non veni pacem

St. Teresa of Avila: “When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you.”

St. Jean Vianney: “If we are deprived of Sacramental Communion, let us replace it, as far as we can, by spiritual communion, which we can make every moment; for we ought to have always a burning desire to receive the good God. Communion is to the soul like blowing a fire that is beginning to go out, but that has still plenty of hot embers; we blow, and the fire burns again.”

St. Leonard of Port Maurice: “If you practice the holy exercise of spiritual Communion several times each day, within a month you will see your heart completely changed.”

I’m lifting heavily from Fr. Z here. The link is at the bottom of this post.

You need to be in the State of Grace to do this. Go to Confession. I see that many churches have increased the availability of Confession at this time. Resolve to remain in the State of Grace in a way that is altogether on a different level than ever before in your life. Extraordinary graces, literally, are being offered to you right now. God is in charge.

Fixed formulas for Spiritual Communion: (consider printing this page)

St. Alphonsus Liguori:

“My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.”

Rafael Merry del Val:

At Thy feet, O my Jesus, I prostrate myself and I offer Thee repentance of my contrite heart, which is humbled in its nothingness and in Thy holy presence. I adore Thee in the Sacrament of Thy love, the ineffable Eucharist. I desire to receive Thee into the poor dwelling that my heart offers Thee. While waiting for the happiness of sacramental communion, I wish to possess Thee in spirit. Come to me, O my Jesus, since I, for my part, am coming to Thee! May Thy love embrace my whole being in life and in death. I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee. Amen.

Classic:

As I cannot this day enjoy the happiness of assisting at the holy Mysteries, O my God! I transport myself in spirit at the foot of Thine altar; I unite with the Church, which by the hands of the priest, offers Thee Thine adorable Son in the Holy Sacrifice; I offer myself with Him, by Him, and in His Name. I adore, I praise, and thank Thee, imploring Thy mercy, invoking Thine assistance, and presenting Thee the homage I owe Thee as my Creator, the love due to Thee as my Savior.
Apply to my soul, I beseech Thee, O merciful Jesus, Thine infinite merits; apply them also to those for whom I particularly wish to pray. I desire to communicate spiritually, that Thy Blood may purify, Thy Flesh strengthen, and Thy Spirit sanctify me. May I never forget that Thou, my divine Redeemer, hast died for me; may I die to all that is not Thee, that hereafter I may live eternally with Thee. Amen.

Classic:

O Immaculate Queen of Heaven and Earth, Mother of God and Mediatrix of every grace: I believe that Thy dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, is truly, really, and substantially contained in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love Him above all things and I long to receive Him into my heart. Since I cannot now receive Him sacramentally, be so good as to place Him spiritually in my soul. O my Jesus, I embrace Thee as One who has already come, and I unite myself entirely to Thee. Never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.

Thanks to Father Z for putting this together. Read the rest of his commentary here: https://wdtprs.com/2020/03/stuck-because-of-covid-19-how-to-make-a-spiritual-communion/

“And I spoke of thy testimonies before kings: and I was not ashamed. I meditated also on thy commandments, which I loved. And I lifted up my hands to thy commandments, which I loved: and I was exercised in thy justifications. Be thou mindful of thy word to thy servant, in which thou hast given me hope. This hath comforted me in my humiliation: because thy word hath enlivened me.” Ps. 118:46-50

Let us pray…

“Almighty everlasting God, in whose hand are the power and the government of every nation; look to the help of the Christian people, that the heathen nations, who trust in the fierceness of their own might, may be crushed by the power of Thy right arm.” -Collect, Mass Against the Heathen

“Look, O Lord, upon the sacrifice which we offer up; that Thou may deliver Thy champions from the wickedness of the heathen, and place them safe under Thy protection.” -Secret, Mass Against the Heathen

“My soul is in Thy salvation, and in Thy word I have hoped: when will Thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? The wicked have persecuted me: help me, O Lord my God.” -Communion (Ps.118), Mass Against the Heathen

“Look upon us, O Lord, our protector, and defend Thy champions from peril of the heathen; that all disturbance may be ended and they may freely serve Thee.” -Postcommunion, Mass Against the Heathen

Through Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Do you have your Sunday planned out yet? Y’all got your dispensation, so it’s time sleep in late, waste countless hours on social media, and binge Netflix, right?

Nope. Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day. http://drbo.org/chapter/02020.htm

Here are my suggestions. Adopt or adapt as you may:

1. Attend Mass if it’s available, if you are well and if it seems right to you, given your immediate family situation and whatnot. Also consider the size of the church/chapel where you have access to Mass, and how close to capacity it might be. If it’s not your regular place, and it’s packed, stay outside.

2. Watch a live stream or TV Mass. Pray the Mass as you watch; it’s Laetare Sunday, ironically not ironic. You always have livemass.net, and most dioceses have made access to live streams. I know here in Phoenix, Bishop Olmstead is taking the 9am TV Mass, and will pronounce the sermon to an empty cathedral, which will be surreal.

3. Try out a Dry Mass, if you’ve never done it before. This is where you read through the Mass in your missal as if you were actually at Mass. Assuming you have already attended or viewed the Mass of the day, might I suggest one of the following Votive Masses… page numbers are from the Baronius Press 1962 missal:

Mass for the Defense of the Church (formerly known gloriously pre-1955 as Mass Against the Heathen), pg 1650

Mass for the Unity of the Church, pg 1652

Mass for the Deliverance from Death in Time of Pestilence, pg 1661

Mass for the Sick, pg 1668

Mass for the Grace of a Good Death, pg 1671

4. The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Have you ever prayed all 15 Decades at once? Give it a try! Get out of the house, go for a walk, or a hike. If you are under an unconstitutional involuntary house arrest, maybe you will have an evangelizing opp with local LEO.

Pro tip: When praying the whole thing, you only need to do the Credo, opening prayers, and closing prayers once (in other words, Credo + opening + 15 Decades + Salve Regina + Fatima Prayer).

5. Litanies and various prayers. All of these are easily searched online: Litany of Humility, Litany of Saint Joseph (Terror of Demons), Magnificat, Prayer to Our Lady Undoer of Knots, Act of Consecration to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Prayer to St. Lucy for Perfect Vision (i.e. the Visibility of the Church), Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose.

6. Talk to your Guardian Angel. You’ve given him quite the workout. Say a prayer of thanksgiving, and enjoin him for future battles.

7. Go straight to God. You don’t know what you got til it’s gone, as they say, so if you have an empty feeling, loneliness, yearning, hunger, etc… be happy, because it means you’re normal, and rightly ordered. We all desire union with the Triune Godhead. Even those who refuse the way of truth retain the desire for union, so they seek to unify with something else – everyone worships something. Go to your Lord. He knows exactly what you are thinking, He knows everything that’s going on, and He is in control. Go to Him, and seek that mystical union. Close your eyes and imagine the Beatific Vision. Desire to dwell within it.

Congratulations, you just made a Spiritual Communion. Isn’t it awesome?

What if the source of income for half of the country was eliminated overnight? At this pace, we are going to be in that place as a nation in less than a week. Think that might cause some unrest when breadwinners don’t know how they are going to feed their families?

Are we starting to understand that this is a gift that keeps on giving in a world of Marxist governors and mayors all over America? An excuse to seize and wield power over the masses in totalitarian ways. It’s a dream come true for them, and they will follow up by riding in like white knights to save everyone.

https://6abc.com/health/gov-wolf-orders-thousands-of-businesses-to-shut-down-%7C-full-list/6031024/

HARRISBURG, PA — Gov. Tom Wolf issued a sweeping shutdown order to tens of thousands of “non-life-sustaining” businesses Thursday, decreeing they must close their physical locations by 8 p.m. to slow the spread of the coronavirus or face enforcement by state police and other government agencies. Citing his authority under the state’s disaster declaration law, Wolf, a Democrat, ordered more than 150 types of businesses to close their physical locations, warning that enforcement against violators would begin Saturday.

What if we don’t have a country left after all of this?

Wolf said his order would be enforced by state troopers… The two-term governor had previously said he would not use police for enforcement. Businesses that fail to comply risk citations, fines or license suspensions, and “forfeit their ability to receive any applicable disaster relief and/or may be subject to other appropriate administrative action,” Wolf’s office said in a statement. Criminal prosecution is also a possibility, with violators subject to fines or imprisonment, Wolf’s office said.

