Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
Forum Statistics |
» Members: 292
» Latest member: Racdar
» Forum threads: 6,824
» Forum posts: 12,745
Full Statistics
|
Online Users |
There are currently 382 online users. » 0 Member(s) | 377 Guest(s) Bing, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yandex
|
Latest Threads |
Livestream: Passion Sund...
Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons April 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
1 hour ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 6
|
Livestream: First Saturda...
Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons April 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
1 hour ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 3
|
Fr. Ruiz: First Friday -...
Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons April 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
2 hours ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 5
|
Oratory Conference: St. ...
Forum: Conferences
Last Post: Deus Vult
8 hours ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 23
|
Before Francis, Pope John...
Forum: Pope Francis
Last Post: Stone
Today, 09:33 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 50
|
Thursday Night Holy Hour ...
Forum: Appeals for Prayer
Last Post: SAguide
Yesterday, 09:49 AM
» Replies: 15
» Views: 7,329
|
First Friday Holy Hour
Forum: Appeals for Prayer
Last Post: SAguide
Yesterday, 09:33 AM
» Replies: 46
» Views: 111,619
|
Transcription: Fr. Hekwo'...
Forum: Rev. Father David Hewko
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:27 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 61
|
Fr. Ruiz: St. Joseph, Pro...
Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons, Catechisms, & Conferences
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:22 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 52
|
Apologia pro Marcel Lefeb...
Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 09:18 AM
» Replies: 11
» Views: 1,125
|
|
|
Feast of Our Lady of the Snow - August 5th |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 09:54 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (2)
|
 |
August 5 – Our Lady of the Snow
Rome, delivered from slavery by Peter on the first of this month, offers to the world a wonderful spectacle. O Wisdom, who since the glorious Pentecost, hast spread over the whole world, where could it be more true to sing of thee that thou hast trodden the proud heights under thy victorious feet? On seven hills had pagan Rome set up her pageantry and built temples to her false gods; seven churches now appear at the summits on which purified Rome rests her now truly eternal foundations.
By their very site, the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. Laurence and St. Sebastian, placed at the four outer angles of the city of the Cæsars, recall the long siege continued for three centuries around the ancient Rome, while the new Rome was being founded. Helena and her son Constantine, recommencing the work of the foundations of the holy City, carried the trenches further out; nevertheless, the churches which were their own peculiar work, viz., Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and St. Savior’s on the Lateran, are still at the very entrance of the pagan stronghold, close to the gates, and leaning against the ramparts; just as a soldier, setting foot within a tremendous fortress which has been long invested, advances cautiously, surveying both the breach through which he has just passed, and the labyrinth of unknown paths opening before him.
Who will plant the standard of Sion in the center of Babylon? Who will force the enemy into his last retreat and, casting out the vain idols, set up his palace in their temples? O thou to whom was said this word of the Most High: “Thou art my son, I will thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance,” thou mighty One, with thy sharp arrows routing armies, listen to the cry re-echoing from the whole redeemed world: “With thy comeliness and thy beauty set out, proceed prosperously and reign!” But the Son of the Most High has a Mother on earth; the song of the Psalmist inviting him to the triumph extols also the Queen standing at his right hand in a vesture of gold; if it is from his Father that he holds his power, it is from his Mother that he receives his crown, and he leaves her in return the spoils of the mighty. Go forth then, ye daughters of the new Sion, and behold King Solomon in the diadem wherewith his Mother crowned him on the joyful day when, taking possession through her of the capital of the world, he espoused the Gentile race.
Truly that was a day of joy, when Mary, in the name of Jesus, claimed her right as sovereign and heiress of the Roman soil! To the East, at the highest point of the eternal City, she appeared on that blessed morning literally like the rising dawn; beautiful as the moon shining by night; more powerful than the August sun, surprised to see her tempering his heat, and doubling the brightness of his light with her mantle of snow; more terrible than an army; for from that date, daring what neither Apostles nor Martyrs had attempted, and what Jesus himself would not do without her, she dispossessed the deities of Olympus of their usurped thrones. As was fitting, the haughty Juno whose altar disgraced the Esquiline, the false queen of these lying gods, was the first to flee before Mary’s face, leaving the splendid columns of her polluted sanctuary to the only true Queen of earth and heaven.
Forty years had passed since the days of St. Sylvester, when the “image of our Savior, depicted on the walls of the Lateran, appeared for the first time to the Roman people.” Rome, still half pagan, beheld today the Mother of our Savior; under the influence of the pure symbol at which she gazed in surprise, she felt die down within her the evil ardor which made her once the scourge of nations, whereas now she was to become their mother; and in the joy of her renewed youth she beheld her once-sullied hills covered with the white garment of the Bride.
Even from the times of the Apostolic preaching, the elect, who gathered in large numbers in Rome in spite of herself, knew Mary and paid to her in those days of martyrdom a homage such as no other creature could ever receive; witness in the catacombs those primitive frescoes of our Lady, either alone or holding her divine Child, but always seated, receiving from her place of honor the praise, messages, prayers or gifts of prophets, Archangels, and kings. In the Trastevere, where in the reign of Augustus a mysterious fountain of oil had sprung up, announcing the coming of the Anointed of the Lord, Callixtus in 222 had built a church in honor of her who is ever the true fons olei, the source whence sprang Christ, and together with him all unction and all grace. The basilica raised by Liberious, the beloved of our Lady, on the Esquiline, was not then the most ancient monument dedicated by the Christians of Rome to the Mother of God; but it at once took, and has always kept, the first place among our Lady’s churches in the City, and indeed in the world, on account of the solmen and miraculous circumstances of its origin.
Hast thou entered, said the Lord to Job, into the storehouses of the snow, or has thou beheld the treasures of the hail; which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, against the day of battle and war? On the 5th of August, then, at God’s command the treasures were opened, and the snow was scattered like birds lighting upon the earth, and its coming was the signal for the lightnings of his judgments upon the gods of the nations. The Tower of David now dominates over all the towers of the earthly city; from her impregnable position our Lady will never cease her victorious sallies till she has taken the last hostile fort. How beautiful will thy steps be in these warlike expeditions, O daughter of the prince, O Queen, whose standard, by the will of thine adorable Son, must wave over the whole world rescued from the power of the cursed serpent. The ignominious goddess, overthrown from her impure pedestal by one glance of thine, left Rome still dishonored by the presence of many vain idols. But thou, all-conquering Lady, didst continue thy triumphal march. The Church of St. Mary in Ara cœli replaced on the Capitol the odious temple of Jupiter; the sanctuaries and groves dedicated to Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, and Proserpine hastened to take the title of one who had been shown in their fabulous history under disfigured and degraded forms. The deserted Pantheon awaited the day when it was to receive the noble and magnificent name of St. Mary ad Martyres.
What a preparation for thy glorious Assumption is the series of earthly triumphs which this day inaugurates! The basilica of St. Mary of the Snow, called also of Liberius, from its founder, and also of Sixtus, after Sixtus III, who restored it, owed to this last the honor of becoming the monument of the divine Maternity proclaimed at Ephesus; the name of St. Mary Mother, which it received on that occasion, became under Theodore I, who enriched it with the most precious relic, St. Mary of the crib: all these noble titles were afterwards gathered into that of St. Mary Major, which is amply justified by the facts we have related, by universal devotion, and by the pre-eminence always assigned to it by the Sovereign Pontiffs. Thou the last in order of time of the seven churches upon which Christian Rome is founded, it nevertheless ranked in the Middle Ages next to that of St. Savior; in the procession of the greater Litanies on April 25th the ancient Roman Ordo assigned to the Cross of St. Mary’s its place between that of St. Peter’s, below it, and that of the Lateran, which followed it. The important and numerous liturgical Stations appointed at the Basilica on the Esquiline testify to the devotion of the Romans and of all Catholics towards it. It was honored by having councils celebrated and Vicars of Christ elected within its walls; the Pontiffs for a time made it their residence, and were accustomed on the Ember Wednesdays, when the Station is always held there, to publish there the names of the Cardinal Deacons or Cardinal Priests whom they had resolved to create.
