Idon’t have time to write anything just now, but a picture is worth a thousand words.
This one especially.
In fact, I could easily rip off a few thousand words about the poignant feelings and sentiments this photo stirs in me, if I had but world enough and time, as Emily Dickinson put it.
Anyway, this isn’t a political blog as such, but since I’ve lent much of my attention of late to Barack Obama, it’s only right to mention the good guys. Haid Dasalami: fair and balanced. (We don’t need no stinking Fairness Doctrine!).
But if I’m not going political, what relevance exactly does this post have to the global jihad? Well, that’s where the thousand words could be useful, especially for non-Catholics.
I will point out that an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe like the one in the photo was carried aboard ship by Admiral Doria at Lepanto in 1571. Credit for the decisive victory over the superior Ottoman forces was imputed to the Blessed Virgin and to fervent recitation of the rosary before and throughout the awful battle.
{ 15 comments }
Reaction to this post ought to be interesting.
That’s if it generates any reaction.
I wonder if anyone knows what sorts of things I’m getting at?
Hint: I am not proselytizing for Catholicism.
First, let me make clear that I’m not Roman Catholic, so I don’t know much about the saints or the Catholic doctrines about Mary.
That said, I note that McCain isn’t standing in front of Saint Jude. Isn’t he the patron saint of lost causes?
Here’s a deeper question to ponder: Has Islam ever been pushed back by any other than religious means? Today we value secularism. But is secularism up to the task?
The context of the picture: McCain arrived in Mexico Wednesday on the second stop of his short Latin America tour seeking to score points with the large Latino voting block back home.
But the picture does send another message.
Although I’m not sure that McCain fully recognizes the threat which Islam poses, he definitely knows more about that threat than his opponent. Or, at least, is more willing to name Islamofascism as the evil enemy.
Always–That’s funny. St. Jude would be the appropriate intercessor for us and McCain in this bleak and forlorn instance. St. Jude’s feast day in the liturgical calendar, incidentally, is tomorrow, October 28th.
And yes, you’ve hit on one of my points: I’ve said here a few times that, although the counter-jihad is peopled with a plethora of noble atheists and agnostics, secularism will not be a sufficient answer to the onslaught of radical Islam.
As a primarily secular society, we must simply perish.
Haid,
My concern about secularism as a viable counter to Islam goes back years, to when I first became engrossed in learning more about the enemy sworn to our destruction.
And the Left is in bed with Islam, of course. Leftism has in common with Islam a hatred of America as established by our Founders.
Addendum: I will stand with atheists and agnostics in this battle. Indeed, from them I’ve gained valuable insights and knowledge.
But, ultimately, we are in a holy war, though we didn’t declare it as such.
Always,
I agree with everything you’ve said, but none of this gets at what I feel when I look at that photo.
Maybe I’ll just sit on my thoughts. You know: See how things play out over the next few days.
While I was typing the beginning of this comment, a reader stopped by who was referred by Google. He had searched on “Catholic prophecy Islam.” Realtime analytics by Woopra.
Yeah, funny, I know a lot about the search topic, but that doesn’t have anything to do with this post either. (He wasn’t referred to this post, of course).
No. I think I’ll just rest on the title and the photo for now.
We still have a little time left.
A little.
Effendi,
We could always use a miracle, to be sure. Though somehow I find it a bit hard to imagine Our Lady securing Sen. McCain as the intervention afforded our fervent prayers. And when God answers prayers, remember, He answers in His own way, giving us what we need, not what we think we need. IOW: we may be in for a chastening, if not a full-blown Babylonian Exile.
yur a typical neocon who thinks god is on yur side and fuk the poor–fuk everything accept yur religion yur god and yur bank account!
some day you will thank president obama
the miricale is that he is going to save you
from yur selves
Strike three.
Darryl,
So you don’t think a McCain victory would be a great grace from God?
As the nation rushes headlong toward embracing what we Catholics have been referring to since the forties as “the errors of Russia,” I think praying for a temporary reprieve from our impending Marxist socialization is not all that presumptuous of us.
Still, although it may indeed take a miracle to obtain a McCain victory, that’s not exclusively the point of my post.
Joe,
I’m no neocon, and I already know God isn’t a Republican. As for God being on our side, we learn from the Gospels that even Pilate’s authority was the will of God. We will soon see whom He invests that power in today.
But I doubt that I’ll be thanking Obama, president or not, anytime soon.
I hope Obama, when he’s elected, appoints Average Joe for the Re-education Ministry. His averageness and inability to form a cohesive thought under all that incoherent ranting will be a culmination of our doom. Having said that, I am not a Catholic, either, Haid, but I will say this for them: they have vouchsafed our heritage and history. When we, like the great Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer before us, go into seclusion with our Underground churches and Universities, we will have at our disposal the very manuals necessary for the survival of the human race. Who knows how many years the madness will last. Just look at poor Average Joe, up there, pitiable creature that he is. He is merely a tool, useful to the One as but a member of the Frothing at the Mouth Insta-Mob.
What is it Michael Weiss, I believe his name was, said about Christians? Uneducated, poor and easy to command. He stands corrected.
On Monday, my overly protective and somewhat pessimistic brother is having a Barbecue at his house to celebrate the End of Days as we know them. I’m bringing the following items: St. Louis baby back ribs, and Vanilla Bean Philly style icecream with home made Sauce caramel au beurre salé. (droooooool) I will report on that.
The BBQ sounds great. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we elect a president. And yes, Scherzo, your wording is perfect. Joe is a tool.
Alright, I’m not going to do the whole thousand words now, but maybe I’ll do them later. Maybe for December 12th. We’ll see.
But I will now say a bit about what my thoughts were when I saw this extraordinary photograph. First, it’s easy to be negative right now, depressed and blue even. It can seem as if it’s all slipping away. We are about to do the unthinkable as a nation, and the clock is ticking. I know Scherzo has tongue in cheek talking about the end of days, but over on Always’ blog she’s got some speculating that Obama will be one of the ten kings that come under the control of Antichrist! Whether serious or not about apocalyptic aspects, there can be no doubt that we are all starting to see this election as potentially cataclysmic.
As a Catholic viewing the photo, I was inspired that our faith is not really in John McCain, whom we must look beyond. Even if we witness a little miracle and McCain rallies against all odds to win this thing, he is just a man passing in front of the bigger picture. The holy war Always notes above is first of all internecine, and it goes on no matter who becomes our next president. I’ve explained that before we can convert the Mohammedans we’ll need to convert ourselves, and likewise before the great war with Islam we will need to fight one among ourselves. When I say we still have a little time, it’s a foregone conclusion that we have a bit more if we can defeat Barack Obama.
But we are obviously heading toward an abyss, and the only question is whether it’s soon or later. So we need a big miracle, one like Gaudalupe–a miracle that can inspire an entire people. This is starting to turn into the thousand words I’m saving, but I’ll just say that the missionaries who accompanied the conquistadors to Mexico weren’t having much success in converting the natives. The Islamists know something of this dilemma: it’s so hard to win hearts and minds when putting your subjects under the boot. But in short order after Gaudalupe in 1531 six million fervent Mexicans converted willingly to Christianity. The fervor over this miracle was still strong enough to win the day at Lepanto forty years later.
The Reconquista would have failed without the miracle of the Matamoros, who like the legend of El Cid also inspired an entire people. It matters not whether these and a bunch of other examples I can think of are pious legends or true miracles.
We need something very much like them today.
Faith in the Lord — that’s what I’ve still got. I’ve no doubts about the power of my God.
It’s the world situation I get angry about.
Comments on this entry are closed.