International Public Notice: More Gross Abuses of Trust

 By Anna Von Reitz

Those who remember the progression of Kevin Annett's long crusade to bring the Death Cult to justice will remember that one of the most alarming and first unsettling claims involved the disappearance of Native children from a residential home in Canada during a state visit by Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.  

Those children were never seen again. They left the school as part of the royal retinue. 

So where are they?  If they went to a different school, possibly in England, where are the records?  

Everything about the royal retinue is scrupulously recorded and kept, down to what Her Majesty ate for breakfast on June 8th 1952.  

How do you explain multiple missing children who left a Canadian Residential School in the company of the royal couple and vanished, never to be heard from or seen again?  

These children were all old enough to remember their own names and identities. 

Follow Kevin Annett's new X account: x.com/murderbydecree

The historical evidence suggests that the British Monarchy has been subordinate to a Death Cult hidden within the Roman Catholic Church since the reign of Henry VIII.  

That evidence also suggests a very cynical quid pro quo regarding a black trade in souls via baptismal records converted into "baptismal certificates" beginning in the 1500's and commercial trade in "birth certificates" since the 1800s. 

Thus the British Monarchs and the Popes acting in the office of "Roman Pontiff" -- a secular office -- told themselves that they owned the souls (via baptismal certificates), the bodies (via Birth Certificates) and the minds/labor (via BIRTH CERTIFICATES) of their victims.  

They just didn't tell the rest of us about their grandiose claims. 

The facts remain: they didn't create any of us and they didn't obtain any honest contract with anyone, but via the use of undisclosed and unconscionable contracts, they have managed to own people as slaves and as indentured servants, by impersonating us, using the Bar Associations for enforcement, and making False Commercial Claims involving aggravated identity theft. 

All of this was supposed to be a sacred trust; the question has to be asked--- sacred to which religion?  The Roman branch of the Babylonian Death Cult we all know as Satanism, or the Anglican Church operated as a Roman Catholic franchise, or actual Roman Catholicism? 

There, as their last redoubt, the Satanists have landed, trying to tell us that it was Satanism that we unwittingly signed up for, and so, we are obligated to perform, to sacrifice our children to Molloch, to worship Mammon, to commit every sin, lie every lie, and so on. 

They have tried their best to hide behind a storefront of their worst enemies.  To some extent, they are still trying to do that.  Faced with the evidence found at Cede and Company and the DTC and DTTC clearing house operations, there's no coming back.  

What began with Henry VIIIth was continued by his daughter, Elizabeth I, who, together with her Advisor, Dr. John Dee, began summoning demons using Enochian "calls" in the last decades of the 1500's.  

There is nothing to suggest that James I, a Catholic Monarch, and known homosexual, ended the practice.  

Instead, there is a lasting monument to his cult membership -- the King James Version of the Bible, which made no less than 20,000 changes to the Geneva Bible; most of the changes were designed to promote abject obedience of the masses to the Monarchy, promote loopholes for sin and profiteering from sin, and denigrate women. 

The Sin Taxes started by James I are still with us now, in the form of federal regulation of alcohol, tobacco and firearms.  Taxes on the manufacture, sale and transport of these federally regulated substances across state borders were intended as the sole means of support for the Municipal United States Government -- run by the Holy Roman Empire. 

This is why everything stays the same regardless of reforms and all the various "isms" --- nationalism, communism, fascism, corporatism and so on, used to distract from the root cause of all the criminality, violence, and injustice flowing from the corrupted "secular church" administration and the corrupt British Monarchy. 

We understand the fondness of the British Public for the Monarchy, which is finally, in its eleventh hour, showing a little backbone and concern for the masses of people that have been betrayed. We even understand that much of the rot may have been concealed by previous generations.  We admit that we don't know "the all of it" and have no idea how various people have been compromised, for what reasons, and to what end.  

We do applaud Charles III for exposing Starmer's collusion with the EU to surrender national sovereignty.  We consider that his true crowning achievement, worthy of a king defending his country at last. 

