"Were you there?" ... Chick-fil-A

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

"Were you there?" (Calvary) … The nightmarish utterance
of Richard Burton’s Marcellus Gallio,
the lead role in the groundbreaking
Cinemascope epic, The Robe (1953).

 

“I’m Spartacus” … The last word and testament
of hundreds of faithful followers of the freedom fighter
played by Kirk Douglas in the Panavision classic,
Spartacus (1960).

Yes I was there…at Chick-fil-A with my two boys.  I had to be for it was by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Of this I am certain.

I carried a sign, a very crucial sign to the La Palmera Mall in Corpus Christi on August 1, 2012.  As we meandered to the end of the line to begin a 75 minute wait (our chance to witness solidarity), I felt compelled to do it. I showed the sign to a fair number of the 150+ people standing in the lunchtime queue. 

Why?  To see their response, to take note, and to make a statement. 

To their great credit, not a soul took an aggressive posture.  Silence was their only response, as I flashed this colorful guidon and uttered the line, “We have to rally and take it back.” 

Was there perplexity in the faces of many?  You bet. 

Did I have a discussion with anyone? Yes, while waiting it gave me the opportunity to explain this banner and why it is so critical for us to find a symbol for our cause. 

Is it the ultimate symbol?  Maybe.

Since 8-1, I made changes which lead to the following
COVENANT version of the guidon:

Watch it humbly fly here: 

Please help by commenting (jmjriz@gmail.com),

by taking this banner as your own,

and by getting the discussion started by sharing it with others.

We all need to stand under the Rainbow Arch of God’s Covenant.

Mary, Ark of the New and Everlasting Covenant

and Seat of Wisdom

Pray for us. 

"I'm a Covenant Believer"

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary

Become like Jesus

Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ

See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

O Beata Trinitas;

St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

I am not alone...a confirmation with a twist

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

This feature from 2010 must be read very carefully.
(Double-click and enlarge the image to get a readable popup)


http://wonkette.com/422149/tea-party-group-sending-homosexualjewish-bracelets-to-liberals-for-some-reason

  It reveals the exact same message
that I have been compelled to share.

Notice however that the author's take
on it is a misrepresentation
and perversion of the message.

The rainbow with seven colors,

the Newtonian ROYGBIV is opposed
to the banner of the opposition
with their 6 or 8 band versions.

Seven stands for completeness

—for swearing an oath—

the gateway to a living covenant ...

Seven Sacraments
Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The Son of Man is surely returning,

and it is like the days of Noah.

That's a Fact!

PS.  שכינה is Hebrew for shekhinah

the glory of God, the Holy Spirit

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

O Beata Trinitas;

St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

When the Son of Man comes...on earth as it is in heaven?

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

Please ponder the reality of the rainbow
and how it relates to the future of mankind,
and the consummation of all-in-Him.

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

The one NPR interview that you must listen to... "an incredible spiritual enlightenment."

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

I can assure you that this interview
is worth 30 minutes of your valuable time.

It's important to know the spirit
that inspires the misguided efforts of our opponent.

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/2/510214/155556422/KALW_155556422.mp3

This interview recently aired on the San Francisco
affiliate of National Public Radio. One thing I learned
from the conversation between two leading
advocates of the gay agenda:

I guess that I too am a lexicographer. 
(Latin for flagmaker)

The JCLLL guidon flying humbly over the Pacific Ocean
just off of the West Coast of the United States...truth in charity.

Might this be the guidon
for the Church Militant?

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary

Become like Jesus

Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ

See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

O Beata Trinitas;

St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

Get the Message? Evil may have the upper hand, but...

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

An image that I ran in a blog entry from 2007,
long before I ever heard of Barack H. Obama.

http://eucharist-emc2.blogspot.com/2007/06/ark-of-covenant-our-lady-of-victory.html 

Photo from CNN yesterday
http://whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/01/obama-speaks-with-world-leader-on-phone-holding-a-baseball-bat/

Our Lady has the victory!


Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!



* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

National Past Time?

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

A hymn of praise that with two small changes---
(peace -> love and a reordering of the second and third verses)

paints a beautiful picture of how
Light, Life and Love might be

radiated to a world that refuses to accept
Jesus Christ as the Beacon of Truth.

As I silently hum this tune,
I see that it might be a "catchy" jump rope melody

for Catholic/Christian playgrounds...
Do school age girls still do that?

