by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
On this Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, there is no better meditation than what he himself insists on reminding us: “No one is like unto God!”
But since we live in an age of total mendacity, the meaning of the name of Michael is hard for most people to understand. So I will explain it by talking about the opposite: the signs that you are already Damned, that is, “what is like unto Hell”?
Damnation is a spiritual state of total divorce from God. It can only be entered into by a free choice: and alas, Adam made that bad choice for all of us. That is why we are “conceived in sin” that is, that at the moment God creates our soul we are deprived of the sanctifying grace that would have been ours if Adam had remained faithful.
God punishes Adam by taking away that conception-right, but God is Good so He does not prevent the creation of new souls.
Thus, we are born in and under the power of Satan and are his possessions from conception.
And for that reason, if a child is not baptized and is not told about the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, damnation is the inevitable fate and destiny.
But for baptized Christians, you can still end up damned, because God’s grace does not take away your liberty to sin. And even before a soul is damned in Hell by God judging it worthy of that which it desired: the absence of God; so a soul becomes damned spiritually, by a certain sort of absolute and total blindness.
The first sign of this state of damnation is that there is no place for truth in your mind.
The second, is that there is no place for truth in your life or work.
The third, is that there is no place for truth in your desires and dreams.
These are the principal signs of the spiritual state of damnation. As you can see it is a lot more fundamental than “being an atheist”. Atheists are not the only ones damned, there is a good number of Christians, Catholics, religious, priests, bishops, Cardinals and Popes who are damned.
Indeed, Saint Alphonsus dei Liguori says, “I presume that every Pope and Bishop who is not a saint, was damned”.
And Saint Augustine says that the vast majority of even Christians, who were sanctified in Baptism and the other Sacraments and had all the blessings which Christ offered, are damned.
And these two Saints are not “scaring” us, with a technique to teach a lesson, because Christ Jesus Himself said that “the way to salvation is narrow and crooked, and few are they who find it.”
We can add that there are also signs that the “Catholic Media” you read is published by someone who has all the signs of being already damned, because the most crucial truths, for example: about who is and who is not the pope, are for these publishers a game to play on you, a joke to make them laugh, a name to call you, and a bothersome topic which “fringe” and “unreliable” “blogs” like FromRome.Info keep insisting to talk about “to get attention”, as the wannabe denizens-of-hell like to say, so often.
Finally, the persistent rock-hard and solid consistent obstinacy of a person or publisher in such a spiritual state is a clear and sure sign of that they were predestined to be damned from all eternity and that they never were intended by God to be among His elect. Contrary to may ignorant Catholics, predestination is a thing.
Unlike Calvinists, who believe God predestines both the good to eternal life and the wicked to eternal damnation, before consideration of their merits; the Catholic Saints teach that God predestines the Elect to eternal life because He chooses to love them from Eternity, and gives the graces to merit it before He even considers what they will do in life; but predestines the Damned to eternal death on account of His foresight of what they would do in life, and not because He hates them.
Saint Michael the Archangel wants to save souls. And we can say, from our point of view, since we do not see God face-to-face as Saint Michael does, that he wants to save as many souls as possible; even though from his point of view, he already knows which of us are of the Elect and which are predestined to be eternally damned.
For that reason, I have written this bitter meditation, hoping against hope, as it were, to save at least some, since for 7 years I have been railing against all those liars and grifters who concealed and deceived the faithful about Pope Benedict XVI, saying he abdicated when he did not; all of whom now say that Leo XIV is the pope, regardless of whether he was legally elected or not. I hope against hope that they repent, before the wrath of God overtakes them, but in the mean time, I hope this salty slap in the face might detach at least some poor souls who have been deceived by them, and snap them back into spiritual reality.
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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
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I agree with you BrB..What was MortalSin in my generation, especially sins of the flesh, like adultery, fornication, lust, gluttony, pride, covetousness, envy, and anger and sloth…are never mentioned from the pulpit, or in Confession. Therefore the Priests and nuns who should know better , don’t teach The Faith anymore. Hell was abandoned during V2vby the mantra, “A Good God would never send anyone to Hell. ” No, He wouldn’t. That’s why He came to show ushow to defeat the Devils..Keep the Commandments.
