Since Satan is very busy today, now more than ever, and since the Chapter in "I Want to See God" is about the Devil (see latest post), I will talk about the two standards. There is no middle ground; although, many would like to think so. I hope you are inspired by this talk.

​The world loves its own and by the same token it hates Christ and all that pertains to Christ; those of the world fear Christ. There is reason for this fear because the triumph of Christ means the overthrow of this world. What is this spirit of the world and why does it oppose Christ so? It is essentially a selfish spirit. Pleasure, power, wealth, influence, domination over other people’s lives, at any and every cost – that is the order of the worlds’ day; and the means of obtaining all of these “goods” do not matter, it seems, if only they succeed in getting what they want. On the other hand, Christ came into the world to demonstrate and teach the spirit of self-sacrifice; the principle of voluntary self-denial; the beauty of chastity; the superior worth of virginity; the permanence of true marriage; the sacredness of marital vows and dignities; the sanctity of a child’s life; the power and value of prayer; the necessity of worship of the most high God in spirit and in truth. These all flatly contradict the world’s fleshly principles of “self-expression” and “self-realization”. Hence, the world hates both Christ and His principles.
The world would (and does) scream once again, “Away with Him, crucify Him.” Only a crucified Lord, Who walked the hard and lonely way Himself, could show the rest of us the higher and better road, in consecrated poverty and hallowed chastity and voluntary obedience. In a word, the spirit of the world is pagan, and therefore sensualist; the spirit of Christ is spiritual and there can never be truce between those two spirits. The Master Himself is authority for saying that no man can serve two masters and every one of us must choose which of the two he will serve. He also gave us to know that when the world persecutes the Church and the spirit of Christ among men, it does no more than it had done first to Himself. Persecution is inevitable!
In all truth, then, there are only those two standards under which the spirit of man can live and fight his battle in this world to win a victory for another world, Christ’s and Satan’s. There is no neutrality because He will have no halfway allegiance, no halfhearted service, no partial love. Christ the King of men’s souls, demands complete, whole-hearted allegiance; less than that is an insult to the great King Who is also the great Lover of men!
So, the big questions are – How do I remain faithful? How can I love God with my whole heart, mind and soul? How can I recognize when the spirit of the world creeps into my being?  Of course the answer is Mary! Even though Mary was created without Original Sin, She says in the “City of God” by Mother Mary Agreda, that She labored each day to be faithful to God in all things! She is the only creature who achieved this great perfection of never offending God. She is our teacher and model. More importantly, She is our Mother and the one who is to crush the head of the serpent! She will guard our hearts, our minds and our souls. She will alarm our conscience when we are straying from the path of the crucified Jesus. Always turn to Her. Always go to Her in times of trouble and affliction. Say your Rosary and Consecrate yourself to Her Most Immaculate Heart! She wants your salvation. She loves all of Her children with a tender Heart and wants only to please the Most Holy Trinity by winning many, many souls for Heaven with Her prayers and petitions. Always go with confidence to the Queen of Heaven. Start your day with Her and ask Her to guide your every move and inspiration and She will never fail you. If you remain faithful in calling upon Her, She will be there at your death bed and fight against the enemy who will make his last attempt for your soul.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen”
Our Heavenly Father knew we needed an attentive Mother to guide us – listen to Her and She will surely lead you to Her Son – Jesus Christ – in this world and into the next!

We are already in our 4th day of our 54 day Novena of Rosaries before Oct 7th. In order to continue in love and zeal with this Novena, I am proposing a St. Louis deMontfort Consecration as well for Oct. 7th. This will begin Sept. 4th. I will have daily posts under Consecration to Jesus through Mary which is under the heading of Formation. I have posted information about the vigilance of Our Blessed Mother to God's Grace during her time on earth. We can imitate this hunger for God's Grace.  In the classes that I have had in the past regarding this Consecration, I always mention that "grace" should be looked upon and sought after by all Catholics like "money" is sought after by the earthly minded. We should hunger to be rich in God's grace and seek to obtain graces in all that we do. I encourage you to read this which was just posted today.

In order to consider this Consecration to Jesus through Mary, we must read the book True Devotion to Mary written by St. Louis deMontfort. One of the stumbling blocks for people to make this Consecration is the fact that he wants us to call ourselves slaves to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. It is true that Scripture calls us heirs and brothers and sisters in Christ. So why slave??  When we learn how much God has allowed the Blessed Mother to do for us and know that She has done already so much for us and continues to do so, we want to "give" to Her. What can we give to Her? We prostrate ourselves willingly before Her and promise to give everything to Jesus through Her because we will always be unprofitable servants. Therefore, voluntarily becoming slaves gives more! We give our all!  Now the question asked is? What is left for me? Nothing! - At least nothing that you can call your own. What will be given to us for this generosity? EVERYTHING! Mary will be at your side, guide you to Her Son, ensure your recovery of lost grace and finally SALVATION - HEAVEN! What a Heaven for those who gave Jesus and Mary ALL! God will never be outdone in generosity - you can be sure. This gives a special "freedom" - to be a "slave". God's ways are not our ways. 

