The papal conclave, which began Wednesday, has attracted unusual interest from a mainstream media normally not given to dwelling on matters of faith.
In both their reflections on the late Pope Francis and their speculations on the next supreme pontiff, the stream of articles coming out of the reputed mouthpieces of American progressivism has been a mix of regret at the passing of a noble ally and trepidation at the prospect of a less friendly pope going forward.
Benedict XVI was painted as an inflexible and cruel man, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (He literally wrote an encyclical titled "God is Love.")
To give just a few examples, New York magazine published a piece asking, “Will Christianity Make a Turn to the Right Post-Francis?” while the Atlantic examined “Progressive Christianity’s Bleak Future.”
What is the reason for this media meltdown? Is the American media genuinely saddened by the passing of the late Holy Father and fearful for the spiritual welfare of his flock in America?
Certainly not. The reason for the minor hysteria among the legacy outlets is quite simple. The Francis pontificate gave the media a useful tool with which to attack and isolate American conservatives. Pope Francis was less focused on doctrinal matters than he was on pastoral concerns; it was relatively easier for the media to twist the pope’s words when he spoke about the environment and social inequality.
For example, Pope Francis published four encyclicals. Two of them, "Fratelli Tutti" and "Laudato Si," received a plethora of coverage, while the other two, "Lumen Fidei" and "Dilexit Nos," received no attention to speak of. Guess which two addressed more secular issues and which were concerned with theological topics.
Due to a number of factors, it is quite likely that the next pope will be far more conservative than Francis — more in line with his two immediate predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II.
The writers of America’s legacy outlets are aware of this, and they are preparing to change their angle of attack. It is very likely that they will treat Francis’ successor the same way they treated his predecessor.
During the pontificate of Benedict XVI (2005-2013), there was no barrage of media articles trying to convince Americans that the pope was actually a signatory (in spirit) of the DNC platform and that conservatives were bad Christians for not following suit.
Rather, Benedict was labeled as a regressive, out-of-touch traditionalist who didn’t care about the spiritual welfare of his flock. He was painted as an inflexible and cruel man, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (He literally wrote an encyclical titled "God is Love.") If the next pope is anything like Benedict, we can be assured the media will go right back to these calumnious attacks.
The question must be asked, why do the media do this? Why do they lie about the popes again and again? It is an important question to answer in order to purge any thought from our minds that these people may be acting with a single shred of genuine religious conviction. To understand why they lie, you have to understand the sort of people they are.
A very useful example for understanding the media lies is the writer James Carroll, who has written about both Benedict and Francis for outlets such as the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and Politico. Carroll was a constant critic of Benedict and wrote articles attacking his “moral weakness” and “disastrous influence.”
When Francis assumed the office, on the other hand, Carroll took to the pages of the New Yorker to praise him as a long-awaited liberal reformer. He contrasted Francis’ seeming openness to progressive ideas with Benedict’s cold-hearted traditionalism.
However, as time went on and Francis did not live up to his progressive ideas, Carroll began decrying the pope’s failure to address patriarchy and gender inequality. By 2018, he stated that he had lost faith in Francis, but was happy to keep contrasting him with Benedict in order to divide Catholics.
Carroll is a prime example of why members of the secular media (even those "raised Catholic") should never be trusted when they comment on the Church. In Carroll's case, we are dealing with a former priest who abandoned his ministry after only five years and has spent the majority of his career since then calling the Church evil and oppressive for not conforming to his progressive ideals.
Carroll is most famous for his 2019 Atlantic article titled "Abolish the Priesthood." In other words, there will never be a pope liberal enough for him, and the Church will never be progressive enough to make him happy. In this, too, he is typical of the mainstream media. Do not think for a second that there is even the slightest shred of genuine religious concern in these people.
The purpose of the legacy media in this country is to attack American conservatives. The people who write for these outlets are secular progressives who have liberal globalism as their highest moral ideal. They are not religious in any real sense because to them religion is merely a social construction subordinate to their political goals.
They cannot conceive of true religion as a habit of justice whereby we render to God His due for the same reason they cannot conceive of God as anything other than a vague set of social principles: nothing is more sacred to them than political liberalism.
This lack of any purpose beyond politics explains their hatred of conservatives. They cannot understand genuine religious conviction. They do not believe, and so they assume that nobody else does. They cannot act in good faith, and so they assume that nobody does. When politics is everything, the pope is just one more thing to politicize.
Many of us in the West are familiar with May Day, and most of us would say we are opposed to it.
When asked why, we might say that it promotes communism, or that the evil regime of the Soviet Union enforced its celebration. These arguments may be perfectly reasonable, but I do not believe they are sufficient.
'There could not be a better protector to help you to let the spirit of the gospel penetrate your life.'
