The Fourth Glorious Mystery:
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven
“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning…. I was with him, forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times. Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. (Proverbs 8: 22, 30-31).
“For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now. And not only it, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8: 22-23).
The two above-quoted passages from Holy Scripture present absolutely contrasting images of human life on this earth. The first, which is applied by the Church to Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (in the Missal of the Traditional Latin Mass), depicts the delight of spiritual childhood, playing before God with the innocence and purity which began for Mary on this earth with the Immaculate Conception, and which culminated with Her Glorious Assumption, Body and Soul, into Heaven. The second resonates with the loss of this spiritual childhood through both original and actual sin, which is the experience of each one of us. The first speaks of radiant perfection and joy achieved; the second, of painful labor, waiting, and hope.
It is of great significance that St. Paul weds the final answer and solution to all our pains and sorrows in this life not only to our adoption as the sons of God, but also to the redemption of our bodies (which unlike Mary’s Bodily Assumption, will not occur until the Final Judgment). Nor is it an accident of history that Pope Pius XII, in the year 1950, on the cusp of the descent of both the world and the Church into the filth of the sexual revolution, solemnly defined the Bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven.
We might tend to think that Mary’s Bodily Assumption is merely an additional privilege granted to Her by a merciful God, and we might further possess what is probably a mostly unconscious attitude which considers the presence of our own bodies in Heaven as being a not-all-that- important adjunct to our attaining to the Vision of God’s Essence (the Beatific Vision). In this, we would be very wrong. As St. Paul also writes, “For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake; that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” And lest we are tempted to believe that this “life of Jesus in our mortal flesh” refers only to the soul and its presence in mortal flesh during this life, we also have the following from St. Paul:
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible: and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Cor. 15: 51-53).
What we are dealing with here is an extraordinary work of God’s Mercy, a mercy which applies not only to our souls, but also to our bodies which must eventually be gloriously united to our souls in order to constitute what it means to be fully human.
St. Thomas, in considering the question as to what constitutes the greatest act of God’s Mercy, writes the following:
“A work may be called great in two ways: first, on the part of the mode of action, and thus the work of creation is the greatest work, wherein something is made from nothing; secondly, a work may be called great on account of what is made, and thus the justification of the ungodly, which terminates at the eternal good of a share in the Godhead, is greater than the creation of heaven and earth, which terminates at the good of mutable nature.” (ST I-II, Q. 113. A, 9)
The angels were created, and offered a simple choice – whether to submit to God and His plan for creation, or not. Depending on this single choice – yes, or no – they were either instantly admitted to the Beatific Vision, or were irremediably sentenced for all eternity to Hell. The reason for this is that the angels are pure spirits who apprehend and will “immovably”, and therefore their initial choice, either for or against God and His divine order, was immovable and unchangeable. There could therefore be for them no “justification of the ungodly”.
A very different situation exists with human beings. As long as any man is alive, he exists with a potentiality either to accept or reject God and His Ways. The work of “justification of the ungodly” is therefore exclusively reserved to men. God’s greatest work, His supreme act of Mercy, was therefore reserved for men.
It can be of great profit to us to meditate a bit on the mystery of God’s mysterious creation of such “flesh-bound”, fragile, moveable, changeable creatures as are men. God certainly could have created only purely spiritual creatures (angels) from nothing; and, in St. Thomas’s words, this would have still been the greatest work according to its mode (the creation of something from nothing). But in creating man, he chose to unite an eternal, spiritual soul to what is virtually the smallest, weakest, and inconsequential thing imaginable – a mutable physical body possessing an incredible dependence upon the working of an enormous complexity of fragile and intricate parts and systems with all their growth and change, all of this being integrated with an extraordinarily rich complexity of neurological reactions and sensations, and united to an intellect and will, ever subject to change, and which is called upon to make fundamental free choices in the midst of all this mutability. It might almost seem to us as though God’s mercy could not rest until he reached out and offered Beatitude to the smallest and weakest thing conceivable.
