A Pernicious Idea

 By Anna Von Reitz

A couple weeks ago, a man contacted me, and after a long complaint about everything under the sun, he made a strange remark --- he said that some people in The Texas Assembly told him (a wealthy man with good contacts) that he could "take" Texas.

I raised an eyebrow.

Take Texas?

I'm sorry. Texas is already taken by millions of Texans who live there. And if there ever was any question about that, it has been resolved in their favor for over a decade, as a result of action taken by the Federation of States.

Still, he persisted. He was given information to the effect that a guy with a few million dollars to spend could "take" Texas, that is, own and control it.

And who were these people?

Dissident members of The Texas Assembly who were also talking trash about the Federation and Federation oversight of the Assembly Process.

They were urging him on, encouraging him to join the Assembly and bowl it over with his money --- and they apparently thought that the people of Texas were weak-minded, lazy, ignorant, and ready for the picking.

My other eyebrow went up.

That's not the people of Texas I know.

I was already sorta pitying the Flat Ass who tried to take as much as a cactus from them and otherwise letting my mind wander before I said, "Well, that's very interesting, but Texas was reclaimed for the people who live there and there is a substantial population there now that would disagree with any attempt to "take" Texas."

But I wondered about that call. He was tipping me off. Letting me know that a move was on, from inside The Texas Assembly, to solicit corporate investors to come in and knock it off and share the spoils.

At least some people in The Texas Assembly were evidently no-good crooks who thought they saw an opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of other Texans. They were actively going out to potential investors trying to sell this Golden Opportunity.

I later found out that the Ringleaders pushing this idea to these investors were connected to MI6 front organizations that have been trying their darndest to both compete with The American States Assembly for support, and, trying to pull off the same credit fraud scheme that the Brits pulled back in 1868 ---- incorporate a dummy commercial corporation calling itself "The United States of America --- Incorporated" and use it to impersonate us and gain access to our credit.

Just picture your old Granny standing behind the refrigerator with her eye on the Cookie Jar and a big old-fashioned Fly Swatter in her hand, ready to jump out on Junior and make him regret being born.

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The Tories Didn't Leave

 By Anna Von Reitz

Of all the points and educational information that we have tried to convey, this point is dropping through the cracks. Please stop long enough to consider HOW the British Territorial Government managed to weasel in the back door and set up the "American Raj" and use it to pillage six generations of Americans.

The short answer is that the Tories --- British Sympathizers in The War of Independence --- never left here after the war. They stayed on as providers of 'essential government services" --- see Article IV of all three Federal Constitutions. This gave them an insider position in our fledgling government, and despite the severely limited powers they were granted, it offered a place they used to plot, scheme, undermine, and ultimately, defraud, the unwary Americans.

To promote peace and heal the wounds of eight years of toe-to-toe conflict, the British Tories were largely allowed to retain all their businesses and assets and bank accounts and "titles" held to their land prior to the war. They were recognized as British Subjects, too. A condition of Dual Citizenship was established to accommodate them.

The British Government recognized the former "Loyal Colonials" as British Commonwealth Citizens known as U.S. Citizens.

The only two things to have changed about this situation in over two hundred years are:

(1) Originally, these British Territorial Citizens were considered to be Dual Citizens with American Citizenship being the second form of citizenship involved; this changed in 1937 after "The Declaration of Interdependence of the Governments in The United States" was adopted and U.S. Citizens were thereafter deemed to be dual citizens of both the British Commonwealth and the Municipal United States Government. They were henceforth operating as U.S. Citizens and citizens of the United States, both.

(2) In the 1960's, forced to make changes as a result of the rising recognition of the evils of Colonialism, the U.S. Citizenship was redefined from being a British Commonwealth citizenship to being a British Territorial citizenship --- by a process of default.

The British Government and the Queen received a great deal of approbation and support for this peaceful surrender of colonial interest in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other "former" Commonwealth nations at the time..... however, the British Government and the Government of Westminster were playing a dirty, dirty game.

They made the big announcements, opened the gates, and the bewildered people of the "former" Commonwealth countries shrugged and went right on without a clue that they were supposed to organize their own truly independent government.

The British interests willingly provided an "interim" government so nothing much seemed to change, but when the "former" Commonwealth countries failed to organize a new government for themselves, the same British interests settled in as an emergency military government occupying the "abandoned" British Commonwealth, and everyone in the countries affected was "presumed" to be a Ward of the Queen and the British Crown and a Territorial Subject.

