Stay In Touch -Have I not proven to you that I Am in the saving sinners business? -Jesus
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Trauma...How Nightmares, Margaret Atwood, Judith Lewis Herman...
Search Results
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“You are one voice./ It’s come down to you./ You know two things./ Much of what you say won’t be heard./ Much of what you say will hit home.” – Barry Grimes, For the Editorial Page, for Leita.
- “The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.” – Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery.
- ...Understanding the connection to my anxiety and hypnogognic hallucinations in light of Atwood’s fictional accounts is where Herman’s work comes in.
Through facts and examples, Herman offers an explanation for Grace Mark’s behavior which today we know as post-traumatic stress disorder. Considered a pioneer in the study of post-traumatic stress disorder, Herman helped create the standard for this disorder for The Psychiatric Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, V. In a recent interview at UC Berkeley for the “Conversations with History,” segment, moderator Harry Kreisler explains Herman’s background and work when he introduced her. “Dr. Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. (is) Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at
Two sides of the same coin...'murderous tyranny'...
Excerpt:
That the greatest of American autobiographies – Speak,
Memory by Vladimir Nabokov, and Witness by Whittaker
Chambers – should be written by men with painful, first-hand experience of
Communism is hardly surprising. No force so dominated the last century and
claimed so many lives as the savage messianism of Marx and his disciples. From
cretin to genius, even the most privileged and protected among us were touched.
Take Nabokov: After the Bolshevik Revolution, his family fled St.
Petersburg and found refuge in Crimea .
In April 1919, they settled in England .
A year later they moved to Berlin ,
where Nabokov’s father was assassinated in 1922. In 1937, the novelist, his
wife and son moved to France ,
fleeing the fascist twin of Communism, and in 1940 to the United
States for what he called the “spacious
freedom of thought we enjoy in America .”
In a 1964 interview Nabokov
outlined his “political creed”:
“The fact that since my youth--I was 19 when I left Russia
[...]
We Are One: Out side my comfort zone.....
We Are One: Out side my comfort zone.....
Mary Cole-Stock Something I've been pondering as of late: "More often than not, our greatest blessings from God are found outside our comfort zone...
Mary Cole-Stock Something I've been pondering as of late: "More often than not, our greatest blessings from God are found outside our comfort zone...
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Abbey Roads: Art for Sunday
Abbey Roads: Art for Sunday: I found a wonderful painter, miniaturist, iconographer, illustrator while searching for something else. Her name is Elena Stefarova - her...
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Napoleon and the Cardinal
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Napoleon and the Cardinal:
Excerpt:
Here's a final story from H.V. Morton's 1957 book A Traveller in Rome, one so true and also amusing that I just had to share it. M...
the attitude which exasperated Napoleon. He might kidnap and bully a Pope, but he could not browbeat the Church.
'Do you know that I am capable of destroying your Church?' he once shouted at Cardinal Consalvi, the Secretary of State.
'Sire,' replied Consalvi, 'not even we priests have achieved that in eighteen centuries!"...
...
Excerpt:
Here's a final story from H.V. Morton's 1957 book A Traveller in Rome, one so true and also amusing that I just had to share it. M...
the attitude which exasperated Napoleon. He might kidnap and bully a Pope, but he could not browbeat the Church.
'Do you know that I am capable of destroying your Church?' he once shouted at Cardinal Consalvi, the Secretary of State.
'Sire,' replied Consalvi, 'not even we priests have achieved that in eighteen centuries!"...
...
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Masks and what is behind them
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Masks and what is behind them: Having given up God so as to be self-sufficient, man has lost track of his soul. He looks in vain for himself. He finds masks, and behind m...
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Meaning for Your Life
Happy Catholic*: Well Said: Meaning for Your Life: Don't invent a meaning for your life. It is there. Find it. Dr. Viktor Frankl This makes me think of Mother Theresa saying, "Find ...
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Crimea to Kiev...Bloodlands Revisited: We Must Pray
Crimea to Kiev, "the conflict is a military phase"
The Point.fr - Published - Changed the
[Crimée : pour Kiev, "le conflit passe à une phase militaire"]
The prime minister said Tuesday that Russian troops had "started shooting" at the Ukrainian soldiers and described their actions as "war crimes."
Monday, March 17, 2014
Bend Sinister
Bend Sinister
posted by D.G. Meyers...Excerpt:
The University president appeals to Krug’s fond memories of school days with the dictator. “You are the victim of a sentimental delusion,” the philosopher answers. Krug remembers the dictator as the Toad. That’s what all the boys called him at school. “What I and the Toad hoard en fait souvenirs d’enfance [in terms of childhood memories] is the habit I had of sitting upon his face.”
The funniest parts of the book are the first chapters, in which Krug resists the petty tyranny (and stupidity) of Ekwilist soldiers by means of a voluble individualism. One band of soldiers permits him to cross a bridge, but the soldiers on the other side force him back across to obtain a signature on his pass. When he returns, the first band fails to recognize him:
“Do you live on the bridge?” asked the fat soldier.
“No,” said Krug. “Do try to understand. C’est simple comme boujour, as Pietro would say. They sent me back because they had no evidence that you let me pass. From a formal point of view I am not on the bridge at all.”
“He may have climbed up from a barge,” said a dubious voice.
“No, no,” said Krug. “I not bargee-bargee. You still do not understand. I am going to put it as simply as possible. They of the solar side saw heliocentrically what you tellurians saw geocentrically, and unless these two aspects are somehow combined, I, the visualized object, must keep shuttling in the universal night.”
The comedy does not last long, although it gives out before Krug’s resistance. The Ekwilists increase the pressure on the philosopher, arresting his friends and colleagues. The dictator himself summons him to an interview. Krug demands to know why his friends have been arrested:
posted by D.G. Meyers...Excerpt:
The University president appeals to Krug’s fond memories of school days with the dictator. “You are the victim of a sentimental delusion,” the philosopher answers. Krug remembers the dictator as the Toad. That’s what all the boys called him at school. “What I and the Toad hoard en fait souvenirs d’enfance [in terms of childhood memories] is the habit I had of sitting upon his face.”
The funniest parts of the book are the first chapters, in which Krug resists the petty tyranny (and stupidity) of Ekwilist soldiers by means of a voluble individualism. One band of soldiers permits him to cross a bridge, but the soldiers on the other side force him back across to obtain a signature on his pass. When he returns, the first band fails to recognize him:
“Do you live on the bridge?” asked the fat soldier.
“No,” said Krug. “Do try to understand. C’est simple comme boujour, as Pietro would say. They sent me back because they had no evidence that you let me pass. From a formal point of view I am not on the bridge at all.”
“He may have climbed up from a barge,” said a dubious voice.
“No, no,” said Krug. “I not bargee-bargee. You still do not understand. I am going to put it as simply as possible. They of the solar side saw heliocentrically what you tellurians saw geocentrically, and unless these two aspects are somehow combined, I, the visualized object, must keep shuttling in the universal night.”
The comedy does not last long, although it gives out before Krug’s resistance. The Ekwilists increase the pressure on the philosopher, arresting his friends and colleagues. The dictator himself summons him to an interview. Krug demands to know why his friends have been arrested:
“All we want of you is that little part where the handle is.”
“There is none,” cried Krug and hit his side of the table with his fist.
“I beseech you to be careful. The walls are full of camouflaged holes, each one with a rifle which is trained upon you. Please, do not gesticulate. They are jumpy today. It’s the weather. This gray menstratum.”
“If,” said Krug, “you cannot leave me and my friends in peace, then let them and me go abroad. It would save you a world of trouble."
“What is it exactly you have against my government?”
“I am not in the least interested in your government. What I resent is your attempt to make me interested in it. Leave me alone.”
Thus the State, “bloated and dangerously divine,” must get him to capitulate, or destroy him.
he continues, the tragedy has not changed “the relationship, the bond, the agreement” which Krug has entered into. “Individual lives are insecure,” he says; “but we guarantee the immortality of the State.” In response, Krug plunges into insanity. His freedom of thought is taken away... ~Vladimir Nabakov
Thus the State, “bloated and dangerously divine,” must get him to capitulate, or destroy him.
he continues, the tragedy has not changed “the relationship, the bond, the agreement” which Krug has entered into. “Individual lives are insecure,” he says; “but we guarantee the immortality of the State.” In response, Krug plunges into insanity. His freedom of thought is taken away... ~Vladimir Nabakov
Addendum:
Leo Tolstoy
In the passage below from The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy contemplates a local governor, on a train with a small battalion of soldiers, on their way to forcibly remove peasant families from a plot of forest claimed by a rich landowner— ‘a young landowner,’ as Tolstoy writes, ‘who had an income
of one hundred thousand, to gain three thousand rubles more by stealing a forest from a whole community of cold and famished peasants, to spend it, in two or three weeks in the saloons of Moscow, Petersburg, or Paris…’
'The train I met on the 9th of September going with soldiers, guns, cartridges, and rods, to confirm the rich landowner in the possession of a small forest which he had taken from the starving peasants, which they were in the direst need of, and he was in no need of at all, was a striking proof of how men are capable of doing deeds directly opposed to their principles and their conscience without perceiving it.
The special train consisted of one first-class carriage for the governor, the officials, and officers, and several luggage vans crammed full of soldiers. The latter, smart young fellows in their clean new uniforms, were standing about in groups or sitting swinging their legs in the wide open doorways of the luggage vans. Some were smoking, nudging each other, joking, grinning, and laughing, others were munching sunflower seeds and spitting out the husks with an air of dignity. Some of them ran along the platform to drink some water from a tub there, and when they met the officers they slackened their pace, made their stupid gesture of salutation, raising their hands to their heads with serious faces as though they were doing something of the greatest importance. They kept their eyes on them till they had passed by them, and then set off running still more merrily, stamping their heels on the platform, laughing and chattering after the manner of healthy, good-natured young fellows, traveling in lively company.
They were going to assist at the murder of their fathers or grandfathers just as if they were going on a party of pleasure, or at any rate on some quite ordinary business.
The same impression was produced by the well-dressed functionaries and officers who were scattered about the platform and in the first-class carriage. At a table covered with bottles was sitting the governor, who was responsible for the whole expedition, dressed in his half-military uniform and eating something while he chatted tranquilly about the weather with some acquaintances he had met, as though the business he was upon was of so simple and ordinary a character that it could not disturb his serenity and his interest in the change of weather.
At a little distance from the table sat the general of the police. He was not taking any refreshment, and had an impenetrable bored expression, as though he were weary of the formalities to be gone through. On all sides officers were bustling noisily about in their red uniforms trimmed with gold; one sat at a table finishing his bottle of beer, another stood at the buffet eating a cake, and brushing the crumbs off his uniform, threw down his money with a self-confident air; another was sauntering before the carriages of our train, staring at the faces of the women.
All these men who were going to murder or to torture the famishing and defenseless creatures who provide them their sustenance had the air of men who knew very well that they were doing their duty, and some were even proud, were “glorying” in what they were doing.
What is the meaning of it?
All these people are within half an hour of reaching the place where, in order to provide a wealthy young man with three thousand rubles stolen from a whole community of famishing peasants, they may be forced to commit the most horrible acts one can conceive, to murder or torture, as was done inOrel
beings, their brothers. And they see the place and time approaching with untroubled serenity.
To say that all these government officials, officers, and soldiers do not know what is before them is impossible, for they are prepared for it. The governor must have given directions about the rods, the officials must have sent an order for them, purchased them, and entered the item in their accounts. The military officers have given and received orders about cartridges. They all know that they are going to torture, perhaps to kill, their famishing fellow-creatures, and that they must set to work within an hour.
To say, as is usually said, and as they would themselves repeat, that they are acting from conviction of the necessity for supporting the state organization, would be a mistake. For in the first place, these men have probably never even thought about state organization and the necessity of it; in the second place, they cannot possibly be convinced that the act in which they are taking part will tend to support rather than to ruin the state; and thirdly, in reality the majority, if not all, of these men, far from ever sacrificing their own pleasure or tranquillity to support the state, never let slip an opportunity of profiting at the expense of the state in every way they can increase their own pleasure and ease. So that they are not acting thus for the sake of the abstract principle of the state.
What is the meaning of it?
Yet I know all these men. If I don’t know all of them personally, I know their characters pretty nearly, their past, and their way of thinking. They certainly all have mothers, some of them wives and children. They are certainly for the most part good, kind, even tender-hearted fellows, who hate every sort of cruelty, not to speak of murder; many of them would not kill or hurt an animal.
Moreover, they are all professed Christians and regard all violence directed against the defenseless as base and disgraceful.
Certainly not one of them would be capable in everyday life, for his own personal profit, of doing a hundredth part of what the Governor of Orel did.
Every one of them would be insulted at the supposition that he was capable of doing anything of the kind in private life.