At the very center of this Great Mystery stands Jesus Christ in Whom, for all eternity, was willed the unity of God with man – the Incarnation. And alongside Him, willed and conceived for all eternity in the Heart of the Trinity, was the creation of the Immaculate Body and Soul of a Woman Who was to be His Mother, completely united with Him in His work of redemption, and therefore also the Mother of all men. What began to be on this earth with the Immaculate Conception of Mary within the womb of her mother Anne, was present with God from endless ages. Appropriately, in the first reading for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Traditional Latin Mass missal (and tragically omitted from this Feast in the Novus Ordo Mass) is the following description of both this eternal design, and the fundamental choice which inevitably must be made by every human being:
“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived. neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out: The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth:
“He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths: When he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters: When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when be balanced the foundations of the earth; I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times. Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men.
“Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord:
“But he that shall sin against me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death.” (Proverbs *: 22-36)
The last two paragraphs of this passage of scripture set before us an eternal enmity. On the one hand are those who attain to spiritual childhood, find our Lady (and of course also Wisdom, Our Lord, and the Holy Spirit), keep her ways, and find life; and, on the other hand, are those who sin against her, “hurt” their own souls by so doing, and “love death”. It is the same enmity which we read about in the Garden of Eden between the Woman Who shall crush Satan’s head, and the Serpent who “lies in wait for her heel”. (Genesis 3:15). In Mary this victory is fully accomplished in Her Immaculate Conception and Her Assumption, Body and Soul, into Heaven. In each and every man and woman, and in the Church, this victory awaits those who “keep her ways”, and die to this world and the ways of “fallen flesh” in order “that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”
We might tend to think of this enmity as existing almost exclusively on the level of man’s spiritual faculties – his intellect and will. After all, as St. Thomas taught, original sin consisted in the act of intellectual pride by which man sought to achieve an excellence within himself which was independent of God, and contrary to God’s Will. Original sin was thus truly an act of the will by which he “turned away” from being subject to God.
But St. Thomas also taught that “all actual sins virtually pre-exist in original sin, as in a principle…” (ST, I-II, 82, A.2). This is so because the function of the will is to move all the other powers of the soul to their proper end in subjection to the right order of God. The disorder effected in the human will through original sin necessarily therefore descends into the flesh. As expressed very succinctly by St. Thomas:
“The will being turned away from God, all the other powers of the soul become inordinate…Now the inordinateness of the other powers of the soul consists chiefly in their turning inordinately to mutable good; which inordinateness may be called by the general name of concupiscence.” (ST, I-II, Q. 82, A.3).
In consideration of our own bodily existence in this world, the eternal enmity between God and Satan, and between Christ and the Antichrist, may thus be expressed by two very succinct propositions: The Word became flesh in order that “the life of Christ might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” and that we may come to the vision of God. Satan, on the other hand, works that man may descend ever more deeply into the world of fallen flesh, and finally into the depths of Hell.
Alphonsus Liguori said that no one goes to Hell without un-forgiven sexual sin. And as Our Lady of Fatima said, “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”
At the very depths of the depravity of the modern world’s descent into the world of the flesh is the sin of homosexuality. Nothing could be in greater polar opposition to Mary’s purity, and the Mysteries of Her Immaculate Conception and Bodily Assumption into Heaven. St. Paul, in delineating the consequences of the descent of man into the world of the flesh which is the consequence of rejecting God, gives the greatest prominence to the sin of homosexuality:
“Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves….For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And in like manner, the men also, having the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” (Romans 1: 24, 26-27).
St. Peter Damian writes the following concerning the sin of homosexuality, especially as it was then prevalent within the priesthood:
“Truly, this vice is never to be compared with any other vice because it surpasses the enormity of all vices. Indeed this vice is the death of bodies, the destruction of souls. It pollutes the flesh; it extinguishes the light of the mind. It evicts the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart; it introduces the devil who incites to lust. It casts into error; it completely removes the truth from the mind that has been deceived…. It opens hell; it closes the door to heaven…. It separates the soul from God to join it with devils. This most pestilential queen of the sodomists makes the followers of her tyrannical laws filthy to men and hateful to God. She commands to join in evil wars against God, to carry the military burden of a most evil spirit.” (Book of Gomorrah, XVI).
