The Church – Not America – is the “Light of the World”

Intelligence Report
American Foundations #3

ALTHOUGH THE LIBERAL POLITICAL TRADITION is full of references to the “natural law”, “virtue” and “human happiness”, these time-honored concepts denote something quite different to men and women schooled in the Christian and classical philosophical tradition. This difference rests upon divergent liberal and classical conceptions of the human intellect and of the human person. Classical and Christian thinking about man and society begins with the work of the “speculative intellect”, the part of the intellect that thinks about abstract universal spiritual substances such as God and the human soul. The speculative intellect endeavors to apprehend, understand, and conceptualize the inner nature of things, what they are (and what they are capable of becoming) when their innate potentials are actualized. The speculative intellect provides a universal definition of what a thing is, its essence. It is by knowledge of what a thing is, and of what its potentials are, that the speculative intellect is further able to derive knowledge of its ends, of what it capable of becoming.

practical intellect”, which follows it. The job of the practical intellect, working from knowledge acquired from the speculative intellect, is to derive practical means calculated to achieve human ends, viz., the actualization of human potentials necessary to live a good life culminating in human happiness, which is the goal of politics. In short, the speculative intellect provides knowledge of human nature, its powers, operations and potentials, which all point towards its end: Happiness. Political thinkers tend to agree that happiness is the end of politics.

Liberals like Machiavelli and Jefferson, et al, begin their study of politics and human behavior without first attempting to know what a human being is. Rather, they began their study of politics with the presumption (based on common sense observations) of what a human being appears to be: an ungrateful and fickle deceiver who acts selfishly out of geed for profit:

“One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit” (Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter 17).

If this is true, every prince, according to Machiavelli, must be ready to act against virtue, if necessary.

“The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must be prepared not to be virtuous” (The Prince, Chapter 15).

clearly the student of politics must know somehow the facts about the soul, as the man who is to heal the eyes or the body as a whole must know about the eyes or the body; and all the more since politics is more prized and better than medicine” (Aristotle, Ethics Book I, Chapter 13).

Therefore,

[1] before he begins his study of politics.

[2]

When, in 1789, the American founders privatized religion and then subsequently made education a public affair, they initiated a long process of ever-increasing secularization that is still bearing its irreverent and unholy fruits. Due to the excommunication of philosophy from Protestant culture and the privatization of religion as a result of the First Amendment, the young Christian nation was left without a sufficient anecdote for what was beginning to happen in the federal and state governments and in the public schools: Education, increasingly divorced from religion and subjected to a sophisticated regiment of secular practical reason (the philosophy of liberalism) alienated from both (1) speculative philosophy (metaphysics) and (2) the bulwark of Christian faith, education under these circumstances could not provide sufficient reasonable answers to pressing questions such as the spiritual nature of the human person and the divine origin of the universe[3]. The combined lack of philosophy and theology, in the schools and broader political arena, inevitably led to a rising tide of materialism in the social, behavioral, and life sciences, which were not long after inundated with Marx, Freud, and Darwin, without Augustine, Aquinas or Aristotle to help.

Pope Benedict XVI recognized the ill-fated bifurcation of theology and philosophy, of speculative reason from practical reason:

“Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers (incorrectly) thought they were confronted with a (Catholic) faith system conditioned by philosophy….The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial, form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself” (Regensberg Address, Sept. 12, 2006).

As if to prove Benedict’s point, Martin Luther (a leading Reformer) did little to mask his contempt for speculative reason and scholastic metaphysics.

Elsewhere,

[4], were soon to see who their real enemies were — men whom they oftentimes thought were their friends.

It was not long after, in the 18th century,

“When Kant stated that he needed to set (speculative) thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this programme (of divorcing faith and reason) forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason[5], denying it access to reality as a whole” (Pope Benedict XVI).[6]

Kant, and then 18th century deists and associated philosophers, like Luther before them, upheld practical reason but, unlike Luther, they further extracted the supernatural elements from the faith thereby leaving only a rational moral system based on practical reason and experience alone without the corresponding support of the supernatural aspects of the Christian faith.[7] First, the Reformers extracted metaphysics and then the 18th century philosophers extracted faith itself and all of its sacred mysteries. In the process, Jesus was “presented as the father of a humanitarian moral message” (Pope Benedict XVI) and Christianity was brought into

“…harmony with modern reason, (seemingly) liberating it (Christianity)… from seeming philosophical and theological elements such as faith in Christ’s divinity and the triune God (a few others include the incarnation virgin birth and resurrection” (Pope Benedict XVI).

According to Kant, and to later thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson[8],

“What (the New Testament) is able to say critically about Jesus is, so to speak, an expression of practical reason.…Behind this thinking lies the modern self-limitation of reason (no faith), classically expressed in Kant’s ‘Critiques’” (Pope Benedict XVI, Regenesburg Address).

Thus, there was no longer any recourse to faith or to metaphysics. Jefferson despised metaphysics as much as Kant or Luther. According to Jefferson, metaphysics was for the “insane”:

“The metaphysical insanities of Athanasius, of Loyola, and of Calvin (Protestants and Catholics), are, to my understanding, mere relapses into polytheism, differing from paganism only by being more unintelligible.”[9]

When it came to faith and reason, the Protestants, in Jefferson’s mind, did not fare any better than the Catholics:

“It would be more pardonable to believe in no god at all, than to blaspheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin.”

