Pentecost XX – Rosary Sunday
We have a special treat this week: Listen to Fr. McKenna talk about his path to the priesthood.
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
These warm days of early October have a distinctly Autumnal air about them. The still strong sun burns the morning fog away, but when it sets gives way to the evening cool. Each Autumn brings as well the beloved observances which mark this season – Angel Sunday and Rosary Sunday, linked together by the golden chains of our Rosaries, private and family and – most powerfully – prayed in the golden light of the monstrance.
Thank you for helping us observe Michaelmas, with a proper Pontifical Mass. How beautiful were the altars, how fine the music, how touching the scene of so many children being blessed. How much we need St. Michael and all the nine choirs of angels to come to our assistance in these apocalyptic days of mass confusion and deception. Paradoxically, the confuser-in-chief is boldly unmasking himself in Rome. Still, people will not see, because they love listening to his tunes. Obama leads the world in enthralled adulation.
Thus we need great Michael to guard and guide the Church and Catholics everywhere. May he send Principalities to govern our spiritual and temporal decisions, and Powers to defend us against demonic assaults. May Virtues make us stick up for ourselves and take up our spiritual weapons, and Thrones guarantee withal our peace in the midst of the battle.
Today we are all taking up and talking up with renewed enthusiasm the Angelic Psalter, the Dominican Rosary, our last and best weapon, when even the Mass and Sacraments are lost, as they are to a great multitude of our brethren.
I thank everyone who is working or processing or praying or breakfasting with us today for a great Rosary Sunday. We welcome our out-of-town visitors, our regular visitors, and those who have recently joined us here at St. Gertrude the Great in this great battle for the Faith. ¡Aqui tiene su casa! Here you are at home with us.
Saints are multiplying at church. Not only young, living saints, walking tabernacles of God and sanctifying Grace, but the great saints of Heaven honored in their images. The six columns of our nave will each be crowned with a saint. St. Maria Goretti, patroness of purity for young ladies and all of us, was first in place. Some of these statues (inquire within) may still be donated as a memorial to a loved one. Our St. Pius V is unique. No one has ever seen a statue of this beloved “traditionalist” saint in our land. He is the great saint of the Rosary and the Mass, and would make a beautiful and lasting memorial.
Fall is a wonderful time to be outdoors. Here at church our many shrines invite a stroll, a visit, a quiet prayer. Don’t be in any hurry. Linger a bit. The green grass and grounds are being meticulously cared for by Doby Curran. Eldon’s shrine to Our Lady of Fatima must have been designed to peak in October, with many flowers for her feast. It is a beautiful tribute, and one which elevates and edifies us all, as it does honor to Our Lady of the Rosary, of the Sun.
Honor her next Sunday evening with us by giving her unfading flowers, the lasting roses of our last Fatima Rosary Procession for Peace. This candlelight observance is a touching finale to six months of loving prayer drawing our Catholics from far and near. These strong souls count not the cost nor the miles but come to pray. God reward them!
Fr. Cekada is racking up the miles as he heads to Tampa again this afternoon for his seminary week. He and Bishop Sanborn are kept busy just trying to keep up with Bergoglio. Fr. Cekada has opened a Twitter account, for just the “mot juste” (140 characters or less!) against the heretical assault of the day. He also joined Bishop Sanborn this past week for another “extra edition” of Restoration Radio to keep up with Bergoglio’s boast: “I am the Pope. I will change the Church.”
Sample tweet: Bergoglio: “There is no Catholic God.” God: “There is no Catholic pope.” Sign up today at twitter.com and follow @frcekada.
Yesterday I spoke on Restoration Radio about the one documented Jewish infiltrator into the Catholic Church – and the traditional movement, Malachi Martin (another Jesuit!). How many Catholics were or still are snookered by this double agent!
Well, don’t you be snookered by infiltrators, apostates, or the plain old devil. He whispers, “Go along to get along.”
Let me leave you this Rosary Sunday with a word about this from St. Thérèse: “When the enemy wants to challenge me, I conduct myself valiantly. Knowing that to fight a duel is an unworthy act, I turn my back on the adversary without ever looking him in the face. Then I run to my Jesus.” And what’s the quickest, easiest, surest way to Jesus? Mary! Keep her Rosary to hand each day, and you, Michael-like, will fight valiantly.
Blessed Rosary Sunday!
– Bishop Dolan
PS: Remember the allergy sufferers this Fall. I was offering Our Lady’s Mass alone last Saturday afternoon, after everyone had left (we had a good crew). I had a coughing fit during the Ave Maria of the Offertory verse, momentarily losing my voice. As I paused, I heard a rustle to my right, and perceived out of the corner of my eye a flash of black and white: Caravaggio, who having heard me, jumped as though to enter through the window and assist at Mass. The priest is never alone at the altar, we know; surrounded by angels, but…by cats? Still, it’s good to have a Catholic cat around.