.....
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.
Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary
Sixteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
St. Hadrian, Martyr
September 8, 2024
The Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary is a double of the Second Class with a Simple Octave. The Octave Day will be the Feast of the Seven
Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. This very ancient feast was already solemnized
in the seventh century, and Pope Innocent IV, to fulfill the vow made by the
Cardinals before the election of his predecessor, gave it an Octave at the
first Council of Lyons in 1245. This
date, September 8, served to fix that of the feast of the Immaculate Conception
on December 8.
Mary is inseparable from Jesus
in the divine plan, wherefore the Liturgy applies to her what Holy Scripture
says of the eternal Wisdom which is the Word "by whom all was
made." Like Christ, the Virgin
presides over the whole work of creation, for having been chosen of all
eternity to give us the Saviour, it is she, with her
Son, whom God had chiefly in view when He created the world.
Today’s lessons from the divine office,
like those of last Sunday, are often identical with the passages from the book
of Job which are read on the first and second Sundays of September. The readings from the third and fourth Sunday’s
in September are from Ecclesiasticus. The commentary on today’s liturgy is related
to the reading from Job.
Job is the very type of a just man whom the devil, inflated with pride, wishes to humble to the dust to make him rebel against God. “Let me try him,” says Satan to the most High, “and he will blaspheme Thee.” And God allowed him to make Job the model of a soul who proclaims the sovereign dominion of God and who submits himself entirely to the divine will. So the devil gives the reins to his jealously, and in a cleverly graded series, makes one misfortune follow another to overwhelm the unhappy Job.
Robbed of everything and seated on his dunghill, Job does not curse the almighty hand of God which has allowed the devil to vent his rage upon him, but rather kisses it with humility. The Introit psalm is an admirable rendering of the spirit of his prayer. “Have mercy on me, O Lord. Bow down thy ear to me, O Lord, and hear me for I am needy and poor.” The Gradual psalm is to the same effect: the prayer of the poor man when he was anxious, and the words (verses 3-6), “I am smitten as grass…through the voice of my groaning my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.” Seem to be an echo of Job’s words when he said: “The flesh being consumed, my bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.” Also the Offertory psalm speaks of the “poor and needy man” who implores God: “Withhold not Thou, O Lord, Thy tender mercies from me: ….for evils without number have surrounded me…Let them be confounded and ashamed together that seek after my soul to take it away” (verses 12 and 14).
Finally, in the psalm for the Communion we read: “Incline Thy ear unto me…How great troubles hast Thou shown me, many and grievous! Yea and my tongue shall meditate justice all the day, when they shall be confounded and put to shame that seek evils to me” (verses 2,20, and 24).
“God,” the friends of Job say in effect, “exalts those who are humble; he comforts and heals the afflicted. The triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the hypocrite is only for a moment. When his pride raises itself to heaven and his head touches the clouds, he will perish at the last. Such is the lot which God reserves for the wicked. They are lifted up for the moment but they will be humbled.” Job adds: “God will rescue the poor man from his misery. God is exalted in His power. Who can say to Him: ‘Thou hast wrought injustice.’ The man who discusses with God will not be found just.”
“In reality,” comments St. Gregory, “whoever holds a discussion with almighty God is putting himself on an equality with the author of all good. He takes to himself the merit of whatever qualities he has received, and makes war on God with His own gifts. So it is just that the proud shall be humbled and the humble exalted” (2nd Nocturn for second Sunday of September). Today’s Gospel speaks in the same sense: “Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” In the sequel, after He had humbled him, God exalted Job and gave him twice as much as he had before. In this respect the patriarch is a type of Christ, who having been humbled to the depths was wonderfully exalted; and he is also a figure of all Christian people to whom God will give a place of honor at the eternal wedding feast if, on earth, they have practiced the virtues of humility with a good heart.
Pride, says St. Thomas, is a vice by which man seeks to exalt himself beyond right reason above what he is; it is based on error and illusion. On the contrary, humility is founded upon truth. It is a virtue which tempers and restrains the soul, so that it does not pretend to be more than it really is. The humble soul accepts with complete submission the supreme and infallible truth. Humility manifested in word and deed, and in our way of bearing trials and contradictions, is the virtue taught us by Job in his whole life and which our Lord sets before us in today’s Gospel. “After he had healed the man with the dropsy,” says St. Ambrose, “Jesus gives a lesson in humility” (3rd Nocturn).
Seeing how the Pharisees chose the best places, He wanted to make them understand the spiritual disease from which they were suffering and so to encourage them to seek its cure. For this purpose He first heals an unfortunate man swollen with sickness and then veiling the lesson under a parable, seeks to cure the spiritual inflation with which the guests before Him and the majority of men, are only too much afflicted. The world is given over to all the boastfulness and infatuation of pride, while humility is the absolute condition of entrance into the kingdom of God.
This same virtue, which the Church brings before us in the Collect, which refers to our need that God’s grace should “ever both go before and follow us,” is taught by St. Paul in a striking way to Christian people on our part, but solely that we may minister to the praise of His glory, God has chosen us in Christ. While yet we were children of wrath, the almighty, rich in mercy on account of the great love He bore us, restored us to life in Jesus Christ. Heathen and strangers to the covenant of God with Israel, we have been reconciled through the Redeemer’s blood, for He is our peace, who out of two nations has made one and by whom we both have access to the Father in one Spirit. Now we are no longer strangers, but members of the family of God. This is not our work but God’s, so that no one has any cause to boast.
Let us, therefore, cast ourselves at the feet of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Father too, so that from the boundless treasure of His divinity He may more and more send down upon us the Holy Ghost, whom He poured out on the Church at Pentecost and who united us to our Lord by faith and love, that we may be filled with the fullness of God.
Who can measure this boundless charity which God has shown us by His Son? This love of the Father for His children infinitely surpasses what we could conceive or ask of God. To Him, then be glory forever, because the Lord hath done wonderful things” (Alleluia). “The Gentiles shall fear Thy Name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth Thy glory. For the Lord hath built up Sion and He shall be seen in His majesty” (Gradual).
And the people who will take part in the great feast of the Beatific Vision, will consist of those who fleeing from an ambition full of the spirit of pride, have always been humble on earth and whom God will exalt in the measure in which they have gladly submitted to His holy will.
INTROIT:
Hail, holy mother, who didst bring forth the king,
who ruleth heaven and earth forever and ever.
Ps. 44. My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak
my works to the king. Glory be,
etc. Hail, holy mother, etc.
COLLECT:
Impart, O Lord, to Thy servants,
we pray, the gift of heavenly grace; that for those to whom the child bearing
of the blessed Virgin was the beginning of salvation, the joyful feast of her
nativity may bring an increase of peace. Through our Lord, etc.
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty
God, that we who are keeping the festival of blessed Hadrian, Thy Martyr, may
at his intercession be strengthened in the love of Thy name. Through our Lord,
etc.
O Lord, we pray Thee that Thy
grace may always precede and follow us, and make us continually devoted to all
good works. Through our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE: Prov. 8, 22-35.
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out: The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth: He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths: When he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters: When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when be balanced the foundations of the earth; I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times. Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors. He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.
GRADUAL:
Thou art blessed and venerable, O Virgin Mary, who
without any blemish to purity didst become the mother of our Saviour. O Virgin
mother of God, he whom the whole world is unable to contain, being made man,
enclosed himself in thy womb.
Alleluia,
alleluia. Thou art happy, O holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise,
because from thee arose the sun of justice, Christ our God. Alleluia.
GOSPEL: Matt. 1, 1-16.
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Judas and his brethren. And Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar. And Phares begot Esron. And Esron begot Aram. And Aram begot Aminadab. And Aminadab begot Naasson. And Naasson begot Salmon. And Salmon begot Booz of Rahab. And Booz begot Obed of Ruth. And Obed begot Jesse. And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias. And Solomon begot Roboam. And Roboam begot Abia. And Abia begot Asa. And Asa begot Josaphat. And Josaphat begot Joram. And Joram begot Ozias. And Ozias begot Joatham. And Joatham begot Achaz. And Achaz begot Ezechias. And Ezechias begot Manasses. And Manasses begot Amon. And Amon begot Josias. And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigration of Babylon. And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel. And Salathiel begot Zorobabel. And Zorobabel begot Abiud. And Abiud begot Eliacim. And Eliacim begot Azor. And Azor begot Sadoc. And Sadoc begot Achim. And Achim begot Eliud. And Eliud begot Eleazar. And Eleazar begot Mathan. And Mathan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
OFFERTORY:
Thou art blessed, O Virgin Mary,
who didst bear the Creator of all things; thou didst bring forth him who made
thee, and thou remainest forever a virgin.
SECRET:
May the
humanity of thy only-begotten Son aid
us, O Lord; that he who, born of a Virgin, took not away, but did hallow, his
mother's inviolate purity, may, on this feast-day of her birth, free us from
our sins and make our offering agreeable unto Thee, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, etc.
As Thou
hast received our gifts and prayers, O Lord, cleanse us, we pray, by Thy
heavenly mysteries, and graciously hear us. Through our Lord, etc.
Cleanse
us, we pray, O Lord, by the effect of this present sacrifice, and mercifully so
work in us that we may deserve to be partakers of it. Through our Lord, etc.
COMMUNION:
Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal
Father.
POSTCOMMUNION:
We have
received the holy mysteries, O Lord, on this yearly festival; grant, we pray,
that they may bring us remedial aid both for this life and for the life to
come. Through
our Lord, etc.
Grant, we pray, O Lord our God, that we who in time
render joyful service in memory of Thy saints, may be gladdened by their
company in eternity. Through our Lord,
etc.
Purify by
Thy heavenly sacraments, we pray, O Lord, and renovate in Thy loving-kindness
our hearts, that thereby we may gain assistance for our bodies at present and
in the future. Through our Lord, etc.
LAST GOSPEL: Luke 14, 1-11.
At that time, When Jesus went into the house of one of the chiefs of the Pharisees on the Sabbath-day to eat bread, they watched him. And behold there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day? But they held their peace: but he taking him, healed him, and sent him away. And answering them, he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out on the Sabbath-day? And they could not answer him to these things. And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them: When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honorable than thou be invited by him; and he that invited thee and him come and say to thee: Give this man place: and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place: But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place: that when he who invited thee cometh he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at the table with thee; because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Why did Jesus eat
with the Pharisees?
To take occasion, as St. Cyril says, to instruct them that it is allowed to heal the sick on the Sabbath, and to show how those who give invitations to a supper, and those who are invited, should conduct themselves. The Pharisees' invitation to Jesus was not actuated by kindness, but by the desire to find something in His actions which they might criticize; Jesus; however, approaches them with meekness and endeavors to inspire them with a better intention. Beware of the spirit of criticism and like Jesus make use of every occasion to do good, even to your enemies.
Who may be
understood by the dropsical man?
The debauchees and misers; for the more a dropsical person drinks the more his thirst increases, so the debauchee never succeeds in satisfying his shameful lusts; the same is the case with the miser. And just as the dropsical are hard to cure, so the debauchee and miser are difficult to convert.
Why is
covetousness classed among the seven deadly sins?
Because it is the root of many evils (I Tim. 6, 10), for it leads to usury, theft, to the employment of false weights and measures, to the suppression of justice in courts, to perjury, to the oppression of widows and orphans, nay, even to the denial of faith, as was the case with Judas. Therefore the apostle says: They that will become rich, fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition; and admonishes us: to fly these things: and pursue justice, godliness, faith, charity, patience, mildness (I Tim. 6, 9-11).
A powerful remedy against avarice is to consider that we are not owners of what we possess, and can take nothing with us in death, but must render a strict account of the use we made of our riches (I Tim. 6, 7).
He that shall find me, shall
find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8TH:
Date Day
Feast Rank Color
F/A Mass Time and Intention
8
|
Sun
|
Nativity of the BVM
16th Sunday after Pentecost
St.
Hadrian, M
|
d2cl
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM & Noon, Confessions 8:30
AM, Rosary of Reparation before Mass; For the members of Ss. P & P
|
9
|
Mon
|
St. Peter Claver, C
St. Gorgonius, M
|
d
|
W
|
|
Mass 6:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before
Mass
|
10
|
Tue
|
St. Nicholas of Tolentino, C
|
d
|
W
|
|
No Mass
|
11
|
Wed
|
Ss. Protus & Hyacinth, Mm
|
sp
|
R
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before
Mass
|
12
|
Thu
|
The Most Holy Name of Mary
|
dm
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before
Mass
|
13
|
Fri
|
Ferial Day
|
|
G
|
F/A
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before
Mass
|
14
|
Sat
|
Exaltation of the Holy Cross
|
dm
|
R
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confession 8:30; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
15
|
Sun
|
Seven Sorrows of the BVM
17th Sunday after Pentecost
St. Nicomedes, M
|
d2cl
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM, Confessions 8:30 AM, Rosary of
Reparation before Mass; For the members of Ss. P & P
|
The Feast of the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be document as an immemorial tradition
during the 6th century in both the East and West. The Octave of the Nativity was established in
1245 in fulfillment of a vow by Pope Innocent IV (before his election) and all
the other Cardinals during the Church’s widowhood, which through the intrigues
of the crafty emperor, Frederick II, lasted nineteen months after the death of
Celestine IV until the election of Pope Innocent. The octave day is the Feast of the Seven
Sorrows.
Dom Gueranger
on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary
Mary is the center of the universe,
the ark of God, the cause of creation, the business of ages. Towards her turn the inhabitants of heaven
and the dwellers in the place of expiation, the men that have gone before us,
and we that are now living, those who are to follow us, our children’s children
and their descendants. Those in heaven
look to her to have their ranks filled up; those in purgatory look for their
deliverance; the men of the first ages, that they may be found faithful
prophets; those who come after, that they may obtain eternal happiness. Mother of God, Queen of heaven, Sovereign of
the world, all generations shall call thee blessed, for thou hast brought forth
life and glory for all. In thee the
angels ever find their joy, the just find grace, the sinners pardon; in thee,
and by thee, and from thee, the merciful hand of the
Almighty has reformed the first creation.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
All ye nations, come hither, come
every race and every tongue, every age and every dignity, let us joyfully
celebrate the birthday of the world’s gladness.
St. John Damascene
It is the beginning of salvation,
the origin of every feast, for behold!, the Mother of the Bridegroom is
born. With good reason does the whole
world rejoice today and the Church, beside herself, bids her choirs sing
wedding songs.
St. Peter Damian
If you wish to be a Catholic, do not venture to believe, to say, or to
teach that they whom the Lord has predestinated for baptism can be snatched
away from his predestination, or die before that has been accomplished in them
which the Almighty has predestined.’ There is in such a dogma more power than I
can tell assigned to chances in opposition to the power of God, by the
occurrence of which casualties that which He has predestinated is not permitted
to come to pass. It is hardly necessary to spend time or earnest words in
cautioning the man who takes up with this error against the absolute vortex of
confusion into which it will absorb
him, when I shall sufficiently meet the case if I briefly warn the prudent man
who is ready to receive correction against the threatening mischief.
St. Augustine, On the Soul and Its Origin 3, 13
“We are only worth the price at which God values us.
True merit must be weighed in His scales, for it is His judgment which alone
can decide between real and counterfeit virtue.”
St. John Berchmans
All saints are ambitious
for future glory of this best kind; but they are well aware that, in order to
win it, they must go low down, during the
present life, into their own nothingness; the higher in the world to come, the
lower in this. Until the great day dawn,
when each one is to receive according to his works, we shall lose nothing by
putting ourselves, meanwhile, below everybody.
The position reserved for us in the kingdom of heaven depends not, in
the least, either upon our own thoughts about ourselves, or upon the judgment
passed on us by other people; it depends solely on the will of God, who exalteth the humble, and bringeth
down the mighty from their seat. Let us
hearken to Ecclesiasticus. ‘The greater thou art, the
more humble thyself in all things, and thou shalt
find grace before God; for great is the power of God alone, and He is honoured by the humble’… The surest test of our humility
before God, is that practical charity for our neighbour,
which, in the several circumstances of everyday life, induces us, and without
affectation, to give him the precedence over ourselves.
Dom Gueranger,
The Liturgical Year, 16th
Sunday Pentecost
O Christ crucified, You
are sufficient for me; with You I wish to suffer and to take my rest! Grant that I may be crucified with You
inwardly and outwardly, and may live in this life in the fullness and
satisfaction of my soul, possessing it in patience. Teach me to love trials and
repute them of small account to attain Your favor, O Lord, who hesitated not to
die for me. 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
Compared with ours how calm and how luminous is the knowledge of pure
spirits! They are not doomed to the
intricate discoursing of our reason, which runs after the truth, composes and
analyzes, and laboriously draws conclusions from premises. They instantaneously apprehend the whole
compass of primary truths. Their
intuition is so prompt, so lively, so penetrating, that it is impossible for
them to be surprised, as we are, into error.
If they deceive themselves, it must be of their own will. The perfection of their will is equal to the
perfection of their intellect. They know not what it is to be disturbed by the
violence of appetites. Their love is
without emotion; and their hatred of evil is as calm and as wisely tempered as
their love. A will so free can know no
perplexity as to its aims, no inconstancy in its resolutions. Whereas with us long and anxious meditation
is necessary before we make a decision, it is the property of the angels to
determine by a single act the object of their choice. God proposed to them, as He does to us, infinite
beatitude in the vision of His own Essence; and to fit them for so great an
end, He endowed them with grace at the same time as He gave them being. In one instant they said Yes or No; in one
instant they freely and deliberately decided their own fate.
Jacques-Marie-Louis Monsabré, O. P.
“So has it always been.
All heresies have begun in verbal disputes and ended in sanguinary conflicts of
ideas. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to be on his guard, not only against false
science [oppositiones falsi
nominis scientie] but
also against profane novelties of words [profanas
vocum novitates]. What
would the Great Apostle of the nations say if, today, he saw Catholics
decorating themselves with the title of Liberal, when that term stands in such
violent and open antithesis to all that is Catholic? It is not merely a
question of words, but of what words represent. It is a question of truth
and salvation. No, you cannot be a Liberal Catholic; incompatibles cannot be
reconciled. You cannot assume this reprobated name although you may be able by
subtle sophisms to discover some secret way of reconciling it with your faith.
Christian charity will not defend you, although you may repeatedly invoke it
and would make it synonymous with the toleration of error. The first condition
of charity is not to violate the truth, and charity cannot be the snare to
surprise faith into the support of error. While we may admit the sincerity of
those who are not Catholic, their error must always be held up to reprobation.
We may pity them in their darkness, but we can never abet their error by
ignoring it or tolerating it. Beyond dispute no Catholic can be consistently
called Liberal.”
Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany, Liberalism is
a Sin
INSTRUCTION ON KEEPING SUNDAY HOLY
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day? (Luke 14, 3)
Why did Christ put this
question?
Because the Jews, particularly the Pharisees, were so very superstitious in keeping the Sabbath, they would not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, while He healed on the Sabbath, which was really a good work. But, if the Jews were so conscientious, through superstition and hypocrisy, and considered the performing of an external good work on this day as a sin, some Christians, on the contrary, blinded by avarice and worldly pleasure, place themselves heedlessly, nay, insolently above the commandment to observe the Sabbath, and do not consider those things as wrong which are sometimes very grievous sins.
Consider, my dear Christian, you serve your body the whole week, you use all your powers for temporal business, to support yourself and your family, and God blesses you, if you work with a good intention. Now God chose one day in the week, Sunday, and in the year several other holidays, which you should devote to His service and the salvation of your soul; is it not, therefore, the greatest ingratitude to steal these days from God and your soul, and employ them to gain a transient good, or to indulge in vain, sinful pleasures? At certain times man gives rest to irrational animals, and you give the powers of your body and soul none of the rest they would and should find in quiet devotion, in prayer and meditation, in attending divine service, in receiving the holy Sacraments, etc. If you inquire whence come these shameful violations of Sundays and holidays, you will find that there is no other reason than love of gain and avarice, sinful love of pleasure, and often complete want of faith and confidence in God’s providence. We wish to become rich by all means, and we do not reflect that. this will not happen without the blessing of God, and that wealth is a net, in which thousands entangle themselves to their eternal, perdition. We wish to live merrily and enjoy ourselves, but we do not consider that our life is only a time of penance, to attain that eternally blissful rest, of which Sunday is an emblem. We spend Sundays and holydays in idleness, vain conversations, buying and selling, servile work, or in still worse things, without experiencing the slightest scruple. But God will cover the violators of His sacred days with confusion and shame (Malach. 2, 3), and permit many temporal evils to come upon them, as proved by daily experience. The blessing of God can never rest upon those who never care for it, but rather make themselves unworthy to receive it, by violating days consecrated to God. Let this be a warning to you.
PRAYER O good Saviour! how manifest are meekness, and wisdom in all Thy words and actions! O, grant that we may regulate all our actions in such a manner, that they may be acceptable to Thee and tend to the edification of our neighbor. Give us the grace to employ all the days, consecrated to Thee, for Thy honor and our salvation, that we may never raise ourselves above others, but follow Thee in all humility.
O Jesus, the duty of souls admitted to Your
intimacy is to suffer with You, to raise the Cross on high, not to allow it to
leave their hands, whatever the perils in which they find themselves, and not
to let themselves be found wanting in suffering.
Now that You have shown me what a signal
blessing it is to suffer trials and persecutions for Your sake, I find I cannot
cease from desiring trials; for those who follow You must take the way which
You took, unless they want to be lost.
Blessed are their labors which, even here in this life, have such
abundant recompense!
O Jesus,
what greater proof of Your love could You give me than to choose for me all
that You willed for Yourself? To die or
to suffer: this is what I should desire.
St. Teresa of Avila
There is one kind of pride
which is more abominable in the eyes of God than any other, and it is that,
says Holy Writ, which belongs more especially to the poor. “A poor man that is
proud My soul hateth.” [Ecclus
xxv, 4] If the pride of one who is rich in merit, talents and virtues-----treasures
most precious to the soul-----is displeasing to God, still more displeasing to
Him will it be in one who has not these same motives for pride, but who on the
contrary has every reason to be humble. And this, I fear, is the pride of which
I am guilty.
I am poor in soul,
without virtue or merit, full of iniquity and malice, and yet I esteem myself
and love my own esteem so much that I am troubled if others do not esteem me
also. I am truly a poor, proud, miserable creature; and the greater my poverty,
the more my pride is detestable in the eyes of God. All this proceeds from not
knowing myself. Grant, O my God, that I may say with the prophet: “I am the man
that see my poverty.” [Lam. iii, 1] Make known unto me, O Lord, mine own
wretchedness, that of myself I am nothing, know nothing, and possess nothing
but my sins, and deserve nothing but Hell. I have received from Thee many
graces, lights and inspirations, and much help, and yet with what ingratitude
have I responded to Thy infinite goodness! Who more sinful, who more
ungrateful, and who more wicked than I? The more Thou hast done for me, the
more humble I ought to be, for I shall have to render unto Thee a most strict
account of all Thy benefits: “And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much
shall be required.” [Luke xii, 48] And yet the greater Thy goodness, the
greater my pride. I blush with shame, and it is the knowledge of my pride that
obliges me now to be humble.
Fr. Cajetan Mary da
Bergamo, Humility of Heart
THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY SEPTEMBER 8
Presence
of God:
O Mary, my Mother, teach me to live hidden
with you in the shadow of God.
Meditation:
1. The
liturgy enthusiastically celebrates Mary’s Nativity and makes it one of the
most appealing feasts of Marian devotion. We sing in today’s Office: “Thy
Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, brings joy to the whole world, because from
you came forth the Sun of Justice, Christ, our God.” Mary’s birth is a prelude
to the birth of Jesus because it is the initial point of the realization of the
great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of
mankind. How could the birthday of the Mother of the Redeemer pass unnoticed in
the hearts of the redeemed? The Mother proclaims the Son, making it known that
He is about to come, that the divine promises, made centuries before, are to be
fulfilled. The birth of Mary is the dawn of our redemption; her appearance
projects a new light over all the human race: a light of innocence, of purity,
of grace, a resplendent presage of the great light which will inundate the
world when Christ, “lux mundi,” the Light of the World,
appears. Mary, preserved from sin in anticipation of Christ’s merits, not only
announces that the Redemption is at hand, but she bears the firstfruits
of it within herself; she is the first one redeemed by her divine Son. Through
her, all- pure and full of grace, the Blessed Trinity at last fixes on earth a
look of complacency, finding in her alone a creature in whom the infinite
beauty of the Godhead can be reflected.
The
birth of Jesus excepted, no other was so important in God’s eyes or so fruitful
for the good of humanity, as was the birth of Mary. Yet it has remained in
complete obscurity. There is no mention of it in Sacred Scriptures and when we
look for the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel, we find only what refers to
Joseph; we find nothing explicit about Mary’s ancestry except the allusion to
her descent from David. Our Lady’s origin is wrapped in silence, as was her
whole life. Thus, her birth speaks to us of humility. The more we desire to
grow in God’s eyes, the more we should hide ourselves from the eyes of
creatures. The more we wish to do great things for God, the more we should
labor in silence and obscurity.
2. In
the Gospel the figure of Mary is, as it were, completely overshadowed by that
of her divine Son; the Evangelists tell us only what is necessary to present
the Mother of the Redeemer, and in fact, she enters on the scene only when the
narrative of the Incarnation of the Word begins. Mary’s life is confounded
with, is lost in, the life of Jesus: truly she lived “hidden with Christ in
God.” Let us note, too, that she lived in obscurity, not only during the years
of her childhood, but also during the whole period of her divine maternity,
yes, even during the triumphal moments in the public life of her Son, even when
a certain woman, enthusiastic about the wonderful things that Jesus did, cried
out in the midst of the crowd : “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the breasts
that nursed Thee!” (Lk 11, 27).
The
Feast which we celebrate today is an invitation to the hidden life, to hide
ourselves with Mary in Christ, and with Christ in God. Many times it is God
Himself who, through circumstances or the decisions of our superiors, makes us
live in obscurity. We should be very grateful for this, and take advantage of
these opportunities to make more progress in the practice of humility and
self-effacement. At other times, however, God gives us responsibilities,
offices, apostolic works which bring us into prominence, but even in such
circumstances we should try to efface ourselves as much as possible. Certainly
we must not refuse the assignment, but we should know how to withdraw as soon
as our activity is no longer needed for the success of the work entrusted to
us. All the rest—praise, applause, the account of our success or the excuse for
our failure—should not concern us. In the face of all this we should strive to
remain wholly indifferent. An interior soul should long to hide itself as much
as it can under the shadow of God, for, if it has been able to accomplish some
little good, it is convinced that in reality all has been the work of God;
therefore, it eagerly seeks that all may redound to His glory alone.
Let Mary’s
humble, hidden life be the model of ours, and if, in emulating her, we have to
struggle against our ever-recurrent tendencies to pride, let us confidently
seek her maternal aid, and she will help us to triumph over all vainglory.
Colloquy:
“When
I feel myself tossed about in the sea of this world amidst storms and tempests,
I keep my eyes fixed on you, O Mary, shining star, lest I be swallowed up by
the waves.
“When
the winds of temptation arise, when I dash against the reefs of tribulations, I
raise my eyes to you and call upon you, O Mary. When I am agitated by the
billows of pride, ambition, slander or jealousy, I look to you and I invoke
you, O Mary; when anger or avarice or the seductions of the flesh rock the
fragile little barque of my soul, I always look to
you, O Mary. And if I am troubled by the enormity of my sins, troubled in
conscience, frightened at the severity of judgment, and if I should feel myself
engulfed in sadness or drawn into the abyss of despair, again I raise my eyes
to you, always calling on you, O Mary.
“In
dangers, in difficulties, in doubts, I will always think of you, O Mary, I will
always call on you. May your name, O Virgin Mary, be always on my lips and
never leave my heart; in order that I may obtain the help of your prayers,
grant that I may never lose sight of the example of your life. Following you, O
Mary, I shall not go astray, thinking of you I shall not err, if you support me
I shall not fall, if you protect me I shall have nothing to fear, if you
accompany me I shall not grow weary, if you look upon me with favor, I shall
reach the port” (St. Bernard).
It is a truth that I was
conceived without Original Sin and not in sin.
A golden hour was my conception.
My Son joined my father and my mother in a marriage of such chastity
that a purer union has never been seen.
Sensuality was extinguished in them.
Thus my flesh was formed through divine charity.[....] From my infancy
the Holy Ghost was perfectly with me.
And as I grew, It filled me so completely as to leave no room for any
sin to enter. When I had attained as age
to know something of my Creator, I turned to Him with unspeakable love and
desired Him with my whole heart. I vowed
in my heart to observe virginity if it was pleasing to Him, and to possess
nothing in the world - but if God willed otherwise, that His Will, not mine, be
done, I committed my will absolutely to Him.
Blessed Virgin Mary to St.
Bridget of Sweden
On September 12, 1213, the Catholic Crusaders under the command of
Simon de Montfort, outnumbered forty to one, crushed the Albigensian
army in a most critical engagement at the battle of Muret
during the pontificate of Innocent III.
On September 12, 1683, Vienna, worn out and dismantled, abandoned by its
emperor, was surrounded by 300,000 infidels.
But another great Pope, Innocent XI, again confided to Mary the defense
of the baptized nations. Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland, mounting his charger on the
feast of the Assumption rode to the gates of Vienna, and although vastly
outnumbered, engaged and defeated the Moslem army. The feast of the most holy name of Mary
inscribed on the calendar of the universal Church, was the homage of the
world’s gratitude to Mary, our Lady and Queen.
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year
It is by as great a
fraud...that these enemies of divine revelation, who bestow the highest praises
on human progress, wish, with a truly reckless and sacrilegious audacity, to
bring it [the progressivist error] into the Catholic
religion, as if religion was not the work of God, but that of men, or was some
philosophic discovery that human methods could perfect.
Blessed Pope Pius IX, Qui
pluribus
“Though the
path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not
travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet,
courage, and tenacity of spirit.”
St. John of the
Cross
The rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it
will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. It will cause virtue and good works to
flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw
the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift
them to the desire of eternal things.
Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Dominic
ABCs of the Spiritual Life
MAN HAS a twofold nature, the one
superior, the other inferior. The first is generally termed reason, the second is
called appetite, sensuality, or passion. Reason is the distinguishing property
of man, and he is not considered responsible for the primary impulses of his
appetite unless his superior faculty confirms the choice.
The entire spiritual warfare,
consequently, consists in this: the rational faculty is placed between the
Divine will above it and the sensitive appetite below it, and is attacked from
both sides------God
moving it by His grace, and the flesh by its appetites strive for victory.
It is apparent, then, that
inconceivable difficulties arise when persons who during their youth have
contracted vicious habits resolve to change their life, mortify their passions,
and break with the world in order to devote themselves to the service of God.
The will is violently attacked by
Divine grace and by its own sensual appetites, and wherever it turns, it
absorbs these withering attacks with the greatest difficulty.
This onslaught is not experienced
by those who are firmly settled in their way of life, whether in virtue by
conforming to the will of God, or in vice by indulging their sensual desires.
No one should delude himself that
he can acquire virtue and serve God in the proper way, unless he is willing to
undergo a violent struggle. He must conquer the difficulty he will experience
when he deprives himself of the pleasures, great or small, to which he has been
viciously attached.
The result is that very few attain
any great degree of perfection. After conquering their greatest vice, after
undergoing tremendous exertions, they lose courage and fail to pursue their
objective. And this when only small trials are to be overcome, such as subduing
the feeble remnants of their own will, and annihilating some weaker passions
which revive and then completely regain their hearts.
Many persons of this type, for
example, do not take what belongs to others, but they are passionately attached
to what is their own. They do not use any illegal methods of aggrandizement,
but instead of spurning advancement, they are fond of it and seek it by any
means they think lawful. They observe the appointed fasts, but, on other days,
they indulge in the most exotic delicacies. They are very careful to observe
chastity, and yet they refuse to give up their favorite amusements, even though
they constitute great obstacles to a spiritual life and real union with God.
Since these things are so highly dangerous, particularly for those who do not
recognize their bad results, they must be dealt with very cautiously.
Without such caution, we may be
assured that most of our good acts will have as attendants, slothfulness,
vanity, human respect, hidden imperfections, conceit, and a desire for the
notice and approval of others. Dom
Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat
The Charity of
a Saint
Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous
blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship.
Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what
else, we hurried toward them. We had to force our way through the crowd until
we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground or
rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of
building up a mound with a mixture of tines and broken pieces of bricks. This,
then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but
especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.
We laid aside our cloaks, therefore,
and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that
way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a
passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one
group my companion approached with an interpreter, which I addressed the other
group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse
could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals
together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we
tossed aromatics. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of the sort,
and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided
for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth, and
the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to
see.
This was how we spoke to them, not
with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they
were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have
proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed
their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with
friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow
naturally tend to hearten the sick.
After this we began an elementary
instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on
body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed they had sufficiently
understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the
one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the
rest. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we told them the
mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ
fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams
of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of
contrition in their own language.
Excerpt from a letter by St. Peter Claver who baptized more than 300,000 slaves
in the New World
"O most loving Word of God, teach me to be
generous, to serve You as You deserve : to give and not to count the cost, to
fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor
and not to ask for any other reward save that of knowing that I do Your holy
will."
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Above the legions of
Constantine, in a cloudless sky, the cross, proscribed for three long
centuries, suddenly shone forth; all eyes beheld it, making the western sun, as
it were, its footstool, and surrounded with these words in characters of fire:
IN HOC VINCE: by this be thou conqueror!
A few months later, October 27, 312, all the idols of Rome stood aghast
to behold, approaching along the Flaminian Way, beyond the bridge Milvius, the Labarum with its sacred monogram, now become
the standard of the imperial armies. On
the morrow was fought the decisive battle, which opened the gates of the
eternal city to Christ, the only God, the everlasting King.
Dom Gueranger,
The Liturgical Year, Exaltation
of the Holy Cross
About the end of the
reign of the emperor Phocas, Chosroes
King of the Persians invaded Egypt and Africa.
He then took possession of Jerusalem; and after massacring there many
thousand Christians, he carried away into Persia the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which Helen had placed upon Mount Calvary. Phocas was
succeeded in the empire by Heraclius; who after many failures and unable to
obtain peace, applied himself to prayer and fasting, and earnestly implored
God’s assistance. Then, admonished from
heaven, he raised an army, marched against the enemy, and defeated three of Chosroes’s generals with their armies….Thus fourteen years
after it had fallen into the hands of the Persians, the cross was recovered and
returned to Jerusalem on the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross.
Dom Gueranger,
The Liturgical Year
At present I am still engaged in battle:
the struggle from without against false virtue, the struggle from within
against my concupiscence. When I think
of the number of little faults which I commit every day, even if only in
thought and word, I realize that their number is very great, and that this
great number of little failings makes an immense heap. O unhappy that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this
death? You will deliver me, O God, by
Your grace, through the merits of Jesus Christ, Your Son and Our Lord. In the toil of this battle, then, I shall
look to Your grace and, in the heat and burning thirst which I feel, I will beg
for Your life-giving shade.
Help me, O
Lord Jesus, by saying to me: ‘Do not tire of the narrow way: I walked it before
you, I am the way itself; I am the guide, and I carry those whom I lead and
bring them to Myself at the last’.
St. Augustine
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHRISTIAN SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
Grant, O Lord, that my soul may be deeply rooted in charity and in humility.
MEDITATION:
I. The Epistle (Eph 3,
13-21) which we read in today's Mass is one of the most beautiful passages in
the letters of St. Paul. In it we find the famous counsel of the Apostle
addressed to the Ephesians, which summarizes in three parts, the whole of the
spiritual life.
"
That the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. . .would grant you . . . to be
strengthened by His Spirit with might unto the inward man. " The inward
man is the human spirit regenerated by grace; it is the spiritual man who has
renounced all material things and the pleasures of the senses. This man is in
each one of us and should be strong in order to keep up the struggle against
our lower nature, which will always be a part of us while we are on earth, and
is always trying to drag us down. The Apostle rightly asks this fortitude of
the Holy Spirit, because the strength of our virtue is not sufficient unless it
is supported by what the Holy Spirit infuses into us through His gifts.
"That
Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts." Christ with the Father and the
Holy Spirit already dwells in the soul in the state of grace, but His presence
can always become more profound. And the more profound His presence, the more
deeply will the soul be penetrated with divine charity, until it becomes truly "
rooted and founded " in love. If we wish to grow in love we should keep
ourselves in contact with the fount of love, with God living in our soul.
"
That you may be able to comprehend . . . the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge. " To comprehend the mystery
of God's love, insofar as it is possible to our limitations, is the summit of
the spiritual life. Christianity is all love: we are Christians in the measure
that we live in love, in the measure that we understand God's love. Yet this mystery
always leaves us a little incredulous, a little skeptical. Oh! if we could see
as the blessed do, that God is love and wishes nothing but love; that the way
to go to Him is the way of love; that suffering, mortification and humility,
are only means to reach perfect love, and to correspond with the love of the
God who is Charity! Then indeed, we would be " filled unto all the fullness
of God. "
2. St. Paul in the Epistle has
exhorted us to be rooted in love, and in the Gospel (Lk
14, 1-11) Jesus exhorts us to be rooted in love and in humility.
Despite
the tacit disapproval of the Pharisees, caused by their narrowness of mind and
heart, Jesus cured a man of dropsy on the Sabbath, thus teaching us again the
great importance of love of neighbor. In vain would we believe that we were
rooted in the love of God if we failed in our love of neighbor. How could one
think that an act of fraternal charity might be in opposition to the law for
sanctifying the Sabbath? Such are the aberrations of one who pretends to love
God while paying attention solely to his own interests, without any thought for
the needs of others. This is not Christianity, but Pharisaism
and the destruction of charity.
To be
rooted in love, we must also be rooted in humility, for only he who is humble
is capable of really loving God and his neighbor. The Gospel continues with a
practical lesson in humility, condemning those who seek the first places. We
should not think that this refers only to material places; it refers also to
those places which our pride seeks to occupy in the esteem and regard of
others. It is really humiliating to note how our self‑love always tries
to make us take a higher place than that which is due us, and this to our own
confusion, for " he that exalteth himself shall
be humbled. " " Let us always take the lowest place, " says St.
Bernard, " there is no harm in humbling ourselves and believing that we
are less than we really are. But there is exceeding harm and great evil in
wishing to elevate ourselves, even if only a finger's breadth, above what we
are and in preferring ourselves to even one. There is no danger in stooping too
much to pass through a low doorway, whereas there would be great danger in
lifting our head even an inch above the lintel, as we would strike against it
and injure our head; similarly, we should not be afraid that we shall humble
ourselves too much, but should fear and abominate the slightest movement of
presumption. " Let us, like the saints, ask God to send us a humiliation
every time our pride tries to raise us above others; this will be the surest
way to become rooted in humility. At the same time, we shall be rooted in
charity and shall thus possess the two fundamental characteristics of a
Christian soul.
COLLOQUY:
"
O Lord, increase my faith in Your love, so that I may be able to say to You in
all truth: ` I have known and have believed the charity which God hath to me. '
It seems to me that this is the greatest act of our faith, the most beautiful
way to render You love for love; in it is the hidden secret of which St. Paul
speaks, a secret which my soul longs to understand, because in understanding
it, I shall thrill with joy. Make me capable of believing in Your exceeding
love for me. Then I shall not stop at preferences or feelings. It will matter
little if I feel Your presence or not, whether You send me joy or suffering. I
shall believe in Your love and that will suffice. Grant, O God, that my soul
may penetrate into Your depths and remain there, rooted and founded in love.
"
O Lord, when I ponder within myself Your immensity, Your faithfulness, the
proofs of love You have shown me, and Your benefits, and then look at myself
and see how I have outraged You, I can only turn upon my soul with a profound
feeling of contempt; yet this self‑contempt is
not strong enough to cast me down as low as I would wish. O Lord, plunge me into
humility! It seems to me that to be plunged into humility is to be plunged into
You; for, living in You who are the Truth, I cannot fail to realize my nothingness.
The humble soul is the chosen recipient, the vessel capable of receiving Your
grace, and only into it do You wish to pour Your grace. Grant then, O Lord,
that I may be humble, and make me understand that the humble soul will never
put You high enough or itself low enough " (cf. E.T. 1, 6‑11,
8‑1, 9).
“….because every one that exalteth
himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted.”
Vatican Council
I listing the beneficial Fruits of the Council of Trent which are in every
detail exactly the opposite which we have seen from Vatican Council II -
By their
fruits they are known!
Now this redemptive
providence appears very clearly in unnumbered benefits, but most especially is
it manifested in the advantages which have been secured for the Christian world
by ecumenical councils, among which the council
of Trent requires special mention, celebrated though it was in evil
days.
Thence came:
1. a closer definition and more fruitful
exposition of the holy dogmas of religion and
2. the condemnation and repression of errors;
thence too,
3. the restoration and vigorous strengthening
of ecclesiastical discipline,
4. the advancement of the clergy in zeal for
·
learning and
·
piety,
5. the founding of colleges for the training
of the young for the service of religion; and finally
6. the renewal of the moral life of the
Christian people by
· a more accurate instruction of the faithful, and
· a more frequent reception of the sacraments. What is more, thence also
came
7. a closer union of the members with the
visible head, and an increased vigour in the whole
Mystical Body of Christ.
Thence came:
1. the multiplication of religious orders and
other organisations of Christian piety; thence too
2. that determined and constant ardour for the spreading of Christ’s kingdom abroad in the
world, even at the cost of shedding one’s blood.
While we recall with grateful hearts, as is
only fitting, these and other outstanding gains, which the divine mercy has
bestowed on the church especially by means of the last ecumenical synod, we
cannot subdue the bitter grief that we feel at most serious evils, which have
largely arisen either because
o the authority of the sacred synod was held in contempt by all too many,
or because
o its wise decrees were neglected.
First Vatican Council, Dogmatic
Constitution on the Faith, listing some of the manifold beneficial fruits from
the Council of Trent!
To
those who hoped in Summorum Pontificum:
the ‘mutual enrichment’ has already taken place!
Summorum Pontificum
(is) only the beginning of this new liturgical movement.... In fact, Pope
Benedict knows well that, in the long term, we cannot stop at a co-existence
between the ordinary form and the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, but
that in the future the church naturally will once again need a common rite.
However, because a new liturgical reform cannot be decided theoretically, but
requires a process of growth and purification, the pope for the moment is
underlining above all that the two forms of the Roman rite can and should
enrich each other.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, President,
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
Cardinal
Gerhard Ludwig Müller was a ‘Zero to the Left’ at the
CDF: Heretics are “fully incorporated and integrated into the Church of God”
but traditional Catholics who maintain that the faith is necessary for Church
membership and salvation are not?
Baptism is the
fundamental sign that sacramentally unites us in
Christ, and which presents us as the one Church in front of the world. Thus, we
as Catholic and Evangelical Christians are already united even in what we call
the visible Church.
Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Also the Christians that
are not in full community with the Catholic Church regarding teaching, means of
salvation and the apostolic episcopacy, are justified by faith and baptism and
they are fully incorporated and integrated into Church of God, being the Body
of Christ.
Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, eulogy for
Protestant “bishop” Dr. Johannes Friedrich, 10-11-11
The SSPX must fully
return to the ground of the Catholic Church and recognize the authority of the
Pope, the decisions of the Second Vatican Council and recognize existing canon
law. If they do, they also accept that the seminary of Zaitzkofen
falls under the supervision of the Diocese of Regensburg. The seminary should
be closed and the students should go to seminaries in their home countries — if
they are suitable for this purpose.
Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Biblical
Exegesis for Dummies
We encounter Jesus in our sins. This is not heresy. The privileged
place to encounter with Jesus Christ is in our sins. This may seem like
“heresy” but St. Paul also said as much when he said he would boast of only two
things: his sins and the Risen Christ who saved him (II Corinthians 12:
9).
Pope Francis, Sermon, 9-18-2014
Comment:
St. Paul said, “And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for
power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” St. Paul did not “boast
of .... his sins.” And no authoritative
commentator on exactly what St. Paul meant by “infirmity” has interpreted it to
mean “sins.” We encounter Jesus when we repent of sin and do penance. Repentance requires a sorrow for sins and a
firm determination to not sin again.
“Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” If thou wilt be
perfect sell thy will... come to Christ trough meekness and humility; and
follow Him to Calvary and the grave..... The soul that strips itself of its
desires, either to will or not to will, will be clothed by God with His purity,
joy and will.
St. John of the
Cross
However ignorant you may be, you have the true faith if you believe, without
exception, all the holy Catholic Church believes and teaches; on the other
hand, however learned you may he, you lose the gift and the virtue of faith if
you reject any doctrine which she teaches; for her faith is your rule. “As
there is but one faith,” says St. Paul, “to wish to divide it, is to destroy
it.” Heretics not only differ from the Church in faith, but they also differ
amongst themselves, a proof that they have not the true faith, which is one.
The holy Catholic Church never has suffered, and never will suffer, a
difference of faith in regard to any article. Her faith is the same in all
times, in all places, and in all her true children. Thus her faith is one and
the only true faith. You should be most desirous to preserve the faith in all
its purity, since without it, it is impossible to do anything which merits
heaven. “‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Those who do not
possess it may practise all the moral virtues,
justice, sobriety, chastity, alms—deeds, prayers, mortifications; and not only
is this the case with heretics, but it is a truth which should be borne in
mind, that these good actions, unless they have faith for their principle, will
never merit heaven for them. The law of Moses, all holy as it was, could save only
those who observed it through faith. ….We may renew our Baptismal promises
either in private or in public. To make this renewal in private, it is
sufficient to say: “I renounce Satan, his works and pomps,
and I give myself to you, Oh my God! to serve you all my life, through faith,
hope and charity, and in perfect submission to all your commandments.” This
renewal can be made every morning, or at any other time; but particularly when
you are attacked with any evil thought or other like temptation.
St. John Eudes, Man’s Contract With God in Baptism
Is
this what Pope Francis means by “fleshless theology that becomes ideology”?
I likewise receive and accept the rites of the Catholic Church which have
been received and approved in the solemn administration of all the aforesaid
(seven) sacraments. [.....]
I resolutely assert that images of Christ and the ever virgin mother of
God, and likewise those of the other saints, are to be kept and retained, and
that due honour and reverence is to be shown them.
[.....]
Likewise all other things which have been transmitted, defined and
declared by the sacred canons and the ecumenical councils, especially the
sacred Trent, I accept unhesitatingly and profess; in the same way whatever is
to the contrary, and whatever heresies have been condemned, rejected and anathematised by the Church, I too condemn, reject and anathematise. This true Catholic faith, outside of which
none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, is what I shall
steadfastly maintain and confess, by the help of God, in all its completeness
and purity until my dying breath, and I shall do my best to ensure that all
others do the same. This is what I, the same Pius, promise, vow and swear. So
help me God and these holy gospels of God.
Profession of
Faith, Blessed Pope Pius IX before the bishops of the Church at the opening of
the First Vatican Council
"Let everything that conflicts with ecclesiastical tradition and
teaching, and that has been innovated and done contrary to the examples
outlined by the saints and the venerable Fathers, or that shall hereafter at
any time be done in such a fashion, be anathema."
Second Council of Nicaea
Our Lady of LaSalette
“Rome
will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.” “The demons of the
air, together with the Antichrist, will work great wonders on the earth and in
the air, and men will become ever more perverted. God will take care of His
faithful servants and men of good will; the Gospel will be preached everywhere,
all peoples and all nations will have knowledge of the Truth.”
Blessed
Virgin Mary addressing the children at LaSalette,
September 19, 1846
“When
the Secret has been scorned, misunderstood ... held back for money, one must be
surprised at nothing. The Church will endure forever, our Lord said so; but
among the teaching members of the Church, what traitors, what apostates, what
mercenaries, what sectarians, who bear the imprint or the sign of the beast
with ten horns St. John speaks of in his vision on Patmos! But this beast
similar to the Lamb, who rises out of the earth, isn't it the figure of
faithless ecclesiastics? I firmly believe so. Happy those who die in God's
grace, for those who live will see sad and terrifying things. We still haven't
reached the beginning of the end.”
Melanie
Calvat, visionary of LaSaletter,
Letter to Fr. Roubaud, January 2, 1892), quoted by Solange Hertz
"Souls
who are God's friends can guess the Secret's meaning without help, and the
others won't want to because it applies to them too closely. Melanie Calvat, to her spiritual director in 1903, quoted by Solange Hertz
The case of governments is much the same as that of individuals: they
also must run into fatal issues, if they depart from the Way… Let Jesus be
excluded, and human reason is left without its greatest protection and
illumination: the very motion is easily lost of the end for which God created
human society…. Their minds busy with a hundred confused projects, rulers and
subjects alike travel a devious road, bereft as they are of safe guidance and
fixed principle. Just as it is pitiable and calamitous to wander out of the
way, so it is to desert the truth. But the first absolute and essential truth is
Christ, the Word of God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, who
with the Father, is one.
Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi,
On Christ Our Redeemer
No belief in God will in the long run be preserved pure and genuine, if
it is not supported by belief in Christ… Belief in Christ will not be preserved
true and genuine, if not supported and protected by belief in the Church, the
pillar and the ground of truth (I Timothy 3:15). Christ Himself, God praised
forever in the ages, has erected this pillar of faith. His command to hear the
Church (Matthew18:17), to hear His words and commandments (Luke 10:16), in the
words and commandments of the Church, is meant for the men of all times and
places… The moral conduct of mankind is grounded on faith in God kept pure and
true. Every attempt to dislodge moral teaching and moral conduct from the rock
of faith, and to erect them on the shifting sands of human regulations, sooner
or later leads the individual and the community to moral destruction.
Pope Pius XI, Mit Brennender Sorge, On the Persecution of the Church in Germany
Remark the last words addressed by Our Lord to His Apostles before He
ascended into heaven: “All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going
therefore, teach ye all nations.” Notice that Our Lord Jesus Christ does not
say all men, all individuals, all families, but all Nations. He does not merely
say: Baptize children, teach the catechism, bless marriages, administer the
sacraments, give religious burial to the dead. Of course, the mission He
confers on the Apostles comprises all that, but it comprises more than that,
for it has a public and social character. Jesus Christ is King of Peoples and
Nations.
Cardinal Pie of Poitiers, 1815-1880, the great apologist and promoter
of the Kingship of Jesus Christ
“But if the faith communicated by the Church to Christian humanity is a
living faith, and if the grace of the sacraments is an effectual grace, the
resultant union of the divine and the human cannot be limited to the special
domain of religion, but must extend to all Man's common relationships and must
regenerate and transform his social and political life.”
Vladimir Solovyev, 1853-1900, Russia and the Universal Church
Meditate
often on the sorrows of the Holy Mother, sorrows inseparable from those of her
beloved Son. If you seek the Cross,
there you will find the Mother; and where the Mother is, there also is the
Son.
St.
Paul of the Cross
Modernists hate St. Thomas most of all
because he was holy!
The
last word of St. Thomas is not communication but silence. And it is not death
which takes the pen out of his hand. His tongue is stilled by the
superabundance of life in the mystery of God. He is silent, not because he has
nothing further to say; he is silent because he has been allowed a glimpse into
the inexpressible depths of that mystery which is not reached by any human
thought or speech.
The
acts of the canonization process record: On the feast of St. Nicholas, in the
year 1273, as Thomas turned back to his work after Holy Mass, he was strangely
altered. He remained steadily silent; he did not write; he dictated nothing. He
laid aside the Summa Theologica
on which he had been working. Abruptly, in the middle of the treatise on the
Sacrament of Penance, he stopped writing.
Reginald,
his friend, asks him, troubled: “Father, how can you want to stop such a great
work?” Thomas answers only, “I
can write no more.” Reginald of Pipemo
seriously believed that his master and friend might have become mentally ill
through his overwhelming burden of work. After a long while, he asks and urges
once again. Thomas gives the answer: “Reginald, I can write no more. All that I have hitherto written seems
to me nothing but straw.”
Reginald
is stunned by this reply. Some time later, as he had
often done before, Thomas visits his younger sister, the Countess of San Severino, near Salerno. It is the same sister who had aided
Thomas in his escape from the castle of San Giovanni, nearly thirty years ago.
Shortly after his arrival, his sister turns to his traveling companion,
Reginald, with a startled question: what has happened to her brother? He is
like one struck dumb and has scarcely spoken a word to her. Reginald once more
appeals to Thomas: Would he tell him why he has ceased writing and what it is
that could have disturbed him so deeply? For a long time, Thomas remains
silent. Then he repeats: “All
that I have written seems to me nothing but straw... compared to what I have
seen and what has been revealed to me.”
This
silence lasted throughout a whole winter. The great teacher of the West had
become dumb. Whatever may have imbued him with a deep happiness, with an
inkling of the beginning of eternal life, must have aroused in the men in his
company the disturbing feeling caused by the uncanny.
At
the end of this time, spent completely in his own depths, Thomas began the
journey to the General Council at Lyons. His attention continued to be directed
inward. The acts of the canonization report a conversation which took place on
this journey between Thomas and Reginald. It seems to have arisen out of a long
silence and to have receded immediately into a long silence. This brief
exchange clearly reveals to what degree the two friends already live in two
different worlds. Reginald, encouragingly: “Now you are on your way to the
Council, and there many good things will happen; for the whole Church, for our
order, and for the Kingdom of Sicily.” And Thomas: “Yes, God grant that good things may happen
there!”
The
prayer of St. Thomas that his life should not outlast his teaching career was
answered. On the way to Lyons he met his end.
The
mind of the dying man found its voice once more, in an explanation of the
Canticle of Canticles for the monks of Fossanova. The last teaching of St. Thomas
concerns, therefore, that mystical book of nuptial love for God, of which the
Fathers of the Church say: the meaning of its figurative speech is that God
exceeds all our capabilities of possessing Him, that all our knowledge can only
be the cause of new questions, and every finding only the start of a new
search.
Josef Pieper, On St. Thomas
Aquinas’ last days
Stanford
University accepted 27% of all homeschooled applicants and only 5% of all other
applicants. The leading universities are
waking up to the fact that government indoctrination applied to children
segregated and isolated by age for twelve years produces intellectual blindness
and, what is worse, psychological and sociological retardation.
Nothing
"new" about the "utterly new" gospel according to the
"pastoral" Vatican II
VERY many in the olden time wrote Gospels, and fathered them upon
Apostles, giving - them the names of Apostles, that they might in this manner
gain a sanction for their heresies. “Thus,” says S. Jerome, “these were the
authoritative books of divers heresies, published by divers authors, such as
the Gospel according to the Egyptians, the Gospel of Thomas, of Matthias, of
Bartholomew, of The Twelve Apostles, of Basilides, of
Apelles, and others which it would be tedious to enumerate. This only is it
needful to say that certain men rose up, who without the Spirit and grace of
God attempted rather to weave a tale than to compile historical truth. To these
men may justly be applied the words of the Prophet, ‘Woe unto them which
prophesy out of their own heart, and walk after their own spirit, who say, The
Lord saith, and the Lord hath not sent them.’ Of such
the Saviour also speaks in the Gospel of S. John,
‘All that ever came before Me were thieves and robbers.’” And after an interval
he adds, “From all these things combined, it may be clearly seen that four
Gospels only ought to be received, and that all the follies of the Apocryphal
Gospels have been the utterances of dead heretics, rather than of Catholic
writers.
Cornelius de Lapide, The Great Commentary
Regarding the Sin of Schism
and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
There
are no manifest acts of schism. This means there are no acts that are necessarily
always and everywhere evidence of a schismatic motive in the internal forum.
Contrasted, for example, with abortion and blasphemy which are acts that are
manifest sins because they can never be done with a morally right intention;
the act itself reveals the intent of the internal forum as being vicious. These
are always and everywhere necessarily mortal sins. As St. Paul says, "Some men's sins are manifest, going before to judgment:
and some men they follow after" (1Tim 5:24). St. Paul gives specific
examples of "manifest sins": "Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind (sodomites), nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners,
shall possess the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:10).
What exactly is the schismatic motive that a contentious canonical process must
discover for conviction and attribution of imputability
of the crime?
The canonical definition for both
heresy and schism are taken directly almost verbatim from St. Thomas Aquinas:
"Schismatics are those who refuse to submit to the Sovereign Pontiff, and
to hold communion with those members of the Church who acknowledge his
supremacy." Schism is the repudiation of the universal jurisdiction of
Sovereign Pontiff and communion with those who accept it. It is the burden of
the canonical trial to prove the schismatic intention of the act for all
schismatics "refuse to submit to the Sovereign Pontiff" but not all
who "refuse to submit to the Sovereign Pontiff" are schismatics. St.
Thomas' in his examination identifies schism as a specific species of sin. St. Thomas says, "Hence the sin of schism is,
properly speaking, a special sin, for the reason that the schismatic intends to sever
himself from that unity which is the effect of charity: because charity
unites not only one person to another with the bond of spiritual love, but also
the whole Church in unity of spirit." The genus to which schism belongs is acts opposed to peace which is
the fruit of "that
unity which is the effect of charity." Regarding peace, St. Thomas
continues: "Peace implies a twofold union... The first is the result of
one's own appetites being directed to one object; while the other results from
one's own appetite being united with the appetite of another: and each of these
unions is effected by charity." All acts that disturb the fruit of peace
are directed against the cause of peace which is charity."
Acts of disobedience against properly
constituted authority are only acts of schism when the intention is to overturn
the peace of unity caused by charity. This intention constitutes the species difference of schism from other
acts opposed to peace, as St. Thomas says, the schismatic "intends to separate
himself from the unity that charity makes" (Q.39, a.1.) among the faithful. St.
Thomas is offering an essential
definition of schism which is the best of all definitions because it is the
most intelligible. Schism, just as other acts opposed to peace enumerated by
St. Thomas, which include discord, contention, war, strife and sedition, requires
contextualization. Specifically for the case of Archbishop Viganò,
St. Thomas says that morality of contention, which is the opposition to another in speech, is
determined by the intention: "As to the intention, we must consider
whether he contends against the truth, and then he is to be blamed, or against
falsehood, and then he should be praised." Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's "contention" against Pope Francis is the
contention of truth against falsehood and is therefore praiseworthy and not
schismatic. This is why a canonical trial is called "contentious" for
it is intended to reveal who is contending for truth.
The poles of contention are
truth-falsehood which is the same for dogmas of faith. As St. Jude admonishes:
" I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend
earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). Schism
is the rejection of the divinely revealed truth of papal universal
jurisdiction, a dogma of faith since Vatican I. Schism is manifested by
disobedience but all disobedience is not schism. Obedience to God is
unqualified. All other acts of obedience are morally good only to the degree
that they are properly regulated by the virtue of Religion which is the primary
subsidiary virtue under Justice. Any act of obedience that violates the virtue
of Religion is a sin. The virtue of Religion above all requires that we
"give unto God the things that are God's." This first and necessary
act of obedience is to believe all that God has revealed and to keep his
commandments. Without this first necessary condition, it is impossible to keep
the greatest commandment to love God above all things and it is impossible to
have "the unity that charity makes."
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was administratively "excommunicated" for
"schism" because the administrative process avoided the canonical
requirement to prove that his intent was to "separate himself from the
unity that charity makes" among the faithful. They denied the right of
Archbishop Viganò to defend himself contentions forum against
the charge which would obviously have included discussing the heretical acts of
Pope Francis which are manifest. The ultimate purpose of the canonical process
is to determine truth and bring those who have deviated from truth back from
error. But for many the contention itself irrespective of truth or falsehood is
the manifest evidence of schism. The reason for this will become clearer after
discussing the relationship in the context of faith and charity, and heresy and
schism.
Schismatics "refuse to submit to
the Sovereign Pontiff" because they deny that the pope possesses universal
jurisdiction conferred by God for the
legitimate exercise of the papal office which produces unity and peace.
Universal jurisdiction of the pope is a divinely revealed truth that was
dogmatized at Vatican I Council. St. Thomas says:
"Heresy and schism are distinguished in
respect of those things to which each is opposed essentially and directly. For
heresy is essentially opposed to faith, while schism is essentially opposed to
the unity of ecclesiastical charity. Wherefore just as faith and charity are different virtues, although
whoever lacks faith lacks charity, so too schism and heresy are different
vices, although whoever is a heretic is also a schismatic, but not
conversely."
Since the universal jurisdiction of
the pope has become a dogma at Vatican Council I, a schismatic is now also
conversely always a heretic. Importantly, faith precedes charity. "Without
faith, it is impossible to please God" (Heb 11-6) because "whoever lacks faith lacks
charity." The keys of universal jurisdiction were promised to St.
Peter after his profession of faith which is its proximate material cause. Many
Church Fathers, such as St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom, describe an
analogical identity between of the rock
(petra) with divine faith, with St. Peter, with Jesus
Christ the "cornerstone," and the Church itself. The faith proceeds and is the
proximate cause of the universal jurisdiction conferred by Jesus Christ because
faith is indispensible to the bond of unity which is charity. Cardinal Henry Edward Manning wrote:
“The interpretation by the Fathers of the words
‘On this rock; etc. is fourfold, but all four interpretations are not more than
four aspects of one and the same truth, and all are necessary to complete its
full meaning. They all implicitly or explicitly contain the perpetual stability
of Peter’s faith...:’
“In these two promises [i.e. Lk
22:32, Mt 16:18] a divine assistance is pledged to Peter and to his successors,
and that divine assistance is promised to secure the stability and indefectibiity of the Faith in the supreme Doctor and Head
of the Church, for the general good of the Church itself.”
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, “The Vatican
Council and Its Definitions: A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy”, p. 83-84, 1870
All
this is nicely summed up by St. Paul who admonishes "that you walk worthy
of the vocation in which you are called; With all humility and mildness, with
patience, supporting one another in charity. Careful to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one
Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one
baptism" (Eph. 4:1-5). The primary
and essential cause and sign of the unity in the Church is the faith. The pope
is only secondarily and accidentally the sign and cause of unity in the Church.
If the pope falls from the faith he is to be confronted as St. Paul did to St.
Peter when he "walked not uprightly unto the truth of the gospel" and
accommodated the Judaizers leading others into
"dissimulation" (Gal. 2:11). If the pope is a heretic he "lacks faith (and) lacks
charity". Without charity he breaks the bond of unity in the Church
and necessarily becomes schismatic.
Men have imagined that the acknowledgment of the divinity of Christ
relieves them of the obligation of taking His words seriously. They have
twisted certain texts of the Gospel so as to get out of them the meaning they
want, while they have conspired to pass over in silence other texts which do
not lend themselves to such treatment. The precept ‘render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s’ is consistently quoted
to sanction an order of things which gives Caesar all and God nothing. The
saying “My Kingdom is not of this world’ is always being used to justify and
confirm the paganism of our social and political life, as though Christian
society were destined to belong to this world and not to the Kingdom of Christ.
On the other hand the saying “All power is given Me in heaven and earth’ is
never quoted. Men are ready to accept Christ as sacrificing Priest and atoning
Victim; but they do not want Christ the King. His royal dignity has been ousted
by every kind of pagan despotism, and Christian peoples have taken up the cry
of the Jewish rabble: ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ Thus history has witnessed
and we are still witnessing, the curious phenomenon of a society which
professes Christianity as its religion but remains pagan not merely in its life
but in the very basis of that life.
Vladimir Solovyev, 1853-1900, Russian
theologian, philosopher, poet who worked to bring the Orthodox into the
Catholic Church. He made a profession of faith before an Eastern rite unite
Catholic priest and was received into the Catholic Church in 1896. He died in
extreme poverty.
Outrage as Vatican drops
‘Before Christ’ for ‘Before Common Era’
Simon
Caldwell | August 30, 2024
Catholics have accused the Vatican of betraying
Jesus by substituting the term “Before Christ” with “Before Common Era” in
official documentation.
The
traditional term BC was replaced by BCE in the English translation of a July
letter by Pope Francis on the role of literature in Christian formation.
Ann
Widdecombe, a convert to the Catholic faith and a
former Conservative Party minister, was among the Catholics all over the world
who were angered by the move.
“If
the Vatican is doing that then it is a complete betrayal,” said Miss Widdecombe.
“If
the Vatican is removing the name of Christ from official documentation it’s a
complete betrayal.”
The
use of the secular term BCE comes in paragraph 12 of the letter, which refers
to the address of St Paul before the Areopagus that
was described in the Acts of the Apostles.
The
paragraph reads: “This verse contains two quotations: one indirect, from the
poet Epimenides (sixth century BCE), and the other
direct, from the Phaenomena of
the poet Aratus of Soli (third century BCE), who
wrote of the constellations and the signs of good and bad weather.”
The
document represents a major departure from the Church’s perspective of history,
which it frames from the arrival of the Messiah.
The
Church has always numbered years either “BC”, meaning “Before Christ”, or “AD”
– Anno Domini, or
in the year of Our Lord, to represent the era of the Church.
The
term BCE was used from the 1800s by Jewish scholars who did not acknowledge
Jesus as the Messiah.
It
has crept into popular usage with the increased secularism of Western societies
and the rejection of any concept of God, and is often controversial.
BCE
appears only in the English translation of the Pope’s letter. BC remains the
preferred abbreviation for the translations into Italian, French, German,
Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Arabic.
COMMENT: Is Pope Francis now a Jew? It was the Jews who refused to use
Anno Domini and are now imposing it in political, social and academic circles.
Regardless if Francis or the Jews recognize Anno Domini, Jesus Christ is God
who created time and His incarnation is the singular most important event in
all history. It is Pope Francis who is denying this unyielding fact.
Looking ahead:
What is the ultimate goal of the ‘color revolution’ U.S. coup that traces its
support to the likes of George Soros, Norm Eisen, et
al.?
“Let me tell you the
following words as if I were showing you the rungs of a ladder leading upward
and upward: Herzl, the Zionist Congress, the English Uganda proposition (a
planned temporary Jewish settlement in East Africa abandoned in 1905), the future World War, the peace
conference where, with the help of England, a free and Jewish Palestine will be
created.”
Max Nordau, co-founder
with Theodor Herzl of the World Zionist Organization, addressing the Sixth
Zionist Congress in 1903
in Basle, Switzerland
Tikkun olam (Hebrew תיקון
עולם, literally, 'repair of the world') is
a concept in Judaism, often interpreted as aspiration to behave and act
constructively and beneficially. Documented use of the term dates back to the Mishnaic period (ca. 10-220 AD), (that is, the time when
the oral traditions of the Jews were committed to the written form in the Mishna, also called the Oral Torah). Since medieval times, kabbalistic literature has broadened use of the term. In
the modern era, among the post-Haskalah (Jewish
enlightenment, 1770-1880) movements, tikkun olam is the idea that Jews bear responsibility not only for
their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of
society at large. For many contemporary pluralistic rabbis, the term refers to
"Jewish social justice" or "the establishment of Godly qualities
throughout the world". Wikipedia
COMMENT: Jews
repeatedly since the time of Jesus Christ are the passionate creators and principle
instigators of ideological movements conceived as necessary for the moral and
material improvement of political and social order. When one after the other
proves to be a political and social failure, it is simply dropped and they move
on to another. They recognize a ‘fall from grace’ because they recognize the
‘world needs to be repaired.’ Since they have rejected Jesus Christ, the
incarnate Logos, the eternal Wisdom of the Father, they have rejected His
divine plan for the ‘repair of the world’ and in its place offer what Fr. Denis
Fahey, C.S.Sp. described as “Organized Naturalism” in
opposition to the Supernatural Order of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the truth
of the matter is that whoever is not working for God is working for the Devil.
There is no middle ground. As Jesus said, “He that is not with me, is against
me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth” (Matthew 12:30).
Where
Tikkun Olam can lead
OPINION:
Stalin’s Jews
We mustn't forget that some of greatest murderers of modern times were
Jewish
Israel News | ynetnews | Sever Plocker
Here's
a particularly forlorn historical date: More than 100 years ago, between the
19th and 20th of December 1917, in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution and civil
war, Lenin signed a decree calling for the establishment of The All-Russian
Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, also
known as Cheka.
Within a short period of time, Cheka became
the largest and cruelest state security organization. Its organizational
structure was changed every few years, as were its names: From Cheka to GPU, later to NKVD, and later to KGB.
We cannot know with certainty the number of deaths Cheka
was responsible for in its various manifestations, but the number is surely at
least 20 million, including victims of the forced collectivization, the hunger,
large purges, expulsions, banishments, executions, and mass death at
Gulags.
Whole population strata were eliminated: Independent farmers, ethnic minorities,
members of the bourgeoisie, senior officers, intellectuals, artists, labor
movement activists, "opposition members" who were defined completely
randomly, and countless members of the Communist party itself.
In his new, highly praised book "The War of the World,"
Historian Niall Ferguson writes that no revolution in the history of mankind
devoured its children with the same unrestrained appetite as did the Soviet
revolution. In his book on the Stalinist purges, Tel Aviv University's Dr. Igal Halfin writes that Stalinist
violence was unique in that it was directed internally.
Lenin, Stalin, and their successors could not have carried out their
deeds without wide-scale cooperation of disciplined "terror
officials," cruel interrogators, snitches, executioners, guards, judges,
perverts, and many bleeding hearts who were members of the progressive Western
Left and were deceived by the Soviet regime of horror and even provided it with
a kosher certificate.
All these things are well-known to some extent or another, even though
the former Soviet Union's archives have not yet been fully opened to the
public. But who knows about this? Within Russia itself, very few people have
been brought to justice for their crimes in the NKVD's and KGB's service. The
Russian public discourse today completely ignores the question of "How
could it have happened to us?" As opposed to Eastern European nations, the
Russians did not settle the score with their Stalinist past.
And us, the Jews? An Israeli student finishes high school without ever
hearing the name "Genrikh Yagoda,"
the greatest Jewish murderer of the 20th Century, the GPU's deputy commander
and the founder and commander of the NKVD. Yagoda
diligently implemented Stalin's collectivization orders and is responsible for
the deaths of at least 10 million people. His Jewish deputies established and
managed the Gulag system. After Stalin no longer viewed him favorably, Yagoda was demoted and executed, and was replaced as chief
hangman in 1936 by Yezhov, the "bloodthirsty dwarf."
Yezhov was not Jewish but was blessed with an active Jewish wife. In his Book
"Stalin: Court of the Red Star", Jewish historian Sebag
Montefiore writes that during the darkest period of
terror, when the Communist killing machine worked in full force, Stalin was
surrounded by beautiful, young Jewish women.
Stalin's close associates and loyalists included member of the Central
Committee and Politburo Lazar Kaganovich. Montefiore characterizes him as the "first
Stalinist" and adds that those starving to death in Ukraine, an
unparalleled tragedy in the history of human kind aside from the Nazi horrors
and Mao's terror in China, did not move Kaganovich.
Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the
Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity. We'll mention
just one more: Leonid Reichman, head of the NKVD's
special department and the organization's chief interrogator, who was a
particularly cruel sadist.
In
1934, according to published statistics, 38.5 percent of those holding the most
senior posts in the Soviet security apparatuses were of Jewish origin. They
too, of course, were gradually eliminated in the next purges. In a fascinating
lecture at a Tel Aviv University convention this week, Dr. Halfin
described the waves of soviet terror as a "carnival of mass murder,"
"fantasy of purges", and "essianism of
evil." Turns out that Jews too, when they become captivated by messianic
ideology, can become great murderers, among the greatest known by modern
history.
The
Jews active in official communist terror apparatuses (In the Soviet Union and
abroad) and who at times led them, did not do this, obviously, as Jews, but
rather, as Stalinists, communists, and "Soviet people." Therefore, we
find it easy to ignore their origin and "play dumb": What do we have
to do with them? But let's not forget them. My own view is different. I find it
unacceptable that a person will be considered a member of the Jewish people
when he does great things, but not considered part of our people when he does
amazingly despicable things.
Even
if we deny it, we cannot escape the Jewishness of
"our hangmen," who served the Red Terror with loyalty and dedication
from its establishment. After all, others will always remind us of their
origin.
Give me Thy grace, good Lord, To set the
world at nought.
To set my mind fast upon Thee, And not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths…
To be content to be solitary, Not to long for worldly
company,
Little by little utterly to cast off the world, And rid my mind of all the
business thereof,
Not to long to hear of any worldly things…
St. Thomas More, personal prayer
“Don’t Jews still believe in a Messias
to come?” asks the credulous Christian. “And don’t they believe in the same
Biblical Heaven and Hell that we do?”
The answer to both these
questions is — no. And it is an emphatic “No!” as the subsequent Jewish
testimony will verify.
Concerning the Messias:
The Jews of today reject the notion of a personal redeemer who will be born of
them and lead them to the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. The Jews
believe that the whole Jewish race is to be elevated to a position of
prosperity and overlordship and that, when this happy
day arrives (the Messianic Age), they will have achieved all that is coming to
them by way of savior and salvation. In his recent book, The Messianic Idea in Israel, Jewish theologian Dr. Joseph Klausner explains: “Thus the whole people Israel in the
form of the elect of the nations gradually became the Messiah of the world, the redeemer of
mankind.”
Concerning Heaven and Hell: A succinct summary of Jewish
teaching on “life after death” was given in the May, 1958 issue of B’nai
B’rith’s National Jewish Monthly. Under the caption, “What Can A Modern Jew Believe?” there
appeared: “Judaism insists that ‘heaven’ must be established on this earth. The
reward of the pious is life and happiness in this world, while the punishment
of the wicked is misery on earth and premature death … By hitching its star to
the Messianic future on this earth, Israel became the eternal people.” The
article goes on: “The best Jewish minds have always held that a physical
hereafter is a detraction from mature belief.” And the conclusion: “There is
neither hell nor paradise, God merely sends out the sun in its full strength;
the wicked are consumed by its heat, while the pious find delight and healing
in its rays.”
Fr. Leonard Feeney, MICM, The
Point, October 1958
In the never ending effort to
impose a one-world liberal democratic governance, a new German version of “we
have ways of making you talk”!
“We will see the result of the vote in
Italy. If things go in a difficult direction, we
have tools, as in the case of Poland and Hungary.”
Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, September 2022, the appointed head of the European Commission, threatening the electorate of Italy if they should democratically elect the “wrong” government leaders.
“For,
the doctrine of faith which God revealed has not been handed down as a
philosophic invention to the human mind to be perfected, but has been entrusted
as a divine deposit to the Spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and
infallibly interpreted. Hence, also, that understanding of its sacred dogmas
must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and
there must never be recession from that meaning under the specious name of a
deeper understanding ‘Therefore
[…] let the understanding, the knowledge, and wisdom of individuals as of all,
of one man as of the whole Church, grow and progress strongly with the passage
of the ages and the centuries; but let it be solely in its own genus, namely in
the same dogma, with the same sense and the same understanding.’ (Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium, 23, 3).”
Vatican
Council I, on doctrinal development quoting St. Vincent of Lerins
“In the name of the Gospel, and in the light of the Encyclicals of the
last four Popes, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X, I do not hesitate
to affirm that this indifference to religion which puts on the same level the
religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men in order to include
them in the same skepticism is the blasphemy which calls down chastisement on
society far more than the sins of individuals and families.”
Cardinal Désiré Félicien
François Joseph Mercier, Archbishop of Mechelen in Belgium and Catholic scholar, 1918, The Lesson of Events, quoted by Fr.
Denis Fahey in The Kingship of Chirst and Organized Naturalism
“Do we wonder why the world appears to be is falling apart? Why God
seems to be withdrawing His blessings? What can we expect when Catholic leaders
launch public initiatives that were always rightly denounced as grave sins
against the First Commandment? ”
John Vennari
Infallibility
is primarily and essentially an attribute of the God's Church because it is an
attribute of God
“Infallibility is not a quality inherent in any person, but an
assistance attached to an office”
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892)
“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.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Although the article is old,
its subject matter remains timely. Cardinal George Pell died unexpectedly for
many on January 10, 2023 after undergoing hip surgery in Rome. What has become
his final public statement was his condemnation of the Synod on Synodality which at the time planned two additional Synods
in Rome. The Synod on Synodality has produced far
greater anxiety among conservative Catholics than those Catholics faithful to
tradition because faithful Catholics who understood the rotten first principles
adopted at Vatican II have been watching and describing the trajectory as this
corruption for more than 50 years.
Cardinal George Pell: Synod
on Synodality Has Become ‘Toxic Nightmare’
Breitbart News | Thomas D. Williams,
Ph.D. | Jan 12, 2023
ROME
— Australian Cardinal George Pell has blasted the Catholic Church’s synodal way as “hostile” to the apostolic tradition in a
posthumous essay published Wednesday in the Spectator.
In
what has become his final public statement, Cardinal Pell, who died
unexpectedly of cardiac arrest Tuesday evening, offers a searing critique of
the 45-page working document meant to guide the “Continental stage” of the
Church’s ongoing “synod on synodality.”
The
Catholic Synod of Bishops has produced “one of the most incoherent documents
ever sent out from Rome,” Pell writes, and what was intended to express “God’s
dream” of synodality “has developed into a toxic
nightmare.”
The
synodal document, titled “Enlarge the Space of Your
Tent,” focuses primarily on radical inclusion, listening, participation, and
co-responsibility with believers and nonbelievers, while ignoring central
themes of Christian teaching and practice, Pell observes.
“The
document does not urge even the Catholic participants to make disciples of all
nations (Matthew 28:16-20), much less to preach the Saviour
in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2),” he notes, calling the text a
“recent update of the good news.”
In
the text, the Christian message of salvation has been gutted of all content and
“the distinction between believers and unbelievers is rejected,” he writes.
Moreover,
the synodal document proposes that no definitive
positions on abortion, contraception, the ordination of women to the
priesthood, homosexual activity, polygamy, and divorce and remarriage “can be
established or proposed,” the cardinal notes.
Pell
goes on to ask rhetorically what can be made of “this outpouring of New Age
good will,” which far from being a summary of Catholic faith or New Testament
teaching, is “hostile in significant ways to the apostolic tradition and
nowhere acknowledges the New Testament as the Word of God, normative for all
teaching on faith and morals.”
For
its part, the Old Testament “is ignored, patriarchy rejected and the Mosaic
Law, including the Ten Commandments, is not acknowledged,” he adds.
In
his essay, Pell also addresses the thorny subject of the person chosen to
manage the two final synods in Rome in 2023 and 2024, namely the heterodox
Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich.
Hollerich, Pell observes, “has publicly rejected the basic teachings of the
Church on sexuality, on the grounds that they contradict modern science,”
something that in ordinary times would have precluded him from continuing as “Relator” of the synod.
The
synods will have to decide whether they are “servants and defenders of the
apostolic tradition on faith and morals” or sovereign masters tasked with
reinventing Catholic teaching, Pell proposes.
In
a call to action to his brother bishops, Pell recalls that the bishop is “the
guarantor of continuing fidelity to Christ’s teaching, the apostolic
tradition,” which means they are “governors and sometimes judges, as well as
teachers and sacramental celebrants, and are not just wall flowers or rubber
stamps.”
Therefore,
bishops have true authority and “are not there simply to validate due process
and offer a ‘nihil obstat’
to what they have observed,” he states
“By
an enormous margin, regularly worshipping Catholics everywhere do not endorse
the present synod findings,” Pell declares. “Neither is there much enthusiasm
at senior Church levels.”
Many
Catholics are rightly concerned with “the deepening confusion, the attack on
traditional morals and the insertion into the dialogue of neo-Marxist jargon
about exclusion, alienation, identity, marginalisation,
the voiceless, LGBTQ” in the synodal way, along with
“the displacement of Christian notions of forgiveness, sin, sacrifice, healing,
redemption,” he observes.
Additionally,
the synodal way “has neglected, indeed downgraded the
Transcendent, covered up the centrality of Christ with appeals to the Holy Spirit
and encouraged resentment, especially among participants,” he writes.
This
working document needs “radical changes,” Pell concludes, and much work is to
be done, in God’s name, “sooner rather than later.”
Remember in
your charity:
Remember the welfare of our expectant mother: Veronica Vanderbrook
and Claudia Gergely,
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 & their
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:
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,
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,
Monica Bandlow asks prayers for Mr. John Pfeiffer who died August 20, Theresa Hanley, died July 23, Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX, who died December 20, Fr. James Louis Albert Campbell, a faithful priest who died December 18 at 91 years of age,
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 brother, Richard Bandlow, died August 22, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, who died March 17, Robert Byrne, Michelle Donofrio McDowell,
her cousin, died March 5, and Patricia
Fabyanic, the Prefect of Our Lady’s Sodality,
March 8, 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,
Fr. Anthony Cekada, a traditional Catholic
priest, died September 11,
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,
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,and Rev. Hector Bolduc,
who died September 10,
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,
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
