I Pray Not For The World.

Deus Meus et Omnia ☩ My God and My All.

In the peace of His Majesty, our Lord Jesus. As we celebrate Eastertide and our focus shifts to the Glorious Resurrection of our God and King and relax our fasts, we ought to take some time in reflection on our enmity with the world. Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God (James 4:4). Hopefully, during this Lenten season we were able purge our minds and hearts of the world, its vanities, its worries, its anxieties, and it’s paganism. If we did not spend lent cleansing the Sanctuary of our hearts of these worldly idols, Eastertide is also a great occasion to clean house. Looking back upon Holy Week, with minds raised to heavenly thoughts and our souls in constant recollection, we have many past points of reflection. On Palm Sunday, the citizens of Jerusalem and the followers of our Blessed Lord flooded the streets of the Holy City. They cried: Hosanna, blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord, the king of Israel (John 12:13) as they proclaimed Him to be their King. Yet, just days later many of these individuals would either flee their arrested King, experience an extreme despair or condemn Him to death. Tragically, all of us can relate to these acts of treason. Those of us who flood the Tridentine Mass, we are quick to proclaim Christ as our King, in both attire, language, and religious tradition. Yet, how many sins do we commit in a week? In a day? In an hour? If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15).

We are quick to either despair and flee our Lord’s presence or out of self love, dethrone Him and condemn Him to death straight to His Holy Face. They cried out: Away with Him; away with Him; crucify Him. Pilate saith to them: Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). therefore we must have a deep hatred of sin and a humble heart constantly seeking to conform to the Will of God. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls (Matthew 11: 29). Our chief enemy ought to be the world, pride, and vanity. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world (1 John 2:15-16). A lack of humility which culminates into a lack of trust  is why most of Jerusalem fled in terror or turned against His Majesty during His Passion. It’s also why most of us commit sin, a product of being invested in the nonsense of the world and a failure in being humble of heart. It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels (St. Augustine). If we are to keep from fleeing from the Cross and betraying Our Blessed Lord, we must first purge our hearts of its pride, it’s vanity and the things of the world. Traditional Catholics seem to think we’ve mastered fleeing from the world because we openly rebuke many of the degenerate tendencies of modern life. However, on the contrary, there are deep worldly idols enthroned within each of our hearts. Son of man, these men have placed their uncleannesses in their hearts, and have set up before their face the stumblingblock of their iniquity (Ezekiel 14:3). By overly idenfying with political factions and placing certainty in wordly solutions. Put not your trust in princes:  In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.  His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish.  Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God (Pslam 145:2-4).

As a result of this mental and often spiritual investment, Worldly affairs plague our minds, constantly in our circles are discussions of anxiety, stress and nonsensical conspiracy.

And be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). Rarely do our discussions consist in the holy Gospels, the sacred Scriputres, teachings and examples of saints or the glory of God. Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Colossians 3:1-2). As a result of this worldly obsession, despair seems like the mascot behind most traditional discords and conversion. This is not willed by God. Before His Passion our Lord taught: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become My disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father's commandments, and do abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled (John 15:6-11). We ought too be filled with the joy of Christ and have our minds fixed on being within the love of Christ, not filled with the anxiety of the world or the despair of the devil. Come what may, we must always have the promise of God fulfilled through Christ impressed on our hearts and minds. As St. Teresa of Avila once sarcastically said of the devil was threatening to possess her: For we know he [satan] cannot move a finger unless the Lord permits it. Whatever are we thinking of? I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who are themselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself. What then do we worry about? If we are genuinely trying our best to follow Christ and stay within the state of Grace, there is nothing the devil, the world, or even the global elites can do that’s God Himself does not permit.Wherefore all that Thou hast brought upon us, and every thing that Thou hast done to us, Thou hast done in true judgment (Daniel 3:31). We must rid our ourselves of care for worldly affairs and media outlets that only polluate our recollection with discontent, infecting our souls to emotional turmoil. Yes, this also means those vulture-like “traditional” content producers and talk show hosts. Those shameless influencers and commentators who profit off the crisis in the Church. Is it not written, My house shall be called the house of prayer to all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves (Mark 11:17). We don’t have an obligation to be “up to date” with politics, both secular and religious. It is our fallen nature that is attracted to obsessing over worldly thoughts and actions. I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me: because they are Thine ( John 17:9). Our Blessed Lord did no obsess over the things of the World, why should we? His Majesty continues: I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth (John 17:14-17). Our souls, hearts and minds deserve recollection far from the distraction of worldly nonsense. Our families deserve the peace of Christian certainty, not atheistic panic and chaos. Above all God deserves to be trusted in His sovereignty. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? (Matthew 6:25-26). If we are to spiritually thrive we must grow constantly grow in holiness, following our Lord while carrying our Cross and this can only be down with a humble heart free of pride and a mind set on the will of God not on the cares of the world. Oh, how the desires of worldly honors, of earthly riches, of sensual pleasures, depart from our minds at the sight of Jesus crucified! Then does there breathe from that cross a heavenly wind, which sweetly, detaches us from earthly things, and lights up in us a holy desire to suffer and die for love of Him who has been willing to suffer and die for love of us (St. Alphonsus Liguori). The Immaculate Queen, Our Lady also helps to keep us on the path of Cross and far from the world. The only apostle to witness the Our Lord's Passion, St. John, ran to Our Lady and she returned him to his place with our Lord the foot of the Cross.

