Weekly Bulletin; Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission

..... this missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used ..... Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. ..... Accordingly, no one whatsoever is permitted to infringe or rashly contravene this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, direction, will, decree and prohibition. Should any person venture to do so, let him understand he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.

Pope St. Pius V, Papal Bull, QUO PRIMUM,

Tridentine Codification of the “received and approved” traditional Roman Rite of the Mass.

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Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

St. Hyacinth, Confessor

Within the Octave

Octave Day of St. Lawrence

August 18, 2025

The liturgy for this Sunday seeks to impress upon us the true notion of Christian humility, which consists in attributing to the grace of the Holy Ghost whatever sanctity we may have attained; for our acts can only be of a supernatural character, if thy are inspired by the Holy Ghost whom our Lord sent down upon His apostles on the day of Pentecost and whom He never ceases to give to those who ask.

Our salvation is an impossible task if we try to accomplish it alone, for left to ourselves, we are but weak and sinful. It is always to almighty God to whom we are indebted when we avoid sin, gain pardon, forsake wrongdoing and do good, for none can even utter our Lord’s name by an act of supernatural Faith, affirming His divinity and kingship, except by the Holy Ghost (Epistle).

Therefore pride is God’s enemy, since it claims for itself the gifts, which the Holy Ghost alone distributes to such as, He will, and so by making us think that we are sufficient in ourselves, it hinders the manifestation of the divine power in our souls. How can He have compassion on us, and show us His mercy (Collect) if we have within us no acknowledged wretchedness upon which His divine heart can have pity?

On the contrary, the humble man is glad to acknowledge his nothingness knowing that on this condition alone will the power of Christ come into his heart.

The Church develops these thoughts today because the Breviary lessons for this week supply two examples, one of pride, the other of great humility. After the figure of Elias, contrasting so strongly with Achab and Jezebel, of whose terrible punishment we read in the divine office, that of the young Joas stands out in powerful opposition to Athalia. The daughter of Achab and Jezebel, quite as wicked as her mother, Athalia had married Joram the king of Juda, and as he died shortly after, the queen found herself mistress of the kingdom of Juda, and to secure her position had almost the whole family of David massacred. However Josaba, the wife of the high priest Joiada, took Joas, the youngest of the royal family, from his cradle, and hid him in the temple.

For six years Athalia ruled the country and set up altar of Baal right in the very temple courts. In the seventh year the high priest, surrounded by determined men, showed them Joas, then seven years old, and told them to form a bodyguard round the royal child, and to kill anyone who attempted to break through their ranks. Then when the people crowded into the temple court at the hour of the prayer, Joiada brought forward Joas, and anointed and crowned him in sight of the whole multitude, amidst applause and cries of “Long live the King.”

Athalia, hearing all the outcry, left her palace and went into the court. Seeing the young king seated on the tribunal surrounded by the chief men of the nation, amidst the shouts of the people, accompanied by the sound of trumpets, she rent her cloths and cried: “Treason and plot!” At the high priest’s command she was put out of the sacred precincts, and brought to the threshold of her palace, where she was killed. Then the crowd rushed into the temple of Baal where they did not leave one stone upon another.

Meanwhile the king, Joas, sat on the throne of David, his grandfather, and reigned forty years in Jerusalem, where he worked at repairing and beautifying the temple (Alleluia, Communion). Holy Scripture gives him this excellent praise: “Joas did that which was right before the Lord.” These words form the Magnificat Antiphon for the first Vespers of this Sunday, echoed by that of the second Vespers, taken from today’s Gospel: “This man went down into his house justified rather than the other, because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” “Those who exalt themselves,” says St. Augustine, “are known by God from afar. From far off He looks upon the proud but forgives them not.” On the other hand, the humble, like the publicans, confess themselves guilty. “He struck his breast, he chastised himself, therefore God forgave the man who acknowledged his wretchedness. For why is it surprising that God no longer sees him as a sinner, when he himself acknowledges that he is one? He stands afar off, this publican, but God sees him from close at hand” (Matins).

In the same way the lowly minded boy, Joas, was accepted of God, because his attitude before Him was what it should be. “He did that which was right before the Lord.” On the contrary, Athalia was proud and wicked. She did not do what was right before the Lord, and she despised and insulted those who did their duty, for pride towards God always shows itself by contempt towards our neighbor. Pascal says that there are two kinds of men, saints who think themselves guilty of every fault and sinners who believe themselves guilty on none. The first are humble and God will exalt them with glory; the second are full of pride and He will humble them by chastisement.

“God,” says St. Chrysostom, “drowned the world, caused Sodom to be burned by fire, and the sea to swallow up the army of the Egyptians for it is He who has stricken the guilty with all the blows which have fallen upon them, and will do so still more. But, you say, God is merciful. Then are all these things merely words? Does the rich man who despised Lazarus receive no punishment? Are the foolish virgins in no way rejected by the bridegroom? Will not he who was at the wedding feast with soiled garments in no wise perish, bound hand and foot? Will not he who exacted the last farthing from his companion be delivered to the tormentors? Do you think that God will confine Himself to threats? To me it seems easy to prove the contrary and we may judge beforehand what God will do in the future, from what He has said and done in the past. Let us then have constantly in mind the dread tribunal, chains fastened for all eternity, outer darkness, gnashing of teeth and the gnawing and poisonous worm” (2^nd Nocturn).

This will be the best way to foster in ourselves that humility which makes us say with the Church: “When I cried to the Lord He heard my voice, from them that draw near to me; and He humbled them, who is before all ages and remains forever’ (Introit). “Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of Thy eye: let Thy eyes behold the things which are equitable” (Gradual). “To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded” (Offertory).

INTROIT:

Ps. 54. When I cried to the Lord, He heard my voice, against them that pressed upon me; and He who is before all ages, and remains forever, humbled them; cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.

Ps. Hear, O God, my prayer and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me, and hear me. Glory be, etc. When I cried to the Lord, etc.

COLLECT:

O God, who dost manifest Thy almighty power chiefly by showing pardon and pity, increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy, that we, running the way toward the attainment of Thy promises, may be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasures. Through our Lord, etc.

O God, who dost gladden us by the yearly festival of blessed Hyacinth, Thy Confessor, grant, in Thy mercy, that we who keep his birthday may follow his example. Through our Lord, etc.

Almighty, everlasting God, Who hath taken up the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of Thy Son, with body and soul into heavenly glory: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may always, intent on higher things, deserve to be partakers of her glory. Through our Lord, etc.

Stir up within Thy Church, O Lord, the spirit which blessed Lawrence the Deacon served, that we to, being filled with the same, may strive to love what he loved and to fulfill in deed what he taught. Through our Lord, etc.

EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 12, 2-11.

Brethren, You know that, when you were heathens, you went to dumb idols, according as you were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith Anathema to Jesus; and no man can say: The Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all. And the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man unto profit. To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another the grace of healing in the one Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, interpretation of speeches. But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as He will.

EXPLANATION The apostle here reminds the Corinthians of the great grace they received from God in their conversion, and urges them to be grateful for it; for while heathens, they cursed Jesus, but being now brought to the knowledge of the Spirit of God, they possess Christ as their Lord and Redeemer who can be known and professed only by the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost. The holy Spirit works in different ways, conferring His graces on whom He wills; to one He gives wisdom to understand the great truths of Christianity; to another the gift of healing the sick; to another the gift of miracles and of prophecy; to another the gift of discerning spirits, to know if one is governed by the Spirit of God, or of the world, Satan and the flesh; to another the gift of tongues. The extraordinary gifts, namely, those of working miracles of prophesying and others became rarer as the faith spread, whereas the gifts which sanctify man will always remain the same.

GRADUAL:

Ps. 16. Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of Thy eye: protect me under the shadow of Thy wings. Let Thy judgment on me come forth from Thy countenance: let Thy eyes behold the things that are equitable.

Alleluia, alleluia. Ps 64. A hymn, O God, becometh Thee in Sion: and a vow shall be paid to Thee in Jerusalem. Alleluia.

GOSPEL: Luke 18, 9-14.

At that time, Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves as just, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one was a pharisee, and the other a publican. The pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself: O God, I give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers; as also is this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck his breast saying: O God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Why did Christ make use of this parable of the Pharisee and the Publican?

To teach us never proudly to condemn or despise a man, even though he should appear impious, for we may be deceived like the Pharisee who despised the Publican, whom he considered a great sinner, while, in reality, the man was justified before God on account of his repentant spirit.

What should we do before entering a Church?

We should reflect that we are going into the house of God, should therefore think what we are about to say to Him, and what we wish to ask of Him. That we may make ourselves less unworthy to be heard, we should humble ourselves as did Abraham, (Gen. 18, 27) remembering that we are dust and ashes, and on account of our sins unworthy to appear before the eyes of God, much less to address Him, for He listens to the prayers of the humble only (Ps. 101, 18) and gives them His grace, while He resists the proud (James 6, 6).

Was the Pharisee's prayer acceptable to God?

No, for it was no prayer, but boasting and ostentation; he praised himself, and enumerated his apparent good works. But in despising others and judging them rashly, he sinned grievously instead of meriting God's grace.

Was the Publican's prayer acceptable to God?

Yes, for though short, it was humble and contrite. He stood afar off, as if to acknowledge himself unworthy of the presence of God and intercourse with men. He stood with downcast eyes, thus showing that he considered himself because of his sins unworthy to look towards heaven, even confessed himself a sinner, and struck his breast to punish, as St. Augustine says, the sins which he had committed in his heart: This is why we strike our breast at certain times during Mass, for by this we acknowledge ourselves miserable sinners, and that we are sorry for our sins.

OFFERTORY:

Ps. 24. To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be disappointed, neither let my enemies laugh at me; for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded.

SECRET:

Let the appointed sacrifices, O Lord, be paid to Thee, which Thou hast given to be offered at once to the honor of Thy name, and likewise as the remedy of our ills. Through our Lord, etc.

In memory of Thy saints, we offer Thee, O Lord, a sacrifice of praise, trusting by it to be delivered from evil both now and hereafter. Through our Lord, etc.

May the offering of our devotion ascend to Thee, O Lord; and through the intercession of the most blessed Virgin Mary, who was taken up into heaven, may our hearts be inflamed with the fire of love, and continually long for Thee. Through our Lord, etc.

We ask, O Lord, that the holy prayers of blessed Lawrence may commend our sacrifice to Thee; that it may become acceptable to Thee through the merits of him in whose honor it is solemnly offered. Through our Lord, etc

COMMUNION:

Ps. 50. Thou wilt accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and holocausts upon Thy altar, O Lord.

POSTCOMMUNION:

We pray Thee, O Lord our God, graciously not to deprive of Thy aids those whom Thou ceasest not to renew with Thy sacraments. Through our Lord, etc.

Refreshed by heavenly food we humbly beseech Thee, our God, that we may be guarded by the prayers of him in whose memory we have received them. Through our Lord, etc.

Now that we have received, O Lord, the Sacrament of salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that through the merits and the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, who was taken up into heaven, we may be brought to the glory of the resurrection. Through our Lord, etc.

We humbly beseech Thee, almighty God, at the intercession of blessed Lawrence Thy Martyr, ever to guard by Thy protection those whom Thou hast filled with these heavenly gifts. Through our Lord, etc.

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. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace…. Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and pray for them.

Blessed Virgin Mary to the children at Fatima

Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God besides…. Who show from the beginning the things that shall be at last, and from ancient times the things that as yet are not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and my will shall be done.

Isaias 46: 9-10

“I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 17^th:

Date Day Feast Rank Color F/A Mass Time and Intention

17	Sun	10^th Sunday after Pentecost St. Hyacinth, C Within the Octave Octave Day of St. Lawrence	sd	G		9:00 AM & Noon; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM
18	Mon	Within the Octave *St. Agapitus, M* *St. Helena, W*	sd	W		Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 7:30 AM
19	Tue	St. John Eudes, C *Within the Octave*	d	W		Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 5:45 AM
20	Wed	St. Bernard, AbD *Within the Octave*	d	W		Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 5:45 AM
21	Thu	St. Jane Frances de Chantal, W *Within the Octave*	d	W		Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 7:30 AM
22	Fri	Immaculate Heart of Mary *St. Timothy & Comp. Mm*	d2cl	W	A	Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 8:30 AM
23	Sat	St. Philip Benizi, C *Vigil of St. Bartholomew*	d	W		Rosary of Reparation to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 8:30 AM
24	Sun	St. Bartholomew, Ap 11^th Sunday after Pentecost	d2cl	R		9:00 AM & Noon; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM

In the whole Gospel, then, there was no teaching more appropriate than this, as a sequel to the history of Jerusalem’s fall. The children of the Church, who, in her early years, saw her humbled in Sion and persecuted by the insulting arrogance of the Synagogue, now quite understand that word of the Wise Man: ‘Better is it to be humbled with the meek, than to divide spoils with the proud (Prov. 16:19)!’ According to another Proverb, the tongue of the Jew – that tongue which abused the publican and ran down the poor Gentile – has become, in his mouth, as ‘a rod of pride’ (Prov. 14:3), a rod which, in time, struck himself, by bringing on his own destruction. But, whilst adoring the justice of God’s vengeance and giving praise to His mercy, the Gentiles must take care not to go into the path wherein was lost the unhappy people whose place they now occupy. Israel’s offence, says St. Paul, has brought about the salvation of the Gentiles; but, his pride would be also their own ruin; and whereas Israel is assured, by prophecy, of a return to God’s favour when the end of the world shall be approaching (Rom. 11:25-27), there is no such promise of a second call of mercy to the Gentiles, should they ever apostatize after their baptism.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

“Praepre for more trouble…. Authority is to serve Truth. It has no other purpose…. Truth is the purpose of authority.”

