This is a great example of how the Divine Providence is always with us, always in charge, and always helpfully helpful. The faith of St. Thomas was so weak, it bordered on spite. And yet he became one of the greatest evangelists of the early Church.

Please join me in praying my Mass intention today, which is for all those who struggle with faith. Although faith is an infused virtue, and nature is perfected by grace, it can still be a mighty struggle for some. I pray for all the fallen away adult children, spouses and parents, and especially for anyone for whom the present chaos has driven them to the brink.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Virgin Most Powerful, pray for us.

St. Thomas, pray for us.

Notice anything strange in that graphic?

Anything?

Anything at all?

UPDATE: Across the transom…

WISDOM, strength, beauty

Mystical Rose! Happy feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She gives us hope in the midst of suffering. The thing about suffering is, she’s been there done that, and her response is our model. She really, really wants to help.

“It is impossible to measure the power and scope of her offices…she who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human salvation is just as closely associated with the distribution of the graces which for all time will flow from the Redemption. The power thus put into her hands is all but unlimited. How unerringly right, then, are Christian souls when they turn to Mary for help…”

Pope Leo XIII, Adiutricem, 5 Sept 1895, p.7-8 HERE

“When the supreme hour of the Son came, beside the Cross of Jesus there stood Mary His Mother, not merely occupied in contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her Only Son was offered for the salvation of mankind, and so entirely participating in His Passion, that if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all the torments that her Son bore. And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood.”

Pope St. Pius X, Ad diem illum, 2 Feb 1904, p.8 HERE

We pray for the gifts of grace, faith, hope, charity, and final perseverance. The suffering is there so that you can unite it to the Cross to better achieve these other things. This is because our suffering is actually part of the Passion.

To understand this, we again need to talk of time as a construct. Time was created by God; He exists outside of it, as we all will someday. Christ’s sacrifice on the Holy Cross, as the means of our redemption, was accomplished once and with infinite merit. Yet we travel back literally to the foot of the Cross at every Mass during the Roman Canon. Well, in a similar way, the Passion travels forward to our lives, wherein we share in that same Passion, and are called to respond appropriately in order to receive the graces which are also traveling forward.

Saint Paul writes about this concept in several places as our “completion” of the Passion; as “filling up what is lacking/wanting” in the Passion. He also speaks of knowing the “fellowship of His sufferings,” and “bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus,” and how “the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” So we are called to use the suffering as a tool to obtain the graces flowing forth from the Cross… applied forward in time when we take up OUR cross, our passion, in union with His. The theological term for this process is “Subjective Redemption,” and this is Our Mother’s specialty.

Pray on this the next time you’re in some serious pain, and call on Our Lady to help you through it. Call on her right now. She is watching and waiting, with a motherly gaze.

Have I mentioned that the Daily Rosary will change your life?

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church” Col 1:24 (Vulgate: Qui nunc gaudeo in passionibus pro vobis, et adimpleo ea quae desunt passionem Christi, in carne mea pro corpore ejus, quod est Ecclesia)

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death, If by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.” Phil 3:10-11

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us: so also by Christ doth our comfort abound.” 2 Cor 1:5

“In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are straitened, but are not destitute; We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we perish not: Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies.” 2 Cor 4:8-10

I was off the grid for a few days over the weekend, and I missed a pretty major announcement from Antipope Bergoglio:

While meeting with a group of Southeastern Jesuits in Bangkok last month, Pope Francis invited their questions. One stated that they had “divorced and remarried” Catholics in their communities and asked how they are to “behave pastorally with them.”

“I could answer you in two ways: in a casuistic way, which however is not Christian, even if it can be ecclesiastical; or according to the Magisterium of the Church as in the eighth chapter of Amoris Laetitia, that is, journey, accompany and discern to find solutions,” the pontiff replied. “And this has nothing to do with situation ethics, but with the great moral tradition of the Church.” HERE

Now, some questions for Trad Inc.:

If a true pope declares a thing to be “according to the Magisterium of the Church,” can he be overruled? Can anyone stand in judgment of a true pontiff? Isn’t a true pope in fact the ARBITER of whether or not a thing is “according to the Magisterium of the Church?”