As to the annual solemnity of its dedication, which is the object of the present feast, there can be no doubt that it was celebrated on the Esquiline at a very early date. It was, however, not yet kept by the whole Church in the thirteenth century; for Gregory IX, in the bull of canonization of St. Dominic, whose death occurred on the 6th of August, anticipated his feast on the 5th of the month, as being at that time vacant, whereas the 6th was already occupied, as we shall see tomorrow by another solemnity. It was Paul IV who in 1558 definitively fixed the feast of the holy founder on the 4th of August; and the reason he gives is that the feast of St. Mary of the Snow, having since been made universal and taking precedence of the other, the honor due to the holy patriarch might be put in the shade if his feast continued to be kept on the same day. The breviary of St. Pius V soon after promulgated to the entire world the Office, of which the following is the legend:
Quote:Under the Pontificate of Liberius, John, a Roman patrician, and his wife, who was of an equally noble race, having no children to whom they might leave their estates, vowed their whole fortune to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, begging her most earnestly and continually to make known to them by some means in what pious work she wished them to employ the money. The Blessed Virgin Mary graciously heard their heartfelt prayers and vows, and answered them by a miracle.
On the Nones of August, usually the hottest time of the year in Rome, a part of the Esquiline hill was covered with snow during the night. That same night the Mother of God appeared in a dream to John and his wife separately, and told them to build a church on the spot they should find covered with snow, and to dedicate it to the Virgin Mary; for it was in this manner that she wished to become their heiress. John related this to Pope Liberius, who said he had dreamt the same thing.
He went, therefore, with a solemn procession of priests and people to the snow-clad hill, and chose the site of a church, which was built with the money of John and his wife. It was afterwards rebuilt by Sixtus III. At first it was called by different names, the Liberian basilica, St. Mary at the Crib. But, since there are many churches in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and as this one surpasses all other basilicas in dignity, and by its miraculous beginning, it is distinguished from them also by its title of St. Mary Major. On account of the miraculous fall of snow, the anniversary of the dedication is celebrated by a yearly solemnity.
![[Image: 2.jpg?w=736&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2.jpg?w=736&ssl=1)
What recollections, O Mary, does this feast of thy greatest basilica awaken within us! And what worthier praise, what better prayer, could we offer thee today than to remind thee of the graces we have received within its precincts, and implore thee to renew them and confirm them forever? United with our Mother-Church in spite of distance, have we not, under its shadow, tasted the sweetest and most triumphant emotions of the cycle now verging on to its term?
On the first Sunday of Advent, it was here that we began the year, as in the place “most suitable for saluting the approach of the Divine Birth, which was to gladden heaven and earth and manifest the sublime portent of a Virgin Mother.” Our hearts were overflowing with desire on that holy Vigil, when from early morning we were invited to the bright basilica, where the “mystical Rose was soon to bloom and fill the world with its fragrance. The grandest of all the churches which the people of Rome have erected in honor of the Mother of God, it stood before us rich in its marble and gold, but richer still in possessing, together with the portrait of our Lady painted by St. Luke, the humble yet glorious Crib of Jesus, of which the inscrutable designs of God have deprived Bethlehem.
During that blessed night an immense concourse of people assembled in the basilica awaiting the happy moment when that monument of the love and the humiliation of a God was to be brought in, carried on the shoulders of the priests as an ark of the New Covenant, whose welcome sight gives the sinner confidence and makes the just man thrill with joy.” Alas! a few months passed away, and we were again in the noble sanctuary, this time compassionating our “holy Mother whose heart was filled with poignant grief at the foresight of the sacrifice which was preparing.” But soon the august basilica was filled once more with new joys, when Rome “justly associated with the Paschal solemnity the memory of her who, more than all other creatures, had merited its joys, not only because of the exceptional share she had had in all the sufferings of Jesus, but also because of the unshaken faith wherewith, during those long and cruel hours of his lying in the tomb, she had awaited his Resurrection.”
Dazzling as the snow which fell from heaven to mark the place of thy predilection on earth, O Mary, a white-robed band of neophytes coming up from the waters formed thy graceful court and enhanced the triumph of that great day. Obtain for them and for us all, O Mother, affections as pure as the white marble columns of thy loved church, charity as bright as the gold glittering on its ceiling, works shining as the Paschal Candle, that symbol of Christ the conqueror of death, which offered thee the homage of its first flames.
![[Image: 8.jpg?w=600&ssl=1]](https://i1.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8.jpg?w=600&ssl=1)
|
|
|
Incredible Discovery: Music Found Hidden on the Mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:59 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- Replies (4)
|
 |
Incredible Discovery: Music Found Hidden on the Mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe
ChurchPop | December 11, 2020
Did you know this existed? This is amazing!
Believe it or not, there is music in Our Lady of Guadalupe’s mantle! How is that? This is the incredible discovery of a mathematical accountant.
“The Instituto Superior de Estudios Guadalupanos gives me the mission of studying the image by applying the only science that had not been done before in image studies, Mathematics,” Mexico resident and mathematical accountant Fernando Ojeda said.
Previous studies, already astonishing
“Previous studies made to the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, I reasoned the following: if the stars of the mantle are the constellations of the sky at the time of its impregnation, the dress represents proportionally the main hills and volcanoes of the orography of Mexico, if the whole image keeps the golden ratio, then it has perfect symmetry, therefore it has music,” Fernando Ojeda said.
“[The mathematician] Pythagoras pointed out that where there is perfect symmetry there is music.”
“As their positions were different” he continues, “I considered that each star, according to its position, and each flower center, according to its position, was a certain musical note “.
He placed the image inside the drawing of a golden rectangle. A music expert then superimposed the drawing of a piano and documented the notes expressed by each point of the flowers and stars.
Here’s the model used to discover the music in the mantle of the Virgin of Guadalupe:
Fernandoojeda.com
Finally, Fernando Ojeda loaded the notes into a music computer program. It was an incredible discovery: he obtained a perfect harmony melody!
Here’s the music from Our Lady of Guadalupe’s mantle:
Here’s symphonic piece inspired by Our Lady of Guadalupe’s mantle:
Isn’t it amazing?!
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
|
|
|
Schneider Has the Proof: Not A Single Infection Through Reception of Holy Communion |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:49 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
- No Replies
|
 |
Schneider Has the Proof: Not A Single Infection Through RECEPTION of Holy Communion
gloria.tv | August 5, 2021
It is an episcopal abuse of power to impose grabbing Communion with the hand under the pretext of Covid-19, Bishop Schneider told Mia Barhouche in a French interview during a recent visit in Lebanon (video below).
Schneider stresses that grabbing is not "safer" than receiving Holy Communion and doesn't protect better against a virus infection, on the contrary. In Kazakhstan, the bishops have only allowed receiving Holy Communion: “No one has been infected until now. Not a single case of a contamination.” Schneider calls this an “empirical demonstration” and an “undeniable fact.”
Forcing the faithful to grab Communion with the hand is a spiritual tragedy, dangerous, minimalist and “very close to desacralisation,” Schneider explains, “We cannot treat our God like this.” He points out that grabbing Communion causes particles of the host to fall on the floor so that they are trampled upon [which IS a desacralisation].
Further, Schneider observed that Covid-19 vaccinations (20:00) are all contaminated with cell-lines from aborted children which will be the base for a horrible foetal industry. Therefore “it is not possible to take this vaccine.” Schneider also noticed that the vaccines are not tested sufficiently and that they can be a health hazard.
