Monthly Archives: June 2014

The one about… THE ENTIRE, SAD CONTRACEPTION ISSUE EXPLAINED

[Originally penned and posted on January 30, ARSH 2012.  Given the forthcoming SCOTUS decision (as if the Constitutional Republic, complete with three co-equal branches of government checking and balancing each other, and a functioning Rule of Law, still exist – har har, it is to laugh…) I thought it apropos to repost this.  A few contemporary comments inserted IN BLUE.]

The issue before us now is Obama’s “mandate” that Catholic organizations, and all Catholics, and everyone else, must provide health insurance that covers contraception, abortifacients and sterilization with zero copay and zero deductible. Many out there reading may look at this and shrug their shoulders. So what? Everyone’s on the pill, including 95%+ of Catholic women of serviceable breeding age. What are they whining about? Why the sudden outrage?  Quit obsessing.

Exactly. You know, satan is very, very intelligent. But he could be one I.Q. click north of a Kardashian and STILL roll today’s Catholic clergy and bishopric. First, the core question: why is contraception a sin? Let’s start with a quote, and see if you can figure out which Pope or prominent Catholic thinker said this:

“The abandonment of the reproductive function is the common feature of all perversions. We actually describe a sexual activity as perverse if it has given up the aim of reproduction and pursues the attainment of pleasure as an aim independent of it. So, as you will see, the breach and turning point in the development of sexual life lies in becoming subordinate to the purpose of reproduction. Everything that happens before this turn of events and equally everything that disregards it and that aims solely at obtaining pleasure is given the uncomplimentary name of “perverse” and as such is proscribed.”

Hmmm. John Paul II? Nope. Aquinas? Nope. Chesterton? Nope. Benedict XVI? Nope. No, that little quote came from the lips of the atheist father of psychoanalysis and no friend of the Church whatsoever, Sigmund Freud. Sorry. I tricked you a little.

Freud essentially echoed the Church’s teaching, which at the time was completely nominal and universally understood as COMMON SENSE across the entirety of civilized culture, from Catholics to Protestants to Jews to even atheists. Think about that.  Think about a world, still very, very much within living memory, in which EVERYONE, including atheists, fully understood that to mechanically or pharmaceutically prevent the transmission of life during sex, or to engage in a sex act of any stripe that was not ordered towards procreation was wrong and detrimental to society as a whole.  This isn’t to say that sins against the 6th commandment never happened, but they happened far less frequently, and most importantly, there was SHAME attached to these sins.  Today, for the first time in human history, these sins are not just tolerated, but publicly celebrated and now even COERCIVELY DEMANDED by the state to be participated in, promoted and celebrated.

So Freud wasn’t “in cahoots” with Christianity in making his statement any more than he would have been in cahoots with any religion by saying theft is wrong. Everyone understood that sex totally removed from the reproductive function was perverted and would inevitably lead to profound societal ills if allowed to flourish.

It wasn’t until 1930 that the Anglican Church (surprise) made the first concession toward contraception, but only in very special cases. Well, not unlike medical marijuana, pretty soon everyone had a “special condition”, the Anglicans, being a schismatic cult founded by a murderous fornicator, briskly ratified contraception, and then by the time the pill rolled out in 1961, pretty much every other Christian Protesting sect had capitulated to the screeching and whining of their members (But we WAAAANT the pill!) in an effort to keep everyone happy and the collection plates brimming, and thus the entire edifice fell. A little over a decade later, the murderous slaughter of children was “legalized” in the United States, insomuch as killing babies can ever be truly “legal”, which is never. Not being satisfied with that, the Marxist-satanic axis is now demanding that contraception and abortion be available on demand at no out-of-pocket cost as a “human right”, subsidized entirely by the citizenry of the former United States under the forced coercion of the Internal Revenue Service.

Oddly, nay, SHOCKINGLY, nay, UNEXPECTEDLY, after the ratification of contraception and its corollary abortion, illegitimacy rates SKYROCKETED. Divorce rates SKYROCKETED. Adultery SKYROCKETED. Homosexuality is now not only out of the shadows, but is militantly demanding a specially protected status on par with race, if not a superior status. The institution of marriage is almost dead. Pedophilia is in the early stages of being normalized, and ephebophilia, or sex with pubescent adolescents, is now almost fully normalized in the entertainment industry. As Freud said, if you take the reproductive function out of sex, then ALL BETS ARE OFF. You can pout and whine about this all you want, but you know that it is true. LOOK AROUND. Turn on your television. Look at the perverse filth that is pumped out day after day, getting worse and more perverted with each passing season. LOOK AT YOUR FAMILIES. Look at the divorces.

Look at the children WHO AREN’T THERE.  Almost all of you reading this, given my demographics, should have more children (and now grandchildren) right now.  But you thwarted their existence.  Mourn the children that God desperately wanted to give to you that you pridefully refused, mostly for the love of money.

Looking for an economic argument? Sure. Just today, ZeroHedge.com posted this piece on Japan’s age demographics and how Japan is utterly, totally and completely economically screwed because they have contracepted themselves to death in the last half-century. I hardly think the “Tyler Durden” crew subscribes to orthodox Catholic teaching on the subject.

So far we have established that sex not ordered towards the transmission of life is gravely sinful. If the transmission of life is blocked, either through chemical sterilization (pill), mechanical sterilization (tubal ligation, vasectomy, condom, diaphragm) or perverse acts that have nothing to do with the transmission of life, (masturbation, withdrawal, anal, oral), then the act is itself nothing more than a dehumanizing, objectifying USURY of another person AND one’s self as a point of utterly self-serving masturbatory friction.

