Eleison Comments

Americans have an expression, “To think outside the box.” It means to think outside of one’s usual way of thinking. If ever there was a time for “thinking outside the box,” that time is now. For six or seven hundred years mankind has been turning away from God, in a process which it has freely chosen and which God does not intervene to stop, as he could easily do, because he does not give us men our free-will to take it away again. Also, if he is now allowing this process to be reaching in our own time its logical conclusion, he must be hoping that as the crisis deepens and the pressures increase, so there will be more and more souls driven to think outside the box of their materialism, and by so doing get back on the road to Heaven.

Now how the next few years unfold remains God’s secret, especially the calendar. However, it seems highly probable that the suburban and urban areas where most of us live will be seriously destabilized, firstly because these areas are largely immersed in materialism and “happily” living without God, which must call down his wrath, and secondly because these areas are as intrinsically unstable as they are cut off from nature and artificial, depending more and more on the fragile system of supermarkets for sustenance and survival, on the under-manned police forces for any peace and order, on the Internet’s vulnerable satellites for their information and communications, on the villainous banks for the roof over their heads.

In fact only when the crisis really hits will we truly realise how fragile was our environment that seemed as natural as nature. Therefore for subsistence and survival it surely makes sense to lay in a stock of food and water; for information and guidance to lay in a battery-operated radio (with batteries); for law and order to lay in some physical means of self-defence, and to make contact with one’s immediate neighbours, however little one may have chosen them, because friends in need will be friends indeed; and for the roof over one’s head, to get as far as one can, as soon as one can, out of debt and out of the clutches of the bankers, although we are late in the day for that.

A Catholic reader goes further by suggesting that Catholics in a given area band together to set up Catholic refuges, even material as well as spiritual, invisible as such from the outside, but where the joy of the Faith will reign on the inside. That seems a strange thought. It is certainly “outside the box.” It depends upon a number of Catholics living close to one another who share the same sense of urgency as to imminent events, but it is an idea whose time may come. Also some ‘student’ should make good use of his time at ‘university’ by doing a thesis on how Catholics kept the Faith under brutal Communist repression. Globalism is not yet physically brutal, but that can make it all the more dangerous for souls.

And finally a priest makes a few classic suggestions for spiritual means to meet the present spiritual needs, which are urgent enough, even without grave events being imminent. The full 15-Mystery Rosary every day has Heaven’s guarantee for its efficacity. A 24-hour fast on bread and water can obtain miracles. A corporal work of mercy, eg real alms to a real beggar (more difficult than writing a cheque) pulls down grace. So does a spiritual work of mercy, like giving a Catholic leaflet or a Miraculous Medal to non-Catholics. Total abstinence from the Internet for one or several days can put a brake on habits of wasting time, and it can make half an hour available to meditate instead on the Passion of Our Lord, who is only waiting and longing for us to make use of all that He suffered.

Kyrie eleison.

A reader from South America corroborates what a reader from North America wrote here a few weeks ago. Readers, take heart – next week will see here several positive suggestions.

“How this North-American, brother in the Faith of all time, sees present and future, is excellent. I agree with him entirely. For more than 30 years a few friends and I have been warning how this situation, humanly speaking seemingly irreversible, will end. We are few for sure, because in the light of all the present madness we may be concerned for the future, we may see what is to come and is now at the door, but when we argue that people must prepare for it, how can they not be scandalized by our concerns? How can anybody not take us for jokesters, nihilists or madmen?

“Like the mass of people today, they are up to their necks in making that paycheck, in earning enough money to pay their bills, in working out whether they can afford to go back into debt. For such people it is obvious madness, a psychotic distraction, to talk to them about the possibility of a banking crisis, all the more of an apocalyptic catastrophe. They cannot accept that the wobbly house of cards which they have sacrificed so much to set up, amidst labyrinths of financial propaganda and captivating loans offered them by the bank, may all fall down. In desperate pursuit of lower lending fees or financing free of interest, they strive constantly to maintain the perverse consumerism which is their way of life, with their heads buried in the modern quagmire.

“Who but a ‘madman’ can be thinking of sources of water, canned foods and homegrown products, sources of information independent of the Internet, non-traditional sources of energy, printers running on heavy-duty rechargeable batteries, reams of A4 paper, materials for binding, basic medicines, disinfectants and anaesthetics, surgical instruments, solid fuels, especially wood, coal and liquids, etc, etc, everything necessary to face the worst of contingencies? Because I am absolutely convinced that that is what lies ahead, because nobody gets out of a crisis like we are in without a worldwide purification such as has never been seen before.