To understand fully why Christians ought not to celebrate May Day, we should look at what the holiday is really about: the socialist understanding of work and the worker.
In response to the growth of socialist power and influence throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Catholic Church repeatedly pushed back against the ideology, especially under the leadership of Leo XIII (1878-1903), Pius XI (1922-1939), and Pius XII (1939-1958).
In 1955, as a direct challenge to May Day, Pius XII established May 1 as the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. It's through the figure of Joseph that the Church exposes the emptiness of the socialist idea of work.
“Cursed is the earth in thy work;” God tells Adam in Genesis 3. “With labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.”
Man will always need to "labor and toil." Any hope for a work-free, earthly utopia rests on the fundamental ignorance of this basic fact. To be human is to work; it is an essential and permanent aspect of any human society.
The question then becomes: What is the purpose of our work? What makes it meaningful?
According to the socialists — best exemplified by the massive labor force of the Soviet Union — the purpose of work was simply the betterment of the state. The “rights of the worker" exist only to allow each individual to contribute to the good of the collective.
For Pius XI, this negation of man's true purpose was the fundamental problem of socialism. In his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, he admits that while communism produces the the evils of unrelenting class warfare and the total abolition of private ownership, less extreme versions of socialism cannot be as broadly condemned.
This is because some of the concerns expressed by socialists are not unfounded. The central example Pius XI points to is Western capitalism's tendency to allow the market to seize “sovereignty over society."
In contending that such sovereignty belongs “not to owners, but to the public authority,” the pope emphasizes that socialism's opposition to Western capitalism is not in itself enough to dismiss it. Instead, he cuts to the real issue — that socialism's very "concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”
Man is placed on earth so that he might order his life “unto the praise and glory of his creator.” Man derives happiness in this life and the next from seeking to do what is pleasing to God.
Socialism, writes Pius XI, is “wholly ignoring and indifferent to this sublime end of man.” In the socialist view, human society exists “for the sake of material advantage alone.” We can clearly see how an ideology devoid of supernatural meaning cannot possibly possess a correct understanding of work and its purpose.
When Pius XII established the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, he showed why socialism and the socialist celebration of May Day are incompatible with the Christian understanding of work.
In speaking to workers' associations, he reminded them, “Your first concern is to preserve and increase the Christian life of the worker.” This prioritization of the divine is in direct conflict with the materialist worldview of socialism.
Like his predecessor, Pius XII did not dismiss the concerns of socialists without due consideration. He warned against the excesses of unchecked capitalism (which could also become an oppressive system if not properly subordinated to Christian charity) and declared that the worker must be “supported and sustained in his legitimate demands and expectations.”
In highlighting these concerns and how Christianity might best address them, Pius XII reveals the utter incapacity of socialism to respect the inherent dignity of man as well as the true dignity and purpose of the worker.
Instead of seeking solace in the empty promises of socialism, Pius XII urges Christians to order their lives and work toward God. To that end, he recommends St. Joseph as a model and patron, pointing out that “there could not be a better protector to help you to let the spirit of the gospel penetrate your life.”
In placing workers under the patronage of St. Joseph, the pope gives them a tangible example on which to model their labor and their lives and a visible counter to the socialist idea of work as a merely material endeavor.
Today, we may no longer be threatened by the looming behemoth of the Soviet Union, but we still contend with the rise of communist China and the rampant secularization of our own workplaces. We can still look to St. Joseph as an example of “the dignity of the worker.”
It is as important now as ever to recall that our work is, above all else, in service to God. It is from this service that we draw pleasure and meaning in our work. Do not fall for the empty platitudes and vain anthems of the socialists and their May Day. We know that true solidarity and true meaning in our work and in our lives are found in joyful service to Christ our Lord.
On Monday, April 21, Pope Francis passed away at his residence in the Vatican.
Formerly the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio ascended to the papal throne on March 13, 2013. He took the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, the medieval founder of the Franciscan Order. Francis’s reign as supreme pontif lasted 12 years.
The Catholic Church is far older than the liberal notion of egalitarianism, just as it is far older than the modern conception of a political 'left' and 'right.'
Before we move on to speculating about the next pope, I think it is appropriate to reflect on Pope Francis and the nature of his office.
As an American conservative and a traditionalist Catholic, I asked myself how I felt inclined to reflect on the legacy of a pope regarded by many in my circles to have been a staunch liberal.
Pope Francis’ reign — particularly the last four years — was a hard time for my community. I grew up attending the Traditional Latin Mass. My love for the traditional Mass and Sacraments was a deciding factor in my decision to abandon my career plans and spend a year in seminary discerning the priesthood.
