https://goldsilver.com/blog/the-great-reset-is-the-death-of-the-global-dollar-standard/
Are you looking for Solutions for America in Distress
You are in the right place to find out about what is really going on behind the scenes in the patriot movement in America, including solutions from Oathkeepers, Anna Von Reitz, Constitutional Sheriffs, Richard Mack, and many more people who are leading the charge to restore America to freedom and peace. Please search on the right for over 9600 articles.
You will find some conflicting views from some of these authors. You will also find that all the authors are deeply concerned about the future of America. What they write is their own opinion, just as what I write is my own.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
“TruckPOCALYPSE” begins in California this week as 70,000 truckers forced off the roads due to Democrat idiocracy
(Natural News) The California Truckers Association is warning that 70,000 independent truck owner-operators will be taken off the roads of California later this week as a draconian new law, “AB-5” kicks in: (emphasis ours)
In addition to the direct impact on California’s 70,000 owner-operators who have seven days to cease long-standing independent businesses, the impact of taking tens of thousands of truck drivers off the road will have devastating repercussions on an already fragile supply chain, increasing costs and worsening runaway inflation.
The new law, passed and signed by Democrats, essentially outlaws independent contractors from operating transport trucks in the state of California. When it goes into effect later this week — after the US Supreme Court refused to intervene last week — California will be hit with a “truckpocalypse” shutdown of transportation capacity.
While some transportation companies maintain full-time employees to operate long haul rigs, many drivers are “owner-operators” who own their own trucks and who pick up contract jobs from the hundreds of shipping and transport companies that operate in California. These owner-operators pay their own taxes, buy their own health insurance and cover their own fuel costs. California Democrats, however, think that independent freedom for truckers should be criminalized, since they want all drivers to be union workers in corrupt union organizations that Democrats routinely use for money laundering operations (dems vote to award public money to the unions, and the unions agree to kick back campaign donations to Democrats).
So they’ve outlawed independent contractors in the trucking industry. The new law goes into effect this week and is expected to cause widespread logjams, cost increases and delays to transportation across America. Say hello to accelerated food inflation…
Read the entire article here:
https://naturalnews.com/2022-07-05-truckpocalypse-begins-in-california-truckers-forced-off-the-roads.html
The Truth of the Matter
By Anna Von Reitz
There are three classes of "citizenry" in this country.
Two of these classes are federal employees.
One of these classes are volunteers who serve their State Assembly Government.
The two classes of federal employees are: (1) U.S. Citizens and (2) Municipal citizens of the United States.
The State Citizens are, well, State Citizens --- people who live in their State of the Union and who claim no other allegiance or obligation to any other government on Earth--- only their State Government vested in their republican State Assembly.
All right? That's the way it is, and that's the way it has always been. "Citizens" are government employees.
All the rest of us are not "citizens" of any kind. We are nationals of our States of the Union.
Over time, people forgot these facts because new generations of Americans were not being taught American History in their own Public Schools. Only "U.S. History" was being taught, and that gave the impression that everyone was a citizen.
But we're not.
From THEIR perspective, everyone in THEIR "district" is a "citizen" so they presume that you, Joe Average American, have to be a "citizen" too ---- but as just explained, unless you are a government employee, you're not a citizen.
Being a citizen means that you serve the government in some capacity. If the government serves you, you are by definition NOT a citizen.
Okay? So what's the truth here? Are you a government employee? Or are you a government employer?
Most of us are employers, not employees, but we are being lumped in with the employees and bossed around as if we were part of their organization and receiving a paycheck from them when we are not.
Go to: www.TheAmericanStatesAssembly.net to learn more.
----------------------------
To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.
How do we use your donations? Find out here.
Sunday, July 3, 2022
We Are Living Through a Communist Revolution
By Cliff Kincaid|July 3rd, 2022
Recognizing that communism didn’t end with the fall of the Berlin Wall, former President Trump said in a speech, “…we will fight the onslaught of radicalism, socialism, and indeed it all leads to communism once and for all.”