The difference between a British Colonial Citizenship and a British Territorial Citizenship is the difference between living under a peaceful civilian government and a foreign military occupation.

This is the same basic trick that was used 100 years earlier in America, wherein the Brits established a British Territorial Military Dictatorship and claimed a custodial interest in all the land and assets of their "absent" American Employers. As a result of this British Bunko, Americans were left completely uninformed about the circumstance, and their political status was unlawfully converted to that of "presumed" British Territorial United States Citizens --- U.S. Citizens.

All these actions served to tighten the coils of the British Empire around the necks and pocketbooks of the victims of this vicious scheme. It defrauded the people of this country and the people of the former Commonwealth equally.

Let us all observe the mistake that we made and that the former members of the British Commonwealth made: making peace of any kind with the British Government and suffering the Tories to remain among us.

The people of Great Britain are no better off themselves, having had their political status similarly redefined without their knowledge or consent by a process of enfranchisement during the administration of Benjamin D'Israeli.

And it is all fraud, all based on the unlawful conversion and redefinition of an individual's political status by self-interested Third Parties, and depending on secrecy to pull it off.

We are all in the midst of yet another such scheme, by which the same criminally dishonest British Interests are attempting to redefine "humans" as "trans-humans" --- that is, human GMO products that they own via patent.

They hope to wipe away more than a century of progress and enforcement of human rights by redefining recipients of their patented mRNA fragments as something different --- "trans-humans" that have no human rights. No civil rights. No rights at all, full stop.

Notice the progression of their schemes --- first, redefining living people as "persons" --- unlawfully converting mankind to humankind, and then, redefining "humans" as "trans-humans" to avoid owing their victims human rights.

The only answer is to hunt down the perpetrators as the criminals they are, and subject them to the full force of the Public Law and our righteous anger.

Anyone who supports the cruelty, greed, elitism, and dishonesty of the British Raj at this late date, in India or anywhere else on Earth, needs to be deported from our shores in a leaky boat, never to return.

As our experience and the experience of the British people and the experience of the people of the former British Commonwealth has demonstrated, our big mistake was allowing the Tories and their attorneys to remain among us.

Let's never make the same mistake again.

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For the Entire World to Know and Remember -- Especially the High Courts

 By Anna Von Reitz

The Federation is not the Federal Republic, never said it was and never pretended to be.

The Federation (1776) predates the Federal Republic (1787) by eleven years.

Moreover, the Federation is a completely different kind of entity than the Federal Republic.

The Federation is an unincorporated Holding Company formed by the States of the Union.

The Federation holds the "mutual" combined "powers" of the States in international and global jurisdiction.

Our unincorporated Federation of States does business as The United States of America.

Our Federation of States has never been incorporated, and in fact, cannot be incorporated.

Our Federation of States has never been bankrupted, either ---- it's not eligible for bankruptcy protection.

Our Federation's members, the States of the Union, are all sovereign entities that are also unincorporated.

So, now that you all finally have that much down and clearly stated in black and white and put in front of your noses, turn your consideration to what the Federal Republic is.

The Federal Republic is an American Federal Subcontractor that is supposed to be run by the Confederation of States(1781) which was formed by the States of the Union doing business as the States of America.

The States of the Union formed both the Federation (1776) --as described above, and the Confederation of States (1781).

Get it? Federation and Confederation, both owned by the States of the Union.

The Federal Republic is a Federal Subcontractor that is supposed to be run by the Confederation of States formed under The Articles of Confederation in 1781.

But the Confederation of States split apart and ceased operating in 1860 --- yielding the Northern Confederation of States doing business as 'the Union" and the Southern Confederation of States doing business as "The Confederate States of America".

When the Confederation split up and stopped doing business for lack of quorum, the Federal Republic it owned (and was supposed to operate) shut down, too.

Neither the Confederation nor the Federal Republic have operated since the Civil War.

Now that those facts have been clearly stated in black and white and placed under your noses, turn your consideration to what it would take for these businesses to be "Reconstructed" and also to the order in which they would have to be "Reconstructed".

The Confederation created, owned, and operated the Federal Republic, so the Confederation logically has to be reconstructed first.

So how could we reconstruct the Confederation of States?

The same way that they were constructed in the first place.

The States of the Union would have to be assembled, brought into Session, and each State would have to create its own Confederate State doing business as a State-of-State organization.

Those new "reconstructed" American State-of-State business organizations would then have to join together to reconstruct and recreate the Confederation of States as a whole.

And the Confederation of States would have to reconstruct and operate the Federal Republic.

