“THE existence of fire in Purgatory is vouched for also by numerous apparitions and private revelations. They demonstrate to our very eyes this fire as a material one, thus indicating that the words ‘fire’ and ‘fiery torments’ used by Scripture are to be taken in a literal sense. St. Bridget, of whom the Church, in her official prayer, says, ‘O God, who through Thy Divine Son didst reveal to blessed Bridget heavenly mysteries,’ was permitted in one of her ecstacies to witness how a soul was sentenced to a three-fold punishment: to an external and internal fire, an intense cold, and to furious assaults of the devil. Mechtildis of Magdeburg saw a lake of fire mixed with brimstone, in which the Suffering Souls had to bathe in order to be cleansed. According to St. Frances of Rome Purgatory consists of three apartments, one above the other, all alive with a clear, sparkling fire, unlike that of hell, which is dark and sombre. Bautz … relates of the Venerable Mary Anna Lindmayer: ‘Her friend Mary Becher and her mother appeared to her, and left marks of fire on one of her feet, which she saw and felt for weeks. At one time she beheld Purgatory in the shape of a torrent of fiery water, at another, as a prison of fire. The souls themselves appeared to her as sparks of fire falling about her. The appearance of some souls caused her to shiver with frost caused by the cold proceeding from them.’

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THIS two-part exposé of alternative media figures looks at their slanted pro-Russian propaganda.

Still relevant and worth watching.

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Softly and gently, dearly-ransom’d soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,

And, o’er the penal waters, as they roll,
I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,

Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,
Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.

Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;

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TODAY is All Souls’ Day, the start of this beautiful month of praying for the faithful departed.

From “Three Glances at the Cemetery” by Rev. John Evangelist Zollner, 1884:

If we cast a glance into the grave what do we see? We see:

1. What the dead man has in the grave. Alas! he has nothing but his winding-sheet and the coffin which contains his mouldering body. Though he may have been rich during life, though he may have had money by the millions, superb houses, immense possessions, and a lucrative business, he now possesses nothing of all these things; he must say with Job: “Only the grave remaineth for me.” The Caliph Hesham, who died at Baspha, in the year 742, possessed seven hundred boxes of gold pieces, and so large a quantity of clothes and silk garments, that to remove these goods from one place to another six hundred camels were required. He had scarcely closed his eyes in death, when his palace was plundered, and there was not left even a basin in which to wash his inanimate body, not a piece of linen in which to wrap it for the grave. How poor death made this rich ruler!

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“IN this wise have the martyrs shown their power, leaping with joy in the presence of death, laughing at the sword, making sport of the wrath of princes, grasping at death as the producer of deathlessness, making victory their own by their fall, through the body taking their leap to heaven, suffering their members to be scattered abroad in order that they might hold their souls, and, bursting the bars of life, that they might open the. gates of heaven.”

— St. Gregory Thamaturgis, On All the Saints

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“Worship is the homage which goodness claims as its due. God is the all good, and therefore claims supreme homage or worship, which is known as latria. But creatures, too, are good, and some creatures there are that possess the kind of goodness — virtue, namely, or moral worth — which merits the homage of rational beings. Such, in a preeminent sense, are ‘the spirits of the just made perfect,’ the saints and the holy angels who dwell with God.”

— “Veneration of the Saints,” by the Right Rev. Alexander MacDonald, D.D., 1921

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Reflections on this beautiful feast day, when we praise and petition our most holy friends in heaven:

The saints are friends of God. They are like the angels in heaven. We honor them, not as we honor God, but on account of the relation they bear to God. They are creatures of God, the work of His hands. When we honor them, we honor God; as when we praise a beautiful painting, we praise the artist.”

We do not believe that the saints can help us of themselves, but we ask them to “pray for us.” We believe that everything comes to us “through Our Lord Jesus Christ.” With these words all our prayers end. It is useful, salutary, and reasonable to pray to the saints and ask them to pray for us. No doubt all will admit the reasonableness of this practice if the saints can hear and help us.

That they hear and help us is evident from many passages of Scripture. (more…)

IN this interview I did a couple of days ago with Judith Sharpe at In the Spirit of Chartres, we discuss oddities in the story of the alleged assassination of Charlie Kirk and some of the implications. There is more to say, but we look at a few things not mentioned here in earlier posts.