Not only does Trump understand that communism is not dead, he perceives that this foreign and alien ideology is in control of the Democratic Party.
Flying the flag on July 4th can’t turn back the clock.
As we take pride in America, we have to recognize what has America become – and what is it becoming. For that answer, read the Communist Manifesto and take note of the fact that literally dozens of communist groups operate on American soil, in open violation of the Communist Control Act, which is still on the books. (It was introduced by a Democrat, Senator Hubert Humphrey, and signed by a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower.)
As I note in The Sword of Revolution and The Communist Apocalypse, the Marxists see the U.S. as a society based on slavery which has since become the leading capitalist nation and must therefore be “transformed” into socialism on the road to communism. Hence, we currently see Marxists and their fellow travelers refer to slavery as the basis for American capitalism and the need for reparations.
This is what Democrats call “progressive” ideology.
Read the entire article here:
https://newswithviews.com/we-are-living-through-a-communist-revolution/
Eggs Will be $12 a Dozen; Meat Shortages Coming This August
By Southern Catholic Mom
July 2, 2022
Her Homestead Skills
As a homesteader and gardener in rural farming country in the South, I think this lady is correct. Food prices are way up. Food shortages are coming by August 2022.
We are amidst a terrible drought here in Tennessee. Crops like corn are doing poorer with late planting due to excess rain in early spring, and now drought in early summer. Hay has already spiked in price here and many hay farmers are no longer willing to sell their hay for fear of running out of hay for their own livestock, mostly cattle here. Farmers I know are contemplating selling their livestock if we have a hay shortage, such that this season’s hay won‘t get us through the coming winter season. Hay yields look to be 25-30% down from normal. Reasons for this, besides the current drought, are that this past spring, many farmers chose not to fertilize their hay fields, to cut costs. The fertilizer used on hay fields is chicken litter (chicken poop, a natural and valuable by-product of egg and poultry farms).
Farming families do not have usual yields right now in their gardens, so farmer‘s markets and truck farming are indeed switching toward just feeding our own families.
Reasons for this are:
Read the rest here:
Saturday, July 2, 2022
How the Scots Made Sure that No Filipino Claims Could Succeed
By Anna Von Reitz
In 1898 the Scottish Interloper doing business as “The United States of America, Incorporated” fought a war known as The Spanish American War “for” us.
Using our money, our soldiers, and our resources, they won.
The war was settled in the normal way with a series of peace treaties – a Treaty of Versailles to settle land claims, a Treaty of Paris to settle sea claims, and various Treaties of Westminster and Ghent to settle commercial claims. They acted as our “representatives”.
This is all well-known and well-documented in the public records here in America, in Spain, and yes, also in the Philippines.
As part of the settlement the land mass of the Philippine Islands was granted by Spain to The United States of America, our unincorporated Federation of States --- as it had to be under international law.
The Scottish Interloper additionally paid Spain --- again, in our behalf --- $20 million of our gold, for the physical infrastructure on the Islands, including the government buildings.
If the massive gold deposits had been in the Philippines at that time, and if that gold belonged to the family of the King of Spain, do you think he would have granted away the land to the Philippine Islands and sold off all infrastructure on the Islands for only $20 million in gold?
The whole idea is ludicrous.
You can read the Treaties for yourselves, you can use your own common sense, and you can believe the present King of Spain, who has also told everyone the same truth about this as we are.
The massive amounts of gold began to arrive in the Philippines from The United States (note—not “the” United States) the following year and shipments via U.S. Navy ships continued for decades thereafter. We have the deposit receipts and ship’s manifests.
So, we know for sure where a very substantial amount of the gold came from.
And it wasn’t anything to do with Queen Isabella, her family, or her fortune --- which remain in the care and custody of Spain.
