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. Matthias, Workshop of Simone Martini, Early 14th Century

St. Matthias, whose feast it is today, was the disciple among “The 72” that was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot, who, not unlike someone else we all know and wish we didn’t, was a powerhungry materialist who was so embarrassed by the supernatural reality Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist that he waged his own war against Our Blessed Lord and His Church.

Like. Someone. Else. We. All. Know.

The book of Acts opens with the remaining eleven apostles meeting and choosing Judas’ replacement, with the whole scene fulfilling Psalm 108:8…

“May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.”

Judases happen.

Judas is happening.

St. Matthias, pray for us.

Yep.  I’m on board at The Remnant Newspaper as of today.  I’m honored to be published in a newspaper whose foundations include Dietrich von Hildebrand and Michael Davies.  Thanks to Michael Matt for the tremendous opportunity.

My first piece I have been rolling around for a while.  It is called “Go Clean Up the Kitchen, You Stupid, Stupid Woman”.

Check it out HERE.

Two words: DOWN SYNDROME.

So, if Bergoglio and his claque of Beta Narcissist boot-licking toadies are taken at their word about it being totally cool to play the 6th Commandment off the 5th Commandment and contracept using The Pill or condoms or whatever, if there is a chance of the baby being imperfect, um, doesn’t that mean that every woman over, say, 35 years of age is totally golden, if not obliged, to be on the pill?

INCIDENCE OF DOWN SYNDROME BY AGE OF MOTHER:

Age 15-19        1/1250
Age 20-24        1/1400
Age 25-29        1/1100
Age 30-31        1/900
Age 32              1/750
Age 33              1/625
Age 32              1/750
Age 33              1/625
Age 34              1/500
Age 35              1/350
Age 36              1/275
Age 37              1/225
Age 38              1/175
Age 39              1/140
Age 40              1/100
Age 41              1/85
Age 42              1/65
Age 43              1/50
Age 44              1/40
Age 45+            1/25

NEWBERGER D. Down Syndrome: Prenatal Risk Assessment and Diagnosis. Am Fam Physician. 2000 Aug 15;62(4):825-832.

Bear in mind, this is observable, provable fact.  The whole Zika connection to microcephaly or anything else is totally, completely unproven.  It’s just talk.  So, when plotted, the curve above goes parabolic at approximately age 35.  Therefore, according to Bergoglio, who is not only a diabolical narcissist, but also clearly breathtakingly stupid, according to his own line of reasoning, every woman over the age of 35 is morally permitted to be on the pill – because there is a proven, quantifiable, and non-trivial risk that if she conceives, that child will be both deformed and retarded due to Trisomy 21, commonly called Down Syndrome.

For the love of God, Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider, will you PLEASE call an Imperfect Ecumenical Council and depose this diabolical imbecile.  DO. SOMETHING.

P.S.  It is no surprise that satan and his minions hate Down Syndrome people.  As many of you know, people with Down Syndrome are known for being joyful, loving, caring, and empathetic.  I think it can be safely said that no person with Down Syndrome has ever descended into Diabolical Narcissism.  People with Down Syndrome almost universally make the people around them better – whereas Diabolical Narcissists are soul-killing vectors of destruction, scandalizing and wringing every bit of joy and love out of their chosen victims.  Whereas Diabolical Narcissists are Hell’s Mercenaries, many people with Down Syndrome are especially profound channels of God’s Grace.

Imperfect, and thus should have been “nipped in the bud”, according to our lord and savior jorge bergoglio.

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. Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church. You should listen to him. He was actually Catholic, believed what the Church teaches, was really smart, was NOT a diabolical narcissist and actually gave a flip about human souls.

I have in my collection a book written by St. Peter Damian – who lived in the Eleventh Century, and whose feast it is today, by the way – called “The Book of Gomorrah”.  I recommend it strongly to one and all. It is probably the best takedown of sodomites and their godforsaken culture ever written.  A note of caution:  you will see articles written about this book in which even very Trad Catholics spew the modernist boilerplate about how St. Peter Damian was speaking not about homosexuality as an orientation, but only about sodomitical acts.  This is nonsense, and one of the lies that has crept into the post Vatican II Church.  Aberrosexual ORIENTATION is wrong and sinful.  For a dude to sit around thinking sexually about other dudes, or to be sexually drawn to other dudes is WRONG.  It is WRONG for a human adult to be sexually attracted to children.  It is WRONG for a person to be sexually attracted to animals.  It is WRONG for a person to be sexually attracted to dead bodies. The notion that all of these aberrosexual “orientations” are hunkey-dorey… just so long as you don’t act on them, is bee-ess that flies in the face of common sense.

