This battle between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Satan has only intensified in the past forty years.
With Mary as our guide and model, “we are certain not to go astray.” Archbishop Lefebvre adhered to his own advice, and if today we enjoy the Tridentine Mass and know how to resist Modernist Rome, we should be grateful for the archbishop’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his sermon, he described five aspects of Our Lady’s life that have special importance to all of us who want her to guide us through the greatest crisis in Church history, the tragic consequences of which now threaten to engulf the entire world. No matter what “breaking news” emerges between now and the eventual Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady will always guide us to do God’s will:
The Battle between the Progeny of Mary and Progeny of Satan. “The first element that concerns the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and that announces her, is found in the protogospel, in Genesis, where already Mary is presented as a queen going forth to battle, as the queen of hosts, queen of armies who gathers about herself all the forces of God, all the graces of God, and this to fight. To fight whom? To fight what? To fight the devil! It is God Himself who announces this to the devil: ‘I shall place between thee — the devil, Satan — and the Virgin Mary an enmity.’”
This battle between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Satan has only intensified in the past forty years, such that today it seems that we fast approach the climactic moment. None of us can remain spectators in this battle, for we are either in the army of the Virgin Mary or that of Satan:
“So the Virgin has an enemy. And not only an enmity between the Virgin Mary and Satan, but an enmity between the progeny of Satan and the progeny of Mary; between the world, between everything represented by those who are the children of Satan, but those who struggle against God, who detest God, and the Son of Mary, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all those who will be the children of the Virgin Mary. There are then, by the will of God, two armies in the world: an army of the children of the Virgin Mary, and an army of the children of Satan. And between them, God has placed an enmity, an enmity that will last until the end of time, until the end of the world.”
We know with certainty that God will win, so we must do all we can to belong to Our Lady’s army.
We are with Mary or we are with those who are fighting against God. We know with certainty that God will win, so we must do all we can to belong to Our Lady’s army:
“Consequently, the Virgin Mary, already, before being born, promised by God, draws us into a combat, into her combat, into the combat that will lead her to victory. A combat, however, which, alas, will often be waged in painful, in difficult, and in trying periods. But if we follow the Virgin Mary we are sure with her to achieve victory. This victory that the Virgin Mary desires is a victory against Satan and, consequently, against sin. The Virgin Mary is the symbol of those who do not want to sin, who do not want to disobey God. This is the battle that the Virgin Mary is going to wage through the ages.”
Satan has attempted to sabotage Mary’s army through the words and deeds of false shepherds who profess love for Mary and yet promote sin. But Mary “is the symbol of those who do not want to sin, who do not want to disobey God.” All too often we can lose sight of this basic reality of our human existence: God wants us to do His will and save our souls, and Satan wants us to lose our souls by living a life of sin. If we wish to be saved, we need to follow the Immaculate Virgin Mary in her constant opposition to Satan and sin, otherwise we are lost.
A Firm and Courageous Faith. “The second lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us, when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel, is her faith. The first act noted for us in the Gospel on the occasion of the Annunciation is the faith of Mary. And her cousin Elizabeth congratulates her: ‘Beata quae credidisti: blessed art thou who hast believed.’”
Tragically, though, the false shepherds have sought to undermine the army of Mary by corrupting the Catholic Faith for so many Catholics.
The Blessed Virgin Mary based all of her thoughts, words, and deeds on her faith and we are called to do the same in our own lives. Tragically, though, the false shepherds have sought to undermine the army of Mary by corrupting the Catholic Faith for so many Catholics. According to the Vatican II innovators, and every pope since Pius XII, the Faith can change to become something that contradicts what it once was. This preposterous lie undermines the entire basis for belief in the immutable Catholic Church. If Francis and his collaborators are right, Mary was wrong, which would mean the entire Catholic Faith is wrong. Our task, then, is to firmly and courageously maintain and defend the same Faith believed by all the saints:
“We must keep this faith intact. Let us ask the Virgin Mary to have faith like hers—to have faith as deep, as firm, as courageous as that of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.”
“Do What Jesus Tells You.” “The third event in the life of the Virgin Mary that shows us how we should behave is what took place at the wedding feast of Cana. You remember that they ran out of wine during the wedding feast of Cana. The servants came to tell Mary that there was no more wine. And what did Mary tell the servants? ‘Do all that He tells you; do all that my divine Son tells you.' This is the Gospel of Mary. All is summarized in this phrase: ‘Do what Jesus tells you.’ Mary addresses these words to us as well, not only to the servants of Cana.”