The Federal Republic would then be the American Federal Subcontractor owed the powers and the juicy federal service contracts originally conveyed by The Constitution for the united States of America (1787).

Now that you have that situation in view, with the States of the Union being assembled first,, each State of the Union creating its own State of State organization, then bringing them together to recreate the Confederation of States, and the Confederation of States rebuilding the Federal Republic --- you see how complex the required Reconstruction really is.

There is only one shortcut possible, one way for this country to legitimately function while all this Reconstruction takes place--- and that is for the States of the Union and the Federation of States to take direct control.

Our country functioned in exactly this way for five years from 1776 to 1781, so there is past precedent for doing it this way.

It must also be pointed out that all three Federal Constitutions are owed to the States of the Union and guaranteed by the Federation of States and its Members.

So.

By Operation of Law, all the Delegated Powers that were assigned to Federal Subcontractors by the Federation of States doing business as The United States of America have returned to the Delegator upon the Federal Subcontractor's Failure to Perform.

That is, the powers assigned to the Federal Republic returned to the Federation of States in 1860. The powers assigned to the British Territorial United States returned to the Federation of States in 1907. The powers assigned to the Municipal United States returned to the Federation of States in 1925.

Everything that has gone on since then has gone on via a process of "legal presumption" and "assumption of contracts".

The other Principals responsible for honoring the Federal Constitutions, the British Monarchs, the Holy See, and the Lord Mayor of London, have all acted in Gross Breach of Trust and under color of law have pillaged and plundered and misrepresented America and the American people ever since.

In 1980, then-President Jimmy Carter, attempted to wash his hands of this situation by legally surrendering possession of all our state offices to the United Nations.

The original Americans who were presumed to be "missing" and "lost at sea, presumed dead" because our American Government wasn't visible and in Session, became Internationally Protected Persons and de facto Wards of the United Nations Organization --- but the U.S. Congress had also held the United Nations harmless and unaccountable for this responsibility by passing the International Organizations Immunity Act.

In 1998, just before another disastrous Bankruptcy Fraud Cycle completed in 1999-2000, a handful of surviving progeny of the Officers of the original Federation of States served Notice on the Holy See and the Queen of Great Britain, objecting to the fraud and Breach of Trust, and announcing that no, our American Government was still alive.

We observed to them and to you, that a Government "of, for, and by" the People can never die.

And we proceeded to locate a minimum of two (2) such People in every State of the Union to act as the lawful Assembly Inheritors. All these men met the requirements to be State Citizens. All these men were qualified Inheritors. All of them have the lineage to be grandfathered-in to the original Constitutional contracts.

The Federation of States was reborn and though it would take more research and a great deal more work, every State of the Union was reclaimed by Americans for Americans.

The next step was to unravel the self-serving legal presumptions that were used to deliberately misidentify and disinherit the actual Americans.

Next, we had to develop a sound legal process to restore Americans to their natural birthright political status.

Next, we had to record their political status in the International Public Record.

Next, we had to summon the States of the Union into Session and qualify and record the members of each State Assembly.

The Federation of States and the General Assemblies of all Fifty American States of the Union have been in Session continuously for well over a year.

No country or government on Earth has any justification to ignore or gainsay these facts.

Our actual Government was never designed to be in continuous Session. It was designed so that the people of this country could enjoy their lives and conduct their own business without an undue burden --- or expense --- being imposed by their Public Duty to Self-Govern.

That Public Duty has been answered and fulfilled. Our Government is not in any interregnum. Our Post Office is not vacated.

All right, title, and interest related to this country vests in its sons and daughters, the living people who are here and who have been here continuously for generations.

There is no basis to claim the existence of a Federal Republic at this point.

Our Federal Republic has been in mothballs since 1860 and there has been no time to take the necessary steps to complete the aforementioned steps to complete Reconstruction of the American States of States that would give rise to a new Confederation which would give rise to a new Federal Republic.

There is no reason that the lawful Federation of States and their State Members, which are all States of the Union, cannot operate a new Federal Republic, but those who are proposing to rebirth the Federal Republic are not acting lawfully or logically at this point.

It appears to be yet another attempt by foreign interests to defraud the American Public and pretend that they are associated with us when in fact they are not --- for the purpose of unjust enrichment, impersonation, and credit fraud.

Our "good faith and credit' applies to our own American Government and to our Constitutional obligations as stipulated; it does not apply to the British Territorial United States nor to the Municipal United States, both of which are supposed to submit their budgets to our Congress --not their Congress-- for approval and for payment via International Bills of Exchange drawn as credit provided by our gold and silver reserves.

