Paratum cor meum, Domine. My heart is ready, Lord.

Does the magnitude of the blessing touch our hearts? Do we believe that, just before we receive Him, Christ bestows His peace upon us through the action of the priest? Or is it just words, mindlessly repeated Sunday after Sunday, year after year? Empty words, signifying nothing?

For there is no peace among us.

We’ve been fractured. Fraternal war has replaced fraternal charity. Everyone has taken his stand, chosen his position. Everyone has a label. Groups splinter into factions; factions splinter into fragments. Faith has been pigeonholed.

But are we not all Catholic? Do we not belong to Him?

These are perilous times, and our souls are in danger. In this fight for tradition which consumes us, we must not forget our destiny. The goal is Heaven. Our life here is passing. We are all under sentence of death. In a very short time—who knows? perhaps today—we will be summoned to judgment. And then what?

Admit it or not, we don’t know for certain that we will be among the elect. We hope, but we can’t be sure that we’ll hear the blessed words: Enter into my rest. It’s not automatic, you know, just because you’re Catholic. Don’t ever forget that you could be lost. By your own fault, on the Last Day, you could be with the goats.

Some people are so busy pointing their fingers at everybody else that they forget to take care of themselves. What do they think, that the soul is some sort of stain-free polyester? Where’s the trembling at one’s weakness, where is the fear of God? That salutary fear is the beginning of wisdom. It is one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Without it, people are dumb as donkeys.

Wake up.

Beg for holy fear; beg for wisdom. Remember what the Sacred Scriptures say:

They that hold her fast, shall inherit life:
And whithersoever she entereth,
God will give a blessing. [1]

We long for life; we need that blessing. Saving our souls is not easy. There’s more to it than what some people say. It’s not enough to “accept Jesus as your personal Savior.” We were warned—not everyone who calls out Lord, Lord will be saved. And there’s no such thing as universal salvation, either. Forget this ersatz mercy that admits no justice. Forget this false god who laughs at sin, who welcomes everyone into his arms while he salivates at their damnation.

Believing is not enough. No, we have work to do. Remember what St. Paul said when he called us his dearly beloved: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation.”[2] And St. James, too: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?[3]

But what does that mean? It doesn’t mean running around implementing all sorts of social justice programs or welcoming hordes of people whose religions and cultures are inimical to our own. It doesn’t mean supporting people who won’t work or doing their work for them. It doesn’t mean “forming faith communities” or “uniting with the human family” or obeying any other commandment of those who would create a new golden age, a Saturnalian novus ordo seculorum.

Because that’s what they want to do, these agents of change, these lackeys of Hell. These are the ones we must resist if we are to enjoy the Peace of Christ, here on Earth and forever in Heaven. But resistance requires knowledge. We have to know what they’re all about. Why do they do the things they do? What is their purpose? What is their goal?

Quite simply, they plan to transform the world. They think they can do it. They seek a shining City ahead, a land of love, peace, and mercy. There’s nothing supernatural about it; it is the work of human hands. Using Christian love of neighbor and commitment to service, they have duped a lot of good people.

They think they’re so smart, so original, so modern, but their philosophy is old, tiresome, and false. Shall we examine it?

As usual, error starts with words, in this case novus ordo seculorum. While commonly translated as New World Order, the words actually mean New Order of the Ages. This isn’t simply a social agenda, a drive for progress, but an esoteric mantra signifying a transformative movement from darkness to light.

The phrase is from Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, and he spelled the word seclorum (like on the dollar bill) for poetic reasons—to maintain the hexametric verse, the rhythm of classical Latin poetry. Startlingly, in view of what we’re going through now, the poem speaks of a time of revolutionary change in Rome forty years before the Incarnation. In English the passage reads:

Now comes the final era of the Sibyl’s song
Now a new lineage is sent down from high heaven
The great order of the ages is born afresh
Now justice returns, the return of Saturn’s reign.