When Francis imposed severe restrictions on the celebration of the Latin Mass, I was, like many others, deeply hurt. Many of my friends and fellow community members felt that the Holy Father had joined the outside world in persecuting faithful Catholics who were drawn to the ancient liturgies of our ancestors.
I agreed with them. I felt (and still feel) that the Vatican chose mistakenly and unfairly to persecute some of the most faithful, devoted communities in the Church. I also agreed with them that these persecutions — no matter how severe they might become — would never cause us to question our obedience and loyalty to the pope responsible for them.
Similarly, my disagreements with Pope Francis on political issues such as mass migration, capital punishment, incarceration, policies surrounding COVID-19, and his openness to globalism (to say nothing of the more Catholic insider issues such as fiducia supplicans and fratelli tutti) never caused me to question my obedience to him.
I loved Pope Francis as a son loves his father, and I never questioned my fidelity and loyalty to him as pope. The reasons for this loyalty are very simple: I am a Catholic, and he was the pope. No other reason is needed.
For a Catholic, his relationship to the pope and to the Church is in no way contingent upon the modern concepts of left and right, liberal and conservative. It is far more integral to his person than such labels can possibly be.
It does not surprise me that this sort of relationship seems odd to many people. In this country, we tend to have an egalitarian view of leadership. We believe (rightly, in the case of the United State government) that our leaders represent us; they work for us. If they act badly or make a mistake, they ought to be criticized or ridiculed in the same way anyone else would be.
The Catholic Church is far older than the liberal notion of egalitarianism, just as it is far older than the modern conception of a political “left” and “right.”
Our populist view of government simply does not apply to the papacy. The pope does not represent us; he represents Christ. He does not work for us; he works for God. To allow our loyalty to a pope to be determined by the alignment of his political views with our own is to treat God as our elected representative.
The office of the pope as Vicar of Christ does not mean, of course, that Catholics cannot voice concerns or offer respectful critiques of a pope. For a Catholic, such concerns or criticisms must always be respectful and coming from a place of charity toward the person of the pope and concern for the well-being of the Church. The pope’s role means that he must be obeyed and respected, but it does not mean that he does not make mistakes. He is human, after all.
The Church has never claimed that its servants are faultless. Many leaders — and even popes — in the history of the Church have made mistakes and behaved badly. To point out such behavior is entirely appropriate, but to claim that a bad pope disproves the claims of the Church is akin to claiming the U.S. Constitution cannot be a workable system of government because Woodrow Wilson was a terrible president.
Hilaire Belloc summed up the matter well when he wrote, “The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine, but for unbelievers, a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.”
For Catholics, our relationship to our Holy Father goes far beyond the policies we may or may not agree on, just as our Church goes far beyond our political alignment with those in the pews around us.
To a Catholic, our Church is the one true Christian religion. Our membership in it is just as much a part of us as our arms and legs. Such is our loyalty to the Holy Father.
Whatever we may think of him, however he may treat us, we know that Christ, who founded our Church, remains with us, “Even to the consummation of the world.” Taking the advice of St. Padre Pio, American Catholic conservatives such as myself will pray, we will hope, and we will not worry.
According to several recent reports, including one from the National Catholic Register, we’ve seen a huge surge in Catholic conversions — especially among younger generations. A recent New York Post article highlighted the “growing number of young people turning to the Catholic Church from other denominations, religions and even no faith at all.”
What’s behind this sudden flocking to Catholicism?
Glenn Beck says that people are drawn to Catholic rituals because they offer order and meaning in this era of progressive chaos.
He reflects on Michelle Obama’s infamous 2008 speech, during which she claimed that “we are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history.”
A decade and a half later, and it’s clear that uprooting tradition results in division, displacement, and disorder.
Tradition, Glenn explains, is “deeply human” and serves to “mark moments that matter in our lives” and “helps organize things in our mind.”
Catholicism, which is predicated on tradition, can restore the emptiness our current culture has adopted.
“Rituals in Catholicism — the Eucharist or the confession — elevate this instinct, this need to the sacred, so it’s not just a routine; it is a bridge to meaning,” says Glenn. “That matters because when you have meaning and there's a storm in your life, it gives structure so it doesn't feel like the storm is just going to wipe you out entirely.”
Modern worship doesn’t seem to offer the same stability as traditional worship. The Post article notes that “Gen Z crave clarity and certainty” and are therefore “rejecting lax alternatives of modern worship.”
“Why? Because modern worship tells you you can believe anything; there are no real rules,” says Glenn.
The problem is, that kind of progressive doctrine lacks substance, which is what the human soul is designed to thirst for. Ritual and tradition can offer a solution because they “build communities — like a congregation singing together in unison or a neighborhood block party,” says Glenn.
