St. Pius V

The shepherd who became a Shepherd.

Born to impoverished Italian nobility, the son of Paolo Ghislieri and Domenica Augeria. Worked as a shepherd as a boy. Received an excellent training in piety and holiness, including a scholastic education from a Dominican friar; he joined the Order himself in 1518, taking the name Michele. Studied in Bologna, Italy. Ordained in 1528 in the diocese of Genoa, Italy. Teacher of philosophy and divinity in Genoa. Professor of theology in Pavia, Italy for sixteen years. Master of novices and prior of several Dominican houses, working for stricter adherence to the Order’s Rule. Inquisitor in Como and Bergamo, Italy. Commissary general of the Roman Inquisition in 1551. On 4 September 1556 Michele was consecrated Bishop of Nepi e Sutri, Italy against his will. Inquisitor in Milan and Lombardy in 1556. Created cardinal on 15 March 1557. Grand inquisitor on 14 December 1558. Part of the conclave of 1559 that elected Pope Pius IV. Bishop of Mondovi, Italy on 17 March 1560. As bishop, Michael worked to lead his flock with words and examples, and served as a continual messenger encouraging personal piety and devotion to God. Chosen 225th pope in 1566.

Upon his ascension to the papacy, Pius V immediately faced the task of enacting the reforms of the Council of Trent. New seminaries were opened, a new breviary, new missal, and new catechism were published; foundations were established to spread the Faith and preserve the doctrine of the Church. Pius spent much time personally working with the needy. He built hospitals and used the papal treasury to care for the poor. Pius faced many difficulties in the public forum, both in the implementation of the Tridentine reforms and in interaction with other heads of state. At the time of his death he was working on a Christian European alliance to break the power of the Islamic states. (Read more.)

Two Dominican Saints

Today is the feast of St. Catherine of Siena. She was not a nun but a Dominican tertiary. From New Advent:

 She was the youngest but one of a very large family. Her father, Giacomo di Benincasa, was a dyer; her mother, Lapa, the daughter of a local poet. They belonged to the lower middle-class faction of tradesmen and petty notaries, known as "the Party of the Twelve", which between one revolution and another ruled the Republic of Siena from 1355 to 1368. From her earliest childhood Catherine began to see visions and to practise extreme austerities. At the age of seven she consecrated her virginity to Christ; in her sixteenth year she took the habit of the Dominican Tertiaries, and renewed the life of the anchorites of the desert in a little room in her father's house. After three years of celestial visitations and familiar conversation with Christ, she underwent the mystical experience known as the "spiritual espousals", probably during the carnival of 1366. She now rejoined her family, began to tend the sick, especially those afflicted with the most repulsive diseases, to serve the poor, and to labour for the conversion of sinners. Though always suffering terrible physical pain, living for long intervals on practically no food save the Blessed Sacrament, she was ever radiantly happy and full of practical wisdom no less than the highest spiritual insight. All her contemporaries bear witness to her extraordinary personal charm, which prevailed over the continual persecution to which she was subjected even by the friars of her own order and by her sisters in religion. She began to gather disciples round her, both men and women, who formed a wonderful spiritual fellowship, united to her by the bonds of mystical love. During the summer of 1370 she received a series of special manifestations of Divine mysteries, which culminated in a prolonged trance, a kind of mystical death, in which she had a vision of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, and heard a Divine command to leave her cell and enter the public life of the world. She began to dispatch letters to men and women in every condition of life, entered into correspondence with the princes and republics of Italy, was consulted by the papal legates about the affairs of the Church, and set herself to heal the wounds of her native land by staying the fury of civil war and the ravages of faction. She implored the pope, Gregory XI, to leave Avignon, to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States, and ardently threw herself into his design for a crusade, in the hopes of uniting the powers of Christendom against the infidels, and restoring peace to Italy by delivering her from the wandering companies of mercenary soldiers. While at Pisa, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, 1375, she received the Stigmata, although, at her special prayer, the marks did not appear outwardly in her body while she lived. (Read more.)