Bishop Richard Williamson, June 28, 2015

St. Hyacinth (1184-1257) founded communities at Sandomir, Cracow, and at Plocko on the Vistula in Moravia. He extended his missionary work through Prussia, Pomerania, and Lithuania; then crossing the Baltic Sea he preached in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. He came into Lower or Red Russia, establishing a community at Lemberg and at Haletz on the Mester; proceeded into Muscovy, and founded a convent at Dieff, and came as far as the shores of the Black Sea. He then returned to Cracow, which he had made the center of his operations…No other saint, we make bold to say, with the exception of St. Vincent Ferrer, ever surpassed him in the number and character of miracles wrought. The mere enumeration of Hyacinth’s miracles fills thirty-five pages of the Acta Sanctorum. The bull of his canonization, issued on April 17, 1594, declared his miracles to be “almost countless”… in Cracow alone fifty dead persons had been raised to life and seventy-two dying restored to perfect health… to whom our Blessed Mother said, “Have great courage and be joyful, my son Hyacinth! Whatsoever thou shalt ask in my name, shall be granted thee.”

St. Hyacinth, pray for us and for thy fellow Dominicans to our Blessed Mother. Dominican Saints

“By the love of concupiscence we love God, but we love Him chiefly as our good, as the source of our happiness; we love Him for the help and assistance we expect from Him. Charity, on the contrary, makes us capable of loving God for Himself, because He is goodness, beauty, infinite wisdom – in a word, because He is God. Although the love of concupiscence which accompanies hope is very precious, it is still imperfect, because by it we love God not for Himself alone, but for the benefits which we hope to receive from Him. The love of charity, however, is perfect because it is pure love of complacency, of benevolence, that is, love which takes complacence in the infinite good of God, and desires this good, not for any personal advantage, but for God Himself, for His felicity, His glory. …St. Teresa of Avila prayed, ‘O Lord, be pleased to grant me this love before You take me from this life. It will be a great comfort at the hour of death to realize that I shall be judged by You whom I have loved above all things. Then I shall be able to go to meet You with confidence, even though burdened with my debts, for I shall not be going into a foreign land but into my own country, into the kingdom of Him whom I have loved so much and who likewise has so much loved me..’”

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy, On Charity

“O My Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for the Holy Father, I offer this sacrifice to Thee.”

Blessed Virgin Mary taught to St. Jacinta of Fatima

Among the Scholastic doctors, the chief and master of all, towers St. Thomas Aquinas because he most venerated the ancient doctors of the Church, in a certain way seems to have inherited the intellect of all.

Thomas Cardinal Cajetan, the most important commentator on the Summa of St. Thomas

ON PRIDE AND VAIN GLORY
We should learn from this gospel that God looks upon the humble and exalts them, but is far from the proud (Ps. 137, 6). The Pharisee went to the temple entirely wrapt up in himself, and the good works which he thought he had performed, but returned empty and hated by God; the Publican, on the contrary, appearing before God as a public but penitent sinner, returned justified. Truly, an humble sinner is better in the sight of God than a proud just man!

He who glories in his own good works, or performs them to please men, or to win their praise, loses his merit in the eyes of the most High, for Christ says: Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 6, 1).

In order that we may learn to despise vainglory, these doctrines should be well borne in mind. We should consider that it will happen to those who seek after vainglory, as to the man who, made many toilsome journeys on land and sea in order to accumulate wealth, and had no sooner acquired it than he was shipwrecked, and lost all. Thus the ambitious man avariciously seeking glory and honor will find, when dying, that the merit which he might have had for his good works, is now lost to him, because he did not labor for the honor of God. To prevent such an evil, strive at the commencement of every good work which you undertake, to turn your heart to God by a good intention.

But that you may plainly recognize this vice, which generally keeps itself concealed, and that you may avoid it, know that pride is an inordinate love of ostentation, and an immoderate desire to surpass others in honor and praise. The proud man goes beyond himself, so to speak, makes far more of himself than he really is, and, like the Pharisee, despises others; the humble man, on the contrary, has a low estimate of himself, looks upon himself as nothing and, like the Publican, despises no one but himself, and thus is pleasing in the sight of God.

ASPIRATION O God, who hearest the prayers of the humble, but dost resist the proud, I earnestly beseech Thee to give me an humble heart, that I may imitate, the humility of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and thereby merit to be exalted with Him in heaven.

Ecumenism of St. Paul

I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel. Which is not another, only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.

St. Paul, Apostle, Galatians 1: 6-9

INSTRUCTION ON GRACE

In the epistle of this day the Apostle St. Paul speaks of the different gifts of the Holy Ghost which He distributes as He pleases. These extraordinary graces which the apostle mentions, are not necessary for salvation. But the Church teaches, that the grace of the Holy Ghost is necessary for salvation, because without it we could neither properly believe, nor faithfully observe the commandments of God. For the holy religion of Jesus teaches, and experience confirms, that since the fall of our first parents we are weak and miserable, and of ourselves, and by our own strength, we cannot know or perform the good necessary for our salvation. We need a higher aid, a higher, assistance, and this assistance is called grace.

What, then, is grace?

Grace is an inward, supernatural gift which God through infinite goodness, and in consideration of Christ’s merits, grants us to enable us to work out our salvation. Grace is a gift, that is, a present, a favor, a benefit. It is an inward and supernatural gift; an inward gift, because it is bestowed upon man’s soul to distinguish it from external gifts and benefits of God, such as: food, clothing, health; grace is a supernatural gift, because it is above nature. In creating our souls God gives us a certain degree of light which enables us to think, reflect, judge, to acquire more or less knowledge: this is called natural light. In the same way He gives our souls the power in some measure to overcome sensual, vicious inclinations; this power is called natural power (virtue). To this natural light and power must be added a higher light and a higher power, if man would be sanctified and saved. This higher light and higher power is grace. It is, therefore, called a supernatural gift, because it surpasses the natural power of man, and produces in his understanding and in his will wholesome effects, which he could not produce without it. For example, divine faith, divine love is a supernatural gift or grace of God, because man of his own power could never receive as certain God’s revelations and His incomprehensible mysteries with so great a joy and so firm a conviction, and could never love God above all things and for His own sake, unless God assisted him by His grace.

God grants us grace also through pure benevolence without our assistance, without our having any right to it; He grants it without cost, and to whom He pleases; but He gives it in consideration of the infinite merits of Christ Jesus, in consideration of Christ’s death on the cross, and of the infinite price of our redemption. Finally, grace is a gift of God, by which to work out our salvation, that is, it is only by the grace of God that we can perform meritorious works which aid us in reaching heaven. Without grace it is impossible for us to perform any good action, even to have a good thought by which to gain heaven. From this it follows that with the grace of God we can accomplish all things necessary for our salvation, fulfill all the commandments of God, but without it we can do nothing meritorious. God gives His grace to all, and if the wicked perish, it is because they do not cooperate with its divine promptings.
How is grace divided?

Into two kinds, actual and sanctifying grace. Actual grace is God’s assistance which we always need to accomplish a good work, to avoid sin which we are in danger of committing, or that grace which urges us on to good, and assists us in accomplishing it; for it is God, says the Apostle Paul (Phil. 2, 13), who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish. If a good work is to be performed by us, God must enlighten our mind that we may properly know the good and distinguish it from evil; He must rouse our will and urge it on to do the known good and to avoid the evil; He must also uphold our will and increase our strength that what we wish to do, we may really accomplish.

This actual grace is, therefore, necessary for the just, that they may always remain in sanctifying grace, and accomplish good works; it is necessary for the shiner that he may reach the state of sanctifying grace.

What is sanctifying grace?

It is the great benefit which God bestows upon us, when He sanctifies and justifies us; in other words: sanctifying grace is the love of God, given to us by the Holy Ghost, which love dwells in us and whose temple we become, or it is the advent and abiding of God in our hearts, as promised in the words of Jesus: If any one love me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him (John 16, 23). He who possesses sanctifying grace, possesses the greatest treasure that a man can have on earth. For what can be more precious than to be beautiful in the sight of God, acceptable to Him, and united with Him! He who possesses this grace, carries within himself the supernatural image of God, he is a child of God, and has a right to the inheritance of heaven.

How is this sanctifying grace lost?

It is lost by every mortal sin, and can only be regained by a complete return to God, by true repentance and amendment. The loss of sanctifying grace is in fact a greater injury than the loss of all earthly possessions. How, terrible, then, is mortal sin which deprives us of this treasure!

Immediately, one ought to resists in facie, a pope who is publicly destroying the Church; for example, to want to give ecclesiastical benefits for money or charge of services. And one ought to refuse, with all obedience and respect, and not to give possession of these benefits to those who bought them.

Thomas Cardinal Cajetan, O. P.

CHARITY AND HUMILITY TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD ‑ Give me, O Lord, humility with love; let humility guard charity in me, and may charity increase according to the measure of Your will.

MEDITATION:

I. In the texts of today’s Mass, the liturgy sketches the features of the Christian soul in its fundamental lines. First St. Paul shows us in the Epistle (I Cor. 12:2‑11) a soul vivified by the Holy Spirit, who diffuses His gifts in it. The Apostle mentions charismatic gifts, that is, those special graces, such as the gift of tongues, of knowledge, of miracles, bestowed by the Holy Spirit with great generosity upon the primitive Church. Although these are very precious gifts, they are inferior to sanctifying grace and charity, which alone give supernatural life to the soul. Whereas charismatic gifts may or may not accompany sanctifying grace, they neither increase nor decrease its intensity thereby. St. Thomas notes that while grace and charity sanctify the soul and unite it to God, these miraculous gifts, on the contrary, are ordered for the good of another and can subsist even in one who is not in the state of grace. St. Paul also‑ and in the same letter from which the passage in today’s Mass is taken‑ after enumerating all these extraordinary gifts, concludes with his famous words: “ . . . all this, without charity, is nothing.” Charity is always the “central” virtue, the fundamental characteristic of the Christian soul, and is also the greatest gift the Holy Spirit can give us. If the divine Paraclete did not vivify our soul by charity and grace, no one, not even the most virtuous, could perform the slightest act of supernatural value. “No man can say the Lord Jesus but by the Holy Ghost,” the Apostle says. Just as a tree cannot bring forth fruit if it is deprived of its life‑giving sap, so the soul which is not vivified by the Holy Spirit cannot perform acts of supernatural value. Note once again the great importance of grace and charity; the smallest degree of them is worth more than all the extraordinary gifts which, although they can dispose souls to good, can neither infuse nor increase divine life in us.

2. The Gospel (Lk. 18: 9‑14) presents us with another fundamental characteristic of the Christian soul: humility. Charity, it is true, is superior to it because it gives us divine life; yet, humility is of great importance because it is the virtue which clears the ground to make room for grace and charity. Jesus gives us a vivid and concrete example of this truth in today’s parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Gospel tells us explicitly that Jesus was speaking to some who “trusted in themselves as just and despised others.” The Pharisee is the prototype, the perfect representative of this group. See him! how convinced of his justice, how puffed up by his own merits: I am neither a thief nor an adulterer, I fast and pay tithes. What more can one expect? But this proud man does not see that he lacks the greatest of all things, charity, so much so that he inveighs against others, accuses and condemns them: “I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican.” Having no charity for his neighbor, he cannot have charity toward God. In fact, having gone into the Temple to pray, he is incapable of making the least little act of love or adoration, and instead of praising God for His blessings, he does nothing but praise himself. This man is really unable to pray because he has no charity, and he cannot have any because he is full of pride. “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (Jas. 4: 6). Therefore, the Pharisee returns home condemned, not so much by God who always loves to show mercy, as by his own pride which impedes the work of mercy in him.

The attitude of the publican id entirely different. He is a poor man who knows he has sinned, and he is aware of his moral wretchedness. He does not possess charity either, because sin is an obstacle to it, but he is humble, very humble, and he trusts in the mercy of God. “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And God who loves to bend down to the humble, justifies him at that very moment; his humility has drawn down upon him the grace of the Most High. St. Augustine has said: “God prefers humility in things that are done badly, rather than pride in those which are done well!” We are not justified by our virtues and our good works, but by grace and charity, which the Holy Spirit diffuses in our hearts, “according as He wills,” yes, but always in proportion to our humility.

COLLOQUY:

“O good Jesus, how often after bitter tears, sobs, and indescribable groanings, You have healed the wounds of my conscience by the unction of Your mercy and the oil of Your joy! How often after I have begun my prayer without hope, I have found my joy again in the hope of forgiveness! Those who have experienced this know that You are a real physician, who heals contrite hearts and solicitously tends their wounds. Let those who as yet have not had this experience, believe, at least, in Your words: ‘The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed Me; He hath sent Me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart.’ If they still doubt, let them approach You and learn, and they will understand what Your words mean: ‘I will have mercy and not sacrifice.’

“O Lord, You said, ‘Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.’ But what path should I take to reach You? The path of humility, for only then will You console me. But what consolation do You promise to the humble? Charity. In fact, the soul will obtain charity in proportion to its humility. O what sweet, delicious food is charity! It sustains us when we are weary, strengthens us when we are weak, and comforts us when we are sad. O Lord, give me this charity which makes Your yoke sweet and Your burden light” (St. Bernard).