And yet they are within half an hour of reaching the place where they may be reduced to the inevitable necessity of committing this crime.
What is the meaning of it?’
of one hundred thousand, to gain three thousand rubles more by stealing a forest from a whole community of cold and famished peasants, to spend it, in two or three weeks in the saloons of Moscow, Petersburg, or Paris…’
'The train I met on the 9th of September going with soldiers, guns, cartridges, and rods, to confirm the rich landowner in the possession of a small forest which he had taken from the starving peasants, which they were in the direst need of, and he was in no need of at all, was a striking proof of how men are capable of doing deeds directly opposed to their principles and their conscience without perceiving it.
The special train consisted of one first-class carriage for the governor, the officials, and officers, and several luggage vans crammed full of soldiers. The latter, smart young fellows in their clean new uniforms, were standing about in groups or sitting swinging their legs in the wide open doorways of the luggage vans. Some were smoking, nudging each other, joking, grinning, and laughing, others were munching sunflower seeds and spitting out the husks with an air of dignity. Some of them ran along the platform to drink some water from a tub there, and when they met the officers they slackened their pace, made their stupid gesture of salutation, raising their hands to their heads with serious faces as though they were doing something of the greatest importance. They kept their eyes on them till they had passed by them, and then set off running still more merrily, stamping their heels on the platform, laughing and chattering after the manner of healthy, good-natured young fellows, traveling in lively company.
They were going to assist at the murder of their fathers or grandfathers just as if they were going on a party of pleasure, or at any rate on some quite ordinary business.
The same impression was produced by the well-dressed functionaries and officers who were scattered about the platform and in the first-class carriage. At a table covered with bottles was sitting the governor, who was responsible for the whole expedition, dressed in his half-military uniform and eating something while he chatted tranquilly about the weather with some acquaintances he had met, as though the business he was upon was of so simple and ordinary a character that it could not disturb his serenity and his interest in the change of weather.
At a little distance from the table sat the general of the police. He was not taking any refreshment, and had an impenetrable bored expression, as though he were weary of the formalities to be gone through. On all sides officers were bustling noisily about in their red uniforms trimmed with gold; one sat at a table finishing his bottle of beer, another stood at the buffet eating a cake, and brushing the crumbs off his uniform, threw down his money with a self-confident air; another was sauntering before the carriages of our train, staring at the faces of the women.
All these men who were going to murder or to torture the famishing and defenseless creatures who provide them their sustenance had the air of men who knew very well that they were doing their duty, and some were even proud, were “glorying” in what they were doing.
What is the meaning of it?
All these people are within half an hour of reaching the place where, in order to provide a wealthy young man with three thousand rubles stolen from a whole community of famishing peasants, they may be forced to commit the most horrible acts one can conceive, to murder or torture, as was done in
beings, their brothers. And they see the place and time approaching with untroubled serenity.
To say that all these government officials, officers, and soldiers do not know what is before them is impossible, for they are prepared for it. The governor must have given directions about the rods, the officials must have sent an order for them, purchased them, and entered the item in their accounts. The military officers have given and received orders about cartridges. They all know that they are going to torture, perhaps to kill, their famishing fellow-creatures, and that they must set to work within an hour.
To say, as is usually said, and as they would themselves repeat, that they are acting from conviction of the necessity for supporting the state organization, would be a mistake. For in the first place, these men have probably never even thought about state organization and the necessity of it; in the second place, they cannot possibly be convinced that the act in which they are taking part will tend to support rather than to ruin the state; and thirdly, in reality the majority, if not all, of these men, far from ever sacrificing their own pleasure or tranquillity to support the state, never let slip an opportunity of profiting at the expense of the state in every way they can increase their own pleasure and ease. So that they are not acting thus for the sake of the abstract principle of the state.
What is the meaning of it?
Yet I know all these men. If I don’t know all of them personally, I know their characters pretty nearly, their past, and their way of thinking. They certainly all have mothers, some of them wives and children. They are certainly for the most part good, kind, even tender-hearted fellows, who hate every sort of cruelty, not to speak of murder; many of them would not kill or hurt an animal.
Moreover, they are all professed Christians and regard all violence directed against the defenseless as base and disgraceful.
Certainly not one of them would be capable in everyday life, for his own personal profit, of doing a hundredth part of what the Governor of Orel did.
Every one of them would be insulted at the supposition that he was capable of doing anything of the kind in private life.
And yet they are within half an hour of reaching the place where they may be reduced to the inevitable necessity of committing this crime.
What is the meaning of it?’
—from The Kingdom of God is Within You (first
published in German in 1894; translated here from the Russian by Constance Garnett)
"I stared at the beast's hands...the left bloody and filled ...the right bloody and filled...as its engorging turned sickening and brutal..."
published in German in 1894; translated here from the Russian by Constance Garnett)
"I stared at the beast's hands...the left bloody and filled ...the right bloody and filled...as its engorging turned sickening and brutal..."
"The Deer's Cry", or St. Patrick's Breastplate, sung by Angelina, (EWTN)
St. Patrick Ora Pro Nobis! Save the Irish!
Love is....
I ARISE TODAY
I arise today, through the strength of heaven;
light of sun, radiance of moon,
splendor of fire, speed of lightning,
swiftness of wind, depth of the sea,
stability of earth, firmness of rock.
I arise today, through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s eye to look before me, God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me,
from all who shall wish me ill, afar and a-near
alone and in a multitude.
Against every cruel merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise, Christ to shield me.
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
I arise today.
Addendum:
“Nous avons tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.”
But do 'I' choose to do so? This is the real question,non?
"If you see your brother sick, or ill, or.............and you care for him/her/'them/...then that is done to ME...
~Jesus Christ
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Friday, March 14, 2014
Sometimes Fathers.....'Do You Forgive Me?'...
Easing the burden
St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Columcille
Ora pro nobis!
Excerpt:
...My son knows he is supposed to ask for forgiveness, just as his brother knows that sooner or later he will be expected to say yes.
He knows to say it because he knows he is supposed to forgive. What is on the lips and in the heart can be day and night, and so one challenge a parent faces is to encourage right action without engendering falsity. Like when the offending brother’s apology is as the litany of a foreign tongue: I’msorrydoyouforgiveme.
There is work to do in their hearts, in mine. And so my children ask and grant forgiveness. Sometimes they even mean it...
find myself coming repeatedly to a hard reality, for myself, for them. If God is to be believed in and therefore believed, then forgiveness is conditional. We are forgiven as we forgive. It is jarring, when I stare it in the face, especially when I consider the grudges I am prone to harbor in the darkened places of my heart.
