the so-called popular naturalism, which sees and wills to see in the Church nothing but a juridical and social union, there is on the other hand a false mysticism creeping in, which, in its attempt to eliminate the immovable frontier that separates creatures from their Creator, falsifies the Sacred Scriptures.” Since the early 17th-century twofold attack on mysticism by Quietism and Jansenism, both being two polar extremes to one another, the true mystical tradition has become more and more muddied, lost in the middle, lost at a time when it is needed most. Men of today desire nothingness, nirvana, literally—“extinguishing a flame”—thus their spirituality reflects this. Ask a man what he thinks happens after death and he’ll tell you: “nothing.” However, though their end goal is inherently absent, they still believe that they must climb up a mountain, trekking upon a great spiritual journey, finding fulfillment, finding their True Self at the peak. But I say to you, the spiritual life is not a journey, no, it is a few footsteps. It is turning yourself around, repenting, and taking a step toward God. It is looking up that great mountain, which is God, and adoring Him. True Mysticism The purpose of this article is not to give an in-depth analysis of Christian mysticism. It’s goal is to simply distinguish it from false mysticism. “No less far from the truth is the dangerous error of those who endeavor to deduce from the mysterious union of us all with Christ a certain unhealthy quietism. They would attribute the whole spiritual life of Christians and their progress in virtue exclusively to the action of the Divine Spirit, setting aside and neglecting the collaboration which is due from us.” (Mystici Corporis Christi) However, "Divine favors are conferred not on those who sleep, but on those who watch," says St. Ambrose. “For it to be prayer at all, the mind must take part in it” (St. Teresa of Avilia, Interior Castle) According to the early quietists, perfection consists in complete absorption in God. The human will becomes identical with the divine. There is, then, no need for Sacraments, for law, for worship, and the person can indulge in carnal desires without staining the soul. Christian prayer, however, is an encounter with the living God, a Person so spended in goodness, that we become aware of our darkness. It is an encounter with the living God, which leaves us reborn. Pure quietism is abandonment carried to the extreme, namely to annihilation and spiritual death. It is emptiness without love and mercy. It is nothingness without comfort and encouragement. It is is seeking consolation without transformation of becoming a follower of God. It is Christianity without the Cross. True “Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, to his likeness.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2713) Contemplation is "a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus." (CCC, 2715) “In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around us erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer . . . as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void.” (CCC, 2726) “Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ” (CCC, 2708) Let us now read Cardinal Ratzinger's Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation: “Contemplative Christian prayer always leads to love of neighbor, to action and to the acceptance of trials, and precisely because of this it draws one close to God.” "Pope John Paul II has pointed out to the whole Church the example and doctrine of St. Teresa of Avila who in her life had to reject the temptation of certain methods which proposed a leaving aside of the humanity of Christ in favor of a vague self-immersion in the abyss of divinity. (...) “Therefore, one has to interpret correctly the teaching of those masters who recommend "emptying" the spirit of all sensible representations and of every concept, while remaining lovingly attentive to God. In this way, the person praying creates an empty space which can then be filled by the richness of God. However, the emptiness which God requires is that of the renunciation of personal selfishness, not necessarily that of the renunciation of those created things which he has given us and among which he has placed us. There is no doubt that in prayer one should concentrate entirely on God and as far as possible exclude the things of this world which bind us to our selfishness. On this topic St. Augustine is an excellent teacher: if you want to find God, he says, abandon the exterior world and re-enter into yourself. However, he continues, do not remain in yourself, but go beyond yourself because you are not God: He is deeper and greater than you. "I look for his substance in my soul and I do not find it; I have however meditated on the search for God and, reaching out to him, through created things, I have sought to know 'the invisible perfections of God' (Rom 1:20)."21 "To remain in oneself": this is the real danger. The great Doctor of the Church recommends concentrating on oneself, but also transcending the self which is not God, but only a creature. God is "deeper than my inmost being and higher than my greatest height." In fact God is in us and with us, but he transcends us in his mystery. (...) “Some physical exercises automatically produce a feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations, perhaps even phenomena of light and of warmth, which resemble spiritual well-being. To take such feelings for the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit would be a totally erroneous way of conceiving the spiritual life. Giving them a symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience, when the moral condition of the person concerned does not correspond to such an experience, would represent a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations. (...) “With the present diffusion of eastern methods of meditation in the Christian world and in ecclesial communities, we find ourselves faced with a pointed renewal of an attempt, which is not free from dangers and errors, "to fuse Christian meditation with that which is non-Christian." Proposals in this direction are numerous and radical to a greater or lesser extent. Some use eastern methods solely as a psycho-physical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation; others go further and, using different techniques, try to generate spiritual experiences similar to those described in the