Instead, these Pikers have been cashiering our gold and silver as belonging to "unknown owners" and pretending in the case of the World Bank, that these assets, including 14,000 tons of gold confiscated illegally from Americans by the Administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and given to the World Bank/IBRD, are "abandoned".

We are here to tell you that our American Government is alive and well and not one scrap of American land, soil, credit, or any other asset is abandoned.

We are also here to tell you that we are booting up to clean out the criminal corporate interests, interlocking trust directorates, and corrupt foreign courts which have plagued not only our country, but virtually all the members of the United Nations as well.

If anyone has any questions I am here to tell you that our Federation is not the Federal Republic. Our Federation is the only American Government with the standing and provenance to act for this country or operate any new Federal Republic Subcontractor.

We have informed Mr. Trump and the U.S. Military to no avail. Despite their obligation to take their orders from the civilian government --- the American Government --- and despite the fact that we are the only lawful and qualified and fully populated civilian government present, they have persisted with efforts to overturn our country and our heritage and our history by severing us from our roots and from the actual Declaration of independence upon which our lawful American Government rests.

These misguided Persons acting as British Territorial U.S. Citizens have attempted to issue "new" Declarations of Independence, have failed to notify Americans in their employment regarding their political status choices, have evaded their Constitutional obligations owed to us, and have willfully continued a de facto military dictatorship in this country since March of 1863. They have acted upon non-existent, never granted "Emergency Powers" and under the False Presumption that the demise of the Federal Republic heralded the demise of the Federation of States as well.

In fact, the Federation of States and its Member States of the Union, were never involved in the so-called American Civil War, which was fought entirely as an illegal commercial mercenary conflict on our shores and then illegally and immorally and unlawfully continued by our erstwhile British Territorial and Municipal Subcontractors, despite their obligations to The Hague Conventions and The Geneva Conventions.

Both of these European "Federal" Subcontractors have operated in Gross Breach of Trust and in Violation of their Commercial Contracts for generations. The international community has turned a blind eye to the rape and pillaging of America by these foreign interests, to its own shame and detriment. The international community has thus far gone along and pandered to these criminals and blamed America for their war-mongering and predation and racketeering against innocent people throughout the world.

No more.

Therefore we are invoking all Treaties owed to us by all Governments worldwide, and all contracts owed to us by all Governments worldwide, and we are providing Notice to the High Courts. We are calling out to the loyal elements of our Armed Forces to do what must be done to rectify this situation, and to Mr. Trump in particular, to recognize the facts and circumstance set forth with specificity herein.

We are the long-lost Principals, the Priority Creditors, and the only ones that can give the military the contracts and the lawful authority to act. We are also the only ones with the standing, provenance, established claims, and assets to pay them for lawful service as soldiers instead of misusing them as cheap mercenaries without even securing their consent to this outrageous circumstance.

We, the living people of this country and every other country, are now under attack.

Our private physicians have been coerced under color of law to register themselves as Medical Doctors, resulting in an undisclosed contractual obligation to act as Uniformed Officers subject to Title 37 of the British Territorial Government's Federal Code. This allows that same foreign Subcontractor to illegally press-gang and conscript our health professionals and misdirect them to knowingly and unknowingly murder people misidentified as "enemy combatants".

There are no enemy combatants here. There are only crooks and criminals operating in self-interest and for profit.

Our Assemblies have declared the end of the American Civil War, and all the States have accepted the Peace. The Peace Treaty has been published. The International Proclamation has been issued by our Head of State.

The deployment of an illegal experimental bioweapon by the British Territorial United States Government using our physicians as Uniformed Officers is an Act of War by the Governments of Great Britain and Westminster, carried out under color of law.

We call upon the Russian Government to honor the American-Russian Alliance and for all other countries and people to heed our warning. The purpose of this is criminal unjust enrichment. The perpetrators are not Americans, though they appear to be. They are in fact British Territorial Subjects.

The American Federation of States is committed to peace and always has been. Our Government has officially been at peace since 1814.

All people of goodwill and all people of common sense and moral conscience worldwide are called upon to look at this situation and take action, or be counted as accomplices to these crimes against humanity.

Anna Maria Riezinger, Fiduciary

The United States of America

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Red Alert -- Wake Up --- The Federation of States is American

 By Anna Von Reitz

Our Federation of States has nothing whatsoever to do with the foreign Federal Subcontractors.

