Getting Un-Stuck From Stupid – Short Takes

Posted on by charliej373
Nierman-Light
Kaleidoscope, by Leonardo Nierman

By Charlie Johnston

I know a little something about extended hikes, having walked 3,200 miles across much of the country in 2011 and 2012. Some things about this massive caravan coming through Mexico in an effort to invade the US strike me as strange.

First off, they seem to be averaging almost 100 miles a day. I averaged between 12 and 15. On my best day, I did 24 miles. Of course, I am an old fellow now and was an old fellow then…but 42 miles a day is average performance for military men in top condition on a fast march. The caravaners are also not carrying 75 lbs. on their back, as I did. But they are pulling suitcases behind while some are moving with children. Things that are awkward to handle on such a hike slow you down more than the weight on your back. Neither food availability nor the need for adequate toilet facilities seem to slow the caravan down. They sure occupied me – and when food, particularly, was in short supply, it slowed me down. Logistically, this caravan is running as smoothly as a crisply-planned military operation. I smell a rat…in fact, a lot of rats. And I can’t help wondering, if these folks could so effortlessly organize such a mass march to the US, why didn’t they organize a mass march on their own governments seeking redress of their grievances? Hideously, I find that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops founded the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which is backing the caravan. It seems many in the Catholic hierarchy don’t want any entity to defend its borders except for the Vatican (which is entirely surrounded by…wait for it…a wall to keep interlopers out.) Sheesh! I love my Magisterial Church – not so hot on the many hack politicians infesting its hierarchy these days, though. What really pains me is that the Church could do so much to help reform immigration policies and facilitate legal immigration if the hierarchy would stop the cheap, impotent virtue-signaling and get seriously committed to the hard work and sacrifice required to get this right.

After all these questions, I have come to think this whole caravan is little more than a “Resistance” reality show – planned and paid for by sinister forces in the US.

*******

I have little to say right now about the letter bombs sent out today. It looks to me like a very clumsy false flag event. Who knows? If it was some idiot conservative, I am sure they will be quickly found. If it was, in fact, one of the very common “hate crime” hoaxes the left has loved to mount this last decade, I think the perpetrators will quickly be found – mainly because this was so clumsy.

*******

 

Why do Russians (who we could never try anyway) get indicted for publishing statements about the US and our elections for interfering with elections, while Hispanic illegal aliens are encouraged to actually vote? The Russian efforts may sway the gullible, but they do not actually interfere with any electoral machinery. Voting by illegal aliens does. To be consistent, Democrats should either be voter security hawks for all aliens or they should advocate that Russian meddlers be allowed to actually vote in American elections as well as comment on them. Intellectual and moral coherence does not allow any other path. But the Dems think Hispanic illegals vote for them while Russians say mean things about them…so their principles are entirely dependent on what they think will help them take power.

I used to think the left did not know history or philosophy and was absolutely clueless about basic economics. Made for lively debates…but now they are just brazenly incoherent. The old communist dialectic re-defined truth, itself. It defined “truth” as anything that advanced communist ideology and a “lie” as anything that damaged communist ideology, regardless of what the facts were. Whatever else they think, the atheist neo-fascists who have taken over the Democrat Party have wholly adopted the communist dialectic.

*******

Then there is “fake news.” Since mankind began to organize itself into communities, there have been gossip-mongers and scandal sheets. A pre-requisite to a functioning democracy or republic is the expectation that its citizens are intellectually curious enough to examine and make sound judgments, to separate what is credible from what is not. The very idea that some “experts” must tell us what is fake and what is accurate infantilizes the citizenry. If that is a correct assessment, we have already lost the capacity to function as a free self-governing society.

Throughout our history, the worst purveyors of “fake news” have been the media and politicians, the same as now. Up until early last century, newspapers were largely honest enough to identify who they were advocates for. This is why you see newspaper names such as the Quincy Whig-Herald, the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They are relics of a time that, if equally scurrilous, was far more candid. The pretense by the legacy media that they are neutral, while scabrously pimping for one point of view, has crushed most of the vestiges of media credibility. We get left-wing fact-checkers telling us that what is obviously cant is what we must believe; perfectly “neutral” social media sites shutting down conservative points of view while simultaneously defending violent leftist rhetoric as “freedom of speech.”

This sparks division and violence. The American Republic’s original commitment to freedom of speech was underscored by the experience of millennia of differences being settled by strife and violence. All that does is leave people bloody, battered and enslaved. Bad speech must be countered with better, more compelling speech – not violence or being shut down. Anything else is a regression to the bad old days of blood and iron. Freedom requires that we defend the right to speak of even those we completely disagree with – and that we take responsibility for investigating ourselves the claims we hear, using evidence and logic. We have to grow up and exercise our responsibility.

The proper response to continual “fake news” is contempt for those who purvey it – and publicly shaming them by revealing their errors and bias. That, actually, is the bitter harvest that the establishment media is now reaping.

*******

Then there are “hate crimes.” I knew we were going down a very bad road when we adopted this sort of policy. Is any crime made a whit more heinous because hate was involved? If we punish crime based on the heinousness of the crime – and leave condemnation of hate to healthy social strictures, we would get equal application of the law based on the crime.

What the adoption of “hate crime” legislation has accomplished has simply been, like the novel, “Animal Farm,” to declare some animals more equal than others. Young black men are routinely slaughtered by other black men in the ghettoes at epidemic rates, but little attention is paid to it because, supposedly, no “hate” is involved. The victims are just as dead.

Your personal feelings are your business; your criminal behavior is the business of the state. Anything else is a formula for authoritarianism, division and strife. We need to grow up.

*******

I profoundly sense that the American mid-terms are become a great sort of historical Rubicon. Increasingly violent political strife is the shroud surrounding an old order that is passing away. I believe Republicans are going to win a big victory. Either way, though, I think this is when the dam fully bursts. Truly epochal events will follow in the wake of this election, as a new era is born. It is like a great ship coming into port at night in a fog: first you feel it, then a part of the fog is a little darker than the rest, then it suddenly takes on its full, majestic shape.

“And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth…but her child was caught up to God and his throne…Now war broke out in heaven.”-Revelation 12:4-7

Something completely new and huge is aborning. But such a transformative birth is accompanied by wailing, screams and blood. We will be a new people, but through much travail. I’ve been thinking of my poor Mother of late. She went into labor with me on a Friday – but she was only 15 and had, of all things, the mumps. So the doctor gave her injections trying to delay my birth until she was less contagious. She spent the weekend in labor. Finally the injections failed – and that Sunday I arrived despite the doctor’s best efforts to prevent it. I suspect that will soon be only the second most laborious birthing I ever participated in.

I did see and have spoken for decades of the coming “global civil war fought on cultural lines.” It is here. But I also saw who we would be after the Storm finally passed. What a great, glorious renewal! The time is coming – and that right soon – when our joy over what was born out of the ashes of our bleeding world makes the strife it took to gain as unimportant as the terrible labor is to the overjoyed Mother considering the beloved child who is the fruit of her labor.

A foreshadowing of what we will be is found in the final lines of the open letter the Australian Catholic Students Association recently sent to the Synod on Youth:

“So how can we become flowers in the Paradise of God, like Mary? We do not find flowers in the mountain-crag, or rich fruit in the sandy desert. We will not find heaven wandering the wasteland around us. We will find it by being born again in Baptism, nurtured by the Sacraments and sheltered by the Truth in the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

The young do not want to look elsewhere any more. We do not only want accompaniment in the wasteland. Synod Fathers, plant us in the mystical garden.”


207 thoughts on “Getting Un-Stuck From Stupid – Short Takes”

  1. Great insights, Charlie. I agree. And I especially love the closing. I, too, was moved by the letter from the Aussie youth, particularly, the closing line you emboldened. May it BE! Chaos has about spun itself out. Evil has nearly exhausted itself. May we hold fast to Christ, ever ready for NRSteps.

    Liked by 17 people

    1. Luisa Piccarreta the little daughter of the divine will said jesus spoke to her and said “Evil has to exhaust itself” and like Charlie’s comments and you, Becketa i believe we are just about there. I read the Medjugorje message for today oct 25 and the commentary and it was spot on for what we are going through now. HAVE COURAGE she is saying! I thought courage for what? Ummm the more intense suffering coming very soon. We all feel it … sense it… dream of it… evil must exhaust itself and then th new springtime we all wait for will come AFTER this pain… these birthing pangs that have been pushing for years. Let us keep faithful, courageous, and pray our rosaries this October and forever. Padre Pio our saint said it is our weapon. So pray on marching soldiers pray on! I love you all In solidarity… Sandi in PA

      Liked by 17 people

      2. Latest Medjugorje Message, October 25, 2018
        https://www.medjugorje.ws

        “Dear children! You have a great grace of being called to a new life through the messages which I am giving you. This, little children, is a time of grace, a time and a call to conversion for you and the future generations. Therefore, I am calling you, little children, pray more and open your heart to my Son Jesus. I am with you and love you all and bless you with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call. ”

        Liked by 13 people

  5. Hey Charlie

    I’m reading Melanie Phillips autobiography, “Guardian Angel”

    It’s her story of her journey from left to right via her career as a British Journalist….easy read…not too long…highly recommend it

    Your comment about the global nature of this thing made me think It…her description of what happened in England over the same time frame is almost identical to what we’ve seen here

    Seems to me that as society has become increasingly unchurched over the last 50 years, we’ve become increasingly foolish

    Liked by 9 people

    1. I am reading this also and she accurately describes the debate between moderates and the far leftists who call themselves centrist. So important to vote.

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Charlie,

    That was a good point about the walking – I did not put that together. I remember reading Walter Bloehm’s Advance on Mons about the German 1914 campaign. Captain Bloem (pronounced “bloom”) mentions how at first, they could march, with full packs and gear 26-28 miles a day, but rapidly it broke down to 17-18 miles due to fatigue, blisters, and the fact that most of the men were old reservists. Even in a modern army of younger men, all in shape, such a grueling march speed cannot be kept up. You are right Charlie, they are moving at a rate that seems to reflects modern mobility.

    It is hard to take the pipe bombs seriously – They all seem to go to a certain groups with the same political leanings and no one is hurt, as if they have all been tipped off in advance.

    Got all of my rosaries, chaplets, and scapulars blessed (including a house scapular), my St. Benedict medals blessed and exorcised, and my St. Michael stone is on the way!

    Liked by 13 people

      1. Happy Agincourt Day, Beckita, on this feast of St. Crispin and Crispinian! God for America, the Church and the Immaculate Conception!

        Liked by 5 people

        2. Funny story about St. Crispin, James: My oldest kid’s name is Cyprian. But my brother and his German (from Bonn) wife always called him “Crispy.” Finally, when my son was maybe 5, I asked my brother why they called my son that. He looked at me like I had 3 heads and said, “Well, he’s named after St. Crispin, so….” He looked dumbfounded when I told him they’d had the wrong saint for 5 years. 🙂

          What’s a St. Michael Stone? I’ve got all the other “ammo” that you mentioned, but now I suspect that I’m missing something. 😉

          Liked by 7 people

          1. Mick,
            There are two sources: at the angel’s magazine of the Michaelite fathers in Michigan. Or directly from the shrine in Italy. Unfortunately, I do not have my laptop to give you the URLs. Sorry for the late reply – had a tire blowout and had to change the tire, which I have not done in ov er 20 years – still can do it!

