CHILDREN: NEITHER PRINCES NOR PRINCESSES, BUT BEINGS THAT GOD RENEWS US TO FORM GOOD MEN AND WOMEN TO LEAD TO HIM

A mother raised her hand and asked:

"What do I do if my son is on the table and won't get down?"

"Tell him to get down," I told her.

"I've already told him, but he doesn't listen and won't get down," the mother replied in a defeated voice.

"How old is the child?" I asked.

"Three years old," she replied.

Situations similar to this frequently arise when I have the opportunity to speak with groups of parents.

Many conflicts arise because parents are fearful or lax in exercising their authority. And those children grow up, and the problem grows with them, since those parents have a hard time making the decision to set limits and exercise their authority correctly.

Why do your children do what they do?

1.- BECAUSE YOU LET THEM.

Don't forget that children are meant to be

brought to God, not just given materially what you didn't have.

May your inactions never cause them to lose faith.

They do what they do because you allow them to. Children become who they are because their parents allow it, it's that simple. If your child is making a mess of their life, you won't like this answer. You'll come to me and give me a million excuses. You'll blame it on the music they listen to, the movies they watch, the books they read (if they read at all), the violence on television, the educational system, or the pressure exerted by society or their friends. So put your indignation aside and consider this truth: your children are a product of your parenting, or, in other words, your way of raising them.

2. THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES FOR BAD BEHAVIOR.

Parents let their children do whatever they want, with very little information about what is acceptable and what is not. If they do something wrong, there are no consequences for the unacceptable behavior.

Sometimes we say, "If you do this, that will happen to you," and "If you don't do that, this will happen to you." Then they don't do what they're supposed to do, and nothing happens; we don't keep the promise of the consequences. Do you know what a parent who doesn't follow through on the consequences becomes? A LIAR; and that's precisely what our children learn: to lie, and to make promises without keeping them, so that nothing happens.

3. YOU TELL YOUR CHILDREN THEY ARE SPECIAL.

You may not agree with me on this. Believe me, it was difficult for me to understand and accept, but it's a reality.  If you're one of those who currently believes your little "angel" is special, I'm sorry to tell you that they aren't. If you constantly tell your children they're special, you're doing more harm than good.

Your child is special to you and only you, not to anyone else. Your child was born with all your love, and watching them grow is a wonder, but when they grow up and walk through your door to go to school, they're just another child on the school roll, and there's nothing special about them.

In the real world, your daughter isn't a "princess," nor is your son a "prince," just another child. Children must understand and learn to grow up knowing that the moment they leave your loving arms and enter the real world, no one will love them for the sole reason that they exist, as you do.

4. YOU MAKE YOUR CHILDREN THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE.

They aren't the only important thing.  I know you think they are, but that's not the case. When you let your children think they're the most important person in your life, they learn to manipulate you, and you'll end up doing what they say.

You shouldn't neglect your children for

your husband, nor your husband for the children (the latter is the most common), because you could end up alone.

Your children are important; don't get me wrong. Your children should be loved unconditionally. But parents who put their children's happiness above all else and sacrifice their own lives, and sometimes their marriage as well, then when their parenting work is over, your children will grow up and leave you, going in search of their own happiness, and you'll be left with only your spouse, at best.

If you spend all your time and energy solely on your children, when they leave, you won't be sure that your spouse will be with you.  That's one of the reasons why separations happen after the children leave, because the only thing you had in common was your children, and you never tried to nurture marital love as a bond. And you end up alone, with no one to grow old with. And you usually end up treating and seeing your 50-year-old as if he or she were 4 years old.

5.- WE FAIL TO TEACH THEM THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES.

Children have, among others, the following rights: to life, to play, to freedom of opinion, to a family, to protection from negligent treatment, to food, to be loved, to receive an education, etc. Privileges are concessions earned through a specific action; we buy things for our children, for example: the latest video games, or designer clothes or shoes, or a pet, and we even take them to the movies or on vacations, we buy them cell phones, etc., etc., and all for free, in exchange for nothing. Today I tell you that even if you have enough money to please your child, you have to teach them how to earn it; they have to know that the things they like cost money and that they have to pay a price.  Even these things will help you negotiate attitudes and behaviors (Editor's note: and through them, help them acquire responsibilities to better navigate their way in life).

6. WORK ON YOUR CHILD'S SELF-ESTEEM.

A child who has not been instilled with religious and moral convictions will easily stray intellectually and/or morally. We will be held accountable to God for putting their eternal salvation at risk.

The word self-esteem is a compound word. Self means oneself, and esteem means love, that is, loving oneself. You cannot provide them with a positive assessment of themselves because we confuse encouraging and supporting them with increasing their self-esteem, and we change the rule of "if they have high self-esteem, they will succeed at everything," but in reality it's the other way around: if they succeed at everything, their self-esteem will increase. So, if you want them to have high self-esteem, teach them to achieve their successes. To fight for them, because everything requires effort, dedication, and perseverance.

I hope these comments help you understand why we sometimes ask for the moon, when in reality we reap what we sow.

Source: Parents to the rescue of values.

FOR ETERNAL ROME

“…Let the Priest capable of preaching go to the limits of his power to preach, to absolve sins, and to celebrate the True Mass. Let the Sister teacher go to the limits of her grace and power to form girls in the Faith, good morals, purity, and literature. Let every Priest and layman, every small group of laymen and Priests who have authority and power over a small stronghold of the Church and Christianity, go to the limits of their possibilities and powers. Let the leaders and pupils of such strongholds know each other and be in contact with each other. Let each stronghold, protected, defended, trained, and directed in its prayers and songs by a royal authority, become as much as possible a fortress of holiness. This is what will guarantee the continuation of the True Church and effectively prepare for its renewal when it is God's good time.

“Thus, we must not be afraid, but pray with all confidence and exercise without fear, according to the  Tradition and, in the sphere that corresponds to us, the power we have, thus preparing us for the happy time when Rome will once again be Rome (the eternal Rome) and the Bishops will be Bishops (acting as genuinely Catholic Bishops).

Fr. Roger-Thomas Calmel. Brief Apology for the Church of Always.

THE RIGHT TO DIE OR THE DEATH OF LAW

By Óscar Méndez Oceguera

The New Laboratory of Legalized Death

On October 10, 2025, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. With a narrow majority, the Senate approved the law allowing physicians to provoke or facilitate the death of anyone suffering from “unbearable pain” or “incurable disease.”

The press hailed it as a historic milestone, a moral advance, a step forward for freedom. Official speeches repeated the modern catechism: autonomy, dignity, compassion.

But behind those words hides a substitution far deeper than a law: the replacement of natural order by will, of being by desire. A statute has been enacted that destroys the very foundation of Law itself, for it turns into an object of disposal that which constitutes its principle. Life—the source of all rights—has become a matter of contract.

⸻

A Carefully Rehearsed Global Sequence

The Uruguayan gesture is not isolated. It forms part of a carefully rehearsed sequence in Europe and North America: it begins by invoking pity for the terminally ill and ends by justifying the elimination of those who “can no longer enjoy life.”

The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Portugal—all followed the same itinerary, with identical emotional language and increasingly radical results.

In every case, the promise of a humanitarian exception for terminal patients transformed—by an unstoppable logic and progressive reinterpretation—into a system of legally administered elimination that now extends to those with mental disorders or who are simply “tired of living.”

Death ceased to be a limit and became a public service, ever more inclusive.

And now Latin America begins to replicate this architecture. In Mexico, the so-called Ley Trasciende copies almost word for word the Uruguayan arguments: “freedom to choose,” “dignified death,” “medical compassion.” None of these formulas aim to strengthen palliative care or spiritual accompaniment: all are directed toward institutionalizing the power to suppress life in the name of autonomy.

⸻

Freedom Confused with Dominion

The first confusion of our age is to believe that freedom means dominion. Modern man, obsessed with being master of himself, has forgotten that freedom does not consist in being able to do anything, but in being able to do good.

It is not ownership, but participation.

Freedom without truth does not liberate—it dissolves. And when the will ceases to recognize itself as subordinate to the good, it becomes power without measure. The will that kills is no longer free: it is enslaved to fear, pain, or weariness.

There is, therefore, no act more self-contradictory than assisted suicide: it is the negation of freedom in the name of freedom itself.

⸻

The Metaphysical Error of Owning One’s Being

The error stems from a metaphysical root: the idea that man possesses his being (his substance) as he possesses his goods (his accidents).

But no one can own what constitutes him. I do not have my life as I have my belongings: I am my life—my esse.

And what I am, I cannot lawfully destroy.

Man’s relationship to his existence is not one of dominion but of ontological stewardship. To dispose of life is not to exercise a right, but to betray it.

Life does not belong to the individual; it has been entrusted to him. It is not a matter of sovereignty, but of responsibility.

Whoever turns life into property plants the seed of juridical nihilism: if everything I possess I may destroy, then everything that exists may be eliminated.

⸻

The Law That Ceases to Be Law

From this confusion flows the collapse of Law.

For law, if it is to be just, must be founded on the good and not on will. Life is the first good—the presupposition of all norms. Without it, no justice is possible.

Therefore, a law that authorizes the suppression of life is not law but the fiction of legality. It replaces order with procedure, truth with majority.

It is the perfect form of disorder: a system that legislates against its own principle.

What was once called homicide is now called a right; what was once called pity is now called compassionate elimination.

Thus Law dies—not when injustices are committed, but when they are codified.

⸻

Falsified Dignity

Euthanasia’s defenders invoke dignity, but confuse it with comfort.

They believe that a weak or suffering body ceases to be dignified, as if dignity depended on vigor or usefulness.

Yet human dignity is neither gained nor lost—it is inherent to being.

Illness does not degrade it; it reveals it. In fragility shines forth the greatness of what we are: rational creatures, dependent and open to love.

True indignity does not lie in suffering, but in being abandoned.

Hence the law that offers death instead of accompaniment is not compassion but social fatigue—the organized renunciation of a society that no longer endures vulnerability and prefers to conceal it under the name of freedom.

⸻

Betrayed Compassion

Nor is there compassion in killing to avoid pain.

True compassion does not eliminate the sufferer—it accompanies him, embraces him, sustains him, elevates him.

Modern compassion, by contrast, is desperate sentimentalism: unable to give meaning to pain, it erases the sufferer.

The physician ceases to heal and becomes an administrator of despair.

The hospital ceases to be a house of relief and becomes an office for euthanasia.

What is presented as an act of mercy is, in truth, the coldest form of abandonment.

⸻

The Medicine of the Soul: Palliative Care

While laws of death are passed, palliative care—the true human response to suffering—remains scarce and neglected.

Wherever it is practiced, the request to die virtually disappears, for the patient who feels accompanied no longer wishes to die: he wishes to live well.

The sick do not ask for death; they ask not to be alone.

Thus, legislating euthanasia without ensuring palliative care is not compassion but institutional negligence.

It offers a syringe instead of a hand.

⸻

Suffering as Revelation of Being

Suffering, far from being an error to be excised, is the place where man encounters his limit and his soul.

Pain reveals the truth of being—its dependence, its fragility, its openness to the other.

At that edge where finitude is touched, man learns humility and gratitude.

Where the body breaks, the spirit may grow.

Hence cultures that knew how to accompany pain were more human than those that eliminate it.

Ours, instead, has made comfort its only value and thus deems useless all that does not produce pleasure.

From this arises the monstrous notion of disposable humans: lives deemed meaningless once they lose functionality.

The elderly who feel burdensome, the sick who fear impoverishing their families, the poor who do not wish to weigh on the State—all are gently, bureaucratically pushed to disappear.

The society of comfort has turned death into an act of efficiency.

⸻

The Denial of Purpose and the Corruption of Justice

The ultimate root of this phenomenon is the denial of finality.

When the notion of natural end is lost, everything is reduced to technique.

Pain ceases to have meaning; death ceases to be a passage; life ceases to be a mission.

Man, reduced to producer and consumer, is measured by utility, not by being.

But Law cannot survive such logic: if it recognizes no intrinsic ends, it merely regulates appetites.

And where law becomes the servant of desire, justice perishes.

Euthanasia, in its apparent neutrality, enshrines this final nihilism: the belief that man has no destiny higher than his own consent.

⸻

The Neutral State That Decides Who Dies

The State, whose duty is to protect life, disguises itself as neutral and ends up arbitrating who may die.

In the name of autonomy, it administers self-negation.

It is the same principle that permitted abortion and now prepares genetic engineering: the claim to possess the body as a thing.

But the body is not an object—it is the form of the soul.

We do not have bodies; we are bodies.

To treat the body as property is to confuse the person with matter and to open the door to total manipulation.

From there to sanitary totalitarianism is but one step: the power to decide who should live for reasons of utility, cost, or convenience.

⸻

The Law That Dies of Self-Negation

Law, reduced to the will of majorities, ceases to be rational.

A statute that legitimizes assisted suicide turns the State into an accomplice of nihilism.

And a society that calls the destruction of its vital principle a right prepares itself to vanish as a civilization.

For Law dies not when it is violated, but when it is denatured.

Its essence lies not in consensus, but in truth.

⸻

The Purifying Meaning of Limit

Suffering, on the other hand, holds a meaning that transcends all human law.

He who endures it with love discovers the greatness that pleasure never teaches.

He who accompanies the dying learns more about life than he who flees from pain.

He who bears his limit with hope purifies his soul and prepares it for eternity.

In that silent school are forged the virtues that sustain the world: patience, compassion, humility, faith.

To suppress that experience is to erase humanity’s moral apprenticeship.

Euthanasia, more than a medical act, is an amputation of the spirit.

⸻

Barbarism with a Clinical Face

No civilization is possible if man does not accept that life possesses a meaning greater than himself.

He who destroys the limit destroys measure; he who eliminates pain eliminates conscience; he who turns law into an instrument of death signs the death certificate of justice.

The only modernity worthy of the name is not the one that hastens death but the one that teaches how to die humanely.

To legislate the elimination of the weak is not progress: it is barbarism with a clinical face.

⸻

The Final Decision

Life, even in suffering, remains a good.

The law that denies it does not liberate but enslaves; it does not console but abandons; it does not protect but destroys.

When a civilization turns death into a right, it abdicates both its reason and its soul.

For Law lives only while the conviction endures that life deserves defense for its own sake.

When that conviction dies, what remains is not freedom but moral desert.

Upon that choice depends everything we understand by humanity.

A society is defined not by how it treats its strongest, but by how it kills its weakest—even when it does so in the name of freedom.

⸻

In this impasse are at stake Law itself, respect for nature, and even the soul.

Most Holy Virgin, SAVE US!

 

IMPOSSIBLE DIALOGUE BETWEEN LOST SANITY AND THE 21st CENTURY

(Recreation of G. K. Chesterton’s testament to the modern world)

Scene:

London, the year 2025. A library that is both museum and airport terminal: marble, glass, screens, saints in oil paintings, and a clock that runs fast so no one arrives on time. The scent of pipe smoke—ancient, cordial—appears ownerless. The shadow of an immense man sits down, as if that chair had always been reserved for him.

L.M. —Mr. Chesterton, have you returned to judge us or to laugh with us?

G.K.C. —For both, which are usually the same when one laughs out of love. I’ve come to tell an old truth with a new joke: you have confused haste with pilgrimage and the screen with the sacrament. I did not return to seek my age; I returned to rescue yours.

L.M. —They say we have no dogmas, that we are pluralists.

G.K.C. —Oh, you have dogmas! You simply don’t confess them; you advertise them. The most sacred is this: “Nothing is sacred.” And you worship it with the devotion of a monk without a monastery. I have seen humbler temples than your auditoriums, and less gullible pious women than your innovation summits.

