Saint James the Greater, Apostle

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

St. Christopher, Martyr

July 25, 2010

St. James, brother of St. John, and son of Zebedee, was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee. He is surnamed the Greater, i.e. the elder.

One day his mother, approaching the Savior, asked of Him “the favor for her two sons to be seated, one at His right hand and the other on His left, in His kingdom” (Gospel). Christ then foretold their martyrdom. St. James “shall sit on a throne to judge the twelve tribes of Israel” (Communion), but he will first have to mix his blood with that of Jesus (Gospel) and undergo, like all the apostles, a life of suffering and persecution, such as the Epistle describes. After the Ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, says the office of today, James preached His divinity in Judea and Samaria. He soon betook himself to Spain. When he returned to Jerusalem, Herod Agrippa, desiring to please the Jews, condemned him to death and he was beheaded towards the year 42, a short time before the feast of Easter.

It would seem, that for fear of the Arabs who were masters of Jerusalem, the body of the Saint was later carried to Compostella, in Spain, where he is heartily honored. July 25 recalls the date of this translation. His name is inscribed in the Canon of the Mass with that of St. John, his brother.

St. Christopher was a native of Chanaan. His name (who bears Christ) expressed his love of Jesus. A generous soul, he walked like a giant in the way of virtue. The piety of our fathers inspired by this grand allegory caused them to place a colossal statue of St. Christopher at the entrance to cathedrals. He was martyred towards the year 250. He is one of the “fourteen Auxiliary Saints.”

Today’s liturgy lays stress on the terrible punishments which will one day be inflicted on those who have denied Christ. They will all perish and not one of them will enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who have been faithful to Him through all the adversities of this life, will also one day, be saved from the hands of their enemies and will follow Him into heaven, wither He went at his Ascension. These thoughts about God’s justice are suggested in the Breviary reading from the prophet Elias.

After Solomon’s death the twelve tribes were divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Juda. The second of these consisted in the tribes of Juda and Benjamin, with Jerusalem as the capital, while the first was composed of the remaining ten tribes, having for its capital Sichem, then in Samaria.

To this latter kingdom belonged the prophet Elias, who dwelt in the desert of Galaad in Samaria. A man of great virtue and austere life he wore a tunic woven of camel’s hair and a leathern girdle. “With zeal. Zealous for the Lord God of Hosts,” he left the desert three times to convey the divine warnings to Achab, the seventh king of Israel and the queen, Jezebel, who seduced the people into idolatry; to secure the death of the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal whom he had put to confusion on Mount Carmel; and to foretell to the king who had taken Naboth’s vineyard for himself, that he would die bathed in his own blood, and to the queen, who had been Achab’s evil genius, that her blood would flow on the spot where Naboth’s flowed, while dogs should devour her flesh.

For these reasons Elias was persecuted by the Israelites and by Achab and Jezebel, and was obliged to flee to Mount Horeb to escape death. Later on, when Ochozias Achab’s son had become king, Elias advised him not to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron as he intended but rather the God of Israel.

Upon this Ochozias sent him a captain of fifty soldiers to summon him to come down from the mountain and to account for his words, but Elias answered: “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume thee, and thy fifty.” And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and the fifty that were with him (Breviary).

Still later, Elias set out towards the Jordan with Eliseus, and when they had crossed the river, a fiery chariot and horses separated them from each other, while Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven, then Eliseus took up Elias’s mantle that had fallen from him, and received a double portion of his spirit, while all Elias’ disciples exclaimed: “The spirit of Elias hath rested upon Eliseus.”

On one occasion, when Elias was on his way up to Bethel he was mocked by some small boys, crying: “Go up, thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head.” And Elias cursed them in the name of God whom they had offended, “and there came forth two bears out of the forest and tore them two and forty boys.”

All his life, Elias, with his words of fire, championed the rights of almighty God. Much later John the Baptist “came forward in the spirit and power of Elias,” clad like him, and like him dwelling in the desert; defending, with the same impassioned voice, the same rights of God, and foretelling the separation which Christ, who was at hand, would make between the chaff and the wheat. “He will gather the wheat into His barns, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” “Elias,” says St. Augustine, “was a type of our Redeemer and Lord. Elias suffered persecution from the Jews; our Lord, the true Elias, was despised, and rejected by this same people. Elias left his own country; Christ forsook the synagogue and made welcome the Gentiles (2^nd Nocturn).