CHRIST IS THE WORLD'S LIGHT

Christ is the world's light,

Christ and none other;

born in our darkness,

He became our brother.

If we have seen Him,

we have seen the Father:

Glory to God on high!

Christ is the world's life,

Christ and none other;

sold once for silver,

murdered here, our brother.

He, who redeems us,

reigns with God the Father:

Glory to God on high!

Christ is the world's love,

Christ and none other;

no one can serve Him,

and despise his brother.

Who else unites us,

one in God the Father?

Glory to God on high!

Give God the glory,

God and none other;

give God the glory,

Spirit, Son and Father;

give God the glory,

God-with-us our brother;
Glory to God on high!

TEXT: Fred Pratt Green, 1968
MUSIC: Paris Antiphoner, 1681
TUNE: CHRISTE SANCTORUM
METER: 10.11.11.6.

Compare this joy-fulled strain
to the Satanic Verses,

that I tried to expose on Catholic Online
just about seven years ago.

Talk about an inversion of truth!

Satanic Verses

6/7/2005 - 5:00 AM PST

By Michael Rizzio Op/Ed

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Some time ago I found myself lost in a daydream, in harmless pursuit of long forgotten memories. I combed the reaches of my clouded middle-aged mind and sought to focus on any thing, any time or place, any twinkling of light—anything that evoked, color and definition, something vivid, and alive and true.

I stumbled backwards through time to my preadolescent youth, the 60's, the trenches of childhood, the playground at St. Aloyisius Catholic School in suburban New Jersey. More specifically, I was escorted back to a foggy autumn morning in a macadam parking lot that served as "our home" in the great outdoors.

This was a scene for the ages; six hundred baby boomers dressed in navy blue and white, size was the only way to tell us apart, and within families of six to thirteen kids, even that was difficult. Social circles of energy...baseball card flippers (and scalers), tag, keep away and Spauldine handball players, hopscotchers and jump ropers. Kids being picked on, or made fun of; a meek boy with a bird for a last name comes rushing to mind...he would gently "perch" on your wrist with his index and middle fingers in response to this "command" from any one of his cruel yet loving masters (my self included). Clanking metal lunch boxes and soon to be soggy paper lunch bags, book bands snapping textbooks, and windbreakers bunched in piles... books everywhere and with no apparent order...it was amazing that we were ever able to recover our own. It was just prior to the PA bell, our reminder that fun time was over and that we were to gather in columns. A second bell would then trigger mass movement, by class, into the sacred and much loved chambers of Dominican learning.

For several minutes I soaked in this whirlwind of human activity and cacophony of noise. I chewed the memory like a boy with two hour old Bazooka bubblegum, seeking to taste just a wee bit more of that sweet pleasing flavor and hoping for one last significant pop. I greeted the sweetness and quickly reestablished old friendships. I so desired to be true to the memory and not project back what I have since come to know and believe. This I found was much harder to do than to say. I strained and blocked, as I pushed aside relativistic ideas that were assaulting the truth living inside of me, what I really experienced. "No, no, that's not how it happened, that's not how it looked." This exercise of will was becoming painful.

Then with little warning, a window of light worked its way through the fog. The soft golden rays glistened and provided instant relief. I was moved to stillness and silence. My mind's eye quickened to a shaper focus—more precisely, to a small group of schoolgirls who were noteworthy in no exceptional way. They were jumping rope to a rhythmic chant and this too was only common. Yet for some strange reason there was an attraction, so I moved closer, and listened...

"Fudge, Fudge, call the judge, my momma's got a brand new baby. It isn't a girl, it isn't a boy, it's just an ordinary baby. Wrap it up in tissue paper, send it down the elevator, first floor stop, second floor stop, third floor, kit it out the door, my momma don't want that baby no more..."

Little girls only a few years older than this shy, husky six year old. They were so methodical, taking turns, jumping in groups of from one to three, over and over again...to these satanic verses. I cringed. They were contemporaries of my three older sisters, who I have come to find, can recite this memorable verse by heart today, two score years removed in time and space. They were all infected, I was too.

But did this really happen?

Google Search: (fudge judge momma) and you too will find clues as to the origin of this viral agent, how is blanketed America and how it was intravenously injected into Catholic culture.

But who started it and why?

Don't believe for a moment that our children are safe today. I know for my wife Jen and I have a five and four year old. On the contrary, it is far more dangerous and incidious...

