"Today in Markowa, Poland, the martyrs Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma, and their seven children, were beatified: an entire family was exterminated by the Nazis on 24 March 1944 for having given shelter to a family of persecuted Jews. They opposed the hatred and violence that characterized that time with evangelical love. May this Polish family, which represented a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War, be for all of us a model to imitate in the zeal for goodness and service to those in need.”
Francis I,
Beatification of the Ulma Family, Martyrs for Love of Neighbor, 10 September 2023
"Poles faced the death penalty for helping Jews. This family must have realized that even though they lived at some distance from the village, they put themselves in great danger from the Germans by sheltering several [8] people in the attic of their house. Clearly, there were also infamous attitudes and deeds. However, these cannot overshadow the heroism of those thousands who risked their lives to help others."
Stanisław Gądecki, Archbishop of Poznań, 10 September 2023
"Jozef and Wiktoria lived a holiness that was not only marital but was fully embedded in their entire family. The Ulma family home became an inn where the despised, outcast, and death-stricken were welcomed and cared for. They were murdered because they had practiced the corporal work of mercy of sheltering the homeless."
Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, 10 September 2023
"We live in a world where love itself is condemned. People call it weakness, something to grow out of. Some are saying: 'Love is of no importance, we should rather develop our strength; let each one become as strong as he can, and let the weak perish.'"
Titus Brandsma, Dutch priest, executed at Dachau, 26 July 1942
"Overcoming fear is a key element in the process of setting man free. Fear springs from threats. We fear suffering; we fear the loss of some goods, the loss of freedom, health or a job. This fear makes us act against our conscience, and it is by means of our conscience that we take the measure of Truth. We overcome fear the moment we agree to lose something for the sake of a higher value. Any nation is bound to perish if deprived of bravery, if it pretends that everything is good when it is not, and if it is satisfied with half-truths. Every day we must be aware that when we are demanding truth from others we must live in truth ourselves, demanding justice we must be just, demanding bravery we must be brave."
Jerzy Popiełuszko, chaplain of Solidarity, Martyr for the Truth, Oct. 19, 1984
"We ought to speak, shout out against injustices, with confidence and without fear. We proclaim the principles of the Church, the reign of love, without forgetting that it is also a reign of justice. Viva Cristo Rey!"
Miguel Agustin Pro, Mexican Priest, Martyr, November 23, 1927
"There was a scholar of the law who had come to test him and said, 'Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' and Jesus asked him, 'What is written in the law? How do you understand it?' The scholar replied, 'You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' Jesus replied, 'You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.'
But because he wished to justify himself, he asked Jesus, 'And who then is my neighbor?' Jesus replied, 'A man fell victim to robbers, as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho...'"
Luke 10:25-30
"Peter understood that neither Nero, nor all his legions, could overcome the living truth — that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road. That city of pride, of crime, of wickedness, and of a lust for power, was beginning to be His city."
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, 1898
Not the day that they were murdered, or the day they were beatified, but the anniversary of their wedding, July 7 is the feast day of the Ulma family: Jozef and Wiktoria, and their seven children. They died as martyrs for love of the other, of their neighbor. They are a light for us, down the long dark halls of history.
'In the end, the only real tragedy is not to have been a saint.'
Lord, pierce our hardened hearts, enlighten our minds, heal our blindness, and break the self-made chains of our pride and self-deception, so that we may choose repentance, forgiveness, and life.
Stocks wobbled but managed to extend their gains and new highs.
The market has narrowed significantly, and is fairly overextended — and complacent.
We are overdue for a correction. And given a sufficient exogenous trigger a decline of 10 to 20 percent is certainly not out of the question. There are warnings in the air.
But market participants are set up to 'lose their shit' as the saying goes. Complacency, fueled by pride, goes before a fall. Even presidents and kings are prone to this human failing.
They never see it, or want to see it, coming.
Gold and silver were pinned back. Gold has so far confirmed a short term double bottom W formation that if it is activated will take it up to the $2490 region. But we are not there yet.
Gold is under pressure because the Banks with their Banker-auntie at the Fed are playing some dangerous games with asset liabilities and leverage. I know that is hard to believe — even after they have failed at this in spectacular fashion, two or three times in the last 20 years.
It's what they do. They are sociopaths, and will likely never learn to act any differently. And along with them in this ongoing control fraud are the professional elite, the plutocrats, and their politicians. And why should they not push on, when they are winning.
It's an old, familiar story.
The same goes for national leaders and some countries, who seem to be swirling with reckless abandon towards their own rendezvous with destiny.
Madness. A tragic spectacle of delusion.
But here we are, like so many others before us, on the rode from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Who then is your neighbor, and what is it that you have been instructed to do?
This is the whole of the law. And of a righteous life.
Have a pleasant evening.
