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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 23, 2025

The Silver Awakening: Why Silver Prices Are Soaring and What’s Next

 https://youtu.be/Pi9IO9HTi1I


Silver is making headlines once again, breaking through barriers that have held it down for years. Recently, silver hit a remarkable 14-year high, closing at an impressive $39.33 per ounce. Many investors are now asking the critical question: What’s driving this surge, and can it continue? There’s a few major factors: 

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By Paul Stramer

In 2024 we started using the new mint in Indiana to stamp and ship our silver rounds, after over 18 years with the previous mint in Utah. 

After receiving the first three orders and finding the quality to be even better than the product from the old mint we started taking orders for these new Divisible one ounce silver .999 fine rounds.

The new and much larger minting company has multiple facilities around the country including in Indiana, California and Nevada.

I now have a good working relationship with the new company and am making even more announcements about the improved way we are doing this business. Here are some of the things that are changing for the better for you, our customers.

1. The old 500 ounce minimum order is gone. The new minimum order is now 60 ounces. 

2. They will be very competitive in their price structure, and right now we are offering a price plan based on the volume of metal in each order. See below.

3. The shipping will be faster, and the wait time will be less than it was. Each order will be shipped with full insurance. I made my first 3 orders and all those orders arrived here for local customers and our stock. The total time from order to arrival was just 12 days for those orders. Since then we have had several large orders go out and be delivered within 2 weeks.

These will be shipped from Indiana or Nevada depending on where the order is going, by UPS Ground, fully insured.

 We will still be accepting wire transfers, or cashiers checks like always. 

We can only lock an order after we have received the funds. Here is the formula we use to figure your price.

Go to this link on Kitco.com and look up the ask price of silver. https://www.kitco.com/price/precious-metals

It's in the first table on that page. 



For a 60 oz. to 99 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.95

For a 100 oz. to 199 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.75. 

For a 200 oz. to 299 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.50. 

For a 300 oz. to 999 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.25. 

All orders over 1000 ounces will be $3.00 over spot ask price.

Take that number times the number of ounces (60 or over) and then add $25.00 for each 60 to 100 ounce box for shipping, or for large orders add $40 per 500 ounce box for shipping.

Once we have your funds we will run this same formula to finalize the price with shipping.

Be sure to call us when you are ready to order so we can answer your questions.

When you call I will get your email address and send you the bank info for wire transfers or the mailing info for your payment. You can then reply with your shipping address for UPS.

If you have any questions here is my contact info.

Office phone  406 889 3183  8 AM to 2 PM and 4PM to 6 PM weekdays.

Cell  406 253 4257  when I am not in the office. Try the Office line first.

pstramer@gmail.com   or  pstramer@eurekadsl.net

Thanks for your support over the years.  We are now open and taking orders.

Paul Stramer   S.A.G.

International Public Notice: Regarding Economics

 By Anna Von Reitz

Years of gross counterfeiting by Obama and his handlers, as well as purposeful manipulation by the Central Banks involved,  have taken the Federal Reserve Note to the brink of extinction and there is nothing anyone can do about that.  

It has been known since the days of Thomas Jefferson that fiat currencies and central banks always have the same result -- first by inflation and then by deflation, any value of the currency is extracted and siphoned off by the guilty banks responsible. The banks split the take with the government -- whatever form the government takes.  The currency used for these venal purposes inevitably collapses.  

So none of this should surprise anyone.  This is what allowing Central Banks to issue fiat currencies always results in, and as this cogent, though somewhat technical article (link below) explains, we are once again being set up just as we were set up for the Great Depression.

Only this time, if we allow it to happen, it will be worse. 


Mr. Trump's Tariffs are a desperate attempt to raise immediate funds for his corporation's operations at the expense of consumers, but those consumers are already on the ropes.  As the writer (above) notes, this is the same exact set up as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.  An exact replay. 

The Smoot-Hawley Tariffs collapsed the economy in this country and triggered a worldwide domino effect. 

Why would we expect any other outcome from doing it again? 

And as the writer further points out, people desperate to find some kind of investment market opportunity are piling onto the stock market which is being artificially pumped up --- just like 1929.  

Do we really have to go through that lesson again?  Or worse? 

No, we do not. 

But first, let's stop a moment with some "silent advice" from Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon --- all of whom have sold off large chunks of their private stock holdings in their own companies --- and bought gold, silver, land, and any other physical assets they could glom onto using Federal Reserve Notes. 

