Pale Horse

We are not here standing on some ancient mystical ground once marched on by Constantine, or trampled by Crusaders and Pilgrims. We are the lowly laymen in the most recently settled region of the most recently discovered new world. We are the final corner of the Earth; the far West, guarded by the Archangel Gabriel; where the Word, the Way, the Truth, and the Life has reached. We, the youngest creatures. The bones of our first enemies lay below us just 150 years old. A people our grandfathers remember - when Lake Celilo was a run of cascades and falls.

Built on top of a Kalapuya burial ground, we are the bone collectors of Willamette Valley. When king-chautsh first arrived on these shores, no shots were fired. No cannons burst against the cliffs. The battle began unintentionally, and our weapons were silent. Only the groaning of the infected, and the howls of the Pacific breeze blowing through their empty villages were heard.

And it was our Sisters of Providence with devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows who watched over the sick. And it was our great-grandfathers: fur trappers, loggers, mariners, and trail blazers who buried the dead. And now their grandsons walk old covered wagon ruts in the alkali dust picking up shell beads and obsidian arrowheads. Life and death.

The Lord grants a Pale Horse when a people are weak. And then the people will shelter in, stress over things, think of their failures, remember death, consider God, work with what they have, and then eventually reach out with some kind of treatment. Healing and burying. We are the sword of Saint Peter, slicing and dissecting. The Grail revives, restores, and reconciles. We train to shoot the heart out of a man until he’s no longer a deadly threat. But as soon as he falls, life-saving procedures begin. The Lord takes away, and the Lord gives.

It was not long ago, but people forget. We came to these cliffs on white sails by light of a waning moon - a pale replica of the sun behind billows of saltwater fog; our name was Death. And we brought life.
We prayed for a plague. Now go to your room. Think about what you’ve done.

Eques Obscura

This region, once shared by tribes of Atfalati hunters & gatherers, wapato farmers, and Gothic missionaries; the sister-land of Merlin’s band of warrior-druids - all who wander from out of state hang their heads and express the excessive gloom of grey and weepy skies, our expansive forests and dark, antagonizing woods and wetlands. In the middle of this black forest-swamp where the ghosts of the Pacific graze; in with the morning fog and out with the evening chimney smoke, are the white robed monks living off the land.

Just as we press and pull for reps until failure, so too do we sing, pray and recite the Psalms. We thumb through Saint Michael beads calling on Lordships, purifying, illuminating, perfecting - until failure.
You will fail, and you will die. We’ve found irony and patheticism outside our boundaries. One doesn’t have to travel far to reach the city which boasts the most brothels and breweries per-capita, one of the highest suicide rates, and a drug traffic boom. This is the place where the last Wild-West outlaw was gunned down following a brutal jail-break. Not over Texas beef. Not on the Wyoming plains. Not at a California gold mine. No movie or song was written about it. But it happened right here. We know that to be good cops, we must be good outlaws. And now Saint Michael, with grim armed men - faces set like flint, have this place surrounded again.

In everything there is a trinity that shows how the most fundamental elements are related, and a crux where it all comes together to Truth. It’s no wonder why the Holy Grail becomes the relic and symbol for men of orthodox faith and courageous action. Life and death, friction; it is the blow Macbeth was to deliver in his plot to assassinate the Scottish King and take the throne - the be-all-end-all. It is the Truth God transmitted to man in action: receiving the blood of God, giving our blood for God; love, birth, the Mass, blood martyrdom, dying in battle - life and death - the friction we live; this straight and narrow path. Macbeth would press and pull to failure. You will fail, and you will die.

According to Squarespace statistics, this stupid little blurb will get anywhere from 700-1500 views in the next 20 days.
Of, for, and to those off the path, we say nothing. We will not speak. We will not write. We will not publish criticisms or corrections or argue that this is the way. Scripture states that for everything there is a season. The time to refrain from embracing is upon us once again. The time for hate and war draws more near. The time for evangelization has long since been over. It warms our hearts to hear the Devil tell the truth, and with poise we watch dead men as he leads them off trail. We are the silent monks of the Chahalem, the ghosts of the Pacific. We owe scoffers and skeptics no debate, and we give them none. Men did not invent the Truth, it’s artifacts nor the way to them. We are the eques obscura - the dark knights of our Sherwood Forest. The Cross and Chi-Rho our holy runes - we aren't the architect. We come together at the crux of the sword and banner where the chalice and skull lie together - life and death. We are the sons of vim and vigor and this is our colosseum. We are the dead collectors, and this is our graveyard.

Get the Grail.

Digna

Lancelot and the Hermit

Required reading: Mat. 7:6, Eph. 5:11-13, I Pet. 2:9-12, I Mac. 2:15-27

In the culture of now equality is esteemed a divine edict. It is almost thought of as a settlement or legal declaration, though a man is born disparaged, the great judge (called secular humanism) has decreed that his fellowmen must spend their substance and the very thread of their souls to ensure that the lowliest sluggard prevails to the status of ease and fortune. Those who demonstrate exception and charisma are gradually becoming forbidden. The stammering fool whose very fame flies in the face of everything that is right, just, and orderly is the standard by which the next generation judges themselves, while the last holdouts of societal institution and establishment are profaned and mocked. We know this to be contrary to the will of the true God, as expressed by his saints and apostles, the holy angels, and the scriptures.

From the murder of Abel, man has strove against the divine order, substituting his own means in a desperate and futile attempt to level the field. Jealousy is always the product of inequality. Jealousy is very abundant in the world. The presence of inequality is, ergo, immutable. Some men are shepherds, and some are farmers. Some men are champions, and some are serfs. Some men are rulers, and others serve. This is the way of God, for we are all his servants. Enoch and Elijah received special escorts from the realm of mortality. God revealed himself to Abraham but not to the other Chaldeans. Moses was elevated to a position over the people in the wilderness. God did not speak with other men, but only with Moses. Aaron was the servant of Moses, but still elevated over the people. We will not waste time listing more examples which we already know.

Yet there are those even under our flag which continue to stiffen their necks against the divine order. These are vile and base men - vagabond crusaders, without lord and only a law unto themselves, marauding from village to village, terrorizing, raping and spoiling the innocent with their own philosophies, doctrines and justifications. Having nothing in their bellies but death, they spew putrid bile through open sepulchers. Without right or honor, they march beneath the cross profanely, taking his holy name in vain with nearly every breath. These dogs have done everything in their power to cause the enemies of Our Lord to blaspheme, putting evil for good and good for evil; light for dark and dark for light.

We are aware of their audacious ignorance. We have our code of honor, irrespective of their social diseases. They will take every occasion to draw us out into the public eye, but we must not stoop to their low estates. We will not acknowledge these barking dogs by scolding their jaunts. We will not pleasure these slovenly mongrels by entertaining their sport. The filthy blood of the base unregenerate is unworthy of our steel. We will not answer these fools according to their follies: for we are no vagabond, peasant crusaders. We have our lords and we serve them well. We are bound by a code and a common bond, and we will slay every adversary whether they wave the flag of our enemies or profanely desecrate the cross of Christ. It makes no difference to us. Forsaking all others, we will remain faithful to the code. Sharing in bonds, we are desirous only of the admiration of The Brotherhood. We seek honor only among the Royal Priesthood. We have our directives. We will accomplish the objective.

So we come boldly, worthily, with our faces set set like flints, overlooking the feted hordes as they scream for explanation. We ride into ungrateful and raging throngs, soaked in the blood of our enemies and brethren, on limping destriers, with taut lips and swollen eyes, refusing to let them see a single tear. We dismount behind dark, quiet walls, seeking no glory for ourselves, and only the approval of other knights, and seeking above all else to be alone and silent. We unbind our breastplates, wipe clean our blades, bind our wounds, light a candle and take up our chaplets in sobriety and silence. This is the way of honor. Whether fighting or confiding, we will only enjoin ourselves to those who are also worthy.

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The Blue Shepard
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Chivalry is not Dead

I was trotting around the south wall of the city in a stout eight year-old black Ford stallion completely decked out with the tools and weapons of my profession, sweating through my armor in the heat of a late Spring day. While on patrol I passed Saint Bridgid’s Church and prayed the Pater Noster making the sign of the cross from my forehead to my chest and from badge to name tag. It was several minutes after this that I spied a curly black haired man wanted for his unspeakable crimes against a beautiful young maiden just a fortnight ago.

He was sat at a bus stop in front of a busy store front along the avenue and kept his eyes on me as I passed him. I acted as though I had not noticed him so as to not alarm him and I took a right down the next street and pulled into the parking lot to my right behind the store building and dismounted. I notified my dispatcher and other officers in the area that I would be making contact with the suspect as I passed through the store and out its front door and around to the front of the bus stop.

