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One is bombing and war; the other is prayer and peace. One is temporal and manmade, the other eternal and Godmade. One forges a false peace through deception; the other assures peace through reception to God's Will. One employs weapons of destruction; the other employs the simplest weapon in the world that will conquer this world. The manmade weapon costs millions of dollars and millions more in technology and reconstruction from the damage inflicted; the other one - you don't need a license to carry this concealed weapon (though it is encouraged not to conceal it but wield it proudly to all) and it costs nothing. Yet the rewards can't be calculated in monetary terms. One was fashioned from the devious minds of men intent on destruction; the other fashioned by the hand of God and imparted to mankind by His very own Mother Mary in the most lovingness of ways. Which weapon would you choose?
We know which one Clinton has chosen. Consider that Clinton has taken steps which are not constitutional in committing our troops to NATO in the Balkans. The fact he has termed the three U.S. captives Prisoners of War confirms his intent for war. The fact is he has attacked a sovereign nation which has never perpetrated any kind of attack on the U.S. or threatened an attack on any American allies. In short it is an outward hostile aggression against the Constitution of the United States and Congressman Tom Campbell from California has introduced a bill that in effect says Congress must decide for "Pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, the Congress hereby directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from their positions in connection with the present operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia within 30 days after passage of this resolution or within such longer period as may be necessary to effectuate their safe withdrawal." Schafly rightly states that "Clinton's war is foolish, dangerous, dishonest, and a failure. It's the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place." She even goes further saying that if Congress allows him to get away with this it will make the very essence of this governmental body, established as a checks and balance to carry out democracy for the republic, irrelevant. In several references to "Wag the Dog" Schafly points out that Clinton is flaunting his "push for power" at the expense of not only innocent citizens in the Balkans and soldiers engaged there but Americans within the United States who will be prime targets of terrorist threats carried out by America's enemies, most likely Osama bin Laden who has been lying in wait for such an opportunity as Clinton is handing him on a silver tray. But Clinton has other objectives which are not in line with his predecessors. Remember, none of his predecessors was a draft-dodger; none of his predecessors, though questionable of character at times, were proven to be so immoral, so deceitful in purpose. It has been pointed out that with reserve troops called up America will become very, very vulnerable. That is exactly what Clinton wants! "What?" you say?
Consider this: On June 3, 1994 he issued Executive Order 12919 which invested FEMA with total authority over communications, energy, food, transportation, health, housing and other resources. That covers everything, folks, and all it takes is a nod from Clinton to release his militia demons - the real men in black! No one should have that kind of power! Look what happened in Waco a year before he passed the FEMA dictatorial authority. His hand-picked Secretary of Defense William Cohen has said, "Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection." Can you believe that? "more intrusive means of protection?"!?! It's all there in black and white and still we don't see it? We know for a fact he has been not only courting the UN but bedding down with them, secretly employing UN troops in New Mexico, Texas, and other western states...all lying in wait, waiting, waiting.
Senator John Ashcroft strongly opposed the NATO Expansion Treaty last year that Clinton sought. While the supposed purpose was to get the US to commit to helping defend the borders of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were they to be attacked, it was "actually a mechanism to entrap the United States into sending our service personnel, under foreign commanders, to answer 911 calls to break up domestic brawls in any foreign country. Clinton is threatening to bomb the Serbs [it no longer is a threat, he has bombed them!], not because they have invaded another country, but because they refuse to accept a US-crafted agreement enforced by NATO troops."
So as we see thousands upon thousands displaced by ethnic cleansing we see another kind of cleansing that makes no determination as to victim with bombs exploding all over Serbia and innocent people suffering everywhere. The only two men who profit from this terrible conflagration of destruction are Clinton and his notorious counterpart made from the same cloth - Slobodan Milosevic. Some rationalize that if Serbia was faultless then they would have gotten rid of the Yugoslav dictator long before now. Hey, we haven't gotten rid of our immoral, unAmerican dictator yet so who are we to point the finger at the Serbs? We have a strong suspicion that of the two weapons used above, the Rosary is in greater use in the Balkans. We can only hope it will be in greater use in the United States. Just a few hundred miles west of Kosovo Our Lady appeared back in 1981 and has been coming daily ever since, giving us a failsafe way to achieve peace for she knew what was about to transpire. Did we listen and respond? Some have, but as for the majority, and that includes many in the Church, we have not and the consequences bear that out.