Charles III didn't have the courage to admit that it was living people that were the bulk of the "national treasures" that his forebears sold into slavery using commercial processes and changes in word definitions. 

Bottom line: neither the Popes nor the Monarchs created any of us; they are unable to restore the lives they have taken, the wealth they have purloined, or the time wasted. 

We are free-standing, sovereign beings and our creator is not of this world. 

We did not knowingly, willingly, nor voluntarily accept any ownership claims made by any of these foreign governments, and our parents were not given full disclosure of any material, spiritual or commercial ownership claims amounting to enslavement and/or peonage being advanced by baptism or any bureaucratic registration process. 

These deceits and self-interested False Commercial Claims reveal the depth of the moral corruption of these white collar criminals.  You may judge for yourselves how much a totally unconscionable contract is worth.  

The claim that everyone who was injected during the recent false epidemic was transformed into a transhuman without rights and owned as a GMO by DARPA has been foiled. 

The intention to ensnare Americans by converting all bank accounts into FedNow accounts and giving them a small portion of what they are owed--- and then claiming that this "accommodation" is settlement of the British debt is not accepted nor is it acceptable, because it is offered with undisclosed strings and presumptions to the effect that the recipients are British Subjects.  

This "interpretation" advanced by the Trump Administration would then allow the guilty British Crown Corporation to seize upon the whole estates of the victims with no further disclosure.  

We preclude their offer with a counter-offer that they fully disclose and act with clean hands from now on. 

The issue of nationality versus citizenship has to be addressed openly and honestly, and the people must be given not only a fully disclosed and free will choice of political affiliation without duress, or they must be presumed to be Americans, not Brits, not Romans. 

As we speak, Europe is engulfed in protest from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea.  The British Government is in chaos, Italy is virtually shut down, Germany on the brink of madness as it smells the taint of Fascist dictatorship wearing nice suits, yet here in America, we hear nothing at all about the civil unrest rocking the European Continent.  Go figure.  

We already have. 

Issued by: 

Anna Maria Riezinger -- Fiduciary

The United States of America

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

December 14th 2025

------------------

See this article and over 5600 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

International Public Notice: Our American Government to the World Court /WORLD COURT

 By Anna Von Reitz

We are not signatories to any land treaties after 1814.  We are not members of the UN.  But we are still here, and exercise Joint Sovereignty over the landmass known as The United States.

Our American Government has no history of genocide and no history of racial prejudice.  That was the Brits, first to last, and they have ample history of both genocide and racial prejudice. 

We know how the British finagled to "register" American babies as British Subjects.  We also know all those unconscionable contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on.  

We know how the Holy Roman Municipal Subcontractors came in after-the-fact and set up shop on the British coat-tails and created Roman Inferior Trusts named after those self-same non-existent British Subjects referenced above. 

We know how Jimmy Carter transferred all the ginned-up American Birth Certificates to the IMF as assets --- collateral for U.S. Government spending.  

We know how the IMF landed the Trusteeship on the UNITED NATIONS and we know how the WORLD COURT wound up with the Hot Potato in their lap.  

Let's cut to the chase. 

It's not just "the indigenous" as you define "indigenous" who have a claim to the land and soil of this country.  

Despite the fact that some of us are required to man the jurisdictions of Land, Air, and Water and function as "persons" of various kinds, we are not denatured as a whole.  

If you want to talk about "indigenous", the Progenitor Nation known as the Armoricans are here, as "indigenous" to this continent as any other tribal nation and our inheritance needs to be honored from France to the Pacific Islands.  Our blood treaties are self-evident in the DNA.  

We do not mind sharing; we have always shared.  What we object to is the relentless foul play, such as pretending that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci. 

It was not. 

It was named after "Armorica" -- that portion of France known as "Armorica" directly across the English Channel from the main island in the British Island grouping.  

We have our own lawful government set up in 1776 and won fair and square via eight hard years of declared war against the British Monarch and the Crown and everything else that they could throw against us.  