Continuing the comparison, we may say the God rescued Elias from his enemies by raising him into the sky; and in the same way he took Christ from among His enemies, by making Him go up to heaven on Ascension Day. “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, and defend me from them that rise up against me” (Alleluia).

Elias, carried away in a chariot of fire, was in the language of the Fathers, the type of Jesus ascending to heaven. The Gradual uses the same verse of the eight psalm which the liturgy employs on Ascension Day. “Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth. Thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.” The Introit adds: “Behold God is my helper and the Lord is the protector of my soul. Save me, O God, by Thy name and deliver me by Thy strength.” This triumph of Christ over those who hated Him, typified by that of Elias over his despisers, will be ours also, if we do not “tempt Christ,” that is, if we avoid idolatry, impurity, and murmuring (Epistle), remaining faithful to grace. For if our Lord continues to be offered up on our altars to “make His work to avail on our behalf” (Secret), and if “eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, we abide in Him and He in us” (Communion), it is in order that “united” to Him (Postcommunion) we may faithfully keep His judgments which are “sweeter than honey” (Offertory).

St. Paul indeed, tells us: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (Epistle). Let us, therefore, beseech the Lord that His merciful ears “may be open to the prayers” of His suppliants and, in order that to those who seek He may surely give that for which they ask, He may make us to ask only for those things which are well-pleasing to Him (Collect).

But divine justice is not content with protecting the just against their enemies and with rewarding them for their fidelity; it punishes also those who do evil. Elias threatened the faithless kingdom of Israel and made fire from heaven to fall on his enemies (Breviary). The Israelites who tempted Christ by their murmurings perished by firey serpents (Epistle), and Jerusalem, over which our Lord wept and whose punishment He foretold for its rejection of Himself, was destroyed by war and fire (Gospel). Three and twenty thousand of the children of Israel, we read, perished in one day through fornication and many were destroyed because of their murmuring. “Now,” St Paul tells us, “all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction’ (Epistle).

More than a million Jews perished at the destruction of Jerusalem because they had rejected the Messias, and in the Gospel our Lord always compared this tragic ending to the catastrophes which will mark the end of all time when God will come to judge the world by fire.

At that moment, the divine judge will accomplish the separation of the good from the evil, rewarding the first and banishing from the kingdom of God all who have denied Him by their unbelief or their sin, just as He drove from the Temple, the type of the Church on earth and in heaven, the traffickers who had transformed that house of God into a den of thieves (Gospel). “Turn back the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth, O Lord my protector” (Introit). For then the time of mercy will have passed, and that of justice only will remain. “Wherefore,” says the apostle, “he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (Epistle).

INTROIT:

Ps. 138. To me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened.

Ps. Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me; thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up. Glory be, etc. To me thy friends, O God, are etc.

COLLECT:

Be thou, O Lord, the sanctifier and protector of Thy people; that, strengthened by the aid of James, Thy Apostle, they may please Thee in their lives and may serve Thee without fear. Through our Lord, etc.

Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy suppliant people: and that Thou mayest grant them their desires, make them to ask such things as please Thee. Through our Lord, etc.

Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that we who are keeping the festival of blessed Christopher, thy Martyr, may at his intercession be strengthened in the love of thy name. Through our Lord, etc.

EPISTLE: 1 Cor. 4, 9-15.

Brethern: I think that God hath set forth us apostles, the last, as it were men appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we without honour. Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode; And we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless; we are persecuted, and we suffer it. We are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now. I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.

GRADUAL:

Ps. 44. Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth: they shall remember thy name, O Lord. In place of thy fathers, sons are born to thee: therefore shall people praise thee. Alleluia, alleluia.

John 15. I have chosen you out of the world, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain. Alleluia.

GOSPEL: Matt. 20, 20-23.

At. that time: The mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.

OFFERTORY:

Ps. 18. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth; and their words unto the ends of the world.

SECRET:

May our offerings, we pray, O Lord, find favor in Thy sight, through the holy sufferings of blessed James the Apostle; and as they have no worth from any merits of ours, may they be well-pleasing to Thee through his prayer. Through our Lord, etc.

Grant us, we pray, O Lord, worthily to frequent these mysteries; because every time this commemorative sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our redemption is enacted. Through our Lord, etc.

As thou hast received our gifts and prayers, O Lord, cleanse us, we pray, by thy heavenly mysteries, and graciously hear us. Through our Lord, etc.

