reading the signs in the times of bergoglio...

reading the signs in the times of bergoglio...

Why does anyone read my "humble" blog?

I was wondering this myself after finding that Mundabor had devoted a column [LINK] to an article I had written [LINK].

Anyway, let me attempt to answer my own question...

Here are some of the reasons that we can safely eliminate...

1. I'm a great writer... Hardly. I was lucky to get a B- on a paper in school. I enjoy writing... and I have my moments... but for great writing there are a lot of other places to go on the internet...

2. I'm a great authority on Catholic teaching... Hardly. I wasn't raised in a Catholic household... I didn't go to Catholic school... I suppose I am self-catechized... if anything I have had to overcome a strong Protestant orientation because most of my close friends growing up were Protestants and I attended church with them... I have learned Catholicism online through papal encyclicals and websites like Michael Voris and Louie Verrecchio and yes, Mundabor...

3. I'm a strong traditionalist... Hardly. I didn't know anything about the Traditional Latin Mass until fairly recently... I have only attended a few times... although I am planning on going regularly now... up until the time that bergoglio became pope I knew nothing about the SSPX and couldn't even spell Lefebvre and wasn't sure what a "sedevacantist" was... I don't think I was a "neo-conservative" either... until recently I wasn't even sure what the Mass was all about, since I didn't realize that it was significantly different from a protestant service...

4. I'm a great authority on Vatican II... Hardly. I only began to learn any of the truth about Vatican II after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation... the proof is in my blog posts prior to that which show that I was quite an admirer of the former pope... was...

So why do people read my blog and even link to my articles?

My answer is a "proof by contradiction"...

IF there were other sources on the internet expressing the same thoughts that I am expressing

AND IF those sources were from a more mainstream Catholic website

WITH some of the characteristics I have outlined above... great writing... great authority on Catholic teaching... strong traditionalist... great authority on Vatican II... etc.

THEN no one would be reading my articles...

BUT WAIT... something is missing, because there ARE sources like that available online...

The missing ingredient I think is GREAT CATHOLIC TRUTH...

The TRUTH is such a rare commodity in these confused and confusing times that people will go out of there way to find it...

And that is what I think I have to offer... I'm not the only one... but there aren't a lot of us willing to say what has to be said... and to come to the logical (and truthful) conclusions no matter how un-tasteful and dis-pleasing that may be... and it is often times extremely un-tasteful to the point of being shocking and disgusting... and not fit for polite conversation...

I think my particular gift from God -- or charism if you will -- is to be able to read the signs of the time...

... actually I don't think it is that difficult to "read the signs"... they are staring all of us in the face... the difficult part is to set aside our liberal prejudices and to accept what the signs... signs from God... are clearly telling us...

It is very difficult when the signs from God are pointing in one direction and the world is pointing in a totally opposite direction...

One advantage I have is that I spent some time dissecting the messages coming to us from the secular culture... and what I found was quite shocking... it's frankly satanic... and it is moving in a direction from being implicitly and covertly satanic to being explicitly and overtly satanic...

It's becoming more and more difficult to deny this satanic influence in the culture...

And then we must realize that the same thing is happening in the Church... and it's not just at the local church level or a particular diocese... but goes all the way to the top... to the Vatican... and, yes, to the pope...

And then once you have allowed the "truth to set you free"... the Truth of Christ that is... the signs become that much more clear...

Christ is speaking to us through these signs... and also the saints... the times  of Christ and the times of the saints are no different from our "modern" times...

The same truths apply and the same signs are visible...

"Modern Man" is not a new species... "modern life" is not intrinsically different from life before the invention of the light bulb...

It is when we try to reject the past because we assume some sort of moral superiority based on a technological superiority that we get confused...

But how does technological superiority translate into moral superiority... are we perhaps less superstitious? In some ways perhaps, but at the same time we have lost our grasp of the supernatural by putting all our faith in the natural ("science" and pseudo-science)...

We may be superior in our "modern" technology... but the saints of times past were superior in a sort of super-technology which is called "faith"...

The saints had faith in God... and lots of it... we have no (or very little) faith in God... and we are morally inferior for that reason.