Perhaps even more jarring is the implication of this condition, which is that our every trespass against another jeopardizes his soul. We heap burdens on others. How many of us heap the greatest burdens on those we claim to love the most?
I try to explain this to my sons, not because I believe they are steering one another toward the abyss with their occasional trespasses, but because I want them to comprehend the awful power they will carry with them all their days.
I once heard someone say that if we Christians really believe in salvation and damnation, then more people ought to approach hell with our hands gripping their ankles. I used to think that meant offering them clever words about God. More and more I think it means the much harder and more radical work of actually living out what we say we believe. All that business about loving our neighbors, and giving alms to those in need, and humbling ourselves.
I think about this especially during this season of Lent. To repent is to turn away, to desire to undo the wrong. But how to take back that boulder on my brother’s shoulder, the boulder I placed there when I lied to him, cut him with my words, gave him the passive scorn of my neglect?
There is no path, is there, but to beg for forgiveness? I’m still learning how. Still working to graft the humility it requires onto a hardened heart. And working, at the same time to help humility take root in the hearts of my children.
My hope is that their heart’s ground becomes more fertile as they realize that we are not, each of us, working out his personal salvation alone. The Scottish pastor John Watson put it this way:
“This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon him nor help his lower self.”
Do not add to the weight under which your brother labors, Watson was saying, for you know what a load it is to bear. I hope my children learn to forgive, and to beg it. Our lives are intertwined. My struggle affects yours, for better or worse. Do you forgive me?
~Tony Woodlief, Sand In the Gears
...When was the last time we said that to our brethren?...
..................... &...................
...sometimes I am afraid, because they always seem shocked, and maybe they really didn’t know what evil had taken root in their families, which means I may not know, nor you either.
We fear they will be slaughtered sheep and we fear they will become wolves, and we feel helpless.
Some of us celebrated the capture of a Boston bomber because now we get to kill him. We celebrate because our yearning for vengeance runs deep, and our desire to know that we are not ourselves monsters runs deeper. That boy is a monster and so is the one who murdered all those children in Connecticut and so is the one who gunned down people in a Colorado movie theater. Something in them is broken and they are not human.
We need to believe this. We need to kiss our children as they sleep, and know they are normal, that it’s the severely broken who do unspeakable things, and our own can’t be broken like that because even now we would know, we would peer into their eyes and see the deadness there and we would know.
Instead we see their eyes filled up with love and so they can’t be monsters, not now or ever, because monsters could never have loved anyone, not even their own mothers and fathers.
Their mothers and fathers. What hell must it be, to gaze at a picture of your child, and know it would have been better had you strangled him in his crib? What hell to wonder what you did wrong, to wonder if he was always broken or if it was you who broke him, to wonder if this blood is on your hands, if the fires of hell burn hot for the child you wrongly raised?
What hell, what hell, and if all this doesn’t keep you on your knees for your children then you haven’t considered what world awaits them, how it hungers to make them wolves and slaughtered sheep in equal measure.
This world hungers, and we parents weep, and we pray that our pleading is heard, that if there is something in us that can be altered so they can be spared, God will alter it; that if our flesh might be torn in place of theirs, God might rend it; that if sheep must be slain, God will pass over our own, because the cost is more than we can bear.
For years, his demons made the boy tear his own clothes, hurl himself into the fire, leap into the sea’s deep waters. For years, his father kept him close, no doubt despite those who hissed in his ear: “This is because of your sin.” Religious experts couldn’t help the boy, priests couldn’t save the boy. That boy was helpless and without hope and still his father persevered, even where others would have let him perish, or would have bound him in a graveyard like the Gadarenes.
Then comes this roving, raving miracle-worker, and the father says to him: “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” The father is weary and wary. He has seen miracle-workers before.
“If you can believe,” Christ replies, “all things are possible to him who believes.”
If. Who hasn’t lain awake at night, tormented by this if? We want to believe there is a good God who can spare our children the horrors of these recent days. Yet this same God allowed horrors for those parents, for their children. The gulf of if is wider than faith, sometimes.
“Lord,” cries the father, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
This is every parent, each of us believing our children will be safe, each of us struggling against the fear they will be anything but safe. We believe and we disbelieve and we pray the kingdom of heaven comes soon, for it belongs to such as these, and we who are no longer children have made such a wreck of it. We pray he will remember our children, that he will save them in spite of us. We pray in belief and we pray against disbelief, and we pray that he is listening. ~Tony Woodlief, Sand in the Gears
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Abbey-Roads: St. John of God ... a troubled life.
Abbey-Roads: St. John of God ... a troubled life.: At one time the Infant Jesus appeared to him and gave him the name, John of God and bid him to go to Granada. Until that period in his ...
...His crazy period is interesting - reminding me of the Russian 'fool for Christ' vocation. Mental instability isn't always that unusual in the lives of the saints and others who may go through intense conversion experiences...
...His crazy period is interesting - reminding me of the Russian 'fool for Christ' vocation. Mental instability isn't always that unusual in the lives of the saints and others who may go through intense conversion experiences...
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Pray for Ukraine. Pray for Russia.
Pray for Ukraine.
N.S. Mediadora de Todas las Gracias de Lipa
Pray for Russia. -Fr. Walter Ciszek
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Feast of the Holy Face
On April 17th, 1958 ,
His Holiness Pope Pius XII approved the observance of a Feast of the Holy Face
of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). Contact us for the
wording of the Holy Face Mass to be said upon the Feast.
“See how I suffer. Nevertheless, I am understood by so
few. What gratitude on the part of those who say they love me. I have
given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I give My Face
as a sensible object of My Sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that it be
honoured by a special feast on Tuesday in Quinquagesima (Shrove Tuesday – the
Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). The feast will be preceded by novena in
which the faithful make reparation with Me uniting themselves with my sorrow.”
(Our Lord to Mother Pierina 1938).
Monday, March 3, 2014
Holy Face Novena: Day 9
(Console Holy Face and recite Daily Preparatory
Prayer).(p.l)
Psalm 51,18-21.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
In your goodness, show favour toZion ;
rebuild the walls ofJerusalem
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
holocausts offered on your altar.
Sacred Face of our Lord and our God, what words can
we do to express our gratitude? How can we speak of our
joy? That you have deigned to hear us, that you have chosen
to answer us in our hour of need. We say this because we
know that our prayers will be granted. We know that you,
in your loving kindness, listened to our pleading hearts, and
will give, out of your fullness, the answer to our problems.