[10]

Revealed mysteries such as the Trinity are simply “artificial scaffolding” that must be “done away with” by the “dawn of reason” freed from both the speculative intellect and the “atrocious attributes” of faith. For Kant, and later for deists and epicureans such as Jefferson[11], normative judgments, such as the morals of Jesus, are derived by practical reason alone and thus have nothing to do with mysteries of revealed religion and therefore do not require faith. Moreover, because they lack a metaphysical foundation, practical moral judgments, made by men such as these, are not derived from universal norms rooted in human nature (as much as they might claim to be), nor are they derived, as stated, from the sacred precincts of the Christian faith. In short, the leading political “lights” of the 18th century had reverted to practical pagan Roman philosophy devoid of the Christian faith and shorn of its Athenian metaphysical moorings established by Aristotle. All that is left is practical thinking!

reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do”.[12]

It seems that Ben Franklin had no qualms about violating a previously held principle as long as he could find a “reason”, any suitable reason. This helps explain why Mr. Franklin understood “venery” to be a virtue when exercise with moderation[13] while metaphysicians like Aristotle thought it a vice, and Christian theologians and common folk think it a sin. Even the great Cicero, pagan philosopher of Rome, recognized this problem:

[14]

– So much for morality derived from practical reason.

Classical moral philosophy of men like Cicero and mystical spirituality articulated by the Masters of the Spiritual life, such as Saint John of the Cross, quite escape carnal minded men.

[15]

From the 18th century forward, American political leaders infected with liberalism derived their moral judgments from practical reason by means of practical mental calculations severed from philosophical understanding of the human soul and further divorced from the Christian faith. They increasingly embraced the darkness of the New Order of the Ages, which they mistook for light and thought it their duty to pass it on to the rest of us. As long as the practical intellect can convince its owner that (1) his motives are derived from pure civic love of country and pursuit of science, that (2) his passions are under the control of (practical) reason, and (3) as long as he is able to avoid the appearance of any impropriety, then he can account himself virtuous without actually being virtuous as understood by authentic philosophers (not mere dilettantes) and Christian theologians.

“A prince, therefore, need not necessarily have all the good qualities.., but he should certainly appear to have them…. He should know how to do evil, if that is necessary” (The Prince, Chapter 18).

“Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures” (2 Peter 3: 15-16).

Even Martin Luther had to acknowledge that liberty of interpretation when left in the hands of “every man” led to unforeseen difficulties, as when the peasants of Germany rose up against their overlords on the authority of their own private interpretation of scripture.

“They cloak this terrible and horrible sin with the Gospel, call themselves ‘Christian brethren’, receive oaths and homage, and compel people to hold with them to these abominations. Thus they become the greatest of all blasphemers of God and slanderers of his holy Name, serving the devil, under the outward appearance of the Gospel, thus earning death in body and soul ten times over. I have never heard of a more hideous sin. See what a mighty prince the devil is, how he has the world in his hands and can throw everything into confusion”.[16]

It is not difficult to understand the disdain in which the confused emotionally charged farmers and frontiersmen (the democratic minded “New Lights” awakened by first Protestant revival), or the cold sect of intellectuals and judgmental Puritans (the more stern and authoritarian minded “Old Lights”,) were held by many of the founding fathers who prided themselves as “natural aristocrats”[17] on the sophistication of their philosophy, their intellectual attainment, genteel manners, calm comportment, their warm cordiality, broad toleration and acquired talent.

“Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper — alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin”.

Jefferson insisted that he knew the mind of Jesus better than any apostle, doctor, father, saint or clergyman. Not even Luther attempted anything as brazen. In Jefferson’s own words:

“We must reduce our volume (of the bible) to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.”

So from the Jeffersonian perspective the apostles, the first pillars of the church, and the evangelists, who wrote the gospels, were ignorant men whose additions to the bible are anything but inspired because, according to Jefferson, and men like him, the evangelist’s scriptural writings are equivalent to a pile of “dung”. Deists, like Jefferson, arrogantly claimed to have wisdom enough to know the true teachings of Jesus Christ (something they denied to the apostles and church fathers) based upon the use of practical reason, which they held to be superior to both Christian philosophy and theology, to speculative reason enlightened by, and working in unison with, supernatural faith.

So, there is a false philosophy according to men and a true philosophy according to Christ. The Philosophes, materialists, Epicureans and Deists were all self-styled “philosophers”, but what they taught by deceit according to human traditions, and elements of the world was not according to Christ. Because the native Christians were often frontiersman and yeoman farmers unschooled in Christian philosophy, they were not only ridiculed by the sophisticated whiged Philosophers, who enjoyed Roman toga parties in their classically designed estates situated along the shores of the Potomac, they were also deceived into accepting a secular government by educated men using such concepts as God and virtue as well as the name of Jesus in their writings. The Christian philosophy of such men as Saints Thomas Aquinas and Augustine, men who honored God and stood in awe of the Trinity and the ethereal mysteries of the faith were ridiculed and disdained by their Protestant brothers, but, as time would tell, to the latter’s chagrin.

“The interesting fact historically is that these two anti-rationalist traditions-that of the liberal skeptic and the Protestant revelationist- should originally have come from two opposite views of man. The Protestant dependence upon revelation arose from a great pessimism about human nature. . . . The immediately apprehended values of the liberal originate in a great optimism. Yet . . . after all, is not the dominating tradition in North America a Protestantism which has been transformed by pragmatic technology and liberal aspirations?[18]

sacred honor…. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap–let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;–let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars”.[19]

[1] ibid

[2] Classical political philosophy is an exercise of the practical intellect, which is subsequent to and dependent upon metaphysics apprehended and understood by the speculative intellect; it is an integral approach to politics. Liberalism begins with the practical intellect, with man as he appears to be, and thus is a more limited approach.