And Terry reminds us that yesterday was the feast of St. Peter of Verona, who was murdered by the Cathars. According to one account:

Saint Peter Martyr was born in the year 1205 at Verona in Italy. His family belonged to a religious sect called the Cathars meaning "pure ones", which were popular in the region of Verona at that time. The Cathars were perceived as dangerous as they spread the word that Rome had betrayed and corrupted the original purity of the message of Christianity. Peter of Verona (Peter Martyr) received a good education and attended a Catholic school and went on to study at the University of Bologna where he met met Saint Dominic and then joined the Dominican Friars, forsaking the beliefs of the Cathars and adhering to the traditional Catholic Faith. His preaching was so successful that he attracted the attention of Pope Innocent III. Pope Innocent III had come to power in 1198 and had been determined to began a programme of conversion for the Cathars. By 1229 Inquisition he established an Inquisition to discover the leaders and followers of Catharism. Pope Innocent IV became Pope in 1243 and in 1252 appointed Peter Martyr the Inquisitor for Lombardy. Cathars who refused to recant were dealt with severely and punishments ranged from being sentenced to galley slaves or burned at the stake. In 1252 St. Peter Martyr was murdered by the hired Cathar assassins of two noblemen of the Venetian States whom he had handed over to the secular authorities accused of adhering to Catharism, and who, in consequence, had been imprisoned. St. Peter Martyr was attacked with an axe receiving wounds to his head and then stabbed in the heart.

My novel on the Cathars, HERE. 

Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!

I like the idea that beauty and holiness are the apologia for Christianity. The beauty of Christianity needs to shine out more; this is where the celebration of the liturgy becomes central. And the goodness of Christianity, i.e. the holiness of self-giving love (the witness of charity) and of prayer, needs to be sustained and developed. And this too, certainly: that the one thing Christianity has to offer is Easter. Simply: Christ is risen!— Dom Hugh Gilbert (from A Conservative Blog for Peace)

The Regina caeli is said in place of the Angelus during Eastertide.

Queen of Heaven

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Regina caeli

V. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia.
R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.
V. Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

A Time of Increased Spiritual Warfare

It is a time of increased spiritual warfare. It is Passiontide, which always sees an increase of spiritual warfare. I am reminded of my Irish ancestors who were forced to go without the regular life of the church for 300 years when their religion was outlawed. They lost all their civil rights for being Catholic. But they persevered.

Lately, I have been recalling the prophecy of the "Three Days Darkness," a time when the forces of hell will be unleashed and the faithful are bidden to stay in their homes with plenty of sacramentals and unceasing prayer. Here is Emmett O'Regan's article from 2013 in Unveiling the Apocalypse:

It thus appears that the prophecies of the Three Days of Darkness refer to the long night-time of the Great Apostasy, which must take place before the dawn of the Second Pentecost. And there can be little doubt that we are currently enduring a spiritual dark age, with millions of baptised Catholics deliberately forsaking their faith, in order to engage in the current hedonistic excesses that are being sponsored by the consumer-driven mass media.

Three days of darkness before a time of enlightenment is a recurring theme in the Bible, which all directly points to the three days of Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection. Starting with the Agony in the Garden, Jesus had to endure terrible suffering before His death on the Cross on Good Friday. On Holy Saturday, He even descended into Sheol itself in order to free the captives that were imprisoned there (1Pet 3:19-20; 4:6). But with His glorious Resurrection on the third day, he gave us the light of eternal life.   