writings of certain Catholic mystics. Still others do not hesitate to place that absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory, on the same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which towers above finite reality. To this end, they make use of a "negative theology," which transcends every affirmation seeking to express what God is, and denies that the things of this world can offer traces of the infinity of God. Thus they propose abandoning not only meditation on the salvific works accomplished in history by the God of the Old and New Covenant, but also the very idea of the One and Triune God, who is Love, in favor of an immersion "in the indeterminate abyss of the divinity [quoting Meister Eckhart; see section “Further Errors”]." These and similar proposals to harmonize Christian meditation with eastern techniques need to have their contents and methods ever subjected to a thorough-going examination so as to avoid the danger of falling into syncretism.” “In a homily given on November 1, 1982,” spiritualdirection.com remarks, St. Pope John Paul II “said the call of St. Teresa advocating a prayer totally centered on Christ “is valid, even in our day, against some methods of prayer which are not inspired by the Gospel and which in practice tend to set Christ aside in preference for a mental void which makes no sense in Christianity. Any method of prayer is valid insofar as it is inspired by Christ and leads to Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6).” Onward, in 2002, a very important document, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, was released by The Pontifical Council for Culture & Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue: “The New Age concept of God is rather diffuse, whereas the Christian concept is a very clear one. The New Age god is an impersonal energy, really a particular extension or component of the cosmos; god in this sense is the life-force or soul of the world. Divinity is to be found in every being, in a gradation “from the lowest crystal of the mineral world up to and beyond the Galactic God himself, about Whom we can say nothing at all. This is not a man but a Great Consciousness”. In some “classic” New Age writings, it is clear that human beings are meant to think of themselves as gods: this is more fully developed in some people than in others. God is no longer to be sought beyond the world, but deep within myself. Even when “God” is something outside myself, it is there to be manipulated. “This is very different from the Christian understanding of God as the maker of heaven and earth and the source of all personal life. (...) God is not identified with the Life-principle understood as the “Spirit” or “basic energy” of the cosmos, but is that love which is absolutely different from the world, and yet creatively present in everything, and leading human beings to salvation.” False Mysticism The end result of false mysticism is the annihilation of the human will, and thus the annihilation of love of God in the soul, compared to the conformity of the will to what is good, holy, and true. It’s logical conclusion is that man is his own God. This follows because it reduces God to finite nature, as if to reduce his infinite majesty so high above ours. The first errors listed in the Syallbus of Errors by Pope Pius IX was that of Pantheism: “There exists no Supreme, all-wise, all-provident Divine Being, distinct from the universe, and God is identical with the nature of things, and is, therefore, subject to changes. In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God and have the very substance of God, and God is one and the same thing with the world, and, therefore, spirit with matter, necessity with liberty, good with evil, justice with injustice.” Likewise states the First Vatican Council: “If anyone says that the substance or essence of God and that of all things are one and the same: let him be anathema.” St. Pope John Paul II on the Difference between Buddhism and Christianity “Among the religions mentioned in the Council document Nostra Aetate, it is necessary to pay special attention to Buddhism, which from a certain point of view, like Christianity, is a religion of salvation. Nevertheless, it needs to be said right away that the doctrines of salvation in Buddhism and Christianity are opposed. “At various times, attempts to link this method with the Christian mystics have been made – whether it is with those from northern Europe (Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroeck) or the later Spanish mystics (Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint John of the Cross). But when Saint John of the Cross, in the Ascent of Mount Carmel and in the Dark Night of the Soul, speaks of the need for purification, for detachment from the world of the senses, he does not conceive of that detachment as an end in itself. “To arrive at what now you do not enjoy, you must go where you do not enjoy. To reach what you do not know, you must go where you do not know. To come into possession of what you do not have, you must go where now you having nothing” (Ascent of Mount Carmel, 1. 13. 11). In Eastern Asia these classic texts of Saint John of the Cross have been, at times, interpreted as a confirmation of Eastern ascetic methods. But his Doctor of the Church does not merely propose detachment from the world. He proposes detachment from the world in order to unite oneself to that which is outside of the world – by this I do not mean nirvana, but a personal God. Union with Him comes about not only through purification, but through love.” “Carmelite mysticism begins at the point where the reflections of Buddha end, together with his instructions for the spiritual life. In the active and passive purification of the human soul, in those specific nights of the senses and the spirit, Saint John of the Cross sees, above all, the preparation necessary for the human soul to be permeated with the living flame of love. And this is also the title of his major work – The Living Flame of Love. (...) “Herefore, despite similar aspects, there is a fundamental difference. Christian mysticism from every period – beginning with the era of the Fathers of the Eastern and Western Church, to the great theologians of Scholasticism (such as Saint Thomas Aquinas), to the northern European mystics, to the Carmelite mystics – is not born of a purely negative “enlightenment.” It is not born of an awareness of the evil