And let's stop missing the point: the flag captured at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 had been commandeered from our lawful government in 1861, and was in the possession of "blue coats" --- British Territorial troops, not Americans.  Those troops were acting under color of law and were guilty of treason and inland piracy against our lawful government, whether they -- or their adversaries, realized it or not.  

We are willing to share, to forgive, to live and let others live.  

We are present in this moment called now, grateful and thankful to be alive and enabled to live in this beautiful and abundant world. 

That said, we are inheritors to an inheritance and we are here making a just claim upon the court that has responsibility for administering our inheritance.  We also have proven provenance as a lawful government, lodged and remembered in the jurisdiction of the air and we have joint sovereign patents with Chief Fast Horse. 

And even more to the point, our States have settled borders, a requirement of lawful government that none of the indigenous nations have. 

So, we are willing and able and ready to move together as one living people, a nation made of many, many nations; but, it would be a tragic and inexcusable mistake to set up another false division between "indigenous" and "non-indigenous" from the very outset of our new beginning.  

We do not need more divisions.  We already have more than 500 native nations and 50 sovereign nation-states.  What we need is a new vision of unity and a new standard of caring for all the living people, the animals, and plants -- on both continents that are named after --  the Armoricans. 

Hard copy to follow. 

Issued by: Eric Jon Belcher

Head of State

The American Federation of States, Unincorporated

doing business as

The United States of America, Unincorporated 

since 1776

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

Issued by: Anna Maria Riezinger

Fiduciary

The American Federation of States, Unincorporated

doing business as 

The United States of America, Unincorporated

since 1776

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

December 14th 2025 

------------------

See this article and over 5600 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

International Public Notice: In Case You Missed the Memo

 By Anna Von Reitz

Those "national trust" treasures that Charles III admitted selling (not personally -- his Mother and Grandfather) included you, the people of Great Britain, the Commonwealth, and The United States, too.  

It wasn't just dusty jewels or Mesopotamian artifacts.  It was the "livestock" that came with the land the British Crown misappropriated accidentally-on-purpose.  

Someone needs to inform AI and Wikipedia staffers that "Life Force Value Annuities" are the same as Life Insurance Annuities --- just a different name for it that includes certain additional resources that the British Monarchs threw in the deal.  

That $950 Trillion in Life Force Value Annuities that Prince Philip collected in 2017 should be translated for the clueless AI -- that's $950 Trillion dollars worth of Life Insurance Annuities. 

And we all know how Life Insurance works, right?  Somebody has to die before someone else gets paid. 

Annuities have that involved in their pay off clauses, too.  While normal death attrition rates provided a good steady income for the Monarchs and their cronies, a real windfall requires death.  It does not matter how the death comes about -- either by war or by injection.  

They couldn't get WWIII started on time, so guess what else they had up their sleeves?  

Remember that statement by Prince Philip about how after he died, he wanted to come back as a "loathsome virus" and do his bit to deal with the "overpopulation problem"?  

The British Monarchs knew about the lethal injections and signed off on them, grossly enriching themselves in the process.  

Billions of people had to die, but facing the end himself, Prince Philip didn't care.  He just wanted to make sure that the bills were paid and the Royal Family would be well-provided for.  

So don't get all warm and fuzzy when you see them snuggled up together on the front porch of Buckingham Palace.  Remember that Buckingham Palace was named after Lord Buckingham, the infamous gay lover of King James the First. 

And whenever you see something labeled as "conspiracy theory" -- especially anything coming out of this office, consider that the Conspiracy Theorists have been proven right 100% of the time. 

Not just usually.  Not sometimes.  

If you need instructions on how to make yourself a tin foil hat, they are readily available on the internet. 

Until then, Mr. Trump and Company, the internet will stay turned on and there will be no book burnings public or private.  Canadians are warned to preserve their Provincial State Statute Books, American State Statute Books need to be preserved, too.  As evidence. 

Court closures and Land Law are both coming. 

