Europe for centuries has withstood the onslaught of those enemies who hate Christ and His Church. In the universal calendar, we celebrate two great feasts of victory over a faith which does not accept personal liberty. These two feast days, September 12th, the Holy Name of Mary, and October 7th The Feast of the Holy Rosary, reveal the depth of the Church's efforts to save music, art, literature, architecture and law which grew out of the consciousness of natural and revealed law.
Revealed law founded not only the Jewish People of God, but Western Law. Throughout the ages, we have enjoyed, until recently, the fairness of justice based on a concept of community which rests on Christ and His Kingdom, not man's kingdom. Justice and mercy in the West became more linked with the morality of the heart of natural law, and the revealed law, which includes not only the Ten Commandments, but the beauty of the Beatitudes.
No other religion but Christianity holds such gentle and loving words as these, the code of virtue which brought peace and real progress to the nations we now label as European.
Matthew 5 Douay-Rheims
5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him.
2 And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
5 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
10 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake:
12 Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.
13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.
16 So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
17 Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.
For the first time since the aggressive tyrannies of both Marxism and Nazism, both pagan "isms" based on a false messianism and hatred particularly against Christ and His Church, we are facing enemies which truly hate peace, justice, mercy, law, and culture, the very bricks of our civilization.
We know that the forces of evil which are unseen are greater than those which are seen. Those who ignore the unseen Ancient Foe will be the first to fall for the lies of this Father of Lies. Christ warned us. He gave us the sacraments, the prayers, the example of His Own Passion so that we would be able to spread His Good News of real love and peace. The truth is that there is no love, no peace without the very foundation which created Europe-Christ. There is no justice, no mercy, no beauty without the guidance of Holy Mother Church.
At the doorstep of Europe, and possibly, as we have seen clearly since January, in many places within this beautiful continent, have come those who do not want the justice, mercy, peace, art, music, architecture, laws founded on the lovely teachings of Our God.
The Trinity has dwelt within our system for centuries because the Trinity dwells within the soul of every baptized Catholic living in sanctifying grace. What we witness now will become the true test of each one of our own ability to perceive the God Within and take Him out into the world for the sake not only of souls, but lives in our fragile civilization.
I love Europe. Europe is the cradle of my ancestors and my son. I owe my classical education, my manners, my taste in art, my love for the liturgy, my preference for Bach and Gregorian Chant, and all the thoughts which flow through my head and the feelings of my heart to those who followed Christ to build an edifice of faith.
The very first ancestor on my maternal side to come to America was a missionary priest, Father Josef Dostal from Bosice, Moravia. He wrote back to his brother, Hynek, to help build Catholic schools in the wilderness. And,these were established, including the monastery and college of St. Procopius in Lisle, now Illinois Benedictine.
The family started magazines and newspapers for the Czech populace of America, and Hynek became a diplomat under President Wilson, eventually receiving the Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great for service to the Pope. He did other things, but he also passed the Faith down to his children and children's children.
Educated laity and religious in the family carried the Faith from Europe to the land from where I write this post, and another young man, in a seminary in England, brings back both the heritage of his European ancestors and his American ones to continue evangelization and service to God on your shores. His faith is the Faith of Europe, or the Faith of Europe until recent times.
This is the Faith, universal, catholic, one, true, holy, preserved by the Catholic Church, spread by those who have loved the Bridegroom of the Bride, Christ's Church, willing to sacrifice for truth, goodness and beauty. Truth, Goodness and Beauty are a Person. Now, we all face the threats against Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
I do not know, now, but I work and pray, that like St. Monica, I may follow the son to Europe again before the darkness closes the door. Pray for me for this, please. May God gives us all courage and strength, as well as discernment, as darkness begins to cover this green and pleasant land and her neighbors. I pray for my own distraught and leaderless country and the local church, as well as the Universal Church. I pray for Europe and her wonderful people, my own people.
Let us not be caught without faith, hope. and love in these times. Let us find the Indwelling of the Trinity, that place of God in the very being of each one of us, to take us to wherever God desires in the fulfillment of His Will.
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