As we have previously discussed, and will discuss much more, ALL ABERROSEXUALITY IS DERIVATIVE OF DIABOLICAL NARCISSISM. And as we have defined it before, Diabolical Narcissism is when a person freely chooses to purge themselves of all love (charity), thus becoming completely self-absorbed, utterly devoid and incapable of empathy, and capable only of the diabolical emotional palate: anger, hatred, jealously and fear.  They freely choose to adopt the demonic psycho-spiritual posture and emotional palate.  They are, whether they realize it or not, Hell’s Mercenaries, soul-killing monsters prowling the earth seeking the ruin of souls out of pure, unquenchable spite.

Here are just a few quotes from St. Peter Damian, Doctor of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

• “Tell us, you unmanly and effeminate man, what do you seek in another male that you do not find in yourself?”
• “For God’s sake, why do you damnable sodomites pursue the heights of ecclesiastical dignity with such fiery ambition?”
• “By what right or by what law can one bind or loose the other when he is constrained by the bonds of evil deeds common to them both?”
• “Who can expect the flock to prosper when its shepherd has sunk so deep into the bowels of the devil?
• “Who, by his lust, will consign a son whom he spiritually begotten for God to slavery under the iron law of Satanic tyranny?”
• “This utterly diseased queen of Sodom renders him who obeys the laws of her tyranny infamous to men and odious to God.”
• “Without fail, [the vice of sodomy] brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust.”
• ”[The vice of sodomy] leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind . . . It opens up Hell and closes the gates of Paradise.”
• ”[The vice of sodomy] is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty, strangles chastity, and slaughters virginity.”
• “Truly, this vice [sodomy] is never to be compared with any other vice because it surpasses the enormity of all vices.… It defiles everything, stains everything, pollutes everything. And as for itself, it permits nothing pure, nothing clean, nothing other than filth.…”
• “The miserable flesh burns with the heat of lust; the cold mind trembles with the rancor of suspicion; and in the heart of the miserable man chaos boils like Tartarus [Hell]…. In fact, after this most poisonous serpent once sinks its fangs into the unhappy soul, sense is snatched away, memory is borne off, the sharpness of the mind is obscured. It becomes unmindful of God and even forgetful of itself. This plague undermines the foundation of faith, weakens the strength of hope, destroys the bond of charity; it takes away justice, subverts fortitude, banishes temperance, blunts the keenness of prudence.
• “And what more should I say since it expels the whole host of the virtues from the chamber of the human heart and introduces every barbarous vice as if the bolts of the doors were pulled out.”
• “Who will make a mistress of a cleric, or a woman of a man?”
• “It is not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of one’s crime, but contempt of God that dashes one’s hopes.”

St. Peter Damian, for us now under the relentless, grinding jackboot of Diabolical Narcissist Sodomites seeking the ruin of souls, pray for us.

For the life of me I cannot comprehend why it is so hard for people to understand this. But I will explain it One. More. Time.

By now, it is clear to even the most deluded, normalcy biased Pollyanna that Jorge Bergoglio is an imbecile, a diabolical narcissist, a materialist and stridently anti-Catholic. We’re not going to waste any more time debating this base premise because it is objective reality. It is right in front of all of us, and has been for almost three years now. The sun rises in the east, water is wet, and Bergoglio is a self-absorbed idiot who is actively, consciously trying to destroy The Church. Period.

Now, there are still people – people on the side of the angels, Goodguys – who are trying to process all of this by claiming that none of what Bergoglio does matters, his statements are not “ex cathedra”, and implying that anything Bergoglio says that is not explicitly ex cathedra – and that means a formal declaration of dogma, guys, which literally has not happened since ARSH 1950 when Pope Pius XII infallibly defined the dogma of The Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into heaven – is just so much chaff in the wind, meaningless, nothing to worry our pretty little heads over.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Bergoglio’s spewings, breathlessly picked up and made above-the-fold headline news by the Freemasonic media juggernaut, with whom Bergoglio is OPENLY in bed (see his interviews with atheist Italian media magnate Eugenio Scalfari) are going all over the world, reaching easily billions of human beings in near real-time. And because he is the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on Earth, everything he says and does is massively influential. And here is the influence he is having:

Bergoglio is ratifying people in their MORTAL SINS and REJECTION OF THE ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH. Spare me the semantic bullshit. When that narcissistic toad says these things in his evil, Jesuitical, Clintonesque way (I’m waiting for Jimmy Akin to make the “it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” argument) he knows damn good and well what he is doing, how it will be understood, reported and spread, and that he, Jorge Bergoglio, will be personally loved and adored by the world for ratifying people in their mortal sins, adding to his temporal power and feeding his diabolical grandiosity complex.

People, especially in this fallen and now post-Christian world, where human minds are darkened by their disconnect from the Church – which Bergoglio gleefully encourages, and in the case of most Catholics, by their unworthy reception of Holy Communion (what percentage of breeding-age Catholics in the West contracept? How many Catholics go to Confession… ever? Yeah….) have poor and selective memories. I have spoken often of the “36 hour news cycle” – if a given scandal does not destroy the reputation or career of the malefactor within 36 hours, it is lost down the memory hole.

But there is one thing that today’s people will remember and remember in tremendous detail, for as long as they live, and that is when someone, particularly someone in authority, ratifies or confirms them in their sins. And kids, there is no higher authority on Earth than the Vicar of Christ. How many emails have I received over the years from people detailing the exact conversation with a priest, both inside and outside the confessional, wherein the priest told them that contraception was not a sin, that masturbation was not a sin, that divorce and remarriage was no problem, that sodomy was just another way to express “love”, that skipping Mass on Sunday was no big deal.

Bergoglio is the effeminate, narcissist heretic local parish priest circa 1978 on nuclear-strength steroids. He will say anything, tell you anything, just so long as you like him, increase his power and feed his cult of personality. And make no mistake, he doesn’t give a shit about you, your soul, its eternal fate, or God. As I have been desperately trying to make everyone understand for years now, these people don’t actually believe any of that “Catholic bullshit”. In fact, they hate it and are embarrassed by it, and are now doing everything they can do permanently destroy it and replace it with a humanist, global politico-religious totalitarian hybrid monstrosity.

This utterly diabolical mindset, using human being as pieces of political currency, three-dimensional cartoons whose only purpose is as sources of narcissistic supply, is not something that we should all merely roll our eyes at, telling ourselves that it is all meaningless, a mere parenthesis to be waited out in awkward silence like a Novus Ordo hymn.

HUMAN SOULS ARE BEING LOST TO ETERNAL HELLFIRE EVERY SINGLE DAY BECAUSE OF THIS DIABOLICAL IMBECILE.

My God, my God, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? How can you not give a shit that this despicable nihilistic jackass is causing human beings all over the world to die resolutely unrepentant, convinced that not only are their mortal sins not sins, that hell does not exist and souls are annihilated at death, and that NONE OF WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES MATTERS, AND THAT THEY DID THE RIGHT THING IN BLOWING THE CHURCH OFF YEARS AGO?

I know I’m a convert and all, but isn’t this Day-One-Greatest-Commandment-Great-Commission-John-3:16-Paragraph-One-of-the-Catechism type stuff? I cannot for the life of me comprehend how anyone, when presented with the possibility of another human being lost to hell FOR. ALL. ETERNITY, can start in with the “that’s not my problem”, “not my circus, not my monkeys”, “there’s nothing anyone can do about the salvation of another person”, “if you think you can do anything to help save another person then you’re guilty of malignant pride and are on the fastrack to hell yourself” crap.

You know what I think? I think that’s just a load of effeminate bullshit.

I think that we are supposed to love one another as God loves us. (I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.)

I think we are supposed to love other human beings and actually give a shit about their eternal souls because God loved them first. (I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.)

I think we are supposed to instruct the ignorant and admonish the sinner. (I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.)

I think we are supposed to love truth, thirst for justice and hate evil. (I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.)

I think we are supposed to actually give a shit about things outside of ourselves and not wallow in the callous indifference and flaccid impotence of naval-gazing narcissism.

I think we – us, specifically, right now, who were born in the mid-to-late 20^th century – WE are supposed to rise up and do everything we possibly can, and given the internet and technology of today, our capabilities are mind-boggling, to resist, to fight, and even to support the deposition of Bergoglio so that this mass soul-killing scandal stops. How many more souls are you content to feed to this monster’s ego? I NEED A NUMBER. GIVE. ME. A. NUMBER.

