Dangerous, Creeping Globalism in the World and in the Church

NOVEMBER 13, 2020 BY R. THOMAS RICHARD, PHD 3 COMMENTS

Part One: The Crisis Grows Closer

This is a very dangerous age we live in. The danger is existential, because the forces at work today ultimately threaten the temporal lives of us all, so boldly and arrogantly do they deny and insult God, and human nature, and the foundations of true virtue and goodness. The enemy of God and man has been at work since the very beginning, in the Garden, of course. The “Tower of Babel” (Gen. 11) was his initial drive for a global city of all mankind working together with one purpose, a “brotherhood,” a “fellowship,” but it was an impossible contradiction because it was apart from God. Indeed it was a reach of man to become “god” unto himself. That is what was then, and it has not changed. Man today is seeking and driving and working toward “a new world order” of one government, embraced by one common religion formed by all religions in mutual accord with one common belief system, all ruled by an elite ruling class headed of course by one, an elite few who know better than the masses of common men, what is good for them and what is best for all, or so they actually believe.

Servants, whether knowing or unknowing, of the enemy today have a new, cleaned-up banner to gather under: “the progressives.” There are progressives in Western governments today, and in Western Christian churches, including the Catholic Church. Progressives are found at all levels of secular government and politics, and at all levels of the Church — our Catholic Church. Progressives’ concerns are temporal, not eternal; material and natural, not spiritual and supernatural; guided not by divine revelation and the indwelling Holy Spirit, but by human reasoning, human learning, human ambitions, cultural formation and finally, the “political correctness” decided by the elite few for their godless self-benefit.

This essay is an attempt to express, as I see it, this grave problem — and to point to the only solution that is true: to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Crisis in the Secular World

Bishop Athanasius Schneider describes the general ideological problem the whole world is facing very well, in his book Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age. He is asked by his interviewer, and he answers:

Montagna: Which ideological and political powers in the current historical moment do you consider the most dangerous for Christianity?

Bp. Schneider: There is ever more evidence of the establishment of a One World Government by the United Nations and ultimately by powerful Masonic organizations, which act behind the scenes in order politically to implement the “novus ordo saeculorum,” the New World Order, the atheist One World Government. This One World Government reveals a clear ideological program which is essentially atheist, materialist, anti-Christian, and even blasphemous, with the totalitarian imposition of abortion “rights,” homosexual indoctrination, the climate change myth and the destruction of national identities through events like the “The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration,” or the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum of Davos, for instance. In its program, the latter promotes the “global order” — as they call it — of “gender equality” under the acronym of “LGBT.”

We know from recent history that interference and manipulation of language is part of the repertoire of authoritarian regimes. Such a recognizably Masonic and atheistic One World Government is in the process of realizing the final Way of the Marxist-Communist plan. Against this real danger of a neo-Marxist and Masonic One World Government, those social and political organizations which have not yet been brought into line with the uniform thinking of the neo-Marxist and Masonic World Ideology, and have therefore retained their freedom of thought and action, should ring the alarm and start to organize a coalition of legitimate resistance, comprising all people with common sense in both East and West and also in Africa and South Asia. The world urgently needs heroic and noble resistance fighters against the world dictatorship which enslaves people through the absurdity of gender ideology, the moral corruption of innocent children, and the genocide of unborn children.1

Crisis in the Religious World, Even the Catholic Church

Quoting Bishop Fulton Sheen, Bishop Schneider points to the foreseen infiltration of this very ideology into religions of the world, including even our Catholic Church. Bp. Schneider continues:2

When Christ was crucified, there remained only one faithful Apostle at His side, St. John, together with Our Lady and the other holy women. From the circumstances of Christ’s Passion, we can better understand the spiritual and even mystical sense of the suffering of Christ’s Bride, the Church. The current crisis within the Church represents the deepest form of suffering, since the Church is now persecuted, scourged, stripped, and derided not by her enemies but to a large extent by her Shepherds, by many of those who are successors of the Apostles, by many traitors in the clerical ranks who are the new Judases.

Here I cannot fail to quote the following words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which he wrote in 1948 and which are strikingly relevant and significant for the current situation:

“[Satan] will set up a Counter-church, which will be the ape of the Church. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content…. The False Prophet will have a religion without a cross. A religion without a world to come. A religion to destroy religions. There will be a counterfeit Church. Christ’s Church will be one, and the False Prophet will create the other. The false Church will be worldly, ecumenical, and global. It will be a loose federation of churches and religions, forming some type of global association, a world parliament of Churches. It will be emptied of all divine content; it will be the mystical body of the Antichrist. The Mystical Body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot, and he will be the False Prophet. Satan will recruit him from our bishops.”3

We Catholics have a very special responsibility – to be, to remain, faithful! The responsibility is laid upon the souls of all the baptized, clergy and laity, to remain faithful to our Lord, and to the Holy Faith He has entrusted to us! Cardinal Robert Sarah, faithful Bishop and Cardinal in the Church, serving now in the Vatican, co-authored a book recently of the dangers we face, with co-author Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The cardinal was interviewed concerning their book, by Edward Pentin:

Pentin: Your Eminence, why did you want to write this book?

Sarah: Because the Christian priesthood is in mortal danger! It’s going through a major crisis.

The discovery of the great number of sexual abuses committed by priests, and even bishops, is an indisputable symptom of this. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had already spoken out strongly on this subject. But then his thinking was distorted and ignored. Just like today, attempts have been made to silence him. And like today, diversionary maneuvers were mounted to divert attention from his prophetic message. Yet I am convinced that he has told us the essential — what no one wants to hear. He has shown that at the root of the abuses committed by clerics, there is a deep flaw in their formation. The priest is a man set apart for the service of God and the Church. He is a consecrated person. His whole life is set apart for God. And yet they wanted to desacralize priestly life. They wanted to trivialize it, to render it profane, to secularize it. They wanted to make the priest a man like any other. Some priests were formed without putting God, prayer, the celebration of Mass, the ardent search for holiness at the center of their lives.

As Benedict XVI said, “Why has pedophilia reached such proportions? In the final analysis, the reason is the absence of God. It is only where Faith no longer determines man’s actions that such crimes are possible.”

Pentin: Precisely how poor has this formation been that you mention, and what have been the effects?

Sarah: Priests have been formed without teaching them that God is the only point of support for their lives, without making them experience that their lives only have meaning through God and for him. Deprived of God, they were left with nothing but power. Some have fallen into the diabolical logic of abuse of authority and sexual crimes. If a priest doesn’t daily experience he is only an instrument in God’s hands, if he doesn’t stand constantly before God to serve him with all his heart, then he risks becoming intoxicated with a sense of power. If a priest’s life is not a consecrated life, then he is in great danger of illusion and diversion.4

The world is in crisis and is approaching an even deeper one. The world needs, by God’s design, His supernatural and saving light in order for humanity to find truth! Thus, He created and formed His Church. His light was intended to shine in the world through His Church; the Church was sent to be His witness to the one Truth we human persons need: Christ Jesus, Son of the only God.

But the Church now, in our day, is stumbling. What are we to do?

Part Two: What Are We To Do?

So what are we to do, Catholic laity and clergy? Laity and clergy, at all levels, must first recognize that a real, grave, urgent crisis has come upon us. As citizens of a nation and as members of His Church, we must become alert and aware of the creeping intrusion of “progressivism” in our ranks. False leaders would guide us away from common sense, confusing our natural human rights, blurring the assurances of baptismal grace and the traditional teachings of our Church — our Sacred Tradition. Some would guide us away from holiness and light and toward ever-darkening ambiguity and imprecision, smearing our understanding by spreading shades of gray where simple clarity once prevailed — the clarity of Truth passed on to us from the beginning. What to do? Cardinal Sarah was asked for his solution:5

Diat: You paint a very somber picture of the state of the world and of the Church. How can we pave the way for a renewal? What program would you propose following?

Card. Sarah: I have no program. When you have a program, it is because you want to achieve a human project. The Church is not an institution that we have to achieve or fashion with our ideas. It is simply necessary to receive from God what he wants to give us. John Paul II already warned us against this tendency to develop Church programs in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte:

“It is not therefore a matter of inventing a ‘new program.’ The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever. Ultimately, it has its centre in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem. This is a program which does not change with shifts of times and cultures, even though it takes account of time and culture for the sake of true dialogue and effective communication. This program for all times is our program for the Third Millennium.”

Make Disciples!

The way forward really is that simple. We the Church must begin anew to do what Christians have been called to do from the beginning — first become disciples, then, in time, make disciples. First of all, in the formation of priests, and deacons, and bishops, we the Church must make disciples of them. First of all, in the formation and life of the laity in our parishes, we the Church must make disciples of them all. And how can that be done with the laity, if it is not done first with the priests? We the Church must reform the formation of the clergy! It is not enough to teach them how to act out the motions, do the rituals, use the language and explain the doctrines. They must be formed and conformed within, in their interior lives, in their hearts, as men in the image of Christ the High Priest.

This sounds so obvious; how could it be overlooked? But because it is so obvious, no one has taken it seriously for a very long time. Cardinal Sarah said of the formation of priests in the recent past, “Some priests were formed without putting God, prayer, the celebration of Mass, the ardent search for holiness at the center of their lives.” And the result? “Deprived of God, they were left with nothing but power. Some have fallen into the diabolical logic of abuse of authority and sexual crimes.”

Such men as these, left “with nothing but power,” having no vibrant supernatural life within them, define the modern aberration of clericalism. Clericalists are ordained men who are not priests and pastors but professional “hired hands,” managers, CEOs of religious institutions and organizations — not shepherds of His sheep, not servants of the servants of God. They love the pomp and ceremony with themselves as the center of attention, they love the titles and deference paid to them, and the fact that theirs is the last word in any question or conversation of decision. Such men are the kind who love to rule for the sake of ruling; thus, when they are given authority to rule over a parish or a diocese or more, they are happy not to serve but to exercise power. And very sadly, they abuse the power to their own advantage, and continue to pursue their carnal ambitions, having no real, self-sacrificial care for those placed under their rule. Thus, Benedict XVI sees the roots of the modern crisis of homosexual abuse of those under their power: “Why has pedophilia reached such proportions? In the final analysis, the reason is the absence of God. It is only where Faith no longer determines man’s actions that such crimes are possible.”

Consequences of an absence of God in the hearts of some Catholic clergy are carried into all the actions and ministries of these men. Their homilies and teachings, counseling and pastoral planning, administration of the sacraments — all that they do is thin and hollow, lacking in spiritual unction and in the all-important supernatural dimension which is the very essence of all things of God. A man can learn to perform duties, but to bring God into those duties requires God’s gift of Himself to the man, and the man’s reception of God’s Presence and vital grace, habitually. Men can be trained and can learn to deal with supernaturalrealities merely on the natural level, but the result is shallow and barren. To be formed, to embrace and walk in authentic supernatural realities requires — demands — the supernatural virtues and gifts given by the Holy Spirit, abiding alive and active in the man.