“We now live in a world of screen and rush,” he explains. But rituals and traditions “will slow you down, make you present in the moment.”
“They're not about rules; they're all about meaning if you do it right. This isn't about recognizing one faith over another. This is about recognizing what rituals do for us.”
To hear more of Glenn’s analysis, watch the clip above.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Five-thousand four-hundred eighty.
Thanks to the prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden and her close relationship with Jesus Christ, we have this number to contemplate: the 5,480 blows struck at the body of Christ during His Passion. Strikes meted out with whips, fists, iron nails, rods, and tools of torture such as the cat-o'-nine-tails.
This almost unbearable statistic should rouse the Christian faithful to contemplate the staggering suffering Christ endured to redeem a sinful humanity.
From her childhood in the early 14th century, St. Bridget had special devotion to Christ’s wounds. She had an early vision of Christ on the cross of Calvary, shedding blood for the remission of sins. From that time on, Christ’s Passion took on a central role in Bridget’s life.
'I beheld His body, bruised and beaten to the very ribs.'
Bridget often prayed to Christ to reveal how many times He was struck during His Passion and crucifixion. One day during the year 1350, He appeared to her before a crucifix inside the Church of St. Paul in Rome.
“I received 5,480 blows on My Body,” he told her. “If you wish to honor them in some way, say 15 Our Fathers and 15 Hail Marys with the following prayers for a whole year. When the year is up, you will have honored each one of My Wounds.”
The mystical dialogue between Christ and St. Bridget adds great depth and detail to the story of Christ’s Passion and death. Bridget received revelations from Christ and the Virgin Mary that were collected into eight volumes and a supplemental volume. They include more graphic details than are typically found in popular art depictions of Christ’s Passion.
St. Bridget was born in 1303. Eight children were born from her 28-year marriage to Ulf Gudmarsson, the governor of an important Swedish district. After the death of her husband, St. Bridget settled near the Cistercian Monastery of Alvastra. She founded a religious order known as the Bridgettines. Pope John Paul II named her co-patroness of Europe in 1999.
“Here began the divine revelations that were to accompany her for the rest of her life,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in 2010. “Bridget always had a special devotion to Christ's Passion, contemplating in it God's infinite love for human beings. She boldly places these words on the lips of the Lord who speaks to her: 'O my friends, I love my sheep so tenderly that were it possible I would die many other times for each one of them that same death I suffered for the redemption of all.'"
Bridget wrote in stirring and sorrowful tones on the sufferings of Christ.
'Were it possible I would die many other times for each one of them.'
“Thou wast inhumanly scourged and wounded with grievous wounds, that Thy most innocent skin and flesh were intolerably torn,” she wrote. “And thus afflicted and tortured, Thou didst hang on the cross, O my most sweet Jesus, and in excessive pain didst patiently and humbly await the hour of death.”
John Paul II said St. Bridget’s revelations are worthy of belief. “The Church, which recognized Bridget's holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience,” the pontiff wrote in his motu proprio "Spes Aedificandi."
St. Bridget also revealed messages from the Virgin Mary on her sufferings watching her dearly beloved Son tortured at the pillar.
“He stripped Himself, and Himself stretched His hands to the pillar, which His enemies, pitiless, bound,” Mary said, according to one revelation. “Now, while tied there He had no clothing, but stood as He was born, and suffered the shame of His nakedness.
“At the first blow, I, who stood nearest, fell as if dead, and on recovering my senses I beheld His body bruised and beaten to the very ribs, so that His ribs could be seen; and what was still more bitter, when the scourge was raised, His very flesh was furrowed by the thongs.”
The crown of thorns caused massive bleeding that made it difficult for Christ to see.
“This done, they fitted a crown of thorns to His head, which so acutely wounded the venerable head of my Son that His eyes were filled, His ears stopped up, with the blood that streamed down, and His whole beard matted with the gore,” Mary said.
“His skin was so tender and fair that it could not be slightly struck without blood issuing at once. His blood was so fresh that it could be seen in His clear skin.”
Mary described receiving the body of her son from the cross: “Then He was taken down from the cross, and I received Him into my bosom, like a leper, and all livid, for His eyes were dead and full of blood, His mouth cold as snow, His beard like cords, His face contracted. His hands were so stiffened that they could not be raised above the navel.”
Mary said she had wanted to cross Christ’s arms on his chest, but the rigor made this impossible. This is borne out in the Shroud of Turin, Christ’s likely burial cloth, which shows his hands crossed on his stomach.
St. Bridget died in 1373 and was solemnly canonized a saint by Pope Boniface IX in 1391. She had left Sweden in 1349 and went to Rome. In 1371, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
The detail contained in St. Bridget’s revelations is similar to visions related by Venerable Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), who received extensive insights on the life of Christ and His blessed mother.
