Catholic Candle note: Below are the charming recollections we received from one of our senior readers.  Her account speaks from her heart and shows her love of what is truly Catholic and normal.  This is an edifying memoire of a faithful Catholic, rather than a work of meticulously-researched history.  So, we have left her words intact without footnotes or qualifications.

Catholic Candle encourages other readers to submit articles for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Chicago neighborhoods in the fifties and several decades before, were a clean, orderly, quiet patchwork of cottages, bungalows, and modest apartment buildings populated by nuclear families.  The fathers, even in the Depression of the ‘30s, went to work early in the mornings, freeing the mothers to maintain the home and nurture the children, who walked with their friends to school and then home again for lunch.  At 2:45, the children again walked home—the boys to play games like “cops and robbers”, “war”, “Cowboys and Indians”, etc., the girls to ride their bikes, or roller skate, or perhaps to walk their beloved dolls in their “doll buggies”.

In the morning the mothers could leisurely comb the girls’ hair into “long curls” (unseen, of course, since pre-1940s).  A 1939 survey found the main complaint of Chicago Public High Schools to be “gum-chewing”.

Among the hundreds of large parish churches in Pre-Vatican II Chicago, some seated a thousand or more congregants.  Sunday Mass times were 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 (Children’s Mass), 10:00 High Mass, 11:00, and 12:00 p.m.  The parishioners, suitably attired, would walk in silent contemplation to the parish church (few had cars until the fifties), filling the pews for the 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00 Masses – the noon Mass stretching to standing room only, to accommodate the young Saturday night revelers, who stood and knelt as appropriate throughout the forty-five-minute service.

My husband has told me that in the earlier days of the Vietnam War—on the battlefields, when a priest could get through – the Catholic soldiers would race to the Mass site.  I’ve never seen anyone race to a novus ordo mass.  The rallying cry of the fifteenth century English Catholic martyrs was, “It’s the Mass that matters”, (as opposed to the Protestant Novus Ordo, which finally at Vatican II, took down almost all of the rest of the Catholic world, leaving fewer than ever Traditional Catholics, who now await the proper Consecration of Russia and its effects).

The Schools

Educators came from around the country to study the Chicago Public Schools –  staffed mainly by teachers educated, as I was, by the Catholic Religious.  The many Catholic public-school teachers in Chicago founded the Aquin Guild, with a monthly Mass (Tridentine, of course), and conference.  The students paid the remarkable low price of $1.00 per month for their tuition.

At my typical pre-Vatican II Catholic elementary school, staffed by Adrian Dominican Sisters, we prayed at the beginning of the day, and again to begin afternoon classes.  After morning prayers, the Sister would call the children alphabetically – who would reply, “Present, Sister”.  (For whatever reason the total number of children in my classroom always seemed to be 42).   Next came, as necessary, Catechism class in which the Sister called on the children individually to respond from memory to the Baltimore Catechism questions from their homework.  Math, reading, spelling, history/geography, English grammar, and sometimes art or music, completed the school day.

In all eight years of grammar school, I can remember only one instance of “discipline”.   In fourth grade, the Sister left the room for a few minutes, and a few boys began to chat.  When she returned she directed the boys to hit their hands several times with their rulers. 

The girls had their playground and the boys had theirs.  Inside the school building and out, the atmosphere was peaceful – playful on the playground, but peaceful. 

In the earlier days of the SSPX, priests commented that in a classroom, children without a T.V. at home stood out as self-controlled and “normal.”

Subversion of Curriculum

The pre-Vatican II period was also, until the late 1940s, pre-television; in general, the population thought more clearly than now – but of “Liberty & Freedom”; not so much.  Misguided patriotism seems to have blinded the people.  Here is an example of the contradictory messages taught in Catholic schools:

In the morning, we learned, substantially, that the purpose of free will, enabled by grace, was to choose the good.  In the afternoon history class, we would learn – for example, from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, that “Our Fathers brought forth on this Continent, a new-nation, conceived in liberty” – as indeed the revolutionaries had done, as they immediately removed the cross from the flag –  (which, by the way, the Confederates from the next century, did not remove).

Indeed, the Catholic French and Spanish spiritual forefathers of those American Catholic children had already brought forth on this Continent, (as originally mapped by the devout Catholic Americus Vespucci) – thriving Catholic civilizations, from the university level down, before Lincoln’s forefathers even got here.

The (Traditional) Catholic Church of the Middle Ages conceived and executed the very idea of a “university,” – at Paris, Cambridge, Oxford, Bologna, Salamanca, the Sorbonne, Louvain, etc.  The French and Spanish governments made strenuous efforts to continue the process of establishing and encouraging education, sending ten thousand consecrated religious at a time to civilize, assimilate, educate the Indians of North, South, and Central America.  (This was in contrast to the Puritan forefathers who liked to shoot Indians for sport, while their [Puritan] cousins martyred the starving Catholics of Ireland by trampling them under the hooves of horses).