How many? How many more people who were thinking about returning or converting have now blown the Church off because EVERYTHING this moronic arch-heretic has said for the past three years has told them that THE CHURCH DOESN’T MATTER, AND HAS BEEN WRONG ALL ALONG ANYWAY.

How many people are you content to sit and watch go skipping straight into hell because Bergoglio preaches permissiveness as mercy and indifference as charity – and encourages them to do the same? How many grandmas in the West today told their grandson how cute she thinks his boyfriend is, and basked in the warm glow of her own “sophistication” and self-righteousness – because it’s what Pope Francis would want her to do – “accompany” her sodomite grandson “in mercy”.

How many generations are you content to see poisoned by Bergoglio’s heretical filth before someone finally has the stones to anathematize him and call his lying bullshit lying bullshit? Or should we just let it all go until Our Lord returns in Glory? What percentage of human souls who have ever existed are you content to see live and die with Bergoglio’s evil memes and catchphrases bombarding them like a computer server being bombarded by a denial-of-service attack? There have been, at most, 110 billion human beings so far. 7.5 billion of them are alive right now. How many will be added to that in the next century? Next two centuries? Next five centuries? Are we content to sit on our asses and do nothing RIGHT NOW while Bergoglio COULD be countered so that it gets to the point that 50% of all human beings ever created by God will have been infected with, “Well, Pope Francis said….”

How many souls, dammit?!

Look, if you aren’t man enough for this, whatever. Sit your candyass down and stay quiet, Caitlyn, but know this: there are at least a handful of us left on this planet who
A.) actually believe in the Triune Godhead and His Holy Church and what she has taught consistently and infallibly for 2000 years,
B.) refuse to deal in any terms except OBJECTIVE REALITY
C.) actually give a shit about other human beings and where their eternal souls end up – ALL OF THEM,
D.) know that Bergoglio is, every day, driving more souls toward hell, and
E.) fully intend to do something, anything, no matter how ham-fistedly, to try to counter and resist Bergoglio and his lying, soul-killing bullshit because this is the biggest no-brainer ever in the history of the Church.

Some of us only need to be cold-cocked with a two-by-four once. For me it was Bergoglio’s failure to genuflect at the consecration of the Host and Precious Blood at his first Mass post-election in the Sistine Chapel. THWAP. Objective reality. They have Peter’s Chair. It’s war. The fruit of the Third Sorrowful Mystery (the Crowning with Thorns) isn’t cowering effeminacy. It is COURAGE. If you don’t have it, pray for it, and until you get it, STAY THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY BECAUSE WE’RE BUSY OVER HERE.

If you are saying to yourself, “Boy, Ann sure seems angry, and Christians should never be angry….”

Only the person who becomes irate without reason, sins. Whoever becomes irate for a just reason is not guilty. Because, if ire were lacking, the science of God would not progress, judgments would not be sound, and crimes would not be repressed. 

Further, the person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all the good, to do wrong. 
(St. John Chrysostom, Homily XI super Matheum,   1c, nt.7)

Ire may be understood in two ways. 

In one way, as a simple movement of the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: ‘Ire, when it has a cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.” 

In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice, as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment of reason. 
(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II, II, q. 158, art. 8)

Look, the entire deal with Zika isn’t that it kills.  The issue is that it can cause microcephaly.  You know – IMPERFECT human life.  Or perhaps one might call it LIFE UNWORTHY OF LIFE (TM Third Reich – All Rights Reserved).  So not only did Bergoglio ratify contraception in order to thwart the conception, implantation, gestation and birth of less-than-perfect people – which is EUGENICS, he also used systematic war rape as the previous analogue to this, citing a dubious reference to Paul VI maybe telling some African nuns who were in a war zone and targets for rape that they could take contraceptives.

So, wait.  That sure makes it sound like Bergoglio views a microcephalic child as the same as a rapist – both being unjust aggressors against the woman.

Oh, he also said that the Ten Commandments are in “conflict” with each other, specifically the Fifth (Thou Shalt Not Do Murder) and the Sixth (Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery). Yeah.  The Decalogue, according to this imbecile, is internally inconsistent.

And don’t even get me started on how he totally threw the Ukrainian Greek Catholics under the bus.  Unbelievable.

This malignant thug idiot needs to be deposed. Call an imperfect ecumenical council and do it already.  Basta con questa farsa.

