Riots, Revolution, Rigged Elections, and the Precious Blood of Jesus

In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

As we recall the birth of our country on the Fourth of July, as Americans and as Catholics, it has been our tradition to stand and place our right hands over our hearts and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. We recall those revered words, “One Nation under God.” Also in July, we take note that the Church has traditionally dedicated this entire month to the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ. As Catholics and Americans, we love God and country. However, not everyone living in America shares that love.

There are those in the grip of the devil who are motivated by a hatred of God and country. We will see how satan is behind the fear that is gripping much of our nation and world today by noting that the same evil tactics of the devil are being used today, as they have been used in the past, including: riots, revolutions, and rigged elections. This evil is so manifest that it calls to mind the vision of hell shown by Our Lady of Fatima to the three shepherd children on July 13, 1917. We will learn how the Precious Blood of Jesus can overcome this diabolically induced fear that is arising from the pit of hell.

As Americans and as Catholics, we were saddened to hear that a Marxist revolutionary mob recently rioted in San Francisco and toppled statues of several American heroes, including the renowned Catholic missionary Fr. Junipero Serra and the writer of our National Anthem, Francis Scott Key. As these ungodly revolutionary riots erupt throughout our country, and indeed throughout the world, we must recall the words of Jesus to “be not afraid” (Luke 12:4). Similarly, the words of the Star Spangled Banner reminding us that the United States is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” We must be brave and stand up to Marxist terrorists who create fear in order to tear our country apart. We must be not afraid.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco stated that the June 19th toppling of the Junipero Serra statue in the City’s Golden Gate Park was the work of satan. The Archbishop said: “We came together to say the prayer of the Rosary; the prayer of exorcism; and the Saint Michael Prayer; because evil is here. This is an activity of the evil one who wants to bring down the Church, who wants to bring down all Christian believers.” Archbishop Cordileone was not afraid to speak the truth and to stand up against the tide of evil sweeping across our Church, country, and world.

On the Traditional Latin Mass calendar, July 1 is the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ which, as we will soon see, has historical significance. Rather than celebrating the Precious Blood of Jesus on that date, the Novus Ordo Mass calendar in the United States observes the Memorial of Junipero Serra. The liturgical revisionists then established a Votive Mass for the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which can be said at various times throughout the year. Nevertheless, devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ is especially important for our protection in these days of spiritual and political unrest. The protection of the Precious Blood of Jesus was prefigured in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Exodus, the Lord told Moses to have the Hebrew families sacrifice a male lamb without blemish and take its blood and put it upon the posts of the door where they lived. Thus, when the Angel of the Lord would come to slay the firstborn of the land of Egypt, the Angel would “pass over” the homes marked with the blood of the lamb and would not harm them.

The lambs which were sacrificed and shed their blood during the Exodus became known as the Passover lambs. On Good Friday on Calvary, our Lord and God Jesus Christ became our Passover Lamb – the Sacrificial Lamb of God Who would take away the sins of the world. As the Hebrew people were delivered from the slavery of Egypt by the blood of a lamb, we are delivered out of slavery to sin and death by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on Calvary, which is re-presented for us at each and every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Precious Blood of Jesus protected St. Clare of Assisi and her convent from an advancing horde of Islamic Saracens. As the Muslims approached, she prayed: “We beseech Thee, O Lord, help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood.” The convent was then saved. With this in mind, we all must trust in the Precious Blood of Christ and be not afraid in the face of the evil horde of Marxist revolutionaries in our time. Precious Blood of Jesus save our country!  Precious Blood of Jesus save the world! Precious Blood of Jesus save the Church!

When Jesus was before Pontius Pilate, the enemies of God assembled a mob to stage a ‘rigged election.’ When Pilate asked the frenzied assembly whether Jesus or Barabbas should be released, the chief priests had instructed the organized rabble of that time to cry out Barabbas’ name. “But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people, that they should ask for Barabbas, and take Jesus away” (Matt. 27:20). When Pilate asked what he should do with Jesus, they were trained to shout in unison: “Let Him be crucified!” (Matt. 27:22). This was the first recorded ‘public opinion poll’ and it was ‘fixed’ to yield an evil result. Pilate declared, “I am innocent of the Blood of this just Man” (Matt. 27:24). But with great hatred towards Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God, prompted by the evil ‘community organizers’ of their time, the crowd demonically shouted out in unison: “His Blood be upon us and our children” (Matt. 27:25).

It is said that the soldier who pierced the Sacred Heart of Jesus as He was Crucified on Calvary was a nearly blind Roman centurion named Longinus. Some of the Precious Blood from the wounded side of Christ came into contact with his eyes and he was miraculously healed and converted to Christianity. Today, at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, there is a larger-than-life statue sculpted by Bernini of St. Longinus holding his spear outstretched, seemingly proclaiming his words from Sacred Scripture: “Indeed this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). The power of the Precious Blood of Christ is especially manifested in association with the Cross.

St. John Chrysostom once noted, “The Gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the Cross, a soldier came and pierced His side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and Blood. Now the water was a symbol of Baptism and the Blood, of the Holy Eucharist … From these two Sacraments the Church is born …” Hence, the Precious Blood of Christ is a constitutive element of the Church from the first moment of her existence on Good Friday.

The vision of the third part of the Secret of Fatima (the Third Secret) speaks of a big cross at the top of a steep mountain without a Corpus. Around it, martyrs are being slain. The blood of the martyrs is seen being gathered up by two angels. It appears to be a vision of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ being crucified. That is why there is no Corpus on the cross in the Third Secret. As such, mystically, the Precious Blood of Christ is being poured forth from His Mystical Body, the Church. As we go through our Calvary on earth, complete with angry and lying mobs threatening our lives, Jesus showed us that the Cross is also the key that opens the gates to Heaven. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we must follow Jesus to the point of shedding our blood. God will give us the grace of martyrdom. Be not afraid!

Fr. John Hardon, S.J. encourages us as follows: “And I don’t hesitate recommending praying for the gift of martyrdom. But even if it is not God’s Will that we shed our blood for Christ, to manifest our love for Him physically, let’s make sure, absolutely sure, that we let no opportunity go by without shedding our blood spiritually. And that, my friends, no matter what our state of life, no matter what our vocation may be, if we are Christians, we are meant to shed our blood.”

Pope St. Clement I, who reigned towards the end of the first century, is said to have died as a martyr after being exiled from Rome by being tied to an anchor and thrown off a boat into the Black Sea. Around A.D. 96, this Holy Father wrote words for our time, and for all time: “Let us look steadfastly to the Blood of Christ, and see how precious that Blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.” (Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 7).

The satanic riots and bloody Marxist revolution we are now experiencing are nothing new and should not be surprising. They are part and parcel of the toolbox of the devil. In fact, the great Pope Pius IX had to flee Rome in November 1848 and go into exile at Gaeta, Italy until September 1849 because of revolutionary riots taking place in Rome. King Ferdinand II ‘of the two Sicilies’, who ruled from Naples, had granted Pius IX asylum at Gaeta. The mobs were looking for blood.  The Pope’s very life was in danger. The Catholic Church was under attack.

Part of the problem, as the Pontiff noted upon his arrival at Gaeta, was “the abuse of the press” (fake news) and “wicked men.” In addition, history tells us that in Rome, “the higher institutions of learning were closed, commerce and businesses were suspended” and that the Eternal City was “filled with thieves, vagabonds and assassins.” In addition, “the walls were polluted, paintings torn down and statues of the saints were mutilated.”[1] Indeed, in the light of our day, 2020, we can say that history is repeating itself. One horror from the days of Pope Pius IX that may be just beginning in our troubled times, signaled by the ‘defund the police’ movement, is that “[m]urder was unpunished and tolerated. No one dared walk the street in the dress of a priest, except at the peril of his life. These assassinations or executions as they were called amounted in a few weeks to one thousand.”[2]

This Holy Pontiff, Pope Pius IX, spent much of his time at Gaeta praying before a bloody Miraculous Crucifix, at the Sanctuary of Split Mountain. The Chapel of the Crucifix at Split Mountain is located on a huge rock, which is wedged deep within a fissure running through the mountain that is said to have been formed at the moment that Our Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary. It is said that this 2,000-year-old fault line, crafted by the Hand of God, extends from Jerusalem, where drops of Our Lord’s Precious Blood fell to the ground at Calvary, to the western end of Europe—upon which numerous churches have been built along the way as memorials to Our Lord’s salvific Death on the Cross.

