Monday, June 27, 2016

Special!! Divine Mercy Chaplet - ONLY $12!!!

YEAR OF MERCY SPECIAL till 11/20/16

I had wanted to do this since the Doors of Mercy opened last December, but between the household medical emergencies and the routine daily emergencies - especially in the last 6 months, just never got to it. As I type this, I'm still wearing a wrist brace for carpel tunnel. At night I must wear the ones with the splints. Anyway. I want to offer this Divine Mercy Chaplet for just $12 during this Jubilee year of Mercy. Please, no more than 3 per order!
(And if you order 3, they're just $10 each!) Regular price $20
click for larger image
Click for larger image

Now, the Traditional color is of course, red. But I also have an abundance of blue crackles which I am willing to substitute if you desire, but you MUST mention this when ordering or in the PayPal instructions or email me. The cord and the bead color are the only substitutions at this special price!

I hope we can all let our lights shine brightly among all we know and even those we don't know! The world is so full of evil and injustice, we MUST NOT let this Year of Mercy go by without availing ourselves of Christ's MERCY! I personally don't think it's coincidence that next year is the centennial of our Lady of Fatima and the Pope issues this Jubilee Year of Mercy with special HOLY DOORS in every Diocese. GO TO CONFESSION, stay in the state of grace .. it's VERY VERY important now. This really could be the time that brings the triumph of our Lady's Immaculate Heart. Don't toss eternal bliss away for a few bells and whistles in a place that is passing before our eyes! If you don't know your Faith that well ... take the time to LEARN .... most people devote more time to planning a vacation than their eternity :-(  And eternity is an awfully long to to lament over what could have been easily prevented! PRAY ABOUT IT ... PRAY MORE ANYWAY AND DO PENANCE .... MAY ALL BE SAVED AND NONE BE LOST!!


Sunday, June 12, 2016

THE DIVINE ANTIDOTE: THE FLAME OF LOVE GRACE, THE TRIUMPH OF THE MOTHER OF GOD AND THE NEW PENTECOST

God in His infinite Mercy has drawn you to know, understand, implement and live His Spiritual Plan for His Church, for you, and for every other person in the world at this time in salvation history, who will cooperate with God’s Divine Mercy!  This Plan is growing in urgency as Satan’s dominance shows itself as never before in the world as many people now routinely “call evil good and good evil” or do not speak out publicly against such evil.  Pope Benedict XVI has recognized the evil state of the world in many pronouncements as well as the travails of the Church, even referring to the Church as “a boat about to sink”; but he has imploringly prayed that the Triumph of Mary and her Immaculate Heart will occur by the 100th anniversary of Fatima in 2017 and for the resultant “era of peace” that will be granted to the world.  Pope St. John Paul II has prophesized that this Triumph will cause the New Pentecost and a “New and Divine Holiness” for those who desire and cooperate with God’s extraordinary outpouring of Grace in order to “make Christ the Heart of the world”.
The successors of Peter, our Popes, have been diligently urging us to know and understand that the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary causes the New Pentecost.  The New Pentecost is the reign of the Holy Spirit in the world, which causes the “New & Divine Holiness” in the souls of those who desire it and are properly disposed to receive this very Special Grace.

This period of time has been ordained by God and was proclaimed by David in Psalm 104, Verse 30: “When you send forth your breath (Spirit), they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.”
Virtually every Pope in the last 100 years has prayed expectantly for this period of time on earth.  Pope Francis in May of 2013 wrote:  “Today’s Liturgy of Pentecost is a great prayer which the Church, in union with Jesus, raises up to the Father, asking Him to renew the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Today too, the Church in union with Mary cries out, Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, enkindle in us the fire of Your Love.”  In May of 2007, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Today, it is Mary who leads our meditation; it is she who teaches us to pray.  It is she who shows us the way to open our minds and hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit, who comes to fill the whole world.”  (Note, where underlining is used, I have added it for emphasis).

In October of 1992, Pope John Paul II addressed the Bishops of Latin America with this prayer: “Be open to Christ, welcome the Spirit, so that a new Pentecost may take place in every community… a new humanity, a joyful one, will arise in your midst.”