This should tell you that both your stocks and your currency are worthless and that no sane person should sell a house, land, or anything else of actual value at this moment.  Why?  Because you would lose your actual, physical asset, and be left with nothing but a pile of worthless paper in the exchange. 

Conversely, if you wait for the collapse, you will be able to pay off any mortgages or debts with that same worthless paper at whatever rate of interest you currently have --- which will be astronomically better than any deals available to anyone trying to secure a new loan. 

So not only your house and land and gold are worth vastly more, but even your low-interest fixed rate loan becomes an asset in such a situation. 

Donald Trump is going to offer you a one-time Bust for Glory payment of $1.1 M per household, which will probably just come as an unadorned check in the mail.  

This payment will be bally-hooed as a return of money that is owed to you, and that much is true.  Actually, it's a tiny percentage of the money that is owed to you.  

What won't be told to you is that your innocent acceptance of this partial payment --- which is literally peanuts compared to what the banks and corporations owe you --- will be misrepresented as your acceptance of an unstated, undisclosed debt settlement offer. 

They actually owe you $38M each as an approximation, and that is just settlement for the silver they purloined in 1934 -- and it is not an in-kind settlement, which makes it "inequitable", too. 

They took both your silver and gold in exchange for a paper I.O.U. and now they are offering you more paper as settlement of this debt.  

Run, like an antelope, away.   Or plan out your strategy to accept the check and endorse it as a partial payment only.  

What Mr. Trump either doesn't know or won't explain, is that this "Last Hurrah" payment will be the absolute and final end of the Federal Reserve Note as a species of currency.  

As everyone rushes out to buy a new car or pay off a mortgage they don't owe or simply goes to get their dental work done using this windfall, hyperinflation of a kind not seen since the Weimar Republic will follow.  

This is because money is like manure.  If you use just enough, the plants thrive; if you use too much, the plants die.  The sudden influx of this much "private consumer credit" into an already starved market will create a big boom followed by a big bust.  

And we already know that, so why are we doing it? 

From Mr. Trump's perspective, he's off-loading a lot of his corporation's debts for cheap, cheap, cheap.  He will be paying out $1 and writing off $37 in debt.   What corporate director doesn't like those odds? 

He's also getting rid of the pesky Federal Reserve Note, which is evidence of crimes committed against us all.

Trump might even wrangle a "I tried to do the right thing" degree of credibility out of it, but that won't overcome the "He's a complete idiot." response.  And people will remember "Operation Warp Speed" which had a similar Modus Operandi and result.  

If you are going to sell property, wait until you can exchange something of value for something of value, instead of exchanging an actual asset for a pile of butt wad. 

Conversely, if you are wanting to buy property, it's best to wait and put that off, too, because right now the market is grossly overvalued as a result of the billionaire's buying spree. The housing market is being propped up artificially, and based on the influx of the Last Hurrah credit entering the market, prices might be propped up for a little while after that hits. 

Inevitably, housing prices will crash and they will bottom out and sit at the bottom of the fish tank for a good long while.  This will grossly harm older Americans whose largest lifetime investment and largest asset tends to be their home.  

The Crash in housing will result from overbuilding (not as bad as China, but bad enough), inflation, increased taxes, and less consumer demand. 

The Geniuses in Charge managed to arrange a population collapse at the same time as the currency collapse. 

The exit of the Baby Boomers from the private consumer stage was bound to create a downturn in new construction and generation of new mortgages, simply because there are fewer people in the following generations -- therefore, less demand for houses. 

Fewer people and smaller families means less demand for everything overall. 

Less demand means a contraction of the entire economy and this time, that collapse will be so stark that nobody and no amount of paper propaganda will be able to hide it.  

England has been in population collapse since WWI.  America has been in population collapse since WWII.  And no amount of forced immigration will change that.  

Sadly, the one thing that could have and would have eventually changed that --- peace and plenty --- was prevented by the so-called Defense Sector.  

They have to have a war to make a buck, and this time, they made the mistake of murdering and maiming millions of people and polluting human DNA in a way that will permanently reduce the population forever.  

Any need for them and their "products" will also be grossly and permanently reduced, but they didn't think about that.

They were too busy managing "the herd" to realize that they are part of the herd and dependent on it. 

After all, who needs a slave master when the slaves are dead or chemically lobotomized?  