Francis' Traditionis custodes (38:00) is for Schneider "tragic," a "wound," "unjust" and so drastic that TC will finally suppress the Roman Mass. He notices that within its first days, some bishops completely banned the Roman Mass in their dioceses. However, Schneider expects the Mass to continue in the catacombs and to be victorious because it is a work of God.
|
|
|
The Diabolical Secret of the New Mass of Pope Paul VI |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:43 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
- Replies (2)
|
 |
Much of what the Freemasons in this video are quoted as saying are with respect to their blueprint for their upending of the Catholic Church are also echoed in this series by Dr. Carol Byrne, who traces their roots back to at least the 1920's and which finally culminated in the travesties of Vatican II and the New Mass.
P. S. This is the same New Mass that Bishop Fellay wrote was legitimately promulgated in his 2012 Doctrinal Declaration:
Quote:7. We declare that we recognise the validity of the sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments celebrated with the intention to do what the Church does according to the rites indicated in the typical editions of the Roman Missal and the Sacramentary Rituals legitimately promulgated by Popes Paul VI and John-Paul II.
P.P.S. This is the same New Mass that Bishop Williamson has repeatedly said is acceptable. A few examples of this:
· The new religion can build your Faith.
· Attending the New Mass can build your Faith.
· Do whatever you think you need to do to keep the Faith, which can include attending the Novus Ordo Mass.
· If you attend the Novus Ordo Mass you have to be careful, but you can find the grace of God there and sanctify your soul.
· Not everyone needs to avoid the Novus Ordo Mass.
· Attending the Novus Ordo may do more good than harm spiritually.
· Not every priest needs to leave the Conciliar church or stop saying the Novus Ordo Mass.
|
|
|
Dialing the Fear To 11 As Emerging 'Lambda' Strain Appears More Resistant To Vaccine |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:29 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- Replies (1)
|
 |
'A Variant Worse Than Delta': Fauci Dials Fear To 11 As Emerging 'Lambda' Strain Appears More Resistant To Vaccine
![[Image: fauci%201c_0.png?itok=PlwPpb_M]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/fauci%201c_0.png?itok=PlwPpb_M)
ZH | AUG 05, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease specialist who funded controversial coronavirus research in Wuhan, China - and is now managing the coronavirus pandemic response for the US government, says the country could be "in trouble" unless everyone who hasn't been vaccinated gets the jab.
"What we’re seeing, because of this increase in transmissibility, and because we have about 93 million people in this country who are eligible to get vaccinated who don’t get vaccinated — that you have a significant pool of vulnerable people," said Fauci, who added that delta variant cases are rising in a "very steep fashion" and may hit 200,000 cases per day.
"And so when you look at the curve of acceleration of 7-day averages of cases per day, it is going up in a very steep fashion."
No stats from Fauci on who's dying, who's getting hospitalized, or who's the most vaccine 'hesitant' of course.
And while the Biden administration is now framing this as a "pandemic of the unvaccinated," McClatchy notes that "recent data shows that vaccinated people who still get infected with the delta variant also have high viral loads and can spread it to others, even when they aren’t showing symptoms or are experiencing mild disease."
Quote:Fauci said that data shows people infected with the delta variant have viral levels “about 1,000 times higher in quantity” than were recorded in people who were infected with the alpha variant, also known as the U.K. variant, which earlier this year became predominant in the United States.
Studies have emerged in recent weeks indicating that vaccinated individuals are at risk of “long COVID” — a series of conditions associated with infection such as fatigue, shortness of breath and loss of smell that can last for weeks or months — even if they are largely protected from severe illness and death, Fauci said.
“We already know that people who get breakthrough infections and don’t go on to get advanced disease requiring hospitalization, they too are susceptible to long COVID,” Fauci said. “You’re not exempt from long COVID if you get a breakthrough infection.” -McClatchy
Fauci also said he fears strains which are even scarier than delta!
"If we don’t crush the outbreak to the point of getting the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, then what will happen is the virus will continue to smolder through the fall into the winter, giving it ample chance to get a variant which, quite frankly, we’re very lucky that the vaccines that we have now do very well against the variants — particularly against severe illness," he said, adding "We’re very fortunate that that’s the case. There could be a variant that’s lingering out there that can push aside delta."
"If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble," Fauci continued. "People who are not getting vaccinated mistakenly think it’s only about them. But it isn’t. It’s about everybody else, also."
Lambda evading vaccine?
While the highly infectious Lambda variant of Covid-19 may or may not be deadlier than any of the other strains - meaning the vast majority who contract it won't be hospitalized or die - researchers at the University of Tokyo have warned in a new study that it may be vaccine-resistant, according to Newsweek.
Quote:Like the Delta variant, Lambda is highly transmissible but Japanese researchers believe that three mutations in the variant's spike proteins make it more resistant to antibodies induced by vaccination.
Lambda, which is also known as the C.37 variant, is responsible for 1,037 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to data from the GISAID Initiative, which promotes the rapid sharing of information about influenza and coronaviruses.
The variant was first identified in Peru in August, 2020, where it has now become the dominant strain of the virus, and it has been reported in 29 countries including the U.S. -Newsweek
"...because the Lambda variant is relatively resistant to the vaccine-induced antisera, it might be possible that this variant is feasible to cause breakthrough infection," reads the paper, with "Vaccine-induced antisera" referring to antibodies which arise from vaccination.
|
|
|
"They Can't Arrest Us All" - Sen. Rand Paul Urges Americans To "Resist" Pelosi & The Petty Tyrants |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:13 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
 |
"They Can't Arrest Us All" - Sen. Rand Paul Urges Americans To "Resist" Pelosi & The Petty Tyrants
ZH [Emphasis in the original] | AUG 05, 2021
Authored by Rand Paul, op-ed via Fox News
Resist.
They can’t arrest us all. They can’t keep all your kids home from school. They can’t keep every government building closed – although I’ve got a long list of ones they should.
We don’t have to accept the mandates, lockdowns, and harmful policies of the petty tyrants and feckless bureaucrats. We can simply say no, not again.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi — you will not arrest or stop me or anyone on my staff from doing our jobs. We have all either had COVID, had the vaccine, or been offered the vaccine. We will make our own health choices. We will not show you a passport, we will not wear a mask, we will not be forced into random screening and testing so you can continue your drunk with power rein over the Capitol.
President Biden — we will not accept your agencies’ mandates or your reported moves toward a lockdown. No one should follow the CDC’s anti-science mask mandates. And if you want to shutdown federal agencies again — some of which aren’t even back to work fully — I will stop every bill coming through the Senate with an amendment to cut their funding if they don’t come to work.
No more.
Local bureaucrats and union bosses — we will not allow you to do more harm to our children again this year. Children are not at any more risk from COVID than they are for the seasonal flu. Every adult who works in schools has either had the vaccine or had their chance to. There is no reason for mask mandates, part time schools, or any lockdown measures.
Children are falling behind in school, and are being harmed physically and psychologically by the tactics you have used to keep them from the classroom last year. We won’t allow it again.
If a school system attempts to keep the children from full-time, in-person school, I will hold up every bill with two amendments. One to defund them, and another to allow parents the choice of where the money goes for their child’s education.
Do I sound fed up to you? That’s because I am.
I’m not a career politician. I’ve practiced medicine for 33 years. I graduated from Duke Medical School, worked in emergency rooms, studied immunology and virology, and ultimately chose to become a surgeon.
I have been telling everyone for a year now that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health officials were NOT following science, and I’ve been proven right time and time again.
But I’m not the only one who is fed up.
I can’t go anywhere these days — from work, to events, to airports and Ubers, restaurants and stores, without people coming up to me thanking me for standing up for them.
For standing up for actual science. For standing up for freedom. For standing against mandates, lockdowns, and bureaucratic power grabs.
I think the tide has turned, and more and more people are willing to stand up. I see stories from across the country of parents standing up to teacher unions and school boards.