Do you think it is just a crazy coincidence that the people who have been pushing humanity into using themselves and each other as nothing more than soulless pieces of masturbation meat are the same people who view humans as nothing more than economic units to be harvested and then exterminated? Do you think it is just a crazy coincidence that these same people who have told you that having children is a “punishment” and “irresponsible” are the same people who want to get you totally and utterly dependent upon THEM? Do you think that it is just a crazy coincidence that the same people who want to force you to pay for contraception and abortion are the same people who murdered WELL over 100 million people, NOT counting abortions, in the 20th century alone? When are you going to understand that Marxism is satanic and from hell itself, and that contraception is one of the cornerstones of Marxism and totalitarian oligarchy?

But Ann, but Ann, what about post-menopausal women? Or women who lose their fertility due to illness? Are you saying that once a woman reaches menopause (or loses fertility due to illness) that married couple should stop having sex? Nope. First, menopause is God’s doing. He engineered us that way, and it is not a choice. Illness are also out of our control. Second, two of the major figures in scripture were conceived and born to elderly, very post-menopausal women. The first was Isaac, miraculously born to Abraham and Sarah when Sarah was a very, very old woman as a result of Abraham and Sarah having good ol’ married sex. Abraham and Sarah never had children before Isaac because Sarah was “barren”, perhaps due to some illness or physical condition. Isaac was an intense foreshadowing of Christ, the only son and sacrifice of his father, made to carry the wood upon which he was to be sacrificed upon his back. However, God saved Isaac and ultimately provided Himself as the Sacrifice. The second post-menopausal baby was John the Baptist, again the forerunner of Christ. He was conceived naturally, yet miraculously due to old age, by Elizabeth and Zacharias. These occurrences clearly ratify post-menopausal sex between married couples, and sex between married couples who are “barren”, which still points to, recalls and celebrates the transmission of life.

Now to the nitty-gritty. For forty-plus years, Catholic priests and bishops have been either glazing over, silently condoning, or defiantly telling people that contraception is not a sin. 95+% of Catholic women in the West have contracepted at some point in their adult lives. And now, the Marxist-satanic-totalitarian Obama regime is making its move, and the first tactical move is coming at the Church exactly where it is the most weak: contraception. How can the Church expect to marshal an army to lay down their lives and fight if the priests and bishops have been passively condoning the very sin that the Obama regime now want us to subsidize? This is why I said at the beginning that satan is intelligent, but he could be middling to dumb and still roll the vast majority of priests and bishops today. If you couldn’t see this coming, then I have a bridge in New York City I’d like to sell you.

But why did the priests and bishops dissent – OPENLY, including the Winnipeg Statement and the infamous petitions of dissent, one published in the New York Times, in the summer of ARSH 1968 – and not speak out against contraception for these last fifty years? Simply, because at EXACTLY the same time as Marxists were pushing for contraception in the secular arena, that same Marxist cabal was simultaneously recruiting and infecting the Catholic Church with homosexual priests and nuns. The doors into seminaries were guarded by Marxist-homosexualists beginning in earnest in the 1960s. Homosexual men were recruited and preferred by seminary entrance committees, which were largely staffed by lesbian nuns. Heterosexual men were either outright rejected or were driven out by sexual harassment and even sexual assault. Many seminaries turned into nothing more than homosexual brothels. It is safe to say that the majority of Catholic priests ordained in the 1970s and 1980s were indeed homosexual. Not all, but the statistical majority. The Marxist infiltration of the Catholic Church in the 20th century was a resounding success. In fact, it is probably the most effective attack on the Church to date in terms of the sheer numbers of people that it ultimately drove away, drove into mortal sin, or prevented from being conceived and born at all.

This homosexual infestation of the priesthood, bishopric and orders of nuns is why there has been this heretical winking approval of contraception. If homosexual priests, bishops and nuns were to honestly explain why contraception is sinful, namely the fact that any sex act that is not ordered toward the transmission of life is intrinsically perverted and reduces the partners to nothing more than usurious pieces of meat to be used for masturbatory friction, they would be indicting and damning their own perverted and disordered lusts. The homosexuals, convinced of their “right” to their own perverted lusts, thus intentionally led the faithful astray. Then, looking out over the sea of artificially sterilized heterosexual couples, they told themselves, “If these breeders can screw each other for fun and nothing else, then so can I! God, if it even exists, may send me to hell, if that even exists, but He’s going to have to send all of these pathetic heteros to hell too. Heh.”

The heterosexual priests that did make it through seminary were also largely indoctrinated and influenced by the Marxist-homosexualist milieu. The one kind of man that was almost totally purged from the ranks of the priesthood in the 1970s and 80s and early 90s ordination classes was the strong, masculine man. A few made it through, but not many. So even the heterosexual priests skewed “soft”, and were the kind of men who lived in fear of offending anyone, and who would water down the Truth in order to attract people, BE PERSONALLY LIKED, and, perhaps more to the point, to attract money into the collection plate.

All shall love me and despair.

All shall love me and despair.

And here is where you Protestants come back in. The soft Catholic priests lied to Catholics about the sinfulness of contraception because the priests feared that the Catholics, if told the truth, would leave the Church (and take their collection plate dollars with them) and just go to ANY Protestant church, all of which had happily accepted the evil of contraception years before. And that is exactly what many, many Catholics did. You convinced Catholics to REJECT AND WALK AWAY FROM THE EUCHARIST AND THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS so they could have sex without being “punished” or “burdened” with a child. Good luck with that one at your Particular Judgment. That’s not going to be fun.

And so, that is the story. The Marxist-satanic Obama regime is proceeding exactly according to plan. The last fifty years have seen the chessboard cleared of most of the defensive pieces. The King is heavily exposed, and is now in check.