Rev. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, S.J was one of the most distinguished pioneers of the original Jesuit mission in Paraguay, and a remarkable linguist; (b. at Lima Peru, on 13 June, 1585, d. there 11 April, 1652). After a youth full of wild and daring pranks and adventures he entered the Society of Jesus on 1 November, 1606. In the same year he accompanied Father Diego Torres, the first provincial of Paraguay, to the mission, where he laboured for thirty years as one of its most capable and successful apostles. Father Ruiz de Montoya was one of the true type of great Spanish missionaries of that era, who, as if made of cast-iron, united a burning zeal for souls with an incredible fewness of wants and great power of work. In co-operation with Fathers Cataldino and Mazeta he founded the Reductions of Guayra, brought a number of wild tribes into the Church, and is said to have baptized personally 100,000 Indians. As head of the missions he had charge from 1620 of the “reductions” on the upper and middle course of the Paraña, on the Uruguay, and the Tape, and added thirteen further “reductions” to the twenty-six already existing. When the missions of Guayra were endangered by the incursions of marauders from Brazil in search of slaves, Father Mazeta and he resolved to transport the Christian Indians, about 15,000 in number, to the Reductions in Paraguay, partly by water with the aid of seven hundred rafts and numberless canoes, and partly by land through the mazes of the primeval forest. The plan was successfully carried out in 1631 after the suffering of incredible hardships and dangers. “This expedition”, says the Protestant von Ihering, “is one of the most extraordinary undertakings of this kind known in history” [Globus, LX (1891), 179]. In 1637 Montoya on behalf of the governor, of the Bishop of Paraguay, and of the heads of the orders laid a complaint before King Philip IV as to the Brazilian policy of sending marauding expeditions into the neighboring regions to enslave the Indians. He obtained from the king important exemptions, privileges, and measures of protection for the Reductions. He was a fine scholar in the beautiful but difficult language of the Guaraní Indians, and has left works upon this language which were scarcely exceeded later. Soon after his return to America from Spain, Montoya died in the odor of sanctity in Lima. Archbishop of Cuzco, Pedro de Contreras y Sotomayor, said, “Ruiz de Montoya is no ordinary saint; he is a giant in holiness, a great saint of the highest order.” Ruben Vargas Ugarte, historian of the Jesuit Province of Peru, said, “His name deserves to be on the list of those explorers and discovers of hitherto unknown lands who stretched the limits of the known world. As a geographer he was one of the first, if not the first, to map that vast region; as a linguist, in his Arte y Vocabulario de la Lengua Guarani, he explored the structure of that difficult tongue, and his work remains unsurpassed to this day; as a mystic, no less than a man of action, he left us in his Firestone of Divine Love a finished guide to the paths followed by souls in the search of God, a work unpublished but one that won the praise of other mystics.” His Jesuit superior summed up his evaluation to the Society General saying, “(He was) a perfect man, one of great prayer. In converting the pagans he performed works at risk to his life. Very good as a superior. It was a shame to deprive him of studies, since he could have been provincial. In work and wisdom, he imitated the footsteps of our St. Francis Xavier.” His beloved Guarani Indians traveled from the Loreto Reduction to Lima, Peru and back, a linear distance of over 3,200 miles through difficult and hostile jungle and mountain paths to bring his remains home for burial.

On The Necessity of The Sacrament Of Baptism

A devout elderly woman fell ill. Reaching the hour of death, she had received the sacraments and was in her last agony. I did not think she would last a quarter of an hour. Her voice hoarse and her breast heaving, she remained in this condition for more than a month. She would often send for me but had nothing to confess. This caused considerable wonder. A devout Indian newcomer and had joined us during the migration of the towns already described, claiming to be a Christian. I discovered that she told me why he thought death was not taking her: he suspected that she was not a Christian. The reason for the uncertainty was that she was a was not and baptized her. She was in full possession of her senses and answered all the questions well. Once she received the sacrament she expired.

Rev. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, S.J., The Spiritual Conquest - Founding of the Jesuit Paraguay Reductions

Through the Intercession of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, may God grant us this Grace:

the return of the Hispanic population of York to the Catholic faith.

The Christian life is a continuation and completion of the life of Christ in us. We should be so many Christs here on earth, continuing His life and His works, laboring and suffering in a holy and divine manner in the spirit of Jesus.

St. John Eudes

In the Beatification decree St. Pius X declared that St. John Eudes (1601-1680) must be regarded as the father, doctor and apostle of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of its precursor, the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He is probably best known for the central theme of his writings: Jesus as the source of holiness, Mary as the model of the Christian life. His devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary led Pope Pius XI to declare him the father of the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Catholic Encyclopedia

A Christian has a union with Jesus Christ more noble, more intimate, and more perfect that the members of a human body with their head. He longs to be in you. He wants His breath to be your breath; His heart in your heart and His soul in your soul.

St. John Eudes

Take away the material sun from the world: what would become of our day? Take away Mary, the star of the vast sea: what would remain but obscurity over all, a night of death and icy darkness? Therefore, with every fiber of our heart, with all the love of our soul, with all the eagerness of our aspirations, let us venerate Mary; it is the will of Him who wished us to have all things through her.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

If I went by my own feelings, if I followed my inclination, and if I were not afraid of wearying the sisters, I should never speak of anything but charity; and I assure you, I scarcely ever open my mouth to speak of holy things, without having a mind to say: Thou shalt love the Lord with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.”

St. Jane Frances de Chantel, foundress of the Institute of the Visitation of our Lady under the guidance of St. Francis de Sales

She was full of faith, yet all her life had been tormented by thoughts against it. While apparently enjoying the peace and easiness of mind of souls who have reached a high state of virtue, she suffered such interior trials that she often told me her mind was so filled with all sorts of temptations and abominations that she had to strive not to look within herself...But for all that suffering her face never lost its serenity, nor did she once relax in the fidelity God asked of her. And so I regard her as one of the holiest souls I have ever met on this earth.

St. Vincent de Paul comments on St. Jane Frances de Chantel

The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

For thee the terrible trial of an utter abandonment, such as had made even the God-Man tremble. After years of prayer and labour and heroic devotedness, for thy reward thou wast apparently rejected by God and disowned by the Church, while imminent ruin threatened all those whom Mary had confided to thee. In spite of her promises, the existence of thy sons, the Servites, was assailed by no less an authority than that of two general Councils, whose resolutions the vicar of Christ had determined to confirm. Our Lady gave thee to drink of the chalice of her sufferings…. The highest power on earth was once all but laid at thy feet; the church, remembering the humility wherewith thou didst flee from the tiara, begs thee to obtain for us that we may despise the prosperity of the world and seek heavenly goods alone.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, St. Philip Benizi

How One Saint Can Make Another
St. Peregrine Laziosi, born at Forli, Italy in 1260 and died in 1345, was born into a wealthy and politically powerful family. He was active in his youth in the antipapal party in Romagna. During the course of a popular revolt, he struck St. Philip Benizi in the face as St. Philip was trying to quiet the battle. Peregrine was so startled by Philip's patient acceptance of the blow that he was immediately repentant and wholly converted. He joined the Servites at Siena, was ordained, and then went to Forli and founded a new Servite house. He became famed for his preaching, austerities, holiness, and his work as a confessor.

But love must not be wrought in our imagination but must be proved by works… Oh Jesus, what will a soul inflamed with Your love not do? Those who really love You, love all good, seek all good, help forward all good, praise all good, and invariably join forces with good men and help and defend them. They love only truth and things worthy of love. It is not possible that one who really and truly loves You can love the vanities of earth; his only desire is to please You. He is dying with longing for You to love him, and he would give his life to learn how he may please You better… O Lord, be pleased to grant me this love before You take me from this life. It will be a great comfort at the hour of death to realize that I shall be judged by You whom I have loved above all things.

St. Teresa of Avila

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary - A Synthesis of all Marian Doctrine and Devotion

Now it is from this first heading, Mary's divine Maternity, that the other offices and privileges are seen to flow, for it is Mary's Motherhood which is the reason for her prerogatives, the means of her sharing in our redemption, and the foundation of her exaltation. Because of her divine Maternity she enjoyed her unique relationship with the Most Holy Trinity and her maternal relationship with all mankind. Further, in virtue of her Maternity there is derived not only the dignity of Mary's role in the Christian pattern, but also her entire sanctity which underlies it. We may contemplate this sanctity underlying Mary's whole life and activity first in her Immaculate Conception and in her fullness of grace, and then in her perfect virginity. Throughout her mortal life this sanctity was increased through her meritorious acts, through the Incarnation of Christ, and through the Sacraments. Mary's part in our redemption in fact, all her relations with creatures flow also from her dignity as Mother of God. As the Mother of Christ, the head of the Mystical Body, she is the Mother of the members of that Body.

Also as a result of her Maternity Mary enjoys the privilege of her bodily Assumption into heaven, where because she is the Mother of Christ, the King of all creatures, she is our Queen, and because she is associated with Christ, the source of all grace, she is our Mediatrix. Hence all the offices of Mary and the sanctity that necessarily underlies them are connected intimately with the divine Maternity, dependent upon and resultant from it.

Our devotion to the Immaculate Heart, in that it looks to the entire sanctity of the Mother of God as the reason for showing her honor, will of necessity include all the truths and mysteries of her life and activity, and be in fact a summation of them all. But further, if in this devotion we look especially to the crowning of this sanctity, Mary's love, and see it as intimately connected with her Maternity, then our devotion is even more clearly the synthesis of all Marian theology.

Mary's life up to the Incarnation was characterized by love, and it was the love of her heart which entered into the act of her will in the consent of the Incarnation. Love had disposed her to be worthy of her office of Motherhood and induced her to accept the role of Mother with all that it entailed. The Incarnation was essentially an act of love on the part of God (John 3: 16) to which Mary perfectly responded. Thus throughout her mortal life it was Mary's love which characterized her associations with Christ and marked her days up to the time of her Assumption. It is love again which makes her most efficacious in her intercession for men as our Mediator and Queen in heaven.

All Marian doctrine, then, as contingent upon the divine Maternity, is synthesized in the devotion to Mary's maternal Heart; for in her Heart we see the sanctity that underlies her every gift and privilege and the charity which crowns it… Thus all Marian doctrine is implied in the devotion to Mary's Immaculate Heart.

We mentioned also that the devotion to the Immaculate Heart is the synthesis of all other Marian devotions. This fact follows quite logically if the preceding assertion, that the devotion to the Immaculate Heart summarizes all Marian doctrine, has been demonstrated, for all true devotion has a doctrinal basis.

Rev. John F. Murphy, Mary's Immaculate Heart, The Meaning of Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

There is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, M.I., on ecumenism, the enemy of the Immaculata

The reason why we love You, O Lord, is Your sovereignly high and infinite goodness, and the reason why we love men is because they have all been created to Your image and likeness, so that we love them as holy, living images of Your divinity. The same charity with which we love You, O Lord, is the source of the acts with which we love our neighbor. One same love holds for You, my God, as for our neighbor; it elevates us to union of our spirit with You, my God, and it brings us back to loving society with our neighbor, but in such a way that we love him because he is created to Your image and likeness, created to share in Your divine goodness, to participate in Your grace and enjoy Your glory.

St. Francis de Sales

"Ah, my God and Lord, how many there are who seek in You their own consolation and pleasure, and desire favors and gifts from You; but those who long to give You pleasure, please You and to give You something at their own cost, setting their own interests last, are very few. Give me the grace, O God, to follow You with a real love and a spirit of sacrifice, so that I may never seek for consolation or pleasure either in You or in aught else. I do not desire to pray to You for favors, for I see clearly that I have already received enough of these, and all my anxiety is set upon rendering You some service such as You merit, although it cost me much. O my Beloved, all that is rough and toilsome I desire for myself, and all that is sweet and delectable I desire for You."

St. John of the Cross

Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged . . . Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them.

Pope St. Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate

Ingratitude is the enemy of the soul, the destroyer of merit and virtue, causing the loss of favors. It is a burning wind which dries up the fountain of piety, the dew of mercy, the torrents of grace…. Every gift of God, whether great or small, should be gratefully acknowledged; not even the least grace should be forgotten.

St Bernard of Clairvaux

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth...

If anyone does not confess that the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and corporal, as regards their whole substance, have been created by God from nothing, let him be anathema. Vatican I, Canon 5

Nothing to thee is impossible, O thou who canst restore hope to those who have lost all hope. Moreover, it is possible to suppose that thou canst not but be favorably heard, since for all, with all and in all God obeys thee as His tender and Immaculate Mother!

St. Peter Damian

“Atheists were anomalies and exceptions, as the blind among men.”

A knowledge and belief of the existence of God has never been extinguished in the reason of mankind. The polytheisms and idolatries which surrounded it were corruptions of a central and dominant truth, which, although obscured, was never lost. And the tradition of this truth was identified with the higher and purer operations of the natural reason, which have been called the intellectual system of the world. The mass of mankind, howsoever debased, were always theists. Atheists were anomalies and exceptions, as the blind among men. The theism of the primeval revelation formed the intellectual system of the heathen world. The theism of the patriarchal revelation formed the intellectual system of the Hebrew race. The theism revealed in the incarnation of God has formed the intellectual system of the Christian world. “Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum.” The science or knowledge of God has built for itself a tabernacle in the intellect of mankind, inhabits it, and abides in it. The intellectual science of the world finds its perfection in the scientific expression of the theology of faith. But from first to last the reason of man is the disciple, not the critic, of the revelation of God: and the highest science of the human intellect is that which, taking its preamble from the light of nature, begins in faith; and receiving its axioms from faith (i.e.: DOGMA), expands by the procession of truth from truth. […..]