Spiritual Formation for Formators

Spiritual formation, and an acceptable level of maturation in the Faith, and in the interior life of prayer, is urgently needed today among many of our priests, our deacons, our bishops and our pope. Only then can they be capable of leading and teaching others to authentically become disciples. Only men so grounded, mature, experienced in the spiritual life can lead parishes, dioceses and the whole Church to our common vocation to holiness. Pope St. John Paul II wrote, in anticipation of the coming millennium:

First of all, I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness. . . .

It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the “universal call to holiness.” The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church. The rediscovery of the Church as “mystery,” or as a people “gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” (ref. 15) was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church’s “holiness,” understood in the basic sense of belonging to him who is in essence the Holy One, the “thrice Holy” (cf. Isa 6:3). To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (cf. Eph 5:25-26). This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized.

But the gift in turn becomes a task, which must shape the whole of Christian life: “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Th 4:3). It is a duty which concerns not only certain Christians: “All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.”6

Traditional Catholic spirituality gives us a name to characterize those we need, urgently, among our clergy and laity today who could lead and guide us all toward this common call to holiness: we need men and women illuminated in the Holy Spirit. We need Catholic leaders and teachers who are in “the Illuminative Way.” Spiritual theology describes the three stages, or ages, or “ways” of the interior life of God in the souls of believers: those in the Beginners or Purgative Way, those in the Progressing or Illuminative Way, and those in the Perfect or Unitive Way.

The religious life of the beginner in the Purgative Way is one confined to what we can do (with the ordinary graces of Baptism) to grow toward God; our prayer life includes first formula prayers and spontaneous spoken prayers, which is intended to expand into discursive meditation or mental prayer, which is intended to develop into a growing simplification of such ascetical prayers, to what is called the prayer of simplicity — the “highest form” of ascetical prayer — sometimes also called “acquired contemplation.” This first beginning Way appears to characterize the usual prayer life of many if not most Catholics, laity and clergy, excluding (I hope) those in religious orders who have progressed to infused contemplation (a higher form of prayer integral to the journey to holiness).

If the generous soul is graced by God to grow beyond ascetical prayer and into mystical prayer of the Illuminative Way, spiritual life becomes radically different – and more and more so, if and as the soul more generously cooperates with God in these new graces given him here. In the Illuminative Way, in the prayer of infused contemplation, God — not the man — is the primary and active agent. The man must become not “passive” but an active responder and cooperator. This Way is first entered in darkness and trial, the Dark Night of the Senses. But after persevering through this darkness, the dawn brings new and supernatural lights and virtues and intimacy with the Lord, and the Blessed Presence of the Holy Spirit. Here, the disciple’s walk enters into the supernatural dimension, and the supernatural realities of the Faith become illuminated in clarities impossible to fully describe to those not yet having experienced it. The final Stage, the Unitive Way, ought to be our goal! Discussion of that blessed place is beyond the scope of this essay.

Here, in the Illuminative Way, is found the present and the abiding Holy Spirit, with His gifts, and His guidance, and His supernatural light and life. This describes a needed qualification to possess, for a teacher or formator of Catholic clergy or laity who are all called to strive for holiness: persons come into the Illuminative Way of the interior life. We the Church cannot continue to settle for less, in the teachers and formators of clergy and laity. Teachers cannot give what they do not have. Such teachers cannot even understand what they do not have and many of such teachers (likely) have never even heard of these things! Carnal, natural men cannot form anyone into the supernatural reality of holiness. Such a condition in the Church, where the blind are leading the blind, can only spiral down from worse to worse, and end badly.

The Church needs to recognize the affliction of our times, and begin to take the danger seriously. If we will begin, we can progress; if we head toward the light, we can begin to see. If we listen to our Tradition, and to the saints, and to our Lord! we can begin to correct a long-traveled path to mediocrity, and return to God His due: our humble hearts, our willing souls, our humble discipleship in His Truth.

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., wrote beautifully of the Illuminative Way, including the very relevant place that such believers, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, have in the apostolate of the Church. Where Beginners may be hard to recruit and slow to enter the rightful works and ministry of a parish, those in the Illuminative Way are seeking with zeal to work the works of the One who sent them, in His Church:

Consequently, good works, even monumental ones, become the hallmark of the illuminative way. Dom Chautard in The Soul of the Apostolate suggests that the effectiveness of the Church’s apostolate is directly related to the number of Christians who have entered the illuminative way.

Charity, creativity, zeal are no longer seen as responsibilities as they had been in the last movements of the purgative way. They are a response that brings some peace and balance to one who has begun to understand St. Francis when, in tears, he went banging on the doors of Assisi, rousing the sleeping townsfolk with his cry: “Love is not loved.”

The prayer life of those in the illuminative way is much changed. It flows like a God-given spring from the earth rather than through the valves and pumps of a human-made fountain, says St. Teresa. It has a gentle joy and release in it. God is everywhere. Christ shows Himself in the good and the beautiful and His Cross is seen in the ugly and the terrifying. The mind is filled with images; the heart greatly overflows and is set on fire. Techniques are discarded, they become “excess baggage” because He is there.

The Christian in the illuminative way lives on Scripture and is fed on the writings of the saints. Reverence and awe are growing in his inner life and the soul is now seen not so much as a shadow being but as the inner place where the Trinity abides in glory. The liturgy of the Church on earth is a vital link with the heavenly liturgy for which one longs. The moral life of the individual is epitomized by Our Lady whose prayerful life becomes the model of response. An arc of flame reaches from earth to heaven and back again. Although one suffers, at times intensely, for the Church, for the human race, for the young, the old, and the dying, the pain is at least in some way united with the Incarnate Word in the mystery of divine love.

