Death Frequently Comes Suddenly and, in a Flash

The 1951 edition of The Raccolta is replete with many wonderful, indulgenced prayers that demonstrate Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s ineffable love and mercy to His erring children.

That is, Our Lord has given His Holy Church the power to loose and bind sins, and He has deposited in her His Treasury of Grace that she may be dispense to help even lukewarm, worldly Catholics grow in fervor for the Him and the true Faith by praying prayers that carry without a means to pay back their own sins and those of others. Those who are totally consecrated to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, of course, offer up everything—including the indulgences they might earn during the course of a day—to  be disposed of as she sees fit, knowing that Our Blessed Mother will be generous to those who are generously give their liberty to her.

There are so many signs of Holy Mother Church’s care for her children in The Raccolta, including in a prayer the following teaching about praying to accept with equanimity the death that God the Father has prepared for us from all eternity to undergo:

An Act of Accepting One’s Own Death from the Hand of God

The faithful who at any time in their lives, from a sincere love of God and with at least a contrite heart, express their intention of accepting calmly from the hand of God whatsoever manner of death it may please Him to send them, together with all its pain, anguish, and suffering, may gain and indulgence of seven years.

A plenary indulgence at the hour of death, if they have devoutly made such as act at least once in their lifetime, after having fulfilled the usual conditions. (S.C., Ind., March 9, 1904; Holy Office, November 16, 1916; A.P., March 18, 1932, The Raccolta: A Manual of Indulgences, Prayers and Devotions Enriched with Indulgences, approved by Pope Pius XII, May 30, 1951, and published in English by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1957 number 638, p. 510.) [The latter date was a half century to the day before my own mother’s death at the age of sixty-one years, twelve days.]

Sinner that I am, I make sure to ask my Guardian Angel every day to beg Our Lady to send me her Divine Son’s graces to accept my death from the hand of God with equanimity no matter where or when it shall occur, no matter the circumstances in which it will occur and to accept death as a punishment for sin and my own death as the means by which I can make expiation for all my forgiven Mortal Sins, Venial Sins, and any general attachment to sin. I also ask my Guardian Angel to beg Our Lady to give me a true and perfect contrition at all times, to have a deep hatred and detestation for my sins, and thus, even though I know I deserve hell a hundred gazillion times over, to beg for mercy for the depths of the tender mercies of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus even though I have been so abusive of those mercies and merciless to others at various points in my life. Finally, I beg my Guardian Angel to help me to be ever reliant upon and confidence in—without being in the least bit presumptuous of—the merciful prayers and protection Our Lady, Queen of Mercy, of Perpetual Help, and Help of Christians, Saint Joseph, Patron of the Dying, Saint Philomena our Wonder Worker, my Patron Saints, and all the Angels and Saints in Heaven as well as the Holy Souls in Purgatory at that fear hour when I called to make an account of my life to Christ the King and Divine Judge.

Yes, Holy Mother Church is so merciful to us erring sinners that all we have to do to receive a plenary indulgence at the time of our death to is pray to accept the manner of death from the hand of God for love Him and contrition for our sins JUST ONCE IN OUR LIFE (!) as we fulfill the other conditions for the indulgence. This is a cause for great hope for us all!

Obviously, this all comes to mind because of the terrible flash flooding in Texas that was nothing other than an act of God Himself for effect His Holy Will in ways that mere men, especially those who lack the Holy Faith, may not understand or accept as expressions of His Omnipotence, Love, Mercy, and Justice. God acts in mysterious ways in such tragedies, but part of the mystery involves His remind us that, to quote Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri, “the end comes, and it comes quickly.”

Mind you, none of this is to dimmish the tragic loss of life, especially of children and young adults, nor the sorrow being experienced by family members, especially parents, siblings, other relatives, and friends of those killed so tragically. We must pray fervently for those afflicted by such sorrow at this time, acknowledging, of course, that the subjective judgment of Christ the King rendered upon those who were killed is known to Him alone, and thus, as is our duty our duty as Spiritual Work of Mercy to pray for the living and the dead.

During every such tragedy, however, there are always stories of great heroism, including those in which people put themselves at risk and are willing to sacrifice their lives, to save others. Hundreds of people have been rescued by such selfless acts of heroism in the flooding that have taken place along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas, and along the Llano River in Llano County, Texas:

KERRVILLE, Texas (CNN, KYMA/KECY) - Catastrophic flooding in Central Texas has left more than a hundred people dead, but that number could have been even higher without the bravery of everyday heroes and first responders.

Among them was a father who sacrificed his life to help his daughter cling to a tree until rescuers arrived.

In a devastated RV park, the owner described helping residents escape rising waters while her husband narrowly avoided drowning in the river.

Some survivors from local camps praised their counselors for acting quickly as floodwaters rose.

One Coast Guard rescue swimmer even gave up his own spot in a helicopter so more children from Camp Mystic could be airlifted to safety.

That swimmer says he was initially the only first responder on the ground when the camp needed help the most. He's now credited with helping save 165 children during the worst of the flooding.

As Central Texas begins the long recovery ahead, these acts of courage are a reminder that, even in disaster, the human spirit can shine through. (Heroes emerge amid deadly Texas floods.)

Camp Mystic co-owner Richard “Dick” Eastland has been confirmed dead, attempting to heroically rescue some of his campers before they were swept away in the deadly Texas floodwaters.

Eastland, who had been involved with the private all-girls Christian camp since purchasing it in 1974 and servd as its director, died trying to save his kids from the devastating flash flooding that ripped through the region on Friday, according to Texas Public Radio.

Eastland’s nephew confirmed his death via Facebook.

“Dick was the father figure to all of us while we were away from home at Camp Mystic for six weeks,” wrote former camper Paige Sumner. “He was the father of four amazing boys, but he had hundreds of girls each term who looked up to him like a dad.

“I would never have taken a fishing class if it wasn’t taught by my new friend Dick.”

Eastland previously survived a bout with brain cancer, according to the Kerrville Daily Times. (Camp director dead after heroic efforts to save campers.)

That so many have been saved by the selfless actions of others has nothing to do with the "human spirit;" it has everything to do with God's mercy and the Actual Grace he sends to all people through the loving hands of His Blessed Mother so that they can perform the Corporal Works of Mercy even though they may not know them as such.

Unfortunately, this tragedy is compounded by the fact that those among the Protestants who either died in the storm or are suffering now do not realize that they have a Blessed Mother to console them and who is praying for them to realize that the only way to be prepared for such tragedies is to pray to her for a provided for death as children of her true Church as it is simply untrue that all one needs to do is “have faith in your hearts” to be saved. One of the lessons that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wants everyone to learn from this and all other tragedies is that it is impossible to go to Heaven without the maternal intercession and protection of His Most Blessed Mother in one form or another.

Flash floods are not uncommon in Texas. They are called flash foods as they occur suddenly.

