St. King Fernando III told his mother about his Holy Communions: "I know well, Mother, that I have Jesus Christ inside of me, and I close my eyes to talk to Him better. I tell Him that He is my King and I am his knight, that I want to suffer great labors for Him in wars against the Moors, that I want to shed my blood for Him, and that His Glorious Mother is my Lady."
When his mother asked her son "what he thought of in the silence of his soul after Communion," St. King Fernando III told his mother, the saintly Queen Berenguera: "I know well, Mother, that I have Jesus Christ inside of me, and I close my eyes to talk to Him better. I tell Him that He is my King and I am his knight, that I want to suffer great labors for Him in wars against the Moors, that I want to shed my blood for Him, and that His Glorious Mother is my Lady." (Saint Fernando III, A Kingdom for Christ, page 48)
It is a battle to remain faithful and strong. Saint Ferdinand III was a king, husband, father and warrior whose battle for his soul was just as vigorous as his renowned crusades against the Moors. His cousin, Saint Louis IX, King of France, is generally familiar to Christians and Catholics in the West, but King Saint Ferdinand’s story could use a bit of dusting off. His practices as a man of faith are invaluable to men of any generation, for he combined the virtues of a saint with the courage of a soldier.
Saint Ferdinand III, King of Castile and León, was born in 1198 to Alfonso IX, King of León, and Doña Berenguera of Castile. Ferdinand’s childhood was wrought with uncertainties. The marriage of his parents was annulled by the Holy Father due to the blood relationship between the spouses. With a broken heart but peaceful soul, Doña Berenguera was welcomed with open arms back into the court of Castile. Eventually, her happiness increased when her children were allowed to join her there.
Of all her children, Ferdinand held a special place in the mother’s heart. When Ferdinand was around ten years old, he was consumed with such an extreme illness, that all believed death loomed over him. His devoted mother raced the child, accompanied by knights and ladies, to the chapel of Santa Maria de Oña, where the repulsive sores on his little body miraculously disappeared. After this episode, a change appeared in the boy. He was often found kneeling before an image of Our Lady, praying the Little Office. From this tender age, the future king began to recognize his God-given mission—to expel the Moors from Spain and to propagate the holy Catholic Faith within his beloved country.
A Quest to Reconquer Spain
In the early eighth century, a major part of the Iberian Peninsula was taken from the Visigoths by the Moors. Not until the eleventh century were Christian kingdoms in Spain powerful enough to reconquer some of the lost territories. However, much of the land still required liberation from the hands of the Moslems.
In 1212, Ferdinand’s grandfather, King Alfonso the Noble of Castile, alerted Christendom that his kingdom was in imminent danger of Moslem attack. Heeding the call, Christian princes, Spanish and otherwise, rallied together to do battle against the Moors. Following this, Pope Innocent III extended the Crusades to Spain. The reconquering of Spain became known as the Reconquista (“reconquest”).
Much to his shame and dismay, Ferdinand discovered that his father, King Alfonso IX of León, did not initially join the Crusaders. Instead, Alfonso took the opportunity to make war against other Christian kingdoms. His father’s greed caused Ferdinand many sleepless nights. Then and there, Ferdinand resolved to never make war against another Christian prince. This promise, though tested countless times, he faithfully kept throughout his life.
Seeking Out Suffering
Ferdinand’s enthusiasm to reconquer Spain for Christ and Our Lady never faded, but it did mature. Now, as a young man, Ferdinand would close his eyes after receiving the Blessed Sacrament and ponder the great labors he would need—want—to suffer for Christ. He fearlessly told his mother: “I tell Him [Jesus] that He is my King and I am His knight, that I want to suffer great labors for Him in wars against the Moors, that I want to shed my blood for Him, and that His Glorious Mother is my Lady.”
Growing up, Ferdinand encountered pious and courageous models, such as his grandfather and mother, and ones less so, such as his father. His eyes glistened with enthusiasm, as would be the reaction of many boys of today, when he listened to his grandfather’s exhilarating stories of battle. But when he observed his father’s failures, Ferdinand became fearful of falling into the same corrupt habits. Still, he obediently heeded his father’s summons to the court in León. As all good men possess a plan of action on spiritual battlefields as well as physical ones, the young man departed for León spiritually armed for battle. A man of balance, he lived not as a hermit isolated from society, but instead combined asceticism with the practical sense of the realities of his position.
To become accustomed to hardship, Ferdinand trudged through the fields of León in the rain and snow. When asked about his laborious excursions, he explained: “…Since in war I shall have to command many men who know how to suffer, and who will not appreciate it if I do not know how to suffer with them.” He maintained silence about the private penances performed within the walls of his room. However, when he returned to Castile, a statue of Our Lady and a bloody scourge near his bedside wordlessly told his mother he had preserved his innocence within his father’s court. [https://www.tfp.org/king-saint-ferdinand-iii-and-his-conquests-for-christ/]
Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia.
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.
Francis Notes:
– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:
“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html
– LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”
– On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”
– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1
– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.
Pray an Our Father now for America.
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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