The wind cuts a stinging cold but I only know because I see the moms and dads bundle their children up as they scurry from house to house. The laughter and the voices sound like echoes against a backdrop of scrunching leaves, barking dogs, and opening and shutting of doors. I know this night well. This is the night when the darkness most shrouds the light. It is the eve of all hallows and there is scarcely a soul about even thinking about the outer world. Children dressed as wizards and witches are only concerned with amassing their haul of treats while parents are torn between the excitement in the child’s eyes and the rush to get this operation over so they can get out of the cold. They scurry past me as if I don’t even exist. The loneliness overwhelms me. They don’t even look at me. There isn’t so much as a hello as I retrace my steps among these shadows, trying to get back home. The children never knew me but the adults do…well…at least they did. That was long ago before they had kids, soccer games, PTA meetings, and careers. They do not even know they are slaves. They work 60 hours a week to pay for the 10 hours a week they give to everyone else- the team, the band, the dance classes. They go to therapy sometimes, unable to grasp that they have created their own whirlwinds. I still can’t get used to a house on that hill. That was my hill. We rolled down in the fall, crashing into leaves, and rode down it on our bikes. In the winter, we raced down it in toboggans and sleds. We never thought of anything else. None of them recognize me. Even the hill mocks me with derisive silence. The sun has long since hid behind the mountain and what remains of it’s light casts only fading shadows. A man burning leaves puts just enough glow on the sidewalk that I can trace my way. Another gaggle of rushing children and chasing parents approaches and passes.  In days of old, the saints trod solemnly on this night. Transfixed in prayer, they thought of the holy ones that had gone before. They pondered the price they paid, the isolation they felt, the temptations to despair that they surely endured. I was foolish in my past days. I gave no audience to thoughts such as these. I only thought about the sun of the day and the laughter of the night. Sun and laughter, laughter and sun, lavishly indulged with the company of friends. They have all abandoned me now and I have no company down this lonely road. A young lad just bashed right into me and kept bolting forward as if nothing had occurred. I have no defense before you, Mighty one. You give, You take away and I, a mere worm, must accept your sentence and walk on. How I wish I could hear words of comfort from You but in your justice, You remain silent because in isolation shall I reach you. It is with my silence towards You that I walked so many of my former days, trying to stay my own conscience so I could follow my own will. I acted like You don’t even matter. Now, nothing matters and no one matters but You. Yet, you hold me here in this dark and misty place where many see You dimly while others don’t even look for you. I remember how the ones I loved gave me warmth of spirit. I thought our love would last forever. I thought we could overcome anything together. I walked these very streets with them. Now I walk them alone. They have almost all moved on. They have new lives. They never call on me and I no longer even know how to call on them. Even those who live close by do not even give me thought. Why am I telling you this? It’s not as if you are listening. I’m walking down the sidewalk talking to myself. Retracing thousands of steps through season after season. In the burning sun of summer and the biting wind, rain, and snow of winter. It never changes. The warmth of your fireplace doesn’t bring any warmth to your heart. You leave me here to myself, forsaken. I wonder if anyone believes in angels anymore. You believe in devils but only as playmates. The last shall be first and the first shall be last, said He. He who exalts himself shall be humbled, said He again. Why didn’t I listen? Now, humiliation is my portion, and regret and loneliness are my constant companions. I can do nothing to free myself. I can do nothing to help myself. I can only wait and hope that you will even give me a thought, a memory, a prayer on my behalf. I did not intend to come to this place. I did not plan on it. You remember how things were, don’t you? You remember the trips we went on? The walks in the park? Now, do I even enter your thoughts that you might help me by a prayer or do you not even know or care about my pain? It’s now after midnight. This is the greatest pain of all. I know how you have lost your faith. You don’t even hear them - the angels that surround us, the cloud of witnesses that envelop us. You thought me crazy when I mentioned them. Even now, you think nothing of them, that they might help save you and deliver me. I know they are here. I don’t care what you say. Mock me if you will, ignore me just the same. Another day of All Saints dawns forgotten by so many but not by me. One day, I will join you. One day, my lonely journey will end and God will deliver me from this place of tears. I didn’t mean for things to go the way they did but that doesn’t mean you should have just forgotten about me. You once loved me and I love you still. You can’t hear me. You act like I don’t even exist. You stopped believing. You even stopped pretending to believe. They put me in the cold ground and you walked away. ~ John Benko

Here is the list of anyone who is willing to pray one Hail Mary every day for those on this list. If there are 100 people here they are all praying for you and you are praying for them. It isn't necessary to read every name or say 100 Hail Marys. James Dobbins Please pray for my wife, Mary Beth, who begins treatment this coming week for breast cancer. Fr. Jonathan Atchley In thanksgiving for all God's blessings. Ed Graveline I have ALS and appreciate all the prayers Kathleen Kachel For my children, Holy souls in purgatory, and the success of CatholicismRocks Michael O'Toole His family William Hemsworth For the apostolate and everyone involved. Cynthia Matthews Please pray for healing for my children, especially my son with cancer. Please pray for the return of my family members who are no longer practicing Catholics. Bill and Fran Reddy for our children, grandchildren, extended family, all priests and religious, holy souls in purgatory & peace in the world Kim Fasser I will include everyone involved in Catholicism Rocks in my daily rosary!

In the barbaric lands of Lithuania, when many people believed in magic and the people’s faith rested in false gods, a Sorcerer, so powerful he could only be a god in human form, came and was worshipped by these vile, superstitious people. Our Lady was in tears over the horrible, demonic, sacrifices being performed and the poor innocent babies being burned in honor of this psycho. When she could no longer bear the evil of it all, she appeared, to a devout Polish knight who would serve her purpose.      “Young Knight, you who are loyal to the one, true God; you who lives a morally good life of sacrifice and prayer; go to the lands of Lithuania and set right those people’s lives. There is one there who sold his soul for power and will soon lead Lithuania to hell. Convert them and destroy the vile low-life who dares set himself above God. Go now and defend His holy Name.”        A young man in armor set out that day for a pagan land with a sword at his side and Our Lord in his heart. He had been clopping along at a quick pace when a funnel cloud, undoubtedly the Sorcerer’s handiwork, appeared before him, the few clouds merging together to form a column of lightning and pure darkness. He dismounted and began to pray feverishly to any saint who would listen and recite every prayer he had ever heard. It was gaining fast and soon enveloped him.  He knew the end was coming but still had faith in God. He could hear the wind howling around him but amazingly he was still unhurt as though it had passed around him. The screams of rage and confusion that pierced his ears showed him something. His foe was afraid of him: him: a complete nobody. This realization struck him like a punch to the face and it filled him with unfamiliar feelings; faith and confidence. He felt as though he could triumph over any evil. But this feeling was temporary. Eventually, the storm wore itself out and the Sorcerer’s shouted curses were barely audible in the dying wind. He crossed over the border into Lithuania and was almost immediately confronted by the enemy horde. Again he prayed and again he was invincible. When they saw they could not harm him they escorted him to their master who had changed to the form of a dragon, the form of his soul. He blew an experimental flame that would have melted his armor to a lump of iron. He rushed forward and drew his sword from its scabbard only to have it glance off the scales in a shower of sparks.      Suddenly the monster spoke in a cruel, booming voice, ” Your weapon cannot harm me. No weapon in existence can pierce my skin. It is six inches thick and strong as diamond.” All the while that he spoke the Knight was wrapping a crucifix on a chain around and around the cross guard of his sword. With a mighty cry of “Who is like unto God!?”, he thrust his sword into the dragon’s rotten heart and twisted it violently. The dragon had never known such pain in his life. He began to glow and chains sprouted out of him where the Knight had stabbed. They enclosed on him and with a blinding flash of searing light a cross appeared, burnt into the ground and the Sorcerer’s bones rested in the middle, as though God were mocking him. He wanted to be like God and he was in the worst way possible. He was crucified. That night was Hallow’s Eve. The day when hundreds of people would have been satanically sacrificed but the young Pole was able to prevent that.                                                                                                                                                     -Jonah DiShanni         Age:13

Please Join us for a Public Rosary Rally for Fatima Help us pray about these important issues and send our intentions to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Join us at NOON on Saturday the 21st of May We meet at the War memorial on the corner of 7th and Forrest Avenues in Victorville, California

Join us for a Public Rosary in support of Traditional marriage and Pro Life. Help us pray about these important issues and send our intentions to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Saturday, March 19th 2022 in Victorville, California on the corner of 7th Street and Forrest Avenue in front of the War Memorial at NOON