            Liked by 4 people

    3. It just jumped immediately out at me, James. When I read a novel that involves such a thing, I can tell almost immediately whether the author knows what they are talking about because of my direct experience.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. Marie,

        I must apologize – I do not have my laptop with me, so I cannot give you the URLs. You can get the stones direct from the shrine in Italy or from the shop at the Angel’s magazine site of the Michaelite fathers in Michigan.

        Liked by 2 people

  7. Charlie,
    Please forgive my comment on a link which adds to our suffering the spiritual/political Great Storm’s fury: Cardinal Zen on Pope Francis’ betrayal of the Chinese Catholic Church: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2018/10/25/cardinal-zen-pope-francis-has-natural-sympathy-for-communists/ We cannot have a clue as to what the persecuted Catholic Chinese people are suffering…

    We are in the year 2018 but it’s back to the future of the Roman persecution of the Christians in the Early Catholic Church. Surreal, history is repeating itself but with a twist, “Peter” is betraying the Church which Jesus Christ Founded on the Rock, St. Peter. But, for your posts which give hope for the future Rescue, Charlie, my head would explode! I give thanks to God for You! Please pray for me walking in a dark desert near the precipice of the abyss.

    Liked by 8 people

    2. Joseph, Keep remembering it’s the Church, not the Pope, God has promised to keep.
      We do our best to discern right doctrine through the Church, with the Holy Spirit’s help. Be consoled, and hope.

      Liked by 5 people

  8. Good post, Charlie. Some days it is hard to keep the anxiety away. Things are coming at us at a furious, confusing pace.

    Had to roll my eyes when I heard of the bomb threats and then waited for the screeching of how angry, hateful and dangerous the Trump loving radicals Americans are. Sorry, but we are too far down this hole not to believe that these warmongering Socialists/Communists [ hiding behind the label Democrat] would not pull this attack on themselves and then blame it on us who love and defend this nation and Constitution. Up is down, back is forward, dark is light. Not trusting anything in the news. They want people afraid! TRUTH will win out.

    Praying, praying, praying and trusting in the Lord. God bless all here.

    Liked by 13 people

    2. Did anybody else read Alexander Soros’ op-ed in the NYT? Within 2 hours of the fake pipe bomb story breaking, it was written-edited-published. LOL!

      “Is it possible he wrote it days before?” asked Captain Obvious.

      And now for the best part. The title of his *persecuted victim* piece is: “The Hate That Is Consuming Us”

      I laugh. 😀

      Liked by 9 people

        1. A correction is in order. I wrote the op-ed appeared in the NYT withing 2 hours of the story breaking. After going back and looking at the sources, I see that the so-called bomb was allegedly found at George Soros’ residence on 10/22 and his son’s op-ed was published on the 24th just hours after the CNN bomb threat was reported. I had my bomb incidents confused when posting here. CNN-Soros…what’s the difference, right? In any case I stand by my belief that Alexander Soros had his piece written well in advance and this whole episode has false flag written all over it.

          Just trying to keep it real here.

          Liked by 4 people

          1. Thank you for correcting the error, Christopher. That adds to your general credibility. No one gets it right all the time; the most honorable people correct as soon as they know of an error.

            Liked by 6 people

    3. Well we all know by now it was a mentally ill person with a record and history of diturbing acts. But it didn’t take the MSM more than seconds to blame President Trump. There was no reflection whatsoever on their virulent and hateful and constant anti Trump rhetoric. Trump has railed against faux supposition of their news and opinion shows. Even when Fusion GOS’s acts of the faux dossier was revealed they doubled down on their language. When the illegal acts of Justice and the FBI under the direction of Obama were revealed they rejected the truth of it. When the people declared “lock her up” it was because of HRC’s actual collusion with the Russians as Secretary of State for arraigning the Uranium One deal with the payoff to Bill a month later of double his speaking fee. He got $500,000. (Their acts in Haiti can be called unethical and immoral.) So for me the commotion and potential sadness of those are the result of the language of the left and of a man unable to pray “not what I want, not my way, Lord but your will be done.” John Brennan, Maxine Waters and Robert diNero have been particularly vicious in their attacks. The hypocrisy is astounding.

      Liked by 2 people

  9. “It is like a great ship coming into port at night in a fog: first you feel it, then a part of the fog is a little darker than the rest, then it suddenly takes on its full, majestic shape.”
    Thats how I see it, except I’m not at port, I’m a little sailboat in the middle of the ocean, throwing potatoes (Irish radar) to see if they hit anything, when the darkness looms..ahead. 🙂

    Liked by 15 people

    3. Quiet, Charlie’s image atop the page is entitled Kaleidoscope. With all due respect to Leonardo and his colourful painting I would call it “Bound for Glory” – pipe bombs pfff! – this ship is a chariot on fire!

      Liked by 6 people

    5. Hi Charlie and everyone at TNRS ASOH… Charlie, STELLAR piece! Wow! Spot on as usual. Everything you’ve been saying all these years is coming to fruition. China/USA….market crashing…you always said there was something about “Mexico” but couldn’t put ur finger on it…so much more. I’m truly scared and yet know this all has to happen to get to new era.

      HAHA my mom left me a little something when she passed….ironically, facebook and amazon and other things and I never got too excited about it because I just know it’s not going to be there too long…I’m watching it disappear daily and I laugh…”If you have a wheelbarrow full of money, your neighbor will gladly barter with you not for the money, but for the wheelbarrow that holds the worthless money.” lol

      But anyhow…I look forward to a future (no matter what side of the veil I end up) where God is glorified and spoken of and acknowledged as He is here in this site.

      BTW has anyone else out there having this experience??? I am remembering my whole life lately of all my mess-ups and am constantly telling God that I am so sorry for all the wrong I have done, or for all the good I could have done and didn’t. It seems like an ongoing warning, or am I just getting Obsessive Compulsive!!! lol

      God bless you, Charlie! God bless everyone here….Here here to the Acknowledging God, taking the next right step and being a sign of hope to all we encounter with many mess-ups along the way!

      Thank you Jesus for all of our Holy priests (Oh my goodness, there are some Holy ones coming out of the woodworks these days) and for all of the sacraments especially confession!

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Linda, perhaps you are simply brimming, more fully, with Christ’s Light in these days. You’ve probably heard this before: as we grow in deeper conversion, we become more sensitive to our sinfulness; just as the dust in a room cannot be clearly seen in dim light, so our sinful ways cannot be perceived… until… just as the bright sun shines in a room and the dust is clearly seen, so it is when Christ’s Light shines within us to reveal the areas upon which we need to work in our next right steps to growing in a deeper relationship with the One Who is the fulfillment of all our desires. God bless you, Linda.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. As I go through my day, I feel like I am going to burst into tears at the state of everything. Have to keep my eyes focused on Jesus and not look at the choppy waters we are in right now.

        Liked by 3 people

    1. Ha, Theresa! I am kind of the “80% prophet,” – 80% dead-on on things nobody else even thought about…and 20% completely befuddled. As long as we can stumble forward together to the next right step, we’ll be good.

      Liked by 23 people

      1. Hi Charlie, I hope you are dead on with regards to seeing more red after the election. I think you may be right on this. If we do, I do not think we will see things go south unless the economy collapses or there is some outside trigger event. As a culture, we still need a course correction so we can get that ship docked right. I love being here and fellowshipping with all the wonderful people on this blog!

        Liked by 2 people

  11. Hi Charlie, I am praying daily for the American midterm elections. I have been reading much to understand the elections’ result will be a crucial point not only for the USA, but for the entire world.
    I was telling my husband how in the last 25-30 years we’ve been told (at least here in Italy) that we had to cut the costs, to realign our wages to those of the Chinese , because that was the economy, that was globalisation. We , born between the late Sixties and early Seventies, saw our Country progressively deindustrialized , wages lower and lower. We have been told that our culture, traditions , language had to cede to global culture, that we had to accept unlimited supply of immigrants, that their culture (Muslim, African) would become ours (our former House of representatives Speaker’s famous quote). Then comes Trump and many things begin to change.
    Then in Italy comes Salvini and many sensible things begin to be told by him. Immigration stops, The Government approves a budget which for the first time in many years tries to foster growth, not austerity. German austerity has progressively forced the deindustrialization of Italy through the weaponization of the Euro currency.
    EU commission and ECB has “declared war” to Italy on the budget, they plan to overturn this Government through the rising of the Bund-BTP “spread” as they did with Berlusconi in 2011. If we are forced out of the Euro, it will be a tough ride.
    In the meantime, the Italian Episcopalian Conference newspaper Avvenire and the most important catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana heavily criticize Salvini (Famiglia Cristiana had a cover with Salvini’s photo and the title “Vade Retro Salvini” comparing Salvini to Satan. No covers on pedophilia though).
    I’m reading extensively both Italian and US sources . I try to be informed independently of mainstream media.
    Your article today is a beam of hope, I long to reach the port and to see the world changing to a better one.
    I always keep in mind your metaphor of the canoing on a turbulent river. That moment is here.
    I had health problems this year and I had to do one thing at a time . I could not had a great perspective on future. Things are improved in that regard and I hope they will also concerning the general situation of the world.
    I must say I reached a level of awareness that allows me to really believe everything is in God’s hands. We are at war in many ways, we are fighting, we are manning our posts and we hope that we shall receive help from Heaven . I have seen evidence of that help in a few personal occurrences.
    I trust God will not abandon us.
    I’m praying Father Heilman’s Novena till after the midterms. I pray for the USA, I pray for Italy and for Europe. It’s a critical moment!
    God bless us all!

    Liked by 24 people

    2. Hi, Lilia! I’m glad to hear that your health is better, and I hope that your husband and your son are well. Thanks for your prayers for the USA, and I send my prayers for Italy and for Salvini.

      Liked by 8 people

    3. God bless you, Lilia. Your Italy was another place where the polls got it all wrong about your elections. I have been telling professional friends that it is not just 2016 in America that the polls got wrong: almost everywhere in the world they have been wrong about everything for the last three years. Keep praying for us here in America. There is a great battle ahead in the world, but I fear the battle will be much darker and brutal if the United States does not hold.

      Liked by 13 people

    4. Praying for you and Italia, Lilia! May our Lady and Sts Benedict, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Chromatius and Boethius help Italy.

      Liked by 6 people

  12. Love, love the words about the candid Whigs, etc media. That certainly made it easier to know what you were to tuned into first, before taking them on.

    And at first I bypassed the hate crimes paragraphs, thinking that subject is a no-brainer bad idea. But after I read it, I realized I might be guilty of considering the motive of hate to be relevant; then realized that would open the can of worms of necessitating the weighing of reasons ( like a broken family) the criminal’s life contained to cause the hate.. and on and on.
    Onward.