As the illuminative way proceeds, a silence and calm envelop the individual. This is reflected mostly in prayer — “the prayer of quiet” — wherein listening brings more answers than speaking.7

A specific blessing that those in the Illuminative Way can bring to the Church, and a parish, is a fervent and true devotion to Mary, our mother in Christ. The increase and deepening of Marian devotion among these believers, is a crucial need in the Church in our time — a need which is supernaturally provided in the light of the Illuminative Way. Mary is greatly neglected, even marginalized, in many parishes today. This is a profound poverty in the heart of today’s Church, a poverty that effects every aspect of the Church: her interior life of prayer, her evangelistic outreach (where one exists), her programs and parish initiatives, her worship, everything in the parish. She is our Mother in Christ! And the family without the mother is far from God’s intention. Pope St. John Paul II in an address to the Legion of Mary on Oct. 30, 1982, said:

“Where the Mother is, there too is the Son. When one moves away from the Mother, sooner or later he ends up keeping distant from the Son as well. It is no wonder that today, in various sectors of secularised society, we note a widespread crisis of faith in God, preceded by a drop in devotion to the Virgin Mother.”8

Thus the significance of Mary’s presence in the Church — or her absence — in the hearts of Catholics and in the apostolate, is immense. I pointed this out, also, in my book, The Ordinary Path to Holiness:9

The relationship of a Christian with Jesus Christ changes radically in the illuminative stage: he comes to know the Risen Lord! There is another radical change which often occurs in this stage, in the relationship of the Christian with Mary. This is a subject worthy of much attention, but for now we can note that in the illuminative stage, Mary also is known in a new and more intimate way. From the foot of the cross the words of Jesus become piercing and personal. Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. (John 19:27) The personal experience of the cross, which ushers in the illuminative stage and relationship with the Risen Christ, reveals the great dignity of Mary. Before the cross, she was the mother of Jesus, certainly worthy of respect and love. But in the illuminative stage a previously hidden glory begins to emanate from this woman. She is my mother! She is the Mother of all the Church! And I take her into my “own home.”

Conclusion

The world needs the Church — and the Church needs her Lord, and all that her Lord entrusted to her. We need our Mother. We need the Sacraments. We need all that He revealed, and all that has been authentically developed through the work of the Spirit. We need the spiritual theology discerned through the Spirit by the holy saints. Through His gifts, we need to live in His grace.

We cannot live with one foot in the godless secular culture, and one foot on the threshold of His Church! We cannot live in the contradiction of a Church without supernatural dimension, without mystical prayer, without the active Presence of the Holy Spirit — a mere natural organization of two-dimensional human fellowship, perhaps with social good works, using the language of things supernatural, but moved in natural ways for natural ends. No man can serve two masters, nor continue in two minds and with two hearts. Duplicity is deadly — fatal — for persons called into the supernatural truth and life of the only true God. Church, repent! While it is still day, return to your Lord! It’s not dark yet, but we are getting there. The answer to all the dangers of these days is Christ in the life and power of His Holy Spirit.

https://www.hprweb.com/2020/11/dangerous-creeping-globalism-in-the-world-and-in-the-church/

Our Lady of Good Help and the Peshtigo Fire Miracles: An American Story

By Rex Teodosio

On December 8, 2010, Bishop Ricken gave approval to the 1859 apparitions of Our Lady to Sr. Adele Brise, making these apparitions the first ever to be approved in the United States. An essential part of the approval dealt with the Peshtigo Fire miracle cited by the bishop in his declaration. It is impossible to gauge how incredible this miracle was without understanding the intensity of the Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

Armed with a book called, The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account, by Father Peter Pernin, I and a fellow America Needs Fatima custodian traced the footsteps of the priest as he recounts his amazing experience, his unbelievable survival and his witness of not just one but two Peshtigo Fire miracles.

Father Peter Pernin and His Missions
Father Peter Pernin was the parish priest of the cities of Peshtigo and Marinette, both in Wisconsin, and Cedar River, Michigan. Peshtigo was a small growing community due to a logging company and other enterprises including a factory producing tubs and buckets. The population of Peshtigo was about 2,000 souls. In addition to this population, the work brought in numerous temporary workers. On October 7, 1871, the day before the fire, Father Pernin was scheduled to go to Cedar River by steamboat which was roughly 25 miles north of Marinette along the shore. It never came. In reality, it did pass by the wharf but owing to the dense smoke about the dock area, the captain decided it was too dangerous to make the stop. It was the first sign of divine intervention since he would have been stranded in Cedar River and perished in the fire with the entire city the following day. He returned to Peshtigo that evening.

The day the fire began was a Sunday and Father Pernin was intent on proceeding to Marinette by horseback to celebrate the Mass as was customary.
The Catholics in Peshtigo argued forcefully that it was too dangerous and he conceded to stay. Much smoke and the sound of crackling continued to be seen and heard from a distance.

Premonition of the Calamity
Up until the early evening of the 8th, Father Pernin did not feel compelled to prepare for a calamity. There was danger in the air and everyone felt it. However, there were monitors assigned to watch over the region for dangers of forest fire. They were entrusted to warn the city of any impending danger. Since no warning had come, Father Pernin felt that everyone’s feelings of dread, including his, were irrational.

He only felt the first premonition of a great danger at around 8:00 in the evening. He was walking with his neighbor on her land when suddenly “some old trunks of trees blaze out though without seeing about them any tokens of cinder or spark, just as if the wind had been a breath of fire, capable of kindling them into a flame by its mere contact.” The wind had been faltering until then, blowing at one moment, abating on the next, then suddenly gusting. Off to the west, they saw “a dense cloud of smoke over-hanging the earth, a vivid red reflection of immense extent, and then suddenly struck on my ear, strangely audible in the preternatural silence reigning around, a distant roaring, yet muffled sound, announcing that the elements were in commotion somewhere.”
Father Pernin made up his mind. A great calamity is coming. It was time to prepare for the worst. Little did he know how providential that decision was.