Mary, our Mother, thank you for your intercession on our
behalf.Saint Joseph , thank you for
your prayers.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
Prayer to the Holy Trinity
Most Holy Trinity, Godhead indivisible, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, our first beginning and our last end. Since you
have made us after your own image and likeness, grant that
all the thoughts of our minds, all the words of our tongues,
all the affections of our hearts and all our actions may be
always conformed to your most Holy Will, so that after
having seen you here on earth in appearances and in a dark
manner by the means of faith, we may come at last to con-
template you face to face, in the perfect possession of you
forever in paradise. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
Recite Act of Consecration on the following page.
Psalm 51,18-21.
For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice a contrite spirit.
A humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
In your goodness, show favour to
rebuild the walls of
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
holocausts offered on your altar.
Sacred Face of our Lord and our God, what words can
we do to express our gratitude? How can we speak of our
joy? That you have deigned to hear us, that you have chosen
to answer us in our hour of need. We say this because we
know that our prayers will be granted. We know that you,
in your loving kindness, listened to our pleading hearts, and
will give, out of your fullness, the answer to our problems.
Mary, our Mother, thank you for your intercession on our
behalf.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
Prayer to the Holy Trinity
Most Holy Trinity, Godhead indivisible, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, our first beginning and our last end. Since you
have made us after your own image and likeness, grant that
all the thoughts of our minds, all the words of our tongues,
all the affections of our hearts and all our actions may be
always conformed to your most Holy Will, so that after
having seen you here on earth in appearances and in a dark
manner by the means of faith, we may come at last to con-
template you face to face, in the perfect possession of you
forever in paradise. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
Recite Act of Consecration on the following page.
Act of Consecration
O Lord Jesus, we believe most firmly in You, we love
You. You are the Eternal Son of God and the Son Incarnate
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You are the Lord and Absolute
Ruler of all creation. We acknowledge You, therefore, as
the Universal Sovereign of all creatures. You are the Lord
and Supreme Ruler of all mankind, and we, in acknowledging
this Your dominion, consecrate ourselves to You now and
forever. Loving Jesus, we place our family under the protec-
tion of Your Holy Face, and of Your Virgin Mother, Mary
most sorrowful. We promise to be faithful to You for the
rest of our lives and to observe with fidelity Your Holy
Commandments. We will never deny before men, You and
Your Divine rights over us and all mankind. Grant us the
grace to never sin again; nevertheless, should we fail, 0
Divine Saviour, have mercy on us and restore us to Your
grace. Radiate Your Divine Countenance upon us and bless
us now and forever. Embrace us at the hour of death in Your
Kingdom for all eternity, through the intercession of Your
Blessed Mother, of all Your Saints who behold You in
Heaven, and the just who glorify You on earth. O Jesus, be
mindful of us forever and never forsake us; protect our family.
O Mother of Sorrows, by the eternal glory which you enjoy
in Heaven, through the merits of your bitter anguish in the
Sacred Passion of your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
obtain for us the grace that the Precious Blood shed by Jesus
for the redemption of our souls, be not shed for us in vain.
We love you, O Mary. Embrace us and bless us, O Mother.
Protect us in life and in death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen.
You. You are the Eternal Son of God and the Son Incarnate
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You are the Lord and Absolute
Ruler of all creation. We acknowledge You, therefore, as
the Universal Sovereign of all creatures. You are the Lord
and Supreme Ruler of all mankind, and we, in acknowledging
this Your dominion, consecrate ourselves to You now and
forever. Loving Jesus, we place our family under the protec-
tion of Your Holy Face, and of Your Virgin Mother, Mary
most sorrowful. We promise to be faithful to You for the
rest of our lives and to observe with fidelity Your Holy
Commandments. We will never deny before men, You and
Your Divine rights over us and all mankind. Grant us the
grace to never sin again; nevertheless, should we fail, 0
Divine Saviour, have mercy on us and restore us to Your
grace. Radiate Your Divine Countenance upon us and bless
us now and forever. Embrace us at the hour of death in Your
Kingdom for all eternity, through the intercession of Your
Blessed Mother, of all Your Saints who behold You in
Heaven, and the just who glorify You on earth. O Jesus, be
mindful of us forever and never forsake us; protect our family.
O Mother of Sorrows, by the eternal glory which you enjoy
in Heaven, through the merits of your bitter anguish in the
Sacred Passion of your Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
obtain for us the grace that the Precious Blood shed by Jesus
for the redemption of our souls, be not shed for us in vain.
We love you, O Mary. Embrace us and bless us, O Mother.
Protect us in life and in death. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen.
The following prayer was dictated by our Lord Himself to
Sister Marie of St Peter. Opening His Heart to her, our Saviour
complained of blasphemy, saying that this frightful sin wounds His divine Heart
more grievously than all other sins, for it was like a "poisoned arrow".
After that, our Saviour dictated the following prayer, which
he called "The Golden Arrow", saying that those who would recite this
prayer would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds
inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. This prayer is regarded as the
very basis of the Work of Reparation.
PRAYER OF REPARATION IN PRAISE OF THE HOLY NAME OF GOD
ENTITLED
"THE GOLDEN ARROW"
May the most Holy, most Sacred, most Adorable,
Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable 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.
Amen.
“Evil takes root when one man starts to think that he is better than another.” -Joseph Brodsky
Most Incomprehensible and Ineffable 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.
Amen.
“Evil takes root when one man starts to think that he is better than another.” -Joseph Brodsky
“...there was still more wind than snow,
but in Lonoff’s orchard the light had all
but seeped away, and the sound of what
was on its way was menacing...” ~Philip Roth
Sacred Heart of Jesus I Trust in You.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Holy Face Novena: Eighth Day
DAILY PREPARATORY PRAYER
O Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, through the intercession
of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword
of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we
ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with
Jesus, united with all His sorrows, love and total abandon-
ment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede
for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face
of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. (Start novena)
of Holy Mary, whose soul was pierced through by a sword
of sorrow at the sight of the passion of her Divine Son, we
ask your help in making a perfect Novena of reparation with
Jesus, united with all His sorrows, love and total abandon-
ment.
