Today is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. But when 31 May falls on a Saturday and that Saturday is within the Octave of the first very Novena between Ascension and Pentecost, there's some overlaps in the pre-55 calendar that include rare Marian feasts today…a thread:
— Fr. Dave Nix (@FrDaveNix) May 31, 2025
Month: May 2025
Blessed Feast of the Maid of Orleans! “Act, and God will act.”
Saint Joan of Arc was burned alive 594 years ago today. Her words upon being fastened to the stake:
“Hold the Cross high, that I may see it through the flames.”
She was 19 years old. I’m honored to have her as my birthday saint.
Convicted of heresy by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a legitimate prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, along with a bench of corrupt judges. After being burned alive at Rouen, 30 May, 1431, they scattered and drowned her remains, so that she wouldn’t be venerated.
You will find no heresy within her. Her words speak to us today.
“About Jesus Christ and the Church, I just know they are one in the same thing.”
“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe. But to surrender who you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying – even more terrible than dying young.”
In response to the trick question as to whether she was in the state of grace: “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.”
“It is better to be alone with God. His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. In His strength, I will dare and dare and dare until I die.”
“You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.”
“Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.”
“Go forward bravely. Fear nothing. Trust in God; all will be well.”
“All battles are first won or lost in the mind.”
“ACT, AND GOD WILL ACT.”
“I am not afraid, I was born to do this.”
Her sentence was reversed and annulled by the Church in 1455.
Beatified 11 April 1909. Canonized 16 May 1920.
St. Joan of Arc, ora pro nobis
Ascension Day: Sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life
(Originally posted in the midst of our captivity, May 21, 2020)
Happy feast!
“He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.”
Forty days after Easter, Our Lord ascended into Heaven, straight up into a cloud. The Ascension is mysterious for several reasons. For one thing, you would think such a startling sight would be described in great detail in the Gospels, but this isn’t the case. Matthew and John don’t even mention it. Luke speaks of it briefly at the end of his Gospel, and in more detail in Acts. Mark’s account is the Gospel reading at Mass today (1962), “He upbraided them…” It appears in the second half of the 16th and final chapter of Mark’s gospel, which is itself a mystery: Many ancient manuscripts are missing these last seven verses.
Another mystery are the events leading up to the Ascension. Namely, the events of the 40 days Our Lord remained, appearing several times in various ways, even eating and drinking with the apostles. The most complete rendering is in John; the Synoptic Gospels are all but silent. It strikes me akin to the very few words attributed directly to our Blessed Mother, and the total silence of her most chase spouse. Deepening this mystery is that John ends his Gospel by telling us there were countless other things that Jesus did that are not written down, and if they were, the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. Have you ever meditated on that?
Another mystery is the need for the upbraiding. These men saw more miracles than could fill books that could fill the world, yet they were still a wretched bunch of unbelievers, who needed one last ass-kicking before Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father? On the surface, not a very encouraging commentary on the state of man. This seems to tempt us to despair.
On the contrary!
In the Mysteries of the Rosary, the Ascension is the Second Glorious. The Fruit of the Mystery is HOPE, which is also the second Theological Virtue. Have you meditated on Hope? It’s not some sweet soothing Kathy, just wish all your troubles away, hush hush don’t cry, things will get better, sweetie. No.
Hope is rooted in the knowledge that God is not a jerk, that God keeps his promises, and that we can and should trust in Him. It is standing firm in your faith, grounded by right reason, knowing that God is in control. Hope goes beyond simply desiring some future good; hope is the desire for a future good accompanied by the expectation of attaining it. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07465b.htm
We are living through an unprecedented time in history. Don’t let your normalcy bias cloud current events. An antipope has usurped the Petrine See, and seemingly the whole Church doesn’t mind. We’ve seen the anti-church emerge and strut like a peacock… we are talking about open idol worship inside St. Peter’s, lead by the antipope… and it is allowed to pass. And now the entire world has been turned upside down in a matter of weeks. Entire empires are intentionally self-destructing over a mild virus, cheered on by their own citizenry, to the delight of the all the worst actor agitators, undergirded with communism and satanism.
All of this is converging with you in the middle of it. God chose you to be born into this age. What an absolute honor that is. We are called to action, through both spiritual warfare and concrete action in the natural realm. Act, and God will act. Act, grounded in faith, spurred by hope, intentioned with charity. We know how this ends: God wins, and He wants you on the winning team. Assume the bearing that victory is yours, and expect to attain it.
Blessed feast to all.
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who firmly believe that Thine only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, to have ascended this day into heaven, may also ourselves dwell in mind on heavenly things. – Collect, Feast of the Ascension
Bishop of Charlotte had hour-long meeting with Cardinal Prevost on April 1, held press conference May 8 to share the joyful news
(h/t KK in the combox)
Bishop Martin ‘thrilled’ about new Pope Leo XIV
CHARLOTTE — When Bishop Michael Martin met April 1 with Cardinal Robert Prevost in Rome, he had no idea he was sitting down to talk with a future pope.
On Thursday, Bishop Martin said he is thrilled that the Chicago-born cardinal – now known as Pope Leo XIV – had become the 267th pope. At a press conference at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in Charlotte, he called the election “a unique blessing” for Catholics worldwide and in the Diocese of Charlotte.
“I’m very surprised – I never would have dreamt that we would see a pope born in the United States in my lifetime,” Bishop Martin said. “I admit that as I was sitting there watching him walk out onto the loggia, I was very shocked. At the same time, I knew he had been considered, and at least in my dealings with him I felt he certainly had the qualifications for it and has had experiences in diverse parts of the world that allow him to bring to this position a unique blessing that I think we’re going to see very quickly.”
Bishop Martin’s meeting with Cardinal Prevost came in the pope’s former capacity as the Vatican’s head of the Dicastery for Bishops, the office that handles appointments of bishops worldwide. During the hour-long meeting, Bishop Martin said he gained a sense of the future pope’s personality as well as his deep knowledge of issues affecting the Church…
https://catholicnewsherald.com/90-news/local/11633-bishop-martin-welcomes-news-of-new-pope-leo-xiv
Venerable Bede, pray for us. “Unfurl the sails, and let God steer us where He will.”
What a punk
Prayers for the fallen and their families
“Prevost and Bergoglio used to meet for two hours every Saturday morning at Casa Santa Marta…”
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ivereigh-prevost-francis-pope-leo-austen
He was their man all along. He didn’t emerge as a surprise during the Conclave. He was hand picked ahead of time. We warned of this beforehand. Now this notorious blabbermouth Ivereigh cannot help himself but to rub your nose in it.
Do not despair. God is in charge. God wins.
Archbishop Viganò: “We cannot build for ourselves a “virtual church” with a “virtual papacy” that we love and serve in a consoling but unreal fiction.”
Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò @CarloMVigano
It is normal and humanly understandable that more than a decade of open persecution of Catholics by the one who presented himself as their Pope would lead many of us to desire a truce, hoping that Our Lord would give His Church – if not a new Pius X – at least another Benedict XVI.
But this legitimate desire – certainly animated by good feelings and love for the Church – cannot transform itself into a virtual reality in which, even against all evidence, everything must necessarily be read as a confirmation of what we would like, and not of what is really happening. We cannot build for ourselves a “virtual church” with a “virtual papacy” that we love and serve in a consoling but unreal fiction.
The confirmation of a notorious heretic to the Cathedra of Saint Gallen in Switzerland; the appointment of a nun as Secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, in line with the appointment of a Prefectess by Bergoglio; the repeated references to the heretical documents of his predecessor and to Vatican II; the declarations on ecumenism and synodality, and finally the acceptance of climate fraud; all place Robert Francis Prevost in evident and disturbing continuity with his predecessor, and it will certainly not be the stole and mozzetta that will change reality.
May looking at reality with supernatural eyes help us to recognize the deceptions of the Evil One and push us, today more than ever, to place all our hope in Christ the King and Pontiff, so that He may help and protect His Church. May He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life be our guide in a rebellious world doomed to perdition, lies, and death.
They/Them mental patient in charge of St Louis tornado sirens fails to push the button, five people dead
The head of the City Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) in St. Louis has been suspended pending an investigation into into why tornado sirens did not sound before an EF-3 tornado hit parts of Central West End and North City last week. A physical button must be pushed by officials at the CEMA office in order to activate warning sirens; this was never done. Five people died when the storm struck.
Sarah Russell, (a biological woman) who identifies as transgender and goes by they/them pronouns, was promoted to the CEMA leadership position in 2022 in the midst of the widespread DEI hiring blitz within Democrat run cities across the US. CEMA is a local partner organization to FEMA.
CEMA staff, including Russell, were at a workshop on Market Street and not at the CEMA office located on Olive, where the siren activation button is located. The Mayor’s office said Russell contacted the fire department, apparently at the time the tornado was approaching the city. City officials say there was then a breakdown in communication, with the directive to activate the sirens being vague.
Why didn’t Russel go to the office to set off the alarm herself? This is not known but the two locations are approximately four blocks away – A very short distance.
In April of 2024, Russell’s office received a $3.9 million grant to improve the siren system in St. Louis which she said needed to be updated. This included adding multiple languages to alarm PSAs, such as Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi, Swahili, Bosnian and Dari/Patscho. However, no amount of siren improvements will matter if no one is there to push the button…
Graphic footage, language warning: