“THE gift of Knowledge enables the soul to evaluate created things at their true worth — in their relation to God. Knowledge unmasks the pretense of creatures, reveals their emptiness, and points out their only true purpose as instruments in the service of God. It shows us the loving care of God even in adversity, and directs us to glorify Him in every circumstance of life. Guided by its light, we put first things first, and prize the friendship of God beyond all else. ‘Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesseth it.'”

— Novena to the Holy Spirit

Sebastian Vrancx, Allegory of the Season of Spring

“FAVOUR is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

“Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her works praise her in the gates.”

— Proverbs, 31:30-31

FROM Dom Prosper Guéranger’s reflections on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, which, he explains, are seven energies infused into the soul which possesses sanctifying grace:

“GRANT me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord with the sign of Your true disciples, and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.”

— From the “Prayer for the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit“

Now it is very much like this: as if we were sailing
in ships across cold water, over the sea-waves,
beyond the wide ocean in water-steeds
traversing the floods. The waters are perilous,
the waves immeasurable, amid which we journey here
through this frail world, the stormy oceans,
across the paths of the deep. Dangerous was that life
before we came to land
across the rough waves. Help came to us
that we might be led to a haven of healing,
God’s Spirit-Son, and gave us grace
that we might find, by the ship’s side,
where we could moor our water-steeds,
our ancient wave-horses securely anchored.
Let us fasten our hope on that haven
which the Ruler of the skies opened for us,
holy in the heights, when he ascended into heaven.

— excerpt from the Old English poem, Christ II

“ASK, and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that seeketh, receiveth; and him that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.”

— St. Luke, Ch. XI, 9-10

“ON a chilly night in November 2022, police in Wildwood, Florida found a woman tied to a chair in the backyard of a home. Officers would soon discover that the woman, Nichole Baker, had developmental and physical disabilities that made it nearly impossible for her to advocate for herself.” Source

We will never know how many whites — and blacks, of course —  have been brutalized by their black “caretakers.”

                                                     St. Elizabeth of Hungary

“THE Rogation Days were instituted for another end besides this of averting divine anger. We must beg our heavenly Father to bless the fruits of the earth; we must beseech him with all earnestness of public prayer, to give us our daily bread.” — Dom Prosper Guéranger

Read more on these three days before Ascension Thursday (tomorrow).

TOO freshly sweet to seem excess,
Too animate to need a stress;
But wider over many heads
The starry voice ascending spreads,
Awakening, as it waxes thin,
The best in us to him akin;
And every face to watch him rais’d,
Puts on the light of children prais’d,
So rich our human pleasure ripes
When sweetness on sincereness pipes,
Though nought be promis’d from the seas,
But only a soft-ruffling breeze
Sweep glittering on a still content,
Serenity in ravishment.

— From “The Lark Ascending” by George Meredith

“WHEN the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue”

— St. Philip Neri

WILLIAM F. Strojie was a great early commenter on the Vatican II Crisis, rightly rejecting both Modernism and “Traditionalism.”

His views on the papacy, however, were confused and ultimately illogical, similar to what is known today as the Cassiciacum Thesis, or the argument that it is possible to be a pope and not be a pope at the same time.

Here’s a balanced analysis of Strojie’s shortcomings, which he might very well have recognized had he been given more time.

Landscape with Wild Beasts, Roelandt Savery (1629)

NOT everyone can own his own business, go into farming, work in the trades, be an independent investor or find a job with a company that supports decency, justice or wholesome values.

Many are forced to make a living in the heart of the beast where corporate America and big government form a powerful juggernaut pitted against family and nation.

How does one survive it?

Circumstances vary, but here are a few general guidelines to consider:

1.  Avoid political and religious discussions at work.

2.  Be considerate and courteous always.

3.  Expect to convert no one and, for the most part, do not try.

4.  Weigh carefully when to seek another job.

5.  When forced to go along, exercise as much detachment as possible.

6.  Seize all opportunities to undermine — ethically and legally — your employer’s political projects. (For example, if possible, hire those similar to you.)

7.  Away from work, do all in your power to support contrary views. Study and learn.

8.  Do not give mind or soul away. They are yours.

9.  Keep inviolate the truth in your heart.

“Being ‘awake’ is sometimes a great burden. On Memorial Day, all I have left to feel is profound sadness for every veteran who lost his life to wars they were lied about, in [God-]forsaken places, for the benefit of some of the worst actors to ever pollute this planet… Their honor, and sacrifice squandered, and their lives forfeited to unbeknownst evil.”

— Commenter on Gab

“In a 1987 (!) speech in Johannesburg, Donald McAlvany (editor of McAlvany Intelligence Advisor) explained the long-range Soviet strategy to flood the USA with migrants, leading to public panic, the withdrawal of troops from [Europe], and the death of NATO.” Source

McAlvany’s full speech can be found here.

“[I]F one says that race is destiny, soul, in a word, everything, then one has explained nothing, but has significantly increased the confusion. According to the Christian worldview, the natural moral scale of values is: God, soul, family, race, people, state, humanity.

… Many farming families in our Alpine countries, who have lived on their ancestral farms for hundreds of years, with 10 to 15 children who are Christian and nationally minded, do not give the impression that they have been racially degenerated in terms of their ideology. They show through their large offspring that they are racially much healthier than the many representatives of this racial science, who often barely have two children, although they could write very beautifully about the importance of race for our German people.”

— Bp. Alois Hudal, 1937