Saint Peter Damian makes of homosexuality a sin of such unsurpassed evil as to constitute a war against the very Being of God Himself. God created man in His own image, “to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them…” The sin of homosexuality, therefore, by which men and women “have changed the natural use into that which is against nature (Ro 1:27)”, constitutes war not only against the nature of man and woman, but also against the very image of God. It is, in other words, the premier sin in the flesh against Being itself – both Supernatural Being, and natural being.
In St. Peter Damian’s day, this war was largely a private matter, practiced in secret. It has now emerged as a full-scale public war conducted openly in both the Church and the world. It has gained almost total victory over all governments in the Western world. It has conquered the minds and hearts of untold numbers of children in our educational systems through such things as “diversity training” and “inclusiveness”. It has befouled almost the entire priesthood and hierarchy within the Catholic Church.
Some, of course, might protest that it is only a small percentage of the clergy who actually commit these sins. But the spiritual defilement goes much deeper – to those members of the hierarchy who have known and been silent; to those have hidden abuse, and retained such abusers in ministry in the Church; to priests and deacons who are silent about this immense evil for fear of persecution, involvement in conflict, or loss of revenue (which would of course be seen as bad “stewardship”); and to the countless number of seminarians who only managed to become priests by remaining silent in the face of this widespread evil in seminaries (the guilt for which may indeed explain their silence as priests). And now, of course, all of this intimidation and silence has now penetrated the hearts and minds of the laity who, if they wish to protest at all against this firestorm of evil within the Church and the world, dare only to do so in private conversation. We used to speak of “closet-homosexuals”. As with so many other beliefs and practices within the modern Church, this has been largely “turned around” or inverted. It would now seem much more appropriate to speak of “closet-Catholics”.
The consequence of all this silence, and its accompanying loss of the virtue of fortitude and commitment to Catholic truth, became overwhelmingly clear during the recent USCCB meeting (Nov 12-14, 2018) and its aftermath. In August of this year Cardinal DiNardo had committed the Conference to addressing the abuse scandal among the hierarchy, and in September the Conference’s Executive Committee released a plan for investigating the Cardinal McCarrick scandal, and also for holding bishops accountable. On the opening day of the Conference, Cardinal DiNardo informed the bishops that he had received instructions from the Vatican insisting that these subjects not be discussed, and that the standards of accountability for bishops, and the formation of a special commission for receiving complaints against bishops, should not be discussed or voted upon during the meetings. On November 28, two weeks after the USCCB meeting, more than 50 law enforcement officials raided the Chancery offices of Cardinal DiNardo searching for secret archives related to clergy sexual abuse. All of this is an ominous sign of what is almost certainly to come.
The line has been crossed. We must expect much more of the same. The State is now poised to take a posture towards the Roman Catholic Church which will treat it as an organization or corporation engaged in criminal activity (under the RICO Laws). We should expect more raids, actions by Attorney Generals in all 50 states against the dioceses under their jurisdiction, passing of laws which will make it a criminal offense to withhold information regarding abuse obtained in the confessional, etc. And now that the Vatican has intervened to silence the bishops in regard to the treatment of abuse among the hierarchy, we may expect attempts to prosecute Vatican officials despite any claims to diplomatic immunity. The one thing most instrumental in preventing the success of such efforts in the past is that Church lawyers have been able to successfully argue that the bishops in this country are not “subjects” of the Vatican. There would seem little credibility left in such a claim after the recent USCCB meeting.
The extraordinary irony is that while the Church is now in the process of being invaded and prosecuted for homosexual abuse, any member of the clergy who preaches against homosexuality or “Gay Marriage” places himself in a position where he is prosecutable under hate-crime legislation. The Church now lies almost totally prostrate before the world.
It is, however, never too late to stand with Christ.
