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Dear OnePeterFive donor, supporters and readers,
In his seminal essay “The Charitable Anathema,” Dietrich von Hildebrand reviews the many “plagues” that were at that time “a clear and present fact” in the Church (he died in 1977), and he ends with this immortal statement:
There is, in other words, no reason whatever for optimism; therefore let our hope grow in proportion! For the Lord God has said, and still repeats to us today: et portae inferi non praevalebunt.
This month starts the already infamous-before-it-begins, “Synod on Synodality,” aka the #SchismaticWay.
The storm clouds have gathered. Here comes the thunder.
And so we are given this month an occasion to increase our hope in proportion. We have no “optimism” if we mean by that a naïve believe that “things will get better” by themselves. No. In fact, we expect things to get much worse. But we do have the theological virtue of hope that God will prevail in the end. Yet more, we have the words of Our Lady of Fatima: in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
This month we celebrate one hundred and six years since the miracle of the sun in 1917. And so we are covering the synod this month, yes. But this is also the month of the OnePeterFive Marian Pilgrimage to Sr. Wilhelmina. This is meant to highlight our “proportionate hope” in the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, in the face of the Schismatic Way.
Also this month we call for submissions on the topic of the conversion of Russia. We will begin it this week with a four part introduction to the Russian Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite whose beginnings coincide with Fatima. Other topics which can be covered include the place of Vladimir Soloviev in Russian Catholicism, the relationship and history of Ukrainian and Russian Catholicism, Russian Catholic converts and martyrs of the 20th century, as well as Russian history and culture and its relationship to the Faith. Please send us a pitch for an article in this series to editor [at] onepeterfive.com.
All of this sheds light on the workings of God in our time in light of Fatima and the current Ukraine crisis.
What do we do in the face of the Synod on Synodality? We hope for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, and we look for the conversion of Russia.
We offer all of this under the patronage of Our Lady of Fatima in her Russian icon. Proceeds from the sale of this icon go to building the shrine of Fatima in St. Petersburg, Russia.
T. S. Flanders
Editor
Holy Guardian Angels
Timothy S. Flanders earned a BA in Greek and Latin from Grand Valley State University in 2010 with special studies in history, writing and Arabic. As a result of his studies, he converted from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodoxy and began working in education among ages Kindergarten to adult. He then pursued a Masters’ Degree in Christian history and theology with the Catholic University of Ukraine. In 2013, as a result of further searching, he converted to Roman Catholicism shortly after Pope Francis was elected. In 2019 he founded The Meaning of Catholic, a lay apostolate dedicated to uniting Catholics against the enemies of Holy Church. In 2021, he became the editor-in-chief of the online journal, OnePeterFive. He is the author of three books: Introduction to the Holy Bible for Traditional Catholics, City of God versus City of Man: The Battles of the Church from Antiquity to the Present and When the Gates of Hell Prevail: What Catholics Do in Dark Times, as well as a forthcoming book about Eastern Orthodoxy, published by St. Paul Center. He lives in Michigan with his wife and six children.