Tag Archives: Martyrs

2024-04-23 · 6:08 am

Repost! It was “Sts George & Philomena are fake!” Now it’s “Jesus and Mary are fake!”

There is no other saint I know of who is more archeologically established than Saint George. We have found the ruins of early centuries church buildings built in his honor at the very time of his death throughout the still anti-Catholic Roman Empire, from throughout Europe to throughout the Near and Middle East and everything in between.

Saint George is trashed because of Renaissance paintings of Saint George on a white horse slaying a dragon so as to save a maiden. “All fiction!” it is shrieked. “Don’t be a martyr! Be a man-of-consensus with the world!” That’s the brow-beating, bullying insistence which the soft and self-absorbed readily accept.

But the white horse is that of Jesus in the Apocalypse. In that Apocalypse the dragon is the great Serpent and Satan who is possessing the Caesars of the day. In that Apocalypse the maiden is the Church and the Mother of God. In the Apocalypse those who are killed in witness to Christ Jesus are the victors by their faithfulness right through death. The renaissance paintings are not original to those painters: They were merely representing frescoes in catacombs which depicted all martyrs like Saint George and at the time of Saint George in this fashion. Men who were martyred, women who were martyred, all depicted riding on white horses slaying the dragon, victorious over Satan by being faithful right through death.

Likewise, the virgin martyrs are dismissed as those to whom modern teenagers cannot relate. The first to be cancelled is Saint Philomena. In recent scientific studies, it is established absolutely that her catacomb stone reads: “Pax tecum Philomena” with no other possibility, and that the small glass vase found in that place contains the blood of a girl carbon-dated to the time of Philomena. Yep.

A priest working in the Holy See at the time I attended the presentations of these scientific studies actually hunted me down in Rome and insisted that it cannot be that I, a student at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, could promote the viability of placing Saint Philomena in the liturgical calendar once again. He was frantic, as if possessed. Yep.

The problem is both virginity and martyrdom, and martyrdom because of the virginity because of giving oneself over to Christ Jesus, to be “hidden with Christ in God” as Saint Paul says. We can’t have that today, shriek the inverted.

But that’s all years ago. Now what we have presented to us is that Jesus and His dear mother are irrelevant in every way. We must ignore them; we must obey the fallen world, we must worship Satan, Pachamama. Yep.

I will worship our Heavenly Father through, with, and in Jesus by the Holy Ghost and I will thank our dearest Immaculate Virgin Mary for interceding even for me as advocate, mediatrix, co-redemptrix. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Mary.

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2023-11-19 · 9:45 am

Strategy for speaking with wolves in a time of general apostasy

For the believer, the wolves in sheep’s clothing are entirely unhidden.

I recall a one-time prisoner of a certain communist country who spoke of his best-practices for undergoing interrogations for which he was periodically dragged out of solitary confinement. He was imprisoned for being religious. He said that:

  • Those who were ambiguous in their answers, wanting to please both God and Satan, would undergo torture until they became more fulsome in their answers, possibly dying by this torture.
  • Those, like himself, who immediately proclaimed to the fullness of their crimes, you know, of believing in God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, were quickly returned to their cells or otherwise dispatched.

God, who is Truth, is not appreciative of confusion. Confusion is not being astute, like a serpent, nor is it being innocent, like a dove. Confusion is ugly; it’s all about manipulation. No one likes being manipulated, not Satan, not God. And it’s just so obvious. Jesus said, He who acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. Is not being fulsome about Jesus tantamount to denying Jesus? He who denies me before men I will deny before my heavenly Father.

Where are we at in our spiritual lives? Are there any believers any more? Is anyone indignant that Jesus is maligned by the powers-that-be as being mere bubbly joy, always a Jesus who has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin because there is no sin, no commandments?

Does no one stand with, now, the merely one or two martyrs that we have? Are all afraid? Of what? The wolves? Pfft.

  • “Don’t be a fool, Father George! They can always hurt you more!”

Well, that’s true. They can always hurt you more. Terribly. Horrifically. But Christ’s love and truth are stronger, strong enough to bring us through torture and death, strong enough to bring us to heaven.

  • “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35-38).

We only have a short time in this world. Make each moment count. Every battle is the battle that may save someone’s soul. If you bypass the small battles, being prudent, you’ll never take on the big battles.

And if I rant on this kind of thing all the time it’s because I hear the opposite all the time from those who should know better, including some of my fellow priests.

Now is the time to be close to Jesus, to return to Calvary as did John. Now is the day of salvation.

There is nothing that speaks more of our faith in the living God than to go to Sacramental Confession.

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2021-03-15 · 8:13 am

Flowers for the Immaculate Conception (Red and White Martyrs, edition)

The trees next door to the rectory are exploding with flowers for the Immaculate Conception. I recall a certain martyr dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, who died in Auschwitz, who was once asked by our Lady which crown he should like to wear in heaven, the crown of purity (white) or the red crown of those who laid down their lives for others. He, Maximilian Kolbe, said: “Both”.

