“El Catorce” of the Cristero Wars

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Fiat

“El Catorce” is a most interesting character, certainly someone not deemed to have been a saintly figure, but at least he fought on the right side.  May God have mercy on his soul!  Known as a fearless fighter, but also as a womanizer, he once was asked which woman was his legit.  He responded that all women are legitimate.  I can only imagine what he meant.  Here is an interesting episode of one of the Cristero wars in which he fought. I translated this from Corazon Cristero’s facebook page.

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On March 15, 1927, Father José Reyes Vega was in San Julián along with Luis Anaya and Victoriano Ramirez “El Catorce” when they learned that General Espiridión Rodríguez was approaching the town with all his regiment. After discussing the situation, it was decided to make a defense.   “El Catorce” and his men positioned themselves at the center of the town.

 At the time, General Miguel Hernández was in San Diego de Alejandría with his men. “El Catorce” summoned the General for support.  “El Catorce” and his men put up a good defence of the plaza, but the military superiority of the federal regiment was felt, and it seemed that all would be lost, when General Miguel Hernández arrived with his men to trounce the 78th Regiment; the battle lasted more than two hours, with most of Calles’ men and many Cristeros dead in the confrontation.   The commander of the Federal forces, General Espiridión, escaped by dressing as a woman and fleeing, while the rest of his men were executed in the old cemetery and buried there in a mass grave. The first battle of the Cristero wars ended with the triumph of the Cristeros and a cruel defeat for the Callista army.

 

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Hilarious..Obamacare

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Fiat

“So what the ‘blank’ could possibly go wrong?”, she asks!

We could all use a good laugh, so watch and enjoy this short clip which a good friend e-mailed me.

In one mere sentence, Barbara Bellar neatly sums it up for the obtuse.  (I wonder if she won.  Does anybody know?)

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Voris on the Aftermath of the Election

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Fiat

This analysis is quite sobering.

I couldn’t help but think of what my friend from Guatemala said about the earthquake.  He sees it as God’s punishment. I wonder how many are able to discern that God is punishing America also.

Pray for the triumph of our Lady’s Immaculate Heart!  As she said at Fatima, only she can help us because the peace of God for individuals and nations has been placed in her hands.  Everything else is guaranteed to fail.

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The Advance of Tradition

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Fiat

The new trad blog, Missa Omnium has quite a few photos of the November 1-3 pilgrimage to Rome – over one hundred of them, in fact.

They give you a feel of what it must have been like to participate in this momentous event for the Church. It has been reported that the procession of people was as long as the eye could see, with one blog giving an estimate of 1, 500 traditionalists.  It must have been quite a sight!  One wonders what the thoughts of the Holy Father must have been.

 

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The Remnant Coverage…

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Fiat

….of the traditionalist’s pilgrimage to Rome is available on their Facebook page.  Go there for more videos of this historic event.

Here is one of their more recent reports of about three hours ago:

The Cardinal’s [Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments] sermon has just ended. He spoke of Our Lady, the importance of the Cross, and the crisis in the Church and the world, stressing that there is no easy solution but that we must unite ourselves to the Cross. He spoke of the rich beauty of the traditional Latin Mass, reminding us that it was THE Mass all the Council Fathers had heard every day during Vatican II. He spoke of how many, many vocations to the priesthood are coming now as a result of the return of the Mass, and also made a call for unity among all Catholics, in union with the Holy Father, and united in Christ and His Blessed Mother.

Credit for photo: The Remnant Newspaper

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Day of the Dead

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Fiat

It is piously believed that the souls in Purgatory are allowed to visit their beloved family and friends still on earth, on this the Day of the Dead, or All Souls Day.

“And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: For He hath put all things under his feet.”

“Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the tree of life .”

Oh, death, where is thy sting?

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Relief for the Holy Souls

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Fiat

St. Margaret Mary recommended the daily pilgrimage to purgatory to bring solace and relief to souls detained therein.  If it cannot be done daily, at least give it a try for the duration of the octave of the Feast of the Holy Souls.  As two souls released by the prayers of St. Margaret said, “Ingratitude has never entered heaven.”

I have a little booklet with seven days of prayers for this purpose, the following being the first of the series (I have edited for brevity):

Consecration of the Day

Divine Heart of Jesus, in making this pilgrimage with Thee as my Companion, I consecrate to Thee all my thoughts, words and actions of the entire day.  I pray Thee to unite my small merits with Thine and to apply them to the Poor Souls, especially the soul of…N.N.

Likewise do I entreat you, holy souls, to help me obtain the grace to persevere in love and loyalty toward the Sacred Heart, by submitting readily and without complaint to whatever designs He may have in my regard.

St. Joseph, model and patron of those who love the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us!

Ist Day: “Holy Souls in Purgatory, is there anything you regret when you think of your life on earth?”