    Liked by 4 people

  13. Charlie, Thank you so much for writing. I needed to hear your articulate and gifted take on things. I thought something wasn’t right with the Caravan and the bombs. Do the main street LEFT folks actually believe this stuff? I see so many Democratic signs out for the election here in PA.
    It is hard for me to comprehend that democratic folks actually believe the line their party is handing them.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. Also, Charlie, sounds like the Vatican/Pope is in collusion with the World Powers. Would you say that is correct or true? Would you say definitely Revelations chapter 12?

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I pray they are not. I think a few are, but most are just what the Soviets used to call “useful idiots” – people who just want to be part of the cool, edgy crowd without understanding the consequences of what they are doing.

      Liked by 6 people

  15. Listened to a caller on Rush Limbaugh today who is a 20 year postal employee. He said that those bombs were designed to be caught. They are all precisely the type that postal employees are trained to look for. Oversize packages. Large type. Postage in the form of a lot of first class stamps.

    Any postal employee would be suspicious.

    That this is a political ploy there is no doubt. Not clear who is doing it. Doesn’t much matter who is doing it.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. my thoughts also. Every cop for the past twenty years has been trained to look for these same characteristics: too many stamps, bulky, package address written in strange way, etc.

      In my opinion this is a distraction from truth and intended to divert the Nation to a democrat ‘whoah is me’ syndrome. Haven’t we recently heard celebrities calling for ‘martial law’ to be enacted?

      If my memory serves correct, I think this happened a few years ago, with similar packages sent to a nyc news studio and they arrested a left wing nut job anarchist. I looked for it online but the search selections kept coming back to recent events.

      On an investigative note, putting glass into the ‘pipe bomb’ displays a sheer ignorance of the material at hand. Beyond the microstamping of modern ink jet printers (on each and every piece of paper) the lunatics probably discussed via electronic communications the best manufacturing techniques of pipe bomb ingredients.

      Liked by 5 people

      2. It is a distraction. MarieUrsula was right too… about it being cartoonish. Only thing the ‘bombs’ were missing was “ACME” stenciled on the sides. Whoever the cartoonish perp(s), the cartoonish democrats stand to benefit short term, with the help of the cartoonish media and countless cartoonish voters conditioned to think in terms of idiotic, cartoonlike memes slopped into their troughs.

        Oh. Woke up and felt like the world was one big cartoon this morning.

        But enough about that. Since the media seized on the innocuous term “caravan,” I move we push the term “column” for the march on Washington. Wait ’til they get a load of that Column.

        Liked by 7 people

        1. I’d bet that, if the truth ever come out, we will find that this “Bomber” is a “Wag the Dog” Set-Up Op and desperate last minute Left-Wing October Surprise. The Bomber appears to be a strange amalgam of Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald and The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight. The bombs appear to be near harmless … unless you threw them in a campfire …… and the Lily White van with stickers perfectly assembled on windows ….. a perfect Law Enforcement “Magnet” and a carefully choreographed social media history that is concurrent with Trump’s rise to power. Looks a bit “Too Pat” to me. Like all of “Inside the Beltway”, It Stinks!!

          …. and Counting:

          https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2018/07/05/rap-sheet-acts-of-media-approved-violence-and-harassment-against-trump-supporters/

          GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

          Liked by 2 people

          1. PS: Don’t forget the Democrat Party Dirty Tricks of two years ago! The Usual Suspects thought Billary was a “Shoe-In”. Two years on, Trump/MAGA is On a Roll and the Global Left is Beyond Berserk … and ALL the Democrat Operators from 2016 are still in-place and still Dirty Trick’n’:

            “O’Keefe Documents Hillary Involvement in Directing Protests at Trump Rallies”

            https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/10/24/o_keefe_documents_hillary_involvement_in_directing_protests_at_trump_rallies/

            Robert Creamer did nothing wrong (he did) and wasn’t fired (he was)

            Robert Creamer did nothing wrong (he did) and wasn’t fired (he was) from The_Donald

            GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

            Liked by 2 people

  17. Some good news today, the Bishops (especially the Africans) at the Youth Synod pushed back on LGBT normalcy. Our Magisterium is as clear as it gets. Thank you Jesus and Mary!

    Liked by 9 people

  18. Your article is very interesting Charlie. I was puzzled at how those people/caravan could be walking great distances without getting sore feet. They all look as fresh as day one. Very strange.

    The pipe bombs made me wonder if it was a set up. Faked in preparation for a real one aimed at the President. It all seems so weird.

    Saint Michael the Archangel defend us in the day of battle,
    Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
    May God rebuke him, we humbly pray.
    And do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host by the power of God
    Thrust satan into hell, and all his wicked spirits,
    Who wander through the world, seeking the ruin of souls.
    Amen.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. That’s another thing…shoes on an extended hike are VERY important. I have sneakers that I wear almost every day in normal use – but that I also know would fall apart within a week or two on an extended hike. I look at crowd pictures at eye level and almost none of these people are wearing shoes that could take the extreme conditions of such a hike for long. I went through 16 pairs of heavy-duty shoelaces on my hike…and had premium Keen boots.

      Liked by 7 people

      1. We already know they are not walking. I think they get out now and then and pose, but we see them getting on buses and into trucks. Unless of course NONE of the pictures are real.

        Liked by 5 people

    2. My prayer to St. Michael of choice uses the most real …”Who ‘prowl’ throughout the world’… indicating the intensity with which they act.

      Liked by 6 people

  19. Regarding the caravan, we were doing the math at the dinner table several nights ago… X number of miles to go divided by a generous 15 miles a day…it didn’t add up.
    Thanks for the hope Charlie. All that is happening seems to be designed to drive out hope. Sometimes it works. These short takes are like a reset button for me.

    Liked by 4 people

  20. Mick and Marie,

    Look up “angels and dragons and st. Michael stone.” The Deacon’s article will tell you everything you need to know. Father Chad Rippenberger recommends these relics, too.

    Liked by 4 people

  21. I thoroughly enjoy these posts and Charlies writing.
    I am trying to do the novenas for America and Canada.I also desperately need prayers for my family — one marriage breakup and another beautiful daughter with 3 little kids
    Dealing with insurmountable issues in her marriage. We need so much prayer!!

    Liked by 8 people

  22. Charlie, thanks for your common sense about the Caravan.

    100 miles a day? I don’t think so.

    The longest I’ve ever walked in one fell swoop was 26.219 miles ~ the 2000 Portland Marathon. A bunch of us from our little community in the forest walked or ran that day. We had all gotten in pretty good shape beforehand. The Marathon was very well run, with porta potties and Gatorade stands every half mile or so.

    Even with all the provisions ~ including good walking or running shoes but no heavy packs to carry or suitcases to pull or strollers to push ~ our people were tired and sore by the end of the Marathon. No way would we have gotten up the next morning, and the next, and the next, and the next . . . to do it all over again.

    What makes more sense: That the Caravan is genuine, or that it’s a show? If a show, who’s the producer?

    Sadly, it seems to me that many of the ordinary people in Central America are being used to put on this stunt. It’s possible, too, that mixed among them are others with bad intent.

    Our Lady of Tepeyac, pray for us.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Ha, Sister. I was always cheerful and upbeat during my pilgrimage. It really was one of the most glorious times of my life. But every once in a while I would run into someone who was so enthused by my cheery attitude that they talked seriously of doing it themselves. I would have to step back and let them know that it was a LOT harder than I let on and that they should not mount it unless they were seriously aware of the hardships involved and prepared to deal with them.

      At a store in Mississippi, I ran into some ladies at a store who were totally enthused by my stories. As I was getting ready to leave, one woman who had a knowing smile the whole time, told me sotto voce that her cousin had went out to walk the Appalachian Trail. I started to enthuse about it and she winked at me and said he gave it up after a week. I chuckled a bit and told her I saw no reason to emphasize the tough stuff in it.

      Liked by 6 people

      1. 😉

        Which brings to mind my favorite T-shirt (besides ours) on the Marathon. One team called itself “The Decimally Delinquent.”

        Their slogan?

        “2.62 miles? How hard can that be?”

        Liked by 9 people

        1. On a personal note guys, I hiked through the Mexican mountains for 8 hours with a “native” from the area. He ate nothing and drank very little the whole trip and had walked 15 miles down the mountain late the night before to a town to inquire about a truck, then back to camp again…and he was probably in his 50’s! No hiking boots either!
          Now, I’m not disavowing the American experience but compared to that guy, most physically-fit Americans are creampuffs.
          I am not advocating that these people can cover 100 miles a day, not even on horses could they do so, but if some of those on this march are like the man I met, they are some tough hombres!

          Liked by 4 people

          1. O.K., Brochacho. The Raramuri and Sherpas come to mind too, but let’s consider the basic math. A brisk walk covers about 4 miles an hour. Whether a “caravan” can maintain a brisk walk for a 100 mile duration is debatable, but let’s just up it to 5 miles per hour to be cartoonishly generous. That’s a 20 hour march per day –– non-stop –– for men, women and children regardless of how hearty they are.

            I know a fella who has been running and stomping around the wilds for over 5 decades, and he can assure you that’s ridiculous.

            The “column,” on the other hand… well, don’t be surprised if we’re not graced with supernatural aid along the way.

            Liked by 4 people

    2. Let’s see. Assume they are up for 14 hrs every day walking for 10 hrs every day (give 4 hrs time to eat, have breaks, socialize). This means that they are walking at a 10 mile per hour pace. This is one mile every six minutes. Gosh, even when I was young and in my prime, I could never break a six minut mile running as fast as I could. I wonder who is driving or bussing them?

      Liked by 1 person

  23. Thanks, Charlie, you see things so clearly and express your thoughts as a professional. You have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to keep us abreast of the truth while in the midst of our nation’s chaos. What a mess. In the past you mentioned a civil unrest. I could not grasp it at the time, but it is very clear to me now.

    This is the month of the Rosary. I, too, am doing the Novena for our Nation. We must keep praying, we must keep trusting Jesus. Faith is the foundation of hope and hope is the foundation of trust. If we don’t have Faith, then we don’t have hope. Let’s tie a knot and hang on. Lord Willing, the rescue is coming!!! “Jesus I trust in you.”…..St.Faustina

    Liked by 6 people

    2. Concur about Charlie’s purpose in the world at the moment. Doing a good job, too.

      Also agree with you re: prayer and the Rosary. We are praying like mad in our home this month. We follow Fr. Heilman’s lead. The Rosary is the least well understood spiritual aid to man. We have a tremendous ally and intercessor for mankind in Mary. In some mysterious way the Rosary empowers Mary in her intercessions on man’s behalf.

      Pray like mad.