Before Vatican II, graces available in the Church somewhat elevated and permeated U.S. society at large.  Women’s skirt lengths generally extended below the knee, with special occasions requiring hat and gloves. (Hats and silence, of course, were mandatory for women in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.)  Before John F. Kennedy, men wore hats often and not just for special occasions.

From the beginning of Vatican II until I discovered Archbishop Lefebvre’s Society of St. Pius X (unfortunately liberalized after his death), I forced myself to attend the Novus Ordo Mass, at which I never saw the pews filled.

About women’s skirt lengths: I read in my post-graduate research, an 1820s extract from The Masonic Journal – I think that was its title – that though it seems absurd, the first step in the necessary corruption of women was to raise skirts from the floor.  I read this piece in the early heyday of the miniskirt. 

Researching further to account for the apparently sudden collapse in the 1960s of the remnants of Christian civilization, I learned that in the 1920s the Vatican had forbidden women to make spectacles of themselves by performing athletics in public. 

As readers know, in 1917, Our Lady of Fatima (correctly) predicted, “Fashions which offend My Son very much will be introduced”.  I read that Our Lady’s words compelled the Vatican, in 1931, to finally explain for the first time that, among other obvious requirements – skirts should extend several inches below the knee.  (Padre Pio required of his penitents’ skirts and dresses to be at least eight inches below the knee.) 

As far as I have learned, no U.S. bishop disseminated either of the Vatican’s directives (viz., about women as public spectacles and concerning skirt-length).

Speaking of women’s decorum in public – I once saw a picture in a magazine of mobs of men filling the streets of Sicily, in celebration of the allied World War II victory in 1945.  There were no women in the streets.  (In Chicago, men and women indiscriminately mobbed State Street for the same occasion.) 

All this doesn’t begin to address the massive semi-nudity on the beaches and streets.  Such semi-nudity was directly caused by Vatican II serving its demonic purpose of virtually annihilating the Tridentine Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that had acted as the chief restraint against the forces of hell. 

A major demonic preliminary to Vatican II and major offense against Our Lord, was the destruction which Robert Oppenheimer demanded of the only two Catholic enclaves in Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Popular consensus, which was giddy with the Atom bomb and the unconditional surrender of the Axis side in World War II, celebrated with a new swim suit style of enhanced public semi-nudity, unseen since the Church civilized the barbaric hordes of Europe in the early Middle Ages.  Their new fashion icon “Bikini,” was named after an unpopulated Pacific atoll Bikini, which was destroyed by a then-experimental atomic bomb.  Indeed “Bikini” has become, over the decades, a catchword joke for women’s beachwear which covers almost nothing.  The U.S. bomber nuking Hiroshima sported on its fuselage, a large graphic of a voluptuous woman in a pre-Bikini, World War II vintage swim suit.

Eight German Jesuit missionary priests lived near the small Hiroshima Cathedral, probably in the immediate area of the nuclear blast in Hiroshima – which Robert Oppenheimer demanded, and which the Freemason Truman readily authorized.  (He earned his honorary 33^rd Masonic degree by his consent.)  The priests could see the flash as they cut their breakfast grapefruit, but felt no personal pain.  Medical examinations cleared all of these priests.  One of them (I think Father Schiffer was his name) traveled the world for decades, explaining that the Jesuit missionaries were merely living the Jesuit rule, incorporating the daily Rosary, as Our Lady of Fatima requested of everyone, and that they specifically had devotion to the Fatima message.  They were known as the “Amazing Hiroshima Eight”.  They not only survived the bombing, but also survived the radiation poisoning aftermath.

U.S. Hierarchy and Laity Refuse to Resist

Before Vatican II, people generally lived at home with their families – each girl building her “hope chest” of accessories for her future home; and the boys saving their money to support their future families.  In the ordinary middle-class standards of the era, I never encountered the various four letter-words now seemingly heard everywhere but which, before Vatican II, were not in common use.

The Vatican II blitzkrieg of the mid-sixties took no prisoners.  Women wore mini-skirts or trousers almost everywhere; crucifixes disappeared from school walls; consecrated altars and statuary appeared in second-hand stores.  I read that one of Pope Paul VI’s tiaras turned up in a resale shop.  Religious Sisters abandoned their sacred habit for uniforms reminiscent of the blue jumpers of the postulancy; college administrators crumbled before girl-terrorists demanding Get Out of Vietnam Now or Else.  I read that the year Vatican II ended, the Vatican granted sixty-five annulments worldwide and, not many years afterwards, they granted sixty-five thousand worldwide.

B’nai B’rith required that the Second Vatican Council repudiate its doctrine of “no salvation outside the Church”, and so it was.  The “Council Fathers” set in motion the request that nine Protestant ministers would help to gut the Tridentine Sacrifice and this happened, replacing it (of course) with their own Luther/Cranmer Novus Ordo of the 1500s. 

The religion itself having been thrown out, the Church buildings came to resemble semi-empty railroad stations with disheveled, slouching congregants in the pews.  I once saw a college-level guy sitting in pew – eating an apple, in the otherwise-empty Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.  I’ve seen twenty-something Marquette students squatting on the floor, attending, (or not) to the novus ordo mass at the Jesu Church in Milwaukee.