“I deeply regret wasted time…I did not consider it so precious, so fleeting, so irretrievable. For this reason my life was worth only half of what it might have been.  Oh, had I but realized it then!  Would that I could return to earth, how differently I would use the time given to me!

“Precious time!…Today I know how to appreciate you.  You were purchased with the blood of Christ; you were given me for the sole purpose of loving God, sanctifying myself and edifying my neighbor.  But alas!  I have abused you by committing sin; I have craved vanity, pleasures and trifles; I have been dreaming dreams which now cause me bitter reproaches and remorse.  Precious time….Wasted time… How heavily you weight upon me now!  How it grieves me to have lost you through my own fault!”

Resolution for Today: Today I will do everything possible to assist the souls of priests, religious and all those in Purgatory who have been faithful to this devotion all their lives.  I also recommend myself to those who are entering heaven at this moment.

Thought For the Day: The sufferings of the souls in Purgatory are so great that a single day appears to them like a thousand years.

Exercise: Use a few moments of your time to offer prayers to the Divine Heart for the relief of the Poor Souls, e.g. “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere.”

Special Intention: Implore the Divine Heart of Jesus to grant relief to the most forsaken soul in Purgatory.

Motive: The greater the abandonment of a soul, the greater will be its gratitude towards you.  It will obtain for you the privilege never to be forsaken by God through the withdrawal of His grace, and never to abandon Him by committing sin.

Prayer: O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by the Precious Blood which Thy divine Son Jesus shed in the Garden, deliver the souls in Purgatory and especially that soul which is most destitute of spiritual aid; and vouchsafe to bring it to Thy glory, there to praise and bless Thee forever.  Amen.

Pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary.

2nd Day: “Holy Souls in Purgatory, is there anything you regret when you think of your life on earth?”

“I deeply regret my extravagance in the use of earthly possessions….My fortune, my health, my talent, my position in the world, the influence I had, my relatives, my servants, in a word, everything could have been of spiritual benefit to me if only I had known how to use it for the greater honor of the divine Heart.  How many graces could I have drawn upon myself!  This I neglected to do, and at the hour of my death all my possessions have come to naught.

“Oh, were I but rich today in these my former possessions!  Would that I could use them to hasten, even for one moment, the hour of my deliverance; to increase, even by one degree, the glory which God has in store for me; to awaken if only in one soul now living in the world, the devotion to the divine Heart of Jesus.

“My friends, whose fortunes are still at your disposal, use them for the support of your neighbor by generously giving alms to the poor.  Use them for the greater honor of God as pious offerings designated for the propagation of the devotion to His Sacred Heart throughout the world.”

Resolution for Today:  I will do everything possible to assist the souls of the faithful departed from all parts of Europe.  I also recommend myself to those who are entering heaven at this moment.

Thought For the Day: “The gates of heaven are opened by alms.” (St. John Chrys. hom. 32 in Ep ad Heb.)

Exercise: Give an alms for the propagation of the devotion to the divine Heart of Jesus.

Special Intention: Pray for the soul which is nearest to heaven.

Motive: The closer a soul is to the end of its sufferings, the more ardently will it long for union with the Sacred Heart.  Remove, therefore, by your prayers, the obstacles still in its way.  In return, it will obtain for you the grace to sever the ties which now prevent you from giving yourself entirely to God.

Prayer:  O Lord God Almighty, I pray Thee, by thy Precious Blood which Thy divine Son Jesus shed in His cruel scourging deliver the souls in Purgatory, and that soul especially which is nearest to its entrance into Thy glory;  that so it may forthwith begin to praise and bless Thee forever.  Amen.

Pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary.

3rd Day:  “Holy Souls in Purgatory, is there anything you regret when you think of your life on earth?’

“I deeply regret my neglect of so many splendid graces!  They have been offered to me in such abundance, at every moment of my life and with such loving admonitions…Spiritual regeneration, vocation and sacraments; word of God, holy inspirations and good examples; graces to protect me in danger, to help me in temptations; the grace of forgiveness for my sins, of indulgences so easily gained….What an incalculable number of the most varied graces!

“Some of them I have refused; others I have accepted with coldness; unfortunately, I have misused most of them.  I have preferred earthly possessions to the eternal .  How I have deceived myself!

“Oh, could I but for one moment quench my thirst at the fountains of mercy, flowing from the Sacred Heart!  Unfortunately these fountains are spurned by sinners, as they were by me.

“You, who behold the inexhaustible stream of graces flow by, why do you not draw from it a few drops for yourself?

“Consider what St. Margaret Mary says:  ‘It is certain that everyone on earth could obtain salutary graces without number, if he but had a grateful love for Jesus Christ, such as is manifested by those who love and venerate His Sacred Heart.'”

Resolution for Today: Today I will do everything possible to assist the souls of the faithful departed from all parts of Asia particularly Palestine and from countries infested with idolatry, schism and heresy.  I also recommend myself to those who are entering heaven at this moment.