      Liked by 5 people

  24. Saw a report from the invasion force on FOX this evening. An American reporter traveling along with the people asked one of the invaders if he knew that the U.S. was planning to stop the “caravan” at the U.S. border. His reply:

    “There were military at the border with Guatemala and we passed by them. There were military at the border with Mexico and we passed by them. I don’t know how but they just parted and let us go through.”

    hmmmmmmmmmmm. I don’t know how that happened either. But I suspect there was mucho dinero spread around the border of Guatemala and the border of Mexico.

    The invading force is not concerned with the U.S. military. Are they, too, just going to step aside and let them pass by?

    Liked by 5 people

    1. “The invading force is not concerned with the U.S. military. Are they, too, just going to step aside and let them pass by?” Ed, I’m kind of imagining that hell would freeze over first.

      Liked by 9 people

      1. Me too, Mick. People have quickly learned that they dare not cross a red line drawn by Mr. Trump. Those in this nicely-dressed, barefoot caravan of sprinters will find a sign at the border. “Sorry, we’re closed.”

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I previously mentioned Our Lady of the Sierras (Cerro de la Virgin). The Cross, Chapel, and Her statue sit together on a mountain looking south to the Mexican border… a mere stone’s throw away Check it out.

          She does indeed protect Her children… but always beckoning as well. The Mother.

          I’m against open borders too, as it would be an epic fail in our duty to protect our citizens and way of life… but, God hears the cries of His little ones in all corners.

          I rely on Our Mother’s guidance always to navigate such complex issues regarding our brothers and sisters. Among other things, She often reminds me that God’s ways are not our ways.

          Liked by 6 people

          1. She does protect and guide us. Nothing is too complex for the beautiful “Undoer of Knots.”

            This issue just isn’t an either/or situation like the Left wants us to believe. America the Generous wants people to come here….we just insist they come to the front door and ring the bell. We also must protect American citizens AND legal residents from deadly drugs like meth, cold-blooded criminals, terrorists, and ruthless Coyotaje from sneaking in by jumping over the backyard fence.

            Trump is actually obliged by law to protect us from all of these and more. And he will do it.

            Liked by 5 people

            1. Oh, and greetings from the Rez!

              While driving 65 mph on highway 212, I have had to brake my truck HARD for a mama grouse and 7 little ones walking across the road, 3 pheasants last week, 3 deer yesterday who veered away at the last moment, a dozen pheasant this morning who were just hanging out eating stones, and one pack of about 8 wild dogs on Tuesday. I learned now to never stop completely for dogs cuz they’ll just surround the truck nipping at the tires and keep you there all day. So just keep rolling.

              The owner of a local bar hit a black yearling at night while going 50 mph. Totaled his caddy but he’s OK. It’s apparently “Open Range” out here, meaning cattle don’t need to be penned in or something, and often the driver is responsible for paying for the dead cow.

              Praying for everyone at a Sign Of Hope.

              Great post, again, Mr. Charlie!!

              Liked by 4 people

              1. Great update, Patrick Daniel of the Rez. Back in the day and for umpteen years, when driving to Sioux City each summer, we’d take a shortcut from I-90 and drive 212 out of eastern Montana into the Rapid City area. There are a lotta “open range” areas all over this state as well. Thanks for your prayers. Prayers for your safe driving and blessings on your continuing studies and clinical work.

                Liked by 5 people

              2. Thanks for the update, Patrick (a.k.a. – Patrick Heals on Rez, or alternately, Patrick Hunts With Truck). Another Brochacho. Let Doug know when you run over some crows. He’ll appreciate that.

                I have no doubt that Trump will move to uphold the law as required. What concerns me is how it all goes down… or rather, how the establishment media portrays it as all going down, considering this thing appears to be somewhat well organized and scripted for various contingency plays.

                I’m praying that Our Mother is there for the little ones. As for the ones of ill will, I send my patron Saint, Michael, to greet them as God sees fit.

                Liked by 5 people

                2. I really like “Hunts with Truck”, Brochacho! Fortunately, I’m a lousy hunter. Haven’t bagged a thing.

                  One of my patients today was a fellow that broke his little toe 2 weeks ago kicking a cow pie (which I didn’t think was possible). This happened just prior to him going on a week-long hunt for elk in the mountains of Wyoming. And he got a beauty. After we X-rayed the toe and found the fracture, he refused treatment like a tough-guy and said, “I’ll heal” as he gimped out the door. He said his wife was glad he finally came back home to help with their 3-week-old newborn. Hey, the man’s got his priorities! 😀

                  * * * *

                  I had a prophetic dream last night where I saw the media attacking Trump for his poor handling of the border situation and for his overt racism. I’m sure the Left is already writing and rewriting their usual talking points. ACLU lawyers are already booking flights to Texas. But no matter what, they just can’t seem to get their rhetoric right to hurt Trump in any appreciable way.

                  But yes, the children victims 😔….that’s the crying shame here, isn’t it? They are innocent and the victims of their parents’ questionable decisions to emigrate illegally…. or the abuse by non-related adults…or the human trafficking into sex slavery. Ugly, ugly business. Yes, Our Mother is with them as we pray for her intercession.

                  Leftist are truly cold-hearted people….they only care about that which is politically expedient, even at the expense of the children’s safety and well-being. I hate this aspect of them, I know we all do, but we’re generally too kind to verbalize it, but I so hate them for what they deliberately do over and over again. Yep, I said it. And after I vent my anger like this, then I pray….

                  Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.
                  Blessed art thou among women,
                  and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…

                  Liked by 3 people

                    1. And Our Lady – in a great mystery – who first taught Her Son the Scriptures and how to pray has formed Her personal Army to bring great pleasure to the Lord by the joining of forces to pray, fast and sacrifice that the lost find their way back to Her Son.

                      Liked by 4 people

      2. I am very much afraid that they will “just part and let them through.” That first group just climbed the walls and we dealt with them here – to our great embarrassment. Trump said then that they could not come in, but come in they did. I expect this one will, too. What Our military SHOOT unarmed civilians? Women and children? Won’t play well in the media, that is for sure. And short of shooting them, WHAT will the military do???

        Liked by 4 people

        1. I like Dick Morris’ take, that Trump should process them, keeping families together; then either sending some back or keeping them here, but NOT releasing them into our country. Bottom line.

          Liked by 3 people

        2. “What Our military SHOOT unarmed civilians?”

          Kent State comes to mind. Very different scenario but don’t discount the possibility of something similar happening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of the military protecting the borders. After all, wasn’t that the original purpose of a standing army? If there are any fatalities, the blood will be on the hands of those who conceived of, organized, and facilitated this would-be invasion.

          Liked by 2 people

    2. Just invite them into a fema camp, it’s only 14k where some stadiums hold much more than that. Pay for their care using monies destined for Mexico, Guatamala, and taxes on Russia and China. Provide them a 1-way truck ticket (and a lunch box) back to Venezuela.

      Liked by 8 people

      2. My thoughts on this invasion…Free labor to build he wall. Welcome them with open arms, line them all up stretching across the border (coast to coast) give ’em a shovel and get ’em to work. Lodge them in tents on site.
        If they stick around after a few years, then they may begin the immigration process.

        Liked by 7 people

      3. I watched part of an interview with Kirstjen Nielsen who is the Secretary of Homeland Security. It has been reported that Trump has not been happy with her job performance re the border enforcement in the past. She is on the line right now. She is the first line of defense. Border Patrol and ICE.

        It seems there is a game plan for dealing with invaders who break through the border. You can hear it at about the 1:30 mark of the interview. They are going to be returned. What does that mean? I think it means that Trump has decided he is going to act decisively. As in expeditiously. As in right away no fooling around. As in ACT now and fight the political and/or legal battle later. Even unto impeachment.

        No trial. No hearing. No appeal. No lawyers.

        “You will be returned”
        Donald Trump

        May go down alongside
        “I shall return.”
        Douglas MacArthur

        Perhaps buses. Perhaps trucks. Perhaps a military airlift.

        Maybe it will look like this

        Or maybe a reverse one of these

        I kind of lean toward leasing a cruise ship and sailing them back home in style with the comprehensive buffet and meal plan with shuffleboard and nightly entertainment.

        You know, border protection American style.

        Liked by 5 people

  25. Call it a Caravan, a Pilgrimage or a Jericho March – this thought/wish came to me while reading at http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/

    At the upcoming USCCB November 12-15 ‘Plenary in Baltimore, US bishops slated to devote first Monday of meeting – Nov 12 – to “prayer, penance & fasting” over abuse crisis, capped by evening Mass in hotel’.

    (I wish there was no room at THAT INN and that the Bishops would have to duck on down to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington for that Mass – and MARCH AROUND IT IN PROCESSION with the Statue of Our Lady of America! I’m sure that would have a wonderful effect on the rest of the Plenary and the following couple of big events for the bishops.)

    Meanwhile all this is happening while the States and the Feds are doing their probes…………

    ‘On a couple related context fronts, the January retreat (Jan. 2-8, 2019 at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago) will open a calendar year whose end already has another big bang lined up:
    the previously-broken ad limina visit of the entire US episcopate, which is slated to unfold over a matter of weeks in November and December 2019.’

    And I don’t mean for it to sound trite at all because what an absolutely uplifting and rallying sight that would be for the People of God around the whole world!

    Liked by 4 people

  26. It saddens me that so many of our, alleged, Church Shepherds embrace The Agenda of Socialism under the guise of Human Compassion. I’d like to think that most of these Shepherds are just misguided and ignorant of History … but!! … These-Days ;-(
    The author could have devoted a paragraph devoted to the historical godless angle of Socialism and how, by it’s nature, it can’t abide belief in God as The State is the god of Socialism!

    The Eternal Return of a Malevolent Charade
    https://amgreatness.com/2018/10/26/the-eternal-return-of-a-malevolent-charade/

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    PS: 10 Days till Election Day 18. Prayer and the Voting Booth are are best “weapons” now For God & Country. Let US Pray that we won’t have to resort to dangerous weapons to protect …………….

    Liked by 6 people

    1. Yup. Good thing CNN is not streamed into the voting booths. So folks can still ignore the hype and vote without reprisal or criticism.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. But what do we do when the digital voting machines change our votes from Republican to Democrat before our eyes?

        Rampant electoral fraud. It’s curious how when there are voting irregularities, they always favor Dems. Ballot boxes in predominantly Republican districts wash up on California shores, thousands of deceased Americans managing to cast multiple ballots for Dems in Midwest absentee voting, ballots from our overseas military members rejected by judges because of late postmark dates, Mexican nationals with drivers licenses voting in American elections, proof of citizenship requirements fought and labeled as racist to silence black Americans, Black Panther poll monitors, residents of New Jersey and New York flying south to vote again in Florida, volunteers giving pencils to voters, scores of liberal lawyers arrive in droves in hotly contested elections, hanging chads, etc., etc. When they can’t win, they cheat.

        We need reform.

        Liked by 2 people

  28. For you Folks in the pivotal Show Me State, it might be good to know and pass-along the facts that Ms. McCaskill has Lots of Secrets she would like to keep from her constituents.