We must begin by fully affirming the truth that God does not create homosexuals, any more than He creates murderers or rapists. Nor does God create people with homosexual “orientation.” Whether due to the cumulative effects of original sin, to upbringing, or to actual sin, homosexual “orientation” is in itself disordered and neither innate or natural to anyone. The temptation to homosexual acts is nothing less than temptation to grave sin, just as is any other serious temptation towards mortal sin. The notion that there can be any such thing as a licit celibate homosexual vocation to the priesthood is therefore absurd. Nor should anyone who is actively homosexual or who claims such “orientation” be allowed any role in any of the ministries of the Church, and this of course includes teaching. All we need to do in order to understand this elementary truth is to imagine trying to justify admitting to such ministries a person with a history or strong inclination towards rape or murder.
The question remains, of course, as to what exactly is our proper response as Catholics to such persons. The answer is simple: charity. We owe charity to all human beings created in God’s image, no matter how great their sin. The problem today, however, is that both within and without the Church charity is equated with a false mercy and inclusiveness. In order to exercise charity, we must therefore come first to a proper understanding of what the very precise concept of Catholic charity actually entails.
St. Thomas defines charity as “the friendship of man for God”. (ST, II-II, Q.1, A.1). At first, this might seem to us a rather dull definition. We tend to think of friendship as something less than love. This is not true of the friendship between God and man. St. Thomas writes:
“It is written (John 15:15): I will not now call you servants…but My friends. Now this was said to them by reason of nothing else than charity. Therefore charity is friendship.” (Ibid).
To read carefully the entirety of John 15 (from which the above passage is taken) is to see the nature of this friendship revealed in depth. It entails the elevation of man to the state of fully abiding in the love and truth of God. To raise man to this friendship is the reason why Christ sacrificed Himself on the Cross: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). In the light of this teaching to be found in this chapter of John, the concept of friendship takes on a whole new depth of meaning. It reaches to the greatest depths of God’s love for man. When man responds through conversion, it establishes that state which we term “living in the state of sanctifying grace”. In Thomas’ words, “Charity is the life of the soul, even as the soul is the life of the body.” (Ibid, A.2). Correspondingly, the soul that does not possess charity, does not possess sanctifying grace, is not in the state of friendship with God, and is spiritually dead. Satan reigns in his flesh.
What then of mercy, and its relationship to charity?
Posing the question as to “Whether Mercy Is the Greatest of Virtues” (II-II, Q.30, A.4), Thomas offers the following conclusion: “The Apostle after saying (Col. Iii, 12): Put ye on…as the elect of God…the bowels of mercy, etc., adds (verse 14): Above all things have charity. Therefore mercy is not the greatest of virtues.”
In accord with the teaching of St. Thomas, we must carefully distinguish mercy as it is proper to God, from that which is proper to man. Mercy can only be considered the greatest of virtues as it is applied to God Who is “greater than all others, surpassed by none and excelling all”. God’s mercy in creating angels and men from nothingness, and his further act of calling man out of a state of condemnation in order to share in the inner life of the Godhead, can therefore be seen in a light which views mercy as His supreme attribute. This, according to Thomas, is not true for man, “since for him that has anyone above him it is better to be united to that which is above than to supply the defect of that which is beneath. Hence, as regards man who has God above him, charity which unites him to God, is greater than mercy…”
And, Thomas concludes:
“The sum total of the Christian religion consists in mercy, as regards external works: but the inward love of charity whereby we are united to God preponderates over both love and mercy for our neighbor.”
There can therefore be no charity towards homosexuals, or towards any other persons living in objective mortal sin, which does not place above all other considerations their being converted away from sin and into a state of friendship with God. Any concept of mercy or charity which would detract from this supreme truth of the spiritual life embodies Satan’s agenda for the ruin of all human souls
That this false mercy and charity have penetrated to the apex of the Church cannot now be reasonably denied. It is at the very heart of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution Amoris Laetitia. Much has been written about the at-least implicit heresy contained in this document in regard to its proposing of the possibility of receiving communion for the civilly divorced and remarried, or for any others living in a state of objective mortal sin (including homosexuality). But the real heresy contained therein is succinctly stated in the following two passages:
“The way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for ever; it is to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart…For true charity is always un-merited, unconditional and gratuitous. (296).
“It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community and thus to experience being touched by an ‘unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous’ mercy. No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” (297).