How do I suspect this will play out? The Catholics in the United States will do NOTHING in response to this “mandate” by the Obama regime. Again, why would they? Most of them have been told by priests for their entire lives that contraception isn’t really that big of a deal (wink) [QUIT OBSESSING. WHO AM I TO JUDGE? or, my new favorite: “The difficulties that arise in relation to natural law can be overcome through more attentive reference to the biblical world, to its language and narrative forms, and to “propose bringing the issue to public discussion and developing the idea of biblical inspiration and the ‘order in creation,’ which could permit a re-reading of the concept of the natural law in a more meaningful manner in today’s world.”], and most of the breeding age Catholics are today contracepting and want to continue contracepting. The next move will be for the Obama regime to start suing orthodox priests for hate crimes or incitement. The first such lawsuit was filed in Ireland late last week.

The priests and bishops, being the mostly weak, cowardly, politicking, effete embarrassments [whose top priority is being personally popular and loved by the world] that they are, will fold. Sadly, even the most strong and bold bishops will do nothing more than threaten to “call or write your representative”, when at MINIMUM they should be calling for a federal tax strike from the pulpit every single Sunday (and should have declared a tax strike 39 years ago when the Roe v. Wade ruling came down). There will be, at some point, an informal schism. [I’m thinking… October of ARSH 2014 might be a good guess.] The Catholic Church in America will quietly acquiesce to the Obama regime in order to keep the money flowing and the 501(c)(3) slavery provision intact, and will thus cease to be Catholic. The TRUE Church will then be cut off from the mainstream and go underground. This cleavage will almost perfectly align with the Order of the Mass. The Novus Ordo “new Mass” parishes will surrender to the Obama regime because the Novus Ordo Mass was an invention and a tactical maneuver by the Marxist-homosexualist infiltrators in the 1960s. The Traditional Latin Mass parishes, and those priests, religious and laity who pray the Latin Mass will remain faithful to Our Lord, will be forced to go underground, and will eventually be hunted, imprisoned and killed.

Are you shocked by that last sentence? Why? Can you please name me a Marxist regime in the last one hundred years that DID NOT hunt and kill orthodox Catholic priests? Do you honestly believe that this regime is any different? Do you think that American psychopaths are somehow different from German psychopaths, Russian psychopaths, Chinese psychopaths, Vietnamese psychopaths or Latin American psychopaths? If you do, then you are a fool.

And once again, I find it to be nothing short of disgusting that I have to be the person to explain all of this stuff. Would you priests, PLEASE, literally FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, grow a pair and TEACH PEOPLE THE FAITH? They don’t know. Most of them have no idea what the Trinity is, that Jesus is God, and almost none of them have any clue whatsoever about the Eucharist.

Once you have covered that, you can explain contraception to them. But start with the Eucharist. Because if you say the Mass in English, anyone sitting anywhere behind row three probably has no idea. You know how you can tell? Look at how they’re dressed. If they believed in the Real Presence, they wouldn’t be wearing a cutoff football jersey, dirty sweatpants and flipflops and checking scores on their phone during the consecration. And those are the women.

Starting Sunday Off Right: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

"Thanks for rebuking me." "That's okay.  That's what friends are for."  Aw.

“Thanks for rebuking me.”
“That’s okay. That’s what friends are for.  Hey!  You wanna go to Rome?  We should go to Rome.”

O Roma felix, quæ duorum Principum
Es consecrata glorioso sanguine
Horum cruore purpurata ceteras
Excellis orbis una pulchritudines.

 

Starting Friday Off Right: Sacred Heart Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

sacredheart

“And He [Christ] showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin that made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure Him all the honour and love possible, might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which His heart is the source.
– from Revelations of Our Lord to St. Mary Margaret Alacoque

God Almighty wants you to love Him.

Negative Nominal Interest Rates: Highway to a Cashless, Statist Hell

Sign Points to Hell

I warned about this in part two of my 2.5 hour Economics Video Presentation back in November of ARSH 2012, and, sure enough, it has now happened.  Because, as I have been saying all along, for anyone who knows ANYTHING about ANYTHING having to do with economics, finance and/or banking, and who does not have their brain bucket completely and firmly inserted up their rectal vault, it is obvious what is happening and how the chain of events will unfold.  If a mouthy broad with a mere bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry from a land-grant university can see this stuff coming years in advance, what excuse do your so-called leaders and media “experts” have?   Oh, yeah.  I forgot.  They’re all either teetering on the precipice of mental retardation, or are black-hearted psychopath whores.  Or, as with Nancy Pelosi and countless others, both.

Mario Draghi, chief psychopath of the European Central Bank went full-stupid on June 5th and announced mandated NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES on the excess reserves of European banks held and the European Central Bank  (which is the equivalent of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S.).  What does this mean?  It means that when a European commercial bank deposits excess cash reserves with the ECB, the commercial bank must PAY the ECB to store that money.  The commercial bank does not earn any interest income on that money, it in fact has a percentage of its deposit CONFISCATED from its account every month by the ECB.

As you can see in the article linked above and countless others, the publicly stated rationale behind this negative interest rate paradigm is “stimulus”.  If the banks have to pay to store cash, they will instead lend their excess cash out to customers rather than have a percentage  confiscated every month.  This is utter bee-ess on multiple levels.  These top-tier central bankers know that negative interest rates have NOTHING to do with stimulus, and will, in fact, lead to exactly the opposite.  In fact, they know that the inevitable outcome of negative interest rates is the complete nationalization of the banking sector and total governmental control of all capital flows – which means today a CASHLESS ECONOMY.  Yup.  If you’re interested, I’ll walk you through the chain of events and differentiate between the propaganda that will be used to justify this evil and the reality of how the world actually works.

Banks today are sitting on huge cash reserves because the economy sucks and banks have rightly discerned that lending money into a sucky economy is NOT IN THEIR BEST INTERESTS.  If the economy sucks, then lending money to Joe Schmoe to start a business is likely going to end up in default.  So, if YOU were a bank and your choice was between losing one percent by depositing money at the Central Bank at negative interest, or losing FIFTEEN percent on your loan portfolio because the economy sucks and a high percentage of your borrowers would default on their loans, which would you do?  Well, duh.  You would opt for the SMALLER loss of ONLY one percent, and you would continue to hold cash reserves and be VERY stingy with your loan portfolio.

