To master the technique of systematic lying many people are needed. But not many are needed to proclaim the truth. A small band of people of truth is enough — they will radiate it. People will find them on their own and come from afar to listen to the words of truth. We cannot accept or be satisfied with easy, superficial, propaganda imposed by force. We must learn to distinguish lies from truth. This is not easy in the times in which we live — times in which, as a contemporary poet has said, 'never before have the backs of our people been so cruelly scourged with the whip of lies and hypocrisy.
Peace cannot be understood as the forced silence of the people. Ideologies based on lies and violence collapse; they bear evil fruit and moral devastation. We have far too many examples of this in the history of Europe and the world.
The fundamental condition for man’s liberation toward acquiring truth and living by the truth is to stand with the virtue of courage. The sign of Christian courage is the struggle for truth. The virtue of courage is overcoming human weakness, especially worry and fear. For in life we should fear only the betrayal of Christ for a few pieces of silver in exchange for empty peace.
It is not enough for a Christian merely to condemn evil, lies, cowardice, enslavement, hatred, and violence. A Christian must be a true witness, spokesman, and defender of justice, goodness, truth, freedom, and love. He must courageously demand these values for himself and for others.
To a large extent, we ourselves are guilty of our own enslavement when, out of fear or convenience, we accept evil and even vote for the mechanisms that sustain it. If out of convenience or fear we support the mechanism of evil, we then have no right to condemn that evil, because we ourselves become its creators and help to legalize it.
To preserve dignity means to live in accordance with conscience. It means awakening and forming a right conscience within oneself. It means caring for the national conscience. For we know that when the national conscience failed, great misfortunes befell our history. But when the national conscience began to awaken and come alive with a sense of responsibility for the homeland, then the nation was reborn.
We must cultivate this ability to fight within ourselves if we wish to remain a nation that, even with a cross on its shoulders, walks with dignity toward resurrection.You will not fully preserve your dignity if you carry a rosary in one pocket and a booklet of the opposing ideology in the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon. You must make a choice — but you must make it after deep reflection.
Even if you have completely failed in human terms, even if you have lost your dignity and sold yourself entirely, you still have time. Pull yourself together, get a grip, rise up. Start anew. Try to build on what in you still comes from God. Try — because life is given to us only once."
Jerzy Popiełuszko, Sermon, Kościół św. Stanisława Kostki, Warsaw, May 27, 1984
Thousands of prisoners were convinced the true world continued to exist and that our torturers would not be able to destroy it. To say that Father Kolbe died for one of us or for that person’s family is too great a simplification. His death was the salvation of thousands. That’s how we felt about it. That was a shock full of optimism, regenerating and giving strength; we were stunned by his act, which became a mighty explosion of light in the dark camp.”
Patricia Treece, A Man for Others, 1982
"Kolbe looked directly and intently into the eyes of those entering the cell. Those eyes of his were always strangely penetrating. The SS men couldn’t stand his glance, and used to yell at him, Schau auf die erde, nicht auf uns! Kolbe was a psychic trauma, a shock for the SS men who had to bear his look, a look that hungered not for bread, but to liberate them from evil."
Bruno Borgowiec, Personal testimony from a prisoner at Auschwitz, 1947
"Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him for the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
As he journeyed he came near to Damascus. And suddenly there shone around him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice crying out to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Saul asked, 'Who are thou, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you persecute.' And in fear and trembling Saul asked, 'Lord, what will you have me to do?'"
Acts 9:3-6
"It is very easy to get drunk with hate. Hate is like the glass of whisky which is given to the soldiers before a bayonet charge. Whisky stimulates but does not nourish. Hate is not creative, only love is creative.
The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love. The Cross is the school of love.
No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.
The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost souls?”
Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr for Love
"Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids — all the places where the gravy soaks in, and grace shines through. Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. Lacking any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake."
Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion
The unmistakable resumption of hostilities in the Persian Gulf circumvented any false representations of negotiations and prospects for peace, which have recently become customary on stock market Mondays.
Stocks fell, and went out on their lows with prospects of higher oil prices looming on the horizon.
The Dollar rallied.
VIX rose from its recent low.
Gold and silver were hit by selling, no doubt on a desire for additional liquidity.
Bitcoin has fallen back into its intermediate trading range again.
There will be a stock market option expiration on Friday.
Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.
Have a pleasant evening.