This is something that I experienced first-hand in June of 1999 when visiting my cousins in Pasadena while I was on a speaking tour. No sooner had the skies opened up around 11:00 a.m. than the streets began to flood. The water table in the Houston area is very high, which means that there is nowhere for lots of water to go if it comes down in torrents over a short period of time. I prayed to get back to my cousin’s house, whereupon I realized I could not open the door to my 1995 Saturn station wagon without flooding the inside of the car. I just had to wait until the water subsided, which took about an hour.

It was but a mere six years later that we were ordered to evacuate a campground in Dickinson, Texas, when the hysteria over the approaching Hurricane Rita, which actually hit along the Texas-Louisiana, border, not the Houston area. However, this hysteria was generated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans just three weeks before. Traffic was nightmarish leaving Houston in our motor home, which, unbeknownst to us at the moment it occurred, parted ways with our 2004 Chevrolet Trail Blazer in Splendora, Texas, on US-59. (For further details on this, which occurred during our “resist while recognize” days, please see Better This Than Purgatory (Or Worse), Flatbed Trailer for Sale: Real Cheap (and Getting Cheaper).

We also learned about the flooding of Texas storms during the eight and one-half years we lived in very rural north central Texas as there was a time in May of 2015 that twenty-five inches of rain fell in about twelve or thirteen hours. We did not know that we lived on a flood plain as there was no legal requirement to disclose this to buyers if the house itself had not flooded. Well, our property flooded on May 25, 2015, into the morning of May 26, 2015, and the dirt wash roads were impassable. Water itself began to seep into the kitchen around 3:00 a.m. on May 26, 2015, as we prayed to Our Lady, Saint Joseph, Saint Noah, Saint Barbara, Saint Peter Verona, Saint Philomena, and the Venerable Marie Julie-Jahenny. The flood waters began to recede shortly after the water began to seep into the kitchen!

Thus, no matter what kind of warnings are given, it is very possible to find oneself trapped by flash flooding.

Sadly, most of the secular commentators who adhere to the naturalism of the false opposite of the “left” have blamed the less upon--who else?--President Donald John Trump because the National Weather Service's staff has been reduced by ten percent in recent months but will not go into effect until September, something that denonced by a sometimes Trump critic, Richard Lowry (see Malicious critics are trying to blame Trump for the Texas floods). Another writer., Scott McKay, condemned the criticism of Trump for being "responsible" for the deaths in Texas as follows:

We go through this virtually every time some tragedy hits. I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely sick of it. And after what happened in the Texas Hill Country over the July 4 weekend, in which flash flooding claimed a death toll of at least 80 and probably more than 100, many of them children who were at summer camps along the suddenly swollen Guadalupe River, the epidemic of ghoulish behavior among the talking heads and operatives of the Democrat Party and the Left has gone entirely off the rails.

What they want you to believe, in a fashion directly related to the immediate cries for infringement on your gun rights every time some deranged creep loses his cool and conducts a mass shooting, is that the hill country flash floods are President Trump’s fault. Why this is purportedly so is an exercise in magical thinking — the logic is little better than that MAGA has insulted the weather gods, and thus the children have suffered.

And some of it is even worse than that. As the victims of the hill country flooding are mostly white conservatives, some of the river ghouls are having notable difficulty summoning up much sympathy for the dead and their families.

The woman posting that last bit is a pediatrician from Houston who got herself rightly fired from the doctor’s office where she worked.

I’m going to try to steer clear of most of that bile. It isn’t healthy to spend much time inside the heads of loons who are that irrationally hateful toward innocent people they’ve never even met. Suffice it to say that when your life is not spent trying to get into heaven, either because you don’t believe in God or because you worship at the altar of an ideology that promises to deliver heaven right here on earth, you lose all the behavioral speedbumps which would stop you from politicizing and pathologizing every event that can be politicized or pathologized.

No, there is nothing Donald Trump or Kristie Noem could have done to stop the flash floods in Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, and other towns in central Texas.

That flooding was foreseeable but not predictable, and it hit at precisely the worst time imaginable.

If you’ve spent any time in the Texas Hill Country, you’ve likely driven over the Guadalupe River at several places. And if you have, what you know is it’s not much of a river at all. In places with lots of big rivers, like where I’m from in southern Louisiana, the Guadalupe wouldn’t qualify even as a bayou. It’s more like a creek.

It has a very narrow basin, and it isn’t deep. At its normal stage, in a lot of places, you can wade across it. I don’t think it’s navigable at all in the hill country except for maybe a few areas where recreational boating is possible.

People do vacation along the river, though. There are lots of RV campgrounds and the like in Kerr County.

But there isn’t that much development along the Guadalupe, even in an area people are moving to as fast as they can (which is understandable; the Texas Hill Country is a gorgeous part of the world, and the people are some of the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet). What gets built along the river is usually well back from its normal banks.

Why? Because people in Kerr County, Texas, have long called that part of the world “flash flood alley.” That’s what you get in an area that is mostly dry and gets tons of sun, with lots of changing elevation. When a rainstorm does strike there, the water moves very fast to the lowest point it can find, and the creeks and rivers which are usually highly unimpressive suddenly get very full very fast.

Like for example, in the early morning of July 4.

The Guadalupe rose 26 feet in 45 minutes before sunrise thanks to a major rain event, where a front stalled out over Kerr County and hammered the Texas Hill Country with hard rains all night. That water had to go somewhere, and it all ended up in the same place. The effect was more like a tsunami than an ordinary flash flood.

The National Weather Service has been attacked for not warning the residents of the affected area, but the NWS did warn them — several times — in the hours before the floods hit. But late on Thursday night before the 4th of July holiday, you are not going to get the undivided attention of the public. You just aren’t.

And, contra the idiot Dana Bash on CNN, it isn’t because of Trump budget cuts that the NWS didn’t get the word out. It turned out that the NWS had more forecasters working that storm than normal because they saw there was the potential for a big rain and flash-flooding event. The NWS issued a flood warning on Thursday afternoon around 1:45, almost 14 hours before the tsunami began barrelling through the Guadalupe basin.

Not to mention the “cuts” Trump is being raked over the coals for aren’t actually going to kick in until September.

Friday’s floods were foreseeable but not predictable. A 26-foot river rise in 45 minutes is a freak event by any definition. So while flash flooding is unremarkable, that scale of flash flooding most certainly is not.

The one structural deficiency the weekend floods exposed, which will likely be remedied in response, was a lack of flood-activated emergency sirens in parts of Kerr County where people were carried away. But that isn’t something Donald Trump or even Texas Governor Greg Abbott could be blamed for — that’s chiefly a local failing. Even then, though, the river rose so quickly early Friday morning that those sirens wouldn’t have given much warning to the people who would have needed it.

That’s the reality. The reality is that nature is more powerful than man. Nature proved that fact over the weekend. And politicizing such a demonstration as though what happened in Texas was the wrath of some non-Christian deity for the sins of racism, or MAGA, or whatever, is disgusting.

It’s disgusting. And it can’t be shouted down quickly enough. (The Texas Hill Country River Ghouls Must Be Condemned.)

