ROE V WADE HAS BEEN OVERTURNED (The Prophetic Significance and the Mission that Now Entails.)

The moment we have spent 50 years praying for, fasting for, fighting for, marching for, bleeding for, sweating for, and weeping for, has finally arrived. But this also means a serious hastening of the Opening of the Seals of Revelation.

A Screenshot from the SCOTUSBlog website where this was first announced to the world at 10:12am Eastern Time on June 24th, 2022

The moment we have spent 50 years praying for, fasting for, fighting for, marching for, bleeding for, sweating for, and weeping for, has finally arrived. 

This is cause for tremendous rejoicing, and above all, for giving prayerful thanks to Almighty God. 

And what a fitting day for such a great victory: June 24th is usually the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (This year, however, due to the Feast of the Sacred Heart, John’s Nativity was moved to the 23rd) 

John the Baptist, as we all know, leapt in his mother’s womb upon the approach of Christ – in His own mother’s womb – when Mary came to Elizabeth at the Visitation. He thereby gave powerful testimony not only to Christ’s Divinity, but also to the sanctity of unborn children.

The Mission of John, moreover, was to herald the First Coming of Christ. And this overturning of Roe v. Wade is itself like a foretaste–a trumpeting, even–of the Second Coming of Christ in Grace, wherein the Restoration of All Things in Christ will be accomplished, and His Will shall reign on earth.

In other words, His Sacred Heart will Triumph.

His “Divine Mercy will triumph, and will be worshipped by all souls.” (St. Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul.) And that is today’s actual liturgical Feast this year — the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary (tomorrow’s Feast, and deeply united with today’s) will Triumph on earth. The most important element of that Triumph is its casting into hell the so many evils that dominate the world today. And no evil is so diabolical and pervasive as abortion.

But today is also a time for a sober recognition that the Devil is going to fly into an utter rage over the humiliating defeat he just suffered. 

The outlets of this rage will be numerous, but one outlet of his fury has already been made explicit: the group going by the name “Jane’s Revenge,” and other groups (e.g. “Ruth Sent Us”), who have promised vandalism and violence against the Catholic Church, the Mass, Catholic Priests, and the Faithful if and when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

I see no reason to suspect they are or were joking. Indeed, they already have vandalized numerous pro-life pregnancy centers and disrupted numerous Masses, merely due to the anticipation that Roe v. Wade would be overturned. What do you suppose they’ll do now that it actually has been?

The Seals of Revelation’s Sixth Chapter are opening before our eyes. I have written and spoken much about that these last two years. To those “professional Catholics” who despise prophecy and categorically reject any Apocalyptic considerations with catlike reflexes (and catlike critical thinking), I implore undertaking an exercise: Open Revelation 6, and write a piece of imaginative fiction describing a time in which its contents begin to be fulfilled:

  • Peace taken from the earth (Seal 2)
  • Hyperinflation– a day’s worth of wheat requiring an entire day’s wages to purchase (Seal 3)
  • Widespread death through famine, plague, violence (Seal 4)
  • Widespread martyrdom of the Faithful, whose death cries out to God for vengeance (Seal 5)
  • Mini-Judgment Day (The Warning: Seal 6). Stay tuned for the arrival of this one.

Well, your work of “fiction,” if written honestly, just described today.

Clearly we  have seen – but, still, have only seen the beginning – the global opening of the Seals 2, 3, and 4. (Seal 1, on the other hand–the rider on the White Horse–is held by Catholic Tradition to be positive–Christ conquering souls–and we have seen that these last decades in the extension of the Time of Mercy). We have also seen the opening of the Fifth Seal of Martyrdom in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. But this Fifth Seal has only creaked open relatively lightly in the West.

I suspect that this ruling overturning Roe v Wade– though an enormous good and a great blessing in itself – will push further open (perhaps even wide open) the door to the Fifth Seal in the West, and serve as the opening event of Great Persecution prophesied for the Apocalyptic Times we are now entering. 

(One example of the flyers that have been popping up everywhere)

Abortion is the greatest institutional evil in history. It is the crown jewel in the Devil’s diabolical desires for the world, and Roe v. Wade was abortion’s single biggest sustenance; at least, it was abortion’s most widely revered symbol of domination. This decision’s overturning, of course, does not end abortion, but it does signal the beginnings of the End of an Era. 

The Devil knows this, and he only has so much restraint. This blow to his plans will push him past those limits. If he has held back from certain types of open persecution in certain places up until now – knowing that this tends to generate great saints – he will not be able to resist any longer.

What this demands of us, therefore, is above all a “Call for the Endurance of the Saints” – which is a repeated admonition in the Book of Revelation. A call to remain absolutely assured that God is 100% in charge, and to remain absolutely steadfast in our Faith and Trust in Him – our striving to do and live in His Will – no matter what happens. 

But it is also a call to:

 “Be Sober, Be Vigilant” (1 Peter 5)

TheVigilants.com

I made “The Vigilants” last month, inspired by the utterly catastrophic moral failure of the Uvalde Police Department, as a call to men everywhere to prepare both their bodies and their souls to always stand ready to be the Good Samaritans; no matter what the situation calls for – not standing by idly expecting official first responders to do the job demanded by the circumstances at hand. 

But now I think that, although Uvalde was my immediate inspiration for starting the Vigilants, the real purpose for it in God’s plan was because of what was about to transpire in the diabolical rage against the Church that will be stirred up by Roe v. Wade’s demise – and the corresponding call of the Faithful everywhere, but men especially, to stand physically and spiritually ready for acts of heroism in defending the innocent.

If indeed groups like “Jane’s Revenge” make good on their promises to violently attack Catholic Masses throughout the nation (though we can assume, in this age wherein the entire Western World tends to move like a single piece of machinery, that this rage will not be restricted to America), then this means that men everywhere must be ready to defend not only their fellow Massgoers, but also the dignity of the Holy Sacrifice and the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. 

All three are even worth sacrificing our lives to defend: Innocent people indeed, but also the Sanctity of the Mass, and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

This is a task above all ill-suited to an unspiritual man who, attached to the things of the world and lacking zeal for and devotion in the Faith, would only seek to preserve his own life in an extraordinary situation. 

But it is also a task ill-suited to a man who, even if he is capable of doing otherwise, nevertheless allows his body to become weak and incapable. Therefore:

Men, Stand up. 

Be ready.

Prepare your soul for heroism and, if needed, martyrdom.

Prepare your body to fight to defend the innocent.

Yesterday morning, I LiveStreamed my Divine Will Missionaries of Mercy walk:

I’ve been doing these walks for over 8 years (I started DWMoM itself in 2015, but started the forerunner apostolate in 2014), and it only just occurred to me to give livestreaming one walk a try. My reason for doing so was simply to show an example of what a DWMoM walk can look like, so as to clear up any mystery and illustrate just how easy it is. But a comment someone made on the YouTube video (thanks, Mary!) got me thinking: there is another, perhaps more important thing the livestream did. It enabled those who were watching, live, to pray for all those I came across just as I was doing.

Anyway, I am eager to get my reader’s input on this. I don’t want to bother my YouTube subscribers with a bunch of videos they might not be interested in, but I don’t want to pass up on what may be a great opportunity of grace, either. So if you have an opinion on this, feel free to vote in this poll:

Thyatira Now: Jezebel’s Reign, Her Fate, and Our Duty of Intolerance

(Note: Announcements below post)

(Update: Right after publishing this post, I discovered that it was just announced that Pope Francis has said “World War III has been declared“)

This week’s first readings at Daily Mass detail the machinations of King Ahab’s evil wife, Jezebel. The prophetic significance and timeliness of the “Jezebelian” admonitions is extraordinary and unmistakable. Jezebel’s own corrupt qualities describe the modern world—which proudly appropriates her antics—whereas Jezebel’s fate in the Old Testament (as well as the New Testament prophecies regarding the apocalyptic “Jezebelian” society in which we now live) tells us what will soon come of the corrupt world that follows in her footsteps. More on that in a moment; first, a few words on the historical Jezebel.

