Showing posts with label Our Lady of Victories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Our Lady of Victories. Show all posts

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Lepanto, Our Lady of Victories



Listen up, heathen. It's the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto, in which a combined catholic fleet under Don Juan of Austria, on october 7, 1571, took on the Turkish Sea Jihad and killed it. Dead.




The Mohammedans, under Grand Admiral Ali Pasha, had hoped to land an invasion fleet on the coast of Italy and seize Rome, which they curiously called the "Big Apple." But they were routed and victory is accredited to the miraculous intercession of the Blessed  Ever Virgin Mary.




Ali Pasha was killed in the action aboard his ship, the Sultana, which had engaged Don Juan's flagship, the Real. Pasha's severed head was subsequently displayed on the Real on the end of a pike.




Today's TransMed Jihad comes in a different form and the Moslems don't have a navy; neither, of course, do the Europeans. I'll leave it to you to figure out if the threat is any less real.

Salve Regina,

LSP

Friday, October 7, 2016

Lepanto




Today's the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto, in which the Muslim sea jihad was broken by a combined Christian fleet under the command of Don John. This remarkable victory, which prevented a Moslem invasion of Italy, is attributed to the powerful intercession of Our Lady.

Some argue that a new invasion is underway, so step up to the plate, do your bit,and pray the Salve Regina:

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us.
And after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary,
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God:
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Have a blessed Feast of Our Lady of Victories,

LSP


Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Inspiration!



Here's some Lepanto, to inspire:


White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young,
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain—hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.


Thank God, and I mean that, for Don John. Returning the Prophet's battle flag was a mistake. 

LSP

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lepanto



Inspired by Snarky Basterd, I thought I'd better post this, from the Battle of Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton.

But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

Stirring stuff - Lepanto. Then again, I'm for the Faith, along with GKC. But more of that on the Feast of Our Lady of Victories (Oct. 7).

God bless,

LSP