Capitalism may be dead, but so is Communism and all the other "isms".  By the time this is done, there won't be anything called a "political economy" or anything recognizable as an economy at all. 

Being able to run the world as anything but a militaristic slave colony will depend on the creativity of the living people to develop their own separate banking system --- and this we have done. 

We noted early on that we don't need to go through any New Great Depression, because we have already learned those lessons, know the causes, and recognize the signs. 

All we have to do is outlaw the Central Banks, discharge vast amounts of Odious Debt, and "flip the ledger" --- instead of running the world economy on the debt side of the ledger, run it off the already existing prepaid credit side of the ledger. 

The only harm this does is punish the bank's profits and take away control of illegally created Slush Funds. Given the Bad Faith, Fraud, Deceit, and Breach of Trust demonstrated by the banks, they need to be punished with immediate liquidation and nationalization. 

We could additionally help ourselves by decimating the Defense Industry and getting rid of the For-Profit Health Sector. 

Continuing to invest in "More and Better" ways to kill people is leading to the brink of our extinction, and continuing to run healthcare as a for-profit business sector is leading to the same result.   

As long as Mr. Trump is employed to do dirty work for the Committee of 300 (basically, the heirs of the old British East India Company) he will not be an effective leader for this country in any respect --- and neither will anyone else brought forward by the same interests. 

The base problem, above and beyond anything else, is that these unelected and unaccountable and unseen Third Parties have been running the show behind closed doors and running it to suit themselves in gross breach of trust.  

We have seen their "fruits" in three centuries-worth of war and mayhem for profit, in the face of ruthless colonialism, and in their present attempts to harm the public using lawfare, propaganda, central bank manipulations, "private taxation", and fraud against the Public Interest.

They even played a central role in attempting to steal the assets of the Avila Family Trust and more than 5,000 other family trusts and common law foundation trusts; as of 2005, they all knew who the Heir of the Avila Family Trust was and signed off their leadership's Powers of Attorney to him, but only two years later (2007), the same rogue players latched onto his assets and set up a cozy accommodation benefiting the "People of the Philippines" --- the Trustees, instead of the Donor-Beneficiary.  

It's time for them to make amends on all these scores, or go trotting off the back stage into a well-deserved oblivion. 

Issued by: 
Anna Maria Riezinger - Fiduciary
The United States of America
In care of: Box 520994
Big Lake, Alaska 99652

July 23rd 2025

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See this article and over 5400 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: For Those Who are Unaware

 By Anna Von Reitz

Commodity rigging is a crime. 

The Central Banks rig commodities, especially assets (gold, silver, land) and currencies (Yen, Euro, Federal Reserve Notes, etc.). 

They also rig the stock markets of the world. 

They are allowed to do this by commercial corporations that are masquerading as governments --- but which are instead only vendors of government services.  

These corporations  are acting in breach of trust and in violation of their own service contracts.  

So you have organizations that are pretending to be valid governments allowing groups of private bankers to engage in criminal activities.  

All of this is fraudulent, null and void. 

That is the actual status of things in your world, and the courts and the militaries and the police are helpless to do anything about it, because they are receiving their pay and taking their orders from these imposters and criminals. 

Okay? 

Things got off-track during the reign of Queen Victoria, and never got back on track in all the years since then.  

These criminal government services corporations have used semantic deceits and non-disclosure and illegal contracting practices to bilk the people they are supposed to serve.  

They have evaded their service contracts and obligations owed to us under contract by secretly registering us as foreign citizens.  

These same False Contracts have then been used to impose False Obligations of foreign citizenship on people who are not naturally, knowingly, or voluntarily involved in any of this rot. 

These commercial corporations have also pretended to be legitimate military organizations, when in fact they have unlawfully converted our national military into a mercenary service for hire.  

Mr. Trump is currently the President of a British Crown Corporation deceitfully calling itself "the United States of America" and then additionally omitting the word "Incorporated" from its name, so as to give the impression that it is our own dear unincorporated government --- when it's not. 

This deceit and their actual position as government services vendors has allowed our erstwhile Employees to act under color of law and in breach of trust, to impersonate our government and access our credit --- which they have plundered and spent with great abandon and no regard for the people they are supposed to be serving. 

In this, they are no different than any credit card hacker or similar identity thief.  

The banks, including the Central Banks, have all been given Notice of these facts and they are legally and lawfully and morally obligated to return our assets and our credit to our control, unharmed.   The High Courts of the world have been fully informed, and if they are to retain any credibility, must take action. 