PREFACE OF THE APOSTLES:

It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, to entreat Thee humbly, O Lord, that Thou wouldst not desert Thy flock, O everlasting Shepherd, but, through Thy blessed Apostles, wouldst keep it under Thy constant protection; that it may be governed by those same rulers, whom as vicars of Thy work, Thou didst set over it to be its pastors. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing the hymn of Thy glory, evermore saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, etc.

COMMUNION:

Matt. 19. You that have followed me shall sit upon seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

POSTCOMMUNION:

Help us, O Lord, we pray, through the intercession of Thy blessed Apostle James, on whose festival we have joyfully received Thy holy mysteries. Through our Lord, etc.

May the communion of Thy sacrament, O Lord, we pray, afford us purification and grant us unity. Through our Lord, etc.

Grant, we pray, O Lord our God, that we who in time render joyful service in memory of thy saints, may be gladdened by their company in eternity. Through our Lord, etc.

LAST GOSPEL: Luke 19, 41-47.

At that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace: but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side; and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee; and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: It is written, “My house is a house of prayer. but you have made it a den of thieves.” And He was teaching daily in the temple.

Why did our Saviour weep over the city of Jerusalem?

Because of the ingratitude and obduracy of its inhabitants who would not receive Him as their Redeemer, and who through impenitence were hastening to destruction.

When was the time of visitation?

The period in which God sent them one prophet after another who urged them to penance, and whom they persecuted, stoned, and killed. (Matt. 23, 34). It was especially the time of Christ's ministry, when He so often announced His salutary doctrine in the temple of Jerusalem, confirmed it by miracles, proving Himself to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, but was despised and rejected by this hardened and impenitent city.

Who are prefigured by this hardened and impenitent city?

The hard-hearted, unrepenting sinners who will not recognize the time of God's visitation, in which He urges them by the mouth of His preachers, confessors, and superiors, and by inward inspiration to reform their lives and seek the salvation of their soul, but who give no ear to these admonitions, and defer conversion to the end of their lives. Their end will be like to that of this impious city; then the enemy, that is, the evil spirit, will surround their soul, tempt, terrify, and drag it into the abyss of ruin. Oh, how foolish it is to squander so lightly, the time of grace, the days of salvation! Oh, how would the damned do penance, could they but return to earth! Oh, how industriously would they employ the time to save their soul! Use, then, my dear Christian, the time of grace which God designs for you, and which, when it is run out or carelessly thrown away, will not be lengthened for a moment.

Will God conceal from the wicked that which serves for their salvation?

No; but while they are running after the pleasures of this life, as St. Gregory says, they see not the misfortunes treading in their footsteps, and as consideration of the future makes them uncomfortable in the midst of their worldly pleasures, they remove the terrible thought far from them, and thus run with eyes blindfolded in the midst of their pleasure into eternal flames. Not God, but they themselves hide the knowledge of all that is for their peace, and thus they perish.

ASPIRATION. I beseech Thee, O Lord, who didst weep over the city of Jerusalem, because it knew not the time of its visitation, to enlighten my heart, that I may know and profit by the season of grace.

PROPER OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 25^th:

25	Sun	St. James the Greater, Apostle 9^th Sunday after Pentecost *St. Christopher, M*	d2cl	R		9:00 AM; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM
26	Mon	St. Anne, Mother of the BVM, W	d2cl	W		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
27	Tue	St. Pantaleon, M	sp	R		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
28	Wed	St. Nazarius & Companions, Mm	sd	R		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
29	Thu	St. Martha, V *St. Feliz II & Companions, Mm*	sd	W		Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
30	Fri	Ss. Abdon & Sennen, Mm	sp	R	A	Mass 6:00 PM; Rosary of Reparation 5:30 PM
31	Sat	St. Ignatius of Loyola, C	dm	W		Mass 9:00 AM; Rosary of Reparation & Confession 8:30 AM
1	Sun	10^th Sunday after Pentecost *St. Peter’s Chains* *St. Paul, Ap* *The Holy Machabees, Mm*	sd	G		9:00 AM; Members Ss. Peter & Paul; Rosary of Reparation 8:30 AM; Confessions 8:00 AM

St. Ann Anne, Patroness of Christian Mothers

To St. Anne, God has given the power to aid in every necessity, because Jesus, her Divine Grandchild according to the flesh, will refuse her no petition, and Mary, her glorious daughter, supports her every request. Those who venerate good St. Anne shall want for nothing, either in this life or the next. Believe me, if you love and venerate this Saint, you will experience how highly God esteems her. He grants all she asks! It would be impossible to enumerate the many graces she obtains daily for her servants.