[3] The secular philosophers of the modern world were craftily challenging them, but they did not have the gift of philosophy to sustain them in the match and religion was not allowed in the public arena where the debates were occurring.

[4] A period in the early 18th century typified by emotional release experienced in Protestant communities. The Great Awakening emphasized, broader private interpretation of scriptures by members of the congregation vis a vis top-down control that had been exercised by clerical elites. The Great Awakening might simply be referred to as the further democratization of the Protestant faith in America. An appeal to the masses to wake up and express their faith, an appeal to bring vivacity and spirit to the Gospels, to make them more alive and less intellectually cold. The Great Awakening thus occurred at an opportune time for the American Revolution, which was also an appeal to the masses for more democracy, an appeal to wake up against the elitism of English monarchs and aristocrats who were stifling the common spirit.

[5] That is, Kant not only dumped metaphysics (a feat easily accomplished because of what the Reformers had previously done to metaphysics), he went much further, and reduced faith a matter of practical reason. After removing speculative reason and the mysteries of the faith, all that was left was practical reason. Kant thus fused faith and reason until they were no longer distinct.

[6] http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html

“We certainly fall into error if we think reason can know a world beyond the senses. Indeed, Kant insists that such knowledge would corrupt practical reasoning, by imposing an external incentive for moral action—fear of eternal punishment and hope of heavenly reward, what he will later call “heteronomy.” Nonetheless, human reason still has an unavoidable interest in belief in God, immortality and freedom. Kant develops this claim more systematically in the second Critique” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

[7] This was the state of morality when seized upon by the deists, epicureans, materialists, among America’s founding elite who accepted the moral code implicit in Christianity because it was “reasonable” but rejected the central mysteries, such as the incarnation and resurrection, because, they insisted, they were not reasonable.

[8] Jefferson, upon retirement, made it his project to decide which parts of the bible were the true teachings of Jesus and which were added later by the “untutored apostles.” He cut verse by verse from the Gospels using practical reason as his guide to abstract all the sacred mysteries that ran contrary to his practical reason (but not to metaphysics, which Jefferson lacked). As a result of this sacrilegious exercise Jefferson was able to distinguish “what is really his (Jesus’) from the rubbish in which it is buried.”

[9] Thomas Jefferson, letter to Rev. Jared Sparks, November 4, 1820.

[10] Thomas Jefferson letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823.

[11] In a letter to William Short (1819), Jefferson proclaimed his allegiance to the philosophy of Epicurus: “As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.
[12] http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page18.htm

[13] Franklin Autobiography: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm

[14] Marcus Tullius Cicero: Second Book “Of The Treatise On The Chief Good And Evil” (Treatise de Finibus).

[15] Saint John of the Cross: Chapter Four, “The Ascent of Mt. Carmel”.

[16] Against the Robbing and Murdering Herd of Peasants (May, 1525).

[17] According to Jefferson their was both a natural and a pseudo aristocracy: “There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents… There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society.”

[18] George P. Grant, “Plato and Popper,” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science (May 1954): 191-92.

[19] Abraham Lincoln, July 27, (1838) The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm

Fatima End Time Apostles and Catholic Social Teaching

New Era World News

FATIMA AND SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

Many Catholics, including those with a cultural formation and knowledge of the theology and spirituality of the Church look upon Her Social Doctrine as a mere assistance activity to help the poor and the disabled. They often forget that the principal role of the Church is the practice of CHARITY. There is no authentic spirituality without charity. God himself is charity, according to the First Epistle of St. John: 4:8.

Charity is the basis for Divine Liturgy. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is pure charity. The Holy Communion is absolute charity. Divine Office, the official prayer of the Church is charity in its maximum expression. Thus, charity is the core of authentic spirituality! Spirituality without charity is an empty devotional practice that is unacceptable to God! It is a mere exercise of egocentric individualism.

Charity in the heart projects outward to all members of human societies, inspiring justice and fair distribution of goods according to the needs of our brothers and sisters.

Because charity comes by grace from the Holy Trinity, human ideologies with atheistic backgrounds and totalitarian control mechanisms cannot forge a New World steeped in justice and charity. These ideologies engendered oppressive structures that were the cause of great suffering and lack of authentic democracy and personal freedom for millions of people throughout the world.

On the other hand, an ideology, expressed in its version of savage ambition for profits and luxuries, cannot serve as model either. It would be like replacing one monster’s head (aesthetic materialism) with another (hedonistic materialism), but still the same dragon. Materialism is not only dialectic, it can also be pragmatic, that of consumerism. Pope John Paul II saw through this false dichotomy and therefore understood that the solution to the social question would not arise out of political competition between the two dominant systems. The savage ambition of a hedonistic system cannot serve to rebuild the world since it is characterized bu its own spiritual and moral crisis, substituting God’s primacy with greed, goods consumption and unjust distribution of riches. Such a system, though differing in name from communism or collectivism, results over time in pragmatic atheism, a different head on the same monster of Materialism – something else is needed.

GREAT LESSONS OF THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER “CENTESIMUS ANNUS”

On May 22, 2010, the Holy Father Benedict XVI pronounced a speech to the “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation” stating:

“Today, more than ever, the human family can grow as a free society of free peoples so long as globalization is guided by solidarity and the common good and by social justice, all of which find a precious wellspring in the message of Christ and of the Church. The common good is the goal that gives meaning to progress and development, which otherwise would be limited only to the production of material goods. These goods are necessary, but without the orientation to the common good, consumerism, waste, poverty and inequality come to prevail, which are negative factors for progress and development.”

Today’s moment in history presents the terrible financial crisis of the more developed countries, specifically more profound in the United States of America and Europe, due to the wrong decisions made to embrace the war in Iraq and not to limit the greed and avarice of the financial, stock, and mortgage markets that threatens whole nations with bankruptcy. The irresponsible speculation of so many should have been restricted by upright politicians; politics must have primacy over finance, and by a system of ethics that must be the guiding force for all social action — political, economic, and cultural. Instead, we are increasingly burdened by unsustainable debt and moral malaise.

After all, this is what happens when humanity turns to the old ways of the Babel Tower, pretending to have access to heaven without God; that is, pretending to obtain happiness and glory while eradicating God from public life. But this is not possible. When human beings pretend to act as if God does not exist, they tend to get what they ask for and in the long run are abandoned to their own designs, which inevitably lead to humiliation and despair. Perhaps America and Europe will learn their mutual lessons from history, from the two great wars of the twentieth century, from the Cold War, and from the looming collapse of the Western economies?

Pope Benedict XVI wisely stated:

“The fundamental priority for the development of the entire family of peoples, however, is to strive to recognize the true scale of goods and values. The notion of integral human development presupposes such things as subsidiarity and solidarity, and interdependence between State, society and the market. In a global society made up of many different peoples and religions, the common good and integral development must be achieved with everyone’s contribution. Religions have a crucial role to play in this, especially when they teach fraternity and peace. THE EXCLUSION OF RELIGION FROM PUBLIC LIFE –AND AT THE OTHER EXTREME, RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM – HINDERS AND ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PERSONS AND THEIR COLLABORATION FOR THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY. PUBLIC LIFE IS SAPPED OF ITS MOTIVATION AND POLITICS BECOMES DOMINEERING AND AGGRESSIVE”.

These dynamic insights coming from Papal Social teaching are echoed in the Message of Fatima, which provides three main teachings that move us in the same direction as the papal teachings of the encyclical letter:

God is first! He must be at the center of human life. All things orbit around His laws and commandments. This is the primacy of God!

The fate of nations, the fate of the world, has been entrusted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We must pray to her Immaculate Heart to obtain world peace. This is God’s will.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the openness of Eastern Europe to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, signs of the beginning of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary promised at Fatima, are a great grace from Heaven that must be completed by the European efforts to build new societies based on the “civilization of love” principles, thereby bringing about the “globalization of solidarity” in a world wounded by greed and exploitation and in need of healing grace rooted in justice and charity as the papal social doctrine teaches.

DIFFICULTIES IN BRINGING ABOUT SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION OVERSHADOWED BY GOSPEL AND FATIMA MESSAGE WHICH FORESHADOWS A REUNION OF EUROPE IN THE FAITH

According to Pope Benedict XVI

“Modern culture, particularly in Europe, runs the risk of amnesia, of forgetting and thus abandoning the extraordinary heritage aroused and inspired by Christian faith, which is the essential framework of the culture of Europe… Today too these roots are alive and fruitful in East and West, and can inspire a new humanism…to respond to the numerous and sometimes crucial challenges that our Christian communities and societies have to face: first among them, that of secularism, which not only impels us to ignore God and His designs, but ends up by denying the very dignity of human beings, in view of a society regulated only by selfish interests”

To secularism we must oppose the witnessing of believers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all, proclaiming that God is first, speaking about the rights of God as Creator and Redeemer to humanity. This is the great call of the Message of Fatima, capable of providing a religious experience that can transform the human heart as it transformed the hearts of Blessed Jacinta and Francisco and Venerable Sister Lucia.

Pope Benedict XVI concluded:

“Let us again let Europe breathe with both lungs, restore a soul not only to believers, but to all peoples of the continent, promote trust and hope, rooting them in the millennial experience of the Christian faith. THE COHERENT, GENEROUS AND COURAGEOUS WITNESS OF BELIEVERS MUST NOT NOW BE LACKING, so that together we may look to our shared future, a future in which the freedom and dignity of all men and women are recognized as a fundamental value, in which openness to the Transcendent, the experience of faith, is recognized as an essential element of the human being.”

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE FIRST?

First, we must grow spiritually close to Christ under the Queenship of Mary who leads us to her Son in the Eucharist. Then practically speaking, we should focus on the formation of leaders that will guide our communities and societies to construct the Kingdom of God on earth, a new civilization of love so much needed to attain peace and happiness.

THE NEED TO HAVE AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN POLITICIANS

When the Holy Father, Benedict XVI received participants to the twenty-fourth plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity on May 21, 2010, he invited them to reflect on the theme: “Witnesses to Christ in the political community”.

He told them that, although the “technical formation of politicians” is not part of the Church’s mission, she reserves the right to “pass moral judgment in those matters which regard public order when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls require it”.

Christ’s disciples in our days must accomplish the great threefold mission to defeat “the spread of a confused relativism and of a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism (that) weakens democracy and favors the dominance of strong powers”:

“It is up to the lay faithful to show –in their personal and family life, in social cultural and political life-that the faith enables them to read reality in a new and profound way, and to transform it”, said the Pope.
“It is also the duty of the laity to participate actively in the political life, in a manner coherent with the teaching of the Church, bringing their well-founded reasoning and great ideals into the democratic debate, and into the search for a broad consensus among everyone who cares about the defense of life and freedom, the protection of truth and the good of the family, solidarity with the needy and the vital search for the common good”.
The Holy Father went on: “There is the need for authentically Christian politicians but, even more so, for lay faithful who bear witness to Christ and the Gospel in the civil and political community. This need must be reflected in the educational prospectus of the ecclesial community and requires new forms of presence and support from pastors, Christian membership of associations, ecclesial movements and new communities can be a good school for such disciples and witnesses, supported by the charismatic, community, educational and missionary resources of those groups”.

During his May 13, 2010 visitation to the Shrine of Fatima, Pope Benedict XVI insisted that all communities must live the Message of Fatima since all communities are called by this message to repent and do penance, to convert to Jesus Christ and abandon the evil spirit and his worldly deeds as was promised in our baptism.

The World Apostolate of Fatima, an International Public Association of the Faithful, has as its charisma the formation of lay people in the New Evangelization using as instrument the authentic Message of Fatima. This is the educational prospectus of our association, to carry on this mission enriching the ecclesial community with a new vision for our families in the present times of confusion and uncertainty. As Pope Benedict XVI said at Fatima:

“DO NOT BE AFRAID TO TALK OF GOD!” The great challenge of our times is “the separation and the opposition between secularism and the culture of faith”

Pope Benedict stressed that this is “something anomalous and must be transcended. The present moment is for the two to come together, and in this way to discover its true identity.”

This is ” is Europe’s mission and mankind’s need in our history.”

During this Year of Mercy, inpsired by divine grace and the ongoing conversion of Rusia as foretol by Our Lady, we must renew our spiritual and apostolic zeal, accepting the Gospel of Christ in its entirety and witnessing with passion the experience of charity, the religious experience of God’s mystery, that light shed from the Immaculate Heart of Mary at Fatima, which was God himself, transforming the hearts of the three little shepherds of Fatima.

The experience of God’s love to humanity is transforming the hearts of the African continent with the ever new, everlasting power of Jesus Christ Risen from the dead! Suffering, anguish and death are all overcome by the power of the Risen One! This is the great existential lesson of the Fatima Message for all.

The New Evangelization and the Message of Fatima

New Era World News

by Prof. Américo Pablo Lopez Ortiz, International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima pictured with Pope Francis at Third World Congress of Ecclesial Movements. Prof. Américo personally handed to Pope Francis an eight-page petition letter on behalf of the World Apostolate of Fatima International to establish the First Saturdays Devotion in the Universal Church, and spoke to him about this devotion, “the forgotten part of the Message of Fatima.”

____________________________________

“REPENT AND DO PENANCE! THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND The evangelical call to conversion echoes more powerful than ever in the authentic Message of Fatima, the “evangelical message of prayer and penance” as Pope Paul VI called it.

The Message of Fatima has it all: The doctrinal richness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; its freshness, images, gestures of the primitive Christian catechesis; the calls to penance from Saint John the Baptist, preparing the way for the Redeemer; the strong eschatological accents of Christ before the ruins of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44); the didactic force of Jesus’ parables; the simple life of the villagers, their emotional gestures and learned prayers; the prophetic contents of the Book of Revelation with the confrontation between “the Woman clothed with the sun… and the red dragon”; as well as God’s seal with the Miracle of the Sun Fatima October 13, 1917 (video 5:32) and the profound spiritual peace found in that holy place where heaven and earth meet for the welfare of humanity.

Everything occurred in Europe: Three apparitions of the Angel, (video 3:02) the messenger who prepared the way for the visitation of the Mother of God and seven apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima (including a special one to Lucia on her departure from Fatima) were located in Portugal. Then, two apparitions of great magnitude and transcendence occurred in the other half of Iberia, Spain, at Pontevedra and Tuy, all of them forming a unique and perfect message coming from heaven, having the objective of explaining the Gospel of the beloved Son of God for our times so that nobody could excuse himself or herself from not been capable of interpreting “the signs for our time”.

Our Lady came to Fatima to speak to the world, but firstly, to speak to Europe, her beloved “old continent”, whose history of wars and conflicts, ideologies and politics, geographical and scientific discoveries as well as technological developments, had the greater influence to the rest of the world. Through Europe, Christianity was spread to most nations in a constant pattern of light and darkness that produced many saints and heroes that portrayed some of the best of what human beings are capable of, as well as some of the bigger tragedies in history, armed conflicts, persecutions and slander. Then, at our modern times, through Europe, the philosophical trends of illustration, rationalism and dialectic materialism engendered a struggle against faith and morals, against the spiritual destiny of humanity, against God himself; not only denying His existence, but also persecuting in many ways those who believe in Him.

The Message of Fatima is heaven’s reply to human pride neglecting God and pretending to build “a civilization without God” because He is not needed any more.

Lourdes in France (video 1:55) stands as heaven’s reply to illustration and rationalism, showing the great limitations of human knowledge and power when confronted with sickness, aging and death. The great advances of humanity are nothing when compared to the inexplicable intervention of God in the individual history of men and women completely cured from their infirmities when coming with faith to the waters of Our Lady’s well at Lourdes (video 1:55). Reason, technology, pride are mute and humiliated by God’s acts. Then, suddenly, God is needed again in the European heart! The heavenly mother showed the way to recover faith in God!

Fatima stands as heaven’s reply to the threats posed by substituting God with the idol of material progress and totalitarianism. The “paradise” promised on earth turns to be a real hell of hatred, struggles for power, violence, assassinations, jealousy and genocide. The twentieth century is the century of martyrs where millions of people were sacrificed to construct an elusive “paradise on earth without God” that never came! The Message of Fatima offers the best possible interpretation of the philosophy of history of that century whose developments come well into our present XXI century forcing our future generations to become protagonists in the drama of our times: We must choose between the “civilization of love” or that of hatred; we must choose between the “culture of life” or the “culture of death” as the great options that will define our own collective history!

Fatima provides an interpretation of God’s intervention on the COLLECTIVE HISTORY of men and women of the XX and XXI centuries as Lourdes (video 1:55) provided in the XIX century the historical interpretation of God’s intervention in the INDIVIDUAL HISTORY of men and women longing for health and wellness in the midst of misery and suffering caused by sickness.

God is still needed! The fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany, are all great signs of the fulfillment of the Fatima prophecy: “At the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph… Russia will be converted and a time of peace will be granted to the world.” The great qualitative changes in the world at the end of the twentieth century constitute an authentic new Marian Lepanto, a great Marian triumph that occurred exactly on the same dates of liturgical Marian feasts, commemorating the spiritual victories of the Woman dressed in sun:

SIGNIFICANT MARIAN DATES ASSOCIATED WITH DISSOLUTION OF USSR AND REBIRTH OF RUSSIA

1. August 22, 1991: The attempt to overthrow Russian President Mikhail Gorbachov failed. The Soviet Communist Party has sealed its fate after three days of a military take over; three days of confusion and despair in which the forces of the hard core atheistic Communists confronted the forces of grandmothers and young citizens, ending in the collapse of their attempt. –Feast of the Queenship of Mary!

2. December 8, 1991: It was announced publicly that the new Community of Independent States would replace the USSR, precisely when the Catholic world celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary!

3. December 25, 1991: On this date, the Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia announced the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was Christmas Day, the greatest joy in the life of the Blessed Mother, her giving birth to her only Son, the great Solemnity of Nativity Day!

4. January 1, 1992: Russia emerges as an independent state, open to religious freedom, public cult and religious practices. The new Community of Independent States recognizes the independence and sovereignty of the former Soviet republics. The Soviet Union of Marxist and atheistic republics passed away at the age of 74 years. This day the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the principal Marian feast in the liturgical calendar. (The Soviet Union could not celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, that is, its 75th Anniversary. The Fatima Message could! Both began on October 1917 at the same time!)

The four major dates of the historical changes that ended an era are marked by the Marian presence, according to God’s will, the Lord of History! The Servant of God, John Paul II, was a wonderful instrument in the hands of God to comply with the petitions of Our Lady of Fatima, including the entrustment of Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops of the Catholic world and those of the Orthodox Church who united with them. By this collegial consecration of March 25, 1984, the Universal Church complied with the desires of Our Lady of Fatima, who prescribed this act of collegiality among the bishops of the world to convert Russia and many sinners and bring an era of peace to earth. Just six years later, the world would see the great qualitative changes in the political map of Europe without the shedding of blood!

The great efforts and contributions of Pope John Paul’s crusade to fulfill the Fatima prophesy are most remarkable: The fall of atheistic communism in Eastern Europe, beginning with Poland, the Pope’s Motherland; the collapse of the Soviet Union and its regime, without bloodshed; the openness of the old Communist countries to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and religious freedom; the prevention of a disastrous nuclear war that could have happened between 1985-1986, according to some disclosed documents of the intelligence agencies and the correspondence of Sister Lucia with the Holy Father; the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany; an end to the old Cold War and the opening of a new era of collaboration and better understanding between nations. The contributions of Pope John Paul II to these achievements are of the greatest magnitude. These changes in the world can be labeled as “the Great Miracle of the twentieth century”. Such GRACE AND MERCY coming through Fatima should produce in the hearts of people the most profound gratitude to the Lord of History who saved the the world from terrible threats of war and destruction! That gratitude should move the people hearts to the conversion of many sinners!

Although there were great improvements in removing the malignant structures that prevented whole societies to believing, loving and serving God, it is also true that many more people have ignored the great GRACE AND MERCY granted from heaven.

But humanity is free to follow God or to walk away from His path. At present, the world is submerged into a spiritual and moral crisis. Pope John Paul II, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, foresaw the present crisis and launched precisely from the Shrine of Fatima the encyclical letter “Centesimus annus” commemorating the 100 years of the encyclical letter “Rerum Novarum” by Pope Leo XIII.

The social doctrine of the Church and the New Evangelization are offered by Pope John Paul II as the needed instruments to build a new world after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. It is essential to substitute the oppressive structures of the materialistic and atheistic societies of with the “civilization of love” taught by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, acquiring the values and lifestyle of Christian life. The world must be re-evangelized. God must be at the center of cultures and civilization. God must be first! God has the primacy!

GO TO NEXT ARTICLE: FATIMA – END TIME APOSTLES AND THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

Second Visit Our Lady of Fatima June 13, 1917

New Era World News

SIGNIFICANTLY THE FIRST APPARITION of the Virgin Mary, May 13, 1917, ended, as it had with the Angel of Peace in 1916: with adoration and love of the Blessed Sacrament.

“Oh, Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!”

Afterward, the Virgin Mary concluded Her first visit with one additional request. She asked the children to continue praying the rosary.

Thus, She linked the Rosary and the Eucharist, as St. John Bosco had linked devotion to Mary, “Auxilium Christianorum” (Help of Christians) and the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in his well-known dream of the two pillars. In effect, the Virgin Mary was beginning to unfold the relationship between the Eucharist and the Rosary as the supernatural means offered by the Holy Trinity and the Queen of Heaven to obtain world peace:

“Pray the rosary every day in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”

One month later, June, 1917, after completing their rosary, the three children once more saw a flash of light reflecting the Light that was proceeding toward them. Then Our Lady appeared on the same holmoak tree as She had previously. The dialogue began in this fashion:

‘”Please tell me, Madam, what it is that you want of me?”

“I want you to come here on the thirteenth of next month.”

“I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. And after each one of the mysteries, my children, I want you to pray in this way: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins , save us from the fire of hell. Take all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.”

“I want you to learn to read and write, and later I will tell you what else I want of you”.

She said that She would not tell them until “later” what more She wanted.

She told them that Jacinta and Francisco would soon go to heaven, but that Lucia was to stay longer because it was Jesus’ wish that she remain on earth longer to make the Lady known and loved and to “establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart”:

“Will you take us to heaven?”

“Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.”

“Must I remain in the world alone?”

She told Lucia not to despair because She herself would comfort her and that Her “Immaculate Heart would be Lucia’s refuge and the way that will lead to God.

Not alone, my child, and you must not be sad. I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.”

The moment She said the last words, the Wom ImmaculateHeart an opened Her hands and communicated the rays of that same immense light by which the children saw themselves immersed in God during Her first visit. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light that rose toward heaven, as Our Lady had foretold, and Lucia in the rays poured out upon the earth where she was to remain in order to spread devotion to the “Immaculate Heart.”

Then, elevated in front of Our Lady’s right palm they saw Her Immaculate Heart encircled by thorns that pierced it.

The three understood that they were being shown “The Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity and seeking reparation.”

The apparition then concluded as on the first visit: The Virgin Mary rose to the east and disappeared in the “immensity of heaven.”

LESSONS

The children learn that Our Lady, like the Holy Trinity, is outraged by the sins of humanity and like the Holy Trinity, seeking reparation.

Before revealing Her Immaculate Heart, the children are told that the Trinity wants to establish devotion to it and that Lucia is to be the prime instrument for this purpose.

She also began to prepare Jacinta and Francisco, as She prepares each of Her children, for their upcoming deaths.

They were also prepared for their ministry of reparation, to suffer out of love for God and neighbor, they were prepared for this by being immersed in the grace of God communicated by the Our Lady, She who suffers with God, wills what God wills, and reveals Her own Heart pierced with sorrow for the sins of humanity, a Heart foretold in Scripture:

“Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).

The Angel of Peace had already informed the children of the existence of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts during the third apparition in 1916:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners.”

Months later, the Immaculate Heart is revealed to them. Of course, the children are indirectly being given the identity of the Woman because the angel had already told them that the Immaculate Heart belonged to the “Mary” evident in the final sentence above.

Thus, we can expect God to foreshadow, unfold and progressively reveal future events to His children (those who listen to Him, love Him and put His words into action) so that little by little begin meditating on and preparing for them before they are more fully revealed and before they take place.

“I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak; and the things that are to come, he shall shew you” (John 16:12-13).

This however, is a gift reserved to His children, those “little ones” who love Him and therefore participate with Him in the Divine plan to overcome the world and participate with Him in the work of human redemption and sanctification.

“And he said to them: I saw Satan like lightening falling from heaven. Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall hurt you.

“In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight” (Luke 10:19-21).

Fatima is for little ones, humble servants of God who seek His glory and not their own, who offer themselves as other Christs for the sins of humanity. This mission involves much suffering endured by deep compassion that encourages, heroic willingness to do penance for love of others.

Intelligence Report Two: Confusion in Marian Apostolate Result of The Woman at War with Serpent

New Era World News

AS CONCLUDED IN PART ONE: The whole universe is resounding with the echo of Divine Logos : “Mercy-Mercy-Mercy” and of His Mother who is asking for reparation from her children for the sins of others, asking penance from those who love God for those who are steeped in sin. Our Lord and Our Lady are asking for love, mercy, compassion, and sacrifice for sinners while Catholic some schismatic (and non-schismatic ultra-conservatives are calling for their heads, calling for punishment, divine retribution, and chastisement. The pope is correct, they don’t get it. But neither do the ultra-liberals who make excuses for sins, condone them, militantly embrace them and refuse to ask for forgiveness – they don’t get it either..

The Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ – His representative on earth. As such, he is expected to mirror the wishes, will, and desires of his King. And it is the King’s will, at this special moment of human history, that Mercy be the theme of His Church, that mercy be showered over all the earth from the rising of the sun until its setting in every climate and place. Jesus, Himself, revealed to Saint Faustina that this gift of Mercy is His last gift to the Church before He returns in glory as the world’s judge. He also revealed to Saint Faustina the meaning of His eschatological statement in the Gospel of Matthew about a “sign” in the heavens that would be given humanity prior to His final coming (Mt 24:30). He told her it would be the final sign, a sign of mercy intended to beckon all humanity to repentance before the Great Day of Final Judgment:

“Write this (He said): Before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort:

“All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day” (Divine Mercy Website, Diary, 83).

Until that time, between now and then, He desires Mercy, especially mercy for the greatest sinners. Thus, He further revealed to Saint Faustina that those who have the most right to His mercy are the most grievous sinners:

“Let the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. … Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask” (Diary of Saint Faustina Para 1146).

Jesus has a

“…special compassion for the worst sinners, because they are most in need of His mercy.”

Pope Francis is keenly aware of God’s mercy and of His desire to extend it everywhere, especially toward hardened sinners. He is acting accordingly and as the Vicar of Christ, he expects Catholic clergy and laity to do the same. God wants forgiveness, mercy and compassion, not judgment, severity and legalism.

The Hour of Mercy is a time to pronounce, to pronounce the good news, not to renounce.

“For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47, John 3:17).

With this Message of Mercy, along with the necessity of obedience, ingrained in mind it is easy to unravel the confusion coming from both the extreme left and the right wing spectra of the Church concerning apparitions pertaining to the Virgin Mary.

First, it must be recognized that Satan has a special hatred for the Virgin Mary, a divine enmity placed between them by God the Father, Himself.

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Gen. 3:15).