Issued by:
Anna Maria Riezinger -- Fiduciary
The United States of America
In care of: Box 520994
Big Lake, Alaska 99652

July 23rd 2025

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See this article and over 5400 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.

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

The Signs Are Clear: Why This Stock Market Bubble “Cannot Last”

 https://youtu.be/rdDWldBmrM0


In the latest episode of The GoldSilver Show, Mike Maloney and Alan Hibbard deliver one of their most urgent warnings yet: the stock market is in “insane bubble territory” — and the fundamentals don’t support the hype. 

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

By Paul Stramer

In 2024 we started using the new mint in Indiana to stamp and ship our silver rounds, after over 18 years with the previous mint in Utah. 

After receiving the first three orders and finding the quality to be even better than the product from the old mint we started taking orders for these new Divisible one ounce silver .999 fine rounds.

The new and much larger minting company has multiple facilities around the country including in Indiana, California and Nevada.

I now have a good working relationship with the new company and am making even more announcements about the improved way we are doing this business. Here are some of the things that are changing for the better for you, our customers.

1. The old 500 ounce minimum order is gone. The new minimum order is now 60 ounces. 

2. They will be very competitive in their price structure, and right now we are offering a price plan based on the volume of metal in each order. See below.

3. The shipping will be faster, and the wait time will be less than it was. Each order will be shipped with full insurance. I made my first 3 orders and all those orders arrived here for local customers and our stock. The total time from order to arrival was just 12 days for those orders. Since then we have had several large orders go out and be delivered within 2 weeks.

These will be shipped from Indiana or Nevada depending on where the order is going, by UPS Ground, fully insured.

 We will still be accepting wire transfers, or cashiers checks like always. 

We can only lock an order after we have received the funds. Here is the formula we use to figure your price.

Go to this link on Kitco.com and look up the ask price of silver. https://www.kitco.com/price/precious-metals

It's in the first table on that page. 



For a 60 oz. to 99 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.95

For a 100 oz. to 199 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.75. 

For a 200 oz. to 299 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.50. 

For a 300 oz. to 999 oz. order, take the ask price and add $3.25. 

All orders over 1000 ounces will be $3.00 over spot ask price.

Take that number times the number of ounces (60 or over) and then add $25.00 for each 60 to 100 ounce box for shipping, or for large orders add $40 per 500 ounce box for shipping.

Once we have your funds we will run this same formula to finalize the price with shipping.

Be sure to call us when you are ready to order so we can answer your questions.

When you call I will get your email address and send you the bank info for wire transfers or the mailing info for your payment. You can then reply with your shipping address for UPS.

If you have any questions here is my contact info.

Office phone  406 889 3183  8 AM to 2 PM and 4PM to 6 PM weekdays.

Cell  406 253 4257  when I am not in the office. Try the Office line first.

pstramer@gmail.com   or  pstramer@eurekadsl.net

Thanks for your support over the years.  We are now open and taking orders.

Paul Stramer   S.A.G.

Death and Rebirth

 By Anna Von Reitz

We are deeply saddened and we regret to acknowledge the passing of one of our great guiding lights: Ron Gibson, our leader and teacher in pursuit of establishing our land and soil claims and recovering and reconveying all titles and grants to our possession under our lawful standing --- has died, July 16th 2025.  

Ron suffered for many years from cardio-vascular illness, but he kept going and kept teaching right up to the end. His determination to help people and to save American homeowners, small businesses, and farms was iron-clad. He brought all his Marine training to bear and never gave up.  

Ron's leadership on this issue, his research, his book and instructional videos and classes, have helped thousands of Americans to recoup and recover true ownership claim to their land assets, especially throughout the Western States, where the absolute need to secure these rights and benefits has been -- and continues to be -- a very serious issue.  

Ron Gibson and David Straight have both passed on this year, which is leading us to contemplate the aging of our leadership and the need to bring forward new blood and another generation.  These younger folk following in our footsteps will bring new skills and new insights and new energy to the effort.  We willingly carry the torch, then pass it on, having contributed our bit to the greater whole. 

Ron Gibson has passed on a great big "bit" --- a chunk of uncommon wisdom and knowledge that is fundamental to our understanding of property rights, land, and land claims in this country.  

Looking back and seeing how our work and advancing it has been made possible by the research and determined effort of thousands of other Americans who grabbed hold of their piece of the puzzle and passed it on, we can only say that future generations of Americans are already greatly in the debt of Ron Gibson.   