“However, it is being spiritually prepared which is the most important, being able to leave aside our own needs in the terrible moments to come, and help those closest to us by giving a word of encouragement, a piece of bread, a little water, some explanation of why the total disaster will have struck. That way, instead of accusing God, they may, once extricated from the overwhelming distractions of the world, rediscover the true path to save their souls. A wife and mother from Syria told a Sister from this country that the war of aggression they are now undergoing in Syria has enabled them to realize that the comfort in which they were living before had made them lose sight of the simple life-style so necessary for true Christians, and that amidst such a crisis they were now happier than before, because they were now focused on essentials: the day-to-day life of the Christian, raising his eyes to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“That is why despite the evil all around, I myself see good news on all sides, inspiring in me joy and the hope of limitless heavenly possibilities, unimaginable at present, once this perverse world is defeated and wiped out. People making sacrifices to look after their neighbours, the honourable life of many soldiers, the examples of martyrs, family fathers striving to give a Christian education to their children, thousands of people thinking along the lines of the North American referred to above, Traditionalists reacting, and many other examples – it is all good news, and should refresh our souls with the cool breeze of trust in God. He never fails us. It is enough to imitate the life of his Son. But there being no Redemption without suffering, then it is absolutely certain that this infamous and perverted diabolical world of lies will not fall down by itself without an exemplary Chastisement.”

Kyrie eleison.

If any readers have not yet woken up, let them wake up. A report of a few days ago from a reader in Germany tells of news never reported in our vile media, vile precisely because they tell so many lies and so little truth (but is it not we the people who are essentially responsible for our media . . . ?).

“Germany, Austria and neighbouring lands to the south-east have been undergoing for the last few months an aggressive invasion of foreigners disguised as ‘refugees,’ a large majority of whom are young men, spoiling for a fight. Bavaria’s Minister-President Horst Seehofer, looking as pale as a sheet, said on local TV last Sunday that law and order were on the brink of collapse. Yet our puppet-governments and our mass media, at the service of the enemies of God, support this invasion by all means at their disposal, including misused State force, such as the police and the army. These puppets also lie in print, to hide the invasion from the people and thus cause as much damage as possible.

“The mass of people are still asleep, although more and more men of the land around here and elsewhere are speaking openly of civil war. In outlying regions of Bavaria things are coming to a halt. Residents and goods can no longer move, or only with long delays. About the hordes of invaders – not yet grouped together – ranging freely through the countryside and stealing, the mass-media breathe not a word. The local authorities – under orders from above – have lost all control, and the police advise the victimised population to look after themselves and eventually form civil defence groups – after we were completely disarmed a few years ago.

“Croatia has called for mobilisation of its army, which is everywhere getting on its feet. I want to see what I can do locally, but I am afraid that most of my fellow-countrymen still have no idea what is happening. If just a certain number of them wake up, they will fight like lions, which is why our so-called government, and the enemies of God who control it, are lying and deceiving at all levels to put off that moment of awakening. It is going to be bad . . .” (End of reader’s report)

The emergency described here is not of course confined to Germany. A similar disaster is afflicting many other Western nations as well. It is unbelievable, unless one looks at it from a religious point of view, and then it all makes sense. Look up the whole of Psalm 105 (106, new numbering). God gave to the Israelites gifts and corresponding responsibilities to which they were repeatedly unfaithful. If he loved them, he could not leave them unpunished (Heb.XII, 7–8). Here are verses 35 to 41 of the Psalm, adapted to our own time:—

“And the Christians were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works, and served the same idols of liberalism, and it became a stumbling-block to them. And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the devils of contraception and abortion and they shed innocent blood: the blood of their sons and daughters which they sacrificed to the idols of self-centred pleasure-seeking. And the land was polluted with blood, and was defiled with their works; and they went aside after their own electronics. And the Lord was exceedingly angry with the people: and he abhorred those whom he had specially gifted. And he delivered them into the hands of their age-old enemies: and those that had hated the Christians for 2000 and 1400 years had dominion over them.”

Europe’s disaster is by God’s permission. The solution is of course to turn to God: verse 44, “And he saw when they were in tribulation, and he heard their prayer, (46) and he gave them unto mercies, in the sight of all those that had made them captives. (47) Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among your enemies . . . . ”

Kyrie eleison.

“I am a man. I stand on my own feet. I have a mind and a will and a sense of duty. I can lead a decent, even noble, life on the natural level, far above mere materialism. Now you as a Catholic come and tell me of a supernatural, superhuman life, superior to the natural life, requiring supernatural virtues to be lived. You tell me it is a life far superior to the natural life, made possible by an Incarnate God, and promising unimaginable bliss. Now that is all very well, but quite honestly, I find human nature is enough: the life of neither an angel nor a beast. I want neither the Heaven to come, nor the demands it makes here on earth. I decline the benefit with the burden. I will content myself with a decent natural life, that God will reward with a decent natural after-life.”