I see members of Congress refusing to comply with Petty Tyrant Pelosi.
We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children?
Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom.
|
|
|
How is the Delta Variant Spreading If There is No Direct Delta Variant Test? |
Posted by: Stone - 08-05-2021, 08:09 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
 |
How is the Delta Variant Spreading If There is No Direct Delta Variant Test?
GP | August 4, 2021
The Delta variant of COVID 19 is the latest twist in the Chinese bioweapon unleashed on the World. But I find one thing very troubling–news media, pundits and some health organizations insist the culprit behind the latest breakout of COVID cases is the DELTA variant but there is no test for the DELTA variant. It would be one thing if the media reports told the story of people being tested and then, a day or two later, learn belatedly they are carrying the dreaded DELTA variant. But that is not what is being reported.
The testing for the DELTA variant is presented as an article of faith. This is an example:
Quote:Data from Public Health England (PHE) shows that, while the overall chances of getting reinfected are very low, the Delta variant, first identified in India and which accounts for around 99% of cases in the UK, poses a higher risk.
It came as new figures showed the breakdown of how many people in hospital with the Delta variant have had one or both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
From June 21 to July 19, some 1,788 people were admitted to hospital after testing positive for Delta.
Of these, 970 (54%) were unvaccinated, while 530 (30%) had received both doses.
So how does the testing occur? It apparently requires some rather sophisticated laboratory analysis:
Although there are no direct Delta variant tests, PCR tests that are positive for SARS-CoV-2 can undergo genetic analysis such as ‘genomic sequencing’ which tells us if it is the Delta (or another) variant. This means it is possible to accurately identify if someone is unwell with the Delta variant of Covid-19.
While it is “possible” to identify that someone may have the DELTA variant, THERE IS NO DIRECT TEST.
So, I repeat my question–how the hell do we know that most of the new cases are “DELTA” when there is no DIRECT test?
This is a serious question to you, the readers. If you have any evidence or citation to clear up this confusion I welcome your input.
|
|
|
August 4th – Saint Dominic, Confessor |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 09:37 AM - Forum: August
- No Replies
|
 |
August 4 – Saint Dominic, Confessor
“In that clime
Where springs the pleasant west-wind to unfold
The fresh leaves, with which Europe sees herself
New-garmented; nor from those billows far,
Beyond whose chiding, after weary course,
The sun doth sometimes hide him; safe abides
The happy Callaroga under guard
Of the great shield, wherein the lion lies
Subjected and supreme. And there was born
The loving minion of the Christian faith,
The hallow’d wrestler, gentle to his own,
And to his enemies terrible. So replete
His soul with lively virtue, that when first
Created, eve in the mother’s womb,
It prophesied. When, at the sacred font,
The spousals were complete ‘twixt faith and him,
Where pledge of mutual safety was exchanged,
The dame, who was his surety, in her sleep
Beheld the wondrous fruit, that was from him
And from his heirs to issue. And that such
He might be construed, as indeed he was,
She was inspired to name him of his owner,
Whose he was wholly; and so call’d him Dominic.
…
O happy father! Felix rightly named.
O favor’d mother! rightly named Joanna;
If that do mean as men interpret it.
…
Then, with sage doctrine and good will to help,
Forth on his great apostleship he fared,
Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein;
And dashing ‘gainst the stocks of heresy,
Smote fiercest, where resistance was most stout.
Thence many rivulets have since been turn’d,
Over the garden Catholic to lead
Their living waters, and have fed its plants.”
This eulogium, truly worthy of heaven, is placed by Dante, in his Paradiso, on the lips of the most illustrious son of the poor man of Assisi. In the great poet’s journey through the upper world, it was fitting that Bonaventure should extol the Patriarch of the Preachers as in the preceding Canto, Thomas of Aquin, Dominic’s son, had celebrated the father of the family humbly girt with the cord.
In depth of counsel by created ken
Unfathomable, to the end that she,
Who with loud cries was ‘spoused in precious Blood,
Might keep her footing toward her well-beloved,
Safe in herself and constant unto him,
Hath two ordain’d, who should on either hand
In chief escort her: one, seraphic all
In fervency; for wisdom upon earth,
The other, splendor of cherubic light.”
O Wisdom of the Father, thou wast the one love of both; Francis’ poverty, the true treasure of the soul, and Dominic’s faith, the incomparable light of our exile, are but two aspects of thee from below, expressing to us, in our time of trial and shadow, thy adorable beauty. Speaking with no less profoundness and with greater authority, the immortal Pontiff Gregory IX says: “The Fountain of Wisdom, the Word of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose nature is goodness, whose work is mercy, does not abandon in the course of ages the vine he has brought out of Egypt; he comes to the aid of wavering souls by new signs, he adapts his wonders to the weakness of the incredulous. When therefore the day was declining towards evening, and while charity was becoming frozen by the abundance of wickedness, the light of justice was beginning to wane, the Father of the family gathered together workmen fitted for the labors of the eleventh hour; to clear his vineyard of the thorns that had overgrown it, and to drive away the multitude of mischievous little foxes that were doing their best to destroy it, he raised up the companies of Friars Preachers and Minors with the chiefs armed for battle.” In this expedition of the Lord of hosts, Dominic was “his glorious charger, full of fire in his faith, fearlessly neighing by preaching the divine word.” In October we shall see the great share in the combat taken by his brother-at-arms, who appeared as a living standard of Christ crucified, in the midst of a society where the triple concupiscence was in league with every error, striving to overthrow Christianity itself.
Finding everywhere this union of sensuality with heresy, which was henceforth to be the principal strength of false preachers, Dominic, like Francis, prescribed to his sons the most absolute renunciation of this world’s goods, and he too became a beggar for Christ’s sake. The time was past when the people, rejoicing in all the consequences of the Incarnation, made over to the Man-God the most extensive territorial domain that ever was, and at the same time placed his Vicar at the head of kings. The unworthy descendants of these high-minded Christians, after having vainly attempted to humiliate the Bride by subjecting the priesthood to the empire, reproached the Church with possessing those goods of which she was but the depository in the name of our Lord; the time had come for the Dove of the Canticle to begin, by abandoning the earth, her return journey towards heaven.
But if the two leaders of the campaign which arrested for a time the progress of the enemy, were but one in their love of holy poverty, this last was the special choice of the Assisian Patriarch. Dominic’s more direct means for obtaining the glory of God and the salvation of souls, was science; this was his excellent portion, more fertile than that of Caleb’s daughter. Less than fifty years after Dominic had bequeathed this inheritance to his descendants, the wisely combined irrigation, by the upper and the nether waters of faith and reason, had brought to full growth the tree of theological science, with its powerful roots and branches loftier than the clouds, whereon the birds of all tribes under heaven loved to perch without fear and gaze upon the sun.
“The father of the Preachers,” said the Eternal Father to St. Catherine of Sienna, “established his principle on the light, by making it his aim and his armor; he took upon him the office of the Word my Son, sowing my word, dispelling darkness, enlightening the earth; Mary, by whom I gave him to the world, made him the extirpator of heresies.” In the same way, as we have already seen, spoke the Florentine poet half a century earlier. The Order, called to become the chief support of the Sovereign Pontiff in uprooting pernicious doctrines, ought, if possible, to justify that name even more than its Patriarch: the first of the tribunals of Holy Church, the Holy Roman Universal Inquisition, the Holy Office, truly invested with the Office of the Word with his two-edged sword, to convert or to chastise, could find no instrument more trusty or more sure.