Thank you, Mrs. Sharpe!

By the way, are you familiar with what ‘Turning Point’ means?

It apparently is a reference to the 1997 book The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy by Neil Howe and William Strauss, and its 2023 sequel, The Fourth Turning Is Here. The authors, promoted by Steve Bannon, describe cycles of history:

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“TWO loves built two cities: the love of self even to contempt of God built the city of Babylon, that is, that of the world and of immorality; the love of God even to contempt of self built the city of God.”

— St. Augustine, The City of God, Bk. XIV, chap. 28

You can read an English translation of The City of God for free here. (more…)

HONORS to Charlie Kirk continue to roll in.

Grave doubts remain as to the official account of his alleged murder. Normal medical treatment at the scene, serious blood loss, an autopsy or coroner’s report, a crime scene investigation as is usually required, burial — all these and more were missing, leaving the strange behavior of his wife and the absence of his parents to further confirm suspicions. Some, including me, believe Charlie was in all probability not killed on September 10th and may be, as the FBI director said, in “Valhalla,” or the federal witness protection program. Perhaps he is at a distant resort or maybe he is walking among us. We hope he is still alive.

But even if Kirk was not killed, the most serious deception surrounding the story of his life does not concern the reported crime or its aftermath. The most serious misconception involves his faith.

The real hoax was that Kirk was not a Christian during his public life and could not possibly have been a martyr.

No, Kirk was not a modern-day St. Paul, as that outrageous heretic in New York City, “Cardinal” Timothy Dolan, said. He was not a Christian missionary or a faithful evangelist of the gospel. He wasn’t even Christian, no matter how many statues are erected of him at “Catholic” universities that also have abandoned the truth.

Kirk said his religious beliefs were the most important thing in his life, and maybe they were, but that does not make them true or acceptable to God. People can be deceived, but God? No, He never can be.

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FROM an article at Winter Watch, (not a Catholic website):

The Inquisition kept voluminous records of proceedings and on those it was keeping an eye. These records have been the subject of deep research in recent decades. Although the Inquisition had a chilling effect, in most parts of Spain — and especially small towns and rural areas — it had almost no authority or clout. The inquisitors would reluctantly roll into these towns once in a blue moon, but the local priests would not cooperate and would instruct their parishioners to speak no evil about their neighbors, cautioning even against gossip.

Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), a fierce enemy of the Inquisition, whose “Critical History of the Inquisition” of 1817–1819 remains the most famous early work estimated the number of executions carried out during the whole of the period that the Spanish Inquisition existed, from 1483 until its abolition by Napoleon, at 31,912.

Recent scholars, such as Henry Kamen [“The Spanish Inquisition” 2014] conclude: “We can in all probability accept the estimate, made on the basis of available documentation, that a maximum of three thousand persons may have suffered death during the entire history of the tribunal” (p. 253).

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“[Q]uietness is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth under ordinary circumstances. There are sometimes brief tempests in the interior when we grow, like children in an illness. But these are eccentric phenomena. It is plain that quietness must be the prevailing atmosphere of an ascetic. We must be quiet in order to pray. Mortification must be quiet, or else it will be merely vehement nature, growing in fury as it grows in pain. Confidence in God must be quiet. The very word itself is full of the sound of rest. (more…)

ONE OF the biggest threats to the institution of homemaking is the woman who does all things for all people, who never says no, never leaves time for her own interests and pursuits; answers every call for help with fundraising, and leaves herself open by her excessive selflessness and pride in her conscientiousness to sieges of resentment and bitterness.

Feminism gained tremendous momentum from women like this.

When Betty Friedan told them they had no identity of their own and suffered from the “problem with no name,” they responded with a shock of recognition. Instead of seeking to balance their lives, they became revolutionaries.

Domesticity should not come with self-obliteration. The happiest housewives are those who build a zone of separateness and independence within themselves and reserve time to cultivate their own interests and talents. It’s okay to say no. A person who does not have a paying job is not required to make up for those who do by performing all the volunteer work.

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“WHEN we accept what happens to us and make the best of it, we are praising God.”

— St. Teresa of Avila

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