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Sunday, December 4, 2022

About the Use of Meritorious Planning Committees

 By Anna Von Reitz

It has been suggested that as we go forward so-called Meritorious Planning Committees, similar to those used in traditional Japanese Government, should be used here; but, as usual, there is a fly in the ointment. 

The Japanese System was indeed very beneficial for Japan, but Japan offers a very homogenous culture with few minorities -- ethnically or religiously -- to deal with.  Like the old Swedish System, which worked well for Swedes because of their cultural homogeneity at the time, for the same reasons--- and didn't work in a multicultural country like ours. 

The advantage of being the melting pot of the world is that we benefit from the creativity and diversity of hundreds of other countries' heritages and religions and cuisines and languages and laws and everything else.  

The disadvantage of our total lack of homogeneity is that the would-be "planners" have little or no commonality of vision and values, cultural or otherwise. 

Note what Winston Churchill observed early on about the Americans --- "The Americans always do the right thing --- after they have tried every other alternative." 

Our natural process isn't so much a planning process as a sifting and winnowing process, testing every option like scientists searching for the best theory to explain a given set of facts.  We have little or no cohesive cultural identity to provide the "Group Think" that comes quite naturally to other nations, and it would certainly be a Big Mistake to assume that what works for Japan, with an almost singular cultural identity, and thousands of years of tradition behind it, would work in America. 

It won't.  We have already been there, done that, analyzed that much of our problem, and we know for sure that Meritorious Planning Groups don't work here. What always happens is that the Planners turn into Analyzers.  Immediately after that, a fierce free-for-all ensues, while all the Analyzers analyze everything down to a gnat's eyelash, and then come back around with all the interminable arguments that accrue from every facet of every different viewpoint. 

The end result of our version of "planning" which doesn't result in a plan, by the way, but does result in a conclusion ---- is often a very sound and sober solution to whatever given concern started this process in the first place, but does not allow for the act of planning --- as in projecting a forward path for the future five, ten, twenty or a hundred years down the road. 

Such a prospect is not only foreign, but due to the massive lack of coherent shared cultural values, is a virtual impossibility here. 

Look at the history of this country versus the history of Japan. 

Successive waves of people from vastly different cultural bases have come to America since the Stone Age --- Ancient Egyptians left their hieroglyphs and DNA, Polynesian and Chinese immigrants left their imprints among the Native Peoples on the West Coast, Mound Builders who were red-haired, white-skinned proto-Celtic people who occupied 45 degrees of Latitude on a circumpolar basis, French Armoricans followed the same path as the Egyptians and left their words and DNA and so did the Norsemen, who reached our shores and traded here in prehistory; and, as we moved forward into modern times this so-called "melting pot" phenomenon only accelerated and increased. 

We now have sizable populations of people from every country and nation in the world here, all living under one roof, all counting themselves as Americans, all bringing their culture with them, all inter-marrying more or less freely, all sharing little but the American Dream and our odd version of Football.  

Planning?  Just in the past hundred years we have seen a collapse of the predominantly white European population and a large increase in the Hispanic and Oriental populations, regrowth of the American Indian population, and moderate expansion of the African-sourced population. Who is to say what an "American" will look like or believe a hundred years from now?

Compare this with Japan?  Short of an earth-spanning extinction level event, there will still be pure blooded Japanese living on the Japanese home islands a hundred years from now, and probably a thousand years from now.

They can afford to do long term planning and they have the history and cultural identity to do so without a lot of the "other views" and arguments and uncertainties that we have in this country. 

So when it comes to Meritorious Planning Committees, thanks, we understand that they worked well in the Orient, but please pay attention to the fact that we have vastly different conditions to deal with in the West and especially in North America.

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Can It Get Any Crazier?

 By Anna Von Reitz

Look at this one: U.S. prepares for full-scale invasion of Haiti, one of the poorest countries on the planet, our long-suffering neighbor in the Caribbean, plagued with tropical storms, earthquakes, drought, locusts, more torrential rains, mudslides, more drought, more earthquakes.... 