We must stay close to the Immaculate Heart our Lady, safely under her mantle. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God (Our Lady at Fatima).

In 1931 St. Maximilian Kolbe established a Monastery for the love of Mary on a mountainside in Nagasaki, Japan. When he began construction he ran into issues with the local officials who wanted him move the site to the other side of the mountain with the various other pagan shrines and temples. This would be in harmony with nature according to the Shinto clerics. Even the local Cathedral adhered to these pagan norms. The Holy Franciscan refused to move the monastery, claiming the Monastery's location was where Our Lady desired it to be. In 1932 St. Maximilian Kolbe left to continue his missionary work and his Monastery continued to thrive. On August 9th, 1945 the United States decimated Nagasaki by dropping an atomic bomb on the city. The Cathedral, local parishes and pagan shrines were all destroyed by the blast. One of the few structures to survive the might of the modern world was St. Maximilian’s Monastery which was shielded by the mountainside. The Monastery remains a prominent structure in Japanese Roman Catholicism to this day. That’s the power of surrendering our wills, our worries and our anxieties to the Immaculate Queen. Similarly, in Hiroshima, when the US dropped the atomic bomb, a third of the city was instanly reduced to rubble, except the Church of the Assumption of Mary. This Church and it’s 4 Jesuit priests survived despite being just 8 blocks away from the blast. Aside from shattered windows and a few minor cuts the Jesuits entirely remained safe from the blast. They were later treated by doctors who warned them of the radiation dosage they received from their proximity to the blast and their inevitable death. These diagnoses never came to be and in 1976 one of the priests attended a Eucharistic conference in Philadelphia where he confirmed that all 3 of his companions were still alive and without any sickness. Dozens of doctors checked and tested them to find no trace of radiation in them. What saved these priests? “We were living the message of Fatima and we prayed the Rosary every day.” Admitted the Jesuit survivor at the Philedphia conference.

Lastly, the Blessed Sacrament ought to be our refuge and hope. A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. (St. Pio of Pietrelcina). In the Gospel we read of some disciples still not recognizing their Messiah, King and God after His Resurrection. Walking away from Jerusalem the disciples sadly discussed the events of the Passion. With their minds set on worldly matters, our Risen Lord began to walk with them and their distraught eyes they were unable to recognize Him. And He said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad? (Luke 24: 17). One of them responded: Art thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? (Luke 24:18).They then began to explain to our Blessed Lord of His own passion, death and resurrection. One disciple said:But we hoped, that it was He that should have redeemed Israel (Luke 24:21). These disciples had despaired. They were knowledgeable of Christ, what He had done and what He promised. A lesson that knowledge only aids Faith if the heart is emptied of pride and worldliness. The Good Shepard stayed with them and explained all the writings of the Prophets concerning Him. When the disciples reached their town, they begged Him to stay with them rather than to continue on. Our Lord stayed with them and: whilst He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him: and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst He spoke in this way, and opened to us the scriptures? And rising up, the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem( Luke 24:30-33). This is our remedy, for despair and temptations against the Church. Staying close the Sacrament of Divine Love, the Holy Eucharist. Entering His presence not with our thoughts invested in the noise of the world, the nonsense of the news but with a deep desire to grow in holiness for the Love of God and to continue on following Him. For this is the will of God, your sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The worries, strifes and anxieties of the world would have us flee the Cross and would leave our Blessed Lord unrecognizable to our souls. We must flee the world and stay close the Blessed Sacrament, as our King, the Bread of Life. Stay close to Him, walk with Him and study with Him. Above all beg Him to stay with us.  In the same way, run to Our Lady. Run under her mantle. Stay close to her Rosary, her Scapular and her other devotions. She will protect us from the filth of the world, because there is far worse than nuclear radiation spewing from our screens. The news, even traditional catholic commentators and talk show hosts can infect our hearts with sentiments of anger, fear and worry. The message of Fatima is a sign of Hope in the chaos of our communist world and a call to aid in the salvation of souls. Not a nest for worries, tensions and anxiety ready hatch despair among the faithful. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph (Our Lady at Fatima). That is the work of the devil. Let us instead listen to the beautiful Lady of Fatima and cease offending God, pray the Rosary constantly and adhere first Saturday devotion. Sacrificing for the conversion of poor sinners and unbelievers. Let us listen to the requests of Our Lady, the Immaculate Queen. Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye (John 2:5). Let us listen to the commands of His Majesty, our Lord Jesus. These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).