L.M. —We also have new sins: climatic, economic, technological…

G.K.C. —They are old sins dressed in lab coats. Man prefers to blame himself for what he cannot confess. His sins horrify him, so he translates them into “system failures.” It is easier to request funding than forgiveness. And yet, the moral accounting of the universe admits no accountants: one pays either with tears or with cynicism, and cynicism is hell’s usury.

L.M. —You accuse us of having forgotten what is good. What, then, is good?

G.K.C. —Good is what makes man more man. Good is a small home with a great duty. Good is a “yes” that commits and a “no” that saves. Good is kneeling before the eternal in order not to kneel before the ridiculous. Good is the laughter that unmasks the tyrant and the silence that lets truth speak. Everything else is stage props for the modern drama.

L.M. —We are asked for results; we are measured in numbers. The world is governed by metrics.

G.K.C. —And by fears. The figure is the rosary of the unbeliever: he runs it through his fingers so as not to think about the soul. You are exact in your statistics and indeterminate in your destiny. You have confused the clock with Judgment Day. When everything is a KPI, sin ceases to exist, and stupidity becomes a profession.

L.M. —Perhaps we have chosen complexity. Clarity frightens us.

G.K.C. —Of course: clarity demands conversion; complexity, seminars. Truth is simple like a bell; error is complex like an excuse. You have made ambiguity a professorship and doubt a virtue. Doubt can be a path; settling in the desert is spiritual tourism.

L.M. —Let’s talk about love: we have freed it from old bonds.

G.K.C. —You have freed the fish from the water. You call suffocation freedom, and celebrate it because the fish convulses enthusiastically. Love is free when it promises, strong when it obeys, fruitful when it limits itself. A fire without a hearth is either wildfire or ash. That is why marriage is heroism for adults and a stumbling block for adolescents with credit cards.

L.M. —Politics: is there anything to save?

G.K.C. —As long as there are men with necks and consciences, there is something to save. But politics without truth and without virtue is reduced to the art of selling mirages at desert prices. In the name of the people, the State is worshiped; in the name of freedom, the banks are worshiped; and in the name of peace, the machine is worshiped. The old temptation has not changed: “All this I will give you, if you bow down and adore me.” The devil keeps offering shortcuts; you have patented the highway.

L.M. —And the poor? Where is he in your irony?

G.K.C. —At the center. The poor is a sacrament of reality: he proves that the world does not work even when the Wi-Fi does. He is not saved with statistics but with friendship. Charity that does not smell of soup and tears is philanthropy with a costume.

L.M. —You defended small property. Today it seems illusory.

G.K.C. —Illusory is freedom without keys. A democracy where no one can close his door is not a democracy: it is a hotel. The rich man who owns the neighborhood and the bureaucrat who decrees that nothing belongs to anyone are two forms of the same laziness: both hate limits. But limits are the grammar of love: without “mine” and “yours” there is no “ours.”

L.M. —Contemporary art: do you still believe in it?

G.K.C. —I believe in art that believes in something. An artist can paint shadows if he knows where the light is. But if he removes the light from the world, all he has left is to exhibit his own penumbra in high definition. Modern art has become the autobiography of boredom. When heaven is forbidden, the artist ends up describing his ceiling.

L.M. —They will say your faith mutilates imagination.

G.K.C. —On the contrary: it baptizes it. Dogmas are the fixed stars that allow the poet to trace constellations. Without dogmas, the sky is a jumble of fireflies. Imagination without truth is a child with matches in a barn.

L.M. —Technology. We have united the world.

G.K.C. —And you have disunited homes. Technology is like alcohol: you must know how to drink it. A phone that brings me closer to the distant and farther from the nearby is a portable idol. When conversation with the machine replaces conversation with the child, we have sold our birthright for a plate of pixels.

L.M. —You accuse us of idolatry of the self.

G.K.C. —Yes: the polytheism of screens and the monotheism of the mirror. You worship a thousand things so as not to admit you worship only one: your own will. But your will is too small to satisfy itself. The self is a stomach that never says enough. It is calmed only when it kneels before someone greater than itself.

L.M. —Death. We avoid it with euphemisms.

G.K.C. —And with anesthesia. You have banished the cemetery to the perimeter of the moral map. But death is the teacher of realism: it removes your costume, returns your name, and asks what you have loved. The world fears death because it has lost the art of dying: dying forgiving, dying grateful, dying blessing. A good Christian dies like trees in autumn: leaving seeds.

L.M. —And hope? Where is it bought?

G.K.C. —It is not bought: it is received. That is why it offends the market. Hope is a loan from heaven that is repaid with fidelity. You confuse hope with optimism; the optimist believes everything will turn out well; the hopeful knows everything can be redeemed. Even the 21st century. Even me, who was a sinner with a great sense of humor.

L.M. —They will call you reactionary.

G.K.C. —Let them. If a train is heading toward the abyss, reacting is sensible. Modern words have been manufactured to avoid shame. “Progress” means “more of the same with better graphics.” “Inclusion” means “anything except what bothers us.” “Tolerance” means “silence for those who dissent.” I prefer the old word: conversion.

L.M. —How does one convert such a world?

G.K.C. —As one lights a candle: by bringing it close to another. No one is saved by speeches; one is saved by saints. A man who fulfills his duty in a small house builds more civilization than a hundred influencers with megaphones. History is governed by a carpenter who did not write a book. And yet, all books seek him.

L.M. —Who could such a saint be today?

G.K.C. —A mother who sets the table and blesses the absent. A father who returns home and kneels because it is never too late. A teacher who teaches grammar as if he were teaching justice. A doctor who remembers that wounds smell of son. A judge who would rather lose a promotion than lose his soul. A young man who turns off his phone to look at the stars. A young woman who discovers that purity is not fear, but strength.

L.M. —And if no one listens?

G.K.C. —Then God will, and that is enough. The great works have been whispered against the noise. A single faithful family sustains an entire neighborhood; a single silent monastery sustains an era; a single Mass sustains the world. When everything seems lost, remember that the universe was saved by a woman who said “yes” and a man who remained silent.

L.M. —You ask us to kneel.

G.K.C. —I ask you to rise from the floor. Whoever does not kneel before God ends up crawling before the State, the Market, or Fashion. To kneel is to affirm that heaven exists; to crawl is to admit that only the ground exists. The 21st century crawls with elegance.

L.M. —What do we do tomorrow when we wake up?

G.K.C. —Three things: give thanks, obey, laugh. Give thanks for being alive and for not being the center of the cosmos. Obey the truth you already know; do not wait for a notification. And laugh: laugh at the solemnity of tyrants, the grandiloquence of experts, and the misery of your own vanities. The devil cannot bear laughter because it reminds him he is small.

L.M. —Will you forgive us, then?

G.K.C. —I did not come to forgive: I came to beg you to allow yourselves to be forgiven. Mercy is an ocean; only the proud die of thirst on the shore. Your century is exhausted by options and thirsty for absolution. You do not need more alternatives; you need more altars.

L.M. —Leave us your testament, a final will.

G.K.C. —I leave my cane to knock down idols, my sherry glass to toast sanity, and my paradoxes so you do not forget that truth is more fun than lies. I leave a map with four cardinal points: home, altar, school, and public square. If you lose one, you will lose them all. And above all, I leave my laughter: carry it as sword and shield.

L.M. —And the epitaph?

G.K.C. —Write: “Here lies a man who laughed at himself so he could kneel without falling.” If you wish to add something, write: “He told us that what was wrong in the world was not asking what was right, and that what is right begins with giving thanks.”

Silence.

The screens remain on, but the library seems both older and younger at once. A bell—where from?—rings in the distance. Pipe smoke sketches a door: behind it, an ordinary light, domestic, like a kitchen left on. L.M. tries to speak, but the enormous Englishman is no longer there. Only the scent of wood and wine remains, and the immense sensation that reality—that old queen—has sat once more upon her throne.

L.M. —Mr. Chesterton…

The word does not find its owner and, for the first time in years, it is not needed. The interviewer breathes, crosses himself without noticing, pockets his phone, and walks toward the street, where the rain shines with something new, as if each drop were a small truth falling from the sky.

OMO

IF MOTHERS DEMAND A LAW THAT ALLOWS THEM TO MURDER THEIR CHILDREN...

 

ANACLETO DIXIT

"...It can also be said that youth—because of its elevated and permanent boldness—is naturally Christian. And it can be said further: youth is completed, strengthened, and protected against weakening or extinction by placing itself under the perpetually youthful breath of Christ. Because Christianity—both in the strength of its ideological structure and in its historical currents—is the doctrine of risk and the direction of life to victoriously overcome all risks. Because it is not so small to dare to face the risks of being a saint. Much less the risks of being a martyr. And Christianity—considered ideologically and historically—is the doctrine of holy boldness, of holiness, and of goodness. Joining your two hands, wet in the new wineskin of life, youth, with the perennial youth of Christ, is the same as defining the direction of your own boldness and placing it in fruitful and direct function with goodness, truth, and  destiny itself." 

(Anacleto González Flores, You Will Be King, 1950)

And you... Do you practice charity? Meditate on it before God.

 

Aridity

 

"You find yourselves in aridity, so glorify the grace of God, without which you can do nothing. Then open your soul to heaven, just as a flower opens its calyx at sunrise to receive the beneficial dew.

You find yourselves in complete helplessness, your spirit in darkness, your heart under the weight of its frivolity, your body tormented by pain. Then worship the poor. Come out of your poverty and go to live with the Lord, or offer your poverty to Him so that He may exchange it for riches: this is a great work worthy of His glory."

Saint Peter Julian Eymard

THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS (October 2nd)

The Most High has commanded His angels to watch over you; they shall guard you in all your ways; they will bear you up in their hands, lest your foot dash against a stone. (Psalm 90[91]:11-12)

I. Admire the goodness of God, who has appointed a prince of His court to watch over your conduct. Your guardian angel remains at your side day and night; he defends you against the devil and temptations; he inspires holy thoughts; he turns you away from evil; he intercedes for you before God. Thank God for the kindness He shows you in giving you so faithful and charitable a guide, and see in this grace a proof of the esteem He has for your soul. Thank your guardian angel for the services he renders you; ask him to continue them until your death.

