|
|
SUNDAY February 26, 2006 vol. 17, no. 44
|
Michael of the Morning
Paganism rules the earth today, led by their master lucifer. Are we going to cave to the devil or call upon the most powerful archangel who remains ever loyal?
"Well, Paganism was defeated by Christianity, was it not? Unfortunately, no! The slain dragon of Paganism lives again. Today the eyes of millions are turned away from the truth and are focused on pagan religions. "For there will come a time," says St. Paul, "when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3,4). Their "lusts" have turned them to the New Age "Neo-Pagan" religions - Druidism, Wicca and Asatru, the cult of Isis, and numerous others. The influence of modern paganism is everywhere."
Editor's Note: In Father Louis Campbell's sermon for Quinquagesima Sunday, he notes how man today refuses to put away the things of a child and become men of Faith. They fail to anticipate seeing God face to face and remain in their comfort zone of the dark glass where they can hide their lukewarmness and wonton nature to do what they want. This has given, as Father points out, the rise of paganism as the "fastest growing religion in the United States." Talk about a scary scenario, no wonder they are doing all they can to eliminate Christ and Christian symbols from public places and legislate anti-Catholic hate crimes that will enable the devil to do what he likes. One could despair were it not for the charity of God and the charity we need to express to others in caring about the spiritual welfare of their souls. God has given us a most powerful archangel, His right hand man St. Michael to defend us in our battle here on earth against the wickedness and snares of the devil. He shares the prophetic poem of G. K. Chesterton to encourage us that the Word can never be broken, never be conquered for God will win out. When the dawn breaks will we be with satan or on the victorious side with Saint Michael and God's army of angels and saints? Father helps us answer that in his sermon. [bold and italics below are editor's emphasis.]
In the Divine Office during the last weeks before Lent, the time of Septuagesima, the Church reads from the Book of Genesis, taking us back in spirit to the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. "Cursed be the ground because of you," said God to Adam, "in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, since out of it you were taken; for dust you are and unto dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17,19). Estranged from God because of Original Sin, the mind of man no longer turned automatically to God, but remained below concentrated on earthly things, learning to survive amid the thistles and thorns of this life.
There were still those who knew God - the just Abel, Enoch, who "walked with God" and "was seen no more because God took him" (Genesis 5:24), and Noah, who "was a just man, blameless among the men of his day" (Genesis 6:9). Commanding Noah to build an ark, God said to Noah, "The end of all creatures of flesh is in my mind; the earth is full of violence because of them. I will destroy them with the earth" (Genesis 6:13). Noah alone, with his wife and his sons and their wives, survived the great flood, and were commanded by to God to "be fruitful and multiply," to "abound on the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 9:7).
The minds of men, however, still remained concentrated on the things of this earth. Not knowing the true God, they began to make for themselves other gods, idols of clay and stone, or they worshipped the sun and the moon, or the spirits in the animals and the trees. By the time of Christ, the earth was immersed in Paganism.
Well, Paganism was defeated by Christianity, was it not? Unfortunately, no! The slain dragon of Paganism lives again. Today the eyes of millions are turned away from the truth and are focused on pagan religions. "For there will come a time," says St. Paul, "when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lusts, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and turn aside rather to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3,4). Their "lusts" have turned them to the New Age "Neo-Pagan" religions - Druidism, Wicca and Asatru, the cult of Isis, and numerous others. The influence of modern paganism is everywhere.
"The foundation of the New Age Movement was laid by a certain Helena Platovna Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, as a continuation of a century of Freemasonry. Her vision was to unite all religions and crush all 'monotheists' into subordinance (sic). Madame Blavatsky's source of information regarding this 'new truth' was derived from the 'Ascended Masters', spirits from the realm of the underworld. She revealed some parts of her philosophy in her various books, where a profound hatred of Christianity was expressed and 'New Age Mentality' exalted.
"Madame Blavatsky became the founder of the 20th century Neo-paganism through her various teachings (that is, lessons from the 'Masters'), including her book Isis Unveiled, where she re-introduced the ancient worship of female goddesses… Today, one of the most apparent manifestations of her worship is through witchcraft…
"Wicca, or Witchcraft is the most popular expression of the religious movement known as Neo-Paganism, which, according to the Institute for the Study of American Religion, is the fastest growing religion in the United States (From the Manifesto of the Covenant of the Goddess)" (Goddesses and Wicca worship: Neo-paganism at its most deceptive form, www.notendur.centrum.is/~snorrigb/Cult-fem.htm).
The young are the most vulnerable, victims of Neo-Pagan gurus like JK Rowling. The Canadian novelist Michael D. O'Brien comments on the dangers lurking in the Harry Potter novels:
"At Hogwarts, holidays such as Christmas and Easter are stripped of Christ, rendered down to no more than social customs and absorbed into the 'broader' context of the occult symbol-cosmology. Halloween is the great feast of the year. Rowling's wizard world, gnostic in essence and practise, neutralizes the sacred and displaces it by normalizing what is profoundly abnormal and destructive in the real world…
"In his book, An Exorcist Tells His Story (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1999), Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of the archdiocese of Rome, warns that modern men are losing their sense of the reality of supernatural evil. As a result, he says, many have made themselves more vulnerable to the influence of evil spirits who seek to corrupt and destroy souls…
"Speaking of the growing phenomenon of diabolical possession and other forms of bondage to evil, Amorth points to sorcery as the most frequent cause. He warns that ultimately there is no real difference between 'white' and 'black' magic. Every form of magic is practiced with recourse to Satan, he says - either knowingly or unknowingly, the practitioner of magic exposes himself to diabolic influence. 'Scripture warns us that witchcraft is one of the most common means used by the devil to bind men to himself and to dehumanize them. Directly or indirectly, witchcraft is a cult of Satan'" (Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture, www.lifesite.net).
In this spiritual battle we call upon the protection of the Holy Mother of God, and against the wickedness and snares of the devil we invoke St. Michael the Archangel:
|
|
Michael, Michael: Michael of the Morning,
Michael of the Army of the Lord,
Stiffen thou the hand upon the still sword, Michael,
Folded and shut upon the sheathed sword, Michael,
Under the fullness of the white robes falling,
Gird us with the secret of the sword…
Michael, Michael: Michael of the Mustering,
Michael of the marching on the mountains of the Lord,
Marshal the world and purge of rot and riot
Rule through the world till all the world be quiet:
Only establish when the world is broken
What is unbroken is the word.
G. K. Chesterton
|
|
|
|