Our Lady of La Salette | Catholic Daily No. 94

She didn't start with the warning. She started by telling two frightened children not to be afraid.

"And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience."

Aquinas, compiling the Fathers' commentary on this parable in his Catena Aurea, preserves St. Gregory the Great calling it "wonderful that the Lord has represented riches as thorns" — they prick even while they delight. Gregory names exactly two things bound up with them, cares and pleasures: one oppresses the mind with anxiety, the other unnerves it with luxury, and together, in his phrase, they "strangle the throat of the heart." St. John Chrysostom adds the sharper point — unlike a literal rock or a literal road, a hardened heart can still become fruitful ground. This isn't a fixed category of person. It's a real, changeable state, and the seed among thorns isn't a smaller failure than outright rejection. It's a quieter one.

On Saturday, September 19, 1846, at about three in the afternoon, two shepherd children — Mélanie Calvat, not yet fifteen, and Maximin Giraud, eleven — were minding sheep on a mountainside near La Salette, in the French Alps. They found a woman seated on a stone, weeping, surrounded by light. Her first words to them were not the warning. They were reassurance: "Come closer, my children, do not be afraid, I am here to tell you great news."

Only after that did she say what she'd come to say — that people were neglecting Sunday rest and worship for labor and pleasure, that blasphemy and drunkenness had become common, that a harvest was already beginning to fail. She spoke of consequence without repentance. But she led with mercy, not threat: "If my people do not submit, I will be forced to let go of my Son's arm. It is so strong and heavy that I can no longer hold it back." A mother straining to hold back a weight she describes as her own Son's — not eager for judgment to fall, working to prevent it.

Five years later, to the day, the local bishop declared the apparition worthy of belief. A community of missionary priests was founded the following year to carry the message forward, and the shrine they built has stood ever since. What's struck people for nearly two centuries isn't the severity of the warning. It's that she wept before she gave it.

A quiet, essentially flat session — but a real signal fired today. Marathon Petroleum (MPC) broke its 52-week pivot on volume, clearing every gate at score 100, RS 96. That's a genuine A+ setup, not a watchlist name — entry proposed for Monday's open near $424.89, 117 shares, stop at $399.14. CrowdStrike (CRWD) continues working, up 1.6% since entry. LifeStance Health (LFST) sits down 4.6%, now within 3.4% of its stop — worth watching into next week. Six names remain on the broader watchlist: DRTS, SMTC, ECO, PVLA, VLO, HPE.

Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us — for the mercy to hear the warning before it becomes the consequence.

In Christ,

Jonathan Simmons

Enoch Capital LLC

Catholic Daily goes out Monday through Saturday.

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