Abbot John Trithemius

Anne is the glorious tree from which bloomed a twig under Divine influence. She is the sublime heaven from whose heights the Star of the Sea neared its rising. She is the blessed barren woman, happy mother among mothers, from whose pure womb came forth the shining temple of God, the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, the Mother of God.

St. Jerome

Blessed, thrice blessed art thou, O Saint Anne, who didst receive from God and brought forth the blessed child from whom proceeded Christ, the Flower of life! We congratulate thee, O blessed Anne, on the dignity of being the mother of Mary, for thou hast brought forth our common hope, the germ of Promise! All pious lips bless thee in thy daughter, all languages glorify thy child! Worthy art thou above all praise, worthy of the praise of all who are redeemed, for thou hast given life to her who brought forth our Savior, Jesus Christ.

St. John Damascene

From her very childhood, she possessed the fullness of every virtue. She was continually engaged in devout meditation. Her unceasing prayer was that the Redeemer might come soon.

St. Mary of Agreda

In desperate cases of need, I always invoke the holy mother Anne.

Blessed Anna Catherine Emmerich

We do not doubt that the more love we show to the mother of Mary, the more we merit the intercession and aid of the holy Virgin who brought forth the only-begotten Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pope Gregory XV

We know and are convinced that our good mother St. Anne helps in all needs, dangers and tribulations, for Our Lord wishes to show us that He will do also in Heaven what she asks of Him for us.

St. Teresa of Avila

“Into whatever city or town you shall enter,” said Jesus to His disciples, “inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide.” Now St. Luke relates that as they went, our Lord Himself “entered into a certain town, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.” How could we give a greater praise to Magdalen’s sister than by bringing together these two texts of the holy Gospel?

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, St. Martha

St. Ignatius received his first call three weeks after Luther had completed his rebellion… Ten months of diabolilcal manifestations prepared Satan’s lieutenant and on March 25^th left Wartburg. In the same month on the 25^th, on the glorious night of the Incarnation, the brilliant soldier in the armies of the Catholic kingdom, the descendant of the families of Ognes and Loyola, clad in sackcloth, the uniform of poverty, to indicate his new projects, watched his arms in prayer at Montserrat; then hanging up his trusty sword at Mary’s altar, he went forth to make trial of his future combats by a merciless war against himself.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola

What strikes us at once in the history of the Society of Jesus is that it was matured at its very first formation. Whosoever knows the first founders of the Company knows the whole Company, in its spirit, its aim, its enterprises, its proceedings, its methods. What a generation was that which gave it birth! What union of science and activity, of interior life and military life! One may say they were universal men, men of a giant race, compared with whom we are but insects.”

Cardinal Louis-Edouard Pie of Poitiers, who St. Pius X referred as “my mentor” and a “second St. Hiliary,” on the Society of Jesus.

O most loving Word of God, teach me to be generous, to serve You as You deserve: to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any other reward save that of knowing that I do Your holy will.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

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

But in order to take away all the excuses which are wont to be brought forward by some for not hearing holy Mass, there shall be adduced, in the following chapter, various examples adapted to every sort of person, to show that, if they deprive themselves of so great a good, it is by their own fault, their tepidity, their weariness in well-doing; and that great indeed shall be their remorse on this account at the point of death.

St. Leonard of Port Maurice, The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass

Humility is like purity: however little it may be contaminated it becomes impure. Purity is corrupted not only by an impure act, but also by an immodest word or thought. And humility is also so fragile that it is easily tainted by the love of praise, by a word or thought of self-esteem, by vainglory or self-love.

Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, Humility of Heart

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

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

Your divine Providence, O god, takes care of all Your creatures as though they were but one, and it takes care of each one as though all others were contained in it. Oh! If Your Providence were only understood, everyone would forget the things of this world to be united to it.

St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi

Remember in your charity the following pray requests:

Please pray for our expectant mothers: Becky Trott and Andrea Ebert,

Julio Vargas requests prayers for the welfare of his aunt, Isabel Viquez, who is gravely ill,

Steve Trott asks our prayers for the welfare of his brother, Chris Trott,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for Charles Valenti, who is dying and his wife, Julia,

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

Fr. Gerard Rusak asks our prayers for Michael Frayn, who was severely injured in a car accident.