Anyone who is talking anti-Federation and equating the Federation with "the" US or "the" USA Federal Subcontractors is: (1) profoundly ignorant or, (2) playing you like violins.

Those who haven't bothered to study the history and those who have a base interest in promoting disinformation have a common theme---- getting people to fear the Federation of States the same way they fear the 'Federal" Subcontractors of the British Territorial and Municipal United States Governments.

This is a grave mistake for Americans, because the Federation is their instrument to bring the Federal Subcontractors to heel. The Federation is our hammer to beat their nail or pull it out.

If you don't like the government that has been harassing and pillaging you, you'd better have the brains to recognize and support the American Federation of States that you are heir to and support it for all you are worth.

We are presented with the spectacle of ignorant, bewildered Americans being hoodwinked into fighting against the only lawful means they have of controlling the British and Papist interests that have been pillaging them for six generations.

How stupid is that?

And it is all because some individuals in California didn't want Federation Employees holding oversight over their own crooked dealings.

First, they got caught giving people false information, and they were corrected by Federation Coordinators.

Then, they got caught imposing censorship against anyone that didn't agree with them --- and that got stopped by the Federation.

Then, financial mischief --- and that was corrected by the Federation.

Then more financial mismanagement and bad faith and refusal to turn over the books --- and at that juncture, the perpetrators "jumped ship" and stole the seals and other property belonging to The California Assembly and they have continued their rampage.

This morning, word has reached us that they have been selling our paperwork which we offer on our websites for free and are charging people hundreds of dollars in service fees for simple recording services.

They are scammers and they are impersonating us and trying to substitute their phony organization for a State of the Union. This is not only criminal, it's an insurrection against the actual lawful government.

The valid California Assembly is recognizable by being peaceable, community-oriented, and non-authoritarian --- meaning that we do our work by cooperative committee, not by exercise of executive powers vested in offices.

We gave the renegades until November 15 to Cease and Desist and return the purloined property of The California Assembly.

The California Assembly Coordinators that work with our lawful Federation of States are Satya Orion and Michelle Ford. They are Californians charged with the oversight of bringing their State's Assembly into Session and building the organizational structures needed to provide the people of California with a voice and needed services.

If anyone comes to you pretending to be a representative of me or of The California Assembly and they are asking for large amounts of money and otherwise acting like the same-old same-old scam artists, be aware that these crooks are now out there impersonating our Assembly, which is continuing to organize.

Be aware that they do not represent California, meaning our State of the Union.

Neither they nor anyone associated with them has the protection of any Constitutional Guarantees; they have returned to their former status as Federal Dual Citizens and their names and paperwork are being expunged from the records of the lawful California Assembly; they cannot own land in this country, and they will not inherit the wealth of California or control it. They will not receive relief through the Sign In America program and they will not receive funding.

Please be on your guard against people operating in this manner in your State of the Union. and talking trash about the American Federation of States.

We offer the paperwork for free and the recording service fees range from $3 to around $100 for the publication of a full land patent claim --- not the hundreds of dollars and sometimes thousands of dollars that the would-be interlopers are charging.

More importantly, our recordings have lawful standing as State Records. Their expensive copycat productions do not.

So, for your own sake, for the sake of your State, and the sake of your country--- be on your toes and use your horse sense.

It should never cost any great amount of money for you to recoup your lawful birthright political status as an American. There should be no "membership" fees or contracts to sign. Nobody should ask to see a Social Security Number or ask you to sign any Power of Attorney.

The only record that we ever ask to see is a Birth Certificate showing exactly where you were born (because in America nationality derives from your birth place) or reasonable proof of naturalization and/or length of time you have been in this country if you are an immigrant.

We don't vet people or expose them to background checks unless that is necessary for the job they are doing. Peacekeeping officers and officials, treasurers and financial managers, record keepers and others in responsible positions of public trust get "vetted", but this is always consensual and average Assemblymen and Assemblywomen's privacy is always respected.

We are monitoring this situation on a countrywide basis. If anyone is talking trash about "the Federation" please make the effort to explain to them what the American Federation is and how it is different from the foreign Federal Government Subcontractors. If they still don't stop the disinformation and fear-mongering, ask them to leave and cross their names off the Assembly roster.

Federation membership is a requirement to be a State of the Union. Oversight of the Assembly Process and strictly enforced standards are necessary to ensure honesty and good government and commonality of service which ensures equal protection under the Public Law.

No honest person should object to oversight applied to public functions of any level of government. Ever.

Contact the Federation of States directly through the State Coordinators listed at www.TheAmericanStatesAssembly.net or via my website at www.annavonreitz.com or via my email at avannavon@gmail.com.

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Twenty Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's The Church's Year From the mass of the 6th Sunday after Epiphany INTROIT Adore God, all ye His angels: Sion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Juda rejoiced. The Lord hath reigned; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. (Ps. XCVI. 1.) 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 Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that ever fixing our thoughts on such things as are reasonable, we may both in our words and works do what is pleasing in Thy sight. 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. Thess. I. 2-10.) Brethren, we give thanks to God for you all, making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing; being mindful of the work of your faith, and labor, and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election: for our gospel hath not been unto you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fullness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made a pattern to all that believe, in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but also in every place, your faith, which is towards God, is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves relate of us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned, to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven (whom he raised from the dead), Jesus, who both delivered us from the wrath to come. EXPLANATION The apostle gives thanks to God in prayer for those inhabitants of Thessalonia, who have been converted to Christianity by his words, and declares to them his joy at their Christian life which they prove by their good works and their perseverance, even through all trials, in expectation of eternal reward through Christ. He assures them also of their salvation, (election) because God had caused the preaching of His gospel, which they so willingly received, to produce in them such extraordinary fruit. He praises them not only for having listened to the gospel and abandoned idolatry, but for having regulated their lives in accordance with the faith, and having become a model to distant nations, for the report of their faith had spread far, and everywhere their zealous reception of the gospel was spoken of. Would that the same could be said of all Christians! GOSPEL (Matt. XIII. 31-35.) At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof. Another parable he spoke to them: The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitude, and without parables he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. What is here understood by the kingdom of heaven? The Church and the doctrine of Christ. Why is the Church compared to a grain of mustard-seed? Because there is a great similarity between them. The mustard-seed, though so small, grows in Palestine so high and so rapidly, that it becomes a broad tree, in which birds can build their nests. In like manner the Church of Christ was in the beginning very small like the mustard-seed, but it soon spread so wide that numberless people, even great philosophers and princes, came to find peace and protection under its branches. Why is Christ's doctrine compared to leaven? Because like the leaven, which quickly penetrates the flour, and makes it palatable bread, the doctrine of Christ, spreading with surprising swiftness over the then known parts of the globe, gave the Gentiles a taste for divine things and for heavenly wisdom. Thus Christ’s doctrine penetrates him who receives it, sanctifies all his thoughts, words, and deeds, and makes him pleasing to God. By what means, in particular, was the Church of Christ propagated? By the omnipotence of God and the miracles which He so frequently wrought to prove the truth and divinity of the Christian religion; the courageous faith, and the pure moral life of the early Christians, which led many pagan minds to accept the doctrine of Christ; and the persecution of Christianity, for, as Tertullian says: "The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church." The false doctrine of Mahomet, the erroneous teachings of Luther, Calvin, and earlier and later heretics have, it is true, also spread quickly far and wide; but this is not to be wondered at, for it is easy to lead people to a doctrine that encourages sensuality, and to which they are carried by their evil inclinations, as was the case with the doctrine of the impostor Mahomet, and three hundred years ago with the heresy of Luther; but to spread a doctrine which demands the subduing of the carnal, earthly inclinations, and to bend the will to the yoke of obedience to faith, something more than human eloquence is required. Thus, the Chancellor of England, Thomas More, who gave his blood for the true doctrine of Christ, wrote to Luther, who was boasting of the rapid increase of his sect: "It is easy to descend; seducing the people to a bad life is nothing more marvellous than that a heavy stone should fall of its own accord to the ground;" and Melanchton, a friend of Luther, in answer to his mother's question, whether she should remain a Catholic or receive Luther's doctrine, wrote : "In this religion it is easy to live, in the Catholic it is easy to die." Why did Christ always speak in parables? That His teaching by being simple might be more easily understood, and better remembered. He who is called upon to teach others, should, as did Christ, always speak to them according to their ability to understand, and by no means seek his own honor, but the honor of God, and the benefit of those who hear him. PRAYER O most benign Jesus. How much do we give Thee thanks that Thou hast permitted us to be born in Thy holy Church, and instructed in Thy holy doctrine, which, like the mustard-seed, has grown to be a large tree, spreading over the whole earth. Grant that under the shadow of this tree, in Thy holy Church, we may ever rest securely, cling to her faithfully, and penetrated, as by leaven, with her doctrine may bring Thee pleasing fruits of faith and virtue.  Amen.