I greeted the curly black haired man, but he replied discourteously. I asked him to identify himself but he refused, along with another insult. After a few more words he then issued a challenge to physical combat but I denied and I put the Code 3 call out. I explained to him that it would be inappropriate for me to accept his challenge, as he and I were not equal in status and that I am bound to a code of chivalry of which I’ve taken an oath to maintain. I said that he would have to do a lot more than cast insults to get me to fight him, a weaker fellow not equipped for a bout against a man at arms.

And with that, he sprung up quickly from the bench and charged at me with his fists held high. We exchanged blows briefly and my fist connected to his right eyebrow before I captured an arm and took him to the ground. He was subdued rather quickly and his wrists were bound. Moments later two fellow knights approached and the curly black haired man’s identity was confirmed along with the warrant for his arrest. He was treated for a laceration above his right eye on scene and then we were mounted and rolling with him as my prisoner.

The ride to jail was silent until we passed by St. Brigid’s again and I prayed the Pater Noster. The curly black haired offender asked what language I was speaking and I replied that it was that of the angels, saints, and those who are victorious in battle. He said nothing for a few minutes, but then apologized for his actions against me today, stating that it was nothing personal. I accepted his apology with joy and forgiveness, but told him that he would have to atone for his sins against the young maiden whom he had abused. And I told him that there will always be a man like me who will fight for a damsel so long as there is a man like him who will put her in a state of distress. He remained silent the rest of the ride and I could tell he was thinking hard about that.

Before me, my father served and was in the middled of the ‘92 Riots. His father left the force after five years to fight in a war and was killed in Vietnam. But my great-grandfather was here before that fighting gangsters and the Italian Mafia. And his father served during the Labor Wars and union strikes. Four years ago I accepted an award on behalf of my family for our 100 years of service to the City of Angels.
Honor, chivalry and knightly sacrifice still exist as they always have. The reason these attributes are not common today is because they are not meant for commoners, but for fighting men of faith and fortitude. I follow the 4 simple rules of the Brotherhood of the Angelic Crown because they make me focus on growth in faith and fortitude. As an officer of the law I consecrated myself to Saint Michael for his guidance, protection and healing, and I am honored to be a member of the Brotherhood of the Angelic Crown and to bring this devotion to my department and parish.

---

Officer A. Sampson, LAPD

Pray For Plagues

Truth and reality exist with or without our consent. The worldly mentality today is to put bandaids on mortal wounds, and take pills to cover up symptoms of disease. And it’s easier now than ever to avoid or even escape reality, at least for allotted periods of time.
Whether it’s emotional, physical, or spiritual pain, discomfort or stress, there are many cures by drink, bite, smoke, needle, or otherwise. And when hungover or having withdrawals there are supplements one can take to ease that suffering too.

Modern medicine enables, and technology provides as our new great escape. Today we might think of the early monastic hospitallers as those who cared for the sick and wounded. How pleasant. But if you asked them in their time, they would say that their orders are to bury the dead. And paths from the infirmary to the graveyard behind the chapel were well worn.

While on duty recently I responded to an opiate overdose in a public facility. When I arrived the man died in my arms, though his soul had not yet left his body. When EMT’s arrived shortly after that, epinephrine was administered. I heard later that the man was revived in the ambulance as it sped to a nearby hospital and that he was recovering. After a quick investigation I learned that this was the second time he had been robbed of death by overdose; cheated out of passing on by a shot of adrenaline that would bring his heart back to a tempo.

Death is not the enemy for us as Christians, but a friend promised to come, collect, and take us on a journey to meet God and our loved ones who have gone before us - the ultimate pilgrimage. But friend or enemy, death comes for us all. And he comes often in our labored breathing, panic, pain, weariness, shock, tunneled vision, and by some tragic event, act of violence, or disease. We don’t choose the when, where or how - death chooses us. Even in suicide the odds are now stacked against us, as approximately only one in fifty attempts are successful (according to one study - some say 1 in 200).

Death is a truth and reality that we should know much about at this point in our human evolution. But one day we’ll look back on these thoughts, feelings and things we’ve jotted down and we will laugh from our high places in the after-life. For death is the first primal reason that we as humans know that religion is a necessity. No games we play with science and medicine can snuff this out. We know. We know, but we play games. We know, and this why we long for an escape. 
Have you ever heard of anything more foolish?

