Tag Archives: Saints

2024-04-23 · 6:30 am

Repost! More on Saint George, Dragon Slayer

saint george stained glass window

This was posted five years ago [now seven years in 2024]. A good day to bring this to light once again. Outside of Saint Philomena – the veracity of whose existence as a virgin and martyr of the early Church has recently been sustained by exhaustive scientific evaluations of the evidence – outside of her… there is perhaps no saint more scorned as being no more than a figment of pious imagination than Saint George, who, however, boasts of more archaeological and historical evidence than most any other saint in the history not only of the early Church, but for some lesser known saints, right into our own day. Churches dedicated to Saint George sprang up in their dozens throughout the ancient world immediately after news of his martyrdom on 23 April 303.

Liberal warning: The most obnoxious denial of the existence of Saint George that I’ve come across comes from a super liberal professor of “ecumenism” (which I put in quotes because he had no idea what true ecumenism is). Many of my fellow priests today have had Father XXX as a professor in the various countries, seminaries and universities where he’s misled people. He had the idea that Saint George couldn’t possibly have existed because of the iconography of him slaying a dragon. This priest-professor’s arrogant idea was that we’re very smart today, and people of the past were so very gullible and stupid. He laughed his nervous, cowardly, mocking laugh when I tried to explain a few things about the iconography:

  • Those in the first centuries, who were suffering under the severe persecutions of the dragon of the Apocalypse, namely, the possessed-by-Satan pre-Constantinian Roman Empire, understood the dragon to be the Roman Empire. Even so, such depictions only came later, but for this very reason.
  • The white horse, similarly, is the white horse of the Apocalypse 6:2, whose rider goes out conquering and to further his conquering.
  • In the early fourth century, after George was martyred, it is interesting to note that all martyrs in the Montefiascone/Bolsano region of Tuscany, whether male or female, with no regard to how they met their deaths, were all depicted as riding on the white horse of the Apocalypse.
  • The woman who is to be saved in the background of some Renaissance paintings is, similarly, Holy Mother Church, who is represented by her saints.
  • The point of all this wonderful triumphalism in the iconography is not that Saint George or the other martyrs successfully fought their way out of being martyred. The point is not that they slew the dragon by, for instance, assassinating the Emperor of the time. It’s that they conquered the demonically controlled world by witnessing to Christ Jesus’ goodness and kindness and truth right unto their deaths, so hated is goodness and kindness and truth by the demonically controlled world. Saint George and the other martyrs slew the dragon by continuing in faithfulness while being slain.
  • By the way, the dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan, of Genesis 2:4-3:24, is, in the ancient usage of the word, an Oracle from God on behalf of man, a spirit, an angel, now a fallen angel. There are no talking snakes in Genesis. We’re talking about Satan here. The ancients knew this. Why is it that we don’t in all our clever self-congratulation?

None of this – or the archaeological proofs – made any impression on the super-liberal priest to whom I was speaking, for the last thing he wanted to hear was faithfulness to the Church unto death. That’s not what his own life was about. He was against all doctrine, all morality, all Sacred Revelation. Since he couldn’t answer in any reasonable way, he merely laughed his nervous, cowardly, mocking laugh once again. I was to see the “spirit” of that priest in so many other priests throughout my whole priesthood. Such adversity is an occasion by which friendship with Christ Jesus and the Saints can flourish.

saint george icon

This icon was given to me by Cardinal […]. It’s from the Mount Zion crowd just outside the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. There is great devotion to Saint George in Palestine until today, with about every third boy being named after Saint George.

George’s father, Gerontius, was well known to the Emperor Diocletian as one of his very best soldiers. When Gerontius’ son George applied to Diocletian to be in the military service of the Emperor, Diocletian quickly made him part of the Imperial Guard and gave him the rank of Tribune. These positions taken together made young George, perhaps in his early twenties, almost as powerful as the Emperor himself. Very few people would have ever had such power, both military and political, and at such a young age. George was an instant phenomenon. Everyone would have known exactly who he was in the entire ancient world.

saint george martyrdom

Diocletian was persuaded by the might-makes-right Galerius to have all his soldiers offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. George, with the zeal of the saints, loudly and with great reason proclaimed his worship of Christ Jesus, so that he couldn’t possibly offer sacrifice to any Roman gods. Diocletian, distraught – for he had never intended this – offered George all sorts of bribes, all of which were scorned by our Saint. Diocletian then set out to make an example of him, first attaching him to a wheel of swords and then having him decapitated.

Saint George and Saint Michael the Archangel sometimes meld into one presentation with wings being granted to Saint George on his white horse. That’s O.K. I’m sure they were great friends!

By the way, George is the Name of God the Father: ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ γεωργός ἐστιν (John 15:1). “My Father is George.” O.K., so, a pedantic translation would be “My Father is the Farmer” or “My Father is the Tiller of the Ground.” Some translations have “Vinedresser.” Truth be told, it’s γεωργός, that is, George!

Just to be insistent about this: “Adam” means “Tiller of the Ground.” “Adam” = “George.” Jesus is the New Adam. Jesus is the New George. Yours truly is merely the old George, the old Adam. But Christ has conquered and goes out to conquer still. Thanks be to God our Father that Jesus sets about slaying me so that, dead to myself, I live for Him alone. Yikes!

keep calm and slay dragons

By the way, my parish, which takes in the most outrageously beautiful mountains of the Great Smoky Mountains, boasts, of course, of being at one end of “The Dragon’s Tail”, which is an extremely dangerous curvy road that every motorcycle enthusiast in North America loves to ride. They all come here! There are hotels just for two-wheelers throughout the area. There are all sort of motorcycle fix-it shops. I invite all cyclers to to make a weekend of this, slaying the dragon by the tail, and stopping in for Mass at 8:30 Sunday morning at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Robbinsville, NC, or 11:00 Mass Sunday morning at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Andrews, N.C. If you’re not afraid of heights or gravel roads, come to Andrews from Robbinsville over Tatham Gap Road. If you’ve never once said “Yikes!” in your life, you will when you ride this one. I say that in solidarity, as most all my broken bones in life (really very many) have come from riding on two wheels with a motor.

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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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2024-01-19 · 8:47 am

[“Pinned” post: scroll down for newer posts] Sister Lucia of Fatima’s future miracle for “Aussie Mum” aka Yvonne Cheryl Ann

Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Sister Lucia

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly and I thank you for the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, that revealed to the world the riches of her Immaculate Heart. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I implore You, if it should be for Your greater glory and the good of our souls, to glorify Sr. Lucy, one of the Shepherds of Fatima, by granting us the grace which we implore through her intercession, the miraculous healing of Yvonne Cheryl Ann. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.”

With Ecclesiastical approval

Continue reading →

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2023-12-27 · 10:30 am

“BUTCHERS!” – Jesus to Padre Pio about evil priests offering Holy Mass. Is it about Mary?

Not over two minutes. To me, entirely devastating: 2’30” to 4’20”

  • “BUTCHERS!” exclaimed Jesus, referring to evil priests and the offering of Holy Mass
  • “Jesus continued to talk but I may never reveal what He said.”

I don’t think that stops me from asking questions about “BUTCHERS!” and Pio saying nothing more..

  • Was all the sacrilege of any priest offering Holy Mass in mortal sin a springboard, as it were, for Jesus to repeat/expand upon the content of the not-yet-revealed explanation of the third secret of Fatima, which revelation must involve the Supreme Pontiff? Perhaps.
  • Does this refer to what Father Michel prophesies/speculates will happen soon, viz., the butchering of the words of the consecrations at Mass so as to make them more inclusive for female and trans priests, or to be more inclusive of Demon Pachamama (mother-earth) or other child-butchering demons? Perhaps.

In listening to this video the first time through, it instantaneously struck me, to the very core of my being, as if I were immediately dragged rather violently very close to the Heart of Jesus, so that with Jesus I felt an overwhelming indignation and concern (in my own small, dark, nothing manner, sinner that I am)…. concern for the Immaculate Heart of His dearest dear Mother. Those BUTCHERS! I exclaim with Jesus… with the BUTCHERS referring to those who, by their outrages, sacrileges and indifference offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary, causing her very soul to be pierced through… BUTCHERED!

Jesus is BUTCHERED, but what hurts Him the most is seeing His dear Mother offended by what’s happening to Him. Every ripping of His flesh in the scourging is felt by her maternal solicitude, every thorn in His brow, the nails in hands and feet, the soldier’s sword through His Heart.

Jesus does not care for Himself; His exclamation in anger about such priests – BUTCHERS! – refers to how they are BUTCHERING the Immaculate Heart and Soul of His dear Mother.

I suspect that if my questions and speculations have anything whatsoever to do with Jesus’ comments to Padre Pio, it may be, on the one hand, that Jesus forbade Pio to speak of His Mother, in the sense that those who already know of such love between the Two Hearts already know all of this and more, while those who do not know of such love between the Two Hearts could not possibly be open to receiving such an explanation until they would already be reconciled… in which case they would come to know this forthwith. But on the other hand, Padre Pio saying that he may never speak of this may refer to his own heart being so broken over such love between the Two Hearts – with the ringing condemnation of BUTCHERS! resounding through the universe – that he simply could not bring himself to write of such matters. Where to start? Dearest Pio was surely overwhelmed.

I dread to publish this post, as I imagine that it would seem flippant, not well thought out, insufficient, not expressive enough of the indignation of Jesus, an escape from the real horrors presented to the Immaculate Heart which I am way, way, way too weak to look at even for a moment.

Meanwhile, having said that, wicked, wicked, wicked as I am, I must get myself back to the series on The Two Hearts Rosary. This post, for instance, would make up some of the commentary for the fourth Joyful Mystery, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Remember what Anna and Simeon said? Jesus summarized their words in just one word: BUTCHERS!

Pray that priests and bishops are always in solidarity with Jesus in solidarity with Mary in solidarity with us. That’s how you can be in solidarity with Mary in solidarity with Jesus in solidarity with us. That’s how you can be John, returning to Calvary. Hail Mary…

Just to say, after the acceleration of the Great Apostasy which we saw with Fiducia supplicans and all the scandal and reception of scandal that such execration brings in its wake, it is such exclamations of Jesus – BUTCHERS! – which so drag me – unprepared as I am – onto Calvary. In my weakness, it is exhausting, however enthralling to be with Jesus in His concern for His dear Mother.

Not being able to sleep last night, tossing and turning… miraculously, the phone rang. It was a great priest friend, always direct and to the point, in-your-face in every way, like he was ordered by his guardian angel to call me up to reprimand me. He said we cannot be down in these circumstances in the history of salvation; we must be joyful, going into battle with enthusiasm, because that’s what the saints did. And he listed a cohort of saints who would surely help me. And then he wished me a Merry Christmas and hung up. I love the Church.

But listening to those letters of Padre Pio once again in that video above… I remain even more devastated… not that that’s a bad thing, not at all…

“Love the blessed Virgin and make her loved. Say the Holy Rosary.” – Padre Pio

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2023-03-28 · 8:08 am

Saint Pio on the Three Days of Darkness? Yep.

There’s been ongoing controversy about the authenticity of alleged writings of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina regarding the oft prophesied three days of darkness:

  • Is there anything in the archives of Franciscans?
    • The higher-ups of the Franciscans say there is not, although, sorry, with their treatment of Padre Pio himself I gotta kinda at least wonder about that.
  • Is there anything in the various multitudinous archives of the Holy See, particularly the correspondence archives of the Supreme Pontiff?
    • They say not, although, with their obfuscation about the third secret of Fatima I gotta kinda at least wonder about that. Perhaps it all hits to close to home about a Supreme Pontiff future to Padre Pio. Just sayin’.
  • Did Padre Pio truly make offhand, oral comments about some of the not yet entirely approved apparitions in San Sebastián de Garabandal to this or that person?
    • Perhaps. I wasn’t there. Many have made similar claims for a multitude of topics that go against all that is Catholic. This kind of thing happens all the time. But, perhaps. I simply don’t know.

So, side stepping all that, let’s instead do the unexpected and take a look at the two parts of an indisputably authentic and also famous saying of Padre Pio:

  • “Il mondo potrebbe stare anche senza il sole, ma non può stare senza la santa Messa.”
    • “The world might be able to survive even without the sun, but it is not able to survive without the Holy Mass.”

When I first heard that saying, immature me, I was rejoicing in the emphasis on the importance of Holy Mass, agreeing that this is not hyperbole but the plain truth, absolutely, and yet I was in fact treating it all as hyperbole in not taking the elements of the comparison seriously. A re-examination of this aphorism of Padre Pio is in order.

Let’s see if there’s anything in Sacred Scripture about the world perhaps surviving somewhat even without the sun, along with a reference specifically to three days of darkness:

  • Exodus 10:21-23 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt – darkness that can be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or move about for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.”
    • Ezekiel 32:4-8 [against symbolic “Egypt”] “I will abandon you on the land and hurl you into the open field. I will cause all the birds of the air to settle upon you, and all the beasts of the earth to eat their fill of you. I will put your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains. I will drench the land with the flow of your blood, all the way to the mountains – the ravines will be filled. When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you, and I will bring darkness upon your land.”
  • Matthew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
  • Acts of the Apostles 2 citing Joel 2 “I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be violently transformed to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
  • Revelation 6:12 “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red.”

And there are so many other passages. But is there anything about the daily Sacrifice being taken away, perhaps with a specific reference to the three days of darkness?

  • Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

And then, we have to mention Daniel. This opens up a whole other discussion for other posts, but I include it here because it speaks to the taking away of the Daily Sacrifice. Since this refers to a period of time between the Last Supper and the end of the world, we’re talking about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

  • Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the Daily Sacrifice shall be taken away and the desolating abomination is caused to be set up there shall be 1,290 days.”

In other words, Padre Pio’s saying is entirely Scriptural in origin. The question is, would he say this entirely for the sake of hyperbole to emphasize the importance of Holy Mass? Surely, also that. But Padre Pio has much gravitas. While hyperbole can be a legitimate rhetorical device, he himself is filled with the realities of our Lord Jesus’ Sacrifice, with all of the justice, all of the mercy, the weight of the eternal consequences for souls.

Whatever one thinks about the mystics, as they are called, we are to deepen our investigations into Sacred Scripture, right? Thanks Padre Pio. Sorry it took me so long to catch on to what you were doing with this saying.

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2022-12-01 · 8:30 am

What do these greatest of saints have in common? The beatitudes!

  • Saint Gerard Majella – CSsR
  • Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney – Curé d’Ars
  • Saint Pio – Francesco Forgione, OFM Cap

Moreover, what of that filthy criminal Jesus! As we read on the sign Pilate is holding up, Jesus is guilty for having been accused…

  • … of being Jesus [which name means Savior, specifically not salvation by the State, perceived by the State to be an insult to them]…
  • … from Nazareth [a rebellious jurisdiction, so, guilt by association]…
  • … King [not sanctioned by Caesar and thus a direct threat to State]…
  • … of the Jews, the Judah-ites [now speaking to the jurisdiction of Pontius Pilate]…

And while all of that sounds political and makes it seem that Jesus was guilty of political inconvenience, what’s really going on here is that the State is nervous about the goodness and kindness of Jesus, nervous that He is Truth Incarnate.

Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

Meanwhile, Jesus gives us a faith stronger than our death, strong enough to bring us to heaven. And that is our hope. Thank you, Jesus, for showing us how to do it right. Thank you for uniting us to yourself. Thank you for raising up the saints. Let us rejoice and be glad and leap for joy.

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2022-09-23 · 10:17 am

When Padre Pio met Saint Michael. When Father Byers knew nothing at all.

elijah judas tree

Elijah with the flaming fiery sword on Mount Carmel, Israel.

[[It’s 2022. This was written now thirteen years ago. It’s Padre Pio’s feast day. /// BTW, today marks 28 years in prison of Father Gordon MacRae. Hail Mary… Saint Michael the Archangel… ]

You can read things dozens of times over the years and just not “get it” at all. That’s me. But this year when I read the following letter of Padre Pio, I was mesmerized. I now know a bit more just how much I absolutely don’t know anything about the spiritual life. I have written academically about that of which he speaks, the flaming sword wielded by the angels at the end of Genesis 3. The suffering I went through to accomplish the academic feat on a level of historical philology, involving many, many years of library rat-ness, not REsearch but rather original hard work, agony, really, is nothing at all compared to what Padre Pio understood in an instant by experiencing personally this fiery sword which I have only come to know academically. I am, to date, the only one to have accomplished this academic feat through the centuries, through the millennia. I’m pretty proud of it – and that’s a sin – and I am trying to get over it. It helps to have come to know someone who was alive in my lifetime who experienced precisely, personally, exactly what I described on a merely academic level.

I am vindicated by Padre Pio’s experience. At the same time, on a spiritual level, well, I am thrust to the ground in deep humiliation, for I obviously know nothing of the spiritual life. But at least I know that I know nothing. These days, that’s something. And it’s way more than enough to ask for this great saint’s help. Apologies are given in advance for the inadequacy of [my comments] below. You can see from my Coat of Arms (thanks to Elizdelphi! No words on the banner yet) that I am grateful to have written about the sword of which Padre Pio speaks…

GEORGE DAVID BYERS - COAT OF ARMS - revision

From the Letters of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, priest (Epist. I, 1065; 1093-1095)

I will raise my voice and will not stop imploring him

“Out of obedience I am obliged to manifest to you [obviously, his religious superior] what happened to me on the evening of the 5th of this month of August 1918 [Vigil of the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus] and all day on the 6th [Feast of the Transfiguration].

cherub-sword-eden

“I am quite unable to convey to you what occurred during this period of utter torment. While I was hearing the boys’ confessions on the evening of the 5th [making them saints!], I was suddenly terrorized by the sight of a celestial person [an angel] who presented himself to my mind’s eye [So, not an apparition, but entirely spiritual. People think angels are all fluffy chiffon pastels and cute. Pio speaks of torment and terror, and this angel is from heaven!]. He had in his hand a sort of weapon [“weapon”] like a very long sharp-pointed steel blade which seemed to emit fire. [This is the sword mentioned in Genesis 3:24. My academic, pedantic translation of this three-fold double-reverse verb is this in context: it is the sword which “turns-into-its-contrary-by-way-of-the-fiery-grace-of-enmity-against-Satan-and-by-way-of-friendship-with-God-whatever-is-presented-to-it.” Thus, if we were to try to grasp at the fruit of the Tree of the Living Ones, the work of this sword, of this grace, wielded by the angels, would turn that, with our assent, into humbly receiving the Fruit of the Tree of the Living Ones, that is, the Eucharist. This is also the sword with which the Carmelites depict Elijah. See their fiery coat of arms below. This is also the sword mentioned by Teresa of Avila. This is pre-eminently the sword of Saint Michael…] At the very instant that I saw all this, I saw that person hurl the weapon into my soul with all his might. [Seeing that such an angel could crush the entire universe if given permission from the Most High, this is saying really a lot…] I cried out with difficulty and felt I was dying. I asked the boys to leave because I felt ill and no longer had the strength to continue. [What an understatement of all time. They must have been scared for him.] This agony lasted uninterruptedly until the morning of the 7th. I cannot tell you how much I suffered during this period of anguish. Even my entrails were torn and ruptured by the weapon, [“weapon”] and nothing was spared. [“nothing” – and here I try to hang on to this and that. And in doing that I am totally lacking in generosity. I’ve done nothing in my life. I’ve not laid down my life as so many have done. Pio is going through his purgatory all at once, 40 some hours for him, and much more than any purgatory: he is bringing souls to heaven by his life becoming an intercession for all of us. What would I do, I who surely have a purgatory lasting until the end of time?]

discalced-carmelite-coat-of-arms

Elijah’s fiery sword on the Discalced Carmelite Coat of Arms

“From that day on I have been mortally wounded. [“mortally wounded…” And this is no longer his wound, but that of humanity, with Pio now being in solidarity with Jesus on the Cross even as Jesus is in solidarity with us, loving us while we are yet sinners, drawing all to Himself as He is lifted up on the Cross. And we watch with Him…] I feel in the depths of my soul a wound that is always open and which causes me continual agony. What can I tell you in answer to your questions regarding my crucifixion? My God! What embarrassment and humiliation I suffer by being obliged to explain what you have done to this wretched creature! [For we do nothing to save ourselves. Jesus is our Savior. We come to realize this. We are nothing. He is all. He shows us what He has saved us from, and not just us, me, but we see how He has saved all of us as we gain some heightened perspective on the cross.]

padre-pio-stigmata

“On the morning of the 20th of last month [two weeks later], in the choir [making the traditional thanksgiving prayers after Mass], after I had celebrated Mass I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep. All the internal and external senses and even the very faculties of my soul were immersed in indescribable stillness. Absolute silence surrounded and invaded me. I was suddenly filled with great peace and abandonment which effaced everything else and caused a lull in the turmoil. All this happened in a flash. While this was taking place I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of August 5th. [We entertain angels and even the Son of Man and do not know it. How much the angels reflect the Son of Man! And the fiery love of God, issuing from the throne of the Most High, from the Heart of Him who loves us so much, is just that fierce on that sword which transforms us utterly in God’s love.] The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. This sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should die and really should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. [We are utterly weak. It is all Jesus.] The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood. Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. [He speaks also and especially of his embarrassment, for he, as all of us from Adam until the last man is conceived, caused those wounds in our Lord. How is it that he, Pio, or any of us could share such wounds of love for all those Jesus has redeemed and wills to save?] The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday.

PADRE PIO SEAL OF CONFESSION

Padre Pio reprimanding the Bishop about the Seal of Confession.

“Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel deep in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition. Will Jesus, who is so good, grant me this grace? Will he at least free me from the embarrassment caused by these outward signs? [The embarrassment, mind you, is more than enough to end his life on this earth.] I will raise my voice and will not stop imploring him until in his mercy he takes away, not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation. The person of whom I spoke in a previous letter is none other than the one I mentioned having seen on August 5th. He continues his work incessantly, causing me extreme spiritual agony. There is a continual rumbling within me like the gushing of blood. [This Hebrew description of this sword in Genesis 3:24 (which I think I am the very first to translate pedantically, as it really is just that difficult), the sword which the angel is mashing around inside Pio is variously and wrongly translated as the twirling sword, the sword which moves about this way and that, etc., is, instead, again, “the sword which causes that which is presented to it to be transformed into its contrary.” Again, we are not to grasp arrogantly for the Fruit from the Tree of the Living Ones, though we can humbly receive its Fruit (the Eucharist from the Cross).] My God! Your punishment is just and your judgment right, but grant me your mercy. Lord, with your Prophet I shall continue to repeat: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not punish me in your rage! Dear Father, now that my whole interior state is known to you, do not refuse to send me a word of comfort in the midst of such severe and harsh suffering.” [If it were I who had to respond to such a religious superior, knowing I know nothing, but despite that, I would say that in our very reception of mercy we must show mercy to the rest of the members of the Body of Christ, those whom Jesus has redeemed and wills to save. Our suffering is occasioned by the lack of others, lack of faith, etc., but it is not their cross we carry, but instead we come to know what we would be like if we ourselves were to be without the grace of our Lord and therefore our own lack of faith, etc…. and our remaining in friendship by the grace of God in such horrific circumstances acts as an intercession for those who are truly without faith, etc. This is drawing all to Christ on the cross in solidarity with Jesus, who does this by His grace. He, the Head of the Body does this, but we are members of that Body and we are with Him. Jesus said that He would draw all to Himself when He is lifted up (on the Cross). If we only knew! If we only knew! Now Pio had his eyes opened, his soul torn open, his hands and feet and heart torn open. But it’s all Jesus. Jesus’ love taking on our lack. Embarrassing to us? Yes. And we run away. Pio couldn’t run any more. The angel presented himself, and, fiercely raising his weapon of God’s love… I know nothing. Saint Pio: help this donkey-priest to come to know Jesus! Help all of us priests! Help all whom Jesus wants to transform in His love!]

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2022-09-16 · 3:05 am

Martyrological exercise for you

The Roman Martyrology was/is read in community or in private by the more liturgically minded amongst us. It’s a daily reminder of those saints assigned to any given day, regardless of whether they are assigned liturgical texts at Holy Mass or in the Roman Breviary. There are many more saints per day, of course, than we otherwise hear about. And, of course, there are “the many” who (eventually) make it to heaven without having received any honorable mention here upon earth.