which exists in man’s attachment to the world through the senses, the intellect, and the spirit. Instead, Christian mysticism is born of the Revelation of the living God. This God opens Himself to union with man, arousing in him the capacity to be united with Him, especially by means of the theological virtues – faith, hope, and, above all love.” “Do we draw near to God in this way? This is not mentioned in the “enlightenment” conveyed by Buddha. Buddhism is in large measure an “atheistic” system. We do not free ourselves from evil through the good which comes from God; we liberate ourselves only through detachment from the world, which is bad. The fullness of such a detachment is not union with God, but what is called nirvana, a state of perfect indifference with regard to the world. To save oneself means, above all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil. This is the culmination of the spiritual process." For further reading: Rescuing the Mystics

A Procession in the Catacomb of Callistus by Alberto Pisa (c. 1905) Allhallowtide is a sacred and meaningful time for Catholics, marking the three-day period from October 31st to November 2nd, when we remember and honor the saints and the faithful departed. However, in recent years, All Hallows Eve, the first day of Allhallowtide, has been increasingly influenced by secularism and pagan practices. This essay aims to explore the history of Allhallowtide and the need for modern Catholics to reclaim the Triduum, especially All Hallows Eve, from pagan and secular co-optation and misinformation. By reestablishing the true significance of these days, Catholics can deepen their faith and preserve the rich traditions of Allhallowtide. The History of Allhallowtide Allhallowtide, also known as Hallowtide or the Triduum of All Saints, is a three-day observance that begins on the evening of October 31st with All Hallows Eve (Halloween), followed by All Saints' Day on November 1st, and concluding with All Souls' Day on November 2nd. The roots of Allhallowtide can be traced back to the early Christian Church and have evolved over centuries. The origin of All Saints' Day can be traced back to the early Christian martyrs who gave their lives for their faith. Initially, there was no specific date to commemorate them. However, in the 4th century, the Church designated May 13th as the Feast of All Holy Martyrs. Later, Pope Gregory III moved the feast to November 1st to coincide with the dedication of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome. This day is dedicated to honoring all known and unknown saints who have achieved eternal glory. All Souls' Day, which follows All Saints' Day, is a day dedicated to remembering and praying for all the faithful departed. The origins of this day can be traced back to the 9th century when St. Odilo, abbot of the Cluny Abbey, introduced a day of prayer for the deceased members of his community. This practice gradually spread throughout the Church. The name "Halloween" is derived from "All Hallows' Evening," and it serves as the eve of All Saints' Day. Over time, this day has been associated with various traditions, including costumes, jack-o'-lanterns, and trick-or-treating. While these secular customs have become widespread, the original purpose of All Hallows Eve was to prepare for the solemnity of All Saints' Day through prayer and reflection. The Need to Reclaim Allhallowtide In recent times, All Hallows Eve has witnessed a growing infiltration of secular and pagan elements, casting a shadow over its sacred significance. The commercialization of Halloween has given rise to costumes that often trivialize or even ridicule the saints, diverting attention from their revered memory. The preoccupation with ghosts, monsters, and sugary treats has, in turn, shifted the focus away from the contemplation of the divine. Halloween's historical roots can be traced to various ancient pagan festivals, notably Samhain, which denoted the conclusion of the harvest season and the advent of winter. Although the Church undertook adaptations of certain customs to align them with Christian beliefs, contemporary Halloween practices have rekindled some of these pagan elements, thereby diluting the true essence of the occasion. The pervasive influence of secular and pagan elements on All Hallows Eve has propagated widespread misconceptions about the celebration's origins and purpose. A multitude of individuals, including those within the Catholic community, have regrettably remained unaware of the authentic significance of Allhallowtide, resulting in the erosion of a fundamental element of our faith and heritage. Reclaiming Allhallowtide for Modern Catholics To reclaim Allhallowtide, contemporary Catholics should reimmerse themselves in the venerable traditions and customs passed down through the centuries. Instead of merely adopting superficial secular practices, they can actively participate in meaningful rituals, including visits to cemeteries, fervent prayers for the departed, and the study of the lives of saints. It is paramount that present-day Catholics redirect their focus towards the spiritual essence of Allhallowtide. This entails placing greater emphasis on the sanctity of All Saints' Day and the supplications offered for those who have passed away on All Souls' Day. This endeavor also involves rekindling a deep devotion to the saints and recognizing their heroic examples of unwavering faith. By embracing the authentic meaning of Allhallowtide and disseminating its profound significance to others, contemporary Catholics can harness this period for evangelization, drawing individuals closer to the Catholic faith. The genuine observance of Allhallowtide can stand as a compelling testimony of faith, acting as a magnet that attracts others to the rich Catholic tradition. Conclusion Allhallowtide, with its three days dedicated to honoring the saints and praying for the faithful departed, is a beautiful and significant tradition within the Catholic Church. However, it has been overshadowed by secular and pagan influences in recent years. Modern Catholics must take it upon themselves to reclaim the Triduum of All Saints, All Souls, and All Hallows Eve by rediscovering tradition, focusing on faith and holiness, and evangelizing through authentic celebration. By doing so, they can preserve the true meaning of Allhallowtide and ensure that this sacred time remains an integral part of their spiritual journey and heritage.

