(Originally penned and posted in June, ARSH 2019.)

Several months ago, during my post-Mass prayer litany, I realized that I was incorrect in one of my daily petitions. See if you can tell how my prayer was wrong:

“May the Church Militant remain visible, and may I always be within easy walking distance of daily Mass in the Tridentine Rite.”

So there I am, having said this prayer daily over a thousand times, and I had a total record-scratch moment.

May the Church Militant REMAIN VISIBLE? Visibility is an intrinsic constitutive quality of the Church. The Church’s visibility is guaranteed in much the same way that water is wet and time is linear. The Church will always be visible – period. That is 100% guaranteed by God Himself. The issue is, can I, can we SEE IT.

Even if one uses the imagery of “eclipse” to describe current events, remember that eclipses are, by definition, highly visible events – awesome and fearful even.

So, my petition was so very wrong in that it falsely assumed that the Church could ever be “invisible”.

Now, my corrected petition is, “May I always be able to clearly see and recognize the Church…”

We know that the Antichurch will be -really, IS BEING- built as an ape of the True Church, and that many, if not most people, including many of the Elect will happily traipse into the Antichurch and be lost. It will be so bad that Our Lord said, “But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth?”

The problem will not be any failure of the Church to remain visible. The failure will not be God’s, the Church’s, nor even will the failure be a failure of the Papacy in se. The failure will be OURS. The Church will always be lit up like the Las Vegas Strip. But if Ray Charles is standing there, blind as a bat and can’t see what is right in front of him, does that mean the Vegas Strip is invisible? Of course not. All it means is that Ray is BLIND.

Every one of us can look back at our lives and cite numerous examples of our own blindness that caused us to go astray, which in retrospect were glaringly obvious at the time. Common examples:

“I was so in love….”

“I really wanted to keep that job/income…”

“I loved hanging out with those people…”

“I knew I couldn’t afford it, but I bought it anyway…”

“It felt right at the time…”

“I didn’t want to admit I was wrong…”

“I told myself that the person/situation would change/improve…”

“People warned me, but I didn’t listen…”

“I believed what the people on tee vee and on the internet were saying…”

Folks, the Truth is objective, external to us, and knowable. Reality is real, and visible. The Church is real, and it is guaranteed to always be visible, including AT ITS EARTHLY HEAD.

Start from the true base premise that the Church is visible, and the identity of the Pope is clear and visible, and then work from that. What is the objective reality? What is the objective dataset? What is clearly visible? What errors or prejudices or vices might cloud my vision and make me blind? Are my FEELINGS overriding logic? Is my approach rooted in sentiment and not in rationality?

I hope this helps.

Let us pray, as you did at the end of your letter, that the Lord comes to the rescue of His Church. I bless with MY apostolic blessing,

Yours,

Benedict XVI”

(Fun festive fact: I was received into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church seventeen years ago tonight, at the Easter Vigil Mass of ARSH 2007. I knew entering the One True Church would be an adventure, but I had absolutely no idea what an incredible outpouring of grace and favor Our Lord had in store for me. If you had described even 10% of it to me, I would have laughed you out the door. And the adventure is still ongoing. As I have said before, I strongly suspect that I enjoy one of the highest true qualities of life of anyone alive – with a near-zero net worth. In retrospect, being successful was fun; being wealthy was kinda awful. I thank God all day every day for extracting me from “the world”, for all of you- my benefactors and supporters, and for placing me here, now, able to fight in this war against the Antipope, the Antichurch, and all enemies, human and demonic, of Our Lord. Remember Thucydides: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.” —Alpha Bravo ’24)

John 20: 19-31

At that time, when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be to you. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. When He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put into My side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him: my Lord and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, you may have life in His Name.

Here’s an amazing tidbit from Fr. Z. In the original Greek, the word for “hand” actually sometimes refers to the hand plus the wrist plus the lower forearm. In Ancient Greek, when you are speaking of just the hand proper, additional words can be added to make that precision. Given this, the reality of what exactly happened to St. Thomas might be far, far more intense that what we imagine.

Our Lord has breathed upon the other ten Apostles, minus the absent Thomas, thus imparting the Holy Ghost upon them, and giving them all the power of binding and loosing, thus instituting the Sacrament of Confession. Then, Our Lord appears to them again on the eighth day, and Thomas arrives, and puts his fingers into the finger-sized nail holes in Our Lord’s hands. Then he puts what the Greek indicates is his entire hand, wrist and lower forearm all the way into the lance wound made by Longinus in Our Lord’s thoracic cavity, at Our Lord’s command.

It is conceivably possible that Our Lord breathed the Holy Ghost upon Thomas WHILE THOMAS WAS HOLDING OUR LORD’S LUNG IN HIS HAND, and that Thomas literally touched Our Lord’s BEATING SACRED HEART, and PALPATED THE STAB WOUND in Our Lord’s Sacred Heart.

Now, consider being Thomas and doing this, but also consider being one of the other Apostles standing there watching this happen, watching Thomas stick his hand and forearm into Our Lord’s side.

And if you’re thinking to yourself, “That isn’t possible…”, well, neither is walking through walls. The resurrected body of Our Lord is in an entirely different category. It isn’t held to the laws of the physical universe that bind us as we await our resurrection that He purchased for us.

People wonder why and how the Apostles were able to do what they did, and all but John were killed for the faith, and John was miraculously prevented from being killed, despite multiple efforts. Well, I reckon if we saw one of our friends stick his hand into Our Lord’s thoracic cavity up to the forearm, hold His breathing lung, and touch His Sacred Heart, we might be… confirmed and quickened, to put it mildly.

Click over and read Fr. Z’s full piece.

St. Thomas, pray for us.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, on the Petrine See, vacant these 463 days, and on Your Holy Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.

Walk Like an Egyptian. (Eat your heart out, Susanna Hoffs.)

Rocketman. (Minus that revolting faggot.)

Sweet Child o’Mine (minus creepy Axl Rose)

A Pirate Looks at Forty (minus Jimmy Buffet and his odious boomer wastrel lyrics)

THIS right here is why +Barron pings a LOT of Traditional Catholics’ bee-ess meter. Kelley CLEARLY does not understand that a decree of nullity means that NO VALID MARRIAGE EVER EXISTED. How can we tell? Because she refers to her “first”, that is VALID husband, as her “husband” and freely admits that they separated and their sacramental marriage (Catholic wedding in a Catholic Church with full marriage prep) was abandoned for trivial reasons (“we’re still good friends”). Kelley CLEARLY thinks that a decree of nullity means that there WAS a marriage, and that marriage CEASED TO BE… in direct contradiction to Our Lord’s words in the Gospels that marriage is INDISSOLUBLE and that anyone who abandons their spouse and takes up with another, no matter whose fault or even the amicability and mutual “consent” of the spouses to abandon each other, COMMITS THE MORTAL SIN OF ADULTERY. And +Barron just sits there mugging for the camera. Only ++Dolan is a more egregious fake.

pic.twitter.com/tzbcHkWfep

— Matt Lamb (@MattLamb22) April 2, 2024

It is also obvious that Kelley’s intellect is darkened by her open, proud admission of conceiving all three of her children through In Vitro Fertilization, as Nurse Claire and I just covered in Barnhardt Podcast #203. Kelley is apparently living in unrepentant mortal sin on two accounts: adultery with her “second husband” AND the mortal sin of IVF which she seems to be proud of, and thus openly unrepentant. REMEMBER: Kelley’s children are NOT culpable for the circumstances of their conception any more than children born from rape, adultery or fornication are culpable for the circumstances of their conception. The IVF is on Kelley and her “second husband”. That sin is theirs alone.