Googling this, I immediately found a PDF edition from 1914, which was scanned in from the library of the Institute for Mediaeval Studies. Here’s a page for the 25th of February. That’s my birthday. Quite the violent day:

And here are parts of two pages for the 13th of March, a Sunday in 1960, which is the day I was baptized, again, quite the violent day in the history of the Church:

It’s as one might expect for a martyrology for the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church, wherein the rule is: “As the Master, so the disciple.” That’s a great encouragement for our times. That’s the point. Those saints want us to join them in heaven, thanking and praising the Most Holy Trinity. Both “Yikes!” and God given joy to be the companions of so great a cloud of witnesses.

Should you want to be introduced in like fashion to this encouragement, here’s the link to the PDF:

http://www.saintsbooks.net/books/The%20Roman%20Martyrology%20(1914).pdf

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2022-08-01 · 11:05 am

Homily: *That* Sinful Woman

  • Is she the woman criticized in thoughts of Simon?
  • Is she Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus?
  • Is she the Mary criticized by Judas?
  • Is she Mary of Magdala from whom Jesus cast seven demons?
  • Is she all of us, you know, as “The Penitent”

My homilies are always me just thinking out loud. That’s a sin of complacency and pride. I try to console myself that in preaching I’m trying to impart, not so much correct academics (that would be appropriate and I desire to do that), but more the greatness of the forgiveness of sin, of my sin and yours, and the humble thanksgiving, in joy, which goes along with that, whatever the Gospel happens to be, and having that lead us into the Most Holy Sacrifice.

I rejoice that, because of the mandate from Jesus to us priests to preach, we who are necessarily inept in so many ways, it is the Holy Spirit who is going to get across the message He wants for this soul and that. Unless the priest seriously gets in the way, this is also true of any brief word of encouragement that the priest has for a penitent in the confessional. That shouldn’t make the priest complacent, but it is a consolation.

You know what’s in someone’s heart and soul when they think out loud. There’s a specific grace that “accompanies” one who is mandated to preach, a grace to purify heart and soul and mind and lips, that same grace available to Isaiah when he was called by God Most High to preach. Don’t get me wrong. That grace also acts as an incrimination if it is not taken up.

I fail in that I don’t much study what I should, and if I ever did study, that’s likely decades ago and my memory is not what it once was. Forgive me. I don’t want to be complacent. My academics may be wrong on this point or that – and I know plenty of priests who get highly emotional about this topic of the identity of Mary of Magdala and who don’t hesitate to smack me down on one side or the other. Be that as it is, my response is said with utter simplicity, pointing to the one thing necessary:

We are all called to be “The Penitent.” We will all of us together look upon Him who we have all pierced through.

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2022-05-21 · 8:04 am

Parish audited! Good experience.

Such days of distraction we’ve had, however necessary such an essential service is as provided by the diocese. All the parishes are supposed to be audited every few years or when a pastor is transferred. I doubt that I’ll be transferred out of this, my most favorite of all parishes. But we’re way out of date for any audits, both because of some diocesan planning logistics and because we’re about as far away from the Chancery as one can possibly get in these back-sides-of-the-back-ridges of beautiful Western North Carolina. But now we’re up to date and good to go for another few years.

It was quite the eye-opener for our auditor, the actual Director of Internal Audits, you know, our smallest of all parishes as compared to the big city parishes. Most of the audit inquiries were entirely irrelevant in our tiny parish, such as what kind of compensation oversight did we have for oversight teams for hiring third-party oversight teams for whatever project teams we might have, for instance, in creating oversight teams for oversight teams. Sorry, just a bit of humor there. ;-) But you get the idea. Some things are relevant only to the mega-big-city-parishes. Having grown up with wolves and moose in the North Woods of Minnesota, I’m so happy to be waaay out in here in the State and National Forests.

Our patron saint to whom we pray at the opening of our Finance Council meetings in the parish is Saint Turibio, a Mexican priest, a Cristero martyr, who the day and night before he was murdered took his horse from parish to parish to parish to get all the books in order! I’m impressed.

I bother to make this a post on this blog for the sake of encouraging good vocations to the priesthood who are going to be squeaky clean regarding finances. You cannot serve both God and mammon. Don’t be scandalized by all the scandal. You just do what is right. And that’s already its own reward. You are free of the darkness, free to serve Jesus with one’s whole mind, soul, heart, strength. A joy.

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