It is clear from the context of Amoris Laetitia that the Pope is here speaking of the individual person, and the state of his soul which determines whether he is justified or condemned. As Catholics, whatever he says therefore must be judged in the light of the Council of Trent’s infallible teaching concerning justification. Chapter VII of the Council’s Decree on Justification is titled What the Justification of the Impious Is, and What Are the Causes Thereof. It contains this crucial passage:
“For, although no one can be just but he to whom the merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated, yet is this done in the said justification of the impious, when by the merit of that same most holy Passion, the charity of God is poured forth by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those that are justified and is inherent therein: whence, man, through Jesus Christ, in Whom he is ingrafted, receives, in the said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these (gifts) infused at once, faith, hope, and charity.”
To assert, as does Pope Francis, that such charity is unmerited, unconditional, and gratuitous is simply a form of the Lutheran heresy, which views justification, and the perseverance in God’s friendship as totally unmerited by man, and as not requiring the cooperation of man in virtue and the performance of good works. There are at least 21 Canons of the Council of Trent’s Decree on Justification which condemn Luther’s position, and detail that at every stage of the process of man’s justification – from preparation for conversion up to the grace of final perseverance – there exists the absolute necessity, not only of god’s grace, but also of the cooperation of man’s free will in the attainment and possession of, and perseverance in, that charity which is also called sanctifying or justifying grace. These canons are succinctly summarized in the following two paragraphs from Chapters XI and XV of the Council’s Decree:
“But no one, how much soever justified ought to think himself exempt from the observance of the commandments, no one ought to make use of that rash saying, one prohibited by the Fathers under an anathema, that the observance of the commandments of God is impossible for one that is justified. For God commands not impossibilities, but, by commanding, both admonishes thee to do what thou art able, and to pray for what thou art not able (to do), and aids thee that thou mayest be able; whose commandments are not heavy, whose yoke is sweet, and whose burden light. For whoso are the sons of God love Christ; but they who love Him keep His commandments, as Himself testifies; which, assuredly, with the divine help, they can do.”
“In opposition also to the subtle wits of certain men who, by pleasing speeches and good works, seduce the hearts of the innocent, it is to be maintained that the received grace of justification is lost not only by infidelity [loss of faith], whereby even faith itself is lost, but also by any other mortal sin whatever, though faith be not lost; thus defending the doctrine of the divine law, which excludes from the kingdom of God not only the unbelieving, but the faithful also (who are) fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, liers with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, railers, extortioners, and all others who commit deadly sins; from which, with the help of divine grace, they can refrain, and on account of which they are separated from the grace of Christ.”
In direct contradiction to this doctrinal teaching of the Council of Trent, Pope Francis, in paragraph #305 of Amoris Laetitia , states: “Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin – which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such – a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end. Moreover, in his footnote (#351) to this statement, he writes (the quotes which he uses are from Pope Paul VI):
In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, ‘I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium [24 November 2013], 44: AAS 105 [2013], 1038). I would also point out that the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’ (ibid., 47: 1039”).
We must first note that Pope Francis completely distorts the meaning of Pope Paul VI’s statement that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak”. The Eucharist is indeed a powerful medicine for overcoming the venial sins that plague us all. It is not a “medicine” to be given to those in objective mortal sin. St. Paul writes:
“Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord….But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”
There are indeed “conditioning and mitigating factors” which can affect the degree of culpability of a person living in objective mortal sin. But every person in this world, if he is going to consider receiving Holy Communion, is absolutely obliged to first prove himself – to judge himself – in the light of God’s Truth (both faith and morals). In any “internal forum” existing between priest and individual Catholic, whether during confession or spiritual direction, every priest in the world is obligated to make clear that there are no mitigating factors which will allow a person living in objective mortal sin to receive Holy Communion. Any priest consciously and willfully withholding such truth in situations where it is clearly applicable would be cooperating in sacrilege if the person were to receive communion. He would find himself immersed in a moral quagmire very similar in its parameters to the person who helps facilitate an abortion – only something much worse, since the sin of sacrilege against God, and the spiritual death of a human soul which is a consequence of such sacrilege, is a worse evil than that of killing of the body of a human being, even if the body be that of an innocent, unborn child.