Predictably, others are blaming the flooding and loss of life  “man-made climate change” and “global warming. Most of these utter nincompoops and fools refer to the force of “Mother Nature,” not to the omnipotence of God, Who uses natural disasters as a means to chastise and punish His wayward children.

That the truth is, of course, that God will not be mocked. Sins must be punished. God chooses a variety of ways to punish us errant, recidivist, ungrateful sinners. The elements of the earth are themselves disturbed by human sins as they are part of the Order of Creation (Nature) whose perfect balance was rent asunder as a result of Original Sin. 

I would entreat you, however, to consider how Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres that the sins of men in Ecuador, a country favored with the visits of Our Lady of Good Success and ruled for twelve years (1859 to 1865 and 1869 to the time of assassination in 1875) by that great exemplar of the Social Reign of Christ the King, Gabriel Garcia Moreno, would diminish the luster of the sunsets in that country on the equator:

She saw that when this would happen, the beautiful dawn that each morning would break forth with refulgence over this land--so enchantingly spectacular that some persons would rise at daybreak just to see the day break--would lose some of its brilliance. Thus does earth reflect Heaven, and the earth's beauty and vitality diminish with sin and infidelity to grace. This favor of beautiful dawns should cease, Mother Mariana was given to understand, because the Republic [of Ecuador, which was then only a Spanish colony] would become corrupt and ungrateful for the benefits it received from God. (Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D., Stories and Miracles of Our Lady of Good Success, Tradition in Action, Inc., 2002, p. 68.)

Men must quit their sins and repent of them in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance.

They must treat each other as they would treat Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was made Flesh in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb, where He spent nine months growing to the point of His Nativity in poverty and anonymity in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. No one can say--that he loves Our Lord and yet supports His dismemberment mystically in the persons of innocent preborn children. And it is impossible to provide for any element of  the common temporal good on an enduring basis as long as the innocent preborn are attacked with legal impunity, as long as the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and fecundity of marriage is denied by means of contraception, as long as perversity is promoted under the slogans of "diversity" and "human rights," as long as men live as though there is no true Church and that they do not have to face Christ the King as their Judge at the moment of their Particular Judgments.

Men cannot sin wantonly without realizing terrible chastisements from God.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori made this clear in Preparation for Death:

The Lord does not wish us to be lost; and therefore, by the threat of chastisement, he unceasingly exhorts us to a change of life. Except you will be converted, He will brandish His sword. Behold, he says in another place, how many, because they would not cease to offend me, have met with a sudden death, when they were least expecting it, and were living in peace, secure of a life of many years. For whey they shall say: Peace and security: then shall sudden destruction come upon them. Again he says: Unless you shall do penance, you shall likewise perish. Why so many threats of chastisements before the execution of vengeance? It is because he wishes that we amend our lives, and thus avoid an unhappy death. "He," says Saint Augustine, "who tells you to beware, does not wish to take away your life." It is necessary, then, to prepare our accounts before the day of account arrives. Dearly beloved Christians, were you to die, and were your lot for eternity to be decided before night would your accounts be ready? Oh! how much would you give to obtain from God another year or month, or even another day, to prepare for judgment? Why then do you not now, that God gives you this time, settle the accounts of your conscience? Perhaps is cannot happen that this shall be the last day for you? Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day; for His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in a the time of vengeance He will destroy thee. My brother, to save your soul you must give up your sin. "If then you must renounce it at some time, why do you not abandon it at this moment?" says Saint Augustine. Perhaps you are waiting till death arrives? But for obstinate sinners, the hour of death is the time, not of pardon, but of vengeance. In the time of vengeance He will destroy thee. (Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Preparation for Death.)

Many lives have been lost and homes destroyed during the flooding in central Texas, and it is likely the death toll will rise in the cming days. Yes, can come in a flash for us all any time.  

This reminds us once again must be prepared to accept the loss everything we own with the same equanimity and serene acceptance of God’s Holy Will as that of Holy Job:

And while he was yet speaking, another came, and said: The fire of God fell from heaven, and striking the sheep and the servants, hath consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. [17] And while he also was yet speaking, there came another, and said: The Chaldeans made three troops, and have fallen upon the camels, and taken them, moreover they have slain the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. [18] He was yet speaking, and behold another came in, and said: Thy sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their elder brother: [19] A violent wind came on a sudden from the side of the desert, and shook the four corners of the house, and it fell upon thy children and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. [20] Then Job rose up, and rent his garments, and having shaven his head fell down upon the ground and worshipped,

[21] And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. [22] In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God. (Job 1: 16-22.)

Indeed, Saint Alphonsus de Liguori reminded us in a sermon for this very day, the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, that all things end, and that they must end quickly:

When one of the great of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honours which he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall be told: "Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live"--Isa., xxxviii. 1. Oh! what doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: Farewell, O world! farewell, O villa! farewell, O grotto! farewell, relatives! farewell, friends! farewell, sports! farewell, balls! farewell, comedies! farewell, banquets! farewell, honours! all is over for me. "For when he shall die, he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him"--Ps., xlviii. 18. St. Bernard says that death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body and from all the things of this Earth. "Opus mortis horrendum divortium"-serm. xxvi., in Cant. To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare name of death is so full of bitterness that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their Earthly goods. "O death!" says Ecclesiasticus, "how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions"--Eccl., xli. 1. But, how much greater bitterness shall death itself cause, when it actually comes! Miserable the man who is attached to the goods of this world! Every separation produces pain. Hence, when the soul shall be separated by the stroke of death from the goods on which she had fixed all her affections, the pain must be excruciating. It was this that made king Agag exclaim, when the news of approaching death was announced to him: "Doth bitter death separate me in this manner?"--I. Kings., xv. 32. The great misfortune of worldlings is, that when they are on the point of being summoned to judgment, instead of endeavouring to adjust the accounts of their soul, they direct all their attention to Earthly things. But, says St. John Chrysostom, the punishment which awaits sinners, on account of having forgotten God during life, is that the forget themselves at the hour of death. "hac animadversione percutitur impius, ut moriens oliviscatur sui, qui vivens oblitus est Dei."

But how great soever a man’s attachment to the things of this world may be, he must take leave of them at death. Naked he has entered into this world, and naked he shall depart from it. “Naked,” says Job, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21). In a word, they who have spent their whole life, have lost their sleep, their health, and their soul, in accumulating riches and possessions shall take nothing with them at the hour of death, their eyes shall then be opened; and of all they had so dearly acquired, they shall find nothing in their hands. Hence, on that night of confusion, they shall be overwhelmed in a tempest of pains and sadness. “The rich man, when he shall sleep, shall take away nothing with him! He shall open his eyes and find nothing... a tempest shall oppress him in the night.” (Job 27:19-20). St. Antonine relates that Saladin, king of the Saracens, gave orders at the hour of death, that the winding sheet in which he was to be buried should be carried before him to the grave, and that a person should cry out, “Of all his possessions, this only shall Saladin bring with him.” The saint also relates that a certain philosopher, speaking of Alexander the Great after his death, said, Behold the man that made the earth tremble. “The earth,” as the Scripture says, “was quiet before him.” (1 Mac. 1:3). He is now under the earth. Behold the man whom the dominion of the whole world could not satisfy, now four palms of ground are sufficient for him. “Qui terram heri conculcubat, hodie ab ea conculcatur; et cui heri non sufficiebat mundus hodie sufficiunt quatuor ulnæ terræ.” St. Augustine, or some other ancient writer, says, that having gone to see the tomb of Caesar, he exclaimed, “Princes feared you; cities worshipped you; all trembled before you; where is your  magnificence gone?” (Serm. xxxviii. ad Fratr). Listen to what David says, “I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus. And I passed by, and lo! he was not.” (Ps. 36:35-36). Oh! how many such spectacles are seen every day in the world! A sinner who had been born in lowliness and poverty, afterwards acquires wealth and honors, so as to excite the envy of all. When he dies, everyone says, He made a fortune in the world; but now he is dead, and with death all is over for him.

3. “Why is earth and ashes proud?” (Sir. 10:9). Such the language which the Lord addresses to the man who is puffed up by earthly honors and earthly riches. Miserable creature, he says, Hence,  comes such pride? If you enjoy honors and riches, remember that you are dust. “For dust you art, and into dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:19). You must die, and after death what advantage shall you derive from the honors and possessions which now inflate you with pride? Go, says St. Ambrose, to a cemetery, in which are buried the rich and poor, and see if you can discern among them who has been rich and who has been poor; all are naked, and nothing remains of the richest among them but a few withered bones. “Respice sepulchra, die mihi, quis ibi dives, quis pauper sit” (lib. vi. exam., cap. viii).. How profitable would the remembrance of death be to the man who lives in the world! “He shall be brought to the grave, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.” (Job21:32). At the sight of these dead bodies he would remember death, and that he shall one day be like them. Thus, he should be awakened from the deadly sleep in which perhaps he lives in a state of perdition. But the misfortune is, that worldlings are unwilling to think of death until the hour comes when they must depart from this earth to go into eternity; and therefore they live as attached to the world, as if they were never to be separated from it. But our life is short, and shall soon end, thus all things must end, and must soon end.

Men know well, and believe firmly, that they shall die; but they imagine death as far ass of it if were never to arrive. But Job tells us that the life of man is short. "Man born of a woman, living fora short time, is filled with many miseries. Who cometh forth like a flower and is destroyed"--Job., xiv. 2. At present the health of men is so much impaired, that, as we see by experience, the greater number of them die before they attain the age of seventy. And what, says St. James, is our life, but a vapour, which a blast of wind, a fever, a stroke of apoplexy, a puncture, an attack of the chest, causes to disappear, and which is seen no more? "For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth  for a little while"--St. James, iv. 15. "We all die", said the woman of Thecua to David, "and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth"---II. Kings, xiv. 14. She spoke the truth;--as all rivers and streams run to the sea, and as the gliding waters return no more, so our days pass away, and we approach to death. 

They pass; they pass quickly. "My days", says Job, "have been swifter than a post"--Job, ix. 25. Death comes to meet us, and runs more swiftly than a post; so that every step we make, every breath we draw, we approach to death. St. Jerome felt, that even while he was writing, he was drawing nearer to death. Hence he said: 'What I write is taken away from my life". "Quod scribo de mea vita tollitur". Let us, then, say with Job: Years pass by, and with them pleasures, honours, pomps, and all things in this world pass away, "and only the rave remaineth for me"--Job, xvii. 1. In a word, all the glory of the labours we have undergone in this world, in order to acquire a large income, a high character for valour, for learning and genius, shall end in our being thrown into a pit to become the food of worms. The miserable worldling then shall say at death: My house, my garden, my fashionable furniture, my pictures and rich apparel, shall, in a short time, belong no more to me; "and only the grave remaineth for me". 

But, how much soever the worldling may be distracted by his worldly affairs and by his pleasures--how much soever he may be entangled in them, St. Chrysostom says, that, when the fear of death, which sets fire to all things of the present life, begins to enter the soul, it will compel him to think and to be solicitous about his lot after death. "Cum pulsare animam incipit metus mortis (ignis instar praesentis vitae omnia succendens) philosophari eam cogit, et futura solicita mente versari" serm. in II. tim.--Isa., xxxv. 5. Then indeed shall be opened the eyes of those blind worldlings who have employed their whole life in acquiring Earthly goods, and have paid but little attention to the interests of the soul. In all these shall be verified what Jesus Christ has told them--that death shall come when they least expect it. "At what hour you think not, the Son of Man will come"--Luke, xii.--40. Thus, on these unhappy men death always comes unexpectedly. Hence, because the lovers of the world are not usually warned of their approaching dissolution till it is very near, they must, in the last few days of life, adjust the accounts of their soul for the fifty or sixty years which they lived on this Earth. They will then desire another month, or another week, to settle their accounts, and to tranquilize their conscience. But, "they will seek for peace, and there shall be none:--Ezec., vii. 25. The time which they desire is refused. The assisting priest reads the divine command to depart instantly from this world: "Proficiscere anima Christiana de hoc mundo." Depart, Christian soul, from this world. Oh! how dangerous the entrance of worldlings into eternity, dying, as they do, amid so much darkness and confusion, in consequences of the disorderly state of the accounts of their souls.

7. “Weight and balance are the judgments of the Lord.” (Prov. 16:11). At the tribunal of God, nobility, dignities, and riches have no weight; two things only our bins, and the graces bestowed on us by God make the scales ascend or descend. They who shall be found faithful in corresponding with the lights and calls which they have received, shall be rewarded; and they who shall be found unfaithful, shall be condemned. We do not keep an account of God’s graces; but the Lord keeps an account of them; he measures them; and when he sees them despised to a certain degree, he leaves the soul in her sins, and takes her out of life in that miserable state. “For what things a man shall sow those also shall he reap.” (Gal. 6: 8). From labors undertaken for the attainment of posts of honor and profit , for the acquisition of property and of worldly applause, we reap nothing at the hour of death, all are then lost. We gather fruits of eternal life only from works performed, and tribulations suffered for God.

8. Hence, St. Paul exhorts us to attend to our own business. “But we must entreat you, brethren.... that you do your own business.” (1 Thess. 4:10-11). Of what business, I ask, does the Apostle speak? Is it of acquiring riches, or a great name in the world? No; he speaks of the business of the soul, of which Jesus Christ spoke, when he said, “Trade till I come.” (Luke 19:13). The business for which the Lord has placed, and for which he keeps us on this earth, is to save our souls, and by good works to gain eternal life. This is the end for which we have been created. “And the end eternal life.” (Rom. 6:22). The business of the soul is for us not only the most important, but also the principal and only affair; for, if the soul be saved, all is safe; but if the soul be lost, all is lost. Hence, we ought, as the Scripture says, to strive for the salvation of our souls, and to combat to death for justice that is, for the observance of the divine law. “Strive for justice for your  soul, and even unto death fight for justice.” (Sir. 4:33). The business which our Savior recommends to us, saying, Trade till I come, is, to have always before our eyes the day on which he shall come to demand an account of our whole life.