As she is favored above all others by the Father (Luke. 1:28), she is hated above all others by Satan (Gen 3:15). She is hated because she, like Jesus, is obedience unto death as evidenced by her willingness to give her life to accomplish the will of the Father due a potential false accusation of adultery pertaining to her conception without Joseph being the father. Mary is the first disciple of Jesus, and like Jesus, her divine son, Mary is obedient unto death (Luke 1:38). She is hated because she is the Mother of the Divine Logos who is the way and the life and the truth, while Satan is a murder and a liar from the beginning. She is the Mother of all those baptized into the truth, while he is the Father of all those who are liars, very clever liars (John 8:44). He hates her so immensely that he vomits a river of filth from his lying and perverse mouth to carry her away to oblivion drowned under a nefarious tidal wave of calumniation and deception (Revelation 12: 13-15).

How do we know that Mary is the Woman hated by Satan as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. Both scripture and reason proclaim her to be the woman. Jesus Himself, refers to his mother as “woman” in at least two places in scripture. First at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:4). And then, most distinctly and clearly, He calls Her “woman” with His dying breath on Mt. Calvary:

“When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother” (John 19: 26-27).

Reason also proclaims that the Virgin Mary is the Woman spoken of in Genesis 3:15. In the Apocalypse she is depicted as the “woman clothed with the sun” and at war with Satan (Revelation 12: 1-4). In these passages, the woman is presented as the Mother of Jesus as the one giving birth to the savior. Who is this but Mary?

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered….And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne”

What human being rules all nations from the throne of God? If the answer is Jesus, then clearly the woman who gave Him birth, is His mother, the Virgin Mary.

The woman is not and cannot be the Church as some claim. The Church is not the Mother of Christ– The Church is the Bride of Christ. Nor is the Church Israel; Israel is not the Mother of the Son of God – Israel rejected, and to this day rejects, the Son of God. Israel is not the Bride of Christ because Israeli rejected Christ when He came to wed her. Moreover, the woman depicted in revelation is referred to as a great sign, signum magna.

When requested by God to ask for a sign, the Prophet Isaiah informs us that King Ahaz refused; so God himself provided a sign: a Virgin giving birth to the savior of the world.

“And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above. And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (Isaiah 7:10-14).

Revelation 12 is a corollary to Isaiah 7. Both reveal the mystery of the incarnation and speak of a woman giving birth to the savior of the world as a “sign” provided by God. Revelation begins with these words depicting a sign from God concerning the Virgin Mary and the birth of her son, Emmanuel:

“A great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.

The woman depicted in Revelation 12 is the Mother of God. The Mother of God is a virgin, but Israel according to her own prophets is a whore and thus cannot be the woman revealed in Revelation 12. It is, according to Isaiah, a virgin that gave birth to God’s son, not an adulterous. But Hosea tells us, Israel is an adulterous:

“Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through, and will kill her with drought” (Hosea 2: 2-5).

Other passages in the Old Testament that refer to the restoration of the marriage covenant between God and Israel are references to the New Testament Church, the New Israel with whom Christ established the new and everlasting covenant forfeited by his espoused Israeli. The New Israel is the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 21: 9-11; Ephesians 5:32). When the Old Testament speaks of a renewed covenant, it is clear that the reference is to church, as in Hosea 2:16-18, notice the passage speaks of a future day and of a new covenant while also depicting Jesus as a Prince of Peace who espouses the New Israel not by the “works” of the old law but by “faith” of the new law (Hosea 2:18-20). The New Israel are those members of the Old Israel who accepted Christ and all of the gentiles who have been joined to Him as a result of Israel’s rejection and their acceptance (Romans 11:17-24).

Clearly, the Prince of Darkness hates the Mother of Light, the Mother of all the children of God: John 19: 26-27 and Revelation 12:17, which reveals that the dragon or Satan

“…was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, (those) who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Clearly, Satan hates the woman and her children depicted here as “the rest of her seed”. What does the text mean by the “rest of her seed”? Ostensibly the text is hearkening back to Genesis 3:15 wherein God states that he will create enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan:

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed.”

They are referred to as the rest of Her seed because Jesus as depicted in Revelation 12: 4-5 is the first seed and the others are his brothers and sisters, the “rest of her seed” that make up the one Body of Christ, the sons and daughters of the Woman who is the Mother of all the children of God, the Mother of the Church, His mystical body, of which He is the Head. Naturally as Mother of Jesus, she is also mother of His body, His church.

Jesus came forth from the Woman who had the dragon at her feet ready to devour Him at his birth through the evil designs of Herod who ordered the death of all the holy innocents in order to slaughter Christ at his birth [Matthew 2:16]. Herod failed and so did Satan. They failed because Christ is Son of God the Father and was caught up to heaven to sit on the throne of the Almighty safe from the ravenous claws of the serpent:

“And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son.”

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“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne” (Revelation 12: 4-5).

Consequently, Satan makes war with the woman and the rest of her seed, her human sons and daughters in Christ her Divine Son.

Since Satan hates the woman and her seed, we should expect anything pertaining to her, especially special visits to earth to guide and nourish her children, to be surrounded with confusion, lies, deceit, forgeries and above all else, by hatred and disobedience. And this is exactly what is found, especially on the ultra-liberal and ultra-conservative fringes. Although polar opposites, what they share in common is an affinity for disobedience and a perversion of God’s mercy, which is either (1) forgotten, shrouded in false piety or turned into an occasion for callousness and hatred toward sinners, a wish for their punishment and chastisement rather than love, mercy and compassion as flow form the Heart of Jesus or (2) an excessive tolerance leading to a false notion of love resulting in acceptance and even justification of sin.

End Part Two