Some of us are moved, deep inside (“dans leur for intérieur” in French), by the Truth and this, for their very early childhood. They cannot lie to themselves.They can practice auto-analyse while obeserving the others. Those children are those, who often are alone in the schoolyards. And moked, of course. But at the adult time, they recognize themselves, between pairs. Without saying a word, sometimes. I remember the walks against pass and “shots-scheme” in my city every saturday. The vibrations were very high, the hearts very warm. The silence was a deep experience of true and profound communion.
Maybe those ones, are lightly damned. Hopefully.
Happy St Michaelmas! Just finished a 40 day Lenten journey as it were to St Michael. May he protect and guide all God’s Holy people! St Francis Pray for us! St Michael pray for us!
“Contrary to may ignorant Catholics, predestination is a thing”
sorry brother, i may be one of those catholics because i was taught to believe we had free will and “destiny” was a heresy to us. can you tell me where the church teaches this please because i have learned so much from your articles already.
God bless.
Read, Garragou La Grange, “On Predestination”.
https://archive.org/details/garrigou-lagrange-predestination-the-meaning-of-predestination-in-scripture-and-the-church_202405
The Catholic notion of predestination does NOT mean that we are not free and do not have liberty. Because how God sees all things is not how we perceive ourselves. Like a man on top of a high mountain, who can see where all roads lead, and who thus knows where all travelers will end up, so God foreknows all things and persons, and from before the foundation of the world has chosen to love some of them, and has made no decision regarding the others, but Has decided beforehand, than in the End, He will judge every man according to his conduct.
What spooks most Catholics about the doctrine of Predestination, is that they cannot handle the fact that God foreknows all things. Even Saint Alphonsus dei Liguori was terrorized by this doctrine, fearing he was not of the elect.
This is because, if you have a clear knowledge of how apt you are to sin and how apt you are to be false even with yourself, you should conceive a tremendous fear of sin and regret for having offended the Divine Majesty: and if you do and make such a mindset the reason for being more faithful to God to make up for past infidelities, then you are acting with wisdom, which comes from the love of God. But if you take lightly your past offenses and do not turn away from your evil desires and goals, then the doctrine of predestination appears to be a horror and wicked souls blame God for their fate, since they refuse to recognize they are on the wrong road and project their decision not to see the truth of themselves onto God, Who sees all.
We must remember that God is NEVER obliged to give grace. And thus, if we chose to commit any sin deliberately, we have 0% guarantee that God will bring us back by grace.
Catholics who believe these truths don’t waste their lives in a career or single, but join religious orders and monasteries and do penances for the rest of their lives, or if they are married, begin living like monks, knowing that our greatest enemy is presuming we are of the Elect, when in truth, no man knows, beforehand, whether he will be saved or damned.
So in short, a sound spirituality and my advice is this: don’t worry whether you are of the damned or of the elect, WORRY RATHER WHETHER YOU ARE SERVING GOD OR YOUR OWN DESIRES. Because in that discernment one knows the truth of oneself, and is urged to be ever more faithful to God, as Saint Paul teaches, “working out our salvation with fear and trembling”.
Fanatastic commentary Brother!
Excellent meditation. Thank you for the link to Garrigou Lagrange on Predistination:
“The chiaroscuro effects of this sublime doctrine are incomparably greater than those we admire in the works of the greatest artists.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/slovakia-amends-constitution-to-ban-surrogacy-and-homosexual-adoption-recognize-only-two-sexes/?utm_source=digest-world-2025-09-29&utm_medium=email
Brother Alex,
Please read. Thank you.
Thanks. It seems like the PM and President both have Italian surnames. How is this possible in Slovakia?
https://crc-internet.org/our-doctrine/catholic-counter-reformation/the-whole-truth-about-fatima-volume-2/1-6-the-great-promise-of-the-immaculate-heart-of-mary-at-pontevedra-1925-1926.html
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart… …the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
A frightening and salutary commentary, akin to Catholics should meditate on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, heaven, hell.