FEAST OF ST. JANUARIUS
“So I say
to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and
the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone
who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is
there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake
instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If
you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”-Luke
11:9-13
Psalm 64, Verse 5
They shoot at the innocent from ambush; they
shoot him in a moment and do not fear.
“The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.” ― Winston S. Churchill
What Churchill Told FDR[2]
At 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, that a German
warship fired on Polish troops stationed at the Westerplatte Fort in the port
city of Danzig, signifying the start of World War II. It was a cataclysm that
would engulf the globe, killing more than 50 million human beings while
permanently altering the international order. According to Britain’s wartime
prime minister, Winston Churchill, it was one that should never have had to been fought. In the preface to “The
Gathering Storm,” the first of his magisterial six-volume account of World War
II, Churchill relates the following story: “One day, President Roosevelt told
me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be
called. I said at once, ‘The Unnecessary War.’ There never was a war more easy
to stop than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the
previous struggle.” Churchill said that he would proceed to explain “How the
English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature
allowed the wicked to rearm.” Through their dithering, the Western powers had
allowed Germany to re-equip itself after its defeat in World War I, a process
that could have been stopped at any time through force and determination. When
the German chancellor, Adolf Hitler, launched his expansionist enterprise in
March 1936 by seizing the Rhineland and remilitarizing it in violation of the
Treaty of Versailles, which had ended the previous global conflict, nothing was
done to stop him. From there, the road to the March 1938 Anschluss in Austria,
followed by the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and on to full-scale war, was
short and inevitable. After such a calamitous series of events, one would have
assumed that the international community would have learned its lesson. By
allowing Nazism to fester and grow, and by sitting on the sidelines as it
consolidated its power and pushed beyond international borders, the Western
world had made a nearly fatal mistake.
And yet, it appears that the same
shortsightedness, lack of purpose and sense of urgency is happing today in the
face of the ISIS (North Korea/China)
threats are once again threatening to breed a disaster of epic proportions.
Nowhere is this negligence on greater display than in Washington itself. It is
worth remembering Churchill’s unsettling conclusion that “the tragedy of the
Second World War could have been prevented,” but “the malice of the wicked was
reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.” It was the act of waiting too long
which led to World War II against the Nazis. And the longer the West waits now,
the sooner it will find itself having to wage World War III against the jihadis
(and the Godless Maoists).
Little is known about St. Januarius. He was Bishop
of Benevento in Campania. He died near Naples, about the year 305, martyred
under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. Around the year 400 the relics of
St. Januarius were moved to Naples, which honors Januarius as a patron saint.
He supposedly protected Naples from a threatened eruption of the volcano Mt.
Vesuvius. The "miracle of Januarius" has world-wide fame. At least
three times a year—on his feast day, December 16 and the first Sunday of
May—the sealed vial with congealed blood of the saint liquifies, froths and
bubbles up. This miraculous event has occurred every year, with rare
exceptions. Popular tradition holds that the liquefaction is a sign that the
year will be preserved from disasters. (In 1939, the beginning of World War II,
the blood did not bubble up.)
Things
to Do
·
Find out more about this
"miracle of Januarius", including pictures.
·
Have an Italian dinner.
·
If you live close to New
York city you can participate in The Feast of San
Gennaro celebrated in lower Manhattan.
·
Read more about St.
Januarius at EWTN.
Daily Devotions/Prayers
[2]MICHAEL FREUND, Special to the Sun | September
2, 2014- http://www.nysun.com/foreign/what-churchill-told-fdr-bras-world-war-ii-erupted/88828/
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