And we know how and why this can and should be faced and dealt with, so there be no reason to go into details in this article. If you’re unsure, you have a lot of catching up to do. But I’ll just leave you with these questions to ponder and allow you to come to your own conclusions for now:

How are you doing at mastering your fear of death?
Have you feared for your life recently?
Have you been threatened with death and/or serious bodily harm in the past 90 days?
What avenues are you pursuing to train in courage, bravery and harnessing fear?
What steps are you taking to understand death and to accept your awaited passing?
Have you considered deeply all the ways in which you may meet your demise?
Are you putting yourself in situations where you must experience pain and endure hardship - physically, emotionally and spiritually?
When was the last time you worked your entire body to total failure?
When was the last time you scourged your back until bloody?
Have you completed your acts of penance this week?
Have you Memento Mori’d today?

“O my Jesus, I offer this chaplet to Your Divine Heart, that You may render it perfect, thus giving joy to Your Holy Angels, and so they may keep me under their holy protection, above all at the hour of my death to which I invite them with all my heart. Strengthened by their presence, I will await death with joy and be preserved from the assaults of hell. I beseech you also, dear Angels, to visit immediately the souls in Purgatory, especially [Name/my family/friends/benefactors]; help them so they will soon be delivered. Do not forget me either after my death. This I beg you with all my heart, through the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.”
- From the Chaplet of the Holy Angels

What our souls need today is another Black Plague.

Vengeance is Mine

On the one hand, there seems to generally be little reward for having sought and taken vengeance, at least on a personal level. Rarely is wealth, health or happiness really gained, and often more trouble, hurt and shame come from it. 

Everyone has been wronged, humiliated, injured and dishonored. So there’s an eternal thirst for vengeance in a man’s heart. Yet Christ knew that the strong man who is “without blame” is capable of trusting God for just recompense.

Examples in Scripture include dealing with assaults on a man’s honor (insults/slander), and how to behave toward an enemy when in the face of persecution.
In each of these cases the noble man is not foolish enough to fail. When insulted he pardons without escalation or further incident, for by repaying insult with insult he merely degrades himself to the footing of his offender, and this reflects poorly on his Lord, retinue and family (see 1 Peter 3:9). 

And if in a state of persecution, a senseless act of retaliation may cost him his life or wellbeing and those of innocent others. In this case he forfeits his chance at martyrdom and becomes a sucker, while bearing the responsibility for the suffering his actions caused others (see Romans 12:17-21).

In these examples we are given an explicit rule regarding vengeance - and for good reason and relief.

Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes is a battlefield of gray area where we are allowed to be tested in resilience, tact, brutality, proper combat and defense, justice and mercy.
After all, and on the other hand, the noble man does not live his life as the butt-end of every practical joke, nor tolerate insults at every turn; nor should he allow defamation to cost him and those in his care something that is necessary for survival or wellbeing. If a malicious rumor was to spread through his workplace and destroy his career, he does not just sit idle and hold his tongue. And he does not beg for his life or renounce his God even if it means he and all his men swing from the gallows at dawn tomorrow. The noble man does not go down without a fight.

“I cannot deny it, you have beaten me; but much it goes against my will. And yet you may be of such degree and fame that only credit will redound to me; and insistently I would request that I might know your name… If a better man has defeated me, I shall be glad, I promise you. But if it has so fallen out that a baser man than I has worsted me, then I must feel great grief indeed.”

- Chretien De Troyes, Erec and Enide

Shame has an important purpose, and the noble man knows when he has been bested and salutes his opponent gracefully. This lesson should be learned early on in life, before he reaches manhood. Fathers are needed to teach sons how to accept punishment and disgrace properly when they’ve done wrong. After being defeated in an intense and emotional sporting event where he played poorly, a boy must get in line with the rest of his team to congratulate and shake the hands of the winners. The best warrior is not so because he has won every battle or tournament.

But on this battlefield, if an incident would otherwise leave a grown man sniveling and blubbering like a child, depressed and worthless, then the noble man shall have his revenge.
“We’ll beat them on our field next month!” or “We’ll get ‘em next year!” shouts the Coach to his team whose heads are held low in defeat after having brought their school and town shame.

The noble man does not live in this constant state of defeat. He issues challenges to rematch, he seeks to regain his status and rank, and he takes opportunities to properly best worthy opponents for God, nation, parish, family and reputation. And like every soldier and athlete, he trains to do this with honor, proper skill, competence, endurance, understanding and respect for rules, and trust in God.

“Vengeance is mine” says the Lord. And the noble man strives to imitate him in all things.

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Brotherhood of the Angelic Crown

A Lenten Program For Life

“How I hate all the barbarians who imagine that they are wise because they no longer have a heart!”

— Friedrich Holderlin

Lenten asceticism for the Roman Catholic is akin to New Year’s resolutions for the herd. 

