Wherein Fr. Z muses on bears, demons, and spiritual calibers

This is a little offbeat.  I need to blow off some

My father sent an article, as fathers do.  It is a riveting article about people who experience attacks by bears by using handguns.  When you live in the north woods, this gets your attention.

The attacks are briefly recounted, with the calibers employed, and the results.

Few critters in the wild are as frightening at an attacking bear.  They can move as fast as a horse for a short distance and their physical power is enormous.  Bears, especially the Grizzly and the Brown variety, are among the largest carnivores on land.  The females especially can be incredibly aggressive if their cubs are present.

As a kid, spending time in Montana and Wyoming, we went now and then into the Bighorns to stay in a cabin.  Amazing place.  But when nature called, and you made the journey to locus iste, you took your rifle.  No matter your age, you took your rifle.  Regardless of the outside task, you took a rifle.   Bears.  Scary animals.

Here is the article.  It FASCINATING reading, not only for those of us who are into calibers and what shoot them, but for the accounts of the attacks.

Might I suggest that it is grizzly reading? It involves the debate about the effectiveness of handgun calibers.

Here is an example:

Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber

[…]

We have found three cases where .357 revolvers were used to defend against bears. Two were successful, one was unsuccessful.

1. MT: Grizzly Bear Killed After Biting Warden in Montana Forest June 26, 1987, .357 Magnum

Pictures at Field and Stream Article here

‘’I wouldn’t want to have another go-round,’’ the 60-year-warden, Lou Kis, said from his hospital bed after undergoing surgery for the bite, which was so powerful that it broke the leg bone below the knee.

Mr. Kris, a warden captain here for 22 years, killed the 400- to 500-pound bear with six shots from his .357 caliber Magnum revolver as it bit him.

Interesting point: the examples of 9mm were successful!   For those of you who say that a caliber that doesn’t start with a “4” is not enough, the technology of 9mm is getting really interesting.  And you can carry more rounds.  But I digress.

Okay, by now you are wondering if I have finally lost it.   First, I wrote about beavers.  Now, bears?

Here is where I am going with this.

What we are doing if we are NOT using our TRADITIONAL Roman Rite and all its power.

In this pilgrim journey we are in, we are encountering both the roaring roaming lion Peter warns of and equivalent bears… and, to make the song complete, tigers too.  Not tiggers, tigers.  DAMN scary animal, the tiger.  Scarier than either bears or lions.  But I digress.

We have great defensive and offensive spiritual weapons of ascending calibers, from prayers to sacramentals to fasting to sacraments. 

And, as I have written elsewhere in regard to a Mass Collect, the soul in the state of grace has Demon Kevlar!

I want us all to carry and train with and use these spiritual calibers to the extent that we are able and according to our vocations.

Think of the “stopping power” of a round of blessed salt and holy water.  However, a smaller caliber Hail Mary is not to be sniffed at.  First, the magazine that is a Rosary carries a lot of rounds.  Prayerfully recited the Hail Mary is a scary hollow point rounds that blossom when they strike the Devil.   Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again….

Fathers!  Oh, Fathers, consider your incredible arsenal.   Face it.  The lions and tigers and bears are after you and your flock.  USE YOUR WEAPONS.  You can use the Roman Ritual!  You can say the Ma Deuce of spiritual arms the TRADITIONAL MASS in the very language that the Enemy hates most.   Every prayer from your consecrated mind and heart is like a round to a hard thing or a vital squishy thing in every demon around you.

Can we PLEASE stop fooling around with the baby food and the rattles and binkies and take up the serious rations and arms that our times require?

There are BEARS out there, damn it!  And lions and tigers.  Tigers… brrrr.   I remember a video of a tiger running across the surface of a pond to kill a deer.  HERE

Sometime take a look at videos of bear attacks.  Brrrrrrr.

And about those bears… do NOT insult Elisha!

And ohhhhhh do I miss Gary Larson.  Come back, Gary!  All is forgiven.

I think I miss him even more than, dare I, Calvin and Hobbes.

(I sense a new installment from a certain devil dog reader.)