All things in this world--acquisitions, applause, grandeur--must, as we have said, all end, and end very soon. "the fashion of this world passeth away"--I. Cor., vii. 31. The scene of this life passes away: happy they who, in this scene, act their part well, and save their souls, preferring the eternal interests of the soul to all the temporal interests of the body. "He that hateth his life in his world, keepeth it unto life eternal"--John, xii. 26. Worldlings say: Happy the man who hoards up money! happy they who acquire the esteem of the world, and enjoy the pleasures of this life! O folly! Happy he who loves God and saves his soul! The salvation of his soul and was the only favour which king David asked of God. "One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek after"--Ps., xxvi. 4. And St. Paul said, that to acquire the race of Jesus Christ, which contains eternal life, he despised as dung all worldly goods. "I count all things as loss.......and I count them as dung, that I may gain Christ"--Phil., iii. 8. 

But certain fathers of families will say: I do not labour so much for myself as for my children, whom I wish to leave in comfortable circumstances. But I answer: If you dissipate the goods which you possess, and leave our children in poverty, you do wrong, and are guilty of sin. But will you lose your soul in order to leave your children comfortable? If you call into Hell, perhaps they will come and release you from it? O folly! Listen to what David said: "I have not seen the just man forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread"--Ps., xxxvi. 25. Attend to the service of God; act according to justice; the Lord will provide for the wants of your children; and you shall save your souls, and shall lay up that eternal treasure of happiness which can never be taken from you--a treasure not like Earthly possessions, of which yo may be deprived by robbers, and which you shall certainly lose at death. This is the advice which the Lord gives you--"But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal"--Matt., vi. 20. In conclusion, attend to the beautiful admonition which St. Gregory gives to all who wish to live well and to gain eternal life. "Sit nobis in intentione aeternitas, in usu temporalitats". Let the end of all our actions in this life be, the acquisition of eternal goods; and let us use temporal things only to preserve life for the little time we have to remain on this Earth. The saint continues: "Sicut nulla est proportio inter aeternitatem et nostrae vitae tempus, ita nulla debet esse proportio inter aeternitatis, et hujus, vitae curas". As this is an infinite distance between eternity and the time of our life, so there ought to be, according to our mode of understanding, an infinite distance between the attention which we should pay to the goods of eternity, which shall be enjoyed for ever, and the care we take of the goods of this life, which death shall soon take away from us. (Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost: All Ends And Soon Ends.)

The Gospel which was read at Holy Mass today is a direct warning from Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to quit the world and our attachments to it:

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: No man serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? But which of you by being anxious about it can add to his stature a single cubit? And as for clothing, why are you anxious? Consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which flourishes today but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith! Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘What are we to put on?’ -for after all these things the Gentiles seek; - for your Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be given you besides. (Matthew 6: 24-33.)

No believing Catholic can ignore any of Our Lord’s teachings, whether contained in Sacred Scripture on in Sacred Tradition as explicated infallibly by Holy Mother Church. There can be no compromise of any kind with the world or its false spirit, something that I have examined many times on this site, including in a reflection, Crushed by the Weigh of Error, part one , which was posted on February 5, 2013, just six days before the late Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI announced his resignation effective on February 28, 2013. While we work hard to provide for our temporal necessities, we do so without anxiety and without a spirit of making the love of wealth, which is different than its accumulation from the sweat of one’s own labor and honest endeavors, the defining characteristic of our very identities that is an inherent part of Judeo-Protestant-Calvinist capitalism.

The original edition of Preparation for Death, which is in our possession and is not as long as the book published under that title by TAN Books and Publishers, contains the following important exhortation from Saint Alphonsus de Liguori concerning the necessity of conquering the world and all creaturely attachments:

Let us now see how we must conquer the world. The devil is a great enemy, but the world is worse. If the devil did not make use of the world and of bad men (by which is meant the world), he would not gain such victories as he does. Our Redeemer does not warn us so much to be on guard against devils as against men: “Beware of men” (St. Matt. x. 17). Men are often worse than devils, because the devils are put to flight by prayer, and by invoking the most holy names of Jesus and Mary; but if bad companions tempt a person to sin, and he reply by some spiritual word, they do not fly, but tempt him the more; they laugh at him, call him  a miserable man of no education, and good for nothing; and when they can say nothing else, they call him a hypocrite who affects sanctify. To avoid such reproaches and derision, certain weak souls unhappily associate with these ministers of Lucifer, and return to the vomit. My brother, be assured that if you wish to lead a good life, you must endure the jeers and contempt of the wicked: “The wicked loath them that are in the right way” (Prov. xxix. 27). He who leads a bad life cannot bear the sight of those who live well;  and why? Because their life is a continual reproach to him; and he would therefore wish all to imitate himself, that he might not feel that pain of remorse which the good life of others causes him. There is no help for it (says the Apostle); he who serves God must be persecuted by the world: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim iii. 12). All the Saints have been persecuted. Who more holy than Jesus Christ? And the world persecuted Him, even to cause Him to bleed to death upon a cross.

There is no remedy for this, because the maxims of the world are all contrary to those of Jesus Christ. That which the world esteems, is called folly by Jesus Christ. That which the world esteems, is called folly by Jesus Christ. That which the world esteems, is called folly by Jesus Christ: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Cor. iii. 19). On the contrary, the world calls folly that which is esteemed by Jesus Christ – such as crosses, sufferings, and contempt: “For the word of the Cross to them indeed that perish is foolishness” (1 Cor. I. 18). but let us console ourselves; for if the wicked curse and blame us,  Almighty God blesses and praises us: “They will curse, and Thou wilt bless” (Ps. cviii. 28). Is it not enough for us to be praised by God, by Mary, by all the Angels, by the Saints, and by all good men? Let us, then, leave sinners to talk as they please, and let us continue to please God, who is so grateful and faithful to those who serve Him. The greater the repugnance and the opposition we meet with in doing good, that more shall we please God, and the greater will be our merit. Let us imagine that there is none in the world save God and ourselves. When the wicked jeer at us, let us recommend ourselves to the Lord; and, on the other hand, let us thank God and ourselves. When the wicked jeer at us, let us recommend ourselves to the Lord; and, on the other hand, let us thank God and ourselves. When the wicked jeer at us, let us recommend ourselves to the Lord; and, on the other hand, let us thank God that He gives us that light which He withholds form these unhappy men, and so let us go our way. Let us not be ashamed of appearing as Christians; for if we are ashamed of Jesus Christ, He protests that He will be ashamed of us, and to have us at His right hand at the Day of Judgment: “For he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty” (St. Luke ix. 26).

