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Brothers and sisters, today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary...
And the importance of this feast is so great that I beg your pardon, and ask that you permit me to put a question to you that arises from this feast:
Are we facing our Lepanto or are we facing our Constantinople?
The Battle of Lepanto...
“In 1571, Pope St. Pius V organized a coalition of forces from Spain and smaller Christian kingdoms, republics and military orders, to rescue Christian outposts in Cyprus, particularly the Venetian outpost at Famagusta which, however, surrendered after a long siege on August 1 before the Christian forces set sail. On October 7, 1571, the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states, sailed from Messina, Sicily, and met a powerful Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto.
Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct materiel disadvantage, the holy pontiff, Pope Pius V, called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory, and led a rosary procession in Rome.
After about five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Corinth, off western Greece, the combined navies of the Papal States, Venice and Spain managed to stop the Ottoman navy, slowing the Ottoman advance to the west and denying them access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas.
If the Ottomans had won then there was a real possibility that an invasion of Italy could have followed so that the Ottoman sultan, already claiming to be emperor of the Romans, would have been in possession of both New and Old Rome.
Combined with the unfolding events in Morocco where the Sa’adids successfully spurned the Ottoman advances, it confined Turkish naval power to the eastern Mediterranean.
Although the Ottoman Empire was able to build more ships, it never fully recovered from the loss of trained sailors and marines, and was never again the Mediterranean naval power it had become the century before when Constantinople fell.”
But, a little over a hundred years earlier...
Constantinople was defeated!
Constantinople was defeated!
On May 29, 1453, Constantinople — the Eastern capital of Christian Rome — fell to the Islamic forces of Mehmed the Conqueror, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire!
Today, a crisis looms about us!
- The necessary pieces have been put in place
- Civil rights have been elevated to such a degree that religious rights are now viewed as inferior
- First, Abortion and
- Then, Sodomy, and
- It’s twin brother, same-sex marriage.
- And, now Trangenderism is the law of the land
- Our government is now approaching a tyrannical form!
- Powerful people in our government have declared that "…deep-seated cultural codes, and religious beliefs…have to be changed."
- Soon "schools our will insist on inclusive values."
- Tragically, the vast majority of the Catholic sons and daughters of God stand against Jesus Christ and His Holy Church…
- It is quite possible that very soon, indeed, it will be illegal to be The Church in America.
- Do not be deceived, this “war is between evil on the one side being advanced by the government and its agents”
- and Jesus Christ, His Church and its few remaining faithful!
- For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
- Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:12-13)
- So the question that I put to you this day is:
- Is this our Lepanto?
- Or will it be our Constantinople?
If you have been unfaithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ and of His Church, I beg you to repent of your sins, and return to the Lord... obey Him fully, and cast not your lot any longer with the wicked!
- And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)
If you have been faithful to all the commands of Jesus Christ, and faithful to all that His Holy Church teaches, pray for the Church...
Pray that she may prove faithful in the coming trial!
- When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)
- Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for Us!
- Come to our aid, Our Lady of Victory!