Please read True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis deMontfort for more understanding of this beautiful Consecration which if all of us did - we would have a completely transformed world!

Our Lady - Queen and Mother - guide us to your Son - Our Lord Jesus Christ!

  
First, I would like to wish everyone a Blessed Feast Day of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven and Earth! Today starts a 54 Day Rosary Novena - link below and two articles to help stimulate your zeal for praying it!

I felt it important to talk about the interest in the coming solar eclipse to happen on Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible in totality within a band across the entire contiguous United States; it will only be visible in other countries as a partial eclipse.

Here is an article written on Aug. 11th. with much information regarding its possible significance as well as another. We are told that we will be given signs in the skies. We must stop and pray about the significance of this event.

Here is the article for you to read.   God bless you - I pray we all pray the 54 Day Novena!

Prayer is the heart of the Christian life. God, Our Father, has given us everything we need to obtain a deep and true prayer life. The Catholic Church teaches us through Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Catechism that God gives us all we need to attain this goal. It is the goal God has for all people because this is the means of our salvation - Union with God.
Mary can teach us how to pray. We have learned about the Rosary which is the greatest prayer after the Mass. In order to pray the Rosary well, we must know that it is both vocal and mental prayer. The mental prayer should be our meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary and what they contain. There are many books to help us with this. Many of the great saints are the best to start with on learning about the different mysteries of the Rosary. One can read a little at the beginning of each decade or one can make it part of their meditation and then later just recollect some of the knowledge at the beginning of each decade.
At each decade, we can ask God for certain graces needed for ourselves and the world. It is at this time that we can in our private rosaries, cultivate a relationship with God, we need to spend time with Him, asking, thanking and praising Him with each decade.
As well as offering our Rosaries, we can just sit before the Blessed Sacrament and express our love, thank Him for all the blessings of the day and of our lives. We also need to take time to just sit and listen to what God has to say to us. It is in mental prayer that we learn about His ways, His values, and His interest in our lives. We can ask Our Lady to guide us in this as She is our perfect teacher and is more than happy to help us.
As we grow closer to God in our daily prayer, we suddenly begin to see our imperfections in contrast to His perfections. Although God works slowly and tenderly to educate us, this experience can be humiliating as we are all proud. We begin to realize that if we accept the truth about ourselves, we have to change our lives or live in guilt. It is at this point that many beginners foolishly keep from God and prayer. We must know that God’s grace is sufficient to cure all our ills and that His mercy desires to make us saints.
St. Teresa of Avila states that all the harm of not persisting in prayer comes from not truly understanding that this God of Love is near. She says that He is not only near but that He never takes His eyes off of you. She says that we must be fully present to Him Who is always fully present to us. Faithfulness in our belief of this is critical to our prayer life. We must practice “the presence of God” – always being aware of His loving presence throughout our day and especially during our prayer.
Our Lady never lived a single instant of Her existence without this practice of the presence of God. She was always aware of Him, always in Adoration of Him, always in praise of Him. We can never accomplish this fully but we can ask Her help in trying to do the best we can. Can you imagine a life if we could do this? We would talk to people differently. We would be attentive in prayer knowing that He is there. We would take greater pride in offering up all of our duties for Him and the salvation of souls. Our whole lives would be one big prayer – one big act of love for God. This is Mary.
May we all go to Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament and ask His Mother and all the angels and saints to help us to be truly present to Him Who is present to us. May we develop a prayer life, a true and lasting friendship through deep conversations with The Most Holy Trinity, the God Who loves us and wants us for all eternity.
Let us cultivate that friendship now and not miss a minute to grow closer to Him Who is Love, in preparation for eternity.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us!
 

I have just read a beautiful article posted on Tradition In Action website. It was written by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, who began the lay group Tradition, Family Property (TFP) in Brazil in 1960.

This man is worth studying and following as he was a leader in the Church who is greatly needed today. Although he has gone before us, we have much to read of his and his writing is timeless.  Here is the article on Our Lady of the Angels for the Feast Day today - August 2.
Enjoy and God bless!
Our Lady of the Angels - pray for us!