If we wish to be saved, we must resolve to suffer to overcome ourselves, nay, to do violence to ourselves: “Straight is the way that leadeth to life” (st. Matt. vii. 14); “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence violence, and the violent to himself will not be saved. There is no help for it since if we wish to practise virtue, we must act in opposition to our rebellious nature. We must especially do violence to ourselves at the beginning, in order to root out bad habits and to acquire good ones; because, when once a good habit is formed, the observance of the Divine law becomes easy, nay, even sweet. The Lord said to St. Bridget, that whoever in the practice of virtue endures with patience and courage the first pricks of the thorns, will find the thorns turn into roses. Be careful, therefore, dear Christian; Jesus Christ says now to you what He said to the paralytic: “Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse things happen to thee” (St John v. 14). Understand, says St. Bernard, if you should unhappily relapse, your ruin will be greater than in all your previous falls: 'You hear that to relapse is worse than to fall' Wo, says the Lord, to those who take the way of God, and then depart from it: “wo to you, apostate children” (Is. xxx. 1). These are punished as rebels against the light: “They have been rebellious against the light” (Job. xxiv. 13). And the punishment of these rebels, who have been favoured by God with a great light, and then are unfaithful to Him, is to remain blind, and so to end their life in their sins: “But if the just man turns himself away from his justice . . . . shall he live? All his justices which he has done, shall not be remembered . . . . in his sin he shall die” (Ezek. xviii. 24).

AFFECTIONS AND PRAYERS.

Ah, my God, I have often deserved such a punishment, since I have many times foresaken sin through the light which Thou gavest me, and then have miserably returned to it! I thank Thy infinite mercy for not having abandoned me in my blindness, and left me wholly deprived of light, as I deserved. How great, then, O my Jesus, are my obligations to Thee: and how ungrateful should I be, were I again to turn my back upon Thee! No, my Redeemer, “I will sing Thy mercies for ever.” I hope, during the remainder of my life and for all eternity, to sing for ever and to praise Thy great mercies, by always loving Thee, and never to be again to be deprived of Thy grace. The great ingratitude which I have hitherto shown Thee, and which I now detest and curse above every other evil, will serve to make me always weep bitterly over the injuries I have done Thee, and to inflame me with love of Thee, who, after my many offences against Thee, hast bestowed on me such great graces. Yes, I love Thee, O my God, worthy of infinite love. From this day henceforth Thou shalt be my only love, my only good. O Eternal Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, I ask of Thee final perseverance in Thy grace and in Thy love. I know, indeed, that Thou wilt grant it whenever I ask Thee for it. But who can assure me that I shall be careful to beg this perseverance of thee? Therefore, my God, I ask Thee for perseverance, of Thee? Therefore, my god, I ask Thee for perseverance, and the grace always to ask for it. O Mary, my advocate, my refuge, and my hope, obtain for me, by thy intercession, constancy in always asking of God the grace of final perseverance. By the love thou bearest to Jesus Christ, I beseech thee to obtain it for me. (Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Preparation for Death, published as an eighty-nine page pamphlet in 1972 by Burns and Oates, London, England, pp. 81-84.)

Our Lady explained Our Lady of La Salette told Melanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud about the terrible effects of sin in the world on September 19, 1846:

The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the Spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great steps forward through the power of the Holy Spirit and will condemn the devilish lapses of the Antichrist. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test? At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Eli will be put to death. Pagan Rome will disappear. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be lead astray because they have not worshipped the true Christ who lives among them. It is time; the sun is darkening; only faith will survive.

Now is the time; the abyss is opening. Here is the King of Kings of darkness, here is the Beast with his subjects, calling himself the Savior of the world. He will rise proudly into the air to go to Heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continuous series of evolutions for three days, will open up its fiery bowels; and he will have plunged for all eternity with all his followers into the everlasting chasms of hell. And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men's pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified."

As recorded in The Mystical City of God, Our Lady explained to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, the earth itself will be shaken of the work of the devil to inspire us to commit unrepentant after unrepentant sin, and that she, Our Lady, will make possible our salvation by her perfect fiat to the will of God the Father at the Annunciation:

"Woe to the earth, and to the sea, because the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time." Woe to the earth, where so many sins and such wickedness shall be perpetuated! Woe to the sea, which refused to pour forth its floods and annihilate the transgressors at the sight of so great offenses against its Creator, and to avenge the insults against its Maker and Lord! But more woe to the profound and raging sea of those that follow the demon, after he had descended in their midst in order to war against them with great wrath and with such unheard of cruelty! It is the wrath of the most ferocious dragon, and greater than that of the devouring lion (I Pet. 5, 8), who attempts to annihilate all creation and to whom all the days of the world seem a short time to execute his fury. Such is his hunger and thirst to do damage to mortals, that all the days of their life do not satisfy him, for they come to an end, whereas he desires eternal ages, if possible, in order to wage war against the sons of God. But incomparably greater than against all others is his rage against that most blessed Woman, who was to crush his head (Gen. 3, 15).

How can there not be "woe to the earth, and to the sea" when men sin so wantonly, when multinational corporations are so driven by the insanity of their Talmudic-Calvinist-Masonic "bottom line" profit margin that American manufacturing jobs are shipped overseas, especially to Red China, to exploit low-paid, if not slave-labor, workers to manufacture practically everything that is sold in this country and around the world?

How can there not be "woe to the earth, and to the sea" when men in those multinational corporations enjoy their ill-gotten gains by living in the lap of utter material luxury and decadence as they hire Americans to sell the substandard—and are sometimes quite dangerous to our health—Red Chinese-manufactured goods that are sold in mega stores (Walmart, Target) for wages that are so meager in order to "cut costs" and, it should be noted, to keep their own wage-slaves on the "credit merry-go-round" to purchase appliances and computers and other "big ticket" items made in Red China?

How can there not be "woe to the earth, and to the sea" the man who believes himself to be the Vicar of Christ on earth refers to sins against Holy Purity as “peccadilloes” and blasphemes Our Lord, His Most Blessed Mother, and numerous saints while promoting heresies and committing sacrileges that not even the Arians themselves could have imagined?

Our Lady told Jacinta Marto that many souls are going to hell because of sins of the flesh, and Saint Paul himself explained that the unclean cannot enter the Kingdom of God in Heaven:

Brethren: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, witchcraft’s, enmities, contentions, jealousies, anger, quarrels, factions, parties, envies, murders, drunkenness, carousings, and suchlike. And concerning these I warn you, as I have warned you, that they who do such things will not attain the kingdom of God. But of the fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such things there is no law. And they who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5: 16-24.)

Although sins against Holy Purity abound on a worldwide basis at this time, especially here in the United States of America, which is reaping the rotten fruit of fifty years of explicit classroom instruction in matters pertaining to the Sixth and Ninth Commandments and about thirty years of explicit promotion of vice in the so-called “popular culture,” God sends chastisements in some areas so as to put everyone on notice that, yes, all ends, and all ends soon.

How can there not be "woe to the earth, and to the sea" when the government of the United States of America attacks and invades sovereign nations, overthrowing regimes said to be "threats" to their own people and to the world-at-large while enabling the mass murder of human beings in this country and coddling the most murderous nation on earth, Red China, in which the corporate robber barons who contribute to campaigns of the leaders of both major organized crime families of naturalism in this country as they also fund Planned Parenthood and related organizations, thereby depriving themselves of future workers and customers?

