Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
We will never tire of saying that Christians are not revolutionaries but restorers, co-workers with Christ our King, to “restore all things,” as St. Paul teaches, “things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). To carry out this magnificent mission, it is important for us to understand and reflect upon the original order of creation so that we know what we are called to restore. To that end, in this newsletter we will reflect on some of the fundamental characteristics of the first created world.
Before beginning our reflections, however, I would like to mention an urgent need for help in the administration of a network of faithful Catholic apostolates which my colleagues and I have been developing so that traditional Catholics all over the world can obtain and provide the goods and services they need within the Family of God and thus hasten the social reign of Christ the King through as many of our day-to-day transactions and activities as possible. If any of the men reading this newsletter have administrative and organizational ability and would be willing to donate a few hours a week to helping to coordinate the activities of this network of faithful Catholic apostolates, please let me know as soon as possible at howen@shentel.net.
As beautifully portrayed in the traditional icons of man’s creation, the “first Adam” was created in the perfect image and likeness of “the last Adam,” Our Lord Jesus Christ. As the first man and the father of all mankind, St. Adam shows us the characteristics of man as intended by the Creator from the beginning. In the first place, we see that God created man to be a priest, to live in communion with his Creator, to offer all of his actions as an opus dei, and to pray without ceasing. Evagrius of Pontus beautifully describes the life of unceasing prayer as the normal state of man when he writes:
God commands us to fast, but He does not command us to fast always, because we must eat to live; God commands us to keep vigil, but He does not command us to keep vigil always, because we must sometimes sleep; but God does command us to pray without ceasing, because the mind was created to pray.
To live in constant communion and communication with the Most Holy Trinity is the normal, original state of man, and anything less than that ought to be considered abnormal and less than fully human.
Created in a state of constant communion with God and infused with knowledge of the natures of all things, Adam was able immediately to administer the monarchy prepared for him. All the different kinds of creatures, each one perfect according to its nature, existed together with St. Adam and for St. Adam from the beginning. And when St. Eve was created from St. Adam’s side, she was created to be his queen and his help-mate, created from the beginning to rule the whole creation with him under his headship. In the first created world, there was no distinction between sacred and profane. All was holy, and the reign of God through St. Adam extended over every kind of creature, including angels, animals, plants, and inanimate creatures. Thus, Adam was created as the steward of all created goods, especially the plants and the animals, and Eve was created as his help-mate in guiding and caring for them.
The Creation of Eve and the Original Order of the Family
As amazing as it seems to us today, St. Eve was created in the state of Holy Matrimony, in loving dependence upon her husband who stood in the role of priest toward her. While she had her own relationship with God, just as lay people do in the Church Militant, she received the Word of God through her husband, as lay people receive the Word of God through the priesthood established by Our Lord Jesus Christ in His Holy Church. That is why God did not reveal the commandment not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to St. Eve, but only to St. Adam. And since St. Eve was created in the state of matrimony, under the authority of St. Adam, her disobedience did not result in the Fall from grace—because she remained under his authority and could have been brought back into the order of grace by him if he had corrected her after her disobedience instead of following her into sin.
To this day, the original order of the family in the first created world remains the norm for all families. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph perfectly exemplified this original order, as God Himself directed the Holy Family through St. Joseph as their Head, and the Child Jesus and the Blessed Mother always followed his leadership. Private revelations approved by the Church reveal that Our Lady and St. Joseph also perfectly fulfilled their royal roles as king and queen in relation to the rest of creation. St. Joseph perfectly fulfilled his religious duty to guide his Wife and Child in the way of God’s commandments; risked his life to protect them; and worked with one of God’s most amazing creatures—wood!—to provide for them. Like St. Adam and St. Eve before the Fall, Our Lady had infused knowledge of the natures and uses of every kind of plant and animal, and devoted Herself to caring for her husband and Child by making prudent and proper use of every kind of creature, including the assistance of the angelic choirs.
In our current age of “diabolical disorientation,” Catholic families must focus more than ever on the Holy Family as our model, in light of the original order of the first created world. First and foremost, the husband and father must be the spiritual leader, protector and provider for his family, who also does his best to extend the Kingdom of God through his work in the world. His wife must be his help-mate, obeying his authority in everything but sin, and doing her best to be of one heart and one mind with him in raising their children to be holy, healthy, humble, helpful, and hard-working members of the Mystical Body of Christ.
As the wisdom of the world constantly promotes what is unnatural and abnormal as what is natural, normal and good, it is all the more important for Catholic families to remain in close contact with God’s creation, especially by being good stewards of God’s gifts in the plant and animal kingdoms. As food crops become more tainted, soils are poisoned, and inflation skyrockets, every family would do well to grow an organic garden and to obtain, whenever possible, some kind of productive livestock. Many of our members have acquired a wealth of experience in organic gardening and raising livestock and would be happy to provide some guidance and encouragement to younger and less experienced families. The Back to Eden gardening method described at this link has worked well for quite a few of our members around the world. Other members have benefited from the wisdom and experience that have been shared through the videos at this link.