In one vision, Sister Emmerich described the half-intoxicated torturers at the scourging at the pillar.
“Jesus’ body was livid, brown, blue, and red, and entirely covered with swollen cuts. His sacred blood was running down on the ground,” she said. “He trembled and shuddered. Derision and mockery assailed Him on all sides."
“Under their furious blows, the swollen welts on Jesus’ sacred body were torn and rent; His blood spurted around so that the arms of His tormentors were sprinkled with it,” Sister Emmerich said. “Jesus moaned and prayed and shuddered in His agony.”
She described some of the instruments of torture that were shown in painful detail in the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."
“The last two scourgers struck Jesus with whips consisting of small chains, or straps, fastened to an iron handle, the ends furnished with iron points, or hooks,” she said. “They tore off whole pieces of skin and flesh from His ribs. Oh, who can describe the awful barbarity of that spectacle!”
The Virgin Mary described to St. Bridget the wounds to her own heart watching her Son treated with such barbarity. “At the death of my Son, I was like a woman having her heart pierced with five lances,” Mary said.
The first lance was the “shameful and opprobrious nudity” at the scourging pillar. The second, accusations that Christ was traitor and liar. The third lance, she said, was the crown of thorns that “so cruelly pierced” His sacred head. The fourth, “His piteous voice on the cross when He cried to His Father, saying, ‘O Father why has Thou forsaken Me?’” The fifth lance, Mary said, “was His most cruel death.”
Christ gave St. Bridget a 15-prayer devotion for anyone wishing to honor the sacred wounds of His Passion. The devotion does not include the traditional Five Holy Wounds of Christ (nail holes in left and right hands, nail holes in right and left feet, and piercing of His side), which are the subject of other devotions.
Over the course of a year, this devotion honors each of the 5,475 wounds of Christ.
O Jesus Christ, eternal sweetness of them that hope in Thee, joy exceeding all joy and all desire, salvation, and love of sinners, who hast declared it to be Thy delight to be with the children of men, [Thou who wast] made man for man in the end of time; remember all Thy premeditation and interior grief which Thou didst endure in Thy human body at the approach of the time of Thy most saving Passion, preordained in Thy divine heart.
Remember the sadness and the bitterness which, as Thou Thyself didst testify, Thou didst feel in Thy soul when at the Last Supper with Thy disciples Thou didst give them Thy Body and Blood, didst wash their feet, and sweetly consoling them, foretell Thy imminent Passion. Remember all the fear, anguish, and grief which Thou didst endure in Thy delicate body before the Passion of the cross when, after Thy thrice-repeated prayer and bloody sweat, Thou wast betrayed by Thy disciple Judas, taken by a chosen people, accused by false witnesses, unjustly judged by three judges, condemned innocent in the chosen city, at Paschal time, in the bloom of youth, stripped of Thy own clothing and clothed in the garments of another, buffeted, Thy face and eyes veiled, smitten with blows, bound to the pillar, scourged, crowned with thorns, struck with a reed on the head, and torn with numberless other acts of violence.
Give me, O Lord God, I beseech Thee, before I die, in memory of these Thy passions before the cross, a true contrition, true confession, worthy satisfaction and remission of all my sins. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, Maker of the world, whom no measure by just bounds doth compass, who enclosest the earth in Thy palm, remember the most bitter grief which Thou didst endure when the Jews first fastened Thy most sacred hands to the cross with dull nails, and as Thou wast not agreeable to their will, added pain to pain in Thy wounds by perforating Thy most delicate feet, and cruelly wrenched and distended Thee the length and breadth of Thy cross, so that the joints of Thy limbs were loosened. I beseech Thee by the memory of this most sacred and bitter pain on the cross to give me Thy fear and love. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
Jesus, heavenly physician, remember the languor, lividness, and pain which Thou didst suffer on the lofty scaffold of the cross, torn in all Thy limbs, not one of which had remained in its right state, so that no pain was found like to Thy pain; for from the sole of Thy foot to the top of Thy head there was no soundness in Thee.
