Donald John Trump's Genocide

Presidents of the United States of America take the following Oath of Office as found in Article II of the Constitution of the United States of America:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Part of a president’s constitutional duties is to enforce the laws passed by the Congress of the United States of America. A dereliction of those duties would be considered a violation of his oath of office and thus ground for impeachment if we lived a world governed by men who were committed to the fair and impartial pursuit of justice in light of the just Judgment that awaits us all when we die. It is a fundamental dereliction of duty for a president of the United States of America to ignore just laws that provide for the protection of the fecundity of marriage and of innocent human life, starting with innocent human life in the womb.

The Comstock Act (Title 18, Section 1461 of the United States Code, which was signed into law by President Ulysses Simpson Grant on March 3, 1873) states the following:

1461. Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter

Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance; and-

Every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and

Every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

Every written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where, or how, or from whom, or by what means any of such mentioned matters, articles, or things may be obtained or made, or where or by whom any act or operation of any kind for the procuring or producing of abortion will be done or performed, or how or by what means abortion may be produced, whether sealed or unsealed; and

Every paper, writing, advertisement, or representation that any article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

Every description calculated to induce or incite a person to so use or apply any such article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing-

Is declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier.

Whoever knowingly uses the mails for the mailing, carriage in the mails, or delivery of anything declared by this section or section 3001(e) of title 39 to be nonmailable, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, or knowingly takes any such thing from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing thereof, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter.

The term "indecent", as used in this section includes matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination. (18 USC 1461: Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter.)

As should be well known by now, President Donald John announced during his third campaign for the presidency in 2024 that, if elected, his second administration would not enforce the Comstock Act to prevent the mailing of the human pesticide, the abortion pill, through the United States Postal Service, and Dr. Marty Makary, the director of the United States Food and Drug Administration is dragging his feet on concluding a study about the safety of the mifepristone for women, a study that is entirely superfluous and irrelevant as mifepristone is deadly for innocent preborn children and thus proscribed by the binding precepts of the Fifth Commandment and, of course, the Natural Law that is written on the very flesh of human hearts.

The current Trump administration is not only refusing to enforce the Comstock Act, but its Department of Justice is suing the State of Louisiana to prevent it from stopping the distribution of the human pesticide within its jurisdiction:

The Trump administration is weighing in against the state of Louisiana’s efforts to overturn the Biden-era liberalization of abortion pill regulations, further frustrating pro-life supporters of President Donald Trump just days after the administration framed itself as an ally at the March for Life.

Last fall, Louisiana sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over its removal of the requirement that abortion drugs be dispensed in-person that drastically expanded their usage, encroached on state law, and harmed women such as co-plaintiff Rosalie Markezich.

“Rosalie took abortion drugs that her boyfriend obtained via the U.S. Postal Service from a doctor in California. Rosalie did not want to have an abortion,” the lawsuit maintains. “But far from empowering Rosalie to make her own choice and preserving her autonomy, mail-order abortion drugs had Rosalie feeling trapped and terrified. She grieves the loss of her child and endures lasting emotional trauma.”

The change “directly violates Louisiana’s abortion laws and prevents Louisiana from protecting the lives of unborn babies despite the promise of Dobbs,” Louisiana argues. “That conduct also has directly generated medical emergencies that harm Louisiana women and emergency room visits that harm the State.”

The lawsuit is ongoing, but on Tuesday the Trump FDA filed a motion urging the court to at least temporarily deny relief to Louisiana and Markezich, arguing they lacked legal standing and claiming a judgment in the case would interfere with the agency’s alleged ongoing review of the abortion pill.

“Plaintiffs now threaten to short circuit the agency’s orderly review and study of the safety risks of mifepristone by asking this Court for an immediate stay of the 2023 REMS Modification approved three years ago,” the motion says. “They would have this Court set aside the 2023 REMS Modification – all without the benefit of FDA’s expertise, and even as the agency is already reconsidering the matter in its review. And Plaintiffs’ requested relief may prove as unnecessary as it is disruptive, if FDA ultimately decides that the in-person dispensing requirement must be restored.”

“To prevent that disruption, the Court should exercise its inherent authority to stay this litigation pending the outcome of FDA’s review of the mifepristone REMS,” it asked. “FDA’s review will necessarily result in a new agency decision that could supersede the 2023 REMS Modification, obviating any need to consider the merits of Plaintiffs’ arguments challenging the validity of the 2023 REMS Modification. Any party adversely affected by the new agency decision on mifepristone may seek judicial review at that time.”

This rationale did not sit well with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which condemned the news.

“Today’s denial of justice by the DOJ is completely unacceptable,” SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser said. “It slams the door on women like Rosalie Markezich and their babies, who are suffering very real harm as the Trump-Vance administration refuses to reimplement basic guardrails on deadly mail-order abortion drugs. Abortion drugs accessible by mail are killing more Americans than fentanyl, cocaine or heroin combined. Women and children are dying and do not have ‘a year or more’ to wait on the FDA. They deserve safeguards NOW.”

“As abortions in America go up instead of down, women are coerced, poisoned and ending up in emergency rooms, and state laws are undermined, it is states like Louisiana that are leading the charge to stop the mail-order abortion drug crisis,” she continued. “The Trump-Vance administration should be standing with Louisiana and supporting states in enforcing their pro-life laws against unscrupulous drug dealers, not holding onto Joe Biden’s disastrous Covid-era policies.”

Last week, Trump addressed the March for Life by video message and Vice President JD Vance appeared in person, praising the gathered pro-life activists, touting the positive aspects of the administration’s record and calling for more work to build a “culture of life.” At one point, Vance acknowledged “an elephant in the room” of pro-life discontent with the administration, but rather than addressing specific objections framed it as a “fear” that “not enough progress has been made, that not enough has happened in the political arena, that we’re not going fast enough, that our politics have failed to answer the clarion call to life that this march represents and that all of us, I believe, hold in our hearts.”

“And I want you to know that I hear you, and that I understand there will inevitably be debates within this movement,” the vice president said. “My friends, I’d ask you to look where the Fight for Life stood just one decade ago and now look where it stands today. We have made tremendous strides over the last year, and we’re going to continue to make strides over the next three years to come. But I’m a realist. I know that there is still much road ahead to travel together.”

However, more than just speed has complicated the pro-life movement’s relationship with the Trump team.

Trump established a consistently pro-life record in his first term, which ended with a hotly disputed loss to Joe Biden in 2020, but began to turn after the 2022 midterm elections, in which he attempted to blame the abortion issue for GOP underperformance. During his 2024 run, he changed further still, ruling out a federal abortion ban in favor of leaving the issue to the states, and changing the Republican Party platform’s longstanding pro-life language to reflect that preference. 

He also declared he would not reverse Biden’s decision not to enforce federal law against mailing abortion pills across state lines despite the tactic undermining state pro-life laws. Pro-lifers have hoped that stance might change with the administration’s aforementioned pledge to review the safety data of abortion pills but have been frustrated by the lack of updates amid allegations (which the administration denies) that the review is being slow-walked until after the 2026 midterms.

Taxpayer funding of abortion has been the issue on which Trump has most strongly continued the pro-life record of his first term, cutting off numerous federal sources of tax dollars to the abortion industry. However, Trump recently revived pro-life worries when he told a gathering of House Republicans “you’ve got to be a little flexible on Hyde” for the sake of reaching a deal in the narrowly divided Congress on health care reform.

Asked about the comment the next day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied any change in position and touted the Trump administration’s record so far of opposing taxpayer funding of abortion but did not specifically rule out some sort of compromise on Hyde in healthcare negotiations, leaving the controversy unresolved. (Trump FDA opposes Louisiana effort to stop abortion pills from entering state.)

This is not a matter of “not enough progress being made” but of a conscious decision not to enforce the law because of a totally unnecessary “study” of a pharmaceutical product whose raison d’etre is the killing of innocent babies and which can pulled from the market by a presidential executive order, something that George Walker Bush did not do between January 20, 2001, and January 20, 2009, and that Donald John Trump did not do between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021, and has not done since January 20, 2025, and has no intention of doing to this very day.

Donald John Trump is not concerned about stopping the shedding of innocent blood under the cover of the civil law and it does not matter to him that, as noted on this site last month, More Babies Are Being Killed Today Than When Roe v. Wade was the Law of the Land, as what matters to him is making money—for himself and for his wealthy allies:

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters.

“I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen. 

“The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she added.

On Wednesday, she said the people who truly benefit from backing Trump are financial benefactors, telling Iversen: “Those are the people that get the special favors. They get the government contracts, they get the pardons, or somebody they love or one of their friends gets a pardon.”

Since the start of the second Trump administration, the president has encouraged wealthy sponsors to provide private contributions for his political endeavors, including the construction of a White House ballroom and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.

Greene criticized the favoritism for Trump’s wealthy allies and also slammed the president for focusing on foreign policy rather than problems at home in her interview.

“It’s the foreign countries. They are running the show here. It’s the major big corporations and what is best for the world. That’s really what MAGA is. We are seeing war on behalf of Israel, we are seeing the people in Gaza, innocent people in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of them completely murdered so that they can build some new real estate development. Money can pour in and everybody can get rich there in the new Gaza,” she told Iversen.

“And we’re seeing a whole plan play out, which is really a new world order. It’s a new way of doing business. And that’s the — it’s kind of like the ‘Scooby-Doo’ meme where … they pull the mask off the bad guy,” Greene continued.

The former lawmaker alleged that the MAGA movement “isn’t really about America or the American people.” (Marjorie Taylor Greene says MAGA 'was all a lie'.)

Although the “Make America Great Again” slogan has always been a hollow plea as no country be truly great without a due submission to Christ the King and His Holy Catholic Church in all that pertains to the good of souls, something that has never been the case this country’s two hundred fifty years of existence.

Indeed, many of its founders rejoiced that they had rejected what Thomas Jefferson called “monkish superstition” and what James Madison said was “that engine of grief,” Our Blessed Lord and Saviour’s Holy Cross:

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.

Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and successions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mystery of holy oil had no more influence than that other of holy water: the people universally were too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice; and their leaders, or more properly followers, were men of too much honour to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind. (President John Adams: "A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America," 1787-1788)

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away {with} all this artificial scaffolding…" (11 April, 1823, John Adams letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams-Jefferson Letters, ed. Lester J. Cappon, II, 594).

Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion? (John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 19, 1821)

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! (John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, quoted in 200 Years of Disbelief, by James Hauck)

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."—James Madison, letter to William Bradford, Jr„ April I, 1774

". . . Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which pervades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest."—James Madison, spoken at the Virginia convention on ratification of the Constitution, June 1778

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."—-James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance," addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, 1785

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes. (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Alexander von Humboldt, December, 1813.)

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them. (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Roger Weigthman, June 24, 1826, ten days before Jefferson's death. This letter is quoted in its entirety in Dr. Paul Peterson’s now out-of-print Readings in American Democracy. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt, 1979, pp. 28-29.)

The proximate root cause of this decay was caused by the false premises of the American founding that have led jurists and politicians to make as much short work of the text of the Constitution as the plain words of Holy Writ have been made by the Scriptural and dogmatic relativism that Protestantism let loose on the world nearly five hundred years ago. The framers of the American Constitution were but the victims of Protestantism's revolution against the objective nature of Revealed Truth.

The men who framed the Constitution of the United States of America were products of the Protestant Revolt and of the so-called Age of Reason (or Enlightenment). They accepted without question the belief that it was possible for men of divergent religious beliefs–or the lack thereof–to work together reasonably for the common good without referencing any one church as the foundation of a country’s civil order. They believed further in the heresy of semi-Pelagianism, which contends that men have enough inherent grace in themselves to be good, that we do not need belief, in access to or cooperation with sanctifying grace to be virtuous. The framers of the Constitution believed that men of “civic virtue” would present themselves for public service and would, after a long process of compromise, negotiation and bargaining amongst the diverse interests and opinions represented in the United States Congress, make decisions that redounded to the common good (see, for example, James Madison, The Federalist, Numbers 10 and 51).

James Madison himself quite specifically believed that there was no one “opinion” that could unite men of such divergent backgrounds as found themselves in the United States of America at the end of the Eighteenth Century. Thus, a dialectical process of conflict amongst divergent interests (religious, sectional, economic, occupational) had to be created to force those who took positions that constituted a majority “view” at any time to at least consider the viewpoints of those who were in the minority of a given issue. In this way, Madison reasoned, whatever majorities emerged in Congress on any piece of legislation would be transient, indigenous to one particular issue at one particular time, and sensitive to and concerned about the rights of those who disagreed with them. Such a system, which was premised on the exercise of statesmanship on the part of those elected to serve in Congress and as President, would create the “extended commercial republic” where no one person or interest could predominate on all issues at all times.

The institutional arrangements created to effect this “extended commercial republic” were very complex. A division of powers between the central government and the state governments (Federalism). A separation of powers amongst the three branches of the central government involving a number of checks and balances. Different powers given to each of the two chambers of the Congress (bicameralism). Staggered elections for the members of the United States Senate, a body whose members were elected by state legislatures until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. Popular election originally of only one body, the House of Representatives. A President elected by electors appointed by whatever method deemed best by state legislatures. All of this was supposed to produce a tension that resulted in internal safeguards to prevent, although not absolutely make impossible, the abuse of power and the rise of the tyranny of the majority.

There is only one little problem with this schemata: it was premised on the belief that matters of civil governance do not have to be founded in a reliance on the Deposit of Faith that Our Lord has entrusted to His true Church and that the Church herself has no role to play to serve as the ultimate, divinely-instituted check on the abuse of temporal governmental power. It was difficult enough for the Church at times during the Middle Ages, when she exercised the Social Reign of Christ the King, to restrain certain rulers. It is impossible for any purely human institution to restrain the vagaries of fallen human nature over the course of time. Men who are not mindful of their First Cause and their Last End as He has revealed Himself solely through His true Church will descend to their lower natures sooner rather than later.

As has been noted many times on this website, Donald John Trump lives by his lower nature and acts mostly by means of viscera, which is why he attacks those of good will, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene or United States Representative Thomas K. Massie (R-Kentucky), going so far as to call him a “moron” at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, February 5, 2026, the Feast of Saint Agatha, and why he has gone to such great lengths to attack Massie’s wife herself:

Trump viciously blasted Massie in a Truth Social post last November in the wake of the [Epstein files] bill passing, and also took some swipes at his wife, Carolyn Moffa Massie, whom he married in Nov. 2025 after his first wife, high school sweetheart Rhonda Howard Massie, died in July 2024. Trump again targeted Carolyn Massie on Monday in a post accusing her of turning her husband into a “Liberal.”

“So now he’s attacking my wife who voted for him three times,” Massie posted in response. “Maybe someone told him she’s actually the one who suggested I ask Pam Bondi in person at a dinner when we would get Phase 2 of the Epstein files. Bondi said there were no more files. As they say, the rest is history.” (Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts Trump Attack on Massie's Wife.)

Donald John Trump is a petulant child who must have everything his way all the time.

It is unsurprising that he really that does not care about enforcing the Comstock Act to stop facilitating the killing of babies by chemical means via the United States Postal Service (or related services such as Federal Express or the United Parcel Service) as he only cares about himself, his family, his wealth, and burnishing his own name on as many facilities as possible:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.

Donald Trump isn’t leaving it to future generations.

As the first year of his second term wraps up, his Republican administration and allies have put his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships that’s yet to be built.

That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

On Friday, he attended a ceremony at his Florida home to mark the renaming of a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.

“That’s a very important stretch,” Trump said as he thanked local officials for the dedication.

“When people see that the beautiful sign is all lit up nice at night and it says ‘Donald J. Trump Boulevard,’ they’ll be filled with pride. Just pride,” Trump said. “Not in me. Pride in our country.” Another example of the unorthodoxy of Trump’s career

It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it’s exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.

“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”

White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president’s deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”

“The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again,” Huston said.

The White House pointed out that the nation’s capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.

For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.

As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump’s businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.

That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.

Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.

The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.

Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.

Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.

“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.

Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people “that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”

Supporters say the tributes are well-deserved

Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day,” placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.

McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”

“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not,” he said.

More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.

Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.

The boulevard dedicated to Trump on Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.

In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.

Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.

“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.

He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.’ I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.” (Trump isn't waiting to get things named after himself.)

Donald John Trump is too busy thinking about how to get things named after himself to care about how many millions upon millions of children are being killed by mifepristone because he is rejecting his duty to enforce the Comstock Act just as his Autopen predecessor, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., had done. 

President Trump loves to have things named after him, but his enabling of the slaughter of innocent preborn babies by chemical means could very be remembered as "The Trump Genocide."

This has been and will always be a system of false opposites, and the only way out of this system runs through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary as her Divine Son will not leave the shedding of innocent blood unavenged:

Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930.) 

We must continue to pray very fervently for President Trump's conversion to the Catholic Faith before he dies. 

Remember, every Ave Maria we pray helps us to prepare for the hour of our deaths as we seek to repair the damage caused by our sins and those of the whole world. May we be generous in praying our Rosaries as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, remembering, as true Charity demands, to pray fervently for the conversion of the conciliar revolutionaries before they die. We must never be unbent in our own sins, and we must never be unaware of how we must give God the honor and glory that are His due as members of the Catholic Church who have fled to the catacombs to seek to sanctify an thus save our immortal souls.

Praying Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary for our fellow Catholics, many of whom put fully traditional Catholics to shame insofar as modesty of attire and rejection of the popular culture are concerned, is the most efficacious means to help them to see the truth of the state of the Church Militant in this time of apostasy and betrayal, and we had better remember that seeing the truth of the papal vacancy during this time of apostasy and betrayal does not make us one whit better than anyone else.

Indeed, the biggest mess of them all is the one might exist right within our own immortal souls, which is why we must make frequent use of the Sacred Tribunal of Penance if it is all possible to do so during this time of apostasy and betrayal. We must pray to Our Lady that her Divine Son will give us the length of days necessary to clean up the mess we have made by means of our sloth, our anger, our impatience, our of lack of charity, our rash judgments, our harshness, our unwillingness to forgive others, our holding of grudges and stewing over offenses or dangers, real and/or imagined, to say nothing of our gossiping and time wasted on the farcical agitations of this passing, mortal vale of tears.