In the annals of philosophy and aesthetics, Sir Roger Scruton stands as a luminary, guiding us through the intricate interplay of beauty and the human experience. This essay seeks to delve into the Catholic case for Sir Roger Scruton, examining the profound connections between his philosophical insights and the enduring traditions of Catholic thought. While Scruton was an Anglican, the resonance of his ideas with a broader European, and notably Catholic, tradition remains a compelling narrative. At the core of Scruton's philosophical corpus lies an unwavering commitment to the transformative power of beauty. His reflections on aesthetics transcend the conventional boundaries of art appreciation, delving into the essence of the human experience itself. Scruton, in confronting the expanding ugliness fueled by secularism and liberalism, posits that the pursuit of beauty is not a mere indulgence but an essential endeavor that connects individuals with the transcendent. Scruton's exploration of aesthetics is deeply rooted in his conviction that beauty is a transcendent quality capable of elevating the human spirit. His philosophical treatises, such as "The Aesthetics of Music" and "Beauty: A Very Short Introduction," unravel the intricate tapestry of aesthetic experience. Scruton's plea for embracing beauty in the face of modern challenges becomes a beacon of hope, echoing the sentiments of a bygone era where the pursuit of beauty was integral to cultural and spiritual flourishing. While Sir Roger Scruton identified himself as Anglican, his works’ foundations in the Catholic tradition are unmistakable. Scruton's call for embracing beauty aligns with the rich tapestry of Catholic thought that has shaped the aesthetics of European culture throughout the ages. The Catholic case for Scruton extends beyond denominational affiliations, acknowledging the universality of his insights in bridging the secular and the sacred. Scruton's works have found a warm reception within Catholic circles. It is a testament to the universal appeal of his ideas that may one day place him alongside the great Anglican thinkers like C.S. Lewis, who, despite his Anglican background, has become a source of solace and wisdom for many Catholics. In Scruton's transcendent crusade for beauty, there is a potential convergence with the enduring legacy of Anglican intellectuals embraced by the Catholic tradition. Scruton's advocacy for beauty is not confined to the realm of personal preference; it is a societal imperative with far-reaching implications. In the face of modernity's relentless assault on traditional aesthetics, Scruton's work takes on a distinctly Catholic hue. The Catholic tradition, with its emphasis on the sacramentality of the material world, finds a home in Scruton's call to preserve and cultivate beauty as a means of transcending the mundane. The significance of beauty, as Scruton contends, lies in its capacity to serve as a bulwark against the encroaching ugliness of the contemporary world. In embracing the Catholic case for Scruton, we are invited to partake in a broader cultural project - one that seeks to reclaim the sacred through an intentional commitment to beauty. It is a journey that transcends the individual and resonates with a timeless tradition that recognizes the profound impact of aesthetics on the human soul. As we commemorate the fourth anniversary of Sir Roger Scruton's passing, we are compelled to reflect not only on the man himself but on the enduring legacy of his ideas. While his Anglican roots are an indelible part of his history, the essence of Scruton's work transcends denominational boundaries. His plea for embracing beauty is an invitation to participate in a timeless endeavor - one that echoes the sentiments of a Catholic tradition deeply intertwined with the pursuit of the divine through the aesthetic realm. In Sir Roger Scruton, we find a bridge between the secular and the sacred, between the temporal and the eternal. The Catholic case for Scruton is not a mere historical footnote but a living testament to the enduring power of beauty in shaping the human experience. As we navigate an era marked by ever-expanding ugliness, Scruton's teachings beckon us to rediscover the profound significance of beauty, transcending the unpleasant boundaries of our age and connecting us with a tradition that recognizes the sacredness inherent in the pursuit of the beautiful.