We now implore all the Angels and Saints to intercede
for us as we pray this Holy Novena to the Most Holy Face
of Jesus and for the glory of the most Holy Trinity, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. (Start novena)
NOVENA IN HONOR OF THE MOST
HOLY FACE OF JESUS
HOLY FACE OF JESUS
"All those who, attracted by my love, and venerating my
countenance, shall receive, by virtue of my humanity, a
brilliant and vivid impression of my divinity. This splendour
shall enlighten the depths of their souls, so that in eternal
glory the celestial court shall marvel at the marked likeness
of their features with my divine countenance." (Our Lord
Jesus Christ to St. Gertrude)
countenance, shall receive, by virtue of my humanity, a
brilliant and vivid impression of my divinity. This splendour
shall enlighten the depths of their souls, so that in eternal
glory the celestial court shall marvel at the marked likeness
of their features with my divine countenance." (Our Lord
Jesus Christ to St. Gertrude)
Psalm 51,16-17.
O rescue me, God my helper,
and my tongue shall ring out your goodness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare your praise.
Most merciful Face of Jesus, who in this vale of tears was
so moved by our misfortunes to call yourself the healer of
the sick, and the good Shepherd of the souls gone astray,
allow not Satan to draw us away from you, but keep us
always under your loving protection, together with all souls
who endeavour to console you. Mary, our Mother, intercede
for us.Saint Joseph , pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
O rescue me, God my helper,
and my tongue shall ring out your goodness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare your praise.
Most merciful Face of Jesus, who in this vale of tears was
so moved by our misfortunes to call yourself the healer of
the sick, and the good Shepherd of the souls gone astray,
allow not Satan to draw us away from you, but keep us
always under your loving protection, together with all souls
who endeavour to console you. Mary, our Mother, intercede
for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
Prayer to Saint Peter
O glorious Saint Peter, who in return for thy lively and
O glorious Saint Peter, who in return for thy lively and
generous faith, thy profound and sincere humility and thy
burning love, was honoured by Jesus Christ with singular
privileges, and in particular, with the leadership of the other
apostles and the primacy of the whole church, of which thou
was made the foundation stone, do thou obtain for us the
grace of a lively faith, that shall not fear to profess itself
openly in its entirety and in all of its manifestations, even
to the shedding of blood, if occasion should demand it, and
to the sacrifice of life itself in preference to surrender. Obtain
for us likewise a sincere loyalty to our Holy Mother the
Church. Grant that we may ever remain most closely and
sincerely united to the Holy Father, who is the heir of thy
faith and of thy authority, the one true visible head of the
Catholic Church. Grant, moreover, that we may follow, in
all humility and meekness, the Church's teaching and coun-
sels and may be obedient to all her precepts, in order to be
able here on earth to enjoy a peace that is sure and undis-
turbed, and to attain one day in heaven to everlasting happi-
ness. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
burning love, was honoured by Jesus Christ with singular
privileges, and in particular, with the leadership of the other
apostles and the primacy of the whole church, of which thou
was made the foundation stone, do thou obtain for us the
grace of a lively faith, that shall not fear to profess itself
openly in its entirety and in all of its manifestations, even
to the shedding of blood, if occasion should demand it, and
to the sacrifice of life itself in preference to surrender. Obtain
for us likewise a sincere loyalty to our Holy Mother the
Church. Grant that we may ever remain most closely and
sincerely united to the Holy Father, who is the heir of thy
faith and of thy authority, the one true visible head of the
Catholic Church. Grant, moreover, that we may follow, in
all humility and meekness, the Church's teaching and coun-
sels and may be obedient to all her precepts, in order to be
able here on earth to enjoy a peace that is sure and undis-
turbed, and to attain one day in heaven to everlasting happi-
ness. Amen.
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
...when you reject Christianity, you don't get an enlightened secular paradise, you get hell on earth...
Saturday, March 1, 2014
A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: You’re Here
A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: You’re Here:
( The Great Gate of Kiev by Wassily Kandinsky, 1866- 1944, Russian painter)
Sometimes a poet will choose an unusual metaphor...
You’re here. We breathe the self same air.
Your presence here is like the city,
like quiet Kiev wrapped in sultry
sunbeams there outside the window.
It hasn’t slept its sleep yet,
but struggles in its dream, unconquered.
It tears the bricks from off its neck
like a sweaty Shantung collar.
In it, perspiring in their leaves
from obstacles they’ve just got over,
the poplars gather in a crowd
wearily on the conquered pavement.
You make me think of the Dnieper there,
in its green skin of creeks and ditches,
the center-of-the-earth’s complaint book
for us to write our daily notes in.
Your presence here is like a call
to sit down hastily at midday,
to read through it from A to Z
and then to write your nearness in it.
~ Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), 'You're Here'
( The Great Gate of Kiev by Wassily Kandinsky, 1866- 1944, Russian painter)
Sometimes a poet will choose an unusual metaphor...
You’re here. We breathe the self same air.
Your presence here is like the city,
like quiet Kiev wrapped in sultry
sunbeams there outside the window.
It hasn’t slept its sleep yet,
but struggles in its dream, unconquered.
It tears the bricks from off its neck
like a sweaty Shantung collar.
In it, perspiring in their leaves
from obstacles they’ve just got over,
the poplars gather in a crowd
wearily on the conquered pavement.
You make me think of the Dnieper there,
in its green skin of creeks and ditches,
the center-of-the-earth’s complaint book
for us to write our daily notes in.
Your presence here is like a call
to sit down hastily at midday,
to read through it from A to Z
and then to write your nearness in it.
~ Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), 'You're Here'
Holy Face Novena: Day 7
...and First Saturday...
(Console Holy Face and recite Daily Preparatory
Prayer).(p.l)
Psalm 51,14-15.
Give me again the joy of your help,
with a spirit of fervour sustain me,
that I may teach transgressors your ways
and sinners may return to you.
Lord Jesus! After contemplating Thy features, disfigured
by grief, after meditating upon Thy passion with compunction
and love, how can our hearts fail to be inflamed with a holy
hatred of sin, which even now outrages Thy Adorable Face!
Lord, suffer us not to be content with mere compassion, but
give us grace so closely to follow Thee in this Calvary ,
so
that the approbrium destined for Thee may fall on us, 0
Jesus, that thus we may have a share, small though it may
be, in expiation of sin. Amen. Mary, our Mother, intercede
for us. Saint Joseph
pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition..................
Pardon
and mercy.
Prayer in Honour of Mary
Hail Mary, Daughter of God the Father! Hail Mary, Mother
of God the Son! Hail Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit! Hail
Mary, Temple of
the Most Holy Trinity! Hail Mary, our
mistress, our wealth, our mystic rose. Queen of our hearts,
our Mother, our life, our sweetness and our dearest hope!
