bill kassel

Anniversary of the "X Eclipse"...and the Story I Never Told

Today is the one year anniversary of the “X Eclipse” across the United States.  The X was formed actually, by 2 total eclipses of the sun, 7 years apart.  It crossed over a 9,000 square mile area, with the epicenter being near Carbondale, Illinois.  For our purposes, I will call the combination of the eclipses the “X Eclipse.”  Together they form a symbol, a marriage spanning time and space.

Nomen Christi Apostolate pioneered the “Eclipse Pilgrimage of Mercy,” which was promoted largely to traditional parishes, in all 50 states.  Bill Kassel, with an EWTN affiliated radio station in Michigan, asked me to speak about the pilgrimage on his show.  It was a very exciting opportunity and certainly was instrumental in getting the word out further.  The eclipse was the day after Divine Mercy Sunday, which I saw as a sign, and designed the pilgrimage around this feast and for the intention of mercy.  The pilgrimage aspect encouraged people to visit a holy site and pray the Rosary, in addition to the Divine Mercy Chaplet the week prior.

My family and I went to San Antonio, Texas, to do our pilgrimage along the San Antonio River, where the old Franciscan Missions (including the Alamo) are located.  We went to each of the 5 missions, on 5 separate days, to pray the Rosary and walk to the river, throwing a white rose into it and praying more prayers.  Why did we do this ritual with the river?  All I can say is, at the time, I was strongly motivated to connect with the river and make it a part of our pilgrimage.  It is not an accident that the missions were built along a river, as rivers were the lifeblood of communities in the past.  I wanted to connect in a tangible way with God’s beautiful San Antonio River, so the roses were a way to do this.  There was a sense of “letting go,” not knowing where the roses would land, an intimation of something not yet fulfilled and not able to be controlled.  White represents purity, which tied in well with the appeal to mercy, the conversion of our country and the nature of the Blessed Mother, who was with us the entire way, as we prayed the Rosary and encountered many images of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

Tragically, a dear friend and her aunt passed away four months earlier, in a car accident in Mexico.  Her name was Virginia and her aunt’s name was Rosa, representing innocence and roses.  I had it in mind to honor their memory as well, with the white roses perhaps making their way to the shores of Mexico.  So you see, this all came together in some mystical synchronistic way, as many things do in the lives of those who have eyes to see how God works in His Divine Providence.

The white roses could also have represented the trafficked, abused children in the area of San Antonio. Terribly, it’s a well-known problem there, 150 miles from the Mexican border. The Mother of God cries for them. Now, one year later, we are thankfully seeing improvement on these issues.

We viewed the eclipse in the rural hills of Texas, along the western side of the eclipse path.  There amazingly, was a huge cross on a hill behind us (they do that in Texas, apparently).  I looked up and saw a crescent Sun in a dusky sky.  The very next day, at Mission Concepcion, there above the altar, was Our Blessed Lord standing atop a crescent Sun, mostly obscured by the Moon, in fact, an eclipse!  It was exactly what I saw the day before in full, shining reality.  I couldn’t see anything through the special glasses, so in one stupid moment, I looked up with my naked eyes.  Then I looked back down, hoping I didn’t just blind myself.  I was stunned when I saw the painting in the chapel and fell to my knees in disbelief, before praying the Rosary. 

The missions revealed something to me as we went along…something I was not expecting, but perhaps should have…a real-life example of the very thing I wish to do with this ministry.  They were the scattered remains of once-thriving, self-sufficient Catholic communities.  Each mission had a water well, farmland, living quarters and a chapel.  It was a learning experience for me and one mission was constructed very similarly to my own vision of such a community.  I had traveled 2,000 miles to see the future in my mind, as an actual physical place from the past…the past meeting the future, coming full circle.  Humanity will be brought back to its origins and the technocracy will fail and will fall.

We were blessed to be able to attend the Tridentine Mass right in San Antonio, at Saint Timothy Church.  It was quite well-attended and had the most beautiful artwork of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She is ever-present in that area! Cardinal Burke’s famous Guadalupe prayer was a part of our prayers at the river.