Rorate has the full transcript.

This video is from Finland and is a DEAD SERIOUS public service from the Finnish government teaching Finnish women how to repel musloid rapists.  Again, this is NOT SATIRE. This is the Finnish government in all of its flaccid, suicidal effeminacy advising women how to repel roving bands of their musloid conquerers, raping the women of the vanquished and submissive Finns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ4EQFcFQQo

If only poor Elin Krantz in Sweden had used her Jedi-Wonderwoman-mutant superpowers to repel the men who raped and murdered her….

Why didn’t she just use her magic forcefield?

If I were Finnish, I would be praying to God day and night that Putin invade and occupy the country ASAP.  I’d much rather take my chances with Russians than musloids OR with the suicidal, detached-from-reality post-Lutheran Scandinavian culture.  And I’m not joking.

1.  Sorry for the hiatus.  I took a trip to consult with a priest about preaching.  He told me to pray the Rosary.
2. I took my computer with me on my trip, but I have bronchitis, which is somewhat amusing, and has demanded that I get plenty of sleep.  I haven’t had bronchitis since I was a kid, but I immediately recognized the cough when it set in.  And the fact that I sound like Lucille Ball circa 1975 after smoking a pack of unfiltered Camels.  I can feel the big goober of mucous in my snorkel, and feel like if I could just get one good, deep hack that I would cough up something that would crawl away under its own power and then be done.  But, I don’t have an angry cephalopod living in my thorax, and so I just cough and take Vicks throat lozenges.  But I feel great otherwise.  No fever.  Not even a sore throat.  As with most viruses, all you can do is wait it out.
3. Reminder!  Tomorrow is Benefactor Mass Tuesday!  0830 Eastern Time!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!  Scroll down and read the Overshadowing Shoulders post about the agony of Our Lord during His Passion, and then remember this:  Our Lord would go through ALL OF IT just for YOU – not for the entirety of humanity as one big “efficient” “truly worthwhile” event, but ALL OF IT just for YOU and YOU ALONE, and He would do it all just for you AS MANY TIMES AS YOU ASSIST (which means attend, or even attach yourself at a distance) at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  I’m going to repeat that, because it is almost incomprehensible upon the first hearing:
   Christ would suffer His entire Passion and Death on the Cross for you and you alone as many times as you attend, over the course of your entire life, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  This is why complaining that the Mass is “boring” is one of the more truly awful things that people today say. This is also something that one should focus upon when one has no choice but to attend an illicit and scandalously offered Novus Ordo Mass.
4. Mailbag:I won’t post the letter, but just a summary.  A woman with three teenaged boys, two with learning disabilities, after reading the Negative Interest Rate piece wrote to ask advice about education in light of the fact that western civilization is going to hell in a handbasket before her very eyes.  My response, which I think applies to most everyone with youngsters these days:Hello-
   Your two younger boys should be learning TRADES. Don’t you see that trying to force “learning disabled” men into academia is, for all intents and purposes, setting them up for total failure?  Have you ever noticed or asked yourself why there seem to be so many more people, especially boys and men, diagnosed with “learning disabilities” these days?  It is because boys and men who didn’t have a specific intellectual/academic vocation (which is nothing to be at all ashamed of) used to learn TRADES and had very successful lives – up until the Communist infiltrators took over the schools and starting implementing their plan to make all people drones and slaves of the state through the schools and universities.  
   Able-bodied men who are NOT specifically geared toward academic pursuits should be learning things like welding, plumbing, woodworking, agriculture, heating/air conditioning, cooking, baking, etc.  Most people, truth be told, simply do not need education beyond the 5th grade level.  People should be able to read and write, perform arithmetic up to simple algebra, working with fractions and decimals, simple geometry (area, circumference, simple calculations with triangles, etc.) keeping a simple ledger, and calculating interest. Also, a broad survey of biology and physical science, and a broad survey of history.  And, of course, thorough instruction in the Catechism.
   Further, the universities today, almost without exception, are satanic cesspits of indoctrination and diabolical narcissism.  It is stupid to the point of moral depravity to send a young person into such an environment, much less to saddle them with massive, unrepayable debt – to have what? An utterly meaningless, useless “degree”?  In what? “Economics”? Don’t make me laugh. “Business administration”? Again, don’t make me laugh.  Or maybe “psychology”, “marketing” or “communications”.  Or “JOURNALISM!”  What a joke. Vanity of vanities….
   Be assured of my prayers-
   Ann

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.