In truth, of course, most of us are the worst enemies of our salvation, and while none of us will be called to clean up the mess in the Church Militant on earth that has been created by the conciliar revolutionaries, we have to be about the business of cleaning up the mess that we have made of our lives by means of our sins, which have played their own nefarious roles in worsening both the state of the world at large and the state of the Church Militant.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., reflecting upon the Gospel reading on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed for today’s Holy Mass on Sexagesima Sunday, reminded us in his brief reflection for Sexagesima Sunday that must work assiduously for the seed of God’s Holy Word and His Holy Graces to take deep root in the soil of our immortal souls that we have despoiled so frequently through our own fault:

St. Gregory the Great justly remarks, that this Parable needs no explanation. since Eternal Wisdom himself has told us its meaning. All that we have to do, is to profit by this divine teaching, and become the good soil, wherein the heavenly Seed may yield a rich harvest. How often have we not, hitherto, allowed it to be trampled on by them that passed by, or to be torn up by the birds of the air? How often has it not found our heart like a stone, that could give no moisture, or like a thorn plot, that could but choke? We listened to the Word of God; we took pleasure in hearing it; and from this we argued well for ourselves. Nay, we have often received this Word with joy and eagerness. Sometimes, even, it took root within us. But, alas! something always came to stop its growth. Henceforth, it must both grow and yield fruit. The Seed given to us is of such quality, that the Divine Sower has a right to expect a hundred-fold. If the soil, that is, if our heart, be good; if we take the trouble to prepare it, by profiting of the means afforded us by the Church;- we shall have an abundant harvest to show our Lord on that grand Day, when, rising triumphant from his Tomb, he shall come to share with his faithful people the glory of  his Resurrection.

Inspirited by this hope, and full of confidence in Him, who has once more thrown his Seed in this long ungrateful soil, let us sing with the Church, in her Offertory, these beautiful words of the Royal Psalmist: they are a prayer for holy resolution and perseverance:

Perfect thou my goings in thy paths; that my footsteps be not moved. O incline thine ear unto me and hear my words. Show forth thy wonderful mercies; who savest them that hope in thee, O Lord. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Sexagesima Sunday.)

On the Commemorated Feast of Saint John of Matha

Today is the Feast of Saint John of Matha, who co-founded the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Ransom of prisoners, known commonly as the Trinitarians, with Saint Felix of Valois, whose feast is celebrated each year on November 20, for the rescue of Christians held as captives by the Saracens.

The Saracens, both literally and figuratively, are causing us great problems now, of course, which is why the life’s work of Saint John of Matha, summarized by the hagiography contained in today’s readings in the Divine Office, should inspire us to invoke his invocation to help us ward off any possibility of enslavement to the devil and his minions in this life and thus be his eternal prisoner in the torments of hell:

John de la Mata, the founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Ransom of Prisoners, was born at Faucon, in Provence, (upon Midsummer's Day, in the year 1169,) and was the child of parents equally distinguished for their rank and their godly life. He went for his education first to Aix and then to Paris. At the University of Paris, where he went through the course of Divinity and took the degree of Doctor, he became eminent for learning and virtue. For this reason the Bishop of Paris ordained him Priest, an honour from which his lowliness caused him to shrink, in the hope that he should induce him to remain at Paris, and be a bright example of wisdom and manners to the students who resorted thither. He offered up the Holy Sacrifice to God for the first time in the private Chapel of the Bishop, and in the presence of that Prelate and diverse other persons. In the midst of the ceremony, a vision from God appeared to John. There appeared to him an angel, clad in raiment white and glistering; having sewn on his breast a cross of red and blue. His arms were crossed before him, and his hands were upon the heads of two slaves, one a Christian and the other a Moor. And immediately the man of God was in the spirit, and knew that he was called to the work of ransoming bondsmen from the power of the unbelievers.

That he might set himself with due forethought to the carrying out of his work, he withdrew into a certain desert, and there, by the will of God, he found Felix de Valois, who had already spent many years in that place. With him he joined company, and they passed three years together in continual prayer, meditation, and all spiritual exercises. It came to pass, one day, when they were sitting on the bank of a spring, that there came to them a stag having between his horns a cross of red and blue. Felix cried out in wonder at that sight, and John then told him of the vision that had appeared to him when he was saying his first Mass. Thenceforth they gave themselves with redoubled fervour to prayer, and, being three times warned in sleep, they determined to go to Rome, and pray the Pope to institute an Order for the ransom of prisoners. They arrived at the time of the election of Innocent III., who received them courteously, and entertained in his mind their petition. While he was in consideration, he went to the Lateran Cathedral, on the second Feast of St. Agnes, and there, while Mass was being solemnly sung, at the moment of the elevation of the Sacred Host, there appeared to him an angel, clad in raiment white and glistering, having sewn on his breast a cross of red and blue, and making as though he would free prisoners. Thereupon the Pope founded the Order, commanding that it should be called the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Ransom of prisoners, and that they who professed in it should be clad in white raiment, having sewn on their breasts a cross of red and blue.

The Order being thus established, the holy Founders returned into France, and built their first Convent at Cerfroid, in the diocese of Meaux. Felix remained in charge of this house, and John went back to Rome with several companions. To them Innocent gave the house, Church, and hospital of St. Thomas de Formis on the Coelian Mount, with great endowments and property. Moreover he gave them a letter of introduction to Miramolin, King of Morocco, and they began with bright hopes the work of ransoming prisoners. John next betook himself to Spain, great part of which was then in the hands of the Saracens, and stirred up the hearts of the kings, princes, and all the faithful to have pity on slaves and the poor. He built Convents, founded Hospitals, and ransomed many bondsmen, to the great gain of souls. At last he returned to Rome, still busied in good works, but worn out by unceasing toil, and weakened by sickness. As he drew near the end of his earthly pilgrimage, his burning love for God and for his neighbour suffered no diminution. He called together his brethren, and earnestly exhorted them to go on with that work of ransom which had been pointed out to them from heaven, and then fell asleep in the Lord, on the 21st day of December, 1213. His body was buried with due honour in the Church of St. Thomas de Formis. (Matins, the Divine Office, Feast of Saint John of Matha.)

We must work until the end as we possess the undiminished confidence Our Lady gave to Saint John of Matha to continue his work so that we shall be delivered from enslavement to our sins, begging her to help us to remember that the price of ransom has been paid by her Divine Son during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., provided the following narrative of Saint John of Matha’s life and then offered a prayer in his honor:

We were celebrating, not many days ago, the memory of Peter Nolasco, who was inspired, by the Holy Mother of God, to found an Order for the ransoming of Christian captives from the infidels: today, we have to honour the generous Saint, to whom this sublime work was first revealed. He established, under the name of the Most Holy Trinity, a body of religious men, who bound themselves by vow to devote their energies, their privations, their liberty, nay, their very life, to the service of the poor slaves who were groaning under the Saracen yoke. The Order of the Trinitarians, and the Order of Mercy, though distinct, have the same end in view, and the result of their labours, during the six hundred years of their existence, has been the restoring to liberty and preserving from apostacy upwards of a million slaves. John of Matha, assisted by his faithful cooperator, Felix of Valois, (whose feast we shall keep at the close of the Year,) established the centre of his grand work at Meaux, in France. We are preparing for Lent, when one of our great duties will have to be that of charity towards our suffering brethren: what finer model could we have than John of Matha, and his whole Order, which was called into existence for no other object than that of delivering from the horrors of slavery brethren who were utter strangers to their deliverers, but were in suffering and in bondage. Can we imagine any almsgiving, let it be ever so generous, which can bear comparison with this devotedness of men, who bind themselves by their Rule, not only to traverse every Christian land begging alms for the ransom of slaves, but to change places with the poor captives, if their liberty cannot be otherwise obtained ? Is it not, as far as human weakness permits, following to the very letter, the example of the Son of God himself, who came down from heaven that he might be our ransom and Redeemer? We repeat it: with such models as these before us, we shall feel ourselves urged to follow the injunction we are shortly to receive from the Church, of exercising works of mercy towards our fellow creatures, as being one of the essential elements of our Lenten penance. . . .

And now, generous-hearted saint, enjoy the fruits of thy devoted charity. Our blessed Redeemer recognizes thee as one of His most faithful imitators, and the whole court of heaven is witness of the recompense wherewith he loves to honor thy likeness to Himself. We must imitate thee; we must walk in thy footsteps; for we too hope to reach the same eternal resting place. Fraternal charity will lead us to heaven, for the works it inspires us to do have the power of freeing the soul from sin, as our Lord assures us. Thy charity was formed on the model of that which is in the heart of God, who loves our soul yet disdains not to provide for the wants of our body. Seeing so many souls in danger of apostasy, thou didst run to their aid, and men were taught to love a religion which can produce heroes of charity like thee. Thy heart bled at hearing of the bodily sufferings of these captives, and thy hand broke the chains of their galling slavery. Teach us the secret of ardent charity. Is it possible that we can see a soul in danger of being lost and remain indifferent? Have we forgotten the divine promise told us by the apostle: “He that causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of his own sins”? Get us also a tender compassion for such as are in bodily suffering and poverty, that so we may be generous in comforting them under these trials, which are but too often an occasion of their blaspheming Providence. Dear friend and liberator of slaves! pray, during this holy season, for those who groan under the captivity of sin and Satan; for those, especially, who, taken with the frenzy of earthly pleasures, feel not the weight of their chains, but sleep on peacefully through their slavery. Ransom them by thy prayers, convert them to the Lord their God, lead them back to the land of freedom. Pray for France, which was thy country, and save her from infidelity. Protect the venerable remnants of thy Order, that so it may labor for the present wants of the Christian world, since the object for which thou didst institute it has ceased to require its devotedness. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint John of Matha.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s own native France had, of course, been thrown into the tumult caused by the French Revolution, the rise, defeat, return and then exile of Napoleon Bonaparte, the 1830 revolution, the rise and then the fall of Louis Napoleon in the aftermath of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871, when the revolution of 1871 ushered in the French Third Republic. Dom Prosper lived his entire life (April 4, 1805 to January 30, 1875) during the midst of social upheavals caused by the original French Revolution and all the hatred, violence, disorder and unrest that continues to flow therefrom to this very day. Indeed, the French Revolution of 1789 was notable as it was the first anti-Theistic revolution in history, paving the way for the atheistic Bolshevik Revolution in Russia one hundred eighteen years later.

Abbot Gueranger, however, did not live in fear. He gave us a legacy about the feast days of saints as they are celebrated during the liturgical year to remind us today, one hundred forty-six years after his death, that the only thing that we have to fear is the loss of Sanctifying Grace and thus the loss of the possession of the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost in Heaven for all eternity if we remain unrepentant until death.

We must make reparation for our sins as we beg Our Lady for the graces we need to be fortified in the hour of temptation. Sin maketh nations miserable, and there is no electoral way out of chastisement. We must pray and fast, which is why our upcoming season of Lent, for which we are now preparing during this week of Sexagesima, comes, at always, at just the right time for us to “sober up” and start looking at the world through the supernatural eyes of the Holy Faith and nothing else, especially by praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.

In this regard, it is instructive to consider Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection on Monday in Sexagesima Week, which focuses on the wretched state into which men had fallen before God punished them by means of the Great Flood:

All flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. The terrible lesson, then, which men had received by being driven out of paradise in the person of our first parents, had been without effect. Neither the certainty of death, when they would have to stand before the divine Judge, nor the humiliations which attend man’s first coming into this world, nor the pains and fatigues and trials which beset the whole path of life, had subdued men’s hearts or brought them into submission to that sovereign Master whose hand lay thus heavy upon them. They had the divine promise that a Savior should be given to them, and that this Redeemer (who was to be the Son of her that was to crush the serpent’s head) would not only bring them salvation, but would moreover reinstate them in all the happiness and honors they had lost. But even this was not enough to make them rise above the base passions of corrupt nature. The example of Adam’s nine hundred years’ penance, and the admonitions he could so feelingly give who had received such proofs of God’s love and anger, began to lose their influence upon his children; and when he at last descended into the grave, his posterity grew more and more heedless of what they owed to their Creator. The long life, which had been granted to man in this the first age of the world, was made but a fresh means of offending Him who gave it. When, finally, the sons of Seth took to themselves wives of the family of Cain, the human race reached the height of wickedness, rebelled against the Lord, and made their own passions their god. 

Yet all this while, they had had granted to them the power of resisting the evil propensities of their hearts. God had offered them His grace, whereby they were enabled to conquer pride and concupiscence. The merits of the Redeemer to come were even then present to divine justice, and the Lamb, slain, as St. John tells us, from the beginning of the world, applied the merits of His Blood to this as to every generation which existed before the great Sacrifice was really immolated. Each individual of the human family might have been just, as Noah was, and like him, have found favor with the Most High; but the thought of their heart was bent upon evil and not upon good, and the earth became peopled with enemies of God. Then it was that it repented God that He had made man, as the sacred Scripture forcibly expresses it. He decreed that man’s life on earth should be shortened, in order that the thought of death might be ever before us. He, moreover, resolved to destroy, by a universal deluge, the whole of this perverse generation, saving only one family. The world would thus be renewed, and man would learn from this awful chastisement to serve and love this his sovereign Lord and God. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Monday in Sexagesima Week.)

We know that God will destroy the world with fire, not with water, in His good time, not that of the climatological ideologues.

However, God does continue to send us chastisements because He loves us and wants us to reform our lives by making a good, integral confession of our sins on a regular basis, if possible at this time, of course, and then to do penance for our sins:

And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us: Looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon him that endured such opposition from sinners against himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification.

Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, And make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness: without which no man shall see God. Looking diligently, lest any man be wanting to the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up do hinder, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12: 1-15.)

The chastisement of the moment is being sent to us in large part to help us find our way out of the strait-jacket that is the Judeo-Masonic lie of naturalism with which the lords of conciliarism have made their reconciliation. I know that I have no hope of saving my immortal soul, stained with so many sins over the course of my lifetime, absent the rod of correction which God uses to beat me down into dust and to humiliate me for my stubborn refusal to give my whole heart and soul to Him at all times. We should be grateful for being permitted to live in these challenging times so that the chastisements of the moment may help us to make reparation for our sins as the consecrated slaves of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary so that we will be better able to think, to speak and to act as Catholics at all times as we seek to discharge the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy and we reject the counterfeit church of conciliarism as antithetical to our Holy Catholic Church.

Our Lady's Immaculate Heart will triumph. We simply need to be faithful we accept hardship as the price of our sanctification and salvation:

For which cause I admonish thee, that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee, by the imposition of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power, and of love, and of sobriety. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but labour with the gospel, according to the power of God. (2 Tim. 1: 6-8.) 

With our Rosaries prayed well, let us take refuge in the simple fact that millions upon millions who have gone before us marked with the Sign of Faith, that is, the Sign of the Cross, have been willing to embrace that Cross with love, joy and gratitude.

Why can't we in the midst of our own difficulties?

Why can't we?

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

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.

Saint John of Matha, pray for us.

Appendix A

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori on Sexagesima Sunday

On The Unhappy Life Of Sinners, And On The Happy Life Of Those Who Love God

 “And that which fell among the thorns are they who have heard, and, going their way, are choked with the cares and riches of this life, and yield no fruit.” LUKE viii. 14.

In the parable of this day’s gospel we are told that part of the seed which the sower went out to sow fell among thorns. The Saviour has declared that the seed represents the divine word, and the thorns the attachment of men to earthly riches and pleasures, which are the thorns that prevent the fruit of the word of God, not only in the future, but even in the present life. Misery of poor sinners! By their sins they not only condemn themselves to eternal torments in the next, but to an unhappy life in this world. This is what I intend to demonstrate in the following discourse.

First Point. The unhappy life of sinners.

Second Point. Happy life of those who love God.

 First Point. Unhappy life of sinners.

 1. The devil deceives sinners, and makes them imagine that, by indulging their sensual appetites, they shall lead a life of happiness, and shall enjoy peace. But there is no peace for those who offend God. ”There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.” (Isa. xlviii. 22.) God declares that all his enemies have led a life of misery, and that they have not even known the way of peace. ”Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known.” (Ps. xiii. 3.)

2. Brute animals that have been created for this world, enjoy peace in sensual delights. Give to a dog a bone, and he is perfectly content; give to an ox a bundle of hay, and he desires nothing more. But man, who has been created for God, to love God, and to be united to him, can be made happy only by God, and not by the world, though it should enrich him with all its goods. What are worldly goods? They may be all reduced to pleasures of sense, to riches, and to honours. “All that is in the world,” says St. John,” is the concupiscence of the flesh,” or sensual delights, and “the concupiscence of the eyes,” or riches, and “the pride of life” that is, earthly honours. (1 John ii. 16.) St. Bernard says, that a man may be puffed up with earthly goods, but can never be made content or happy by them. ”Inflari potest, satiari, non potest.” And how can earth and wind and dung satisfy the heart of man? In his comment on these words of St. Peter”Behold, we have left all things” the same saint says, that he saw in the world different classes of fools. All had a great desire of happiness. Some, such as the avaricious, were content with riches; others, Ambitious of honours and of praise, were satisfied with wind; others, seated round a furnace, swallowed the sparks that were thrown from it these were the passionate and vindictive; others, in fine, drank fetid water from a stagnant pool and these were the voluptuous and unchaste. O fools! adds the saint, do you not perceive that all these things, from which you seek content, do not satisfy, but, on the contrary, increase the cravings of your heart?”Hæc potius famem provocant, quam extinguunt.” Of this we have a striking example in Alexander the Great, who, after having conquered half the world, burst into tears, because he was not master of the whole earth.

 3. Many expect to find peace in accumulating riches; but how can these satisfy their desires?” Major pecunia,” says St. Augustine, “avaritiæ fauces non claudit, sed extendit.” A large quantity of money does not close, but rather extends, the jaws of avarice; that is, the enjoyment of riches excites, rather than satiates, the desire of wealth. ”Thou wast debased even to hell; thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways; yet thou saidst not, I will rest.” (Isa. Ivii. 9, 10.) Poor worldlings! they labour and toil to acquire an increase of wealth and property, but never enjoy repose: the more they accumulate riches, the greater their disquietude and vexation. “The rich have wanted, and have suffered hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.” (Ps. xxxiii. 11.) The rich of this world are, of all men, the most miserable; because, the more they possess, the more they desire to possess. They never succeed in attaining all the objects of their wishes, and therefore they are far poorer than men who have but a competency, and seek God alone. These are truly rich, because they are content with their condition, and find in God every good. ”They that seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good.” To the saints, because they possess God, nothing is wanting; to the worldly rich, who are deprived of God, all things are wanting, because they want peace. The appellation of fool was, therefore, justly given to the rich man in the gospel (Luke xii. 19), who, because his land brought forth plenty of fruits, said to his soul: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take rest, eat, drink, make good cheer.” (Luke xii. 19.) But this man was called a fool. ”Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” (v. 20.) And why was he called a fool. Because he imagined that by these goods by eating and drinking he should be content, and should enjoy peace. “Rest,” he said, “eat, drink.” “Num quid,” says St. Basil of Seleucia, “animam porcinam habes ?” Hast thou the soul of a brute, that thou expectest to make it happy by eating and drinking?

4. But, perhaps sinners who seek after and attain worldly honours are content? All the honours of this earth are but smoke and wind (“Ephraim feedeth on the wind” Osee xii. 1), and how can these content the heart of a Christian? “The pride of them,” says David, “ascendeth continually.” (Ps. lxxiii. 23.) The ambitious are not satisfied by the attainment of certain honours: their ambition and pride continually increase; and thus their disquietude, their envy, and their fears are multiplied.

 5. They who live in the habit of sins of impurity, feed, as the Prophet Jeremiah says, on dung. “Qui voluptuose vescebantur, amplexati sunt stercora.” (Thren. iv. 5.) How can dung content or give peace to the soul? Ah! what peace, what peace can sinners at a distance from God enjoy? They may possess the riches, honours, and delights of this world; but they never shall have peace. No; the word of God cannot fail: he has declared that there is no peace for his enemies. ”There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.” (Isaias, xlviii. 22.) Poor sinners! they, as St. Chrysostom says, always carry about with them their own executioner that is, a guilty conscience, which continually torments them. ”Peccator conscientiam quasi carnificem circumgestat.” (Serm. x. do Laz.) St. Isidore asserts, that there is no pain more excruciating than that of a guilty conscience. Hence he adds, that he who leads a good life is never sad. ”Nulla poena gravior poena conscientiæ: vis nunquam esse tristis? bene vive.” (S. Isid., lib. 2, Solit.)

 6. In describing the deplorable state of sinners, the Holy Ghost compares them, to a sea continually tossed by the tempest. “The wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest.” (Isa. Ivii. 20.) Waves come and go, but they are all waves of bitterness and rancour; for every cross and contradiction disturbs and agitates the wicked. If a person at a ball or musical exhibition, were obliged to remain suspended by a cord with his head downwards, could he feel happy at the entertainment? Such is the state of a Christian in enmity with God: his soul is as it were turned upside down; instead of being united with God and detached from creatures, it is united with creatures and separated from God. But creatures, says St. Vincent Ferrer, are without, and do not enter to content the heart, which God alone can make happy. “Non intrant ibi ubi est sitis.” The sinner is like a man parched with thirst, and standing in the middle of a fountain: because the waters which surround him do not enter to satisfy his thirst, he remains in the midst of them more thirsty than before.

7. Speaking of the unhappy life which he led when he was in a state of sin, David said: ”My tears have been my bread, day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God ?” (Ps. xli. 4.) To relieve himself, he went to his villas, to his gardens, to musical entertainments, and to various other royal amusements, but they all said to him: “David, if thou expectest comfort from us, thou art deceived.  “Where is thy God? Go and seek thy God, whom thou hast lost; for he alone can restore thy peace.” Hence David confessed that, in the midst of his princely wealth, he enjoyed no repose, and that he wept night and day. Let us now listen to his son Solomon, who acknowledged that he indulged his senses in whatsoever they desired. “Whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not.” (Eccl. ii. 10.) But, after all his sensual enjoyments, he exclaimed: “Vanity of vanities:… behold all is vanity and affliction of spirit.” (Eccles. i. 2 and 14.) Mark! he declares that all the pleasures of this earth are not only vanity of vanities, but also affliction of spirit. And this sinners well know from experience; for sin brings with it the fear of divine vengeance. The man who is encompassed by powerful enemies never sleeps in peace; and can the sinner, who has God for an enemy, enjoy tranquility?” Fear to them that work evil.” (Prov. x. 29.) The Christian who commits a mortal sin feels himself oppressed with fear every leaf that moves excites terror. ”The sound of dread is always in his ears.” (Job xv. 21.) He appears to be always flying away, although no one pursues him. ”The wicked man fleeth when no man pursueth.” (Prov. xxviii. 1.) He shall be persecuted, not by men, but by his own sin. It was thus with Cain, who, after having killed his brother Abel, was seized with fear, and said: ”Every one, therefore, that findeth me shall kill me.” (Gen. iv. 14.) The Lord assured him that no one should injure him: “The Lord said to him: ’No; it shall not be so’” (v. 15.) But, notwithstanding this assurance, Cain, pursued by his own sins, was, as the Scripture attests, always flying from one place to another “He dwelt a fugitive on the earth.” (v. 16.)

 8. Moreover, sin brings with it remorse of conscience that cruel worm that gnaws incessantly, and never dies. ”Their worm shall not die.” (Isa Ixvi. 24.) If the sinner goes to a festival, to a comedy, to a banquet, his conscience continually reproaches him, saying: Unhappy man! you have lost God; if you were now to die, what should become of you? The torture of remorse of conscience, even in the present life, is so great that, to free themselves from it, some persons have put an end to their lives Judas, through despair, hanged himself. A certain man who had killed an infant, was so much tormented with remorse that he could not rest. To rid himself of it he entered into a monastery; but finding no peace even there, he went before a judge, acknowledged his crime, and got himself condemned to death.

9. God complains of the injustice of sinners in leaving him, who is the fountain of all consolation, to plunge themselves into fetid and broken cisterns, which can give no peace. ”For my people have done two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jer. ii. 13.) You have, the Lord says to sinners, refused to serve me, your God, in peace. Unhappy creatures! you shall serve your enemies in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of every kind. “Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness, … thou shalt serve thy enemy in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things.” (Deut. xxviii. 47, 48.) This is what sinners experience every day. What do not the vindictive endure after they have satisfied their revenge by the murder of an enemy? They fly continually from the relations of their murdered foe, and from the minister of justice. They live as fugitives, poor, afflicted, and abandoned by all. What do not the voluptuous and unchaste suffer in order to gratify their wicked desires? What do not the avaricious suffer in order to acquire the possessions of others? Ah! if they suffered for God what they suffer for sin, they would lay up great treasures for eternity, and would lead a life of peace and happiness: but, by living in sin, they lead a life of misery here, to lead a still more miserable life for eternity hereafter. Hence they weep continually in hell, saying: “We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways.” (Wis. v. 7.) We have, they exclaim, walked through hard ways, through paths covered with thorns. We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity: we have laboured hard: we have sweated blood: we have led a life full of misery, of gall, and of poison. And why? To bring ourselves to a still more wretched life in this pit of fire.

 Second Point. The happy life of those who love God.

 10. “Justice and peace have kissed.” (Ps. lxxxiv. 11.) Peace resides in every soul in which justice dwells. Hence David said: “Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.” (Ps. xxxvi. 4.) To understand this text, we must consider that worldlings seek to satisfy the desires of their hearts with the goods of this earth; but, because these cannot make them happy, their hearts continually make fresh demands; and, how much soever they may acquire of these goods, they are not content. Hence the Prophet says: ”Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.” Give up creatures, seek your delight in God, and he will satisfy all the cravings of your heart.

11. This is what happened to St. Augustine, who, as long as he sought happiness in creatures, never enjoyed peace; but, as soon as he renounced them, and gave to God all the affections of his heart, he exclaimed: “All things are hard, O Lord, and thou alone art repose.” As if he said: Ah! Lord, I now know my folly. I expected to find felicity in earthly pleasures; but now I know that they are only vanity and affliction of spirit, and that thou alone art the peace and joy of our hearts.

 12. The Apostle says, that the peace which God gives to those who love, surpasses all the sensual delights which a man can enjoy on this earth. ”The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding. ” (Phil. iv. 7.) St. Francis of Assisium, in saying “My God and my all,” experienced on this earth an anticipation of Paradise. St. Francis Xavier, in the midst of his labours in India for the glory of Jesus Christ, was so replenished with divine consolations, that he exclaimed: “Enough, Lord, enough.” Where, I ask, has any lover of this world been found, so satisfied with the possessions of worldly goods, as to say: Enough, O world, enough; no more riches, no more honours, no more applause, no more pleasures? Ah, no! worldlings are constantly seeking after higher honours, greater riches, and new delights; but the more they have of them, the less are their desires satisfied, and the greater their disquietude.

 13. It is necessary to persuade ourselves of this truth, that God alone can give content. “Worldlings do not wish to be convinced of it, through an apprehension that, if they give themselves to God, they shall lead a life of bitterness and discontent. But, with the Royal Prophet, I say to them: ”taste, and see that the Lord is sweet.” (Ps. xxxiii. 9.) Why, sinners, will you despise and regard as miserable that life which you have not as yet tried?” “Taste and see.” Begin to make a trial of it; hear Mass every day; practise mental prayer and the visitation of the most holy sacrament; go to communion at least once a week; fly from evil conversations; walk always with God; and you shall see that, by such a life, you will enjoy that sweetness and peace which the world, with all its delights, has not hitherto been able to give you. 

Appendix B

Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., on Sexagesima Sunday

My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity ~ 2 Cor. xii. 9

To all who are striving to lead a good Christian life the example of the saints is a powerful means of encouragement, and the more so when we see in the saints themselves the evidences of our common human nature, when we see them encountering the same difficulties and struggling with the same temptations which we ourselves experience. Their great deeds and miracles exalt them to a sphere far above us, and, while they fill us with admiration, would yet have a tendency to discourage us were it not for those other passages in their lives when they seem to brought down to our own level by contact with those evil influences which are ever seeking to sway our fallen nature. The fact that the saints have had to engage in conflict with the basest passions is so far from lowering them in our eyes that it only serves to make them dearer to us and to stimulate us to a more faithful imitation of them.

And so St. Paul’s account of himself in the Epistle of today has been a ground of encouragement to many a soul that had grown weary of an incessant warfare with temptation. The Apostle tells us that, in spite of the wondrous revelations and heavenly favors which he had received from God, he was yet tormented with temptations of the flesh. “And lest the greatness of the revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me.  For which thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me; he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity.” To every soul struggling with temptation God speaks these same words of comfort. “What if you are weak and the temptation is strong? My grace is sufficient for you.  My power shall be shown forth through your weakness, for what you could never do of your own strength I can and will do for you with my grace.”

Many are the lessons we can learn from this text. When we see the great Apostle of the Gentiles engaged in a hard conflict with the demon of impurity, it shows us that God does not spare in this respect even his most chosen servants. On the contrary, by refusing to grant the prayer of St. Paul that he might be delivered from this sting of the flesh, God teaches us that temptation is often a special mark of his favor, even as a general would place his best and bravest soldiers in the thickest of the fight. We are also taught that, no matter how vile the suggestions of the evil one, they cannot soil the heart of him who resists them. If, as soon as the sinfulness of the foul thought or imagination is realized, resistance be at once begun, and kept up until the suggestion is banished, we may be sure we have not yielded, especially if we have had recourse to prayer.  From the shield of prayer the arrows of the tempter are sure to glace and fall harmlessly to the ground.

But, on the other hand, these temptations teach us what we are in ourselves, or rather what we should be without the aid of God’s grace. St. Paul tells us that God permitted those buffetings of Satan to preserve in him the virtue of humility, “lest the greatness of the revelations should puff me up.” The evil imaginations arising in our minds show us to what a depth we should sink were God to withdraw his grace from us and leave us to ourselves.  We should, therefore, make of such temptations an occasion of humility, acknowledging our own worthlessness, our own weakness, yet glorying, as St. Paul did, in the power of God’s grace, which is able to make us strong, and endow us with supernatural merit.  And here lies the greatest value and use of temptations- God’s power is made perfect in our infirmity.  A crown of merit is the reward of victory in the fight.  Without the temptation we should not have had the merit of overcoming it. In the hour of trial, then, take courage from these words of God to St. Paul: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity.” (As found at: Sexagesima Sunday ~ The Uses of Temptation.)