Thought for the Day:  “The benefits of a single grace is greater than all the material value of the whole world.” (St. Thomas 1, 2, P, 113a IX ad. 2)

Exercise:  In order to relieve the Poor Souls of their sufferings, I shall offer them today, by way of suffrage, the benefit of some indulgence gained by prayers or some devotional exercise in honor of the divine Heart of Jesus.

Special Intention:  Pray for the soul in Purgatory which is farthest from eternal rest.

Motive: Let yourself be moved by the abandonment,, resignation and humility with which that soul bears its long suffering;  it will be grateful to you.  Happy will you be, if it obtains for you the virtue of humility in this world, so that you may be exalted in the next.

Prayer:  O Lord Almighty, I pray Thee by the Precious Blood which Thy divine Son Jesus shed in the bitter crowning of thorns, deliver the souls in Purgatory, and in particular that soul which would be the last to depart out of this place of suffering, that it may not tarry so long before it comes to praise Thee in Thy glory and bless Thee for ever.  Amen.

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ in satisfaction for my sins, and in supplication for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and for the needs of the Holy Church.

Our Father….Hail Mary

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St. Peter of Alcántara

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Fiat

On this Feast of St. Peter of Alcántara, we take a short break from blogging for some days of prayer and good works.  We will resume posting the first week of November.  

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Destruction of The Fields of Flanders

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Fiat

I have been in correspondence with Elizabeth Morgan of www.churchlinens.com who sent me a most interesting article.  We were discussing linen, and she being an expert in the field, enlightened me on an aspect of both World Wars which I had never considered, and that is, that the resultant destruction of the lowly flax flower fields of Europe greatly impoverished what had been the traditional and proper vestiture for sacerdotal service ever since biblical times.

Leviticus 16:4: “He shall be vested with a linen tunick, he shall cover his nakedness with linen breeches: he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and he shall put a linen mitre upon his head: for these are holy vestments.”

Ezek. 44:17:  “And when they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments.”

Elizabeth wrote:

“Because our use of linen – and cotton – was such a basic part of life, the skills and techniques were passed experientially from generation to generation.  So much was never written down.

 “And then, the two World Wars destroyed the European flax fields … Except for linen fabrics that had been stockpiled by importers, there was no linen to be had – at all.  And, just at that time, enter rayon – stage left.  And then, the polyesters and ‘Perma-Press’.  And, with these new fabrics available, we went right on – without linen.

“The experiential knowledge died with the next generations – and very little had been written down.”

Here is a document Elizabeth sent me on the subject which is quite interesting:

FABRICS: A POST-WAR CHAPTER  1947

 (By Lucy Vaughan Hayden Mackrille, first Altar Guild Directress of the National Cathedral at Washington, DC.  Taken from the second edition of her book; Church Embroidery And Church Vestments, copyright 1939.)

 This book is a pre-war composition.  Sad changes have come over the textile industries of the world.  With tears we handle the lustrous and luminous folds of the luxuriant fabrics of years now gone.  It is difficult to contemplate Church life without them.  Those were golden days and we did not know it.

We are emerging from a devastating war; which necessitates the revision of my chapter of Silk Fabrics.  The precious silks I wrote about on page 19 are no more.  The English 27-inch damasks we loved so much are gone perhaps forever.  They have been destroyed by bombs and fire.  The very looms and machines, the patterns and designs are gone, destroyed, obliterated.  There is no more silk thread to weave; even if we had the looms to weave it.  No more silk thread to make embroidery silks, nor to make the shining cords and twists, and luscious fringes.  All silk thread came from Japan.  And now they talk of cutting down the mulberry trees which feed the silk worms; so they can plant gardens to feed the starving Japanese people.

With the destruction of the English silk industry, silk textile workers in the United States undertook to weave a 50-inch width silk damask, copying the English registered, patented designs, Ely, Agnus Dei, and Small Rose (my italics), as long as the silk thread lasted, and until the U.S. Government commandeered all there was left, for the U.S. Forces, parachutes, etc.

These silk damasks, U.S. Make are excellent and the width is most acceptable, reducing the number of seams in a superfrontal, for instance.  But now the meager supply of silk is no more; and the synthetic fabrics do not compare favourably.  A few years ago a silk industry was established in Canton, China.  Now that Japan has evacuated Canton there is no hope for the restoration of this infant silk industry.

Gold thread is gone too.  Japan made all the untarnishable gold thread.  Whether we ever see any more is a question.  These may again come to our shores if Japan can get ships.

Cloth of gold is no more.  That was largely made in Europe, especially France; but those factories not destroyed by bombs have been stripped of every scrap of machinery.  Nothing is left, nothing.  France has no silk thread, no cotton thread, no looms, no machines, no tools, no man power.

There is no more linen being made; nor has been since the war began.  The best flax, the long fibre flax, came from the Ukraine in Russia.  The Germans burned over these plains, destroying the very fertility of the soil.  Linen must be woven in a wet country – some place like Ireland, where it rains every day.  So now we are waiting for Russia to rehabilitate her flax fields, so that Belfast’s linen industry may be resumed.

Commerce is being restored.  We live in hope.  Be very careful of linen vestments, and the Altar linens; washing them at home, never at a public laundry.  Be careful of the silk vestments, keeping them shut up away from dust and light, when not in use.

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Little by little we are seeing a return to beauty and tradition in the Church’s liturgy  –  in her total ambiance, actually.  This includes of course, a return to the use of natural fibers,  first and foremost being the fibers of the lowly flax flowers.

Don’t the colors of these humble, little flax flowers remind you of our Lord and of our Blessed Lady?

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My Summer Perusal: Vatican

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Fiat

The following is something I wrote earlier this summer; after saving the document, I plain forgot about it, until this morning that is, when I was searching for my text on St. Hildegarde.  Today is as good a day as any to post it.

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 I’ve just finished reading a 600+ page book.

Ever since I was a little girl I have been a bookworm.  When in grade school, one of my teachers – either Sr. Joan, or Sr. Regina, I can’t quite remember who –  put up a board decorated with little worms.  The idea was to encourage reading by placing the names of students on that board, along with the number of books each student read. That year, I went through the school library devouring books just so  my name would show the highest number.  I discovered what a pleasure reading was.  I do not remember whether I was the winner, but that didn’t matter anymore.  Reading became my absorbing pastime, and thereafter, my parents can attest to the fact that I was often seen with a book literally under my nose.

Years later, when “confessing” this consuming passion to a priest, he told me that that would not always be the case.  I wondered, but, really, I didn’t believe him.    It turns out Father was correct.  Life’s circumstances change, priorities set in, obligations  must be met.  Over the last few years I have not been reading as much.  I don’t really have the time anymore.  So when my son went to a book-sale and came back with a bag full of great bargains, and he showed me one particular book, the reading of which he thought I would relish, I looked at it with keen interest.  But realistically considering that our vacation was nearly over – the book was 655 pages long – that once back home, I wouldn’t be able to finish, I therefore decided it would be best to not even start.  Besides, the book was only a novel, and I prefer non-fiction.  The book was Malach Martin’s Vatican. 

Vatican

Curiosity got the best of me, though, and I did start, staying up quite late to finish reading it.  Think what you may of Malachi Martin.  I know he was a controversial figure, but no one will dispute that he was a beguilingly and provocative story-teller.  In the book, he is deferential to the post-conciliar popes, even to Montini and the host of other liberals in the bedeviled Vatican bureaucracy.   I enjoyed this book even more so than Benson’s Lord of the World.  I have to agree with his conclusion that the Church is in for a “rough ride” in the not-so-distant future.

Some of his characters are:

Papa Eugenio Profumi — Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli)

Papa Angelica — Pope John XXIII (Roncalli)

Papa DaBrescia — Pope Paul VI (Montini)

Papa Serena — Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani)

Papa Bogdan Valeska — Pope John Paul II

Paolo Lercano — Michele Sindona

Cardinal Rollinger = Cardinal Ratzinger

Archbishop LaSuisse = Abp. Lefebvre

Msgr. Sugnini = Msgr. Bugnini

Cardinal Levesque = Cardinal Lercaro

Roberto Gonella — Roberto Calvi

Cardinal Buff of Westminster — Cardinal Hume of Westminster

Metropolitan Nikodim — Metropolitan Nikodim

Brother Reginald of Zaite — Brother Roger of Tazie

Benjamin National Bank — Franklin National Bank

“Problem Two” aka P2 — Italian Masonic Lodge P2

The novel merely skims over an essential and crucial event for our Apocalyptic times, and that is Fatima. The Secret of Fatima speaks of persecution against the Church and the Holy Father, no doubt a future pope who will work fearlessly to restore the brilliance of the dogma of faith and to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Martin’s book suggests such a pope will be selected, and with that he concludes his book.

Pius IX, who coincidentally was born on a Fatima date – May 13, once made an astonishing remark: “In 1871, on the 25th anniversary of his election, he said to a French deputation presided over by Mgr. Forcade of Nevers: ‘There will be a great wonder that will astonish the whole world. This wonder, however, has to be preceded by the triumph of the Revolution. The Church will have much to suffer: her ministers and head first and foremost will be dishonoured, persecuted and martyred.’” (Le Hidec, p. 87)

Let us work, pray, and sacrifice that God in His mercy may hasten that wonder which will be the triumph of our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.

P.S. My son spent 50 cents on the hardback copy.  That fact made the book even more enjoyable. 🙂

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