Yet we know for certain that chapter eight of Amoris Laetitia CANNOT POSSIBLY be part of the Magisterium of the Church, don’t we? Because if it were part of the Magisterium of the Church, that would mean that Adultery, Fornication, and Cohabitation could in some cases be morally permissible, and even positively willed by God? (p298, p300, p301, footnote 339, p303, p305, footnote 351)

https://nonvenipacem.com/2016/04/19/sex-lies-and-videotape/

https://nonvenipacem.com/2016/04/13/al301-and-the-dogma-of-immutability/

https://nonvenipacem.com/2016/10/26/dear-francis-perhaps-the-kingdom-of-god-is-already-pretty-awesome-without-your-meddling-in-it/

Here is the juicy bit from paragraph 303, where poor souls are called to risk eternal damnation by discerning their own subjective culpability, because it is what God himself is asking:

Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal.

Do you pledge loyalty and submission to a man who proclaims objective mortal sin to be a moral good, willed by God? Do you submit? Are you in union with him? How is it that the Standard of Unity can also be the Vector of Schism?

Or just maybe it’s time to check your base premise. Remember the Ross Douthat interview of Cardinal Burke last month regarding heresy and demon worship coming out of the Amazonian Synod HERE, where ++Burke fell headlong into this error?

Burke: But what if the pope were to put his stamp on that document? People say if you don’t accept that, you’ll be in schism — and I maintain that I would not be in schism because the document contains elements that defect from the apostolic tradition. So my point would be the document is schismatic. I’m not.

Douthat: But how can that be possible? You’re effectively implying that the pope would be leading a schism.

Burke: Yes.

Whoops! If a true pope could lead a schism from the true Church, explain to me again how Christ isn’t a liar? How have the Petrine Promises not been broken, if this statement is true? How could any of the faithful have a moral duty to pledge unity and submission to a man or to an office which is capable of such monstrous error?

Douthat: Isn’t that a deep contradiction of how Catholics think about the office of the papacy?

Burke: Of course. Exactly. It’s a total contradiction. And I pray that this wouldn’t happen. And to be honest with you, I don’t know how to address such a situation. As far as I can see, there’s no mechanism in the universal law of the church to deal with such a situation.

So Bergoglio apparently has the power to violate the law of non-contradiction? That’s amazing. Do you see where a false base premise leads? You start out with this (false) thing that you think is true, you are sure of it. So sure of it, that you re willing to take any number of other known truths, even from scripture, and doubt their validity because their validity would violate the base falsity.

If Bergoglio is true pope, you are bound to submit to heresy, in order to be in union with him, in order to be saved. How can that be true?

“…Jurisdictional power of the Roman Pontiff is both episcopal and immediate. Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world. In this way, by unity with the Roman Pontiff in communion and in profession of the same faith, the Church of Christ becomes one flock under one Supreme Shepherd. This is the teaching of the Catholic truth, and no one can depart from it without endangering his faith and salvation.” Paster aeternus 18 July 1870

Folks, THINK. How can the Standard of Unity also be the Vector of Schism?

Pope Benedict is the one and only living pope, and has been since April 2005.

Because after all, if Indifferentism is the only religion, then human fraternity is the idol to be worshiped.

Pope Francis petitions UN for new annual secular celebration of ‘human fraternity’ | News | LifeSite https://t.co/qLw3tUxUQX

— Diane Montagna (@dianemontagna) December 9, 2019

ROME, December 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — In the latest sign of the importance Pope Francis attributes to his contentious Abu Dhabi interreligious initiative, he has now united with Sunni Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb in petitioning the United Nations to declare February 4 the annual World Day of Human Fraternity, the Vatican has announced.

But wait, there’s more! If you don’t click the link and scroll down far enough in Diane’s piece, you might miss this:

He also appointed Adama Dieng, UN special adviser for hate speech and the prevention of genocide, as UN representative to follow up on the proposed activities and work with the Committee.
In a September 27, 2019 interview, Dieng said that while there is no official definition for hate speech, the United Nations understands it to mean “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.”

The entire transcript of that September interview of Dieng is readily available online. You might want to google it so you can understand how you will be targeted.  An internet snitch network is a key component. So if you’ve ever written about anything LBGTQXYZ related, like “BRUCE JENNER IS A MAN” HERE,  or anything related to he horrors of Islam, or anything related to Antipope Bergoglio and the antichurch… watch your back, pardner.  It’s about to be High Noon, and these guys don’t play nice.
 

Remember all those times we warned that the LGBTQXYZ “movement” was never about tolerance. Nor even acceptance, nor even equality “love is love”… that the sodomites would never settle for that? And who can blame them for pushing the envelope, when no one is pushing back?
No, the objective from the beginning has been celebration, followed quickly by active participation (celebration already being a species of participation).
And so it came to pass that the world found out that €1MM was taken from Peter’s Pence to fund the Elton John movie, which glorifies, celebrates, and actively depicts sodomy.
Congrats! You just made a p*rno.
So if you contributed to Peter’s Pence, come on down to the combox and tell us how “active participation” feels.

 
Forgive me Father, for it has been a very sinful year… I’ve flown 113,000 miles so far, and I still have two more trips left. I’ve stayed in hotels over 120 nights, and I ask for freshly laundered towels every time. I rent cars that burn gasoline. Oh and I attended a football game during my travels a few weeks back and there was a flyover with four military jets burning gobs of fuel it was so shameful to be part of it (along with rayciss giant flag unfurled on field Nationalism).
I have no idea if my clothes were fairly traded to me or not, and I feel like such a wretch.
I’m on Atkins, so I consume a lot of “animal products;” red meat and eggs are my faves. I have leather all over my house and in my car. Also, my car is old and only gets 15 mpg. Let’s face it, my carbon footprint is the size of Nebraska.
And yes, I do use my phone constantly, but it’s also great for pulling up my boarding pass so I don’t have to wastefully print one out like those Pharisees.
 
 

3 December, Feast of Saint Francis Xavier.
Introit, Ps. 118:46-47
I spoke of Your testimonies before kings, and I was not ashamed; I meditated on Your commandments, which I loved dearly.
Ps. 116:1-2. Praise the Lord, all you nations; praise Him in unison, all you peoples! For His mercy is steadfast toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever.

Today’s Mass propers for the great missionary saint spoke to me as a condemnation of Antipope Bergoglio’s anti-missionary spirit from Hell. This is a man who hates the faith so much, he can’t bear to witness souls being converted and saved. He might well paraphrase, “I spoke NOT of Your testimonies, I WAS ashamed; Your commandments I loved NOT.”
Excerpt from the Epistle, Romans 10:13-15 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things?”

“Today I felt a certain bitterness after a meeting with young people. A woman approached me with a young man and a young woman. I was told they were part of a slightly fundamentalist movement. She said to me in perfect Spanish: “Your Holiness, I am from South Africa. This boy was a Hindu and converted to Catholicism. This girl was Anglican and converted to Catholicism.” But she told me in a triumphant way, as though she was showing off a hunting trophy. I felt uncomfortable and said to her, “Madam, evangelization yes, proselytism no”.” HERE

Excerpt from the Gospel, Mark 16:15, At that time, Jesus said to them: “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall he condemned.
 
Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.
 

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; Men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved” Luke 21:25-26

Thus begins the Holy Gospel for the First Sunday in Advent.
I paste below what has become my annual Advent prep essay, originally penned on this First Sunday of Advent three years ago, when I still thought Humble the Destroyer was really the pope. The lessons here seem worth repeating.
Needless to say, all the warnings are are applicable even more so today. The Church Visible, y’all. Don’t be confused, and don’t be intimidated.
Blessed Advent, everyone!
———————-

Just look at it. Doesn’t everything about this picture scream, “Wrong”?