DEANA writes:

I have been reading your blog for about a month and just wanted to take a moment and tell you thank you for sharing your thoughts with the world.

I am a 46 years old. I married late in life (41) so I do not have children but I do have a wonderful husband and I have work that I enjoy (I am a nurse). I have much to be thankful for but of late, I find myself despairing and perhaps in a depression. Laura, I am afraid. I feel as if I’m looking at the most beautiful tapestry hanging in front of me and people are walking by, grabbing a thread and pulling it, shredding it to pieces. Our country is falling apart. I see it everywhere. In the last six weeks, I have cried out of fear for our country at least twice each week. I do not want to be pessimistic but in my mind, I know there is no way we will return to what we were supposed to be without a terrible reckoning. I grew up in a Lutheran church in an area in Illinois that at the time was dominated by German descendants. I recall pastors talking about Israel and what would happen to them if they did not obey the Lord. My mother, never one to mince words, would frequently remind us of there being good and evil and that we had to live our lives according to what God wants because it really mattered. And it wasn’t as if I wasn’t listening or didn’t believe them. I think it was that in the 70s and 80s in rural Illinois, we were removed from reality. And I was surrounded by people who all thought and lived more or less like we did. Well no more. The full brunt of reality is pouring over us daily. Online, on television, on the radio, in the magazines, at work, in the neighborhoods, it’s everywhere. I feel as if all that I love is becoming passé, extinct, endangered. I fear not only for the safety of those I know and love but the things and ideas that are so concrete to civilization. I can’t shake the feeling that 95 percent of Americans do not understand what it took to create all of what made America “America.” It is grotesque the eagerness at which we are tearing down and throwing away what took people greater than us generations to build. It is disrespectful. It is heartbreaking.

I find myself turning toward the interior life more now. Yes, I know, it is born of cowardice but I crave time at home with my husband and the dog or with family when they are here with us. Both my husband and I have noticed we no longer have a desire to go to shows or events with large crowds. We simply want to garden, kayak, fish, nap, read, play with the dog, visit our neighbors, and go to church. I loathe Facebook. I loathe what popular culture tells us we must believe. If I could, I would take my husband and family and turn back the hands of time to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Of course there were large problems then but I suspect our ancestors did not feel as if the most basic ideas and principles that guided their lives were being destroyed. Perhaps I am wrong.

I do try not to despair. I know we are put on this earth at this time for a reason. And I know that God is with us and He has us in His hands. And it has not escaped me that perhaps all of this is being used to magnify His word and draw more to Him. So I have to trust in Him and pray that His will be done. And it helps to find others who are seeing what I see and are still trusting in the Lord to guide them. Your essays are enlightening and thought provoking and even when I do not agree with you, I feel as if I have just sat down and had a nice, quiet conversation with someone without feeling like I am supposed to feel ashamed for thinking the way I do. There is no shouting, no insinuation that I am evil for not going along with the prevailing ideology. Just a gentle conversation. And it’s nice.

I wish you and your family God’s blessings this week.

Laura writes:

Thank you for your note.

We are living in the New Age, and it’s radically different from the world you even knew as a child. The whole atmosphere of our times is pervaded by the occult. Even a simple trip to the supermarket is an encounter with the sinister movement that is seeking to supplant every last vestige of Christian civilization on earth. That awful, brainwashing “music” is everywhere. And it’s there by design.

Fortitude and understanding are supernatural gifts. With prayer and reading, you will gain understanding and feel less afraid. You may enjoy Cornelia Ferreira’s talks on the “occultization” of mankind. She explains this creepiness that you sense everywhere. Her conversations with Judith Sharpe at In the Spirit of Chartres are like visits with two sane, commonsensical women from another time.

Take heart. As Solange Hertz wrote in The Thought of Their Heart:

At the stage of disintegration our civilization has reached today, it may be that only love can reach us. Our poor brains, saturated with error, and bewildered by trying to  untangle the moral; chao soliciting our judgment at every turn, have little strength left for theology or the mental disciplines making use of mere logic and reason. We are desperate and crave the immediate support only love can give. Although love depends on knowledge, love carries further, and knowledge not ordered to love is fruitless anyway. Even devils believe.

 […]

The Sacred Heart establishes once and for all the primacy of the inner life. It is the absolute emblem of interiority, its strength and intensity, a citadel of prayer immediately recognized as such by those who strive to worship the Father in spirit and truth. Because it draws us inevitably deeper into the spirit of the law away from its mere letter, the Heart of God offers unshakable shelter where all other structures collapse. Why not establish ourselves there to begin with?