And yet, regardless of all pains, Thou didst piously pray to Thy Father for Thy enemies, saying: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” By this mercy and in remembrance of that pain, grant that this memory of Thy most bitter Passion be a full remission of all my sins. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, true liberty of angels, paradise of delights, remember the grief and horror which Thou didst endure when all Thy enemies surrounded Thee like fierce lions, and tortured Thee by buffets, by spitting upon Thee, and by tearing and other unheard-of pains. By these pains and all the contumelious words and most severe torments whereby, O Lord Jesus Christ, all Thy enemies afflicted Thee, I beseech Thee to free me from all my enemies, visible and invisible, and grant me to reach the perfection of eternal salvation under the shadow of Thy wings. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, mirror of eternal brightness, remember the grief which Thou didst endure when Thou didst behold, in the mirror of Thy most serene Majesty, the predestination of the elect to be saved by the merits of Thy Passion, and the reprobation of the wicked to be damned by their own demerits; and by the abyss of Thy mercy, whereby Thou didst then compassionate us lost and hopeless sinners, and which Thou didst show the thief on the cross, saying, “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,” I beseech Thee, O merciful Jesus, show mercy on me at the hour of my death. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, amiable King, and most desirable Friend, remember the sorrow Thou hadst when Thou didst hang naked and wretched on the cross, and all Thy friends and acquaintances stood over against Thee, and Thou didst find no comforter except alone Thy beloved Mother, most faithfully standing by Thee in bitterness of soul, whom Thou didst commend to Thy disciple, saying, “Woman, behold thy son.” I beseech Thee, merciful Jesus, by the sword of grief which then pierced Thy soul, to have compassion on me in all my tribulations and afflictions, bodily and spiritual, and give me comfort in time of tribulation and at the hour of my death. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, fountain of inexhaustible mercy, who from intense feeling didst exclaim on the cross, “I thirst,” thirsting for the salvation of the human race, inflame, we beseech Thee, the desires of our hearts to every perfect work, and entirely cool and extinguish in us the thirst of carnal concupiscence and the heat of worldly delight. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, sweetness of hearts and great sweetness of minds, by the bitterness of the vinegar and gall which Thou didst taste for us, grant me at the hour of my death worthily to receive Thy Body and Blood, for the remedy and consolation of my soul. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, royal virtue and mental delight, remember the anguish and pain which Thou didst endure when, from the bitterness of death and the reproaches of the Jews, Thou didst exclaim in a loud voice that Thou wast forsaken by Thy Father, saying, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” By this anguish, I beseech Thee not to forsake me in my anguish, O Lord Our God. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, Alpha and Omega, ever virtue and life, remember that for us Thou didst plunge Thyself, from the top of Thy head to the sole of Thy feet, into the water of Thy Passion. By the length and breadth of Thy wounds, teach me, too much immersed in sin, to keep in true charity Thy broad command. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, most profound abyss of mercy, I beseech Thee by the depth of Thy wounds, which pierced the marrow of Thy bones and vitals, raise me from the depth of sins in which I am plunged, and hide me in the hollow of Thy wounds, from the face of Thy wrath, till Thy anger pass away, O Lord. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, mirror of truth, sign of unity, and bond of charity, remember the multitude of Thy innumerable wounds wherewith Thou wast wounded from the top of Thy head to the sole of Thy feet, and reddened with Thy most sacred Blood, which magnitude of pain Thou didst endure on Thy virginal flesh for us. O merciful Jesus, what more oughtest Thou do, and hast not done? Engrave, I beseech Thee, O merciful Jesus, all Thy wounds in my heart with Thy most precious Blood, that in them I may read Thy sorrow and death, and in thanksgiving persevere duly to the end. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, most valiant Lion, immortal and unconquered King, remember the pain which Thou didst endure when all the powers of Thy heart and body entirely failed Thee, and inclining Thy head, Thou didst exclaim, “It is consummated.” By that anguish and pain, remember me in the last consummation of my departure, when my soul shall be in anguish and my spirit troubled. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, only-begotten Son of the most high Father, splendor and figure of His substance, remember the commendation wherewith Thou didst commend Thy spirit to Thy Father, saying, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend My spirit”; and then, with lacerated body and broken heart, with a loud cry, the bowels of Thy mercy exposed, [Thou] didst expire to redeem us. By this precious death I beseech Thee, O King of saints, strengthen me to resist the devil, the world, flesh, and blood, that dead to the world I may live to Thee; and in the last hour of my departure receive Thou my exiled, wandering spirit returning to Thee. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O Jesus, true and fruitful vine, remember the overflowing and abundant effusion of blood which Thou didst pour forth in torrents, like wine pressed from the grape, when on the press of the cross Thou didst tread alone; and Thy side having been opened with a lance, Thou didst pour forth to us blood and water, so that not the least drop remained in Thee; and at last Thou wast suspended on high like a bundle of myrrh, and Thy delicate flesh fainted, and the moisture of Thy members dried up, and the marrow of Thy bones faded. By this most bitter Passion and the effusion of Thy precious Blood, O pious Jesus, I pray Thee, receive my soul in the agony of my death. Amen.
Pray one Our Father
Pray one Hail Mary
O sweet Jesus, wound my heart, that tears of penitence and love may be my food night and day, and bring me entirely to Thee, that my heart may ever be habitable for Thee, and my conversation pleasing and acceptable to Thee; and the end of my life so praiseworthy, that after the close of this life, I may deserve to praise Thee with all Thy saints forever.