That is how Cardinal Pie (1815–1880) put in the mouth of many an upright and respectable citizen of mid-19^th century the grave error of naturalism, which was sending then, and has sent ever since, huge numbers of souls down to Hell. Naturalism is the denial, or as here, the refusal, of the whole supernatural order. Nature is all, or is all that I want. Nothing above nature exists, or if it does exist, I politely decline it. Leo XIII in his Encyclical denounced naturalism as being the essential error of Freemasonry (see Humanum Genus ). Naturalism is the huge error of Hollywood, barely noticed because all of us have grown so used to the modern world as moulded by the Freemasons, one of whose principles is to be everywhere but to be seen nowhere. Cardinal Pie answered his respectable citizen with three arguments:—

Firstly, God is the Creator and the sovereign Lord of man, his creature. Having created the natural man who indeed belongs to the natural order (God’s gift of the world to man), he retained the right to perfect man by raising him also to the supernatural order (God’s gift of God to man). In fact God did appoint man to enter the supernatural order, by an act of love which man has no right to refuse, because the gift and the love are so great. Thus God makes the benefit an obligation, under severe penalty for refusal of the benefit, and for revolt against the love. The nobility of participating in God’s own nature by his gift of supernatural grace constitutes an obligation, such that he who refuses to behave like a son will be treated like a slave.

Secondly, reason itself proves that God revealed himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. If God reveals, I must see. Now his Incarnate Son revealed that to refuse to believe is to be condemned (Mk. XVI, 16). The Father has handed all judgment to the Son (Jn. V, 22–23). Every knee must bow to Jesus (Phil. II, 9–11). Every intelligence is to come under Jesus (II Cor. X, 4–6). All things are summed up in Jesus (Eph. I, 10–12; Heb. II, 8). There is no other name under Heaven than that of Jesus by which we can be saved (Acts, IV, 11–12). St Augustine on Jn. XV says, either one is attached to Christ like branch to vine and one bears fruit, or one is detached from him and is thrown into the fire. Vine or fire! You don’t want the fire? Cling to the vine!

Thirdly, to lead a truly decent natural life without supernatural grace is impossible. Fallen man is weak in mind and will. In practice, the Cardinal asks, how many “decent and respectable citizens” without God’s grace are capable of resisting all temptation? By day they behave decently in the office, but at night . . . ? They follow the noble Plato in public, but in private they follow the pleasure-seeking Epicurus. “Admit it, Sir,” warns the Cardinal: “In men’s eyes you may always have been very correct, but not in your own eyes, and if there is not a drop of Christ’s Blood in your soul, you are heading for punishment.”

Kyrie eleison.

Concerning the “Poem of the Man-God” by Maria Valtorta (1897–1961), a life of Our Lord extending to ten volumes written in Italian in the 1940’s, an Italian priest, Don Ottavio Michelini, is alleged to have heard in the 1970’s, from Our Lord himself, the following comments:—

“I have dictated to Maria Valtorta, a victim soul, a marvellous work (The Poem of the Man-God). Of this work I am the Author. You yourself, my son, have recognized Satan reacting with fury to it . . . . You have observed yourself the resistance that many priests oppose to this work. ( . . . ) If it were – I do not say “read” – but studied and meditated, it would do an immense good to souls. This work is a well-spring of serious and solid culture . . . . This is a work willed by Wisdom and Divine Providence for the new times. It is a spring of living and pure water. It is I, the Word living and eternal, Who have given Myself anew as nourishment to the souls that I love. I, Myself, am the Light, and the Light cannot be confused with, and still less blend Itself with, the darkness. Where I am found, the darkness is dissolved to make way for the Light.”

Maria Valtorta is the 20^th century equivalent of Maria of Agreda and Anne-Catherine Emmerich, of the 17^th and 19^th centuries respectively. The two earlier visionaries have by now gained wide respect within the Catholic Church, but Maria Valtorta is still controversial. Now one may admit that her “Poem” is not to everybody’s taste. It need not be forced on anybody. It is not a substitute for the Gospel. It is not necessary for salvation. And it may seem highly dubious to support the writings of one alleged visionary with the words of another, especially when the supporting witness is as little well known as Don Michelini.