Preparation for the Calamity
At about half past eight, he freed his horse, judging that it was the best he could do for him. He then dug a six-foot-deep trench and buried his chest, the church’s books and precious belongings in it.

His neighbor, Mrs. Tyler, who was hosting a party, approached him and asked, “Father, do you think there is any danger?” “I do not know,” he replied, “but I have unpleasant presentiments, and feel myself impelled to prepare for trouble.” “But, if a fire breaks out, Father, what are we to do?” “In that case, Madam, seek the river at once.” Mrs. Tyler and her family followed the priest’s instruction and were saved. All of Mrs. Tyler’s party guests, except two, perished.

The Tabernacle
Father Pernin then turned his attention to saving the Blessed Sacrament. It was shortly past 9:00 and the wind had picked up. The redness in the sky deepened. The roaring sound seemed to be almost upon him. Even when surrounded by grave danger, he never let the Blessed Sacrament out of his mind. “Object of all objects,” Father Pernin wrote, “precious, priceless, especially in the eyes of a priest.” The calamity seemed about to fall on him. In his haste, he dropped the key to the tabernacle. So he decided to take the tabernacle on his hand cart. He exited the church and immediately a strong gust of wind began blowing with the strength of a hurricane clearing away the gate, the planks and fencing from his path. All he had to do now was to make it to the river.

The Struggle to Make It to Safety
The wind was so strong it pushed him against the building across the street. He struggled to stay on his feet. He tripped several times on his way to the river. Once, it was over a mother and a daughter who had succumbed to the fire. Another time, he lost his balance due to the wind. When trying to get back on his feet, he felt a horse nuzzle his shoulder. It was his own horse, trembling from fear. Pull as he might, the horse never budged. It stayed frozen in its spot only to be found some days later devoured by the fire.
He was still a few blocks away from the bridge. “The air was no longer fit to breathe, full as it was of sand, dust, ashes, cinders, sparks, smoke and fire.” The bridge was mess of people fleeing. Those from the east side thought it was safer on the west. Those from the west thought it safe on the east. Each side pushed through the other. There were “a thousand discordant deafening noises” all about: “…the neighing of horses, falling of chimneys, crashing of uprooted trees, roaring and whistling of the wind, crackling of fire as it ran with lightning-like rapidity from house to house.” Father Pernin noted that all matter of sounds could be heard with the exception of the human voice. “People seemed stricken dumb by terror,” he wrote. “They jostled each other without exchanging look, word, or counsel. The silence of the tomb reigned among the living; nature alone lifted up its voice and spoke.” And spoke it did in a spectacular fashion.
Father Pernin pushed the wagon containing the tabernacle into the river as much as he dared. It was made of wood. It was at high risk of catching fire, but he could not push it deeper in the river. The tabernacle was not waterproof. To submerge it entirely in water would also submerge the Blessed Sacrament. It was the best he could do.

He moved upstream where he awaited his fate. People lined both banks of the river “as far as the eye could see.” They survived the night by being partially immersed in the water and constantly splashing water over their heads.

The Intensity of the Fire
The river where Father Pernin waded was about 400 feet wide. The air was full of flames which darted back and forth across the span of the river all night long. Clothing and quilt, used as coverings, would burst into flames if the people neglected to splash water over them. “The river was bright,” he wrote, “brighter than by day.” It was painful to expose head or hand above the water. He looked around him and “saw nothing but flames; houses, trees, and the air itself were on fire…above my head, as far as the eye could reach into space, alas! Too brilliantly lighted, I saw nothing but immense volumes of flames covering the firmament, clouds driven wildly hither and thither by the fierce power of the tempest.”
Were one to describe the firestorm of hell, this description must necessarily be a point of reference. No adjective best defines this scene other than infernal.
After several hours, as Father Pernin ventured to get out of the water to check the temperature, his shoulders scarcely out of the water, someone shouted, “Father, beware, you are on fire!”

A lady who remained close to him asked, “Father, do you not think this is the end of the world?” “I do not think so,” he replied, “but if other countries are burned as ours seems to have been, the end of the world, at least for us, must be at hand.”

They stood in the cold waters of the river for about five and a half hours.
The aftermath gave more indication of the intensity of the conflagration. Many buildings, including the church, were burned to the ground. When the priest retrieved his vestments, they seemed to have been preserved by the fire. He cleared the dirt around them and tried to lift them up. They came undone. The cloth had been reduced to ash.

Father Pernin himself wrote that the intensity of the fire was such that not only did it burn the trees to the ground, it had burned the very stump of the trees. And, most unbelievable, it burned the very root system of the trees. When he placed his hand in one of these holes on the ground, his hand came away with nothing but ashes.

According to an online science website, the temperature of a bonfire can reach over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, the melting point for gold is 1,945 degrees. The burning of 1.4 million acres of forest and cyclic hurricane-strength winds must have created the perfect condition to reach at least that temperature, if not more. It is impossible to calculate the total sum of heat produced by the Great Peshtigo Fire. In about twenty-four hours, it burned 1.4 million acres of forest to the ground.

Miracle #1: The Miracle of the Tabernacle
Days later, when the good priest recovered his sight and was well enough to walk around, he returned to Peshtigo to administer to the injured, the dying and the dead. A parishioner approached him and asked; “Father, do you know what has happened to your tabernacle?” “No, what is it?” “Come quickly then, and see. Oh! Father, it is a great miracle!” At the spot where Father Pernin had left the tabernacle, he saw the wagon had fallen to its side. Doubtless it was blown over by the storm. The tabernacle, however, stood on one of the logs floating in the water.

“Everything in the vicinity of this spot had been blackened or charred by the flames: logs, trunks, boxes, nothing had escaped, yet, strange to say, there rose the tabernacle, intact in its snowy whiteness, presenting a wonderful contrast to the grimy blackness of the surrounding objects.” Father Pernin left the tabernacle there for several days for all to see. It was a testimony of the power of the Blessed Sacrament. Exposed to heat that could melt metal, this wooden tabernacle stood untouched by the infernal flames, preserved in its immaculate whiteness. Numbers came and saw. “The Catholics generally regarded the fact as a miracle, and it was spoken of near and far, attracting great attention,” he wrote.

The tabernacle can be found today either at St. Mary’s Church or in the Fire Museum in Peshtigo.

Miracle #2: The Miracle of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help
Weeks after the fire, Father Pernin heard of an incredible account of a shrine which had been preserved from the fire. He had seen what devastation the fire had wrought in Peshtigo. It seemed improbable that a chapel, a schoolhouse and the property found in the middle of the forest could survive such a firestorm. He decided to visit it himself and see with his own eyes. This eyewitness account was written in his other book titled, The Finger of God Is There!

In 1859, Our Lady appeared to a young girl, Adele Brise (pronounced like “ice”). Her confessor counseled her to heed the apparition’s request which was to catechize children so they will know their faith and avoid punishment. There was also a call to conversion for sinners.

The girl grew to be a nun. Sister Adele suffered much persecution, but she obeyed Our Lady’s request and opened a chapel and schoolhouse on a six-acre piece of land donated for this purpose. It was the very site of Our Lady’s apparition. Twelve years later, the Peshtigo Fire threatened this small parcel of land dedicated to Our Lady. Surely, the inhabitants saw the same red glow Father Pernin described in his account. Surely, they heard the same noise that seemed like the roar of a thousand angry dragons. Surely, they felt the same premonition and the same decision to prepare for the worst. So they did. Many families took what belongings they could carry, what livestock they could drive, and went to the shrine.

It seems irrational to seek refuge from a forest fire in a wooden chapel. It seems more rational to flee, as the survivors in Peshtigo had done, to the closest body of water. After all, the waters of the bay were only 3.5 miles away. Perhaps it wasn’t physical safety they sought, but supernatural. There the faithful were on the late evening of October 8, 1871, pressing upon three simple nuns the duty to protect them from the impending calamity.

The nuns placed their trust in Our Lady. They put a statue of Our Lady on a carrier. They processed around the property praying the rosary out loud. They did not stay in the chapel. They prayed outside to confront the very danger where it threatened them. When the fire, heat and smoke became so oppressive on one side of the property, they moved to another. Despite the danger and their fear, they refused to stop praying the rosary. After hours of praying, confronting the conflagration, suddenly a downpour of rain came and doused the fire. Thus ended the Great Peshtigo Fire, the deadliest fire in American history.
This happened on the morning of October 9th, the very anniversary of Our Lady’s third apparition to Sister Adele Brise.
Father Pernin wrote in The Finger of God Is There!, “Morning's light revealed the deplorable ravages wrought by the conflagration. All the houses and fences in the neighborhood had been burned, with the exception of the school, the chapel and fence surrounding the six acres of land consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. This paling had been charred in several places, but the fire, as if it had been a sentient being, whilst consuming everything in the vicinity, the winding path surrounding the enclosure being only eight or ten feet wide, had respected this spot, sanctified by the visible presence of the Mother of God, and, it now shone cut, like an emerald island in a sea of ashes.”

With this retelling, the words of Bishop Ricken in pronouncing the authenticity of the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Help may gain new significance to many. He said: “Our Lady has lessened or relieved the burdens of the People of God, whether about financial, familial, relationship or employment matters or even through diminishing inclement and tempestuous weather. This holy place was preserved from the infamous Peshtigo Fire of 1871, when many of the faithful gathered here with Adele and prayed through the intercession of Our Lady of Good Help, with the result that the fire that devastated everything in its wake in this entire area stopped when it reached the parameters of the Shrine.” [Accents ours]

2018: Two Fatima Custodians Retrace the Footsteps of Father Pernin
Matthew Shibler, a fellow America Needs Fatima custodian, and I read Father Pernin’s book with focused interest. We compared notes and discussed conclusions. To the best of our abilities we retraced the footsteps of Father Peter Pernin. It was partially an adventure to discover where Father Pernin’s church had been and where he dug the ground to bury his chest, the church’s books and precious belongings. We crossed the same bridge he crossed, assessed where he must have stayed in the water, and where he left the wagon with the Blessed Sacrament. We stood at the banks where the Miracle of the Tabernacle may have happened and said a prayer. It was a reminder to us that even at the height of a chastisement, the impossible can happen. All the furies of hell cannot touch the Church symbolized by the tabernacle, which, of course, is understood by Catholics as the tent or abode of God.
We followed his footsteps partially, too, as a pilgrimage. We stood on the grounds where the faithful prayed their rosary procession. This is the ground where the three little nuns armed with nothing but their beads and a statue of Our Lady faced the infernal storm that consumed 1.4 million acres, except for the six-acre property dedicated to Mary.
It was with exciting realization that this may have been the first public square rosary procession in American history, something America Needs Fatima has been honored to promote.

