non veni pacem

Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart!

Re-posting from an essay I wrote a few years ago, regarding the pre-1955 liturgical and spiritual interplay between the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (always 19 days after Pentecost, on a Friday), and the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus (Thursday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart). The are some really solid themes within these realities which we should make haste to contemplate and utilize. They are tools to help draw ourselves closer to the Second Person of the Triune Godhead, He who desires unity with you, a unity which you should work towards every day of your life. Enjoy!

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”I understood that devotion to the Sacred Heart is a last effort of His love towards Christians of these latter times, by proposing to them an object and means so calculated to persuade them to love Him… This devotion was the last effort of His love that He would grant to men in these latter ages, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which Jesus desired to destroy, and thus to introduce them to the sweet liberty of the rule of His love, which He wished to restore in the hearts of all those who should embrace this devotion.” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, vision of the Sacred Heart, 1673

“An object and means so calculated.” Thus did St. Margaret Mary introduce to the world a special weapon reserved for these latter days. It is very compelling as a means of amending your life. Have you ever set aside time and reflected on the Sacred Heart? On what it means? How it so fully expresses God’s love for us, in a very special way? Spend some time on it, because it’s really helpful. It’s a deeper meditation on the reality of the Incarnation: That God himself stitched together His own physical human heart, with the specific intent of having it pierced by us, for our sake.

Pierced by you, for your sake. You can find a good article HERE.

“The sweet liberty of the rule of His love.” The heart is where we discover the intimacy of Jesus’ love for us. It is very important to understand that this love is not simply for all mankind collectively, but for each one of us individually and specifically. He loves you personally, one-on-one, and more than anyone else loves you. His love is not just in real time, but throughout time. He loved you before He created the universe, He loved you from the Cross, and He loves you now. He desires to have His love reciprocated. We do this by adoring him in praise and thanksgiving, and by ordering our lives according to His Word. If you’ve never understood that thing about having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” this is exactly what it’s all about. When you really love someone, you try really hard not to hurt them, especially in the things They’ve told you hurt Them most.

“The heart stands for love. The human heart of Jesus stands both for His human love and for the infinite love of His divine Person. His love was not just a shimmering, dreamy softness; it was wisely strong and true to its eternal purposes. Despite the anguish of Gethsemane, His love yielded His human life to crucifixion. His love had all the majesty and fullness of God, a height and a depth that make paltry the wisdom of men. Every mystery of His life, every miracle, sermon, and kindness, was a new revelation of divine love that enlightens and warms mankind.” (quote from a hand missal, Feast of the Sacred Heart)

His love for us burst forth physically in the spilling of His Sacred Blood. Not just in a general sense all through His Passion and death, but rather acutely as the lance, the Spear of Destiny, pierced his side and reached His heart. That lance is you.

“They dug therefore, and they dug through not only His hands, but also His feet, yea, and His side also; and the very recesses of His most sacred Heart, they pierced with the spear of rage, though it had already been wounded with the spear of love. ‘Thou hast wounded,’ says the Spouse in the Canticles of love, “thou hast wounded my Heart, my sister, my spouse.’ O Lord Jesus, Thy spouse, Thy love, Thy sister has wounded Thy Heart. Why then was it necessary that that Heart should be wounded further by Thine enemies?” St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Vitis Mystica

Here again is our Lord instructing St. Margaret Mary; note whom He cites as hurting Him most:

“Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus.”

The thing that most strikingly ties these two feasts together is the ontology of the Eucharist itself: Not only is it truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior, but it is literally the Heart of Jesus, the Heart of God. Yes, that’s right, and there have indeed been examples of the host turning into visible flesh, and this flesh has been confirmed scientifically as actual heart muscle. Reflect on this as you read Pope Benedict XV on the institution of the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, 9 November 1921:

“The chief reason of this feast is to commemorate the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist. By this means the Church wishes more and more to excite the faithful to approach this sacred mystery with confidence, and to inflame their hearts with that divine charity which consumed the Sacred Heart of Jesus when in His infinite love He instituted the Most Holy Eucharist, wherein the Divine Heart guards and loves them by living with them, as they live and abide in Him. For in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist He offers and gives Himself to us as victim, companion, nourishment, viaticum, and pledge of our future glory.”