She recommends the Devotion to the Sacred Heart and explains what it is. The occult is Luciferian. We can only battle it with the divine. I pray that you come into the only harbor of truth and the origin of your ancestors’ Bible and love of God: the Catholic Church. I offer you this act of consecration:

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Pseudo-Pier Francesco Fiorentino

— Comments —

Laura E. writes:

Your correspondent Deana taps into how many of us are feeling. Thanks for your recommendations for reading and listening material and of course for suggesting devotions, which must remain more important than anything we can accomplish through reason and intellect alone. All the same, I’m of a thinking bent and have little beyond your blog connecting me to an intellectual examination of the intersection of spiritual issues with day-to-day modern life. It’s easy enough to find very advanced religious texts or political treatises, much more difficult to find something more spiritually approachable that also grapples with contemporary issues. More recommendations from you on books, other blogs, etc. would be very welcome!

Laura writes:

The Number One book I would recommend is The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World by the Rev. Denis Fahey.

It’s just a very lucid explanation of why secular democracy has led us to exactly where we are today.

I have read and re-read this book, and I return to it sometimes when I feel a sense of confusion. The individual chapters are stand-alone essays in themselves so you don’t have to tackle it all at once and can go back to it in bits and pieces.

There’s a $5 talk by James Condit at the In the Spirit of Chartres website about Father Fahey if you are interested in a longer introduction to his work.

Mark Jaws writes:

I fully understand Deana’s sentiments. Like her I have long been disillusioned with our civilizational decline. Perhaps even more so. Because I have come to know one of the chief causes of our cultural demise – the commercial, financial, cultural, and political ascendancy of left-wing Ashkenazi Jews, an unhealthy percentage of whom have an historical axe to grind against the West. For me, an Ashkenazi, it has been particularly distressing, knowing that my own people have been so contributive to the corrosive forces plaguing our society. This is not to say that my tribe is solely responsible for our demise, as there are self-destructive Goyim by the tens of millions. But on a strict, per-capita basis no group has rendered more harm to our culture than mine. To bring this topic up, even in a calm and measured tone, among fellow Jews, even conservative ones, is to invite invective and derision, excommunication and exile. It is no coincidence that even though I have several dozen first and second cousins, the last family bar mitzvah I attended was over 15 years ago.

So what to do? Deana opts for prayer and self-imposed isolation from the culture. I guess that works for some, particularly in seeking comfort and guidance from the Lord. During the so-called Dark Ages some of the loftiest thoughts arose in the monasteries of Europe. Same with my Jewish ancestors who built a thriving and self-sustaining society inside their ghetto walls. However, our Western civilization was not built by prayer alone, and prayer alone will not win it back for us. When Charles Martel faced the Islamic Army at Tours he beat them back with the sword and shield. George Washington certainly prayed at Valley Forge, but it was the musket balls and bayonets that gave him victory at Yorktown. It is good to be focused on heaven, but eventually we are called to do some earthly good.

I am a person of action, who understands the human need to band together to work for attainable goals. Certainly, my having volunteered for Republican candidates did nothing but disappoint me election cycle after election cycle. Eventually, I learned that putting one’s hopes in the GOP met all the definitional qualifications for insanity. In 2009 the Tea Party seemed promising, but its goals were vague, and it lacked vision, direction, and a mechanism for going anywhere. Fortunately, this winter I found a haven with Oath Keepers, an organization which also sprang up in 2009 that is dedicated to ensuring the military and police personnel of today remain kept mindful of their oath to abide by the Constitution and their obligation to disobey all unconstitutional orders, such as disarming the population. Through its community preparedness teams, Oath Keepers provides the mechanism to bring people together, to form bonds among themselves and with the local police and community emergency response teams. In certain areas of the county we have been very successful. And in my state there are currently 15 chapters inexorably coalescing into a state-wide network which will band together should nefarious politicians ever endeavor to exploit a crisis at the expense of our constitutional rights. I know that Oath Keepers is primarily for former military and police, but whether it is prayer groups, community response teams, neighborhod watches, all of us should do what we love to do , and do it with likeminded folks. You never know what fruit a friendship with fellow traditionalists will bear.

Paul C. writes:

Deana need not despair.  Jesus told us not to be anxious.  See here and here.  And He always meant what He said.  In a sense, we violate a New Testament commandment when we indulge in anxiety.  Deana need only adhere to her faith.  Whatever happens, the Father Almighty has a plan for each of us.

My father’s mother was the psychologically toughest person I have ever known, something my mother pointed out.  Yet when my father, my grandmother’s oldest child, joined the Marines in WWII and fought across the Pacific, she had a breakdown as a result.  This was a woman who had three children, who spoiled them, who had a domineering husband with a mercurial personality, and who was the fireplug who drove her husband and herself to make a fortune in the grocery business during the war, when they were open until midnight on Saturday nights.  She was my mother’s rock, and she doted on her grandchildren.  She was Catholic (as her husband was) and went to Mass every Sunday, about three blocks away, until she died at our home at 78 from a brain tumor.  My mother was her caregiver.

(My brother, exceptionally strong, was shocked at how hard it was to put her down in an arm wrestling bout when he was a teenager.)

We must all suffer to one degree or another.  So the ongoing tribulation that Deana sees is expected.  “St. Paul says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of the body, that is the church . . . (Col 1:24).”  See the source from this excellent Website.

Recently, I was suffering from a high fever that came on in the middle of the night, and I decided to give the suffering to the poor souls in purgatory.  I no longer feared my end, though I knew Jesus would want me to use all my faculties to ensure I did not come to an end.  I fantasized about how I would describe my strong faith to a nurse, because I thought I might be headed for the ER.  Because I could not sleep or read but was driven to act, I spoke the words I would use to explain the wonders of Catholicism.  This went on for at least an hour or two.  I am not sure when I discovered my temp started dropping, but it did.  I recovered quickly.

TK writes:

I thank Deana for her contribution to the conversation. What a well-written piece. I know exactly what she means. Any normal person gets beat down every day by this vile culture whenever it intersects with their lives. Tradition is attacked benignly and viciously, at every opportunity, and the people who created civilization and gave us this once wonderful land, are openly mocked and derided. We are being replaced as a people by others from foreign lands who share neither culture nor religion. Unlike earlier European immigrants, most will not assimilate easily. Far too many despise us and our values. I know where this is all going, but I want to delay it so that my grandchildren can have a worthwhile life. The only thing that makes any sense as to why it is happening is biblical in nature. The whole world can’t just go crazy at the same time for any other reason. I’m dealing with that, but I’m not crossing my fingers, I’m clenching my fists.

What disturbs me so much is that our young people, the ones who would be charged with keeping up the good fight, don’t even know what they’re fighting for. This is the new normal and it’s all most of them know.

Laura writes:

Never before in history have such powers of influencing people and shaping their thinking existed as those of today’s entertainment industry, media and education system.

We are learning how dangerous and wrong is the idea that control of these powers should simply be subject to the whims of the marketplace or in the hands of secular government.

J.D. writes:

I’d like to understand this. Mark Jaws is among the very intelligent. Is that because he is an Ashkenazi, or in spite of it? It’s hard to tell if he resents or embraces the intelligence with which he “grinds” against the possible source of it. If he’s very intelligent, and the less than 12 million world-wide Ashkenazi Jews have made a “quite disproportionate and remarkable contribution to humanity,” what’s the explanation for their superior civilizational influence? Why does the small number – 5 to 6 million here in the U.S.- have such an outsized influence and control over so much of the framework of our “commercial, financial, cultural, and political” institutions? Is it simply that they outsmart everyone else?

My question is sincere. I don’t understand what it is about Jews or this particular population of Jews (75% of all Jews) which appear to dominate in whichever arenas that they choose. Are they simply smarter, more focused, more organized, more loyal, better team players, more culturally sound…or is there, as there often seems a subtext; an evil that possess or controls them, and which gives them their acknowledged, outsized power over the weaker Goyim?

Is it the Jews, or is it modern liberalism itself? Either way, or one and the same?

 Laura writes:

High intelligence, an acumen for business, intense focus, racial pride and loyalty, powerful ethnic networking and favoritism, strong currents of materialism and idealism often at war with each other, a sense of moral superiority due to alleged historic victimhood, pervasive atheism and aggression toward Christian mores and customs characterize modern Jewish culture, which has been shaped more by the Talmud than the Torah.

Mark Jaws writes:

In front of a group of people, I can explain it all in 10 minutes. Or at least provide my reasons for the exceptionalness of Ashkenazi Jews. For a blog, it would require its own thread and a step-by-step approach. But I will try to give the 30-second elevator speech.

Due to historical and cultural forces, we are a result of 1500 years or so of a hideous social Darwinization which weeded the dumb ones out. We (in the general sense) are liberal because of history. We are tribal because we share the same history of persecution, but with it the same record of unparalleled academic achievement, and thus brim with what I call Jew-bris. (rhymes with hubris). We know we are smarter, and therefore we think that entitles us to rearrange society – think Johathan Gruber, an arrogant Ashkenazi if ever there was one. Unlike our distant Sephardim cousins, we are a mixture of Middle Eastern and European ethnicities. As such we can blend in, but we normally choose not to blend. Of course, that is mostly my take, but this 7-minute clip on Ashkenazi DNA may provide some insight for JD and others.

Laura writes:

When you say “history of persecution,” I assume you mean both the experience of persecution and the persecuting of others.

Mr. Jaws writes:

When I wrote history of persecution, I meant perpetually being on the receiving end. The topic of Jews persecuting others, as in the newly formed Soviet Union in which Jews were dominant at the very top level, NEVER, and I mean NEVER is discussed among Jews. Never. Like other tribally-conscious groups, Jews see themselves strictly as victims. They have simply raised it to an art form.

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