Thousands of Americans sleep safer in their beds because of Ron and his work, and you can't ask more of a great warrior than that. 

Ron would have loved the new Bucolic Living Law website, which has been hand-built to make it easier for Americans to publish their land patents and grants and chains of title:


Ron often admitted the difficulty of posting your whole claim for sixty days in a proper public way and location.  We finally have the means to make it streamlined and easy. And official. He would have been delighted down to the soles of his feet.

Yes, Ron would have chuckled and beamed and thought, "Well, there's some more pilgrims showing up...."  and he would have been glad and grateful that other Americans saw the need and answered, just as he did, just as we did.   

For all those who don't know who Ron Gibson was or what he did, we will be tracking down access to his book and training materials over the next few days.  Each Assembly is encouraged to order copies for their library and also encouraged to start a Land Patent Committee. 

Granna

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See this article and over 5400 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: Where Things Stand

 By Anna Von Reitz

As of July 19th, the Word has gone forth; I have spoken the Judgment, and it is going forward.  The world will be split between the sheep and the goats, even as the Shepherd knows them all, and two different destinies will soon be apparent. Word of my action took a day to reach the Highest Authorities and be transmitted and translated into mathematical code. 

This system of things has well and truly come to an end and will not be rebuilt on sand again.  The criminality, theft, abuse, and murder will shortly end.

Let all who are reading this be absolutely sure that I have done my work and there is no leeway left.  Those who resist the crimes against humanity are blessed and will live to see the new Earth; those who continue the insanity will be cast out, some into the Abyss, some into a new Interstice.  Each one will be judged by a justice greater than mine. 

Do not be distressed; many will leave their bodies behind, but all will be saved in the end.  Those who remain will enter into bliss or into a new round of learning, depending on what their own choices have been.  

As you can see now, in both Africa and Texas, the Earth is expanding from within.  The heartbeat of the Earth, the Schumann Resonance frequency increases almost daily.  She is in labor.  A large part of the magnetic grid has been repaired so that energy flows freely again and all the continents are getting their fair share.  There will be earthquakes and shifts in the magnetic field, and volcanoes erupting and a degree of terra forming going on, but this is as natural as any other birth process.  

The Earth is a living thing, a lesson we have yet to learn. 

And despite what seems a very long time in which criminals and their crimes have reigned as kings, it will be but an instant more until they are removed. Pay no heed to their attempts to mislead and misuse technology.  Put no faith in their money.  

The stock market will crash, because it is rigged and grossly overvalued.  

The attempt of the Central Banks to force Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) disguised as "Stablecoins" on people, will fail; the Central Banks themselves will be recognized as criminal organizations engaged in licensed fraud and commodity rigging. 

The investment banks and clearinghouses, brokerages, and agencies that have promoted securitization of living flesh will also be recognized as criminal organizations.  

The IRS and similar privateers operating under color of law are already a thing of the past. 

If you have actual assets of any kind --- hold onto them.  Don't sell actual physical assets in exchange for any paper chit or digital "coin".  

If you get into trouble, use my Indemnity Bond.  I have my land claims in place, my lineage treaty on the Public Record, and claim of life and political status recorded and provided Due Notice.  

Use the Indemnity Bond as you would an Insurance Policy. 

It can be used to overcome mortgages and taxes and large medical bills; other relief will be made available soon for those who are not under foreclosure or similar threat. 

The dishonest men and women among us, the criminals chiefly responsible for the mess we are in, are natural Liars, and are referenced in the Bible as such.  

They have been with us as a separate non-indigenous population for millenia.  

When under stress, they naturally spin more false narratives and accuse others of being liars more vehemently in their attempts to obfuscate the truth and hide their own identity and nature.  

This reaction is as predictable as a threatened skunk lifting its tail. 

It will avail them nothing, for all their works are revealed and the nature of their constructs is made clear.  They and their minions will be removed along with their False Religions and their lies will cease to be heard.  

This is not the first time we have had to deal with them, but it will be the last time.  