If Jesus was merely a wise man, then we might reasonably reserve some discretion in determining whether we should do what He tells us. But He is God and therefore the merit and success of our actions depends upon whether or not we are doing what Jesus wants us to do. If we heed the words of Mary, we will be be saved:
“And when we appeal to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to ask her what we should do in the difficult circumstances of our lives, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will answer us just as she answered the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: ‘Do all that He tells you. Do the will of Our Lord. Observe the commandments of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If you do the will of Our Lord, if you do the will of my divine Son, then you will be saved. Then your soul, which is perhaps like water, will be changed into wine, a generous wine. Your soul will be filled with the grace of the Lord. Your soul will be filled with all that is necessary for you to fulfill the commandments of God.’”
The false shepherds do all they can to convince us that neither Mary nor Jesus literally want us to do what the Church has always taught us to do.
The false shepherds do all they can to convince us that neither Mary nor Jesus literally want us to do what the Church has always taught us to do, and we can see the abominable fruits of those who allow themselves to be duped into ignoring the words of Jesus. If these innovators had been present at Cana, they would have intervened to make sure the servants ignored the words of Jesus — this is what they want to do to us. We must instead listen to Mary and do what Jesus tells us to do.
The Importance of the Mass. “The fourth lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is her presence on Calvary. Her presence on Calvary, where she is not the priest who offers the sacrifice—the priest who offers the sacrifice is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself— but the Most Blessed Virgin Mary is there, present. The Apostles are absent; only Saint John is with her. By this presence on Calvary, the Virgin Mary shows us the importance of the Sacrifice of Calvary, and, consequently, the importance of the Sacrifice of the Mass. She is the Mother of priests. She is the Mother of all the faithful.”
The changes to the Mass deliberately eliminated most of the visible connections to the Sacrifice of Calvary, as almost any honest observer of the Tridentine Mass and the Novus Ordo can readily discern. As an intended result, neither the Mass nor the Sacrifice of Calvary have any real meaning for many (perhaps most) nominal Catholics today. If the Mass is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary, how can the innovators think they are following Our Lady by making the Novus Ordo into such a light-hearted, irreverent spectacle? By distorting the Mass in this way, the reformers lead unsuspecting Catholics to lose sight of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, and the love Christ has for us:
“And by this presence, standing before her divine Son, who is covered with blood, whose blood was poured forth for our sins, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary shows Him to us, and says to us, ‘See the love He has for you: my divine Son has given all His blood, this blood that I myself gave Him in my womb, this blood that is now all over His body. His heart is open. His head is pierced with thorns. His hands are pierced; His feet pierced—all that by love for you.’ And this will continue until the end of time through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
The innovators have created an illusory, counterfeit church which retains some of the formal and superficial appearances of the Catholic Church but none of the marks.
Love the Unchanging Church. “Finally, the last lesson that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gives us is that of her presence in the midst of the Apostles the day of Pentecost. It is through her that the graces will be given to the Apostles and that the Holy Ghost will descend upon the Apostles. The Church teaches us so. The Apostles were sanctified on that day by the Holy Ghost through the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, through the mediation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. So the Most Blessed Virgin teaches us to love the Church, to love the Holy Ghost—the Holy Ghost, who is given to us by all the Sacraments instituted by Our Lord, and especially by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by the Eucharist. This is what the Most Blessed Virgin Mary teaches us. Therefore, we must be attached to the Church, and it is because we are attached to the Church that we defend our holy Mother the Church.”
How can we possibly love and defend the Church if we accept ideas that would have been anathema to Mary and the Apostles? The enemies of the Church want us to believe that Jesus did not really mean what He said about morality and the need to adhere to His teachings to be saved. No Catholic worthy of the name can believe this; we must instead insist on a Church that Our Lady would recognize as her own:
“We do not want them to change our Church. We want no other Church. We want the Roman Catholic Church, that which the Most Blessed Virgin Mary communicated to the Apostles in the Holy Ghost. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we love—the Church of the Mother of Jesus, the Church of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. This is the Church that we want. This is the Church that we venerate, the Church to which we wish forever to remain subject. So we beg those who have posts of authority in the Church not to change our Church, to remain faithful to the Church of Mary, to remain faithful to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, to all the lessons that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary has given us.”
The innovators have created an illusory, counterfeit church which retains some of the formal and superficial appearances of the Catholic Church but none of the marks: it is not One, Holy, Catholic, or Apostolic. The true Church cannot ever become what Francis and his collaborators claim it has become. If we follow the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will have no part with their deceptions. The current trials and contradictions will likely grow worse, but if we allow the Blessed Virgin Mary to be our guide and model, we will save our souls and do all we can to help the Church and world. Every major crisis we see today stems, in one way or another, from Catholics ignoring this wisdom of Mary; for our part, let us instead decide to courageously and faithfully live by the wisdom of Mary, and thereby facilitate God’s ultimate victory over Satan and his minions. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Michael Matt on the Ukraine situation — THE ERRORS of GLOBALISM: Russia, Ukraine, and the Suicide of the West
