Then topaz is a brilliant gold, the most sparkling of all, signifying the contemplative life. Chrysoprasus – it’s Greek, obviously, chruso is gold. Chrusos; Chrysostom was „golden mouth.‟ Saint John Chrysostom was the golden mouth, patron of preachers. Chrysoprasus is a green-gold color, representing the desire for Heaven. Topaz signifies the contemplative life because when caught in the sunlight, it out-dazzles all the other stones. Chrysoprasus, green-gold color, the desire of Heaven: the ardent desire for eternal life which follows contemplation. The desire to be dissolved in order to be with Christ, Philippians 1:23.

Jacinth, the eleventh stone, is red-gold colored, signifying the charity of contemplation. Finally, amethyst is colored violet, like a flower hidden and perfumed, representing the virtue of modesty.

„A slumber did my spirit seal. I had no human fears. She seemed a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force. She neither hears nor sees. Rolled round in Earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees.‟ Anybody know the poet? Wordsworth. Wordsworth is right, yes. Those are two of the Lucy Poems. Lucy was some lass that Wordsworth must have known. I don’t know the full story about Wordsworth, but he was one of the English romantic poets. Lucy was a lass he must have gotten to know up in the Lake District. The Lake District is a very beautiful corner of England, up in the northwest, just beneath the Scottish border. It’s full of tourists at the wrong time of year, but at that time, it was fairly empty. Coleridge also was up there writing poetry.

„Like violet ‚neath a mossy stone half-hidden from the eye, or like a star when only one is shining in the sky. She dwelt unknown and few could know when Lucy ceased to be. But now she’s in the grave and, oh, the difference to me.‟ „Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course.‟ What does that mean, „diurnal course,‟ Lester? And what happened to her? „A slumber did my spirit seal. I had no human fears. She seemed a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years.‟ It’s the last of the Lucy poems. „No motion has she now, no force. She neither hears nor sees. Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees.‟ Circular. She’s going back to dust. Not quite. She is doing that, but… a diet for worms, as Hamlet says. She’s feeding the worms. „Why nothing but to show that a king may go a process through the guts of a beggar.‟

Diurnal. Anybody? D-I-U-R-N-A-L. Well, we usually call an owl a nocturnal owl. So diurnal is the opposite of nocturnal. I’ve got an office which is called a diurnal because it’s from Lauds to Compline, without Matins. Matins is during the night; all the other hours are during the day, so it’s called a diurnal. „Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees.‟ What do you think that means then? He’s not strictly right, but… „Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course.‟ Surely. „No motion has she now, no force. She neither hears nor sees. Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course.‟ So she’s six feet under, not only pushing up daisies but also spinning with the rotation of the earth once a day. „Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees.‟ That’s William Wordsworth, W-O-R-D-S-W-O-R-T-H. He was born in 1770 and died in 1850. Just before the French Revolution, he went over to France and was all excited about the revolution. He really believed in it. „Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven.‟ But then he wised up. As he grew up, he realized that the French Revolution wasn’t such a good thing. His later poetry is nothing like as famous as his earlier poetry. I don’t think practically anybody reads what he wrote later. He became a very sort of respectable and stodgy gentleman.

He had a disciple who became a very famous Catholic priest. Anybody? A convert who became a famous Catholic priest. Very famous. So famous none of you know him. About that time. Jenkins? Faber. Father Faber. Father Faber began life as a poet. That’s what Charles Coulombe calls the two sides of romanticism. Romanticism has an upside and a downside. The upside is that it’s reopening towards something more than just reason; it’s opening up to something transcendent. The downside of romanticism is that while there’s an opening for God, and so the disciple of the romantic poet goes all the way and becomes a Catholic priest, the downside is also just feelings and selfishness – „my self, my feelings.‟ And the descendant of romanticism in that sense is rock and roll. So romanticism is a two-edged sword. It can go towards God, or it can go away from God. Both things. It’s ambiguous.

Then, verse 21: „And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, one to each, and every several gate was of one several pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were, transparent glass.‟

So all twelve apostles had all of these twelve virtues, but each of them had one in particular. Every several gate, each of the several gates was of one several pearl, had one particular of the many pearls. For instance, which apostle was faith? Peter, yes. Peter’s faith, and so on. So the twelve gates were of all stones; all the stones were in all the gates, but each gate had one particular pearl. Each apostle had one particular virtue.

The sapphires import, because he was wrapped up to the third heaven. Chalcedony is Saint Andrew because of his passion. Emerald, virginity, Saint John. Onyx, humility, Saint Philip. Sardius, Saint James, the first martyr, patience. Chrysolite, apostolic activity, Bartholomew, because of his eloquence. Beryl, works of mercy, Saint Thomas. Topaz, Saint Matthew, the contemplative life. Chrysoprasus, desire of heavens, Saint Jude. Hyacinth, Saint Simon, charity of contemplation. Amethyst, Saint Matthias.