    VIDEO: SENATOR SECRETLY RECEIVES DONATIONS FROM PLANNED PARENTHOOD
    https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/undercover-video-pro-abortion-senator-secretly-takes-donations-from-planned

    #METOO works both ways!:

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/abuse-allegations-surface-against-claire-mccaskills-husband

    Border Security? … Forgetaboutit!!

    https://townhall.com/columnists/johnandandyschlafly/2018/10/24/dems-tonguetied-on-caravan-issue-n2531281

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 5 people

  30. Great news from the Youth Synod…..LGBT has been excluded and said to be an ideology…..Thank you St. Jude, Our Dear Lord, Mother Mary, St. Joseph and all the Angels and Saints who have been listening to the prayers of the faithful!!!

    Liked by 8 people

  31. And while we talk about the caravan, the heat is burning into the interior of the US Church. Most could see this coming and it’s another front on which we can say: It won’t be pretty.

    Excerpt from today:
    “… Along those lines, over the last 48 hours, many of you have had Memphis on your lips given Wednesday’s striking removal of Bishop Martin Holley – given his steadfast refusal to resign, the first such Roman ouster of a US prelate in living memory – followed quickly by the deposed prelate’s even more breathtaking self-immolation in an interview published late Thursday by Catholic News Agency.

    Well-placed as that focus might’ve been yesterday, over the hours since, something even bigger’s come to pass….

    Again…

    Dated October 9th – the same day the FBI swooped in with subpoenas for the clerical files of Pennsylvania’s eight Latin-church dioceses and two Eastern archeparchies – the letter was privately circulated to the nation’s hierarchy by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday, 23 October, and has duly spread since among internal counsels and personnel-chiefs across the Stateside church’s 198 jurisdictions…”
    https://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2018/10/expanding-pa-probe-feds-warn-us-church.html

    Remember the prophecy, concerning how small we, as a Church, will become? Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “She (meaning we, the Church) will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity.” https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/the-church-will-become-small.html

    In solidarity we pray, fast and sacrifice, all the while taking each next right step as directed by the Master.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Beckita– we here in Memphis have been suffering mightily these last 2 years. Our diocese is broken and bleeding. The liberal vs. conservative contingencies are at odds….so much like our political system. Many were very hopeful that Bishop Holley would bring orthodox sanity to us, but unrelenting, tremendous resistance to him was the reality. We are so confused and wounded. This article expresses well how we feel.

      Why was Bishop Holley removed? Another failed transparency test. | Catholic Culture
      https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=1658

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I had previously read this piece by Phil Lawler, Kim. I’ve also read some personal perspectives from people in your diocese who saw signs of trouble in Bishop Holley similar to the kinds of trouble with which McCarrick struggled. Not only is there a lack of transparency as to why Pope Francis acted to swiftly remove this Bishop from your diocese, but also, it seems odd that Bishop Holley would so drastically act by asking all pastors to resign and, then, in the shuffle of reassigning, make many of the pastors simply administrators of the parish. In this piece, it doesn’t sound as if Bishop Holley was communicating in a transparent way. Toss in an Apostolic visitation conducted by two American Bishops, one being Archbishop Wilton Gregory, notoriously known for his own problems in failing to suppress homosexual activities using Church platforms, such as this and Lord have mercy! This is a big mess.

        Praying for you, Kim, and your diocese while taking great comfort in knowing that these things cannot go on forever. In Charlie’s words: “Truly epochal events will follow in the wake of this election, as a new era is born.” It will be so difficult to suffer, yet, I believe we CAN do it well. Going back to the giving birth analogy, the joyful anticipation of meeting the New Person who God had created – and who I had carried in my womb – made the labor a time of great joy amidst great pain, a time of Awesome Wonder. Lamaze-style breathing was phenomenally like God’s Grace. How blessed are we to breathe in and act out – in the best of ways – the Breath of the Holy Spirit in these days. Come anew Holy Spirit! Descend upon us, one and all!

        Liked by 3 people

        1. Thanks for prayers, Beckita. I do hope for tremendous healing after this storm. I had never heard anything about Bishop Holley having “McCarrick issues” until this week. We struggled with our former Bishop and his liberal proclivities and lack of leadership, and were so hopeful Bishop Holley would “right” everything. He was so conservative and orthodox I thought he had to be wonderful. It is another lesson for me not to assume anything.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Isn’t this such a sad reality of our times, Kim, that nothing can be assumed? My heart goes out to the truly faithful clerics having to make their way through these times of of distrust of them.

            Liked by 2 people

  34. Thanks to all for your input. After all this site is a Sign of Hope. Sure don’t get much hope from the news including Fox. I’m glad I can always rely on the contributors to this site but more importantly the Rosary and trust in Jesus and Mother Mary.

    Liked by 9 people

  35. For some reason there is one particular ‘reading’ in Fr Gobbi’s Marian Movement of Priest’s Blue Book that stands out in my mind – to do with Mexico.

    It is #532 and was given by Blessed Mother to Fr Gobbi at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, on December 5, 1994. It is entitled “The Apple of My Eye”.

    It stands out for two reasons.The first one is:

    In paragraph (h) Blessed Mother said: “You have seen, my little son, with what enthusiasm I am loved, besought and glorified by all these Mexican children of mine. For this reason, my great victory against all the masonic and satanic forces will begin from here, for the greatest triumph of my Son Jesus.”

    The other reason is because of a ‘seeming’ mis-prophecy by Fr Gobbi which left many of the MMP faithful dejected and who subsequently departed from the movement.

    In the very next paragraph Blessed Mother said:

    “I confirm to you that, by the great Jubilee of the year two thousand, there will take place the triumph of my Immaculate Heart, of which I foretold you at Fatima, and this will come to pass with the return of Jesus in glory, to establish his Reign in the world. Thus you will at last be able to see with your own eyes the new heavens and the new earth.”

    By way of explanation of this mis-prophecy, the problem apparently concerned the translation from Italian into English of the word we see above “by”. Apparently the Italian is “per” (is this the same in Latin?) and can also be interpreted as “by way of” or “as a result of”, not only “before”. If that is the case then I would say that it very much involves what Pope Saint John Paul II did in preparation for and during the Jubilee Year 2000.

    In those days the then Holy Father said and did much. In his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente given on 10 November, 1994, he wrote:

    “Since the publication of the very first document of my Pontificate, I have spoken explicitly of the Great Jubilee, suggesting that the time leading up to it be lived as “a new Advent”…”

    He closed with:

    “I entrust this responsibility of the whole Church to the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer. She, the Mother of Fairest Love, will be for Christians on the way to the Great Jubilee of the Third Millennium the Star which safely guides their steps to the Lord. May the unassuming Young Woman of Nazareth, who two thousand years ago offered to the world the Incarnate Word, lead the men and women of the new millennium towards the One who is “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). With these sentiments I impart to all my Blessing.”

    18 years post-the Great Jubilee, I can only hope that the mobile Central Americans relent on their US-bent mission (whoever is leading and organising it!) and that Mexico will surprise everyone and miraculously turn them back or take the caravan in, before the situation reaches flash-point!

    2000 years ago the unassuming Young Woman of Nazareth and her small caravan was turned away from the Inn and other hospitality, and took refuge in a stable – only to bring the first Advent to a close. Let us also hope that the closing of the “new Advent” will also bring “the true light that enlightens every man” (Our Lady prepared us herself at Garabandal) and then there will need be only one road to be travelled by all of us together – with no masonic and satanic scheming and threatening, only the Peace and Joy that we associate with Christmas!!

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Lots to ponder here, Karen, which many certainly did after the seeming failure of the prophecy described in “The Apple of My Eye.” The response of so many to dismiss Fr. Gobbi’s locutions due to the translation problems – and I mean not only earthly language translations, but also the translation of mystical language – is a lesson in a major teaching which Charlie has reiterated in many ways since the inception of the TNRS blog. Prophecies must be received and contemplated with complete surrender to how God fulfills them or allows them to be fulfilled.

      Thank you for sharing “aloud” your own pondering, Karen. This has prompted me to think of how consonant is this segment: “You have seen, my little son, with what enthusiasm I am loved, besought and glorified by all these Mexican children of mine. For this reason, my great victory against all the masonic and satanic forces will begin from here, for the greatest triumph of my Son Jesus.” with Charlie sharing Our Lady’s desire to be known now as Our Lady of Tepeyac. The Mother of Conversion is mysteriously alive and present in the Tilma, conveying to us that she has yet great work to accomplish in her children.

      Too, your reference to the prophetic words of Pope St. John Paul II and the Act of Entrustment, giving the new millennium to the care of Our Lady is, often, overlooked in its significance, I think. So much as been said – and rightly so – about the 1984 Act of Consecration, consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart. No doubt in my mind that the entrustment of the third millennium to Our Lady’s care has had and will continue to have a great, rippling effect on individuals, events, and whole nations.

      Honestly, Our Lord and Our Lady have done e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. possible to prepare us for what we are living. SO grateful for Them, Their Care, Their ongoing protection and sustenance, including Their Presence in those who gather here to hearten each other along this Way of a New Beginning. Prayers for all.

      Liked by 8 people

      1. I am beginning to think about the idea that the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is going to come about somehow through a reassessment of the role and importance of Family. Rediscovering Family.

        Veil of Veronica linked to her post discussing her experience of the Latin Mass.

        https://veilofveronica.blog/2018/10/24/the-center-of-the-world-the-mass/

        “God told me that if we really want to know the “signs of the times”, we needn’t look any further than the Mass. The church is the center of the world. The way she goes is then echoed out to the world. Look for changes to the Mass and Scripture if you want to know what happens next. Scripture is already being changed. Just after I had this experience I read that China removed all bibles for sale because they are writing one that will conform with the state.”

        The Church is the center of the world. The Mass is the center of the Church. So goes the Mass so goes the Church? So goes the Church so goes the world?

        Lucy provides salient commentary to Veil of Veronica’s post. Must read IMO. Among pertinent comments:

        “2. The prophetic role of the Laity: Our job is to BE THE DOMESTIC CHURCH. There can be no LIFE without parents. Without FAMILY. As goes the Family,so goes the Church, the Nation and the World. We were given a visual Sign of this during the Apparition of Knock in Ireland. It is the Icon for the role of the laity in the birthing and preservation of the Church. The Diocesan Church structure, as we know it , WILL CEASE TO EXIST. Just as the Holy Family was the ROOT and FOUNDATION of the SUBSTANCE of the FIRST CHURCH… in a mirror of the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity… so will be the Domestic Church . God will preserve the Church THERE. All of us should read Acts of the Apostles to grasp clearly where and how the First Church was born, was nurtured and lived its early days. This model is ours to embrace over the coming years of trial and purification: the Church will be FULLY PRESERVED in and by and through the Laity in the Domestic Church itself.”

        Finally, we have Pope Benedict’s fascinating discussion of Rabbi Jacob Neusner’s book in which the Rabbi discusses his final break with Jesus on the basis of what Jesus meant for the eternal Family of Israel and the society founded upon that.

        https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-385-42466-0

        The Rabbi has a bone to pick with Jesus. It is a bone about The Family in Israel’s society. Benedict engages the debate beginning with the Dispute over the Sabbath. Why are Jesus’ disciples allowed to pick wheat on the Sabbath?

        “At this point we need to see what the Sabbath meant for Israel. This will also help us to understand what is at stake in this dispute. God rested on the seventh day, as the creation account in Genesis tells us. Neusner rightly concludes that “on that day we …. celebrate creation”. He then adds:”Not working on the Sabbath stands for more than nitpicking ritual. IT IS A WAY OF IMITATING GOD. The Sabbath is therefore not just a negative matter of not engaging in outward activities, but a positive matter of “resting,” which must also be expressed in a spatial dimension: ‘So to keep the Sabbath, ONE REMAINS AT HOME. It is not enough merely not to work. One also has to rest. And resting means, RE-FORMING ONE DAY A WEEK THE CIRCLE OF FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD EVERYONE AT HOME AND IN PLACE.”

        The Sabbath is not just a matter of personal piety; it is the core of the social order. This day “makes eternal Israel what it is, the people that, like God in creating the world, rest from creation on the Seventh Day”.

        Neusner narrows the “decisive point” to the connection of Jesus’ claim to be the Lord of the Sabbath and the effects on society of His day and time.

        “For Neusner, the key word REST, understood as an integral element of the Sabbath, is the connecting link to Jesus’ exclamation immediately prior to the story of the disciples plucking the ears of wheat in Matthew’s Gospel. “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Mt 11:25-30)

        The verses immediately preceding the Sabbath narrative read as follows: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Mt 11:28–30).”

        Neusner now gets to the point. The point at which many Jews walked away.

        “Neusner can now say even more clearly than before: “No wonder, then, that the son of man is lord of the Sabbath! The reason is not that he interprets the Sabbath restrictions in a liberal manner ….. Jesus was not just another reforming Rabbi, out to make life “easier” for people …. No, the issue is not that the burden is light ….. Jesus’ CLAIM TO AUTHORITY is at issue. Christ now stands on the mountain, he now takes the place of the Torah”.

        The conversation between the practicing Jew and Jesus comes to the decisive point here. His noble reserve leads him to put the question to Jesus’ disciple, rather than to Jesus himself:

        “Is it really so that your master, the son of man, is lord of the Sabbath? …… I ask again ….. is your master God?”

        Now though, we need to consider a further aspect of the question that arises more sharply in connection with the fourth commandment. What disturbs Rabbi Neusner about Jesus’ message concerning the Sabbath is not just the centrality of Jesus himself. He throws this centrality into clear relief, but it is not the ultimate bone of contention with him. Rather he is concerned with the CONSEQUENCE OF JESUS’ CENTRALITY FOR ISRAEL’S DAILY LIFE: The Sabbath LOSES ITS GREAT SOCIAL FUNCTION.

        The Sabbath is one of the essential elements that hold Israel together. Centering upon Jesus breaks open this sacred structure and imperils an essential element that cements the unity of the People of God.

        The issue of Jesus’ claim to be Temple and Torah in person also has implications for the question of Israel ———– the issue of the living community of the people in whom God’s word is actualized.

        The Fourth Commandment, The Family, The People, and the Community of Jesus’ Disciples

        “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Ex 20:12) This is the version of the fourth commandment that is given in the Book of Exodus. The commandment is addressed to sons and it speaks of parents. It thus STRENGTHENS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENERATIONS AND THE COMMUNITY OF THE FAMILY AS AN ORDER WILLED AND PROTECTED BY GOD.

        It speaks of the LAND and of the stable continuance of life in in the land. In other words, it connects the land, as the place for people to live, with the basic order of the family. It binds the continued existence of people and land to the coexistence of generations that is built up within the family structure.

        Now, Rabbi Neusner rightly sees this commandment as ANCHORING THE HEART OF THE SOCIAL ORDER, the cohesion of the “eternal Israel ——- this real, living, ever-present family of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Rachel. According to Neusner it is this FAMILY OF ISRAEL that is threatened by Jesus’ message,, and the foundation of Israel’s social order are thrust aside by the primacy of his person. “We pray to the God we know, to begin with, through the testimony of our family, to God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Rachel. So to explain who we are, eternal Israel, sages appeal to the metaphor of genealogy ….. to the fleshly connection, THE FAMILY AS THE RATIONALE FOR ISRAEL’S SOCIAL EXISTENCE.”

        It is our Jewish interlocutors who, quite rightly, ask again and again: “So what has your “Messiah” Jesus actually brought?”

        We have already encountered this question and we know the answer. He has brought the God of Israel to the nations, so that all the nations now pray to Him and recognize Israel’s Scriptures as his word, the word of the living God. He has brought the gift of universality, which is the one great definitive promise to Israel and the world. This universality, this faith in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob —– extended now in Jesus’ NEW FAMILY to all nations over and above the bonds of descent according to the flesh —- is the fruit of Jesus’ work.

        The vehicle of this universalization is the NEW FAMILY, whose only admission requirement is communion with Jesus, communion in God’s will.”

        Pope Benedict XVI — Jesus of Nazareth

        So if we connect the dots of Veil of Veronica and Lucy and Rabbi Neusner and Pope Benedict XVI we see a common theme of FAMILY as a lynchpin of social order. It seems clear that any saving or resuscitation or renewal or regeneration of a stable society and a stable social order is going to have to have a re-thinking of Family at its core.

        The disintegration of the Family has been a goal of Marxist ideology for almost two hundred years. We have seen how far this attack on the Family has advanced even to the failing point of the institution of marriage and family in our own time. It has had devastating effects on not just American society but all over the world.

        One might ask about what is firing up this Caravan of illegal immigrants bearing down on our Southern border. We might not have to look further than the effects of socialism and marxism on the families of Central America.

        Mary’s Triumphant of the Immaculate Heart? We need to look to the Holy Family as a model.

        So goes the Family so goes the Church. So goes the Church so goes the world.

        Don’t think NOW is Mary’s hour? Really?

        Part of the great illumination is going to have to do with the state of one’s family and what role each of us has to play in Family and in renovating it as the foundation of a stable and just social order.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Lots to think about here, Ed. I will just speak to where people are, no doubt unintentionally, skirting and possibly walking into error as expressed in comments made after Susan shared her personal experience with the Latin Mass. I love her writing and work, her deep faith and that she is under spiritual direction. She states that she didn’t intend to start any Liturgy Wars and I agree that’s important. But I will add, to compare the Tridentine Mass in Latin with the Novus Ordo Mass in ways that make one seem better or worse than the other could become a very troubling thing. I know that’s not at all what Susan intended to do, yet, people being people could take her experience sharing the wrong way.

          BOTH forms of the Mass are not only valid, BOTH, offered with reverence in executing the prescribed rites, can equally draw down graces while inspiring and edifying the congregation. How I wish all could experience a Novus Ordo Mass such as those offered by the holy priests I have been blessed to assist during these Masses. I have also attended Novus Ordo Masses which are poorly offered such as those that Susan describes in her piece. Sad to be sure, yet, whether the Mass is offered in the ordinary or extraordinary form, when reverently offered by a priest who is focused on God in every gesture and word and with homilies filled with meaty teaching and reflection, one can know they have, again, entered the Sacred Mysteries of the Mass, walking to Calvary with Christ as they experience Heaven on earth. I attend such a Novus Ordo Mass daily. The priest prepares for his Novus Ordo Mass, also daily, by spending several hours in Eucharistic Adoration to contemplate Christ before walking to the altar where he is visibly, mystically, intentionally connecting us to Christ. Awesome wonder IS available in the Novus Ordo Mass which doesn’t mean it’s a better experience than the Tridentine Mass in Latin. Thank God, the Church provides for her children with these options.

          I pray the abuses in the Novus Ordo are rectified that this way of worshiping may be, everywhere, what it is meant to be. The intent of Vatican II was that this form of the Mass would enable people to engage more deeply in worship. That the Mass is the center of our lives is a long held truth taught in Catholic life. As Deacon Keith Fournier reminds us: “There is a Latin maxim that addresses the centrality of worship in the life, identity and mission of the Catholic Church; ‘Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi’. The phrase in Latin literally means the law of prayer (“the way we worship”) is the law of belief (“what we believe”). It is sometimes expanded to as, ‘lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi’, further deepening the implications of this truth – how we worship reflects what we believe and determines how we will live.” And this quoted material strikes at the heart, I think, of why Novus Ordo Masses are often poorly offered. A loss of the sense of the sacred. As Susan noted, there is too often an overemphasis on the people of God rather than worshiping God Himself.

          God bless Dear Lucy whom you quote, Ed. I perceive a well-meaning, faith-filled person reflecting her feelings and what she senses, but honestly, there are theological errors in what she presents. But first of all, I wonder how she can assert this: “The Diocesan Church structure, as we know it , WILL CEASE TO EXIST?” In all the nearly 30 years of reading and discerning various Heavenly message, I have never ever heard such a thing. As I usually do when wanting to take great care in commenting, I check in with Father. He, who has been reading mystical literature and messages for 50 years, has never heard of such a prophecy either. I come back to the thought that BOY! Do our dioceses ever need cleaning up. But on what authority does Lucy make her bold claim? That said, maybe this is in the Plan of God but I surely wouldn’t proclaim it without certainty and without permission from my spiritual director.

          It is incorrect to say: ” Just as the Holy Family was the ROOT and FOUNDATION of the SUBSTANCE of the FIRST CHURCH…” Not so. Christ founded the Church after St. Joseph had died and left the Holy Family to go to Abraham’s Bosom where he would await the Ascension before he could go Home to Heaven. Jesus chose the 12 Apostles and appointed Peter as the first Pope, the rock upon which He founded His Church. And the Church was officially, publicly born at Pentecost. Before His crucifixion, Jesus instituted most of the Sacraments which would give us LIFE, life beyond what our biological parents are capable of giving. Priests are the KEY. It is THEY who move and act in persona Christi that His Redemptive work can be carried on until the end of time.

          Lucy made a good point when describing who a couple would become as they united in marriage and were granted children: “…in a mirror of the Divine Life of the Blessed Trinity… so will be the Domestic Church.” But we can notice that while the couple administers the sacrament to each other, it is only valid as a sacrament when witnessed by a priest, the one who stands in the person of Christ, (in these days of priest shortages, so may a deacon witness) as the vows are witnessed in public. Christ’s Teaching and Church are the Source of Power by which the two become one will be nourished to grow in conversion and in laying down their lives for each other and their children. And it is in the domestic church of each family, that the parents bear the responsibility of becoming the first teachers of the Faith, leading and nurturing their children and providing opportunities for them to live a sacramental life.

          I also disagree with Lucy in some of these statements (Reading the Acts of the Apostles is a great encouragement.): “God will preserve the Church THERE. All of us should read Acts of the Apostles to grasp clearly where and how the First Church was born, was nurtured and lived its early days. This model is ours to embrace over the coming years of trial and purification: the Church will be FULLY PRESERVED in and by and through the Laity in the Domestic Church itself.”