We are all Thine, and all we have is Thine. O Virgin blessed
above all things, may Thy soul be in us to magnify the Lord;
may Thy spirit be in us to rejoice in God. Place Thyself, 0
faithful Virgin, as a seal upon our hearts, that in Thee and
through Thee we may be found faithful to God. Grant, most
gracious Virgin, that we may be numbered among those
whom Thou art pleased to love, to teach and to guide, to
favour and to protect as Thy children. Grant that with the
help
of Thy love, we may despise all earthly consolation and
cling
to heavenly things, until through the Holy Spirit, Thy
faithful
spouse, and through Thee, His faithful spouse, Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, be formed within us for the glory of the Father.
Amen. (St. Grignon de Montfort)
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
....at the Foot of the Cross:
Mary his mother, John the Beloved Apostle, Mary Magdalene and the 'other women'...
Rev. 12:6. Then the
woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that
there she would be nourished...
“In
the Beginning He made them male and female.” -Genesis
His Mother remained beneath the Cross. The Gold Medallion of the High Priest is
still being tarnished. It takes no
intelligence to understand how ‘woman’ is denigrated everywhere--abused,
beaten, raped, humiliated, murdered, used.
Christ our High Priest bent down and wrote in the sand...and they all
went away beginning with the eldest.
“Blessed
are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”
*How hard today for
even children to believe such a thing ever to be possible.*
Friday, February 28, 2014
Holy Face Novena: Day 6 - Viva Cristo Rey!
(Console Holy Face and recite Daily Preparatory Prayer).(p.
1)
Psalm 51,12-13.
A pure heart create for us O God,
put a steadfast spirit within us.
Do not cast us away from your presence
nor deprive us of your Holy Spirit.
May our hearts be cleansed, O Lord, by the inpouring of
the Holy Spirit, and may He render them fruitful by watering
them with His heavenly dew. Mary, the most chaste spouse
of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us,Saint Joseph
pray for us.
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
Psalm 51,12-13.
A pure heart create for us O God,
put a steadfast spirit within us.
Do not cast us away from your presence
nor deprive us of your Holy Spirit.
May our hearts be cleansed, O Lord, by the inpouring of
the Holy Spirit, and may He render them fruitful by watering
them with His heavenly dew. Mary, the most chaste spouse
of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us,
Through the merits of your precious blood and your Holy
Face, O Jesus, grant us our petition.................. Pardon
and mercy.
Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel
O Victorious Prince, most humble guardian of the Church
of God and of faithful souls, who with such charity and zeal
took part in so many conflicts and gained such great victories
over the enemy, for the conservation and protection of the
honour and glory we all owe to God, as well as for the promo-
tion of our salvation; come, we pray Thee, to our assistance.
for we are continually besieged with such great perils by our
enemies, the flesh, the world and the devil, and as Thou
wast a leader for the people of God through the desert, so
also be our faithful leader, and companion through the desert
of this world, until Thou conduct us safely into the happy
land of the living, in that blessed fatherland from which we
are all exiles. Amen. (St. Aloysius)
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
O Victorious Prince, most humble guardian of the Church
of God and of faithful souls, who with such charity and zeal
took part in so many conflicts and gained such great victories
over the enemy, for the conservation and protection of the
honour and glory we all owe to God, as well as for the promo-
tion of our salvation; come, we pray Thee, to our assistance.
for we are continually besieged with such great perils by our
enemies, the flesh, the world and the devil, and as Thou
wast a leader for the people of God through the desert, so
also be our faithful leader, and companion through the desert
of this world, until Thou conduct us safely into the happy
land of the living, in that blessed fatherland from which we
are all exiles. Amen. (St. Aloysius)
Pray one (1) Our Father, three (3) Hail Mary's, one (1)
Glory Be.
O Bleeding Face, O Face Divine, be every adoration Thine.
(Three times)
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
There is a name, now, for
that culture which resisted – and that name is Vendée. Perhaps not the
name you were expecting. But that is the narrative I grew up with.
It is the narrative of the terrible history of the people of western France , particularly Vendée and Brittany during the French
Revolution, a story of both great hideousness and great heroism. Out of
the ashes of Vendée, rose Vendée itself. It is a story which until very
recently was suppressed and denied. Generations of lies have meant that
most French people never knew it. Only the people of Vendée and Brittany
themselves kept it alive, through never forgetting. It is only in the
last two years that major memorials have been put up to the Vendéen martyrs,
and then only by local government, never by the central one; only very recently
that the Republic of France has begun to acknowledge the horrors of what can be
seen as perhaps the first modern genocide. I was brought up with it
because one side of my father's family came from Vendée (the other came from
the South); we were taught the stories, the songs of resistance, we felt the
pain and horror and, yes, hate and yet also the astonishing surviving spirit of
the Vendéen people, the spirit of the Chouans.
The Chouans! I was
brought up on their names, their stories, stories that were for so long
suppressed, but that stayed in the hearts, the minds, the words of their
descendants. Once, to even mention them would be to invite fashionable
scorn, ridicule, contempt and even hate. "Superstitious
savages"; "obstacles to progress"; "deluded fools" –
these were just some of the gentler terms. It is easy to see why.
For to look at their real stories, to peel away the generations of lies, is to
invite some very uncomfortable reflections indeed.
In 1789, the French
Revolution began, a revolution that at first was full of optimism, of the
genuine wish for reform; a revolution that was not even opposed by King Louis
XVI himself. This was the Enlightenment. Humanity was to be trusted
to behave well. Liberty , equality, fraternity. Who could argue with that?
Very few did, least of all the peasants of western France , who welcomed many of the changes – the abolition of
compulsory labour, the gradual abolition of privilege. The revolutionaries
produced a passionate and idealistic document, the Declaration of the Rights of
Man. Some of those rights were the right to freedom of religion; the
right to live peacefully, without tyranny or arbitrary rule; the right to
discuss. Alas! While Desmoulins and Danton debated and wrote
passionately, Robespierre bided his time. That time came all too
soon.
[...]
In 1790, the first cracks
began to appear. Provincial assemblies were abolished, stripping people
of their local governments. The clergy was to be stripped of its property
and would be appointed by lay people, not the church. In practice, this
meant that the bourgeois of the cities now had the right of imposing chosen
priests on peasant communities. Vendée and Brittany and Normandy began to stir at this; they were greatly attached to their
own priests and resisted the imposition of others. A year later, the King
was arrested. Riots erupted in Brittany . In 1792, the extremist Jacobins under the
leadership of Robespierre took power and formed the now infamous
Convention. And then the horrors began in earnest.