And finally, a short reflection on the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart from a priest at a Benedictine Priory who apparently has permission to celebrate it:

The adorable mystery of the Eucharist sums up, contains, and communicates to us the entire mystery of Christ: His incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If you seek the open Side of the glorious ascended Christ, you will find it in the Eucharist. If you seek the pierced Heart of Christ, beating with love for the Father and with mercy for sinners, you will find it in the Eucharist. The Communion Antiphon of the Mass of the feast is meant to be repeated and treasured. It is, at once, a promise and an invitation: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” HERE

You can read about Eucharistic miracles and the human heart muscle HERE.

History of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart HERE.

“O Lord Jesus Christ, Who hast poured forth the riches of Thy love for men in
instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist: help us, we beseech Thee, to love Thy
most loving Heart and ever to make worthy use of so great a Sacrament.” Collect for the Feast of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus

I have written probably 20K words in this space about why Vatican II must be anathematized and expunged IN FULL. Not a surgical nip and tuck, the whole thing has to go. The Big Lie that the council was “hijacked” by bad actors after the fact, that the unspringtime was due to a poor implementation, that the actual documents of Vatican II, if you just go read them, you will see that it’s all just fine… in perfect harmony and continuity with all 2000 years which came before.

No. Those are all lies.

The documents were written with ambiguity as a feature, not a bug. Written so that orthodox prelates of the time could read the words and  see them in an orthodox manner. That’s why they all passed. What they don’t tell you is that the council was hijacked at the outset, when all the original schemas from Cardinal Ottaviani were burned to ash. If you have some time, and want to know the truth, there is a place you can go to read five of the nine original schemas. Compare the clarity and boldness of these with the final documents of Vatican II. It will disgust you. HERE

Anyway, I am short on time, and I have nothing to add to Archbishop Vigano’s statement. Here is a taste:

The mere fact that Vatican II is susceptible to correction ought to be sufficient to declare its oblivion as soon as its most obvious errors are seen with clarity. Not by chance does Professor Pasqualucci call it a “conciliabolo [devilish council],” like the Synod of Pistoia, which merited the condemnation of the entire synod beyond the mere condemnation of the individual errors which it taught. I make my own his statement: “After having clearly highlighted the procedural subterfuges and the errors against the Faith scattered throughout the documents, a Pope could very well finally quash the entire Council, ‘thereby confirming his brethren in the Faith.’ This would fall perfectly within his summa potestas iurisdictionis over the entire Church, iure divino. The Council is not superior to the Pope. If the Council has deviated from the Faith, the Pope has the power to invalidate it. Indeed, it is his duty.”

This latest from the archbishop comes to us via Maike Hickson via Catholic Family News, which is SSPX. So that is interesting in itself.

Read it all HERE.

More testimony from the combox. As you read these examples, keep in mind how tiny this blog is. Two or three comments here, with similar scam stories, extrapolates to tens of thousands of similar stories in the general population.

 kono says:

June 16, 2020 at 9:25 am 

On March 12, ARSH 2020 I decided to quit taking my thyroid meds cold turkey after 30+ years. A month into it the side effects became horrific, most notably a shortness of breath. Being a pack a day smoker for 45 years, refusing to wear a mask and going into Detroit almost daily (to my ICKSP parish) I was certain I’d gotten the virus. So off to the hospital I go….after first receiving Extreme Unction. (14 April)

I go into the make shift covid tent and there are four nurses with nothing to do, looking at their phones. They take my vitals and everything is perfect. BP, oxygen level, temp, heart rate…perfect. The nurse even says she can’t believe I’m a smoker. I ask if they’re going to test me for the virus and she said no, we’re not testing at this time, but that I’d be listed as a covid. They give me a script for an inhaler and tell me to come back if I get worse. I’m relieved I’m not being admitted and ask if any of them are Catholic, the main nurse working with me says yes. I give her a Miraculous Medal (the other 3 want one too…praise God). I thank them and leave feeling relieved.

Why wasn’t I admitted? I’m pretty certain it’s because I don’t have insurance and I make just a wee bit too much money to qualify for Medicaid! Thank you Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph!

It is a little shocking that WaPo published it. HERE

Direct link to the CDC data dump: HERE

Among COVID-19 cases, the most common underlying health conditions were cardiovascular disease (32%), diabetes (30%), and chronic lung disease (18%). Hospitalizations were six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among those with reported underlying conditions compared with those with none reported.