Everyone should read our publication GMO Food: Boon or Bane? or at least the article taken from that publication at this link to understand the absolute necessity of avoiding all kinds of genetically-modified food crops, in the garden and as feed for livestock, as well as for human consumption. A number of the presentations at our leadership retreat in August will also provide helpful information for families seeking to begin or expand their efforts to raise food crops and livestock organically.
God Will Bless Gardens Grown for His Glory
We know that if we do everything, including our gardening, for the glory of God, He will bless our meager efforts, and this truth is confirmed again and again in the lives of the saints. Joan Carroll Cruz relates that St. Martin de Porres, the Dominican lay brother of Lima, Peru, planted all kinds of trees for his community and for the poor, including a great number of olive trees on the grounds of his monastery. According to one of the saint’s biographers:
These trees grew in ways that were certainly not natural. Leaves and sprouts and fruit came forth in miraculous fashion, and we are assured that Martin’s olive trees withstood the ravages of pests and blights, of unfavorable weather conditions, and of other obstacles to splendid growth in ways that seemed to be beyond the laws of nature.
Even saints who lived in cities away from the land relied on the Creator to provide the fruits of the earth to the poor and needy, especially in times of famine. In the life of St. Frances of Rome we read that she urgently needed grain to make bread for the poor, the sick, and the prisoners for whom she cared. According to Joan Carroll Cruz:
Frances at that time suggested to her sister-in-law, Vannozza, that they should go to the now empty corn loft and search among the straw for whatever they could find. They, with a faithful old servant named Clara, mounted to the loft and on their knees sifted through the straw. All they were able to find was a measure of corn. One of St. Frances’ early biographers wrote:
Lorenzo (her husband) had entered the granary just as they were carrying off their hard-earned treasure [of a single measure of corn], and, looking about him, beheld in place of the straw which was lying there a moment before, 40 measures of bright yellow corn, so shining and full . . . that it seemed as though it had been raised in Paradise and reaped there by the angels.
Grain, however, was not enough. Many asked the Saint for wine to give them strength. In her generosity St. Frances drew from the single cask that remained in the cellar. Day after day she drew from it for all who asked. Finally not a drop remained, much to the annoyance of Andreazzo, her father-in-law, who raved at her, saying that in order to assist strangers she had introduced privation into her own family. The Saint remained calm under his accusations, but finally suggested that they see if the cask was filled through the mercy of God. Following her to the cellar were her husband, father-in-law, and other members of the family. They watched in bewilderment as wine flowed freely when she turned the cock of the barrel. In Andreazzo’s estimation, the wine was far superior to any he had ever tasted. He is alleged to have said: “Oh, my dear child, dispose henceforward of everything I possess, and multiply without end those alms that have gained you such favor in God’s sight.”
St. Augustine famously pointed out that in the work of creation God created “seeds without seeds,” and in the lives of the Saints He shows forth His divine creative power by making corn without seeds and wine without grapes or vines. Let us never fail to be generous with His gifts, in the knowledge that there is no end to His generosity.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel: Restoring the “Garden of God”
The last time that Our Blessed Mother appeared to the three children of Fatima, She appeared as Our Lady of Carmel, a word which in the original Hebrew means “garden of God” or “vineyard of God.” In this way, she turned the attention of her children to the restoration of the Earth during the promised era of peace when, according to many private revelations approved by the Church, even the productions of nature will be restored back to something like what existed in “the garden of God” before the Original Sin.
Among the holy men and women who prophesied in this vein was the French priest Pere Lamy (1855-1931). Pere Lamy said that Our Lady had told him that God would intervene drastically to halt modern man's slide into total degeneration and that after this intervention conditions on earth would be very different. He said:
When peace is given back to the world, big business will shrink to smaller proportions and will stay there. Everything will grow less . . . When peace is given back to the world, plots of land will rise to more value than they have now. Even if the old workmen insist on dying in towns, that will come to pass . . . The world will have to be reevangelized over again and that will be a work for a whole generation . . . The spiritual state of the first Christians will come back moreover, there will be so few men on earth . . . The monasteries will flourish again, the convents will fill up again. After these calamities, souls in great numbers will come to dwell in them again.
Through the prayers of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph, may the Holy Ghost descend upon all of our families and make them sacred sanctuaries where the Most Holy Trinity will always love to dwell!
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Pamela Acker will be attending the annual Catholic Medical Association Conference in Denver, CO, on behalf of the Kolbe Center from September 8-10. If you know of any parish, school, home-school coop, or religious community in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, or Oklahoma that would be interested in hosting a presentation on Creation or vaccines either before or after that event, please let me know as soon as possible at howen@shentel.net.
P.P.S. We have decided to hold our 2022 annual leadership retreat at the headquarters of the Apostolate for Family Consecration in Bloomingdale, Ohio, again this year, from Sunday, August 28, until Saturday, September 3. For more information or to obtain a registration form, please email me at howen@shentel.net.