People in Haiti starve on a regular basis, and if we had any sense and if the British Government (which is more responsible for the conditions in Haiti than we are) had any mercy, compassion, or sense, we'd be sending meaningful help. Not plotting out how to do a palace coup proxy war. 




As it is, we send a lot of money-laundering NGO's to Haiti, organizations that steal the foreign aid relief money and send it back to political party PACS and the "Foundations" of certain political figures in this country. 

The recent scandals and revelations of FTX's role in precisely this sort of money laundering scheme designed to defraud investors and siphon away foreign aid to Ukraine is just one example among many. 

And everyone acts so shocked, but it has been going on for decades. 

Remember when that crony pal of John McCain's showed up at the pier in Lagos, Nigeria, with a boatload of moldy WWII Surplus Army blankets? That the American people paid for, plus shipping and handling?  

We are talking about crooks, and not even smart crooks. (If he'd been a smart crook, he'd have dumped that cargo at sea, and the American people wouldn't have had a glimpse of what passes for "foreign aid" and wouldn't have deduced who really benefits from it.) 

Remember, I told you that 98% of all Foreign Aid appropriated by Congress never gets to its purported target population?  Now, you begin to see why.  

And in some cases like the moldy blankets and the twenty-years past the "use by" date cans of military grade Spam, it's a good thing that this garbage we pay for to reimburse defense contractors in the name of "foreign aid" ---doesn't reach its destination. Instead, it's illegally dumped at sea or in landfills, late at night. At public expense. 

How about all the crates of "food" being hauled aboard U.S. Navy ships that are clearly marked, "Not for Human Consumption"?  Care to guess what that's about? 

So, Haiti is among the Top Ten most impoverished countries in this Hemisphere, and the Big Bad Ridiculous U.S. is preparing to invade.

In the name of God, what for?  

To destroy records showing how Haitian children have been stolen for decades, whereabouts unknown?  To overwhelm the Haitian Government and use the island as a pirate haven?   

If the nutcases in charge of the White House Office, Incorporated, go through with this one, nobody will believe a word they say, and nobody in their right mind will support it. 

As we speak, "the" U.S. is trying to use Canada and Brazil (???) to do the invasion for them. They would normally use the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces --- but doing what mercenaries do --- the UN Peacekeepers have been caught raping and pillaging and stealing and causing far more harm than help. And that wouldn't support the narrative that this invasion and overthrow is meant as a philanthropic effort. 

Just like the philanthropic overthrow and invasion of Ethiopia. And Somalia.  And Mali.  And Zimbabwe.  And, and, and.... 

These cretins are always so  busy spreading their democracy that they can never settle down and try for a 51% mandate to do any of this crap, but then, they don't actually practice or respect any form of government. 

Bear in mind --- we are not talking about America here.  America is not a democracy.  America has a republican form of government.  Instead, we are talking about the British Territorial United States Government, and their democracy, which until recently was headquartered in Puerto Rico. 

You didn't know about that, either, did you?  

Yes, Puerto Rico is a member of the Commonwealth.  That's how their IRS had access to the Spanish Law of the Inquisition to prosecute Taxpayers in this country, and now they have moved their operations to the Ladrones, aka, Mariana Islands, in anticipation of doing the same thing to over a billion Chinese from the safety of another misadminstered U.S. Possession. 

Even if you sat up all night and really, really tried.... and yet, it all makes sense if you know the history of the Income Tax --- as far back as 1135 AD.  It's a war tax to help the Church pay for the Crusades.  

If a military invasion is a philanthropic effort, why not just say it's all about philanthropy and send the Mennonites?  Or the Salvation Army?  Why not send in the Army Corps of Engineers with the simple directive: "Drain this lake full of sewage." 

People, we've got to end this romp through Crazyland, USA.  For our sake and for the sake of the whole world. 