Hospitalizations were six times higher among patients with a reported underlying condition (45.4%) than those without reported underlying conditions (7.6%). Deaths were 12 times higher among patients with reported underlying conditions (19.5%) compared with those without reported underlying conditions (1.6%).

Of the 71K “corona-related” deaths in this report, 39K had at least one underlying condition, and 62K were over age 60.

Sooooo it seems that older folks and compromised folks should take extra precautions.

From the combox on yesterday’s coronacold post. They will have no love for you if you cannot deliver the FedGov cash. Show me the money. Just a heart attack? Go wait in the corner.

 Mary D. says:

June 15, 2020 at 10:00 am

I’m in Phoenix, Arizona. Two weeks ago I went to the hospital very weak and with breathlessness. The first thing I heard was “we have a Covid case”. I told them no, they didn’t. I hadn’t gone anywhere except twice to church for confession and there were maybe four people in the whole church. It turned out that I was having a coronary, thus the breathlessness. I had to sit in the emergency room until they tested me for the Wuflu. Two hours later they came back and said I was negative, which I already knew. I sat there for 24 hours until they found me a room. Then they sent me home seven hours later. They tried to make me wear a mask which I refused because I could barely breathe without one let alone with one.

The worst part was that they wouldn’t allow my husband to stay with me. I had no advocate and they left me without food for 18 hours because they forgot about me. I wasn’t vocal enough evidently. I even unhooked myself from the heart monitors to go to the restroom since I couldn’t get anyone to answer my call. When finished, I hooked myself back up. I was totally alone and scared. Now I’m afraid to go back to the hospital if I have another episode.

I guess my point is that they instantly started yelling “COVID” before they even tested me. Someone told me later that it’s because they get more money for Covid cases. I believe it.

Riots are over, virus is baaaack.

Except, it’s not. And this time, even people in the “harder hit” regions aren’t buying it.

Allow me to address the misinformation about Arizona that is being spread by certain pundits?

Background: Arizona has been fully open for one month. Fully open. In reality, the only businesses closed here back in March were restaurants’ indoor dining rooms, salons, and gyms. No one stopped going out, ever. Surface streets have been bustling the entire time, except for a very short lull in that third or fourth week of March. Packed supermarkets, home improvement stores, and drive thru windows throughout.

My first post-corona dining experience was on May 18, indoors. Employees wearing masks. Since then, some establishments are actively promoting that their employees are NOT wearing masks, and if you’re uncomfortable with that, please don’t come. Citizens are taking philosophical decisions and FLOCKING to these places. I was at one such last Friday, that was absolutely packed at 4:30pm. It is located next to a hospital, you see, and shift change is at 4pm. So all the doctors and nurses come to this place, still in their scrubs. Instead of social distancing, they sit at the bar. A few of them were shooting pool. They know.

Are you starting to see the picture? With a two week incubation period, shouldn’t we all be dead by now? The corona has had a full month to do its dirty deadly job, and everyone here knows it has really had three months or more, because no one was locked down or shamed into staying home, ever. If anything, people went out MORE, because gyms were closed. They had to alter the parking regulations at the mountain parks, because they were overflowing. I can’t stress this enough. There was an intentional non-enforcement of the “stay at home” order.

We do have more reported cases now, which tends to happen when you do a testing blitz with tens of thousands of tests, you’re going to get a few positives. AZDHS.GOV is reporting 36K total “cases related to” corona as of this morning, in a state with 8,000,000 people.  If you click the website and look at hospital capacity, keep in mind that the +50% surge capacity is in addition to what you see in the charts.

Of 6600 total occupied hospital beds, 1450 are “covid related.”

Of 1300 total occupied ICU beds, 452 are “covid related.”

We have tons of extra capacity, and hospitals have not even had to implement surge procedures. Yes, our number of confirmed cases continues to rise. Why? Because we are averaging over 10K tests PER DAY over the last month. The testing blitz coincides with the date everything opened back up. But I repeat myself.

We now have 470K completed tests, 36K confirmed cases, and 1186 deaths.

Who died?

So is it safe to assume the 21-54 year old demographic can go out to eat?