The welfare of Marie Mackin, the mother of Joseph Mackin, who is ill,

Peter Schriver, the brother of Dan Scriver, who is seriously ill,

Mrs. Tetherow requests our prayers for Bryan Tetherow family,

Welfare of the Victor and Geraldine Caceres family,

The Drew’s ask our prayers for the Joe & Tracy Sentmanat family, welfare of Keith & Lisa Drew, and the Timothy & Christy Koziol Family,

For Bob, a man who lives by the chapel, has asked for our prayers in his behalf,

For the health and welfare of Don Emlett and his family,

Pamela Noel petitions our prayers for her father, George Glass, who is failing health,

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

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

The Sbardello Family asks our prayers for their son, Rocco Sbardello, who is gravely ill and in need of conversion,

Eileen Rzecinski asks our prayers for her health,

Crystal Keating asks our prayers for the welfare of her grandmother, Mary Noel, her family, her husband, Eugene, and Mary Altland,

Gail Lewis requests our prayers for her friend, Betty Geiger, who has been diagnosed with cancer,

The welfare of Conde McGinley, a long time pillar within the traditional movement,

Rev. Timothy A. Hopkins, asks our prayers for himself, his mother, the Mission of St. Philomena in Miami, and the welfare of Fr Jean-Luc Lafitte,

The health and welfare of Augusta Wildt,

For the welfare of Ed Snell and Luanne Ferguson and their legal cases in the defense of children in their mother’s womb,

For the conversion of the daughter of Simon O’Leary, Margaret E. O'Neill, her husband Robert, and their seven children,

For the welfare of Anthony Maleski, a young Catholic father of three severely injured in a train accident,

Barbara Taaffe asks prayers for Etta Vanderwerken, and her brother, John Cox, Kenneth Abare, Andres Heckenkamp, and Louis DeMeotto,

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

Michelle Parthemore requests our prayers for the welfare of her family,

David Romeo asks our prayers for the health and welfare of his wife, Kim, and his aunt, Margaret Romeo,

Cecilia Nico requests prayers for the health and conversion for Sharon O’Connell, Kate Neason & Barb Bucher,

Joyce Paglia has asked prayers for George Richard Moore Sr., and her children, Lease, Christopher, Perry, and Debbie,

The health and welfare of our friend, Don Lewis,

The special intention and welfare of Julio Vargas, and for the conversion of Karla and Grace Vargas,

The Pitman’s request our prayers for the health and welfare of Theresa Wagner, Jan Sigler, Lois Curtis, Jennie Johansen, and for Caroline’s sister, Charlotte Grossane, who has been diagnosed with cancer,

The health of Nancy Bennett, the daughter of Peg and Bill Barry,

Helen Crane, the aunt of David Drew who is in failing health,

Jason Kolinsky, asks our prayers for his intention,

For the welfare of Anthony and Joyce Paglia, who are responsible for the beautiful statuary in our chapel,

The Drew’s ask your prayers for the Gene Peters Family, the John Manidis Family, the Sal Massinio Family, and John Cuono,

Please pray for Fr. Michael Jurecki, an old and faithful traditional priest, who is in failing health,

Philip Thees asks our prayers for his family, for McLaughlin Family, and the conversion of Helen Mackewicz and Bruce Heller, the welfare of Dan Polly Weand and, and the conversion of Sophia Herman, the special intention of John and Louis Fergale, the welfare of Deacon Michael Erdeck and his wife Nancy, the health of Grace Prestano, Connie DiMaggio, and his uncle, John Thees.

“The father of the Preachers (St. Dominic) established his principle on the light, by making it his aim and his armour; he took upon him the office of the Word My Son, sowing My word, dispelling darkness, enlightening the earth; Mary, by whom I gave him to the world, made him the extirpator of heresies.”

ternal Father to St. Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of St. Catherine

Pray for the Repose of the Souls:

Elaine (Benjie) Crowley, the mother of a John Crowley, a friend of David Drew,

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

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

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

Joseph Montagne, who died May 5^th,

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

Fr. Enrique Rueda, who died December 14^th,

Barbara Sahd, the grandmother of Stephanie Fonticoba who died December 7^th,

Anton Moore, the brother of Stan Moore who died December 2^nd,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for his brother, Leonard Edward Peterson, and his cousin, Wanda, who died this October,

Philip Thees petitions our prayers for Beverly Romanick, who died November 9^th,

Fr. Didier Bonneterre, the author of The Liturgical Movement, who died September 15^th, and Fr. John Peek, who died September 7^th,

Derrick Palengat, Andre Ebert’s godfather,

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

Elizabeth Vargas requests prayers for her grandmother, Petrona Zeballos Zolva, and her uncle, Nelson Torchino,

Walter Joseph Bialek, the father of Alice Mansell,

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

Stephen Majchrzak, a Catholic from Baltimore,

Mary Cahill, a friend of the Drew’s who died August 12^th,

Crystal Keating requests our prayers for Doug Emlet,

Barbara Taaffe asks our prayers for Lorinda Bargallo, Helen Zibolshi, Rose Satalino, and her brother, Joseph Cox,

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

The Pitman’s ask our prayers for Howard Corl, who died February 10^th,

Elizabeth Mirarchi, the sister of Conde McGinley,

Simon P. O’Leary who died November 4^th,

David Romeo asks our prayers for his aunt, Gloria Jean Romeo, and his uncles, Stanley Calderia and John Calderia,

Cecilia Nico requests prayers for the repose of her aunt, Ethel Fonner, who died Oct. 16^th,

The grandfather of Tyler Kauffman, Fredrick Anthony Iamurri,

Joyce Paglia has asked for our prayers for her son, George Richard Moore, who died May 14^th,

Fr. Peterson asks our prayers for the repose of the souls of the six priests who were ordained with him sixty years ago,

Joseph and Eleanor Lauctes, the brother-in-law and sister of Regina Spahalski, and her brother, Bernard Adams,

Emilce Vargas, the grandmother of Julio Vargas, and his grandfather, Carlos Gutierrez,

Benjamin Sorace, the uncle of Sonya Kolinsky,

Kelly Donovan Jacquot, the sister-in-law of Gail Lewis,

Jim Lewis, the brother of Don Lewis,

Sue Heindel, the sister of Pam Noel.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

Has our divine Savior's prophecy concerning, the city of Jerusalem been fulfilled?

Yes, and in the most terrible manner. The Jews, oppressed by the Romans their cruel masters, revolted, killed many of their enemies, and drove them out of Jerusalem. Knowing well that this would not be permitted to pass unavenged, the Jews armed themselves for a desperate resistance. The Emperor Nero sent a powerful army under the command of Vespasian against the city of Jerusalem, which first captured the smaller fortresses of Judea, and then laid siege to the city. The want and misery of the inhabitants had already reached the highest pitch; for within the city ambitious men had caused conflicts; factions had been formed, daily fighting each other, and reddening the streets with blood, while the angry Romans stormed outside. Then a short time of respite was granted to the unfortunate Jews. The Emperor Nero was murdered at Rome in the year of our Lord 68; his successor Galba soon died, and the soldiers placed their beloved commander Vespasian upon the imperial throne. He then left Jerusalem with his army, but in the year he sent his son Titus with a new army to Judea, with orders to capture the city at any price, and to punish its inhabitants.

It was the time of Easter, and a multitude of Jews had assembled from all provinces of the land, when Titus appeared with his army before the gates of Jerusalem, and surrounded the city. The supply of food was soon exhausted, famine and pestilence came upon the city and raged terribly. The leader of the savage revolutionists, John of Gischala, caused the houses to be searched, and the remaining food to be torn from the starving, or to be forced from them by terrible tortures: To save themselves from this outrageous tyrant, the Jews took the leader of a band of robbers, named Simon, with his whole gang into the city. John and Simon with their followers now sought to annihilate each other. John took possession of the temple. Simon besieged him; blood was streaming in the temple and in the streets. Only when the battle-din of the Romans was heard from without, did the hostile factions unite, go to meet the enemy, and resist his attack. As the famine increased, many Jews secretly left the city to seek for herbs. But Titus captured them with his cavalry, and crucified those who were armed. Nearly five hundred men, and sometimes more, were every day crucified in sight of the city, so that there could not be found enough of crosses and places of execution; but even this terrible sight did not move the Jews to submission. Incited by their leaders to frenzy, they obstinately resisted, and Titus finding it impossible to take the city by storm, concluded to surround it by walls in order to starve the inhabitants. In three days his soldiers built a wall of about ten miles in circumference, and thus the Saviour's prediction was fulfilled: Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side.

