Satan is already defeated

Satan,
proud-winged!
Bold and brazen,
Crushed by
Simple
Sandalled Maiden!


"Mary must become as terrible as an army in battle array to the devil and his followers, especially in these latter times. For Satan, knowing that he has little time - even less now than ever - to destroy souls, intensifies his efforts and his onslaughts every day. He will not hesitate to stir up savage persecutions and set treacherous snares for Mary's faithful servants and children whom he finds more difficult to overcome than others.

It is chiefly in reference to these last wicked persecutions of the devil, daily increasing until the advent of the reign of anti- Christ, that we should understand that first and well-known prophecy and curse of God uttered against the serpent in the garden of paradise. It is opportune to explain it here for the glory of the Blessed Virgin, the salvation of her children and the confusion of the devil. "I will place enmities between you and the woman, between your race and her race; she will crush your head and you will lie in wait for her heel" (Gen. 3:15).

God has established only one enmity - but it is an irreconcilable one - which will last and even go on increasing to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers of Lucifer.

Thus the most fearful enemy that God has set up against the devil is Mary, his holy Mother. From the time of the earthly paradise, although she existed then only in his mind, he gave her such a hatred for his accursed enemy, such ingenuity in exposing the wickedness of the ancient serpent and such power to defeat, overthrow and crush this proud rebel, that Satan fears her not only more than angels and men but in a certain sense more than God himself. This does not mean that the anger, hatred and power of God are not infinitely greater than the Blessed Virgin's, since her attributes are limited. It simply means that Satan, being so proud, suffers infinitely more in being vanquished and punished by a lowly and humble servant of God, for her humility humiliates him more than the power of God. Moreover, God has given Mary such great power over the evil spirits that, as they have often been forced unwillingly to admit through the lips of possessed persons, they fear one of her pleadings for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats more than all their other torments.

What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility. What Eve ruined and lost by disobedience Mary saved by obedience. By obeying the serpent, Eve ruined her children as well as herself and delivered them up to him. Mary by her perfect fidelity to God saved her children with herself and consecrated them to his divine majesty.

God has established not just one enmity but "enmities", and not only between Mary and Satan but between her race and his race. That is, God has put enmities, antipathies and hatreds between the true children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love and no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world, - for they are all one and the same - have always persecuted and will persecute more than ever in the future those who belong to the Blessed Virgin, just as Cain of old persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob. These are the types of the wicked and of the just. But the humble Mary will always triumph over Satan, the proud one, and so great will be her victory that she will crush his head, the very seat of his pride. She will unmask his serpent's cunning and expose his wicked plots. She will scatter to the winds his devilish plans and to the end of time will keep her faithful servants safe from his cruel claws.
But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. In the eyes of the world they will be little and poor and, like the heel, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary. They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ." (True Devotion to Mary, 50-54).

Pope John XXIII looked forward to a New Pentecost and Pope John Paul II spoke of a new Civilization of Love. And we shall have these. Even if they do not occur in the manner most people expect. In many places a cleansing, a purification is needed in individual temples before the Holy Spirit will enter with His Bride. We read in the Gospel of Matthew how, "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, 'It is written: My house shall be a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves.'" (21: 12, 13).

And what is our soul but His temple? Have we made His house a house of prayer? Or have we succumbed to lust, materialism and pride and made His house a den of thieves who have no place there? We have to become Marian. We have to become Mary-like before Christ is reborn again in our modern world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

There will indeed be a New Pentecost in the hearts of men and a Civilization of Love which will endure forever. But only after the Church has been purified through Calvary:


"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.

The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 675-677).

Reflect very carefully on those words: "The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.." This is the teaching of Sacred Scripture. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, we read: "We ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling with him, not to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a "spirit," or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god--do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is removed from the scene. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord (Jesus) will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming, the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie, and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved. Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie, that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned. But we ought to give thanks to God for you always, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth. To this end he has (also) called you through our gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word."

Amen.

More great news from Rome.....

This is precisely what Catholics need: more reverence for the Holy Eucharist and concise homilies which pertain to the days readings.

Timely advice from Sanctus Belle........

Sanctus Belle's website (Our Lady's Tears) is superb. And everything about this Catholic wife, mother and nurse is simply amazing.

http://ourladystears.blogspot.com/

Michael Brown on the significance of tears:

http://www.spiritdaily.com/giftoftears.htm

Still no answer from the Saint Benedict Center cult..

In a comment left at the Keene Sentinel Talkback thread entitled "Richmond: A Town Divided," Mr. Roger Vaste left the following comment on June 3, 2007:

"Eleonore Villarrubia, responding to Ann Duclos' previous comment at this forum, has written: "..shame on me for thinking that you might be a Catholic of good will who had doubts regarding Brother Andre's diaconate ordination and wanted facts." This statement implies that Ann Duclos is not a Catholic of good will. It is, therefore, nothing short of calumny. And as far as "Brother" Andre's "diaconal ordination," I challenge Eleonore Villarrubia to show everyone who frequents this forum the dimissorial letters from Bishop John McCormack granting canonical permission for another Bishop to ordain her son. And if she cannot do so, I challenge her to demonstrate from Canon Law and Church teaching how her son may be ordained to the diaconate without such dimissorial letters. I'm waiting Mrs. Villarrubia. Show me the canon in Canon Law which justifies your son's disobedience to the Church. Any refusal to answer will be construed as an admission of your own dishonesty."

Mr. Vaste (and others who demanded proof of "Brother" Andre Marie's "ordination" to the diaconate) never did receive any response from SBC cultists. After some 8 months, the SBC cult still has not explained how Louis Villarrubia could have been validly ordained without canonical permission from the Church in the form of dimissorial letters from Bishop John B. McCormack. It must be remembered that the Diocese of Manchester issued a statement through Rev. Edward Arsenault, Moderator of the Curia, which read:

"I write to you in reply to your letter dated May 24, 2007. I share your concern about the ongoing controversy and difficulties with the Saint Benedict Center. As you know, the Saint Benedict Center has no permission or authority to exercise any Ministry on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire.

Bishop McCormack has and will continue to do all that he can to encourage people to refrain from participating in any of the spiritual exercises at the Saint Benedict Center. For my part, I will continue to make it clear that Saint Benedict Center has no affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church in any way. Please know that I will continue to pray for you and all those who are affected by difficulties that have been created by the Saint Benedict Center.

With every good wish,
I remain sincerely yours in Christ
Edward J Arsenault
Moderator of the Curia
Manchester NH

The SBC cult has no affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. "Brother" Andre Marie is not a Catholic religious or an ordained Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. And he should not pass himself off as such.

Recommended reading:

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=782

http://www.factnet.org/?p=193

Paving the way for Antichrist....

The Church cannot be broken by external persecution and she will never be defeated. It was Our Lord, speaking of His Church, Who said, "..the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Tertullian was correct when he said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity [sanguis martyrum semen Christianorum]. External persecution only strengthens the Church.

But we know from Sacred Scripture that in the last days a great apostasy will shake the Church and that many [in fact most] will succumb to a great religious deception: "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 675).

Have we already entered the period of the great Apostasy foretold by Sacred Scripture? Is the way being prepared for the very entrance of the Man of Sin onto the world stage? While many "intellectuals" both within and without the Church would scoff at the very idea, the signs are emerging. For example, the signs of internal betrayal and infidelity have left their mark on England: http://www.religionandspirituality.com/currentEvents/view.php?StoryID=20080222-081044-9420r. As for the United States, the statistics have also been grim:http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=22821

It was Romano Guardini [in his classic The Lord, p. 513] who reminded us that:

"One day the Antichrist will come: a human being who introduces an order of things in which rebellion against God will attain its ultimate power. He will be filled with enlightenment and strength. The ultimate aim of all aims will be to prove that existence witout Christ is possible - nay rather, that Christ is the enemy of existence, which can be fully realized only when all Christian values have been destroyed. His arguments will be so impressive, supported by means of such tremendous power - violent and diplomatic, material and intellectual - that to reject them will result in almost insurmountable scandal, and everyone whose eyes are not opened by grace will be lost. Then it will be clear what the Christian essence really is: that which stems not from the world, but from the heart of God; victory of grace over the world; redemption of the world, for her true essence is not to be found in herself, but in God, from whom she has received it. When God becomes all in all, the world will finally burst into flower."

Our Lady told Fr. Stefano Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests:

"I am weeping because the Church is continuing along the road of division, of loss of the true faith, of apostasy and of errors which are being spread more and more without anyone offering opposition to them. Even now, that which I predicted at Fatima and that which I have revealed here in the third message confided to a little daughter of mine (i.e. Sister Lucia) is in the process of being accomplished. And so, even for the Church the moment of its great trial has come, because the man of iniquity will establish himself within it and the abomination of desolation will enter into the holy temple of God." (To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, No. 362, September 15, 1987, p. 572.)

And again:"The black beast like a leopard indicates Freemasonry; the beast with the two horns like a lamb indicates Freemasonry infiltrated into the interior of the Church, that is to say, ecclesiastical Masonry, which has spread especially among the members of the hierarchy. This Masonic infiltration, in the interior of the Church, was already foretold to you by me at Fatima, when I announced to you that Satan would enter in even to the summit of the Church. If the task of Masonry is to lead souls to perdition, bringing them to the worship of false divinities, the task of ecclesiastical Masonry on the other hand is that of destroying Christ and his Church, building a new idol, namely a false christ and a false church." (To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, No. 406, June 13, 1989, p. 649)

The false church Our Lady refers to was also foretold by Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), a German Augustinian nun, stigmatist, and miracle-worker, who subsisted entirely on water and Holy Communion for many years. Venerable Emmerich received numerous visions of the future crisis in the Church and the infiltration of the Masons. In her visions, she describes men in aprons destroying the Church with a trowel, The Masons wear aprons and their symbol is the Mason's trowel. The following excerpts are from page 565 of the Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich, Vol. 1, by Rev. K.E. Schmöger, Tan Books, 1976:

"I saw St. Peter's. A great crowd of men was trying to pull it down whilst others constantly built it up again. Lines connected these men one with another and with others throughout the whole world. I was amazed at their perfect understanding." The demolishers, mostly apostates and members of different sects, broke off whole pieces and worked according to rules and instructions. They wore WHITE APRONS bound with blue riband. In them were pockets and they had TROWELS stuck in their belts. The costumes of the others were various."There were among the demolishers distinguished men wearing uniforms and crosses. They did not work themselves but they marked out on the wall with a TROWEL where and how it should be torn down. To my horror, I saw among them Catholic Priests. Whenever the workmen did not know how to go on, they went to a certain one in their party. He had a large book which seemed to contain the whole plan of the building and the way to destroy it. They marked out exactly with a TROWEL the parts to be attacked, and they soon came down. They worked quietly and confidently, but slyly, furtively and warily. I saw the Pope praying, surrounded by false friends who often did the very opposite to what he had ordered..."

We have witnessed the gradual emergence of this false church within Christ's Church. And that which this false church proposes is a new religion in which man, and not God, is the object of worship. And all will be accomplished in the name of humanitarianism. Through one of his characters in his prophetic book The Lord of the World, Fr. Robert Hugh Benson describes this humanitarian religion:

"Humanitarianism...is becoming an actual religion itself, though anti-supernatural. It is a pantheism. Pantheism deifies all nature, God is the world, but naturally, man above all is God since he is the highest expression of nature. It is a religion devoid of the 'super' natural, because since God is nature itself, there is no longer a distinction between Creator and creature. The creature is God* and hence arbitrator of his own destiny and establishes the moral law for himself. Nature, and man is its highest expression, has all the divine attributes. Humanitarianism is a religion devoid of the supernatural. It is developing a ritual under Freemasonry; it has a creed, 'God is man'; and the rest. It has, therefore, a real food of a sort to offer religious cravings: it idealizes, and yet makes no demands upon the spiritual faculties. Then, they have the use of all the churches except ours, and of all the Cathedrals; and they are beginning at last to encourage sentiment. Then they may display their symbols and we may not: I think they will be established legally in another ten years" (Introduction, p. xvii).

*Genesis 3:5.

We must watch and pray. Prayer [and especially Holy Mass and the Rosary] is the most fundamental weapon for the great battle of the end times. In the words of Fr. Livio Fanzaga, "When man will glorify himself and proclaim the Antichrist as God made man, the supernatural principle will be preserved only by those who cling to the divine presence in prayer....In the time of Antichrist, the power of suggestion will cloud reason. Only those who intimately experience the supernatural in prayer will have the strength to acknowledge God's existence, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary."

Bill Clinton loses temper, lashes out at pro-life students...

The former president embarassed himself, lashing out at pro-life students from Franciscan University. The YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XfmJeIJpns

Catholic University does the right thing...

This is the same John Sharpe who has been a featured speaker at conferences held by the anti-Semitic "Saint Benedict Center" (listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=1385) which is based in Richmond, New Hampshire. The difference? Catholic University is authentically Catholic and rejects anti-Semitism.

A witness.....