The place of the city, the street of the city, is the mass of the lesser saints and the less elect. They are gold because of their charity and like transparent glass because there’s no more self-love or duplicity. No more guile or self-love, selfishness or guile.

Is the human intellect natural or supernatural? The human intellect belongs to our nature; it’s therefore natural. If you put the beatific vision directly into a human intellect, what happens? All the fuses blow. The poor little human intellect simply can’t take it. The overflow of light, the voltage is so high that the fuses simply blow. So, you need to plug an adapter into the human intellect, which will then be able to take the beatific vision. And that adapter is the Lumen Gloriae. The Lumen Gloriae then enables you to take the beatific vision because the beatific vision is a vision of God Himself. But there has to be something between the human intellect and God Himself for the human intellect to be able to see God, and that is the Lumen Gloriae, the Light of Glory. So God Himself will be the light of the intellect. „The glory of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.‟ And the brilliant Christ will eclipse the sun, even if it were seven times brighter. Isaiah 30:26. Find that quotation. „And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of his people, and shall heal the stroke of their wound.‟ So, Christ will eclipse the sun, being even seven times brighter. Isaiah 30:26. The brilliance of Christ’s risen humanity in heaven.

Therefore, here you have the nations shall walk in the light of it, in the light of the humanity of Christ. After walking in the relative darkness of faith in this life, Catholics will be walking in heaven as in daylight, in the daylight of Christ’s humanity. „The kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honour into it.‟ The kings are the church leaders who will seek and procure only the glory of God. They will no longer be looking for their own glory from everything they’ve done for the church. They will only be looking for the glory of the heavenly city. So the peoples, the masses, will be walking as in daylight, and the leaders will be seeking only the glory of God.

Verse 25: „And the gates thereof shall not be shut by day: for there shall be no night there.‟ In heaven, there’s no need to shut gates. What do you think that means? Portugal? Against whom? Against heretics, thieves, freethinkers. The Church is defending primarily against heretics. And where do you see in the Church this idea of shutting out, an idea lost with Vatican II? The true Church definitely has an idea of shutting out. Anybody? The porters. Yes, you see it there. They’re bouncers. If you read the Latin, it calls them bouncers. They really bounce out of the church all those who don’t belong there. It’s true. Read the Latin. Then where else? Peter’s keys. The keys of Peter to lock the door: „What you bind will be bound, what you loose will be loosened.‟ „You will shut and nobody will open, you will open and nobody will shut.‟ Where is that? That’s in the Advent antiphons, isn’t it? O Clavis, surely. And where is that from? Does anybody remember? Is it Isaiah? I can’t remember the original quotation on which that antiphon is based. All antiphons are soaked in scripture. Isaiah 22:22. „And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.‟ Exactly, Isaiah 22:22. Well done. That’s it, on which that Advent antiphon is built.

Here in heaven, there’s no need for that. So, there are no thieves, heretics, or freethinkers. They’re all in hell. There’s no night even. There’ll be no sleeping, no alarm clocks, no thirteen pings. It’s gone up. Who put it up one or two? Used to be at twelve, then I think eleven, and now it’s thirteen. Who else counts them? Does somebody count them every morning? No night. The humanity of Christ is a steady flood of light, 24 hours a day. That was a punishment at Waco; they kept blazing lights on them right through the night. And then also, anybody? It’s a punishment only the 20th century could dream of. What else did they do to the poor people in Waco? Finally, of course, they burnt and shot and killed them. It sounds appalling. But before then, Hoffman? They played rock music right through the night. Poor devils must have gone crazy. Blasting rock music and blazing light. That’s not exactly heaven. But here in heaven, the 24-hours-a-day light is, of course, glory rather than suffering, obviously. „There will be no night there.‟

Verse 26: „And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.‟ The glory and honor of the nations is the elect, virtuous, and upright. „For our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity of heart and sincerity of God, and not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conversed in this world: and more abundantly towards you.‟ The elect, virtuous, and upright. The glory and honor of any nation, if you stop and think about it, is its Catholics. Especially its consecrated souls in any nation.

Verse 27: „There shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb.‟ The defiled is sins of the heart. There will be no sins of the heart. „Or that worketh abomination‟: sins of action. „Lie‟: sins of word. All of these will be inexorably barred entry. All sin of thought, deed, or word will be ruthlessly excluded. Any questions on chapter 21? A very beautiful vision of heaven, a description of heaven.

Chapter 22: „And he shewed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them. And they shall reign for ever and ever.‟

He showed me a river. The river is divine grace, peace, joy, life, love, coming out of God. That is to say, the Holy Ghost proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, the Father and the Son. So the river is like the Holy Ghost, divine grace appropriated to the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Clear as crystal, both firm and transparently pure like crystal.

But it’s foolish; it’s materialistic. They grab hold of: either there’s water and there’s baptism, or there’s no water and there’s no baptism. It’s simple, it’s clear, and it’s dumb. A lot of things that are simple and clear are dumb. Doctrines, you can’t exaggerate. And Father Feeney, by exaggerating like that, gave Rome all they needed to destroy him, even if it was the liberals in Rome that were behind the condemnation. But the condemnation is actually Catholic doctrine. It’s a shame because he was right in so many ways.

Jenkins? If he never did come, then I’m not too sure about it. I mean, I suppose you could say he came because of The From the Housetops articles, right? By reading between the lines. Well, don’t trust what you read in The From the Housetops. They’re saying that he didn’t show up for that one. Well, that may be, but in Denzinger-Schönmetzer, you’ve got the text of his condemnation, which is doctrinal. And it’s not just because he didn’t show up; it’s because he made an error of doctrine. He was in error in doctrine. You can’t do that.

The great advantage of Archbishop Lefebvre was that he never slipped up in doctrine. You can listen now at lunchtime; they’re trying to trip him up. They tried to trip him up. They went through all his works with a fine-tooth comb. Suddenly, Rome dug out all their old manuals of theology, which, of course, they’d all thrown away because of Vatican II. But suddenly, to condemn the Archbishop, they dug them all out. They went through them with a fine-tooth comb, and suddenly they all remembered their theology for the purpose of condemning the Archbishop, just for a few moments. But they couldn’t find anything. He knew his theology, and he never departed from theology. That was his great strength. And it was Father Feeney’s fatal weakness to depart from Catholic teaching.

The result is now that the Feeneyites are making a nuisance of themselves in many of our chapels and churches. They’re a darn nuisance. Because sub specie boni, under the appearance of good, under the appearance of being strong anti-liberals, here they come and say, „Outside the Church, there’s no salvation! And the Society of Saint Pius X, you don’t believe it, we do! We are Catholics, and you’re liberals!‟ I mean, come on. But it looks simple. It’s simple, you know? No water, no baptism; no Church, no salvation. It’s materialistic. It’s making the boundary between the Church and the non-church purely materialistic: water. Yes, our Lord attached salvation to water, yes, He did, but not exclusively so that He never allowed Himself an exception. That’s foolishness. It’s common sense that there could be exceptions in the normal run of life. God is not tied to His own sacraments. Well, He is tied to them, but not in such a way that He cannot allow Himself any exceptions. That’s foolishness.

But the Feeneyites are foolish, and they’re a nuisance because they seem to have very Catholic principles, and they’re „more Catholic than the Catholics.‟ That’s the typical story of exaggerating in the opposite direction. If you can’t get somebody, you knock him over once, you knock him over again, he comes back up. You knock him over a third time; well, now he’s getting wise, so he leans over so that when the devil comes, he won’t go. What does the devil do? He goes around the back, boom. It’s dead easy. So, people that are so strong against the liberals, you just come around the back and make them exaggerate in anti-liberalism, and they fall into the opposite error.

Funnily enough, opposite errors have a way of rejoining themselves, which is why the Feeneyites team up again with liberals. Anybody? What kind of liberals are Feeneyites liable to team up with? Masons. Yes. Who are? More obviously, if they’re not Masons, most of them are, at least… Americanists. And Americanism is, of course, liberalism again. And so these Feeneyites, who were so strong against liberalism, are back into Americanism. Those errors meet up. If you push too far away from one error, you’ll come back to it through the back door. It’s funny, but that’s how it is; it’s how it happens.

So the truth is a balance. The truth is not discovered by dividing the distance between two errors and affecting exactly the halfway point. The truth is not „middlest,‟ so to speak. But the truth is often in the middle of two errors: an error of excess and an error of defect. You don’t find the truth by measuring off between the excess and the defect. But there will often be, just like against obedience, most people sin by disobedience. That’s a defect of obedience. The excess is false obedience or exaggerated obedience. And sure enough, with exaggerated obedience – „the Pope, the Pope, the Pope‟ – you fall into disobedience. You disobey the whole Catholic Church by following modernism in the name of exaggerated obedience. Exaggerated obedience and disobedience join hands again because they’re both from the devil.

So the devil gets you, as the old song says, „If the left hand doesn’t get you…‟ Schmid, could you sing it for us? „If the left hand doesn’t get you, then the right hand will.‟ Right? Or the opposite. „If the right hand doesn’t get you, then the left hand will.‟ Yes. Okay. What song is that from? „Sixteen Tons,‟ „I owe my soul to the company store.‟