II. Show profound respect for your angel, and express it each day with some prayer. Do not mistreat or scandalize anyone; remember the word of the Lord forbidding you to scandalize the little ones, for their angels always behold the face of their Father. These angels will avenge the harm you do to those under their care. If you labor to convert some sinner, beg his guardian angel to assist you. Honor your guardian angel. Do not do in his presence what you would not do before a respectable person. (St. Bernard)

III. Consider your guardian angel as the best friend you have in this world. He is faithful; he will not abandon you in your needs. He is infinitely enlightened—consult him in your doubts: he will not deceive you. He is powerful to help you: he has more power, more intelligence, and more strength than the men in whom you place your trust. Listen to what he inspires in you. Ah! If you had but a little faith, you would fear nothing, knowing that your angel is with you.

PRAYER: O God, who in ineffable providence deign to send Your holy angels to guard us, grant to our humble supplications the grace of being sustained by their protection, and the joy of being in eternity the companions of their glory. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

VOLUNTEER?

 

ALWAYS THE SAME

“…He who possesses true virtue does not change nor is he disturbed by anything, like a rock in the midst of the sea beaten by raging waves. Let them despise you, let them slander you, let them mock you, let them call you hypocrites, false devotees: none of this takes away the peace of your soul; you love those who insult you just as much as those who praise you; do not cease, for this reason, to do them good and to protect them, even if they speak ill of you; continue in your prayers, in your confessions, in your communions, continue attending Holy Mass as if nothing had happened.”

St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars

THE WILL OF ISABEL THE CATHOLIC: THE GOOD TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS

Queen Isabel made her will at the castle of La Mota, in Medina del Campo, on October 12, 1504.

On November 23, she added a codicil, in Chapter XII of which she expresses her concern for the inhabitants of the newly discovered American lands.

Therefore, she asks her husband Ferdinand, her daughter Princess Juana, and her son-in-law Archduke Philip to ensure that the Indians are treated with justice and respect and to remember that the main purpose for which they have been granted the territories of the New World is evangelization:

"Whereas, at the time that the islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea, discovered and undiscovered, were granted to us by the Holy Apostolic See, our main intention was, while we begged Pope Alexander VI of good memory, who made us the said concession, to try to induce and bring the peoples therein and convert them to our Holy Catholic Faith, and to send to the said islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea pearls, religious men, clerics, and other learned and God-fearing people, to instruct the neighbors and inhabitants thereof in the Catholic Faith, and to teach and indoctrinate them good customs and to exercise due diligence in this regard, as more fully  In the Letters of the said concession it is contained, therefore I most affectionately implore the King, my Lord, and I charge and command the said Princess my daughter and the said Prince her husband, that they do and comply with this, and that this be their main objective, and that they exercise great diligence in this regard, and that they do not consent or allow the neighboring Indians and residents of the said Indies and mainland, conquered and yet to be conquered, to receive any harm in their persons or property; but I command that they be well and justly treated. And if they have received any harm, that they remedy and provide for it."

THE SCALES

For the truly wise, prosperity and adversity, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, honors and disdain, life and death are things that, in themselves, are neither desirable nor abhorrent. If they contribute to the glory of God and your eternal happiness, they are good and desirable; otherwise, they are evil and abhorrent.

Saint Robert Bellarmine

THE REAL CAUSE OF POLARIZATION

 

THIS IS THE MASS THAT SANCTIFIED THE CHURCH FOR CENTURIES

For centuries before 1970, this was the way Mass was celebrated throughout the world, the same Mass that nourished the souls of saints and sinners for centuries. The priest stood before the altar with the people, offering a sacrifice to God, present in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle. With the exception of the sermon to the people, the Mass was sung, chanted, or spoken entirely in Latin.

⚜️This is the Mass where St. Joseph of Cupertino was seen levitating.

⚜️This is the Mass that St. Gregory the Great inherited, developed, and solidified.

⚜️This is the Mass that St. Thomas Aquinas celebrated, wrote with love, and contributed to (he composed his own Mass and the Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi).

⚜️This is the Mass that Saint Louis IX, the King of France, attended three times a day.

⚜️This is the Mass that Saint Philip Neri had to distract himself from before celebrating it, because it so easily sent him into an ecstasy that lasted for hours.

⚜️This is the Mass that was first celebrated on the shores of the Americas by Spanish and French missionaries, as the North American Martyrs.

⚜️This is the Mass that priests said in secret in England and Ireland during the dark days of persecution, and this is the Mass that Blessed Miguel Pro Juárez risked his life to celebrate before being captured and martyred by the Mexican government.

⚜️This is the Mass that Blessed John Henry Newman said he would celebrate every waking moment of his life if he could.

⚜️This is the Mass that Father Frederick Faber called "the most beautiful thing this side of heaven."

⚜️This is the Mass so beloved by great artists such as Evelyn Waugh, David Jones, and Graham Greene that they mourned its loss with grief and alarm.

⚜️This is the Mass so revered that even non-Catholics such as Agatha Christie and Iris Murdoch came to its defense in the 1970s.

This is the Mass persecuted and fought against by modernism because it perfectly and unambiguously expresses holy Catholic doctrine and must be restored throughout the Church 

SAINT ATHANASIUS DIXIT

 "It will always be beneficial to strive to deepen the content of the ancient tradition, the doctrine and faith of the Catholic Church, as the Lord handed it down to us, as the apostles preached it, and as the Holy Fathers preserved it. Indeed, on it is the foundation of the Church, so that anyone who departs from this faith ceases to be a Christian and no longer deserves the name."

Saint Athanasius, Epistle to Serapion.

THE MURDERER BELIEVED THAT HIS COWARDLY ACT WOULD SILENCE HIM...