Contraception, abortion on demand, euthanasia, and now the horrendous spectacle of stem cell research and the spare body part industry that it is culturing...an ulcerous pearl of great evil...

"Fudge, Fudge, call the judge... The New Jersey Devils are off the ice."

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary

Become like Jesus

Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for: Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas; Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael

True Colors, shining through...the darkness

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

Would you rally under a banner that represented

the Eternal Covenant between God and Man?

There are 7 Sacraments that Jesus Christ

instituted for this purpose.

He alone is the beginnning (Α) and the end (Ω).

It's getting dark out there!

See you at Chick-Fil-A!

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary

Become like Jesus

Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ

See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

O Beata Trinitas;

St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

Rainbow War

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

So it all comes down to this.

 

Let's take up our banner and march!


Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!


* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

My Best Friend and Everyone's Best Friend... Father Mike

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

Father Mike Jordan where he was most at home, South Bend Indiana, his birthplace,
squarely between Our Lady's Golden Dome and the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ.

His first smiling words to me at the moment of my reversion to Catholicism in 1998 were, "Take a seat at the table."  

His last smiling words to me at the moment of his departure from our home in Skidmore a few weeks back were, "I love you too."

My last communication to him (a Post-It note that I left on his windshield): Mission complete :)

His death two weeks ago is still too surreal to fully comprehend. I doubt if I will ever forget his kind, loving affirmation over these past thirteen years. He was the greatest big brother in the faith I could imagine, and this is no exaggeration. He was a great uncle to my kids too. So many stories, yet untold...like if we wanted to get him to laugh (and what a wonderful contagious laugh it was) Jen would mention the Wizard of Id's Dork of York funny and he would instantaneously lose it.  Childlike joy is his legacy.

Did Fr. Mike see himself as the Dork? Me thinks so.

Father Michael Edward Jordan was apt to remind those of us who served with him at the SOLT lay formation center in Santa Rosa Beach, FL that,  "You are not at the Ark of the Covenant, you are in the Ark of the Covenant."  He was a mystic whose humbleness and phlegmatic temperament hid this fact from most of the world. His gift was a deep abiding relationship with both Jesus and his mother Mary especially in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

What is it like to be in the Ark of the Covenant? Father Mike knew. You could almost see the mantle of the Blessed Mother enveloping him as he went about tirelessly serving the lowest and the least. The plight of the unborn was a particular cross for him to bear. And bear it he did. The word  anawim fits him to a T,  and what we know from the Sermon on the Mount is that the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of heaven.

PS. Father Mike really appreciated Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies.  I can see him in heaven now, at the mike with that famous three-fold running joke "Tasting, tasting, tasting."  

Enjoy good buddy, you deserve life in abundance.

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

The Citadel

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

THE CITADEL

     My wife Jen and I are greatly concerned about the current HHS crisis and we see the critical need for the Church Militant to muster and witnesss solidarity.  As America approaches the pivotal 2012 election we feel an urgency to write this letter. We have been observing the quickening, the movements on both sides of the Pro-Life battle for the heart and soul of these once United States.  Time is ticking and with each passing day it seems we are being backed into a corner where there may soon be no means of escape.

     Personally, we have been participants in this struggle ever since our first pregnancy, when at a Catholic hospital in Florida we received professional medical counsel that “there are ethical considerations” in our choice to carry our firstborn, John Michael to term (John Michael is now a healthy, vibrant 13 year old).  We have been intimately involved in the Pro-Life apostolate ever since.

     More recently, on July 6, 2010 my father, William, was most likely euthanized while I slept in an adjoining bedroom.  The live-in hospice workers on their first night of duty were told to wake me up if my dad’s then current condition (sleeping peacefully) changed and they sure did.  I was awakened to see him without his nasal cannula and with a death mask that strongly suggested that he was gasping for air in his dying moments.  Yes, oral morphine was involved.  The two workers had different explanations as to what happened to precipitate my father's sudden and unexpected death.

     It was a tragic end to my family in Arizona.  We were literally destroyed by the event.  In subsequent conversations with friends and acquaintances, I have found that our experience was no exception.  Families are being ripped apart, one-by-one, at the explosive moment when death comes at the hands of so-called palliative care.  I have since found out that there is both good hospice and bad hospice.  The great challenge is to make sure you have signed a contract with the right one.

     I felt commissioned by this personal encounter with euthanasia and have made it a point to research the whole spectrum of EOL issues.  Fr. Anthony Blount, SOLT provided a welcome movement forward.  When I heard his taped seminar on End of Life Issues (delivered in Capulin, Colorado) I lamented, ‘Why hadn’t I received this inoculation before my dad died the way he did?’

     It all revolves around five key words. If we get them right we create a fortress, a citadel.  If we get even one of them wrong, we have a weak moral construct that the enemy of true light, life and love will surely try to exploit.  He will most likely succeed.

     The five interrelated words I call The Citadel.  Once I rearranged the order of Fr. Tony's presentation, I saw the key to easily remembering them.

     Again, they are five key principles rightly or wrongly understood.  The teaching method is to start with what the world says and then counter the prevailing 'wisdom' with "but the Catholic Church teaches..."  The five principles are: autonomy, dualism, hedonism, misguided compassion, and utilitarianism.  Rightly understood, these five provide mutual support to protect people/families with Catholic truth against any and all assaults on human life (contraception->euthanasia).

     At base level The Citadel is a battle drill.  It is simple to learn and transmit with your five fingers as a mnemonic.  As one develops each principle through practical exercises ("what if" situational role playing) one grows in self-confidence.  Since the best defense is a good offense it is very likely that a seasoned sentry manning the pro-life watchtower will be compelled to launch a counteroffensive to challenge an anti-life opponent (that hopefully will lead to his/her eventual conversion).  I have field tested the base level with my kids and it works.  They have the principles committed to memory.

Ft. McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner's final verse

are key to relating a true American Cause

and the ultimate victory of Truth and Justice.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The fort was made a national park in 1925; on August 11, 1939, it was redesignated a "National Monument and Historic Shrine," the only such doubly designated place in the United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It has become national tradition that when a new flag is designed it first flies over Fort McHenry. The first official 49 and 50 star American flags were flown over the fort and are still located on the premises.

     I watched with peaked interest Bishop Arthur Serratelli’s EWTN Sunday Night interview with Fr. Benedict Groeschel.  When he mentioned that St. Paul Inside the Walls (Center for New Evangelization) recently held a session with medical doctors where he asked what was their most pressing issue and they replied, end of life, a light bulb flashed in my mind.  It was as if the Holy Spirit whispered, “Get the Citadel broadcast.”

    Yours truly graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where the honor code provided the key principles for character development and moral conduct: "A cadet shall not lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate those who do."  As an honor committee rep for two years I witnessed how the toleration clause was the weak link in the chain.  During the years 1980-81 there a great loss of institutional integrity at the Point.  It was due primarily to moral relativism and the deliberate toleration of honor code violations.  We couldn't get a guilty verdict, even in the most blatant of cases.

     My older brother William Jr. who graduated from the Citadel was commissioned in the Marine Corps.  He was also blown away by my dad’s untimely demise which sadly, and/or providentially occurred on his 52nd birthday. He can never forget.

     If we had sat down as a family, discussed and jointly agreed to The Citadel, we would never have left my father alone in his bedroom that night.  Moreover we would have ensured that hospice was provided with our Church-based guidelines before we committed ourselves to their “care.”

     Jen and I believe it is worth a look at the method we have drafted (based on Fr. Tony's teachings) to provide this critical teaching to all Catholics, young and old.

     To paraphrase a Founding Father, Thomas Payne in his great work, The American Crisis from 1776:

This is surely a time

that will try men’s souls.

"This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed;
it can only destroy those civilisations which disregard it."

– G.K. Chesterton

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary

Become like Jesus

Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ

See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph;

O Beata Trinitas;

St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

On Value and Evolution

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

In trying to ascertain what is wrong with the world two words quickly come to mind.

The words are so overused and so meaningless that they fly off a speaker's tongue and travel through a listener's ears without even registering. They are resistant to analysis. They are the reigning queen and king of subjectivism.  

Queen Value (as opposed to a standard or God forbid a virtue) is seemingly everywhere. Family values, Christian values and American values lead the pack. Adding the word core to value makes a bold statement of commitment...Really? The irony is that once the value card is played on an unwitting audience it defies value judgment. Listeners are expected to take it at face value, as a given. We have been conditioned to think we know exactly what the speaker means. In one sense we intuitively do know, because the platitude has been used so many times before that it peals like a bell in our collective subconscious: Value is the greatest good, therefore someone who speaks about values has to be good too.. 

