True Catholic Faith: Clarion Call of the Church’s Timeless Teaching

Several years ago, I was listening to a radio program, talk radio host back in Massachusetts. And, he was going through some various news stories. And it came across one news story that was a little disturbing. In fact, that there's a woman that was at a diner, and she had ordered waffles and seemed to be rather unsatisfied with her waffles. And so made a loud complaint about them to the waitress.

And that waitress, I guess, perhaps had a really lousy day. And so she argued back. They got into this this argument. And the woman who also apparently the the waffles were the icing on the cake, if you will, for her day, got so angry about the the the low quality of the waffles that she picked up her plate and threw the waffles at the waitress. The waitress, not to be outdone, pulled out a gun and shot the woman on the spot.

And the radio host made a comment and said, that'll teach her not to bring a waffle to a gunfight. And, of course, play off of that idea of don't bring a knife to a gunfight. No matter what you bring to a gunfight, it better be a gun. We have to be prepared for our our battle that is at hand, and we have to be armed to take care of ourselves in whatever way possible. Now, of course, I'm not really actually speaking of gunfights.

Hopefully, none of us ever have to get into a gunfight. However, I am speaking more towards the spiritual life And the need for us to be armed in our battle for our souls. The battle that wages around us every single day. The battle which we cannot avoid. No matter how hard we try, no matter how far we flee, we have to wage that battle for our souls.

There's no escape whatsoever. And we need to be armed for that battle and adequately armed for that battle. And our arms are not guns or knives or swords or whatever, but our arms are rather the holy rosary of the blessed virgin Mary. Today is the July 13, and it is the third apparition day of Our Lady of Fatima who asked us to pray this rosary. And we can't help but notice that the importance that it has not just in everybody's life, but especially today for us here, for traditional Catholics, those who adhere to the faith unchanged for two thousand years when so many around us have abandoned it.

Because that rosary is that common bond that we have. You want to talk to someone who just recently came over from the Novosorto church and found their way here, you'll find that almost unanimously, they all started off by praying the rosary. You want to see an area that someone is falling short when they start to begin to struggle. They start to struggle and they wonder, what am I doing wrong? Why am I having so much trouble in my faith?

You see what they lot they're lacking. I guarantee you, one of the first things to go would be that rosary. It's such a powerful tool for us in our lives, and yet it's something that we think of so infrequently. But it is our weapon against temptation. It is our weapon against the devil.

It is our weapon of salvation. There's a story of Alfonsus. He was a king, a king of Leon and Galicia. And this king, Alfonsus, had a desire. He knew that for his kingdom to flourish well and his and the people subject to him to do well in all things that they needed help from heaven.

So, he truly desired with all of his heart. He desired that all his subjects, all his servants, all his soldiers, everybody subject to him would pray the holy rosary. And he wanted it so badly that not only did he ask them to pray and and and tell them about the glories of praying that rosary, but he went so far as to take a big rosary and always wear it on his belt, the belt that he wore that he girded himself with. So it was an outward sign and an inspiration to all of those around him. And the servants followed suit.

They they saw the king talking about the most holy rosary. They saw him wearing it, and they were inspired by him, and they did. They prayed the rosary faithfully. Every single day, they were praying the rosary. But alas, the one person who wasn't praying the rosary was king.

He lacked in that source of prayer. And so one day, he fell extremely ill. And he was given up for dead. He was unconscious. And in that safe unconsciousness, he had a vision of his own judgment.

And he's standing there before the throne of God. And all of these demons come forth. And they all have a multitude of sins that they're producing that the king has has done in his life. They're weighing them against him so that he can lose his soul. They're presenting them to Christ and the king cannot deny them.

He cannot deny that these sins are upon his soul. And just before our lord passes that sentence of condemnation in this vision, our lady comes forth and stands before our lord and asks for a scale to be brought forward. And it it is that scale is brought and all of the symbols are put onto one side of that scale. And then on the other side, she takes the rosary which the king had worn around his waist and and places it on the other side of the scale. And the scale tips in his favor.

And Our Lady tells the king, she says, as a reward for this little honor that you paid me in wearing my rosary, I have attained a great gift for you from my son. Your life will be spared a few more years. See that you spend them wisely and do penance. And with that, the king regained consciousness and was there and told those around him the wonderful things that he had seen. And he did convert himself.