That is where the World Wide Rosary Crusade site comes in. Too many are too young to remember Father Patrick Peyton and his Radio Rosary Crusade, the man who coined the phrase, "the family that prays together, stays together." From the divorce and broken homes statistics over the past thirty years some might conclude that the Rosary has not been a very viable weapon, but we assert that it is very viable, just that it hasn't been employed enough. Our Lady has tried to change that, first by coming to three children north of Lisbon in Portugal in 1917 in what is now the international shrine of Fatima. She continued this crusade with subsequent visits at Beaurang, Banneaux, Garabandal, San Damiano, Akita, Betania, El Escorial, and Medjugorje where the Rosary was once again the emphasis. We still firmly believe that had the Blessed Virgin Mary not come to Medjugorje, the Rosary might all but be forgotten. That has been the effect of the aftermath of Vatican II when all of a sudden the Rosary, that staple the nuns had pounded into us as so vital, was shelved along with the Prayer to Saint Michael fashioned by Pope Leo XIII through the direct inspiration of private revelation. Also put on the back burner were novenas, indulgences, contemplative retreats or days of recollection, and forty hour devotion. Fortunately many of these have been resuscitated by our current Holy Father and the loyal, traditional bishops he has increasingly put in strategic places. More and more dioceses are establishing Perpetual Adoration and abbreviated forty-hour devotions. Many parishes are realizing that the liberal-oriented "feel-good, bare your feelings" type of retreat format has its limitations and are finally giving way to returning to the traditional, orthodox way of communicating with God in silence and meditation as He affirms, "Be still and know that I am God."
It's too bad, with all our modern static, that we haven't discovered this sooner. Perhaps Our Lady's Immaculate Heart would have triumphed by now. It's also too bad that His children only return to Him in time of trouble. Guess that's the human nature factor, but it's still too bad. The last time we had a rush on the Rosaries and increased visits before the Blessed Sacrament was in early 1991 when the Gulf War broke out. Then what happened? Like the Jews of the Old Testament we have fallen back into a malaise, lured by temporal rewards that mean nothing to the Almighty. How else can one explain allowing a moral despot like Clinton to not only rule for nearly eight years, but abuse the office like it has never been abused before? We have created a monster and he is about to engulf us all either in a point-of-no-return military policy or bankrupt us morally for misery loves company and, as we know, Clinton has lots of company immorality-wise. Some have criticized us for dissing him all the time, judging him, always referring back to what Christ said to Mary Magdalene that He did not condemn her. They fail to remember His parting words to her: "Go thy way, and from now on sin no more" (John 8: 11). The difference is that Clinton has not truly repented but continues his charade in Pharisaic fashion. If we don't speak out, we will be held accountable for we all share a responsibility for the welfare of the sheep in exposing the "wolves in sheep's clothing."
Thus, we will continue this tirade until enough understand how satan is goading Clinton and those buffaloed by his "charm" and doublespeak to giftwrap countless souls for the prince of darkness. But there is a light at the end of that hellish tunnel and it can penetrate the hardest of hearts if we only let it. That light is, of course, the Rosary and it takes no batteries, electricity, or generator of any kind to operate efficiently. All it takes is genuine sincerity of heart. Do we have the energy for that? Our Lady has prophesied many times about events to come from Rue de Bac on when she gave us the Miraculous Medal to La Salette when she foretold of the One World Order and that "Rome would become the seat of the antichrist". She has, in many messages warned us of these times and where Clinton was taking our country and the world. Should we be surprised? If we are, then we're not praying hard enough for these things will come. The only way to combat the grave danger ahead is with the Rosary, which as we've detailed above is the greatest, most powerful weapon we have. Much of what was to come has been mitigated purely through the Rosary and the faithful remnant's prayers, fasting and sacrifice. But will it be enough? Remember the episode between Abraham and the Father. Will there be ten faithful souls to carry on the cause? The World Wide Rosary Crusade is one way to help punctuate the necessity for placing the world's most powerful weapon back in the hands and hearts of God's little ones as the great sequel to David and Goliath is about to unfold: the faithful remnant vs. the one world order. The decade is almost over, have we prayed enough decades to help save mankind?
"Seen Him? Who? Are you mad, woman?" Again, Peter's penchant for abruptness strikes at her joy but cannot diminish it.
