Ad Dei Gloriam

 

Leo allows Moslems who hate the Faith and conquered its Eastern shrines and holy places, who enslaved tens of thousand of Christians and slaughtered many more, who do so today, to have a special "prayer space" in the Vatican library. But Urban II was of a different mind, he preached a crusade at Clermont and the nobility of the West, and their people, rose to the defense of the Holy Land. More than that, they won; Jerusalem, the Holy City, was within Christendom again.

Here's Urban:

"Although, O sons of God, you have promised more firmly than ever to keep the peace among yourselves and to preserve the rights of the church, there remains still an important work for you to do. Freshly quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles.

"They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it. "All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins.

"This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion! Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights.

"Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. Behold! on this side will be the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich; on this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his friends. Let those who go not put off the journey, but rent their lands and collect money for their expenses; and as soon as winter is over and spring comes, let hem eagerly set out on the way with God as their guide."

That, remarkably, ignited the West, as opposed to Moslem "prayer spaces;" in the dam Vatican, for goodness sake. Point of this shallow post? Stand firm for the faith.

Your Buddy,

LSP

A Musical Interlude

 

McCreesh is, in my opinion, a genius, you may think otherwise. Regardless, listen through to the fanfare and its perfect end, turn up your speakers whilst you're at it. ("Whilst" is anachronistic and wrong, see UK, Ed.) The music of Christendom moving into, tragically I think, another age. So be it. In the meanwhile, we have several tasks before us. Viz. 

Liberate the UK

Liberate Canada

Liberate Greenland from colonial oppressor Denmark

Reclaim the Panama Canal

 

To say nothing of draining our own swamp. Is this achievable? I think, for what little it's worth, that it'll take a miracle and that necessity will prove to be the mother of our invention. But your call should you care to make it.

Baroque,

LSP

The Feast of St. Mark

 

It's the Feast of St. Mark today. Mark was close to St. Paul and St. Peter, and his Gospel is believed to be the earliest; he was martyred in Alexandria. The wicked Venetians stole his relics from that city in the early 9th century A.D. and adopted the Evangelist as their patron saint. Perhaps you've enjoyed the basilica built in his name.

Here's Austin Farrer, preaching in Trinity College chapel to students:

Happy is the man who learns from his own failures. He certainly won’t learn from any one else’s. Here I am on a safe ground, for you are all failures, are you not? when it comes to serving God. So there is no fear of my missing my target in any of you, and especially, perhaps, just at the end of a vacation. Vacations tend to be spiritual disappointments. It is humiliating how, when you get back into your families, childish faults of temper reassert themselves which you hoped you had outgrown; humiliating how, as soon as you lose the encouraging company of your Christian friends here, your religion languishes. You have not prayed nor worked nor controlled yourself as you hoped to do. God has given you much; you have not given anything worth mentioning to God. Well, St Mark went back from the work in Pamphylia (if he is indeed the same man), and in Gethsemane none of the disciples behaved with credit. It is by these desolating experiences that God teaches us to trust him, not ourselves. The more emptied out you are, the more hope there is of your learning to be a Christian. Now is the very moment—there will never be a better—for you to put your trust in the God who makes something from nothing, who raises the dead.

 

The more emptied out you are, the more hope there is of your learning to be a Christian. Now is the very moment—there will never be a better—for you to put your trust in the God who makes something from nothing, who raises the dead. 

Such wisdom and truth.

Pax et Bonum,

LSP

Vicarious Venice

 

An old musical pal texted in from Venice, "As a guest of the Biennale I get a chauffeured boat. My driver runs his boat FAST and listens to Italian METAL."

I thought about this for maybe a second and fired back, "Where's my BOAT? Dammit." He replied with another photo.

"Venice. 23:37. Quiet." It's quiet here too in the North Central Texas Exclusion Zone, and a gentle rain falls upon this small farming community. We call it "Skywater." 

But back to Venice, wasn't the place supposed to be underwater by now? Someone's obviously been paying their weather tax. That in mind, more on this Venetian exploit as the story unfolds.

Vicariously,

LSP