Pray five Our Fathers
O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, receive this prayer in that most exceeding love wherewith Thou didst bear all the wounds of Thy most sacred Body, and remember me Thy servant, and to all sinners, and all the faithful, living and dead, give mercy, grace, remission, and eternal life. Amen.
Since the earliest times, the Catholic Church has commemorated the Wednesday of Holy Week as Spy Wednesday, the day Judas Iscariot slipped away to negotiate the traitor’s price to turn Jesus Christ over to the chief priests in Jerusalem.
The betrayal of Judas deserves plenty of attention as we prepare to recall Christ’s Passion and death on Good Friday. The remembrance of Judas’ treachery serves as a warning to all, important enough to have its own commemoration on a weekday traditionally associated with bodily mortification.
'They weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.'
The chief priests were actively looking for a means to seize Jesus without triggering a riot. As they deliberated, suddenly Judas appeared, seeking an audience.
“The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put Jesus to death; but they feared the people,” wrote Dom Prosper Guéranger, the late French abbot and author of the comprehensive 15-volume series "The Liturgical Year."
“And Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, one of the twelve; and he went, and discoursed with the chief priests and the magistrates, how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised; and he sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude.
“They admit him and he says to them, ‘What will you give me and I will deliver him unto you?’” (from Matthew 26:15) Guéranger wrote. “They are delighted at this proposition and yet, how is it, that they, doctors of the law, forget that this infamous bargain between themselves and Judas has all been foretold by David in the 108th Psalm?
“They know the Scriptures from beginning to end — how comes it,” Guéranger wrote, “that they forget the words of the prophet, who even mentions the sum of thirty pieces of silver?”
Thirty pieces of silver was typically the price of a slave. The amount of this shameful bargain is mentioned in Zechariah 11:12, “And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver.” The words of the prophets, which would have been clear to these men who plotted against Jesus, did not give them pause as they prepared to carry out the gravest crime in history.
“On this day, Judas leaves his Master, and takes the devil for his guide,” Guéranger wrote. “The love of money blinds him. He fell from the light, he became darkened; for how could he be said to see, who sold the Light for thirty pieces of silver?”
According to the Jewish historian Josephus, there were about 2.7 million people in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The people had welcomed Jesus as a king on Palm Sunday, laying their cloaks and palm branches along the path as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
Jesus was determined to eat the Passover alone with his apostles. So he frustrated Judas’ scheming by the way he selected the place to eat the Passover meal.
'This sort of talk is hard to take. Who can stand it?'
“Our Lord knows that Judas had sold him and is about to betray him and Judas therefore is laying plans,” said Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in one of his Holy Week discourses. “Our Lord now begins to thwart his plans.”
How does our Lord do it? He says to some of his disciples, go into the city and you will find a man with a water pot on his head. Ask him, where has he prepared the house for the Passover meal? The disciples went into the city. They found a man with a water pot on his head. Why did our Lord use that particular sign?
Well, because men never carry water pots on their head. Women carry water pots on their head. That would be just like saying, go into the city and find a man who's carrying a pink parasol. So the disciples then found the man who had prepared the upper room. Judas therefore did not know where he was being led. Our Lord wanted the last meal alone with his apostles, and Judas would now have to come with him and no one would know except the disciples who met the man with a water pot on the head.
Why did Judas go on his spy mission, scheming to betray his Redeemer? Sheen said a popular theory was that Judas had succumbed to avarice. But despite some evidence for this in Scripture, Sheen said the downfall of Iscariot’s faith came when Christ introduced the Holy Eucharist while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
“In truth, in very truth I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you can have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood possesses eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. My flesh is real food; my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells continuously in me and I dwell in him” (from John 6:52-57).
This core mystery of the Catholic faith became an insurmountable stumbling block for Judas and other followers of Christ, according to Fr. William Patrick Casey of the Fathers of Mercy.
“Jesus said this over and over again, and the Jews heard him,” Fr. Casey said in a popular audio talk on the Holy Eucharist. “They knew what he was saying, but it was just too much for them. It was too much even for some of his own disciples. They just couldn’t believe it. They said, ‘This sort of talk is hard to take. Who can stand it?’ He said, ‘If you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’”
Archbishop Sheen places the start of Judas’ fall on this day in Capernaum.
“Where is the first mention of the fall of Judas?” Sheen asked in one of his audio talks. “The day our Lord announced the Eucharist. When did Judas leave? The night our Lord gave the Eucharist. He broke at the announcement of the Eucharist. As a matter of fact, that was the critical moment in the life of our blessed Lord. When he announced the Eucharist, he lost the masses, because he refused to be a bread king.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus asked Judas to sit near him.