We also have the records of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration and their issuance of the 1934A Series Bearer Bonds against our gold reserves in the Philippines --- used as payola to other governments and government officials by “the” United States, Inc., Municipal Government without our knowledge or agreement.
Now the new Central Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine Government itself has gone completely mad and claiming that Ferdinand Marcos owned all this gold --- again, a ludicrous claim. Marcos himself fully admitted that he was only an attorney working for The D’Avila Family Trust, and a Trustee with respect to the American gold stored in the Philippines.
We have Tiburcio Villamore Marcos (the third one) claiming that he is a relative of Queen Isabella and that this is her gold that he is inheriting. Based on these claims, the Philippines is trying to transform itself into a monarchy and all sorts of crazy stuff is transpiring.
For all we know, this new version of “TVM” may be related to Queen Isabella. He may even have a claim on her fortunes in Spain. We are not any judge of that and leave it for him to present his case, properly, in Spain.
But the point is, that Queen Isabella’s fortunes are under a completely different account system – Code LEO, not Code FLAT, and are warehoused out of Spain, not the Philippines.
Okay, so let’s review --- we know that the gold was not in the Philippines in 1898.
We know that vast quantities of gold were exported to the Philippines by the U.S. Navy beginning the following year.
We know that the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration of the foreign Municipal United States Government operating as “the” United States, Incorporated, issued Bearer Bonds against our gold reserves in 1934 and used them as payola to buy off various other governments and government officials to participate in his New (Enslavement) Deal.
We also know that most of those Bearer Bonds were later destroyed or recovered and re-warehoused in the Philippines.
We have the Spanish King agreeing with us and telling you that no, Queen Isabella’s gold was never in the Philippines.
So, Queen Isabella’s fortune isn’t in the Philippines, but our gold and the D’Avila Family Trust assets are.
This disqualifies the latest version TVM’s claims about the gold in the Philippines belonging to Queen Isabella and to him as one of her heirs.
Now we come to the final factor that disqualifies all Filipino claims on the gold stored in the Philippines.
The Scottish Interlopers weren’t stupid. They set things up so that no Filipino could ever bring a valid claim against the gold they rat-holed in the Philippines.
By obtaining the Spanish Land Grant “for” us and in our names, the Scots disinherited all Filipino Kingdom claims. The Filipino people have no land of their own, hence, no Kingdom. The land treaties of the Versailles series stand unaltered, and unless we come to a deal, are unalterable.
Nobody has come to us to ask for the land grant back and nobody has paid us the $20 million in gold (updated to modern figures) to buy back the infrastructure, so, we, our unincorporated Federation of States, still owns the Philippine Islands.
It is a fundamental tenet of international law and the far older Law of Kinds, that only physical entities inherit physical assets. Only unincorporated entities can possess and hold land and soil and other physical assets, so you may be sure that our Federation of States is “The United States of America” in possession of the Spanish Land Grant.
You may also be sure that our possession of the Spanish Land Grant is not changed or altered by the Queen of England’s attempts to set up a Territorial District Government in the Philippines and issue “land titles” related to property interests there.
The so-called Treaty of Manila Bay and transfer of “land titles” related to it and ever since, are only “sea treaties” among incorporated British Crown franchises and their personnel.
The land remains in our possession and keeping.
We are not averse to working something out with the Filipino People, to return their homeland to their actual ownership, but the facts are facts.
Vast amounts of American blood and money have been expended in defense of the Philippines and many Filipinos have direct cause to remember that.
The least that we are owed is the return of what is ours, and that means both the gold that was transported to the Philippines by the U.S. Navy and The D’Avila Family Trust assets.
Why, you may ask, are The D’Avila Family Trust Code FLAT assets American, when they are a Spanish family?
Because the heir of the Code FLAT assets already long confirmed by the Spanish Supreme Court and the Central Bank of the Philippines moved to our country decades ago and lives in one of our unincorporated States of the Union. He is one of our people now and we have the responsibility and granted right to protect his assets.