Who cares that the countries that are destabilized by American intervention (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya) turn into bloody messes as believing Mohammedans seize power and then engage in warfare upon their "liberators" and each other? We must export the "American way" that is bringing so many chastisements upon this country at the present time to other lands who are not been privileged to experience "this way" first hand. God will not be mocked.

Those in the counterfeit church of conciliarism who defy anathematized propositions and break the First and Second Commandments and teach untruths to Catholics and non-Catholics alike mock God.

Those who exercise political power in the nooks and crannies of governmental systems founded on false, naturalistic, religiously indifferentist, anti-Incarnational and semi-Pelagian principles mock God as they present themselves to us as demigods whose every decision must be obeyed without question lest one be called a "terrorist" or, in the case of the naturalists of the false opposite of the "right," "unpatriotic."

Those who control what is called "popular culture" mock God by polluting our souls in numerous ways, insidiously placing their foul words, sounds and images on our billboards, in the supermarkets and other stores where we shop, in restaurants and, for those foolish enough to own a television and to watch contemporary programming, in what is called "entertainment" right at home.

There are others who mock God as well and, truth be told, almost as frequently.

These others who mock God believe, as do the merchants of conciliar and social evil, that they are doing good, that they are virtuous and that things are all right with God for them.

These others who mock God consider most others to be beneath them.

These others who mock God think everyone else is uncharitable except themselves.

These others who mock God go to Confession regularly, perhaps even every week.

These others who mock God receive Holy Communion regularly.

These others who mock God spend time before the Blessed Sacrament when they are able.

These others who mock God pray at least one set of mysteries of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary every day.

These others who mock God read about the lives of the saints as they believe that they are serious about pursuing the path to the heights of personal sanctity.

Who are these other people?

Look in the mirror. 

To quote a cartoon strip from the 1960s that was written at the height of the Vietnam War and was also used to convey an urgency to the nonexistent "environmental crisis, "We have met the enemy, and they are us."

If we wonder why the earth rumbles and the winds blow so strongly and record heat and snowfall seems to get worse with each passing year, do not blame the junk science fiction of "global warming." Look in the mirror. We are in need of chastisement. Each of us is responsible, at least to a greater or lesser extent, for the state of the Church Militant on earth and that of the world-at-large.

The only possible advantage that we might have over the lords of Modernity in the world and Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism, most of whom cannot plead invincible ignorance of the lies that they tell, is that we have the possibility of reforming our lives in cooperation with the graces won for us by the shedding of every single drop of the Most Precious Blood of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

While we pray for those who have been affected the flooding in central Texas, especially along the Guadalupe and Llano Rivers (we know dairy goat breeders and exhibitors in live in Llano, Texas, and are praying for their safety), let us remember to take precautions in our own lives to be kept safe for the moment of a sudden death, which can occur at any time. We have much for which to make reparation as many of us, myself included, have participated in various, if not all, aspects of the harms of naturalism that are very responsible for enticing men to sin and thus disturbing even the natural elements of the earth and the sky and the sea more and more and more with every passing year.

It will be when we get serious about cooperating with Sanctifying and Actual Grace that whatever seeds we plant for the conversion of men and their nations to the Catholic Faith can bear good fruit so that that their constitutions will truly bind them together and serve legitimate national interests as civil leaders seek to pursue the common temporal good in light of the man's Last End, the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, god the Son and God the Holy Ghost for all eternity in Heaven. We must remember that, as Pope Saint Pius X noted in Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906, "the civil power must not only place no obstacle in the way of this conquest, but must aid us in effecting it." It will be only then that civil constitutions will serve the interests of men in this life because they seek to serve God through His Catholic Church as our mater and magister exercises the Social Reign of Christ the King, only then that we will have civil rulers who, like Saint Louis IX and Saint Wenceslaus and Saint Edward and Saint Casimir and Saint Canute and Saint Stephen of Hungary and Saint Henry the Emperor, will humble themselves on their knees before the King's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament rather than appear to be above the laws of God and man.

And in order for this to occur as the fruit of Our Lady's Fatima Message and the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart, we must lead the way with sincere and humble contrition for our sins and a firm purpose of amendment as we, consecrated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, make use of the ineffable Mercy of the Divine Redeemer, Christ the King, in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance as often as we can (and, for those who are without a true priest to hear their confessions and give them Absolution, making sure to pray to Our Lady for the grace of having true and perfection contrition for our sins in the hope of getting to Confession one day as God makes this Sacrament available to them).

What are we waiting for?

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us. 

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, pray for us.

Appendix

Dom Prosper Gueranger on the Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal

In the footsteps of Margaret of Scotland and of Clotilde of France, a third queen comes to shed her brightness on the sacred cycle – St. Elizabeth of Portugal. Born at the southern extremity of Christendom, where it borders of Musselman lands, she was destined by the Holy Ghost to seal with peace the victories of Christ, and prepare the way for fresh conquests.

The blessed name of Elizabeth, which for half a century had been rejoicing the world with its sweet perfume, was given to her, foretelling that this newborn child, as though attracted by the roses which fell from the mantle of her Thuringian aunt, was to cause these same heavenly flowers to blossom in Iberia.

There is a mysterious heirship among the saints of God. The same year in which one niece of Elizabeth of Thuringia was born in Spain, another, the Blessed Margaret of Hungary, took her flight to heaven. She had been consecrated to God from her mother’s womb, as a pledge for the salvation of her people, in the midst of terrible disasters; and the hopes so early centered in her were not frustrated. A short life of twenty-eight years spent in innocence and prayer, earned for her country the blessings of peace and civilization; and then Margaret bequeathed to our saint of today the mission of continuing in another land the work of her holy predecessors.

The time had come for our Lord to shed a ray of His grace upon Spain. The thirteenth century was closing, leaving the world in a state of dismemberment and ruin. Weary of fighting for Christ, kings dismissed the Church from their councils, and selfishly kept aloof, preferring their own ambitious strifes to the common aspiration of the once great body of Christendom.

Such a state of things was disastrous for the entire West; much more, then, for that noble country where the crusade the multiplied kingdoms as so many outposts against the common enemy, the Moors. Unity of views and the sacrifice of all things to the great work of deliverance could alone maintain in the successors of Pelayo the spirit of the grand memories of yore.

Unfortunately these princes, though heroes on the battlefield, had not sufficient strength of mind to lay aside their petty quarrels and take up the sacred duty entrusted to them by providence. In vain did the Roman Pontiff strive to awaken them to the interests of their country and of the Christian name; these hearts, generous in other respects, were too stifled by miserable passions to heed his voice; and the Musselman looked on delightedly at these intestine strifes, which retarded his own defeat. Navarre, Castile, Aragon, and Portugal were not only at war with each other; but even within each of these kingdoms, father and son were at enmity, and brother disputed with brother, inch by inch, the heritage of his ancestors.