Okay.  That’s easy to understand, right?  Well, the propaganda coming from the Banksters and willingly regurgitated by the useful idiot class is that negative interest rates will absolutely, positively result in increased lending by banks and thus “economic stimulus”.  And bear in mind, they have been bleating EXACTLY the same line of crap in regards to “quantitative easing”.  They have been saying for YEARS that all of the money printing done by the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank would provide “stimulus” in the form of increased lending.  And, as we all know, that didn’t happen.  All that has happened is that the Banksters have taken the “new money” printed by the Central Banks and pumped it into the stock and derivatives markets, thus blowing a massive, unprecedented bubble.  But Joe Schmoe still can’t get a loan to open a business.  The evil, malignant Banksters KNOW that the whole stimulus meme is a lie.  The useful idiots are so indescribably stupid that they can’t comprehend simple logical progressions even when they have a current experiential dataset right in front of their faces that clearly demonstrates the fallacy: not only does QE and other forms of synthetic “liquidity boosting” NOT stimulate the economy, it actually depresses it even more.

So now banks will be even more incentivized to offload cash by plowing it into relatively “safe” paper that has a higher interest yield than the negative rate at the Central Bank.  What does this imply?  Increased demand for Sovereign debt (bonds issued by nations), and derivatives on Sovereign debt.  Now here is where it gets positively sick.  Very soon, banks will be able to borrow money from the “discount window” at the Central Bank at either zero, or at a NEGATIVE rate.  Think about that.  The Central Bank, because the interest rate is negative, actually pays banks to borrow money from them.  And this utter PERVERSITY is the root of the whole satanic mess.  The first mover in all of this is the evil, perverse Central Bank.  The Central Banks are completely content to pay banks to borrow money – a perversity – because the Central Bank doesn’t give a shit.  It can just “PRINT” as much money as it “needs”.  And, as we have discussed at length, the “printing” of money, money being a proxy for the human capacity to labor and create through time, is simply the leveraging of HUMAN LIFE, specifically at this late hour not just the life of every man, woman and child alive today OUTSIDE the oligarch class, but now generations upon generations of human beings who DO NOT YET EXIST, and are thus utterly powerless to object or mount a counter-revolt.

Okay, so now Bank A goes to the discount window and borrows “new money” from the Central Bank at NEGATIVE one percent, which means the loans generates a yield TO THE BORROWER.  Then, Bank A turns around and plows that money, which is already generating a yield in and of itself, into French Sovereign bonds that yield 1.5%.  Bank A does this because it is certain that France will never be allowed to default – the Central Bank will just keep printing money and printing money to keep France (or any other country) from defaulting on its debt.  So, What is the total yield to Bank A?  The one percent yield on the money borrowed at negative interest from the Central Bank, PLUS the 1.5% yield on the French bonds = +2.5%.  Do you see why this dynamic INCREASES DEAMND for sovereign debt?  It incentivizes governments not to PAY DOWN their debt, but to in fact EXPAND their balance sheets by going deeper into debt.  And because the demand for sovereign debt is increased because there is more money chasing after it, the interest rates are driven DOWN (a lower interest rate is the same thing as higher price on bonds), and thus the politicians tell the people that not only is more government debt good, it is extremely good because “the interest rate is so low”.  And the glassy-eyed sheeple nod passively and return to their tee-vee shows.

This will also increase demand for derivatives on sovereign debt (i.e. repurchase agreements and credit default swaps), again, because the banks are quite confident that the Central Banks will never permit a sovereign default.  And who, pray tell, are the main counterparties on almost all sovereign debt derivatives?   J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutschebank.  Uh-huh.  And where do ALL of the people come from who populate the Central Banks, both in the U.S. and in Europe?  J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutschebank. Uh-huh.

Kids, this isn’t terribly complicated.  Really.

Now, to YOU, the people who PAY FOR ALL OF THIS.

Negative interest rates will be a cost to YOU is two ways.  First, the obvious: you will have a confiscatory tax levied on your bank deposits every month – that’s what a negative interest rate is, sweetie.  It is a TAX on the PEOPLE, NOT the banks, because the banks will pass through to the customers the cost for the bank to store reserves at the Central Banks PLUS a margin.  Next, in an economy that is perceived to be relatively stronger or safer (of which the former United States is still at the top of the list because of its size, both economically and militarily) capital will flow IN to that economy, thus causing ASSET BUBBLES and CONSUMER PRICE INFLATION.  Been to the grocery store lately?  Looked into buying any farm ground lately?  Uh-huh.  So when consumer prices inflate, what do banks do to interest rates in order to cover the resulting increased risk in lending to consumers who now are having a much more difficult time making ends meet?  Yep.  They RAISE interest rates to borrowers.  And so therefore a negative interest rate at the Central Bank not only does not stimulate the economy, it increases the contraction and deepens the depression (because let’s face it, if your economy is at the point that the Central Bank is going NEGATIVE on interest rates, honey, yo’ ass is already in a DEPRESSION, not a recession).

Now to the big ugly.  Since the Central Bank is, despite any and all lying propaganda to the contrary, a government entity backed fully by the government and thus ultimately backed by the people, and since the Sovereign bond market is also a pure function of the government and thus ultimately backed by the people, when banks receive payment on both their capital borrowed from the Central Bank at negative interest AND receive a positive interest yield on their government bond holdings, that means that THE PEOPLE are PAYING THE BANKS… ON BOTH SIDES.

