All the Devil Wants is a Little Dialogue

To initiate the Fall, the Devil possessed an irrational serpent and used it to dialogue with humanity. Eve’s wrongheaded openness to conversation with that animal is the prototype for the Devil’s current plans to dialogue with all humanity through the modern world’s lies. These are lies which, in a modified relativistic nihilism similar to the serpent’s own, “Did God really say…?” (though bedecked in the scientific verbiage one expects for a news story 6,000 years later), seek to beguile the faithful into supposing they cannot really know various truths just because these truths aren’t explicitly stated dogmas. But acknowledging that certain sci-fi deceptions are either theologically, philosophically, or scientifically impossible is supremely important, so that when these impossible things seem to happen (and the time is soon coming when they will indeed seem to have), we will recognize that something demonic is afoot, and shut the door to dialogue, lest we suffer a fate similar to Eve’s.

I discussed this post with Fr. Dan Reehil on Radio Maria. Video here:

Well, dialogue is not all the Devil wants. Ultimately, he wants your soul damned to hell for all eternity. But for starters, he’s more than content with a little dialogue.

He knows from six thousand years of experience just how successful that approach is; hence, one of the most axiomatic and wise admonitions in spiritual combat is simple: “Never dialogue with the Devil.”

Indeed, The Fall never would have happened in the first place if only Eve refused to so much as dialogue with a speaking serpent.

Have you ever considered that we tend to overlook one of the most noteworthy and in-your-face facts about the Fall? Namely, that it was brought about by a human being talking with an animal.

Ponder how ridiculous it was for Eve to speak to a serpent. She knew full well that she and Adam alone were made in the Image of God – that she and he alone had reason, and that therefore she and he alone could engage in rational communication. Why, then, did she converse with an animal? Adam never did that. Eve should have known—and, doubtless, did know—that something was deeply wrong when an irrational creature started talking.* And she never should have spoken a word to it. She should have immediately left its presence; and if she said anything at all, it should have been just, “Begone Satan!”

Perhaps few will glean this clear lesson from Genesis simply because Christians have long been lied to by modernist “scholars” who insist that the first several Chapters of the Bible’s first book are mere myths. In fact, every page of the Bible—from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22—means what it says. The Serpent was not merely a symbol. It was, quite truly, a serpent—one possessed by the devil, but a serpent no less.

But the first sin; the very sin that caused Mankind’s Fall from Grace, is – in a symmetry which, though breathtaking, should not surprise us – the prototype for some types of sins that will precipitate the Apocalypse itself.

The devil is going to attempt dialogue with humanity as never before; not merely with one woman, but with billions of people across the planet. And if you do not have your feet placed firmly on the foundation of Faith and Reason, you will succumb to his tactics.

I know that some may wonder about my zeal for what might appear to be an eclectic batch of convictions. Not only the non-existence of aliens, but also, for example: the impossibility of time travel [Point XI], the impossibility of technology directly accessing the human mind itself, the impossibility of sentient “AI” [Point XVI], the impossibility of animal-personhood [Point XXII], the impossibility of multiple universes/ ”dimensions”/ creations/ incarnations [Point XIII]

(Henceforth, I will collectively refer to these items I encourage rejecting the possibility of as “Aliens Etc.”)

What do all of these apparently disparate exhortations have in common?

This, I wager: the likelihood that the devil (perhaps operating through the Antichrist) will soon use each item above as a means to dialogue directly with the world, as never before in history.

Aliens Etc. are fictions–fantasies that never have existed and never will exist. But modern man, now several generations deep into the Dictatorship of Relativism, bored by the promises of Christ, tired by the “shackles” of reason, and only capable of being roused by sci-fi delusions, has only grown so insane that, for the first time in history, almost everyone is now open to at least one of these fictions.

That means I’m facing an uphill battle with my argument here!

So, let’s consider a matter uncontroversial among the devout: the evil nature of “Ouija Boards.” Indeed, no one should ever engage in that occult practice of playing Ouija, and most devout souls realize this. Many people have become to some degree demonically possessed due to their use of Ouija boards (or, similarly, Tarot Cards, Seances, Psychic Mediums, Fortune Tellers, and other new age/occult practices.).

But consider the justification one might try to give for using Ouija:

“I don’t know how or why it works. I’m just being humble and open. I put my hands on this piece of plastic, I ask the question I need answered, and it leads me to answers that I need on the board. Why be closed minded here? Why be so dogmatic in opposition to this? It’s not as if there’s any Encyclicals that specifically condemn Ouija!”

Yes, it is possible to be so open minded that one’s brains fall out. Replace “Ouija” with any of the other Aliens Etc. delusions in this article and you open yourself up to similar risks.

So if indeed it is nonsense to assert that a silly piece of cardboard and plastic can give you meaningful answers to questions, then why such zeal in opposing it?

Why not allow this practice to continue unopposed, under the “humble” openness to the “possibility” that cardboard does have some hitherto undiscovered scientific capacity of reason, counsel, wisdom, and understanding? Am I being arrogant by claiming we can be certain that cardboard and plastic lack this capacity?