Mary falls to her knees and she says as if in a state of high contemplation. "I have seen Him, the Master. He is risen!"
"NO!" "Absurd!" The raving of a grief-stricken woman!" are the various responses made by the Apostles. Only John's face matches the ecstatic look on the Magdalene's.
"What do you mean? Speak plainly," says Peter who crosses to the center of the room in several strides and pulls Mary to her feet. He holds her arms, so their eyes meet. In his, I see a deep, deep desire to believe her. There is the first, faint glimmer of hope in his eyes, truly the first I have seen since the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
"I went there, early. I took the oils and spices. I went ahead of the other Marys. When I came upon the open space wherein the tomb had been dug, I saw the stone rolled away from the entrance. The Roman soldiers were still there. They were asleep. IO cried out, I felt that they or some other thieves had stolen His body. I awakened them. They were stunned to see the stone moved.
I rushed past them; I had to see for myself. I entered the tomb. There was no body there, but the winding sheet and linens we had placed around Him had been carefully unfolded. They were lying on the stone slab.
I came back out. I begged the soldiers to tell me where they had taken His Body, for all I sought was to give Him due reverence. They were frightened, and two ran off to tell their captain that during the night it was two or more of the man's friends who had tricked them, moved the stone and stolen the body. They paid no attention to me.
I took the side path. I was bereft, weeping with grief. As I came along the side path, I saw upon the hill a man. He seemed to be tending the soil. He spoke to me.
"What did He say?" Peter's grip grew tighter, and Mary broke free from his hold.
"He asked me who I was seeking. I told Him, and He then asked me why I should seek the living among the dead. My grief was so great I began to cry, and it was then that He spoke my name.
'Mary,' He said, and my soul recognized Him. There is no other voice Who could speak my name in that way. I looked up, and I saw Him, the Master. He is alive! I rushed to Him, throwing myself at His feet, but He told me I should not yet touch Him, as He had not yet gone to the Father. Then He instructed me to come and announce to His Apostles that He is risen. He said to tell you He goes before you into Galilee."
There are gasps, sputtering, half-choked words from the assembled men. "Is it true? Can it be?" Peter's face is flushed with a hope that he clings to with all his being, but which his human nature will not allow him to fully accept.
"It is nonsense, and all the more trouble for us now," grumbles one of the Apostles.
"No!" Mary is on fire. She will not permit these cowardly, doubting men to rob her of one ounce of her joy, the joy that is meant for all men of every age.
"Go," she commands Peter. "See for yourself if you are not so afraid that you fear to go beyond the door. What I have said to you is the Truth. Go! See!" And then, much softer like the whisper of an angel's prayer, Mary says more to herself, "I will go and give proper thanks with His Mother. Then I must go to announce the news to those at my brother's house."
"Do you believe her?" is the general question put to Peter. Peter looks around. He is their Head, their Rock.
"Come, John. We will go. The others remain here. We are sensible men, not prone to hysterics. We will bring back word after we have seen with our eyes."
John has already started for the door. Peter must hurry to catch up with him. Mary, seeing the two Apostles take their leave, silently withdraws from the room, leaving the remaining Apostles to huddle together where they alternately, in whispers, hope her words are sincere; at the next, dismissing them as the over-wrought imaginings of a woman.
But the Magdalene has seen. She has believed and her trust has been rewarded. Much calmer now on the exterior, and elated, Mary of Magdala knocks at the door of Our Blessed Mother's room and says, "It is I, Holy Mother," in a voice that already acknowledges that the Blessed Mother already knows the cause of her job. She has come to thank God and to honor His Mother for the prayers offered which saw her through the darkness of the Passion and Death. She has come to lay at the feet of the Mother of God the Glory she has been permitted to see for herself, and to pray with the Mother of God that all may believe, even if they do not see.
1534 A.D.
Catholic forces overcome and massacre a growing sect of Waldensian militants in Provence, France during the Protestant revolt which has resulted in a hate campaign between Protestant and Catholic. Pope Clement VII greatly laments the course society has taken and the many unnecessary deaths that have resulted from this schism.
1923 A.D.
Birth of Mother Angelica. The dynamic Franciscan nun who began EWTN seventeen years ago, celebrates her 76th birthday today. A Happy and Blessed Birthday to this stalwart leader of the loyal Roman Catholic movement in America and worldwide. May she have many more!