Businesses under shutdown orders range from coal mines to building contractors to many types of manufacturers, plus professional offices including law firms and accounting offices. Retailers ordered to close include car dealers, clothing stores, furniture stores, florists, office supply stores and lawn and garden stores.

Force as many people out of work as possible. Make them dependent on FedGov. FedGov print money.

This is a small portion of the list. Download the full five pages of economic terrorism: HERE.

There was panic here in Arizona this morning after California went into lockdown last night. Lines at grocery stores an hour long to check out, I’ve been told. Yesterday there were no lines at all. The only things shut down here, so far, are casinos, schools, and bars. Restaurants are take out only, and many are struggling badly and will have to close.

Just wait until all the positive and false positive test results start coming back, and the number of confirmed cases starts doubling every day. The MSM are going to pee their pants. There is going to be real panic and real animal behavior. The over/under is Wednesday of next week. Imma take the under.

BULLSHIT ALERT

https://kmph.com/news/local/lockdown-entire-state-of-california-now-under-shelter-in-place-order

The state of California is about to go under a “shelter in place” order announced on Thursday by Governor Gavin Newsom. He calls this an “open ended” order and says he will not put a time frame on how long it could last. He says the next eight weeks are critical for controlling the spread of the virus. The Governor says more than half of all Californians could, eventually, be infected with the Coronavirus.

He says 56% of people living in the state will get it, which would be more than 20-million people.

The shelter-in-place rules will be similar to those already in effect in Fresno, the Bay Area, and other California counties and cities. Governor Gavin Newsom made that announcement around 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 19. He says a list of exempt and non-exempt businesses will be released “soon”.

He says he is worried that there won’t be enough hospital beds for all of the victims if nothing is done right now. He says if California acts strongly right now he feels the state can keep the number of victims under the number of hospital beds. He said, “let’s bend the curve together”.

A. It is claimed that Coronavirus carriers are both asymptomatic and contagious for the first two to four weeks after contraction; there is no way to know you have it. In addition, most people who do feel sick have such mild symptoms, it doesn’t even occur to them that it could be “flu.” So you need to stay inside and stop killing people. This is the rationale for the lock downs.

B. Wuhan Province has 19 million people packed on top of each other, each of them smoking five packs a day, plus inhaling the pervasive opaque smog (okay, translucent on a good day, I’ll give you that).

C. China stopped Coronavirus at 80,000 infected and 3200 dead. Think they are lying? Go ahead and quadruple those numbers. What do we get… 320K infected across a population of 19MM equals an infection rate of 0.0168… even though all the carriers were walking around (allegedly) spreading the disease for 2-4 weeks BEFORE ANYONE ON THE PLANET KNEW THE VIRUS EXISTED. No controls whatsoever, 0.0168 infection rate, 4% “Death rate.”

If B and C are true, this virus is mild, not very infectious, and not very deadly. And if B and C are true, A cannot also be true.

Yes, there are outliers, some younger healthy people who have come down with severe symptoms. I personally know of someone in Connecticut, two degrees of separation, who has been on a ventilator for the past week. He went from mild to near death in a 12 hour span. He is recovering, and went off the ventilator this morning. There are always outliers.

Meanwhile, Italy is the current darling because their numbers are “spiking,” now 32K infected and 3200 dead. We can’t calculate the infectious rate yet, because the number of cases is still growing, although it has now started to slow. Let’s say the number infected quadruples; 128K in a population of 60MM = 0.00213 infection rate, which is 87% lower than in Wuhan.

Point of comparison: 2009 H1N1 “Swine flu” infected 60MM Americans, fully 20% of the population. Do you even remember it? https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html

But why is the “death rate” so much higher in Italy? Perhaps we should be asking if we really know what they are even dying from, because nearly every one of these deaths could have multiple causes, because 99.2% of those people were already sick.

Also, median age of infected is 63 and median age of deaths is 81.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/99-25-of-those-who-died-from-virus-had-other-illness-italy-says/ar-BB11mr4X

Italy has the second oldest population in the world. We have a contagion that kills old people who were already sick, half of whom already had at least three other serious illnesses. Isn’t this what the regular flu does every year, but in much greater numbers? Is it too much to ask for a little more information before we rend the entire fabric of Western Civilization over the threat of a mild cold?

What I am missing? Did China tell us it was an accidental release of a bioweapon, sorry about that, but watch out? It seems clear to me that if the actions of the past week in the U.S. are indeed warranted, then there is much more to the story than we are being told. How did all the sports leagues and the NCAA know fully a week ago that they needed to cancel everything? How did the airlines know they needed to ground 90% of their long-haul fleet until July, and take that decision in a matter of hours? Why did MGM and Wynn shut down Vegas like a light switch “until further notice?” What were they each told so that they would, literally overnight, unilaterally yet in unison, destroy their product for the sake of the greater good? Where are the facts? There must be some good reason to push tens of millions out of work, wreak havoc on the economy, tank the stock market, bankrupt the airlines, hotels, etc.

Combox is open!

Thank goodness the for the moral sanctity of Goldman leadership, eh? No? Via ZeroHedge https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/half-america-will-get-sick-here-what-goldman-told-1500-clients-its-sunday-conference-call

Much more at the ZeroHedge link.

Additional Confession times in open air spaces encouraged. I won’t be making any more commentary or updates about this. The move is in compliance with the recommendation issued during the presidential address today: No groups of more than ten people.

ABC15.com, “Arizona’s most trusted news source:” 18 cases of Coronavirus in the state. https://www.abc15.com/news/state/live-updates-tracking-coronavirus-in-arizona

Also ABC15.com, “Arizona’s most trusted news source:” We probably really truly have 70,000 cases of Coronavirus in the state. https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/as-many-as-70-000-az-residents-could-have-coronavirus-according-to-cdc-models

Yeah, about that CDC modeling that was done last month. Have you seen it? Well, this is what is driving all the big decisions. This is why all the sports have been cancelled, followed by concerts, and now they are shutting down all the restaurants. International air travel is done, we are days away from a total domestic travel ban, and “mandatory” home quarantine is coming. The economy is tanked, millions will lose their jobs, and the current CDC recommendation is EIGHT WEEKS of private isolation.

The following information was published by the NYT, was taken down, then mirrored at the site I link to at the end of this blockquote. This is what is driving the hysteria:

“Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and epidemic experts from universities around the world conferred last month about what might happen if the new coronavirus gained a foothold in the United States. One of the agency’s top disease modelers, Matthew Biggerstaff, presented the group on the phone call with four possible scenarios. The assumptions, reviewed by The New York Times, were shared with about 50 expert teams to model how the virus could tear through the population — and what might stop it.

“The C.D.C.’s scenarios were depicted in terms of percentages of the population. Translated into absolute numbers by independent experts using simple models of how viruses spread, the worst-case figures would be staggering if no actions were taken to slow transmission. Between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. could be infected…As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die…2.4 million to 21 million people in the U.S. could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation’s medical system…” https://dnyuz.com/2020/03/13/the-worst-case-estimate-for-u-s-coronavirus-deaths/

So there you have your smoking gun.

For perspective, the entire planet has 167K cases and 6K deaths. Here are the current stats (supposedly):

This chart is updated nightly. https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/

The U.S. is a week behind Italy in terms of patient zero (supposedly), and we have 5x their population, so the math says we should have 100K infected and 9000 dead by 22 March. Let’s tune in next Monday and see where we are.

Pretty much everyone turned up for Mass this morning. No Masses have been cancelled here. No one has been dispensed except the elderly, the infirm, and the vulnerable. Our bishop explained the situation via video press release Friday, along with common sense precautions. All of the above was reiterated from the pulpit today.

The FSSP North American District Superior, Fr. Michael J. Stinson, has ordered the following prayers to be said at the foot of the altar after all Masses, including High Masses.

The priest and the people recited their parts in Latin.

It seems to me that there remains something deeply mysterious about this virus, in terms of its nature, its exposure, and possibly its provocation. How can a pathogen behave quite mildly in the vast majority of those infected, yet be so deadly to anyone already compromised? Is that even true? Is there something we still aren’t being told?