Incredulitas San Tommaso by Caravaggio
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The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh, and whither He goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. - Jesus Christ speaking to Nicodemus, as recorded in chapter 3, verse 8 of the Gospel According to St. John
And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever. The spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him: but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. Yet a little while: and the world seeth me no more. But you see me: because I live, and you shall live. In that day you shall know, that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. - Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples during the Last Supper, as recorded in chapter 14 of the Gospel according to St. John
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God baptized me in His fire.
In the Spring of 2021, the Paraclete miraculously broke through, obliterating my ego; annihilating all cognitive dissonance.
Utterly devoid of merit, Heaven poured the great blessing upon me: The gift of true faith;
The Peace won by our Lord Jesus Christ.
It happened in a secular public place, inviting incredulity from close friends;
They, too, decades into pursuit of the accolades and pleasures of the world.
Instead of detailing the events of my road to Damascus, I will attempt to share what I learned:
Ancient truths; recognizable by the faithful;
Obvious in hindsight, but new for me in the moment.
I did not receive the metaphors until later, but the Truth they contain I knew instantly and violently, without any explanation excluding the supernatural.
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The Venue
We live in a verdant forest.
The forest naturally divides into two portions:
above ground, or the seen portion;
and below ground, the unseen.
Most of us—especially in these modern times—grant all of our attention to the seen half.
But, the evidence says the unseen half is the essential one.
Everything in the seen portion is either rooted in or points to the unseen half.
Everything now living in the seen is destined for the unseen.
The unseen portion is denser, slower to change and not fully knowable by human intellect.
We must take it on faith that the unseen half exists, for every attempted endeavor into it is merely an expansion of the seen portion’s territory.
Yet, we know it is there.
When the seen half is obliterated by fire or flood, life returns from the unseen.
If the unseen were obliterated, the seen too would perish.
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The Teams
We’re not alone in the forest.
We are on one of two distinct teams, led by beings that usually remain unseen.
One is the home team, so-called because its head is known as “the ruler of this [seen] world.” It competes through deception.
The other team, the visitors, reign in the unseen portion. Its weapon is Truth.
In the seen half, the visitors only nominally control a shrinking, globally-connected set of outposts. This network nurtures its members, despite infestation by home team spies.
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The Rules
Everyone is on exactly one team at all times.
During our time in the seen realm, we enjoy the free will to switch teams.
But, whichever team we’re on when we enter the unseen portion is the one we stay on forever.
If you deny the existence of the teams, you’re on the home team by default.
The teams exist both within and outside of time.
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The Score
Within the timed portion, the home team has been racking up the score[i] for the past couple hundred years.
With vanishingly few exceptions, it owns the power structures, the economy, the airwaves, the screens, the universities—all the bells and whistles of the seen realm.
Home team symbology is everywhere.[ii]
It’s far worse than my imagination had prior dared to speculate.[iii]
Some members of the home team know which team they are on.
They know whom they invoke to gain favor in the seen realm.[iv]
However, the vast majority of the members of the home team are not the tragically deluded, but unwitting marks who’ve lost the ability to see the world for what it is.
Those leading the home team trick the marks into forgetting about and/or doubting the reality of the unseen half.
Unrepentant sin is the primary accelerant of home team bondage.
The screens we tether ourselves and our children to are designed to establish patterns of unrepentantly sinful behavior.
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If the home team is obviously winning, why join the visitors?
The visitors live in Truth.
They reign supreme in the unseen realm.
Always have; always will.
The unseen is the more essential of the two halves.
In addition, the visiting team has promised its members that it will one day overtly reign in the seen half as well.
The many pleasures championed by the home team are either fleeting or illusory.
Those stubbornly on the visitors’ team lead extraordinarily fulfilling lives.
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Ok, how do I go about getting on the visiting team?
Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.
These good folks will point you in the right direction.
Another detail from my personal road to Damascus:
It led me unambiguously to the Tridentine Mass, to which I had no prior exposure.
In the moment of Truth, I knew that the way to the visitors’ team—to Truth—was through Mary, her Son and the Angels and Saints.
And I knew that the visitors’ team is the infinitely more rewarding and pleasurable option—as soon as I could clearly see the choice.
I also became aware that I’d had a representative from the visitors’ team with me always, even during all those years when I dutifully played for the home team, ignoring the game.
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Say I do switch to the visiting team, what can I expect?
I’m not sure. Everyone is different. But, here is a partial list of the fruits I’ve enjoyed thus far:
- A radical rebirth.
- A newfound joyful outlook on life.
- A total rejuvenation of my marriage
- My soul at peace.
- Complete shift in interests and activities.
- Stopped wearing masks
- Passed on the “vax.”
- Threw out the “Black Lives Matter” sign
- Through the power of the Holy Spirit, helped create a new black life (wife’s pregnant for the first time in 6 years)
- Abrupt end to any allegiance to the Democratic party
- Instant effortless removal of the chains of 3 serious, distinct soul-crippling addictions which had ravaged me for 20+ years, including the dreaded nicotine.
- A big raise and more time off at work.
- My children received into a faithful, independent tradition-minded Catholic school, months past the admissions deadline, with substantial financial aid.
- A deep and enduring understanding that the world is NOT what my prestigious American liberal arts university said it was. Not even close.
- Canceled Harper’s, NY Times and Commonweal subscriptions.
- Subscribed to “new” publications, I’d not known about prior, including The Remnant, Culture Wars and Inside the Vatican.
- Stopped reading the screen all the time
- Started reading books again
- Gained an understanding that people like Atila Sinke Guimarães, Dr. Marian Horvat and Mother Miriam (none of whom I had exposure to prior) and others like them are among the most credible public figures alive.
- Continuing signal graces in wondrous forms
- Both parents in Confession for the first time in decades
- A brother re-entered the Church
- Rejection and mockery by secular friends and co-workers
- Numerous new friends in the Body of Christ, some who’ve become very close
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Final thoughts
Don’t be afraid…
The truth will set you free.
Ave Maria.
[i] Measured in soul count
[ii] Turns out Monster Energy Lady, whom I’d once laughed off, was right.
… It’s actually NOT a coincidence that the top company in the world is named after the forbidden fruit; that its logo was originally ‘rainbow colored’ and that it has always featured Eve’s bite… Need more evidence? Start with the dollar bill or the Washington Monument.
[iii] For context, see Pope Leo XIII’s famous vision, which led to his authoring of the prayer to St. Michael.
[iv] They might be found reverently studying the Talmud. Or ranking highly within other false occult ‘religions’ and/or secret societies.
Praise God you found the Truth! Thank you for sharing as your story is an excellent retelling of a journey we pray many will make. Despite her human side, the Catholic Church, especially with her Tridentine Rite worship, is the One True Church of Christ. And as Our Lord promised and history has shown, the gates of hell will not prevail. It is never too late to join the only side with Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Praise be Jesus Christ now and forever. Our Blessed Mother with all the angels and saints - Ora pro nobis.
Brilliant. Seems to be an awakening going on. God bless.