Here is my piece from several years ago, “Cutting the Crap: If you’re divorced, you’re done romancin’ “

What a luciferian evil this deception by the infiltrators of the Church has done to people, convincing them that their valid, indissoluble marriages could be “declared” dissolved – as if a sacramental marriage could undergo an ontological change – could in one moment exist, and then in the next moment with some joke document from a “marriage tribunal” cease to exist. I pity Kelley and her male adultery partner. I’m sure that they are deeply emotionally connected and want very much to continue to cohabit and have sex. But if +Barron held the Catholic faith whole and entire, he would tell Kelley in no uncertain terms that she and her “civil spouse” MUST cease masquerading as husband and wife. No more sex, and in all likelihood no more cohabiting – as the temptation and scandal would be too much. If Kelley wants to receive Holy Communion as she says, through her tears, if she REALLY wants to be in full communion with the One True Church, then she MUST amend her adulterous lifestyle AND publicly repent of having thrice committed the mortal sin of IVF and all of the corollary sins that go along with it. If she TRULY does love the man she is now civilly married to, then her primary and overriding concern MUST be for the fate of HIS ETERNAL SOUL, and for her own. Leaving the One True Church will not change the reality of her situation or the standards by which she will be judged. Megyn Kelley’s desires and beliefs are NOT the standard and arbiter of Truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ is.

Isn’t it sad and sick that NO ONE will tell this woman the truth, most especially the effeminate Bishop Robert Barron, clearly obsessed with human respect, and likely with the financial success that comes from worldly popularity, as he obviously is.

Pray for Megyn Kelley, her very likely valid “first” husband, her adulterous “civil spouse”, their three children that have been put in the middle of this tragic moral morass, and for +Barron and all the clergy whose priesthoods and episcopacies are abject public failures. And pray for the countless millions of people who are in pretty much exactly the same predicament that Kelley is in. The number of abandoned and/or abandoning spouses who recognize the lie of civil divorce, much less the lie of so many ‘c’atholic “annulments” passed out like so much candy by the Freemason-sodomite infiltrators of The Church today, and realize what is going on and continue to honor their valid, indissoluble marriage vows is terrifyingly small. Pray that these people find true shepherds that help them to get their lives back on the moral track, so that they may confess their sins, amend their lives, and someday achieve the Beatific Vision.

I hope this helps. If this piece angers you, as it will many, due to your own circumstances or the circumstances of loved ones, and you decide that you hate me personally – I’M TOTALLY FINE WITH THAT. At least the seed of Truth has been planted. All that matters is whether or not you reach the Beatific Vision. Anyone’s opinion of me personally is utterly irrelevant to that, and is really none of my business. If we both make it to the Beatific Vision, you can buy me a proverbial drink. There are no hard feelings in heaven.

ENROLL

Joseph Ratzinger’s Theology of Papacy and Church

Weekly Live Classes start Sunday April 7th, at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT and will run approximately 70-80 minutes. Q&A will follow for 10 minutes or more for those who can stay. I will suggest readings. No tests. No pressure. Content: Ages 13 and up. Recorded video link sent afterwards so you can watch on your own time! Join us this Lenten/Easter Season. (Projected duration 4 weeks)

 

Noli Me Tangere, Lavinia Fontana, ARSH 1581

The beautiful painting above is of Mary Magdalene seeing Our Resurrected Lord in the garden close to the Empty Tomb and initially mistaking Him for the gardener.  In art Our Lord is commonly depicted in this specific scene as a gardener by his spiffy gardener’s hat – and only sometimes carrying a gardening implement, as in this image.  As a great fan, connoisseur and wearer of hats, I am always tickled to see Our Lord behatted.