Issued by: 

Anna Maria Riezinger - Fiduciary

The United States of America

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

December 14th 2025

------------------

See this article and over 5600 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

International Public Notice: Most Likely, You Are Non-Viable

 By Anna Von Reitz

Some estimates say that 85% of the population of the industrialized nations received the shots.  

https://citizenwatchreport.com/on-average-only-15-of-people-refused-the-covid-vaccine/

Most of the doctors and nurses who oversaw these injections operated in good faith, not knowing that they were already conscripted (via their licenses as "Medical Doctors" and "Registered Nurses") as "civilian military Uniformed Officers" and that they were administering "shots" as deadly as any ever issued from the muzzle of a gun. 

Please understand what this means in addition to those who have already succumbed to a variety of weird conditions and maladies, like myocarditis in young people, turbo cancers, and other statistically-related diseases. 

Now, six years after the fact, the FDA admits: 

https://www.activistpost.com/head-of-fda-says-biden-administration-hid-data-on-heart-risks-from-covid-vaccines/

This means, in a precognitive sense, that if you received the shot in 2020, you will be dead by the end of 2027.  All we can do is slow it down and look for answers. 

The various means to do all this have been patented for profit, so it is not a matter of conjecture as to who or what is responsible. 

Pfizer's own internal mortality studies showed 100% mortality after seven years. They knowingly participated in this genocide of mankind.  There is no doubt that the Pfizer scientists and administrators are criminals guilty of genocide. 

This is the primary reason that (1) members of the U.S. Congress have been arrested and subjected to military tribunals and (2) members of the Trump and Biden Administrations have similarly been arrested and subjected to military tribunals and (3) members of federal agencies charged with protecting the public have been arrested and subjected to military tribunals.  

These are commercial crimes and military matters because the U.S. Congress is operating as a Board of Directors for a commercial corporation, the United States of America, Incorporated, and this same corporation is under contract to provide services under The Constitution of the United States of America.  

The other noted Federal Subcontractor, the UNITED STATES (INCORPORATED) was in Receivership beginning in 2015.  As a result, neither the UNITED STATES nor its franchises can be accused of malicious crimes against humanity -- although their bankruptcy trustees can be held accountable.  

A great deal of misinformation and disinformation has been issued to the public worldwide as a result of ongoing "warfare" between these two large corporation interests and their administrations.

For now, it must be sufficient to tell people the truth.  You have been injected with a deadly biowarfare agent and it is no less deadly just because it does not (usually) cause immediate death or because the form the death takes varies from case to case.  

Please be aware that if you received the injection, you are (unless you received a placebo dose) self-generating a deadly neurotoxin at a cellular level. 

Be assured that the Perpetrators had antidotes in place to protect themselves.  The hypocrites who have been so concerned about world overpopulation have nonetheless been very assiduous in protecting themselves, their families, and their cronies.  

Note the U.S. Congress exempted themselves, their families, their staff members and the family members of their staffers from receiving these shots, while demanding that everyone else take them. 

We are in the process of researching the antidotes to the internally manufactured poisons in order to make them broadly available to the public as soon as possible. 

Ironically, it appears that nicotine blocks the receptor sites on cell membranes and may provide a protective function that extends the lives of nicotine users.  

Nicotine without the addictive agents added to tobacco products has been used as a treatment against the effects of the self-generated neurotoxin. See the work of Dr. Bryan Ardis. 

Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine have also proven to be effective in suppressing respiratory symptoms.  

Fenbendazole, an animal dewormer, and Mebendazole, a very similar dewormer approved for human use, have proven to be effective in derailing turbo cancers, though the mechanism is unknown.  

Dr. Andreas Kalcker has  championed the use of Chlorine Dioxide to address a large variety of illnesses related to lack of oxygen in the environment and in body tissues leading to incomplete oxidation and build up of toxins in the body. 

The effect of better oxidation is often sufficient to revolutionize critical body functions and reboot the immune system and points to the larger issue of declining atmospheric oxygen.  

The decline in atmospheric oxygen caused by irresponsible industrialization and natural resource harvesting by mostly U.S. and European corporations is the actual cause of many diseases that have erupted during the 20th century. 

What can you do?  Oxygen therapy, if you are already sick.  Home-based oxygen supplementation filters and oxygen generators or natural home-based oxygen supplementation using house plants is also very helpful. 