Overshadowing Shoulders

Today is the First Sunday of Lent, and the following verse from Psalm 90 appears three separate times; first in the Tract, then as the Offertory verse, and finally as the Communion verse.

“The Lord will overshadow thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust: His truth shall compass thee with a shield.”  Psalm 90: 4-5

Read the medical description of death by crucifixion below, and then ponder the words, “The Lord will overshadow thee with His shoulders.”

[This is a paraphrase of a summary of an ARSH 1965 article on crucifixion by Dr. C. Truman Davis entitled, “The Anatomical And Physiological Details Of Death By Crucifixion”, originally published in Arizona Medicine.  Since it is widely reproduced on the internet, I have taken the liberty of cleaning up a few things, and correcting scripture citations.  Additions of my prose are in red brackets.]

Crucifixion is the most painful death ever invented by man and is where we get our term “excruciating.”  It was reserved primarily for the most vicious of male criminals.  Our Lord refused the anesthetic wine which was offered to Him by the Roman soldiers in keeping with His promise recorded in Matthew 26: 29, “And I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of My Father.”  Our Lord was stripped naked [This is very important. The depictions of Our Lord with His loincloth intact on the Cross are for the sake of modesty, particularly for women and children.  He was naked.  The humiliation of being hung naked with no way of covering one’s self was in integral part of the humiliation of crucifixion.  Our Blessed Lord spared Himself nothing – the agony of His Passion was maximal.] and His clothing divided by the Roman guards. This was in fulfillment of Psalm 21:19, “They parted My garments amongst them; and upon My vesture they cast lots.”  The Crucifixion of Jesus guaranteed a horrific, slow, painful death.

Having been nailed the Cross, Our Lord now had an impossible anatomical position to maintain.  Jesus’ knees were flexed at about 45 degrees, and He was forced to bear His weight with the muscles of His thigh, which is not an anatomical position which is possible to maintain for more than a few minutes without severe cramp in the muscles of the thigh and calf.  Our Lord’s weight was borne on His feet, with nails driven through them.  As the strength of the muscles of Our Blessed Lord’s lower limbs tired, the weight of His body had to be transferred to His wrists, His arms, and His shoulders.  Within a few minutes of being placed on the Cross, Our Lord’s shoulders were dislocated.  Minutes later His elbows and wrists became dislocated.  The result of these upper limb dislocations was that His arms were 9 inches longer than normal, as clearly shown on the Shroud of Turin.  In addition, prophecy was thus fulfilled in Psalm 21:15, “I am poured out like water; and all my bones are scattered.”

After Our Lord’s wrists, elbows, and shoulders were dislocated, the weight of His body on his upper limbs caused traction forces on the Pectoralis Major muscles of His chest wall.  These traction forces caused His rib cage to be pulled upwards and outwards, in a most unnatural state. His chest wall was permanently in a position of maximal respiratory inspiration. In order to exhale, Jesus had to push down on the nails in His feet to raise His body, and allow His rib cage to move downwards and inwards to expire air from His lungs.  His lungs were in a resting position of constant maximum inspiration. Crucifixion is a medical catastrophe.  The problem was that Our Blessed Lord could not easily push down on the nails in His feet because the muscles of His legs, bent at 45 degrees, were extremely fatigued, in severe cramp, and in an anatomically compromised position.

Despite what is shown in all Hollywood movies about the Crucifixion, the victim was extremely active.  A crucified victim was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross, a distance of about 12 inches, in order to breathe.  The process of respiration caused excruciating pain, mixed with the absolute terror of asphyxiation.  As the six hours of the Crucifixion wore on, Our Lord was less and less able to bear His weight on His legs, as His thigh and calf muscles became increasingly exhausted. [And bear in mind that He had already been scourged until most of His skin was gone, was thus in deep shock, and was then made to march approximately two kilometers while carrying His own Cross.  While fully human, Our Lord’s strength during His Passion was unfathomable.]  

There was increasing dislocation of His wrists, elbows and shoulders, and further elevation of His chest wall, making His breathing more and more difficult.  Within minutes of crucifixion Our Lord became severely dyspnoeic (short of breath).  His movements up and down the Cross to breathe caused excruciating pain in His wrists, His feet, and His dislocated elbows and shoulders.  The movements became less frequent as Our Blessed Lord became increasingly exhausted, but the terror of imminent death by asphyxiation forced Him to continue in His efforts to breathe [because His suffering had to be maximal – He had to give us absolutely all of His love].