Who was to restore to Spain the still recent traditions of her Ferdinand III? Who was to gather again these dissentient wills into one, so as to make them a terror to the Sacracen and a glory to Christ? James I of Aragon, who rivalled St. Ferdinand both in bravery and in conquests, had married Yoland, daughter of Andrew of Hungary; whereupon the cultus of the holy Duchess of Thuringia, whose brother-in-law he had thus become, was introduced beyond the Pyrenees; and the name of Elizabeth, changed in most into Isabel, became, as it were, a family jewel with which the Spanish princesses have loved to be adorned. The first to bear it was the daughter of James and Yoland, who married Philip III of France, successor of St. Louis; the second was the grand-daughter of the same James I, the saint whom the Church honors today, and of whom the old king, with prophetic insight, loved to say, that she would surpass all the women of the race of Aragon.

Inheriting not only the name, but also the virtues of the “dear St. Elizabeth,” she would one day deserve to be called “the mother of peace and of her country.” By means of her heroic self-renunciation and all-powerful prayer, she repressed the lamentable quarrels of princes. One day, unable to prevent peace being broken, she cast herself between two contending armies under a very hailstorm of arrows, and so forced the soldiers to lay down their fratricidal arms.

Thus she paved the way for the happy event, which she herself was not to have the consolation of seeing: the re-organization of that great enterprise for the expulsion of the Moors, which was not to close till the following century under the auspices of another Isabel, her worthy descendant, who would add to her name the beautiful title of “the Catholic.” Four years after Elizabeth’s death, the victory of Salado was gained by the united armies of all Spain over 600,000 infidels, showing how a woman could, under most adverse circumstances, inaugurate a brilliant crusade, to the immortal fame of her country. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, July 8.)

(From the Divine Office) Elizabeth, of the royal race of Aragon, was born in the year of our Lord 1271. As a presage of her future sanctity, her parents, contrary to custom, passing over the mother and grandmother, gave her in Baptism the name of her maternal great-aunt, St. Elizabeth, Duchess of Thuringia.

No sooner was she born, than it became evident what a blessed peacemaker she was to be between kings and kingdoms; for the joy of her birth put a happy period to the miserable quarrels of her father and grandfather. As she grew up, her father, admiring the natural abilities of his daughter, was wont to assert that Elizabeth would far outstrip in virtue all the women descended of the royal blood of Aragon; and so great was his veneration for her heavenly manner of life, her contempt of worldly ornaments, her abhorrence of pleasure, her assiduity in fasting, prayer, and works of charity, that he attributed to her merits alone the prosperity of his kingdom and estate. On account of her widespread reputation, her hand was sought by many princes; at length she was, with all the ceremonies of holy Church, united in matrimony with Dionysius, king of Portugal.

In the married state she gave herself up to the exercise of virtue and the education of her children, striving, indeed, to please her husband, but still more to please God. For nearly half the year she lived on bread and water alone; and, on one occasion when, in an illness, she had refused to take the wine prescribed by the physician, her water was miraculously changed into wine. She instantaneously cured a poor woman of a loathsome ulcer by kissing it. In the depth of winter she changed the money she was going to distribute to the poor into roses, in order to conceal it from the king.

She gave sight to a virgin born blind, healed many other persons of grievous distempers by the mere sign of the cross, and performed a great number of other miracles of a like nature. She built and amply endowed monasteries, hospitals, and churches. She was admirable for her zeal in composing the differences of kings, and unwearied in her efforts to alleviate the public and private miseries of mankind.

After the death of King Dionysius, Elizabeth, who had been in her youth a model to virgins, and in her married life to wives, became in her solitude a pattern of all virtues to widows. She immediately put on the religious habit of St. Clare, assisted with the greatest fortitude at the king’s funeral, and then, proceeding to Compostella, offered there for the repose of his soul a quantity of silk, silver, gold, and precious stones.

On her return home she consumed in holy and pious works all she had that was dear and precious to her; she completed the building of her truly royal monastery of virgins at Coimbra; and, wholly engaged in feeding the poor, protecting widows, sheltering orphans, and assisting the afflicted in every way, she lived not for herself, but for the glory of God and the well-being of men. On her way to the noble town of Estremoz, whither she was going in order to make peace between the two kings, her son and son-in-law, she was seized with illness; and, in that town, after having been visited by the blessed Virgin, Mother of God, she died a most holy death, on the fourth day of July, in the year 1336.

After death she was glorified by many miracles, especially by the sweet fragrance of her body, which has remained incorrupt for nearly three hundred years; and she is always distinguished by the name of the “holy queen.” At length, in the year of jubilee, of our salvation 1625, with the unanimous applause of the assembled Christian world, she was solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Pope Urban VIII. (Matins, Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, July 8.)

O blessed Elizabeth, we praise God for thy holy works, as the Church this day invites all her sons to do. (Invitatory of the Roman Breviary). More valiant than those princes in whose midst thou didst appear as the angel of thy fatherland, thou didst exhibit in thy private life a heroism which could equal theirs, when need was, even on the battlefield. God’s grace was the motive-power of thy actions, and His glory their sole end.

Often does God gain more glory by abnegations hidden from all eyes but His, than by great works justly admired by a whole people. It is because the power of His grace shines forth the more; and it is generally the way of His providence to cause the most remarkable blessings bestowed on nations, to spring from these hidden sources.

How many battles celebrated in history have first been fought and won in the sight of the Blessed Trinity, in some hidden spot of that supernatural world, where the elect are ever at war with hell, nay, struggle at times even with God Himself; how many famous treaties with peace have first been concluded between heaven and earth in the secret of a single soul, as a reward for those giant struggles which men misunderstand and despise! Let the fashion of this world pass away; and those deep-thinking politicians, who are said to rule the course of events, the proud negotiators and warriors of renown, all, when judged by the light of eternity, will appear for what they are: mere deceptions screening from the sight of men the only names truly worthy of immortality.

Glory then be to thee, through whom the Lord has deigned to lift a corner of the veil that hides from the world the true rulers of its destinies. In the golden book of the elect, thy nobility rests on better titles than those of birth. Daughter and mother of kings, thyself a queen, thou didst rule over a glorious land; but far more glorious is the family throne in heaven, where thou reignest with the first Elizabeth, with Margaret and with Hedwige, and where others will come to join thee, doing honor to the same noble blood which flowed in thy veins.

Remember, O mother of thy country, that the power given thee on earth is not diminished now that the God of armies has called thee to thy heavenly triumph. True, the land of Iberia, which owes its independence principally to thee, is no longer in the same troubled condition; but if at the present day there is no fear of the Moors, on the other hand, Spain and Portugal have fallen away from their noble traditions: lead them back to the right path, that they mat attain the glorious destiny marked out for them by providence.

Thy power in heaven is not restrained within the borders of a kingdom; cast then a look of mercy on the rest of the world: see how nations, recognizing no right but might, waste their wealth and their vitality in wholesale bloodshed; has the time come for those terrible wars, which are to be harbingers of the end, and wherein the world will work its own destruction! O mother of peace! hear how the Church, the mother of nations, implores thee to make full use of thy sublime prerogative;  put a stop to these furious strifes; and make our life on earth a path of peace, leading up to the joys of eternity. (Collect of the day, Roman Missal) (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, July 8.)