So listen up: 

Things got too hot for the British Crown operations here and about forty years ago, the parasites began making preparations to find a new Host in China. They had collaborators in China via the Bank of Shanghai known as HSBC, a Chinese-British Bank.  In 2017, Prince Philip received $950 Trillion in credit for Britain's part in this criminal breach of trust, brokered by the GOVERNOR of OTTAWA --- another "independent international city state" --- and the Vatican loaned our gold to China so that China could buy out the other creditors of the bankrupt UNITED STATES, INC. 

China bought the brand name and trademarks of the UNITED STATES, INC. and Joe Biden became their puppet manager.  That's why he is called CHINA Joe, peeps.  That's why he does whatever China wants him to do.  He works for them, literally.  

And while it is blatantly illegal for any British Corporation subject to the Companies Act to use assets of the victims to buy out their own interests, the Vatican has no such qualms, limits, or moral considerations. 

As we write, the Nazi UN Corp is on the move again, probably looking for a new base of operations from which to distribute seventeen different kinds of weaponized pathogens. 



Ah, so now we have our answer.  Just like the cretins contracted with a Chinese laboratory to develop the illegal Covid 19 crud, and then attempted to blame the Chinese for it, they are looking for a place to release all those deadly pathogens --- and where better than poor, old, suffering Haiti?

Haiti is already famous for having cases of ancient diseases like bubonic plague as well as more updated plagues of smallpox, cholera, hemorrhagic fever, etc.  If you wanted to find a plausible place to release seventeen vile pathogens at once, without raising too many eyebrows, where would you go? 

Haiti. Nigeria.  India.  In more or less that order.  So, if, all of a sudden, you hear of plagues in these places and the hue and cry begins blaming these victims, you will know what to think.   

Government of Canada?  Government of Brazil?  If you let the rats talk you into participating in any of this, it's your soldiers who will come back infected with this crap.  

Government of India --- you already know what the Raj is like and you've already experienced Bill Gates and his "vaccines".  You know what we are saying is true, and that your people and your country will be targeted if you don't get busy and help stamp out the Vermin once and for all. 

And yes, every American and Canadian who isn't brain dead -- think. 

They want to release these pathogens close to the open American Southern Border in hopes of killing a maximum number of Americans as we are the only ones with a helluva lot of guns and ammo. 

We have a better suggestion.  

Arrest the Lords of the Admiralty. 

Arrest all agents of HSBC.

And shut down the Municipal "World Health Organization" --- WHO, INC. 

These are the real sources of the problem.  If you want this illegal mercenary war to stop, we have to get to the root of it and put an end to it before hundreds of millions of innocent people are destroyed for no reason beyond the greed, power-mongering, and stupidity of the so-called elites. 

No phony war to save the Haitians by killing them. 

No using Haiti as the mule to deliver all the filthy bio-engineered pathogens to the rest of the world. 

No more Satanic bull crap and crime.  

And no more open southern border, no matter what Fruit Loops says. 

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Enough of the Filipino Claims

 By Anna Von Reitz

The landmass of the Philippine Islands was transferred to The United States of America as a result of the Spanish American War and the payment of $20 million dollars-worth of our gold. 

Once our name and our actual asset money gets involved in a deal, the transfer is lawful, not just legal.  

This is why we fought the nascent Government of the Philippines for fifteen bloody years after the transfer and why we spent endless resources and lives to regain the Philippines during the Second World War. We own the Philippine Islands as a Possession, like it or not.

The Treaty of Manila Bay is a Sea Treaty, not a Land Treaty. 

So, here we are.  By Peace Treaty with Spain, by gold in hand paid, and by victory at arms ---and observing that no superseding Land Treaty exists--- there can be no doubt that under international law, the land of the Philippine Islands belongs to us, The United States of America --- Unincorporated. 

That being true, no Filipino can bring a claim against our material interests, public or private, for lack of standing to do so. And it really doesn't matter if they are descendents of Queen Isabella or the Devil himself. 

It certainly doesn't matter if they are related to Ferdinand Marcos. 

From our perspective, Ferdinand was named as a Trustee-for-Hire over our gold assets which were shipped offshore by the U.S. Navy for safekeeping in the Philippines beginning just after the Spanish American War.  