This is a backdoor way of confiscating collateral from the people and using it to RECAPITALIZE THE BANKS.  And also pay the bankster oligarchs’ eight and nine-figure salaries and compensation packages, which, let’s be honest, is their top priority.  

So now you may be thinking that this will cause a feedback loop to occur and rates will continue to be driven more and more negative.  Yes.  Absolutely.  Because the Central Bank will have to keep adjusting its rate down to stay “more negative” than the Sovereign bond and other money markets.  What happens when customer deposit rates go sufficiently negative so as to compel normal people to withdraw their cash from the banks and hold it in cash?  The answer is, the oligarchs will enact government policies outlawing the use of cash.  Think I’m crazy?  Have you tried paying your car insurance bill with cash lately?  Cash.  As in hundred dollar bills.  How about your phone or utility bill?  Guess what.  You can’t.

One of the big reasons why I had to move into the “Van Down by the River” was because I simply COULD NOT FUNCTION using cash.  When I was foreclosed upon because I could not provide the bank with a tax return (because I have declared a tax strike), I began investigating possible rental scenarios in preparing to move.  Kids, you CANNOT rent an apartment “above the table”, pay the utilities on said apartment, insure a vehicle and scores of other necessary expenses in the former U.S. using cash today.  Between IRS liens and mortgage foreclosures, my credit score is destroyed, which also disqualifies above-board rental.  If you think that cash controls and the move to outlaw the use of cash is crazytalk, just stop and think about all of the myriad ways that IT IS ALREADY IMPOSSIBLE to pay with cash.  We’re already 75% of the way there.

So, there would be increased economic depression causing new lending to crater and thus squeezing commercial banks’ margins and causing them to demand a way to dump ALL consumer debt, including business loans, car loans and credit cards, off on the government in the form of guarantees (this is precisely what already happened in the real estate market with almost all mortgages being bundled and dumped onto Fannie and Freddie).  Couple this with the confiscatory tax on deposits AND the paying of banks to borrow from the discount window by the government (aka the people) in order to recapitalize the banks, and what you have is nothing less than the COMPLETE NATIONALIZATION OF THE BANKING SECTOR.  This will inevitably require the outlawing of sovereign currency (cash), which will inevitably lead to the REJECTION of the sovereign currency, and the emergence of a “black” alternative.  We are talking, ladies and gentlemen, about nothing less that the final, complete destruction of the economy, which will inevitably lead to the total collapse of the extant government and what scattered vestiges remain of the Rule of Law.

This, and nothing less than this, has been, is, and will continue to be the explicit goal of the oligarchy that has already overthrown the former United States.  This is part and parcel of the Cloward Piven Strategy.  And it is all happening RIGHT NOW, and given the ignorance and cowardice of the broad populace will not be stopped excluding supernatural intervention, of which we are utterly undeserving.  Get ready, and don’t you dare say you weren’t warned.  And please, spare me any droolingly stupid emails telling me how lending money at interest is evil.  A positive interest rate is ESSENTIAL.  What is immoral, and what actually constitutes the lion’s share of USURY, is UNSECURED lending with no collateral against it.  Well, actually there IS collateral against an unsecured loan:  the future LIFE and productive capacity of the borrower.  THAT is usury.  All Central Bank money printing is therefore USURIOUS because, as we discussed above, it is simply the leveraging of the lives of the people, both present AND future, who comprise the sovereign entity that backs the money of said nationstate.  In other words:  YOU and your descendants for multiple generations hence.

I hope this helps you understand the utterly critical and thoroughly evil concept of negative interest rates.

 

Starting Thursday Off Right: Saints John and Paul Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

The Martyrdom of Sts. John and Paul, Guercino, ARSH 1630-1632

The Martyrdom of Sts. John and Paul, Guercino, ARSH 1630-1632

“These two Saints were both officers in the army under Julian the Apostate, and received the crown of martyrdom, probably in 362. They glorified God by a double victory; they despised the honors of the world, and triumphed over its threats and torments. They saw many wicked men prosper in their impiety, but were not dazzled by their example. They considered that worldly prosperity which attends impunity in sin is the most dreadful of all judgments; and how false and short-lived was this glittering prosperity of Julian, who in a moment fell into the pit which he himself had dug! But the martyrs, by the momentary labor of their conflict, purchased an immense weight of never-fading glory; their torments were, by their heroic patience and invincible virtue and fidelity, a spectacle worthy of God, Who looked down upon them from the throne of His glory, and held His arm stretched out to strengthen them, and to put on their heads immortal crowns in the happy moment of their victory.”

Many are the afflictions of the just, and out of all these the Lord hath delivered them: the Lord keepeth all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.
I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall be always in my mouth.
Introit of the Feast of Saints John and Paul, Psalm 33: 20-21

Starting Monday Off Right – Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist, Sandro Botticelli, ARSH 1495

Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist, Sandro Botticelli, ARSH 1495

Well, I can’t put it any better than this:

Botticelli’s painting suggests that the mission of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is to introduce all of us, as she did the little Baptist, into a reverent and tender intimacy with her Son. The Mother of God bends over each of us, her garments dyed red in the Blood that flowed on Calvary, the very Blood that won for us every spiritual joy. Where the Mother of God is present, there charity is poured out and there spiritual joys abound. Put yourself today in the position of the child John the Baptist. Ask the Blessed Virgin to let you embrace her Son and offer Him a kiss. Her Immaculate Heart will not refuse you this.

Repost from July ARSH 2011 on the Mexican Border

(This was an interesting re-read for me.  It was written in July ARSH 2011 within the context of Fast & Furious (remember that?).  We now know that the Obama regime, knowing full-well that it operates completely outside the Constitution old U.S. Code, can do ANYTHING with zero threat or risk of any law enforcement, and thus simply issued a command which effectively dissolved the border with Mexico.  But the points about drugs and the drug culture still hold and merit revisiting.  The bolded points are my contemporary emphases.)  

