Deus in adjutorium meum intende. O God come to my assistance.
Domine in adjuvandum meum festina. O Lord make haste to help me.
Our Lady told the three children at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, that more souls are in hell because of sins of the flesh than of any other sin.
Forgive me for this graphic statement, but this world of ours, and I mean the whole world, not just the United States, is awash in spilled semen. In the Old Testament Onan was struck dead for that sin. What do we have? It is not just the scandal in the Catholic Church, where homosexuals infiltrated the seminaries, beginning in the early 20th century, a deliberate attempt by the communists to destroy the Church from within Freemasonry also had its own agenda, if one believes the Alta Vendita.
The homosexual perversion among clergy, I dare call it what it is, as old as history, was condemned by popes throughout the centuries. Some recommended severe penalties, constant supervision and even the death penalty for clergy guilty of that sin. However, today, with decades of infiltration of seminaries, those now who have risen to high positions in the Church, even to the Vatican itself, have been complicit, covered up for others, and in general are responsible for the pain in Christ's Mystical Body right now. As in Washington, D.C., it's time to "drain the swamp."
For a long time, hierarchy who wanted to do the right thing, were convinced that psychological help could solve the problem without removing offenders, or by moving them from a perceived temptation, only to have them repeat their offenses wherever they were. I'm not forgetting that there are pedophiles among clergy, and children have suffered. Any clergyman who has harmed a child or minor, through pedophilia or homosexual acts should be reported to authorities and prosecuted. Every guilty cardinal, bishop, priest, should be laicized.
Having said all that, I must say that the number in the Church, considering the number of priests in the world, is small, even though adding them up sounds horrendous, and the crimes among hierarchy makes it the worst of betrayal of, not just the faithful, but of Christ Himself. Judas is alive and well.
Now I get to another point. The Church is an easy target because of its position in the world as a major representative of Christianity around the world. That is the reason it was targeted. Make the Catholic Church fall and then go after other denominations. We hear little about them so far. But wait until the other shoe drops.
If we are honest, the world is a cesspool of sexual deviants, sexual predators, unchaste and libertine men - and women. If we are honest, other denominations have the same problems, synagogues, the public schools, businesses, sports, our very own congress with its hush slush fund, just ordinary people who have no regard for the proper use of sex and the consequent murders of millions of babies through abortion.. All have made society in general a modern Sodom and Gomorrha.
Homosexuality and now transgenderism corrupts our children with picture books as early as kindergarten about two mommies or two daddies, drag queen storytimes in our schools. Sex ed classes are nothing more than initiation into every form of sexual deviancy. Movies, videos and video games, advertisements, fashion, filthy language, male and female near nudity, out and out pornography - Hollywood? The casting couch is as old as the first studio. Plays? Music (or what passes for music - Rap, for instance). No part of life is free from the most base feelings and actions of of the human race.
Show me one place besides the Church and by extension the sanctity of the home that is a refuge. Even that is threatened by what is allowed into its "safe space." Every country, every province, state, county, city, around the world is infected by the most destructive virus. It is a pandemic caused by a lack of Faith in God and His moral order. The fact that sex is the strongest urge among God's creatures for the preservation of species, makes us vulnerable to misusing it, our wills weakened by our fallen natures. If one says today that women should cover themselves and men should guard their eyes, the opinion is that said person is a prude or simply old-fashioned. Human nature says otherwise.
We are created in the image and likeness of God. By that I mean that we have a spiritual nature and free will. God shares His love with us. Loving sex between a husband and wife, the only kind that is legitimate in the eyes of God, is more than pleasure, more even than conception to create children, which is its first purpose; it is more than becoming mother and father. It is for the comfort and love man and woman offer each other, for the lifelong bond that makes a family the primary unit of society. That is a sacred bond. That bond is meant for a couple to help each other and their children to reach Heaven as the end for which they were created.
While this has strayed from the first reason it was written, it was necessary to bring a clean end to a subject with a sordid beginning.
09/14/18
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Thursday, June 14, 2018
United States Flag
I found this poem in a newspaper several years ago. The author is Anonymous.
I AM THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I am the flag of the United States of America. My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom. I am confident. I am arrogant. I am proud.
When I am flown with my fellow banners, my head is a little higher,
My colors a little truer.
I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected - and I am feared.
I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appomatox.
I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest,
Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy, Guam, Okinawa Korea and KheSan,
Saigon, Vietnam know me; I was there.
I led my troops, I was dirty, battleworn and tired,
But my soldiers cheered me, and I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country.
And when it's done by those whom I've served in battle - it hurts.
But I shall overcome - for I am strong.
I have slipped the bonds of Earth and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space
From my vantage point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness to all of Ameria' finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.
When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,'
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldier,
Or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,
I am proud.
06/14/18
I AM THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I am the flag of the United States of America. My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom. I am confident. I am arrogant. I am proud.
When I am flown with my fellow banners, my head is a little higher,
My colors a little truer.
I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected - and I am feared.
I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appomatox.
I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest,
Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy, Guam, Okinawa Korea and KheSan,
Saigon, Vietnam know me; I was there.
I led my troops, I was dirty, battleworn and tired,
But my soldiers cheered me, and I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country.
And when it's done by those whom I've served in battle - it hurts.
But I shall overcome - for I am strong.
I have slipped the bonds of Earth and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space
From my vantage point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness to all of Ameria' finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.
When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,'
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldier,
Or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,
I am proud.
06/14/18
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Second Amendment Quotes
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
"The said Constitution should be never construed...to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams.
"And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." Thomas Jefferson
"The advantage of being armed is an advantage the Americans possess over people of almost every other nation...the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." James Madison (Remember this was in the 1700s)
"A free people ought to be armed." George Washington
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed - as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed." Noah Webster
"A militia...are in fact the people themselves...and are for the most part employed at home in their private concerns." Richard Henry Lee.
"Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people." George Mason (called Father of the Bill of Rights)
*********************
Every state had within its own constitution the affirmation of the individual right to bear arms. The men quoted above were all signers of the Declaration and/or the Constitution and Bill of Rights. One would think that the liberals who are so worried that our Federal Government is on the road to tyranny would be first to champion the Second Amendment. Even Tom Paine, a Quaker, defended the rights of the Individual to bear arms. This information is found in a little booklet called "The Second Amendment" by David Barton.
11/09/2017
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
"The said Constitution should be never construed...to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." Samuel Adams.
"And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." Thomas Jefferson
"The advantage of being armed is an advantage the Americans possess over people of almost every other nation...the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." James Madison (Remember this was in the 1700s)
"A free people ought to be armed." George Washington
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed - as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed." Noah Webster
"A militia...are in fact the people themselves...and are for the most part employed at home in their private concerns." Richard Henry Lee.
"Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people." George Mason (called Father of the Bill of Rights)
*********************
Every state had within its own constitution the affirmation of the individual right to bear arms. The men quoted above were all signers of the Declaration and/or the Constitution and Bill of Rights. One would think that the liberals who are so worried that our Federal Government is on the road to tyranny would be first to champion the Second Amendment. Even Tom Paine, a Quaker, defended the rights of the Individual to bear arms. This information is found in a little booklet called "The Second Amendment" by David Barton.
11/09/2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.
In trying to straighten the jumble of books on my shelves (sigh), I made it over to the children's book shelves. I long ago had purchased a set of the "McGufffey's Eclectic Readers" for my curiosity. What an education! There are a Primer and four Readers. The Primer is for the youngest child. The last Reader is - or was - about junior high level - or what would have been that level back in the day.
The McGuffey's were widely used in schools beginning in the 1830s, at a time when many immigrants were coming from Europe. The readers helped to standardize the English language, according to a brief history I read. They also reflected the moral values of the 19th century and helped to shape them, as well. By 1925 about 122 million copies were in use.