Of all the superstitious and senseless mockeries, and they were many, with which the world wagged its head at the Vatican Council, none was more profoundly foolish than the gibe that in the nineteenth century a Council has been solemnly called to declare the existence of God. In fact, it is this truth that the nineteenth century needs most of all. For as St. Jerome says, “Homo sine cognitione Dei, pecus.” But what the Council did eventually declare is, not the existence of God, but that the existence of God may be known with certitude by the reason of man through the works that He has created. This is the infallible light of the Natural Order, and the need of this definition is perceived by all who know the later Philosophies of Germany and France, and the rationalism, scepticism, and naturalism which pervades the literature, the public opinion, and the political action of the modern world. This was the first dominant error of these days, demanding the action of the Council. The second was the insidious undermining of the doctrinal authority of the Holy See, which for two hundred years had embarrassed the teaching of the Church, not only in controversy with adversaries without, but often in the guidance of some of its own members within the fold. The definition of the Infallible Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff has closed this period of contention The Divine certitude of the Supernatural Order completes the twofold infallibility of the knowledge of God in the natural and supernatural revelation of Himself. This was the work of the Vatican Council in its one memorable Session, in which the Councils of the Church, and especially the Councils of Florence and of Trent, culminated in defining the certitude of faith.

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, writing the introduction to Scheeben’s Dogmatic Theology in the English translation

“For He must reign.” (1 Cor. 15, 25)

A striking instance of how the saints conceived the right of Jesus Christ to reign over society and over all nations is had in the beautiful episode that took place at the court of the king of France in the year 1429 shortly before the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, saved that country from alien dominion and led Charles to Rheims, there to be solemnly crowned.

“Gentle Dauphin,” she asked him one day, in presence of the lords of the realm and of the nations, “will you promise to grant me what I shall ask you ?” The king at first hesitated, but at last answered: “Certainly, Joan, ask me what you will.”— “Gentle Dauphin,” she then said, “I ask you to give me your kingdom.”

The king, stupefied at such a request, for a time remained silent. At last, however, bound by his promise and conquered by the supernatural charm of Joan, he took his resolve:

“Joan,” he said, “I give you my kingdom.”

But the Maid was not satisfied with these words, though uttered in the presence of many witnesses. She requested that a solemn act should be drawn up and signed by four royal notaries. This done, she looked at the king with a pitiful smile, saying: “There is the poorest of all the knights of France. I pity him.”

Being now herself sovereign and mistress of France, she did not stop here. Turning to the secretaries, Write, she said, “‘Joan gives the kingdom to Jesus Christ.’” And soon after: “Write again: ‘Jesus gives the kingdom back to Charles.’”

Herein surely lies a great lesson. It implies that the kings of this world are but tributaries of Christ and it is their duty to give over to Him the scepter which they received either from their ancestors or by the election of the people. They should consider themselves as but the lieutenants of the King of kings, Jesus Christ. “They have called the people happy, that hath (the goods of this world) : but happy is (only) that people whose God is the Lord.”

Very Rev. Alexis M. Lepicier, O.S.M., Jesus Christ, The King of Our Hearts

Direct your prayer to one thing only; that is, to conform your will perfectly to the Divine Will. Be assured that there is no greater perfection attainable than this conformity, and that they who most earnestly strive for it will receive from God the richest graces and most quickly advance in the interior life. Believe me, this is the secret. Upon this point alone rests our sanctification.

St. Teresa of Jesus

“Let the reader accept the reasonable fact that the Pontiffs who pronounced these decrees (on No Salvation Outside the Church) were perfectly literate and fully cognizant of what they were saying. If there were any need to soften or qualify their meanings, they were quite capable of doing so..... Dogmas of the faith, like Outside the Church There is No Salvation, are truths fallen from heaven. The very point of a dogmatic definition is to DEFINE PRECISELY and EXACTLY what the Church means by the very words of the formula. If it does not do this by those very words in the formula then it has failed in its primary purpose – to define – and was pointless and worthless. ANYONE who says that we must interpret or understand the meaning of a dogmatic definition, in a way which contradicts its actual wording, is denying the whole point of Papal Infallibility and dogmatic definitions. They who insist that infallible DEFINITIONS must be interpreted by non-infallible statements (e.g., from theologians, catechisms, etc.) are denying the whole purpose of these infallible truths fallen from heaven. They are subordinating the dogmatic teaching of the Holy Ghost to the re-evaluation of fallible human documents, thereby inverting their authority, perverting their integrity and denying their purpose.”

Fr. James Wathen, Who Shall Ascend?

“O dear souls, let me repeat to you: Sanctity will cost you no more; do what you are doing; suffer what you are suffering: it is only your heart that need be changed. By the heart we mean the will. This change consists in willing what comes to us by the order of God. Yes, holiness of heart is a simple fiat, a simple disposition of conformity to the will of God. And what is easier? For who could not love so adorable and merciful a will? Let us love it, then, and through this love alone all within us will become divine.”

Fr. F. X. Lasance, Peace, Not as the World Gives

“Vices against nature are….. more grievous than the depravity of sacrilege.”

Wherefore just as in speculative matters the most grievous and shameful error is that which is about things the knowledge of which is naturally bestowed on man, so in matters of action it is most grave and shameful to act against things as determined by nature. [. . .] just as the ordering of right reason proceeds from men, so the order of nature is from God Himself, wherefore in sins contrary to nature, thereby the very order of nature is violated, an injury is done to God, the Author of nature. Vices against nature are also against God, as stated above, and are so much more grievous than the depravity of sacrilege, as the order impressed on human nature is prior to and more firm than any subsequently established order.

St. Thomas, ST, II-II, Q 154, a 12, ad 1& 2

Julian the Apostate, Emperor of Rome, attempts the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem

The lone dissenting voice was St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem; who according to St. Eusebius predicted dire consequences for the day lime was mixed to make mortar for the foundation stones. The Jews scorned Cyril’s prediction. The enthusiastic effort went smoothly for a while. Rubble that covered the site for centuries was removed, exposing the original foundation. But when new construction was about to begin, things started to go wrong. “During the night,” says Eusebius, “there arose a huge storm, the earth shook, and huge balls of fire burst forth from the ground and continued to do so through the next day. Instruments melted, workers were burnt to death, strange crosses appeared on the clothes and bodies, a luminous cross shone in the sky, and the enterprise had to be abandoned. A violent tremor caused a portico to collapse killing a number of workers.”

According to St. John Chrysostom, Julian “overlooked nothing but worked quietly and a little at a time to bring the Jews to offer sacrifice, in this way he expected that it would be easy for them to go from sacrifice to the worship of idols.” The emperor’s construction crew was about to start construction of the new temple, “when suddenly fire leaped forth from the foundations and completely consumed not only a great number of workmen but even the stones piled up there to support the structure.

St. Gregory of Nazianzen says the Jewish women “carried the dirt in their lap with no consideration for their robes and for the tenderness of their bodies, because they say in all this is a work of piety, as they carried everything downward” from the Temple foundations to a nearby valley. “But,” St. Gregory continues, “a sudden whirlwind and the convulsion of the earth caused them to move to a nearby church… as they (the Jewish women) reached the door of the church which was open, suddenly those doors closed, as if by an invisible hand, which filled with fear the impious and protected the devout. It is reported unanimously and held for certain that when they tried to open the door of the church, flames that burst forth from the inside prevented them from forcing the door open. The flames then burnt some of them and destroyed others… Still others lost various limbs of their bodies to the flames that burst from inside the church and burnt some of them to death”….

Ammianus Marcellus, Julian’s pagan biographer, reports “frightful balls of flame kept bursting forth near the foundations of the temple” which “make it impossible to approach the place,” even though “Alypius pushed the work forward energetically” and “was assisted by the governor of the province.” Alypius ordered men to their deaths by ordering them into the flames from the Temple’s foundations, but he eventually conceded defeat because “the elements (of fire) persistently drove them back.” Ammianus noted, “Julian gave up the attempt.”

St. John Chrysostom says, “This did not happen in the times of the good emperors; no one can say that the Christians came and prevented the work from being finished. It happened at a time when our religion was subject to persecution, when all our lives were in danger, when every man was afraid to speak, when paganism flourished. Some of the faithful hid in their homes, others fled the marketplaces and moved to the deserts. This is when these events occurred… So the Jews have no excuse left to them for their impudence… They were men who constantly resisted the Holy Spirit, revolutionaries bent on stirring up sedition. After the destruction under Vespasian and Titus, these Jews rebelled during the reign of Hadrian and tried to go back to the old commonwealth and way of life. What they failed to realize was that they were fighting against the decree of God, who had ordered that Jerusalem remain forever in ruins.”

E. Michael Jones, PhD, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit

Philip Trower, in his 2003 book Turmoil & Truth: The Historical Roots of the Modern Crisis in the Catholic Church, wrote, “The number of outsiders that the reforms [of Vatican II] have succeeded in attracting to the Church is still small compared with the numbers of the faithful whom revolution and dissent have been sweeping away from Catholic belief.” The Pew Survey bears this out: The depressing flipside of the loss of one-third of the native U.S. Catholic population is that only 2.6 percent of current U.S. Catholics are converts.

New Oxford Review, The U.S. Catholic Church Is Sinking Fast

The End of Catholic Education in America- the 57^th anniversary & who killed it.

“To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself.”

Land O’ Lakes Conference 1967, directed by Fr. Hesburgh of Notre Dame, statement on the nature of the Catholic University

“What is the worst thing that can happen to us? John Paul II will tell the world that Notre Dame is not a Catholic university. Who will believe him?”

Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame University, in response to concerns that Ex Corde Ecclesiae (On Catholic Universities) would impose Catholic standards on the Catholic universities.

"God is the motive for loving the neighbor which proves that the act by which we love God is the same as that by which we love the neighbor. Hence the virtue of charity does not stop at the love of God, but it also includes love of neighbor…. Love of neighbor is not meritorious if the neighbor is not loved because of God."

St. Thomas Aquinas

“The springs of action are to be found in belief, and conduct ultimately rests upon conviction.”

St. Francis of Assisi

“There are many who if they commit sin or suffer wrong often blame their enemy or their neighbor. But this is not right, for each one has his enemy in his power, - to wit, the body by which he sins. Wherefore blessed is that servant who always holds captive the enemy thus given into his power and wisely guards himself from it, for so long as he acts thus no other enemy visible or invisible can do him harm.”

St. Francis of Assisi, on mortification

“How much interior patience and humility a servant of God may have cannot be known so long as he is contented. But when the time comes that those who ought to please him go against him, as much patience and humility as he then shows, so much has he and no more.”

St. Francis, on patience

“And let no man be bound by obedience to obey any one in that where sin or offence is committed.”

St. Francis of Assisi, Letter to all the Faithful

Ecumenism both the Mother and the Child of Indifferentism

86% of Catholics hold that “many religions can lead to eternal life.” Only 10% of Catholics hold that the Catholic Church “is the one true faith.” Pew Poll

Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. – Condemned. Pope Pius IX, Syllabus of Modern Errors, Dec. 8, 1864

An insight that applies so perfectly to the Novus Ordo Cult

“The greatest part of mankind have no other reason for their opinions than that they are in fashion… since vanity and credulity cooperate in its favour.”

Samuel Johnson, 1745

God commands us to fast, but He does not command us to fast all the time, because we would die. He commands us to keep vigil, but He does not command us to keep vigil at all times, because we would die if we never slept. However, God does command us to pray without ceasing, because the mind was created to pray.

St. Evagrius of Pontus (345-399), Church desert father

Stand in the multitude of ancients that are wise and join thyself from thy heart to their wisdom: that thou mayst hear every discourse of God.

Ecclesiasticus 6:35

My dear daughters the majority of our holy Fathers and pillars of the Church did not suffer martyrdom. Can you tell me why? I think it is because there is a martyrdom called the martyrdom of love, wherein God, while preserving the lives of His servants, causes them to be at the same time both martyrs and confessors… But this refers to those generous hearts who, without ever looking back, are faithful to their lover. As for weaklings, Our Lord does not think of martyrdom for them. He is content to let them pursue their quiet way at their own pace, lest, if He should urge them on too fast, they should fail Him altogether. And what does martyrdom of love consist? Give your will to God and you will feel it.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal, addressing her Visitation Sisters

Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

Catholic Faith:

Physical substances come into being through the union of substantial form and primary matter. The Soul is the Substantial Form of the Human Body; it is immortal and will be judged after the death of the person and directed to Heaven or Hell for all eternity awaiting to be joined again to its Body at the Resurrection of the Dead for the Last Judgment.

“In order that all may know the truth of the faith in its purity and all error may be excluded, we define that anyone who presumes henceforth to assert defend or hold stubbornly that the rational or intellectual soul is not the form of the human body of itself and essentially, is to be considered a heretic.”

Council of Vienne

Neo-Modernists Ideology: [Ratzinger quotes provided by James Larson, War Against Being]

“The medieval concept of substance has long since become inaccessible to us.”

Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future

“The proper Christian thing, therefore, is to speak, not of the soul’s immortality, but of the resurrection of the complete human being [at the Final Judgment] and of that alone… The idea that to speak of the soul is unbiblical was accepted to such an extent that even the new Roman Missal (i.e.: the Novus Ordo) suppressed the term anima in its liturgy for the dead. It also disappeared from the ritual for burial.”

Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

“‘The soul’ is our term for that in us which offers a foothold for this relation [with the eternal]. Soul is nothing other than man’s capacity for relatedness with truth, with love eternal.”

Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

“The challenge to traditional theology today lies in the negation of an autonomous, ‘substantial’ soul with a built-in immortality in favor of that positive view which regards God’s decision and activity as the real foundation of a continuing human existence.”

Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

And those who have denied the reality of substantial being are those who are responsible for the “dictatorship of relativism.”

“Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (Eph 4, 14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labelled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today’s standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognise anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Homily of the Dean of the College of Cardinals, 2005

Sacrament of Baptism: Significance of the Baptismal Character and why it is absolutely necessary for salvation. Explains why St. Ambrose said regarding catechumens who die before receiving the sacrament of Baptism, they are “forgiven but not crowned”.

To be baptized is to become one with the Church, and one with Christ. Thus the ritual can say: “enter into the temple of God, that you may have part with Christ, unto life everlasting.” The two ideas are correlative: to be baptized into the Church and to be baptized into Christ; they are the visible and invisible aspects of the same real effect. [….]

The effecting this incorporation into Christ, Baptism marks the soul as permanently His; it stamps upon the soul a spiritual “character”, or, as antiquity more commonly called it, a “seal”. For this reason, and putting the cause for the effect, the rite of Baptism was itself called “the seal”, or “the seal of faith”, or “the seal of water”, or “the seal of the Trinity” (which last appellation endures still in the liturgical prayers for the dying, wherein God is asked to remember His promises to the soul that in its lifetime was “stamped with the seal of the Most Holy Trinity”).

The word “seal” derives from a group of texts in St. Paul, which suggest this stamping of the soul at Baptism: “And in Him (Christ), you too, when you had heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and believed in it, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise” (Eph. 1:13); “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). However, nowadays we are accustomed to speak rather of the baptismal “character”, a term that suggests the text wherein Christ is called “the brightness of His (the Father’s) glory and the image (in Greek, character) of His substance” (Hebr. 1:3).

Basically, two words give the same meaning: a seal imprints an image, and a “character”, in the original sense of the word, means image. Baptism, therefore, stamps the soul with the image of Christ, Who is Himself the image of the Father. And in the Scripture, this stamping is attributed to the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Christ. The fact that we are stamped with such a character is clearly defined by the Council of Trent:

“If anyone says that by the three Sacraments, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation and Orders, there is not imprinted in the soul a Character, that is a certain spiritual and indelible sign on account of which they cannot be repeated; let him be anathem.” (Denz. 852).

The Council of Trent teaches that this seal, once stamped on the soul, is indelible. Just as Baptism irrevocable makes one a member of the Church, so also it irrevocably makes one a member of Christ. Not the gravest sin, nor even final impenitence and self-condemnation to eternal separation from Christ in Hell, can avail to erase this baptismal seal. And the indelibility of the seal is the immediate reason why Baptism can never be repeated, once it has been validly received. [….]

The sense in which Baptism stamps us with the image of Christ is suggested in the rite itself, by the anointing which follows the ablution. It is done with Sacred Chrism, a mixed unguent of oil and balm, specially consecrated by the bishop on Holy Thursday. Kings and priests in antiquity (and even today) were anointed with chrism in token of their royal and priestly dignity. And the baptism anointing signifies, therefore, that the new Christian has entered into the “royal priesthood” of the Christian people, and shares in the royal Priesthood of Christ Himself. He bears the image of Christ, inasmuch as Christ was the Priest of all humanity, Who offered Himself in sacrifice on the Cross.

The baptismal seal or character, therefore, endows the Christian with a priestly function, and a priestly power. It is not that special power and function given by the Sacrament of Holy Orders to certain selected members of the Church, who are made her official ministers, and authorized to offer her sacrifice and dispense her Sacraments. But it is the priestly function and power which is common to all the members of the Body of Christ. As He was born as Priest, His whole life orientated toward the Passion and Death which was His priestly Sacrifice, so too, they are priests from their birth into the Christian life at Baptism; and their lives are essentially orientated toward sacrifice, in a double sense.

First of all, they receive a function and a power with respect to the ritual Sacrifice of the Church, which is the Mass. [….] They are empowered to assist actively in the offering of the Mass, as members of the Church, in whose name her specially qualified members, priests and bishops, offer the Mass, which is the sacrifice of the whole Church through her official ministers. In union with the Priest, the Christian offers up Christ as a Victim Who belongs to him and to Whom he belongs. An unbaptized person cannot do this….

Secondly, the baptismal character consecrates the Christian to sacrifice in a wider sense: it gives him the function, the duty, the power to lead a life of sacrifice, since He is in the image of Christ whose life was one long sacrifice – a life of complete obedience to the will of His Father: “I seek not My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn. 3:50).The will of the Father is the supreme law of the Christian’s life; it is all embracing and all pervasive; and constant and total obedience to it necessarily gives a sacrificial quality to the whole of life, since it demands the renunciation of many ideas, and a steady refusal to be led by one’s own emotions or to seek one’s own pleasure and profit – in a word, it demands the sacrifice of selfishness in all its forms. St. Peter, therefore, was thinking of Baptism when he wrote:

“Lay aside therefore all malice and all deceit, and pretense, and envy, and all slander…. Be you yourselves as living stones, built thereon (i.e., on Christ) into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:1,5).

Rev. John J. Fernan, S.J., Theology, Christ Our High Priest, Baptismal Seal

“Some shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared.”

St. Paul, (1 Tim. 4: 1-2)

"Moreover, theologians who have written ex professo on the subject, declare that there is mortal sin in anyone who has a cure of souls if he does not proceed to exorcise the possessed. It is therefore clear that there is mortal sin in opposing an exorcism and in preventing help from reaching the unfortunate souls who have to suffer such a terrible spiritual and physical ordeal."

Abbe Auguste Saudreau, Director of the Mother-House of the Good Shepherd at Angers, The Mystic State and the Extraordinary Facts of Spiritual Life

Abbe Auguste Saudreau (1859-1946) was ordained for the Diocese of Angers in 1883. He was parish priest in Saumur until 1895, when he was appointed chaplain at the mother-house of the Good Shepherd Sisters, at Angers, where he remained until his death. When he became chaplain, Msgr. Saudreau began to write on spiritual theology. He was a prolific writer and soon acquired an international reputation as a spiritual director through his books and his articles in periodicals. Many of his books were translated into several languages.

Saudreau followed the doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross on the structure of the spiritual life and the growth of the soul in grace. He taught that the mystical state embraced infused contemplation, which proceeds from faith illumined by the gifts of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and also an infused love, the fruit of a special, operating grace, to which the gift of piety renders the soul increasingly docile. The mystical life thus described is not an extraordinary phenomenon, but the normal development of the virtues and the gifts.

Two of his classics, The Way that Leads to God and The Degrees of the Spiritual Life, are available on line at the Internet Archive.

Remember in your charity:

Remember the welfare of our expectant mother: Cecilia Zepeda, Victoria Dimmel, and Vanessa LoStrocco,

Philip Thees requests our prayers for the heath of Mary Glatz,

For the spiritual welfare of Margaret Connelly is the petition of Camilla Meiser,

Linda Boyd, for her health,

Pete Schiffbauer, a cousin of Monic Bandlow who is gravely ill,

Joan R. Barr, the widow of F. Donald Barr who died March 7, they were married 70 years,

Lester Krol, recently injured in a MVA,

Cole Schneider, prayers for his welfare are requested by Camilla Meiser,

JoAnn Niekrewicz, for her recovery from a recent fall and shoulder injury,

The Drews ask prayers for the spiritual and physical welfare of Robert Carballo and Juan Gonzalez,

Conversion of Jack Gentry, the nephew of Camilla Meiser,

For Sr. Maria Junipera, who took her final vows as a nun with the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire April 8,

Stephen Bryan, the brother of a devout Catholic religious, for his spiritual welfare,

Marie Kolinsky, for her health and spiritual welfare is the petition of her family,

Gene Peters requests our prayers for the conversion of Shirley Young and Carl Loy who are dying,

Rev. Leo Carley, an eighty-nine year old priest faithful to Catholic tradition, who is seriously ill,

For the recovery of Hayden Yanchek, the grandson of Francis Yanchek, injured in a farming accident,

Maureen Nies, for the recovery of her health is the petition of Camilla Meiser,

Daniel Vargs, for his health is the petition of his parents,

Art Noel, for the restoration of his health,

For the welfare of Peg Berry and her husband, Bill,

Marianne Connelly asks prayers for Chris Foley, who is gravely ill, and the welfare of his wife, Mary Beth,

The spiritual welfare of the Sal & Maria Messineo family is the petition of the Drew’s,

Liz Agosta, who is seriously ill, for her spiritual and temporal welfare,

Warren Hoffman, a long time member of our Mission who is in failing health,

Patrick Boyle, for the recovery of his health and his spiritual welfare,

For the spiritual welfare of the Drew children,

Lamonte White, requests our prayers for his spiritual and temporal welfare,

Monica Bandlow request our prayers for the welfare of Ray who is recovering from a MVA, and his daughter, Sonya, and Tera Jean Kopczynski, who is in failing health, and for a good death for Mr. Howald, Kathy Simons, Regina Quinn, James Mulgrew, Ruth Beaucheane, John Kopczynski, Roger & Mandy Owen

The health and spiritual welfare of Nate Schaeffer is the petition of Gene Peters,

Peg Berry requests our prayers for her brother, William Habekost,

Louise McCarthy, who has suffered a stroke,

For the health and welfare of Katherine Wedel,

For the recently widowed, Maike Hickson, and her children,

For the spiritual welfare of the Carmelite nuns in Fairfield, PA,

Geralyn Zagorski, recovery of her health and spiritual welfare and the conversion of Randal Pace is the petition of Philip Thees,

For the grandson of Joe & Liz Agusta,

Fr. Waters requests our prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of Elvira Donaghy,

For the health and conversion of Stephen Henderson,

Fr. Paul DaDamio requests our prayers for the welfare of Rob Ward, and his sister, Debra Wagaman,

For the health and spiritual welfare of Peggy Cummings, the neice of Camila Meiser, who is gravely ill,

Kaitlyn McDonald, for the recovery of her health and spiritual welfare,

Roco Sbardella, for his health and spiritual welfare,

Mufide Rende requests our prayers for the spiritual and physical welfare of the Rende Family,

The Vargas’ request our prayers for the spiritual welfare of their son, Nicholas,

Family, for the welfare of Lazarus Handley, his mother, Julia, and his brother, Raphael, with Down’s Syndrome,

Fr. Waters requests prayers for the spiritual and physical welfare of Frank McKee,

Nancy Bennett, for the recovery of her health,

For the spiritual welfare of Mark Roberts, a Catholic faithful to tradition,

Joe Sentmanet request prayers for Scott Nettles (who is in need of conversion), who is gravely ill,

Michael Brigg requests our prayers for the health of John Romeo,

The health and welfare of Gene Peters,

Conversion of Anton Schwartzmueller, is the paryer request of his children,

Stacy Fernandez requests are prayers for the heath of Terry Patterson, Steven Becerra, and Roberto Valez,

Christine Kozin, for her health and spiritual welfare,

Teresa Gonyea, for her conversion and health, is the petition of her grandmother, Patricia McLaughlin,

Nolan Moran, a three year old diagnosed with brain tumor, and his family,

For the health of Sonya Kolinsky,

Jackie Dougherty asks our prayers for her brother who is gravely ill, John Lee,

Rose Bradley asks our prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of her granddaughter, Meg Bradley,

Timothy & Crisara, a couple from Maryland have requested our prayers for their spiritual welfare,

Celine Pilegaard, the seven year old daughter of Cynthia Pilegaard, for her recovery from burn injuries,

Rafaela de Saravia, for her health and welfare,

Mary Mufide, requests our prayers for her family,

Abbe Damien Dutertre, traditional Catholic priest arrested by Montreal police while offering Mass,

Francis (Frank) X. McLaughlin, for the recovery of his health,

Nicholas Pell, for his health and spiritual welfare is the petition of Camilla Meizer,

Mary Kaye Petr, her health and welfare is petitioned by Camilla Meizer,

The welfare of Excellency Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,

The welfare of Rev. Fr. Martin Skierka, who produces the traditional Ordo in the U.S.,

For the health and welfare of Katie Wess, John Gentry, Vincent Bands, Todd Chairs, Susan Healy and James O’Gentry is the petition of Camilia,

Marieann Reuter, recovery of her health, Kathy Kepner, for her health, Shane Cox, for his health, requests of Philip Thees,

Thomas A. Nelson, long time faithful traditional Catholic the founder and former owner of TAN Books & Publishing, suffered a recent stroke,

The Joseph Cox Family, their spiritual welfare,

The Thomas Dube Family, for their conversion and spiritual welfare,

Luis Rafael Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, spiritual welfare,

For the health of Kim Cochran, the daughter-in-law of Joseph and Brenda Cochran, the wife of their son Joshua,

Louie Verrecchio, Catholic apologist, who has a health problem,

John Minidis, Jr. family, for help in their spiritual trial,

Joann DeMarco, for her health and spiritual welfare,

Regina (Manidis) Miller, her spiritual welfare and health,

Melissa Elena Levitt, her conversion, and welfare of her children,

For the grace of a holy death, Nancy Marie Claycomb,

The health and spiritual welfare of Tom Grow, Amanda Gardner, and Alex Estrada,

Conversion of Annette Murowski, and her son Jimmy,

Brent Keith from Indiana has petitioned our prayers for the Keith Family,

The welfare of the Schmedes Family, and the Mike and Mariana Donohue Family,

The spiritual welfare Robert Holmes Family,

For the spiritual and temporal welfare of Irwin Kwiat,

Fr. Waters asks our prayers for Elvira Donaghy,

Kimberly Ann, the daughter of John and Joann DeMarco, for her health and spiritual welfare,

Mufide Rende, a traditional Catholic from India has asked our prayers for her welfare and he family members, living and deceased,

Mary Glatz, her health and the welfare of her family,

Barbara Harmon, who is ill, and still cares for her ailing parents,

Jason Green, a father of ten children, recovery of his health,

For the health and welfare of Sorace family,

Fr. Waters asks our prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of Brian Abramowitz,

Thomas Schiltz family, in grateful appreciation for their contribution to the beauty of our chapel,

Welfare of Bishop Richard Williamson, for strength and courage in the greater battles to come,

John Rhoad, for his health and spiritual welfare,

Kathy Boyle, requests our prayers for her welfare,

Joyce Laughman and Robert Twist, for their conversions,

Michael J. Brigg & his family, who have helped with the needs of the Mission,

Nancy Deegan, her welfare and conversion to the Catholic Church,

Francis Paul Diaz, who was baptized at Ss. Peter & Paul, asks our prayers for his spiritual welfare,

The conversion of Rene McFarland, Lori Kerr, Cary Shipman and family, David Bash, Crystal and family, Larry Reinhart, Costanzo Family, Kathy Scullen, Marilyn Bryant, Vicki Trahern and Time Roe are the petitions of Gene Peters,

For the conversion of Ben & Tina Boettcher family, Karin Fraessdorf, Eckhard Ebert, and Fahnauer family,

Fr. Waters requests our prayers for Br. Rene, SSPX who has been ill, and for Fr. Thomas Blute,

For the health and conversion of Kathryn Lederhos, the aunt of David Drew,

For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T. Welsh,

The Drew’s ask our prayers for the welfare of Joe & Tracey Sentmanat family, Keith & Robert Drew, Christy Koziol & her children, Fred Nesbit and Michael Nesbit families, and Gene Peters Family, the John Manidis Family, the Sal Messinio Family, Michael Proctor Family,

Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing health,

Mel Gibson and his family, please remember in our prayers,

Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins requested our prayers for the welfare of his Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,

Ebert’s request our prayers for the Andreas & Jenna Ortner Family,

Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for George Richard Moore Sr. & his children, and her brother, George Panell,

Philip Thees asks our prayers for his family, for McLaughlin Family, the welfare of Dan & Polly Weand, the conversion of Sophia Herman, Tony Rosky, the welfare Nancy Erdeck, the wife of the late Deacon Erdeck, John Calasanctis, Tony Rosky, James Parvenski, Kathleen Gorry, health of mind and body of Cathy Farrar.

Pray for the Repose of the Souls:

Sal Messineo, a faithful traditional Catholic, died August 14,

Patricia Askew, a friend of Camilla Meiser, died July 3,

Joseph Kerney, a young man whose family provided the statues of the Sacred Heart, Mary and Joseph in our sanctuary, died May 30,

Louis Richard Ajlouny, the father of Randa Sharpe, died May 15,

Rene Guidicessi, died April 25, an old friend of the Drews,

F. Donald Barr, died March 7 at 94 years of age, co-founder of Robert Francis Religious Goods, in Philadelphia,

Dr. David Allen White, a well known defender of the Catholic faith, died February 11,

Bishop Richard Williamson, a renowned defender of the Catholic faith and most charitable gentleman, died January 29,

Rodolfo Alberto Lacayo, a cousin of Claudia Drew, died January 4,

Genieve Wallace, died Christmas day,

Ruth Marion Beaucheane, died December 8, is the petition of Monica Bandlow,

Ana Maria Salcedo, the sister of Mario Fiol, died November 26,

Fr. Johin Cardaro, a traditional Catholic priest who was found dead in his home November 2,

Robert Carballo asks that we remember his parents, Roberto & Aida Carballo, and his friend, David Duclos, who died April 15,

Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais who may have been responsible for preventing the SSPX's public reconciliation with Rome in 2012, died October 8,

Lorna Edwards, our dear friend and loyal supporter of this Mission, died August 10,

Lois Petti, died July 28 two hours after receiving the Last Sacraments from Fr. Waters,

Wolfgang Smith, a renowned Catholic scholar, mathematician, scientist, philosopher, who helped the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, died July 19,

Willaim Glatz, a good and faithful Catholic, died July 17,

Alicio Gonzalez, a Catholic who asked for the sacrament of Extreme Unction, unfortunately did not receive, died July 9,

John Zavodny, a faithful Catholic who died wearing the scapular of Mt Carmel on the first Saturday of May, requested by Phyllis Virgil,

Catherine Martel, a lapsed Catholic, received the last sacraments in a good disposition from Fr. Waters on March 25 and died on April 4,

Father Basilio Méramo, a faithful priest, died March 5, removed from the SSPX for opposing their accommodation with Rome,

Julia McDonald, the mother of Kyle McDonald, died March 1,

Agnus Melnick, died February 28, a long time faithful Catholic and mother of eight children, including a traditional priest,

Kathryn (Drew) Lederhos, of Wellesley, MA, died February 3, 2024,

Chris Foley, the brother of Mary Lou Loftus, died February 1,

Louis Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, died January 30,

Fr. James Louis Albert Campbell, a faithful priest who died December 18 at 91 years of age, and her mother and father, Teresa and Thomas Maher,

Charles Harmon, the father of Tracey Sentmanet, died October 1, after receiving the rites of the Church,

Fr. Waters requests prayers for Elvira Donaghy, his friend and former secretary a for Bishop Gerado Zendejas, died September 9,

Robert Hickson, a faithful Catholic apologist who died Septembber 2,

Monica Bandlow requests prayers for her parents, Thomas & Teresa Maher, her husband, William Bandlow, her brother-in-law, Richard Bandlow, her sister, Mary Maher, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, who died March 17, Robert Byrne, Michelle Donofrio McDowell, her cousin, Patricia Fabyanic, the Prefect of Our Lady’s Sodality, March 8, for John Pfeiffer who died August 20, Theresa Hanley, died July 23, Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX, who died December 20, John Kinney, died December 21, Willaim Price, Jr., and Robert Arch Ward, died January 10, and Myra, killed in a MVA June 6,

John Sharpe, Sr., died July 20,

Maria Paulette Salazar, died June 6,

Dale Kinsey requests prayers for his wife, Katherine Kinsey, died May 17,

Richard Giles, who died April 29, the father of Traci Sentmanat who converted to the Catholic faith last All Saints' Day,

Joseph Sparks, a devout and faithful Catholic to tradition died February 25,

Joyce Paglia, died January 21, and Anthony Paglia, died January 28, who were responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,

Joe Sentmanet request prayers for Richard Giles and Claude Harmon who converted to the Catholic faith shortly before their deaths,

Rodolfo Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, died January 9,

Elizabeth Agosta petitions our prayers for Joseph Napolitano, her brother, who died January 2,

Michael Dulisse, died on December 26,

Michael Proctor, a close friend of the Drews, died November 9,

Richard Anthony Giles, the father-in-law of Joe Sentmanat converted to the Catholic faith on All Saints Day, died November 5,

Robert Kolinsky, the husband of Sonja, died September 18,

Gabriel Schiltz, the daughter of Thomas & Gay Schiltz, died August 21,

Mary Dimmel, the mother –in-law of Victoria Drew Dimmel, died July 18,

Michael Nesbit, the brother-in-law and dear friend of the Drew's, died July 14,

Thomas Thees, the brother of Philip, died June 19,

Carmen Ragonese, died June 22,

Juanita Mohler, a friend of Camella Meiser, died June 14,

Kathleen Elias, died February 14,

Hernan Ortiz, the brother of Fr. Juan Carlos Ortiz, died February 3,

Mary Ann Boyle, the mother of a second order Dominican nun, a first order Dominican priest, and a SSPX priest, died January 24,

John DeMarco, who attended this Mission in the past, died January23,

Charles O’Brien, the father of Marlene Cox, died December 30,

Mufide Rende requests our prayers for the repose of the souls of her parents, Mehmet & Nedime,

Kathleen Donelly, died December 29 at 91 years of age, ran the CorMariae website,

Matthew O'Hare, most faithful Catholic, died at age 40 on November 30,

Rev. Patrick J. Perez, a Catholic priest faithful to tradition, pastor Our Lady Help of Christians, Garden Grove, CA, November 19,

Elizabeth Benedek, died December 14, requested by her niece, Agnes Vollkommer,

Dolores Smith and Richard Costello, faithful Catholics, died November,

Frank D’Agustino, a friend of Philp Thees, died November 8,

Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, of the SSPX, Prior of St. Vincent in Kansas City, died September 4,

Pablo Daniel Silva, the brother of Elizabeth Vargas, died August 18,

Rose Bradley, a member of Ss. Peter & Paul, died July 14,

Patricia Ellias, died June 1, recently returned to the Church died with the sacraments and wearing the brown scapular,

Joan Devlin, the sister-in-law of Rose Bradley, died May 18,

William Muligan, died April 29, two days after receiving the last sacraments,

Robert Petti, died March 19, the day after receiving the last sacraments,

Mark McDonald, the father of Kyle, who died December 26,

Perla Otero, died December 2020, Leyla Otero, January 2021, cousins of Claudia Drew,

Mehmet Rende, died December 12, who was the father of Mary Mufide,

Joseph Gravish, died November 26, 100 year old WWII veteran and daily communicant,

Jerome McAdams, the father of, died November 30,

Rev. James O’Hara, died November 8, requested by Alex Estrada,

Elizabeth Batko, the sacristan at St. John the Baptist in Pottstown for over 40 years, died on First Saturday November 7 wearing the brown scapular,

William Cox, the father of Joseph Cox, who died September 3,

James Larson, Catholic apologists, author of War Against Being publication, died July 6, 2020,

Hutton Gibson, died May 12,

Sr. Regina Cordis, Immaculate Heart of Mary religious for sixty-five years, died May 12,

Leslie Joan Matatics, devoted Catholic wife and mother of nine children, died March 24,

Victoria Zelaya, the sister-in-law of Claudia Drew, died March 20,

Ricardo DeSilva, died November 16, our prayers requested by his brother, Henry DeSilva,

Rev. Fr. Joseph F. Collins, died April 27, 2019 to whom we are indebted for establishing our traditional pre-Bugnini Holy Week in all its beauty,

Roland H. Allard, a friend of the Drew’s, died September 28,

Stephen Cagorski and John Bogda, who both died wearing the brown scapular,

Cecilia LeBow, a most faithful Catholic,

Rose Cuono, died Oct 23,

Patrick Rowen, died March 25, and his brother, Daniel Rowen, died May 15,

Sandra Peters, the wife of Gene Peters, who died June 10 receiving the sacraments and wearing our Lady’s scapular,

Rev. Francis Slupski, a priest who kept the Catholic faith and its immemorial traditions, died May 14,

Martha Mochan, the sister of Philip Thees, died April 8,

George Kirsch, our good friend and supporter of this Mission, died February 15,

For Fr. Paul J. Theisz, died October 17, is the petition of Fr. Waters,

Fr. Mecurio Fregapane, died Jan 12, was not a traditional priest but always charitable,

Fr. Casimir Peterson, a priest who often offered the Mass in our chapel and provided us with sound advice, died December 4,

Fr. Constantine Bellasarius, a faithful and always charitable Eastern Rite Catholic Melkite priest, who left the Roman rite, died November 27,

Christian Villegas, a motor vehicle accident, his brother, Michael, requests our prayers,

John Vennari, the former editor of Catholic Family News, and for his family’s welfare, April 4,

Mary Butler, the aunt of Fr. Samuel Waters, died October 17,

Joseph DeMarco, the nephew of John DeMarco, died October 3,

John Fergale, died September 25 after receiving the traditional sacramental rites of the Church wearing the brown scapular,

John Gabor, the brother of Donna Marbach, died September 9,

Fr. Eugene Dougherty, a faithful priest, fittingly died on the Nativity of the BVM after receiving the traditional Catholic sacraments,

Phyllis Schlafly, died September 5,

Helen Mackewicz, died August 14,

Mark A. Wonderlin, who died August 2,

Fr. Carl Cebollero, a faithful priest to tradition who was a friend of Fr. Waters and Fr. DeMaio,

Jessica Cortes, a young mother of ten who died June 12,

Frances Toriello, a life-long Catholic faithful to tradition, died June3, the feast of the Sacred Heart, and her husband Dan, died in 1985,

John McLaughlin, a friend of the Drew’s, died May 22,

Angela Montesano, who died April 30, and her husband, Salvatore, who died in July 3, 2013,

Charles Schultz, died April 5, left behind nine children and many grandchildren, all traditional Catholics,

Esperanza Lopez de Callejas, the aunt of Claudia Drew, died March 15,

Fr. Edgardo Suelo, a faithful priest defending our traditions who was working with Fr. Francois Chazal in the Philippines, died February 19,

Conde McGinley, a long time laborer for the traditional faith, died February 12, at 96 years,

The Drew family requests your prayers for Ida Fernandez and Rita Kelley, parishioners at St. Jude,

Fr. Stephen Somerville, a traditional priest who repented from his work with the Novus Ordo English translation, died December 12,

Fr. Arturo DeMaio, a priest that helped this Mission with the sacraments and his invaluable advice, died December 2,

J. Paul Carswell, died October 15, 2015,

Solange Hertz, a great defender of our Catholic faith, died October 3, the First Saturday of the month,

Paula P. Haigh, died October 22, a great defender of our Catholic faith in philosophy and natural science,

Gabriella Whalin, the mother of Gabriella Schiltz, who died August 25,

Mary Catherine Sick, 14 year old from a large traditional Catholic family, died August 25,

Fr. Paul Trinchard, a traditional Catholic priest, died August 25,

Stephen J. Melnick, Jr., died on August 21, a long-time faithful traditional Catholic husband and father, from Philadelphia,

Patricia Estrada, died July 29, her son Alex petitions our prayers for her soul,

Fr. Nicholas Gruner, a devoted priest & faithful defender of Blessed Virgin Mary and her Fatima message, died April 29,

Sarah E. Shindle, the grandmother of Richard Shindle, died April 26,

Madeline Vennari, the mother of John Vennari, died December 19,

Salvador Baca Callejas, the uncle of Claudia Drew, died December 13,

Robert Gomez, who died in a motor vehicle accident November 29,

Catherine Dunn, died September 15,

Anthony Fraser, the son of Hamish Fraser, died August 28,

Jeannette Rhoad, the grandmother of Devin Rhoad, who died August 24,

John Thees, the uncle of Philip Thees, died August 9,

Sarah Harkins, 32 year-old mother of four children, died July 28,

Msgr. Donald Adams, who offered the Indult Mass, died April 1996,

Anita Lopez, the aunt of Claudia Drew,

Fr. Kenneth Walker, a young traditional priest of the FSSP who was murdered in Phoenix June 11,

Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for Gilberte Violette, the mother of Fr. Violette, who died May 6,

Pete Hays petitions our prayers for his brothers, Michael, died May 9, and James, died October 20, his sister, Rebecca, died March17, and his mother, Lorraine Hayes who died May 4,

Philip Marbach, the father of Paul Marbach who was the coordinator at St. Jude in Philadelphia, died April 21,

Richard Slaughtery, the elderly sacristan for the SSPX chapel in Kansas City, died April 13,

Bernedette Marie Evans nee Toriello, the daughter of Daniel Toriello , died March 31, a faithful Catholic who suffered many years with MS,

Natalie Cagorski, died march 23,

Anita Lopez de Lacayo, the aunt of Claudia Drew, who died March 21,

Mario Palmaro, Catholic lawyer, bioethicist and professor, apologist, died March 9, welfare of his widow and children,

Daniel Boyle, the uncle of Ryan Boyle, died March 4,

Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died on January 25,

Arthur Harmon, died January 18,

Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for the soul of Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died January 17,

Joseph Proctor, died January 10,

Susan Scott, a devote traditional Catholic who made the vestments for our Infant of Prague statue, died January 8,

Brother Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., (Fred Farrell), an early supporter and friend of Fr. Leonard Feeney, died November 23,

John Fergale, requests our prayers for his sister Connie, who died December 19,

Jim Capaldi, died December 15,

Brinton Creager, the son of Elizabeth Carpenter, died December 10,

Christopher Lussos, age 27, the father of one child with an expecting wife, died November 15,

Jarett Ebeyer, 16 year old who died in his sleep, November 17, at the request of the Kolinsky’s,

Catherine Nienaber, the mother of nine children, the youngest three years of age, killed in MVA after Mass, 10-29,

Nancy Aldera, the sister of Frances Toriello, died October 11, 2013 at 105 years of age,

Mary Rita Schiltz, the mother of Thomas Schiltz, who died August 27,

William H. (Teddy) Kennedy, Catholic author of Lucifer’s Lodge, died August 14, age 49, cause of death unknown,

Alfred Mercier, the father of David Mercier, who died August 12,

The Robert Kolinsky asks our prayers for his friend, George Curilla, who died August 23,

John Cuono, who had attended Mass at our Mission in the past, died August 11,

Raymond Peterson, died July 28, and Paul Peterson, died February 19, the brothers of Fr. Casimir Peterson,

Margaret Brillhart, who died July 20,

Msgr. Joseph J. McDonnell, a priest from the diocese of Des Moines, who died June 8,

Patrick Henry Omlor, who wrote Questioning The Validity of the Masses using the New, All English Canon, and for a series of newsletters which were published as The Robber Church, died May 2, the feast of St Athanasius,

Bishop Joseph McFadden, died unexpectedly May 2,

Timothy Foley, the brother-in-law of Michelle Marbach Folley, who died in April,

William Sanders, the uncle of Don Rhoad, who died April 2,

Gene Peters ask our prayers for the repose of the soul of Mark Polaschek, who died March 22,

Eduardo Gomez Lopez, the uncle of Claudia Drew, February 28,

Cecelia Thees, died February 24,

Elizabeth Marie Gerads, a nineteen year old, the oldest of twelve children, who died February 6,

Michael Schwartz, the co-author with Fr. Enrique Rueda of “Gays, Aids, and You,” died February 3,

Stanley W. Moore, passed away in December 16, and Gerard (Jerry) R. Pitman, who died January 19, who attended this Mission in the past,

Louis Fragale, who died December 25,

Fr. Luigi Villa, Th.D. author of Vatican II About Face! detailing the heresies of Vatican II, died November 18 at the age of 95,

Rev. Michael Jarecki, a faithful traditional Catholic priest who died October 22,

Jennie Salaneck, died September 19 at 95 years of age, a devout and faithful Catholic all her life,

Dorothy Sabo, who died September 26,

Cynthia (Cindy) Montesano Reinhert, the mother of nine children, four who are still at home, died August 19,

Stanley Spahalski, who died October 20, and his wife, Regina Spahalski, who died June 24, and for the soul of Francis Lester, her son,

Julia Atkinson, who died April 30,

Antonio P. Garcia, who died January 6, 2012 and the welfare of his teenage children, Andriana and Quentin,

Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who died February 27,

Fr. Timothy A. Hopkins, of the National Shrine of St. Philomena, in Miami, November 2,

Frank Smith, who died February 7, and the welfare of his wife, Delores,

Eduardo Cepeda, who died January 26,

Larry Young, the 47 year old father of twelve who died December 10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their family,

Sister Mary Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died December 16,

Joeseph Elias, who died on September 28,

William, the brother of Fr. Waters, who died September 7,

Donald Tonelli, died August 1,

Rev. Fr. Gregory Hesse, of Austria, a great defender of Catholic Truth, died January 25, 2006,

Emma Colasanti, who died May 29,

Mary Dullesse, who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died wearing our Lady’s scapular,

Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre Ebert, who died April 7, Derrick and Denise Palengat, his godparents,

Philip D. Barr, died March 5, and the welfare of his family,

Judith Irene Kenealy, the mother of Joyce Paglia, who died February 23, and her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14,

For Joe Sobran who died September 30,

Fr. Hector Bolduc, a great and faithful priest, died, September 10, 2012,

James & Jean Rowan and their sons, Patrick & Daniel,

John Vennari asks our prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters who died August 26,

Stanley Bodalsky, the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,

Mary Isabel Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the Drew’s, who died June 6,

Rev. John Campion, who offered the traditional Mass for us every first Friday until forbidden to do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,

Joseph Montagne, who died May 5,

For Margaret Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died January 6,

Fr. Michael Shear, a Byzantine rite Catholic priest, died August 17, 2006,

Fr. James Francis Wathen, died November 7, 2006, author of The Great Sacrilege and Who Shall Ascend?, a great defender of dogma and liturgical purity,

Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14, 2009, to whom our Mission is indebted,

Fr. Peterson asks to remember, Leonard Edward Peterson, his cousin, Wanda, Angelica Franquelli, and the six priests ordained with him.

Philip Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly Romanick, Deacon Michael Erdeck, Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, Elizabeth Thorhas, Elizabeth Thees, Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock, and James & Rose Gomata, and Kathleen Heinbach,

Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John Peek, both were traditional priests,

Brother Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, NH, who died September 5,

Rodolfo Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who died May 24,

Rev. Francis Clifford, a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on March 7,

Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonja Kolinsky.

Pius XII - the man responsible for planting the seed of liturgical destruction!

Fr. Annibale Bugnini had been making clandestine visits to the Centre de Pastorale Liturgique (CPL), a progressivist conference centre for liturgical reform which organized national weeks for priests.
Inaugurated in Paris in 1943 on the private initiative of two Dominican priests under the presidency of Fr. Lambert Beauduin, it was a magnet for all who considered themselves in the vanguard of the Liturgical Movement. It would play host to some of the most famous names who influenced the direction of Vatican II: Frs. Beauduin, Guardini, Congar, Chenu, Daniélou, Gy, von Balthasar, de Lubac, Boyer, Gelineau etc.

It could, therefore, be considered as the confluence of all the forces of Progressivism, which saved and re-established Modernism condemned by Pope Pius X in Pascendi.
According to its co-founder and director, Fr. Pie Duployé, OP, Bugnini had requested a “discreet” invitation to attend a CPL study week held near Chartres in September 1946.

Much more was involved here than the issue of secrecy. The person whose heart beat as one with the interests of the reformers would return to Rome to be placed by an unsuspecting (?) Pope (Pius XII) in charge of his Commission for the General Reform of the Liturgy.
But someone in the Roman Curia did know about the CPL – Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini, the acting Secretary of State and future Paul VI – who sent a telegram to the CPL dated January 3, 1947. It purported to come from the Pope with an apostolic blessing. If, in Bugnini’s estimation, the Roman authorities were to be kept in the dark about the CPL so as not to compromise its activities, a mystery remains. Was the telegram issued under false pretences, or did Pius XII really know and approve of the CPL? [.....]

This agenda (for liturgical reform) was set out as early as 1949 in the Ephemerides Liturgicae, a leading Roman review on liturgical studies of which Fr. Annabale Bugnini was Editor from 1944 to 1965.
First, Bugnini denigrated the traditional liturgy as a dilapidated building (“un vecchio edificio”), which should be condemned because it was in danger of falling to pieces (“sgretolarsi”) and, therefore, beyond repair. Then, he criticized it for its alleged “deficiencies, incongruities and difficulties,” which rendered it spiritually “sterile” and would prevent it appealing to modern sensibilities.
It is difficult to understand how, in the same year that he published this anti-Catholic diatribe, he was made a Professor of Liturgy in Rome’s Propaganda Fide (Propagation of the Faith) University. His solution was to return to the simplicity of early Christian liturgies and jettison all subsequent developments, especially traditional devotions.
These ideas expressed in 1949 would form the foundational principles of Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium. For all practical purposes, the Roman Rite was dead in the water many years before it was officially buried by Paul VI.

Dr. Carol Byrne, How Bugnini Grew Up under Pius XII

Wisdom is only possible for those who hold DOGMA as the Rule of Faith!

Besides, every dogma of faith is to the Catholic cultivated mind not only a new increase of knowledge, but also an incontrovertible principle from which it is able to draw conclusions and derive other truths. They present an endless field for investigation so that the beloved Apostle St. John could write at the end of his Gospel, without fear of exaggeration: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did: which if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.”

The Catholic Church, by enforcing firm belief in her dogmas—which are not her inventions, but were given by Jesus Christ—places them as a bar before the human mind to prevent it from going astray and to attach it to the truth; but it does not prevent the mind from exercising its functions when it has secured the treasure of divine truth, and a “scribe thus instructed in the kingdom of heaven is truly like a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old.” He may bring forth new illustrations, new arguments and proofs; he may show now applications of the same truths, according to times and circumstances; he may show new links which connect the mysteries of religion with each other or with the natural sciences as there can be no discord between the true faith and true science; God, being the author of both, cannot contradict Himself and teach something by revelation as true which He teaches by the true light of reason as false. In all these cases the householder “brings forth from his treasure new things and old.” They are new inasmuch as they are the result of new investigations; and old because they are contained in the old articles of faith and doctrine as legitimate deductions from their old principles.

Fr. Joseph Prachensky, S.J., The Church of Parables and True Spouse of the Suffering Saviour, on the Parable of the Scribe

Baptism imprints in your soul a spiritual character, which no sin can efface. This character is a proof that from this time you do not belong to yourself, but that you are the property of Jesus Christ, who has purchased you by the infinite price of his blood and of his death. You are not of yourself, but you are of Christ; wherefore, St. Paul concludes, “that the Christian should no longer live for himself, but for Him who died and rose again for him;” that is to say, that the Christian should live a life of grace, and that he should consecrate to his Redeemer his spirit, his heart, and all his actions. […..]

First, is true penance; for, as the holy Council of Trent teaches, penance is no less necessary for those who have sinned after Baptism, than Baptism is necessary for those who have not received it. The Holy Scripture informs us, that there are two gates by which we are to enter into heaven—baptismal innocence, and penance. When a Christian has shut against himself the gate of innocence, in violating the holy promises of Baptism, it is necessary that he should strive to enter by that of penance; otherwise there is no salvation for him. On this account, Jesus Christ, speaking of persons who have lost innocence, says to them: “Unless you do penance, you shall all perish.”

But in order that penance may prevent us from perishing—it must be true Penance. Confessors may be deceived by the false appearance of conversion, and it is too often the case; but God is never deceived. If, therefore, those who receive absolution are not truly penitent and worthy of pardon, their sins are not forgiven before God. In order to do true penance, it is not sufficient to confess all our sins and to fulfill what is enjoined on us by the priest. There are two other things which are necessary: First; to renounce sin with all your heart, and for all your life… and second; to fly the occasions of sin, and to use the means to avoid it.

St. John Eudes, Man’s Contract with God in Baptism

Again, in the Office for the feasts of our Lady, the Church applies the words of Sirach to the Blessed Virgin and thus gives us to understand that in her we find all hope: In me is all hope of life and of virtue. In Mary is every grace: In me is all grace of the way and of the truth. In Mary we shall find life and eternal salvation: Those who serve me shall never fail. Those who explain me shall have life everlasting (Sir. 24:25, 30, 31--- Vulgate). And in the Book of Proverbs: Those who find me find life and win favor from the Lord (8:35). Surely such expressions are enough to prove that we require the intercession of Mary.