There it is, this strange yet direct connection with consumerism.  We all love value days at our favorite store. There are two-for-one values and Saturday Night Special values, Going Out of Business values and Value Days. True Value Hardware was really onto something when they went to the moral high ground by modifying value with true. Pure genius! Let's face it, we are fatally attracted to Valpak in our mailbox.

Every time I see or hear the word value I cringe. 

NEWS FLASH...this just in from the Drudge Report, no kidding.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/chicago-mayor-appeals-gangsters-values-get-away-kid

King Evolution (as opposed to progress or development) wields much the same effect. He hides in the shadow because he fears the light of day. He sucks the life out of any argument when he is revealed as a trump card.  He challenges all that is sacred to knock him of of the hill where he is enthroned by pseudo-science. He has conquered all domains from his humble biological birth.  He challenges the core identity of every human being.  He races ahead in uncharted directions without love or regard.

Queen Value and King Evolution reek with with the stench of utilitarianism.

And now there is a composite term making the rounds, valuevolution

The effects of valuevolution:

Mass confusion in society...

emotion driven existence...
personal autonomy...

no sense of sin...

Godlessness
PC

 A value vortex spinning straight to hell


http://www.mckenziefineart.com/artists/dagley/MD10001.html

Neutral Value Vortex

http://johnrozum.blogspot.com/2011/10/31-days-of-halloween-day-13.html 

Nebulous set of principles x unproven universal theory = valuevolution



Return to the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis....

the first sales pitch?
the value of just one bite.

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!



* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

Flee from Vanity

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

IT'S TIME TO CHOOSE

MEDITATION:

The Triune God is not some lonely deity living in eternal imprisonment. On the contrary, God is in essence family:  Father, Son and Spirit―the fountain of light, life and love―the source of all that is. This divine family gifts itself continuously both internally through bonds of essential light, life and love and externally in divine action that provides light, life and love to all of good creation.

If we keep light, life and love focused on our primary relationship to God, we will not be deceived.  We will trust the Light of Truth, the Life of Covenant Communion in Christ, the Love that endures forever. 

Thomas a Kempis wrote in The Imitation of Christ

Of fleeing from vain hope and pride

Vain is the life of that man who putteth his trust in men or in any created Thing. Be not ashamed to be the servant of others for the love of Jesus Christ, and to be reckoned poor in this life. Rest not upon thyself, but build thy hope in God.

Do what lieth in thy power, and God will help thy good intent. Trust not in thy learning, nor in the cleverness of any that lives, but rather trust in the favour of God, who resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.

Please don't trust President Obama

or for that matter

any merely human "leader."

VANITY must be defeated

this November,

WE MUST CHOOSE 

CHRIST!

AND

We Americans must repent

of our prideful, sinful ways.

The TRUTH demands it.

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!



* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael

The Third Sign...The Morning Star's Victory Lap

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

"Look, up in the sky"…
It’s a Beauty

Peace be with you!

For the third time in as many months (since March 25) the world’s seven billion human inhabitants will have been given an opportunity to wonder at the great mystery of creation. More specifically, we will have a moment to ponder raw, awe inspiring beauty.

The Dutch band Shocking Blue provides the lyric track, a one hit wonder from 1970, entitled Venus.

(Not to be confused with and to be contrasted to Frankie Avalon’s, Venus from 1959)

“The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name.”

Will the world be saved by beauty? Dostoyevsky believed so. We should too.

Shocking it will be.  Blue too, in the sunset sky.

Three isolated and very special events in the evening (sunset) sky in a mere seventy-two days.

This celestial triptych seems to me at least to be “writing on the wall” much like in the Book of Daniel when King Belshazzar learned about his impending destiny.

I am a rank  amateur.  This needs to be decoded by a true prophet of the one true God.

My take follows:

Jesus came, He saw and He conquered.

VENI

March 25… He originally came to earth at the eternal moment of the Annunciation.

(Venus at the womb of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

VIDI

May 20… He witnessed to the ring of fire, the holy and eternal covenant of the marriage supper of the Lamb as it relates to the covenant rainbow and the one true hope for mankind, Jesus Christ.

(Annular solar eclipse that rainbowed across the Pacific Ocean)

VICI

June 6… He (as represented by Venus) crosses the sun's crown in a victory lap that took eight years to complete.

 (Transit of Venus)

Are we paying attention to the signs?

The blessing and/or the curse?

Come Lord Jesus!



Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael