Madonna and Child with St Elizabeth and the Infant St John the Baptist, Giampietrino
Hymn
(On the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Proper of Saints)
O more than blessèd, merit high attaining,
Pure as the snow-drift, innocent of evil,
Child of the desert, mightiest of martyrs,
Greatest of prophets.
Thirtyfold increase some with glory crowneth;
Sixtyfold fruitage prize for others winneth;
Hundredfold measure, thrice repeated, decks thee,
Blest one, for guerdon.
O may the virtue of thine intercession,
All stony hardness from our hearts expelling,
Smooth the rough places, and the crooked straighten
Here in the desert.
Thus may our gracious Maker and Redeemer,
Seeking a station for his hallowed footsteps,
Find, when he cometh, temples undefilèd,
Meet to receive him.
Now as the angels celebrate thy praises,
Godhead essential, Trinity co-equal;
Spare thy redeemed ones, as they bow before thee,
Pardon imploring.
Amen.
Virgin and Child with Sts Elizabeth and John the Baptist, Quentin Massys; 1520-25
I’ve been thinking about Alan’s wonderful post reminiscing about the old musicals.
I remember some of those movies, although they were on their way out during my ’60’s childhood. Looking back, I am increasingly struck by the engineered culture provided for Americans to consume. I have looked at music and artists that I used to enjoy and admire with more detachment. I’ve learned about military intelligence and CIA involvement in so much of it. I’ve thrown out a lot of it, movies as well, and will probably throw it all out.
As that catchy tune from the strange musical “Mary Poppins” taught us, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”.
In retrospect, “My Fair Lady”, based on Fabian G.B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, was basically advancing the multicultural mess we now find ourselves in. The premise that education, wardrobe, and etiquette skills can turn a street urchin into a fine lady is very entertaining and idealistic.
“WE consider secularism, with its errors and abominable attempts, to be the plague of our times; and you know, venerable brothers, that such impiety did not mature in a single day, but rather incubated long before in the very heart of society. It began by denying Christ’s dominion over all peoples; the Church was denied the right, founded on the right of Christ himself, to teach humankind — that is, to give laws and to guide nations to lead them to eternal happiness. Then, little by little, the Christian religion was equated with other false religions and indecorously degraded to their level. It was then subjected to civil power and the arbitrary permission of rulers and magistrates. And things went further: some of these people imagined replacing the religion of Christ with a kind of natural religion, with purely human feelings. There were even states that believed they could do without God, and they based their religion on impiety and contempt for God.”
But of him was it said, as is written in the Blessed Evangelist He was a burning and a shining light that is to say, that, when the whole world was wrapt in the night of ignorance, this Saint was kindled by the fire of the Holy Ghost, to show before men the light of salvation, and at the hour of the thickest darkness of sin, appeared like a bright morning star to herald the rising of that Sun so right gloriously radiant, the Son of righteousness, Christ our Lord. And this is why John said of himself: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.
— From the Sermons of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (on the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist)
THOU, in thy childhood, to the desert caverns
Fleddest for refuge from the cities’ turmoil,
Where the world’s slander might not dim thy lustre,
Lonely abiding.
Camel’s hair raiment clothed thy saintly members;
Leathern the girdle which thy loins encircled;
Locusts and honey, with the fountain-water,
Daily sustained thee.
Oft in past ages, seers with hearts expectant
Sang the far-distant advent of the day-star;
thine was the glory, as the world’s Redeemer
First to proclaim him.
Far as the wide world reacheth, born of woman,
Holier was there none than John the Baptist;
Meetly in water laving him who cleanseth
Man from pollution.
Praise to the Father, to the Son begotten,
And to the Spirit, equal power possessing,
One God whose glory, through the lapse of ages,
Ever resoundeth.
Amen.
Scenes from the Life of Christ (detail); Giotto di Bondone
FROM Fr. Felix Sarda y Salvany’s Liberalism Is a Sin [full quote here]::
The apostate cleric is the first factor the devil seeks for his work of rebellion. He needs to present it in some authoritative way to the eyes of the unwary, and for that, nothing serves him better than the endorsement of some minister of the Church. And since, unfortunately, there is never a shortage of clerics corrupted in their morals—the most common path to heresy—or blinded by pride, also a very common cause of all error, he has never lacked ecclesiastical apostles and supporters, whatever form he has taken in Christian society.
Judas, who began within the apostolate itself to murmur and sow distrust against the Savior, and ended up betraying him to his enemies, is the first type of the apostate priest and sower of discord among his brothers; and Judas, it should be noted, was one of the first twelve priests ordained by the Redeemer himself.
The sect of the Nicolaitans originated from the deacon Nicolaus, one of the first seven deacons ordained by the Apostles for the service of the Church, and companion of Saint Stephen, the protomartyr.
Paul of Samosata, a great heresiarch of the 3rd century, was bishop of Antioch.
The father and author of the Novatians, who so disturbed the universal Church with their schism, was the priest of Rome Novatian.
Meletius, bishop of the Thebaid, was the author and leader of the Meletian schism.
Our Lord tells us that the Antichrist will be so like Him that he would deceive even the elect – and certainly no image of the devil as he has been seen in books could ever deceive even the elect.
The Antichrist will not be called that; otherwise, he would have no followers. He will not wear red tights, nor vomit sulfur, nor carry a trident, nor wave an arrow-shaped tail like Mephistopheles in Faust.
This masquerade has helped convince men that the devil does not exist. When no one recognizes him, he wields more power. God has defined himself as “I am who I am,” and the devil as “I am who I am not.”
Nowhere in Sacred Scripture do we find justification for the popular myth that the devil is a jester who primarily dresses in red. Rather, he is described as a fallen angel, as “the prince of this world,” whose mission is to tell us there is no other world. His logic is simple: if there is no heaven, there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge; and if there is no judgment, then evil is good and good is evil. But above all these descriptions, Our Lord tells us that he will be so like himself that he would deceive even the elect—and certainly no image of the devil seen in books could ever deceive even the elect. So how will he enter this new age to gain followers for his religion?
FROM a letter written by David Goldstein, Jewish convert to Catholicism, in 1956:
Dear Mr. Solomon,
My lengthy reply to your inquiry as to how, I, of Jewish parentage, could become a Catholic, is, in summary, because I believed in Old Testament principles and predictions, which call for religious and moral guidance by God, through His authoritative, priestly, sacrificial Church. These I found manifestly full formed and majestic in the Catholic Church, that displaced the Church of our Jewish forebears, as foretold by Moses and the prophets.
I fully appreciate your feelings regarding the Spanish Inquisition, and the resultant suffering its decisions caused the State to inflict upon the Marranos, for the guilt of heresy. Whether or not the crime warranted the punishment, the fact remains that the heretics in Spain deserved punishment. Your judgment of the Inquisition is based upon failure to realize that European civilization was virtually a unit in faith during the Middle Ages. The Gospels and the laws of the Catholic Church formed the basis of legislation. Religion was considered of vital import to the State, as civil unity depended to quite an extent upon religious unity. Therefore an attack upon religion, through heresy, was an attack upon the prevailing order of society, which the Catholic Church caused to evolve from paganism, through the Dark Ages, to Christian order. Hence heresy was considered a crime by the State, and a sin by the Church. The severe methods of punishment resorted to by the State during the years of the Spanish Inquisition, which you resent as do I, were always condemned by the Church. They were not of Spanish origin. They were universal for centuries before there was an united Spanish Kingdom. Yet they never reached the number or severity in Spain that Catholics suffered in other countries for the “crime” of loyalty to their religious faith.
“THE Lord who is omnipotent, dearly beloved, might have made all men equally rich, so that no one need ask anything from another. In his infinite goodness, however, the merciful and gracious Lord hath planned otherwise, in order to prove your disposition in these matters. He hath made misery, that he might discern mercy; he hath made the needy, that he might make use of the rich. For your brother’s poverty is your material of riches, if ye do not understand concerning the needy and the poor, and do not consider as your own what wealth ye have received. For God hath bestowed upon you your brother’s portion in this world, in order that ye should offer of your own willing affection something of his gifts to those in need, and that he may enrich you in your turn with that portion in eternity. For now Christ receiveth through them, and hereafter he will repay for them.”
A quarter-century after he died, my father has never been absent from my memory or awareness. I am continuously aware of the debts I owed to him. He accompanies me whenever I walk the streets of St. Louis. I remember most of all his frame of mind and sense of life.
Here is one example:
Many years had gone by since I last viewed the 1964 motion picture musical “My Fair Lady”. Early this month I watched it twice on consecutive evenings. And while doing so, I tried to imagine how my father saw it. It opened in early 1965 at the ornate Ambassador Theater in downtown St. Louis, a movie palace where Ginger Rogers danced on stage in the 1920s.
I do not recall talking with my father about that movie then or in later years. I regret that. But I am sure he saw it. There are many things in it that I know would have impressed him favorably, not least the marriage of music and lyrics, the witty dialogue, and the masculine authority worn unapologetically by Rex Harrison’s character. My father enjoyed the sound of language spoken correctly and carefully. That was one reason why he watched (but especially listened to) William F. Buckley and his guests on his “Firing Line” program. I imagine he was equally impressed by Rex Harrison’s meticulous respect for language and diction in his role as Professor Henry Higgins.
“THE body of every man doth consist of five senses, and five being doubled, is ten. Forasmuch, therefore, as the whole body of the faithful doth consist of two sexes, the Holy Church is likened unto ten virgins. And forasmuch as in the Church the good are for the present mingled with the bad, and the reprobate with the elect, it is rightly said that, of the ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish. There are many who have self-control, which do keep themselves from lusting after things outward, whose hope beareth them to things inward, who chastise the flesh, who long with intense home-sickness for their Fatherland which is in heaven, who seek an eternal reward, and who will not to receive for their labours the praise of men. These are they who reckon their glory, not in the mouths of men, but in the testimony of their own conscience. And many there be likewise who afflict the body by self-control, and yet who seek for their self-control applause from men.”
Edward Weisenburger Archbishop of Detroit
June 12, 2026
Imam Al-Hasanain Mosque
Dearborn Heights, Michigan
“From the moment I arrived at this beautiful property (Imam Al-Hasanain Mosque) today, I deeply felt the divine presence… we are all members of the same human family. All churches, all mosques, all synagogues, all places where God extends His hand and touches with His are sacred… This is a truly wonderful and holy place… a place that, I believe, will lead all of humanity to a deeper communion with our one God … a new place of holiness has been established in the community.”
****
Regarding this chilling, in-your-face act of apostasy by Edward Weisenburger, I recommend the excellent commentary by “Interregnum.”
[Use your browser’s translation program to read in English. Easy to do!]
Notice how Weisenburger, who most definitely does not represent the Catholic Church, confuses the physical human family with the spiritual family that embraces those who are faithful, not to Allah, but to the one true God. The crackpot universal oneness he speaks of does not exist and has never existed. And that isn’t because true Christians are mean, mean people, but because the human race is fallen and prone, in a million ways, to substitute idols for God. Truthfully, it is Weisenburger and his ilk who are the meanies — denying with their blasphemous vanity the truths of salvation to Muslims.
Imagine an imam saying anything remotely similar about a Catholic Church (if such a thing existed anymore in anything but physical form). It wouldn’t happen! Muslims do not share the LUV. The faux-“Catholic” “ecumenism” of modern times is always a one-way street. An embarrassing obeisance, a submission, a cringe-worthy surrender to false gods, it’s a one-way street to apostasy.
Boy, the crooks at the U.N. must be laughing their heads off at this sentimental, garbage theology. (They, after all, are not themselves sentimentalists.) There is no place where I feel more at home. You’d feel equally at home, Mr. Hamburger, in the flames of eternity, where you’d yuck it up with the Muslims who will despise you forever for your lies and your brazen denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Ah, but you only wanted to be liked, eh?
By the way, even if these Muslims were Catholic, they would still belong in their own Arab countries because religion does not obliterate nature.
“UNDER this symbol of love, Christ our High Priest, having suffered both cruelly and mystically, offered the twofold Sacrifice.
“Who would not love the Saviour who loves him? Who would not love him, by whom he has been redeemed? Who would not wish to take up his abode, for ever in this his Jesus’ Heart.”
“ONE day I saw the Son of God, holding in His Hand His own Heart, which appeared more brilliant than the sun and which was casting rays of light on every side; then, this amiable Saviour gave me to understand that all the graces which God unceasingly pours forth on men, according to the capacity of each, come from the plenitude of the Divine Heart.”
“THE sanctity of the Sacred Heart is the sanctity of One who is God as well as man. The Sacred Heart of Jesus hates sin as God hates it, loathes it with inexpressible loathing. How, then, can I, who am so full of sin, venture to appeal to the Heart to which sin is thus foul with a foulness that knows no bound or limit? At least I can pray that I may share in a greater degree this hatred of sin, and so learn to avoid it.
“Happily for us, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by reason of the Divine nature of our Lord, has also unbounded love tor sinners. His infinite sanctity makes Him long after them with an inexhaustible love, and an unceasing desire to see them rid of the sin that denies them. If sins still cling to me, it is not His fault, but my own. It is owing to my want of correspondence to His constant invitations to come to Him to be healed of all sin.”
“HE desires us to avoid the slightest faults, but He does not wish us to worry too much even about the great ones. He decrees that joy, liberty and peace of heart shall be the eternal inheritance of all those who love Him truly.”