The answer is clear: although it is nonsense, it is nevertheless a type of nonsense that gives the devil a means of directly communicating with you. By doing Ouija, one has chosen to not only wander outside of the realms of spiritual safety afforded by abiding in Faith and Reason, but further, has chosen to open up a potential channel of communication with demons.

Not good.

And this is the same type of nonsense that exists within belief in Aliens Etc.—each belief opens one up to the communications of demons.

My concerns are not theoretical. There is nothing strictly “academic” about the exhortations I present here.

Demonic oppression has already damaged the souls of many through each item above. For example, “Animal mediums” are becoming increasingly popular. People around the world are getting diabolical directives–orders straight from hell–when they visit these seemingly innocuous “mediums” in order to “learn what their cats are saying.”

But one who realizes that it is absolutely impossible for a cat to employ reason, and therefore impossible for it to have any rational guidance to give, would never be tempted to seek out an “animal medium.”

So-called “alien abductions” are also fairly common; those who relay such experiences sometimes share “insights” they learned from their time with the “aliens”; when, in fact, all they thereby do is give credence to the dictates of demons that they received during some diabolically orchestrated delusion.

My concern, therefore, is that what is already a means of demonic oppression in a relative few will, in the days ahead–once our overlords among the global elite issue a news release claiming that they have made contact with aliens, and soon thereafter proceed to share with us the teachings of these “aliens”–become a means of demonic oppression for the entire world.

They’ve been steadily working their way up to this for years now. It is beginning to reach a fever pitch, what with official US Congressional Hearings on “UFOs,” with even Congressmen using these hearings as an opportunity to subtly foment alien expectation. Over the coming times, the present subtlety will get less and less subtle (in accordance with the proverbial “boil the frog slowly” approach).

As The Hill reported today (August 22nd, 2022):

NASA is also preparing to go full-tilt UFO-centric; and I have no doubt they may be the ones to announce that “we’ve now made First Contact with Extraterrestrials.”

Imagine, if you will, a society wherein there is not merely the (who knows how many) thousands or millions suffering from some degree of Demonic possession/oppression/obsession – but billions.

This is precisely what is enabled when these means of Demonic communication become institutionalized; which is what will happen when (not, sadly, “if”) our elite tell us something along the lines of:

  • That they’ve finally made “contact with an extraterrestrial intelligent life form,” and then proceed to share these “communications” with us.
  • Or when they tell us they’ve “finally unlocked the key to the rational language of dolphins and bonobos and dogs,” and proceed to share these animals’ “great wisdom” with us.
  • Or when they’ve “finally made an AI Robot that is truly sentient, free, and intelligent,” and present its software to us to share its “wisdom for our existential crises.” 
  • Or when they’ve “finally mastered the mystery of time and can now communicate with men from the future” or even “beings from another dimension/string that just intersected with our own”

Each one of these lies (and there will be others like them) will provide the perfect cover for the Devil to directly instruct billions of people on earth in a way that, in all ages past, he could only succeed in with those who most foolishly strayed into his domain through explicitly engaging in the occult.

And what the devil could not achieve through the New Age movement, due to too many of the Faithful being willing to see the evil in it and therefore avoid it, he will accomplish through “Science.”

Pride comes before the Fall, and too many modern believers– terrified above all else of being seen as insufficiently in line with “The Science”™– will at all costs avoid opposing what “The Scientists” say. If “The Scientists” say that there’s aliens, or sentient AI, or inter-temporal communication/travel, or another universe/dimension/reality, or some new technology that can directly access the mind itself, then too many will gobble these claims up readily. (And we’ll have plenty of bureaucrats in the Vatican’s various dicasteries instructing us to do just that.)

To all those Catholic journalists, authors, clergymen, scholars, and apologists out there now promoting belief in Aliens Etc., I admonish: you have no idea what you are getting into. You are playing with hellfire, and you are going to lead many souls to the source of that fire. Come to your senses, before it is too late.****

Of all the issues noted here, however, I focus most on Mankind’s uniqueness in the cosmos—i.e., the nonexistence of aliens/extraterrestrial incarnate intelligent life—because I think that, of all the deceptions I’ve listed in this post, the “alien” one is the most likely to be used most heavily by the Antichrist, the most potentially catastrophic, the most in line with expectations generated in the minds of the masses by decades of Sci-Fi movies, and the most heavily prepared for with a steadily increasing drumbeat of news stories to prime the people.

Moreover, I have long suspected that belief in aliens may be a “gateway drug” of sorts; one that compels its user to steadily succumb to graver and graver errors. Recently, my suspicions were confirmed, as I will explain below.

From being “agnostic” on the question of aliens (as most seem to be), it is easy to become open to aliens. From “openness” to aliens, it is easy to—particularly with increasing media hype about “UFOs”—next become excited about their “possibility” (particularly for those whose youth was saturated in Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel movies, etc.)****. From excitement about them it is easy to become a believer in aliens.

And once one becomes a “true believer” in aliens, the floodgates have opened.

Suddenly everything in the Faith—all those realities which deserve our most wholehearted, overwhelming, and exclusive fundamental-life-devotion—become just “one of many” superlatively, existentially demanding matters.

The alien-believer begins to wonder (at least interiorly, even if he is still – rightly – too ashamed to voice these questions in his Catholic podcast or website or whatever else):

  • “What might these aliens know about God? Maybe there are far more than three persons in the God! Maybe God is thousands of persons! I can’t wait to learn about the 4th Person of the “Quadrinity”, much less the 4,000th!”
  • “What might God’s incarnation look like in other planets, or galaxies, or other dimensions? Perhaps Jesus Christ is just the most minor of God’s many incarnations!”
  • “What if I get all sorts of other chances at life in other parallel realities in other dimensions with all sorts of different fundamental laws, different Divine Revelations, etc.!?”
  • “What if this universe is just one iteration of a whole series of universes? How minor that would make our salvation history!”
  • “Imagine; entire planets full of unfallen rational beings! Perhaps the Virgin Mary isn’t unique after all—imagine trillions of other Immaculate Conceptions! Even if she is the “Queen of the Universe” (though that’s not one of the Marian Dogmas, so maybe she isn’t!), what if there are all sorts of other Universes with even greater Queens than she?!”
  • “Sure, Jesus is the ‘only’ begotten Son of God. But ‘only’, by definition, restricts merely what is referred to in THIS universe. What about all the OTHER dimensions out there?! What about THEIR Divine Incarnations, Revelations, etc.?!”

These types of wild imaginings go on, and on, and on.

Suddenly, the entire Christian Faith – “things into which angels longed to look” (1 Peter 1:12), things which “prophets and kings longed to see but did not see” (Luke 10:24)—starts feeling, to these alien believers, like a boring day job he must deal with so that he can get to his weekend, where the “really interesting and fun things happen.”

God’s Creation, Christ’s Incarnation and Redemption, our journey of Sanctification, and our awaiting of His Second Coming and Eternity–become just “some of many” things of infinite magnitude–instead of the be-all-end-all of our lives, as they must be. 

What a horrible tragedy for a believer to succumb to.

Even while it may seem to these people that they have not expressly rejected a single explicit Dogma (they’ll still nod, though with boredom, to each item in the Creed), it nevertheless remains so that their Supernatural Faith has been castrated, emasculated, withered, and decayed.

The form – the trappings — of the Christian Religion is maintained, but the power of it – the life-devouring-fire that Faith should and must be –has been extinguished, as St. Paul prophesied of the last days – these times (2 Timothy 3).

Does this slippery slope I have described appear far-fetched? Exaggerated?

Unfortunately, it is neither.

I present to you here what was just argued by an extremely popular Catholic Scholar (one who has long been regarded as totally “orthodox minded”). It was just published (June 2022) in a new book he wrote. This new book was published by one of the most popular “strictly orthodox” Catholic publishers. Below is a quote from that book. This quote was recently wholeheartedly and enthusiastically promoted by a certain Catholic journalist on his extremely popular Catholic news aggregator website:

“Ultraterrestrials…interdimensional beings… dimensions intersected with our own … time-traveling humans from the future” ??!!

Do you see how far we have fallen?

Now do you believe what I said last year?:

The scholar who wrote the words above will not be the last to succumb to–and promote–these delusions. Like dominoes, many others will fall; including plenty of individuals whom I myself have promoted in the past–not excepting some who have hitherto been regarded as shining lights, even among the Faithful Remnant.

Therefore, idolize no one. God alone is God. Fallible men will, in the days ahead, manifest their fallibility for all to see

“Put not your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save” Psalm 146

Make no mistake about it, these are the times of which Our Lord said,

“And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” Matthew 24:22

You will see Christians and Catholics–individuals you thought you could trust to figure it all out for you–nevertheless drop like flies in the coming times–falling for the imminent Diabolical Deceptions like moths to the flame–but you must not allow that sorry sight to shake your own Faith.

For these days are destined to be the “rise and fall of many in Israel,” (Luke 2:34); that is, in the Church.

Read your Bible, read your Catechism, submit to all the contents thereof – strive to become a saint, strive to Live in the Divine Will, and you will remain safe.

I would say “I give you my word,” but that would be silly, as you have something infinitely better: You have God’s Word. Several verses before the verse above, Our Lord taught:

-Matthew 24

The Abomination of Desolation is coming.

It will have much to do with the various tenets of the Diabolical Quantum Leap. Despite how tempting succumbing to its promises will be, I know—because Christ has promised—that he who endures to the end will be saved. To succumb to the Antichrist, you’ll have to consciously choose to do so.

“Aliens” were, previously, not a topic I ever wanted to have to focus much on addressing. But now I see it’s something I’m going to have to address much more moving forward.

I am working on a new piece, and if my post last year  failed to convince you that there are no aliens, then this upcoming one will not fail.

Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I leave you with a simple presentation of Pascal’s Wager, modified for this matter:

Leaving aside the many reasons we have to conclude there are no aliens—what do you stand to gain, or lose, from this belief?

To gain?

Nothing.

You already have everything you need for your salvation in Public Revelation.

You already have everything you need for your highest possible sanctification in 2,000 years of Sacred Tradition (particularly the crown of this tradition, Jesus’ approved revelations to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta – which, by the way, are absolutely undoubtedly authentic, yet make it clear on many different occasions that man is the only rational incarnate creature that exists.)

Salvation and sanctification are all you need, and neither stands to gain anything by believing in aliens.

Moreover, you have no need for the scientific, technological, or other temporally oriented learning that “aliens” would have. Technology doesn’t solve problems; it creates new (and worse) ones.

And what do you have to lose by believing in aliens?

Everything.

An utterly incalculable amount. What I’ve described here today. What I described here. What I described here. You gravely risk your salvation, your sanctification. You risk wandering into heresy. You risk your sanity. You risk a personal existential crisis. You risk succumbing to the Antichrist’s deceptions. You risk entertaining demons. You risk so much.

Under what strange argument are these risks worth it?

Footnotes:

*There are of course a few examples from Scripture and Tradition of animals talking by a miracle. For example, Balaam had to be rebuked through an animal — “he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” 2 Peter 2:16. But these cases in no way imply rationality on the part of the animal. They were extraordinary examples of God Himself speaking to someone and deciding to use an animal as the instrument (just as He could equally well use a cloud, or a bush on fire, or anything else.) On the flip side, exorcists have plenty of true stories to tell of what animals have done under demonic influence. In neither case is it the animal’s own volition that causes these phenomena. There are also cases like St. Francis admonishing the wolf, or St. Anthony “preaching” to the birds and the fish. But none of those examples or others like them consisted in a human being actually engaging in attempted rational discourse with an animal. They were each extraordinary cases (which should not be considered paradigmatic of our own approach to things) of a brief one-way communication. Obviously, humans can command animals via voice (ever told a dog to “sit!”?). This does not imply rational discourse either, even if quite a few words are involved. A horse trainer may calm down an unruly horse with a lengthy speech; not because the horse does, or even possibly could, understand the reasoning in the talk, but only because it is easier for the human to speak according to the manner with which he is acquainted when undertaking consoling efforts; it is the tone, the body language, etc., that does the calming.

**Here’s a clue that some theological proposition is way-off: those who proffer it have to spend years of research, mining all of the writings and sayings (alleged or actual) of all the thousands upon thousands of saints to find so much as a few of these sayings that supposedly support their proposition. For what they are thereby revealing–even if the quotes they find are genuine and not merely apocryphal (usually they are not genuine)– is how Sacred Tradition is nearly unanimous in opposition to that very proposition. (Such it is with, for example, aliens. Every saint who has ever lived; minus, perhaps, three or four–took it as an absolutely certain given that man alone, in all physical creation, is rational.)

***Technology can only access the mind through the senses. The devil, on the other hand – although even he cannot directly access the mind itself (i.e., read it perfectly or completely control the mind) – he can suggest things to it without needing to use your senses the normal way, and he can of course subject us to temptations. I have no idea how exactly this works. But technology certainly cannot come remotely close to doing what even the devil struggles to accomplish. When they claim they’ve achieved “mind-accessing tech,” they haven’t done that at all, and any apparent operations of such technology is nothing but a ruse for the initiatives of demons.

**** I don’t wish to be a curmudgeon here – there’s nothing wrong with enjoying certain works of fiction, even if their content is counterfactual! I’m certainly not rebuking anyone merely for doing so. I myself number among those ranks: I loved reading C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, I enjoyed the movie “Signs,” (both of which include aliens), and there are plenty of other examples. The point is merely that we mustn’t allow counterfactual fictional themes to become the lens through which we entertain what is actually possible or plausible in reality. I will say, though, that I dislike all “time travel” fiction, since that theme is not only counterfactual, but logically meaningless. Asserting that objective acts of the past can change [which Aquinas rightly teaches not even God can do] is contrary to the First Principles of Reason, it entails the incoherent assertion that the effect of a cause can itself be the cause of that cause, and from this causality-rejecting-absurdity, no logically meaningful story can be written (yet any good story must at least be logically coherent).

On Being Kicked Out of My PhD Studies for Being Unjabbed (and Resigning from My Faculty Union)

After 4 years of hard work on my PhD in Philosophy at the State University of New York in Albany, the administration has unceremoniously kicked me out since I refused to receive an abortion tainted experimental mRNA injection for a disease I already have (far superior) natural immunity to—by denying my request for a religious exemption.

(Important announcements are at the bottom of this post, and additional important ones are coming soon. Please subscribe with your email address on the right hand sidebar [or below post for mobile] here at DSDOConnor.com to be kept in the loop; this way, I can even reach you if they censor me—which, at this point, is beginning to look increasingly likely. Twitter has already acted to “prevent engagement” with the Tweet I posted linking to this post.)

Update 3 (6:50pm): It appears I can now access my Twitter account again

Update 2 (2:45pm Eastern US Time, 8/20): Twitter has locked my account:

Update 12:45pm: Twitter is blocking engagement in my posts:

Twitter has now begun censoring me

[Update: Notes/Clarifications regarding this post: 1) Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for the outpouring of support, prayers, and encouragement! Please forgive me if I’m unable to get back to you personally, but know of my eternal gratitude and rest assured of my prayers for you as well!2) To clarify: I teach at a different college than where I had been studying for my PhD. Although I was kicked out of my PhD studies at one university (SUNY Albany/UAlbany) for being unvaccinated, my job as a philosophy professor is at a different college (HVCC) and is entirely unaffected. I did resign from the HVCCFA “Faculty Association” (the Labor Union) where I teach, in protest of its president’s crusade against unvaccinated students, but I am still a faculty member; I’m still an adjunct philosophy professor. 3) Many thanks for the recommendations and advice on next steps I could take! I do plan to continue working towards my PhD (I am not “Dr. O’Connor” yet), but I’m going to put formal university PhD enrollment on pause for the moment as I pray about the specifics.]

After 4 years of hard work on my PhD in Philosophy at the State University of New York in Albany, the administration has unceremoniously kicked me out since I refused to receive an abortion tainted experimental mRNA injection for a disease I already have (far superior) natural immunity to—by denying my request for a religious exemption.

Included above is the correspondence these nameless bureaucrats sent me, lest they dishonestly try to argue that they did not kick me out. Of course they did. Of the “options” presented to me, withdrawal was the only possibility. That is expulsion.

Moreover, this was manifestly not a matter of me merely “failing to adequately demonstrate” anything. I had demonstrated perfectly well to them that my “personal and genuinely held religious beliefs preclude” Covid vaccination. If they truly just regarded my explanation as insufficient, and simply needed more information to that effect, then they would have requested it. Instead, they bluntly declared, “This decision is final.”

I’ll reiterate that I intend no judgment, much less condemnation, of one who did get the jab and insists his conscience was clear doing so. Such a person’s choice is none of my business. (But I would caution such a person to ensure he does not allow that act to become a slippery slope of concessions to tyranny, for make no mistake about it, Covidist Tyranny was a Boot Camp for the Faithful). But my conscience said no (I explained why here.)

Even if my conscience were clear in taking the vaccine on the abortion-tainted issue, I would not take it. Leaving aside, for now, the mountain of reasons we now have to suspect that the vaccines may be ineffective or even harmful, I never trust brand-new categories of injected medical technologies, and I would only consider taking such a thing if there was a high chance I’d be good as dead anyway without it (which isn’t remotely close to being the case with Covid). All the Covid “vaccines” that were available to me are built upon brand new technologies, and most of them are not only new, but of the completely experimental “mRNA” tech variety. But even if I felt comfortable with the technology, I still wouldn’t take the vaccine—because I have absolutely no need for it it—“those who are well do not need a physician,” (Mark 2:17). The jab’s mandate is tyrannical. I will not cooperate with this tyranny just to make my life easier.

And this is tyranny. It has nothing to do with health. Even our national health authorities, including the CDC, (which have been anything but willing to acknowledge the downsides of vaccination or respect the rights of the unvaccinated), no longer differentiate between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in their own official policies. Yet, SUNY—run by thugs, above all my evil-promoting “Catholic” governor, Kathy Hochul—will still gladly discriminate against and persecute unvaccinated students.

Moreover, I can prove its irrelevance to health with one simple fact: if the mandates were about health, then my University would have been equally satisfied with proof of immunity – which I have, and can prove through a blood test —and my immunity is far better than what any vaccine could give. Though I disagree with all vaccine mandates, that is nevertheless how it works with others. For example, I recall that the last time I was filling out University admissions paperwork, I had the option of proving I had been vaccinated for MMR or of submitting proof of immunity. Why is that not permitted here, with Covid?

We all know the answer.

Many of our overlords among the global elite have openly admitted that all these vaccine mandates are merely attempts to pressure people into subservience to their agenda – not sincere attempts, built upon science, to limit viral transmission. If any “science” is involved in these mandates, it is Machiavellian-Psychology, not medical or epidemiological science. What they have not admitted to, but is almost certainly the case, is that the Infrastructure of the Antichrist is being laid down before our eyes.

So, no. I will not comply.

I will resist.

Neither my University’s President, nor my State’s Governor, nor my Country’s President, get to decide what I do or do not inject into my body. Good luck to any such person who tries.

4 years of hard work…

I am not resentful—I know that nothing but God’s Will can happen, therefore I am entirely at peace, and I know He has something much better in store for me now—but I admit that I was surprised. I thought I’d be granted the exemption, as I have heard of plenty other people receiving them. Perhaps whatever anonymous New York bureaucrat behind a desk was processing my request decided to Google my name and stumbled upon this blog, and was thrilled to have an opportunity to expel from the university someone who publicly stands against all the Godless anti-dogmas that the New York elites who employ him stand for.

In case that is so, let me offer a warning to him and to all those who would persecute others from the comfort and security of their anonymity: Judgment Day is coming. If you cannot even look me in the eye–but can only kick me out of my University with an email from a “no reply” administrative account and not so much as a name affixed to it–how do you suppose you’ll be prepared to stand alone and render an account before Almighty God?

But I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. I have, after all, long warned that persecution is coming. And it will obviously come the soonest for those who have been the most public with the very principles that will be subject to persecution.

Some of the Faithful reading this may be tempted to take it as a cautionary tale whose lesson is to keep one’s views quiet. But I exhort such people to do just the opposite: to shout the Truth from the rooftops.

To be silent when speaking out is called for (and if any times in history have called for that, those times are now) is to make a pact with the Devil. But the Devil does not appear to most as Mephistopheles to Faust; he does so, rather, by suggesting rationalizations:

  1. “What good would it do anyway?”
  2. “But that type of issue just isn’t what I’m about publicly. I can leave that to the experts in that field.”
  3. “So few people will hear or see what I say, why would it matter?”
  4. “But I could suffer consequences.”

Although we must never dialogue with the Devil, that reminder may be of little use to one who has already done so. Therefore, to such a person I say that each rationalization has a very simple answer:

  1. An infinite amount of good. An eternity of good. Even a tiny mustard seed of truth can–in a fruition we will only see at the Judgment–flourish into the greatest of trees. You can be the sower of that seed, if only you are willing.
  2. That’s precisely why it’s important for you to proclaim soul-saving truth. The Bishops, the priests, the theologians, and the full-time evangelists and apologists, are all too easy to ignore for many of the people out there. Justly or unjustly, such people will often be written off by the world as mere “careerists,” whereas you – not numbering among those ranks – cannot be thus dismissed.
  3. How do you know how many people will see or hear it? These days especially, with the internet, it is easy enough for just about anyone to proclaim the truth to an audience more than large enough to justify doing so; far larger, indeed, than the missionaries of ages past sacrificed their lives to reach. Besides, a single soul is an enormous audience – a creature who, in eternity if not before, will one day be a saint of such glory as to astonish, or a monstrosity of such hideousness as to terrify. Finally, we answer not for the size of our audience but for whether we have been faithful in ministering to it, however great or tiny. History’s seemingly greatest missionary, even if he preached to many millions, will lay no greater claim to Heavenly merit than will an ordinary nurse or tutor or grandmother if the latter nevertheless ministered equally faithfully to those whom God’s Will put in their paths.
  4. Read on.

A C.S. Lewis quote I have hanging up next to my office door as an important daily reminder

I was recently talking to a young man who has a very large online following. His public endeavors are not related to the Faith, but a short time ago he took a very bold and public stand for a controversial, but direly urgent, Christian Truth. He immediately received a torrent of the vilest attacks and even threats. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, he had also been encouraged by some acquaintances to retract what he said in order to mitigate the attacks. But he refused. He stood by it–and stands by it–come what may.

We need an army of such souls today. We need “God’s Seven Thousand” to stand up and be counted. The apocalyptic error, and evil, and perversity, and blindness with which you will inevitably be surrounded in the world today may at times cause you to wonder if you’re the last sane person left on the planet.

You are not. But you must understand that others are similarly tempted. By speaking up, you encourage them.

Ironically, I have just found myself in the midst of yet another SUNY-Covid-vaccine-mandate tumult. This time, it concerns the college at which I teach, HVCC. They recently decided—boldly, courageously, and correctly—to refuse to bar unvaccinated students from campus, despite a SUNY-wide policy (HVCC is under the umbrella of SUNY) requiring precisely this. (Note: I do not know what the future holds regarding my college’s bold and perhaps first-in-nation example of an individual school rejecting a vaccine mandate required by their own University System– SUNY has just “ordered” HVCC to comply)

The leaders of the Faculty Union, however, responded by throwing a fit. They condemned the college, filed a formal legal grievance against it, and fed misleading statements to local media, implying that “the Faculty” of HVCC stood against this new policy—when, in fact the FA Leadership never consulted us, never polled us, and never sought our approval.

After almost 6 years as a dues-paying member, I publicly resigned in protest. I received an outpouring of support and agreement from other faculty members—whose convictions on this matter otherwise would have had little avenue, opportunity, or cause to even being recognized, had not someone stood up to be counted and thus elicit support from others—disproving the implications of the Union Leadership that “The Faculty” stood against the college in its decision to allow unvaccinated students on campus.

Here again I have done something that exposes me to who knows what repercussions. I confess that I spent weeks wrestling with the temptation to simply stay quiet and keep my head down. Whoever is acquainted with the shenanigans of academia is aware of how vindictive certain types of professors can be (particularly certain tenured faculty against lowly adjuncts like myself who dare to speak up in contradiction to them and who teach as many or more classes than they do but get paid less than half as much!). Although most professors agreed with me, not all did. I have no idea what will come my way as a result of my actions. Angering union leadership—as I have just done, likely to a greater extent than any HVCC union member in recent memory—tends to not go over well for those who anger the leaders. So be it. My conscience compelled me.

How easy it is to rationalize ourselves out of taking a stand for the truth. In contradiction to this temptation, I present the following words of Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta:

“The cross is my flowery bed, not because I did not suffer harrowing spasms, but because by means of the cross I delivered many souls to grace …So, in seeing so much good, I held that bed of suffering as my delight, and I delighted in the cross and in suffering.  You too, my daughter – take pains as delights, and delight in being crucified on my cross.  No, no, I do not want you to fear suffering, almost wanting to act like a sluggard.  Up, courage, be brave, and, of your own, expose yourself to suffering.”

May 1, 1900. Nihil Obstat, St. Hannibal di Francia. Imprimatur, Archbishop Joseph Leo.

The great thing about merely exposing ourselves to sufferings is that we are letting God do the directing of the if and the how the suffering itself transpires.

Fasting is good and necessary, but there is the risk that the person who fasts will–out of pride, or vanity, or some other manifestation of the self-will–extend the fasting beyond the degree willed by God for it. All sorts of other mortifications are also good and we should undertake them, but when we are in direct control of their specifics, there is always the risk that they become not exercises in charity and penance, but rather exercises in some form of subtle self-love.

On the other hand, when we simply “expose ourselves” to the real possibility of suffering, by doing what is clearly right and just, by “seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), by announcing His Kingdom and all those Truths which His Kingdom entails—and by continuing to boldly do so come what may—we thereby can be sure that whatever sufferings arise as a result participate in the Holy Cross of Our Lord which we may shoulder with Him – and in so doing, aid in the salvation of countless souls, our own sanctification, and the hastening of the Coming of the Kingdom.  

Behold Matthew 5:10-12 — the only one of the Beatitudes that is so very blessed that Christ both repeated it and explained it.

I would, however, leave you with this caution: let your proclamation of the Truth always be done with such genuine and heartfelt charity that there is never any doubt whatsoever as to its inspiration. Whenever in doubt, favor gentleness (a Scripturally and Doctrinally defined Fruit of the Holy Spirit, the absence of which indicates the absence of the Holy Spirit from one’s heart) over severity. Only thus can you be sure that, if persecution follows, that persecution is indeed “for the sake of righteousness,” and not merely because you’ve been a jerk. There are some Faithful today who regard themselves as great martyrs—legends in their own mind—when, in fact, much if not most of the “persecution” they receive is at least partially deserved, on account of their rabid-dog-like behavior even while promoting the tenets of the Faith.

I will soon have much more to say about what is coming upon the world. The Times are here. And you are running out of time to Proclaim Him with both merit and effectiveness.

We have a strange window of opportunity right now. Although some segments of the population are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and still cling to the Covid tyranny of the last 2.5 years, it has largely faded – even mainstream government organizations are beginning to (implicitly) admit that almost everything they’ve done the last two and a half years has been idiotic, pointless, and Draconian. Even where Godless mandates/restrictions remain in place, ordinary people are, finally, largely ignoring them. [For example, last weekend I was using the NYC Subways in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Although there were many announcements and signs reminding us that masks were still absolutely mandatory for all in subways, most (of the thousands of people I saw) rejected this and went maskless.] Travel has mostly opened up. Even inflation seems to be taking a bit of a break from its upwards march towards its (doubtless soon to be achieved) goal of hyper-inflation. 

I do not think this window will last long, so let us ensure we all take full advantage of it. The rumblings of imminent major persecution and major chastisement are growing louder and louder.

Soon, many people will die. Maybe you, maybe me.

Do not go to your death having held anything back. This incredibly short life is the only opportunity we get, for all eternity, to merit.

Let this cry by your life’s motto and mantra; your motivation and your goal:

LONG LIVE CHRIST THE KING!

THY KINGDOM COME

THY WILL BE DONE

ON EARTH

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

Announcements

  • I’ll be speaking on the Divine Will in Chicago (Incarnation St. Terrance parish along with Dr. Peter Howard) on Saturday 8/27, in Cape Cod (Corpus Christi Parish) on Friday 9/16 at 7pm, and at the Orlando Divine Will Conference on Columbus Day weekend (definitely on Saturday; I am not sure yet about the other conference days). I am especially looking forward to the release of an upcoming movie on the Warning, from Belladream films, which I was recently in NYC for the filming of.  Other events are also forthcoming—updates on everything will be announced here at DSDOConnor.com later.
  • The Audiobook for Thy Will Be Done is finally well underway, and will be released soon. Same goes for French and Spanish translations of the book. Stay tuned!
  • I was honored to be interviewed by my seminary classmate, Fr. Dan Reehil—director of Radio Maria—on his Battle Ready show.
  • I just discovered that I’ve been making a terrible mistake for the last few years by referring to Fr. Edward O’Connor (author of Listen to My Prophets and Living in the Divine Will) as deceased. He is apparently alive and well and approaching his 100th birthday! Needless to say, I feel like quite an idiot. A few years back, I stumbled upon an obituary for another Fr. Edward O’Connor. Not only was the name the same (I was then unaware of this Fr. O’Connor’s middle initial), but I had even mistaken the picture as being the Fr. O’Connor I had in mind. If you are reading this, Father, please forgive me!
  • Speaking of embarrassing errors, I just noticed a very unfortunate typo in my recent—and, I will reiterate, very important–“Divine Will Orthodoxy” article. I wrote “There has been (and never will be) any new Public Revelation since the death of the Apostle John.” I of course meant “There has NOT been (and never will be) any new Public Revelation since the death of the Apostle John.” I have corrected the error.

Some of my recent Tweets:

Prepare to Meet Your God, O Israel

In a brief few verses, today’s first reading at Mass tells us what is coming and why.

Since the dawn of the 20th Century, He has revealed—through more prophets than at any other point in history—what is coming. Few listened.

Therefore, Chastisements arrived. We saw two World Wars, genocides, millions of martyred Christians, pandemics, famines, and natural disasters—most of which transpired to an utterly unprecedented degree of destruction.

Still, few listened. The world only grew more mired in apostasy with each passing year.

And now, the time has arrived for God to intervene directly; not only through allowing those Chastisements which are the inevitable result of our sins, but through interventions which can only be called “Biblical,” for they are described in the Bible’s final book. But God does nothing without first alerting the prophets. Therefore these forthcoming interventions have likewise been announced beforehand—especially The Warning—and it is now urgent that souls get their hearts ready.

In a word: “Prepare to meet your God.” This verse is a true admonition; not a mere literary device. We must prepare to see Him:

www.PrepareToSeeHim.org

I made that website a decade ago, inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s proclamation of the Year of Faith. My goal with it was simply to provide a single URL that anyone—no matter where he was coming from—could be encouraged to go to in order to be evangelized and have whatever sins and errors he likely clings to (if he is an average modern person) be addressed. I asked myself, “If Our Lady came, not as an apparition, but as a website, what would that website look like?” PrepareToSeeHim.org is my best attempt at answering that question. (And indeed, it is written from the perspective of Our Lady.)

Accordingly, this URL is on the back of the Evangelization Cards that my wife and I have so far mailed out hundreds of thousands of. Unfortunately, when Google switched all Google Sites to their new layout last year, it ruined all the website’s formatting, and I have only now finally managed to fix that. I plan to continue improving it in the days ahead, but at least it is now back to being readable. So I’d encourage you to consider sharing this URL with those you feel may be in need of being evangelized — which, let us be frank, is just about everyone today (including those who already regard themselves as devout Christians or even devout Catholics!). My hope is also that immediately after the Warning occurs (I plan to have the website be much better by then, which means I better hurry!), this website will be able to serve as an easy, one-stop resource to help those who are shocked. To help them realize what is needed to make use of the graces they received during the Illumination—why their sins and errors were wrong, and what they need to do to repent and amend their ways. I wanted to make a website where those goals were the sole purpose of the URL (no blog posts, no news, no advertisements, no donation solicitation, etc.—just what is needed to help souls repent of the most pervasive sins and errors.), so that no other clutter would risk hampering this effort.

This is an opportune moment to reiterate what had long been the homepage of this blog (I only switched it to show most recent posts, instead, because I kept getting emails from people who were asking where my recent post was!). The image below is what, for years, anyone who went to dsdoconnor.com would immediately see:

I think it is safe to say that what I wrote there has proven true. I wrote those words first in 2016, precisely when “commentary and debate” had began appearing—to many Catholics—so utterly important as to eclipse all other duties, when in fact such an appearance was just a temptation. Since then, that very temptation has only grown.

Don’t get me wrong, commentary and debate does remain important in some cases, and I’m sure you’ll see plenty of commentary continuing from yours truly.

But it is not The Mission. It is, quite often, a distraction from The Mission. How tragic it is that today we see so many souls—who were once (recently!) so devout, so full of good deeds, so effective at evangelizing, always striving after sanctity, praying constantly, remaining at peace no matter what—now constantly bitter and angry, abandoning their former spiritual practices, absorbed in debate and discord, becoming worldly, concerned only with making sure they have each current event in the Church or the World “figured out,” and doing almost nothing genuinely helpful for the salvation of souls or the coming of the Kingdom. This trend is just another fulfillment of Our Lord’s own prophecy in the Gospel, about the last times, “because iniquity hath abounded, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)

Do not be among those whose love grows cold.

Instead, save souls. Live in and proclaim the Divine Will. Hasten the Coming of the Kingdom. Proclaim the Divine Mercy. Those are things you will be proud of on Judgment Day.

You know what to do.

Do it.