Art, Vocations in Germany & La Conquistadora

Dear Tradition in Action,

Please post this video on your website as it says everything quite clearly and my words are no match.

God bless you.

     In Maria,

     S.G.

TIA,

Take a look on this video, please.

It supposedly is to attract young people to the religious life. The message is that the religious life is as joyful as a rock party in the world.

But where is the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of monks and nuns will come to the Orders?

     T.H.

Dear TIA,

There is a statue here in Santa Fe of Our Lady. It’s the oldest statue brought from Spain in the early 1600’s – yes, she was here before the U.S. was the U.S. She is called La Conquistadora and is loved and venerated by many all over the world.

Many people have chosen to make clothes for her as a way to honor and show their love and devotion. If people have not heard of her (I didn’t until a year ago) and if you have not there is a beautifully written piece on her in your website written by Marian Horvat and several books that can be found on Amazon. One particularly lovely one written by Fray Angelico Chavez as an autobiography and it is delightful.

Back to my story – as I said I only learned of this particular representation of Our Lady, La Conquistadora, a year ago when I came to Santa Fe on vacation. Since then she has been such an incredible intercessor and has granted many miracles for us.

In September of 2013 she answered our prayer to move to Santa Fe, found us a house in the most beautiful area in the hills of Santa Fe that we never could have afforded – and I didn’t ask her for such a gift, but she saw fit to give it to us. In January of this year we moved here.

As I am now here I go visit her very often – sometimes every day if I’m in town. I am begging her to help us get a true priest to come here and give us Mass and the Sacraments.

Since I have been here I have had two occasions to run into a Novus Ordo priest and I want to tell you about those encounters.

First, this past June, I took a class in Russian icons – it was extremely difficult and the process was much more complicated and intense then I ever would have imagined. … In that class was a Novus Ordo priest. I spoke to him the first day of class and of course he quickly found out that I am a Traditional Catholic. All he kept repeating to me was that "the fullness of Vatican 2 has not come about” – over and over he said it as though the Church didn’t exist before VC2.

Whatever I said about the Council of Trent, Quo Primum, the fact that there was absolutely no reason or purpose to change the Traditional Latin Mass completely went over his head. He abruptly ended the conversation and he never, ever said another word to me – not even a hello or good morning. I am quite sure if I had been a muslim (yes, I know it’s a proper name and should be capitalized, but I refuse), any protestant or even an atheist, he would have been kind and even welcoming - perhaps even telling me that I was as good as in Heaven.

As I said above, I often go to visit La Conquistadora. Unfortunately she is in a side chapel at the St. Francis Cathedral. They have turned it into a den of thieves with not even a sign at the entrance that asks for silence and reverence to be observed. Every time I go, and people can see and sometimes others kneeling before Our Lady and trying to pray a Rosary, they are taking and laughing as though they are on the street. I’ve seen more reverence at museums. I have to ask people to be quiet.

Yesterday three gay men were in Our Lady’s little side chapel laughing it up – it’s sickening. I’ve seen women in the church wearing the shortest shorts and tiniest tops imaginable – again sickening. Even though I don’t blame them, still anyone entering any type of religious edifice should have the intelligence to have some respect. I couldn’t pray very long because I found myself being so distracted I couldn't pray so I looked up at Our Lady and left.

As “luck” would have it, a man dressed in black was walking through the parking lot towards the church. He said hello and I asked him if he was affiliated with the church in some way – he was dressed all in black but of course was not wearing a collar and there was no way I could tell he was a priest. He said he was the associate pastor and I asked if I could talk to him for a minute.

All I wanted to ask was if it would be possible to put a small sign at the entry of the church for tourists to see upon entering the church (there’s a BIG sign in front showing the hours of the gift shop [smirk]) asking them to observe silence and maintain respect. He said he had no power there but he would talk to the pastor. He then went on to say the tourists contribute a lot of money to maintain the church – with the underlying message that to put a sign like that might offend someone and that even if there is a 1% of the people entering would be touched – well that’s all that mattered. I told him I felt that if there was reverence and silence maintained that perhaps that 1% might be able to hear Our Dear Lord speaking to them. He agreed, he said.

Well then the big question came to me, asking if I was registered there. I told him that I am a Traditional Catholic. You’ve all heard the term 0 to 60 when referring to speed of something changing – WELL let me tell you he went from 0 to 500. He got so very angry with me I literally began to shake.

He said ‘well do you think this liturgy is valid? – No I’m sure you don’t think this is valid You probably don’t even think of me as a priest." … His anger increased with each passing moment then he said to me, and this is the killer – “Well you and I are not the same religion” At that point I said, you are absolutely right.

He ranted at me for a minute more and accused me of not listening to him, on and on. I said that was not true. He asked me questions and I answered every one. When he saw that what I was saying was true, he calmed a bit and apologized to me for his needless anger – it was weird. I responded to him that as a Trad, we are used to being treated this way by the Novus Ordo church. The look on his face was priceless – and then he walked away.

I’m sharing this with fellow Trads – I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences. It was painful – painful physically (my stomach was in knots), emotionally and of course, spiritually. To face the reality that the post-VC2 church is hopeless is beyond sad. I know what I read and your posts tell it all, but coming face to face with it is gut wrenching. It really is.

I know that God will not abandon His church and that He and His most precious Mother will renew it. I wonder where it will come from – how will it happen? For these questions there doesn’t seem to be an answer so all we can do is beg, trust and pray.

I ask you to please pray for me – this has had a very depressing effect on me but MUCH, MUCH MORE importantly, please pray for our Church and that a true priest will come to Santa Fe.

I thank you for your kindness and patience in reading this.

     God bless you,

     M.J.N.