We don’t wish TVM or any of the Marcos family any ill-will. We don’t bear any ill-will toward the Filipino people. At the same time, we are not going to stand here and fail our own honor and fiduciary duty to rebut the irrational claims that are being made.
If TVM is an heir of Queen Isabella of Spain, he needs to do what we have already done regarding the Code FLAT Accounts ----and address the Spanish Supreme Court with his claim to her LEO accounts, together with his lineage, and his DNA.
As you can see, the gold and other assets stored in the Philippines are a separate and already determined issue.
----------------------------
To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.
How do we use your donations? Find out here.
Don't Be Stupid, Please -- About the 1934A Bonds
By Anna Von Reitz
I really am sick and tired and grumpy, so I will tell you what I think of all these silly people raising the roof and running around and claiming that I am in receipt of "counterfeit" 1934A Bearer Bonds, based on old court cases related to counterfeits of these instruments.
Chicken Little Lives!
The Sky is Falling!
It's official!
Somehow, there have been counterfeits of every kind of currency and every kind of stock and every kind of bond ever issued by any government or institution, but somehow people can't put two and two together and figure out that to have a counterfeit, you also have to have an original?
Hello?
If there were no 1934 A Series Bearer Bonds, there would be no counterfeits, would there? And if there were no originals there would be no posted and constantly updated values for these bonds at the U.S. Treasury, either---- which there are.
More important, if there were no 1934 A Bonds, the Municipal Government wouldn't owe us, Americans, hardly anything for their outright theft of our gold reserves and using our gold reserves in the Philippines as collateral for their debts in 1933 and 1934, would they? How convenient for them, if we were stupid enough not to know what went on!
Or, alternatively, if we were stupid enough to forget or to assume that those Bearer Bonds no longer exist.
The same people equate their ignorance as the same as our presumed ignorance, but we have knowledge they don't have. We know the security features and provenance of the bonds we have cashed out. We are standing here and waiting for the Treasury Officials to show up with even the ghost of a question on their minds.
Tick....tick....tick.... they have been fully notified.....
Sigh. The same people think that banks and relief should be instantaneous. And it's not. They think that justice should be quick and efficient. No, it's lazy and slow, instead.
Extremely old sloths could move faster than justice in this country. Believe me, I know. And it's the same story all over.
And no, it's not my fault. It's the way it is. It's the way we've ALLOWED it to be for decades.
We've sat here and let our Public Employees perform or not perform and do just whatever they damned well pleased for so long that the entire concept of "job performance" and accountability for anything is completely foreign.
I have lived through at least a dozen total Federal Government Shut Downs in my life, and my initial response remains my response to this day. All I would miss is the Post Office.
----------------------------
To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.
How do we use your donations? Find out here.
Killing Their Creditors
By Anna Von Retiz
Ever wonder what happened to all the people from the great civilizations of the past? I mean, where'd they go? Their civilizations have flourished, sometimes for thousands of years, and then, all of sudden, in a relatively brief period of time, poof! They vanish.
Just like the German and Polish Jews during World War II, who were unwise enough to invest in Hitler's Third Reich.
Worshiping an all-devouring "god" has its advantages.
You made a little "mistake" and an unwanted baby shows up --- so, sacrifice it in honor of Molloch.
You made a little "mistake" and over-extended your credit by, oh, more than you could pay off in a hundred thousand lifetimes --- sacrifice your creditors in honor of Molloch.
A giant furnace (Molloch) comes in handy, and if you can gloss things over with some sanctimonious religious overtones and excuses, hey, it's a very convenient way to erase a lot of mistakes.
So, good-bye to the Babylonians! Farewell, the Hittites and Assyrians! The Mycenaean Greeks! The Minoans! The Etruscans! The Persians! The Egyptians! The Romans! The Brits! and now, the US, Inc.!
Too bad the pesky Americans are the actual Preferential Creditors, because it would be too obvious to single them out for extinction. It has to be a bigger overall sacrifice to mask the actual motives for it.
Evasion of debt via the "death" of the Creditors is as old as the concept of debt itself. And if you have a giant furnace all stoked up, well, it's easy to clean up afterward.
So, first they stole all our gold to "safekeep" it, and trafficked it to the Philippines and placed the Filipino Government over it as the Trustee. Then they issued Gold Bearer Bonds against it as political payola to get everyone in on their scheme. Then, they borrowed all our silver in exchange for paper I.O.U.s..... the list goes on.
That's how all this happened. That's how Americans became the Preferential Creditors. And that's why they came up with the scheme to "kill" all the Americans on paper by unlawfully converting us into British Territorial Citizens. And then converting those British Persons into Municipal Trusts.
And now, having that scheme fall apart, they've hit upon killing us for real by unlawfully converting millions of innocent people into patented Genetically Modified Organisms that their corporations can claim to own as property assets.
It reads like a really bad novel. Welcome to the Narrative . It sounded like such a good idea to kill all the American Creditors, they said --- if some "debt relief" is good, then more is better! We owe money to almost everyone, so let's kill everyone off! The more the better! But convert them all into GMO's first, so we can claim their estates....
That's what these cretins have done, and what motivates them. Simple greed and evasion of debt. And it's been the same cycle ever since Babylon.
----------------------------
To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.
How do we use your donations? Find out here.
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Making history canceling two 1934 Gold Bearer Bonds
https://vimeo.com/725420987/797c54c9de
This is our Fiduciary for The United States of America [Unincorporated], Anna Maria Riezinger, making history cancelling two 1934 Gold Bonds with the assistance of the Financial Director of The Global Family International Trade Bank. We are privileged to witness and to have video of this historic event. As we witness history being made, it is now time to Intend, Create, and Manifest our future.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Will the January 6 Committee Fuel Civil War in America?
https://newswithviews.com/will-the-january-6-committee-fuel-civil-war-in-america/
By Steven Yates
June 28, 2022
I’ve written frequently of narratives and of what has become one of the biggest fault lines in the American body-politic: the clash between those who firmly believe Election 2020 was stolen and those who call this “the big lie.”
The latter is the official narrative in Corporate Media, and it is the official narrative of the January 6 Select Committee. Both have refused from the start to consider any possibility that the election was stolen, however it was done and by whom. This included many of Trump’s own people, including his attorney general. One side is holding most of the cards right now while those they label “insurrectionists” sit in prison, their lives ruined.
https://newswithviews.com/will-the-january-6-committee-fuel-civil-war-in-america/
A Victory for Life and Liberty
June 28, 2022
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/06/ron-paul/a-victory-for-life-and-liberty/
The Supreme Court undid one of its worst mistakes last week when it overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision declaring a constitutional right to abortion. The Constitution reserves to the states the authority to write and enforce laws regarding murder. Since the question of whether or not to legalize abortion revolves around whether abortion is murder, it is not a federal issue. Roe was thus an illegitimate usurpation of state authority.
The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision last week will not stop the federal government from using the tax dollars of those who believe abortion is murder to fund abortion and family planning both in the United States and abroad. Those opposed to abortion, and in favor of constitutional government, must continue their efforts to end all federal funding of abortion.
Some state governments, such as in Texas and Mississippi, have adopted laws against abortion that are “triggered” after Roe is overturned. Now, additional pro-life state legislators and activists are no doubt planning to push other states with pro-life majorities to pass legislation outlawing abortion.
States where the majority favor legal abortion are no doubt planning to pass pro-abortion legislation. Some of these states will pass laws providing enhanced financial support for lower-income women to receive abortions. Pro-abortion activists are also planning to provide help to women from states where abortion is outlawed to travel to a state where they can legally “terminate” their pregnancies.
Pro-lifers should not respond to pro-abortion state laws by trying to pass an unconstitutional law making abortion a federal crime. Instead, they should work to change attitudes and build a culture of life. One way to do this is by supporting crisis pregnancy centers. These centers help pregnant women in difficult situations see that there are alternatives to abortion. Sadly, the crisis pregnancy centers are among the “woke” mob’s targets for cancellation. If the left were truly “pro-choice” they would not try to shut down privately run pro-life pregnancy centers.
Many libertarians believe that outlawing abortions violates a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. However, the nonaggression principle, which is the philosophic foundation of libertarianism, prohibits committing acts of aggression. Murder is certainly an act of aggression. Therefore, even though all humans have a right to bodily anatomy, this does not justify abortion.
No one ever asked an expectant mother, “how’s the fetus?” Instead, people ask about the baby. This implicitly acknowledges the unborn child’s humanity and thus the child’s right to live. The denial of this right has warped our constitutional system. More importantly it has contributed to the devaluing of human life that is the root of much of America’s moral crisis. A society that devalues life will not respect liberty. Therefore, all who value liberty must protect the right to life. This does not just include ending abortion. It also includes rejecting the militaristic foreign policy that kills innocents in the name of “freedom and democracy.”
Just as pro-life conservatives should be antiwar, progressives should reject the violence government commits against its own citizens via taxation, income redistribution, and the fiat money system that robs average Americans to benefit politicians and elites. Rejecting the use of force, including government force, will lead to a society that values and protects our lives, liberty, and property.
Monday, June 27, 2022
The Good News and the Bad News
By Anna Von Reitz
The good news is that you are immortal and always have been. The bad news is that we are all going to die.
If you have been watching and listening and learning from all the information being pumped out about "the Shift" --- the collapse of the electromagnetic field and pole reversal --- you will eventually pick up on what isn't being said in so many words: physically, we are all going to die, because we can't exist without the EM grid.
The body you will inherit upon arrival in the next time-space is similar to your body now, except that it will be of different materials, lighter and stronger, not carbon based, and it will have many abilities that you don't have now. The new body doesn't constantly degrade like the carbon-based model, so illness and infirmity will pass away.
Your consciousness will be preserved. Those of us who have lived in love all our lives will be able to perceive our bodies throughout this transition, as our bodies will glow in a way similar to phosphorescence, even in the midst of the swirling darkness. Otherwise, it will feel like you are in an undefined space filled with the blackest imaginable smoke--- albeit, smoke without odor.
This is a temporary condition and you might as well just settle in and enjoy the ride. Except for your own dimly phosphorescent shape, and maybe that of whoever happens to be very close to you when all this happens, you won't be able to see anything. So, you might as well relax and sleep through this.
No need for terror. Just be forewarned that this is what happens, when and If a shift in time and space occurs. It won't hurt. You won't be in any danger. It will just seem very odd. As long as you are expecting it and know that it is temporary, it is no big cause for concern.
Upon arrival, you will wake up in a new world. Everything will be weirdly the same, yet different. For example, the grass isn't blade-like, it's more like a tiny fern --- and instead of being bright green, it's a pale green.
The oxygen content is high and every breath you take revitalizes you, but don't just jump up and start flailing around, because gravity isn't the same, either. Get too jumpy and you will find yourself 10,000 feet in the air, looking down on your new home.
Those others who have journeyed with you will be waking up, too, and you will soon reconnect with your family and friends and be greeted by Healers who will begin teaching you about the trauma you've endured and the new world you have been given. In this process you will relive --in retrospect --- your life on Earth from an entirely new perspective.
When you are done with the healing process and are used to your new body there will be other choices to make. For you, the trials and tribulations of an Earth-bound life are over. You are set free to create your own reality. This is where having a firm fix on your Happy Place comes in handy.