In May of 1975, Pope Paul VI stated: “One must also recognize a prophetic intuition on the part of our predecessor John XXIII, who envisioned a kind of new Pentecost as a fruit of the Council.  We too have wished to place ourselves in the same perspective and in the same attitude of expectation.”

The famous words of Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Council were: “Renew your wonder in this our day, as by a new Pentecost.  Grant to your Church that, being of one mind and steadfast in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus… it may advance the reign of our Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace.  Amen”
And let us not think that this began only at the time of the Council, for in fact many Popes prior to this prayed for it as well.  Pope Leo XIII stated: “May Mary continue to strengthen our prayers with her suffrages, that in the midst of all the stress and trouble of the nations, those Divine prodigies may be happily revived by the Holy Spirit, which were foretold to David: Send forth thy Spirit, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.”

In addition to the successors of Peter, we have the great Saint and proposed Doctor of the Church, St. Louis de Montfort, in his Prayer for Missionaries:
“When will it happen, this fiery deluge of pure love with which you are to set the whole world ablaze and which is to come, so gently yet so forcefully, that all nations…will be caught up in its flames and be converted?  When you breathe your Spirit into them, they are restored and the fire of the earth is renewed.  Send this all-consuming Spirit upon the earth to create priests who burn with this same fire and whose ministry will renew the face of the earth and reform your Church.”
God’s Mother has been sent by God many times to earth to warn and to teach us what is important for us to know at this time in salvation history.  As Our Lady of All Nations (confirmed by the local ordinary to be of supernatural origin), she stated on numerous occasions in Messages 48 – 56 that there will be a New Pentecost and she will cause it to happen through the power God has given to her, and through our assistance by praying a very specific prayer:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now Your Spirit over the earth.  Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations, that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster and war.  May the Lady of All Nations, the Blessed Mother, Mary, be our advocate! Amen.”  It is critically important that all of us say this prayer every day … many times a day if possible!

Here is a sampling of the many Messages where our Mother, as Our Lady of All Nations, confirms the coming New Pentecost:
“Satan is not yet expelled.  The Lady of All Nations may now come in order to expel Satan. She comes to announce the Holy Spirit…She will defeat Satan, as has been foretold…
The world is not saved by force, the world will be saved by the Spirit…I assure you that the world will change.  Say my prayer then nations, that the Holy Spirit will really and truly come…This is the great favor that Mary, the Lady of All Nations, is allowed to bestow on the world.  In her name, ask the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who will come now more fully than ever.”
In recent Messages, our Lord and His Mother tell Elizabeth Kindelmann of Budapest, Hungary that the New Pentecost is indeed a reality and will be caused by the constant imploring of our dear Mother, who has obtained the “greatest grace” given to mankind, since our Lord was born, died and left us the Church and the Sacraments!
This Message continued in a Spiritual Diary much like St. Faustina’s Diary, was fully approved by Cardinal Peter Erdo, who is the presiding ordinary and Archbishop of Budapest, Hungary.  This is even more extraordinary in that Cardinal Erdo is the Head of the European Bishops’ Conferences.  The messages were originally approved by Cardinal Bernadino Ruiz of Ecuador and about 6 other Bishops in the world, but the local ordinary (Cardinal Erdo), took more time to conduct a detailed, lengthy commission to study the Messages and approved them in 2009.

Elizabeth Kindelmann was a very poor mother of six, who was widowed at the age of 32.  Yes, widowed at 32 with six children and no means of support, but God provided and had a great plan for her.
Elizabeth writes in the spiritual Diary, “Our Lord spoke to me at length about the time of grace and the Spirit of Love quite comparable to the First Pentecost flooding the earth with its power.  All that is the effusion of the effect of Grace of the Blessed Virgin’s Flame of Love.  The earth has been covered in darkness, because of the lack of faith in the soul of humanity, and therefore will experience a great jolt.  This jolt, by the power of Faith, will create a new world.  Through the Flame of Love of the Blessed Virgin, Faith will take root in souls, and the face of the earth will be renewed because nothing like this happened since the Word became flesh.  The renewal of the earth, although flooded with sufferings, will come about by the power of the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.”
Our Lady at Akita, Japan (confirmed as supernatural in origin by Bishop John Ito and approved further by Pope Benedict), also confirmed that incredible sufferings will come upon the world “if men do not repent and better themselves”, and “the thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness.”  However, our dear Mother also made this great promise:  “Whoever entrusts themselves to me will be saved.”
Our Lady of Quito, Ecuador (also approved as supernatural in origin) further confirmed the sequence of events to come, as well as the courage and perseverance of those souls (hopefully all reading this) who are being called upon to help God and His Mother right now:  “In order to free men from bondage to these heresies (which will prevail in the 20th century), those chosen by my Holy Son to effect the restoration will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God.  To test this Faith and Confidence of the just, there will be occasions where all will seem to be lost and paralyzed.  This, then, will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.”
The great Marian Saint, St. Louis de Montfort, prophesized the exact same truth:  “Is it not true that Your will must be done on earth as it is in Heaven? Is it not true that Your Kingdom must come?  Did you not give to some souls, dear to You, a vision of the future renewal of the Church?  Are not the Jews to be converted to the truth and is this not what the Church is waiting for?  All the Blessed in Heaven cry out for Justice to be done, and the faithful on earth join in with them and cry out: “Amen, come Lord.”  All creatures, even the most insensitive, lie groaning under the burden of Babylon’s countless sins and plead with you to come and renew all things; we know well, that the whole creation is groaning…”
St. Louis de Montfort, who has been proposed as a Doctor of the Church for his incredible teaching and influence on the Church, prophesized the coming Triumph of Mary, which ushers in the New Pentecost.  “But Mary’s power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him.  They will be rich in God’s graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary.  They will be great and exalted before God in holiness.  They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be imparted by divine assistance that in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ.”
St. Louis de Montfort gives the specific chronology that perfectly accords to the Gospel, and demonstrates the reality of the new Pentecost:  “The reign attributed to God the Father lasted until the Flood and ended in a deluge of water.  The reign of Jesus Christ ended in a deluge of blood, but your reign, Spirit of the Father and Son, is still un-ended and will come to a close with a deluge of fire, love and justice.  When will it happen, this fiery deluge of pure love with which you are to set the whole world ablaze and which is to come, so gently yet so forcefully, that all Nations, Muslims, idolaters and even Jews, will be caught up in its flames and be converted?  None can shield himself from the heat it gives, so let its flames rise. Rather, let this Divine Fire which Jesus Christ came to bring on earth be enkindled before the all-consuming fire of your anger comes down and reduces the whole world to ashes.”

St. Louis de Montfort tells us precisely what we must do:  “As all perfection consists in our being conformed, united and consecrated to Jesus, it naturally follows that the most perfect of all devotions is that which conforms, unites and consecrates us most completely to Jesus.  Now of all God’s creatures, Mary is the most conformed to Jesus.  It therefore follows that of all devotions, devotion to her makes for the most effective consecration and conformity to Him.  The more one is consecrated to Mary, the more one is consecrated to Jesus.  That is why perfect consecration to Jesus is but a perfect and complete consecration of oneself to the Blessed Virgin, which is the devotion I teach; or in other words, it is the perfect renewal of the vows and promises of Holy Baptism.”
Our great Saint then describes what this exceptional grace does in souls who are completely devoted to Mary: “Almighty God and His Holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above the little shrubs.  Such are the great men to come.  By the Will of God, Mary is to prepare them to extend His Rule over the impious and the unbelievers.”  He goes on to state: “My dear friend, when will that happy time come, that age of Mary, when many souls chosen by Mary are given her by the Most High God, will hide themselves completely in the depths of her soul, becoming living copies of her, loving and glorying Jesus?  That day will dawn only when the devotion I teach is understood and put into practice.  Lord, that Your Kingdom may come, may the reign of Mary come.”

So, we can see the perfect conformity of what the Holy Spirit inspired St. Louis de Montfort to write.  (Montfort states that he is the one that “the Holy Spirit made use of to write it”), with what the Popes have written with regard to the Triumph of Mary and the New Pentecost.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, gave us his gift of knowledge as to what the essence of the Consecration to Mary’s Immaculate Heart is on May 13, 2010 in Fatima:  “Our Blessed Mother came from Heaven, offering to implant in the hearts of all those who trust in her, the Love of God burning in her own heart… May the seven years which separate us from the Centenary of the Apparitions hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.”
Pope Benedict XVI also instructed us on the ultimate purpose of what Our Lady came to remind us of: our duty to sacrifice and suffer in union with our Lord’s sacrifices and sufferings for the salvation of souls, who depend upon our cooperation in God’s redeeming Love.  Benedict XVI states: “In Sacred Scripture, we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of men, and He does the same here in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which He will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?”
Pope Paul VI also explained the solution that God had specifically given to Mary for the Church at Fatima: “God wills to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.  In a letter on the “Occasion of the International Marian Congress” of May 13, 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote: “At the present time, so critical for the Church and the destiny of mankind, when the interior renewal of Christians and their reconciliation with God and each other are an absolute necessity if the Church is to Exist in Christ as a sacrament or sign, and an instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race’, the faithful must cultivate an outstanding devotion to the Spirit as the supreme source of love, unity and peace.  At that same time, however, and in harmony with this first devotion which draws ever new strength from the fire of the Divine Love, the faithful should also be deeply devoted to the great Mother of God, who is Mother of the Church and incomparable model of love for God and our brothers.”

So, our dear Lord and His Mother have again reminded the Church and each of its members, through St. Pope John Paul II, that: “When victory is won, it will be a victory through Mary.”  Now, here in the period leading up to the 100 year anniversary of Fatima (2015 – 2017), we have Our Lord and His dear Mother urging us to accept an extraordinary Grace for “interior renewal” and this “reconciliation with God and each other”: which is the Grace of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  In fact, God calls it the “Greatest Grace” given to mankind since His Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and leaving us the Church and the Sacraments.
Cardinal Erdo had this to say about it upon approving the Messages:  “Sometimes human frailty and human history produce an obstacle (to the Mission of Christ).  However, at a given moment of history, there appears in the Church something beautiful, a new possibility for the Church.  I believe this is true of the “Flame of Love Movement… the entire Church receives this … as a gift from God.”
So, what is the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?  This Greatest Grace is an act of God’s Divine Mercy, that God has given through His Mother’s Immaculate Heart.  Our Lady confirmed that her Flame of Love is “Jesus Christ Himself.”  She gave this Gift to Elizabeth Kindelmann on April 20, 1962 (Good Friday).  Mary stated: “I place a beam of light in your hands; it is the Flame of Love of my Heart.  Add your love to this Flame and pass it on to others, my little one… This is the miracle becoming the blaze whose dazzling light will blind Satan.  This is the fire of love of union, which I obtained through the merits of the wounds of my Divine Son.”
Ultimately, this grace allows one to accept personally and then zealously spread God’s Divine Mercy: to save our soul and cooperate in the salvation of many other souls!   Our Lord told Elizabeth: “Let your whole life be a burning desire to take part in My work of Redemption through prayer, sacrifice, (especially fasting) and desire.”  Our Lord told her to always “unite your sufferings totally with Mine.  Then your merits will grow greatly and they will move My redemptive work ahead.”

Our Lord continued on how we are to help Him save countless souls by appealing to His Mother’s Flame of Love:  “I would suffer death on the cross again for each soul, even suffering a thousand times more since there is no hope for a damned soul. Prevent this!  With your burning desire, save souls!… Do you really know what desire is?  It is a marvelous and delicate instrument that even the most helpless man can use as a miraculous instrument to save souls.  The key point is that one should unite his desire with My Precious Blood exuding from My side.  Increase your desire with all your might, My little one, to save as many souls as possible…set the earth ablaze with your burning desires…an uninterrupted desire for salvation of souls always filled My Heart… Give yourselves to the work (of reparation).  If you do nothing, you abandon the earth to Satan and to sin.  How can I wake you up?  Open your eyes and see this deadly danger (Satan) that claims victims all around you and which threatens even your own souls.”

Our Mother explained to Elizabeth how her Immaculate Heart will triumph:  “My love that is spreading will overcome the satanic hatred that contaminates the world, so that the greatest number of souls is saved from damnation.  I am confirming there has never been anything like this before.  This is my greatest miracle ever that I am accomplishing for all.”
Mary has asked all of us (and Cardinal Peter Erdo has approved this as well) to add a special petition to the Hail Mary prayer in order to help accomplish this great blinding of Satan and the subsequent era of peace with the outpouring of the New Pentecost.  She stated to Elizabeth: “When you say the prayer that honors me, the Hail Mary, include this petition: “Hail Mary, full of grace… Pray for us sinners, spread the effect of grace of thy Flame of Love over all humanity, now and at the hour of our death. Amen”
Our Lord then explained to Elizabeth:  “It is exclusively thanks to the efficacious pleas of the Most Holy Virgin that the Most Holy Trinity granted the effusion of the Flame of Love.  By it, ask in the prayer with which you greet My Most Holy Mother: “Spread the effect of grace of thy Flame of Love over all humanity, now and at the hour of death. Amen.”
Our Lord, knowing our natural skepticism to change, especially in adding a petition to the Hail Mary, anticipates the question “why”?  Our Lord states to Elizabeth: “So that, by its effect, humanity is converted.”
At its core, the Flame of Love is not a devotion, but a way of life.  Yes, there are promises, prayers and specific sacrifices asked of us, such as fasting on bread and water for 6 meals a week (see www.FLAMEOFLOVE.US/PROMISES) but all of the spiritual exercises are designed with one purpose: to assist Our Lord and His dear Mother in saving as many souls as Divine Mercy will allow, since so many souls are in danger of being lost forever!
St. Therese of Lisieux was also gifted with this understanding of being a victim of Merciful Love: “… in order that Love be fully satisfied, it is necessary that Love lower Itself to nothingness and transform this nothingness into fire… Jesus, I am too little to perform great actions, and my own folly is this: to trust that Your love will accept me as a victim.”

SO WHAT MUST I DO?
In order to obtain any major grace, one must be properly disposed: be in a state of grace (free of serious sin), be aware of the grace (a sharing in Divine Life) and truly desire to have it and to benefit from it.
Thus, a Catholic should endeavor to read and learn about this Extraordinary Grace, which God is offering through His Mother (a free book can be obtained at  www.FLAMEOFLOVE.US)  and then pray to increase one’s desire to obtain it and make use of it to draw closer to Christ through Mary to the maximum point one can achieve in this life.
God is Confirming What He Has Given to St. Louis de Montfort, Sister Lucia and the Popes
Our Lady told Sister Lucia at Fatima that: “God wills to establish devotion to His Mother’s Immaculate Heart, and promises salvation to those who embrace it.”  What God has done through Elizabeth Kindelmann with the Great Grace of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary can rightly be called a continuation of the Fatima Message and a confirmation that it will be fulfilled.
St. Louis de Montfort summarizes God’s plan brilliantly: “If it is certain that the knowledge and the kingdom of Jesus Christ must come into the world, it can only be as a necessary consequence of the knowledge and reign of Mary.  She who first gave Him to the world, will establish His Kingdom in the world … Mary’s power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is for her humble servants and poor children, whom she will rouse to fight against him.”
Our Lady encourages us through Elizabeth Kindelmann: “I grant all the grace to see the results of their labors on behalf of my Flame of Love in each soul, in your country, and in the entire world.  You, who are laboring and making sacrifices for the prompt outpouring of my Flame of Love, you will see it.”
Our Lord tells us through Elizabeth Kindelmann that once you have accepted the “Greatest Grace” He wishes to pour out on you, that you must go well beyond your current prayer life and effort: “Reach beyond your limits… every parish must urgently organize communities of prayer of atonement, blessing one another with the sign of the Cross… the petition is urgent.  There is no time for delays.  Let the faithful together with the priests satisfy our petition in a great spiritual oneness.”
So, the question now before us is this: will we be completely devoted to Mary’s Immaculate Heart as God wills of us?  Will we do what He asks?  This is the right spiritual step to prepare, not only for the coming storm, but for each moment of our life here and for all eternity.

What Are the Specific Actions and Loving Exercises?
So, what are the specific actions and the intensified efforts now requested in order for us to claim objectively that we are completely devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?  They are as follows:
  1. Make, renew and live daily your Consecration to Jesus through Mary (www.MYCONSECRATION.ORG)
  2. Pray the Rosary daily with the Flame of Love Petition
  3. Continue to make the First Saturdays of Reparation every month
  4. Wear the Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal
  5. Offer your daily duty with and through Mary for souls
  6. Join or start a Flame of Love prayer group (which prays the Rosary and reads from the Diary)
  7. Fast for 6 meals a week on bread and water for souls (explained in the Diary)
  8. Make night vigils of reparation for souls (explained in the Diary)
If you are only doing one or several of these exercises of love, do not be concerned nor disheartened.  Simply pray: “Lord, I want to love our Mother as You do; Mary, I want to love Jesus as you do.  Mary, I beg through the Flame of Love of your Immaculate Heart that you will reorient my time to increase my number of loving exercises, so I may quickly grow in love for the Holy Trinity, and that you will cause me to know and desire that love requires sacrifice as you and Jesus constantly sacrificed for us.  May the Holy Spirit completely fill my soul with the Seven Gifts, and may these be the Gifts I desire from this day forward, which will allow me to desire and obtain the Greatest Gift of Holiness, so I may live completely with the Will of God as you did, through the Flame of Love of your Immaculate Heart!  Fiat!”
To obtain a low cost  Flame of Love book, go to www.FLAMEOFLOVE.US and click on the Order Now button on the right side of the page below the picture of Our Lady. (Larger orders may be placed by emailing rmooney@myconsecration.org).  You may also sign up to follow a blog devoted to God’s Spiritual Plan of Devotion to His Mother’s Immaculate Heart, including all aspects of understanding the Great Grace of the Flame of Love and the “New & Divine Holiness”, at www.DIVINEANTIDOTE.WORDPRESS.COM
Anthony J. Mullen is the National Director for the United States of America for The International Movement of The Flame of Love of The Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The International Private Association of The Faithful required a nomination for this position by his Bishop, who also gave the Imprimatur to the English edition of the Simplified Version of The Spiritual Diary of Elizabeth Kindelmann.  He is also the Chairman of www.MYCONSECRATION.ORG, which has helped over 800,000 souls make their Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  Mr. Mullen is asking all Apostolates and Prayer Groups to seek unity under Our Mother’s Queenship as the Flame of Love to carry out God’s Plan of Salvation and Holiness by accepting and helping to spread to all this Great Grace, which God is His Infinite Mercy wishes to pout out upon all.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

St. Boniface - June 5

Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans and the Patron Saint of Germany, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome.

How absolutely necessary this orthodoxy and fidelity were is borne out by the conditions he found on his first missionary journey in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II. Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many instances uneducated, lax and questionably obedient to their bishops. In particular instances their very ordination was questionable.

These are the conditions that Boniface was to report in 722 on his first return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German Church. The pope sent letters of recommendation to religious and civil leaders. Boniface later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful, from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne. Boniface was finally made a regional bishop and authorized to organize the whole German Church. He was eminently successful.

In the Frankish kingdom, he met great problems because of lay interference in bishops’ elections, the worldliness of the clergy and lack of papal control.

During a final mission to the Frisians, he and 53 companions were massacred while he was preparing converts for Confirmation.

In order to restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to convert the pagans, he had been guided by two principles. The first was to restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of prayer which took the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns followed him to the continent. He introduced Benedictine nuns to the active apostolate of education.



Boniface literally struck a blow for Christianity in his attempt to destroy pagan superstitions. On a day previously announced, in the presence of a tense crowd, he attacked with an ax Donar's sacred oak on Mount Gudenburg. The huge tree crashed, splitting into four parts. The people waited for the gods to strike Boniface dead—then realized their gods were powerless, nonexistent. He used planks from the tree to build a chapel.

Boniface bears out the Christian rule: To follow Christ is to follow the way of the cross. For Boniface, it was not only physical suffering or death, but the painful, thankless, bewildering task of Church reform. Missionary glory is often thought of in terms of bringing new persons to Christ. It seems—but is not—less glorious to heal the household of the faith.