Folk will abandon yearlong addictions, cut out slothful and expect a regime of sudden constant prayer to allow them to coast through the six weeks of Lent with monastic ease. When they get a week in and find themselves gagging for the thing they abandoned the instinct is to relapse at first a little and then a lot and then just try and get to Good Friday as respectfully as possible without embarrassing themselves, or by extension, the Church.

Lent should not be a time of “at least trying” to be more like Christ; it is a mirror of the time Christ spent in the wilderness, 40 days and 40 nights testing his limits and coming face to face with Satan in a battle of wills that initiated his ministry. 

Cutting out chocolate or sweets for a few weeks hardly compares to Our Lord’s example.

Instead it would be better to compare ourselves to the ascetics of the early Church and the certainty with which they faced martyrdom; for the early Roman Christians who lived within the Empire, the faith was illegal, the idea of dying for (and with) Christ was not a far off threat, but a daily reality.

Our spiritual warfare is no different to theirs and in this current climate, saying the wrong thing, believing the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing etc. can land you in jail, or your livelihood snatched away. We are a hairs breadth in the Western world from the apostasy which will end with Bishops and priests hanged in the streets. We should remember that with every waking prayer for the Persecuted Church in the Middle East, those who live with these realities daily: beatings, rape, extortion, humiliation and martyrdom.

Cutting out chocolate or sweets for a few weeks hardly compares to our brother’s and sister’s example.

If we were to behave like the saints and soldiers of the Church throughout the ages we wouldn’t be binging on sugar and intoxicants and addictive substances for any physical or moral reason. Thomistic logic demands that we approach every decision with the forethought of creating the Kingdom of God upon the earth. Where do piles of sweet wrappers, empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, and the day to day whoredom of the media fit into this spiritual combat? 

The truth should be obvious to us.

1. Alcohol slows a good man down for days; if he is on a logical training regimen the presence of alcohol in his bloodstream (even if used as a lubricant for better fighting spirit) will slow his wits and dull his physical ability for at least 2-3 days and anecdotally for even longer. None of us should be accepting the presence of a substance in our lives which enforces a break in our physical training program.

2. Tobacco and other intoxicants which have an addictive or sedative affect will slow a man down for a measurable (and demonstrable) period of time and cause him to become sluggish (with or) without that substance.

3. Abstinence from sexual sin is a prerequisite for any Roman Catholic without the discussion of Lenten disciplines, but we must address the issue nonetheless. Pornography has a negative effect on testosterone production long term (even if the immediate stimulus causes a spike) and we all know the physical and moral effects of consuming pornography currently being explored throughout the “masculine movement”. All of this is clear even without approaching the religious dimension of watching or using pornography.

4. Habitual use of television, internet, social media, streaming services, gaming etc. all dull the senses and cause a slump in testosterone. Any dopamine heavy activity used consistently without thought for time constraints or negative effects will eventually become addictive.

It may be enough for us to look at these issues and say “OK for Lent I’m going to abstain from sex, stop drinking, stop binging on sugary carbs, start going running, cut out smoking and not watch TV”. Any moron will tell you this will not work for a 6 week period and within 3 days you’ll probably have elastically rebounded and find yourself slumped on the sofa with a beer in one hand, cock in the other, a fag hanging out of your mouth, contemplating the last slice of a large pizza whilst some whore gyrates on the flat screen at 2am. 

Interestingly the solution might be to add things to your daily life rather than abstain from them and to produce a healthy list of alternatives and adaptations rather than try to act like a Benedictine monk for 40 days.

With the Grail Quest manual we made sure we didn’t say to people “cut this out, abandon this, sever from this” etc. and instead chose to encourage additions not subtractions.

For the man seeking to push himself towards a greater usefulness in the combat it would be better to add a run or add a dietary consideration rather than to binge eat on Shrove Tuesday, fast all of Ash Wednesday and then plough towards Good Friday in 6 weeks with the mentality of a flagellant ascetic.

If we were to recommend things over Lent that will genuinely bring you closer to God and closer to the way which leads to holiness it will always be:

1. Confession

2. Mass

3. Rosary

From this launch pad of grace and genuine consideration for what God and the Virgin want you to achieve with your life we can then recommend cutting out alcohol, tobacco, gluttony, and criminal sloth from your day to day life. But without the necessary additions of grace and hope and peace you will inevitably fall and fail.

Cutting out chocolate or sweets for a few weeks hardly compares to Our Lord’s example.

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@FortressGrail