He abandoned those sinful ways. He began to do live a life of penance, and he never let a day pass ever again without saying his rosary. And he died in the order of saint. That rosary that he had provided an example of was his saving grace to give him one last shot to save his soul, and he made the best of them. He followed through with it and he prayed his rosary unto his own salvation.

And for us in that spiritual battle, if our rosary is our sword, if you will, if it's our our armament, then our shield is none other than that of the brown scapular to go hand in hand. The brown scapular was given to Saint Simon Stock in the year December. And actually, this Wednesday, the sixteenth, is the anniversary. It is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. So you have these two wonderful things, Our Lady of Padma today, and three days later, Our Lady of Mount Carmel together in the same week.

And that just with as the as the two celebrations are together, so also those two devotions are together. They cannot really be separated. Our devotion to the brown scapular is one of greatest importance. It is our shield. It is our protection against the dangers of the spiritual life.

It is protection that keeps us from harm. Our Lady promises that those who die wearing her brown scapular and live their lives faithfully devoted to it shall not suffer eternal health. And this too brings about many stories of the brown scapula. One in particular, which I thought was fascinating was happened in the year 1845 on an English sailing vessel. It was the ship's name was was the king of the ocean.

And while the ship was gone, it was surprised and struck by a horrible, horrible hurricane. And the ship was tossed all about the sea. And there's nothing that they could do. And it seemed as time went on, the waves got bigger and bigger, the winds heavier and heavier, and the ship started to break apart. And it seemed that all would be lost.

And on that ship was a protestant minister. His name was reverend Fisher. And he, as one last ditch effort, took himself and his children and his wife up aboard the deck of the ship. And they knelt down there and they started beseeching our Lord with their prayers that they may be saved. But as they prayed harder and harder, so to the winds blew harder and harder.

And finally, there was one of the crew member, a young boy, if you will, you know, of a teenage age. And he was an Irishman, and he was Catholic. And seeing that these prayers these partisan ministers was not working, he calmly walks out on the deck, and he stands there in silence. And he takes off his brown scapular, pulls it up, makes a sign of the cross over the sea, and then tosses it into the waves. And instantly, all the girls come.

All the winds stop. All the waves go away. The sea is calm except for one last wave which washes up over the decks and brings the brown scapular back and lays it at the feet of that Irish boy. And the protestant minister minister reverend Fisher seeing this miracle and his family seeing it too, All wonder, what did you do? Well, they asked the the the young man, what did you do that stopped the sea that performed so great a miracle in that way?

What was it that you threw into the ocean? And he said, it was my brown scapular. Our lady promises that this will protect us from all danger. And so I trusted in her and I beseeched her by the power of the brown scapular to protect us from the danger that was at hand. And of course, she delivered it.

And hearing this, Reverend Fisher, his wife, his kids, all of them were converted to the faith. And so that shield of the brown scapular not only protected them from the physical dangers of the storm, but most importantly protected Protestant minister and his family from the spiritual dangers of belonging to that false religion and brought him into the Catholic faith. Our Lady of Fathom promised that one day through the Rosary and Scapular, she would save the world. These are two of the most important devotions for salvation. Yeah.

That they are the vessels that lead us to God through Our Lady. They are the things that will help us to to gain our Lord's favor because of Mary's promises. And it's up to us to decide for ourselves that we want to be on the side of Our Lady. It's up to us to usher in those promises of saving the world from Our Our Lady. We have to be that gateway for that by our devotion to the scapular, by our recitation of the holy rosary.

And it's up to us to influence others around us to to be devoted to them as well. We do this first and foremost by our simple prayers, by our praying the rosary for the salvation of souls, by our offering up little sacrifices in our lives for souls, being that good missionary in prayer. And we also do so by our example, by leading that good and Catholic life that is required for the promises of the holy rosary and in the scapular. By leading that good and Catholic life that is the example to those around us and by providing that good example of prayer life whenever we have the opportunity to, like today. We have the opportunity to provide that glowing example of praying the rosary today by our procession around the neighborhood.

That all around here may see the prayers of the Catholic faith that they don't see anywhere else around them. That all may benefit from our humble little prayers. And that peace may be given to this neighborhood and protection may be given to our city and to our churches. To use these holy implements is to fight the good fight. They cannot be separated.

You cannot go into battle without your arms. You cannot go into battle without your shield and expect to make it through unscathed. But if we gird ourselves well and we trust in these great tools given to us by heaven, then we will wage that battle well. We will come out on the winning side, and we will save our souls. May God bless you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost.

Amen.