Deep breathing as an ongoing practice.  Many people, including the young and the elderly, experience breathlessness that is not related to lung capacity.  It is a result of low atmospheric oxygen.  One simple and helpful way to prevent this is diaphragmatic breathing, sometimes called "double belly breathing".  

Bear in mind that your actual government did not order or cause this in any way.  This was caused by commercial and foreign municipal corporations masquerading as your government since the so-called American Civil War.  

Please bear with us and get engaged in the clean up and restoration process by joining your State Assembly: 

https://tasa.americanstatenationals.org/

Please also know and remember: the Officers of the American Government were genocided and persecuted for 150-plus years and they still won through.  

https://tasa.americanstatenationals.org/federal-record/

Accept the fact that the government you knew was provided by British commercial interests and Roman municipal corporations -- federal subcontractors acting under color of law.   

Also accept the fact that the military services you served were unlawfully converted into private corporate mercenary services in 1861.  You didn't know it, but when you signed up or were unlawfully drafted, you were entering a mercenary service and indentured servitude. 

As you are grappling with the immensity of this Breach of Trust and the vastness of the genocide committed against mankind as a whole, know this: men created this mess and men can clean it up again. 

The important part is to slow the process set in motion by the injections, and force the death-cult to divulge the protocols they established to save themselves. 

It helps that they are, on average, cowards. 

Issued by: 

Anna Maria Riezinger - Fiduciary

The United States of America

In care of: Box 520994

Big Lake, Alaska 99652

December 14th 2025

------------------

See this article and over 5600 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

Third Sunday In Advent

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

On this Sunday again, the Church calls on us to rejoice in the Advent of the Redeemer, and at the Introit sings:

INTROIT Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: for the Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in every thing by prayer let your requests be made known to God (Phil. 4). Lord, thou hast blessed thy land; thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob (Ps. 84). Glory be to the Father.

COLLECT Incline Thine ear, O Lord, we beseech Thee, unto our prayers: and enlighten the darkness of our mind by the grace of thy visitation. Through our Lord.

EPISTLE (Phil. 4:4-7). Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is meant by "rejoicing in the Lord"?

By "rejoicing in the Lord" is meant rejoicing in the grace of the true faith we have received, in the hope of obtaining eternal happiness; rejoicing in the protection of the most High under which we stand; and in the persecution for justice's sake in which Christ Himself exhorts us to rejoice, and in which the Apostle Paul gloried (II Cor. 7:4).

What else does St. Paul teach in this epistle?

He exhorts us to give all a good example by a modest and edifying life, to which we should be directed by the remembrance of God's presence and His coming to judgment (Chrysostom. 33, in Joann.); he warns us against solicitude about temporal affairs, advising us to cast our care on God, who will never abandon us in our needs, if we entreat Him with confidence and humility.

In what does "the Peace of God" consist?

It consists in a good conscience (Ambrose), in which St. Paul gloried and rejoiced beyond measure (II Cor. 1:12). This peace of the soul sustained all the martyrs, and consoled many others who suffered for justice's sake. Thus St. Tibertius said to the tyrant: "We count all pain as naught, for our conscience is at peace." There cannot be imagined a greater joy than that which proceeds from the peace of a good conscience. It must be experienced to be understood.

ASPIRATION The peace of God, that surpasseth all understanding, preserve our hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

COMFORT AND RELIEF IN SORROW

“Is any one troubled, let him pray" (Jas. 5:13).

There is no greater or more powerful comfort in sorrow than in humble and confiding prayer, to complain to God of our wants and cares, as did the sorrowful Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel, (I Kings 10) and the chaste Susanna when she was falsely accused of adultery and sentenced to death (Dan. 13:35). So the pious King Ezechias complained in prayer of the severe oppression with which he was threatened by Senacherib (IV Kings 19:14). So also King Josaphat made his trouble known to God only, saying: But as we know not what to do, we can only turn our eyes on Thee (11 Para. 20:12). They all received aid and comfort from God. Are you sad and in trouble? Lift up your soul with David and say: To Thee I have lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until He shall have mercy on us (Ps. 122:1-3). Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul (Ps. 85:4).

GOSPEL (Jn. 1:19-28). At that time the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to John, to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny; and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? what sayst thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And they that were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not: the same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Why did the Jews send messengers to St. John to ask him who he was?

Partly because of their curiosity, when they saw St. John leading such a pure, angelic and penitential life; partly, as St. Chrysostom says, out of envy, because St. John preached with such spiritual force, baptized and exhorted the people to penance, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem came to him in great numbers; partly, and principally, they were impelled by the providence of God to demand publicly of St. John, if he were the Messiah, and thus be directed to Christ that they might be compelled to acknowledge Him as the Messiah, or have no excuse for rejecting Him.

Why did the Jews ask St. John, if he were not Elias or the prophet?

The Jews falsely believed that the Redeemer was to come into this world but once, then with great glory, and that Elias or one of the old prophets would come before Him, to prepare His way, as Malachias (4:5) had prophesied of St. John; so when St. John said of himself that he was not the Messiah, they asked him, if he were not then Elias or one of the prophets. But Elias, who was taken alive from this world in a fiery chariot, will not reappear until just before the second coming of Christ.

Why did St. John say, he was not Elias or the Prophet?

Because he was not Elias, and, in reality, not a prophet in the Jewish sense of the word, but more than a prophet, because he announced that Christ had come, and pointed Him out.

Why does St. John call himself "the voice of one crying in the wilderness"?

Because in his humility, he desired to acknowledge that he was only an instrument through which the Redeemer announced to the abandoned and hopeless Jews the consolation of the Messiah, exhorting them to bear worthy fruits of penance.

How do we bear worthy fruits of penance?

We bear fruits of penance, when after our conversion, we serve God and justice with the same zeal with which we previously served the devil and iniquity; when we love God as fervently as we once loved the flesh-that is, the desires of the flesh-and the pleasures of the world; when we give our members to justice as we once gave them to malice and impurity (Rom. 6:19), when the mouth that formerly uttered improprieties, when the ears that listened to detraction or evil speech, when the eyes that looked curiously upon improper objects, now rejoice in the utterance of words pleasing to God, to hear and to see things dear to Him; when the appetite that was given to the luxury of eating and drinking, now abstains; when the hands give back what they have stolen; in a word, when we put off the old man, who was corrupted, and put on the new man, who is created in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. 4:22-24).

What was the baptism administered by St. John, and what were its effects?

The baptism administered by John was only a baptism of penance for forgiveness of sins (Lk. 3:3). The ignorant Jews not considering the greatness of their transgressions, St. John came exhorting them to acknowledge their sins, and do penance for them; that being converted, and truly contrite, they might seek their Redeemer, and thus obtain remission of their offences. We must then conclude, that St. John's baptism was only a ceremony or initiation, by which the Jews enrolled themselves as his disciples to do penance, as a preparation for the remission of sin by means of the second baptism, viz., of Jesus Christ.

What else can be learned from this gospel?

We learn from it to be always sincere, especially at the tribunal of penance, and to practice the necessary virtue of humility, by which, in reply to the questions of the Jews, St. John confessed the truth openly and without reserve, as shown by the words: The latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose, as the lowest of Christ's servants, giving us an example of humility and sincerity, which should induce us always to speak the truth, and not only not to seek honor, but to give to God all the honor shown us by man. Have you not far more reason than John, who was such a great saint, to esteem yourself but little, and to humble yourself before God and man? "My son," says Tobias (4:14), "never suffer pride to reign in thy mind, or in thy words: for from it all perdition took its beginning."

ASPIRATION O Lord, banish from my heart all envy, jealousy and pride. Grant me instead, to know myself and Thee, that by the knowledge of my nothingness, misery and vices, I may always remain unworthy in my own eyes, and that by the contemplation of Thy infinite perfections, I may seek to prize Thee above all, to love and to glorify Thee, and practice charity towards my neighbor. Amen.