Vatican II: The French Revolution within the Church
(As Arch. Lefebvre used to say.)

Having completed my many history-related courses in the best immediately Pre-Vatican II schools, I never encountered there, as far as I can recall, the words “Talmud”, “goyim”, “mason”, or “Free-mason.”  In general, the early English-speaking U.S. Bishops folded themselves and their compliant sheep eagerly into the Masonic pantheon of thirty-six thousand-plus sects of all religions, or no religion(s). 

The Catholic school history books even today, for example, largely mirror the books of the “public” schools.  Had the early U.S. Bishops alerted the Catholic immigrants of the Luciferian-Talmudic-“Enlightenment” and its determination to eradicate the Traditional Catholic Church from the earth, perhaps the human element of the U.S. Catholic Church of the 1960s would not have almost-totally collapsed as it did at Vatican II.

Indeed, Vatican II continued on a trajectory that began before the Masonic U.S. existed.  The century before the American and French revolutions, Our Lord, to defend against the coming onslaught, directed King Louis XIV to inscribe on the French flag, the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  However, Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI demurred; and then one hundred years later – to the day – after Our Lord gave this command to King Louis XIV, the French Assembly deposed Louis XVI from his throne.  In a street of Paris, the Masonic mob assassinated Louis XVI and his always-libeled wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. 

Phi Beta Kappa researcher Solange Hertz reports that in her study of the French journalistic output of the era, nowhere does “Let them eat cake” appear.  Queen Marie Antoinette had ordered the expulsion of the spectacularly libertarian publishers, Franklin and Jefferson.  Perhaps this indignity provoked them to concoct and spread the “Let them eat cake” libel, which continues to this day.

Jefferson and Madison, in their journal Citizen’s Gazette, had egged on their French Masonic brethren to the “Mother of all revolutions,” viz., the French Revolution.  The Masonic mob, after relieving the Bastille of its fourteen never-do-wells, enthroned a prostitute as “goddess of reason” on the desecrated main altar of Notre Dame (Our Lady) Cathedral in Paris. 

This prostitute – the “goddess of reason” is the precursor of the eventually-created “Statue of Liberty”, which holds aloft the classic “light” of Luciferian/illuminist iconography.  This abomination is a gift of the Masonic French government to their brethren in the Masonic U.S. government, for unflagging support for the genocidal massacre totaling hundreds of thousands: of Bishops, priests, consecrated nuns and other religious; fathers, mothers, children, infants – and even farm animals and pets as occurred in the Vendee region of northern France.

From the beginning, it was Franklin who brought Voltaire into Masonry, and not the reverse.  Voltaire was and is most admired for proclaiming, “I don’t agree with a word you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it” – except, of course, for the truths taught by the Catholic Church, which he was determined to annihilate. 

Voltaire died a screaming madman, gulping down the contents of his chamber pot, with brother Masons, including Franklin in attendance. (Franklin, at the U.S. Constitutional Convention, warned his brethren that in their obsession to obliterate the Church of Rome, they were overlooking “the Jews,” “who” if admitted to the U.S. would usurp all the power in the U.S. within two hundred years.)

This emphasis on the destruction of Catholic France sprang from the unpleasant reality that France was the leading Catholic power and the dominant political power of Europe.  Jefferson’s desire on his deathbed was that other nations follow the U.S./French lead in the destruction of “monkish ignorance and superstition”, as he put it.  This goal of destroying what is Catholic has been largely achieved in the Church’s human element, up to and including in the citadel of the Vatican, by Vatican II and its implementation, including the Vatican pressuring the few remaining Catholic nations to succumb.

In addition to his four legitimate children, Jefferson fathered at least six illegitimate children by a slave he inherited from his father-in-law.  The affluent Jefferson rages in his writings against “monkish ignorance and superstition.”  The Protestant William Cobbett, an English contemporary who published his own book at about the time Jefferson died, wrote that since the 1500s, English children had been imbued from their mothers’ knees with gratitude for having been freed from “monkish ignorance and superstition.”  Cobbett himself had enjoyed no such freedom, having spent his Dickensonian childhood as a rabbit chaser, and probably a weed-picker, on the estate (previously part of the public patrimony of the monasteries) of an Anglican Bishop and his family as well as his entourage.  The word “pauper” entered the English language under Henry VIII and his illegitimate daughter Elizabeth, the original plunderers of the public patrimony of the monasteries.  The descendants of some of those who were kicked off the stolen monastic lands, migrated to London where, years later, Charles Dickens described their plight.

From his youth, Cobbett researched the phrase “monkish ignorance and superstition”; eventually publishing a one hundred-sixty-page book, the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland – concluding that it was monkish knowledge and wisdom (rooted in the means of grace), which throughout the Middle Ages elevated the barbarous European hordes into Christian civilization.

One of the six causi belli (“causes of war”) of the U. S. revolution was the non-Mason King George’s permission to the citizens of Quebec to freely practice their Traditional Catholic Faith, in land adjacent to the New England colonies.  The Archbishop of Quebec excommunicated John Carroll, S.J., one of the rebel legates vainly pressuring Quebec to join the revolt – which was generously financed by wealthy Masons, according to the debriefings of General Howe.

The Catholic establishment in the U.S., obsequious from the first to their Masonic masters, submitted to – in fact originally suggested – the Masonic requirement that for citizenship, all must first accept the objective legitimacy and equality of all “religions” – thus gutting the core of the Catholic Faith.  

Our Lord, having established His Church at the price of His atrocious sufferings, mandates His Church as essential to salvation.  Obviously what Our Lord has established is true and anything “protesting” this is false.  The ten million Catholic martyrs of the first three centuries of the Christian era, under the popes of this period – almost all of them martyrs also – refused the absurdity of the then–pantheon of false gods of the self-proclaimed 30,000 “religions” at the time.

Had the U.S. founding fathers crafted a First Amendment of Mutual Tolerance to Prevent Violence, as had been forged at the Treaty of Westphalia, for example, or as warring nations have forged a truce to stop bloodshed, all “religions” and “nonreligions” could at least maintain a semblance of intellectual honesty.  The Traditional Catholic Church condemns Protestantism for its determination to supplant the Church.  The Protestants condemn the Church for claiming to be infallible in Faith and Morals – especially morals.  

Again, Jefferson desired to obliterate Catholicism and this was the goal of the Luciferian/Talmudic/Masonic/“Enlightenment” establishment.  Perhaps this goal would not have been so well fulfilled at Vatican II (as to the Church’s human element), if the early U.S. Catholic Bishops had warned the early Catholic immigrants about this plot.

At this point, the only solution to obtain world peace remains: the Pope and Bishops together must consecrate Russia to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lord directed through Our Lady, and Sister Lucia and her superiors in 1929.

In 1931, Our Lord expressed His exasperation to Sister Lucia that virtually nothing had been done to accomplish the Consecration.  The intransigent refusal of the Popes and Bishops since 1929, to consecrate Russia precisely and simply, as Our Lord directed, has of course provoked the magnitude of the world’s horrors since then.  Our Lord told Sister Lucia that the Consecration would be done, but it would be “late”.  When the Consecration is performed, she then said that the resulting blessings would last “for a time.” 

Sister Lucia, in her memoirs of 1957, wrote that Our Lady had revealed that in response to the escalating corruption engulfing the world from the Papacy down (including Vatican II), Our Lord was making the rosary – which is accessible to all – more efficacious than ever.  Our Lady told Sister Lucia, “There is no problem which cannot be solved” by seriously praying the daily rosary, the “rosary” being a chronological series of meditations on redemptive events in the lives of Our Lord and Our Lady.  Our Lord told Sister Lucia that the Consecration would be done when a sufficient number of souls were praying the daily rosary for this intention.

Photographs of Sister Lucia before 1957 bear no resemblance to “photographs” of her after then.

About the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as codified at Trent: the Papal decree enforcing the Tridentine Sacrifice of all time admonishes the world that anyone attempting to alter this Sacrifice of all time, would “incur the wrath of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.”

Among the scores of caskets of canonized saints in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, only two caskets remain open: those of the incorrupt bodies of Pope St. Pius V, who implemented the Council of Trent and the Tridentine Sacrifice; and of Pope St. Pius X, who more than four hundred years later, would advise Theodore Herzl that the unrepentant descendants of the Talmudic Jews who engineered the crucifixion of Our Lord, should never exercise authority in the Holy Land.  (The perennial Talmudic/Islamic chaos in the Holy Land since 1947, of course, speaks for itself).

The French Revolutionary Army General Francois Westermann wrote the following:

There is no Vendee ….  According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the hooves of the horses, massacred the women who at least for these will not give birth to any more brigands.  I do not have a prisoner to reproach me.  I have exterminated all, including farm animal and family pets.

Quoted from a letter to the French Committee of Public Safety, 1794.

In delighted response to the final Masonic victory, Jefferson wrote:

The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of this contest (the French Revolution) and was ever a prize (hundreds of thousands of guillotined Catholics) won with so little innocent [Masonic] blood?  I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are really those of 99 of a hundred of our citizens.  The universal feasts and rejoicings which have lately been had on account of the successes of the French showed the genuine effusions of their hearts.

Quoted from http/founders. archives.gov/document/Jefferson01-25-02-001

Thomas Jefferson wrote this concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ:

If we could believe that he (Jesus) really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) claim he taught, and (if we could) admit the misconstructions, interpretations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early ages (St. Augustine, St. Jerome, etc.) and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he (Jesus) was an imposter.

Jefferson, Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1829, p. 333.

Meanwhile, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to reign in humility, modesty, and dignity, at the geographic center of the Americas, as it has since 1531 A.D., as we see so many North, South, and Central Americans continue to pervert their reason and free will and repudiate Our Lady and her Divine Son Whom she brings us in His Traditional Catholic Church.