While searching for that picture above, I found a similar one, more realistic for the circumstances:

A bit more realistic. I talked to Father Gordon about this and his immediate response was that “People don’t like realism.” My answer was: “Well, in purgatory, it will get more realistic, and there’s no getting out of it.” He said: “People won’t like that either!”

Moral of the story: choose both and go straight to heaven. Do it for the Immaculate Conception. Flowers for you, dearest good mom of Jesus and us.

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2019-04-28 · 4:00 am

SRI LANKA, an Easter Octave later

sri lanka easter terror 2

Looks like just a bit of confusion, like “someone did something” above. So, let’s move in media res and get a better idea. You can’t fix something unless you know what it is.

sri lanka easter terror 3

Not good enough. Let’s make this more personal. Jesus, just now risen from the dead, having been ripped to shreds Himself, blood everywhere, walks in the midst, the blood of His followers all over Him, witnessing to their belief in life eternal. As the Master, so the disciple.

sri lanka easter terror

  • “Today, you will be with me in paradise,” He says.
  • “The death of His faithful ones is precious in the eyes of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:15)

As of 4/27/2019 there are at least 310 killed and 469 wounded. More die and are injured as raids take place and “collateral incidents” occur. Always increasing numbers of terrorists are arrested or killed, depending on circumstances. Innocents can unfortunately be in the way as terrorist cowards hide behind women and children.

ISIS has claimed responsibility, having sucked in the local Islamicist terrorist group, National Thowheed Jamath.

  • But almost no one will say that they are Islamicist terrorists or ISIS. They are just “some people who did something.”
  • But almost no one will say the word “Catholic” about so very many of the victims, innocent, including women and children, and yes, also men.

All the spooky groups were telling the crowd in Sri Lanka 17 days before it happened. But just as Sri Lanka has traitors in it’s government, so do we. No decision maker knew.

It’s personal to me because these are other members of the Body of Christ. That’s as personal as it gets.

But, just to say, I also have priest friends in Sri Lanka with whom I lived in Rome at various colleges for years of studies.

I’ve even had an interview about the liturgy with the Cardinal Archbishop, his Eminence Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don. He says he’s been told by the local Muslims that this wasn’t about anything Islamicist. “He says he’s been told…” Clever way of saying that. He says he has zero concern for the rebuilding of churches. He’s concerned about rebuilding lives. Good for him. Blessings upon them all.

I hope the perps convert and are forgiven. I hope the victims, if alive, can forgive. It will do them an eternity of good. We must pray for that: Hail Mary…

Having said all that, even on this Divine Mercy Sunday, my sentiment is also summed up by the Chinese University student at the time of the Boston Marathon Bombing Dun “Danny” Meng when he escaped and was interviewed by Police Officer Tommy Saunders. It was the last thing Dun said to Tommy: “Get those *************!” This isn’t a vengeance thing over against someone who has repented. No. The bombers were on their way to New York City to do up some more bombing, more killing, more terrorism. They weren’t going to stop until the were stopped. So, yeah: “Get those *************!”

Having said all that, none of that is inconsistent with this being Divine Mercy Sunday.

  • Jesus still calls us to be witnesses to His forgiveness should anyone want it.
  • Jesus still calls us to be witnesses unto death, giving all in Him.
  • Jesus still calls us to to pray that He have mercy on us and on the whole world. 

And to those cynics who condemn religion because God permitted such a thing to happen, look again. He took our place, the innocent for the guilty, so that He might have the right in His own justice to have mercy on us.

pieta

And… and… He’s risen from the dead. And He intends to have us rise from the dead for life eternal. Thank you, Jesus.

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2018-09-20 · 7:53 pm

Priest whistle blower to be canonized? Santo subito! Do it for vocations!

  • I’ve been weighted down with this since I saw it yesterday, and I’ve watched it many times.
  • I prayed for him, and now I’m praying to him.
  • The Diocese tried to discredit him by saying that he had a checkered history and that surely this was a suicide. Surely, a suicide: two bullets to the back of the head.
  • I find it interesting that the fax machine was taken. Who steals a fax machine and anything related to his being a whistle blower, except maybe the ones he’s blowing the whistle on? I bet the reporter who got the fax called the diocese for comment, was put off in some benign fashion, but later on received a threat to be silent and make the report disappear. When the reporter found out that Father Moreno was dead the reporter made sure to remain silent.

Thomas Aquinas says that the grace of final perseverance is not to be presumed, and that we should pray for this throughout our lives. Having considered that, now take a look at the grace that supports martyrs in their final moments while they persevere in giving witness to Christ no matter the cost, laying down their lives for their friends, the rest of us, which Jesus Himself says is the greatest demonstration of love that we can give. Such love covers a multitude of… of… checkered history or whatever. That’s why we say that martyrs go right to heaven. They were, in the moment of their deaths, at one with God who is love. It is the height of the grace of final perseverance.

His name is Father Joseph F. Moreno, Jr. It would be a great grace for the Church and the world if he were to be canonized.

SANTO SUBITO!

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