Issued by: 
Anna Maria Riezinger -- Fiduciary
The United States of America
In care of: Box 520994
Big Lake, Alaska 99652

July 21st 2025

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See this article and over 5400 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.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

The Introit of this day's Mass is the prayer of a soul that trusts in God's powerful and merciful protection:

INTROIT The Lord is the strength of his people, the protector of the salvation of his Anointed: save, O Lord, thy people, and bless Thine inheritance, and rule them for ever. Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord: O my God, be not Thou silent to me; lest if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. (Ps. XXVII.) 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 of hosts, to whom belongeth all that is perfect: implant in our hearts the love of Thy name, and grant within us an increase of religion, that Thou mayest nourish in us what is good, and by the fervor of our devotion may preserve in us what Thou hast nourished. 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 (Rom. VI. 3-11.) Brethren, All we who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death. For we are buried together with him by baptism unto death: that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ. Knowing that Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have, dominion aver him. For in that he died to sin, he died once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. So do you also reckon that you are dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

EXPLANATION The apostle here teaches that in consequence of our baptism we are made members of Christ's body, and must, therefore, die to sin; as Christ by His death died to physical life, but has risen again, so must we bury sin, by constant renewal of baptismal vows, and by self mortification rise to a Christian life. As members of Christ's body we should in a spiritual manner imitate Him. As He permitted His body to be nailed to the cross to atone for our sins, so should we crucify our corrupt nature by self-denial, and as He after His Resurrection lives always, because having risen He dieth no more, so we, risen from the death of sin, should lead a pious life conformable to that of Christ.

ASPIRATION I trust, O Lord Jesus, that by the merits of Thy passion I have risen from the death of sin: grant me Thy grace, that as Thou diest no more, so may I die no more by sin, but live for God, according to Thy law.

Sixth Sunday After PentecostGOSPEL (Mark. VIII. 1-9.) At that time, When there was a great multitude with Jesus, and had nothing to eat, calling his disciples together, he saith to them: I have compassion on the multitude, for behold they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I shall send them away, fasting, to their ,home, they will faint in the way: for some of them came from afar off. And his disciples answered him: From whence can any one fill them here with bread in the wilderness? And he asked them: How many loaves have ye? Who said: Seven. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, he broke, and gave to his disciples to set before them: and they set them before the people. And they had a few little fishes, and he blessed them, and commanded them to be set before them. And they did eat, and were filled, and they took up that which was left of the fragments, seven baskets: and, they that had eaten
were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

Why did Christ say: I have compassion on the multitude?

Because of His mercy and goodness to man, as well as to prove that which He taught on another occasion, (Matt. VI. 33.) that to those who seek first the kingdom of God and His justice all other things will be added, without asking; for none of the multitude asked Christ for food, and yet He provided for all.

REMARK. The instruction after the gospel for the fourth Sunday in Lent, where a similar miracle is mentioned, may be read to-day.

INSTRUCTION ON BLESSING

And He blessed them. (Mark VIII. 7.)

Seduced by Satan, the first man violated the holy is command of God, and by his sin brought upon himself and his habitation the curse of divine wrath. (Gen. III. 17.) Man was made by God, and therefore subject: to Him, but was himself master of all created things. .After the sin of disobedience, however, all creation revolted against him: the animals fled from him, the fields yielded only thorns and thistles, the herbs became poisonous to him, or refused him their former wholesome power. Innumerable evils followed, all men and even the whole earth suffered from them; the devil drew both into his sphere and made them his servants, and this evil spirit now made use of created ,things to divert man altogether from God and to cause his eternal ruin. But God decreed that man and earth should not remain in this condition: Christ, the Son of God, came upon earth, redeemed it from the bonds of Satan, and gave all men the power to become once more God's children. The devil was conquered by the cross, but not slain; man and the, earth were indeed taken from his dominion, but not from his influence; for he even now, as the apostle Writes, goes about like a roaring lion, seeking ,whom he may devour, (I Peter V. 8.); and as he used the forbidden fruit in paradise to seduce man, he now uses the created things of the earth to tempt man, and, make him his servant. Man and all creation had to be drawn from this pernicious influence, to be liberated from the bondage of corruption and be brought to the freedom of the children of God. (Rom. VIII. 19.) This is done in the Church, to which Christ entrusted the power of binding and loosing, and gave the work of sanctifying through the Holy Ghost, by means of blessing and consecrating. By virtue of the merits of Christ, and with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, the Church, or the priest in her name, therefore blesses and consecrates persons as well as other created things which they are to use, or which she is to apply to the service of God. In this the Church follows the example of Christ and the Apostles. Jesus embraced children and laid His hands upon them, blessing them; (Mark X. 16.) He blessed bread and fishes, the food of thousands; blessed breed and wine at the last supper; (Matt. XXVI. 26.) was recognized by the disciples in the blessing of bread; (Luke XXIV. 30.) blessing the disciples He ascended into heaven; (Luke XXIV. 51.) by His command the apostles wished peace to every house into which they stepped; (Matt. X. 12, 13.) and St. Paul expressly says, that every living thing is sanctified by prayer and the word of God. (I Tim. IV. 5.) Following the example and command of Christ the Church also introduced blessings and benedictions which were prefigured in the Old Law. God commanded the priests to sanctify and to consecrate whatever was to belong to His service, (Levit. VIII.) and the Old Law is full of blessings and consecrations which had to be used by the priests; (Exod. XXIX. 36.; XXX. 25.; XI. 9.) and if persons and things used for God's service were to be blessed, how much more so in the. New Law which in place of the type, contains the reality and truth The testimony of Scripture is confirmed by all the holy Fathers, and by the constant practice of the Church which has received from Christ, the power to bless and to consecrate.