The Obama regime wants to effectively dissolve the U.S.-Mexican border. An overthrow of the Cartels would accomplish this. Mexican refugees would flood into the United States. The U.S. would refuse to acknowledge the Cartel regime as a legitimate government. The U.N. and other illegitimate criminal syndicates operating as diplomatic fronts would immediately call for the U.S. to accept all Mexican refugees. Because the Mexican government would no longer be legitimate, and essentially would not exist, there would be no way to deport ANY Mexican nationals inside the U.S., because there would be no government in Mexico to hand them back to lawfully. So, we would have:

1. Completely open borders
2. MILLIONS of refugees streaming into the U.S.
3. Global insistence that the U.S. accept these refugees
4. Instant de facto amnesty for Mexicans in the U.S.
5. Obama cast as savior of these Mexican refugees
6. Millions of new welfare-dependent Obama voters
7. A lawless Mexico, wide-open to unlimited muslim and Chinese staging

Now a word about drugs. I know that there are many libertarians reading this website who think that legalizing drugs is the solution to everything. It sure is, if you’re one of the key oligarchs. If you will indulge me for a moment, I’m going to leave the current chess board and try to think five or six moves ahead. The Cartels overthrow Mexico. The border dissolves and Obama gets his millions of welfare-recipient voters. The Obama regime, which we know is just a front for this oligarchy, legalizes drugs. George Soros is pretty much the money behind the entire drug legalization movement. Legalizing drugs in the U.S. would instantly undercut and defund the Cartels, thus allowing the oligarchy to install a handpicked puppet in Mexico City. And we’re now well on our way to piecing together the new global empire. Central and South America could be rolled easily by the oligarchy, most especially with the military of the former United States now at their disposal, which I hasten to remind you is still, by far, the most powerful military not only on the planet, but in the history of the planet by orders of magnitude.

Soros, and all Marxist-Communist tyrants, are big fans of drugs because drugs keep the rabble (that’s us) dumb, compliant, desperate and dependant on the state. Soros, Jarrett, Obama, Holder, The Clinton Machine, Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Graham, Ayers, Sunstein, Piven and all the rest would love nothing more than for the entire American populace to come home every night from a long day at the welfare office, bread line, and drug dispensary, smoke a joint or a blunt, plop down on the sofa and sit transfixed by pornography, circuses and/or state propaganda. This is how the Soviet Union operated except with alcohol. There may not have been food or toilet paper at times in the Soviet Union, but MIRACULOUSLY the vodka would always manage to appear. This basically eliminated the threat of the male populace to the state. It also acted as a silent genocide by causing dramatic increases in early death AND dramatically decreased fertility rates when coupled with state-provided abortion-on-demand. In case you weren’t aware, Russia’s population today is imploding.

This is what the Marxist-Obamaist cabal wants the U.S. to look like, and in order to achieve that goal, they need to be THE drug cartel. So, back to our original thesis. They would facilitate the Cartels’ overthrow of Mexico by running guns and other high-powered weapons to them via Fast & Furious, which would give the Marxist-Obamaist machine permanent power by destabilizing the U.S. and stacking the American electorate, and would also position them to then eventually undercut the Cartels, seize and nationalize the North American drug trade for themselves, and then drug the populace into numbness, compliance, early death and mechanical infertility.

And no, I do not think that alcohol should be illegal. I can drink a given quantity of alcohol and not get drunk. And I do, not infrequently, and I appreciate the flavor of the alcohol as I do other foodstuffs. A person can not smoke a joint and NOT get stoned. A person can not snort cocaine and NOT get high. A person can not inject heroin and NOT get wasted. The only purpose drugs have is the dramatic alteration of a human’s psychological state, and that alteration reduces the ability to think critically and rationally, numbs the person to their surroundings, induces extreme selfishness and inhibits the ability to love. This is the Marxist definition of “the perfect man”. No, check that. Under tyranny, the perfect man is the dead man – but the stoned man is the next best thing.

 

Starting Thursday Off Right – Corpus Domini Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Benediction
You loved me from all eternity,
therefore You created me.
You loved me after You had made me,
therefore You became Man for me.
You loved me after You became Man for me,
therefore You lived and died for me.
You loved me after You had died for me,
therefore You rose again for me.
You loved me after You had risen for me,
therefore You went to prepare a place for me.
You loved me after You had gone to prepare a place for me,
therefore You came back to me.
You loved me after You came back to me,
therefore You desired to enter into me and be united to me.
This is the meaning of the Blessed Sacrament.
The mystery of love.
– Archbishop Goodier

…”The great and generous thoughts of Catholic heroism are conceived, or rather inspired, at the altar where the Adorable Sacrament reposes; there, depend upon it, in silent prayer the noble damsel in heart rejects the world and its vanities, and plights her troth to the Spouse of her chaste heart; there the young ecclesiastic, bowing in meditation calm and sweet, muses on the triumphs of his schoolmates over the swords and red-hot pincers of Tonquin, and resolves to share in their crown of martyrdom; there whatever is planned for the Church of God that requires zeal and persevering energy is matured and resolved.”

– A Victorian reflection from the writings of Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman (1802-1865) on the Blessed Sacrament & Catholic Heroism

Meditation of St. Francis of Assisi
Let everyone be struck with fear,
the whole world tremble,
and the heavens exult
when Christ, the Son of the living God,
is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!
O wonderful loftiness
and stupendous dignity!
O sublime humility!
O humble sublimity!
The Lord of the universe,
God and the Son of God,
so humbles Himself
that He hides Himself
for our salvation
under an ordinary piece of bread!
See the humility of God, brothers,
and pour out your hearts before Him!
Humble yourselves that you may be exalted by Him!
Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves,
that He Who gives Himself totally to you
may receive you totally!