However, there are souls all over the world for whom the “Poem” has acted like a stupendous gift of God himself, for whom it has seemed to be designed to alleviate the spiritual distress of our own times, which is becoming more and more unbearable for many. Therefore these “Comments” will dare to put before readers, once more, reasons to take seriously the testimony of Don Michelini and to interest themselves in the “Poem,” so as possibly to profit by it before God intervenes in spectacular fashion to relieve that distress. Let these reasons be the briefest of summaries of the seven reasons given supposedly by Our Lord at the end of the “Poem” for his having revealed its contents to Maria Valtorta:—

1 Doctrine – while modernism wreaks havoc with the Church’s unchanging teaching, souls need to see how I gave the selfsame teaching to the Church, from the start: divine, perfect, immutable.

2 Love – when charity is growing cold and sentimental, priests and layfolk need their love for Christ and for all that concerns Christ to be re-awakened, especially for his Mother.

3 Direction – when souls are going astray in so many different directions, spiritual directors need to see in how many different ways I looked after them.

4 Reality – when love is so widely falsified and sullied, human beings need to see Jesus and Mary as true human beings of flesh and blood, with a perfect love, but truly human, between them.

5 Suffering – when comfort everywhere comes first, pleasure-seekers need to know how long and varied were the sufferings of my Mother and myself, starting tens of years before the Passion.

6 Word – when language is utterly debased, people need to see the power of my Word, of my words, to transform souls, e.g. from rough sinners into great Apostles.

7 Judas – when evil is so sentimentalized as to be denied, sinners must be shown the mystery of iniquity in human form, so as not to follow Judas to Hell.

Kyrie eleison.

What does the Catholic Church think of “racism”? Or of “anti-semitism”? Or of “sexism”? Or of “homophobia”? And so on and so on. In a liberal world where everybody is supposed to be nice to everybody, is it not surprising how “political correctness” seems to come up regularly with a new class of people for all of us to hate? The Catholic Church, following its divine Master, says we are to love our neighbour and to hate nobody, but it does not say we should love all our fellow-men indiscriminately. Let us see how a great Catholic theologian puts order into our love of God and man. Here are the bare bones of the 13 Articles of St Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, 2a 2ae, Question 26:—

1 Charity does have an order, because it is a friendship in supernatural bliss, and that bliss has its starting-point in God, and wherever you have things following from a starting-point, you have an order. (Notice how the Catholic immediately refers a major question to God. What might liberals immediately refer to as the starting-point of their “niceness”? Hatred of Nazis? Seriously . . . )

2 Charity must love God above neighbour, because charity is a friendship in bliss, and all bliss for myself or my neighbour has its source in God. (Where do liberals place the source of their happiness? In self-fulfilment? In their fellow-men? These are relatively poor forms of happiness.)

3 God must be loved above self, because all (unspoiled) creatures, each in their way, naturally love the common good above their particular good, and God is the natural and supernatural common good of all.

4 Spiritual self must be loved above spiritual neighbour, because I am closer to me than I am to my neighbour so that if I do not love me (spiritually), I am unlikely to love my neighbour. But –

5 Spiritual neighbour must be loved above corporal self, i.e., my own body, because spirit comes before body, because spirit partakes directly in bliss, while body partakes only indirectly (through spirit).

6 Some neighbours must be loved more than others, because they all vary in their closeness to one of the two poles of charity, objective to God, or subjective to me. Saints are closer to God, neighbours to me.

7 Objectively, Saints will be loved more than relatives, but subjectively neighbours will be loved more intensely than Saints, because in a variety of ways they are closer – “Charity begins at home.”

8 Essentially, blood-relatives will be loved above non-relatives, because blood-ties are natural, fixed and substantial. Accidentally however, other ties of friendship can be more powerful.

9 Objectively, parents are to be loved more than children, because as sources of life and of many benefits, parents are closer to God, but subjectively children can be closer to us for several reasons.

10 Father should be loved more than mother, as such, because by the part each plays in giving us life, the father is formal and active whereas the mother is material ( maternal ) and passive (St Thomas was writing about human beings who are normal and not de-natured as they are today).

11 Objectively, parents are to be loved more than wife, because as sources of life and of many benefits they are closer to God, but subjectively she who is “one flesh” with her husband is to be loved the more.

12 Objectively, somebody doing good to us is to be loved more than somebody we do good to, because they are a source of good to us, but by subjective closeness we love the more somebody that we do good to, for various reasons, e.g. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

13 There will still be an order of charity in Heaven, especially the loving of God above all. Also the objective grading of neighbour for his closeness to God will count more there than it does here on earth.

“Racism”? – which races are closer to God, or to me? They are not all the same. “Anti-semitism”? – are “Semites” friends or enemies of God? “Sexism”? – do today’s women help or hinder me on my way to God? “Homophobia”? – how do “homos” stand with God?

Kyrie eleison.