Saturday, September 23, 2017

Saturday 23, 2017. A Most Auspicious Day, I'd Say

A most auspicious day today in the heavens, but it seems just a run-of-the-mill day today here on Earth.



A Beatification, St. Padre Pio's Feast Day, and the Constellation Virgo corresponding point-by-point with the Lady in the heavens described in the Book of Revelations.  Most auspicious.

I must admit when I woke up this morning I was curious what I would read in the news.   I had kinda anticipated this day for a while imagining it might be festive...or who knows.  For me it turned out like any other routine day.

I did catch pieces of the beatification, and some blog posts about it.   It seems trads are suspicious of the reasons behind it. The whole thing just seems too vague and nebulous.  Interesting how like-minds share the same exact reservations.   Many are asking how Blessed Rother's death met the definition of martyrdom, and how the beatification is at least partly for political reasons. The presiding Cardinal in OKC today has been nicknamed the "Saint-Maker" over the years.

Anyway, I was once again flabbergasted today to talk to someone who is donating a laptop to the blog.   Okiepapist provided one to use as long as I needed it.  It turns out I'll be receiving one in the mail next week, care of Amazon, from a reader/donor who wishes to remain Anonymous.  Thank you Anonymous!

Nothing apocolyptic happened today, and my long set of novenas to St. Padre Pio for special intentions, culminated in his Feast today.   It being an Ember Day, I decided instead of fasting and abstaining to feast (on some good Okie bbq, and beer).  One of the instances I felt compelled to observe the new calendar instead of the pre-conciliar calendar.  I'd like to think Padre Pio gave the thumb's up.   He was a hard-core faster, but enjoyed sipping a good beer on special occasions.  I'd think his feast day would be one of them.




So I do plan to read Blessed Rother's biography and venerate him;  but at the same time pursue the same questions about the politics behind the still ongoing canonization process. Should be interesting to learn more facts.

And the Virgo thing isn't over.  It's just that Jupiter (the king god) finally left the womb of Virgo today.  I'm thinking the crown of 12 stars, sun at her back, and moon at her feet may continue for sometime.

In the meantime everyday the news keeps bringing us new info about earthquakes and hurricanes, rising tensions over North Korea, Cardinal Burke's (et al) Formal Correction of Amoris Latiteae, and in 3 weeks the 100th Anniversary of Fatima.

I for one will be watching the news a little bit more closely, and one night drive outside of city limits to see if I can identify what is happening with Virgo.




Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us.

St. Padre Pio, pray for us.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Connecting the Dots about To-Be Beatified Okie Fr. Stanley Rother

I like facts, and putting them in my visual field where I can compare them and look for patterns. Every reality is connected to another reality. Everything is connected to something, which is connected to something else.

And I find that when you lay out the facts, as it were, reality sheds light on the situation and shows you that over-arching truth. You don’t have to be a logician or fountain of information. Just a simple set of essential facts set in the context of over-arching laws and principles will get’r done. 





 

Just look at the Constellation Virgo phenomenon. It was God who arranged the facts. Twelve stars crowning the Virgin, with the Sun at her back, the moon at her feet, and the planet Jupiter emerging from her womb after nine months, all this converging on September 23rd, 2017. And this corresponds point-by-point almost verbatim with the Revelation of the Lady in the Book of the Apocalypse. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar or a mythology professor to see how the 9/23 Virgo Phenomenon matched what is described in Holy Scripture.
 

I think all this applies to the case of Fr. Stanley Rother (RIP) of Okemah, Oklahoma, now raised to the altars as Blessed Rother. 



Laying Out the Facts:
 

Here’s the facts that enter my visual field about Blessed Rother. He was from a simple, down-to-earth state. He specialized in farming. He was ordained a priest after Vatican II. He is almost always depicted wearing lay clothes and a rainbow stole. The modernists use images like that of priests to represent a Conciliar ideology of the Catholic priesthood—priests being ordained principally to serve the issues of social justice. Those are facts. 


He was put on a Hit List in Guatemala, in Latin America. He did not leave his flock, and was killed for being a priest, representing the Church serving the poor. All of this was in the 1970s. His cause for Canonization was put forward by the Church in Oklahoma in the 1990s. It became fast-tracked under Pope Francis. More facts.
He served Hispanics and died for them. Today Oklahoma is one of the main states with a large population of illegal immigrants, where the two Catholic Dioceses here oppose the Republican policy of strict immigration law enforcement in Oklahoma. The US bishops--including the Okie bishops—support a progressive policy that is widely tolerant of illegal immigration. Their policy runs contrary to President Trump’s policy. Those are just facts.

 

The same exact year that Fr. Rother is finally raised to the altars as an American Saint, Donald Trump becomes President, representing a populist, nationalist movement that is ultra-conservative about immigration policy. Trump is building The Wall. Pope Francis objected to building Walls. Archbishop Coackley of Oklahoma City is on record saying he thought the Beatification was fast-tracked because Fr. Rother represented to Pope Francis his vision of the “New Evangelization.”
 

Oh, and Pope Francis is from Latin America. He was elected to better represent South America. The plot thickens. There are quite a few priests lately in South America, and around the world, killed, whose death might be defined as “martyrdom,” but none of them are being beatified or canonized that I’ve heard of.
 

Just the killed priest from Oklahoma, just one state north of the US-Mexico border. If you are an illegal immigrant coming in through Texas north, you go straight into or through Oklahoma. All those are obvious facts.



 

What else? A common opinion among traditionalists is that post-Vatican II Catholics beatified or canonized are done so for political reasons, more than because of the three parts of what makes a saint--heroic virtue/penance/orthodoxy. Their canonizations are considered canonizations of the ever evolving Conciliar Reform/Theological World View. 


Connecting the Dots:
 

Those are 25 Facts I listed about Blessed Rother. I mean, can’t we connect the dots? Hello. Using just some simple logic and basic Catholic common sense?

Here goes.  Conclusion: the pattern suggests that under the pontificate of Pope Francis, Fr. Rother is being manipulated as a Political Symbol of a progressive policy in favor of illegal immigration, of Hispanics Fr. Rother served, from South America, across the US border into North America.   


Fr. Rother was chosen because he was from Oklahoma where today illegal immigration of Hispanics is front stage, and basically supported by the Oklahoma bishops. God bless our Okie bishops, but I think those are established realities.

Summary:   Yes, Fr. Rother died knowing he was on a Hit List because he was a Catholic priest serving the poor of Guatemala, which, according to the Vatican met the definition of martyrdom, making him a saint.   However, aren’t all the facts closely correlated enough to strongly suggest that the “Media Version of Blessed Rother” is being used by modernists in the Church to promote a progressive policy about immigration of Hispanics in South America, to the US? That his Beatification this year of 2017 is partly a political statement against President Trump’s immigration policy?

I'm not certain. But it does seem probable. All the facts align pretty well, like the stars and planets of the constellation Virgo. Time will tell, how the Rainbow-stole version of Blessed Rother is marketed and used in American church politics.

And I’m wondering if I’m the only person on the web making this connection? Maybe it helps I was raised Catholic here in Oklahoma and for decades have heard and seen the Rainbow-stole version of Fr. Rother.

Let me know what you think in the Comm box below.



 

Blessed Stanley Rother, pray for us!


Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The Virgo Constellation Thing this Saturday

The Remnant published an astonishing article in 2016 about an astronomical phenomenon that is supposed to happen for the first time in cosmic history this next Saturday, September 23rd, 2017. You may have already heard about this.  If not, here is the scoop, basically.




This Saturday the planet Jupiter (named after the Roman king god) will pass through the "womb" of the constellation Virgo ("The Virgin"), and at the same time the Virgin will look to be crowned with 12 stars (yes 12) and the moon at her feet.

Does that remind you of a certain prophesy from the Bible?

These are astronomical facts. The constellation Virgo will objectively appear to be a Virgin, crowned with stars, with a moon at her feet.  She will clothed by the Sun.  Again, those are the plain scientific facts.

When I wake up Saturday morning, I'm not expecting any biblical world events. But friends, considering this amazing arrangement in the heavens corresponds so closely to the Scriptures, oh and the fact the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima happens this October 17th, then I think it is a fair question what might happen.

Patrick Archbold of the Remnant wrote about it HERE.

Laramie Hirsch, being an astronomy buff, gave his ponderings about it HERE.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Please Pray for OkiePapist's Mother's Conversion to the Cathollic Faith. In Thanks for the Laptop!





Grazi!  Grazi!

 
Well, I am flabbergasted.  Reminds me of that picture of the ghost logo for Ghost Busters. Speechless.

In the Economy of Salvation, it does seem the  Holy Ghost helps provide for our material needs. Who would’ve thought that throwing up a post asking for a laptop would actually work. This seems to verify Reagan-omics (though I’m more a “distributist” than a capitalist, thanks to G.K. Chesterton). Some Prosperity trickled down to me, whose wallet right now is very thin. The laptop I am now using, sitting in my Okie Armchair, was donated this last weekend. Kind of a “permanent loan” until Providence should reward me with more prosperity.

As promised, I’ll be posting about a topic of the Donors’ choice, offering 10 Rosaries for their intentions, and asking readers to pray for their intentions. 


So, the Blessed Lender/Donor of this laptop—username OkiePapist--is asking that you please pray for the conversion of their Mother away from Protestantism, to the Catholic Faith.

If this blog is something that has kept you entertained, informed, or perhaps even inspired over the last year+ since I opened an account on Blogger...


If you believe that blogs, properly self-regulated, can be used for good ends...

If you believe in the vision of this blog to share life and faith from the perspective of a traditional Catholic and the Local Church...

If you comment now and then; heck...

If you liked the “Pope Michael” Interview (part II is in the works); if you appreciate local news about the Local Church in Oklahoma…

Then PLEASE include this Intention to your Daily Rosary!  Grazi! 

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Computer is Fried! Please help!

If there's anybody out there with an old laptop who'd be willing to donate it to The Okie Traditionalist (me), please let me know!



You can comment below or email me at
JosephOstermeir@gmail.com.   I'm guesstimating shipping would be under $20.

My laptop got fried by a virus.  Its beyond repair, and my wallet is very thin right now.  I've been painstakenly typing out blog posts with my thumb on my 3 inch smartphone screen for several months!!

This would really help the blog, and give me some relief.  I would be greatly indebted!!!   My THANKS to you will be to thank you by name (if you wish) on the sidebar and keep that up for a while, or I could mention the donation without your name but ask for prayers for one of your intentions, perhaps for a deceased loved one.  Plus you will be in my prayers.   I'll also write a blog post about a subject of your choice.  Also 10 rosaries offered for your intentions!

My thumbs and eyes will also thank you!!!!

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Thank God for Fall

Thank God for this pristine weather we're getting here in the Sooner state.  It starts calling to mind football tailgait parties, backyard fires, and the Fall garden.  I managed to squeeze into my schedule putting in the Fall garden.  Let's see, there's kale, spinach, Swiss chard, mint, oregano, and basil.



                  Lake Bixhoma

And everyday my body keeps equalizing one baby step at a time, my mind opening more and more to that deep thanks I owe the Divine Physician.


And I've been perusing my old "Summer Bucket List" back in like May, considering what summer outings I can still squeeze in now that I'm physically able to return to my adventurous ways.
I plan to work in some of those experiences in my upcoming posts, while pondering what subjects to tackle. I'm wanting to look closer at the issue of Artificial Intelligence (btw did you all see the Drudge Report link about sex robots now on the market? God help us), but also thoughts on work/profession, what Trump's been up to, and maybe a closer look at the Beatification of Okie Fr. Stanley Rother.

Friends, here's hoping you can partake of some of this great weather.  

Monday, September 11, 2017

Fall, 2017. Are we Headed for Chastisement or Divine Mercy?

Just got back from the gym. Thank God this place exists just down the street.   I did my PT exercises while a guy told me about his TMJ issues, did a couple of requisite sets of abdominal crunches, and then a dozen or so laps in the pool doing the crawl while a super swimmer torpedoed himself back and forth past me.  It ended with a meditative soak in the God-knows-whats-in-there whirloop. 

I have to thank God my health keeps returning to normal, and plan some Te Deum celebrations to thank the Good Lord for His Mercy.  This ordeal started in January, and, I think it will end up being in great measure due to the intercession of the saintly elfen Friar St. Padre Pio, that my health becomes fully restored. God knows He could have justifiably gone the other way and chastised me indefinitely. But through the prayers and support of family and friends, God's Mercy tipped the scales of His Divine Justice.

If our lives are a microcosm of what's going down in the World, I'd have to say the country/world is in the eye of the hurricane right now--figuratively and literally.



Hurricane Irma


Think about it.  The Houston Hurricane, earthquake in Mexico and then Akito, Japan (Yes, Akito--Our Lady of Akito, ora pro nobis), and now Hurricane Irma.  Oh, and glancing at the Drudge Report, there's also something about meteorologists bewildered over strange winds off the West coast of the US, and a bunch of strange earthquakes in some other part of the US.

Factor in the 100th Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima next month, the Remnant article about the prophetic happenings to come September 23rd I think it is related to the constellation Virgo, St. Padre Pio's Feast Day on the 23rd, and the Beatification of Okie American Fr. Stanley Rother on that same day.  And you have to wonder what kind of end times events we are witnessing.



          The Miracle of the Sun
                Fatima, Portugal
                 October 13, 1917

Perhaps then it is providential a friend gave us some blessed, beeswax holy candles.  You never know.  We may be headed straight for the 3 days of darkness.

On the other hand, if God is being merciful to me about my own well being, I hope and pray He will also be merciful to the World right now and not chastise us.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. St. Padre Pio, pray for us.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

The Pope's Motu Proprio on Liturgical Translations: Tell the Modernists its Nothing Really New!!

So I just read Francis' motu proprio Magnum Principium, which the internet and blogosphere is a buzz about this weekend.  Its a short read on The Vatican website.  The modernists are pretending it is further decentralizing power away from Rome to Episcopal Conferences in the area of liturgical translation. Traditionalists are reacting to this interpretation as one more sign the Church, under the current Pontificate, is reversing the traditional liturgical restorations of BXVI.

Whatever the interpretation might pretend to be, being a canonical decree, in my opinion it's pretty plain, direct, and clear.  It stands on its own without any need for interpretation.

It doesn't create anything really, substantially new.  As it says, it is simply codifying as canon law what was already the constant practice since Vatican II.

Incidentally, Archbishop Lefebvre, as explained by his biographer Bishop Tissier de Malleries, did think some use of the vernacular was appropriate, especially in the Epistle and Gospel.

Which brings me to the strengths in this document, which traditionalists should point out to the liturgical innovators.

1. It upholds Latin as the traditional language still part of the Roman rite.

2. It insists all national translations are approved by the Holy See.

3. It insists on accurate translation which is in accord with Church doctrine.

4. It clearly underlined the fact the Holy See itself promulgates liturgical rites.

5. It highlights use of the vernacular for the Epistles and Gospel.

Conclusion:

a) No, Bishop's Conferences do not have new, increased power to translate liturgical texts.

b) The motu proprio no where encourages new, more progressive styles of translation, and does not reverse BXVIs insistence on more accurate translations.

c) But no doubt the modernists will falsely misrepresent this new canon law as permission to start translating again like a 1970s liturgical translator on weed.

d) This document per se in itself, from a traditionalist point of view, doesnt really do anything to restore liturgical tradition. But it isn't official permission to keep butchering the sacred language of the Church.

Am I right?  Let me know in the Comm Box Below.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Beatification of Okie Fr. Stanley Rother this Month. Questions from the Heartland.

From the supernatural view, the upcoming Beatification of Fr. Stanley Rother this month seems even more monumental for the US than Hurricane Irma.  He will be on the way to becoming one of the few American saints.  And God knows our country needs more saints.



But as a traditional Catholic, there is the requisite moment of pause every time a conciliar pope beatifies or canonizes a post-Vatican II saint, if they are trying to canonize Vatican II.   Yet, the overwhelming majority of theologians traditionally teach that canonization is infallible, so if the same should apply to beatifications, then I am prepared to publicly venerate at Mass and promote on this blog Fr. Stanley Rother as a saint.  

Hirsch wrote about this recently here.

We need more saints, and a true Okie saint would help build up our own Local Church.  On the other hand, since canonization/beatifications have not been ruled by the Magisterium to be infallible, and is therefore an open question, then if there is serious reason to doubt the beatification of Fr. Rother, then I am equally prepared to discuss the issue.  What is at stake is a true understanding of Catholic sainthood, not to mention a true understanding of the Catholic Faith.

From what I understand about his cause for canonization, the crux of the question rests on the claim he is a martyr.   He was known for orthodoxy and personal holiness, but what makes him stand out was the fact he was killed because he was a priest.

Perhaps what throws tradition-minded, orthodox Catholics, is how Fr. Rother is so frequently depicted either wearing a rainbow stole over a plain white alb, or wearing lay clothes.  I have to wonder how much those images really represent him, or are used to paint him as a liberation theology-style worker priest.




But his cause begs some questions.  Is there a movement in the Church to canonize priest freedom workers killed in South America in order to promote a liberation theology view of Catholicism? Is being killed for a Catholic-based political stance a new form of matyrdom?  And how do these questions apply to the cause of Fr. Rother?

The deciding question is:  did the killing of Fr. Rother meet the traditional definition of martyrdom


The beatification is still a fortnight away, so I suppose it's still an open question.   I for one dont want to witness a somehow invalid beatification, so I am actually eager to welcome not only a new American saint, but an Okie Saint!   From what I've read of Fr. Rother's life, there seems to be much to venerate and imitate, especially his love of the poor.  He was a devout priest who refused to abandon his mission knowing he was on a Hit List.

Your thoughts?  The Comm Box is open!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

The Traditional Catholic Blogosphere: Some Thoughts

I've discussed before all the times I've heard from the pulpit admonitions about misusing the internet, including the Catholic blogosphere.  Its a mess out there.  Just recently one well known trad blogger called into question a certain trad apostolate, followed by a well known trad author responding on another well known trad blog in defense of said trad apostolate.  It doesnt matter what the controversy was.  It was just your latest flame battle in the trad blogosphere.

But both sides did make some valid points, I felt.   A blog is nothing more or less than a blog.  A blog writer, in so far as they are writing a blog, is nothing more than a blog writer.  Its one man or woman's way of voicing their opinion from their armchair.




There's the ambivalent concept of the "armchair theologian" or "armchair philosopher."  Usually the idea is criticized, but if you follow the usual discussion about that topic, it is also usually admitted that that role is valid.

I don't think a Catholic has to be a priest, professional theologian, or published author to write about Catholic subjects, or musings about daily life from a Catholic perspective.

To this trad blogger, I see the Trad Blogosphere as a good thing but with just as much weirdness and rigorism as you'll experience in any sector of the Trad Movement outside the internet.

For me, I'm still new to the blogging scene.  Plus returning from my semi-hiatus means another learning curve.   The last half turn around the Sun, I've been decidedly ignorant of Church and secular politics.  But as much as those subjects can become a nutty, wasteful diversion from fulfilling duties of state in life (for myself mea culpa), they are also generally, necessarily something to be engaged, especially by traditional Catholic men, fathers, and husbands.  In so far as ecclesial authority has been emasculated, it often falls on the shoulders of the family to figure out where to go to Mass or what is orthodox.

The Trad Blogosphere, I would argue, is a microcosm of the Trad Movement.   Said movement is fractionated.  One issue after another seems to separate us.  And the issues are becoming even more specific and fractionating.   Just look at the "SSPX Resistance" part of the movement, which a casual glance at it's online hub confirms it's own adherents readily admit is very divided in itself.  And it seems one of the latest fractionating issues is Fatima, in light of the 100th Anniversary, and the passing of Fr. Gruner (RIP).

I've got chores to do, so I better get to the point.  I'll list a few opinions about how I feel the Trad Blogosphere/Real World Community should interact, in a way that is unifying yet frank about our differences.

1.  Blogs should be treated as just blogs, northing more or nothing less.  They are the voice of one man or woman.  That's the nature of a blog.  The authority of the author rests purely on their own education, catechesis, and writing abilities.  The Trad blogger can be an Armchair Theologian but that's all they are.  Just a layman sitting in his armchair waxing theological about current events.  But what makes the Trad Blogosphere vital and effective is it's expanding presence on the secular web.   Together, we are a voice for traditional Catholicism.

2. Disputes between Trad Bloggers should avoid the typical Trad Blogger Flame Wars.   But this requires seeing in general that we traditional Catholic bloggers are in fact traditional Catholics, each trying to find the surest road through this Hurricane that is the crisis in Church and society.  We should try and be OPEN to one another. We should ask more questions, verify, privately confront, work things out, before attacking or rashly judging.




3. Confront real differences openly, frankly, in a GENTLMANLY and UNIFYING way.  Not be Church of Nice, but also not be the Church of Trad Cat Fight Club Bloodbaths.   There's a fine line in all of this, but I believe common sense will be judge about what is helpful and discussion-worthy, verses toxic and dividing.

I think the internet and the blogosphere will be here long after all of us are dead, and exponentially more and more a dimension of living in the modern world.   The Trad Blogosphere could be used by the devil to divide us traditional Catholics against ourselves.  OR, Trad Bloggers can help to restore all things to Christ and build up the cause of Tradition.

Did I miss anything?  Do ya'll have anything else to add?  Post in the Comment Box below.  

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

One Trad's Meditation on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Communion for the divorced and remarried.  One more issue to fractionate the Church.  The Southern Poverty You Know Who waging a culture war against The Religious Right, funded by God knows what elitist circle of billionaires.  A football stadium of fetuses ripped from their mother's womb everyday, in the US alone.  An ever declining social-moral quality of life paradoxically inversely proportional to the exponential rise in technology.  And psychotic Kim Jung whatever his name is shooting a warhead over Japan. Meanwhile, the Passion of Our Lord is made ever present on all the Catholic altars of the world, giving mercy to the many who would approach the communion rail.  These are the thoughts that pass through my Okie head here in the Heartland this Tuesday, one of the day's of the week devoted to the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.




The First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, the Agony in the Garden:

Our Lord sweating blood so much it soaked his hair and beard.   Our Lord in his humanity--like us in all things but sin--allowing Himself to experience the worst anxiety and terror, seeing every sin that would be committed by every person from the beginning until the end of time.


Imagine the pain and sorrow He felt seeing in His mind's eye His priests banalizing and desecrating His Divine Sacrifice, and later sexually abusing little boys in virtually every diocese.   Or seeing some of those same clerics once sexually abuses by their own pastors or fathers.

Imagine how much His heart was wrenched witnessing 40 million++ babies being killed in the womb, the most innocent and defenseless.  Imagine the sorrow He felt even for the abortionist, how they are possessed and tormented by the devil.

Imagine Our Lord looking square at each of our's most grave sins against Him and eachother.  The acts of impurity, the unjust acts of anger, the neglect of prayer and penance.

The Second Sorrowful Mystery: the Scouring at the Pillar:

Isn't the most beautiful of men Our Lord Jesus Christ, reaching perfect physical and mental development at the age of 33?   Lean, muscular, strong.   A brilliant, eloquent, fearless Shepherd.  P
enetrating eyes, a paternal face, flowing golden Brown hair and beard.

Now imagine the first barbed hook grabbing onto the flesh of His back, as He hung at a pillar completely naked.  One square inch of flesh at a time was ripped open, until his entire backside was mutilated.  And then he was turned to the otherside.   By the time the scourging was finished, His whole face, neck, shoulders, torso, and legs were butchered.

Now imagine if that happened to us, all the inordinate care we give our body.  Imagine Paris Hilton or Brad Pitt mutilated head-to-toe to the point we couldn't recognize them.  Every act of vanity slicing across Our Lord's body.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery, the Crowning with Thorns:

I think it was Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, who through her visions of the Passion, said Our Lord's greatest pain was the Crowning with Thorns.  Because the mind is where sin originates, in our thoughts and acts of free will.

Think of the billions of worldly, egotistical, atheistic thoughts that get circulated on the internet everyday.  All the hidden, angry messages that keep replaying in the back of our minds.

Mother Teresa disclosed she dealt for 50 years with a kind of depression, and she said that kind of suffering corresponds to Our Lord's Crowning with Thorns.  She is not exactly the trads favorite saint, but that little lady understood suffering. There is nothing more painful than mental illness, and mental illness is an epidemic across the materialistic nations.  Souls so disoriented from reality and their own individual identity, they would rather die.

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery, Carrying the Cross to Calvary:

When there is a fast food restaurant on every corner, and in a society that expects everyone to be in a certain Tax Bracket to "be somebody," who would think that the path to happiness not only in the next life but in this life, would require each one of us to do what Christ did, to directly look at whatever Cross God gives us, thank Him for it's saving grace, embrace it, pick it up, and pull that sucker up the hill.  To keep doing that, persevering to the end.


I think how Our Lord fell three times.  He was so physically and mentally exhausted He couldn't physically bear the Cross.  But we're supposed to bear our cross at all times, right?  If we fall, doesn't that mean moral weakness?  Its easy to be discouraged by my own weaknesses, or to be confused by my own failings.  I sense I need to look deeper within to know when my weaknesses are sins or where they are just my human nature reaching it's own physical limits.

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus' Died on the Cross:

That Holy Cross now divided into thousands of Relics around the world.  Miraculously rediscovered by Constantine's mother St. Helena.  That Cross which at the time of Christ was considered the worst form of torture and capital punishment.  But that Cross that became the New Altar for the New Sacrifice.  If you trace a line from where Our Lord was crucified, it ran straight through the altar of the Jewish temple where the priests simultaneously offered the sacrifice of the lambs, literally facing in the direction of the Cross.  But in the end, no animal sacrifice or act of mortal man could save mankind.  Only God Himself could save mankind by becoming man and offering His life to the Father.


I've tried to imagine how three hours on the Cross atoned for millenia of human sin.  How the trillions and trillions of sins, even the most venial meriting long, terrible penances in purgatory, were mystically placed on the shoulders of our dying Savior.  I cant imagine that. That mystery of Faith must rank up there with the mysteries of the Incarnation, Transubstantiation, or Our Lady's Assumption into Heaven.

Kyrie eleison.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Meditation on the Glorious Mysteries

Happy Sunday fellow Okie Trads and readers far and near.  Deo gracias.  We've crossed the finish line.  We've made it to September, which means the Purgatorial heat of summer is subsiding.  Cooler temperatures, Fall backyard fires, calming breezes.   So I was reminded of what awaits all our efforts in life, as we prayed this Sunday's Glorious Mysteries.

The First Glorious Mystery:  the Resurrection:

All of those pains and sufferings.  All of those earthly accomplishments which fade like the colors of summer.  All our tears, grieving, and torments.  All of that will pass away.  For those of us who persevere to the end, on the last day at the end of the world, our souls will be united to our glorified bodies.  The bodies of the non-elect won't be glorified. All will face the eastern horizon and the rising Son of God who will judge all Mankind.  If the Church Fathers are correct, the majority will be damned.  Our bodies will be so perfect there will be absolutely no pain or sufferings.  What we consider now to be preternatural gifts--telepathy, bilocation, superhuman strength--will shared by all.   In our sanctified state, our natures will even rise above that of the angels, thanks to that "happy fault of Adam" and the Redemptive Act of the New Adam.


The Second Glorious Mystery: the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven:

Our Lord's path was circular.  Just as He came from the Father, so He had to go back to the Father.  He had to join Himself to that circular path because that is our own path, and He "became like us in all things but sin."  We come from God, and so must return to God.

That Second Person of the Blessed Trinity had descended upon the Blessed Virgin Mary 33 years before as the Incarnate Word.  33 years later that Incarnate Word ascended back to Heaven, that sacred abode where the Almighty manifests for divine worship by the angels and the Saints.  Our Lord was risen, and showed again his divinity through His Transfiguration.  God from God, Begotten and not made.

The Third Glorious Mystery: the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost:

If the Holy Ghost is able to manifest Himself in a sacred place--whether it be the blessed womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a consecrated church, or the sanctuary, so He manifested Himself in a sacred way in the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church became a living reality that Pentecost when it's first members received the Paraclete in a sacred way.  The sacredness of this Divine Spirit cannot be fully experienced except within the Holy Catholic Church, which He made His home.


The Fourth Glorious Mystery:  the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, body and soul:

One thing I love about our Catholic Faith, is how one truth follows from another.  Our Faith is a system of orchestrated truths.   Because God became incarnate through a woman, He preserved her from original sin, remarkably made possible by the Cross 47 years later (14 years + 33 years).   And so Our Lady was also preserved from the consequence of original sin--i.e. death.  Instead she mystically fell asleep in her old age before ascending to Heaven.  Isn't it likewise remarkable to point out to the non-believer that there is no grave nor remains for Our Lady. If the first Christians had preserved the relics of the 12 Apostles, certainly they would have preserved those of the Mother of God.  But no, God did not want her to be incomplete in Heaven.  He wanted her there both in soul and in body.


The Fifth Glorious Mystery:  the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen of Angels and Saints:

We've reached the end.  The Joyful and Sorrowful Mysteries have come and gone.  The final Glorious Mysteries have culminated in Heaven, where there will be no suffering, but eternal bliss.  There Our Lady stands near her Son who sits on the Divine Throne.  Every prayer passes through her heart and is heard by Our Lord from the lips of Our Mother.  And every grace from her Son flows through her mantle to us here below, the Church Militant, fighting for our salvation, for our own soul and that of our brother and sister.   The Mother of God took her final place of glory as the Mother of the Church.


Here's hoping you all have a cool, fun Labor Day!