Wherever your heart wants to go, you can now go there. Whoever you want to be there with you, will be there with you. It is given to you to be able to create your own vision of bliss. Your own private heaven. That's why I encourage you to think about your Happy Place --- that perfect environment where you feel at home and happy. Imagine it in detail.
Thinking about your Happy Place not only comforts you now and lightens your load, but when the opportunity to create your perfect world comes, you won't be left flat-footed without a thought in your head. You will already have the blueprint for it.
As for "dying" my dears, we have lived and died and lived and died, so long and so often, that it is entirely familiar. It's nothing to fear or regret. Like walking from one room to another, or waking up after a dream, our bodies simply fall away like the dry husks of a butterfly's chrysalis.
My point is that dying is entirely natural, so natural in fact, that you will recognize it as it is happening, and you won't be afraid.
It isn't given to me to know how many will be resettled here, but some will remain for whatever reasons. The planet is not "doomed" but it is due for an overhaul, so there will be plenty of work to do and lots of beautiful things happening as the planet is revitalized and reborn.
I can't help but feel that my role as a Guardian here is nearing an end; I have been faithfully on post for many, many lifetimes, and I am looking forward to new horizons for me and my Soul Family. Like an old soldier going home at last, it's a bittersweet feeling. I will miss the constant challenges of Earth, the eternal answering of questions, and the small, homely comforts that sustain us all.
Have faith that there is a reason for your existence. Have faith that life is not a waste, but is instead, a most glorious gift. Keep faith with your dreams. They are the blueprints for the worlds you will build. And know that just as a caterpillar is destined to become a butterfly, there is a most surprising --- and wonderful --- destiny for you.
And in the end, there will be nothing to regret.
----------------------------
To support this work look for the Donate button on this website.
How do we use your donations? Find out here.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Third Sunday After Pentecost
Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's
The Church's YearAt the Introit of the Mass the Church calls upon all to invoke our Lord:
INTROIT Look Thou upon me, and have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am alone and poor. See my abjection and my labor, and forgive me all my sins, O my God. (Ps. XXIV.) To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
COLLECT O God, the protector of them that hope in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: multiply Thy mercy upon us, that, guided and directed by Thee, we may so pass amid temporal goods as not to lose the eternal. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end, Amen.
EPISTLE (I Pet: V. 6-11.) Dearly beloved, Be you humbled under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation: casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you. Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you and confirm you and establish you. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
EXPLANATION In this lesson St. Peter teaches that if we would be exalted we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. This necessary humility shows itself in us by giving ourselves and all our cares up to the providence of God who, as St. Augustine says, provides for one as for all. We should not fail, however, to be sober and circumspect, and not think ourselves secure from the lusts of the world. The devil like a lion seeking prey, desires the ruin of our souls, tormenting us by temptations and afflictions. By confidence in God's help we can and should resist him, especially when we consider that after the trials of this life the crown of glory will be our portion for all eternity.
ON DRUNKENNESS
Be sober and watch. (I Peter, V. 8.)
Sobriety is the mother of vigilance; intemperance is the mother of sloth and of numberless other vices which cast many souls into the jaws of the devil who, like a hungry lion, goes about day and night seeking for prey. Woe, therefore, to those who because of their drunkenness live, as it were, in constant night and in the perpetual sleep of sin! How will they feel when, suddenly awakened by death, they find themselves before the judgment?seat of God burdened with innumerable sins of which they were unconscious, or of which they wished not to know they were guilty! Who can number the sins committed in a state of intoxication, sins for which the drunkard cares nothing, for which he has no contrition, and has not confessed, because the light of reason is extinguished, his life is a senseless stupor, and he is therefore unconscious of his thoughts, words and actions.