For the edification of those who choose to read this post, I am setting down some items from the Primer. Remember, this is for the youngest child. See Dick. See Dick run? Hah! In the front of the book are pages with capital and lower case alphabet. In the back of the book are script writing exercises. Each lesson has at the top of the page the letters and words to be used, with their phonetic characters (long or short vowel).
Lesson LI: There is a picture of a tree and this lesson. "Do you see that tall tree? Long ago it sprang up from a nut. Do you know who made it so? It was God, my child. God made the world and all things in it. He made the sun to light the day and the moon to shine at night. God shows that he loves us by all that he has done for us. Should we not then love him?"
Lesson LII: a poem to learn "When the stars at set of sun,
Watch you from on high;
When the light of moon has come,
Think the Lord is nigh.
All you do, and all you say,
He can see and hear;
When you work and when you play,
Think the Lord is near.
All your joys and griefs he knows,
Sees each smile and tear;
When to him you tell your woes,
Know the Lord will hear."
When someone in the 1800s had only a sixth grade education, as I saw in the Sixth Reader, he/she would have knowledge of elocution, some works of Shakespeare, Dryden and about one hundred major authors and poets, Patrick Henry's speech, Blackstone' the Origin of Property, Daniel Webster, etc., etc.
I think I need to sit down and go through that last Reader. There are a few things I don't remember having been exposed to, even in my college days; and my education gave me a pretty full liberal arts and humanities background.
10/03/2017
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.
In trying to straighten the jumble of books on my shelves (sigh), I made it over to the children's book shelves. I long ago had purchased a set of the "McGufffey's Eclectic Readers" for my curiosity. What an education! There are a Primer and four Readers. The Primer is for the youngest child. The last Reader is - or was - about junior high level - or what would have been that level back in the day.
The McGuffey's were widely used in schools beginning in the 1830s, at a time when many immigrants were coming from Europe. The readers helped to standardize the English language, according to a brief history I read. They also reflected the moral values of the 19th century and helped to shape them, as well. By 1925 about 122 million copies were in use.
For the edification of those who choose to read this post, I am setting down some items from the Primer. Remember, this is for the youngest child. See Dick. See Dick run? Hah! In the front of the book are pages with capital and lower case alphabet. In the back of the book are script writing exercises. Each lesson has at the top of the page the letters and words to be used, with their phonetic characters (long or short vowel).
Lesson LI: There is a picture of a tree and this lesson. "Do you see that tall tree? Long ago it sprang up from a nut. Do you know who made it so? It was God, my child. God made the world and all things in it. He made the sun to light the day and the moon to shine at night. God shows that he loves us by all that he has done for us. Should we not then love him?"
Lesson LII: a poem to learn "When the stars at set of sun,
Watch you from on high;
When the light of moon has come,
Think the Lord is nigh.
All you do, and all you say,
He can see and hear;
When you work and when you play,
Think the Lord is near.
All your joys and griefs he knows,
Sees each smile and tear;
When to him you tell your woes,
Know the Lord will hear."
When someone in the 1800s had only a sixth grade education, as I saw in the Sixth Reader, he/she would have knowledge of elocution, some works of Shakespeare, Dryden and about one hundred major authors and poets, Patrick Henry's speech, Blackstone' the Origin of Property, Daniel Webster, etc., etc.
I think I need to sit down and go through that last Reader. There are a few things I don't remember having been exposed to, even in my college days; and my education gave me a pretty full liberal arts and humanities background.
10/03/2017
Monday, September 11, 2017
Deum, in adjutorium intende.
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
The following I wrote on September 13, 2001 and sent in to the local paper, which they published. It demonstrates one of the reasons we have "snowflakes" among our young people, I think. The local high school (and probably many others) had chosen not to show video of the 911 attack with people jumping to their deaths, etc.