Pope Francis’ invitation to those living in objective mortal sin to receive Holy Communion is therefore not an act of charity. It is not an act of mercy. It is an invitation to judgment and condemnation.
But there truly is a “medicine” which exists for all sinners. It is Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners.
The Church teaches that, no matter how deep into the darkness of evil a man may descend, his human nature created by God in His image cannot be destroyed. No matter how clouded over with sin, the life of Christ is still the light of his soul (John 1:4). As St. John says, the darkness may not “comprehend it”, but it can also never completely erase it. There always remains the call to truth, to innocence, to the delight of “playing before God”. In all periods of history, no matter how debased by error and sin, there has therefore always existed the potentiality for conversion of vast numbers of human souls.
The problem which is upon us now is twofold. On the one hand, what St. Paul calls the “operation of error” has descended upon us with a deceitfulness and spiritual deadliness which has never existed in past errors and heresies. We need only compare the complexity and deceitfulness of Modernism (as explored by Pope Pius X in his encyclical Pascendi) to something like the Arian heresy in order to understand how true is such an assertion.
Secondly, virtually all the powers that be in every sphere of thought and activity in this world – finance, economics, political power, the media, the educational systems, etc. lie prostrate before this “operation of error” (reductive science, physical and spiritual evolution, consumerism, an unending quest for scientific-technological and economic development, the homosexual agenda, etc.), and promote it militantly. What is more, their pervasiveness and influence over the human heart and mind is enormously greater because of such things as modern social communications and the power of government over all the areas of our lives. And, possibly most important, the money is in their hands to do so.
We therefore need to realize that we are virtually powerless in regard to all exterior activity. Even more devastating, however, is the fact that, for the most part, the Church has been deprived of the interior spiritual power which was with her from the beginning (see The Third Glorious Mystery: The Descent of the Holy Spirit). For centuries, Catholics (and the Church) have been subjected to a dialectical process of compromise with the world which has finally led us to a state of almost total impotency in regard to possessing the spiritual power to combat the enemy. As St. James wrote, “The friendship of this world is an enemy of God.” No matter how integral our faith, no matter how free we may be of mortal sin, no matter how many rosaries and other prayers we may recite, or how many hours we spend in Eucharistic Adoration, we cannot be effective vessels of the Holy Spirit and his power if we live in an adulterous relationship with the modern world.
Our Lady of Fatima prophesied the rise of the “errors of Russia” which would spread throughout the world. The extraordinary thing is that someone like Lenin saw quite accurately that the best friends of Communism would be what he is alleged to have called “useful idiots” – the liberals who, despite being ignorant of the full depth, meaning, and evil of Communist ideology, and who almost surely would have been horrified at its ultimate fruits, were yet to constitute an integral part of the dialectical (step-by-step) process of decay of Christian truth and civilization which was necessary for Communism’s triumph. In similar fashion, we might well imagine the delight of Satan with all those who might consider themselves faithful and devout Catholics, and who yet somehow still think and act as though they can be friends of the modern world with all of its advanced forms of affluence, and seduction away from the Cross of Christ. It should be no matter of wonder that such a diluted and divided love allowed the entrance of every form of perverse love, and that such an emasculated Christianity has given rise to the homosexual revolution within the Church.
It is the primary message of Fatima that the Triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart over the sins and errors which are besieging our modern world is dependent upon a circle of love which must be completed by the depth of our conversion, prayers, and sacrifice. This is why the Rosary to the Interior: For the Purification of the Church seeks first, and above all, a unified effort to place all those who consider themselves faithful Catholics before Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, begging for that interior light and grace which will accomplish their own deeper conversion away from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and make them true vessels of the power of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of souls.
We ask everyone to please ask their pastor (and bishop) to implement the Rosary to the Interior: For the Purification of the Church in their churches on February 2, 2019. Please read the Original Proposal in regard to this event. There is also a one-page Handout on our website which can be duplicated and distributed at all Catholic venues. We especially ask those who will be attending the various Marches for Life in January to make copies and distribute them widely.