We all know that Jonah being in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights (Jon 1:17) prefigured the Resurrection of Christ. But we can find some other biblical references to three days of darkness. The Book of Acts tells us that Saul was without sight for three days before starting his new life in Christ (Acts 9:9). The Apocalypse tells us that the Two Witnesses lie dead on the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days before they are restored to life:

For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
(Rev 11:9-11)

And to borrow from the "Finding in the Temple" analogy once again, it is interesting to note that the boy Jesus was found in the Temple after three days:

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
(Luke 2:41-47)

The recurring theme of "three days" in Scripture therefore almost universally focuses on a new and glorious dawn after a time of great spiritual darkness. Much like the "Dark Night of the Soul" experienced by St. John of the Cross and various other mystics, it seems that in order to attain spiritual perfection, we must endure a long night of darkness before seeing the light of union with the Creator.  As St. Paul states above in 2Cor 3:4-6, the light of of the knowledge of the glory of God will eventually shine out of the darkness, just as the light of Creation was brought forth through the Eternal Logos after the Spirit moved on the face of the deep:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
(Gen 1:1-4)

Just as the Holy Family were forced to flee into Egypt to escape King Herod's slaughter of the innocents, the Book of Revelation tells us that the Woman Adorned with the Sun (who also represents the Church) would have to flee into the wilderness for "a time, times and half a time" to evade the pursuit of the Dragon:

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
(Rev 12:13-14)

The above passage is also partially based on the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites led by Moses, who spent forty years in the desert before they could enter the Promised Land. Because of their apostasy in fashioning the Golden Calf, it was only after a period of trial, testing, and purification, that the Israelites would be allowed to enter the Holy Land. And the Holy Family were only able to return to Nazareth in Galilee after their own dark period of wandering in the wilderness, upon the death of King Herod.

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.(Isa 9:1-2)

We are told that the Woman was able to escape from the river sent forth from the Dragon, because not only did the earth open its mouth to swallow the flood, but she was given the two wings of the great eagle. These two "wings" represent the Two Witnesses, who are the two healing wings of the sun of righteousness rising at the new dawn, described in the Book of Malachi:

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. 

 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
(Malachi 4:2-6)

As well as being the two olive trees that stand before the Lord of all the earth in Rev 4:11 and Zech 4:11-14, the Two Witnesses are also represented by the two trees of life in Rev 22 - whose leaves are for "the healing of the nations". In the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Tree of Life is divided into two (one of which replaces the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil spoiled by the Serpent), and it now stands as two trees on each side of the river of life, which flows forth from the throne of God and the Lamb:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
(Rev 22:1-2)

A precursor to the Church as the Bark of St. Peter can also be found in Noah's Ark, which withstood the flood lasting forty days and nights. Seeking to find out if the waters had receded, Noah sent forth a dove, which came back with an olive leaf in its mouth:

And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
(Gen 8:11)

And as Dr. Taylor Marshall points out here, Christ's own "Dark Night of the Soul" took place amongst the olive trees of Gethsemane, during the Agony in the Garden.

As well as being intimately connected to the introduction of the new "slaughter of the innocents" that is abortion, the apparitions of Our Lady at Zeitoun between 1968-1971 also appear to have symbolised that the Church was about to endure its very own "flight into Egypt", at the beginning of the Great Apostasy. And it is noteworthy that the Arabic name zeitoun means "olives" - so this can be literally translated as "Our Lady of the Olives". There is no doubt that the wholesale collapse of Mass attendance began during this very time period (see here for example). This is almost certainly related to not only the impact of the sexual revolution of the 1960's, but also to the growth of the influence of television - which allowed Christian families to be constantly bombarded with Masonic-inspired secular values. Being immersed in this culture, which is directly transmitted into our living spaces, has gradually chipped away at the Christian faith. Could this be related to Bl. Anna Maria Taigi's prophecy concerning the Three Days of Darkness, that the "air shall be infected by demons who will appear under all sorts of hideous forms"?

It seems almost certain that the prophecies of the Three Days of Darkness are chiefly concerned with a new dawn after a long, dark night of the soul for Christian culture. The superlative form in Hebrew is emphasised by a threefold repetition. So there being "three days" of darkness communicates the fact that we would have to endure the very darkest night before the dawn of the New Springtime. (Read more.)