*******************************
Why are we protecting our children from the world's reality? They watch the mindless, sensational reality shows on TV. They play video games and watch movies with plenty of gore. The high school administration was wrong, I believe, in not dealing up front in every homeroom with the horror of this week's act of war and what it might portend They should see, as should the rest of the country, the mutilated humanity and what an abomination has been committed against our free way of life.
As WWII was ending, I was 13 years old. We children saw the living skeletons and piled up naked bodies from Auschwicz. They were in newsreels at theaters, shown between two features and assorted short subjects. My parents came home after three years in a Japanese prison camp in Manila, PI. They took me to an ex-POW meeting at which films were shown of liberated Manila after 28 days of fighting and massacre. I saw brains spilling out of a Japanese helmet. I saw, bloated, unrecognizable bodies. I saw filipinos with their intestines spilling out of their bayoneted torsos. There were babies, children, women and men. There were Japanese soldiers, charred from flamethrowers. My mother wanted me to see what innocent people, adults and children, saw up close and personal.
My simple ration book life with few wartime inconveniences, gave me no real concept of what war was really like. The films, my mother said, were all too accurate, except that the smell was missing. We Americans should try to protect our children from needless pain and suffering. We hope that they will never have to see what thousands of children in Africa and the Middle East, are exposed to every day - fear, violence, death and devastation. We are wrong to shield them from realities that can make them strong, thoughtful citizens. Show them. Give them a history lesson. Give them courage. Surely we can do that.
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
The following I wrote on September 13, 2001 and sent in to the local paper, which they published. It demonstrates one of the reasons we have "snowflakes" among our young people, I think. The local high school (and probably many others) had chosen not to show video of the 911 attack with people jumping to their deaths, etc.
*******************************
Why are we protecting our children from the world's reality? They watch the mindless, sensational reality shows on TV. They play video games and watch movies with plenty of gore. The high school administration was wrong, I believe, in not dealing up front in every homeroom with the horror of this week's act of war and what it might portend They should see, as should the rest of the country, the mutilated humanity and what an abomination has been committed against our free way of life.
As WWII was ending, I was 13 years old. We children saw the living skeletons and piled up naked bodies from Auschwicz. They were in newsreels at theaters, shown between two features and assorted short subjects. My parents came home after three years in a Japanese prison camp in Manila, PI. They took me to an ex-POW meeting at which films were shown of liberated Manila after 28 days of fighting and massacre. I saw brains spilling out of a Japanese helmet. I saw, bloated, unrecognizable bodies. I saw filipinos with their intestines spilling out of their bayoneted torsos. There were babies, children, women and men. There were Japanese soldiers, charred from flamethrowers. My mother wanted me to see what innocent people, adults and children, saw up close and personal.
My simple ration book life with few wartime inconveniences, gave me no real concept of what war was really like. The films, my mother said, were all too accurate, except that the smell was missing. We Americans should try to protect our children from needless pain and suffering. We hope that they will never have to see what thousands of children in Africa and the Middle East, are exposed to every day - fear, violence, death and devastation. We are wrong to shield them from realities that can make them strong, thoughtful citizens. Show them. Give them a history lesson. Give them courage. Surely we can do that.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.
Dominie, ad adjuvandum me festina.
My 86th birthday coincided with the 236th birthday of my home town, Los Angeles, CA. The L.A. County sheriff at the time of my birth, the 150th birthday of the city, was Sheriff Biscailuz, of Basque heritage. All the babies born on Sept. 4, 1931 received from the good Sheriff a little blue felt sombrero with white tassels. Its ribbon brim, in the colors of Mexico had printed on it, La Fiesta de Los Angeles. I still have mine, believe it or not.
I thought I would share a little history that most people do not know about the name of Los Angeles. On August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, Franciscan, with the expedition of Captain Rivera Y Moncado, came upon a river that they named, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de la Porciuncula. August 2 on the Franciscan calendar celebrated the Perdono at the tiny Assisi chapel of St. Francis. The chapel was given to St. Francis by Benedictines. It needed repair and Francis restored it. The chapel was on a small parcel of land, called a porziuncola. Painted on the wall behind the altar was a fresco of the Blessed Virgin with angels. The chapel, now inside a Basilica at Assisi, was named St. Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion (porciuncula). The new settlement near the river, discovered in California, became a pueblo, Sept. 4, 1781, and was known originally as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion). Officially the name was simply El Pueblo de a Reina de Los Angeles, now just Los Angeles.
AMDG
Dominie, ad adjuvandum me festina.
My 86th birthday coincided with the 236th birthday of my home town, Los Angeles, CA. The L.A. County sheriff at the time of my birth, the 150th birthday of the city, was Sheriff Biscailuz, of Basque heritage. All the babies born on Sept. 4, 1931 received from the good Sheriff a little blue felt sombrero with white tassels. Its ribbon brim, in the colors of Mexico had printed on it, La Fiesta de Los Angeles. I still have mine, believe it or not.
I thought I would share a little history that most people do not know about the name of Los Angeles. On August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, Franciscan, with the expedition of Captain Rivera Y Moncado, came upon a river that they named, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de la Porciuncula. August 2 on the Franciscan calendar celebrated the Perdono at the tiny Assisi chapel of St. Francis. The chapel was given to St. Francis by Benedictines. It needed repair and Francis restored it. The chapel was on a small parcel of land, called a porziuncola. Painted on the wall behind the altar was a fresco of the Blessed Virgin with angels. The chapel, now inside a Basilica at Assisi, was named St. Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion (porciuncula). The new settlement near the river, discovered in California, became a pueblo, Sept. 4, 1781, and was known originally as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Little Portion). Officially the name was simply El Pueblo de a Reina de Los Angeles, now just Los Angeles.
AMDG
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Deus in adjutorium meum intende.
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
Our parish bulletin contained a very interesting article about Nagasaki. I am sharing it here because the last part is profound. The title is "Hansai" or Holocaust.
On August 9, 1945 the Mass for the Vigil of St. Lawrence was celebrated in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in the Urakami district of Nagasaki, Japan. After the Mass, two of the parish priests began hearing confessions, with a dozen or so parishioners waiting in line to receive the Sacrament. At 11:20 AM, an atomic bomb - the second and last ever used in an act of war - detonated directly over the cathedral, killing everyone inside. Of the 12,000 Catholics in the Urakami neighborhood, 8,500 died.
The American B-29, nicknamed "Bockscar," was supposed to drop its deadly payload on the city of Kokura, but cloud cover over Kokura made it impossible for the bombardier to find his target; so the plane moved on to its backup target of Nagasaki. At Nagasaki, too the clouds made accurate bombing impossible, but with engine trouble and with fuel running low the crew decided to drop the bomb more or less at random over the city.
Was it merely a cruel accident that the doomsday weapon that ended the most brutal war in history fell on the largest Catholic church in Asia? At the Requiem Mass for the victims, Urakami Cathedral parishioner, Dr. Takashi Nagai had this to say:
"Our cathedral suddenly burst into flames and was consumed. At exactly the same time in the Imperial Palace, His Majesty the Emperor made known his sacred decision to end the war. On August 15, the Imperial Rescript, which put an end to the fighting, was formally promulgated, and the whole world saw the light of peace. August 15 is also the great feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is significant, I believe, that the Urakami cathedral was dedicated to her. We must ask: was this convergence of events the end of the war and the celebration of her feast day, merely coincidental, or was it the mysterious Providence of God?
"...It was not the American crew I believe, who chose our suburb. God's Providence chose Urakami and carried the bomb right above our homes. Is there not a profound relationship between the annihilation of Nagasaki and the end of the war? Was not Nagasaki the chosen victim, the lamb without blemish, slain as a whole burnt offering on the altar of sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all the nations during World War II?
"We are inheritors of Adam's sin...of Cain's sin...Hating one another, killing one another, joyfully killing one another!...but mere repentance was not enough for peace...We had to offer a stupendous sacrifice...Cities had been leveled, but that was not enough...Only this hansai (holocaust) in Nagasaki sufficed, and at that moment God inspired our Emperor to issue the sacred proclamation that ended the war. The Christian flock of Nagasaki was true to the Faith through three centuries of persecution. During the recent war it prayed ceaselessly for a lasting peace. Here was the one pure lamb that had to be sacrificed as hansai on His altar...so that many millions of lives might be saved...Let us be thankful that Nagasaki was chosen for the whole burnt sacrifice! Let us be thankful that through this sacrifice, peace was granted to the world and religious freedom to Japan,"
I make just one comment. The Emperor Hirohito was prevented from immediately carrying out his intention by his military. It was after further bombings by B-29s over Japan that he defied them and on August 15 went on the radio to proclaim surrender. It was the first time his subjects had ever heard the voice of their god-emperor.
08/09/2017
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
Our parish bulletin contained a very interesting article about Nagasaki. I am sharing it here because the last part is profound. The title is "Hansai" or Holocaust.
On August 9, 1945 the Mass for the Vigil of St. Lawrence was celebrated in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in the Urakami district of Nagasaki, Japan. After the Mass, two of the parish priests began hearing confessions, with a dozen or so parishioners waiting in line to receive the Sacrament. At 11:20 AM, an atomic bomb - the second and last ever used in an act of war - detonated directly over the cathedral, killing everyone inside. Of the 12,000 Catholics in the Urakami neighborhood, 8,500 died.
The American B-29, nicknamed "Bockscar," was supposed to drop its deadly payload on the city of Kokura, but cloud cover over Kokura made it impossible for the bombardier to find his target; so the plane moved on to its backup target of Nagasaki. At Nagasaki, too the clouds made accurate bombing impossible, but with engine trouble and with fuel running low the crew decided to drop the bomb more or less at random over the city.
Was it merely a cruel accident that the doomsday weapon that ended the most brutal war in history fell on the largest Catholic church in Asia? At the Requiem Mass for the victims, Urakami Cathedral parishioner, Dr. Takashi Nagai had this to say:
"Our cathedral suddenly burst into flames and was consumed. At exactly the same time in the Imperial Palace, His Majesty the Emperor made known his sacred decision to end the war. On August 15, the Imperial Rescript, which put an end to the fighting, was formally promulgated, and the whole world saw the light of peace. August 15 is also the great feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is significant, I believe, that the Urakami cathedral was dedicated to her. We must ask: was this convergence of events the end of the war and the celebration of her feast day, merely coincidental, or was it the mysterious Providence of God?
"...It was not the American crew I believe, who chose our suburb. God's Providence chose Urakami and carried the bomb right above our homes. Is there not a profound relationship between the annihilation of Nagasaki and the end of the war? Was not Nagasaki the chosen victim, the lamb without blemish, slain as a whole burnt offering on the altar of sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all the nations during World War II?
"We are inheritors of Adam's sin...of Cain's sin...Hating one another, killing one another, joyfully killing one another!...but mere repentance was not enough for peace...We had to offer a stupendous sacrifice...Cities had been leveled, but that was not enough...Only this hansai (holocaust) in Nagasaki sufficed, and at that moment God inspired our Emperor to issue the sacred proclamation that ended the war. The Christian flock of Nagasaki was true to the Faith through three centuries of persecution. During the recent war it prayed ceaselessly for a lasting peace. Here was the one pure lamb that had to be sacrificed as hansai on His altar...so that many millions of lives might be saved...Let us be thankful that Nagasaki was chosen for the whole burnt sacrifice! Let us be thankful that through this sacrifice, peace was granted to the world and religious freedom to Japan,"
I make just one comment. The Emperor Hirohito was prevented from immediately carrying out his intention by his military. It was after further bombings by B-29s over Japan that he defied them and on August 15 went on the radio to proclaim surrender. It was the first time his subjects had ever heard the voice of their god-emperor.
08/09/2017
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)