Folks, look for Arizona to come under ever more scrutiny. There will be massive pressure, nationally,  for Governor Ducey to reinstate lockdown, force public chin diapers, close businesses, etc. You know the preternatural is involved here. Pray for Ducey and for AZ director of public health, Cara Christ.

 

13 June is the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua.

The life of St. Anthony, who was actually from Portugal, not Italy, is a lesson in how the plans we make, even if they are good and noble, are sometimes not what God wants from us in the long run. For some people, the play really doesn’t end until the third act. Sometimes God takes time to reveal to us where things are going, and seemingly coincidental circumstances can result in sharp turns of destiny.

St. Anthony was born in 1195 and given the name Fernando. He entered the Augustinian order at a young age. After ten years as a friar, of which we know little, he was given instant inspiration upon the martyrdom of five Franciscan missionaries at the hands of the Muslims in Morocco. Now earnestly desiring martyrdom himself, he begged to switch his habit, and it was granted. He changed his name to Anthony and entered the Franciscans, and he was sent to Morocco to preach, and tempt fate.

It seems God had other plans. Anthony fell seriously ill, and had to return home. But that wasn’t the plan either, as he was shipwreck at Sicily and ended up traveling into the Italian mainland. After his recovery, his life was transformed into one of solitude and prayer. Act II. But then his fame debuted while attending a Dominican ordination, where the assigned homilist failed to show. Anthony was asked to fill in, and he brought the house down.

So much for solitude. He was sent to Padua, and he became so famous as a preacher that the churches just weren’t big enough. And when even the piazzas couldn’t contain the crowds, the sermons were moved to nearby hillsides. By all accounts, this is not pious legend, this really happened. Over 30,000 people on some days.

We have some of these sermons today, but very little of his writings. Yet he is a Doctor of the Church. He was Canonized just a year after his death, and his intercession is very powerful. He is most commonly invoked over lost material things. But he is much, much better than that. It is best to think about him as Patron Saint of The Lost. Lost material objects, yes, but also spiritual things. A lost spouse, apostate children, apostate parents or grandparents, friends in dissolute lifestyles, etc. Beg St. Anthony to bring them back. Go ahead and team him up with St. Monica; they make a great pair, Anthony starting out as an Augustinian, you know.

St. Anthony, pray for us.

This is the lead story on east coast news sites this morning:

BLOOD RED GRAPHICS OF FEAR AND DEATH. WIND IS HITLER.

AP Friday, June 12, 2020 6:29AM

In Arizona, hospitals have been told to prepare for the worst. Texas has more hospitalized COVID-19 patients than at any time before. And the governor of North Carolina said recent jumps caused him to rethink plans to reopen schools or businesses.

There is no single reason to explain all the surges. In some cases, more testing has revealed more cases. In others, local outbreaks are big enough to push statewide tallies higher. But experts (who have been wrong about everything and completely incompetent at best, criminally negligent or criminally complicit at worst) think at least some are due to lifting stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and other restrictions put in place during the spring to stem the virus’s spread. The virus is also gradually fanning out.

“It is a disaster that spreads,” said Dr. Jay Butler, who oversees coronavirus response work at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I now quaketh in my boots. Here is what the article says about Arizona specifically:

ARIZONA
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey ended Arizona’s stay-at-home order on May 15 and eased restrictions on businesses. Arizona residents who were cooped up for six weeks flooded Phoenix-area bar districts, ignoring social distancing guidelines.<<<MURDERERS>>> The state began seeing a surge of new cases and hospitalizations about 10 days later.

“It seems pretty clear to me that what we’re seeing is directly related to the end of the stay-at-home order,” said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. <<<MURDERERS>>>

It wasn’t just that the order ended: There were no requirements to wear face masks, no major increases in contact tracing… <<<MURDERERS>>>

The AP analysis found Arizona had a rolling average of fewer than 400 new cases a day (almost all of them mild) at the time the shutdown was lifted, but it shot up two weeks later (because testing became available) and surpassed 1,000 new cases a day (almost all of them mild) by early this week. Hospitalizations have also risen dramatically, hitting the 1,200 mark last week (a small fraction of the hospital capacity in AZ). The state also passed another grim milestone last week, recording it’s 1,000th death. Meanwhile Arizona hospitals on Tuesday reported they were at 83% of capacity, up from 78% the previous day. That could force affected hospitals to cancel elective surgeries.