But there is massive meaning in all of this, and it goes back to the Garden of Eden, and teaches us about the Eucharist, and specifically about the importance of worthy and unworthy reception of the Eucharist.  This is especially germane as one of the hallmarks of the Bergoglian antipapacy is the pogrom of sacrilegious desecration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Anyone who objects to the enthusiastic desecration of the Eucharist will, of course, be denounced as a “fundamentalist” or “rigid” or whatever is today’s entry in the Antipope Bergoglio book of insults.

Our Lord appeared as a Gardener to Mary Magdalene because He is, in fact, The Gardener of Eden (Genesis 2: 8-9) and would walk in The Garden (Genesis 3: 8).

Interestingly, we see from Genesis that it was His intention to commune with mankind AS FOOD from the very beginning, whether man fell to original sin or not.  The Tree of Life wasn’t a mere foreshadowing of the Eucharist, it was in fact a species of the Real Substantial Presence of God, in the form of food, to be eaten by man in order to give man eternal life.  Again, the Fruit of the Tree of Life was an actual species of the Real Presence, not a symbol.  So Christ was not only The Gardener of Eden, He Himself was also the “Crop”.

Now think about this – when Adam and Eve fell, what did God do? He drove them out and even sent an angel with a flaming, rotating sword to specifically physically block them so that they could not COMMIT THE SIN OF SACRILEGE OF EATING OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF LIFE, THAT IS THE PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE OF GOD HIMSELF, AND THUS MAKE THEIR SITUATION EVEN WORSE.  It wasn’t enough to merely tell them that they couldn’t eat of the Tree of Life (a species of the Real Presence) because Our Lord knew that satan would tempt them to eat it anyway, and they would, because they were now guilty of the sin of pride.

Our Lord drove Adam and Eve out of The Garden and posted an angelic sentry BECAUSE HE LOVED THEM. Our Loving God EXCOMMUNICATED Adam and Eve in order to protect them from themselves, knowing that they would do even further damage to themselves by eating of His Physical Substance unworthily.

Only after Our Lord had incarnated, and True God and True Man had suffered and died for the sins of the world, could mankind once again be able to eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life.  The Cross is The Tree.  Jesus Christ hanging from it is The Fruit of The Tree of Life. The Eucharist is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, True Food and True Drink. Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection re-established The Garden of Eden, ended the protective banishment, and lifted the excommunication of mankind.

This is why Our Lord said to the Apostles in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, “With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you…”

When God says, “I’ve REALLY been looking forward to this…”, something incomprehensibly good and profoundly important is about to happen.

And this is why, in these days, growing ever darker, that satan, through his infiltators in The Church – some of them consciously willing, some of them merely stupid, are pushing for what the serpent could NOT effect in The Garden: the sacrilegious desecration of the Fruit of the Tree of Life.

It is true.  There are no angels with flaming swords to prevent unrepentant sinners from receiving the Eucharist.  Would that there were.  I would be very happy if I were blocked from receiving the Eucharist by an angel, because then I would absolutely know that I was not in a state of grace, and could take steps to correct that in the confessional. It is always a nagging concern in the back of one’s mind every time one receives the Eucharist.  Or, at least it should be.

But, considering the steps that God took in The Garden of Eden, one should think very long and very hard about the gravity of unworthy reception, and of the truly satanic malignancy of this final push to get those in openly unrepentant mortal sin to desecrate the Eucharist, and for the priests, who have been the last line of defense, standing in place of the angel, instead to be the willing facilitators and encouragers of sacrilegious desecration of Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist.

And this is why Our Risen Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene as a Gardener, as we can tell by the spiffy hat.

I hope this helps.

Here is the first of Rembrandt’s two “Supper at Emmaus”.  I prefer the drama of this piece.  Note the disciple in the foreground shadow who has fallen out of his chair and is on his knees bowing to Our Lord, who has just revealed Himself in the Eucharist, and is about to disappear in His corporeal form.  The woman in the kitchen is going to walk out with a plate of something in a few seconds and say, “Where’d He go?” And the men are going to point at the Consecrated Host and say, “He’s RIGHT THERE!”