Little thought the virgin of Sienna, or the illustrious author of the Divina Commedia, that the chief title of the Dominican family to the grateful love of the people, would be discussed in a certain apologetic school, and there discarded as insulting, or dissembled as unpleasant. The present age glories in a liberalism which has given proofs of its power by multiplying ruins, and which rests on no better philosophical basis than a strange confusion between license and liberty; only such intellectual grovelling could have failed to understand that, in a society which has faith for the basis of its institutions as well as the principle of salvation for all, no crime could equal that of shaking the foundation on which thus rest both social interest and the most precious possession of individuals. Neither the idea of justice, nor still less that of liberty, could consist in leaving to the mercy of evil or evil men, the weak who are unable to protect themselves: this truth was the axiom and the glory of chivalry: the brothers of Peter the Martyr devoted their lives to protect the safety of the children of God against the surprises of the strong armed one, and the business that walketh about in the dark: it was the honor of the “saintly flock led by Dominic along a way, where they thrive well who do not go astray.”
Who could be truer knights than those athletes of the faith (as Honorius III referred to them) taking their sacred vow in the form of allegiance, and choosing for their Lady, her who, terrible as an army, alone crushes heresies throughout the whole world. To the buckler of truth and the sword of the word, she who keeps in Sion the armor of valiant men, added for her devoted liege-men the Rosary, the special mark of her own militia; she, as being their true commander-in-chief, assigned them the habit of her choice, and in the person of Blessed Reginald, anointed them with her own hands for the battle. She herself too watched over the recruiting of the holy band, attracting to it from among the elite youth of the universities, souls the purest, the most generously devoted, and of the noblest intellect. At Paris, the capital of theology, and Bologna, of law and jurisprudence, masters and scholars, disciples of every branch of science, were pursued and overtaken by the sweet Queen amid incidents more heavenly than earthly. How grateful were those beginnings, wherein Dominic’s virginal serenity seemed to surround all his children! It was indeed in this the Order of light that the Gospel word was seen verified: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. Eyes enlightened from above beheld the foundations of the Friars Preachers under the figure of fields of lilies; and Mary, by whom the Splendor of Eternal Light came down to us, became their heavenly mistress, and led them from every science to wisdom, the friend of pure hearts. She came accompanied by Cecilia and Catherine, to bless their rest at night, and covered them all with her royal mantle beside the throne of our Lord. After this we are not astonished at the freshness and purity, which continued even after St. Dominic, under the generalship of Jordan of Saxony, Raymund of Pegnafort, John the Teutonic, and Humbert de Romans, in those Lives of the Brethren, and Lives of the Sisters, so happily handed down to us. It is instructive to note that in the Dominican family, apostolic in its very essence, the Sisters are founded ten years before the Brethren, which shows how, in the Church of God, action can never be fruitful unless preceded and accompanied by contemplation, which obtains for it every blessing and grace.
Notre Dame de Prouille, at the foot of the Pyrenees, was not only by this right of primogeniture, the beginning of the whole Order; it was here also that the first companions of St. Dominic made with him their choice of a Rule, and divided the world amongst them, going from here to found the Convents of St. Romanus at Toulouse, St. James at Paris, St. Nicholas at Bologna, St. Sixtus and St. Sabina in the Eternal City. About the same period, the establishment of the Militia of Jesus Christ, placed under the direction of the Friars Preachers secular persons, who undertook to defend, by all the means in their power, the goods and liberty of the Church against the aggressions of heresy; when the sectaries had laid down their arms leaving the world in peace for a time, the association did not disappear: it continued to fight with spiritual arms, and changed its name into that of Third Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic.
Let us read in the Church’s book the abridged life of the holy Patriarch.
Quote:Dominic was born at Calaruega, in Spain, of the noble family of the Gusmans, and went through his liberal the theological studies at Palencia. He made great progress in learning, and became a Canon Regular of the Church of Osma, and afterwards instituted the Order of Friars Preachers. While his mother was with child, she dreamt she was carrying in her womb a little dog, holding a torch in his mouth, with which, as soon as he was born, he would set fire to the world. This dream signified that he would enkindle Christian piety among the nations by the splendor of his sanctity and teaching. Events proved its truth: for he fulfilled the prophecy both in person, and later on by the brethren of his Order.
His genius and virtue shone forth especially in confounding the heretics who were attempting to infect the people of Toulouse with their baneful errors. He was occupied for several years in this undertaking. Then he went to Rome for the Council of Lateran, with the bishop of Toulouse, to obtain from Innocent III the confirmation of the Order he had instituted. But while the matter was under consideration the Pope advised Dominic to return to his disciples, and choose a rule. On his return to Rome, he obtained the confirmation of the Order of Preachers from Honorius III, the immediate successor of Innocent. In Rome itself he founded two Monasteries, one for men and the other for women. He raised three dead to life, and worked many other miracles, in consequence of which, the Order of Preachers began to spread in a wonderful manner.
Monasteries were built by his means in every part of the world, and through his teaching numbers of men embraced a holy and religious manner of life. At length in the year of Christ, 1221, he fell into a fever at Bologna. When he saw he was about to die, calling together his brethren and children, he exhorted them to innocence and purity of life, and left them as their true inheritance the virtues of charity, humility, and poverty. While the brethren were praying round him, at the words, “Come to his aid, ye Saints of God, run to meet him, O ye Angels,” he fell asleep in the Lord, on the eighth of the Ides of August. Pope Gregory IX placed him among the Saints.
How many sons and daughters surround thee on the sacred cycle! This very month, Rose of Lima and Hyacinth keep thee company, and thy coming has long since been heralded in the Liturgy by Raymund of Pegnafort, Thomas of Aquin, Vincent Ferrer, Peter the Martyr, Catherine of Sienna, Pius V, and Antoninus. And now at length appears in the firmament the new star whose brightness dispels ignorance, confounds heresy, increases the faith of believers. O Dominic, thy blessed mother, who preceded thee to heaven, now penetrates in all its fullness the happy meaning of that mysterious vision which once excited her fears. And that other Dominic, the glory of ancient Silos, at whose tomb she received the promise of thy blessed birth, rejoices at the tenfold splendor given by thee for all eternity to the beautiful name he bequeathed thee. But what a special welcome dost thou receive from the Mother of all grace, who heretofore, embracing the feet of her angered Son, stood surety that thou wouldst bring back the world to its Savior! A few years passed away; and error, put to confusion, felt that a deadly struggle was engaged between itself and thy family; the Lateran Church saw its walls, which were threatening to fall, strengthened for a time; and the two Princes of the Apostles, who had bidden thee go and preach, rejoice that the word has gone forth once more into the whole world.
Stricken with barrenness, the nations, which the Apocalypse likens to great waters, seemed to have become once for all corrupt; the prostitute of Babylon was setting up her throne before the time; when, in imitation of Eliseus, putting the salt of Wisdom into the new vessel of the Order founded by thee, thou didst cast this divine salt into the unhealthy waters, neutralize the poison of the beast so soon risen up again, an din spite of the snares which will never cease, didst render the earth habitable once more. How clearly thy example shows us that they alone are powerful before God and over the people, who give themselves up to him without seeking anything else, and only give to others out of their own fullness. Despising, as thine historians tell us, every opportunity and every science where Eternal Wisdom was not to be seen, thy youth was charmed with her alone; and she, who prevents those that seek her, inundated thee from thy earliest years with the light and the anticipated sweetness of heaven. It is from her that overflowed upon thee that radiant serenity, which so struck thy contemporaries, and which no occurrence could ever alter. In heavenly peace thou didst drink long draughts from the ever-flowing fountain springing up into eternal life; but while tine inmost soul was thus slaking the thirst of its love, the divine source produced a marvellous fecundity; and its streams becoming thine, why fountains were conveyed abroad in the streets, thou didst divide thy waters. Thou hadst welcomed Wisdom, and she exalted thee; not content to adorn thy brow with the rays of the mysterious star, she gave thee also the glory of patriarchs, and multiplied thy years and thy works in those of thy sons. In them thou hast not ceased to be one of the strongest stays of the Church. Science has made thy name wonderful among the nations, and because of it their youth is honored by the ancients; may it ever be for them, as it was for their elders, both the fruit of Wisdom and the way that leads to her; may it be fostered by prayer; for thy holy Order so well keeps up the beautiful traditions of prayer, as to approach the nearest, in that respect, to the ancient monastic Orders. To praise, to bless, and to preach will be to the end its loved motto; for its apostolate must be, according to the word of the Psalm, the overflowing of the abundance of sweetness tasted in communication with God. Thus strengthened in Sion, thus blessed in its glorious role of propagator and guardian of the truth, thy noble family will ever deserve to hear, from the mouth of our Lady herself, that encouragement above all praise: “Fortiter, fortiter, viri fortes! Courage, courage, ye men of courage!”
|
|
|
F.D.A. Aims to Give Final Approval to Pfizer Vaccine by Early Next Month |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 09:10 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
- No Replies
|
 |
From the MSM NYT:
F.D.A. Aims to Give Final Approval to Pfizer Vaccine by Early Next Month
The Food and Drug Administration’s move is expected to kick off more vaccination mandates for hospital workers, college students and federal troops.