Note: We didn't know him, nor do we know all of his beliefs, only that he was pro-life, but whatever his beliefs, we don't need to agree with everything to condemn the treacherous murder that left two young children orphaned and an inconsolable widow and made him famous in ways he never imagined in life.

PROPOSES REFORMING LITURGICAL REFORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH TRUE CATHOLIC TRADITION

The Liturgical Revolution of Paul VI “Implanted Protestantism in the Heart of the Church”

By Edwin Botero Correa

September 8, 2025. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has initiated a profound debate on the need to reform fundamental aspects of the Mass according to the rite of Paul VI, known as the Novus Ordo, pointing out historical parallels with Martin Luther’s liturgical proposals that have generated considerable discussion in theological circles.

The current structure of the Novus Ordo, implemented after the Second Vatican Council, grants the celebrant a certain flexibility in several moments of the celebration—a characteristic that, according to various liturgical experts, can give rise to interpretations and practices not always in accord with Catholic tradition. This liturgical freedom, although intended to facilitate the participation of the faithful, has been a matter of concern for theologians respectful of and faithful to Sacred Tradition, not without weighty reasons on their part.

Among the proposed modifications, a return to the celebration ad orientem stands out, in which both the priest and the congregation face the liturgical east during the most sacred parts of the Mass, especially from the offertory onward. This common orientation in prayer represents, according to experts, a physical expression of the unity of the Church in her worship of God.

A crucial point of the suggested reform is the restoration of the Roman Canon as the only Eucharistic Prayer permitted in the Roman Rite. The term “canon,” meaning “rule” or “norm,” underscores the importance of maintaining an established and venerable form of Eucharistic prayer, avoiding the multiplicity of options that characterizes the current rite.

The manner of receiving Holy Communion is also under consideration. It is proposed to return to the age-old practice of receiving it kneeling and on the tongue, a gesture that emphasizes the reverence and adoration owed to the Blessed Sacrament. This form of reception expresses more clearly the faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The offertory prayers have been identified as a particularly problematic area. The current prayers, inspired by blessings from the Jewish Sabbath ritual and containing elements from the Talmud, do not adequately express the sacrificial character of the Mass, reducing its meaning to that of a simple commemorative meal. This historical modification reflects, according to critics, a direct influence of Martin Luther’s thought, who firmly opposed the Catholic conception of the Mass as a sacrifice.

The preservation of Latin, at least in the Roman Canon, is presented as another essential element for maintaining continuity with the Church’s liturgical tradition. The use of the Latin language, beyond its historical and universal value, serves as a tangible link with the Church’s two-thousand-year-old heritage.

These proposed reforms are framed within a broader context of reflection on the postconciliar liturgy and its relationship with Catholic tradition. Such modifications would strengthen Catholic identity and correct the deviations introduced during the liturgical reform of Paul VI.

The discussion on these proposed changes continues to generate debate among liturgists, theologians, and the faithful, reflecting a tension between tradition and renewal in the liturgical life of the Catholic Church. The dialogue on these fundamental issues remains a vital part of theological and ecclesial reflection on the best way to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

SEPTEMBER 8: NATIVITY OF THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN MARY

“This is the Virgin who conceived in her womb, this is the Virgin who gave birth to a son… She is the gate of the sanctuary, which no one shall pass through except the God of Israel alone. This gate is the blessed Mary; of her it was written: ‘The Lord shall pass through her,’ and it shall be shut after her childbirth; for she conceived as a virgin and gave birth as a virgin.”

~Saint Ambrose (Epist. 42,4 PL, XVI)

Lope de Vega, born in 1562 and one of the most representative poets and playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age, composed the following:

Let the angels sing today,

for You are born, great Lady,

and let them rehearse, from now,

for when God Himself is born.

Let them sing today, for they come

to behold their lovely Queen,

for the fruit they await from You

is He through whom they find grace.

Let them proclaim, O Lady, of You,

that You shall be their Sovereign,

and let them rehearse, from now,

for when God Himself is born.

For in fourteen years’ time,

when You reach that blessed age,

they shall see the good You give us,

the remedy for so many ills.

Let them sing and proclaim, through You,

that from today they have their Queen,

and let them rehearse, from now,

for when God Himself is born.

And we, who await with longing

that Bethlehem may soon arrive,

let us prepare as well

our hearts and our hands.

Go on sowing, O Lady,

peace within our hearts,

and let us rehearse, from now,

for when God Himself is born. Amen.

EVASION: THE NEW COMMANDMENT OF THE YOUTH

“Be free, don’t tie yourself down.”

That is the catechism the modern world endlessly repeats to young people. It has convinced them that promise is a chain, that commitment is a prison, that sacrifice is madness. The entire culture has become a school for fugitives: no one must ever say “forever,” no one must embrace the cross of fidelity, no one must remain.

And yet, the paradox bursts forth in every heart: if everything is so free, why does everything feel so empty? If there are thousands of “contacts,” why is no one truly known? If love is so liquid, why does loneliness echo so loudly?

The new commandment of evasion does not liberate—it enslaves. The young person who flees every commitment does not conquer freedom, but condemns himself to the perpetual anxiety of never having a home. A ship without a harbor does not sail farther: it is lost. A heart that never binds itself does not soar higher: it bleeds out in the air.

