.....
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.
Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Second Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2024
In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Blessed Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin" (Denzinger, Enchiridion, 10th ed., n. 1641).
The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body. The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents. Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body. Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.
The formal active essence of
original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is removed from others
by baptism; it was excluded, it never was in her soul. Simultaneously with
the exclusion of sin, the state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice,
as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain
and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially
pertaining to original sin original sin, were excluded. But she was not made
exempt from the temporal penalties of Adam — from sorrow, bodily infirmities,
and death. The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular
exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which
other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour
to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and
debt (debitum) of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in
consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but,
being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the
eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general
law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's
redeeming wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be
incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor (Ullathorne,
"Immac. Conception", p. 89). Such is the meaning of the term
"Immaculate Conception".
The
whole of today’s liturgy is filled with the thought of Isaias (whose name means
‘The Lord Saves’), since he is beyond all others, the prophet who proclaims the
coming of Christ the Redeemer. He
foretold seven centuries before that “a virgin” should “conceive and bear” a
son, “Emmanuel” (Is. 7, 14), and that God would send His “angel”; that it is
John the Baptist who should “prepare His way before Him,” (Gospel) and the
Messias should come clothed with the power of God Himself to free all nations
from the bondage of Satan. “The ox,”
says Isaias, meaning the Gentiles, “knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s
crib, but Israel hath not known me and my people have not understood” (Is. 1,3). “The root of Jesse,” he goes on, “shall rise
up to rule the nations (Epistle), and the deaf and the blind, plunged in
darkness, that is the heathen, shall hear the words of release and shall see
(Gospel). Then shall the true Jerusalem,
that is the Church, “tremble with joy” (Communion), for all the nations,
sanctified by Christ shall flow unto it (Gradual).
“The
Messias,” as Isaias explains, “will establish salvation in Sion and glory in
Jerusalem,” “Sion shall be strong, for the Lord shall be its wall and its
bulwark,” that is, its powerful protector. The Station takes place at Rome in
the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem which was built by St. Helena to
receive the relic of the Holy Cross.
INTROIT:
Isa. 61. I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of
salvation, and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bride adorned
with her jewels.
Ps. 29. I will extol
thee, O Lord, for thou hast upheld me: and
hast not made my enemies to rejoice over me. Glory be, etc.
COLLECT:
O God, who by the Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for Thy Son, we
ask that, as by the foreseen death of this
Thy Son thou didst keep her from all stain, so too Thou wouldst permit us,
purified through her intercession, to come to Thee. Through the same Lord, etc.
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to
make ready the ways of Thine only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be
worthy to serve Thee with purified minds.
Who liveth and reigneth, etc.
LESSON:
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 he 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 door. He that shall find me shall find
life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.
EXPLANATION AND APPLICATION This lesson is first a panegyric on the divine, uncreated Wisdom, the eternal Son of God, who at all times and before all things was with God and in God, by whom was made everything that was made, ordered and preserved; who rejoices in His works, loves them, and who admonishes man to love and imitate Him, and promises him eternal and temporal happiness. The Church causes this lesson to be read on this day, because the greater part of it can be applied to Mary; for it can truly be said of her, that she, as the most holy and excellent of all creatures, possessed the first place in the heart of God. For this reason the Church applies to her the words of the wise man: I came out of the mouth of the most High, the first-born before all creatures (Ecclus. 24, 5). For, as St. Richard says, she is the most worthy of all; no one has received so full a measure of purity, and of all supernatural gifts; in no creature are the marvels of divine goodness so visible as in her. Admire, devout soul, this master-piece of Almighty God, and make frequent use of the words of St. Chrysostom:
"Hail
Mother of God and our Mother! Hail O Heaven in which God Himself dwells! O
Throne of grace from which the Lord distributes His graces! Pray always to
Jesus for us, that on the Day of Judgment we may receive forgiveness and
eternal salvation."
GRADUAL:
Judith 15. Blessed
art thou, O Virgin Mary, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon
the earth.
Thou art the glory of Jerusalem,
thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honor of our people.
Alleluia, alleluia. Cant. 4.
Thou art all fair, O Mary, and there is in thee no stain of original
sin, Alleluia.
GOSPEL: St. Luke
1. 26-28.
At that time, The angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the Angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women.
Why is this gospel read today?
Because it has a significant relation to the Immaculate Conception, and proclaims the great honor shown to the Blessed Virgin by these words: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women.
Why did the angel call Mary
full of grace?
Because Mary was filled with grace, even before she came into this world; because she always increased in grace; because she was to bear the Author of all grace; that we may consider how Mary obtains for us the treasures of divine grace.
Mary was filled with grace even before her birth. As we are all conceived in sin, being children of a sinful ancestor, we are, therefore, burdened by sin before our birth. Mary was free by the privilege of the Immaculate Conception from all sin; her soul, pure and adorned with sanctifying grace, came forth from the hands of the Creator, and without the least prejudice to its purity and sanctity was united to her most pure body, from which the Saviour was to take His humanity. She could not from the first instant of her existence be wanting in that original sanctity and justice, which were the most beautiful adornments of our natural ancestress, Eve.
But Mary from the first moment of her conception was not only in grace but full of grace, because God appointed her for the highest dignity, of being the Mother of His only-begotten Son, and had consequently endowed her with the full measure of corresponding plenitude of graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost; according to the opinion of many learned men, the measure of grace which the Blessed Virgin received at her Immaculate Conception, was greater than that which all the angels and blessed possess now in glory. Mary ever increased in grace: But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forward and increaseth even to perfect day (Prov. 4, 18). These words of the Holy Ghost are verified especially in the life of the Blessed Virgin. What abundance of grace did she not receive, when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her, and the divine Son, who is Himself the infinite plenitude of grace, was conceived in her most pure body! Above all this, there yet came that rich supply of grace by which her zealous, constant, perfect and faithful cooperation made Mary increase every moment in grace. Thus St. Bonaventure says: "As all the waters meet in the sea, so all the graces were united in Mary."
Why did the angel say to Mary:
The Lord is with thee?
Because God is with the Blessed Virgin in an extraordinary manner. It is well to notice particularly, that the archangel Gabriel did not say to Mary as the angel did to Gideon: The Lord be with thee (Judges 6, 12), but: The Lord is with thee. These words are not, therefore, the wish that the favor, the blessing, the protection of God may be with Mary, but the positive declaration that the Lord really is with her, not simply because of His omnipotence and omnipresence by which He is with all His creatures, nor merely because of His goodness, love and intimacy by which He is with all the just. He is with her in a peculiar manner, since she by her dignity of being the Mother of God came into such close relationship with the Triune God that our intellect can conceive nothing nearer. She became the chosen Mother of the Son of God, the dearest, the most favored daughter of the Heavenly Father, and the pure, beloved bride of the Holy Ghost. "God the Father was with her," says St. Bonaventure, "as with His most noble Daughter; God the Son was with her as with His most worthy Mother; God the Holy Ghost was with her as with His most pure Bride."
Why did the angel say to Mary:
Blessed art thou amongst women?
Because he desired to honor her as the most blessed of her sex, since she alone was chosen of all the others to be the Mother of God; because the first woman brought the curse, but Mary, the salvation of the world.
Mary, Mother of God! An honor, indeed, which in its exaltation is second only to divinity. Mary, the Virgin Mother of God! Mother and Virgin at the same time, what a wonderful prerogative! Though the greatest and most glorious of all mothers, she is the purest and most spotless of virgins, the queen of virgins.
But not only on account of her double glory as Mother of God and as a Virgin, Mary is the most blessed of her sex, but because it was given to her to mediate for us and for the whole world. She is that woman, promised to our first and sinful parents in Paradise, who would crush the serpent's head; she gave to her Son the body with which He, by His death on the cross, accomplished the great work of salvation.
ACT OF PRAISE "Praised and blessed be the holy and Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary!"
OFFERTORY:
Luke 1. Hail, Mary full of
grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed
art thou among women, alleluia.
SECRET:
Receive, O Lord, the saving
victim which we offer to Thee on the festival of the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary: and grant that,
even as we proclaim her to have been preserved by Thy grace from all stain, so
may we be delivered, by her intercession, from all our sins. Through our Lord, etc.
Be appeased, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the prayers and sacrifices of Thy humble servants; and where no merits can be pleaded on our behalf, do Thou still come to our succor and aid. Through our Lord, etc.
PREFACE FOR THE IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION:
It is
truly meet and just, right and profitable unto salvation, that we should at all
times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty,
everlasting God; and to praise, bless and extol thee on the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception of the blessed Mary, ever Virgin; who both conceived thy
only-begotten Son by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and without losing
the glory of virginity, brought forth to the world the eternal light, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Through whom the angels
praise thy majesty, the dominions worship it, and the powers are in awe. The heavens and the heavenly hosts and the
blessed seraphim join together in celebrating their joy. With these, we pray thee, join our voices
also, while we say with lowly praise: Holy, Holy, etc.
COMMUNION:
Glorious things are told of Thee, O Mary, for he who is mighty hath done great things unto Thee.
POSTCOMMUNION:
May the
sacraments which we have received, O Lord, our God, heal in us the wounds of
that sin from which Thou didst wonderfully preserve the Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through our
Lord, etc.
Filled with the food of spiritual nourishment we suppliantly implore Thee, O Lord, that, by the partaking of this mystery Thou wouldst teach us to scorn the things of earth and love the things of heaven. Through our Lord, etc. .
LAST GOSPEL: Matt. 11, 2-10.
At that
time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his
disciples, he said to him: Art thou he that art to come, or do we look for
another? And Jesus making answer, said to them: Go and relate to John what you
have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them: and
blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me. And when they went their
way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What went you out
into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to
see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, they that are clothed in soft
garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? a prophet?
Yea I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my Angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
Why was John in prison?
He was in prison, and lost his life, because he had rebuked king Herod for his adulterous marriage with his brother's wife (Mt. 14:31). Truth, as the proverb says, is certainly a very beautiful mother, but she usually bears a very ugly daughter: Hatred. St. John experienced that speaking the truth very often arouses hatred and enmity against the speaker. Let us learn from him to speak the truth always, when duty requires it, even if it brings upon us the greatest misfortunes, for, if with St. John we patiently bear persecution, with St. John we shall become martyrs for truth.
Why did St. John send his
disciples to Christ?
That they should learn from Christ, who had become illustrious by His teachings and miracles, that He was really the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, whom they should follow.
Why did Christ say to the
disciples of St. John: "Go and say to John, the blind see, the lame walk,
etc."?
That they should, by His miracles, judge Him to be the Messiah because the prophets had predicted that He would work such miracles (Is. 35:5‑6). "Christ," says St. Cyril, "proved that He was the Messiah by the grandeur as well as by the number of His miracles."
Why does Christ add: "And
blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me"?
Christ used these words in reference to those who would be scandalized by His poverty, humility and ignominious death on the cross, and who for these reasons would doubt and despise Him, and cast Him away; though "man," as St. Gregory says, "owes all the more love to the Lord, his God, the more humiliations He has borne for him."
What was our Lord's object in
the questions He asked concerning St. John?
His object was to remove from St. John all suspicion of failing in faith in Him; and to praise the perseverance with which, although imprisoned and threatened with death, he continued to fill his office of preacher, thus constituting him an example to all preachers, confessors and superiors, that they may never be deterred by human respect, or fear of man, or other temporal considerations, from courageously fulfilling their duties. Our Lord commended also rigorous penance, exhibited by St. John's coarse garments and simple food, that we may learn, from his example, penance and mortification.
Why does Christ say that John
was "more than a prophet"?
Because St. John was foretold by the prophet Malachias as was no other prophet; because of all the prophets he was the only one who with his own eyes saw Christ and could point Him out, and was the one to baptize Him: and because like an angel, a messenger of God, he announced the coming of the Savior, and prepared the way for the Lord.
How did St. John prepare the
way for the Savior?
By his sermons on penance, and by his own penitential life He endeavored to move the hearts of the Jews, that by amending their lives, they might prepare to receive the grace of the Messiah, for God will not come with His grace into our hearts if we do not prepare His way by true repentance.
ASPIRATION O Lord Jesus, by the praise Thou didst accord to Thy forerunner St. John, for his firmness and austerities, inflame our hearts with love to imitate his steadfastness and penance, that we may never do anything to please man which may be displeasing to Thee; grant us also Thy grace that we too, like St. John, may have those who are confided to our care, instructed in the Christian doctrine.
Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that
watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my door. He that shall
find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.
It is, then, another branch
both of the duty and of the happiness of a Christian to be at peace with every
man, at least as far as lies in his power; to renounce all animosity and
rancor, all discord and contention, all malice and envy, and whatsoever else is
opposite to fraternal charity, and to learn to bear, and to forbear,
which are the two great means of keeping peace with our neighbors: when on our
part we forbear giving them any offense or provocation, whether by word or
deed, and at the same time bear with Christian meekness and charity all the
offense or provocation we receive at their hands, and strive to overcome them
by rendering good for evil. Oh, how much happier is such a soul than one that
is always at war with one neighbor or another, and always in a storm at home in
his own interior.
Fr. F. X. Lasance, Peace, Not
as the World Gives
At this moment, O Lord, I freely consecrate my will to You without
reserve… Grant that Your will may always be fulfilled in me, in the way which
is most pleasing to You. If You wish me
to do this by means of trails, give me strength and let them come. If by means of persecution and sickness and
dishonor and need, here I am, my father, I shall not turn my face away.
St. Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 8th:
8
|
Sun
|
Immaculate Conception of the BVM
2nd Sunday of Advent
|
d1cl
|
V
|
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Mass 9:00 AM; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM;
Confession 8:00 AM
|
9
|
Mon
|
Within the Octave
|
sd
|
W
|
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
10
|
Tue
|
Within the Octave
St. Melchiades, PM
Translation of the Holy House of
Loretto
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sd
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W
|
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
11
|
Wed
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St. Damasus I, PC
Within the Octave
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sd
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W
|
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
12
|
Thu
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Within the Octave
Our Lady of Guadalupe
|
d
|
W
|
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Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
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13
|
Fri
|
St. Lucy, VM
Within the Octave
St. Odilia, V
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sd
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R
|
A
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Mass 8:30; Rosary of Reparation before Mass
|
14
|
Sat
|
Within the Octave
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sd
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Confession 8:30;
Rosary of Reparation Mass
|
15
|
Sun
|
3rd Sunday of Advent - [Gaudete]
Octave Day of the Immaculate Conception
|
sd
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Rose
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM;
Confession 8:00 AM
|
IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
On this day and the ensuing eight days, the Catholic Church celebrates with special solemnity the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
What does the Catholic Church understand by the
Immaculate Conception?
By the Immaculate Conception she does not understand that great grace by which Mary preserved herself pure from every, even the least, actual sin; for, as concerns this, the Church has long since declared that Mary never sinned: nor does she understand by it her continual virginity, for it has been for a long time a doctrine of faith that both before and after the birth of her divine Son Mary remained a pure virgin; nor yet that she was sanctified before birth; as were the Prophets Jeremias and John the Baptist, who were both conceived in sin, but by a special grace of God were released from it before their birth; neither does she understand by it the conception of Christ from the Holy Ghost, that is, that Mary unstained conceived the Son of God of the Holy Ghost; and without the assistance of man, for this was always the unalterable doctrine of the Church: she does understand by it that exalted favor, that unshared privilege, by which the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first moments of her conception, by a special grace and favor on the part of God in reference to the merits of Jesus, our Saviour, was preserved from every stain of original sin.
What has until now been held by the Church in regard to
this privilege?
The Catholic Church has always been of the pious opinion that Mary, the blessed Mother of the Redeemer, was conceived immaculate, that her most pure soul had never from the first moment of her existence the least shadow of sin. This doctrine was embraced by all the saints, the most learned and most faithful children of the Church. We have testimony of this, as far back as the times of the apostles, in a document concerning the sufferings of St. Andrew, in which it is said: "As the first man was created from the spotless earth, so was it necessary that the perfect man (Christ Jesus) should be born of an immaculate virgin." St. Justin, who died a martyr in the year 167 after Christ, compares the Blessed Virgin to Eve, before she sinned and while she was still a virgin. St. Amphilochus says: "He who created the first Eve free from shame, created the second without spot or stain." Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, writes that she was neither surprised by the personated serpent, nor infected by his poison, and calls her a pure and immaculate mother. St. Ephrem calls her the undefiled, the strong, the inviolate, the most chaste virgin, far removed from all spot and stain. The Abbot St. Sabbas says of Mary: "On thee who never took part in any guile, I place my hope. No one but thou, O Lady, is without fault, and besides thee no one is unsullied and spotless." St. Ambrose calls Mary a virgin who by the grace of God remained always free from all shadow of sin. St. Augustine says: "When there is mention made of sin, the Virgin of whom on account of our Lord no question is to be asked, must be excepted." St. Proclus says, "that the holy Mother of God was made by the purest God free from all stain." St. Fulgentius says: "The wife of the first man was led astray and her soul soiled by the malice of sin, but in the mother of the second (Christ) the grace of God preserved the soul as well as the body inviolate." St. Paschasius Radbertus testifies: "It is certain that Mary was free from original sin;" and St. Peter Barman says: "The flesh of the Virgin taken from Adam, would not submit to the stain of Adam," and before him the pious Doctor Alcuin wrote of Mary: "Thou art beautiful as the moon and free from all spot and every shadow of changeableness!" And St. Ildephonsus says: "It is certain that Mary was free from original sin." An immense number of saintly men and theologians maintained the same. Many of them argued with the greatest keenness and the most indefatigable zeal the part of the Blessed Virgin; the teachers at the universities of Paris, Salamanca, Coimbra, Naples, Cologne, Mayence, Ingolstadt, &c., made it their duty by vows to inculcate this great privilege of the most favored Virgin, and to defend it by speech and by writings. Celebrated orders of monks, especially the orders of St. Benedict, St. Francis and St. Ignatius, made it their duty to advance this pious faith of the Immaculate Conception among the people. A great number of popes and bishops also honored the Immaculate Conception, and forbade the contrary doctrine to be taught. Even kings, princes and emperors counted it a great honor to pay homage to the Immaculate Conception of the Queen of Heaven. Finally, the Catholic Church gave definite expression to this universal belief, by declaring in the Council of Trent, that in the resolutions relating to original sin, the Virgin Mary was not included, and she confirmed the festival of the Immaculate Conception, introduced in the tenth century by St. Anselm, the worthy son of the great St. Benedict, and since that time observed in all the Churches.
This veneration for the Immaculate Conception, this pious view held by the whole Catholic Church was not yet a matter of faith, that is, the Catholic Church had not yet laid down this great privilege of the Mother of God as a dogma. We were not commanded to believe it, although to preach or teach against it was forbidden. But when, in the course of time, a large number of the faithful, among whom were archbishops, bishops, whole religious orders, as well as great monarchs, besought the pope as head of the Church to pronounce concerning the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, that is, to elevate the belief so widely spread throughout the Catholic Church to a dogma, the pope could no longer hesitate to raise his voice in regard to this most important affair.
What did the supreme pastor of the Church, the pope, then do in regard to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin?
Blessed Pope Pius IX who, as he himself testified, had in many ways experienced the assistance of the great Queen of Heaven, was urged by his love and childlike veneration for the Blessed Mother of our Lord, to set the last brilliant diamond in her crown of glory by declaring the Immaculate Conception an article of faith. Not wishing to be precipitate, he first addressed a circular to all the primates, patriarchs, archbishops and bishops, of the whole Catholic world, February 2, 1849, requesting them to send him reports of the devotion of their clergy and the faithful concerning the Immaculate Conception, and the extent of their desire in the matter, that the case might be decided by the Apostolic See; at the same time he urged them to pray with him that God would give him the necessary enlightenment, and to call upon the clergy and the faithful for their prayers. When this was done, five hundred bishops in different parts of the world declared that they and their flocks firmly believed that Mary, the most favored Virgin, was preserved from every stain of original sin, and that they earnestly desired that the pope might raise this pious opinion to a dogma of the Church. Then the holy father, filled with delight, invited the bishops of the different countries to Rome, to consult with him upon the matter. About one hundred and fifty bishops, and a large number of learned men and superiors of spiritual orders, met at Rome and the whole subject was once more maturely examined; and at last, the 8th of December, 1854, the day on which the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, was appointed as the day on which the pope, the supreme head of the Church, the mouth of the apostles, should solemnly announce the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
On this day the holy father ascended the Apostolic Chair in the splendid Church of St. Peter at Rome, and surrounded by the assembled cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, the clergy and the people he once more invoked the light of the Holy Ghost, and amid the perfect silence which reigned in that immense church, the holy father in a loud voice and with the most profound reverence and emotion read the decree by which he solemnly pronounced and established, that:
"It is an article of faith that the Blessed Virgin Mary by a special grace and privilege of God, on account of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, was from the first instant of her conception protected and preserved from every stain of original sin."
Thus has the head of Catholic Christianity drawn aside the veil, which until then obscured the full glory of the Queen of Heaven, which now shines in stainless loveliness radiant over the whole world. The truth that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived immaculate is no longer a pious opinion, but an article of faith which every Catholic who wishes to remain a child of the Church, must profess with heart and with lips.
But, perhaps the decision of the pope concerning the
Immaculate Conception is a new doctrine?
By no means; it is an old belief, established upon the holy Scriptures and laid down in the bosom of the Church, but not solemnly pronounced and made public previously. The pope cannot make a new article of faith, but he can and must announce that, as a revealed truth, which is established by the holy Scriptures and has been everywhere and at all times believed as a revealed truth by all true Christians. But if there is a truth founded on the holy Scriptures and tradition, of which the pope, the representative of Christ on earth, speaks officially, then every Catholic is bound to believe and openly to acknowledge the same. As we have already seen, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has been believed since the time of the apostles, and it is also established by the Scriptures. In the oldest of the sacred Books, in the Book of Genesis (3, 15), is one of the most weighty passages on this subject which reads: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. After the fall of the first man, God spoke to the serpent, Satan, announcing that a woman would come and crush his head, that is, destroy his power; and all Catholic interpreters and holy Fathers agree that this woman is the Blessed Virgin. Mary is, therefore, placed by God Himself as Satan's enemy, and must have been free from original sin from the first moment of her conception, otherwise she would have been, as St. Paul, the Apostle, says, a child of God's wrath and under the power of Satan. In the gospel of St. Luke, (i. 28.) it is further said: And the Angel being come in, said unto her: Hail full of grace: the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women. The angel, by the direction of God, called Mary full of grace, that is, more than any of the just endowed with God's sanctifying grace, as the holy Fathers agree. But would Mary be full of sanctifying and all other graces, had she for one moment of her life been without grace and burdened with sin? Would God have permitted the Blessed Mother of His only begotten Son, from whom He received flesh, to be touched by sin, even though for an instant, and be in the power of Satan? No; God's hand preserved her; by His grace and by the infinite merits of her divine Son she remained free from every stain of sin, and the Church most justly applies to her the words of holy Scripture: Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee (Cant. 4, 7).
What instructive meaning has the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin for every Catholic?
The Immaculate Conception teaches Catholics to know in some measure the infinite sanctity of the holy Trinity which makes sin so hateful and detestable to Him. The Heavenly Father could not see His beloved daughter for one moment stained by sin. The Divine Son could not wish to choose for His mother a virgin upon whose soul there was a vestige of sin. The Holy Ghost whose most pure bride Mary is, was not willing that her heart, His dwelling-place, should ever be for one instant soiled by sin. Behold how God detests sin! The Immaculate Conception also teaches us the inestimable treasure of sanctifying grace. Mary received this priceless treasure from God even in the first moment of her conception, without it she would never have become the Mother of the Saviour. Thou, my Christian, hadst not this treasure at thy conception, it is true, but thou didst receive it in holy baptism; there God's hand arrayed thee in the white garment of innocence; there He sanctified thy soul, and the Holy Ghost selected it for His dwelling-place. Mary preserved this inestimable treasure until death, she was always blooming as a pure lily, the breath of sin never soiled her loveliness. Ask thyself: Do I still possess this treasure, which was given to me in holy baptism; have I preserved my soul's beauty from the poison of sin, have I soiled it, destroyed it, lost it? Oh, if thou hast lost this precious gift, how unhappy art thou! if thou hast had this great misfortune to have stained thy garment of baptismal innocence by sin, Mary, the peerless virgin, has borne for thee the Saviour whose precious blood cleanses from every sin, whose infinite merits will restore to thee sanctifying grace, if thou art contrite and dost confess thy sin. But for the Saviour this treasure would be forever lost to thee, and thy soul forever forfeited. But for this Saviour Mary would not have been preserved from original sin, would not have received sanctifying grace at her conception. We can here learn the necessity of salvation through Christ, gratefully thank God who has given it to us, and praise Mary who had the grace to conceive and give birth to Him. In the Immaculate Conception, O Christian, thou canst learn to know something of the priceless value of virginity. Jesus chose a pure and immaculate virgin for His mother, who should be the mirror of all virginal souls, her most pure and immaculate image should be continually presented to the corrupted world to show how virginity is esteemed in the eyes of our Lord.
The Truth is, Charity, pure and simple, consists in
conformity to the will of God.
If you love Me, keep My commandments… If you keep My commandments, you
shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father’s commandments, and do
abide in His love (John 14, 15; 15, 10).
The highest perfection consists not in interior favors, or in great raptures, or in visions, or in
the spirit of prophesy, but in the bringing of our wills so closely into
conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we realize He wills anything,
we desire it ourselves with all our might, and take the bitter with the
sweet.
St. Teresa of Avila
My God… I will not be a saint by halves, I am not afraid of suffering
for You. One thing only do I fear, and
that is to follow my own will. Accept,
then, the offering I make of it, for I choose all that You will.
St. Teresa of the Child Jesus
Divine union consists in the soul’s total transformation, according to
the will, in the will of God, so that there may be naught in the soul that is contrary
to the will of God, but that, in all and through all, its movement may be that
of the will of God alone.
St. John of the Cross
THE
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY DECEMBER
EIGHTH
PRESENCE OF GOD: I place myself in the presence
of Mary Immaculate, my loving Mother, and listen to her invitation : " Come
over to me all you who desire me, and I will declare to you what great things
God has done for my soul" (RB).
MEDITATION:
I. The Feast of the Immaculate
Conception is in perfect harmony with the spirit of Advent; while the soul is
preparing for the coming of the Redeemer, it is fitting to think of her, the
all‑pure one, who was His Mother.
The
very promise of a Savior was joined to, or rather, was included in the promise
of this peerless Virgin. After having cursed the insidious serpent, God
proclaimed " I will put enmities
between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed : she shall crush thy
head" (Gen 3,15). And behold, the Virgin whose coming was foretold, approaches,
" white as snow, more beautiful than the sun, full of grace, and blessed
above all women " (RB).
Precisely
in view of the sublime privilege which would make her the Mother of the
Incarnate Word, Mary alone, among all creatures, was preserved from original
sin. Yet in Mary Immaculate we see not only her preservation from original sin,
and the complete absence of the slightest shadow of an imperfection, but we
also see the positive side of this mystery which made her, from the very first
moment of her existence, " full of grace. "
Theologians
teach that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary began her spiritual life with grace
much more abundant and perfect than that which the greatest saints have
acquired at the end of their lives. When we consider also that during her whole
life, the Blessed Virgin corresponded fully and most perfectly to every
movement of grace, to every invitation from God, we can understand how charity
and grace increased in her with incessant and most rapid progress, making her the
holiest of creatures, the one most completely united to God and transformed in
Him.
2. St. John of the Cross, in
describing the marvels of the state of perfect union with God, presents Mary
Immaculate to us as the prototype and model. " Such were those [works and
prayers] of the most glorious Virgin our Lady, who, being raised to this high
estate of union from the beginning, never had the form of any creature
imprinted in her soul, neither was she moved by such, but was invariably guided
by the Holy Spirit " (AS lll, 2, 10).
The
two essential conditions for achieving divine union are found in their fullness
in Mary. The first condition, which is a negative one, is that there be nothing
in the soul's will which is contrary to the divine will; that is, no attachment
which would cause it to be subject to a creature, so that this creature would
rule in its heart in any way, or impel it to act for love of this same
creature; all such attachments must be eliminated. The second condition, which
is positive and constructive, and is the consequence of the first, is that the
human will be moved in all and through all, only by the will of God. This was
realized so perfectly in the most pure soul of Mary Immaculate that she never
had even the faintest shadow of an attachment to a creature; in her soul there
was never any impression of a creature which could move her to act; she was so
completely seized by divide love that she could act only under the inspiration
and " motion of the Holy Spirit. "
Thus
we see Mary as the most pure spouse of the Holy Spirit, not only in relation to
her divine maternity, but also in relation to her whole life in which she was
moved only by His impulse.
COLLOQUY:
O
Mary, Mother of God and my Mother, what light and strength your sweet image
brings me! The most beautiful, the holiest, the purest of all creatures, so "
full of grace " that you were worthy to bear within you the Author and
Source of all grace, you do not disdain to give yourself to me‑a poor
creature, conscious of my sin and misery‑as a model of purity, love, and
holiness.
The
privileges of your Immaculate Conception and divine maternity are inimitable,
but you have hidden them within such a simple, humble life that I am not afraid
to approach you, and ask you to take me by the hand and help me to ascend the
mountain of perfection with you. Yes, you are Queen of heaven and earth; but
because you are more Mother than Queen, you encourage me to have recourse to
you, saying, " O my child, hear me; blessed are they who keep my ways ....
He who finds me, finds life, and will obtain salvation from the Lord " (RB).
And I answer you in the words of the Church, " Draw me, O Immaculate
Virgin, I will run after you in the odor of your ointments" (ibid.).
Yes,
draw me, Immaculate Mother, draw me above all by the luminous charm of your
spotless purity! I feel so impure and stained by the things of earth compared
with you, the all‑pure, so detached from everything, so forgetful of
yourself that nothing moves you to act apart from the divine will, apart from
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If I
see you always docile and ready to respond to every least divine invitation,
even though it be hidden under the most human, ordinary circumstances; if I
hear you gently repeating your " yes, " Ecce ancilla Domini. . .fiat,
in all the happenings of your life, big and little, agreeable and disagreeable,
it is because you are the Immaculate. No shadow of creatures or purely human
interests or affections touches your heart, and therefore, nothing can delay
your most rapid course toward God.
O
Immaculate Virgin, I am so reluctant, indolent, and miserly in giving myself to
God, so immersed in the things of earth! Teach me how pure my heart ought to
be, so that I will never refuse anything to the Lord, and will always be able
to repeat with you my sweet, prompt fiat.
Illumine
my mind, then, with the light which emanates from your resplendent purity, so
that no attachment, no earthly affection may remain hidden in me to prevent my
leading a life truly and fully consecrated to my God.
To
you I entrust, in a very special way, my vow of chastity; guard it and make me
pure, not only in body, but also in mind and heart. With your help, O Mother, I
am ready to renounce any affection, even if slight, which could still bind me
to creatures. I want my heart to belong wholly to God, for whom I would keep
its every throb in a spirit of perfect chastity.
St. Damasus was one of the
most illustrious defenders of the great mystery of the Incarnation. He defends the faith of the universal Church
in the divinity of the Word, by condemning, as his predecessor Liberius had
done, the acts and the authors of the celebrated Council of Rimini. With his sovereign authority, he bore witness
to the teaching of the Church regarding the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and
condemned the heretic Apollinaris, who taught the Jesus Christ had assumed only
the flesh and not the soul of man. He
commissioned St. Jerome to make a new translation of the New Testament from the
Greek, for the use of the Church of Rome; here, again, giving further proof of
the faith and love which he bore to the Incarnate Word. Let us honor this Pontiff, whom the Council
of Chalcedon calls, ‘the ornament and support of Rome by his piety.’ St. Jerome called him ‘a man of the greatest
worth; a man whose equal could not be found, well versed in the holy
Scriptures, and a virgin doctor of the virgin Church.’
Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St.
Damasus
Listen and let it penetrate your heart my dear little son. Do not be troubled or weighed down with
grief. Do not fear any illness or
vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here
who am your Mother? Are you not under my
shadow and protection? Am I not your
fountain of life? Are you not in the
folds of my mantle? In the crossing of
my arms? Is there anything else you need?
Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego
Odilia was born
blind. Her father insisted on her being removed
from the house, for her presence would have been a continual humiliation to
him. It seems as though this affliction
was permitted by Providence, in order that the action and power of divine grace
might be the more clearly manifested in her regard. The little exile was taken from her mother,
and placed in a monastery. God, who
designed to show the virtue of the holy Sacrament of regeneration, permitted
that her Baptism should be deferred until she had reached her thirteenth
year. The time at length came for Odilia
to be made a child of God. No sooner was
she taken from the baptismal font, than she received her eyesight, which was
but a feeble figure of the light which had lit up in her soul.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Odilia
Some among you, inflated like bladders with the spirit of vanity strive
by profane novelties to cross the boundaries fixed by the Fathers, twisting the
sense of the heavenly pages . . . to the philosophical teaching of the
rationals, not for the profit of their hearer but to make a show of science . .
. these, seduced by strange and eccentric doctrines, make the head of the tail
and force the queen to serve the servant.
Pope Gregory IX regarding the 13th century Modernists of his day
If Jesus came to sanctify all, if it is God’s will that “all should be
saints,” then sanctity cannot consist in extraordinary gifts of nature and
grace, which depend solely upon God’s liberality. Sanctity, therefore, must consist in
something that all souls of good will, even the simplest and most humble, can
attain, sustained by the divine assistance.
Sanctity is the perfection of the Christian life. It is the full development in us of the
supernatural life, whose beginnings are sanctifying grace, the infused virtues,
and the gifts of the Holy Ghost… When
the influence of grace extends effectively to all our actions, directing them
solely to God’s glory and uniting us wholly to Him be means of charity, then we
have reached the fullness of Christian life, sanctity.
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C. D., Divine Intimacy
Act of Abandonment to the Divine Will
O my God, I know not what must come to me today; but I am certain that
nothing can happen to me which Thou hast not foreseen and ordained from all eternity:
that is sufficient for me. I adore Thy
impenetrable and eternal designs, to which I submit with all my heart; I
desire, I accept them all, and I unite my sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ, my
divine Saviour; I ask in His name, and through His infinite merits, patience in
my trials, and perfect submission to all that comes to me by Thy good
pleasure. Amen
St. Joseph Pignatelli, S. J., who lived his life as a Jesuit during the
40 years of their unjust suppression dying three years before their official
restoration by Pope Pius VII in 1814. He
is considered the “restorer of the Society of Jesus.”
“The more joyfully souls do
His will, the greater is their perfection.”
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus & the Holy Face
St. Lucy, pray for us, that
our eye may be purified, and may see, in the Child who is to be born at
Bethlehem, the new Man, the second Adam, the model on which the life of our
regeneration must be formed.
Dom Gueranger, The
Liturgical Year, St. Lucy
The Angel being come in, says the Gospel; the expression “come in,”
leads us to believe that Mary was “within” her house. The Angel reveals to her in God’s name what
will take place in her. “The Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Lk 1, 35). From that moment God made Himself present in
Mary in a very special way, present not only by essence, knowledge, and power,
as He is in all creatures; present not only by grace as He is in the souls of
the just; but, far more, the Word of God was in Mary by “corporal presence,” as
St. Albert the Great says.
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D, Divine Intimacy
Tropologically, a reed is a light man,
inconstant, tossed to and fro at one time impelled by the cords of flatterers,
he asserts something again being driven by detractors, he denies it, as a reed
is blown in different directions by different winds. A reed is one who is devoid of truth, virtue,
and consistency, as a reed has no strength, or stamina. A reed is he who has no fruit of good works
to show, since a reed bears no fruit. It
is he who is delighted with, and feeds upon, the fluctuating pleasures of the
world. For a reed is dry yet it grows beside the waters. Whence it is called, “the river reed.”
Rev. Cornelius a Lapide, Commentary
CONSOLATION IN SUFFERING
"The God of patience and of
comfort, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (Rom.
15:5-13).
What gives us the greatest
consolation in adversities?
The strong and fervent belief that each and every thing that happens to us, comes to us for our own good from God, and that whatever evil befalls us, is by the will or permission of God. Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God (Ecclus. 11:14). If we have received good things at the hand of God (Job 2:10), saith the pious job in his affliction, "why should we not receive evil?"
We should be fully convinced that without the permission of God not a single hair of our head shall perish (Lk. 21:18), much less can any other evil be done to us by man or devil (Job 1); we should have a steadfast confidence that if we ask Him, God can and will assist us in our sufferings, if it be for our salvation. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands (Is. 49:15‑16); we should hope for abundant reward in the future life, which we will merit by patience in our sufferings, for that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (II Cor. 4:17); we should remember that all complaints and murmurs against the dispensation of God are useless, and lead only to harm and shame; Who hath resisted Him, and hath had peace? (Job 9:4) we should have a vivid remembrance of our sins, for which we have long since deserved the eternal punishments of hell - hence the well-known saying of St. Augustine: O Lord, here cut, here burn, but spare me in eternity. No other way leads to the kingdom of heaven than the way of the cross, which Christ Himself, His sorrowing mother, and all the saints had to tread. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory? (Lk. 24:26) Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:21). And we should not forget that sorrows and adversities are signs of God's love, and manifest proofs of being His chosen ones. Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb. 12:6. compare 7-11).
PRAYER IN SORROW O almighty, kind and merciful God! who hast said: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. 49:15), behold relying upon Thy word, I take refuge in Thee in my trouble. Give honor to Thy name, therefore, and deliver me, if it be pleasing to Thee and beneficial for me, that all may know, Thou art our only help. Amen.
"For all the gods of
the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens" (Ps. 95, 5).
Wanting to reconcile the Faith with the modern spirit leads not only to
a weakening of the Faith, but also to its total ruin.
Pope St. Pius X
In the Church, I
perceive two kinds of persecutions: the first in its beginnings, under the
Roman Empire, in which violence inexorably prevailed; the second at the end of
time, when seduction will reign.
Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
THE LORD WILL NOT DELAY SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
I place myself in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, to receive His
two‑fold invitation to confidence and repentance, contained in today's
liturgy.
MEDITATION:
I. After we have considered the
sublime program of sanctification which we should follow, it is very consoling
to consider the magnificent texts of today's liturgy. They invite us to have
complete trust in God's help. " Thy salvation cometh quickly : why art
thou wasted with sorrow?... I will save thee and deliver thee, fear not .... As
a mother comforteth her sons, so will I comfort thee, saith the Lord" (RB).
God does not want anxiety or discouragement. If He proposes to us an exalted
way of sanctity, He does not leave us alone, but comes to help and sustain us.
Today's
Mass shows clearly how Jesus comes not only for the people of Israel, for a
small number of the elect, but also for the Gentiles, for all men. " Behold
the Lord shall come to save the nations " (Introit), Therefore, let us
have confidence and rejoice, as St. Paul exhorts us : " Now may the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope "
(Ep : Rom 15, 4‑13). And in order to stimulate our hope in Christ, the
Gospel (Mt 11, 2‑ 10) presents His wonderful works : " The blind
see, the lame walk, lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the
poor have the gospel preached to them. "
There
is no physical or moral misery which Jesus cannot cure. He asks only that we go
to Him with a heart dilated by faith, and with complete trust in His all‑powerful,
merciful love.
2. In today's Gospel Jesus
directs our attention to the strong, austere figure of John the Baptist. "
What went you out to see? A reed shaken by the wind?... A man clothed in soft
garments? "
If we
want to prepare our hearts for Jesus' coming, we, like St. John the Baptist,
must detach ourselves from all the goods of earth. John had left everything and
gone into the desert to lead a life of penance. His example invites us to
retire into the interior desert of our heart, far from creatures, to await the
coming of Jesus in deep recollection, silence, and solitude, insofar as the
duties of our state in life permit. We must persevere in this waiting, in spite
of aridity and discouragement. " The Lord shall appear and shall not
deceive us : if He make any delay, wait for Him, for He will come and will not
tarry " (RB).
To
our interior recollection, let us add a greater spirit of penance and mortification.
Let us examine our generosity in practicing the penances and mortifications
prescribed by our Rule, and those which we have imposed upon ourselves with the
approval of our confessor or superior. If we discover that we are lax in this
regard, it would be well to resolve to do something more : some mortification
at meals, in our rest, or in our clothing, some work that is hard or painful to
nature.
If we
wish to taste the sweet joys of Christmas, we should know how to prepare
ourselves with these dispositions which the Church invites us to pray for today
: " We beseech You, O Lord, to teach us. . . to despise the things of
earth and to love those of heaven " (RM).
COLLOQUY:
O my
Savior, Word of God, how can I doubt that are coming upon earth to save and
sanctify me? Why I do not go to You with complete, loving confidence, when You
have spared nothing to show me Your infinitely merciful love? Your Incarnation,
Your infant tears, Your humble hidden life, Your apostolate, Your miracles,
Your sorrow Passion and death, all Your precious Blood poured out, shall they
not be enough to make me believe in Your love, open my heart in the most
complete confidence?
"
I repeat with all confidence the humble prayer of the publican. Most of all do
I imitate the behavior of Magdalen, for her amazing‑rather I should say
her loving‑audacity, which delighted Your heart .... I am certain that
even if I had on my conscience every imaginable crime, I should lose nothing of
my confidence, but would throw myself, my heart broken with sorrow, into Your
arms, for I remember Your love for the prodigal son who returns to You " (T.C.J.
St. I2).
With
this confidence, O my Jesus, I will resume my way and begin again my poor
efforts.
During
this Advent You invite me to greater recollection, to greater interior and
exterior silence, so that I may be able to hear Your voice and prepare for Your
coming. Help me, then, to quiet my continual chatter about useless things, the
discordant voices of nature, self‑love, sensitiveness, the distracting
prattle of my fantasies, imaginations, thoughts and useless preoccupations.
I
acknowledge that often my mind and heart are like: a raging sea in which the
waves thunder continually; and yet, if You wish, a sign from You will be enough
to make calm return and all be silent.
Yes,
You teach me that interior silence exacts detachment from self and from
creatures, exacts interior and exterior mortification. For love of You I will
mortify my curiosity, the curiosity of my eyes, ears, thoughts, and
imagination. I also want to silence my passions and, therefore, I resolve to be
more generous in the practice of corporal mortification.
O
eternal Word, my Savior, draw all my powers to Yourself; fasten my interior
gaze upon Yourself, so that I shall no longer seek or hear anything or anyone
but You alone, eternal Word of my eternal God!
Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts,
have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them
all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart…. Be Thou King of
all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism,
and refuse not to draw them all into the light and Kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy toward the children
of that race, once Thy chosen people. Of
old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Saviour; may It now
descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life.
Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Raccolta
Catholic doctrine ought thus to be proposed and set forth totally and
in its entirety: one ought not to
pass over in silence or cover with ambiguous words what Catholic truth teaches on
the true nature and means of justification, on the constitution of the Church,
on the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, on the only true union which is achieved by the return of dissidents to
the one true Church of Christ. It is taught that they, by returning
to the Church, do not lose any part of the good that, by the grace of God, has
up to now been born in them, but that with their return this good is rather
completed and perfected. There is no
need to discuss this subject as though these people should believe that by
their return to the Church they should bring it some essential element that
they have lacked up to now.
Pius XII, Instruction
of the Holy Office on Ecumenism, Dec. 20, 1949
I am worried by
the Blessed Virgin's messages to Lucy of Fatima. This persistence of Mary about
the dangers which menace the Church is a divine warning against the suicide of
altering the Faith, in Her liturgy, Her theology and Her soul. … I hear all
around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the
universal flame of the Church, reject Her ornaments and make Her feel remorse
for Her historical past.
A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church
will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become
God. In our churches, Christians will search in vain for the red lamp where God
awaits them. Like Mary Magdalene, weeping before the empty tomb, they will ask,
“Where have they taken Him?”
Pope Pius XII, Roche, Devant
L'Historie, p. 52-5
Some say they are not bound
by the doctrine, explained in Our Encyclical Letter [Mystici Corporis]
of a few years ago, and based on the sources of revelation, which
teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are
one and the same thing.
Pius XII, Humani
Generis
"Pray, they are ringing the Angelus."
St. Clement Maria Hofbauer’s last words
"All heretics are
schismatics."
St. Thomas Aquinas
Whosoever therefore is not united with the
Body is no member thereof, neither is he in communion with Christ its
Head.
Pius XI, Mortalium Animos
“An Unjust Law is Not a Law”
When
Pope Nicholas II ordered the suppression of the Ambrosian Rite, he was opposed
by the Catholics of Milan who refused his order. This order was subsequently overturned by
Pope Alexander II who declared it to have been most manifestly “unjust.” Human law, even the highest form of human law
imposed by the pope, has all the limitations of every human law. That is, it
must be a promulgation of reason, by the proper authority, promoting the common
good, and not in any way opposed to Divine or natural law. As St. Thomas has
said, “an unjust law is not a law.” The pope had no authority to bind an unjust
law and therefore the Catholics of Milan were completely within their rights to
refuse the order of Pope Nicholas II in his attempt to suppress their
immemorial traditions. Traditional Catholics are, like them, within their
rights to refuse any liturgical innovations to their immemorial customs.
This moreover is true if you
consider the mass of mankind. For by far the greater portion of men are
Infidels, Turks, Saracens, or heretics. S. Augustine (lib. 4 contr. crescent.
c. 53) compares the Church to a threshing-floor in which there is far more
chaff than grains of wheat, more bad than good, more who will be damned than
will be saved. Yet others, with greater mildness, think it probable that the
greater portion of professing Christians will be saved, because most of them
receive the Holy Sacraments before they die. And they justify sinners, not only
those who have contrition, but who have attrition. But this seems to be true of
those who have not lived in constant and habitual sins, such as fornication,
usury, hatred. For such, when they are sick, conceive with difficulty any serious
and efficacious purpose of amendment, or if they do conceive it, God in just
punishment of their past sins suffers the demon of their bygone lusts to tempt
them, and he furbishes and sharpens their memory, and so the sick man in
consequence of his habits easily yields, and consents in his heart to sin, and
thus he falls and is damned. Of this there are many examples.
Rev. Cornelius a Lapide,
Commentary on St. Matthew
Jesus
Christ Received the Throne of David from St. Joseph
It may be yet further asked,
why S. Matthew unfolded the genealogy of Joseph rather than of Mary, since
Christ was born of her alone, being a Virgin? I answer : First, because among
the Jews, and other nations, genealogy is customarily reckoned through fathers
and husbands, not through mothers and wives. Second, because Joseph was the
true and lawful father of Christ, after the manner which I shall explain
presently. And Christ was the heir of David’s throne and sceptre, not through
Mary, but through Joseph, according to Gods promise to David, 2 Sam. vii. 12;
Ps. lxxxix. and cxxxii. The sceptre, therefore, of Judah devolved upon Jesus
Christ, not only by the promise and gift of God, but by the right of hereditary
succession. For if, by common right, sons succeed to their fathers’ inheritance,
when they are only accounted their sons by common repute, how much more was
Christ Joseph’s, his father’s, heir, since He was the Son of his wife, by the
power and the gift of the Holy Ghost? Wherefore as Joseph had a parent’s right
over Christ, indeed, all rights which parents have over sons, so on the other
hand, Christ had, with reference to Joseph, all the rights which sons have in
respect to their parents. He had therefore a right to the kingdom of Israel
after Joseph’s death. Hence the question of the Magi (ii. 2), “Where is he that
is born King of the Jews?” This was what S. Matthew wished to demonstrate, who,
as S. Augustine says, insists, most of all the Evangelists, upon the kingship
of Christ. And this explains why he gives the genealogy of Joseph, rather than
of Mary. For she could not be the heiress of the kingdom, so long as heirs
male, like Joseph and others, survived. Whence also it must be said, as a
consequence, that the father and other ancestors of Joseph were first-born, or
at least eldest surviving sons of their fathers, so that the right of reigning
devolved upon them.
This is what is meant in the
first chapter of S. Luke by the words, “And the Lord God will give unto him the
throne of his father David.” So likewise in Gen. xlix. to, “The sceptre shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come,” that is, Christ, who was to restore to Judah the sceptre, iniquitously
taken away by Herod; yea, who was to raise their kingdom to a far higher grandeur,
by making it spiritual instead of corporeal, heavenly instead of earthly, and,
instead of temporal, eternal.
Rev. Cornelius a Lapide,
Commentary on St. Matthew
Novena
Prayer to the Infant of Prague
O Dearest Jesus, tenderly
loving us, Thy greatest joy is to dwell among men and to bestow Thy blessings
upon us! Though I am not worthy that Thou should behold me with love, I feel
myself drawn to Thee, O dear Infant Jesus, because Thou gladly pardon me and
exercise Thy almighty power over me.
So many who turned with confidence to Thee and
have received graces and had their petitions granted. Look upon me as I kneel
in spirit before Thy miraculous image on Thine altar in Prague and lay open my
heart to Thee, with its prayers, petitions and hopes. Especially the affair
of... I enclose in Thy loving Heart. Govern me and do with me and mine
according to Thy holy will, for I know that in Thy Divine wisdom and love Thou
will ordain everything for the best. Almighty, gracious Infant Jesus, do not
withdraw Thy hand from us, but protect and bless us forever. Amen
Whoever dwells
in the protection of the Almighty, may say to God: “You are my refuge and my
castle, Lord, whom I trust” (Psalm 90: 1-2).
Invocation of St. Clement Maria Hofbauer, taught to him by his mother
"Charity… unites
man with God so that he no longer lives for himself but for God."
St. Thomas Aquinas
Modern
“theologians” ignorant of scholasticism and thus, any sense of true theology,
should know, the Summa was intended for “beginners.”
Because the Master of Catholic Truth ought not only to teach the
proficient, but also to instruct beginners (according to the Apostle: As unto
little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat. 1 Cor. 3, 1-2), we
propose in this book to treat of whatever belongs to the Christian Religion, in
such a way as may tend to the instruction of beginners. We shall try, by God’s help, to set forth
whatever is included in this Sacred Science as briefly and clearly as the
matter itself may allow.
St. Thomas Aquinas, prologue to the Summa
“Religion
holds the first place among the moral virtues”
The supernatural virtue of
Religion is, in the first place, an abiding, persevering disposition inclining
us to render unto God the worship due Him. Ease and readiness in the
performance of supernatural acts of religion is the fruit of faithful exercise
and is obtainable by our own exertions assisted by divine grace. Charity and
all the infused moral virtues are inseparably united with sanctifying grace,
whilst the two theological virtues of faith and hope (habitus fidei et spei)
can still exist even after sanctifying grace has been lost…. Religion holds the
first place among the moral virtues. Although, like all other moral virtues,
the virtue of religion is inferior in merit and dignity to the divine virtues
of faith, hope and charity, it is, nevertheless, most intimately connected with
them, for it regulates the conduct of man toward God. It holds the first rank
among the moral virtues, because it approaches nearer to God than the others,
in so far as it produces and has for its primary object those acts which refer
directly and immediately to the honor of God — that is, whatever acts pertain
to the divine service…. We read in the epistle of St. James (i. 27) these
words: “Religion (religio) clean and undefiled before God and the Father is
this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s
self unspotted from the world.” The meaning of the above is — that if we would
honor God the Father in a sincere and proper manner, we must be assiduously
intent upon assisting the poor, the abandoned and the distressed, upon
consoling and comforting them, and, at the same time, endeavor, amid the universal
corruption of the world, to serve God alone and to please Him by purity of
heart and the righteousness of our ways. Thus the virtue of religion will
produce abundant fruits “that in all things and above all things God may be
glorified” (ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus).
Rev. Nicholas Gihr
The
Trial of St. Thomas Becket
Whatever credit may be due to reports originating with men, whose great
object it was to bring the religious orders into disrepute, and to terrify them
into the surrender of their property, there is one proceeding, which, on
account of its singularity and absurdity, deserves the attention of the reader.
It had been suggested that, as long as the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury
should remain in the (liturgical) calendar, men would be stimulated by his
example to brave the ecclesiastical authority of their sovereign. The kings’s
attorney was therefore instructed to exhibit an information against him and
“Thomas Becket, some time archbishop of Canterbury,” was formally cited to
appear in court, and answer to the charge. The interval of thirty days allowed
by the canon law was suffered to elapse: still the saint neglected to quit the
tomb in which he had reposed for two centuries and a half; and judgment would
have been given against him for default, had not the king of his special grace
assigned him a counsel. The court sat at Westminster: the attorney general and
the advocate of the accused were heard; and sentence was finally pronounced;
that Thomas, some time archbishop of Canterbury, had been guilty of rebellion,
contumacy, and treason; that his bones should be publicly burnt, to admonish
the living of their duty by the punishment of the dead; and that the offerings
which had been made at his shrine, the personal property of the reputed saint,
should be forfeited to the crown. A
commission was accordingly issued; the sentence was executed in due form; and
the gold, silver, and jewels, the spoils obtained by the demolition of the
shrine, were conveyed in two ponderous coffers to the royal treasury. Soon
afterwards a proclamation was published, stating that, forasmuch as it now
clearly appeared, that Thomas Becket had been killed in a riot excited by his
own obstinacy and intemperate language and had been afterwards canonized by the
bishop of Rome as the champion of his usurped authority, the king’s majesty
thought it expedient to declare to his loving subjects, that he was no saint,
but rather a rebel and traitor to his prince, and therefore strictly charged and
commanded that he should not be esteemed or called a saint, that all images and
pictures of him should be destroyed, the festivals in his honour be abolished,
and his name and remembrance be erased out of all books, under pain of his
majesty's indignation and imprisonment at his grace's pleasure.
Archbishop John Milner, D.D., History
of England
Home
School? - an added benefit, Education!
"(The
results show a) picture of educational stagnation.... We must invest in early
education, raise academic standards, make college affordable, and do more to
recruit and retain top-notch educators."
Arne Duncan, Education Secretary, commenting on the U.S.A. results from
the three-yearly Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares
the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world,
ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th
for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics. U.S. averages $17,187.00 annually for high
school student.
"Sanctity properly
consists only in conformity to God’s will, expressed in a constant and exact
fulfillment of the duties of our state in life."
Pope Benedict XV
His friends
just call him "Bergoglio"
We were close for a few days,
the three daily meals and have shared other moments both public and private. We
talked about everything: about dialogue, but also about the journey that we
will do together to Israel [.....] Together we have celebrated the beginning of
Shabbat, he was by my side when I recited the Kiddush and has broken challah,
which Zion Evrony, the Israeli Ambassador, brought to the Holy See. They were
unforgettable days and I think that they have a value that goes beyond the
affection and confidence that has always connected us [.....] "Important
signal": "I see great value in Bergoglio's comments against
proselytism. It is a point on which he insists with a special emphasis and gets
even more weight when we think of the evangelizing framework within which these
statements were made...... But now, the Pope speaks of it (of evangelization)
only to introduce Catholics to the faith.
Rabbi Abraham Skorka from
Argentina, interview for the Jewish monthly Pagine
Ebraiche, which was reproduced in Osservatore
Romano November 25, about his visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome
as a "personal guest of Bergolio in Santa Maria."
It is most just that the soul, which was the first to fall, should be
the first to rise. Let us therefore defer caring for the body, until the day
when Jesus Christ will come and reform it by the Resurrection; for, in the
first coming, the Precursor says to us: “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sins of the world.” Observe, he says not the maladies of the body, nor
the miseries of the flesh; he says sins, which are the malady of the soul, and
the corruption of the spirit. Take heed, then, thou my body, and wait for thy
turn and time. Thou canst hinder the salvation of the soul, and thine own safety
is not within thy reach. Let the soul labour for herself, and strive thou too
to help her, for if thou sharest in her sufferings thou wilt share in her
glory. Retard her perfection, and thou retardest thine own. Thou wilt not be
regenerated until God sees His own image restored in the soul.
St. Bernard
The silkworm starts to spin its silk and to build the house in which it
is to die…. On then, my daughters, let us hasten to perform this task and spin
this cocoon. Let us renounce our self-love
and self-will, and our attachment to earthly things. Let us practice penance, prayer,
mortification, obedience, and all the other good works that you know of…. Let
the silkworm die – let it die, as in fact it does when it has completed the
work which it was created to do. Then we
shall see God and shall ourselves be as completely hidden in his greatness as
is this little worm in its cocoon… And let us see what becomes of this
silkworm, for all that I have been saying about it is leading up to this. When it is in this state of prayer, and quite
dead to the world, it comes out a little white butterfly. Oh, greatness of God, that a soul should come
out like this, after being with him for so short a time.
St. Theresa of Avila
The
Death of the Blessed Margaret Pole, the Mother of Cardinal Reginald Pole who
was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, by order of the founder of the
Anglican Church, a womanizing serial killer.
The part which the Cardinal Reginald Pole (who was a grandnephew of King
Edward IV and Kind Richard III) had taken in the negotiation (between Pope Paul
III, Emperor Charles V, and King Francis I of France) inflamed the hatred of
Henry. Judgment of treason was pronounced against him; foreign princes were
solicited to deliver him up; and he was constantly beset with spies, and, as he
believed, with ruffians hired to take his life. At home, to wound him in the
most tender part, Henry ordered his mother, the venerable countess of
Salisbury, to be arrested and examined by the earl of Southampton, and the
bishop of Ely: but she behaved with such firmness of character, such apparent
consciousness of innocence, as completely disconcerted her accusers. Unable to
extract from her admissions sufficient matter for a criminal prosecution,
Cromwell consulted the judges, whether a person accused of treason, might not
be attainted (i.e.: convicted by a bill of attainder) without a previous trial
or confession. They replied that it would form a dangerous precedent: that no
inferior tribunal would venture on so illegal a proceeding; but that the court
of parliament was supreme, and an attainder by parliament would be good in law.
This was sufficient for the king, who sought not justice but revenge; and in a
bill of attainder, containing the names of several individuals who had been
condemned in the lower courts, were introduced those of Pole’s mother the
countess, of his nephew the son of lord Montague, and of Gertrude, relict of
the marquess of Exeter, though none of them had confessed any crime, nor been
heard in their own defence. With the fate of the young man we are not
acquainted: the marchioness obtained a pardon at the expiration of six months;
and it was hoped that the king would extend the same mercy to the countess. She
was more than seventy years of age, the nearest to King Henry in blood of all
his relations, and the last in a direct line of the Plantagenets, a family
which had swayed the English sceptre through so many generations. Henry kept
her in the Tower, probably as a hostage for the behaviour of her son, or her
friends, but at the end of two years, on account of some provocation in which
she could have had no share, ordered her to be put to death. In the prison and
on the scaffold she maintained the dignity of her rank and descent; and when
she was told to lay her head on the block, “No,” she replied, “My head never
committed treason: if you will have it you must take it as you can.” She was
held down by force and while the executioner performed his office, exclaimed,
“Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake.” Her death,
or rather murder which seemed to have no rational object, proclaimed to the
world that the heart of the king was not less steeled to the feelings of
relationship and humanity, than it was inaccessible to considerations of
justice and honour; and proved an awful admonition to his subjects, that
nothing short of unlimited obedience could shield them from the vengeance of
their sovereign.
Rev. John Lingard, D.D., History of England
Hope for all
of Europe
“We are proud that our King
St. Stephen established the Hungarian state on firm foundations a thousand
years ago and our country as part of Christian Europe…. We recognize the role
of Christianity in preserving our nationhood.”
Hungary, excerpt from its
constitution
St.
Ignatius on the Question of Penance
Neither mortification of the body nor that of the passions should be
deferred to old age, old age is uncertain, and does not allow of severity being
used towards it. [....]Penance is divided into that which is interior and
exterior. Interior penance consists in sorrow for one’s sins, accompanied by a
firm resolution not to fall again into the same sins nor into any other.
Exterior penance is a fruit of the former, and consists in punishing oneself
for one’s past faults; which may be practised chiefly in three ways. First,
with regard to food. As to which it must be remembered that cutting off what is
superfluous is not penance but temperance. That only is penance when we deprive
ourselves of something which we might properly take; and, in this sense, the
more we succeed in cutting off, the greater and more praiseworthy is the
penance, provided it does not go so far as to destroy our strength and to injure
our health notably. Secondly, with regard to sleep. As to the manner of taking
it, it should be remarked that it is not penance to cut off what only tends to
gratify our delicacy and our sensuality. There is penance only in depriving
ourselves of part of the things which we might properly use; and, in this
sense, the more we succeed in cutting off, the better we shall do, provided we
do not greatly injure health and no notable weakness ensues. As to the time to
be given to sleep, nothing should generally be cut off from what is expedient
unless with the view of correcting the evil habit of sleeping too much and
arriving at a right measure. Thirdly, with regard to the body. It consists in
causing it to suffer sensible pain by wearing haircloth, cords, or iron chains
on the flesh ; by taking the discipline. What appears to be most suitable and
least dangerous on this point is, that the pain should only he felt by the
flesh, and not penetrate to the bone so that the penance should cause pain and
not infirmity.
Exterior penances are used
chiefly for three purposes: first, as a satisfaction for past sins; secondly,
in order to overcome oneself, that is to say, in order that sensuality may be
obedient to reason, and all the inferior parts of the soul be more subjected to
the superior; thirdly, in order to seek and find some grace or gift which a
person wishes for and desires: as, for example, if he desires to have an
interior sorrow for his sins, or to weep much for them, or for the pains and
sufferings which Christ our Lord endured in His Passion, or in order to obtain
the solution of some doubt he is in.
Fr. Xavier De Franciosi, S.J., Spirit of St. Ignatius
Nothing
is more evident than this –
Pope
Francis knows nothing of the Mother of God, he knows nothing of the spiritual
life!
The Gospel does not tell us
anything: if she spoke a word or not... She was silent, but in her heart, how
many things told the Lord! “You, that day, this and the other that we read, you
had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given
him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and
now I see him there!” Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire
to say: “Lies! I was deceived!”
Pope Francis, sermon December
20, 2013, published by Vatican News Service
Father
of Modernism: Cardinal John Henry Newman?
"...an English Catholicism, of which Newman is the highest type. It
is the old Anglican, patristic, literary, Oxford tone transplanted into the
Church... In one word, it is a worldly Catholicism, and it will have the
worldly on its side, and will deceive many."
Cardinal Manning to Msgr. Talbot
It has always been incomprehensible
to me why Manning’s hostility to Newman should be imputed to him as a sin,
while Newman’s hostility to Manning is held to be a virtue. [.....] Yet at the
present hour, when the Modernists have claimed Newman as their precursor,
supporting their contention with many a passage from his writings, it would
seem that Manning, as the exponent of orthodox doctrine, was justified in his
appreciation of Newman’s teaching. [....] Manning had everything to lose by
becoming a Catholic, Newman had everything to gain. [....]This is shown by the
willingness with which (Manning) threw aside ambition, comfort, and prosperity,
when as the high road to the foremost and pleasantest preferments in the Church
of England, to enter upon the tedious life of a Roman Catholic mission priest.
His new durance called forth from him no moaning such as Newman poured out when
he was sent to work in Ireland. [.... ] Manning’s religion was free from all
pious affectation. Yet in close contact with him one felt that he was always living
in the presence of an unseen Power, not as a pompous agent, but as its simple
and humble messenger. It has been my lot to witness some of the most imposing
religious ceremonies of modern Christendom; but nothing so impressive, so
faith-inspiring has ever met my eyes as the sight of the noble old Englishman
in his threadbare cassock kneeling alone before the altar of his bare chapel.”
[......] “I became a Catholic off my own bat” (Manning) exclaimed to
indicate the lack of conviction in the Oxford converts. Afterwards the
conversation moved to theological ground, and Manning’s tone changed. “From an
observation you made”, he said, “I gather that you are under the impression
that Doctor Newman is a good Catholic.” I replied that such was my vague belief.
He retorted: “Either you are ignorant of the Catholic doctrine, or of the works
of Doctor Newman” - he always said ‘Doctor Newman’ in Oxford fashion, and never
gave him the title of Cardinal. After asking me which of Newman’s books I had
read, he proceeded to tick off on his tapering fingers, in his usual way, ten
distinct heresies to be found in the most widely-read works of Dr. Newman.”
[.....] To Msgr. Talbot Manning wrote, “. . . an English Catholicism, of which
Newman is the highest type. It is the old Anglican, patristic, literary, Oxford
tone transplanted into the Church... In one word, it is a worldly Catholicism,
and it will have the worldly on its side, and will deceive many. [....] He is
the most dangerous man in England.”
Richard Sartino, Another Look at
Cardinal Newman, quoting J. E. C. Bodley, a Protestant and Mason, on
Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning
On the other hand, it is certain that the Jewish Cabalistic tradition
was one of the principal mediums through which Eastern occultism (which has so
many times come to the surface in European history) has been transmitted to
modern Europe; and that many, if not all, of the recognized founders of the
eighteenth century Illuminism (including Weishaupt, Pasqualis, and Cagliostro)
were initiated into its secrets by Jewish Cabalists or drew their inspiration
and their methods from the Jewish esoteric writings. The Jewish apologist,
Bernard Lazare, states that “there were Cabalistic Jews around the cradle of
Freemasonry, as certain rites still in existence conclusively show.”
Rev. Edward J. Cahill, S.J., The Truth About Freemasonry
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity – Even JPII did not deny this dogma!
Pope Francis
Teaches:
We hold the Jewish people in special regard
because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the
call of God are irrevocable” (Rom.11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an
important part of the Sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant
and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf.
Rom. 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign
religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and
to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes. 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God
who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
The
Church officially recognizes that the People of Israel continue to be the
Chosen People. Nowhere does it say: “You lost the game, now it is our turn.” It
is a recognition of the People of Israel. Pope Francis, On Heaven and Earth
The Catholic
Church Teaches:
Hebrews 7:18: “On the one hand, a former commandment is annulled because of its weakness and uselessness…”;
Hebrews 10:9: “Then he says, ‘Behold, I come to do your will.’ He takes away the first [covenant] to establish the second [covenant]…”;
2 Corinthians 3:14: “For to this day when they [the Jews] read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away”;
Hebrews 8:7: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another”;
Colossians 2:14: “Having canceled the written code, with its decrees, that was against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away nailing it to the cross”;
Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, para. 29: “…the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished…but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross”;
The Catechism of the Council of Trent: “…the people, aware of the abrogation of the Mosaic Law…”;
Council of Florence: [This council] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino
Council of Trent: “but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom”;
Cardinal Ratzinger: “Thus the Sinai [Mosaic] Covenant is indeed superseded” (Many Religions – One Covenant, p. 70).
St. John Chrysostom: “Yet surely Paul’s object everywhere is to annul this Law….And with much reason; for it was through a fear and a horror of this that the Jews obstinately opposed grace” (Homily on Romans, 6:12); “And so while no one annuls a man’s covenant, the covenant of God after four hundred and thirty years is annulled; for if not that covenant but another instead of it bestows what is promised, then is it set aside, which is most unreasonable” (Homily on Galatians, Ch 3);
St. Augustine: “Instead of the grace of the law which has passed away, we have received the grace of the gospel which is abiding; and instead of the shadows and types of the old dispensation, the truth has come by Jesus Christ. Jeremiah also prophesied thus in God’s name: ‘Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah…’ Observe what the prophet says, not to Gentiles, who had not been partakers in any former covenant, but to the Jewish nation. He who has given them the law by Moses, promises in place of it the New Covenant of the gospel, that they might no longer live in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit” (Letters, 74, 4);
Justin Martyr: “Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law – namely, Christ – has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy…Have you not read…by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…’” (Dialogue with Trypho, Ch 11).
John Paul II: “Christ fulfills the divine promise and supersedes the old law.” (Redemptoris Mater)
Taken from Robert Sungenis, The Old Covenent: Revoked or Not Revoked?
Seek more immediately our Divine Master Himself, I mean His most holy
gifts, embrace them, and be closely united to them. This is the happiest and
most blessed path, that which leads to, and is concerned with, eternal life. By
these gifts I mean such as it is not in our power to have when we desire them,
but which are simply bestowed on us by the Giver of all good, to Whose almighty
power no blessing is too great: such are, for example, with regard to the
Divine Majesty, intensity of faith, hope, and charity, spiritual joy and rest,
tears, deep consolations, elevation of mind, Divine impressions and
illuminations, and all other spiritual tastes and sentiments relating to such
gifts, such as humility, and profound respect for the holy Church our Mother, for
those who govern it, and for its teachers. Every one of these holy gifts should
be preferred to all bodily acts, which are only good in so far as they aim at
acquiring these gifts, or at least part of them. I do not mean by this that we
ought to seek them solely for the pleasure which we find in them: certainly
not. But recognizing that without these gifts, all our thoughts, words, and
deeds are confused, cold and troubled, we should desire these gifts in order
that by means of them they may become ardent, clear, and just, for the greater
service of God. From this it follows that we ought to wish for these precious
gifts wholly or in part, and these spiritual graces, so far as with their help
we may promote God’s greater glory. As when the body is in danger, in
consequence of excessive labours, the best thing to do is to seek for these
gifts by acts of the understanding and by moderate exercises : so, not only
will the soul be healthy, but, as a healthy mind animates a body which is so
also, the whole will become more healthy, and more fit to serve God.
Fr. Xavier De Franciosi, S.J., Spirit of St. Ignatius, St.
Ignatius’ Letter to St. Francis Borgia regarding his “excessive austerities.”
This is the expected fruit from the blasphemous 1989
Profession of Faith which demands a vow of unconditional obedience to man on
his own authority. Unconditional
obedience can only be given to God!
Pope Francis Promulgates Buenos Aires Guidelines Allowing Communion for
Some Adulterers in AAS as his “Authentic Magisterium”
This week, the Vatican's organ for
promulgating the Official Acts of the Apostolic See, Acta Apostolicae Sedis
(AAS),
has published its October
2016 issue, containing Pope Francis' infamous Letter to the Buenos Aires
Bishops. AAS not only published this letter, declaring that there are "no
other interpretations" ("No hay otras interpretaciones") of
Amoris Laetitia other than those of the Buenos Aires bishops, but it also
published the full Buenos Aires guidelines themselves, which permit Holy
Communion in some cases for couples in a state of permanent and public adultery
who are not committed to living in complete continence. Rorate Caeli
Seven Years! And the hard work of collecting evidence was done for
them and still no charges!
BREAKING: U.S. Department of
Justice investigating Planned Parenthood for selling baby parts
LifeSiteNews | Claire Chretien | WASHINGTON, D.C. | December 7, 2017– The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is officially investigating Planned Parenthood for selling baby body parts, more than two years after the release of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) videos.
“It is time for public officials to finally hold Planned Parenthood and their criminal abortion enterprise accountable under the law,” said David Daleiden of CMP.
Fox News broke the story Thursday evening, reporting that they had obtained a letter from Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. This letter asked for unredacted documents from that committee, which had been investigating Planned Parenthood.
“This is long-awaited, good news,” said Abby Johnson, a former abortion advocate and Planned Parenthood director who is now a pro-life activist.
“Planned Parenthood has actively participated in illegal activity, selling the body parts of aborted babies in exchange for profit,” said Johnson. “They’ve lied to the very women they purport to fight for. I saw it first-hand when I worked for the abortion giant and yet, they still manage to obtain over half a billion dollars a year in our tax dollars.” [.....]
Many men sin against Faith in an even more subtle way through the sins
against the Holy Ghost, namely,
the sins of despair, presumption, impenitence, obstinacy, resisting the known
truth and envy of someone else's spiritual good. The sins against the Holy Ghost are not sins
of weakness or ignorance. They are sins
of certain malice. By despair a
man rejects God's goodness and mercy. By
presumption he rejects God's justice. By
impenitence he refuses to turn from sin to God.
By obstinacy a man hardens his will in sin. A man sins in resisting the known truth
because he does so in order to sin more freely.
Lastly a man sins by envying someone else's spiritual good because he
hates the increase of God's grace in the world.
In all these sins there is great danger for man because these sins mean
that man is deliberately refusing to consider those truths and motives which
would keep him from sin and enable him to turn to God. It is for this reason that the sins against
the Holy Ghost are said to be unforgivable.
It is not that God is unwilling to forgive any sins. It is rather that in these sins a man shows
that he does not wish forgiveness.
Fr. Walter Farrell, O.P., S.T.M., My Way of Life, Pocket edition of St.
Thomas
Prophecy of St. Francis of Assisi
Act bravely, my brethren; take courage and trust in the Lord. The
time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions;
perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the
charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase. The
devils will have unusual power; the immaculate purity of our Order, and of
others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who
obey the true Supreme Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts
and perfect charity.
At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected,
will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many
into error and death. Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order
will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will
consent to error instead of opposing it.
There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the
religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened,
according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error,
were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy
of God….
Those who preserve their fervor and adhere to virtue with love and zeal
for the truth, will suffer injuries and persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the
evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying
such pestilent men from the face of the earth…
Some preachers will keep silent about the truth, and others will
trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in
derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Our Lord
Jesus Christ will send them, not a true Pastor, but a destroyer.
St. Francis of Assisi, shortly before his death addressed to his faithful followers, Works of the Seraphic Father, St. Francis of Assisi, pp. 248-250
Reported
exchange NOT confirmed by our Vatican Sources:
'Please
accept this as an honest and sincere token of my undying passionate devotion to
your sweet person!'
'Oh
thank you snookems, I could just pinch your cheek!' (Smack, Smack, 
Smack)
On
13 June 1525, after weeks of speculation, Martin Luther secretly married
Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in a private ceremony officiated by city
preacher Johann Bugenhagen and attended by jurist Johann Apel, professor Justus
Jonas, and artist Lucas Cranach and his wife. Over the last centuries,
scholars, writers, artists, Wittenberg citizens—in their popular, annual
Lutherhochzeit [Luther’s wedding] festival—and even a recent filmmaker have
characterized this event as one of the iconic episodes of the Lutheran
Reformation. Yet Luther’s marriage neither legalized nor heralded an immediate
acceptance of priestly marriage even in reformed territories. Luther certainly
was not the first cleric to marry. Three of the witnesses at his wedding—Apel,
Bugenhagen, and Jonas—were former Catholic clergy who had all married by
mid-1523, a full two years before this event. Only a few weeks prior to this
event, Luther expressed hesitation about marriage even for political reasons,
suggesting perhaps he would agree to a chaste marriage, a Josephehe, to support married clergy. Luther’s marriage does
illustrate many aspects of the ongoing reform process. His mixed feelings about
marrying, the atmosphere that led him to a decision, the subsequent outcry
about marriage, and the personal trials that faced him and his wife in their
married life had much in common with the many clergy who married before and
after him in the first decades of the German Reformation.
Marjorie
Elizabeth Plummer, Western Kentucky University, From Priest’s Whore to Pastor’s Wife: Clerical Marriage and the Process
of Reform in the Early German Reformation
Remember in
your charity:
Remember the welfare of our expectant mother: Veronica Vanderbrook,
Cole Schneider, prayers for his welfare are
requested by Camilla Meiser,
JoAnn Niekrewicz, for her recovery from a
recent fall and shoulder injury,
The Drews ask prayers for the spiritual and physical
welfare of Robert Carballo and Juan
Gonzalez,
Conversion of Jack
Gentry, the nephew of Camilla Meiser,
For Sr.
Maria Junipera, who took her final vows as a nun with the Slaves of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire April 8,
Stephen Bryan, the brother of a devout
Catholic religious, for his spiritual welfare,
Marie Kolinsky, for her health and spiritual
welfare is the petition of her family,
Gene Peters requests our prayers for the conversion
of Shirley Young and Carl Loy who are dying,
Rev. Leo Carley, an eighty-nine year old
priest faithful to Catholic tradition, who is seriously ill,
For the recovery of Hayden Yanchek, the grandson of Francis Yanchek, injured in
a farming accident,
Maureen Nies, for the recovery of her
health is the petition of Camilla Meiser,
Daniel Vargs, for his health is the
petition of his parents,
Art Noel, for the restoration of his
health,
For the welfare of Peg Berry and her husband, Bill,
Marianne Connelly asks prayers for Chris Foley, who is gravely ill,
and the welfare of his wife, Mary
Beth,
The spiritual welfare of the Sal & Maria Messineo & 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:
Ana Maria Salcedo,
the sister of Mario Fiol, died
November 26,
Fr. Johin Cardaro, a traditional Catholic priest who was found dead in
his home November 2,
Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais who may have been responsible for preventing the SSPX's public reconciliation with Rome in 2012, died October 8,
Lorna Edwards, our dear friend and loyal
supporter of this Mission, died August 10,
Lois Petti, died July 28 two hours after
receiving the Last Sacraments from Fr. Waters,
Wolfgang Smith, a renowned Catholic scholar,
mathematician, scientist, philosopher, who helped the Kolbe Center for the
Study of Creation, died July 19,
Willaim Glatz, a good and faithful Catholic,
died July 17,
Alicio Gonzalez, a Catholic who asked for the
sacrament of Extreme Unction, unfortunately did not receive, died July 9,
John Zavodny, a faithful Catholic who died wearing the
scapular of Mt Carmel on the first Saturday of May, requested by Phyllis Virgil,
Catherine Martel, a
lapsed Catholic, received the last sacraments in a good disposition from Fr.
Waters on March 25 and died on April 4,
Father Basilio Méramo, a faithful priest, died
March 5, removed from the SSPX for opposing their accommodation with Rome,
Julia McDonald, the mother of Kyle McDonald,
died March 1,
Agnus Melnick, died February 28, a long
time faithful Catholic and mother of eight children, including a traditional
priest,
Kathryn (Drew) Lederhos, of
Wellesley, MA, died February 3, 2024,
Chris Foley, the
brother of Mary Lou Loftus, died February 1,
Louis Zelaya, the brother of Claudia
Drew, died January 30,
Fr. James Louis Albert
Campbell,
a faithful priest who died December 18 at 91 years of age, and her mother and
father, Teresa and Thomas Maher,
Charles Harmon, the father of Tracey
Sentmanet, died October 1, after receiving the rites of the Church,
Fr. Waters requests prayers for Elvira Donaghy, his friend and former secretary a for Bishop
Gerado Zendejas, died September 9,
Robert Hickson, a faithful Catholic
apologist who died Septembber 2,
Monica Bandlow requests prayers for her parents, Thomas & Teresa Maher, her
husband, William Bandlow, her
brother-in-law, Richard Bandlow,
her sister, Mary Maher, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, who died March 17, Robert Byrne, Michelle Donofrio McDowell, her cousin, Patricia Fabyanic, the Prefect
of Our Lady’s Sodality, March 8, for
John Pfeiffer who died August 20, Theresa
Hanley, died July 23, Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX, who died December 20, John Kinney, died December 21, Willaim Price, Jr., and Robert Arch Ward, died January 10,
and Myra, killed in a MVA
June 6,
John Sharpe, Sr., died July 20,
Maria Paulette Salazar, died
June 6,
Dale Kinsey requests prayers for his wife, Katherine Kinsey, died May 17,
Richard Giles, who died April 29, the
father of Traci Sentmanat who converted to the Catholic faith last All Saints'
Day,
Joseph Sparks, a devout and faithful
Catholic to tradition died February 25,
Joyce Paglia, died
January 21, and Anthony Paglia,
died January 28, who were responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,
Joe Sentmanet request prayers for Richard Giles and Claude Harmon who converted to
the Catholic faith shortly before their deaths,
Rodolfo
Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew,
died January 9,
Elizabeth Agosta petitions our prayers for Joseph Napolitano, her brother,
who died January 2,
Michael Dulisse,
died on December 26,
Michael Proctor, a
close friend of the Drews, died November 9,
Richard Anthony Giles, the father-in-law of Joe
Sentmanat converted to the Catholic faith on All Saints Day, died November 5,
Robert Kolinsky, the husband of Sonja, died
September 18,
Gabriel Schiltz, the daughter of Thomas
& Gay Schiltz, died August 21,
Mary Dimmel, the
mother –in-law of Victoria Drew Dimmel, died July 18,
Michael Nesbit, the brother-in-law and dear
friend of the Drew's, died July 14,
Thomas
Thees, the brother of Philip, died
June 19,
Carmen Ragonese,
died June 22,
Juanita
Mohler, a friend of Camella Meiser,
died June 14,
Kathleen
Elias, died February 14,
Hernan Ortiz, the
brother of Fr. Juan Carlos Ortiz, died February 3,
Mary Ann
Boyle,
the mother of a second order Dominican nun, a first order Dominican priest, and
a SSPX priest, died January 24,
John DeMarco, who
attended this Mission in the past, died January23,
Charles
O’Brien, the father of Marlene Cox,
died December 30,
Mufide Rende requests our prayers for the repose of
the souls of her parents, Mehmet
& Nedime,
Kathleen
Donelly,
died December 29 at 91 years of age, ran the CorMariae website,
Matthew
O'Hare,
most faithful Catholic, died at age 40 on November 30,
Rev. Patrick
J. Perez, a Catholic priest faithful to
tradition, pastor Our Lady Help of Christians, Garden Grove, CA, November 19,
Elizabeth
Benedek,
died December 14, requested by her niece, Agnes Vollkommer,
Dolores
Smith and Richard Costello, faithful Catholics, died
November,
Frank
D’Agustino,
a friend of Philp Thees, died November 8,
Fr.
Dominique Bourmaud, of the SSPX, Prior of St.
Vincent in Kansas City, died September 4,
Pablo Daniel
Silva, the brother of Elizabeth
Vargas, died August 18,
Rose Bradley, a
member of Ss. Peter & Paul, died July 14,
Patricia
Ellias, died June 1, recently
returned to the Church died with the sacraments and wearing the brown scapular,
Joan Devlin, the sister-in-law of Rose
Bradley, died May 18,
William
Muligan, died April 29, two days after
receiving the last sacraments,
Robert Petti, died
March 19, the day after receiving the last sacraments,
Mark
McDonald, the father of Kyle, who died
December 26,
Perla Otero, died December 2020, Leyla Otero, January 2021,
cousins of Claudia Drew,
Mehmet Rende, died
December 12, who was the father of Mary Mufide,
Joseph
Gravish, died November 26, 100 year
old WWII veteran and daily communicant,
Jerome
McAdams,
the father of, died November 30,
Rev. James
O’Hara, died November 8, requested by
Alex Estrada,
Elizabeth
Batko, the sacristan at St. John the
Baptist in Pottstown for over 40 years, died on First Saturday November 7
wearing the brown scapular,
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,
James &
Jean Rowan
and their sons, Patrick & Daniel,
John Vennari asks our prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters who died
August 26,
Stanley
Bodalsky,
the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,
Mary Isabel
Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the Drew’s, who died June 6,
Rev. John
Campion,
who offered the traditional Mass for us every first Friday until forbidden to
do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,
Joseph
Montagne, who
died May 5,
For Margaret
Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died January 6,
Fr. Michael
Shear, a
Byzantine rite Catholic priest, died August 17, 2006,
Fr. James
Francis Wathen, died November 7, 2006, author of The
Great Sacrilege and Who Shall
Ascend?, a great defender of dogma and liturgical purity,
Fr. Enrique
Rueda,
who died December 14, 2009, to whom our Mission is indebted,
Fr. Peterson asks to remember, Leonard Edward Peterson, his cousin, Wanda, Angelica Franquelli, and the six
priests ordained with him.
Philip Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly Romanick, Deacon Michael Erdeck,
Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, Elizabeth Thorhas,
Elizabeth Thees, Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock, and James & Rose Gomata,
and Kathleen Heinbach,
Fr. Didier
Bonneterre,
the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John Peek, both were traditional
priests,
Brother
Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond,
NH, who died September 5,
Rodolfo
Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew, who died May 24,
Rev. Francis
Clifford,
a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on March 7,
Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonja Kolinsky
"But you will say, your punishment compels you to confess that the
end is now approaching, seeing the fulfillment of that which was foretold. For
it is certain there is no country, no place in our time, which is not affected
or troubled. But if those evils which mankind now suffer are sure signs that
our Lord is now about to come, what means that which the Apostle says, For when
they shall say peace and safety. Let us see then if it be not perhaps better to understand the words of
prophecy to be not so fulfilled, but rather that they will come to pass when
the tribulation of the whole world shall be such that it shall belong to the
Church, which shall be troubled by the whole world, not to those who shall
trouble it. For they are those who shall say, Peace and safety. But now
these evils which are counted the greatest and most immoderate, we see to be
common to both the kingdoms of Christ and the Devil. For the good and the evil
are alike afflicted with them, and among these great evils is the yet universal
resort to licentious feasts. Is not this the being dried up from fear, or
rather the being burnt up from lust?"
St. Augustine, commentary on St. Luke, 21:25-33
“Only a misguided mind would seek to afford equal
rights to both good and evil.”
Conservative
Catholics are double losers. Now that Summorum
Pontificum is revoked and with it their grant of legal privilege, they are now at the Indult and have renounced any
legal or moral grounds to complain because they accepted the legitimacy of the
Novus Ordo and Vatican II!
In the civil sphere, the
deep state has managed political and social dissent by using organizations and
movements that are only apparently opposition, but which are actually
instrumental to maintaining power. Similarly, in the ecclesial sphere, the deep
church uses the moderate “conservatives” to give the appearance of offering
freedom to the faithful. The Motu Proprio Summorum
Pontificum itself, for example, while granting the celebration in the
extraordinary form, demands saltem
impliciter that we accept the Council and recognize the lawfulness of the
reformed liturgy. This ploy prevents those who benefit from the Motu Proprio
from raising any objection, or risk the dissolution of the Ecclesia Dei
communities. And it instills in the Christian people the dangerous idea that a
good thing, in order to have legitimacy in the Church and society, must
necessarily be accompanied by a bad thing or at least something less good.
However, only a misguided mind would seek to afford equal rights to both good
and evil. It matters little if one is personally in favor of good, when he
recognizes the legitimacy of those who are in favor of evil.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
Martyrdom - To
be "freed by a great victory"
Saint Catherine has told me that I shall have succour, and I do not
know if it is to be that I shall be freed from my prison, or if when I am being
sentenced there will be some disturbance there by means of which I could be
freed. I think that it will be one or the other. Most often my voices tell me
that I shall be freed by a great victory. And afterwards my voices say,
"Accept all willingly, heed not your martyrdom, you shall come at last
into the Kingdom of Paradise." And this my voices have told me simply and
absolutely, that is, assuredly. I call it martyrdom because of the pain and
oppression that I suffer in prison. I do not know if I shall suffer a greater;
that I leave with our Lord. I firmly believe what my voices have told me, which
is that I shall be saved, as firmly as if I were already there.
St. Joan of Arc, Virgin & Martyr,
her message from St. Catherine of Alexandria, March 14, 1431
“And in those days cometh John the Baptist
preaching in the desert of Judea. And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand (Matthew
3: 1-2).”
The majority of those who hear
this word – “Do penance” – immediately think of a moral change in life. This is
correct. In practice, the one who converts gives up dark deeds (idolatry,
sorcery, theft, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, etc.) in order to live a
Christian life. This change in life, as Saint Augustine tells us, presupposes
that someone feels remorse for the wrongs they have done, prompting them to
begin a new life: “Unless one repent of his former life, he cannot begin a new
life.” This change in life can rightfully be considered a concrete
interpretation of the Gospel word – “Do penance.” And yet, the word itself
indicates something deeper than a change in life. As we will see further, it
points to the very root, the core, the essence that generates the actual
change in life. Let’s see what it is about.
The Greek word translated as
“Do penance” (or “Repent”) is a compound verb:
μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite) –
μετανοέω (metanoeó), formed from the
preposition μετά (meta) – “beyond” – and the verb
νοέω (noeó) – “to think,” “to understand” – which derives
from the noun νοῦς
(noûs) – “mind,” “intellect.” Simply and clearly translated, this verb means “to
change one’s mind.” It actually indicates a
change in the mind of the one invited to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. The way the world, life, deeds – in a word, everything – is understood undergoes a
profound transformation. The preposition “meta” even seems to indicate a change
in the sense of lifting the mind beyond its natural limits.
If we think, for example, of
articles of faith such as the mystery of the Holy Trinity or the Virgin Birth
of the Savior, we realize that these exceed our natural capacity for
understanding. Also, if we consider the absolutely unusual – from a strictly
natural-human point of view – way Christians relate to death, we realize that
we are dealing with an understanding of life completely opposite to the common
one: how many people would prefer to die as martyrs rather than acknowledge the
supposed divinity of Roman emperors? As it were, how many would die for a
single word, κύριος (kurios) – “lord,” which Christians
used exclusively for God, refusing to apply it to the Roman emperor?
Such deeds truly indicate a
change of mind in those who embrace the faith. Moreover, if we recall the
excellent definition given by St. Thomas Aquinas to faith, everything becomes
crystal clear:
“The act of believing is an act of the intellect adhering to the Divine
truth at the command of the will moved by the grace of God” (Latin: Credere
est actus intellectus assentientis veritati divinae ex imperio voluntatis a Deo
motae per gratiam.)
This adherence of our intellect
to the divine Truth revealed represents precisely the change of mind that underlies the
transformation of our entire lives. That’s why all those actions
related to the virtue of religion, such as prayer, meditation, lectio divina,
etc., actions that involve the use of intellect in the biblical, liturgical,
and sacramental context provided by the Church, are so insistently recommended
by saints of all times. Because they help us acquire minds transformed by grace
that will motivate us to change our lives in the direction desired by God and
imperatively requested by Him:
“You shall be holy, for I am
holy” (1 Peter
1:16).
Robert Lazu Kmita, Romania
Pope
Francis and his “subtle” sins against the Catholic Faith
Many men sin against Faith in
an even more subtle way through the sins against the Holy Ghost, namely, the
sins of despair, presumption, impenitence, obstinacy, resisting the known truth
and envy of someone else's spiritual good.
The sins against the Holy Ghost are not sins of weakness or ignorance. They are sins of certain malice. By despair a man rejects God's goodness and
mercy. By presumption he rejects God's
justice. By impenitence he refuses to
turn from sin to God. By obstinacy a man
hardens his will in sin. A man sins in
resisting the known truth because he does so in order to sin more freely. Lastly a man sins by envying someone else's
spiritual good because he hates the increase of God's grace in the world. In all these sins there is great danger for
man because these sins mean that man is deliberately refusing to consider those
truths and motives which would keep him from sin and enable him to turn to
God. It is for this reason that the sins
against the Holy Ghost are said to be unforgivable. It is not that God is unwilling to forgive
any sins. It is rather that in these
sins a man shows that he does not wish forgiveness.
Fr. Walter Farrell, O.P.,
S.T.M., My Way of Life, Pocket edition of St. Thomas
The
‘householder, bringeth forth out of her treasures new things and old.’
Dogma: The proximate
rule of faith - Old because it is a doctrine revealed by Jesus Christ; New
because it is formally and infallibly defined by the Magisterium.
And
now, if a single individual, a scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, be
such a householder, how much more the holy Church of Jesus Christ, headed by
the successor of St. Peter! Long before our Saviour had actually given to St.
Peter the supreme charge of his Church Ho asked him, “Who, thinkest thou, is
that faithful and wise steward whom the Lord hath set over His family, to give
them their measure of wheat in due season?” (Luke 41:42) Whether St. Peter
surmised at that time that he himself was to be raised to that office, as the
question addressed to him in preference to the other Apostles insinuated, we
will not discuss at present. So much, however, was certain: that one was to be
set over the whole household of the Lord by the Lord Himself. In the present
parable lie is called “a man that is a householder”; again he is called “the
faithful and wise steward whom the Lord hath set over his family.” In both
cases the individual thus placed above all others has a treasure to dispose of
according to the needs of times and circumstances. In the parable he is
described as one “instructed in the kingdom of heaven” ; therefore he possesses
full knowledge of the teaching and government of the true Church of God. In the
text above quoted he is a “faithful and wise steward” — faithful to his trust,
wise in his government and dispensation of the goods entrusted to his care. All
this perfectly agrees with what he had said to St. Peter: “I have prayed for
thee that thy faith fail not, and thou once converted confirm thy brethren.”
“Feed My lambs, feed My sheep” (or, in the literal translation of the original
Greek text: “Be a shepherd of My lambs, be a shepherd of My sheep” ). Thus we
see that Christ conferred on St. Peter and his successors, 1st, the prerogative
of unerring faith, comprising all the doctrines of Jesus Christ without
alteration (“thy faith fail not ”) ; 2d, the prerogative of the fulness of
power in the dispensation of the means of grace (“their measure of
wheat”)—wheat is nourishment for the body; the nourishment of the soul is
divine grace (“life everlasting”) ; 3d, the prerogative of supreme power of
government over clergy and laity (“feed My lambs, feed My sheep”). These
prerogatives were to be exercised by St. Peter and his successors, not all at
once and everywhere indiscriminately, but according to times and circumstances,
as the good of the Church and the wants of the faithful required (“to give them
their measure of wheat in due season”). But when or wherever they exercised
them they acted the part of the “householder bringing forth out of his treasure
new things and old.” They
are new because newly enacted, declared, defined; they are old because they
contain no new revelation or any assumption of power never granted by Christ,
but simply old truths under new forms, the old power exercised under new
circumstances, etc.
The
Church of Christ, after existing almost nineteen hundred years, had as good a
right to meet in council in the Vatican at Rome, under the presidency of Pius
IX., the late successor of St. Peter, as it had in the first century of its
existence, when St. Peter presided in person, at the Council of Jerusalem. Now,
as then, it has a right to decide which of the prevailing opinions is in
conformity with the teaching of Jesus Christ and belongs to the sacred deposit
of faith “handed down to the saints,” (Jude 1:3) and which is against it and it
can say with as much truth as the Apostles : “It hath seemed good to the Holy
Ghost and to us.” (Acts 15:28) If it is true the Holy Ghost makes no new
revelation to the Church, nor does He teach her anything which Jesus Christ has
not taught her before; on the contrary, our Saviour says : “He shall glorify Me
: because He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you.” (John 16:14)
Hence the dogmatic definitions of the popes and general councils of the Church
are not new revelations, but a new definition, under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost, the Spirit of truth, that such a doctrine belongs to the sacred deposit
of faith preached by Jesus Christ, and consequently is received and approved of
by the Church, or that another is opposed to it, and therefore is rejected and
condemned. That same doctrine belonged to the Church or was opposed to it from
the first day when the law of Christ was promulgated. He Himself revealed the
articles of faith, but left to His Church, presided over by St. Peter and his
successors, “whose faith fails not,” to decide what was in accordance with His
teaching when, in the course of time, errors were started that threatened to
subvert it. Thus the Church, as a good ‘householder, bringeth forth out of her
treasures new things and old.’
Fr.
Joseph Prachensky, The Church of the
Parables & True Spouse of The Suffering Saviour
Those
who contribute partake of the sin!
The United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Campaign for Human Development
contributed $17 million (or 30.4% of its budget) to groups supporting abortion,
Marxism, and the LGBT ideology and social agenda.
Lepanto
Institute, November 14, 2022
“Family Ties” within the
Homosexual Lobby
Notorious
homosexual Cardinal Terrance (“Blanche, 'call-me-Uncle
Teddy'“) McCarrick was ordained by the notorious homosexual Cardinal Francis
(“Franny”) Spellman of New York who also ordained the notorious homosexual
Cardinal Terence (“Cookie”) Cooke who took the notorious homosexual McCarrick
as his “personal secretary” and consecrated McCarrick an auxiliary bishop. Cardinal Donald (Whirly Girl) Wuerl was
ordained by the notorious homosexual Bishop Francis Fredrick Reh of Charleston,
SC who was consecrated a bishop by the notorious homosexual Spellman. Wuerl became the “private secretary” to the
notorious homosexual Cardinal John Wright who was Prefect for the Congregation
of the Clergy and represented Wright at the conclave that elected John Paul II
who consecrated Wuerl a bishop and made McCarrick a cardinal. It was Benedict/Ratzinger, formally head of
the CDF responsible for cleaning up the Homosexual Lobby, who made Wuerl a
cardinal. The homosexual Wuerl ultimately followed in the line of the
homosexual Wright as Archbishop of Pittsburg and was himself followed the
homosexual McCarrick in Washington. The
Pennsylvania Grand Jury report, 900 plus pages citing Wuerl's name more than
200 times, charges that Wuerl as
Archbishop of Pittsburgh for eighteen years repeatedly covered for the
Homosexual Lobby.
The
mansion that housed Wuerl and the local branch of the Homosexual Lobby in the
Diocese of Pittsburgh was obtained by his homosexual predecessor Cardinal
Wright and was appraised twenty years ago for $1.5 million. It was sold after
Wuerl's departure. The Jacobethan
Revival house along Fifth Avenue, at 9,842 square feet (914.4 m2)
with 39 rooms including 11 bedrooms, six full baths, and a half-bath is one of
the largest homes in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh. It housed an
extensive collection of antiques, Oriental rugs and art during Wuerl's
residency.
Just
as Wuerl had covered up for the Homosexual Lobby in Pittsburgh, he did the same
for McCarrick in Washington claiming to know nothing about McCarrick's
perversion. McCarrick was Cardinal
Archbishop of Washington 2001 to 2006.
Homosexual McCarrick's “personal secretary” was the current Archdiocesan
Vicar General Monsignor Charles Antonicelli who subsequently became the
“personal secretary” to Homosexual Cardinal Wuerl. When Antonicelli was McCarrick's “personal
secretary” in Washington, the Dioceses of Trenton, Metuchen, and Newark in 2004
and 2006 paid settlements for $100,000 and $80,000 to two men who had been
abused by McCarrick while they were in the seminary as well as
after they had become priests. It
is, believe it or not, Antonicelli who now claims that he and Wuerl knew
nothing about the homosexual escapades of McCarrick.
Compiled from information from Randy Engel,
Rite of Sodomy, published in 2006, and recent articles from LifeSiteNews and
WikiPedia
ADVENT is a
season of Penance in preparation for Christmas! Penance is the distinguishing
mark of the Catholic, that is, the Catholic faithful to Tradition!
PILATE,
having renounced his power and right to administer justice, yields to the will
and passions of the multitude. The sentence of death is pronounced, and
received with fiendish pleasure by the multitude. Their prayer is granted,
their thirst for innocent blood about to be satiated. The cross, the instrument
of shame and torture, is already prepared. Jesus welcomes it; henceforth it
shall be the trophy of His victory over sin and hell, the badge of His elect,
the standard to be borne before him as He advances in great power and majesty
to judge all men.
Jesus
receives the cross. He embraces it with love and tenderness, placing it with
His own hands upon His bleeding and mangled shoulders! If the holy Apostle St.
Andrew, as it is related in the history of his martyrdom, was so overjoyed at
the sight of the cross on which he was to die that he cried out: “Hail, O
precious cross, so long desired, and at last prepared for my craving heart!
Give me back to Christ, my Master, who has hung on thee!”—if this was so with the
servant, how much more did Jesus Christ cherish the cross, since “the disciple
is not above the Master”! Is not the love of this holy cross a distinguishing
characteristic of the one true Catholic Church, particularly when compared with
the modern sects? They have altogether discarded it; they have torn it from the
steeples of churches, and broken it into pieces when they demolished Catholic
altars. They have trampled it under foot, in order to gain access to pagan
nations for the purpose of traffic, as we see by the conduct of the Dutch in
Japan.
The
sects, moreover, teach that Christ suffered for us, in order that we might be
free from punishment; they therefore reject the necessity of penitential works
and ridicule the conduct of Catholics, who consider it a duty to chastise
themselves and carry their cross with Jesus Christ. What reasons can a pious
Protestant, then, have to love suffering, to love the cross of Christ, when he
is taught that his sufferings avail him nothing, as Christ Himself alone has
undergone all the salutary suffering? But not so with a good Catholic; he loves
his sufferings for the sake of Jesus Christ, because the Divine Word teaches
him that if he “has suffered with Christ, he also shall be glorified with Him.” He knows that it is not sufficient to repent
of his sins, he must likewise do penance for them; for, says Christ: “Except
you do penance, you shall perish all together.” If the good Catholic glories in
anything it is in the cross of Jesus Christ—that is to say, in the amount of
suffering which has been allotted to him to bear for the love of his Divine
Master. And even if, like Simon of Cyrene, he is forced to carry the cross
after Jesus, he will make a virtue of necessity, and bear his sufferings
cheerfully and without complaint as long as God wills it, remembering those
words of Christ: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow Me.” Where is
there, or ever was there, one pious Protestant who, like St. Teresa, would ask
our Lord: “Aut pati, aut mori”—either to suffer or to die; or like St. Magdalen
de Pazzi: “Pati et non mori”— let me suffer and not die; or with St. Francis
Xavier, when he saw in a vision numberless crosses coming down upon him from
heaven, signifying how much he should have to suffer in India and Japan:
“Amplius, Domino, amplius”—Yet more, O Lord! yet more? It is only the Catholic
Church that teaches her children “to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ.” To
those who are outside her pale this cross will be always a “stumbling-block and
a folly.” When the Divine Victim arrives at the summit of Calvary “they offer
him wine mingled with myrrh.” This was intended to intoxicate Him and stupefy
the senses, in order to render the pains of crucifixion less sensible; but our Lord,
having tasted, refused to drink. He did not seek to avoid the least pain, but
endured the extremity of agony. Wine mixed with gall is the only comfort which
the world, delicate to excess in its own pleasures, has to offer its dying
Saviour. The pleasures of the world are intoxicating they are never pure, and
only too often are mixed with the gall of bitterness and disappointment;
they
stupefy the senses, it; is true, and make men forget that they are destined not
to seek a paradise on earth, but the cross as the surest and safest means to
attain the everlasting paradise of heaven. “They who are Christ’s have
crucified their flesh with its concupiscences.” They shun worldly pleasures,
centre their affections on heaven, and place their treasure in the commandments
of the Most High. No wonder that we see thousands of both sexes in the Catholic
Church renouncing the world and all its allurements to embrace a crucified and
laborious life in some religious order or other, which they know to be a state
much despised and calumniated by the sects!
Rev.
Joseph Prachensky, S.J., The Church of
the Parables and The True Spouse of the Suffering Saviour
Catholic
Truth against Modernist ERRORS:
“Science… cannot be successfully studied without final reference
to God's place in it.”
We deny that God is unknown by the light of
human reason. He is known by means of the visible things He has made. We set
against Modernism the trenchant words of St. Paul to the Gentiles, which apply
to their Modernist followers, in the paths of agnosticism. 'What is known of
God is manifested in them. For the invisible things of God, from the creation
of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made:
His eternal power also and His Divinity, so that they are inexcusable. Because
when they knew God they did not glorify Him as God . . . but became vain in
their thoughts . . . Professing themselves wise (Philosophers), they became
fools' (Rom. i. 20, 21, 22). God can never be excluded from the domain of
science, so the Modernist dogma that science is atheistic is inadmissible. We
can no more leave God out of the sciences than we can shut out the light of the
sun from our earth. Every branch of science, directly or indirectly, manifests
in its own way the Divine Mind that is its ultimate end. As the whole of
Nature, so the science of Nature is like a stream flowing from God, the Ocean
of all truth and of all knowledge. Science, then, is not atheistic, it cannot
be successfully studied without final reference to God's place in it. 'Vain is
the mind of man in which is not found the knowledge of God' (Wisdom).
Rev. Norbert Jones, C.R.L., Old Truths, Not Modernist Errors
·
“One must resist the Pope
who openly destroys the Church.”
St. Cajetan
·
“When a foulness invades the
whole Church, we must return to the Church of the past.”
St. Vincent of
Lerins
·
“Just as it is licit to
resist a Pontiff who attacks the body, so it is licit to resist him who attacks
souls, or who disturbs the civil order, or, above all, him who tries to destroy
the Church. It is licit to resist him by
not doing what he orders and by impeding the execution of his will.”
St. Robert
Bellarmine
·
“They (the keys of authority
given Jesus Christ to St. Peter) will never cease to be durable, they will last
forever and they will never break.”
God the Father
to St. Catherine of Siena
·
“We have had enough of
exhortations to be silent! Cry out with
a hundred thousand tongues. I see that
the world is rotten because of silence.”
St. Catherine
of Siena
·
“The devil is always
discovering something novel against the truth.”
Pope Leo the
Great
“In addition,
as the heretic is an enemy of the Church, natural law provides protection
against such a Pope according to the rules of self-defense, because she can
defend herself against an enemy as is a heretical Pope; therefore, she can act
(in justice) against him” (In Secunda Secundae, q. 1 a. 7, disp. II,
a. III.).
John of St.
Thomas, Dominical theologian
PREACHING TO THE DEAF
You gather here today, present-day
apostles, as the Church and, therefore, the world stand perched on the edge of
a cliff. And yet you who are entrusted with the keeping of souls choose to
speak not a word of the spiritual danger which abounds. Today we stand on the cusp of all
that has been prophesied about the Church and the abominations which would come
forth in these times, a time when all of hell attacks the Church of Jesus
Christ, and a time when the fallen angels of hell no longer seek entry into her
sacred halls but instead stand inside, peeking out of her windows and unlocking
doors to welcome in more diabolical destruction.
Do you not know that Our Lord will send forth His avenging
angels to heap coals of fire upon the heads of those who were called to be His
apostles and who have not guarded what He has given unto them?
And yet almost all of you, my brothers, stood by silently watching as the
Synod on Synodality took place, an abomination constructed not to guard
the Deposit of Faith, but to dismantle it, and yet few were the cries heard
from you – men who should be willing to die for Christ and His Church.
The Synod’s final document has been released, yet with the
sleight of hand which is so characteristic of the Francis-controlled Vatican.
By drawing attention to the issues which worried many, they have slipped in
what was always their real goal without anyone even noticing. What they were
after in the first place was the dismantling of Christ’s Church by replacing
the structure of the Church as Our Lord instituted it with a
diabolically-inspired new structure of “synodality” which in actuality is a
new church that is in no way Catholic.
Bishop Joseph Strickland,
former bishop of Tyler, TX who was removed from his office by Pope Francis the
Diabolical for preaching Catholic truth, addressing the U.S. bishops gathered
at their annual meeting
“Only take heed to yourself and guard your soul diligently.” Deut 4:9
"It is a sin to believe there is salvation outside the Catholic
Church!"
Blessed Pope Pius IX
OLDER
BULLETIN POSTINGS THAT REMAIN TIMELY CONTINIUE BELOW:
Pope St.
Martin was Martyred because Pope Honorius heretically compromised the Faith
St.
Martin, who occupied the Roman See from
649 to 655 A.D., incurred the enmity of the Byzantine court by his
energetic opposition to the Monothelite heresy, which had obtained a strong
hold in the east. The Exarch Olympius went so far as to endeavour to procure
the assassination of the Pope as he stood at the altar in the church of St.
Mary Major; but the would-be murderer was miraculously struck blind, and his
master refused to have any further hand in the matter. His successor had no
such scruples; he secured the person of Martin by a stratagem, and conveyed him
on board a vessel bound for Constantinople. After a three months' voyage, the
island of Naxos was reached, where the Pope was kept in confinement for a year,
and finally, in 654, brought in chains to the imperial city. Stripped of his
pontifical garments, he was dragged naked through the streets by an iron collar
fastened to his neck, an executioner preceding him with a drawn sword, to show
that he was condemned to die. No words of complaint escaped his lips. 'I hope,'
he said, 'that God, when He shall have taken me out of this world, will bring
my persecutors to repentance.' His sentence was commuted to banishment to the
Tauric Chersonese, where he lingered on for four months in sickness and
starvation, till God released him by death on the 12th November 655.
COMMENT: Pope Martin was martyred for defending the Catholic faith
against the Monothelite heretics. It was his predecessor, Pope Honorius, who
attempted to placate the heretics by compromised equivocation of Catholic
truth. For the equivocation Pope Honorius with others was declared a heretic by
Third Council of Constantinople (Sixth Ecumenical Council) confirmed by the Pope.
The Fourth Council of Constantinople (Seventh Ecumenical Council) more
forcefully re-asserted this condemnation which was confirmed by Pope Leo II
which stated:
Further,
we accept the sixth, holy and universal synod {6
Constantinople III},
which shares the same beliefs and is in harmony with the previously mentioned
synods in that it wisely laid down that in the two natures of the one Christ
there are, as a consequence, two principles of action and the same number of
wills. So, we anathematize Theodore who was bishop of Pharan,
Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, the unholy prelates of the church of
Constantinople, and with these, Honorius of Rome, Cyrus of Alexandria as well as Macarius of Antioch and his
disciple Stephen, who
followed the false teachings of the unholy heresiarchs Apollinarius, Eutyches and Severus and
proclaimed that the flesh of God, while being animated by a rational and
intellectual soul, was without a principle of action and without a will, they
themselves being impaired in their senses and truly without reason.
Fourth Ecuмenical Council of Constantinople
The
Fourth Ecumenical Council began by stating:
If we wish to proceed without offence
along the true and royal road of divine justice, we must keep the declarations
and teachings of the holy fathers (i.e.: the dogmatic canons from previous
ecumenical councils) as if they were so many lamps which are always alight and
illuminating our steps which are directed towards God. Therefore,
considering and esteeming these as a
second word of God, in accordance with the great and most wise Denis,
let us sing most willingly along with the divinely inspired David, The
commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes, and, Your word is a
lamp to my feet and a light to my paths; and with the author of Proverbs we
say, Your commandment is a lamp and your law a light, and like Isaiah we cry to
the lord God with loud voice, because your commands are a light for the earth.
For the exhortations and warnings of the divine canons are rightly likened to
light inasmuch as the better is distinguished from the worse and what is
advantageous and useful is distinguished from what is not helpful but harmful.
Therefore we declare that
we are preserving and maintaining the canons which have been entrusted to the holy, catholic and
apostolic church by the holy and renowned apostles, and by universal as well as
local councils of orthodox [bishops], and even by any inspired father or
teacher of the church. Consequently, we rule our own life and conduct by these
canons and we decree that all those who have the rank of priests and all
those who are described by the name of Christian are, by ecclesiastical law,
included under the penalties and condemnations as well as, on the other hand,
the absolutions and acquittals which have been imposed and defined by them. For
Paul, the great apostle, openly urges us to preserve the traditions which we
have received, either by word or by letter, of the saints who were famous in
times past.
Canon I, Fourth
Ecuмenical Council of Constantinople
Pope Honorius was declared a heretic and
anathematized by the Magisterium of the Church. Yet, nothing was ever
said or implied about his loosing his office for heresy. The grounds for
this Magisterial decision was Pope Honorius' failure to keep the rule of faith,
(i.e.: dogma) for which he was declared a heretic. If you do not want to
stumble in the darkness of our current crisis in the Church, you must keep the
dogmatic canons as "many lamps which are always alight and illuminating
our steps which are directed to God."
Morality
of Zionism: More than 50,000 confirmed murdered Palestinians in Gaza with half
of them children!
The Planned
Destruction of the Palestinian People:
Before the
Jews suffered their own "holocaust" they were planning the holocaust
of the Palestinian Peoples
“The land of Israel is not small at all, if only the Arabs will
be removed, and if its frontiers would be enlarged a little; to the north all
the way to Litani [River in Lebanon], and to the east including the Golan Heights
. . . . while the [Palestinian] Arabs be transferred to northern Syria and Iraq.
. . . From now on we
must work out a secret plan based on the removal of the [Palestinian] Arabs
from here . . . [and] . . . to include it into American political circles. . . . today we have no other
alternative. . . . We will not live here with Arabs.”
(Meeting with Jewish National Fund Chairman, Menachem Ussishkin)
“It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both
peoples…. If the Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for
us…. The only solution is a Land of Israel… without Arabs. There is no room
here for compromises… There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to
the neighboring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps [a few].”
(Diary entry, December 12, 1941)
Yosef Weitz (1890-1972), Director of the Jewish National Fund's Land
Settlement Department, known as the “architect
of the transfer” of Jew to Palestine. Developed plan to ethnically cleanse
Palestine. quote taken from Expulsion of
the Palestinians by Nur Masalha
"The
Jewish People are the Holy Root"
Since the Second Vatican Council we have rediscovered that the Jewish
People are still for us the holy root that produced Jesus..... Because of our common
roots, a true Christian cannot be an anti-Semite.
Pope Francis
On
the Nature of Sin
First, then, what is sin? There are many definitions of it, and one is
this: it is the transgression of the law. “Sin is the transgression of the
law.” (1 John 3:4). God is a law to Himself; His perfections are the law
of His own nature; and God wrote upon the conscience of man, even in the state
of nature, the outline of His own perfections. He made man to know right from
wrong; He made him to understand the nature of purity, justice, truth and
mercy. These are perfections of God, and on the conscience of man the
obligations of this law are written. Every man born into the world has this
outline of God's law written upon him, and sin is the transgression of that law.
Another definition of sin is: any thought, word, or deed contrary to the will
of God.
Now, the will of God is the perfection of God Himself — holy, just,
pure, merciful, true; and anything contrary to these perfections in thought,
word, or deed is sin. The conformity of man to the will of God, to the
perfections of God, is the sanctity or the perfection of the human soul; and
the more he is conformed to the will of God, the holier and more perfect he is.
Therefore, to be at variance with God is to be deformed; and the monstrous
deformity of the human frame is not more humbling nor more hideous — nay, it is
not humbling and hideous, compared with the deformity of the soul. When the
soul is unlike to God, when it is departed from the perfection of God, when
instead of purity there is impurity, instead of justice there is injustice,
instead of truth there is falsehood, instead of mercy there is cruelty, instead
of the perfections of God there is the direct contrary of those perfections: no
deformity or hideousness that can strike the eye is so terrible.
The malice, then, of sin consists in this, that it is a created will in
conscious variance with the uncreated will of God. God made us to His own image
and to His own likeness; He gave us all that He could bestow upon us. He could
not bestow upon us His own nature, because that is uncreated, and no creature
can partake of the uncreated nature of God; but God could bestow, and He did by
His omnipotence with His mercy, bestow upon us His likeness, His image, an
intelligence and a will, a heart and a conscience, so that we become
intelligent and moral beings. The malice of sin consists, then, in this: that
an intelligent creature, having a power of will, deliberately and consciously
opposes the will of its Maker. The malice of sin is essentially internal to the
soul. The external action whereby the sinner perpetrates his sin adds, indeed,
an accidental malice and an accidental increase of wickedness; but the essence,
the life of the malice, consists in the act of the soul itself.
We see, then, that sin is the conscious variation of our moral being
from the will of God. We abuse our whole nature: we abuse our intellect by
acting irrationally, in violation of the will of God which is written upon the
conscience; we abuse our will, because we deliberately abuse the power of the
will, whereby we originate our actions in opposition to the will of God who
gave it. We apply our intellect and will, with our eyes open and with freedom
and choice, to the perpetration of acts, or the utterance of words, or the
harboring of thoughts which are known to be contrary to the will of God; and,
therefore, in every sin there is the knowledge of the intellect of what we are
doing, the consent of the will in doing it, and the consciousness of the mind
fixed upon the action despite these two objects: the law and the Lawgiver — the
law of God known to us, and the Giver of that law, who is God Himself; so that
we deliberately, with our eyes open and of our own free will, break God's law
in God's face. Now, that is the plain definition and description of sin; and
here I must, for a moment, turn aside from our path.
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Sin
and its Consequences
A
clear explanation of the essential problem: What is for faithful Catholic the
“Rule of Faith”? Is it Dogma or the
Pope? Those who believe it is the Pope
will follow Pope Francis even if he takes them to Hell!
Maike Hickson:
Where does Prof. Rocco
Buttiglione (who defends the new morality of Pope Francis and Amoris Laetitia), in your eyes, leave
the solid foundation of the Catholic moral teaching, perhaps in order to
maintain loyalty toward Pope Francis?
Professor Josef
Seifert: I think (1)
with respect to his “two principles” that separate us, they do not correspond
to sound Catholic teaching because it is Catholic teaching (and the basis for
all condemnation of heresies in the history of the Church) that a) truth has priority
over unity and b)
that no Catholic has an absolute duty to accept everything a Pope or Council
are saying if it is not dogmatic and de
fide, and if he has good reason to believe that it is contrary to
natural or revealed truth or to both (to claim otherwise would be papolatry).
Besides, (2)
I believe that Professor Buttiglione’s concrete and brilliant but
unsuccessful efforts to reconcile the novelties of Amoris Laetitia with Familiaris
Consortio, Veritatis Splendor, Evangelium Vitae, Humanae Vitae, and the Tradition of the Church all fail and put him
at the risk of using overcomplicated and sophistical reasons and of
contradicting dogmas of the Church such as (a) that God never commands things which we cannot
obey, with the help of grace (a Lutheran heresy denied this and was condemned
in the Council of Trent), or (b)
that extramoral evils (such that the partner of a second “marriage” will leave
me) can never be greater evils than a sin and the intention to prevent them can
never justify committing a sin (VS and Trent affirmed this and condemned its
negation as heretical), or (c)
that weighing good versus bad effects of any action can never justify
committing one of the many intrinsically evil acts (Veritatis Splendor made this very solemnly clear).
I
accuse Islam but not individual Muslims, who are the prime victims of Islam. I
have made up my mind to denounce the source of the terrorism: the main source
of Islamic radicalism in the world is the University of al-Azhar in Cairo,
Egypt, where the deadly ideology is taught as the official doctrine of Islam. I
accuse the University of al-Azhar in Cairo, supposedly the embodiment of
moderate Islam, of creating a spirit of fanaticism, intolerance and hatred in
millions of students and Muslim clerics coming from all over the world to
receive a formation in its institutes. By this means al-Azhar becomes one of
the main sources of terrorism worldwide.
I
accuse Islam itself and not just “extremist Islamism,” because Islam is by
nature both political and radical. Twenty-five years ago I wrote that Islamism
is merely Islam stripped bare, in all its logic and rigour. It plans for a
society aiming for a worldwide caliphate based on Shariah law, which is the
only legitimate law, as coming from God. It is a plan taking in the entire globe,
all-encompassing and wholly totalitarian. I accuse all those who pretend that
the crimes committed by Muslims “have nothing to do with Islam,” of being
deliberate liars. These crimes are committed in the name of the Koran and its
clear instructions. The mere fact that the Muslim call to prayer and the call
to kill non-Muslims are preceded by the same cry “Allah-ou Akhbar” (God is
great), is highly significant.
I
accuse learned Muslims of the 10th century of promulgating the decrees, now
irreversible, which have led Islam into its present frozen state. The first of
these decrees cancelled every kind of precedence for the Koran’s verses from
Mecca calling for peace and harmony, and it gave priority instead to the verses
from Medina which call for intolerance and violence. Two further decrees were
promulgated to make this first decree irreversible: the Koran was decreed to be
the uncreated word of Allah, hence immutable; and any further effort at
reflection was forbidden by “the gate of ijtihad (reflection) being closed once
and for all.” These three decrees, made sacred, have fossilized Muslim
thinking, and contributed to the keeping of Muslim countries in a state of
backwardness and chronic stagnation.
I
accuse the Vatican II Decree “Nostra Aetate” of launching an inter-religious
dialogue meant to be open, welcoming and understanding of Muslims, because for
50 years we have not taken one step forward, and now we are stopped dead. The
dialogue with a sheikh from al-Azhar ended up with his proclaiming that “all Christians
are going to Hell.” Nothing is moving, just as nothing has moved for the last
11 centuries. Dialogue, yes, but I want a dialogue based on truth. Charity
without truth goes nowhere! I accuse the Catholic Church of pursuing a dialogue
with Islam based on seeking to please, on making compromises and on
double-dealing. After 50 years of initiatives all going one way, the Church’s
monologue has got nowhere. By giving way to the “politically correct,” by
pretending that the dialogue must not offend the Muslims because we must “live
together,” all thorny but vital questions are studiously avoided. But true
dialogue begins with the truth. I have asked to meet Pope Francis. No reply.
Fr.
Henry Boulad, 86 year-old Jesuit priest born in Alexandria, Egypt, of an old
Syrian Christian family of the Melkite rite, former Professor of Theology in
Cairo, Superior of the Jesuits in Alexandria and of the Jesuits in Egypt.
Quotation taken from Bishop Richard Williamson's newsletter, Eleison Comments
The
Man Born Blind, the Pool of Siloe - a sign for the absolute necessity of
Baptism that those who are pure of heart will “find it” and that it will “burst
out for them in a stream”... so they “may not perish for a lack of water.” But “strangers would not find it, for the
water withdrew itself.”
St. Augustine says that Christ
made clay of the spittle because the Word was made flesh. He anointed the eyes of the blind man, but
yet he did not see, for when He anointed him He most likely made him a
catechumen. He sends him to the pool of
Siloe. For being baptized in Christ he
is illuminated. The Gloss says that the spittle is the wisdom of Christ, to anoint the
eyes is to make a catechumen. He that
believeth in the Word made flesh is sent to wash, that is, in Christ. But he who is baptized received the light of
the mind through faith, grace and charity, which are infused into him by God in
baptism. St. Jerome says that, “Siloe is
a source at the foot of Mount Sion, which bubbles up, not in a continuous
stream, but at uncertain time of the day, and then through hollows in the
ground it makes its way to caves of very hard stone; there is no doubt that
this is so, especially for us who live in this region.” The story of how this stream first burst
forth at the prayers of Isaias, and how it acquired its name, is related by
Epiphanius in his usual fashion in the following words: “God made the fount of
Siloe at the request of the prophet Isaias, who shortly before his death prayed
for a trifle: that God would grant the waters to flow from that place, and He
immediately poured down from heaven living waters; hence the place obtained the
name Siloe which, interpreted, means ‘sent down.’ And under King Ezechias, before he built the
pond and the pools, a small stream sprang up at the prayers of Isaias, for the
people were under siege by the enemy, so that the city might not perish for
lack of water. The soldiers searched
everywhere for a place where they might quench their thirst, but could not tell
where to find it. After they had indeed
taken the city, they besieged Siloe. But
whenever the poor Jews went to seek water it burst out for them in a
stream. But strangers would not find it,
for the water withdrew itself. And even
up to the present time it bursts forth secretly, thus signifying a
mystery.”
Cornelius a Lapide, The Great
Commentary, St. John, Chapter 9
All our
Immemorial Traditions are Sacred Images of the Faith by which alone the Faith
is Known and Communicated to others!
You see that great strength and
divine zeal are given to those who venerate the images of the saints with faith
and a pure conscience. Therefore, brethren, let us take our stand on the rock
of the faith, and on the tradition of the Church, neither removing the
boundaries laid down by our holy fathers of old, nor listening to those who
would introduce innovation and destroy the economy of the holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church of God. If any man is to have his foolish way, in a short time
the whole organization of the Church will be reduced to nothing. Brethren and
beloved children of the Church do not put your mother to shame, do not rend her
to pieces. Receive her teaching through me. Listen to what God says of her:
'Thou are all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee.'... All the
saints pleased God by faith.... Let us not seek to learn a new faith,
destructive of ancient tradition, St. Paul says, 'If a man teach any other
Gospel than what he has been taught, let him be anathema.'
St. John of Damascene, On Holy
Images
COMMENT: This is a brief encapsulation of
the philosophy of Pope Francis. He is a pure Modernist who presupposes the
Hegelian evolutionary “process” as a given. All things, including doctrine, are
in a state of constant flux including the morality that doctrine determines. Francis
admits to being a “utopian” dreamer who believes that the “processes” created
by Vatican II will ultimately yield good fruit in the “utopian future.” The
rotten swill we are currently consuming is only an unfortunate but necessary
part of normal “processing”; ‘you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs’.
Like all liberals, it is always the theory that is normative, the facts are
askew. Whatever problems we are currently enduring is because the theory has
not been applied correctly, in all its purity, with sufficient rigor, for
enough time, something like the Elizabethan racking of Catholic saints. The
prescription is always more of the same rotten swill to “enhance human
fullness.” But the truth is that Francis has no idea where his “processes” are
going. He is confident that future “history” will judge his worth. We are
confident of that as well. Unfortunately for Francis, if he dies without
repenting of this heretical folly, he will not save his soul. And repentance is
problematic for Francis attributes these blind ‘processes’ that overturn
revealed truth to the Holy Ghost and, Jesus has said, “He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come” (Matt 12:32). No wonder that
Francis offers his own interpretation to the parable of the wheat and the
cockle editing himself out of the narrative. But again, unfortunately for
Francis, Jesus Christ leaves us an explicit interpretation of the parable to
His apostles: The Lord of the harvest is Jesus Christ; the field is His
kingdom; the enemy is Satan. Those in the kingdom are born of water and the
Holy Ghost through Baptism. Those that slept are the church hierarchy negligent in their duty to protect the “field.” Satan
enters through the negligence of the shepherds and sows the cockle which every
Church Father identifies with heresy. The “goodness of the wheat” do not
destroy heretics but rather endure them for the heretics are gathered up at the
time of the harvest and cast into eternal fires as it shall be on the Last
Judgment. Where is Francis in this parable? He is not the negligent sleeping
shepherd but rather the chief enemy sowing the cockle. It would be better for
him to have a millstone cast about his neck and thrown in the depths of the
sea.
Time is
greater than space: A constant tension exists between fullness and
limitation. Fullness evokes the desire for complete possession, while
limitation is a wall set before us. Broadly speaking, “time” has to do with fullness
as an expression of the horizon which constantly opens before us, while each
individual moment has to do with limitation as an expression of enclosure. People live poised between each
individual moment and the greater, brighter horizon of the utopian future as
the final cause which draws us to itself. Here we see a first principle for
progress in building a people: time is greater than space.
This principle enables us to work slowly but surely, without being obsessed with immediate results. It helps us patiently to endure difficult and adverse situations, or inevitable changes in our plans. It invites us to accept the tension between fullness and limitation, and to give a priority to time. One of the faults which we occasionally observe in sociopolitical activity is that spaces and power are preferred to time and processes. Giving priority to space means madly attempting to keep everything together in the present, trying to possess all the spaces of power and of self-assertion; it is to crystallize processes and presume to hold them back. Giving priority to time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces. Time governs spaces, illumines them and makes them links in a constantly expanding chain, with no possibility of return. What we need, then, is to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society and engage other persons and groups who can develop them to the point where they bear fruit in significant historical events. Without anxiety, but with clear convictions and tenacity.
Sometimes I wonder if there are people in today’s world who are really concerned about generating processes of people-building, as opposed to obtaining immediate results which yield easy, quick short-term political gains, but do not enhance human fullness. History will perhaps judge the latter with the criterion set forth by Romano Guardini: “The only measure for properly evaluating an age is to ask to what extent it fosters the development and attainment of a full and authentically meaningful human existence, in accordance with the peculiar character and the capacities of that age”.
This criterion also applies to evangelization, which calls for attention to the bigger picture, openness to suitable processes and concern for the long run. The Lord himself, during his earthly life, often warned his disciples that there were things they could not yet understand and that they would have to await the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:12-13). The parable of the weeds among the wheat (cf. Mt 13:24-30) graphically illustrates an important aspect of evangelization: the enemy can intrude upon the kingdom and sow harm, but ultimately he is defeated by the goodness of the wheat.
Pope Francis, Evangellii Gaudium
St. Joan of Arc, Catholic, virgin
and martyr: "Our Lord First Served!"
In her prison cell, Saturday, March 31,
1431:
Question: Will you refer yourself to the judgment of the Church militant in
respect to all that you have done, whether good or evil, and particularly in
respect to the act, crimes, and offenses which are imputed to you?
St. Joan: Concerning what
you ask I will refer myself to the Church militant, provided that it does not
command me to do anything impossible.
I
call this impossible - that I should revoke the things which I have said and
done, as they are set down in this trial, concerning the visions and
revelations which I have said that I had from God. Not for anything will I
revoke them. And what our Lord has caused and commanded me to do, and shall
command, I will not cease from doing for any man living. And it would be
impossible for me to revoke them. And in case the Church wished to make me do
something else, contrary to the commandment which I say God has given me, not
for anything would I do it.
Question: If the Church militant tells you that your
revelations are illusions or diabolical things or superstitions or evil things,
will you refer yourself to the Church in respect to them?
St. Joan: I will refer
myself to our Lord, whose bidding I shall always do. And I know that what is
recorded in my trial came to pass at my Lord's bidding. And which I have
affirmed at my trial that I did at God's bidding, it would have been impossible
for me to do otherwise.
Question: Do you not believe that you are subject to
the Church which is on earth, that is, to our holy father the Pope, the
cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the Church?
St. Joan: Yes - our Lord
first served!
Question: Have you a command from your voices not the
submit yourself to the Church militant, which is on earth, or to its judgment?
St. Joan: What I answer
is not whatever comes into my head. What I answer is at their command. They do
not command me not to obey the Church, our Lord first served!
Pope Francis hates God
Because every religion is a way to arrive at God!
Sort of a comparison, an example, would be there are sort of different
languages in order to arrive at God. But God is God for all. And if God is God
for all, then we are all sons and daughters of God. But my God is more
important than your God. Is that true? There is only one God, and each of us is
a language(so as to speak) in order to arrive at God. Sikhi, Muslim, Hindu,
Christian, they are different paths.
Pope Francis the Apostate, in Singapore 9-13-24
COMMENT: Pope Francis speaking Italian was
addressing a group of young people in Singapore. His primary interpreter,
standing at his side, translated his words into English which is a common
language spoken in Singapore from British colonial rule. There is only one
"language" to "arrive at God" and that "language"
is Jesus Christ and in His Church. Pope Francis is an apostate. Pray God that
He will cleanse His Church from every partisan of error and moral corruption.
We have prayed for Francis' conversion. If he will not repent, we pray God
given him his just reward now.
“Revelation
manifests itself more and more each day… it’s always moving.”
It
is a dogma of divine and Catholic faith that Revelation was completed at the
death of the last Apostle!
Ideologies are bewitching; and so Paul says: “Oh foolish Galatians, who
has bewitched you?” Those who preach with ideologies: everything’s right! They
are bewitching: it’s all clear! But
look, God’s revelation isn’t clear eh? God’s revelation manifests itself more
and more each day; it is always moving. Is it clear? Crystal clear! It is Him,
but we have to find it along the way. Those who think they possess the whole
truth are not just ignorant, Paul goes as far as to call them ‘foolish’ for
letting themselves be bewitched.
Pope Francis, sermon, October 6, 2016
We must strip from our Catholic
prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a
stumbling block for our separated brethren that is for the Protestants.
Msgr. Annibale Bugnini,
L'Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965
To tell the truth, it is a
different liturgy of the Mass. This needs to be said without ambiguity: the
Roman Rite as we knew it no longer exists. It has been destroyed!
Rev. Joseph Gelineau, S. J., a
member of Msgr. Bugnini’s Concilium, on the Novus Ordo
“If you love
me you will keep my commandments… He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them; he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my
Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… If you keep my
commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father’s
commandments, and do abide in his love… In this we know that we love the
children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments.” (John 14:15;
14:21; 15:10; 1 John 5:2)
Pope
Francis will learn, souls are “condemned for ever” who teach the Lutheran
heresy of justification & deny the Catholic dogma that to abide in “true
charity” is “conditional” upon keeping the commandments!
“The
way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for ever; it is to pour out the balm
of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart… For true
charity is always unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous….
It
is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find
his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial com-munity and thus to
experience being touched by an “unmerited, unconditional and
gratuitous” mercy. No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the
logic of the Gospel!”
Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, paragraphs 296 and 297
Pope Francis
open the Youth Synod with novel ferula that is most fitting for his LGBT
agenda!
Stang: The stang is a straight
branch with a fork or Y at one end, and is most used in ritual circle as a type
of centerpiece representing the magick of the three –the trinity– in the
following ways: Earth, Sea, and Sky; Body, Mind and Spirit; God, Goddess and
Unity; the three faced of the God; the three faces of the Goddess; and the
crossroads of life. Stangs used today are normally five to six feet in height
and are often decorated with ribbons and flowers that match the seasonal
ritual. The stang also relates to the legend of the World Tree, and in some
ritual groups it is the pole of libation, where gifts of food and liquid are
arranged or poured by the base in honor of the Gods. This is similar to the
pole erected in the center of a Voodoo rite, dedicated to Damballah, called the
Ponteau Mitan. The stang is normally place at the north (the seat of all power)
or directly behind the altar. A few groups, often with Druidic leanings, place
the stang in the center of the circle.
Definition provided by
"Magickal Necessities by Witches of the Craft"
A Forked Staff: Perfect
Symbol for the Synod on Youth and with its “synodal” Blah, Blah, Blah
Fatima
Perspectives #1239; By Chris Ferrara
As
one website observes, when the Antichrist arrives to preach his lies among men,
seducing “(if it were possible) even the elect” (Mk. 13:22), his forked tongue
“will have the eloquence of angels, his honeyed words will pierce to the very
heart of those who hear him. His arguments and positions will be so well
presented that even those who recognize him will be hard pressed to resist what
he has to say.”
The
Antichrist will make the devil’s ultimate sales pitch. For now, however,
the forked tongue belongs to lesser voices, lacking all eloquence and nuance,
including those who will be spouting empty demagogic slogans and emotivist
rubbish at the Synod of Youth and Blah, Blah, Blah now underway in Occupied
Rome.
We
have heard it all before at the last phony Synod, which was merely a disguise
for what Francis wanted from the beginning and shamelessly passed off as the
voice of the Holy Ghost. And now — bearing a forked staff, appropriately
enough — Francis has said it all again in his homily at the beginning of this
elaborate stage show for further subversion of the Church:
For we know that our young people
will be capable of prophecy and vision to the extent that we, who are already
adult or elderly, can dream and thus be infectious in sharing those dreams
and hopes that we carry in our hearts…
May the Spirit grant us the
grace to be synodal Fathers anointed with the gift of dreaming and of hoping.
We will then, in turn, be able to anoint our young people with the gift of
prophecy and vision…
Hope challenges us, moves us and
shatters that conformism which says, “it’s always been done like this”. Hope asks
us to get up and look directly into the eyes of young people and see their
situations….
And this demands that we be
really careful against succumbing to a self-preservation and self-centredness
which gives importance to what is secondary yet makes secondary what is
important.
The gift of that ability to
listen, sincerely and prayerfully, as free as possible from prejudice and
conditioning, will help us to be part of those situations which the People of
God experience….
This disposition protects us
from the temptation of falling into moralistic or elitist postures, and it
protects us from the lure of abstract ideologies that never touch the realities
of our people….
Here
we go again: “prophesy and vision,” “dreams and hopes,” “see their situations,”
eschewing “conformism,” moving beyond what is “secondary,” freedom from
“prejudice and conditioning,” rejecting “moralistic or elitist postures” versus
“the realities of our people.”
In
other words: another poisonous dose of situation ethics to follow the recent
scandal of “permission” for Holy Communion to be administered to people who
intend to continue engaging in sexual relations within “second marriages” which
constitute “none other than disgraceful and base concubinage, repeatedly
condemned by the Church,” to quote Blessed Pope Pius XI.
This
preposterous sham of a Synod features the attendance of two communist Chinese
bishops handpicked by Beijing from the ranks of the Catholic Patriotic
Association, which, following the Vatican sellout of the Underground Church,
promptly declared its “independence” from Rome. Francis ludicrously declared in
his homily that the attendance of these puppets of Beijing and its
“independent” pseudo-Church means that “the communion of the entire Episcopate
with the Successor of Peter is yet more visible thanks to their presence.”
The
inevitable outcome of this sham (barring a veritable miracle) will be a further
erosion of the Church’s moral foundations under the specious pretext of an
expression of the “ordinary Magisterium” that takes into account “situations”
and “concrete realities” — as if reality and morality were somehow opposed,
when in fact it is conformity to God’s moral law that leads a soul to the
reality of true freedom.
God help us. God rescue us. Holy Mother of God, intercede for us and obtain for the Church that holy and courageous Pope who will put an end to this utter madness by doing at long last what You requested of the Roman Pontiff nearly a century ago at Tuy: the Consecration of Russia to Your Immaculate Heart.
Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer.... Are our communities
capable of .... accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without
compromising Catholic doctrine?
Synod of the Family, First Relatio written by Pope Francis’ Hand Picked Clerics
A
Place (in eternity) is Greater than Time
“In
my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you:
because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place
for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you
also may be” (John 14:2-3). Jesus Christ
“Time is Greater than Space: A constant tension exists between fullness
and limitation. Fullness evokes the desire for complete possession, while
limitation is a wall set before us. Broadly speaking, “time” has to do with
fullness as an expression of the horizon which constantly opens before us,
while each individual moment has to do with limitation as an expression of
enclosure. People live poised between each individual moment and the greater,
brighter horizon of the utopian future as the final cause which draws us to
itself. Here we see a first principle for progress in building a people: time
is greater than space.”
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, “Time is Greater than Space”
“God manifests himself in historical
revelation, in history. Time initiates processes, and space crystallizes them.
God is in history, in the processes. We must initiate processes, rather than
occupy spaces.”
Pope Francis, Interview with Anthony Spadaro
Since “time is greater than space,” I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral, or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth (cf. Jn 16:13), until he leads us fully into the mystery of Christ and enables us to see all things as he does. Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs. For “cultures are in fact quite diverse and every general principle…needs to be inculterated, if it is to be respected and applied.”
Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia
“How
many times do those who are prominent, like the Pharisee with respect to the
tax collector, raise up walls to increase distances, making other people feel
even more rejected. Or by considering
them backward and of little worth, they despise their traditions, erase their
history, occupy their lands, and usurp their goods…. Worship of self carries on
hypocritically with its rites and ‘prayers,’ forgetting the true worship of God
which is always expressed in love of one’s neighbor.”
Pope
Francis, ending sermon from the Amazonian Synod
COMMENT: How the hypocrite Francis is blind to the ‘beam in his
own eye.’ The arrogant pretense that he
and his Novus Ordite cronies actually know anything about the “worship of God”
and the “love of one’s neighbor.”
Catholic institutions of charity have collapsed since Vatican II because
these institutions were staffed by countless vocations, men and women who gave
their lives in the service of the love of their fellow man for the love of
God. Vocations have dried up and these
institutions have closed their doors because without faith, there is no
charity.
Furthermore, no one, absolutely no one, has been considered
of “little worth” more than Catholics faithful to our “received and approved”
traditions of the Catholic Church which produced these vocations. Faithful Catholics have had their “traditions
despised,” their “history erased,” their churches and shrines “occupied,” and
their “goods usurped,” by the philistines of Vatican II who are the new
Iconoclasts.
The Mission of Ss. Peter & Paul has set out to
recover and restore this despised heritage by which alone the faith can be
known and communicated to others, from which alone true charity may once more
abound. May our Good God cleanse His
Church from this corrupt pontificate of Francis and everything he represents.
CATHOLIC
PROPHECY: "We will pull it to the ground"!
May
13, 1820: I saw also the relationship between the two popes. . . I saw how
baleful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in
size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy
grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness. . . Then, the vision seemed to
extend on every side. Whole Catholic communities were being oppressed,
harassed, confined, and deprived of their freedom. I saw many churches close
down, great miseries everywhere, wars and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob
took to violent action. But it did not last long.
Once
more I saw that the Church of Peter was undermined by a plan evolved by the
secret sect, while storms were damaging it. But I saw also that help was coming
when distress had reached its peak. I saw again the Blessed Virgin ascend on
the Church and spread her mantle [over it]. I saw a Pope who was at once
gentle, and very firm. . . I saw a great renewal, and the Church rose high in
the sky.
Sept.
12, 1820: I saw a strange church being built against every rule. . . No angels were supervising the building
operations. In that church, nothing came from high above. . . There was only
division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the
latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox church of Rome, which seems of the
same kind. . .
I
saw again the strange big church that was being built there (in Rome). There
was nothing holy in it. I saw this just as I saw a movement led by
Ecclesiastics to which contributed angels, saints and other Christians. But
there (in the strange big church) all the work was being done mechanically
(i.e. according to set rules and formulae). Everything was being done according
to human reason. . .
I
saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and opinions. There was something
proud, presumptuous, and violent about it, and they seemed to be very
successful. I did not see a single Angel nor a single saint helping in the
work. But far away in the background, I saw the seat of a cruel people armed
with spears, and I saw a laughing figure which said: “Do build it as solid as
you can; we will pull it to the ground.”
Blessed
Anna Katherina Emmerich, Catholic Prophecy by Ives DuPont
“Necessity
Knows No Law”
In 1976, the head of the UGCC, Cardinal Josef Slipyj, living in exile in
Rome after 18 years in the Soviet gulag, feared for the future of the UGCC.
Would it have bishops to lead it, given that Slipyj himself was now over 80? So
he ordained three bishops clandestinely, without the permission of the Holy
Father, Blessed (sic) Paul VI. At the time, the Holy See followed a policy of
non-assertiveness regarding the communist bloc; Paul VI would not give
permission for the new bishops for fear of upsetting the Soviets. The
consecration of bishops without a papal mandate is a very grave canonical
crime, for which the penalty is excommunication. Blessed (sic) Paul VI—who
likely knew, unofficially, what Slipyj had done—did not administer any
penalties.
Fr. Raymond J. DeSouza
THE NATURE OF GOD'S CHRUCH -
“The kingdom of heaven”
In
the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew there are several parables recorded,
commencing with the words, “The kingdom of heaven is likened,” etc. Now, this
cannot be the kingdom of God’s glory, for there are no tares or bad fishes to
cast out in that kingdom. It must of necessity be the Church of Jesus Christ on
earth, the new-chosen children of God, who have superseded the people of the
ancient law.
It
is called “the kingdom,” in the singular number, not in the plural number,
kingdoms, for Jesus Christ founded but one Church, which is His kingdom; “and
of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33). He does not call it a
republic, but a kingdom, thus describing the monarchical form of government
which He gave to His Church. A kingdom is a country governed by a king; and if
the king does not preside over it in person, he governs it by means of a
viceroy, who in everything represents the king, and governs the country
according to the powers and laws received from the king. If nowadays we have so
many Christian sects, each one calling itself the true Church of Christ, it is
not because He founded them, but because “many revolted and did not remain in
the doctrine of Christ” (II John 9).
To
say that all churches are good and pleasing in the sight of God, since they all
believe in the same God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, is the
same as to say that provinces and individuals originally of the same kingdom,
but revolting against their lawfully-constituted authorities and forming laws
for themselves not sanctioned by the king, are just as agreeable to the king as
those who were always faithful and submissive to him and to his ministers, and
that it is enough to say to Jesus Christ, “Lord, Lord!” in order to be saved,
no matter how many of His doctrines one rejects, nor how many of His laws and
ordinances are despised. He Himseif answers “Not every one that saith to me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will
of My Father, who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many
will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name?”
(and to prophesy does not only mean to foretell future things, but also to
explain and discourse on religious matters), “and cast out devils in Thy name,
and done many miracles in Thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you : depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matt 7:21). If the Apostle
St. Paul says, “There must be also heresies,” it is not because Jesus Christ
approves of them, but He permits them only “that they also who are approved may
be made manifest” (l Cor. 11:19). They are, as it were, the shades which serve
to make what is light still clearer and more visible to the world. But shade is
darkness, and nothing dark or defiled will ever be admitted into the kingdom of
glory. “Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in you be not darkness”
(Luke 11:35).
If,
then, Christ has established but one Church, which is His kingdom — “the kingdom
of heaven” — and this Church has a monarchical form of government, behold here
already a main feature of the holy Catholic Church.
JOSEPH
PRACHENSKY, S.J., TIlE CHURCH OF THE
PARABLES - TRUE SPOUSE OF THE SUFFERING SAVIOR, 1880
Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the
idea that we can do whatever we like, that we’ll never pay the price and be
punished for it. We’ll carry on undisturbed. 
We’ll keep holding thousands of Palestinian
prisoners, sometimes without trial, most of them political prisoners. And we
won’t agree to discuss their release even after they’ve been in prison for
decades.
Celebrating
the tapestry of rich faith traditions alive in the greater Harrisburg area,
faith leaders gathered at Beth El Temple on the evening of September 22 for the
annual Commonwealth Interfaith Service: Prayers for Justice and Peace. Bishop
Timothy Senior joined leaders from more than a dozen faith and interfaith
organizations in the hour-long annual prayer service, hosted by the Jewish
community under the leadership of Rabbi Araina Capptauber, who has been at the
helm since 2021. More than 75 people were in attendance.
The prayer service was called to worship by
the soul stirring blowing of a shofar – a horn hollowed from the bone of a
kosher animal. This ancient ritual takes place in a synagogue to announce a
prayer service. Iman Farhad Rana followed with an equally moving call to
worship with an olden chant. Protestant Reverend Celal Kamran then offered the
Christian call to worship. The three faith traditions of Jewish, Muslim and
Christian standing peacefully side by side made for a powerful witness given
the current strife plaguing the world.
“…Two reasons can be assigned to the fact
that Our Lord’s faithful members will often be betrayed by those who should be
on the side of Christ the King. Firstly, many Catholic writers speak of Papal
condemnations of Anti-Semitism without explaining the meaning of the term, and
never even allude to the documents which insist on the Rights of Our Divine
Lord, Head of the Mystical Body, Priest and King. Thus, very many are completely
ignorant of the duty incumbent on all Catholics of standing positively for Our
Lord’s Reign in society in opposition to Jewish Naturalism. The result is that
numbers of Catholics are so ignorant of Catholic doctrine that they hurl the
accusation of Anti-Semitism against those who are battling for the Rights of
Christ the King, thus effectively aiding the enemies of Our Divine Lord.
Secondly, many Catholic writers copy unquestioningly what they read in the
naturalistic or anti-Supernatural Press and do not distinguish between
Anti-Semitism in the correct Catholic sense, as explained above, and
‘Anti-Semitism’ as the Jews understand it. …”
Catholics have accused the Vatican of
betraying Jesus by substituting the term “Before Christ” with “Before Common
Era” in official documentation.
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. 
Last
year, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, joined by other
prelates, issued a public declaration of truths of the faith where they called
it a rebellion and “grave sin” for a man to “attempt to become a woman.”
Tradition,
the pope said, 
How is it possible that the mind of Pope
Francis could see a moral development in the face of perfect contradiction,
which offends the first principle of the understanding, that is, that a thing
cannot be and not be at the same time? The answer is in the spiritual formation
of Pope Francis. Francis was Jesuit trained in a spirit of Anti-Thomism. Not
just grossly neglecting a classical realist formation as most modern clerics
underwent but an active opposition to traditional Catholic realistic philosophy
and theology. Pope Francis hates St. Thomas and rejects everything he taught. 