NYT | August 3, 2021
WASHINGTON — With a new surge of Covid-19 infections ripping through much of the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has accelerated its timetable to fully approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, aiming to complete the process by the start of next month, people involved in the effort said.
President Biden said last week that he expected a fully approved vaccine in early fall. But the F.D.A.’s unofficial deadline is Labor Day or sooner, according to multiple people familiar with the plan. The agency said in a statement that its leaders recognized that approval might inspire more public confidence and had “taken an all-hands-on-deck approach” to the work.
Giving final approval to the Pfizer vaccine — rather than relying on the emergency authorization granted late last year by the F.D.A. — could help increase inoculation rates at a moment when the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus is sharply driving up the number of new cases.
A number of universities and hospitals, the Defense Department and at least one major city, San Francisco, are expected to mandate inoculation once a vaccine is fully approved. Final approval could also help mute misinformation about the safety of vaccines and clarify legal issues about mandates.
Federal regulators have been under growing public pressure to fully approve Pfizer’s vaccine ever since the company filed its application on May 7. “I just have not sensed a sense of urgency from the F.D.A. on full approval,” Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said in an interview on Tuesday. “And I find it baffling, given where we are as a country in terms of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.”
Although 192 million Americans — 58 percent of the total population and 70 percent of the nation’s adults — have received at least one vaccine shot, many remain vulnerable to the ultracontagious, dominant Delta variant. The country is averaging nearly 86,000 new infections a day, an increase of 142 percent in just two weeks, according to a New York Times database.
Recent polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been tracking public attitudes during the pandemic, have found that three of every 10 unvaccinated people said that they would be more likely to get a shot with a fully approved vaccine. But the pollsters warned that many respondents did not understand the regulatory process and might have been looking for a “proxy” justification not to get a shot.
Moderna, the second most widely used vaccine in the United States, filed for final approval of its vaccine on June 1. But the company is still submitting data and has not said when it will finish. Johnson & Johnson, the third vaccine authorized for emergency use, has not yet applied but plans to do so later this year.
Full approval of the Pfizer vaccine will kick off a patchwork of vaccination mandates across the country. Like most other employees of federal agencies, civilians working for the Defense Department must be vaccinated or face regular testing. But the military has held off on ordering shots for 1.3 million active-duty service members until the F.D.A. acts.
The City of San Francisco has said its roughly 44,500 employees must be fully vaccinated within 10 weeks of F.D.A. approval. The State University of New York, with roughly 400,000 students, is on a parallel track.
A number of health care systems have issued similar mandates to employees, including Beaumont Health, the largest health provider in Michigan, with 33,000 employees, and Mass General Brigham in Massachusetts, with about 80,000 workers.
Full approval typically requires the F.D.A. to review hundreds of thousands of pages of documents — roughly 10 times the data required to authorize a vaccine on an emergency basis. The agency can usually complete a priority review within six to eight months and was already working on an expedited timetable for the Pfizer vaccine. The F.D.A.’s decision to speed up was reported last week by Stat News.
In a guest essay in The Times last month, Dr. Peter Marks, the agency’s top vaccine regulator, wrote that undue haste “would undermine the F.D.A.’s statutory responsibilities, affect public trust in the agency and do little to help combat vaccine hesitancy.”
The regulators want to see real-world data on how the vaccine has been working since they authorized it for emergency use in December. That means verifying the company’s data on vaccine efficacy and immune responses, reviewing how efficacy or immunity might decline over time, examining new infections in participants in continuing clinical trials, reviewing adverse reactions to vaccinations and inspecting manufacturing plants.
At the same time, senior health officials at the F.D.A. and other agencies are grappling with whether at least some people who are already vaccinated need booster shots. Several officials are arguing that boosters will be widely needed before long, while others contend that the scientific basis for them remains far from settled.
Two people familiar with the deliberations, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that if booster shots are needed, the administration wants a single strategy for all three vaccines currently authorized for emergency use.
Different recommendations on boosters for different vaccines, they said, could confuse the public. Fully approving a vaccine and then authorizing a booster for it soon after might also offer conflicting messages about its effectiveness.
Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.
College and universities. More than 400 colleges and universities are requiring students to be vaccinated for Covid-19. Almost all are in states that voted for President Biden.
Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and major health systems are requiring employees to get the Covid-19 vaccine, citing rising caseloads fueled by the Delta variant and stubbornly low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their work force. In N.Y.C., workers in city-run hospitals and health clinics will be required to get vaccinated or else get tested on a weekly basis.
Federal employees. President Biden announced that all civilian federal employees must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be forced to submit to regular testing, social distancing, mask requirements and restrictions on most travel. State workers in New York will face similar restrictions.
Can your employer require a vaccine? Companies can require workers entering the workplace to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to recent U.S. government guidance.
While research is continuing, senior administration officials increasingly believe that at the least, vulnerable populations like those with compromised immune systems and older people will need them, according to people familiar with their thinking. But when to administer them, which vaccine to use and who should get shots are all still being discussed.
In a study posted online last week, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists reported that the effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine against symptomatic disease fell from about 96 percent to about 84 percent four to six months after the second shot, but continued to offer robust protection against hospitalization and severe disease.
Administration officials said Moderna and Johnson & Johnson needed to present data as well and Moderna had been asked to do so quickly. Officials have said other studies will also influence their decision-making, including data that the government is collecting on the rate of breakthrough infections among tens of thousands of people, including health care workers.
Pfizer is expected to submit an application for a booster shot to the F.D.A. this month. While the F.D.A. could authorize such shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would need to recommend them after a meeting of its outside committee of experts.
A decision to fully approve Pfizer’s vaccine will give doctors more latitude to prescribe additional shots at least for certain Americans, including those with weakened immune systems. The C.D.C. had been exploring possible special programs for that group, but administration officials said it became clear that by the time any such initiative got underway, the Pfizer vaccine would already be fully approved and doctors could prescribe a third shot.
Roughly 3 percent of Americans — or about 10 million people, by some estimates — have compromised immune systems as a result of cancer, organ transplants or other medical conditions, according to the C.D.C. While studies indicate that the vaccines work well for some of them, others do not produce the immune response that would protect them from the virus.
Some people are trying to get booster shots from pharmacies or other providers on their own, without waiting for the federal government’s blessing. Officials in Contra Costa County, home to 1.1 million people in Northern California, were so eager to offer boosters that on July 23 they told vaccine providers to give extra shots to people who asked for them “without requiring further documentation or justification.”
Then, realizing that policy violated the F.D.A. rules on vaccines authorized for emergency use, the county reversed it this week.
|
|
|
Secret Commission: Is Francis Preparing His Next Attack On the Church? |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 07:44 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
|
 |
Secret Commission: Is Francis Preparing His Next Attack On the Church?
gloria.tv [adapted] | August 4, 2021
Francis wants to "study" Communion for Protestants?