 

EMBER WEDNESDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (Is. 7:10-15). 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 the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.'

EXPLANATION In this Epistle is contained the important prophecy of the Savior's birth from a virgin. War was declared by the kings of Israel and Syria against Achaz, king of Juda, who at their approach was overpowered with fear, and thought of seeking aid from the Assyrians instead of looking to Almighty God for help; and for this lack of confidence in God, the prophet Isaiah was sent to announce to him the destruction of both kings, and his own preservation. The prophet, wishing Achaz to prove his assertion, requested the king to demand a sign from God; but he being given to idolatry, did not wish to ask a sign from heaven, for he had more faith in the assistance of the demons and of the Assyrians. He offended God by his refusal and the prophet rebuked him, saying: The Lord himself will give you (that is, your posterity) a sign, for the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel, that is-God with us. By these words Isaias desired to impress upon the king, that as surely as he should be preserved from his enemies, so surely this Emmanuel, the Son of the Virgin, would appear to redeem the world from Satan's power. Let us learn from this lesson always to trust in God, who can deliver us from all danger, and let us also be grateful to Him, who seven hundred and forty-three years before the time, permitted, for our consolation, the announcement of the coming of His Son, our Savior.

The gospel (Lk. 1:26-28) of this day will be found in the second part of this book on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

ASPIRATION O Emmanuel, powerful, holy God! Our Savior and our Redeemer! be with us always in life and death: for, if Thou art with us who can be against us?

COLLECT Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the approaching celebration of our redemption may bring us the necessary graces for the present life, and bestow upon us the rewards of eternal happiness. Through our Lord.

 

EMBER FRIDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (Is. 11:1-5). And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

EXPLANATION In this epistle the Lord announced to the Jews, through the prophet, the consoling promise that when they were sufficiently punished, and had come to the consciousness of their own misery, the Savior would come and bring all things to order. The rod spoken of by the prophet, is the Blessed Virgin who would proceed from the root of Jesse, that is, from the stem of David, and give birth to the flower, viz., to the Savior upon whom the Holy Ghost, with His sevenfold gifts, would descend, that is, dwell in Him. As a reader of the heart He would judge man, not according to his outward appearance, but according to his intentions. He would not flatter the sinner, but with severe words punish his sinful life, and because just and faithful, He would reward every man without respect to person. Let us be always mindful in all our omissions and commissions, that our Lord sees into our hearts, and judges not only according to our works, but principally according to our intentions, and let us strive ever to have pure motives in all our actions.

ASPIRATION O Fragrant Flower of the Virgin, Jesus our Savior, come and draw us to Thee, that we may walk in the perfume of Thy ointments, and obtain a merciful judgment from Thee.

COLLECT Show forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy power, and come, that we who confidently trust in Thy love, may be the sooner delivered from all adversities. Through our Lord.

 

EMBER SATURDAY IN ADVENT

EPISTLE (II Thess 2:1-8). Brethren, we beseech you, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of our gathering together unto him: that you be not easily moved from your mind, nor be frighted, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth, and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God. Remember you not, that when I was yet with you I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity already worketh: only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way, and then that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.

EXPLANATION At the time when St. Paul wrote this epistle, the false report was circulated that the Last Day was at hand, and Christ was coming to judge all men. The Apostle warns the faithful against trusting this, telling them they should not permit themselves to be misled; for first, the greater part of mankind would fall away from God, and Antichrist, the son of perdition appear, but not until the gospel was everywhere preached. The great falling off would be gradual, caused by the heresies which would arise from time to time, and would be completed by Antichrist, whom our Lord, at last, on the Day of Judgment would kill with the breath of his mouth. Let us learn from this epistle not to be curious concerning the Last Day, and the Advent of Christ, but to prepare, rather for the coming of Jesus into our hearts, that He may be merciful to us in death, and at judgment.

ASPIRATION The gospel of this day will be found in the instruction on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

COLLECT O God, who seest us afflicted on account of our own wickedness; mercifully grant, that by Thy coming we may be comforted. Through our Lord.