May God help us and them!

For earthly happiness and eternal happiness, live your life as prescribed for us by the Creator, Who is all-wise and loving.  He knows what is best for us and gives us everything we need.  We may not always see the wisdom of God’s gifts to us, but be assured they are for the best.

Let us never then attribute our losses, our disappointments, our afflictions, our humiliations to the devil or to men, but to God as their real source.  ‘To act otherwise,” says St. Dorothy, ‘would be to do the same as a dog who vents his anger on the stone instead of putting the blame on the hand that threw it at him.’  So let us be careful not to say, ‘So-and-so is the cause of my misfortune.’

Your misfortunes are the work not of this or that person but of God.  And what should give you reassurance is that God, the sovereign Good, is guided in all His actions by His most profound wisdom for holy and supernatural purposes.”[1]

Here is an admirable Prayer When Receiving Your Daily Cross:

Do with me and mine as Thou please.  I ask and desire only three things: Thy love, final perseverance, and the grace always to do Thy holy will.  And if to love Thee thus, I must endure persecution and suffering, I am perfectly satisfied.

Let us then conclude with St. Augustine:

All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence, by His orders and under His guidance; and if by the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us attribute it to Divine Providence, show Him some respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it to us without cause.[2]

 

Some find it hard to believe one has to suffer to avoid sin.  But consider this: If you were very, very successful (e.g., in business), it is easier to see that salvation is likely not your top priority, not if you are constantly seeking more awards and honors and even world-wide recognition. 

Now contrast that with how the Saints wanted to leave the world and live and seek salvation in the desert or in the wilderness.  Thus, they earned Heaven. 

Remember, you have to earn Heaven.

Here are some reflections on earning Heaven and the part suffering plays in that:

Suffering is thought by many to be the great evil of life.  Oh, if they could only avoid it!  The truth is that if they did find a way of avoiding it, that would be the greatest evil of their lives.

All about suffering.  Our Lord has given us a most perfect redemption.  He could have dispensed the law of suffering if He so willed.  Why does God, being of infinite goodness and mercy, ask us to suffer?

He does so for the simple reason that suffering is a very great grace.  

Our suffering is a share, a small but most valuable share, in the Passion of our dear Lord.

It is priceless in value – if we only accept it and offer it in union with Christ’s Passion.

He has suffered unspeakable agonies for each of us.  Are we such arrant cowards as to refuse to suffer a little for Him?

How little gratitude we show for all that He has done for us!  The easiest and best way of thanking Him is to offer our daily crosses and trials for love of Him.

The one big trouble about suffering is that we do not know how to suffer.  We have no idea of its merits.

The secret is to suffer with patience and serenity.  Then suffering loses all its sting, all its bitterness.

We need only remember that it is our sweet Lord Himself Who asks us to bear these daily trials for love of Him, suffering loses its horrors.

God gives us abundant strength and grace to bear our crosses, if we ask Him.

Many good and pious Christians never think of asking God to help them to bear their crosses!  Therefore, their crosses weigh heavily on them.

Our sufferings are the purest gold in our lives.  Five minutes’ suffering is of greater worth than twenty years of pleasure and happiness.

One fact well worth remembering is that our daily sufferings, the least as well as the greatest, if borne well, merit for us a crown of martyrdom.       

Suffering, well borne, makes us saints.[3]

In closing, this might be a thought to bear in mind:

If a little suffering makes you impatient now, what will hell fire do?  In truth, you cannot have two joys: you cannot taste the pleasures of this world and afterward reign with Christ.[4]

Catholic Candle note: The following is a letter from a Catholic Candle reader.  We invite our readers to send their own letters and articles.

Dear fellow Catholic Candle readers,

While reciting the Joyful Mysteries I found myself pondering the reason why God allowed the angels to fall.  Would it not have been better to have all the created angels to be in heaven adoring God?  For that matter, would it not have been better if Adam had not sinned and to have all humans obtain heaven and be with God? 

Then I could almost hear what I have heard people say so many times before, “If there is a God and He is so good, then how can there be suffering, sickness, and death in the world?”  I am sure, you, dear fellow-readers, have heard similar things.

How would I refute such questions?

Then, I remembered that the Candle had an article about how men are not created equal and how the fall of the angels and men showed God’s glory more than if these events had not occurred.  The bitter questions of those who do not understand how Providence works make it sound like God is somehow unfair or unjust in His ways.

Then my thoughts went a bit deeper to ponder how God is so provident and He works on all levels from top to bottom, as it were.  How marvelous it truly is that God chose to become Man in the form of a little Baby!  In a cave used as a stable!  For all those people who think that God is unfair, have they ever thought about how He chose such humiliations for Himself?  How is it unfair that He gives us something to suffer and we are sinners and deserve suffering, when He, Who is perfect, showed us such loving examples of how to offer things up out of love for the Heavenly Father?  He didn’t stop there; He suffered so many attacks, humiliations, and such an ignominious death on the Cross!

I couldn’t help contrasting the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom He gave so much, with so many souls to whom God chose to give little.  It is almost overwhelming to contrast the most ignorant and weak savage pagan, to the immaculately conceived Mother of God.  What a remarkable difference between two human creatures of God!  Our Lady is God’s masterpiece.  She had the use of reason from her conception and always served God perfectly. 

God chose to do this and He is not unfair or unjust.  He planned from all eternity to create man and He planned the means He would use to redeem man.  He planned to create a perfect virgin to be the Mother of Wisdom Incarnate.  He also planned that He would give her to us to be our Mother to help us miserable sinners work out our salvation.   He planned that she would be more powerful than all hell put together. 

The most astounding thought of all my contrasting back and forth was that God did all of what He did as a means to foster humility in us.  Whether we think of all of the blessings He has given us from the Faith on down, or whether we see how low we are compared to Mary, the highest of all the saints, we are humbled by these thoughts.  This all made me think how He wants our humility and how He allows all things to help us discover humility, see its beauty, and desire to have this most necessary virtue.  Our Lord told us we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without humility.  I could not help but be struck how He works out all things in His creation and in particular, in the human race, in order to teach men this foundation of all virtue – humility.   Mary and Blessed Christ Mass, fellow Catholic Candle readers!

Catholic Candle note: The article below is a reminder of the benefit we receive from the trials that God sends us. 

This article is a “companion piece” to Catholic Candle’s prior article, Strategies for Lightening the Crosses You Now Have, which can be found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/04/01/77/

St. John Chrysostom gives five reasons why God permits us to undergo trials and tribulations, even very severe ones.  Here are his words:

Whoever thou art then that after thy baptism sufferest grievous trials, be not troubled thereat; for this thou receivest arms, to fight, not to sit idle.  God does not hold all trial from us:

·         firstly, that we may feel that we are become stronger;

·         secondly, that we may not be puffed up by the greatness of the gifts we have received;

 

·         thirdly, that the Devil may have experience that we have entirely renounced him;

 

·         fourthly, that by it we may be made stronger; and

 

·         fifthly, that we may receive a sign of the treasure entrusted to us; for the Devil would not come upon us to tempt us, did he not see us advanced to greater honors.[1]

Let us examine each of these reasons why God permits us to suffer trials.

1.   God permits us to undergo trials that we might feel that we become stronger.

We need encouragement and (reasonable) confidence in spiritual battles.  If we never fight spiritual battles, we will be afraid to do so.  We would wonder “how would I do?”  Because of this insecurity, we would shrink back like cowards from future spiritual battles that God wishes us to fight, for His glory and for our reward.

An army’s general values his battle-tested and battle-hardened soldiers because they know from experience that they can succeed and they know what they must do in order to succeed.  Those veteran soldiers gain in courage and confidence by fighting battles, so that they feel ready to fight future battles.

Similarly, Christ, our “General” in the Church Militant, gives us trials to help us Soldiers of Christ to be battle-tested and battle-hardened spiritual warriors.  Through trials, we test our spiritual armaments, our (spiritual) combat skills, and our strength in the spiritual battles of this life.  We learn by experience that the devil cannot conquer us provided that we do not let him do so (by consenting to sin).  We know that, with God’s help and if we do our part, we will conquer all demons. 

For this reason, God sends us trials so that we might gain courage and (reasonable) confidence that we are able to fight life’s spiritual battles for God’s glory and for the salvation of souls.

2.   God permits us to undergo trials that we may not be puffed up by the greatness of the gifts we have received.

When we are inside our home while a wild storm rages outside, we feel secure, like a sailor looking out from the security of a safe harbor at a storm raging at sea.[2]  By contrast, when a sailor is caught out at sea, with his ship almost capsizing, fighting for survival amidst the buffeting waves, then he remembers that he needs God and that his own efforts are very weak and small.

Let us apply that principle to the spiritual life:

The angelic spirits are truly awesome – greatly exceeding our comprehension:

❖  The angelic nature is so great that it would be a greater thing for us to understand the nature of the lowest angel than it would be for us to know everything about all material creation combined.

❖  The lowest angel is so powerful that he could very easily destroy all of material creation, if God permitted him to do so.

The devils have such very high angelic natures.  Their rebellion against God did not change the greatness of their natures.

Suppose we found all trials to be easy.  Suppose that, for us, avoiding temptation was “child’s play” and that when the devil tempted us, we could simply “snap our fingers in the devil’s face” (as it were) and that we could prevail against his temptations without need to make any serious effort to resist him.

If all trials were so easy for us, our pride would grow exceedingly.  Thus, God lovingly sends us the precious gift of trials in order to deflate our pride by forcing us to fight hard for the life of our souls, in the spiritual storms that rage in this world.

It is during spiritual trials that we best know that we need God’s help.  At such times, we best remember that we are small and weak and that we are not the great spiritual champions that we would otherwise imagine ourselves to be.  We remember then that we would be deluding ourselves to think that we can terrorize all devils and put them to flight because of our great holiness and spiritual power.

For this reason, God sends us trials – including severe trials – in order that these trials would remind us of our weakness so that we do not get puffed up by the magnificent spiritual gifts that God gives to us Catholics who follow the full traditions of the Church.

3.   God permits us to undergo trials in order that the Devil may have experience that we have entirely renounced him.

It is appropriate that the devil should have discernable evidence that we belong to God and are soldiers in His army.  It is fitting that the devil sees that the soldiers of Christ fight for Him and that the devil sees that we fulfill our baptismal vows to “renounce Satan and all of his works and pomps”.

It befits the Divine honor that we, who are Our Lord’s servants and friends, do not render Him service which is so indiscernible that the devil is able to mock Our Lord that he can’t even tell that we are serving the Divine Majesty.

God must not only triumph in us but must also be seen to triumph in us.  This is good and fitting just as it is good and fitting that, at the end of the world, not only will justice be done at the General Judgment but also that it will be seen to have been done.

Thus, God sends us trials to make manifest that we belong to Him and not to the devil.

4.   God sends us grievous trials in order that, by this spiritual combat, we can be made stronger.

A soldier is given weapons in order that he can fight.  If he were not supposed to fight, he would not have been given weapons.  If he were supposed to remain idle, he would have been given pillows instead of weapons.

Similarly, St. John Chrysostom teaches us that we Soldiers of Christ receive spiritual weapons for the very purpose of we fighting God’s battles in the trials He sends us.  St. John Chrysostom teaches us that God wants us “to fight, not sit idle”.  Id.

Just as hard physical exercise causes our bodily muscles to gain strength, likewise grievous spiritual trials and tribulations strengthen our “spiritual muscles”.  That is, our wills gain strength in virtue through hard spiritual work. 

We should welcome the trials that God sends.  We should generously enter into the penitential times (e.g., Lent, Ember Days, vigils of high feasts, Advent), valuing them as opportunities and as blessings, not as misfortunes which we must endure.  We should not approach such times with a stingy heart, doing the minimum required, and making as little change in ourselves as possible. 

We should look upon penitential times as occasions of great liberty, freeing ourselves from the burden of our lower nature which pulls us downward.  We should also view the Great Apostasy in which we live as a blessing and as a trial meant for our good.[3]  For we know that such trials “work together unto the good, for those who love God”.  Romans, 8:28.

Thus, God sends us trials in order to make us stronger in His service.

5.   God permits us to undergo trials that we may receive a sign of the treasure entrusted to us; for the Devil would not come upon us to tempt us, did he not see us advanced to greater honors.

Suppose we inherited an old painting of little apparent value from a distant relative.  As we receive it, suppose we also receive an offer from a rich art collector to purchase it for $25 million.  That offer would cause us to regard this painting much differently.  We would keep it safe and not throw it away or otherwise disregard it.

Suppose we learned that an art thief planned to steal that painting.  We would take great care to not allow this valuable possession to be stolen.

Analogously, we possess a far greater treasure: sanctifying grace (which is always accompanied by Charity and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost).  That grace is infinitely valuable, although it can seem to people that it is like that old worthless-seeming painting we inherited. 

However, when we know that the devil is trying to “steal” this priceless treasure from our souls, it helps us to remember the incomparable value of grace.  Just as the art thief’s desire to steal our painting warns us of the value of that painting and reminds us to protect it from theft, likewise, the devil’s desire to “steal” the grace in our soul reminds us to take all precautions to protect the life of grace.

Thus, we see that God permits the devil to tempt us through trials to remind us of the infinite value of the grace we have in our souls.

Conclusion

Let us appreciate the trials and tribulations that our Dear Lord generously gives us! 

Let us value them more than all material goods and more than a life of ease, since those trials are a crucial means for our salvation. 

Let us thank God for those trials and use them for God’s greater honor and glory and for maximum merit!

 

 

Catholic Candle note:  The article below pertains to Our Lord’s command that the pope together with the bishops of the world consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  In 2022, Pope Francis performed a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, naming Russia.  However, this consecration did not fulfill the necessary requirements as Our Lord commanded.  For an explanation and analysis of this, read this article: https://catholiccandle.org/2022/04/20/did-the-popes-consecration-fulfill-heavens-command-no/

So far, a just God has punished mankind, which has been steeped in sin over the centuries, thereby sending a message He will not be held up to scorn.  One of the first great punishments was the Deluge.  We read in Genesis:

God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, It repented him that he had made man on the earth.  And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them.  But Noe found grace before the Lord.[1]

Warning of the Flood

These are the generations of Noe: Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations, he walked with God.  And he begot three sons, Sem, Cham, and Japheth.  And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity.  And when God had seen that the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth,)  He said to Noe: The end of all flesh is come before me, the earth is filled with iniquity through them, and I will destroy them with the earth.[2]

Another early, great punishment was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. 

For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrha, Adama, and Seboin were destroyed by “brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”[3]

Much more recently, came World Wars I and II, with a great loss of life.  The Blessed Mother at Fatima revealed that they were punishments for sin.  Also at Fatima, Our Lady revealed that God wills that Russia would be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.  In 1929, she appeared to Sister Lucy and told her:

The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means ….[4] 

Earlier (viz., in 1917), Our Lady of Fatima revealed that the pope definitely will consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart and through this means God will grant peace.  Here are her words:

The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she [viz., Russia] shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.[5]

However, Our Lady of Fatima warned in 1917 that, when she came in the future, (viz., in 1929) to ask for the consecration, if the pope delayed this consecration, his delay would cause great harm throughout the world.  Here are Our Lady’s words

I shall come [viz., in 1929] to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, by the Holy Father and all the bishops of the world.  If my request is heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.  If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecution against the Church.[6]

In 1931, Our Lord assured Sister Lucy that the pope and bishops will perform this consecration – but He revealed that there will first be a long delay.  Here are Sister Lucy’s words describing Our Lord’s revelation to her:

Later on, by means of an interior communication, Our Lord said to me, complaining: “They [viz., Pope Pius XI and the bishops of the world] did not want to heed My request!  …  Make it known to My ministers, seeing that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My demand, they will also have to follow him into misfortune.  Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late.[7]

Because the world is becoming continually worse, it is reasonable to suppose that another chastisement is coming.  We can ponder what this new chastisement will be.  But when and how it will occur, I don’t know.

Readers of the Catholic Candle are aware, and so I needn’t recount just how depraved and steeped in sin this world has become today.  However, one evil  which must be addressed is this: Rome and, perhaps, 99.5% of Catholics in the world said good-bye to the Catholic faith in the 1960s and 1970s (and afterwards) to join the anti-Catholic Conciliar church, catastrophically adding to the mockery of God which sin always is.  Christ established a perfect religion, and we must do our part, the best we can, to promote and practice this religion: the uncompromising Traditional Catholic Religion.

Just how does the world avoid another chastisement?  By doing as Our Lord said: the pope and all the Catholic bishops[8] must consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the way He directed that it be done.  Then, and only then, will peace follow. 

Considering the words and actions of our current pope, Francis, and most of the Catholic bishops[9] of the world, I don’t see that consecration happening any time soon.  What we can and should do now is to use the Blessed Virgin Mary’s “sword against evil” – viz., the rosary – in our fight for peace in the world.  Since my visit to Fatima in the 1980s, I’ve always felt that Our Lady’s request for us to pray the rosary every day meant all 15 decades.  They are all part of the rosary, and she didn’t say “at least part of a rosary.”  In this way, you’d say seven complete rosaries a week, as compared to two and a third partials.  Which do you think she prefers?  (You are no doubt busy, so it’s acceptable to say each mystery at a different time of the day, morning, noon, or night but we should all do our best to pray the entire rosary – 15 decades – every day.)

What do you think?  Did I make my case? 

For a happy life – with no stress – make your many daily decisions by asking God what He wants you to do.

Whatever be the affair, enter with Moses into the tabernacle to ask advice of the Lord, (and) return instructed in many things present and to come.[1]

Further, we should gladly place ourselves entirely in God’s Hands:

Lord, I willingly commit all things to You, for my anxiety can profit me little.  But I would that I were not so concerned about the future, and instead offered myself without hesitation to Your good pleasure.[2]

God knows what is best for you.  How do you know what God wants?  Well, you know He loves you very much.  He suffered and died for you.  Each time you ask Him what to do, remember that He knows all things and wants you to do His Will. 

Of course, you must study the traditional Faith to better understand that God created you to be happy on earth and to be perfectly happy with Him in heaven.  He knows the best way for you to attain this happiness.

He will tell you if only you will listen.  That’s the crux of the problem: most people don’t listen because they want to follow their own will, not God’s.  They know deep down that God is right yet they refuse to listen when His Will conflicts with their own.  They will be sorry and unhappy for their prideful mistake.  It seems they never learn.

So, start out with a deep love for God and with a firm determination that you will follow His all-knowing answer to your question (viz., what you should do).  With this frame of mind, and following your strong resolution not to commit even the smallest sin, all your actions will be the right ones – for the greater honor and glory of God.

Listen here to the voice of Christ:

My Child, I am the Lord Who gives strength in the day of trouble.  Come to Me when all is not well with you.  Your tardiness in turning to prayer is the greatest obstacle to heavenly consolation, for before you pray earnestly to Me you first seek many comforts and take pleasure in outward things.  Thus, all things are of little profit to you until you realize that I am the one Who saves those who trust in Me, and that outside of Me there is no worthwhile help, or any useful counsel or lasting remedy.[3]

Amen, amen, I say to you that if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.[4]

Do not concern yourself about the best way to approach a loving God.  Remember, talk to Him like a friend you trust, and ask “What should I do?” in this or that situation.  As noted above, listen closely and follow through on what He tells you even if it is hard to do, since you know deep down that He is right.