Hope in Face of the Coming Punishment Predicted at Fatima
It was with awe that we prayed in the chapel. Because of the thousands of talks about the message of Fatima Matthew and I had given as custodians these past several decades, the chastisement prophesied by Our Lady of Fatima was very present in our minds.
When this great punishment comes because of mankind’s sins, will we simply seek physical safety or will we turn to Our Lady? Full of confidence and staring down the chastisement, armed with nothing more than our trust and devotion to Mary, we will see her prophesy fulfilled that “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

http://americaneedsfatima.blogspot.com/2019/07/our-lady-of-good-help-and-peshtigo-fire.html

How the Virgin Mary protects her faithful children from all evil

She is a mother who is very protective of her little ones

Philip Kosloski

The Virgin Mary is first of all a mother, and a very powerful spiritual mother! She is fully united with her Son in Heaven and seeks to use all of her power to protect her children, who are invited to turn to her in their time of need.

St. Louis de Montfort, an 18th-century priest who dedicated his whole life to leading souls to Jesus through Mary, wrote about the protection she offers in his book entitled True Devotion to Mary. He compares her to a hen who gathers her brood under her wings, saving them from outside enemies.

Mary, the beloved Mother of chosen souls, shelters them under her protecting wings as a hen does her chicks. She speaks to them, coming down to their level and accommodating herself to all their weaknesses. To ensure their safety from the hawk and vulture, she becomes their escort, surrounding them as an army in battle array.

This she does out of the pure love she has for us, especially those who are daily devoted to her.

Montfort continues his reflection, thinking about the magnitude of her protecting help.

Could anyone surrounded by a well-ordered army of say a hundred thousand men fear his enemies? No, and still less would a faithful servant of Mary, protected on all sides by her imperial forces, fear his enemy. This powerful Queen of heaven would sooner dispatch millions of angels to help one of her servants than have it said that a single faithful and trusting servant of hers had fallen victim to the malice, number, and power of his enemies.

This simple truth has been confirmed by many throughout the years, especially exorcists.

Famed exorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth discovered this reality in his dialogues with the devil, where the devil said to him, “I am more afraid when you say the Madonna’s name, because I am more humiliated by being beaten by a simple creature, than by Him.”

Pope Francis related similar words in a homily at St. Mary Major, “Where the Madonna is at home the devil does not enter; where there is the Mother, disturbance does not prevail, fear does not win.”

Let us stay underneath the wings of the Blessed Mother and let her safely guide us to eternal life!

https://aleteia.org/2019/05/25/how-the-virgin-mary-protects-her-faithful-children-from-all-evil/

http://americaneedsfatima.blogspot.com/2019/04/mother-of-good-counsel.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+AmericaNeedsFatima+(America+Needs+Fatima)&m=1

Mother of Good Counsel

In the quaint medieval town of Genazzano, about 30 miles from Rome, on a side altar of the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, there is a small image of the Blessed Virgin holding her infant Son. The Child, in His turn, lovingly encircles Mary's neck with His arm, inclining her head towards Himself in a gentle and intimate embrace.
This small fresco has a marvelous history.

In the fifteenth century there lived in the town an elderly widow, by name Petruccia, who had invested the entirety of the small fortune left to her by her husband in a needed side chapel for her church. Her money running out when the walls were only a few feet high, the townsfolk openly mocked and ridiculed her for her foolishness. Undaunted, Petruccia assured them that in spite of the apparent failure of her own endeavors, the Mother of God and St. Augustine, whose spiritual sons were caretakers of the church, would finish the work she had begun.

On April 25, 1467 as the inhabitants of Genazzano celebrated the feast of their patron St. Mark, marvelous music was heard approaching, its source seemingly from above. Looking upwards, the astounded citizens saw a brilliant cloud descending towards them. The bell of the church, and then others throughout the town, began to peel of their own accord. The cloud came to rest on Petruccia’s unfinished chapel wall and gradually dissipated, revealing the extraordinary image of the Madonna and Child. The widow's supernatural confidence being so wonderfully rewarded before the astonished gaze of all, the construction of the chapel was not long in its completion.

Shortly after these remarkable events, two foreigners in strange attire arrived in Genazzano claiming to be Albanians. Their names were Giorgio and DeSclavis and on seeing the icon, they cried out with joy and then told a wonderful tale.
After the death of Albania's king, George Castriota, known as Scanderberg, their nation had finally been conquered by the invading Turks. Early in 1467, while they prayed before the miraculous fresco, the image suddenly became illuminated, and detaching itself from the wall, it began to move through the air. Entranced, the two former soldiers followed the painting, first over land and, then, across the Adriatic Sea, which solidified under their feet.

In the Eternal City they lost sight of it, until hearing reports of a great miracle in a nearby town, they surmised where their Madonna had come to rest. Both decided to remain near their treasure, and married and raised families in Genazzano.

A plaque left at the shrine by visiting Albanians begs their Madonna to return to them, but there she is to this day. It is a continuous miracle: a fresco painted on eggshell plaster suspended in the air for five and a half centuries, but how much greater is the miracle of that tender embrace between Mother and Child, that union of soul into which each one is invited and warmly received.

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Mary appears in Egypt 1968

This Marian apparition in Egypt was witnessed by at least 250,000 people

The Vatican, the Coptic Church and even the government of Egypt were unified in their approval of the apparition.

Philip Kosloski https://aleteia.org/2019/05/05/this-marian-apparition-in-egypt-was-witnessed-by-at-least-250000-people/

On April 2, 1968, a Muslim bus mechanic saw something strange hovering over St. Mary’s Coptic Church in Zeitoun. He thought someone was going to commit suicide, but after closer examination, he saw it was a silhouette of light that resembled a woman.

The apparition attracted a large crowd, but only lasted a few minutes.

The following week it happened again, and continued 2 or 3 times a week for a total of three years, ending in 1971. Many believed the apparition was the Virgin Mary, clothed with light. The phenomenon occurred on top of a church that is traditionally held to be a location where the Holy Family stayed during their sojourn in Egypt.

The apparition was witnessed by people of every faith, including both Muslims and Christians. The head of the Coptic Church made an investigation of the apparitions and he declared them miraculous and an authentic appearance of the Virgin Mary.

Also located in the city was a Roman Catholic religious order who sent a report to the Vatican, detailing the extraordinary phenomenon. While Pope Paul VI deferred to the leader of the Coptic Church to make a public decision, a Vatican envoy arrived in Cairo and made their own report. They witnessed the apparition of light and wrote the following details in a formal statement.

The apparitions occurred on many different nights and are continuing in different forms. The Holy Virgin Saint Mary appeared sometimes in full form and sometimes in a bust, surrounded with a halo of shining light. She was seen at times on the openings of the domes on the roof of the church, and at other times outside the domes, moving and walking on the roof of the church and over the domes. When She knelt in reverence in front of the cross, the cross shone with bright light. Waving Her blessed hands and nodding Her holy head, She blessed the people who gathered to observe the miracle. She appeared sometimes in the form of a body like a very bright cloud, and sometimes as a figure of light preceded with heavenly bodies shaped like doves moving at high speeds. The apparitions continued for long periods, up to 2 hours and 15 minutes as in the dawn of Tuesday April 30, 1968 (the 22nd of Barmouda, 1684 A.M.), when She appeared continuously from 2:45 am till 5:00 am.

Thousands of people from different denominations and religions, Egyptians and foreign visitors, clergy and scientists, from different classes and professions, all observed the apparitions. The description of each apparition as of the time, location and configuration was identically witnessed by all people, which makes this apparition unique and sublime.

They also related how the apparition was causing a miraculous revival of the Christian faith, with many conversions taking place in the city. Also, various healings were recorded that occurred near the apparition site.

Furthermore, even the Egyptian government investigated the apparition. President Gamal Abdel Nasse witnessed the apparition and the Egyptian police could not find any natural way to explain the phenomenon. Everyone was universally stunned by what they saw and no one could offer a scientific explanation.

There was no particular message associated with the Marian apparition, but it came at a time when the Middle East was in turmoil and after Egypt was defeated in the Arab-Israeli war. It gave people hope in a time of darkness and strengthened the faith of many.

https://catholicexchange.com/mary-is-the-walking-equal-sign?mc_cid=d6e3616299&mc_eid=4984a8e283

Mary Is the Walking Equal Sign

“She is the world’s first love.” Fulton Sheen’s masterpiece on the Blessed Mother reveals the deepest meanings of who Mary of Nazareth was, along with the blueprint for the call of every human soul. Sheen has an impeccable gift for combining great storytelling with vibrant analogies. The result is a read that will capture the imagination and emotions of the one whose eyes are drawn to his pages. 

Love is a dream. Behind every creation of God and beneath every action of the human being there is an idea, a plan, a blueprint. When God creates a flower he has an idea of what a flower should be and that manifestation of gentleness, color and beauty is what appears in reality. 

The cosmos have an ordained order that the Father placed within it at the foundation of the world because his divine genius crafted it that way. When a painter sits down with her canvas and brush she has in her mind what she wants to create and it is only from there that her work of art can come to life. 

In a sense, these archetypes or prerequisite ideals are like dreams in the mind of the one who sets out to create. Love is similar. 

“Every person carries within his heart a blueprint for the one he loves. What seems to be ‘love at first sight’ is actually the fulfillment of a desire, the realization of a dream.”

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, The World’s First Love

Love is the highest capacity of the human person and in each love we are captivated by someone or something that is desiring to fulfill a void within our hearts. In every occasion of love we are chasing after the Love of the universe. No matter how beautiful and intimate of an encounter we have with our beloved, we always look towards the next moment and we crave to have more. This is not wrong and it doesn’t mean we are misconstruing the essence of love. It simply highlights the fact that the human soul is designed for a love that is beyond the temporal. We were created for an eternal flame of love that quenches the hearts desperate craving for the true, the good and the beautiful. 

We are destined for the depths of this infinite love. As the divine architect, God is able to perfectly create in reality what he has in his mind. However, because human beings are endowed with freedom, we are placed in a precarious situation. For us, God has two images that stand before him: who we are in reality and who we ought to be. He has the blueprint and he has the building that presently exists. He has the sheet of music that was written and the melody we actually play. “God has to have these two images because in each and every one of us there is some disproportion and want of conformity between the original plan and the way we have worked it out.”

This is true of every human person who has ever walked this earth, except for Mary. The Blessed Mother is the only case when the ideal, the blueprint matched the reality. Unlike the rest of us she fulfills the Creator’s plan perfectly. 

“Most of us are a minus sign, in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the Heavenly Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The Ideal that God had for her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and the copy are perfect…the melody of her life is played just as it was written. Mary was thought, conceived, and planned as the equal sign between ideal and history, thought and reality, hope and realization.” 

Sheen, ibid. 

In her freedom, Mary chose to give life rather than to act out of selfishness. In her choices, she placed God and others before herself. Through love, she shines as a bright light in a darkening world. The entire life of Mary shouts out to the world that we were created for something greater, that there is more.

This is why she personifies the highest peak of human living. The Blessed Mother is so often called the model of discipleship, but she is so much more. “She is the one whom every man loves when he loves a woman — whether he knows it or not. She is what every woman wants to be when she looks at herself.” 

In these days, we look to the Virgin Mary and we beg for her prayers. In these days, let us look at her with the eyes of her Son. Let us be moved by her tremendous love and her uncompromising beauty. More than anything though, let us live just a little closer to the blueprint God crafted for us. 

Slowly, let us flip our minus sign to equal the grandeur that awaits us. The promise of that eternal love is constantly being offered to us, let us freely choose to embrace it this year and become less of who we are and more of who we are meant to be.