We have the Navy transport receipts so there is no gainsaying any of this. 

Now, we are not saying that all the gold in the Philippines is ours, but a good bit of it is, and it needs to be returned without any fanciful stories about General Yamashita's war time escapades or claims made upon it by Ferdinand Marcos' seventeenth Cousin five times-removed on his Mother's side. 

Since our public disclosure of who Julius Shiva is with respect to the gold assets underwriting most of the world's central banks, we have yet another Filipino imposter saying that he is Julius Shiva.  

Pay attention to the name.  Shiva is a Hindu God of Death and Destruction. Julius is the King. Julius Shiva. This is the name the CIA gave him when they snatched him and transported him to this country and forced him into the political status of a U.S. Resident. 

What stands to be destroyed by this quiet man?  The central bank system, which has been illegally foisted off on the world, and which has been used for the purpose of illegal confiscation and illegal commodity rigging of all kinds for over a hundred years. 

The destruction, or in this case, the transformation of evil into something good, is a blessing.  

Wake up, everybody.  Everyone in the Philippines?  Stop making these ridiculous claims. Check the records of the U.S. Congress for the year of 1934, and there you will see provision for an "independent Government for the Philippines".  And why was this done?  So that the Government of the Philippines could act as Trustee for our gold.  

The theft, betrayal, breach of trust, abuse, and deceit that the people of this country and many other countries have suffered has to end. We have been kept in the dark and misled to take many actions that we wouldn't have taken, had we simply known the truth.  

Now, know the truth.  The Pope's Municipal Government set up as a commercial corporation in the business of providing government services, and the British Territorial Government also set up as a commercial corporation in the business of providing government services--- have been the problem all along. For everyone. The Americans included. 

They've misled Americans to do terrible things.  They have pulled the strings in the darkness and made sure to place all the blame for it on "the Americans" --- but they are actually the ones to blame. Thanks to their Breach of Trust our poor country has been in the thrall of these foreign mercenary corporations for a century and a half, and the people here never even knew what was going on. 

It's time for the self-interested fraud of the Central Banks to end on a worldwide basis, and it must be so, if the people of this planet are to survive.  We can do this together, and open up an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity for the whole planet, or, we can continue to fund our own demise. 

Shiva must destroy what is evil in order for what is good to thrive. 

So all you Filipinos pretending to be this and that lord and lady and princess and relative of Marcos and so on and on and on --- quit it. 
Just stop. If you want your land and true sovereignty back, if you want to stop playing the cruel games of the Brits and the Papists, stop. 

There are not two Julius Shivas.  There is exactly one.  And he is not a Filipino. If he was, there would be no need for the CIA to snatch him and  cashier him in the role of a U.S. Resident, because as a Filipino, that's what he'd already be. 

The U.S. Navy Division of Fiscal Services was in the process of figuring all of this out when the 911 Perpetrators attacked their offices at the Pentagon and killed the lead investigators.  All that information didn't just disappear under a veil of smoke.  It survives. It has been copied. It has been distributed worldwide. 

So, there is no use lying, twisting, or turning.  This is the end of the Great Tribulation -- as in tribute paid to Rome. It is also the end of the Nazi Resurgence.  

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Land Swindles and Swindlers

 By Anna Von Reitz

This past week a growing number of State-of-State Legislators and members of Congress have awakened to the threat created by allowing foreign nationals and Governments to buy land in this country.  They are mounting a joint effort to prevent this and many people are justifiably alarmed.  

Actually, though, it's another British Double-Cross.  These people, foreign nationals and foreign corporations, are coming over here and buying what they think is land in America.  

But what they are actually buying is nothing but a foreign British Territorial "Title" which amounts to a copyrighted description of someone else's land. 

The only people who can actually own land in this country are the American people. Anything else amounts to a swindle of one kind or another. 

This most recent British La-La Palooza Scheme is classic. 