Our Sweet Lord’s lower limb muscles developed excruciating cramping from the effort of pushing down on His legs, to raise His body, so that He could exhale, in their anatomically compromised position.  The pain from His two shattered median nerves in His wrists exploded with every movement.  Our Lord was covered in His Precious Blood and sweat.  The blood was a result of the Scourging that nearly killed Him, and the sweat as a result of His violent efforts to expire air from His lungs.

Throughout all this He was completely naked, and the leaders of the Jews, the Romans, the crowds, and the bad thief crucified beside Him were jeering, swearing and laughing at Him.  In addition, Our Lord’s own Blessed Mother was watching this, united to His suffering.

Physiologically, Our Lord’s body was undergoing a series of catastrophic and terminal events.  Because Jesus could not maintain adequate ventilation of His lungs, He was now in a state of hypoventilation (inadequate ventilation).  His blood oxygen level began to fall, and He developed Hypoxia (low blood oxygen).  In addition, because of His restricted respiratory movements, His blood carbon dioxide (CO2) level began to rise, a condition known as Hypercapnia.  This rising CO2 level stimulated His heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen, and the removal of CO2.  The Respiratory Center in Our Lord’s brain sent urgent messages to his lungs to breathe faster, and Our Lord began to pant.  Jesus’ physiological reflexes demanded that He take deeper breaths, and He involuntarily moved up and down the Cross much faster, despite the excruciating pain.

The agonizing movements spontaneously started several times a minute, to the delight of the crowd who jeered Him, the Roman soldiers, and the Sanhedrin.  However, due to the nailing of Our Precious Lord to the Cross and His increasing exhaustion, He was unable to provide more oxygen to His oxygen-starved body.  The twin forces of Hypoxia (too little oxygen) and Hypercapnia (too much CO2) caused His heart to beat faster and faster, and Our Lord developed Tachycardia.  His Sacred Heart beat faster and faster, and His pulse rate was probably about 220 beats/ minute, the maximum normally sustainable.  Jesus had drunk nothing for 15 hours, since 6 pm the previous evening.

Our Lord had endured a scourging which nearly killed Him.  He was bleeding from all over His body following the Scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in His wrists and feet, and the lacerations following His beatings and falls.  Jesus was already extremely dehydrated, and His blood pressure fell alarmingly.  His blood pressure was probably about 80/50.  He was in First Degree Shock, with Hypovolaemia (low blood volume), Tachycardia (excessively fast Heart Rate), Tachypnoea (excessively fast Respiratory Rate), and Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).  Sometime after noon Our Lord’s Sacred Heart probably began to physically fail.  Jesus’ lungs probably began to fill up with Pulmonary Oedema.  This only served to exacerbate His breathing, which was already severely compromised.  Jesus was in Heart Failure and Respiratory Failure.  Jesus said, “I thirst” [partly] because His body was crying out for fluids [but also because He was thirsting for souls – both to love them and to be loved by them].  Our Lord was in desperate need of an intravenous infusion of blood and plasma.  He could not breathe properly and was slowly suffocating to death.  At this stage Our Lord probably developed a Haemopericardium: plasma and blood gathered in the space around His Sacred Heart, called the Pericardium.  This fluid around His Sacred Heart caused Cardiac Tamponade (fluid around His Sacred Heart, which prevented it from beating properly).  Because of the increasing physiological demands on Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and the advanced state of Haemopericardium, He may have eventually sustained Cardiac Rupture. His Sacred Heart may have literally burst [before being pierced by the lance of Longinus]. Heart failure was probably the [ultimate physical] cause of His death, [while our sins are the true cause of His suffering and death].

When the Romans wanted to expedite death they would simply break the legs of the victim, causing the victim to suffocate in a matter of minutes. This was called Crucifragrum.  At three o’clock in the afternoon Our Lord said, “It is consummated.”  At that moment, He gave up His Spirit, and He died.  When the soldiers came to Our Lord to break His legs, He was already dead. Not a bone of His Body was broken, in fulfillment of the prophecy in Exodus 12: 46.  Our Precious Lord thus died on the Cross after six hours of the most excruciating and terrifying torture ever invented, after enduring torture in the twelve hours prior to His crucifixion which, by itself, would have been sufficient to kill any other man.