It is interesting to note that while the Vicar of Christ was at Gaeta, on August 2, 1849, the USS Constitution, proudly flying the Stars and Stripes, came to port on the Mediterranean Sea and received onboard Pope Pius IX and King Ferdinand II.  The Catholic sailors received rosaries from the Pontiff and Captain Gwinn received a picture of the Successor of St. Peter. The Pontiff and the King received a 21-gun salute from ‘Old Ironsides.’ A nation’s warships are considered sovereign territory.  Hence, Pius IX walking on the deck of the USS Constitution marked the first time that a Pope set foot on United States ‘soil’ or its equivalent.

While in exile, Pope Pius IX appealed for help to the Christian nations of Europe.  Having arrived at Gaeta with Don Giovanni Merlini, the third Superior General of the Fathers of the Most Precious Blood, Pius IX especially appealed for help to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. On June 30, 1849, the Supreme Pontiff declared his intention to extend throughout the universal Church the Feast of the Precious Blood of Christ (which he would actually do on August 10). On the very next day, July 1, French troops entered Rome, subdued the revolutionary rioters, and restored order. That is why the Catholic Church has traditionally celebrated the Feast of the Most Precious Blood on July 1, as well as why the month of July is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood. From that time on, one of Pius IX’s favorite mottos was: “Place on thy heart one drop of the Precious Blood of Jesus and fear nothing.” Be not afraid!

Call to mind this glorious truth of Faith, expressed by Fr. John Hardon: “Every drop of Christ’s Blood in the Agony in the Garden, every drop He shed on Calvary, every drop was united hypostatically with the Second Person of the Trinity. Every drop of that Blood was adorable.”

There is a traditional Catholic sacramental known as the Precious Blood of Jesus Badge, which is Heart-shaped and can be worn over your heart. On one side, words surrounding a Crucifix implores: “We pray You Lord, help Your people Whom You have redeemed with Your Precious Blood.” On the reverse side, surrounding a drop of Jesus’ Precious Blood, are the aforementioned words of the great Pope Pius IX: “Place on thy heart one drop of the Precious Blood of Jesus and fear nothing.” Fear nothing, be not afraid!

Indeed, there is hope! At Fatima on July 13, 1917, after showing the three shepherd children a vision of hell, Our Lady promised: “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” The vision of hell that we have before us in our time can be summarized in satan’s insidious and yet apparent ‘Three R’s of Destroying the United States of America:’

1. Riots: Paid rioters and other anarchists screaming, looting, and vandalizing to topple not just statues, but our very government.
2. Revolution: One-World Government Marxist elites funding the staged riots and directing the fake-news media in a satanic orchestra to overthrow our God-given freedoms. One-World Religion advocates undermining and attacking traditional Catholic teaching and the natural law in order to serve the One-World Government.
3. Rigged Elections: Fake-news media telling lies to influence the vote; voter fraud through lack of voter ID; fraudulent public opinion polls to discourage voters; and revolutionaries at the polling places to intimidate non-comrades not to vote.

So, in the midst of theses diabolical evils occurring in our time – our vision of hell – we must defend God and country as best we can, so that we may be “One Nation under God.” Padre Pio declared, “The Rosary is the weapon” against evil. Pray the Rosary every day as Our Lady of Fatima taught. Do not be intimidated or discouraged from voting. Padre Pio also said: “Discouragement is the tool of the devil.” Pray the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel daily. As the Message of Fatima revealed that Portugal had a Guardian Angel, invoke the Guardian Angel of the United States for victory! Pray the Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Wear the Precious Blood of Jesus Badge. And always remember the famous words of Pope Pius IX: “Place on thy heart one drop of the Precious Blood of Jesus and fear nothing.” Be not afraid!

In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

[1] John Gilmary Shea, The Life of Pope Pius IX (New York, 1877), pp. 145-163.

[2] Ibid., p. 163.