Tuesday, September 19, 2017

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.

This psalm is a lament of a person overwhelmed by the malice of the wicked who are depicted in the Psalms as the enemies of the righteous. When people see God bringing upon the wicked the evil they intended against others, they will know who is the true ruler of the world. The final verse is a vow of praise.[1]

“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).

Feast of St. Januarius[3]

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.