Alarms sound here. Some translations of the Latin redeunt Saturnia regna don’t read return of Saturn’s reign, but, rather, honored rules return. That’s a huge difference. While some medievalists believe that the line was a prophecy of the Reign of Christ, esoteric philosophers ascribe a different meaning. Beneath their humanitarian guise, the enemies of the faith are working for exactly that: the Reign of Saturn. They don’t use the name of the Roman deity, of course. That would be too obvious. But this ancient god of liberation is the one they serve and whose reign they foster. They seek freedom from all that is good and holy and Christian. And they will force that slavery on us.

They are totalitarian utopians and they are the ones we need to ignore, resist, and disobey. On this earthly pilgrimage—which for many has become a lonely road--we must walk in faith, keeping in our hearts the love of God above all things.

Eyes front! teachers used to say to their students. Keep the line straight.

If you don’t know the faith, learn it. If you have forgotten it, get out your books and study it. Don’t be caught up in endless pointless polemics about who is more Catholic than whom. It’s the grand strategy of the devil to pit us against each other. He can do that easily if we don’t know what we’re doing, where we’re going, or why we claim the name Christian.

We are a broken people. Just look at us. There are those who attend the reductionist liturgy (no longer new!) who are struggling to love Our Lord and keep the Faith despite the Changes; and there are some who keep the Old Ways but whose hearts are wedded to form, not Person. There are those in the middle, those confused, those weak, and those whose love is tepid. What a motley crew. But are we not walking the same road? Are we not trying to get to Heaven?

Or are we?

There’s the problem, I think.

Something has happened to the road. Step back away from yourself for a moment and look at where we are. There was a fork in the road a long time ago, and we--or those who came before us--took a wrong turn. We didn’t do it of our own accord. We’re not self-directed. The sheep got herded into a detour. By crook and rod we were led.

The detour went almost unnoticed at the time, but there was a sign for those who had eyes to see. A banner was raised. The call came as an authoritative declaration. It was October 11,1962, the first day of the Council of Vatican II. On that day, in St. Peter’s Basilica beside the tomb of the Fisherman, Pope John XXIII said this:

“In the present order of things, Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which, by men's own efforts and even beyond their very expectations, are directed toward the fulfilment of God's superior and inscrutable designs. And everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.”

So there it is. In the midst of holy words and pious exhortations, we find a sign marking a New Order of Human Relations. We’ve been stuck on that road ever since. But open your eyes. There’s really no such thing as a “new order of human relations.” What happened to our inheritance, the patrimony bequeathed to us by Christ? We are children of that, the perennial Order, the timeless Order of an Eternal God.

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Go a little further. What did the pope mean—"Everything, even human differences, leads to the greater good of the Church.” Everything, even sin? Even abortion? Euthanasia? Homosexuality? Transgenderism? Murder? How does that work?

Curious, curious. It sure doesn’t sound the same as ‘"And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.”[4] Pope John left out the loving God part, making the declaration sound more like the cry of the Scottish Rite Masons. The revolutionaries claim: Ordo ab Chao. Order out of Chaos. This is not just a motto for tidying things up. No, it is an alliterative code for transformation, the esoteric ideal of a New Age of the World, the Novus Ordo Seclorum of the Saturnalians.

And then the pope bowed to the world: “The world expects a step forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought.”

Seriously? Literary forms of modern thought?

With that, Pope John threw open the windows. All manner of noxious things, ideas hostile to the Faith, philosophies bitter as acid, customs old as the pagans pushed through. The Prince of Darkness came waltzing in—cape flowing, triumphant—Baphomet, the sabbatic goat, promising “the association of all interests, the federation of all people, the alliance of all cults, and universal solidarity.”[5]

And now, in the words of William Wordsworth: The world is too much with us, late and soon…We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.”

That’s it, isn’t it? We have given our hearts away. Please Lord, may we have them back? May we be one in Your Heart?

Dear God in Heaven, dona nobis pacem.

 _________________________

[1] Ecclesiasticus 4:14

[2] Philippians 2:12.

[3] James 2:20

[4] Romans 8:28.

[5]Levi, Eliphas, Livre des splendeurs, “Le Baphomet,” the Sabbatic Goat image symbolizing the “equilibrium of opposites.”