Tomato Soup

1.  Sautee a mess of onions until caramelized.  Season with salt and white pepper.  Add a mess of chopped, seeded, and (ideally) skinned, tomatoes.  Let it simmer for a spell.  Add enough beef or chicken stock such that the ‘maters can have a nice swim.  Let it simmer for another spell.  Whiz it until smooth in batches in a blender.  Careful.  It’s hot.  Add the whizzed-up slurry back to the pot and dump in a bunch of heavy whipping cream.  Add a fistful of chopped fresh basil.  Heat it back up, season to taste with salt and white pepper, serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Cooking without a precise recipe, as with the tomato soup above, builds character, self-reliance and the ability to think and act on one’s feet.  To paraphrase the old saying: Instructions will not be provided.  Neither will permission.

If you can’t make a darn tasty pot of soup out of tomatoes, onions and cream without dependence on a disembodied voice telling you what to do and how to do it down to the minutest detail, then you better check yourself.

Be a man.  Quit’cher whining.  Figure s*** out.  Get s*** done.

2.  More on food and “picky eaters” of various stripes, this time from Orwell in “The Road to Wigand Pier”, circa ARSH 1937:

For instance, I have here a prospectus from another summer school which states its terms per week and then asks me to say ‘whether my diet is ordinary or vegetarian’. They [Socialists] take it for granted, you see, that it is necessary to ask this question. This kind of thing is by itself sufficient to alienate plenty of decent people. And their instinct is perfectly sound, for the food-crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years on to the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity.

Yup.  Tru dat.

3.  In case y’all poor, deluded folks who still think that there is hope for Washington D.C., specifically in the person of Ted Cruz, I’d like to go ahead and bust your little bubble – not that you won’t just blow a new one.  But, here goes.  Repeat this over and over again until you understand:

Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, is a Goldman Sachs executive.
Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, is a Goldman Sachs executive.
Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, is a Goldman Sachs executive.
Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, is a Goldman Sachs executive.
Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, is a Goldman Sachs executive.

A position to which she ascended immediately after coming out of the Bush-Cheney White House, specifically a seat on the National Security Council.  The same Goldman Sachs that is carrying over $48 TRILLION in derivatives exposure against an asset base of $89 Billion – levered up by a factor of over 500X.  She VOLUNTARILY associates herself with this.

No, I’m sure you’re right.  I’m sure Ted Cruz is DIFFERENT.  I’m sure that the fact his wife is a Goldman Sachs executive has NO BEARING ON ANYTHING, and that he is as pure as the wind-driven snow.  Youbetcha.
EYEROLL.

3A.) In review, The Barnhardt Axiom:

Today, seeking and/or holding office, especially national-level office, is, in and of itself, proof that a given person is psychologically and morally unfit to hold public office.

4.)  Yes.  I saw that Nancy Pelosi “instructed” the Archbishop of San Francisco to NOT attend a pro-marriage march.  The archbishop declined to accept her instruction, but he’s no hero.  The fact that Pelosi has not been publicly excommunicated is a testament to how truly far-gone the episcopacy, and most especially the post-American episcopacy is.

This action of Pelosi (and the rest of the oligarchy) now openly attempting to command and intimidate prelates is YET ANOTHER analogue to the actions of the satanic proto-Marxist French Revolutionaries which I covered in my video presentation on the genocide in the Vendee region of France and its analogues to the current kleptarchical regime now ruling the former-U.S. landmass.  I cannot name ONE bishop in the U.S. who I am confident will stand firm against these people.  Not one.  There has not been a single excommunication.  There has not been a single denial of Holy Communion.  Even conservatives, like Bishop Conley of Lincoln, NE, were immediately pushing the it’s okay if you capitulate, as long as you don’t LIKE it and do it under protest meme. (I would link to the Denver Catholic Register column from August of ARSH 2012, but it has been scrubbed from the ArchDen.org website.)  UPDATE:  A clever reader found the reprint at CNA.   Bishop Conley outlines the “compliance under duress” option.  Give me a break.

5.) And, in a related vein, Cardinal Timmy Dolan, who is an unmitigated jackass, has indeed slated for closing the THRIVING Holy Innocents parish in midtown Manhattan (fabulously located just off Times Square at West 37th and Broadway).  This, after Dolan forcibly expelled a South African priest who DARED give a sermon at Holy Innocents in which he simply exhorted the congregants there to not view themselves as an underclass within the Church or allow others to paint them as such because they love the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered as it had been, with reverence, beauty and solemnity, up until ARSH 1968.

Dolan HATES, HATES, HATES the Mass of The Ages and all those who love it.  Why?  Well, see HERE for an explanation of that.  Dolan is, most assuredly, one of those “cool kids who don’t actually believe any of that shit”, and like Judas Iscariot after the Eucharistic Discourse, is embarrassed by it to the point of sputtering, red-faced rage.  How can I say that?  Oh, I dunno.  Maybe because Dolan can’t grovel to the satanic political class with any more boot-licking gusto?

Look at ME!  I'm POPULAR!  I hang out with FAMOUS PEOPLE! Me, me, me. me, me, me, me MEEEEE!!!

Look at ME! I’m POPULAR! I hang out with FAMOUS PEOPLE! Evil, schmeval!  Hell, schmell! Church, shmurch! Eucharist, schmucharist! God, schmod! Me, me, me. me, me, me, me MEEEEE!!!

Maybe because Dolan not just tolerates, but openly supports and encourages Masses that CELEBRATE THE SIN OF SODOMY at St. Francis Xavier parish across town?  At 5:35 Dolan cheers the introduction of a group of unrepentant sodomites.  Don’t kid yourselves.  UNREPENTANT.  Because, you know, PRIDE.  BRAVO.  GOOD FOR YOU, and all that.

If you click over to their parish website, right this second the top headline reads “Upcoming LGBTQ Events”, the first of which is a “Pride Mass”.  As in “we are PROUD that we insert our erect penises into the feces-laden descending colons of other men, and then use said descending colons as the point of masturbatory friction.”  I’ll spare us all the lesbian version of that.  Or, stated another way, “we are PROUD to commit one of the four sins that cry out to heaven for God’s vengeance and thus we are PROUD to scourge and nail Jesus Christ to the Cross, are not the least bit sorry, enjoy it, and define ourselves by the fact we enjoy it, are not only entitled to do so but demand that you approve, and actively encourage and recruit others to do so with us.”

St. Francis Xavier parish has Masses in which wicca rituals are inserted into the Mass at the urging of LESBIAN WITCHES.  I have readers who have EYEWITNESSED THIS on multiple occasions.   Also, St. Francis Xavier parish openly encourages and facilitates within the church building itself, the practice of BUDDHISM.   Buddhism denies not only the existence of God, but the existence of reality (which is the same thing, really).  It is diametrically opposed to God and His Holy Church.  So, yeah.  THIS CRAP goes on in NYC with Dolan’s ENTHUSIASTIC support, but the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered as it had been for centuries upon centuries upon centuries MUST BE ELIMINATED according to Dolan.  Oh, don’t be fooled by Dolan.  He will continue to sell out God Almighty and His Holy Church for a tinker’s dam.  When the cameras aren’t on, you either play ball with the “Timmy Dolan: Superstar” project or Dolan will END YOU.  Although, I cannot understand how anyone could be fooled by him, because the guy is so transparently phony, his mannerisms,  faux-hyper-sincerity and “aw shucks” demeanor so utterly rehearsed, and is so clearly a self-aggrandizing, sleazoid politician – but, apparently many are.

6.) False premise check.  Obama is never going to be impeached because the government of the former-U.S. was overthrown years ago, and thus even if they wanted to impeach him (which they don’ t – there’s another false premise), since the Constitution and Rule of Law itself is no longer in force, there will be no impeachment, much less a conviction.  Like I said, every 36 hours or so you are given a new vector for your “outrage”.  When I wrote that piece it was the VA scandal.  Hey?  Remember that?  Seems like ancient history already, huh?  Yup.  Because in just that short time, you have consumed the outrage porn of Bergdahl (over that already, too) and have now moved on to the capture of Iraq by the ISIS (aka Muslim Brotherhood) … oh, but wait.  That’s old outrage porn now, too.  NOW we’re on to the IRS “losing” those emails….

7.) Hey!  Let’s blow another false premise!  The IRS didn’t lose anything.  They have everything, are lying without compunction or shame, everyone knows they are lying, and there will be no disclosure of any of these emails because they don’t have to do shit and they know it.  There is no Rule of Law.  All there is is thuggery.  The IRS is an operational arm of the regime that has overthrown the United States, specializing in intimidation and enforcement.  Thinking the IRS will hand over anything to Congress is like expecting Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering to hand over correspondence with Hitler in the summer of ’43 to the Vichy French.  You know.  Because we suspect there may be some *untoward and possibly illegal* activity going on here.  Give me a break.  Listen to yourselves.

8.) Let’s do one more!  The Obama regime WANTS the ISIS (aka the Muslim Brotherhood) to overthrow governments and reform the islamic Caliphate.  Obama hasn’t “lost” Iraq due to incompetence.  THIS WAS THE OBJECTIVE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

9.) I’m on a roll, now!  The Obama regime HATES Christians, Christianity and primordially God Himself because the Obama regime is PURE EVIL, and thus not only is it unmoved by the genocide of Christians by the ISIS (Muslim Brotherhood), it is HAPPY that Christians are being wiped out.  They’re not going to do anything to stop it because they WANT Christians exterminated on general principle.

10.) I can’t stop!  The Obama regime has had as a specific objective the dissolving of the U.S.-Mexico border and the ensuing chaos.  Remember Operation Fast & Furious, the ARMING OF THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS?  I’ll repost the piece I wrote on July 30, ARSH 2011 on this tomorrow.  It’s creepily uncanny.  Here’s a snippet of the seven objectives I outlined three years ago that would be accomplished by Obama dissolving the U.S.-Mexico border:

So, we would have:

1. Completely open borders
2. MILLIONS of refugees streaming into the U.S.
3. Global insistence that the U.S. accept these refugees
4. Instant de facto amnesty for both pre-Zeta and post-Zeta Mexicans in the U.S.
5. Obama cast as savior of these Mexican refugees
6. Millions of new welfare-dependent Obama voters
7. A lawless Mexico, wide-open to unlimited muslim and Chinese staging

11.)  One more?  Oh, okay.  The Obama regime WANTS oil prices to surge, thus crippling the economy even worse than has already been done, thus driving more people out of work and presumably onto the government teat. Why? Because the Cloward-Piven strategy, the execution of which we are now squarely, undeniably in the throes of, dictates that the only way to fully collapse the power structure of the former United States and establish an open, Marxist tyranny is to consciously overload the government from within with welfare and entitlements, drive the populace into poverty, use the resulting orchestrated poverty to “prove” the failure of free market capitalism, and then use the useful idiots and media to agitate the unwashed masses until they demand their own enslavement in exchange for a mess of pottage, and perhaps a tepid, albeit lying assurance that they will be killed last.  And so shall it be.

Starting Wednesday Off Right – St. Ephrem Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

St. Ephrem, pray for us.

St. Ephrem, Doctor of the Church, poet, Defender of the Faith, pray for us.

When the blessed Apostles
were gathered together
the place shook
and the scent of Paradise
having found its home,
poured forth its perfumes,
delighting the heralds
by whom
the guests are instructed
and come to His banquet;
eagerly He awaits their arrival
for He is the Lover of mankind.

(St. Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise 11:14)

“With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Ephrem, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.”