Marco Tossatti (August 4) writes:
Quote:Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, a friend from beyond the Walls tells us - and of course the news is all to be verified, but it seems right and interesting to offer it anyway - that the reigning Pontiff wants to go back to dealing with Intercommunion, that is, the possibility of faithful of Christian denominations other than Catholic to participate in the Eucharist.
With this intention he would have charged the new Secretary of Divine Worship, the Franciscan Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola , former prelate in Tortona and professor at the Liturgical Institute of Sant'Anselmo in Rome, to organize a reserved commission in September, and within two months of reporting the results of the work directly to the Pontiff.
The methodology - bypassing the bodies, Congregations and Councils appointed to deal with specific issues - is very appealing to Pope Bergoglio. If the news were confirmed, we would have to ask ourselves the reason for such tight times.
One of the possible causes could be the German Synod, where the theme of Intercommunion with Protestants was put on the agenda. In Germany there have already been leaks forward by some bishops in this field. Pope Bergoglio did not express himself clearly on the issue, inviting, in a meeting in 2018, to find a possibly unanimous result ...
However, it is striking - always if these rumors have real foundation - that immediately after trying to abrogate the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI Summorum Pontificum, the Pontiff wants to address, and perhaps resolve in his own way, such a thorny knot and, according to some, can only be resolved with conversion to the Catholic Church.
|
|
|
"I Tried My Best To Warn You This Was Going To Happen" |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 07:34 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
 |
Commentary...
I Tried My Best To Warn You This Was Going To Happen
By Andrew Torba [Protestant founder of Gab social media] | August 2, 2021
Almost two years ago I published an article on the Gab News blog about Silicon Valley building a social credit system for the West. Exactly one year later I experienced this social credit system personally when my business and family were blacklisted by Visa after also being banned by Paypal, Stripe, Coinbase, and many other payment processors.
Around this time I wrote a warning letter to Christians about what was happening to me and what would soon be happening, and is now happening, to many more people like me. Earlier this year I wrote about the Silent Christian Secession and the need to build our own economy to escape the pending tyranny of the global elite.
In April I wrote that the vaccine was becoming a religious ceremony–cultish even– and that Christians had an absolute right to reject it. That same month I defended the right of everyone to speak freely on Gab and openly discuss, question, and criticize the vaccines in the face of a censorship crackdown on dissent from Big Tech.
God has blessed me with tremendous foresight and discernment about the Enemy’s next move. It’s why I started Gab in 2016 long before censorship became the center of cultural and political debate that it is today. It’s why I wrote these many warnings to Christians and freedom lovers everywhere about what was happening to me because I knew that it would soon be happening to all of you too.
I don’t take this blessing lightly. These things weigh on my heart heavily as a husband and father of two young children. Everyday I hear stories from Gabbers about how they are being forced and coerced into taking the vaccine when they do not want to.
I am praying that God gives them the peace and discernment they need right now. It sickens me that the Enemy is making my brothers and sisters in Christ choose between feeding their families and retaining their bodily autonomy and being true to their deeply held religious beliefs.
This week we published several religious exemption document templates for people who need them and the response was unbelievable. Many people sent emails, Gab comments, and direct messages thanking us for publishing these and I pray to God that they helped even one person facing an impossible decision to make the right one.
The people in power don’t care about Covid. They don’t care about the vaccines. They care about control. This entire situation is one giant demoralization campaign designed to grind us all down spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially. If they can get us all to submit once, they can get us all to submit fully and forever.
We can’t let that happen. Do not let them get in your head with the fear mongering, the lies, and the shapeshifting narratives. They are exposing themselves like never before in human history and we are living through a period of immense spiritual warfare.
We must remember that we are human beings, made in the image of God. We always have choices. We always have hope. Darkness cannot and never will consume the light of Christ.
Do not look to political leaders for help. There is no political solution to a spiritual problem. Look to Jesus Christ. Open your Bible. Pray. Put on the full armor of God and get to work building something new. They have left us no choice. We can and must rebuild from scratch and it starts in your own heart and in your own local community.
God bless you all,
Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus is King
|
|
|
Why “Good” People Enable Totalitarians |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 07:25 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
- No Replies
|
 |
Taken from gloria.tv:
Why “Good” People Enable Totalitarians
![[Image: reddead-800x508.jpg]](https://www.aier.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/reddead-800x508.jpg)
AIER | July 21, 2021
In the searing Soviet-era novel Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman reveals the mindset that supports totalitarianism, sparing neither fascism nor communism.
As a journalist, Grossman was there in the aftermath of the genocide of Jews in Ukraine by Nazis and their civilian collaborators. Grossman describes how the Nazis (abetted by the crimes of Stalin) had first to stir feelings of hatred towards Jews before citizens would follow orders.
Grossman sets the stage with a matter-of-fact description of how infected cattle are disposed of:
Quote:“Before slaughtering infected cattle, various preparatory measures have to be carried out: pits and trenches must be dug; the cattle must be transported to where they are to be slaughtered; instructions must be issued to qualified workers.
If the local population helps the authorities to convey the infected cattle to the slaughtering points and to catch beasts that have run away, they do this not out of hatred of cows and calves, but out of an instinct for self-preservation.”
Anti-Semitics are not necessarily bloodthirsty, so to gain compliance, special campaigns shaped the mindset of the general population:
Quote:“Similarly, when people are to be slaughtered en masse, the local population is not immediately gripped by a bloodthirsty hatred of the old men, women and children who are to be destroyed. It is necessary to prepare the population by means of a special campaign. And in this case it is not enough to rely merely on the instinct for self-preservation; it is necessary to stir up feelings of real hatred and revulsion.”
Grossman explains how Stalin’s previous use of hatred assisted Germans: “At an earlier date, in the same regions, Stalin himself had mobilized the fury of the masses, whipping it up to the point of frenzy during the campaigns to liquidate the kulaks as a class and during the extermination of Trotskyist–Bukharinite degenerates and saboteurs.”
The result of such campaigns is that “the majority of the population obey every order of the authorities as though hypnotized.” Yet, more is needed. In such a totalitarian atmosphere, Grossman writes, “There is a particular minority which actively helps to create the atmosphere of these campaigns: ideological fanatics; people who take a bloodthirsty delight in the misfortunes of others; and people who want to settle personal scores, to steal a man’s belongings or take over his flat or job.”
“Most people, however, are horrified at mass murder,” yet Grossman observes, “One of the most astonishing human traits that came to light at this time was obedience.”
A mindset of obedience was fostered, trumping other human virtues. Grossman asks us to learn from this history lesson. He ponders, did “a new trait…suddenly appear in human nature?” Grossman answers his question, “No, this obedience bears witness to a new force acting on human beings. The extreme violence of totalitarian social systems proved able to paralyse the human spirit throughout whole continents.”
Grossman explains how dividing people into the “worthy” and “unworthy” was justified by the trick of redefining humanitarianism:
Quote:“A man who has placed his soul in the service of Fascism declares an evil and dangerous slavery to be the only true good. Rather than overtly renouncing human feelings, he declares the crimes committed by Fascism to be the highest form of humanitarianism; he agrees to divide people up into the pure and worthy and the impure and unworthy.”
Grossman, whose novel was finally published in 1980 after a microfilmed copy was smuggled from the Soviet Union, rightly warns that the future of freedom depends on our individual choices:
Quote:“Does human nature undergo a true change in the cauldron of totalitarian violence? Does man lose his innate yearning for freedom? The fate of both man and the totalitarian State depends on the answer to this question. If human nature does change, then the eternal and world-wide triumph of the dictatorial State is assured; if his yearning for freedom remains constant, then the totalitarian State is doomed.”
Just a few years after Grossman observed the aftermath of the massacre at Babi Yar, another journalist/novelist/philosopher, Canadian-American Isabel Paterson, offered her observations on human nature and freedom in her book, The God of the Machine. Paterson wrote:
Quote:“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.”
Paterson added, “The percentage of positively malignant, vicious, or depraved persons is necessarily small, for no species could survive if its members were habitually and consciously bent upon injuring one another.”
Like Grossman, Paterson too observed how “good people” acquiesced and even enabled the slaughtering of millions for a “worthy object:”
Quote:“Therefore it is obvious that in periods when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object.”
Paterson reminds us that the “good” enablers demand censorship so they can stay comfortable in their wrong mindedness: “When they are not the immediate executants, they are on record as giving approval, elaborating justifications, or else cloaking facts with silence, and discountenancing discussion.”
Then Paterson asks us to reflect on the “grave error” made by good people “who would not of their own conscious intent act to hurt their fellow men:”
Quote:“Then there must be a very grave error in the means by which they seek to attain their ends. There must even be an error in their primary axioms, to permit them to continue using such means. Something is terribly wrong in the procedure, somewhere. What is it?”
The grave error Paterson points to begins with the belief that an individual can have as their primary purpose “helping others” by commandeering the resources of others. Once that false belief is entrenched then the only means possible “is the power of the collective; and the premise is that ‘good’ is collective.”
Tyrants cannot come to power except, Paterson writes, “with the consent and assistance of good people:”
Quote:“The Communist regime in Russia gained control by promising the peasants land, in terms the promisers knew to be a lie as understood. Having gained power, the Communists took from the peasants the land they already owned; and exterminated those who resisted. This was done by plan and intention; and the lie was praised as “social engineering,” by socialist admirers in America.”
Of Stalin, Paterson writes, “We have the peculiar spectacle of the man who condemned millions of his own people to starvation, admired by philanthropists whose declared aim is to see to it that everyone in the world has a quart of milk.”
Grossman asks us to look at ends shaped by totalitarians to erode freedom and justify violence. He explained that both fascism and communism “call people to carry out any sacrifice, to accept any means, in order to achieve the highest of ends: the future greatness of the motherland, world progress, the future happiness of mankind, of a nation, of a class.”
The result, “The violence of a totalitarian State is so great as to be no longer a means to an end; it becomes an object of mystical worship and adoration.”
When a totalitarian State demands “worship,” we understand why totalitarians must control the narrative. We know the Covidocracy demands allegiance to their one best way, first lockdowns and now vaccines. Dissenters must be silenced. Government claims it must maintain lists of spreaders of “misinformation” and then partner with Facebook to ensure only correct “narratives” are available. Health ambassadors must be sent door-to-door to share the good word about vaccines.
Those who disagree must be demonized, the impure separated from society if they don’t accept a vaccine. Those who make different choices than we do, we mentally condemn and righteously proclaim they threaten others. Although lockdowns have ended, as Ethan Yang writes the intellectual war against them has not been won.
In 1944 in his book Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War, Ludwig von Mises wrote,
Quote:“It is in the nature of the men handling the apparatus of compulsion and coercion to overrate its power to work, and to strive at subduing all spheres of human life to its immediate influence. Controlling others through the power of the state “is the occupational disease of rulers, warriors, and civil servants.”
In other words, politicians, their corporate cronies, and the faceless administrative state will use their monopoly power of force for destructive purposes. If totalitarianism comes to America, it will have its own flavor, but as Grossman and Paterson warn, tyranny must have citizen enablers. During the pandemic, many good people have had difficulty interpreting events of this time in light of this basic history lesson.
If freedom is under siege in America, it would be wise to quicken our intellectual pace by attending to the emerging illiberal mindset shaping citizens to enable a totalitarian social system. Forces are acting to paralyze the human spirit. We should deceive ourselves no longer. Without the consent and assistance of good people, totalitarians have no power. Governments, Mises warned, “become liberal only when forced to by the citizens.”
|
|
|
Our Lady Instructs St. Dominic to Preach the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort |
Posted by: Stone - 08-04-2021, 07:03 AM - Forum: The Saints
- Replies (1)
|
 |
The miraculous way in which the devotion to the holy Rosary was established is analogous to the way in which God gave His Law to the world on Mount Sinai, and it obviously proves its value and importance.
Our Lady gives St. Dominic the Rosary
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Blessed Virgin as well as by his own experience, St. Dominic preached the Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as well as by his sermons, in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low, before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.
The Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation for every sermon and his little tryst with Our Lady immediately after preaching.
One day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St. John the Evangelist. He was in a little chapel behind the high altar prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when Our Lady appeared to him and said:
“Dominic, even though what you have planned to say may be very good, I am bringing you a much better sermon.” St. Dominic took in his hands the book Our Lady proffered, read the sermon carefully and, when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks to her.
When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day, made no mention of St. John other than to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. The congregation was made up of theologians and other eminent people, who were used to hearing unusual and polished discourses.
But St. Dominic told them that it was not his desire to give them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he would speak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with His forcefulness.
The pulpit of Notre Dame of Paris
So he began preaching the Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as he would to a group of children, and used the very simple illustrations which were in the book given him by Our Lady. …
Carthagena, the great scholar, quoting Blessed Alan de la Roche in De Dignitate Psalterii, describes how this took place. … He goes on to say:
“Then St. Dominic explained the Angelic Salutation to them, using simple comparisons and examples from everyday life.”
Blessed Alan, according to Carthagena, mentioned several other occasions when Our Lord and Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic to urge him and inspire him to preach the Rosary more and more in order to wipe out sin and convert sinners and heretics.
In another passage Carthagena says:
“Blessed Alan said Our Lady revealed to him that, after she had appeared to St. Dominic, her Divine Son appeared to him and affirmed:
“Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying on your own wisdom and that, rather than seek the empty praise of men, you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls.
“But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worst kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is given bitter medicine, he needs to be prepared by being put into the right frame of mind to really benefit from it.
“That is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love of prayer in people’s hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God in His mercy could hardly refuse to give them His grace. So, I want you to preach my Rosary. ” (2)
In another place Blessed Alan says:
All priests should say a Hail Mary with the faithful before preaching, to ask for God’s grace. (3) They do this because of a revelation that St. Dominic had from Our Lady.
St. Dominic takes the instruction of Our Lady on the Rosary and reaps its fruits for his preaching
“My Son,” she said one day, “do not be surprised that your sermons fail to bear the results you had hoped for. You are trying to cultivate a piece of ground that has not had any rain. Now, when God planned to renew the face of the earth, He started by sending down rain from heaven – and this was the Angelic Salutation. In this way God reformed the world.
“So when you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.”
St. Dominic lost no time in obeying, and from then on he exerted great influence by his sermons.” (4)
I have been very pleased to quote these well-known authors word for word for the benefit of those who might otherwise have doubts as to the marvelous power of the Rosary. As long as priests followed St. Dominic’s example and preached devotion to the Holy Rosary, piety and fervor thrived throughout the Christian world and in those religious orders which were devoted to the Rosary. But since people have neglected this gift from Heaven, all kinds of sin and disorder have spread far and wide.
Continued below
1. Alan de la Roche, De dignit. Psalt., ch. 18; quoted by Carthagena in De Sacris Arcanis Deiparae, bk. 16, hom. 1.
2. Alan de la Roche, De Dignit. Psal., ch. 17; Carthagena, De Sacris Arcanis, bk. 16, hom. 1.
3. St. Antoninus, Part 4, Tit. 15, ch. 14, quoted by P. A. Spinelli in Maria Deipara Thronus Dei, ch. 29, No. 38.
4. This last quotation is from “The Book of Miracles of the Holy Rosary,” written in Italian, also found in Justin’s works, Sermon 143 in P. A. Spinelli, ibid., who quotes a text borrowed from Alan de la Roche.
|
|
|
|