“Christ chose Judas to be an apostle,” Sheen said. “He did not choose him to be a traitor, but to be an apostle.”
Judas had worked out a sign with the brigands who would seize Jesus in the Garden of Olives: a kiss.
“How shall they, who are sent to seize him, be able to distinguish him from his disciples?” Guéranger asked. “Judas will lead the way; he will show them which is Jesus, by going up to him and kissing him!”
Judas thought Christ to be a coward who would retreat into the olive grove when soldiers came to seize him. But when death came for Christ that night, He went out to meet it face to face.
Judas’ betrayal was no kiss of peace or friendship.
“The Lord came forward and Judas reached out his arms and threw them around the Lord's neck,” Sheen said. “And the Greek word in the Gospel is καταφιλέω; he smothered him with kisses. Divinity is so sacred, it is always betrayed by some sign of affection. And our Lord says, ‘Friend, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?’”
On the traditional calendar, the Church keeps a penitential fast on Spy Wednesday as a reminder of Judas’ betrayal of Christ, according to Dom Benedict Baur, the late German Benedictine theologian.
“What a spectacle! Christ betrayed by one of His own apostles and handed over to His enemies,” Dom Baur wrote in a reflection published in the Mass companion "Benedictus." “That act sounded the depths of ingratitude, hypocrisy, and baseness. The act was made more despicable by the fact that it was performed for money.”
Baur said the stakes are high for all Christians who neglect and lose their faith or chase after worldly gains.
“Often they forsake religion and neglect the sacraments,” he wrote. “What remains to them from all the temporal advantages they may gain? They soon prove empty; this discovery drove Judas to despair."
UFC featherweight Bryce Mitchell believes he is fighting an opponent who is possessed.
Mitchell became a fan favorite with impressive wrestling and jiujitsu skills that saw him jump out to a 15-0 record and shoot up the UFC rankings.
Furthermore, Mitchell gained more notoriety for his strong support of Christian values and his America-first mentality. In May 2024, Mitchell made headlines when he said he wanted to homeschool his children to prevent them from becoming "gay" or "communist."
Mitchell has had a rough start to 2025, though, after he received a plethora of criticism over comments he made about Adolf Hitler on his podcast "ArkanSanity."
UFC President Dana White soon disavowed Mitchell's remarks — but did not fire him — and called the fighter "dumb" and "ignorant."
'Even the demons believe in God.'
At the beginning of March, Mitchell had a viral exchange of words at a press conference for UFC 314. There, his opponent Jean Silva rallied the crowd against Mitchell, starting, "F*** Bryce Mitchell," chants and even barking at him.
Mitchell responded by saying Silva was "barking up the wrong tree, motherf***er," which turned the crowd's boos into raucous cheers.
Silva also brought a globe to the press conference to taunt Mitchell about his apparent belief that the Earth is flat.
"Oh, so now you're a scientist?" Mitchell asked in response.
The two then had a fiery exchange about religion and belief.
"You have 'lord' on your chest, I have the Lord within my heart," Mitchell said, referring to Silva's tattoo, which seemingly signals the Brazilian is of the Catholic faith.
"Calm down," Silva replied. "Everyone here believes in God, right?"
Mitchell retorted, "Even the demons believe in God, but do you live by the word?"
'I'm not just fighting a man.'
On Monday, Full Send MMA posted a video of Mitchell doubling down on his assertion that Silva may be demonic.
"I need all my Christian warriors to pray for me that I will have peaceful sleep," Mitchell began. "Every single night since the day before the press conference, I have had demonic dreams. Legions of demons are attacking me every single time I sleep, not one time have I seen any peaceful sleep since that day."
Mitchell continued, "These demons surround me, and they try to fight me and provoke me to anger and then the dream will switch, and then they'll send beautiful women, and they are trying to get me to lust and cheat on my wife. ... I'm not just fighting a man on April 12, I'm fighting a man possessed by a legion of demons."
Silva responded just a few hours later, stating on his X page that Mitchell's comments were made out of fear.
"Bryce, two things, these are not demons, it's just you being afraid to face me and second about the beautiful women you have a hormone called testosterone and you probably have problems with it. Just be ready for April 12th, because I will be."
— (@)
The conflict between the featherweights certainly mirrors the debates between light heavyweight fighters Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira last summer.
Prochazka, a Catholic from the Czech Republic, said that former champion Pereira was using Brazilian shamans, spiritual forces, and rituals to win fights. Unfortunately for the Czech, Pereira's alleged use of spirits propelled him to two wins against Prochazka.
However, perhaps Pereira's magical forces have since run dry, as the Brazilian recently lost to Russia's Magomed Ankalaev.
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