St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Glories of Mary

THE NOVUS ORDO CHURCH OF SLOTH AND ENVY

The first effect of charity is joy in the goodness of God. But this joy can only live through the union of man’s will with God in charity. And charity demands that man keep all the commandments. Charity demands a fellowship in good between God and man. When the effort to live in this fellowship in good begins to appear too difficult to man he begins to be sorrowful about the infinite goodness of God. This sorrow weighs down the spirit of man and leads him to neglect good. This sorrow is the sin of sloth, sorrow about the goodness of God. Sloth is a capital sin. It leads men into other sins. To avoid the sorrow or weariness of spirit which is sloth men will turn from God to the sinful pleasures of the world.

When a man falls victim to sloth and is sorrowful because of the goodness of God it is only natural that he will begin to be grieved also at the manifestation of the goodness of God in other men. He will resent good men simply because they are good. This resentment is envy, hatred of someone else’s good. Since the love of our neighbor flows from our love of God, it is natural that when we cease to love God’s goodness, we will also begin to hate the goodness of men. Envy, like sloth, is a capital sin. It will lead men to commit other sins to destroy the goodness of their neighbors.

When a man’s heart is filled with sloth and envy the interior peace of his soul which was the effect of charity is destroyed. The loss of the interior peace leads to the destruction of the peace of society. When a man’s heart is no longer centered in God, then his life loses all proper direction. When the love of God is gone he has nothing left but the love of himself. When a man loves himself without loving God then he can brook no opposition to his own judgment or arbitrary will. He can tolerate goodness in no one else. He will even, by the sin of scandal, by his own words and example, lead other men into sin. He must disagree with all men. He must dispute with them, separate himself from them, quarrel with them, go to war with them, set the whole of the community at war with itself.

Wherever the goodness of God is most manifest, there will the heart of the man who no longer loves God be most energetic in sowing the seeds of discord, contentiousness, strife and war. That is why religion and the true Church of God are so viciously attacked in the world today. Those who do not love God are driven by sloth and envy to attack God’s tabernacle on earth.

Fr. Walter Farrell and Fr. Martin Healy, My Way of Life, Pocket Edition of St. Thomas

Amoris Laetitia was published in 2016. No answer or corrective action to this "appeal" was ever made. That is because no clarification was ever needed. Why? That is because the "numerous propositions in Amoris Laetitia (that) can be construed as heretical upon the natural reading of the text" is exactly what the author intended! So in 2016 these "academics and pastors" did "not accusing the pope of heresy", but what about now?

“Amoris Laetitia.... scandalous, erroneous in faith, and ambiguous...”

Catholic academics and pastors appeal to the College of Cardinals over Amoris Laetitia

A group of Catholic academics and pastors has submitted an appeal to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals in Rome, requesting that the Cardinals and Eastern Catholic Patriarchs petition His Holiness, Pope Francis, to repudiate a list of erroneous propositions that can be drawn from a natural reading of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia. During the coming weeks this submission will be sent in various languages to every one of the Cardinals and Patriarchs, of whom there are 218 living at present.
Describing the exhortation as containing “a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to Catholic faith and morals,” the signatories submitted, along with their appeal, a documented list of applicable theological censures specifying “the nature and degree of the errors that could be attributed to Amoris laetitia.”

Among the 45 signatories are Catholic prelates, scholars, professors, authors, and clergy from various pontifical universities, seminaries, colleges, theological institutes, religious orders, and dioceses around the world. They have asked the College of Cardinals, in their capacity as the Pope’s official advisers, to approach the Holy Father with a request that he repudiate “the errors listed in the document in a definitive and final manner, and to authoritatively state that Amoris laetitia does not require any of them to be believed or considered as possibly true.”

“We are not accusing the pope of heresy,” said a spokesman for the authors, “but we consider that numerous propositions in Amoris laetitia can be construed as heretical upon a natural reading of the text. Additional statements would fall under other established theological censures, such as scandalous, erroneous in faith, and ambiguous, among others.” [......]

Atheists are really anti-theists. They oppose the God who is God with an idol of their own making.

No atheist chooses merely to deny God. For the atheist’s spiritual posture against God is at the same time his posture in preference for some other Being above God. As he dismisses the true God he is welcoming his New God. Why must this be so? Because every personal commitment of man presupposes, deep in the metaphysical core of his being, a hunger for being as truth and goodness. Man is intrinsically burdened with an incurable hunger for transcendence. If being abhors a vacuum, the vacuum it most violently shrinks from is the total absence of Infinite Being. And history demonstrates that man is inconsolable without the True God.

Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., The Gods of Atheism

‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they believe in anything.’

There are men who will ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old fantastic tale (of the Catholic faith). This is the last and most astounding fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the sword that cuts their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes. … (The atheist fanatic) sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and eternal vengeance upon some one who (he affirms) never lived at all.

G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Cultivate a great desire to be firmly rooted in the sublime virtue of confidence. Do not fear, but be courageous in serving and loving our Most Adorable and Amiable Jesus, with great perfection and holiness. Undertake courageously great tasks for His glory, in proportion to the power and grace He will give you for this end. Even though you can do nothing of yourself, you can do all things in Him and His help will never fail you, if you have confidence in His goodness. Place your entire physical and spiritual welfare in His hands. Abandon to the paternal solicitude of His Divine Providence every care for your health, reputation, property and business, for those near to you, for your past sins, for your soul’s progress in virtue and love of Him, for your life, death, and especially for your salvation and eternity, in a word, all your cares. Rest in the assurance that, in His pure goodness, He will watch with particular tenderness over all your responsibilities and cares and dispose all things for the greatest good.”

St. John Eudes, The Life and Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls

Cardinal Burke offers the correction for two mistranslations in the English publication of the Motu proprio of Pope Francis, “TRADITIONIS CUSTODES”

Art. 1. The liturgical books promulgated by Saint Paul VI (sic) and Saint John Paul II (sic), in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II, are the ~~unique~~ only expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.

Art. 4. Priests ordained after the publication of the present Motu Proprio, who wish to celebrate using the Missale Romanum of 1962, ~~should~~ must submit a formal request to the diocesan Bishop who shall consult the Apostolic See before granting this authorization.

"Not a stone upon a stone" - 9th Sunday after Pentecost

The 'Western Wall' (Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem is held by Jews as a remnant of Herod's Temple destroyed by the Romans in 72 A.D. Yet, Jesus prophesized not only that the Temple would be destroyed but also that there would not remain a "stone upon a stone." So how is it that there remains a large wall on the western side at the south end of the 'Temple Mount'? Some Catholics claim the prophecy of Jesus was referring only to the edifice itself and not the entire foundation for the Temple. Jesus words must be taken in literally unless there it is clearly manifest that the metaphorical sense is intended exclusively. Therefore, the 'Wailing Wall' where the Jews worship is not a remnant of the ancient Temple, and the 'Temple Mount', on which is currently situated the Al-Aqsa mosque and the "Dome of the Rock", is not the location of the Temple destroyed in 72 A.D. The 36 acre 'Temple Mount' is actually the location of the Roman fortress Antonia built by Herod.

What is the evidence for this? The current popular claim is the fortress Antonia was located on a five-acre section on the north-west side of the 'Temple Mount' while the Temple occupied the remaining 30 acres. Five acres is far too small to accommodate a Roman legion (6,000 soldiers plus auxiliary staff) which we know from the writings of Flavius Josephus that the fortress Antonia did in fact hold. Many Roman fortresses have been examined by archeologists and they typically are between 45 and 55 acres but some are as small as 36 acres. As far as the area needed for the Temple of Herod itself, consider this, the ancient pagan temple complex at Baalek in Lebanon built by the Romans is less than six acres in total area and encloses the largest temple to Jupiter in the Roman Empire as well as a smaller temple dedicated to Bacchus and another to Venus. The Temple built by Herod was a single temple and much smaller in overall dimensions.

Furthermore, when Solomon was designated by King David to succeed him (3 Kings 1), King David directed the prophet Nathan and the high priest Sadoc to take Solomon on the king's mule to be anointed king at the "Gihon spring" with oil taken from the tabernacle. The Gihon spring is located in the City of David directly south and adjacent to the present-day 'Temple Mount'. There Solomon was anointed with oil taken from the Tabernacle, proclaimed king and celebrated by the populace with great jubilation and the sounding of trumpets that could be heard outside the city. The Temple built by Solomon was in the same location as the Tabernacle established by King David on the threshing floor of the land he purchased Areuna the Jebusite as God had commanded by the mouth of Gad (2 Kings 24 and 2 Paralipomenon 3:1).

The water from the Gihon spring was essential for the sacrificial offerings of the Temple. There is no living water source on the 'Temple Mount' which was required in the washing of the priests and the sacrifices offered. The water source for the Antonia fortress was provided by large cisterns located just north of the Antonia fortress and under the 'Temple Mount' that are still present today.

There is a Catholic tradition the there was a church called the Church of the Judgment that was built over and enclosed the Rock that is now enclosed under the Dome of the Rock built by the Moslems in 692 A.D. The Dome of the Rock is located directly north of the Al-Aqsa mosque on the 'Temple Mount'. The Church of the Judgment was destroyed either by the Persians who conquered Jerusalem in 614 A.D. with the help of 26,000 Jewish allies during the Byzantine-Sasanian War 602-628 A.D. (during which many churches were destroyed including the Church of the Ascension on Mount Olivet), or the church was destroyed by the Moslems who conquered Jerusalem in 637 A.D. No living Jew at the time would have knowledge of the exact location of Herod's Temple because the Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem by the Romans since the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 A.D. on the pain of death. Two hundred years later, the Catholic emperor Constantine permitted the Jews to enter Jerusalem once a year on the feast of Tisha B'Av (the ninth of Av) which is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar because it is the anniversary of the destruction of both the Temple of Solomon and the Temple of Herod! Be that as it may, many of the pillars used in the construction of the interior of the Dome of the Rock have Christian markings indicating that they were salvaged from a destroyed Catholic church.

The Rock itself is regarded (WIKI) as The Foundation Stone (Hebrew אֶבֶן הַשְּׁתִיָּה, romanized: ʾEḇen haŠeṯīyyā, lit. 'Foundation Stone'), or the Noble Rock (Arabic:الصخرة المشرفة, romanized: al-Saḵrah al-Mušarrafah, lit. 'The Noble Stone') is the rock enclosed by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is also known as the Pierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of Souls. Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from which the creation of the world began. Jewish sources also identify its location with that of the Holy of Holies. Yet, it is not possible for a threshing floor to be around a large rock or stone.

Before the Muslim conquest, the Rock was enclosed in the Catholic church known as the Church of the Judgment (destroyed by the Persians) because it is believed to have been the place where the condemned stood to hear the judgment against them by the Roman authorities. The Rock is held to be where Jesus stood when His official condemnation was decreed by Pontius Pilate and thus, if it is the stone where the "creation of the world began," it is the stone from which the creation of the world began anew. John 19:13 says: "Now when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha." Lithostrotos in Greek refers to a stone and Gabbatha in Hebrew an elevated place. According to St. Mary Agreda after Jesus was condemned by Pilate the decree of condemnation, which she quotes in its entirety, was then formally read to the Jewish mob assembled outside the north entrance to Fortress Antonia where Jesus was taken to bear His cross.

Of the Temple of Herod destroyed in 72 A.D. there does not remain a "stone upon a stone".

“Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently.” Deut 4:9

"It is a sin to believe there is salvation outside the Catholic Church!"

Blessed Pope Pius IX

Leo XIV Reinstates Convicted Child-Porn Priest who was protected by Francis

Capella_Msgr.Carlo_Alberto.jpg Carlo Alberto Capella was Vatican diplomat who was convicted by a Vatican tribunal of possessing and sharing child pornography. Capella admitted guilt to the charges. He is the only one who has served a prison sentence in the Vatican jail for this crime or for any sexually related crime against minors.

Monsignor Capella was ordained a priest in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Milan. After studies of canon law he entered the Vatican diplomatic corps. He was assigned to the papal nunciature in India in 2003 and to the nunciature in Hong Kong in 2007. In 2008 he was created Chaplain of His Holiness, which entitled him to the title of Monsignor. In 2011 he was transferred to the Vatican to serve in the Secretariat of State. In 2016 he was assigned to the papal nunciature to the United States.

In 2017, Capella was recalled to the Vatican by Pope Francis after United States officials informed the Vatican that he was under investigation for possession and sharing of child pornography. The government of Canada has issued a warrant for his arrest, alleging that during his time in Canada in December, 2016 he had possessed and shared child pornography. He was returned to the Vatican which claimed diplomatic immunity for Capella protecting him from prosecution in the United State or Canada.

In 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, which he served in the Vatican jail. As of 2021, he was allowed out during the day to work in an office that sells papal blessings. In 2023, following the end of his prison sentence, Capella was permitted to return to work in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Now Pope Leo XIV has reinstated Msgr. Capella to a senior diplomatic position in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

COMMENT: Pope Leo is protégé of Francis to whom he owns his promotions to bishop and cardinal. It was Francis who protected this pervert from criminal charges in the United States and in Canada and now it is Francis' protégé who has restored him the a high level position in the Vatican. This does not portend well for any serious reform of the Novus Ordo Church which has become a sinecure for homosexuals and others perverts.