The blessing or benediction of the Church is nothing more than a, prayer of intercession which the priest makes in the name of the Church, that for the sake of Christ (therefore the sign of the cross) and the prayers of the saints, God may give His blessings to a person or thing, and sanctify it. Through consecration, in which besides prayer and the sign of the cross, the anointing with holy oil is used, things required for divine service are separated from all other things and especially sanctified. Thus persons, fruits, bread, wine, houses, ships and fields, are blessed; churches, altars, bells, &c., are consecrated.

What virtue have these blessings?

The chief effects of the blessing of persons are: Preservation or liberation from the influence of Satan; preservation of the soul from his temptations and evil suggestions; reservation of the body and of the property from his ;pernicious malice; forgiveness of venial sins, and strength to suppress concupiscence; curing of sickness and physical evils, whether natural or supernatural; a blessing upon the person and his surroundings; the imparting of the grace of conversion; the advantage of the prayer of the Church and further grace for the remission of temporal and eternal punishment. ? The blessing of things withdraws them from the influence of the devil, so that he can no longer use them as a means of bringing us into sin, but that they rather serve us as a protection against the evil spirits and as a means for our salvation.

Whence do the blessings derive their force?

From the merits of Christ who by His death on the cross vanquished Satan. The Church asks God that He will through these merits and through the intercession of the saints bless a person or thing, and make that which is blessed profitable to us fox both body and soul. Whether or not the effects manifest themselves in the person who receives the blessing, or makes use of the object blessed, depends on his faith and moral condition, as also on the usefulness or profit of the blessing to him. We should not, then, place obstacles in its way by diffidence in God and the prayers of the Church or by a sinful life, but should always be convinced. that these benedictions will serve for our benefit, if according to God's will they are used as the Church intends, as a means to overcome evil, to sanctify ourselves, and to honor God.

Why are salt and water blessed?

This is plainly shown in the prayer the priest says in blessing them; for he asks, in the name of the Church, that God may pour the virtue of His blessing over the water that it may conquer devils, prevent sickness, and that everything which is sprinkled with it, may be preserved from every injury, and that He may bless the salt, so that it may be salutary for the body and soul of all who use it. The salt which Eliseus sprinkled into the unwholesome waters of Jericho healed them, (IV King. II. 20. 21.) and is a type of blessed salt.

Why are the people sprinkled with holy water on Sundays?

To remind the people of the interior purity with which they should come to divine service, and fulfil the duties of their calling; and to exhort them to purify themselves from the stains of sin by tears of sorrow, and repentance. Hence the priest in sprinkling the faithful recites the words of the fiftieth psalm: Asperges me hyssopo, etc. Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; to remind them to preserve the purity and innocence procured by the blood of the Lamb of God, and communicated to them in baptism. Finally, the people are sprinkled that the temptations of the devil may depart from them, enabling them to attend with great fervor and with more recollection to the holy service.

What else is to be remembered concerning the use of blessed things?

That they are to be used with faithful confidence for the purpose for which the Church blessed them, and are to be treated with great reverence, because they are blessed by the Church in the name of Jesus, a custom almost as old as Christianity itself. The Christian must not believe that blessed things which he possesses, carries, or uses, will make him holy, for he should always remember that things blessed are only a means of sanctification, and are only effectual when the faithful have the earnest will to die rather than sin, to fight with all fervor against the enemies of their salvation, to follow Christ, and be thereby received into the freedom of the children of God, and into heaven.