          I surely have no intention of cutting myself off from the Institutional Church. It’s just not there in Christ’s teachings to do so. I’d do anything the Lord might ask to help cleanse and repair her from the damage that has been caused by some of the clergy in these times. (And, actually, by the sins of each of us.) And maybe the most practical thing to do is just what we’ve discussed here: support the faithful clergy.

          In the writings about the domestic church, in Lumen Gentium, it was never intended that the Church be rebuilt with families as her foundation. This would deny Christ’s own design for His Church. In fact, the exact wording in Lumen Gentium is: “The family is, so to speak, the domestic church.” (bold letters mine) And as for going back to live as a Church like the early Christians did, I don’t see how we can do it. It is by the Power and Guidance of the Holy Spirit that we have developed to become the Church we are today. Instead of going back, we need to listen to where Christ is now leading us.

          So much yet to be discovered as the Holy Spirit renews the face of the earth… in our Church, in each of us, in our families and in our societies and cultures. Remaining in the Barque and striving to take Christ’s lead while praying for all here.

          Liked by 5 people

          1. Interesting response.

            With respect to the form and content and even language of the Mass I think Veil of Veronica has a point. Charlie makes the point that we shouldn’t get too caught up in “what ifs” and speculation about what tomorrow is going to bring. That being said, I think the advice to watch for changes to the Mass whether the Latin Mass or the Novo Ordus version we all experience today is well taken.

            There is an urge for a broader ecumenism and reunification or what we might call a more universal and globalist Church. What has to give for that to happen? The liturgy of the Mass including the essential elements of the Mass would seem ripe for a Grand Compromise that would unify Christendom.

            It appears to me that we now have a new legislative process in place and a Pope in place to allow for those kind of changes in the interest of Peace and Unity and Reconciliation. In the interest of a new global Church order. Not saying it will happen. Just saying the structure is now in place to make it happen if enough Bishops and the Pope decide it ought to happen. Watch for perhaps some innocuous change to the wording of the Mass liturgy to make it more acceptable and less threatening and objectionable to potential converts. That will be the canary in the coal mine.

            Personally, I am still wrestling with the change from “I am not worthy to receive you” to “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”. To this day that one hangs me up every time. “…. was incarnate of the Virgin Mary ….” does the same thing to me.

            With respect to the role of the Family in both Church and society I think Lucy’s comments are not inconsistent with the ideas discussed by Pope Benedict. Pope Benedict has expressed the view that the Church is likely to get a lot smaller. That it may not include all the grand edifices that we are accustomed to seeing. To me, Benedict is telling us to get ready for a Church that goes back to the earliest form which lived under persecution and largely underground. That appears to be the case in China. It sounds like there is a new persecution underway in China. That persecution is going to force the Church underground. Perhaps we should be particularly vigilant on changes to the language of the liturgy in China. I think it is not entirely out of the question for a similar persecution to happen in the US. Honestly.

            The results of the forthcoming Mid Term elections will have some say in advancing or slowing this type of radical turn on all religion in America. Just my opinion.

            It will be the Family, as in first century Israel, that will sustain the Church under those circumstances. Just my opinion.

            Finally, what makes sense to me is that Mary would see the Family as a key to her Ultimate Triumph.

            We witness the effect of the destruction of the Family in inner city communities. The Family is changing before our eyes. To many it seems like an obsolescent relic of an evil dark Patriarchal oppression of women. What it means to be Family has transmogrified in so many ways. It’s hard to reconcile a lot of what we see as “ordered to the will of God and protected by God”.

            If not a solid majority of functioning traditional families units forming and living, working and worshipping together to perpetuate the Church from generation to generation then what other mechanism is going to get the job done?

            Without stronger families … families that pray together to stay together … it is hard to see how our own society is going to be able to sustain itself. The Family is the foundation of Judeo-Christian society. So goes the Family so goes the Church. So goes the Church and so goes the Nation.

            I don’t know how she is going to do it. But I trust our Mother in Heaven has a plan to bring it about. A Plan that is going to astonish us with its swiftness and effect. Just my opinion.

            Liked by 3 people

            1. So agree that the family needs strengthening, Ed. And, surely, what you describe as the positive impact of strong families rippling throughout the Church and into society are sorely needed. Looking forward to a reset and being part of however God leads us through the darkest days into the days of building our New Beginning. Love your closing thought. May it be!

              Liked by 3 people

  36. YUP!! Let’s Get’er Done on Climate Change …. Nothing could be more important than that …. Right!!!??? ……. It’s enough to make Ya weep!! ;-(

    “Catholic Bishops Call for Urgent Action Against Climate Change”
    https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2018/10/26/catholic-bishops-call-for-urgent-action-against-climate-change/

    I’m guessing that like just about everything else in the USA (World?) …… Government, Economic, Investment & …….. it’s ALL waiting for News of a Red or Blue Wave come 6 Nov.
    Red Wave = , to cut-n-paste from Churchill’s Finest Hour Speech, “…… may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands……” (& serious Border/Criminal Control/Deport Ops and MAGA).
    Blue Wave = “…… the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science ………”
    It’s not too hard to believe, in light of the past 10 years and especially the last two, that US and Europe are in as dire straits as 1940 ….. or USA 1860!
    We and Europe are being Invaded …. Period!! The Invaders are no less dangerous than the Muslims or Hunnish Hordes from History……. and then there are the Evil Powers and Principalities within ;-(
    I quite simply don’t have any hope that Western Civilization/Christianity will survive the next 50 years. ALL indicators are “South”: Debt, Demographics, Unfunded Welfare State Liabilities, 50 Years of Political Correctness/God Removal Ops, Church Scandals, Abortion, Alien Invasion, LGBT Agenda and the godless Usual Suspects entrenched and controlling Church, Government, Academia and Media ..,… and Idiot Climate Change Bishops ;-(
    BUT!!! I believe in GOD and HIS PROMISES!!! …. So I soldier on 😉

    GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

    Liked by 7 people

    1. Thanks for your faithfulness, Crew Dog. With you on believing in God and His Promises. One of my favorite ones came through the Lips of His Own Mother and ours: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Through the Rosary which She stressed would pack a tremendous wallop of defeat to Her adversary, through Her Son – when receiving Him and adoring Him in His Eucharistic Presence – and through embracing the core message of TNRS, there is GREAT Hope in HOPE Himself!

      Liked by 4 people

  37. I spent over two hours waiting at the barber shop yesterday but fortunately I brought “God or Nothing” by Cardinal Robert Sarah. At the around the 200 page mark, his words lifted my soul and filled me with hope that the Lord will indeed prevail. His faith gave me great consolation during this time of great confusion in the Church. There are saints walking among us!

    Liked by 7 people

  38. ASOH friends,

    It is strange. No one at my work (elementary school) or even at church talks of a civil war or all the antics going on. Do you find that in your locations?

    Or do you think a normalcy bias is going on?

    Or is society so PC they dont talk of anything but community matters? Or are they avoiding TV etc. Or overwhelmed with the reality that we are now living?

    I just get the feeling folks are sleeping.

    Any thoughts? How to wake them up?

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Hi Lil’ One,

      I don’t know where in PA Ya live but most likely, as just about USA anywhere, These-Days of PC has made People of Faith and/or Conservative Leanings take the advice my Ol’ Navy Dad would often give me: “Keep Your Own Counsel”. Now!! I don’t abide by that sound advice anymore ’cause I’m pushin’ 70, my house is paid for, Sheba my Dog cares nothin’ about my political views, I doubt that my AF Retired Pay/SS is in jeopardy, I live in the Deep Red Bible Belt and my neighborhood is filled with God-n-Gun Clingin’ Good Ol’ Boys. 😉
      Kiddin’ aside 😉 You and your Family/Friends, sadly, must be careful about expressing your views if they don’t coincide with the Left Agenda. If you work in a Public School, I’m sure you must be aware of the Liberal Mindset that exists there …. even in Red States!! … The Left Thought Police are there and in any larger public/business environment … even Church!! The God News is …. Thanks in Large Part to Trump, his Deplorables and MAGA Success Stories ….. the Left Agenda/PC Dictatorship may be in collapse …. Praise God!!
      A Red Wave in 10 days will demonstrate that Political Polls and LeftStream Media projections are bogus …. and most importantly!! …. that Producer Class USA has Had-It with PC and ALL it entails.

      GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Guess who showed up on my step today pedling the socialist candidate? I doubt he missed seeing my Blessed Virgin statue and Divine Mercy Picture. He asked who I was voting for. I declined to comment. My husband who is Independent graciosly accepted the flyer for their candidate. Amazingly no listing of pilitical party on the brochure.

        I may have given too much info when I said I didnt know much about that candidate and I was surely voting.

        Why do I feel like a bullseye is now on my back? Hmmmm

        Liked by 2 people

    3. My FIL spent part of the weekend with us. He is an intelligent man and served as a cryptographer in the military, and he was not receptive to the nature of the events unfolding. He surely is not the only one in my circle of family, friends and community who are unaware. Taking a step back, I realize that currently, even I have certain subject matter that I am admittedly not willing to take on for the time being, as I/we can only handle so much at a time. I truly believe that the Mass, the Sacraments, prayer and AG, TNRS and being ASOH are indeed the answer. Trust, do, love.
      ❤

      Liked by 4 people

  39. Hello,
    I’d like to ask for prayer for my son, age 21, as he faces a personal “Illumination of Conscience” moment…today. Thank you so much. Praying for the ASOH family.

    Liked by 9 people

  40. ✡️ It was a horrific day yesterday witnessing the evil darkness of Antisemitism. Of note is how the killer was free to voice his hatred of Jews on social media.

    Many European countries retain provisions that allow for prosecution, and in some cases imprisonment, for blasphemy offenses. According to a 2017 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms, 71 countries around the world then had laws intended to punish blasphemy, which it defines as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.”

    But here are excerpts from 2 news stories that you might find curious:

    ✝️ “Ireland has voted to remove a reference to blasphemy as a punishable offense from the country’s constitution, paving the way for repeal of a law that criminalizes public utterances judged offensive to religious sensibilities.”

    “Further referendums are likely as Ireland reassesses its socially conservative past. In addition to recommending overturning the blasphemy provision and allowing same-sex marriage, the country ended its ban on abortion in 2018.”

    meanwhile….

    ☪️ “The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that freedom of speech does not extend to include defaming the prophet of Islam. The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled that insulting Islamic prophet Muhammad “goes beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate” and “could stir up prejudice and put at risk religious peace. The ECHR said the Austrian court’s decision “served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace.”

    Sources: WSJ and FoxNews.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Seems like different strokes for different religions, doesn’t it, Patrick? I found some interesting information on the slippery slope that is Euthanasia published by the National Catholic Register;

      An excerpt from an article on the expansion of Euthanasia in Canada, Belgium, and Holland;

      “In Canada, where public health is strained to the breaking point, emergency rooms are crowded and people wait months to be assigned a general practioner in some areas, public health money is likely to influence end-of-life care decisions.