But will the divine Judge find no sin in such persons? Will He permit the shameful deeds committed while intoxicated, the curses, blasphemies, sneers, detractions, outrages, and scandals to remain unpunished? He who demands an account of every idle word, will He demand no account of the time 'so badly spent, of the money so uselessly squandered, families neglected, church service unattended, education of children omitted, and the other great sins committed? They will indeed excuse themselves, pleading that these sins were committed involuntarily, or as a joke, when they were intoxicated; that their intoxication was excusable, as they were not able to stand muck; but will God be content with such excuses? Will they not add to their damnation? That they took more than they could bear of the intoxicating drink, deprived themselves of the use of reason, and thus voluntarily caused all the sins they committed while in that state, is what will be punished.
What then can they expect? Nothing less than the fate of the rich man spoken of in the gospel, who on account of his debaucheries was buried in hell; where during all eternity his parched tongue was not cooled by one drop of water. (Luke XVI. 22.) Yes, this will be the place of those unconverted drunkards of whom St. Paul says that they will not possess the kingdom of God. (I Cor. VI. 10.) How rare and how difficult is the conversion of a drunkard, because with him as with the unchaste this habit becomes a second nature, and because he generally abuses the remedies: the holy Sacraments of Penance and the. Altar.
This should certainly deter any one from the vice of drunkenness; but those who are not thus withheld, may consider the indecency, the disgrace, and the injury of this vice, for it ruins the body as well as the soul.
Is it not disgraceful that man endowed with reason, and created for heaven, should drown that reason in excessive drink, degrading his mind, his intellectual spirit, the image of God, rendering it like the brute animals, and even lower than the beasts. "Are not the drunkards far worse than the animals?" says St. Chrysostom. Yes, not only on account of their drunkenness, but far more so because of the shameful position of their body, their manners, their speech, their behavior. How disgracefully naked lay Noah, although he was intoxicated not through his own fault, exposed in his tent to the ridicule of the impudent Chain! (Gen. IX. 21.) Even the heathen Spartans considered the vice of drunkenness so disgraceful that they were in the habit of intoxicating a slave, and bringing him before their children that they might be disgusted with such a state.
Finally, that which should deter everybody from this vice is its injuriousness. It ruins the body as well as the soul. By surfeiting many have perished, (Ecclus. XXXVII. 34.) and it has ruined the health of many more. Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who fall into pits, who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups? (Prov. XXIII. 29. 30.) Daily observation confirms this truth of Scripture, and the miserable old age, accompanied by innumerable weaknesses and frailties of one addicted to drink is a sufficient testimony of the injuriousness of this vice.
GOSPEL (Luke XV. 1-10.) At that time, The publicans and sinners drew nigh unto Jesus to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them And he spoke to. them this parable, saying: What man of you that hath an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, Both he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost until he find it? Arid when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders rejoicing: and coming home, call, together his friends and neighbors, saying to them:
Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety?nine just who need not penance. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she bath found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I have found the groat, which I had lost? So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.
What moved the sinners to approach Jesus?
The goodness and benevolence with which He met the penitent sinners. Do you also humbly and trustingly approach Him, and you may rest assured that, even if you are the greatest of sinners, you will receive grace and forgiveness.
What is Christ's meaning in the parable of the lost sheep and groat?
He expresses by this His desire for the salvation of the sinner, His joy and that of all heaven when a sinner is converted. Moreover, He shows the Pharisees, who in vain self-righteousness avoided all intercourse with acknowledged sinners, and who murmured at the goodness of Jesus, that the sinner, being truly unhappy, deserves our compassion rather than our anger.
Why do the angels rejoice more over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just?
Because the places of the fallen angels are thus refilled; because the angels see how the good God rejoices; because they find their prayers for the conversion of sinners granted, as St. Bernard says: "The tears of the penitents are wine for the angels;" because, as St. Gregory says, "the true penitents are usually more zealous than the innocent."
ASPIRATION I have erred like a sheep that has lost its way; but I thank Thee, O Jesus, my good Shepherd, that Thou hast so carefully sought me by Thy inspirations, admonitions and warnings, and dost now bring me back to true penance, that I may be a joy to the angels. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)