A couple of years ago, an attorney with an anti-Catholic agenda and mindset was running for District Attorney of the Middle District (Worcester, Massachusetts). At the time, I called for prayers to Our Lady of La Salette that this attorney would be defeated. This was the result of the election: http://www.conte2006.com/danshea.htm

Note the date of this election. Coincidence? You be the judge.

This is a testament to the power of prayer. By ourselves, we can do nothing. Jesus has said it. But we can do all things in Him who strengthens us (Phil 4:13) and Who grants us many graces through the hands of His Immaculate Mother.

When will we stop trusting in ourselves, in our own gifts and abilities, and place our trust where it belongs: in the hands of Jesus and Mary?

Related reading:

http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2005/06/attorney-daniel-shea-and-co-liberal.html

http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2005/06/attorney-daniel-shea-and-co-liberal_23.html

And on a related note: http://www.zenit.org/article-21749?l=english

There are many dark forces which are resisting a fifth marian dogma which would solemnly define Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. This because Our Lady will then be able to act with much greater freedom and power to crush the head of the Evil One and his followers.

Planned Parenthood closes "clinics" in five states...

And this is only the beginning. Those who promote the killing of unborn children are on the losing side of history. The question of when human life begins is a scientific question. Therefore, we shouldn't look to philosophic theories for an answer but to scientific facts. In the words of Dr & Mrs. J.C. Willke: "Biologic human life is defined by examining the scientific facts of human development. This is a field where there is no controversy, no disagreement. There is only one set of facts, only one embryology book is studied in medical school. The more scientific knowledge of fetal development that has been learned, the more science has confirmed that the beginning of any one human individual's life, biologically speaking, begins at the completion of the union of his father's sperm and his mother's ovum, a process called 'conception,' 'fertilization,' or 'fecundation.' This is so because this being, from fertilization, is alive, human, sexed, complete and growing." ("Why can't we love them both: questions and answers about abortion," p. 57).

The Roe opinion ignored scientific facts and described the unborn child as "a potential life." Propagandists for the culture of death do the same. But the unborn child is not a "blob of tissue." Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist, drove this point home when he said that, "..the amount of information contained in the chromosomes of a single fertilized human egg is equivalent to about a thousand printed volumes of books, each as large as a volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica." (Taken from Doris Gordon, "Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian Principles Correctly," Studies in Prolife Feminism, Spring 1995, pp. 121, 127).

The Roe opinion (based upon a "right to privacy" that the Court couldn't even locate in the Constitution but nevertheless said was broad enough to encompass a woman's "right" to abort her child), ignored science because the scientific facts were deemed "inconvenient" and "irrelevant." I wonder if Justice Blackmun still considered them irrelevant when he stood before the Lord Jesus to account for his life?

Related reading and ultrasound photographs of unborn children:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/ultrasound.html

Vatican rejects criticism of conversion prayer...

"We think that reasonably this prayer cannot be an obstacle to dialogue because it reflects the faith of the Church and, furthermore, Jews have prayers in their liturgical texts that we Catholics don't like...I must say that I don't understand why Jews cannot accept that we can make use of our freedom to formulate our prayers...this does not mean we are embarking on a mission [to convert Jews]. We are giving witness to our faith."

- Cardinal Walter Kasper

That revised Good Friday Prayer....

"Foxman and his collaborators did not get what they were clamoring for: a formal abandonment of the necessity of Jewish conversion to Christ. What they got instead is a reformulation of the Good Friday prayer that takes away their issue while petitioning for Jewish conversion in a way that is, if anything, even more objectionable from their standpoint."

- Christopher Ferrara

In an ADL response, Foxman said, "While we appreciate that some of the deprecatory language has been removed from a new version of the Good Friday prayer for the Conversion of Jews in the 1962 Roman Missal, we are deeply troubled and disappointed that the framework and intention to petition God for Jews to accept Jesus as Lord was kept intact.

Alterations of language without change to the 1962 prayer's conversionary intent amount to cosmetic revisions, while retaining the most troubling aspect for Jews, namely the desire to end the distinctive Jewish way of life. Still named the “Prayer for Conversion of the Jews,” it is a major departure from the teachings and actions of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and numerous authoritative Catholic documents, including Nostra Aetate."

Deprecatory language? Here at La Salette Journey, we have already shown that the language of the original Good Friday Prayer was not problematic from a theological standpoint:http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2008/01/comment-left-by-mr-john-ansley.html And what of Foxman's assertion that the new Prayer for Conversion of the Jews represents, "..a major departure from the teachings and actions of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and numerous authoritative Catholic documents, including Nostra Aetate"? Perhaps Mr. Foxman would care to be more specific?

Nostra Aetate, No. 4, states that: "In company with the prophets and the same Apostle [Paul], the Church awaits that day known to God alone on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and 'serve him shoulder to shoulder' (Zep 3:9; Is 66:23; Ps 65:4; Rm 11:11-32)....It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows."

The burden is now on Mr. Foxman to back up his assertion that the new Prayer for Conversion of the Jews constitutes "a major departure from the teachings and actions of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and numerous authoritative Catholic documents, including Nostra Aetate." I have already shown that Nostra Aetate, while rejecting any expression of discrimination against the Jewish People, "awaits that day known to God alone on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice." I challenge him to cite one authoritative Church document which promotes a false irenicism.

Could it be that Mr. Foxman and his associates have a desire to end the distinctive Catholic mission to "proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all embracing love"?

Could it be that Mr. Foxman and his associates are guilty of the very thing they accuse the Catholic Church of?

Homosexual indoctrination in Massachusetts....

Christians [and others of good will who oppose homosexuality] who object to their children being indoctrinated in perversity, will not be allowed to opt out. The persecution intensifies.

This is extremely disturbing. Vatican II teaches us that, in raising children, the responsibility of parents is primary: "Since parents have given life to their children, they have a very grave duty to educate them, and so are to be recognized as their primary and principal educators" (GE, No. 3). And Pope John Paul II, explaining the conciliar teaching more fully in Familiaris consortio No. 36, says that: "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others."

Canon Law is also very clear on this matter. Canon 793, 1., states that: "Parents as well as those who take their place are obliged and enjoy the right to educate their offspring; Catholic parents also have the duty and the right to select those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of the children according to local circumstances" and Canon 1136 says that: "Parents have the most serious duty and the primary right to do all in their power to see to the physical, social, cultural, moral and religious upbringing of their children."

This inalienable right of parents has been recognized by the United States Supreme Court. In 1922, the State of Oregon attempted to enact legislation that would have forced all children to attend the public schools within that state. But the Supreme Court overturned that decision and established that "The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations."

Letter to Michael Brown...

Dear Michael,

Greetings and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ!



I read this item at Spirit Daily with interest: http://www.spiritdaily.com/adorationfright.htm
as I have had similiar experiences while at Eucharistic Adoration (and elsewhere).

The last time was while adoring Our Eucharistic Jesus at the Blessed Marie Rivier Adoration Chapel at Ste. Marie's Parish in Manchester, New Hampshire. While in contemplative prayer, I noticed (there is a window just to the right of the table with monstrance) a man standing at the far end of the parking lot. Although he was quite a distance from the Chapel, I could actually feel his stare. But I re-focused on my prayer and made a conscious decision to ignore this distraction. After approximately fifteen minutes or so, this man walked across the parking lot, entered the Adoration Chapel, and walked right across where I was kneeling (on a Prie-Dieu) while staring at me in an odd fashion. He sat on the other side of the Chapel, to my left, and just stared. I remained focused on Jesus in the Eucharist and refused to be distracted. After staring at me for roughly 10 minutes, this man stood up and walked out while never taking his eyes off me. As he left the Chapel, I heard him mutter "I guess not." I took this to mean that he (or some other entity) was acknowledging his failure to distract me from prayer.

The following week, a woman clad in a mini skirt entered the Chapel while I was deep in prayer - again on the Prie-Dieu. She too stared at me the entire time she was in Chapel. At one point she sat provocatively on two chairs with her legs stretched out in an immodest fashion in my direction. Although I didn't look in her direction, I could see this briefly out of the corner of my eye. Seeing that I remained intent on Jesus in the Eucharist, this woman stood up and prostrated herself on the floor in front of the monstrance exposing her under garments as she did so. I maintained custody of my eyes by closing them.

The Evil One hates our adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist. To this end, he sends many distractions. By the grace of God, we must continue to banish these distractions and turn our hearts and minds back to the Lord.

God love you,

Paul Anthony Melanson


The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, in vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2729).

It's about time......

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274). "Out of reverence towards this sacrament [the Holy Eucharist], nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest's hands, for touching this sacrament." (Summa Theologica, Pars III, Q. 82, Art. 3, Rep. Obj. 8)

POPE PAUL VI (1963-1978). "This method [on the tongue] must be retained." (Apostolic Epistle "Memoriale Domini")

Of related interest: http://www.adoremus.org/Notitiae-kneeling.html