It’s outrageous how they lie, isn’t it? But did you catch the tell at the end? Yes, hospitals could be forced to cancel elective surgeries. That’s what you do in a real emergency. The fact that they have NOT cancelled them means…

You see, every hospital is mandated to have a surge capacity of +50% of their normal capacity. This goes for regular admit, ER, and ICU. So if hospitals normally operate at 75% of regular capacity, and are now 83%, that is the biggest nothingburger you can imagine. Not only that, but the corona-related portion of the overall hospital numbers is really small. But we all know that the longer you can manage to not discharge a corona patient, more Fed$$.

Governor Ducey had to go on TV yesterday, put up all the data charts, and plead with the media to stop spreading fake news. Arizona is open, Arizona is prepared, everyone needs to relax. When it was over, a reporter stated a completely false talking point, to which the governor replied (paraphrasing), “That’s not true, I literally just showed you the charts.”

All this attention has crashed the Arizona Dept of Health website. Once it is back running, I will post the real story. Spoiler alert: We are not all dying. We are not all in the hospital. There is no panic here, other than some prominent panic mongers in blog world. I will post all the data, which has been publicly available this entire time.

But for now, I have to finish up some other work. I’m due to meet some folks for happy hour at 4pm, and the place fills up fast, if you know what I mean.

Happy happy Feast of Corpus Christi. Falling on 11 June this year, it coincides with the sixth anniversary of the murder of Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP. I’ve been trying to write something about it, and I’m coming up a bit short. We do know for a fact that Fr. Walker was able to receive the sacraments before he died, thanks be to God. We also know that Fr. Walker had a great devotion to our Blessed Mother, and the Rosary.  So he would have prayed the fourth glorious mystery three days a week, at minimum. The fruit of the mystery is a well provided death.

Folks, keep your head on a swivel, and stay confessed. In this world of chaos, you really don’t know what is coming next. This goes for everyone, of course, but especially priests.

Fr. Z. wrote a piece related to this a few years ago, on the third anniversary of Father’s murder. Fr. Z repeats words of advice he gave at the time HERE.

About three years ago, Fr. Kenneth Walker, FSSP, was murdered in Phoenix and another priest (Fr. Joseph Terra, the pastor) badly injured by assault. Pray for Fr. Walker. RIP. At that time I posted the following, which seems no less urgent today than it did then. Indeed, it could be more urgent still, given the trajectory of current events.

Reverend gentlemen, the murder of one priest and the assault on another in Phoenix compels me to remind you to…GO TO CONFESSION. Our schedules are busy. Sometimes we have to drive even farther than lay people. But go to confession. Take the time to do this for yourself. Much has been given to us. Our accounting before God will be more severe than that of lay people…Moreover, consider well your living conditions and security. If you haven’t done so yet, begin to develop a situational awareness. Seek advice from professionals. This is not just a matter of personal concern. It is also a concern for those who depend on you for the sacraments. A priest in the ground or in the hospital is one priest fewer to see to the spiritual needs of people in these darkening times. You, Fathers, are a precious resource, only slowly “renewable”. If you are not concerned for the sake of your own person, be concerned for the sake of those who need you…I might now add to seek, along with advice, perhaps also training.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

This was mentioned briefly by Dr. Mazza during the last Barnhardt podcast. Recent events have brought it into much sharper focus.

June 9, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – There is a small part of an interview conducted by the well-respected American historian and book author, William Thomas Walsh, with the Fatima seer Sister Lucia that might now strike a special note with us, in light of the ongoing disorderly and revolutionary conditions in the U.S.

Speaking with the seer in 1946 about the Blessed Mother’s earlier request that Russia be consecrated by the Pope together with the bishops in the world to Her Immaculate Heart, Sister Lucia told Professor Walsh:

“What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day. If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace. If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.”

“Does this mean,” Walsh then asked, “in your opinion, that every country, without exception, will be overcome by Communism?” And Sister Lucia answered: “Yes.”

As the translator of this interview, Father Manuel Rocha, was later to reveal, Walsh then asked explicitly about the United States of America, adding: “and does that mean the United States of America, too?” Whereupon Sister Lucia responded once more time with “yes.”

The entire article at LSN is well worth your time. It’s a handy reference on the past three months, and how we got to this. HERE