The atrocities
multiplied, the exterminations systematic and initiated from the very top, and
carried out with glee at the bottom. At least 300,000 people were
massacred during that time, and those of the intruders who refused to do the
job were either shot or discredited utterly. But still the people
resisted. Still there were those who hid in the forests and ambushed, who
fought as bravely as lions but were butchered like pigs when they were
caught. No quarter was given; all the leaders were shot, beheaded, or
hanged. Many were not even allowed to rest in peace; the body of the last
leader was cut up and distributed to scientists; his head was pickled in a jar,
the brain examined to see where the seed of rebellion lay in the mind of a
savage.
That was two hundred years ago;
but at the recent bicentenary celebrated by the intruders, not a mention was
made of the dead. Not a mention was made of the genocide. It was
the people themselves who remembered. For that is what the intruders did
not take into account: memory. The people still tell the tale, vividly,
with pain. But their pain is not that only of victims. It is a
glowing, rich thing, a thing that paradoxically enabled them to survive.
Paradoxically, it united them in a way that could never otherwise have been
possible. At least half of the people of that secret, remote and
beautiful land died during that hideous time, but their memory is still there.
They live forever in the minds of their descendants but also in the land
itself. For they did not give away their land, their soul. And now
that things are changing, a little, now that the descendants of the intruders
are discovering the truth about their glorious past, now the people are
beginning to tell their stories, out loud, out where it can be heard.
Still, there is a long way to go...
~Sophie Masson, Battle of Savenay,
Remembering the Vendée
The sea rolls over my feet,
and as it retreats, I notice it has left me something. I bend over to
pick it up. A perfect fossil, an amnonite in white stone, beautifully
imprinted, so frail-looking, yet so enduring, patiently preserving the memory
of something long gone. And as I look at it in my hand, on this beach
where my ancestors once walked, incongruously, tears prick at the backs of my
eyes.
Sophie Masson [send her mail] is a French-Australian
writer, some of whose ancestors came from Longeville, in Vendée. She also
has Southern French, Basque, Spanish, Portuguese, Scottish, and Canadian
ancestry. Sophie was born in Indonesia Australia Melbourne , Australia
Father Pro [Guard Duty site]
....General Cruz granted Father Miguel Pro’s final
request to have a few moments for prayer. Father Pro knelt silently for two
minutes then stood up. He was offfered a blindfold but refused. Instead he
stretched out his arms in the form of a cross and said in a loud voice, “Viva,
Cristo Rey” (“Long live Christ the King!”) Shots rang out from the firing squad
and Father Pro fell to the ground. He was still breathing, so General Cruz
walked over and fired a final rifle shot to the priest’s head…
Sometime before his death, Father Pro told a
friend, “If I ever get arrested and wind up in Heaven, get ready to ask me for
favors.” He also joked that if he came upon any somber-looking saints in
heaven, he would do a Mexican hat dance to cheer them up. At his funeral an old
blind woman in the crowd who came to touch his body left with her sight
restored. Others testified to his miraculous help within a week of his death…
- From a homily by
Father Peter Grace, CP Saint Ann’s Basilica, Scranton ,
PA
Comment at Guard Duty site:
I saw your article on Miguel Pro. My grandfather
was a Cristero during the persecution of the Church in the 1920′s. My
grandmother taught catechism in hiding. My grandfather and grandmother also
helped to hiding priests in the state of Jalisco. On my maternal side of the
family we were taught to be proud of the faith and to love all aspects of Her.
Unfortunately after many years of being in America
my family has, in one generation, left the Church. There are probably 7 of us
that are still practicing Catholics. (Most have joined fundamentalist
churches). I wonder if my grandparents would have known this if they would have
come to America ? (Tomas)TT
The Cristero War (1926–29) also known as La Cristiada, was an attempted
counter-revolution against the anti-clericalism of the ruling Mexican
government. Based in western Mexico, the rebellion was set off by the
enforcement of theMexican Constitution of
1917 by Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles,
in order to hinder the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and its
sub-organizations.
The Mexican Revolution was the largest
rebellion in Mexican history. It was based on the peasants' overwhelming demand
for land and for social justice. The Catholic Church was cautious not to
support the revolution, which at times threatened the property rights of many
Mexicans. The Calles' administration felt its revolutionary initiatives, such
as those against private property and Catholic schools, were being threatened
by the Church. As a solution to the Church's influence over the Mexican people,
the anti-clerical statutes of the Constitution were instituted, beginning a
10-year persecution of Catholics, resulting in the death of thousands.
Mexican government forces publicly hanged Cristero
rebels on telegraph poles in Jalisco , Mexico
After a period of peaceful resistance by Mexican
Catholics, skirmishing took place in 1926; and violent uprisings began in 1927.[1] The
rebels called themselves Cristeros, invoking the name of Jesus Christ under
the title of "Cristo Rey" or Christ
the King. The rebellion is known for the women who assisted the rebels in smuggling
guns and ammunition and for certain priests who were tortured and murdered in
public and later canonized by Pope John Paul II.
The Catholic Church has recognized several of
those killed in the Cristero rebellion as martyrs, including the Blessed Miguel Pro(SJ), who was executed by
firing squad on 23 November 1927—without a trial—on trumped-up charges of
involvement in an assassination attempt against former President Álvaro
Obregón but in actuality for his
priestly activities in defiance of the government.[46][47][48][49][50][51] His beatification occurred
in 1988... Wikipedia, Cristero War
'Cocol'
...While exercising his secret ministry as a priest, Father Pro
signed many of his letters "Cocol." As a child, he once had a bad
fall which knocked him senseless. When he came to, seeing the worried faces of
his parents, he immediately asked for some cocol, his favorite type of Mexican
sweet bread. Because of this, he acquired the nickname "Cocol." When
he signed his letters this way as a priest in hiding, it reminded people not
only of the delicious treat, but also of the living bread of the Eucharist.
"Ave and good evenin’ to ye, Father.
Seems to me ye’ve changed a wee bit."
Seems to me ye’ve changed a wee bit."
- Blessed Miguel Pro Heroic Mexican Martyr contains his biography taken from Ann Ball's works as well as a chaplet and several photographs. This is part of a larger work dedicated to Catholic Saints.
- Fr. Pro’s Funeral
Thousands accompanied Fr. Pro at his funeral...
Bd.Miguel Pro SJ in Nicaragua
These photos, made inNicaragua
Sacred Heart of Jesus we trust in You
These photos, made in
Sacred Heart of Jesus we trust in You
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