.....
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.
PDF PRINT
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
St.
Raymond Nonnatus, Confessor
August 31, 2025
The proverbs of Solomon are useful “to know
wisdom and instruction, to understand the words of prudence; and to receive the
instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment and equity: to give subtlety to
little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding” (1st Nocturn).
Solomon was only a type of Christ, the
Incarnate wisdom, as indeed, we read in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the eyes
that see the things which you see. For I
say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you
see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear and have not
heard them.” “Blessed,” says St. Bede,
“are the eyes that can recognize the mysteries of the Lord; of whom it is said
‘Thou hast revealed them to little ones’.”
Blessed are the eyes of these little ones, to whom the Son has
vouchsafed to reveal Himself and the Father.
Here is a doctor of the law who, tempting our Lord, asks Him questions
about eternal life (Gospel). But the
snare that he spread for Jesus Christ shows how true were the words our
Redeemer had just uttered, when He said to His Father: “Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones” 2nd
Nocturn).
“The fear of the Lord,” says Solomon, “is
the beginning of wisdom…If sinners shall entice thee consent not to them. If they shall say ‘Come with us, let us hide
snares for the innocent without cause: let us swallow him up alive like hell,
and whole as one that goeth down into the pit. We shall find all precious substance: we
shall fill our houses with spoils.’ My
son, walk not with them; restrain thy foot from their paths. For their feet run to evil and make haste to
shed blood. So the ways of every
covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors” (1st Nocturn).
It was thus that the demons acted with
regard to the first man, for when Adam fell into sin they stripped him of all
his goods and covered him with wounds.
For original sin deprives man of all the gifts of grace and wounds him
in his very nature. His intelligence is
less alert and his will weaker, for the concupiscence which reigns in his
members carries him towards evil. To
make him feel his impotence, for as St. Paul says, our sufficiency is from God
(Epistle), almighty God instituted the Mosaic Law which gave him the
commandments that faith enabled him to fulfill, but without supplying the
sacramental help we enjoy in the New Dispensation.
Then man, understanding that he needs the
divine assistance in order to be healed, to will what is good, to obtain it and
to persevere in it to the end, looks towards heaven and cries: “Incline unto my
aid, O God: O Lord, make haste to help me: let my enemies be confounded and
ashamed who seek my soul” (Introit). “O
Lord the God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, and in the night before
Thee” (Alleluia).
God resolved to come to man’s assistance,
and since the priests and Levites of the Old Law could not help him, He sent
Jesus Christ, who according to St. Gregory’s teaching, made Himself man’s
neighbor, clothing Himself with our humanity that He might heal it (3rd
Nocturn). This
is what the Epistle and Gospel tell us.
The Law of Sinai, engraven as St. Paul
explains, with letters upon stones, was a ministration of death, for as we have
seen, it did not supply the strength necessary to perform what it
commanded. Thus in the Offertory we see
how Moses had to intercede with almighty God to appease His anger, provoked by
the sins of His people. The law of grace
was a ministration of Justification, for which the Holy Ghost, who was sent to
the Church at Pentecost, the day on which the Old Law was abrogated, bestows
the strength to observe the precepts of the Decalogue and of the Church. As St. Paul
says; “The letter killeth but the spirit quickeneth” (Epistle).
The Gospel gives practical proof of this in the parable of the Good
Samaritan. In the face of the impotence
of the priesthood of the Old Law, represented by the priest and the Levite, the
Good Samaritan, that is our Lord Himself sets up a new law, different to the
first and comes
Himself
to the help of man. Physician of our souls, He pours into our wounds the
ointment of His grace, the oil of His sacraments and the wine of His
Eucharist. Therefore, in a style full of
imagery, the liturgy sings the loving kindness of God, who has made the earth
bring forth bread that strengthens man, wine that rejoices his heart and oil
that makes his face cheerful (Communion).
As the Gradual says; “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise
shall ever be in my mouth.”
What God has done for us, we should do for
our neighbor, following the example set us by the divine Samaritan. “There being,” says St. Bede, “no closer
relationship than that of head and members, we should love him who is the
imitation of Christ; we should be ready to render him every service both
spiritual and temporal of which he has need.”
Neither the Mosaic Law not the Gospel separate love towards God from
that which we should have for our brethren, a love supernatural in its origin,
since it is the gift of the Holy Ghost, and supernatural in its object, which
is God in the person of our brethren.
The neighbor of this wounded Jew was not, as the Jews thought, one
connected with him by the tie of blood, but he who charitably bent over him to
give him aid. That sense of union in
Christ, which goes so far as to make us love those who at least should be, is
the true love of our neighbor. Made, by
grace, partakers of the divine nature, we ought to imitate our heavenly Father
who appeased by the prayer of Moses, a type of our Redeemer, could only heap
blessings upon the people who had offended Him (Offertory, Communion).
United with Christ, let us bend with Him
over our suffering neighbor. This will
be the best way to become, by divine mercy, qualified to serve almighty God in
a fitting and laudable manner and raised up by His grace, we may run without
hindrance, toward the heaven He has promised us (Collect). “Our Lord,” says the Venerable Bede, “affirms
in the clearest way that there is only one love, and that it must not only be
expressed in words but shown forth by good deeds. It is this that leads to eternal life” (3rd
Nocturn).
INTROIT:
Ps. 69. O God, come to my assistance; Lord, make
haste to help me: let my enemies be confounded and ashamed, that seek my soul.
Ps. Let them be turned backward and blush for
shame that desire evils to me. Glory be,
etc. O God, come, etc.
COLLECT:
Almighty and merciful God,
of whose gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do Thee worthy and laudable
service, grant us, we pray, that we run without stumbling to the attainment of
Thy promises. Through our Lord, etc.
O
God, who didst endue Thy blessed Confessor Saint Raymund
with wondrous powers for the deliverance from the capitívity
of the infidel: grant that, by his intercession; we may be delivered from the
bonds of all our iniquities, and perform those things that are acceptable unto
Thee with perfect freedom. Through our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE: 2 Cor. 3, 4-9.
Brethren, such confidence we have
through Christ towards God: not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is from God, who also hath made us fit ministers of the New
Testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit: for the letter killeth: but the spirit quickeneth.
Now if the ministration of death, engraven with
letters upon stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which
is made void: how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather in glory?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of
justice aboundeth in glory.
EXPLANATION St. Paul speaks in the epistle, from which
this extract is taken, of the conversion of the Corinthians, which he accomplished
not by his own ability, but with the help of God, who made him a minister of
the New Testament, a teacher of the true religion of Christ. The New Testament
by the grace of the Holy Ghost recalls the sinner from the death of sin,
reconciles him to God, and thus enlivens and makes him pleasing to God; whereas
the letter of the Old Law, which contains more eternal ceremonies and fewer
commandments, changes not the man, but rather destroys him, that is, threatens
with death the transgressor of the law instead of freeing him from sin and
reconciling him to God, thus permitting him to die the eternal death. St. Paul
preached the true religion of Christ, which vivifies, justifies, and sanctifies
man. If the ministry of Moses was so glorified by God, that his countenance
shone, when he returned from Mount Sinai, where God gave him the law, how much
more dignified and glorious must be the ministry of the New Law. Learn from
this to esteem the office of preaching, and be humble like St. Paul, who
trusted not in himself but in God, to whom he ascribed all honor.
GRADUAL:
Ps. 33. I will bless the Lord at all times; His
praise shall be always in my mouth. Of
the Lord shall my soul speak praise: let the meek hear and rejoice.
Alleluia, alleluia. Ps. 87. O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried
in the day and in the night before Thee.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL: Luke
10, 23-37.
At that time, Jesus said to his
disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to
you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see,
and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not
heard them. And behold a certain lawyer stood up, tempting him, and saying:
Master, what must I do to possess eternal life? But he said to him: What is
written in the law? how readest thou? He answering,
said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole
heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said to him: Thou hast answered
rightly: this do, and thou shalt live. But he,
willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbor? And Jesus
answering, said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell
among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him, went away;
leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same
way, and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near
the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan, being on his
journey, came near him: and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up
to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and setting him upon his
own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him: and the next day he took
out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him, and
whatsoever, thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my
return, will repay thee. Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to
him that fell among robbers? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And
Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner.
Why does Christ call His
disciples blessed?
Because they had the happiness which
so many patriarchs and prophets had desired in vain, namely: of seeing Him and
hearing His teaching. Though we have not the happiness to see Jesus and hear
Him, nevertheless we are not less blessed than the apostles, since Christ
pronounces those blessed who do not see and yet believe (John 20, 29).
What, besides faith, is necessary
for salvation?
That we love God and our neighbor,
for in these two commandments consists the whole law (Matt. 22, 40).
Who is our neighbor?
Every man, be he an acquaintance or
a stranger, poor or rich, of our faith or of another; for the Samaritan did not
ask the one who had fallen among robbers: Who and whence are you? but
considered him his neighbor, and proved himself as such by his prompt
assistance.
How should we love our neighbor?
As we love ourselves, that is, we
should wish him everything good, and when in necessity do to him as we would
wish others to do to us, and, on the contrary, not wish nor do to him anything
that we do not wish to be done to ourselves. In this way the Samaritan loved
his neighbor, and in this he was far superior to the priest and the Levite.
How can we especially practice
love for our neighbor?
By the spiritual and corporal works
of mercy. [See instruction for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.] Besides
which we must rejoice at the spiritual and corporal graces of our neighbor,
which God communicates to him; we must grieve for his misfortunes, and,
according to the example of St. Paul (I Cor. 1, 4), have compassion for him; we
must bear with the faults of our neighbor, as St. Paul again admonishes us:
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ (Gal.
6, 2).
Why should we love our neighbor?
We should love him because God
commands it; but there are also other reasons which should induce us to do so.
We are not only according to nature brothers and sisters in Adam, but also
according to grace, in Christ, and we would have to be ashamed before animals,
if we would allow ourselves to be surpassed in the love which they bear one to
another (Ecclus. 13, 19); all our neighbors are the
image and likeness of God, bought by the blood of Jesus, and are adopted
children, called to heaven, as we are; the example of Christ, who loved us,
when we were yet His enemies (Rom. 5, 10), and gave Himself for us unto death,
ought to incite us to love them. But can we be His disciples, if we do not
follow Him, and if we do not bear in us the mark of His disciples, i. e. the love of our neighbor (John 13, 35)? Finally, the
necessity of the love for our neighbor ought to compel us, as it were, to it;
for without it, we cannot be saved. He that loveth
not, says St. John, abideth in death (I John 3, 14),
and he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth
not (I John 4, 20)? because he transgresses one of the greatest commandments of
God, and does not fulfil the law (Rom. 13, 10).
What is necessary to make the
love of our neighbor meritorious?
It must tend to God, that is, we
must love our neighbor only in and for God, because God commands it, and it is
pleasing to Him. For to love our neighbor on account of a natural inclination,
or self-interest, or some other still less honorable reason, is only a natural,
animal love, in no wise different from the love of the heathens; for the
heathens also love and salute those who love and salute them in turn (Matt. 5,
46).
PETITION O my God, Father of mercy! give me a loving
and compassionate heart, which will continually impel me to do good to my
neighbor for Thy sake, so that I may merit the same from Thy mercy.
What is understood from this
day's gospel in a higher and more spiritual sense?
According to the interpretation of
the Fathers, our father Adam, and hence the whole human race is to be
understood by the one who had fallen among robbers. The human race, which
through the disobedience of Adam fell into the power of Satan and his angels,
was robbed of original justice and the grace of God, and moreover, was wounded
and weakened in all the powers of the soul by evil concupiscence. The priest
and The Levite who represent the Old Law, would not and could not repair this
misfortune; but Christ, the true Samaritan, embraced the interests of the
wounded man, inasmuch as He poured the oil of His grace, and the wine of His
blood into the wounds of man's soul, and thus healed him, and inasmuch as He
led him by baptism into the inn of His Church, and there entrusted him to His
priests for further care and nursing. Thank Christ, the good Samaritan, for
this great love and care for you, and endeavor to make good use of His
blessings by your cooperation.
OFFERTORY:
Exod. 32. Moses prayed in the sight of the Lord his
God, and said, Why, O Lord, is Thy indignation enkindled against Thy
people? Let the anger of Thy mind cease:
remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom Thou didst swear to give a land
flowing with milk and honey. And the
Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken of doing against His
people.
SECRET:
Mercifully
regard, we pray, O Lord, our offerings which we lay on Thy holy altar; may they
win for us pardon, and do honor to Thy name. Through our Lord, etc.
In
memory of Thy Saints, O Lord, we offer Thee the sacrifice of praise, by which
we trust to be freed from both present and future evils. Through our Lord, etc.
COMMUNION:
Ps. 103. The earth will be filled with the fruit
of Thy works, O Lord, that Thou mayest bring bread
out of the earth, and that wine may cheer the heart of man; that he may make
the face cheerful with oil; and that bread may strengthen man’s heart.
POSTCOMMUNION:
May the holy partaking of this mystery, O Lord, we
pray, put life into us, and be on our behalf at once an atonement and a
defense. Through our Lord, etc.
We who are refreshed by heavenly meat and
drink, humbly entreat Thee, O our God, that we may be defended by the prayers
of him in whose memory we have received them. Through our Lord, etc.
Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor
to him that fell among robbers? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And
Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner.
PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 31st:
Date Day
Feast
Rank Color F/A Mass Time
|
31
|
Sun
|
12th Sunday 12th Sunday after
Pentecost
St. Raymond Nonnatus,
C
|
sd
|
G
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM & Noon,
Confessions 8:00 AM, Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM
|
|
1
|
Mon
|
St. Giles, Ab
Twelve Holy Brothers, Mm
|
sp
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:00 AM
|
|
2
|
Tue
|
St. Stephen, King of Hungary, C
|
sd
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:00 AM
|
|
3
|
Wed
|
St. Pius X, PC
BVM-Divine Mother of Pastors
|
d
|
W
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:00 AM
|
|
4
|
Thu
|
Ferial Day
St. Rose of Viterbo,
V
|
|
G
|
|
Mass 8:30 AM; Rosary of
Reparation 8:00 AM
|
|
5
|
Fri
|
St. Lawrence Justinian, BpC
FIRST FRIDAY
|
sd
|
W
|
A
|
Mass 8:30 AM, Rosary of
Reparation 8:00 AM; Benediction & Holy Hour of Reparation after Mass
|
|
6
|
Sat
|
Our Lady's Saturday
FIRST SATURDAY
|
d
|
W
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM;
Confessions 8:00 AM; Benediction & Holy Hour of Reparation with Rosary
after Mass
|
|
7
|
Sun
|
13th Sunday after Pentecost
|
sd
|
G
|
|
Mass 9:00 AM & Noon,
Confessions 8:00 AM, Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM
|
The Holy Spirit has not been promised to the
successors of Peter that, under His revelation, they might make known a new
doctrine, but in order that, with His assistance, they sacredly preserve and faithfully
set forth the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is to say, the
deposit of the faith.
Pastor aeternus, Vatican I
When Zaccheus thought only of usury and oppressing the poor,
when Magdalen filled Jerusalem with scandal, when
Paul cursed and persecuted the Christian religion, who would have imagined that
they would ever have become Saints? And on the other hand, who would have
believed that Solomon, the oracle of Divine wisdom, would die in the midst of
wantonness and idols? That Judas, one of the Apostles, would betray his Divine
Master and then give himself up to despair? Or that many holy men advanced in
sanctity would have become apostates? These are examples which should make us
tremble when we reflect upon the unfathomable mystery of the judgment and mercy
of God: "One He putteth down, and another He lifteth up" (Ps. 74, 8). "He hath put down the
mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble" (Luke 1, 52).
Fr. Cajetan Mary da
Bergamo, Humility of Heart
“Now I know that true
charity consists in bearing all my neighbors’ defects, in not being surprised
at mistakes, but in being edified at the smallest virtues.”
St. Therese of the Child
Jesus and the Holy Face, shortly before her death
They knew only too well the intimate bond which unites faith with
worship, ‘the law of belief with the law of prayer,’ and so, under the pretext
of restoring it to its primitive form, they corrupted the order of the liturgy
in many respects to adapt it to the errors of the Innovators.
Pope Leo XIII, Apostolicae Curae, September 13, 1896
St. Raymond Nonnatus, so named from being untimely delivered after the
death of his mother, begged God’s holy Mother to adopt him for her son and
deign to teach him the way of salvation and the science of the saints. The Blessed Virgin directed him to join the
new Order of Ransom, or Order of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives…He was
sent to Africa to redeem them, and freed many from slavery. But when he had exhausted his money, rather
than abandon others who were in danger of losing their faith, he gave himself
up to the barbarians as a pledge for their ransom. For his preaching he was cruelly imprisoned
and his lips fastened together with an iron padlock which he endured for a long
time.
St. Raymond Nonnatus, The Liturgical Year
Saint Raymond Nonnatus was born in Catalonia, Spain, in the year
1204. Motherless from infancy, in his childhood he seemed to find pleasure only
in his devotions and serious duties. He chose the Blessed Virgin for his mother,
almost as soon as the light of reason made this choice available to him. His
father, perceiving in him an inclination to the religious state and unwilling
to give up his son, took him from school and sent him to take care of a farm
which he owned in the country. Raymund readily
obeyed, and, in order to enjoy holy solitude, kept the sheep himself and spent
his time in the mountains and forests in holy meditation and prayer. He found
there an ancient hermitage containing a portrait of his Blessed Mother, and
made this his asylum. There the devil found him and, assuming the disguise of a
shepherd, attempted to turn him away from his devotions; but Raymund turned his back on his visitor and called Mary to
his assistance. The sole name of the Mother of God caused the demon to
disappear, and the hermit prostrated himself and blessed Her for Her
assistance.
Some time afterward, he joined
the new Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of captives, and was
admitted to profession at Barcelona by the holy founder, Saint Peter Nolasco. Within two or three years after his profession, he
was sent into Barbary with a considerable sum of money; in Algiers he purchased
the liberty of a great number of slaves. When all his treasure was exhausted,
he gave himself up as a hostage for the ransom of others, according to the Rule
of his Order. This magnanimous sacrifice served only to exasperate the Moslems,
who treated him with uncommon barbarity, until they began to fear that if he
died in their hands, they would lose the ransom which had been asked for his
deliverance. A crier announced in the streets that anyone who mistreated him
would answer for it, if he died.
Therefore he was permitted to
go abroad in the streets, which liberty he utilized to comfort and encourage the
Christians in chains, and to convert and baptize certain Moslems. Learning of
this, their pasha, furious, condemned him to be impaled, but his barbarous
sentence was commuted at the insistence of those who had an interest in the
ransom payments for the slaves he was replacing. He underwent instead a cruel
bastinade, but that torment did not daunt his courage. So long as he saw souls
in danger of perishing eternally, he thought he had yet done nothing.
Saint Raymund
had no more money to employ in releasing poor captives; and to converse with
those of the local beliefs on the subject of religion meant death. He enjoyed
sufficient liberty nonetheless to continue the same endeavors, and he did so,
hoping either for success or martyrdom. The governor, enraged, ordered our
Saint to have his lips pierced and padlocked, then to be imprisoned until his
ransom would be brought by members of his Order. He remained in jail for eight
months before his brethren arrived with the required sum, sent by Saint Peter Nolasco. Upon his
return to Spain, he was nominated Cardinal by Pope Gregory IX, and the Pope
called him to Rome. The Saint was on his way, but had gone no farther than
Cardona when he was seized with a violent fever. He died on August 31, 1240, in
his thirty-seventh year. His face in death became beautiful and radiant like
that of Moses when he descended from the mountaintop, where he had spoken with
God. A heavenly fragrance surrounded his body, and cures were effected on
behalf of those who came and touched him.
ON THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION
He bound up his wounds
pouring in oil and wine (Luke 10, 34).
The conduct of the Samaritan in regard
to the wounded man may be viewed as a figure of the holy Sacrament of Extreme
Unction, in which Christ, the true Samaritan, by means of the holy oil and the
prayer of the priest, His representative, dispenses His grace to the sick for
the welfare of the soul and often of the body, provided the sick place no
obstacle in His way.
Is Extreme Unction a Sacrament?
Yes; because it was instituted by
Christ, and by it grace is conveyed to the sick through an outward sign.
Did Christ institute this
Sacrament?
He did, for He sent His disciples to
anoint the sick with oil and heal them, as the Evangelist writes: Going forth
they preached that men should do penance: and they cast out many devils, and
anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them (Mark 6, 12-13). We must
believe that this unction was not invented by the apostles, but ordained by the
Lord. This is confirmed by the Council of Trent, which says: (Sess. XIV. C. I)
“This sacred Unction of the sick was instituted by Christ our Lord, as
indicated by St. Mark, but recommended to the faithful and promulgated by the
Apostle St. James, a relative of our Lord.” “Is any man,” he says, “sick among
you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall
save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they
shall be forgiven (James 5, 14-15). St. James could not have said this, if he
had not known the institution and command of Christ: to it apostolic and
uninterrupted tradition also gives testimony.
What is the external sign of this
Sacrament?
The anointing with holy oil, which is
blessed by the bishop on Holy Thursday, and the prayer of the priest.
What graces does this Sacrament
produce in the sick man?
The Catechism of the Council of Trent
enumerates the following: first, it remits sins, especially venial sins. Its
primary object is not to remit mortal sin. For this the Sacrament of penance
was instituted, as was that of baptism for the remission of original sin;
secondly, it removes the languor and infirmity entailed by sin, with all other
inconveniences. The time most seasonable for the application of this cure is,
when we are visited by some severe malady, which threatens to prove fatal; for
nature dreads no earthly visitation so much as death; and this dread is
considerably augmented by the recollection of our past sins, particularly if
the mind is harrowed by the poignant reproaches of conscience; for it is
written: “They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their
iniquities shall stand against them to convict them.” A source of alarm still
more distressing is the awful reflection, that, in a few moments, we shall
stand before the judgment-seat of God, whose justice will award that sentence,
which our lives have deserved. The terror inspired by these considerations
frequently agitates the soul with the most awful apprehensions; and to calm
this terror nothing can be so efficacious as the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.
It quiets our fear, illumines the gloom in which the soul is enveloped, fills
it with pious and holy joy, and enables us to await with cheerfulness the
coming of the Lord; thirdly, it fortifies us against the violent assaults of
Satan. The enemy of mankind never ceases to seek our ruin: and if it be
possible to deprive us of all hope of mercy, he more than ever increases his
efforts, when he sees us approach our last end. This Sacrament, therefore,
enables the recipient to fight resolutely and successfully against him;
fourthly, it effects the recovery of health, if advantageous to the sick
person.
What intentions must the sick man
have, in order to gain these graces?
Since the Sacraments work the more
powerfully the better the preparation made by those who receive them, and since
by this Sacrament those sins are remitted which we have forgotten, or have not
sufficiently known, the sick man should, therefore, receive beforehand, if it
be possible, the holy Sacrament of Penance and the blessed Eucharist; or if
this cannot be done, he should make an act of perfect contrition, and have the
wish to confess if possible. He should, therefore, not defer the reception of
this Sacrament to the last moment, when the violence of sickness has already
taken away the use of his reason and senses, but he should ask for this
Sacrament whilst yet enjoying the use of reason, so that he may receive it with
devotion and salutary result.
Is this Sacrament necessary for
salvation?
No; yet we should not neglect in case
of sickness to partake of the excellent fruits of this Sacrament since the
Council of Trent teaches: “To despise so great a Sacrament would indeed be a
great sin, an insult to the Holy Ghost” (Sess. XIV. C. 3).
Can we receive this Sacrament more
than once?
We can receive it as often as we are
in danger of death by sickness; but we must bear in mind that we can be
anointed only once in the same sickness.
Why is this Sacrament called
Extreme Unction?
Because among all the Sacraments which
our Lord and Saviour ordained in His Church, this one
is the last we are to receive. But from this it does not follow, as so many
believe that one who receives this Sacrament must die soon, but it will rather
become a means of salvation for their souls, and if it be for their eternal
welfare, will also restore their bodily health.
What does the priest do when he
enters the house of the sick person?
He wishes peace to the house, and
prays that God may send His angels to protect its inmates, that He may drive
away the enemy, console the sick, strengthen and give him health.
Why does the priest sprinkle the
sick person with holy water?
To remind him that he should implore
of God the forgiveness of his sins, with tears of contrition, in order to
dispel the influence of the evil spirit.
Why does the priest exhort those
present to pray while he administers the Sacrament?
That God may grant through their
prayers whatever may contribute to the welfare of the sick man’s body and soul.
For what does the priest pray when
he imposes his hands on the head of the sick person?
He begs that God, through the
imposition of hands and by the intercession of all the saints, may take the
sick person under His protection, and destroy the power of the devil, who
attacks one particularly in the hour of death.
What does the priest say at the
anointing with oil?
He begs that God, through this unction
and through His gracious mercy, may forgive the sick of the sins which he has
committed with his five senses. At the same time the sick person should, in a
spirit of humility and with a repentant and contrite heart, implore of God the
forgiveness of all his sins.
Why does the priest present the
sick person a crucifix to kiss?
To remind him that, like Jesus, he
should suffer with patience, and place his whole confidence in the infinite
merits of the Crucified, and be willing to suffer and die for love of Him. For
this reason the crucifix ought to be presented often to the dying person.
What should the sick person do
after he has received the Sacrament of Extreme Unction?
He should use all his remaining
strength to thank God sincerely for the benefit he has received, commend himself
to the wounds and the blood of Jesus, and meditate with quiet recollection on
death and eternity.
How consoling does our holy Catholic
Church appear in the continual use of this Sacrament! Having, like a tender
mother, received man by holy Baptism under her maternal care; by holy
Confirmation given him the necessary weapons against sin, heresy, and
infidelity; by the holy Sacrament of Penance purified him from stains and sins;
and by the blessed Eucharist nourished him with the bread of life, enriched him
with virtues, and secured him against falling, she does not desert him even in
the last, all-important moment of death. In that dangerous hour when the dying
person, forsaken by all, often by his most intimate friends, or looked upon
with fear, lies on his bed of pain, when behind him time ceases and before him
a certain, though unknown eternity opens itself, when Satan brings all his
resources into play, in order to ruin his soul, and the thought of the coming
judgment makes the heart tremble, - in this terrible hour the faithful mother,
the Catholic Church, does not abandon him; she sends the priest, her servant,
like a consoling angel to his couch, to encourage the sufferer and strengthen
the fearful with the divine word, to cleanse the sinner and reconcile him with
God by the Sacrament of Penance, to fortify the weak and nourish him with the
bread of life, to strengthen the combatant with the holy oil, thus providing
him with all the means of grace which Jesus obtained for His Church, to conduct
his soul before the face of the eternal Judge, there to find grace and mercy.
Considering this, dear Christian,
should you not feel happy to be a member of this Church, should you not thank
God continually, and adhere faithfully to a Church, in which it is indeed not
so pleasant to live, as in the bosom of irreligion, but in which it is good to
die!
O Lord, the surest sign
of my love for You is the degree of perfection with which I keep the
commandment of charity toward my neighbor… If on my side I use my best endeavors
and strive after this love in every way I can, doing violence to my own will so
that the will of others may be done in everything, even foregoing my own
rights; if I forget my own good in my concern for theirs, however much my
nature may rebel; if I try to shoulder some trial, should the opportunity
present itself, in order to relieve my neighbor of it, You certainly will give
me even more than I can desire. But I
must not suppose that it will cost me nothing.
Besides, Lord, did not the love You had for us cost You, too? To redeem us from death, You died such a
grievous death as the death of the Cross.
St. Teresa of Avila
THE GOOD SAMARITAN TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
PRESENCE
OF GOD ‑
O Lord, impress upon my heart Your commandment of charity and the example You gave
of it.
MEDITATION:
I. “A certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having
wounded him, went away, leaving him half dead” (Lk 10,
23‑37). That unfortunate man represents each one of us. We too have
encountered robbers on our way. The world, the devil, and our passions have
stripped and wounded us. Who can say that he does not have in his own soul some
wound, more or less deep, left by temptation or sin? But, on our route, there
was also a good Samaritan, rather the Good Samaritan par excellence, Jesus,
who, moved by compassion for our state, brought us help. With infinite love He
bent over our open wounds, curing them with the oil and wine of His grace. The
oil represents its gentleness and the wine its vigor. Then He took us in His
arms and brought us to a safe place, that is, He entrusted us to the maternal
care of the Church, to which He has consigned the price of our ransom, the
fruit of His death on the Cross.
The
parable of the good Samaritan thus delineates the story of our redemption, a
story which is ever in action and which is renewed every time we draw near to
Jesus, humbly and regretfully showing Him the wounds of our souls. It is
actuated in a very special way in the Mass, where Jesus presents to the Father
the price of our salvation, and renews His immolation for our benefit. We
should go to Mass in order to meet Him, the Good Samaritan, to invoke and receive
His sanctifying action. The more we recognize our own misery and our need of
redemption, the more will Jesus apply the fruits of redemption to us. When He
comes to us in Holy Communion, He will heal our wounds, not only our exterior
wounds, but our interior ones also, abundantly pouring into them the sweet oil
and strengthening wine of His grace.
This
is how Jesus treats us, this is how He has treated mankind, which, by sin, had
become a stranger, yes, an enemy to Him and even rejected Him, the Son of God!
2. Jesus, who by His redemptive
work, had given us the highest example of a most merciful and compassionate
charity, could fittingly conclude the parable of the good Samaritan with these
words: “Go, and do thou in like manner”; and He might have added, as He did to
His Apostles on the evening of the Last Supper: “For I have given you an
example, that as I have done to you, so you do also” (Jn
13, 15).
To
the scribes and Pharisees, the word neighbors meant friends, or at most,
the Israelites, but never the pagans or the Samaritans. However, the Savior
went beyond this narrow interpretation and suggested an act of charity to an
enemy as a concrete example of the charity which was commanded by the law. The
good Samaritan brought help to a poor Jew who had been left unaided and
abandoned by a priest and a levite, his own fellow
countrymen; he did not take into account the hatred the Jews had for his
people. This universal charity is to be the distinctive mark of the new
religion established by Christ. St. James wrote: “Religion clean and undefiled
before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation”
(1, 27). There is no true religion without charity toward our neighbor,
and above all toward a suffering neighbor. The scribes and Pharisees, and even
their priests, who had reduced religion to mere exterior formalism while
neglecting the duties of charity with such unconcern, found themselves
condemned by the parable of the good Samaritan. Unfortunately, even among
Christians, there are found devout persons who are scrupulous about omitting a
single exercise of piety but have no hesitation about abandoning those who
suffer; they have not grasped the real inner meaning of religion, but have
stopped at the exterior practices. Religion gives us an intense realization of
our relationship with God: He is our Father and we are His children; but if we
are all children of the same Father, how is it that we do not consider
ourselves brothers? True piety consists in the realization of our divine sonship and of our brotherhood with all men, without
exception. And he who truly feels himself a brother will never be heedless of
the needs and sufferings of others.
COLLOQUY:
“O
Lord, the more I understand the love You have for us, the more shall I be
willing to put aside my own pleasure and profit in order to please You by
serving my neighbor.
“Then
I shall not consider at all what I may lose: I shall have my neighbor’s good in
mind and nothing else. In order to give You greater pleasure, my God, help me
to forget myself for others, and if need be, even give up my life as did many
martyrs” (T.J. Con, 7).
“O
charity, you are the sweet, holy bond uniting the soul to its Creator: you
unite God to man and man to God. You kept the Son of God nailed to the wood of
the holy Cross. You unite those whom discord keeps apart. You enrich with
virtue those who are poor, because you give life to all the virtues. You bring
peace and suppress hatred and war. You give patience, strength and perseverance
in return for every good and holy work. You are never weary, you never turn
aside from the love of God and neighbor, either because of weariness, pain,
contempt, or insult.
“O
Christ, sweet Jesus, give me this holy charity, that I may persevere in doing
good and never give it up; for he who possesses charity is founded on You, the
living rock, and by following Your example, he learns from You how to love His
Creator and his neighbor. In You, O Christ, I read the rule and doctrine which are
right for me, for You are the way, the truth, and the life. If I read You, I
shall follow the right path and shall occupy myself solely with the honor of
God and the salvation of souls” (St. Catherine of Siena).
He who does not keep the true Catholic faith
whole and without error will undoubtedly be lost. He who is separated from the Catholic Church
will not have life. Pope Gregory XVI, Perlatum Ad Nos
That the Mystical Body of Christ and the
Catholic Church in communion with Rome are one and the same thing is a
doctrine based on Revealed Truth.
That we must necessarily belong to the true Church if we are to attain
everlasting salvation is a statement which some people reduce to meaningless
formula. Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis
Nature
of DOGMA - “A genuine
supernatural message or communication from the living God Himself” -
and
its Denial by Modernists
Thus, We have reached one of the principal
points in the Modernists’ system, namely the origin and the nature of dogma. For
they place the origin of dogma in those primitive and simple formulae, which,
under a certain aspect, are necessary to faith; for revelation, to be truly
such, requires the clear manifestation of God in the consciousness. But dogma
itself they apparently hold, is contained in the secondary formulae.
To ascertain the nature of dogma (for the modernist), we must
first find the relation which exists between the religious formulas and the
religious sentiment. This will be readily perceived by him who realises that these formulas have no other purpose than to
furnish the believer with a means of giving an account of his faith to himself.
These formulas (for the modernist) therefore stand midway between the believer
and his faith; in their relation to the faith, they are the inadequate
expression of its object, and are usually called symbols; in their
relation to the believer, they are mere instruments.
Hence it is quite impossible (for the modernist) to maintain that
they express absolute truth: for, in so far as they are symbols, they are the
images of truth, and so must be adapted to the religious sentiment in its
relation to man; and as instruments, they are the vehicles of truth, and must
therefore in their turn be adapted to man in his relation to the religious
sentiment. But the object of the religious sentiment, since it embraces
that absolute, possesses an infinite variety of aspects of which now one, now
another, may present itself. In like manner, he who believes may pass through
different phases. Consequently, the formulae too, which we call dogmas, must be
subject to these vicissitudes, and are, therefore, liable to change. Thus the
way is open to the intrinsic evolution of dogma. An immense collection of
sophisms this, that ruins and destroys all religion. Dogma is not only able,
but ought to evolve and to be changed.
St.Pius X, Pascendi
If the teaching
proposed by the Church as dogma is not actually and really the doctrine
supernaturally revealed by God through Jesus Christ Our Lord, [........] then
there could be nothing more pitifully inane than the work of the Catholic Magisterium. [........] This common basis of
the false doctrinal Americanism and of the Modernist heresy is, like doctrinal
indifferentism itself, ultimately a rejection of Catholic dogma as a genuine
supernatural message or communication from the living God Himself. It would
seem impossible for anyone to be blasphemous or silly enough to be convinced,
on the one hand, that the dogmatic message of the Catholic Church is actually a
locutio Dei ad homines,
and to imagine, on the other hand, that he, a mere creature, could in some way
improve that teaching or make it more respectable. The very fact that a man
would be so rash as to attempt to bring the dogma of the Church up to date, or
to make it more acceptable to those who are not privileged to be members of the
true Church, indicates that this individual is not actually and profoundly
convinced that this dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church is a supernatural
communication from the living and Triune God, the Lord and Creator of heaven
and earth. It would be the height of blasphemy knowingly to set out to improve
or to bring up to date what one would seriously consider a genuine message from
the First Cause of the universe.
Fr. Joseph C. Fenton, AER, The Sacrorum Antistitum
and the Background of the Oath Against Modernism
The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity
Why does it require new theological terms to explain
that there is not a new theology?;
or does the question imply just another “highly
reductive ideological view”?
Rev. Guido Marini, Pope
Benedict’s Master of Ceremonies revealed that Pope Benedict is looking to a “mutual enrichment between the two forms
of the Roman rite.”
Marini also confirmed that the practice of giving out the Novus Ordo communion in the hand would remain, as the national
bishops’ conferences have asked for it. Marini said that there is no difference in the traditional Church
before Vatican II (1962-1965) and after. He stated: “Terms like ‘preconciliar’ and ‘postconciliar,’
it seems to me, belong to an outdated language, and if they are used with the
intention of indicating a discontinuity in the Church’s journey, I maintain
that they are mistaken and typical of highly reductive ideological views.”
Marini said, “In this regard it is
necessary not to forget that the (postconciliar?)
distribution of Communion in the hand remains, even now, from the juridical standpoint, an indult from the universal law, conceded by
the Holy See to those bishops conferences which requested it. The method
adopted by Benedict XVI tends to underscore the force
of the norm valid for the whole Church. In addition, one could perhaps also
note a
preference for using this (precounciliar?) method of
distribution which, without taking anything from the other,
better sheds light on the truth of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, it
helps the devotion of the faithful, introduces them more easily to a sense of
mystery. The aspect, which in our time, speaking pastorally, is urgent to
highlight and recover.”
Msgr. Guido
Marini, Master of Pontifical Ceremonies for Benedict XVI, L’Osservatore
Romano
“Only non-dogmatic truths
can be ranked in order of importance. All Catholic dogmas rank equally, because
to deny just one is to deny God’s authority which is behind them all.”
Bishop Richard Williamson
For who
can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age,
suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day
and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction?
You understand, Venerable Brethren,
what this disease is—apostasy from God, than which in truth nothing is more
allied with ruin, according to the word of the Prophet: “For behold they that
go far from Thee shall perish” (Ps. 72, 17). We saw therefore that, in virtue
of the ministry of the Pontificate, which was to be entrusted to Us, We must
hasten to find a remedy for this great evil, considering as addressed to Us
that Divine command: “Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations and over
kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to
build, and to plant” (Jerem. 1, 10).
…When all this is considered there is good
reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and
perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and
that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the
Apostle speaks (II Thess. 2, 3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath
employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the
faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the
Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is
the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put
himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in
such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge
of God, he has contemned God’s majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a
temple wherein he himself is to be adored. “He sitteth
in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God” (II Thess. 2, 2).
St. Pope Pius X, On
the Restoration of All Things in Christ, October 4, 1903
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity
“The Church
has adopted his philosophy for her own.”
We so heartily approve the
magnificent tribute of praise bestowed upon this most divine genius (St. Thomas
Aquinas) that We consider that Thomas should be called not only the Angelic,
but also the Common or Universal Doctor of the Church; for the Church
has adopted his philosophy for her own, as innumerable documents of every kind
attest. It would be an endless task to explain here all the reasons which moved
Our Predecessors in this respect, and it will be sufficient perhaps to point
out that Thomas wrote under the inspiration of the supernatural spirit which
animated his life and that his writings, which contain the principles of, and
the laws governing, all sacred studies, must be said to possess a universal
character……..His teaching with regard to the power or value of the human mind
is irrefragable. “The human mind has a natural knowledge of being and the
things which are in themselves part of being as such, and this knowledge is the
foundation of our knowledge of first principles” (Contra Gentes,
II, 1xxxiii). Such a doctrine goes to the root of the errors and opinions of
those modern philosophers who maintain that it is not being itself which is
perceived in the act of intellection, but some modification of the percipient;
the logical consequence of such errors is agnosticism, which was so
vigorously condemned in the Encyclical Pascendi.
Pope Piux
XI, Studiorum ducem, On St.
Thomas Aquinas, June 23, 1923
We therefore desired that all
teachers of philosophy and sacred theology should be warned that if they
deviate so much as a step, in metaphysics especially, from Aquinas, they
exposed themselves to grave risk. [……] For just as the opinion of certain
ancients is to be rejected which maintains that it makes no difference to the
truth of the Faith what any man thinks about the nature of creation, provided
his opinions on the nature of God be sound, because error with regard to the
nature of creation begets a false knowledge of God; so the principles of
philosophy laid down by St. Thomas Aquinas are to be religiously and inviolably
observed, because they are the means of acquiring such a knowledge of creation
as is most congruent with the Faith; of refuting all the errors of all the
ages, and of enabling man to distinguish clearly what things are to be
attributed to God and to God alone.
St. Pius X, Doctoris Angelici
“(His) crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too closed in on itself,
too impersonal and ready-made.”
This encounter with personalism (in the thought of Martin Buber, Jewish
Existentialist Philosopher, the Philosophy of Dialogue) was for me a spiritual
experience that left an essential mark, especially since I spontaneously
associated such personalism with the thought of St.
Augustine, who in his Confessions had struck me with the power of all of
his human passion and depth. By contrast, I had difficulty penetrating the
thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too
closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Milestones
“I seek for
nothing more; I have made the sacrifice of everything and of everyone to God;
now I prepare to die. Now it is indeed true that nothing more remains to me,
Jesus. I recommend my poor soul to Thee
… Jesus!”
St. Gemma Galgani, Last Words
Whenever there exists, or there is reason to fear, an unjust oppression
of the people on the one hand, or a deprivation of the liberty of the Church on
the other, it is lawful to seek for such a change of government as will bring
about due liberty of action. In such case, an excessive and vicious liberty is
not sought, but only some relief, for the common welfare, in order that, while license
for evil is allowed by the State, the power of doing good may not be hindered.
Pope Leo XIII, Libertas Praestantissimum,
On the Nature of True Liberty
When the Spirit of God is at work,
there is no need to go about looking for ways of inducing humility and
confusion; for the Lord Himself reveals these to us in a very different manner
from any which we can find by means of our puny reflections, which are nothing
by comparison with a true humility proceeding from the light given us in this
way by the Lord. The bestowal upon us of this knowledge by God so that we may
learn that we ourselves have nothing good is a well-known experience, and the
greater are the favors we receive from Him, the better we learn it.
St. Teresa of Jesus
Come all ye who are
drawn by the desire of unchangeable good, and who seek it in vain in this
passing world; I will tell you what heaven has done for me. Like you, I once sought with feverish
eagerness; and this exterior world could not satisfy my burning desire. But, by the divine grace, which fed my
anguish, at length she, whose name I then knew not, appeared to me, more
beautiful than the sun, sweeter than balm; how gentle was her countenance, how
peace-inspiring her voice… she told me she was called the Wisdom of God…. Her
delights endure forever, she is my well-beloved bride, my inseparable
companion…. She makes it her happiness to reject no one.
St. Lawrence
Justinian
SPECIAL FAVORS FOR THOSE DEVOTED TO THE
SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
The graces which Our Lord promises to those who are devoted to the
sorrows of His Blessed Mother are very great. St. Alphonsus,
in his discourse on the dolors of Mary, states: It
was revealed to St. Elizabeth that some years after the Blessed Virgin was
assumed into heaven, St. John, the beloved disciple, was seized with an ardent
desire to see her again. This favor was granted him. His dear Mother appeared
to him in company with our Divine Lord. Then St. John heard Mary asking of her
Son some special graces for those who were devoted to her dolors.
Our Lord promised the four following graces:
1) Those who invoke the Heavenly Mother
through her sorrows will obtain true sorrow for their sins before death.
2) Our Savior will protect them in their
tribulations, especially at the hour of death.
3) He will impress upon them the memory of His
Passion, and will reward them for it in Heaven.
4) He will commit such devout servants to the hands
of Mary, that she may dispose of them according to her pleasure, and obtain for
them all the graces she desires.
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
Devotion to the Sorrowful Mother
Besides these great graces, Father Faber enumerates others which are
obtained through devotion to Mary's sorrows:
1) This devotion has a remarkable connection
with great interior holiness.
2) It reveals the emptiness of worldly joys.
Worldliness finds no soul harder to attack than one entrenched in the sorrows
of our Blessed Lady. The world can graft itself upon nothing in this devotion.
3) It gives us a permanent share in the sorrow
for sin which Jesus and Mary felt.
4) It keeps our thoughts close to Jesus
Christ, and to Him Crucified.
5) It communicates to our souls the spirit of
the Cross, and gives us strength to endure our own sufferings with resignation
to the holy will of God.
6) This devotion is wholly covered with the
Precious Blood of Jesus and leads us directly into the depths of the Heart of
our Savior.
7) Anyone who during his lifetime has cherished
compassion for this afflicted Mother may consider this as a most assured sign
of predestination.
Una est fidelium Universalis Ecclesia,
extra quam nullus omnino salvatur.
Fourth Council of the Lateran, Canon 1
“In Freemasonary it
is allowed to kill.”
Nedeljko
Čabrinović, 1895 –1916, one of seven young men of a Masonic secret society known
as the Black Hand who conspired to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria in Sarajevo in June 1914, on October 12, 1914 at his trial for the
murders.
“For
all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens.” (Psalm
95:5)
Pope Francis the Heretic claimed that the
worship of devils is the positive will of God!
Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the
freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God
in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This
divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the
freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to
adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition
of a cultural way of life that others do not accept.
Pope Francis, Human
Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together
Pope
Francis denied the existence of Hell! He now knows better!
“They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and
enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and
cannot therefore be forgiven disappear.... There is no hell, there is the
disappearance of sinful souls.”
Pope Francis, interview with La Repubblica founder Eugenio Scalfari,
May 2018
“Let him heed what the blessed apostle Peter preaches,
that sanctification by the Spirit is effected by the sprinkling of
Christ’s blood (1 Pet. 1:2); and let him not skip over the same apostle’s
words, knowing that you have been redeemed from the empty way of life you
inherited from your fathers, not with corruptible gold and silver but by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb without stain or spot (1 Pet.
1:18). Nor should he withstand the testimony of blessed John the apostle: and the
blood of Jesus, the Son of God, purifies us from every sin (1 Jn. 1:7);
and again, This is the victory which conquers the world, our faith.
Who is there who conquers the world save one who believes that Jesus is the Son
of God? It is He, Jesus Christ, who has come through water and blood, not
in water only, but in water and blood. And because the Spirit is truth,
it is the Spirit who testifies. For there are three who give testimony –
Spirit and water and blood. And the three are one. (1 Jn. 5:4-8) IN
OTHER WORDS, THE SPIRIT OF SANCTIFICATION AND THE BLOOD OF REDEMPTION AND THE
WATER OF BAPTISM. THESE THREE ARE ONE AND REMAIN INDIVISIBLE. NONE OF
THEM IS SEPARABLE FROM ITS LINK WITH THE OTHERS.”
Pope St. Leo the Great, dogmatic letter to Flavian, Council of Chalcedon, 451
“Also the epistle of
blessed Leo the Pope to Flavian… if anyone argues
concerning the text of this one even in regard to one iota, and does not
receive it in all respects reverently, let him be anathema.”
Pope St. Gelasius, Decretal, 495
“Holy baptism, which is
the gateway to the spiritual life, holds the first place among all the
sacraments; through it we are made members of Christ and of the body of the
Church. And since death entered the universe through the first man, ‘unless we
are born again of water and the Spirit, we cannot,’ as the Truth says, ‘enter
into the kingdom of heaven’ [John 3:5]. The matter of this sacrament is real
and natural water.”
Pope Eugene IV, The
Council of Florence, Exultate Deo,
Nov. 22, 1439
John Cardinal Newman,
another Novus Ordo "saint" soon to be
declared a "Doctor" of the Novus Ordo
Church, comments following the dogmatic declaration of papal infallibility.
“But we must hope, for one is
obliged to hope it, that the Pope (Pius IX) will be driven from Rome, and will
not continue the Council (Vatican I), or that there will be another Pope. It is
sad he should force us to such wishes.”
John H. Newman, Letter to his companion, Fr.
Ambrose St. John, 22 August, 1870
“We have come to a climax of tyranny. It is
not good for a Pope to live 20 years. It is anomaly and bears no good fruit; he
becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, and does
cruel things without meaning it.”
John H. Newman, The Letters and Diaries of
John Henry Newman, v. XXVI by Charles Stephen Dessain
"This
(Divine) law, as apprehended in the minds of individual men, is called
"conscience;" and though it may suffer refraction in passing into the
intellectual medium of each, it is not therefore so affected as to lose its
character of being the Divine Law, but still has, as such, the prerogative of
commanding obedience."
John
Henry Cardinal Newman
"It seems, then, that there are extreme cases in which Conscience may
come into collision with the word of a Pope, and is to be followed in spite of
that word."
John Henry Cardinal Newman
COMMENT: Pope Gregory XVI said, "This shameful font of
indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims
that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone." Conscience is
not the Divine Law. St. Thomas says that, "Conscience is nothing else than
the application of knowledge to some action." He is referring to the
knowledge of the Law of God. The Law of God, whether the eternal law or the
positive revealed law of God, is the objective criteria by which the conscience
is obligated to use as the standard by which any judgment regarding the moral
goodness or evil of any particular act is made.
All men are obligated to obey their conscience because they are
obligated to apprehend the objective Divine Law as the proper criteria. They
are not free to invent their personal subjective criteria in determining what
is the right or the wrong thing to do.
Liberalism claims the exact opposite. It is a fundamental axiom of
liberalism that the conscience is free to establish its own moral criteria.
This has been condemned by popes Gregory XVI, PiusIX
and Pius X. John Henry Cardinal Newman can be identified as the "Spirit of
Vatican II."
Remember in your charity:
Remember the welfare of our expectant mother: Cecilia Zepeda, Victoria Dimmel, and Vanessa LoStrocco,
Philip Thees requests our
prayers for the heath of Mary Glatz and Lenny
and Agnus Messineo,
For the welfare of Aaron, a York resident in need of conversion,
Linda Boyd, for her health,
Pete Schiffbauer,
a cousin
of Monic Bandlow who is
gravely ill,
Joan R.
Barr,
the widow of F. Donald Barr who died March 7, they were married 70 years,
Lester Krol, recently injured in a MVA,
Cole
Schneider, prayers for his welfare are requested by Camilla Meiser,
JoAnn Niekrewicz, for her recovery from a recent fall and shoulder
injury,
The Drews ask prayers for
the spiritual and physical welfare of Robert
Carballo and Juan Gonzalez,
Conversion of Jack
Gentry, the nephew of Camilla Meiser,
For Sr.
Maria Junipera, who took her final vows as a
nun with the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire
April 8,
Stephen
Bryan,
the brother of a devout Catholic religious, for his spiritual welfare,
Marie
Kolinsky,
for her health and spiritual welfare is the petition of her family,
Gene Peters requests our prayers for the conversion
of Shirley Young and Carl Loy who are dying, and the
conversion of Dawn Keithley,
Rev. Leo Carley, an eighty-nine year old priest faithful to Catholic tradition, who is
seriously ill,
For the recovery of Hayden Yanchek, the grandson of
Francis Yanchek, injured in a farming accident,
Maureen Nies, for the recovery of her health is the petition of
Camilla Meiser,
Daniel Vargs, for his health is the petition of his parents,
Art Noel, for the restoration of his
health,
For the welfare of Peg Berry and her husband, Bill,
Marianne Connelly asks prayers for Chris Foley, who is gravely ill,
and the welfare of his wife, Mary
Beth,
The spiritual welfare of the Sal & Maria Messineo family is
the petition of the Drew’s,
Liz Agosta, who is seriously ill, for her spiritual and temporal
welfare,
Warren
Hoffman, a
long time member of our Mission who is in failing health,
Patrick
Boyle,
for the recovery of his health and his spiritual welfare,
For the spiritual welfare of the Drew children,
Lamonte White, requests our prayers for
his spiritual and temporal welfare,
Monica Bandlow request our
prayers for the welfare of Ray who
is recovering from a MVA, and his daughter, Sonya, and Tera Jean Kopczynski, who is in failing health, and for a
good death for Mr. Howald, Kathy
Simons, Regina Quinn, James Mulgrew, Ruth Beaucheane, John Kopczynski,
Roger & Mandy Owen
The health and spiritual welfare of Nate Schaeffer is the petition
of Gene Peters,
Peg Berry requests our prayers for her brother, William Habekost,
Louise
McCarthy, who
has suffered a stroke,
For the health and welfare of Katherine Wedel,
For the recently widowed, Maike Hickson, and her children,
For the spiritual welfare of the Carmelite nuns in Fairfield, PA,
Geralyn Zagorski, recovery of her health
and spiritual welfare and the conversion of Randal Pace is the
petition of Philip Thees,
For the grandson of
Joe & Liz Agusta,
Fr. Waters requests our
prayers for the health and spiritual welfare of Elvira Donaghy,
For the health and
conversion of Stephen Henderson,
Fr. Paul DaDamio requests our prayers for the welfare of Rob
Ward, and his sister, Debra Wagaman,
For the health and
spiritual welfare of Peggy Cummings, the neice
of Camila Meiser, who is
gravely ill,
Kaitlyn McDonald, for the recovery of her
health and spiritual welfare,
Roco Sbardella, for his health and spiritual welfare,
Mufide Rende
requests our prayers for the spiritual and physical welfare of the Rende Family,
The Vargas’ request our prayers for the spiritual
welfare of their son, Nicholas,
Family, for the welfare of Lazarus Handley, his mother, Julia, and his brother, Raphael, with Down’s Syndrome,
Fr. Waters requests prayers for the spiritual and
physical welfare of Frank McKee,
Nancy Bennett, for the recovery of her health,
For the spiritual welfare of Mark Roberts, a Catholic faithful to tradition,
Joe Sentmanet request
prayers for Scott Nettles
(who is in need of conversion), who is gravely ill,
Michael Brigg requests our prayers for the health of John Romeo,
The health and welfare of Gene Peters,
Conversion of Anton
Schwartzmueller, is the paryer
request of his children,
Stacy Fernandez requests are prayers for the heath of
Terry Patterson, Steven Becerra, and
Roberto Valez,
Christine Kozin, for her health and spiritual welfare,
Teresa Gonyea, for her conversion and health, is the petition of
her grandmother, Patricia McLaughlin,
Nolan Moran, a three year old diagnosed
with brain tumor, and his family,
For the health of Sonya Kolinsky,
Jackie Dougherty asks our prayers for her brother who
is gravely ill, John Lee,
Rose Bradley asks our prayers for the health and
spiritual welfare of her granddaughter, Meg
Bradley,
Timothy
& Crisara, a couple from Maryland have requested our
prayers for their spiritual welfare,
Celine Pilegaard, the seven year old daughter of Cynthia Pilegaard, for her recovery from burn injuries,
Rafaela de Saravia, for her health and welfare,
Mary Mufide, requests our
prayers for her family,
Abbe Damien Dutertre, traditional Catholic priest arrested by Montreal
police while offering Mass,
Francis
(Frank) X. McLaughlin, for the recovery of his
health,
Nicholas
Pell,
for his health and spiritual welfare is the petition of Camilla Meizer,
Mary Kaye Petr, her health and welfare is petitioned by Camilla Meizer,
The welfare of Excellency Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò,
The welfare of Rev.
Fr. Martin Skierka, who produces the
traditional Ordo in the U.S.,
For the health and welfare of Katie Wess, John Gentry, Vincent Bands,
Todd Chairs, Susan Healy and James O’Gentry
is the petition of Camilia,
Marieann Reuter, recovery
of her health, Kathy Kepner, for her health, Shane Cox, for his health, requests of Philip Thees,
Thomas A.
Nelson,
long time faithful traditional Catholic the founder and former owner of TAN
Books & Publishing, suffered a recent stroke,
The Joseph
Cox Family, their spiritual welfare,
The Thomas Dube Family, for their conversion and spiritual
welfare,
Luis Rafael Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, spiritual welfare,
For the health of Kim Cochran, the daughter-in-law of Joseph and Brenda
Cochran, the wife of their son Joshua,
Louie Verrecchio, Catholic apologist, who has a health problem,
John Minidis, Jr. family, for help in their spiritual
trial,
Joann DeMarco, for her health and spiritual
welfare,
Regina (Manidis) Miller, her spiritual welfare and health,
Melissa
Elena Levitt, her conversion, and welfare of her children,
For the grace of a holy death, Nancy Marie Claycomb,
The health and spiritual welfare of Tom Grow, Amanda Gardner, and Alex
Estrada,
Conversion of Annette
Murowski,
and her son Jimmy,
Brent Keith from Indiana has petitioned our prayers
for the Keith Family,
The welfare of the Schmedes Family, and the Mike and Mariana Donohue Family,
The spiritual welfare Robert Holmes Family,
For the spiritual and temporal welfare of Irwin Kwiat,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for Elvira Donaghy,
Kimberly Ann, the daughter of John and
Joann DeMarco, for her health and spiritual welfare,
Mufide Rende, a traditional Catholic from India has asked our
prayers for her welfare and he family members, living and deceased,
Mary Glatz, her health and the welfare of her family,
Barbara
Harmon,
who is ill, and still cares for her
ailing parents,
Jason Green, a father of ten children,
recovery of his health,
For the health and welfare of Sorace family,
Fr. Waters asks our prayers for the health and
spiritual welfare of Brian Abramowitz,
Thomas Schiltz family, in grateful appreciation for their contribution to
the beauty of our chapel,
Welfare of Bishop
Richard Williamson, for strength and courage in the greater battles to
come,
John Rhoad, for his health and spiritual welfare,
Kathy Boyle, requests our prayers for
her welfare,
Joyce Laughman and Robert Twist, for their conversions,
Michael J.
Brigg & his family, who have helped with the needs of the Mission,
Nancy Deegan, her welfare and conversion to the Catholic Church,
Francis Paul
Diaz,
who was baptized at Ss. Peter & Paul, asks our prayers for his spiritual
welfare,
The conversion of Rene McFarland, Lori Kerr, Cary Shipman
and family, David Bash, Crystal and family, Larry Reinhart, Costanzo
Family, Kathy Scullen, Marilyn Bryant, Vicki Trahern and Time Roe are the petitions of
Gene Peters,
For the conversion of Ben & Tina Boettcher family, Karin Fraessdorf,
Eckhard Ebert, and Fahnauer
family,
Fr. Waters requests our prayers for Br. Rene, SSPX who has been ill,
and for Fr. Thomas Blute,
For the health and conversion of Kathryn Lederhos, the aunt of
David Drew,
For the welfare of Fr. Paul DaDamio and Fr. William T. Welsh,
The Drew’s ask our prayers for the welfare of Joe & Tracey Sentmanat
family, Keith & Robert Drew, Christy Koziol &
her children, Fred Nesbit and Michael Nesbit families, and Gene Peters Family, the John Manidis
Family, the Sal Messinio Family, Michael Proctor Family,
Ryan Boyle grandmother, Jane Boyle, who is failing health,
Mel Gibson
and his family, please remember in our prayers,
Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins requested our prayers for the
welfare of his Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,
Ebert’s request our prayers for the Andreas & Jenna Ortner
Family,
Joyce Paglia has asked
prayers for George Richard Moore Sr.
& his children, and her brother, George Panell,
Philip Thees asks our
prayers for his family, for McLaughlin
Family, the welfare of Dan
& Polly Weand, the conversion of Sophia Herman, Tony Rosky,
the welfare Nancy Erdeck,
the wife of the late Deacon Erdeck, John
Calasanctis, Tony
Rosky, James Parvenski,
Kathleen Gorry,
health of mind and body of Cathy
Farrar.
Pray for the
Repose of the Souls:
Thomas A.
Nelson, founder of TAN Books and
Publishers, died August 16,
Sal Messineo, a faithful traditional
Catholic, died Augsut 14,
Patricia Askew, a friend of Camilla Meiser, died July 3,
Joseph Kerney,
a young
man whose family provided the statues of the Sacred Heart, Mary and Joseph in
our sanctuary, died May 30,
Louis Richard Ajlouny, the father of Randa Sharpe,
died May 15,
Rene Guidicessi, died April 25, an old
friend of the Drews,
F. Donald
Barr, died
March 7 at 94 years of age, co-founder of Robert Francis Religious Goods, in
Philadelphia,
Dr. David
Allen White, a well known defender of the Catholic faith, died February 11,
Bishop
Richard Williamson, a renowned defender of the Catholic faith and most charitable gentleman,
died January 29,
Rodolfo
Alberto Lacayo, a cousin of Claudia Drew,
died January 4,
Genieve Wallace, died Christmas day,
Ruth Marion Beaucheane, died December 8, is the
petition of Monica Bandlow,
Ana Maria Salcedo, the sister of Mario Fiol,
died November 26,
Fr. Johin
Cardaro, a traditional Catholic priest who was found
dead in his home November 2,
Robert Carballo
asks that we remember his parents, Roberto & Aida Carballo,
and his friend, David Duclos, who died April 15,
Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais who may have
been responsible for preventing the SSPX's public reconciliation with Rome in
2012, died October 8,
Lorna
Edwards, our
dear friend and loyal supporter of this Mission, died August 10,
Lois Petti, died July 28 two hours after receiving the Last
Sacraments from Fr. Waters,
Wolfgang
Smith, a
renowned Catholic scholar, mathematician, scientist, philosopher, who helped
the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, died July 19,
Willaim Glatz, a good and faithful Catholic, died July 17,
Alicio Gonzalez, a Catholic who asked for the
sacrament of Extreme Unction, unfortunately did not receive, died July 9,
John Zavodny, a faithful
Catholic who died wearing the scapular of Mt Carmel on the first Saturday of
May, requested by Phyllis Virgil,
Catherine
Martel, a lapsed Catholic, received
the last sacraments in a good disposition from Fr. Waters on March 25 and died
on April 4,
Father Basilio Méramo, a faithful priest, died
March 5, removed from the SSPX for opposing their accommodation with Rome,
Julia
McDonald,
the mother of Kyle McDonald, died March 1,
Agnus Melnick, died February 28, a long time faithful Catholic and
mother of eight children, including a traditional priest,
Kathryn
(Drew) Lederhos, of Wellesley, MA, died
February 3, 2024,
Chris Foley, the
brother of Mary Lou Loftus, died February 1,
Louis Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew, died January 30,
Fr. James
Louis Albert Campbell, a faithful priest who died December 18 at 91 years of age, and her
mother and father, Teresa and Thomas
Maher,
Charles
Harmon,
the father of Tracey Sentmanet, died October 1, after
receiving the rites of the Church,
Fr. Waters requests prayers for Elvira Donaghy, his friend and
former secretary a for Bishop Gerado Zendejas, died September 9,
Robert Hickson, a faithful Catholic apologist who died Septembber 2,
Monica Bandlow requests
prayers for her parents, Thomas &
Teresa Maher, her husband, William
Bandlow, her brother-in-law, Richard Bandlow,
her sister, Mary Maher, Fr. Christopher Darby, SSPX, who died March 17, Robert Byrne, Michelle Donofrio McDowell,
her cousin, Patricia Fabyanic, the Prefect of Our Lady’s Sodality, March
8, for John Pfeiffer who died
August 20, Theresa Hanley, died
July 23, Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX, who died December 20, John Kinney, died December 21, Willaim Price, Jr., and Robert Arch Ward,
died January 10, and Myra,
killed in a MVA June 6,
John Sharpe,
Sr.,
died July 20,
Maria
Paulette Salazar, died June 6,
Dale Kinsey requests prayers for his wife, Katherine Kinsey, died May 17,
Richard
Giles,
who died April 29, the father of Traci Sentmanat who
converted to the Catholic faith last All Saints' Day,
Joseph
Sparks,
a devout and faithful Catholic to tradition died February 25,
Joyce Paglia, died January 21, and Anthony Paglia,
died January 28, who were responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,
Joe Sentmanet request
prayers for Richard Giles and
Claude Harmon who converted
to the Catholic faith shortly before their deaths,
Rodolfo Zelaya, the brother of Claudia Drew,
died January 9,
Elizabeth Agosta petitions
our prayers for Joseph Napolitano,
her brother, who died January 2,
Michael Dulisse, died on December 26,
Michael
Proctor, a close friend of the Drews, died November 9,
Richard
Anthony Giles, the father-in-law of Joe Sentmanat converted
to the Catholic faith on All Saints Day, died November 5,
Robert
Kolinsky,
the husband of Sonja, died September 18,
Gabriel Schiltz, the daughter of Thomas & Gay Schiltz, died August 21,
Mary Dimmel, the mother –in-law of
Victoria Drew Dimmel, died July 18,
Michael
Nesbit,
the brother-in-law and dear friend of the Drew's, died July 14,
Thomas Thees, the brother of Philip, died
June 19,
Carmen Ragonese,
died June 22,
Juanita Mohler, a friend of Camella Meiser, died June 14,
Kathleen
Elias, died February 14,
Hernan Ortiz, the
brother of Fr. Juan Carlos Ortiz, died February 3,
Mary Ann
Boyle,
the mother of a second order Dominican nun, a first order Dominican priest, and
a SSPX priest, died January 24,
John DeMarco, who attended this Mission in
the past, died January23,
Charles
O’Brien, the father of Marlene Cox,
died December 30,
Mufide Rende
requests our prayers for the repose of the souls of her parents, Mehmet & Nedime,
Kathleen Donelly, died December 29 at 91 years of age, ran the CorMariae website,
Matthew
O'Hare,
most faithful Catholic, died at age 40 on November 30,
Rev. Patrick
J. Perez, a Catholic priest faithful to
tradition, pastor Our Lady Help of Christians, Garden Grove, CA, November 19,
Elizabeth Benedek, died December 14, requested by her niece, Agnes Vollkommer,
Dolores
Smith and Richard Costello, faithful Catholics, died
November,
Frank D’Agustino, a friend of Philp Thees, died November 8,
Fr.
Dominique Bourmaud, of the SSPX, Prior of St. Vincent
in Kansas City, died September 4,
Pablo Daniel
Silva, the brother of Elizabeth
Vargas, died August 18,
Rose Bradley, a
member of Ss. Peter & Paul, died July 14,
Patricia Ellias, died June 1, recently
returned to the Church died with the sacraments and wearing the brown scapular,
Joan Devlin, the sister-in-law of Rose
Bradley, died May 18,
William Muligan, died April 29, two days after
receiving the last sacraments,
Robert Petti, died March 19, the day after
receiving the last sacraments,
Mark McDonald, the
father of Kyle, who died December 26,
Perla Otero, died December 2020, Leyla Otero, January 2021, cousins of
Claudia Drew,
Mehmet Rende, died December 12, who was the
father of Mary Mufide,
Joseph Gravish, died November 26, 100 year
old WWII veteran and daily communicant,
Jerome
McAdams,
the father of, died November 30,
Rev. James
O’Hara, died November 8, requested by
Alex Estrada,
Elizabeth Batko, the sacristan at St. John the
Baptist in Pottstown for over 40 years, died on First Saturday November 7
wearing the brown scapular,
William Cox, the
father of Joseph Cox, who died September 3,
James Larson, Catholic
apologists, author of War Against Being
publication, died July 6, 2020,
Hutton
Gibson, died May 12,
Sr. Regina Cordis, Immaculate Heart of Mary religious for sixty-five
years, died May 12,
Leslie Joan Matatics, devoted Catholic wife and
mother of nine children, died March 24,
Victoria Zelaya, the sister-in-law of Claudia
Drew, died March 20,
Ricardo DeSilva, died November 16, our prayers requested by his
brother, Henry DeSilva,
Rev. Fr.
Joseph F. Collins, died April 27, 2019 to whom we are indebted for establishing our
traditional pre-Bugnini Holy Week in all its beauty,
Roland H.
Allard,
a friend of the Drew’s, died September 28,
Stephen Cagorski and John Bogda, who both died wearing the brown scapular,
Cecilia LeBow, a most faithful Catholic,
Rose Cuono, died Oct 23,
Patrick Rowen, died March 25, and his brother, Daniel Rowen,
died May 15,
Sandra
Peters, the
wife of Gene Peters, who died June 10 receiving the sacraments and wearing our
Lady’s scapular,
Rev. Francis
Slupski, a priest who kept the Catholic faith and its
immemorial traditions, died May 14,
Martha Mochan, the sister of Philip Thees,
died April 8,
George
Kirsch,
our good friend and supporter of this Mission, died February 15,
For Fr.
Paul J. Theisz, died October 17, is the
petition of Fr. Waters,
Fr. Mecurio Fregapane, died Jan 12, was not a
traditional priest but always charitable,
Fr. Casimir Peterson, a priest who often offered the Mass in our
chapel and provided us with sound advice, died December 4,
Fr.
Constantine Bellasarius, a
faithful and always charitable Eastern Rite Catholic Melkite
priest, who left the Roman rite, died November 27,
Christian
Villegas,
a motor vehicle accident, his brother, Michael, requests our prayers,
John Vennari, the former editor of Catholic Family News, and for
his family’s welfare, April 4,
Mary Butler, the aunt of Fr. Samuel
Waters, died October 17,
Joseph DeMarco, the nephew of John DeMarco,
died October 3,
John Fergale, died September 25 after receiving the traditional sacramental rites of
the Church wearing the brown scapular,
John Gabor, the brother of Donna Marbach, died September 9,
Fr. Eugene Dougherty, a faithful priest, fittingly
died on the Nativity of the BVM after receiving the traditional Catholic
sacraments,
Phyllis Schlafly, died September 5,
Helen Mackewicz, died August 14,
Mark A. Wonderlin, who died August 2,
Fr. Carl Cebollero, a faithful priest to tradition who was a friend of
Fr. Waters and Fr. DeMaio,
Jessica
Cortes,
a young mother of ten who died June 12,
Frances Toriello, a life-long Catholic faithful to tradition, died
June3, the feast of the Sacred Heart, and her husband Dan, died in 1985,
John
McLaughlin, a friend of the Drew’s, died May 22,
Angela
Montesano,
who died April 30, and her husband, Salvatore,
who died in July 3, 2013,
Charles Schultz, died
April 5, left behind nine children and many grandchildren, all traditional
Catholics,
Esperanza Lopez de Callejas,
the aunt of Claudia Drew, died March 15,
Fr. Edgardo Suelo, a faithful priest
defending our traditions who was working with Fr. Francois Chazal
in the Philippines, died February 19,
Conde McGinley, a
long time laborer for the traditional faith, died February 12, at 96 years,
The Drew family requests
your prayers for Ida Fernandez and Rita Kelley,
parishioners at St. Jude,
Fr. Stephen
Somerville,
a traditional priest who repented from his work with the Novus Ordo English translation, died December 12,
Fr. Arturo DeMaio, a priest that helped this Mission with the
sacraments and his invaluable advice, died December 2,
J. Paul Carswell, died October 15, 2015,
Solange Hertz, a great defender of our
Catholic faith, died October 3, the First Saturday of the month,
Paula P. Haigh, died October 22, a great defender of our Catholic
faith in philosophy and natural science,
Gabriella Whalin, the mother of Gabriella Schiltz,
who died August 25,
Mary
Catherine Sick, 14 year old from a large traditional Catholic family, died August 25,
Fr. Paul Trinchard, a traditional Catholic priest, died August 25,
Stephen J. Melnick, Jr., died on August 21, a long-time faithful
traditional Catholic husband and father, from Philadelphia,
Patricia
Estrada,
died July 29, her son Alex petitions our prayers for her soul,
Fr. Nicholas
Gruner, a devoted priest & faithful defender of Blessed
Virgin Mary and her Fatima message, died April 29,
Sarah E. Shindle, the grandmother of Richard Shindle,
died April 26,
Madeline Vennari, the mother of John Vennari,
died December 19,
Salvador
Baca Callejas, the uncle of Claudia Drew, died December 13,
Robert Gomez, who died in a motor vehicle
accident November 29,
Catherine
Dunn,
died September 15,
Anthony
Fraser,
the son of Hamish Fraser, died August 28,
Jeannette Rhoad, the grandmother of Devin Rhoad,
who died August 24,
John Thees, the uncle of Philip Thees,
died August 9,
Sarah
Harkins, 32 year-old mother of four
children, died July 28,
Msgr. Donald
Adams, who
offered the Indult Mass, died April 1996,
Anita Lopez, the aunt of Claudia Drew,
Fr. Kenneth
Walker,
a young traditional priest of the FSSP who was murdered in Phoenix June 11,
Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for Gilberte Violette,
the mother of Fr. Violette, who died May 6,
Pete Hays petitions our prayers for his brothers, Michael, died May 9, and James, died October 20, his
sister, Rebecca, died March17, and his mother, Lorraine Hayes who died May 4,
Philip Marbach, the father of Paul Marbach
who was the coordinator at St. Jude in Philadelphia, died April 21,
Richard Slaughtery, the elderly sacristan for the SSPX chapel in Kansas
City, died April 13,
Bernedette Marie Evans
nee Toriello, the daughter of Daniel Toriello
, died March 31, a faithful Catholic who suffered many years with MS,
Natalie Cagorski, died march 23,
Anita Lopez
de Lacayo, the aunt of Claudia Drew, who died March 21,
Mario Palmaro, Catholic lawyer, bioethicist and professor, apologist,
died March 9, welfare of his widow and children,
Daniel Boyle, the
uncle of Ryan Boyle, died March 4,
Jeanne DeRuyscher, who died on January 25,
Arthur
Harmon,
died January 18,
Fr. Waters petitions our prayers for the soul of Jeanne DeRuyscher,
who died January 17,
Joseph
Proctor,
died January 10,
Susan Scott, a devote traditional
Catholic who made the vestments for our Infant of Prague statue, died January
8,
Brother
Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., (Fred Farrell), an early supporter and friend of Fr. Leonard
Feeney, died November 23,
John Fergale, requests our prayers for his sister Connie, who
died December 19,
Jim Capaldi, died December 15,
Brinton Creager, the son of Elizabeth Carpenter, died December
10,
Christopher Lussos, age 27, the father of one child with an expecting
wife, died November 15,
Jarett Ebeyer, 16 year old who died in his sleep, November 17, at
the request of the Kolinsky’s,
Catherine Nienaber, the mother of nine children, the youngest three
years of age, killed in MVA after Mass, 10-29,
Nancy Aldera, the sister of Frances Toriello,
died October 11, 2013 at 105 years of age,
Mary Rita Schiltz, the mother of Thomas Schiltz,
who died August 27,
William H.
(Teddy) Kennedy, Catholic author of Lucifer’s Lodge, died August 14, age 49, cause of
death unknown,
Alfred
Mercier,
the father of David Mercier, who died August 12,
The Robert Kolinsky asks our prayers for his friend, George Curilla,
who died August 23,
John Cuono, who had attended Mass at our Mission in the past,
died August 11,
Raymond
Peterson,
died July 28, and Paul Peterson,
died February 19, the brothers of Fr. Casimir
Peterson,
Margaret Brillhart, who died July 20,
Msgr. Joseph
J. McDonnell, a priest from the diocese of Des Moines, who died June 8,
Patrick
Henry Omlor, who wrote Questioning The Validity of the Masses using
the New, All English Canon, and for a series of newsletters which were
published as The Robber Church, died May 2, the feast of St Athanasius,
Bishop
Joseph McFadden, died unexpectedly May 2,
Timothy Foley, the brother-in-law of
Michelle Marbach Folley,
who died in April,
William
Sanders,
the uncle of Don Rhoad, who died April 2,
Gene Peters ask our prayers for the repose of the
soul of Mark Polaschek,
who died March 22,
Eduardo
Gomez Lopez, the uncle of Claudia Drew, February 28,
Cecelia Thees, died February 24,
Elizabeth
Marie
Gerads, a
nineteen year old, the oldest of twelve children, who died February 6,
Michael
Schwartz,
the co-author with Fr. Enrique Rueda of “Gays, Aids, and
You,” died February 3,
Stanley W.
Moore,
passed away in December 16, and Gerard (Jerry) R. Pitman, who died January 19,
who attended this Mission in the past,
Louis Fragale, who died December 25,
Fr. Luigi
Villa, Th.D. author of Vatican II About
Face! detailing the heresies of Vatican II, died November 18 at the age of 95,
Rev. Michael
Jarecki, a faithful traditional Catholic priest who died
October 22,
Jennie Salaneck, died September 19 at 95
years of age, a devout and faithful Catholic all her life,
Dorothy Sabo, who died September 26,
Cynthia
(Cindy) Montesano Reinhert, the mother of nine
children, four who are still at home, died August 19,
Stanley Spahalski, who died October 20, and his wife, Regina Spahalski,
who died June 24, and for the soul of Francis
Lester, her son,
Julia
Atkinson,
who died April 30,
Antonio P.
Garcia,
who died January 6, 2012 and the welfare of his teenage children, Andriana and Quentin,
Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who
died February 27,
Fr. Timothy
A. Hopkins,
of the National Shrine of St. Philomena, in Miami, November 2,
Frank Smith, who died February 7, and
the welfare of his wife, Delores,
Eduardo Cepeda, who died January 26,
Larry Young, the 47 year old father of
twelve who died December 10 and the welfare of his wife Katherine and their
family,
Sister Mary
Bernadette, M.I.C.M., a founding member of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, died
December 16,
Joeseph Elias, who died on September 28,
William, the brother of Fr. Waters,
who died September 7,
Donald Tonelli, died August 1,
Rev. Fr.
Gregory Hesse, of Austria, a great defender of Catholic
Truth, died January 25, 2006,
Emma Colasanti, who died May 29,
Mary Dullesse, who died April 12, a Catholic convert who died
wearing our Lady’s scapular,
Ruth Jantsch, the grandmother of Andre Ebert, who died April 7,
Derrick and Denise Palengat, his godparents,
Philip D.
Barr,
died March 5, and the welfare of his family,
Judith Irene
Kenealy, the mother of Joyce Paglia,
who died February 23, and her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14,
For Joe Sobran who died September 30,
Fr. Hector
Bolduc,
a great and faithful priest, died, September 10, 2012,
James &
Jean Rowan
and their sons, Patrick & Daniel,
John Vennari asks our
prayers for Dr. Raphael Waters
who died August 26,
Stanley Bodalsky, the father of Mary Ann Boyle who died June 25,
Mary Isabel Kilfoyle Humphreys, a former York resident and friend of the
Drew’s, who died June 6,
Rev. John
Campion,
who offered the traditional Mass for us every first Friday until forbidden to
do so by Bishop Dattilo, died May 1,
Joseph Montagne, who died May 5,
For Margaret
Vagedes, the aunt of Charles Zepeda, who died
January 6,
Fr. Michael
Shear, a
Byzantine rite Catholic priest, died August 17, 2006,
Fr. James Francis
Wathen, died November 7, 2006, author of The Great Sacrilege and Who Shall Ascend?, a great defender of
dogma and liturgical purity,
Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14, 2009, to whom our Mission is
indebted,
Fr. Peterson asks to remember, Leonard Edward Peterson, his cousin, Wanda, Angelica Franquelli, and the six
priests ordained with him.
Philip Thees petitions our
prayers for Beverly Romanick, Deacon Michael Erdeck,
Henry J. Phillips, Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio,
Elizabeth Thorhas, Elizabeth Thees,
Theresa Feraker, Hellen Pestrock, and James & Rose Gomata,
and Kathleen Heinbach,
Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical Movement, and Fr. John
Peek, both were traditional priests,
Brother
Francis, MICM, the superior of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in
Richmond, NH, who died September 5,
Rodolfo Zelaya Montealegre, the father of Claudia Drew,
who died May 24,
Rev. Francis
Clifford,
a devout and humble traditional priest, who died on March 7,
Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonja Kolinsky.
Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity
The woman saith to him: Sir, I perceive that
thou art a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at
Jerusalem is the place where men must adore. Jesus saith
to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father. You adore that which you know
not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and
in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore
him. God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in
truth.
John 4:19-24
Novus Ordo Doctrine: Moslems
and Novus Ordo Catholics Worship the same God!
CCC 841, quoting the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
Lumen Gentium 16, from Vatican II, declared:
"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the
Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold
the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God,
mankind’s judge on the last day."
CCC 841 also references Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church
to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, 3, that makes the teaching of the
Council perhaps even clearer:
"The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the
one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the
Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit
wholeheartedly to even his inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the
faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to
God."
Catholic Church Doctrine: Catholics and Moslems DO
NOT worship the same God.
“Now
the Samaritans had a false idea of God in two ways. First of all, because they
thought He was corporeal, so that they believed that He should be adored in
only one definite corporeal place. Further, because they did not believe that
He transcended all things, but was equal to certain creatures, they adored
along with Him certain idols, as if they were equal to Him. Consequently, they
did not know Him, because they did not attain to a true knowledge of Him. So
the Lord says, you adore that which you do not know [John 4:22], that is, you do not adore God
because you do not know Him, but rather your imagination, by which you
apprehend something as God, just as the Gentiles also walk in the foolishness
of their mind (Eph 4:17).” St.
Thomas Aquinas, Commentary On John 4:22
“How
then did the Samaritans know not what they worshipped? Because they thought
that God was local and partial; so at least they served Him, and so they sent
to the Persians, and reported that the God of this place is angry with us [2
Kings 26], in this respect
forming no higher opinion of Him than of their idols. Wherefore they continued
to serve both Him and devils, joining things which ought not to be joined.” St. John Chrysostom, Homily 33 On The Gospel
of John
COMMENT: When
Jesus said to the Samaritan Woman, " You adore that which you know
not," He is not saying that they adore the One True God that they are
ignorant of. He is saying, that in their ignorance they do not know who they
are adoring meaning that they are adoring in ignorance a devil, for "all
the gods of the gentiles are devils" (Psalm 95:5). Jesus then says, that
"true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth..... they that
adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth." To adore in "spirit"
means that to adore God you must be baptized and made sons of God for as Jesus
said: "Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and
the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of
the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit"
(John 3:5-7). And to adore in "truth" means who must believe what has
been revealed by God. Without the true faith it is "impossible to please
God" (Hebrews 11:6). As such, right knowledge of God is essential to true
worship. This is the great sin of Modernism and Neo-modernism: They make a
right knowledge of God impossible!
Hermeneutics
of Continuity/Discontinuity
Catholic
Faith:
Physical substances come into being through the union of substantial form
and primary matter. The Soul is the Substantial Form of the Human Body; it is
immortal and will be judged after the death of the person and directed to
Heaven or Hell for all eternity awaiting to be joined again to its Body at the
Resurrection of the Dead for the Last Judgment.
“In order that all may know the truth of the faith in its purity and
all error may be excluded, we define that anyone who presumes henceforth to
assert defend or hold stubbornly that the rational or intellectual soul is not
the form of the human body of itself and essentially, is to be considered a
heretic.”
Council of Vienne
Neo-Modernists
Ideology: [Ratzinger quotes provided by James Larson,
War Against Being]
“The medieval concept of substance has long since become inaccessible
to us.”
Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the
Future
“The proper Christian thing, therefore, is to speak, not of the soul’s
immortality, but of the resurrection of the complete human being [at the Final
Judgment] and of that alone… The idea that to speak of the soul is unbiblical
was accepted to such an extent that even the new Roman Missal (i.e.: the Novus Ordo) suppressed the term anima in its liturgy for the
dead. It also disappeared from the ritual for burial.”
Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life
“‘The soul’ is our term for that
in us which offers a foothold for this relation [with the eternal]. Soul is
nothing other than man’s capacity for relatedness with truth, with love
eternal.”
Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life
“The challenge to traditional theology today lies in the negation of an
autonomous, ‘substantial’ soul with a built-in immortality in favor of that
positive view which regards God’s decision and activity as the real foundation
of a continuing human existence.”
Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life
And
those who have denied the reality of substantial
being are those who are responsible for the “dictatorship of relativism.”
“Every day new sects are created and what Saint
Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw
those into error (Eph 4, 14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed
of the Church, is often labelled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas,
relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind
of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today’s standards.
We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognise
anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and
one’s own desires.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
Homily of the Dean of the College of Cardinals, 2005
Sacrament of
Baptism: Significance of the Baptismal Character and why it is absolutely
necessary for salvation. Explains why St. Ambrose said regarding catechumens
who die before receiving the sacrament of Baptism, they are “forgiven but not
crowned”.
To be baptized is to become one with the Church, and one with Christ. Thus the ritual can say: “enter
into the temple of God, that you may have part with Christ, unto life
everlasting.” The two ideas are correlative: to be baptized into the
Church and to be baptized into Christ; they are the visible and invisible
aspects of the same real effect. [….]
The effecting this incorporation into Christ, Baptism marks the soul as
permanently His; it stamps upon the soul a spiritual “character”, or, as
antiquity more commonly called it, a “seal”.
For this reason, and putting the cause for the effect, the rite of
Baptism was itself called “the seal”, or “the seal of faith”, or “the seal of
water”, or “the seal of the Trinity” (which last appellation endures still in
the liturgical prayers for the dying, wherein God is asked to remember His
promises to the soul that in its lifetime was “stamped with the seal of the
Most Holy Trinity”).
The word “seal” derives from a group of texts in St. Paul, which
suggest this stamping of the soul at Baptism: “And in Him (Christ), you too,
when you had heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and
believed in it, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise” (Eph. 1:13);
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed for the day
of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). However, nowadays we are accustomed to speak rather
of the baptismal “character”, a term that suggests the text wherein Christ is
called “the brightness of His (the Father’s) glory and the image (in Greek,
character) of His substance” (Hebr. 1:3).
Basically, two words give the same meaning: a seal imprints an image,
and a “character”, in the original sense of the word, means image. Baptism,
therefore, stamps the soul with the image of Christ, Who is Himself the image
of the Father. And in the Scripture, this stamping is attributed to the Holy
Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Christ. The fact that we are stamped with such a
character is clearly defined by the Council of Trent:
“If anyone says
that by the three Sacraments, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation and Orders, there
is not imprinted in the soul a Character, that is a certain spiritual and
indelible sign on account of which they cannot be repeated; let him be anathem.” (Denz. 852).
The Council of Trent teaches that this seal, once stamped on the soul,
is indelible. Just as Baptism irrevocable makes one a member of the Church, so
also it irrevocably makes one a member of Christ. Not the gravest sin, nor even
final impenitence and self-condemnation to eternal separation from Christ in
Hell, can avail to erase this baptismal seal. And the indelibility of the seal
is the immediate reason why Baptism can never be repeated, once it has been
validly received. [….]
The sense in which Baptism stamps us with the image of Christ is
suggested in the rite itself, by the anointing which follows the ablution. It
is done with Sacred Chrism, a mixed unguent of oil and balm, specially
consecrated by the bishop on Holy Thursday. Kings and priests in antiquity (and
even today) were anointed with chrism in token of their royal and priestly
dignity. And the baptism anointing signifies, therefore, that the new Christian
has entered into the “royal priesthood” of the Christian people, and shares in
the royal Priesthood of Christ Himself. He bears the image of Christ, inasmuch
as Christ was the Priest of all humanity, Who offered Himself in sacrifice on
the Cross.
The baptismal seal or character, therefore, endows the Christian with a
priestly function, and a priestly power. It is not that special power and
function given by the Sacrament of Holy Orders to certain selected members of
the Church, who are made her official ministers, and authorized to offer her
sacrifice and dispense her Sacraments. But it is the priestly function and
power which is common to all the members of the Body of Christ. As He was born
as Priest, His whole life orientated toward the Passion and Death which was His
priestly Sacrifice, so too, they are priests from their birth into the
Christian life at Baptism; and their lives are essentially orientated toward
sacrifice, in a double sense.
First of all, they receive a function and a power with respect to the
ritual Sacrifice of the Church, which is the Mass. [….] They are empowered to
assist actively in the offering of the Mass, as members of the Church, in whose
name her specially qualified members, priests and bishops, offer the Mass,
which is the sacrifice of the whole Church through her official ministers. In
union with the Priest, the Christian offers up Christ as a Victim Who belongs
to him and to Whom he belongs. An unbaptized person
cannot do this….
Secondly, the baptismal character consecrates the Christian to
sacrifice in a wider sense: it gives him the function, the duty, the power to
lead a life of sacrifice, since He is in the image of Christ whose life was one
long sacrifice – a life of complete obedience to the will of His Father: “I
seek not My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn. 3:50).The will of
the Father is the supreme law of the Christian’s life; it is all embracing and
all pervasive; and constant and total obedience to it necessarily gives a
sacrificial quality to the whole of life, since it demands the renunciation of
many ideas, and a steady refusal to be led by one’s own emotions or to seek
one’s own pleasure and profit – in a word, it demands the sacrifice of
selfishness in all its forms. St. Peter, therefore, was thinking of Baptism
when he wrote:
“Lay aside
therefore all malice and all deceit, and pretense, and envy, and all slander….
Be you yourselves as living stones, built thereon (i.e., on Christ) into a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God
through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:1,5).
Rev. John J. Fernan, S.J., Theology, Christ
Our High Priest, Baptismal Seal
“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
Pius XII - the man responsible for planting the seed of liturgical
destruction!
Fr. Annibale Bugnini
had been making clandestine visits to the Centre de Pastorale
Liturgique (CPL), a progressivist
conference centre for liturgical reform which organized national weeks for
priests.
Inaugurated in Paris in 1943 on the private initiative of two Dominican priests
under the presidency of Fr. Lambert Beauduin, it was
a magnet for all who considered themselves in the vanguard of the Liturgical
Movement. It would play host to some of the most famous names who influenced
the direction of Vatican II: Frs. Beauduin, Guardini, Congar, Chenu, Daniélou, Gy, von Balthasar, de Lubac, Boyer, Gelineau etc.
It could, therefore, be considered as the confluence of all the forces
of Progressivism, which saved and re-established Modernism condemned by Pope
Pius X in Pascendi.
According to its
co-founder and director, Fr. Pie Duployé, OP, Bugnini had requested a “discreet” invitation to attend a
CPL study week held near Chartres in September 1946.
Much more was
involved here than the issue of secrecy. The person whose heart beat as one
with the interests of the reformers would return to Rome to be placed by an
unsuspecting (?) Pope (Pius XII) in charge of his Commission for the General
Reform of the Liturgy.
But someone in the Roman Curia did know
about the CPL – Msgr.
Giovanni Battista Montini, the acting Secretary of
State and future Paul VI – who sent a telegram to the CPL dated January 3,
1947. It purported to come from the Pope with an apostolic blessing. If,
in Bugnini’s estimation, the Roman authorities were
to be kept in the dark about the CPL so as not to compromise its activities, a
mystery remains. Was the telegram issued under false pretences, or did Pius XII
really know and approve of the CPL? [.....]
This agenda (for liturgical reform) was set out as early as 1949 in the
Ephemerides Liturgicae,
a leading Roman review on liturgical studies of which Fr. Annabale
Bugnini was Editor from 1944 to 1965.
First, Bugnini
denigrated the traditional liturgy as a dilapidated building (“un vecchio edificio”), which should
be condemned because it was in danger of falling to pieces (“sgretolarsi”) and, therefore, beyond repair. Then, he
criticized it for its alleged “deficiencies, incongruities and difficulties,”
which rendered it spiritually “sterile” and would prevent it appealing to
modern sensibilities.
It is difficult to understand how, in the same year that he published this
anti-Catholic diatribe, he was made a Professor of Liturgy in Rome’s Propaganda
Fide (Propagation of the Faith) University. His solution was to return to the
simplicity of early Christian liturgies and jettison all subsequent
developments, especially traditional devotions.
These ideas expressed in 1949 would form the foundational principles of Vatican
II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium.
For all practical purposes, the Roman Rite was dead in the water many years
before it was officially buried by Paul VI.
Dr.
Carol Byrne, How Bugnini
Grew Up under Pius XII
Wisdom
is only possible for those who hold DOGMA as the Rule of Faith!
Besides, every dogma of faith
is to the Catholic cultivated mind not only a new increase of knowledge, but
also an incontrovertible principle from which it is able to draw conclusions
and derive other truths. They present an endless field for investigation so
that the beloved Apostle St. John could write at the end of his Gospel, without
fear of exaggeration: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did:
which if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be
able to contain the books that should be written.”
The Catholic Church, by
enforcing firm belief in her dogmas—which are not her inventions, but were
given by Jesus Christ—places them as a bar before the human mind to prevent it
from going astray and to attach it to the truth; but it does not prevent the
mind from exercising its functions when it has secured the treasure of divine
truth, and a “scribe thus instructed in the kingdom of heaven is truly like a
man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of
his treasure new things and old.” He may bring forth new illustrations, new
arguments and proofs; he may show now applications of the same truths,
according to times and circumstances; he may show new links which connect the
mysteries of religion with each other or with the natural sciences as there can
be no discord between the true faith and true science; God, being the author of
both, cannot contradict Himself and teach something by revelation as true which
He teaches by the true light of reason as false. In all these cases the
householder “brings forth from his treasure new things and old.” They are new
inasmuch as they are the result of new investigations; and old because they are
contained in the old articles of faith and doctrine as legitimate deductions
from their old principles.
Fr. Joseph Prachensky,
S.J., The Church of Parables and True Spouse of the Suffering Saviour, on the Parable of the Scribe
Baptism imprints
in your soul a spiritual character, which no sin can efface. This character is
a proof that from this time you do not belong to yourself, but that you are the
property of Jesus Christ, who has purchased you by the infinite price of his
blood and of his death. You are not of yourself, but you are of Christ;
wherefore, St. Paul concludes, “that the Christian should no longer live for
himself, but for Him who died and rose again for him;” that is to say, that the
Christian should live a life of grace, and that he should consecrate to his
Redeemer his spirit, his heart, and all his actions. […..]
First, is true penance; for, as the holy Council of Trent teaches,
penance is no less necessary for those who have sinned after Baptism, than
Baptism is necessary for those who have not received it. The Holy Scripture
informs us, that there are two gates by which we are to enter into
heaven—baptismal innocence, and penance. When a Christian has shut against
himself the gate of innocence, in violating the holy promises of Baptism, it is
necessary that he should strive to enter by that of penance; otherwise there is
no salvation for him. On this account, Jesus Christ, speaking of persons who
have lost innocence, says to them: “Unless you do penance, you shall all
perish.”
But in order that penance may prevent us from perishing—it must be true
Penance. Confessors may be deceived by the false appearance of conversion, and
it is too often the case; but God is never deceived. If, therefore, those who
receive absolution are not truly penitent and worthy of pardon, their sins are
not forgiven before God. In order to do true penance, it is not sufficient to
confess all our sins and to fulfill what is enjoined on us by the priest. There
are two other things which are necessary: First; to renounce sin with all your
heart, and for all your life… and second; to fly the occasions of sin, and to
use the means to avoid it.
St. John Eudes, Man’s Contract with God in Baptism
Again, in the Office
for the feasts of our Lady, the Church applies the words of Sirach
to the Blessed Virgin and thus gives us to understand that in her we find
all hope: In me is all hope of life and of virtue. In Mary is
every grace: In me is all grace of the way and of the truth. In
Mary we shall find life and eternal salvation: Those who serve me shall
never fail. Those who explain me shall have life everlasting (Sir.
24:25, 30, 31--- Vulgate). And in the Book of Proverbs: Those who find me
find life and win favor from the Lord (8:35). Surely such expressions are
enough to prove that we require the intercession of Mary.
St. Alphonsus
de Liguori, The Glories of Mary
THE NOVUS ORDO CHURCH OF SLOTH
AND ENVY
The first effect of
charity is joy in the goodness of God. But this joy can only live through the union
of man’s will with God in charity. And charity demands that man keep all the
commandments. Charity demands a fellowship in good between God and man. When
the effort to live in this fellowship in good begins to appear too difficult to
man he begins to be sorrowful about the infinite goodness of God. This sorrow
weighs down the spirit of man and leads him to neglect good. This sorrow is the
sin of sloth, sorrow about the goodness of God. Sloth is a capital sin. It
leads men into other sins. To avoid the sorrow or weariness of spirit which is
sloth men will turn from God to the sinful pleasures of the world.
When a man falls victim
to sloth and is sorrowful because of the goodness of God it is only natural
that he will begin to be grieved also at the manifestation of the goodness of
God in other men. He will resent good men simply because they are good. This
resentment is envy, hatred of someone else’s good. Since the love of our
neighbor flows from our love of God, it is natural that when we cease to love
God’s goodness, we will also begin to hate the goodness of men. Envy, like
sloth, is a capital sin. It will lead men to commit other sins to destroy the
goodness of their neighbors.
When a man’s heart is
filled with sloth and envy the interior peace of his soul which was the effect
of charity is destroyed. The loss of the interior peace leads to the
destruction of the peace of society. When a man’s heart is no longer centered
in God, then his life loses all proper direction. When the love of God is gone he
has nothing left but the love of himself. When a man loves himself without
loving God then he can brook no opposition to his own judgment or arbitrary
will. He can tolerate goodness in no one else. He will even, by the sin of
scandal, by his own words and example, lead other men into sin. He must
disagree with all men. He must dispute with them, separate himself from them,
quarrel with them, go to war with them, set the whole of the community at war
with itself.
Wherever the goodness
of God is most manifest, there will the heart of the man who no longer loves
God be most energetic in sowing the seeds of discord, contentiousness, strife
and war. That is why religion and the true Church of God are so viciously
attacked in the world today. Those who do not love God are driven by sloth and
envy to attack God’s tabernacle on earth.
Fr. Walter Farrell and
Fr. Martin Healy, My Way of Life, Pocket
Edition of St. Thomas
Amoris Laetitia
was published in 2016. No answer or corrective action to this
"appeal" was ever made. That is because no clarification was ever
needed. Why? That is because the "numerous propositions in Amoris Laetitia (that) can be
construed as heretical upon the natural reading of the text" is exactly
what the author intended! So in 2016 these "academics and pastors"
did "not accusing the pope of heresy", but what about now?
“Amoris Laetitia.... scandalous,
erroneous in faith, and ambiguous...”
Catholic academics and
pastors appeal to the College of Cardinals over Amoris Laetitia
A
group of Catholic academics and pastors has submitted an appeal to Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals in
Rome, requesting that the Cardinals and Eastern Catholic Patriarchs petition
His Holiness, Pope Francis, to repudiate a list of erroneous propositions that
can be drawn from a natural reading of the post-synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia.
During the coming weeks this submission will be sent in various languages to
every one of the Cardinals and Patriarchs, of whom there are 218 living at
present.
Describing the exhortation as containing
“a number of statements that can be understood in a sense that is contrary to
Catholic faith and morals,” the signatories submitted, along with their appeal,
a documented list of applicable theological censures specifying “the nature and
degree of the errors that could be attributed to Amoris laetitia.”
Among
the 45 signatories are Catholic prelates, scholars, professors, authors, and
clergy from various pontifical universities, seminaries, colleges, theological
institutes, religious orders, and dioceses around the world. They have asked
the College of Cardinals, in their capacity as the Pope’s official advisers, to
approach the Holy Father with a request that he repudiate “the errors listed in
the document in a definitive and final manner, and to authoritatively state
that Amoris laetitia does
not require any of them to be believed or considered as possibly true.”
“We
are not accusing the pope of heresy,” said a spokesman for the authors, “but we
consider that numerous propositions in Amoris laetitia can be construed as heretical upon a natural
reading of the text. Additional statements would fall under other established
theological censures, such as scandalous, erroneous in faith, and ambiguous,
among others.” [......]
Atheists are really
anti-theists. They oppose the God who is God with an idol of their own making.
No atheist chooses
merely to deny God. For the atheist’s spiritual posture against God is at the same
time his posture in preference for some other Being above God. As he dismisses
the true God he is welcoming his New God. Why must this be so? Because every
personal commitment of man presupposes, deep in the metaphysical core of his
being, a hunger for being as truth and goodness. Man is intrinsically burdened
with an incurable hunger for transcendence. If being abhors a vacuum, the
vacuum it most violently shrinks from is the total absence of Infinite Being.
And history demonstrates that man is inconsolable without the True God.
Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., The
Gods of Atheism
‘When
men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing,
they believe in anything.’
There are men who will
ruin themselves and ruin their civilization if they may ruin also this old
fantastic tale (of the Catholic faith). This is the last and most astounding
fact about this faith; that its enemies will use any weapon against it, the
sword that cuts their own fingers, and the firebrands that burn their own homes.
… (The atheist fanatic) sacrifices the very existence of humanity to the
non-existence of God. He offers his victims not to the altar, but merely to
assert the idleness of the altar and the emptiness of the throne. He is ready
to ruin even that primary ethic by which all things live, for his strange and
eternal vengeance upon some one who (he affirms)
never lived at all.
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
“Cultivate a great
desire to be firmly rooted in the sublime virtue of confidence. Do not fear, but be courageous in
serving and loving our Most Adorable and Amiable Jesus, with great perfection
and holiness. Undertake courageously great tasks for His glory, in proportion
to the power and grace He will give you for this end. Even though you can do
nothing of yourself, you can do all things in Him and His help will never fail
you, if you have confidence
in His goodness. Place your entire physical and spiritual welfare in His
hands. Abandon to the paternal solicitude of His Divine Providence every care
for your health, reputation, property and business, for those near to you, for
your past sins, for your soul’s progress in virtue and love of Him, for your
life, death, and especially for your salvation and eternity, in a word, all
your cares. Rest in the
assurance that, in His pure goodness, He will watch with particular
tenderness over all your responsibilities and cares and dispose all things for
the greatest good.”
St. John Eudes, The Life and
Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls
Cardinal Burke
offers the correction for two mistranslations in the English publication of the
Motu proprio of Pope
Francis, “TRADITIONIS CUSTODES”
Art. 1. The liturgical books promulgated by Saint Paul VI (sic) and
Saint John Paul II (sic), in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II,
are the unique only expression of
the lex orandi of
the Roman Rite.
Art. 4. Priests ordained after the publication of the present Motu Proprio, who wish to
celebrate using the Missale Romanum of
1962, should must submit a formal request
to the diocesan Bishop who shall consult the Apostolic See before granting this
authorization.
"Not a
stone upon a stone" - 9th Sunday after Pentecost
The 'Western Wall' (Wailing Wall) in
Jerusalem is held by Jews as a remnant of Herod's Temple destroyed by the Romans
in 72 A.D. Yet, Jesus prophesized not only that the Temple would be destroyed
but also that there would not remain a "stone upon a stone." So how
is it that there remains a large wall on the western side at the south end of
the 'Temple Mount'? Some Catholics claim the prophecy of Jesus was referring
only to the edifice itself and not the entire foundation for the Temple. Jesus
words must be taken in literally unless there it is clearly manifest that the
metaphorical sense is intended exclusively. Therefore, the 'Wailing Wall' where
the Jews worship is not a remnant of the ancient Temple, and the 'Temple
Mount', on which is currently situated the Al-Aqsa
mosque and the "Dome of the Rock", is not the location of the Temple
destroyed in 72 A.D. The 36 acre 'Temple Mount' is actually the location of the
Roman fortress Antonia built by Herod.
What
is the evidence for this? The current popular claim is the fortress Antonia was
located on a five-acre section on the north-west side of the 'Temple Mount'
while the Temple occupied the remaining 30 acres. Five acres is far too small
to accommodate a Roman legion (6,000 soldiers plus auxiliary staff) which we
know from the writings of Flavius Josephus that the fortress Antonia did in
fact hold. Many Roman fortresses have been examined by archeologists and they
typically are between 45 and 55 acres but some are as small as 36 acres. As far
as the area needed for the Temple of Herod itself, consider this, the ancient
pagan temple complex at Baalek in Lebanon built by
the Romans is less than six acres in total area and encloses the largest temple
to Jupiter in the Roman Empire as well as a smaller temple dedicated to Bacchus
and another to Venus. The Temple built by Herod was a single temple and much
smaller in overall dimensions.
Furthermore,
when Solomon was designated by King David to succeed him (3 Kings 1), King
David directed the prophet Nathan and the high priest Sadoc
to take Solomon on the king's mule to be anointed king at the "Gihon spring" with oil taken from the tabernacle. The Gihon spring is located in the City of David directly south
and adjacent to the present-day 'Temple Mount'. There Solomon was anointed with
oil taken from the Tabernacle, proclaimed king and celebrated by the populace
with great jubilation and the sounding of trumpets that could be heard outside
the city. The Temple built by Solomon was in the same location as the
Tabernacle established by King David on the threshing floor of the land he
purchased Areuna the Jebusite
as God had commanded by the mouth of Gad (2 Kings 24 and 2 Paralipomenon
3:1).
The
water from the Gihon spring was essential for the
sacrificial offerings of the Temple. There is no living water source on the
'Temple Mount' which was required in the washing of the priests and the
sacrifices offered. The water source for the Antonia fortress was provided by
large cisterns located just north of the Antonia fortress and under the 'Temple
Mount' that are still present today.
There
is a Catholic tradition the there was a church called the Church of the
Judgment that was built over and enclosed the Rock that is now enclosed under
the Dome of the Rock built by the Moslems in 692 A.D. The Dome of the Rock is
located directly north of the Al-Aqsa mosque on the
'Temple Mount'. The Church of the Judgment was destroyed either by the Persians
who conquered Jerusalem in 614 A.D. with the help of 26,000 Jewish allies
during the Byzantine-Sasanian War 602-628 A.D.
(during which many churches were destroyed including the Church of the Ascension
on Mount Olivet), or the church was destroyed by the Moslems who conquered
Jerusalem in 637 A.D. No living Jew at the time would have knowledge of the
exact location of Herod's Temple because the Jews were forbidden to enter
Jerusalem by the Romans since the Bar Kokhba revolt
in 135 A.D. on the pain of death. Two hundred years later, the Catholic emperor
Constantine permitted the Jews to enter Jerusalem once a year on the feast of Tisha B'Av (the ninth of Av)
which is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar because it is the
anniversary of the destruction of both the Temple of Solomon and the Temple of
Herod! Be that as it may, many of the pillars used in the construction of the
interior of the Dome of the Rock have Christian markings indicating that they
were salvaged from a destroyed Catholic church.
The
Rock itself is regarded (WIKI) as The Foundation Stone (Hebrew אֶבֶן
הַשְּׁתִיָּה, romanized: ʾEḇen haŠeṯīyyā, lit. 'Foundation Stone'),
or the Noble Rock (Arabic:الصخرة
المشرفة, romanized: al-Saḵrah
al-Mušarrafah, lit. 'The Noble Stone') is
the rock enclosed by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. It is also known as
the Pierced Stone, because it has a small hole on the southeastern corner
that enters a cavern beneath the rock, known as the Well of
Souls. Traditional Jewish sources mention the stone as the place from
which the creation of the world began. Jewish sources also identify its
location with that of the Holy of Holies. Yet, it is not possible for a
threshing floor to be around a large rock or stone.
Before
the Muslim conquest, the Rock was enclosed in the Catholic church known as the
Church of the Judgment (destroyed by the Persians) because it is believed to
have been the place where the condemned stood to hear the judgment against them
by the Roman authorities. The Rock is held to be where Jesus stood when His
official condemnation was decreed by Pontius Pilate and thus, if it is the
stone where the "creation of the world began," it is the stone from
which the creation of the world began anew. John 19:13 says: "Now when
Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the
judgment seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos,
and in Hebrew Gabbatha." Lithostrotos
in Greek refers to a stone and Gabbatha in Hebrew an
elevated place. According to St. Mary Agreda after
Jesus was condemned by Pilate the decree of condemnation, which she quotes in
its entirety, was then formally read to the Jewish mob assembled outside the
north entrance to Fortress Antonia where Jesus was taken to bear His cross.
Of
the Temple of Herod destroyed in 72 A.D. there does not remain a "stone
upon a stone".
Leo XIV Reinstates Convicted
Child-Porn Priest who was protected by Francis
Carlo Alberto Capella was
Vatican diplomat who was convicted by a Vatican tribunal of possessing and
sharing child pornography. Capella admitted guilt to the charges. He is the
only one who has served a prison sentence in the Vatican jail for this crime or
for any sexually related crime against minors.
Monsignor
Capella was ordained a priest in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Milan. After
studies of canon law he entered the Vatican diplomatic corps. He was
assigned to the papal nunciature in India in 2003 and to the nunciature in Hong
Kong in 2007. In 2008 he was created Chaplain of His Holiness, which entitled him to the title
of Monsignor. In 2011 he was transferred to the Vatican to serve in
the Secretariat of State. In 2016 he was assigned to the papal nunciature to
the United States.
In
2017, Capella was recalled to the Vatican by Pope Francis after United States
officials informed the Vatican that he was under investigation for possession
and sharing of child pornography. The government of Canada has issued a warrant
for his arrest, alleging that during his time in Canada in December, 2016 he
had possessed and shared child pornography. He was returned to the Vatican
which claimed diplomatic immunity for Capella protecting him from prosecution
in the United State or Canada.
In
2018, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, which he served
in the Vatican jail. As of 2021, he was allowed out during the day to work in
an office that sells papal blessings. In 2023, following the end of his prison
sentence, Capella was permitted to return to work in the Vatican Secretariat of
State. Now Pope Leo XIV has reinstated
Msgr. Capella to a senior diplomatic position in the Vatican Secretariat of
State.
COMMENT: Pope Leo is protégé of Francis to whom he owns his promotions
to bishop and cardinal. It was Francis who protected this pervert from criminal
charges in the United States and in Canada and now it is Francis' protégé who
has restored him the a high level position in the Vatican. This does not
portend well for any serious reform of the Novus Ordo Church which has become a
sinecure for homosexuals and others perverts.
From Tradition
In Action:
You don't have
to be a liturgical EXPERT to see that there is no essential difference in the act!
The question
is: Is there any essential difference
in the actors?
Top: St. Patrick Catholic Church, Chatham, New Jersey, August 22, 2021
Bottom:
First Lutheran Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 6, 2025
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