A young girl working for a foreign corporation parks her car by the side of the road and stands there looking at your house, garden, lawn, garage, etc., and out of the blue sky, she jots down an arbitrarily chosen street number and street name and attaches this "handle" to your property. 

According to her and her employer, your property is now called 4900 Mockingbird Lane.  Or it's known as Lot 5, Block 10, of the Riverside Subdivision, Fourth Palermo Recording District, Sunnyville, California. 
Or it's Plat Number 1146 - A10, Page 1290001, Lester County, Nebraska. Or its Homestead 54-96-11, East half of the Northwest one-quarter of the Southeast one-quarter of Section 10, R4E,T6N, Racine County, Wisconsin. 

All these different copyrighted systems of land descriptions are essentially dishonest means to "attach" or "latch onto" your property assets and assert a public or corporate franchise interest in your property without the benefit of your consensual agreement.  

They simply start using these systems to describe your land and people (even you) start using these descriptions as "land titles" that are not actually land grants and which have no particular meaning or value apart from the purely "descriptive value" of the copyright.  

So how will it be when all the people of America and all the Chinese and Korean investors who think that they have bought land in this country suddenly discover that they've been hoodwinked?  And what they've been sold (at a very hefty price) is nothing but the copyright to an artistic creation --- not the land, but a description of the land. 

And this description has been provided by HRM's employees, pretending to have an ownership interest in land and soil that was never theirs to begin with.

Reminds me of a Slim Picken's movie, in which Slim is leaning on the rail of the paddock of a horse stable in the Old West.  A Dude newly arrived, walks up to Slim and is admiring a beautiful horse in the paddock. Also in the paddock is a broken down old mare, minding her business. 

The Dude says, waving his finger, "I'd like to buy that horse over there." 

Slim nods, "That's ole Lightning Bolt. Never was a better horse. I can see you have an eye for such things, Stranger." 

Dude says, "Yes, I do.  How much for Ole Lightning Bolt?"

They quibble. They strike a deal.  The Dude pays.  Next morning he comes to get his horse, but the beautiful horse is nowhere to be seen and when he says he's there to pick up Ole Lightning Bolt, the stable boy nods and brings in the old mare. 

"That's not Ole Lightning Bolt!" the Dude splutters. 

"Sure is," the boy replies. "I've known this horse my whole life!" 

It's only then that the Dude realizes that Slim was talking about a different horse the whole time, and that Slim has made an exceptionally good deal for himself, because it turns out that Slim didn't own Ole Lightning Bolt.  And he hasn't paid Widow Johnson, the actual owner, a dime.  

Turns out he's skipped town on the evening train. 

And that's what the British Territorial Government Corporation and the Pope's Municipal Government Corporation, both, have done here. Just imagine Pope Francis and King Charles wearing battered old cowboy hats, leaning on the fence, looking at other people's horses. And other people's land. 

They swindled the Americans and now they've swindled the Chinese and Koreans, and our job is to make sure that everyone knows that the only way you can actually own land in America is if you are an American and claiming your birthright political status as an American and claiming your land grants and patents, too.  

That's the only way that you belong to the land, and then, as a result, the land belongs to you. 

I am afraid that the only happy -- and ironic -- part of this story, is that the Chinese who have been defrauded along with the rest of us, are also the targets in a much larger fraud scheme being promulgated by the Vatican and the British Crown against them, and this just might be enough to wake them up. 

The immensity and meaning of this land swindle might even wake up the Zombie American Apocalypse, when all the Baby Boomers and Flower Children and Gen X and X Gen and Millenials and Snowflakes and Indigo Children and Transhuman Snake Hybrids wake up and go, "OMG!"  

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Holy Mass Livestream 12/4/2022

 https://www.wcbohio.com/categories/holy-mass-livestream


Second Sunday In Advent

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

On this day the Church not only makes mention in the office of the priest, but also in the Mass, of the two different Advents of Christ, that by His first gracious advent may be gladdened, and by His last terrible coming at the day of judgment we may be impressed with salutary fear. With this intention she cries out at the Introit:

INTROIT People of Sion, behold the Lord shall come to save the nations; and the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard in the joy of your heart (Is. 30:30). Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel: thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep (Ps. 79). Glory be to the Father.

COLLECT Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son: that through His advent we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds; who livest and reignest with God the Father, in union with the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

EPISTLE (Rom. 15:4‑13). Brethren, what things soever were written, were written for our learning, that through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind, and with one mouth, you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also hath received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. But that the Gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and magnify him, all ye people. And again, Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.

What does St. Paul teach in this epistle?

The Jews and Gentiles who had been converted to the Christian faith were disputing among themselves at Rome, in regard to abstinence and the use of certain kinds of food, reproaching each other severely; the Jews boasted that the Savior, according to promise, was born of their nation, thus claiming Him from the Gentiles, who, in their turn, reproached the Jews for their ingratitude in having crucified Him. To restore harmony St. Paul shows that each had reason, the Jews and Gentiles alike, to praise God, to whose grace and goodness they owed all; that each had in Him a Redeemer in whom they could hope for salvation; and he warns them not to deprive themselves of that hope by contentions. By these words the Apostle also teaches that we too, have great reason to praise God, and to thank Him for calling us, whose forefathers were heathens, to the Christian faith, and to guard against losing our salvation by pride, envy, impurity, etc.

Why should we read the Scriptures?

That we may know what we are to believe, and do in order to be saved, as all Scripture inspired by God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice (11 Tim. 3:16); that we may learn from what Christ has done for us, and the saints for Christ, to be patient in our sufferings, and to be consoled and encouraged by their example. To derive this benefit from the Scriptures, the Catholic must read them by the light of that Spirit through whose assistance they came into existence, who lives and remains for ever with the Church: that is, the light of the Holy Ghost must be sought, that their meaning may be

read according to the sense of the Church and not be explained according to the reader's judgment. For he who reads the holy Scriptures by the light of his own private judgment, must, as experience shows, of necessity diverge from the right path, become entangled in manifold doubts, and at last, lose the faith entirely. For this reason the Catholic Church has very properly limited the reading of the Bible, not as has been falsely asserted, unconditionally forbidden it, but she allows the reading of those editions only, which are accompanied by notes and explanations that the unity of faith may not be disturbed, and that among Catholics there may not be the terrible bewilderment of the human intellect which has taken place among the different heretical sects who have even declared murder, bigamy and impurity to be permissible on the authority of the Bible. We are to consider also, that Christ never commanded the Bible to be written or read, and that not the readers but the hearers and the followers of the word of God by which is meant those who hear the word of God in sermons, and keep it, will be saved!

Further instruction in regard to the doctrine of faith on this subject will be found in the "Instruction for Easter Tuesday."

Why is God called a God of patience, of consolation, and of hope?

He is called a God of patience because He awaits our repentance, of consolation, because He gives us grace to be patient in crosses and afflictions, and so consoles us inwardly, that we become not faint‑hearted; of hope, because He gives us the virtue of hope, and because He desires to be Himself the reward we are to expect after this life.

ASPIRATION O God of patience, of consolation and of hope, fill Our hearts with peace and joy, and grant that we may become perfect in all good, and by faith, hope and charity, attain the promised salvation.

GOSPEL  (Mt. 11:2‑10). At that time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, he said to him: Art thou he that art to come, or do we look for another? And Jesus making answer, said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them: and blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me. And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What went you out into the desert to see? a reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? a man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? a prophet? yea I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my Angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.

Why was John in prison?

He was in prison, and lost his life, because he had rebuked king Herod for his adulterous marriage with his brother's wife (Mt. 14:310). Truth, as the proverb says, is certainly a very beautiful mother, but she usually bears a very ugly daughter: Hatred. St. John experienced that speaking the truth very often arouses hatred and enmity against the speaker. Let us learn from him to speak the truth always, when duty requires it, even if it brings upon us the greatest misfortunes, for, if with St. John we patiently bear persecution, with St. John we shall become martyrs for truth.

Why did St. John send his disciples to Christ?

That they should learn from Christ, who had become illustrious by His teachings and miracles, that He was really the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, whom they should follow.

Why did Christ say to the disciples of St. John: "Go and say to John, the blind see, the lame walk, etc."?

That they should, by His miracles, judge Him to be the Messiah because the prophets had predicted that He would work such miracles (Is. 35:5‑6). "Christ," says St. Cyril, "proved that He was the Messiah by the grandeur as well as by the number of His miracles."

Why does Christ add: "And blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me"?

Christ used these words in reference to those who would be scandalized by His poverty, humility and ignominious death on the cross, and who for these reasons would doubt and despise Him, and cast Him away; though "man," as St. Gregory says, "owes all the more love to the Lord, his God, the more humiliations He has borne for him."

What was our Lord's object in the questions He asked concerning St. John?

His object was to remove from St. John all suspicion of failing in faith in Him; and to praise the perseverance with which, although imprisoned and threatened with death, he continued to fill his office of preacher, thus constituting him an example to all preachers, confessors and superiors, that they may never be deterred by human respect, or fear of man, or other temporal considerations, from courageously fulfilling their duties. Our Lord commended also rigorous penance, exhibited by St. John's coarse garments and simple food, that we may learn, from his example, penance and mortification.

Why does Christ say that John was "more than a prophet"?

Because St. John was foretold by the prophet Malachias as was no other prophet; because of all the prophets he was the only one who with his own eyes saw Christ and could point Him out, and was the one to baptize Him: and because like an angel, a messenger of God, he announced the coming of the Savior, and prepared the way for the Lord.

How did St. John prepare the way for the Savior?

By his sermons on penance, and by his own penitential life He endeavored to move the hearts of the Jews, that by amending their lives, they might prepare to receive the grace of the Messiah, for God will not come with His grace into our hearts if we do not prepare His way by true repentance.

ASPIRATION O Lord Jesus, by the praise Thou didst accord to Thy forerunner St. John, for his firmness and austerities, inflame our hearts with love to imitate his steadfastness and penance, that we may never do anything to please man which may be displeasing to Thee; grant us also Thy grace that we too, like St. John, may have those who are confided to our care, instructed in the Christian doctrine.

CONSOLATION IN SUFFERING

"The God of patience and of comfort, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (Rom. 15:5,13).

What gives us the greatest consolation in adversities?

The strong and fervent belief that each and every thing that happens to us, comes to us for our own good from God, and that whatever evil befalls us, is by the will or permission of God. Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God (Ecclus. 11:14). If we have received good things at the hand of God (Job 2:10), saith the pious job in his affliction, "why should we not receive evil?"

We should be fully convinced that without the permission of God not a single hair of our head shall perish (Lk. 21:18), much less can any other evil be done to us by man or devil (Job 1); we should have a steadfast confidence that if we ask Him, God can and will assist us in our sufferings, if it be for our salvation. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands (Is. 49:15‑16); we should hope for abundant reward in the future life, which we will merit by patience in our sufferings, for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (II Cor. 4:17); we should remember that all complaints and murmurs against the dispensation of God are useless, and lead only to harm and shame; Who hath resisted Him, and hath had peace? (Job 9:4) we should have a vivid remembrance of our sins, for which we have long since deserved the eternal punishments of hell - hence the well-known saying of St. Augustine: O Lord, here cut, here burn, but spare me in eternity. No other way leads to the kingdom of heaven than the way of the cross, which Christ Himself, His sorrowing mother, and all the saints had to tread. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory? (Lk. 24:26) Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21). And we should not forget that sorrows and adversities are signs of God's love, and manifest proofs of being His chosen ones. Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb. 12:6. compare 7-11).

PRAYER IN SORROW O almighty, kind and merciful God! who hast said: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. 49:15), behold relying upon Thy word, I take refuge in Thee in my trouble. Give honor to Thy name, therefore, and deliver me, if it be pleasing to Thee and beneficial for me, that all may know, Thou art our only help. Amen.