      The case of Roger Foley, a 42-year-old man with a chronic degenerative disease who released shocking audio this summer of hospital staff pressuring him to choose assisted suicide or pay up to $1,800 per day to be cared for in the hospital, highlights the hidden crisis.

      “Health-care resources are limited, which means that exclusionary choices have to be made,” Eike-Henner Kluge, a professor of philosophy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, said in a recent euthanasia presentation.

      Kluge was a champion of euthanasia and abortion on demand back into the 1990s. Now, he told the Register, “any law that discriminates against younger individuals who suffer from the same conditions as adults violates the equality-and-justice principles.”

      Belgium and the Netherlands

      In that sense, Canada is swiftly moving in the direction of Belgium and the Netherlands, the first countries to legalize euthanasia in 2002. Belgium moved to remove all barriers to euthanizing children in 2014. The country’s care record includes giving lethal injections to a woman after a “botched” sex-change surgery failed to correct her gender-identity disorder and to identical twin brothers in their 40s who were told they had a condition that would make them go blind.

      In the neighboring Netherlands, euthanasia victims include a woman in her 20s who had been sexually abused, a woman with ringing in her ears, a 41-year-old alcoholic and an Alzheimer’s patient who was slipped a drug in her coffee and held down to be euthanized when she fought back and kicked the doctor.

      Critics of the systems in Europe say that they are driven and self-policed by champions of suicide rights like Dr. Wim Distelmans, an activist, palliative-care specialist and professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel who also is on a select panel of specialists that oversee Belgium’s euthanasia law — where not a single case among the 6,945 registered deaths by euthanasia in Belgium between 2002 and 2012 was investigated.

      The same sort of system appears to be emerging in Canada, where individuals like Shaul simultaneously comment on the law, implement the law in practice, and sit on panels advising the government on policy regarding the law.”

      Dave
      3 minute video of Roger Foley being pressured to select euthanasia:

      https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/chronically-ill-man-releases-audio-of-hospital-staff-offering-assisted-death-1.4038841

      http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/steep-and-icy-slope-toronto-hospital-eyes-euthanizing-kids-without-parental

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Patrick and Dave, thanks for these eye-opening posts, appalling though they may be; I must have
        been living in la la land. Need to renew our WSJ and NCR sub pronto.

        Liked by 4 people

          2. Omgosh, Patrick-I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But it did thwart my snack attack, so at least some good came out of that visual.

            Liked by 2 people

      3. Downright Orwellian…absolutely terrifying, Dr. Dave.

        Here’s something relevant. It’s in a closing section in my leadership paper. Mind you, this was submitted to a radical Leftist professor who in another class censored my voice by deleting posts I wrote in group discussion that criticized Obamacare and socialized medicine which were the assigned topics. Glad I didn’t make a big deal about his outrageous action then because today I need to pass this paper to avoid repeating an outdated class. My 10 pages are actually worth a few thousand dollars as I await his “just” grade!

        The topic here is courage in leadership:

        “On a personal note, I anticipate I will face pressure and possible legal action from patients or administrators because of certain practices that are morally objectionable. For example, I will not prescribe or administer contraceptives unless a pregnancy could endanger the life of the woman. I will not refer a woman to another provider for contraception or abortion (unless it is medically necessary). I will not administer or provide life-ending medications to terminally ill patients, nor refer them to those who provide such services. My stance on these matters may place me in a position contrary to accepted practices and the wishes of others, but I must courageously hold fast to my moral beliefs. The question I often contemplate, particularly if my job will be at risk, is: Will I have the courage when the time comes?”…

        So your post, Dr. Dave, makes me wonder what will I do if the law mandates me to violate my morals? I guess I’ll have to leave medicine.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Patrick Daniel– respectfully, I would like to say that contraception and abortion are never acceptable, even if pregnancy could endanger the life of a woman, or it is deemed “medically necessary”. My daughter has a medical condition that was made radically more acute by her last pregnancy, which resulted in the most amazing and fabulous now 4 year old (as every grandchild is, of course!). She is only 42 now, but does not employ birth control in spite of the fact that another pregnancy could leave her extremely disabled. My Mom always said, “There’s no right way to do a wrong thing”. Even referring a patient to another doctor for birth control or abortion is not acceptable. Just saying– this is my understanding of our Church’s teachings on these matters. Hope I am not out of line. God bless!

          Liked by 4 people

      4. Back in 2006, I was doing two Congressional campaigns – the only time I ever did two big ones simultaneously. I assigned the research on most subjects, but there were two issues which I handled entirely myself. The first was energy and the second, health care. On health care, I was astonished that every nation that had nationalized health care had MUCH poorer health care than in the United States (In England’s vaunted system, you were 19 times more likely to die if you got into the hospital than you were in the United States at the time.) EVERY single one of them denied care in some critical cases – and some of them even had laws making you a criminal if you sought care outside the system – even if they had decided you must die. I loved it when Sarah Palin came up with the line about “death panels.” It is exactly what nationalized medicine relies on. In Canada, some patients had wait times of over two years for routine procedures that would be scheduled within a week in the States. Many patients died during the wait. Canada thinks itself very clever for using the soft death panel of delay.

        The horrifying reality was that in every country that had nationalized medicine, the quality of care was much worse (often by orders of magnitude) than in the States – and you were much more likely to die from routine easily manageable diseases. Every one of them had death panels. Every one of them had almost NO innovation – having to rely on poaching innovation from the States instead. Like every socialist promise of equality, the reality is they only deliver equality of misery and death. It isn’t about your health; it is about their power. When, before Obamacare was implemented, the Premier of Nova Scotia had to have heart surgery, he chose to come to the United States for it. Questioned by a hostile Canadian press who wanted to know why he snubbed their “free” health service to get care in America, he gave one of the greatest answers I ever heard on the subject. “I want to live,” he said.

        Liked by 2 people

  41. Unrelated to this specific post, but I was forwarded this from a friend. Hope that you find it funny too!

    Subject: THE NUN & THE CAB DRIVER
    A cab driver picks up a Nun. She gets into the cab, and notices that the VERY handsome cab driver won’t stop staring at her. She asks him why he is staring.

    He replies: “I have a question to ask, but I don’t want to offend you.”

    She answers, “My son, you cannot offend me. When you’re as old as I am and have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I’m sure that there’s nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive.”

    “Well, I’ve always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me.”

    She responds, “Well, let’s see what we can do about that…
    1) You have to be single and
    2) You must be Catholic.”

    The cab driver is very excited and says, “Yes, I’m single and Catholic!”

    “OK” the nun says. “Pull into the next alley.”

    The nun fulfills his fantasy with a kiss that would make a hooker blush. But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying.

    “My dear child,” said the nun, “why are you crying?”

    “Forgive me, but I’ve sinned. I lied and I must confess, I’m married and I’m Jewish.”

    The nun says, “That’s OK. My name is Kevin and I’m going to a Halloween party!”

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Philippians 4:8
      And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

      Liked by 7 people

        1. Meh! Oh man, do I loathe this format. It’s illogical, cumbersome, and if I ever write for a peer-reviewed journal, APA is useless to me. Can someone explain why nurses must follow the American Psychological Association format? We are not a social science. It drives me crazy!

          Once I graduate, Doug, I will never, EVER use APA again. (Do I sound annoyed?) Meh! 😡

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Agreed. Though i used ‘Endnote 8’ a software program for research papers. The program automatically fit every source in its proper APA style. It saved me hours (days) of painstaking and gruelling editing.

            Liked by 2 people

          2. APA is a social experiment gone bad. It has been hijacked by the LGBTQ left and makes politically motivated policies rather than use psychology in an appropriate way with faith to bring true healing.

            Liked by 3 people

  42. Thank you DD for my first laugh out loud today! We sure need humor!

    I’m afraid I must change the subject and ask you wonderful people, once again, for a prayer. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Glenn, my husband’s brother, who died yesterday. I offered my Sunday Mass for him and trust in God’s mercy. Seems as though the Lord is taking a lot of people who might not live through certain events to come. God bless you all!

    Liked by 3 people

    3. In my close circle of friends there have been 5 deaths in the past couple of weeks. I ponder the scripture about the living envying the dead. I have also been thinking about the same thing-that they wouldn’t make it through what is coming up and better to have passed now. Then I question how is it that I am still alive.
      In my lifetime I have had 9 brushes of not making it. Other people who have had the same kind of experiences have not made it. In the last one, the three of us in our carpool had a deer jump up and smash the windshield. The highway patrol officer stated with what he saw and his experience with that type of accident there should have been a fatality. The thing is we had just finished praying as we did every morning on the way to work, when the deer collided with our windshield.
      Our ways are definitely not His ways!

      Liked by 3 people

        1. For what it is worth I have to teach my 4th and 5th graders about citing their sources. I know it isn’t the greatest but we use several easybib.com, and for extensions on Chrome there is Apogee, Ottobib, and an easybib extension. In my day, we had to learn every dot comma and quotations. So much easier.

          Liked by 1 person

  43. Judicial Watch and native Spanish speakers from the USA walked with the river of humanity currently marching north……They did real investigative reporting.
    They found that 98 per cent of the marchers are males from 14 to 45. Many have MS 13 tattoos. One of the reporters is married to a Honduran woman from the town where the crowd first organized. She took a look at the men on cameras and said that many are a bad lot. She recognized them as gang members…. Not all are from Central America. There are Cubans, people from Bangladesh, Congo and other places. (Bangladesh produces many terrorists). When the cameras come, the 2 percent who are women and children are pushed to the front. Also, when the police or military approach, the women and children are pushed to the front like human shields. They all have well rehearsed answers about how all of this came to be….”a friend told them about it”. They are well organized and there are leaders within the group that lead them to rest stops, water, food, etc. There is definitely funding here and the march comes at a time when Central Americans usually do not try to move north (because it is getting colder). So the timing has seemed very unusual to Central American police and government officials. Human traffickers were found among the groups and, thankfully, arrested. Young girls were taken to safe houses for assistance.

    This interview is about 30 minutes and worth your time.

    JUDICIALWATCH.ORG
    Inside Judicial Watch: What the Mainstream Media WON’T Tell You About The Migrant Caravan Crisis – Judicial Watch
    In this episode of “Inside Judicial Watch,” JW Director of Investigations & Research Chris Farrell discusses his recent trip to Central America investigating the migrant caravan heading to the United States–and what the mainstream media is not telling you about it.

    Liked by 3 people

Comments are closed.

Published by charliej373

Charlie Johnston is a former newspaper editor, radio talk show host and political consultant. From Feb. 11, 2011 to Aug. 21, 2012, he walked 3,200 miles across the country, sleeping in the woods, meeting people and praying as he went. He writes on cultural, global and political issues from an orthodox Catholic perspective. He emphasizes that we find God most surely through the ordinary, doing the little things we should with faith and fidelity. His constant refrain is that, to live real joy, we must acknowledge God, take the next right step, and be a sign of hope to those around us. He lives in the Archdiocese of Denver in the United States.