What does the whole thing mean?  Well, that is up for interpretation and prayer.  The more I look at it, the more I see the “X” as a symbol of the division in our nation, which ultimately is spiritual warfare.  Where is this all going?  A warning is meant to help mitigate what is coming (and to alleviate what is already here).  So let us use the wonderful Catholic treasures at our disposal to accomplish that.

You can find some commentary on the X Eclipse on our Home page and all references to the eclipse and the pilgrimage on “Eclipse POM,” in the topics to the right>>>  Included is my writing on the original eclipse of 2017, which itself was quite interesting, along with my phone interview with Bill Kassel.

Somehow, just before this anniversary, the X Eclipse came back into my view, which is what got me thinking about it again.  I am now doing “X Eclipse 2.0” research and will do a write-up when I am ready.  It is still relevant and there is a lot there.  I am exploring questions such as….

Is there any significance to the area of the X?  What is this area’s strange esoteric history?

Why were the eclipses 7 years apart?

What about the “Devil Comet” and Chiron (considered a minor planet), which both occurred with the X Eclipse?

What is the truth about this “Nineva” thing? 

What about the fault lines which strangely mirror the eclipse paths?

Does the separate “X Eclipse” which took place in Texas have any meaning?

…And the whole thing started when I called my cousin in Texas and asked him, “So what do we so in San Antonio, as long as we’re there to see the Eclipse?”  He said, “Well, there are some missions.”  As he described the missions along the river, I began to think, “This sounds like a pilgrimage.”  I came up the idea to combine the pilgrimage with the eclipse and said to myself, “As long as I’m doing this, why don’t I spread the word?” 

Turns out, there IS an official pilgrimage at the missions:  El Camino de San Antonio Missions

PS  I would love to share pictures with you, but the blog has stopped letting me put up images.  I have to update one of these days and hopefully that will fix it.  However, I can put pics in my monthly newsletter, so let’s make a deal, you sign up (see Email List above) and I’ll put some pilgrimage pics in the May email!  Speaking of images, here is what I saw at Mission Concepcion, which also happens to be the above-mentioned Pilgrimage Center…

PAINTING OF OUR LORD UPON AN ECLIPSE

Chiara F Mathews on Bill Kassel's Podcast / Good Shepherd Catholic Radio!

Listen to Chiara F Mathews discuss the “Eclipse Pilgrimage of mercy”

(at 20:08 minutes)

Bill Kassel, host of the radio show “Free Expressions” on Good Shepherd Catholic Radio out of Michigan, was gracious enough to request an interview about our “Eclipse Pilgrimage of Mercy.”

It’s a short discussion relating the main points of the Pilgrimage and why it is important and relevant for the entire world. I am deeply grateful to Bill for this opportunity. Please have a listen and here is more about Mr. Kassel and “Free Expressions” from his website:

“Bill Kassel has made a specialty of communicating religious ideas and moral principles in highly accessible ways to a broad public.  He is the author of two Christian mysteries: Holy Innocents (2000) and This Side of Jordan (2005).  He is also a songwriter, Christian entertainer, and humorist…

Writing under his own byline or as a ghostwriter for others, he has authored or edited non-fiction books as well as articles appearing in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Newsweek, National Catholic Register, American Legion Magazine, and numerous other publications.”

Kassel’s most recent book My Brother’s Keeper, a novel about the family of Jesus, has won the 2018 “Catholic Arts & Letters Award.” Here’s more:

“MY BROTHER’S KEEPER is an imaginative and riveting historical / religious novel in the tradition of such bible-based classics as Ben Hur, The Robe, and The Silver Chalice. It offers a sweeping vision of a nation at its tipping point — a proud and ancient people facing economic stress, political division, and the specter of radicalism and violence, conditions not unlike those of our own time. This is a sprawling tale with a fresh and compelling perspective on Jesus and his family that will make you reconsider the story that’s at the very heart of Western Civilization.”

Kassel also writes a blog, see above link for further exploration of his work.

Good Shepherd Catholic Radio is affiliated with EWTN, Ave Maria Radio and the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan.