In the early years of the seventeenth century the armies of Sweden threatened to overrun Austria. They won victory after victory. The Austrian Emperor, Ferdinand III, was desperate. In 1629 he decided to make a public appeal for the protection of the Blessed Virgin, toward whom he had a tender devotion.
He ordered the building of a giant column in the city square of Vienna. It was decorated with numerous emblems, all representing some phase of the Immaculate Conception. At each of the four corners of the foundation he directed that angels in armor be placed, treading the dragon under their feet, showing how our Spotless Mother won the victory over original sin and all sin. On the summit of the column stood a statue of the Mother of God, her foot on the head of the satanic serpent. At the base of the imposing pillar were carved the words:
"TO THE MOST HIGH AND GOOD GOD, LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, FROM WHOM KINGS HOLD THEIR THRONES.Never in the history of the land was there a more solemn celebration than that which marked the dedication of this splendid shaft. It gave triumphant testimony to their love of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
"TO THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD, CONCEIVED WITHOUT STAIN OF ORIGINAL SIN, BY WHOM PRINCES COMMAND, WHO HAS THIS DAY BEEN CHOSEN BY PARTICULAR DEVOTION AS PATRONESS OF AUSTRIA, THE EMPEROR FERDINAND III ENTRUSTS AND CONSECRATES ALL HIS POSSESSIONS, HIS PERSON, HIS CHILDREN, HIS PEOPLE, HIS ARMIES, HIS DOMAINS; AND IN PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THIS, HIS DEVOTION, HE HAS ERECTED THIS STATUE."
The devout emperor marched in the procession, attended by his son Ferdinand IV, who was king of Bohemia and Hungary, by his daughter Marianna, who was queen of Spain, by representatives of many countries, by all the nobility, by religious communities and by the secular clergy. An immense crowd followed as the pious parade made its way to the foot of the column. There the emperor repeated aloud and with all the fervor of his soul the words inscribed in stone, the words inscribed in their hearts, the words consecrating and dedicating himself and his kingdom and his people to the Immaculate Mother of God.
How pleasing this dedication was to Mary is seen in the sudden and striking assistance she sent to those who honored her Immaculate Conception. Motherlike she hurried to help. A few days after this magnificent demonstration the emperor met the enemy at Eger, close to the invaders' camp. With one blow he stopped the oncoming Swedes and forced them to sign a complete and lasting treaty of peace. His empire was saved.
Austria, or any other nation, never had more invaders than America has today. True, we do have friends. But those who plot our downfall are so great and numerous, so secret and satanic, that every true American must awaken to threatening enemies from within and without. There is no cause for hysteria, but there is need to realize that certain forces, foreign to the spirit of America, are working to wreck our glorious nation.
There was, for instance, a godless government called the Soviet, which openly admitted its purpose to envelop us within its Iron Curtain. Agents of that Red regime were (are) working in all classes and professions and in many departments of our government, to bring about the overthrow of all that we Americans hold sacred.
How long it takes some people to wake up! For decades the Catholic Church has been warning the world about Atheistic Communism. Only when war was waged in helpless Korea did some eyes and minds open.
Knowingly and unknowingly thousands of so-called Americans are working against our government. Our schools are honeycombed with teachers who are against God, the very foundation of our nation.
Another group who profess to believe in God are openly and secretly working against God's Church, the Catholic Church, the most patriotic and powerful force for true Americanism in the land. In college classrooms, in church pulpits, in secret societies, in telephone, back-fence, club, and Internet gossip there is ceaseless sniping at the beliefs and practices of a spiritual organization which stands and fights for every basic principle of the United States.
In this army invading America we see the greedy capitalist and the merciless money-changer who give ground to the charge of capitalist cruelty. Thank God, not all managers and owners are lined up with them. And we see the Marxists and the socialists who wish to rob the working man and his family of the fruits of his hard work.
The invaders include racketeers and fomenters of violence, race hatred and bigotry, printers and peddlers of pornography and impurity, producers and patrons of immoral movies, sellers and buyers and users of artificial birth control, the abortion industry engaged in infanticide with its supporters in government and even, God forbid, in the Church.
We witness evil and insidious forces within government heaping burden upon burden on Americans all while wasting tax dollars on non-essential or questionable government programs. We see the attack coming from those who wish to pervert and destroy the morals of society with the push to legitimize the deadly sins of homosexuality, adultery, contraception, and other sexually perverse acts.
In that army we see Blanshards and Oxnams, so-called converted Catholics and Witnesses of Jehovah, all tearing away at the nation's foundations.
Who can stop such invaders? Who can save our soil from such traitors?
All the policemen in the world, including our FBI and our military can not repulse such attackers.
Like King Ferdinand and the people of Austria, we Americans will appeal to one who has been victorious before, one who has won the greatest victory of all time, the victory over sin.
On December 8 we publicly and lovingly dedicate ourselves again to the Immaculate Virgin and Mother. Ask her help in halting the enemies of the country which chose her as patroness under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
May Mary Immaculate, the victorious Virgin, win another victory for us.
Amen.
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Adapted from Feasts of Our Lady
by Msgr. Arthur Tonne
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