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I. THE EMPTINESS AS PROOF

No theory is needed to confirm it: just look. The generation that boasts most of its options is the one least able to choose. The one that proclaims freedom the loudest is the most enslaved to anxiety. The one that talks the most about connections is the loneliest.

The emptiness is no coincidence: it is evidence. The human heart was not made to jump from one experience to another, but to remain in love. When that permanence is denied, one falls into nothingness.

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II. THE DISORDER OF THE END

St. Thomas teaches clearly: every being acts toward an end, and man’s ultimate end is beatitude—that is, God. But the evader has twisted the scale: he has placed his happiness in what is fleeting. He seeks fulfillment in pleasure, in comfort, in immediate gratification.

It is not that he loves evil, but that he seeks the good where it is not. And thus his life becomes constant frustration: because he tries to drink water in the desert. Evasion is, metaphysically, the absurd attempt to find happiness in nothingness.

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III. THE VICE THAT ATROPHIES THE WILL

Evasion is not an accident: it is a vice. And vice, as the Angelic Doctor would say, is not merely a bad habit but a corruption of nature. Virtue perfects the will; vice mutilates it.

The culture of escape has bred young people whose wills have atrophied. It is not that they do not want to commit: it is that they no longer can. Their will, tamed by flight, has become incapable of a definitive “yes.” Thus, the evader is not a rebellious hero, but a weak slave, unable to embrace his own vocation.

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IV. LOVE REDUCED TO INSTINCT

Love, in its fullest sense, is an act of rational will. Animals move by instinct; man, by reason and choice. But in the culture of evasion, love has been reduced to feeling, to appetite, to passing chemistry.

That is why bonds are so fragile: because they depend on emotions that change with mood. “Love without metaphysics” is not love: it is appetite disguised. And appetite does not build homes, does not sustain marriages, does not give children.

The other is no longer an end, but a means. No longer a soul created in the image of God, but an object for consumption. That is why modern relationships look so much like store windows: one chooses, one uses, one changes, one discards.

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V. SOCIETY AS A SCHOOL OF EVADERS

The young person did not invent this flight: he was trained in it. The weakened family did not teach sacrifice; the school suppressed rigor; the contemporary Church preferred silence to truth; the market turned the neighbor into a product; technology fabricated a virtual world where everything is reversible, ephemeral, disposable.

Never have there been so many “friends,” and never so little friendship. Never so many couples, and never so little love. Never so many freedoms, and never so much fear. Evasion is the unwritten commandment of a system that needs men without roots, without permanence, without home.

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VI. THE SIN OF EVASION

Evasion is not neutral: it is sin. It is the denial of sacrifice, and therefore the denial of love. It is the vital heresy of a generation that rejects the cross. But without the cross there is no love, and without love there is no life.

The Gospel said it centuries ago: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Evasion whispers the opposite: “There is no greater mistake than to lay down your life for anyone.” A culture that lives this way has already condemned itself to sterility.

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VII. GRACE AS REMEDY

Here St. Thomas is blunt: wounded nature cannot rise on its own. The will sickened by original sin has no strength to pronounce a definitive “yes.”

Grace is not an ornament: it is the only medicine. Confession, the Eucharist, prayer—these are not accessory rites, but the very places where man receives the strength to promise and to remain. The “yes forever” of marriage, of religious vocation, or of faithful friendship is not a human feat but a miracle of Grace.

Without God, every commitment ends in flight. With God, even the impossible—perpetual fidelity—becomes a path of holiness.

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VIII. THE BEAUTY OF PERMANENCE

It is not enough to speak of truth and goodness. Beauty too unmasks evasion. Because evasion is ugly. A life made of flights is like a broken painting, like a symphony interrupted at every bar: it lacks form, integrity, harmony.

Commitment, on the other hand, is beautiful. The fidelity of a long marriage is more splendid than any showcase of fleeting pleasures. A vocation sustained over time has the majesty of a cathedral standing tall. A friendship that endures years and trials is more melodious than any passing song.

Evasion promises youth but delivers ugliness. Sacrifice seems harsh, but shines with splendor. Tradition knew it: the Cross, terrifying to the carnal eye, is the highest beauty of love, for in it is revealed the perfect order of self-giving.

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IX. BEING AND PERMANENCE

Modernity has divinized change, the ephemeral, the reversible. But St. Thomas teaches that being itself is permanence, that mutability is accidental, and that human fidelity participates in the very being of God, who is eternal and unchanging.

The evader does not know it, but when he flees every commitment, he renounces not only love but being itself. He dissolves into nothingness, because nothingness is the only thing that does not remain. The man who promises and fulfills, on the other hand, partakes in the stability of God himself.

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CONCLUSION: FROM “MAYBE” TO “YES”

The modern commandment of evasion has turned the world into a graveyard of broken promises. It has produced empty homes, fragile friendships, weary souls.

But the heart knows what ideology denies: that only the one who promises and remains is happy. Evasion leaves ruins; commitment raises cathedrals. Flight produces ugliness; fidelity engenders beauty. Caprice is smoke; promise is rock.

The young person has before him two paths: to keep worshiping the idol of the ephemeral and end up lost in nothingness, or to dare to say a definitive “yes” and discover therein the only true freedom.

For only the one who gives himself without fleeing lives; only the one who remains loves; and only the one who loves already participates, here and now, in eternity.

Oscar Méndez O.