Jezebel’s villainy is one for which equals are difficult to find. She seduced her husband, the King of Israel, to nationally institute the gravest of all sins into God’s Kingdom: idolatry. Not any idolatry, either, but idolatry of its most perverse form—the explicit worship of the “god” (demon) Baal. She persecuted, purged, and killed the true prophets of God, as well as those Israelites who remained steadfast in the Faith, and she protected and promoted the false prophets of this demon, doing her utmost to cause the spiritual destruction of the entire people. 

Her evil was such that God promised she would be destroyed in a most gruesome way, with the dogs eating her corpse such that it would be unrecognizable, and that her bloodline would end. 

Some time after she had Naboth murdered (so that her husband Ahab could claim Naboth’s vineyard), Elisha—who had received the prophetic commission from the unmatched Elijah—sent Jehu to command the Israelite army and execute Divine vengeance upon Jezebel. When Jezebel heard news of his imminent arrival, she adorned herself with makeup (2 Kings 9:30) in hopes of seducing Jehu from her high balcony. This attempt failed, and upon arriving, Jehu called out from the ground below:

“Who is on my side!? Who!?” (2 Kings 9:32)

…at which point some of Jezebel’s own servants were inspired to stand up and be counted. Jehu commanded them to be the executors of God’s wrath, the Bible tells us what happened next:

So they threw her down; and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. Then he went in and ate and drank; and he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.” But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezre′el the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the territory of Jezre′el, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’”

2 Kings 9

Behold the Judgment of the Harlot. God is Just.

I am not, however, intending to convey a history lesson here. This about the present and the future; and it is not a mere lesson, but rather a sure prophecy. 

Modern society is now Jezebelian to the very core: in its perversity, its sexual immorality, its mindless lust for power, its persecution of the truth and those who proclaim it, its infiltration even into the Church of God, its murder of innocents, and its promotion of the false prophets of demons (e.g., those who proclaim the Diabolical Quantum Leap.)

Therefore it is perhaps unsurprising that Jezebel herself has become an object of fascination and esteem in today’s culture. The fact that she is now explicitly revered and imitated instead of denounced is itself a testimony to today’s apocalyptic moral and spiritual degeneracy:

  • In recent years, at least 20 songs named “Jezebel” have been released in major albums. The last one was described—by its creators (the Finnish rock band “the Rasmus”)—as “an homage, a tribute, to the strong women of today, who own their bodies, who are in charge of their sensuality, their sexuality…”  Jezebel’s promiscuous reputation is presented as a model to imitate, and her being “in charge of her body” pays homage to the Molochesque modern religion of child sacrifice–abortion. 
  • Jezebel (.com) is a very popular news website launched in 2007, named in honor of the Biblical harlot. It has published an uncountable deluge of articles supporting every evil one can name; but above all, abortion. It has called for the months ahead in 2022 to be a “Summer of Rage” in support of the murder of unborn children, and has promoted many evils that are simply too revolting for me to even detail here. Hundreds of thousands of people follow “Jezebel” on social media.
  • In March of this year, none other than TIME magazine published an article defending Jezebel and denouncing the Bible for its “misogynistic logic of patriarchy,” castigating its “incorrect” account of Jezebel herself, and dismissing the Prophet Elijah as a “fundamentalist.” The author of this TIME article laments that “Jezebel’s only crime” was that she “regarded Elijah as an equal.” Such utterly twisted words as these would be surprising to see even in the comments section of the blog of some Satanist or Wiccan living in her parents’ basement; yet, in 2022, we see them exalted in the largest weekly news magazine in the entire world. 

God, of course, knew what would come of society when He inspired each word of the Bible; particularly the Book of Revelation. He knew that, 2,000 years after that book was written, the whole world would be flooded by this unholy spirit of Jezebel. And this is why He authored the following words of Revelation’s second Chapter to the Church in Thyatira:

“I know your works, your love, faith, service, and endurance, and that your last works are greater than the first. Yet I hold this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, who teaches and misleads my servants to play the harlot and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her harlotry. So I will cast her on a sickbed and plunge those who commit adultery with her into intense suffering unless they repent of her works. I will also put her children to death. Thus shall all the churches come to know that I am the searcher of hearts and minds and that I will give each of you what your works deserve. But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not uphold this teaching and know nothing of the so-called deep secrets of Satan: on you I will place no further burden, except that you must hold fast to what you have until I come.” 

Revelation 2: 19-25

Now, most of the prophetic elements of Scripture have multiple valid interpretations. The passage above is, of course, a direct admonishment to an actual historical Church (“Diocese,” you could say) in Thyatira, during the first century. But it is also an allusion to what the Book of Revelation later describes in Chapter 17; the Harlot with whom

“the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

Revelation 17:2

This Harlot, in other words, seduces the entire world into immorality and idolatry. It is precisely the tentacles of her evil, spread across the globe, that enable the Beast (the Antichrist) to exercise his diabolical dominion over the earth. Ironically, however, the Beast also hates the Harlot and will himself be an instrument of her downfall. (Or perhaps it is not ironic: evil is hatred to the very core; it hates God, it hates good, but it also hates other evil people. There is no fellowship in hell; all there hate each other, and the evil of the earth today hate each other too, even in the midst of superficial and fake camaraderie.)

This downfall, we see described next in the Bible:

 “…the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. 

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons … all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion …the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.” Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues…”

Revelation 17,18

Two admonitions for us stand out in the passages above from Revelation 2, 17, and 18.

First: Do not even tolerate Jezebel. Hold fast in the Faith, without compromise, until Christ comes.

Second: “Come out of her, lest you share in her plagues!” 

Increasingly we hear voices in the Church–including every level of her hierarchy–insisting, flatly contrary to Jesus’ direct exhortation in Scripture, that we tolerate Jezebel. Let those who thus advocate dare not say they were not warned, when they see that their toleration of this harlot and her impurity causes them to partake in her own Divinely-ordained downfall. 

“Love the sinner, hate the sin,” may often be difficult to live out, but the principle is not complicated, and loving the sinner never means accepting the sin (still less supporting “pride” in that sin). But the Harlot holds great power today, and she readily shares her ill begotten gains with those in the Church who advance her agenda. It is precisely the lust for this power and this praise from the Jezebelian world that has seduced so many in the Church (both in her pews and her hierarchy) to tolerate and accept her immorality. 

Have no part in it. “Come out of her!” as Jesus begs us in the Book of Revelation, “lest you share in her plagues!” Her plagues are coming. They are coming so very soon. You–dear soul now cooperating with Jezebel– have very little time to “come out of her.” 

Are you in any way cooperating with abortion, “LGBT” pride, pornography, contraception, fornication, adultery, Paganism, atheism, institutional evil, etc.? Jesus is begging you, “Come out of her, my people!” His mercy is infinite, and whoever you are–no matter how deep within Jezebel you have sunk–you can be forgiven and healed. But the time in which that Mercy is available is very rapidly drawing to a close.

Immediately after the passages above, The Apocalypse goes on to describe the extreme and sudden downfall of this Harlot. After her defeat, St. John describes:

…The mighty voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Revelation 19

Indeed, the tale I tell now is not a sad story. It is a tale of victory.

In the next days, we will hear at Mass of the glory of Elijah. Elijah triumphed over Jezebel years before she was cast off the balcony and consumed by dogs. For the beginning of her downfall occurred when Elijah, standing with no one on his side but Almighty God, conquered hundreds of Jezebel’s false prophets of Baal. We will also hear at Mass, this Thursday, of Jesus teaching the Our Father; which was foreshadowed by Elijah’s brief prayer that brought to naught all those false prophets.

As I wrote in page 9 of Thy Will Be Done:

“Elijah” (One of the “Two Witnesses” of Revelation 11) has already come:

Excerpts from Pages 125-126 of Thy Will Be Done

… and we await the Jehu Moment at the Balcony. 

Our Mission, however, is not merely to wait for that moment, but to hasten it and to participate in the Triumph it will bring, therefore:

PROCLAIM CHRIST THE KING!

Announcements

Now that the Covid mandate/restriction tyranny is subsiding, I’m finally starting to get back into scheduling regular in person talks.  My next one will be June 25th at the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, NY.  I’ll be speaking near Cape Cod in September, in Orlando in October, and possibly in some other cities in July/August. I’ll post more details about those, and other upcoming talks, later. I also have recently done and am doing some more webcasts with people that I’ll link to shortly.

A general note on contemporary private revelation and mysticism:

There are some alleged mystics/seers that are often believed to be authentic by people in some of the circles I travel in… but which I am either ambivalent towards, skeptical about, or even feel are inauthentic. Very rarely do I denounce an alleged mystic/revelation by name. I believe that we generally should not be so presumptuous as to preempt the Church here [cf. Acts 5]. (I do make some exceptions: for example, in the extreme case of “Voice and Echo of the Divine Messengers”—both very popular and very heretical—I did write against them back in 2020, and I stand by that denunciation). 

Therefore, please do not assume that I consider any particular mystic/seer as authentic unless 1) I have specifically said so, or 2) He or she has been given a “constat de supernaturalitate” approval (not merely published books/messages that got Imprimaturs) by the Church, or 3) He/she has since died and his/her cause of Beatification has been formally opened. (And remember that, even among the living seers I have quoted approvingly, I still feel I am “only discerning” most of them; though I do feel quite confident in, for example, Medjugorje’s authenticity). Even more importantly, don’t assume I disbelieve in a mystic/seer unless I’ve specifically said so, either! 

Even some of today’s “big name expert” theologians in Catholic mysticism/private revelation believe in certain alleged mystics/seers that I do not. But I’m not going to get any more specific than to say that. Worry not; you don’t need a knucklehead from New York named Daniel O’Connor to tell you who is and is not authentic among the countless living alleged seers. I am certainly not worthy of even attempting to fill that role. You’ll be fine so long as you: 

  1. Stick with the Church-sanctioned norms of discernment (see Part Three of Thy Will Be Done), 
  2. Always regard the Catechism’s teachings as superior to every private revelation, 
  3. Be careful to avoid the lies of what I call the “Diabolical Quantum Leap” (Tragically, some alleged “seers” will indeed promote tenets of that; and some of have already done so), 
  4. Remember that an individual private revelation can be a mixed bag (unlike Public Revelation, which is 100% Holy Spirit)– a compilation of some legitimately supernaturally-inspired insights, with some subjective (even accidental) insertions from the human intellect of the recipient, and even with some diabolical deception (especially if the seer is not under careful, constant, in-person spiritual direction from a Catholic priest whom he/she always obeys absolutely.)
  5. Spend the vast majority of your private revelation reading time with those texts that are indisputably entirely authentic (e.g. revelations like St. Faustina’s, Bl. Conchita’s, Bl. Dina Belanger’s, Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta’s; apparitions like Fatima/Heede/Akita/Kibeho/etc.; mystics like St. Maximilian Kolbe, Servant of God Archbishop Luis Martinez, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity ) 

Uvalde and End Times; Chastisements, Triumph, and the Mission of The Vigilants

One of the clear signs of the arrival of the End Times was given by Our Lord Himself in the Gospel:

“Because wickedness hath abounded, most men’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12)

I cannot recall when I last saw such a clear illustration of this Biblically prophesied “apocalyptic coldness” as what was exhibited on May 24th by the Uvalde police department. More on that later.

In the afternoon of May 24th, I suddenly felt an urge to draw attention to the following words of Jesus to Luisa. This passage is one of a number from her revelations that I find constantly coming back to my mind; namely, Our Lord’s assurance that He tolerates such evil in these times only because He sees the far surpassing glory of what is soon to come to earth. I often take great consolation in that passage, but before that day I had never really gone out of my way to draw special attention to it. Here is what I posted to Twitter:

(If that “tweet” isn’t showing up on your screen, click here for a screenshot of it)

I had no idea, when putting that post on Twitter, that news was just breaking about the horrendous massacre in Uvalde (I had not at that time recently checked the news). Of course, I now know exactly why I felt inspired to post that when I did. It is precisely in such dark times as these that we need to be reminded of God’s plan for the present Era, the evil of which was indeed at that moment bursting violently into even plainer view. 

There is nothing at all wrong with, upon observing the evil inundating the earth these days, crying out to God:

“How long, Lord? How long!!??”

In fact, open eyes along with a modicum of honesty just about demands voicing this lamentation regularly.

I assure you that His answer is this:

“Not long at all. Hold on. Keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep proclaiming. I am coming soon.”

In the meantime, we must do all that we can.

Returning to the question of May 24th, I must admit that atrocities in Uvalde that day impacted me very deeply. Part of this, I am sure, is that I now have children, and the last elementary school shooting of this magnitude (Sandy Hook) occurred just before I was married. (Though that, too, impacted me greatly; I lived in Connecticut at the time, and my own cousin, Fr. Luke, was a priest at the nearby parish.) But it is more than that.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things—in terms of the actual quantity of innocent blood shed, for example—it is scarcely a drop in the bucket, when we consider the thousands of innocents murdered every single day across the globe: abortion, war, the human trafficking industry, the overwhelming persecution and martyrdom of Christians in Africa and Asia, the countless millions suffering under cruel tyrants; all not to mention the slew of murders each day that scarcely make the news (for example, in the city of Chicago alone, there is on average more than one murder each day—already there, this very month [May], more than twice as many people have been murdered in Chicago as in Uvalde).

Nevertheless, I can scarcely describe the horror and anger I felt when reading about an army of heavily armed police officers standing outside, for over an hour, while a lone teenage gunman massacred 19 children mere yards away from them… while they waited for the janitor’s key. This exposed what can only be called out bluntly: a rot, a cancer, an utter moral degeneracy in our institutions.

If perchance you follow me on Twitter, then you already know that this is something I have been publicly livid about since it happened, but what follows is something I am only publicly saying now.

Before I get to that, remember: we cannot become Quietists; standing by idly waiting for Christ to Triumph. That is the very opposite of our calling, which is to hasten and actively cooperate with that Triumph in every way we possibly can. Above all, indeed, by trusting in and proclaiming the Divine Mercy, and in striving to live in and proclaim the Divine Will. But also by fighting for what is good, true, and beautiful in the here and now. We must, in other words, “Till the Soil” for the Restoration of All Things in Christ (see pages 226-228 of Thy Will Be Done). 

One of the most important dimensions of that “tilling of the soil” is being ever ready to be a Good Samaritan; standing ever prepared to intervene to do what is good, right, and just, in any situation no matter what. Remaining ever cognizant of the fact that wherever we are… we are only there because God put us there, and proceeding with confidence that His Will is never that we be apathetic or cowardly. 

(Note: That’s a great scene, despite its Liturgical oddities. But the movie is filthy; please don’t watch it!)

A lurking temptation in some of the circles I travel in is the trap of placing far too much emphasis — inspired by the low desire of keeping oneself physically safe — on always trying to figure out (to insulate oneself from) all the evil plans of evil men. Always trying to be sure to stay on top of every single silly conspiracy theory that circulates about every story that hits the news. Ever paranoid that some government or corporate agency, or malicious billionaire, is trying to spy on them, or sneak a chip into them, or poison them, and on the list goes. Some of these concerns are sometimes valid (I have commented on them and will continue to!), but when it becomes paranoia or obsession, it is a sin and a disorder. 

Friends, let me remind you: you will die. Maybe very soon. When you die, you will be judged. When you are judged, the standard of that judgment will be love. Obsession with one’s own safety, health, and security will not merely be indifferent to your own Judgment Day; it will testify against you. So continue being prudent, but get your heart out of the filthy gutter of paranoia and obsession with your own physical well being. Instead, hitch your heart to the stars such that, even when the diabolical plans now in the works among the elite come to light, you can laugh at them just like the martyrs we revere — and should imitate — have laughed at the instruments of their torturers.

So what am I getting at? 

I am getting at the Crisis of Apathy in the world today; the unwillingness of most people to take the risks – and to endure the pain– that God Wills for them (by virtue of what the circumstances they find themselves in say; for He is in control of all the circumstances that are outside of our control). Uvalde Police Department gave us a glimpse into that crisis with an unusual degree of shocking clarity, even though it was nothing fundamentally new. 

As I pondered and prayed about this tragedy, I felt it impossible to simply sit around writing critical articles from a comfortable armchair. I felt that I had to at least try to help effect some sort of positive change in this horrible apathy the world finds itself mired in. 

So I started “The Vigilants.” 

www.TheVigilants.com 

I’ll have to wait on the Lord and see where God leads me regarding “The Vigilants.” As it now stands, though, I’ll admit that I don’t have any plans to turn this into a formal organization of any sort; one replete with newsletters, membership cards, donation requests, obligations, etc. My primary mission remains proclaiming the Divine Mercy and the Divine Will, and that (on top of the duties of my state in life, of course), will continue to be my focus and require most of my time. (And here I will add that, considering oneself a member of The Vigilants dovetails perfectly with being a Divine Will Missionary of Mercy. For we should be Vigilant, above all, for souls, and our endeavors to go out and evangelize souls presents many opportunities to potentially rise to the occasion as a Vigilant, so there is a great mutual enrichment between the two missions.)

Instead, I for now simply want the mission of The Vigilants, articulated on that website, to stand as a reminder to men of the ideal they should strive to live up to. But without further ado, let me put an extremely important announcement about this in very big, bold font:

I am not courageous, I am not a hero, and I am not an example that others should strive to imitate. (And though I judge the actions of the Uvalde Police Department, I have no judgments on their hearts, nor do I claim to know how I would act in an extreme situation.) Quite the opposite: I am a miserable and unworthy sinner as direly in need of prayers as anyone. A major reason I made “The Vigilants” was precisely because I need to be reminded of what I myself need to do a better job of doing and preparing for. 

So, even if it turns out to be absolutely nothing other than this, The Vigilants is, at a minimum, something to remind me—Daniel O’Connor—to stop being apathetic, stop being a coward, and stop being self-interested. But to, instead, try my best to always stand ready to rise to whatever occasion the circumstances God places me in might entail. 

And if you feel that you are also a man who could use that reminder, feel free to consider yourself a Vigilant also. 

***

Uvalde, however, was only the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

Long have I felt called to try to do something more concrete about the Crisis of Apathy in our society. It is getting so much worse with each passing day. Every day, new videos find their way to social media, or even the news, of horrendous things happening on our city streets. And what is the reaction, almost every time, of the passersby? Nothing. A man is bleeding to death on the ground; he is ignored by hundreds of pedestrians until he dies. A person violently harasses women on a NYC subway; the men standing around do nothing to stop it. A person’s car is on fire on the side of the road; everyone simply drives by. 

But I have come to my conclusions about today’s Crisis of Apathy not merely by reading the news; it has proven unavoidable also by my own observations in life. As I said above, I am certainly no hero, but there are plenty of occasions where I’ve stopped to help someone who appeared to be in need. Usually, the first reaction of the person is the same: “I clearly was in need, but so many people just drove on by… no one stopped … I don’t understand.” 

Well, I do understand. It cannot be explained merely by psychoanalyzing the subtleties of “Bystander Effect.” It is far, far deeper than that, for it is what I opened this post with. As Our Lord said, “the love of many will grow cold” in the End Times due to the spread of sin. Tell me what you think a society would look like wherein that prophecy is realized. 

You just described 2022. 

Such times as these, however, are the envy of saints. The colder the world, the more intensely we should strive to make the heat of Divine Love felt. The darker the times, the more dedicated we should be to making the resplendence of the light of God’s Truth shine forth. Be zealous. Be courageous. Be bold.

In a few hours, it will be Memorial Day, and I believe this is the ideal moment to present this call. As we honor those soldiers who have died fighting for our nation, let us recall that we do them the most honor not merely by praising them, but by looking up to their heroism and striving to imitate their virtues.

God bless you.