The famine in this unfortunate city now reached its most terrific height; the wretched inhabitants searched the very gutters for food, and ate the most disgusting things. A woman, ravenous from hunger, strangled her own child, roasted it, and ate half of it; the leaders smelling the horrible meal, forced a way into the house, and by terrible threats compelled the woman to show them what she had eaten; she handed them the remaining part of the roasted child, saying.: "Eat it, it is my child; I presume you are not more dainty than a woman, or more tender than a mother." Stricken with horror they rushed from the house. Death now carried away thousands daily, the streets and the houses were full of corpses: From the fourteenth of April when the siege commenced. to the first of July, there were counted one hundred and fifty-eight thousand dead bodies; six hundred thousand others were thrown over the walls into the trenches to save the city from infection. All who could flee, fled; some reached the camp of the Romans in safety; Titus spared the helpless, but all who fell into his hands armed, were crucified. Flight offered no better security. The Roman soldiers had learned that many Jews had swallowed, gold to secure it from the avarice of the robbers, and therefore the stomachs of many were cut open. Two thousand such corpses were found one morning in the camp of the Romans. The attempts of Titus to prevent this cruelty were unavailing. Finally, when misery had reached its height, Titus succeeded in carrying the fort, Antonia, and with his army forced a passage as far as the temple which had been held by John of Gischala with his infamous band. Desirous of saving the temple, Titus offered the revolutionists free passage from it, but his proposition was rejected, and the most violent contest then raged; the Romans trying to enter the temple, and being continually repulsed, at last, one of the soldiers seized a firebrand, and threw it into one of the rooms attached to the temple. The flames in an instant caught the whole of the inner temple, and totally consumed it, so that this prediction of our Lord was also fulfilled. The Romans butchered all the inhabitants whom they met, and Titus having razed the ruins of the temple and city, ploughed it over, to indicate that this city was never to be rebuilt. During the siege one million one hundred thousand Jews lost their lives; ninety-seven thousand were sold as slaves, and the rest of the people dispersed over the whole earth.

Thus God punished the impenitent city and nation, over whose wretchedness the Saviour wept so bitterly, and thus was fulfilled the prediction made by Him long before.

What do we learn from this?

That as this prediction so also all other threats and promises of the Saviour will be fulfilled. The destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, are historical facts which cannot be denied, and testify through all centuries to the truth of our Lord's word: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Matt. 24, 35).

USEFUL LESSONS CONCERNING DEATH-BED REPENTANCE

Can a sinner rely upon his being converted at the end of his life?

By no means, for this would be a sin against the mercy of God which is much the same as the sin against the Holy Ghost. "God," says St. Augustine, "generally so punishes such negligent sinners, that in the end they forget themselves, as in health they forgot Him." He says: They have turned their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us! Where are the gods whom thou hast made thee? Let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction. (Jer. 2, 27-28). And although we have a consoling example in the case of the penitent thief, yet this, as St. Augustine says, is only one, that the sinner may not despair: and it is only one, so that the sinner may have no excuse for his temerity in putting off his repentance unto the end.

What may we hope of those who are converted at the close of life?

Everything that is good if they be truly converted, but this is a very rare thing, as St. Augustine says: "It cannot be asserted with any security, that he who repents at the end has forgiveness;" and St. Jerome writes: "Scarcely one out of thousands whose life was impious, will truly repent at death and obtain forgiveness of sin;" and St. Vincent Ferrer says, "For a man who has lived an impious life to die a good death is a greater miracle than the raising of the dead to life." We need not be surprised at this, for repentance at the end of life is extorted by the fear of death and the coming judgment. St. Augustine says, that it is not he who abandons sin, but sin abandons him, for he would not cease to offend God, if life were granted him. What can we expect from such a conversion?

When should we repent?

While we are in health, in possession of our senses and strength, for according to the words of St. Augustine, the repentance of the sick is a sickly repentance. As experience proves, man while ill is so tormented and bewildered by the pains of sickness and the fear of death, by remorse of conscience, and the temptations of the devil as well as by anxiety for those whom he leaves, that he can scarcely collect his thoughts, much less fit himself for true repentance. Since it is so hard for many to do penance while they are in health, and have nothing to prevent them from elevating their mind to God, how much more difficult will it be for them, when the body is weakened and tortured by the pains of sickness. It has been made known by many persons when convalescent, that they retained not the slightest recollection of anything which occurred during their illness, and although they confessed and received the last Sacraments, they did not remember it. If then you have committed a grievous sin, do not delay to be reconciled as soon as possible by contrition and a sacramental confession. Do not put off repentance from day to day, for thereby conversion becomes more difficult, so much so that without extraordinary grace from God, you cannot repent God does not give His grace to the presumptuous scoffer.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH GRACE 9^th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD ‑ O Lord, grant that Your grace in me may not be void.

MEDITATION:

I. Today the liturgy invites us to consider the grave problem of our correspondence with grace. It does this by showing us the sad picture of the sufferings of Israel, the chosen people, upon whom God had showered His benefits, whom He had surrounded with graces, protected with jealous care, and who, in spite of all this, were lost through their own infidelity. In the Epistle (I Cor 10, 6‑13), St. Paul, after mentioning certain points about Israel's unfaithfulness, concludes : " Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction .... Wherefore, he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. " This is a strong call to vigilance and humility. If God has gone before us with His graces, if He has called us to a more intense interior life and to closer intimacy with Himself, all this, far from making us presumptuous, should deepen our humility of heart. God's gifts are preserved beneath the ashes of humble mistrust of self. Woe to us if we consider ourselves henceforth free from the weaknesses which we meet and, perhaps, condemn in others! Rather let us humbly say : " Lord, help me, or I shall do worse."

At the same time that he exhorts us to be humble, St. Paul also urges us to have confidence, because " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able : but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. " The Apostle is telling us that the knowledge of our weakness should not discourage us, because God is always ready to sustain us with His grace. God knows our weaknesses, the struggles we have to undergo, and the temptations that assail us; and for each of them He gives us the measure of grace we need in order to triumph over them. It is very true that when the storm is raging we can feel only the impact of the struggle, and the grace that God is giving to help us remains completely hidden; nevertheless, this grace is there and we should be certain of it, because " God is faithful. " " God has always helped me .... " St. Therese of the Child Jesus said, " I count on His aid. My sufferings may reach even greater heights, but I am sure He will not abandon me " (St).

2. The Gospel (Lk. 19,41‑47) continues the same subject of the Epistle and shows us Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. The Creator, the Lord, the Redeemer weeps over the ruin of His creatures, the people whom He has loved with predilection, even choosing them as the companions of His earthly life, and whom He had desired to save at any price.

" Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered together thy children as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not! " (Mt 23,37) This was the constant attitude of Jesus toward the holy city, but it always remained blind to every light, deaf to every invitation, and the Savior, shortly before going to His Passion, broke forth into His last sorrowful admonition : " If thou also hadst known and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace! " But again the city resists, and Jesus, after having loved it so much, and after having wept over it as a mother weeps over her son who has gone astray, predicts its ruin : " Thy enemies . . . shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. "

Do you know how to recognize the moments in which Our Lord visits your soul? A word read or heard, perhaps even by chance, an edifying example, an interior inspiration, a new light which makes you see your faults more clearly and opens new horizons of virtue and of good‑all are visits from Jesus. And you, how do you correspond? Is your soul sensitive to these lights, to these admonitions? Do you not sometimes turn your gaze away, fearing that the light you have glimpsed may ask you for sacrifices which are too painful for your self‑love?

Oh! if you had always recognized the moment in which the Lord visited you! If you had always been open to His action! Try then to begin again today, resolve to commence anew each time that you happen to give in to nature. " The things that are to your peace, " your good, your sanctification are precisely here, in this continual adherence to the impulses of grace.

COLLOQUY:

“As I have already confessed to You, O glory of my life, O Lord God, strength of my salvation, I have sometimes placed my hopes in my own virtue, which was no virtue, and when I attempted to run, thinking I was very strong, I fell very quickly and went backward instead of forward. What I expected to reach, disappeared, and thus, O Lord, in various ways You have tested my powers. With light from You, I now see that I could not accomplish by myself the things that I wanted to do most. I said to myself:

‘ I shall do this, I shall finish that, ' and I did not do either the one or the other. The will was there but not the power, and if the power was there, my will was not; this because I had trusted in my own strength. Sustain me then, O Lord, for alone I can do nothing. However, when You are my stability, then it is true stability; but when I am my own stability, then it is weakness''

(St. Augustine).

" O Lord, teach me to be always docile to Your grace, to say ` yes ' to You always. To say ` yes ' to Your will as expressed in the commandments, to say ` yes ' to the intimate inspirations by which You invite me to a more intense union, to more generous self‑denial and more complete detachment. Grant that I may always be ready to open the door of my will to You, or rather, to keep it open always, so that You can enter there, and thus I shall not miss a single one of Your visits, a single one of Your delicate touches; not one of Your requests will escape me.

" Make me understand well that true peace does not consist in being exempt from difficulties or in following my own wishes, but in total adherence to Your will, and in docility to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit " (cf. Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, and have made them wander in the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.

Jer. 50:6

The Essence of the New Theology is its Denial of the Immutability of Truth

(The New Theology) revisits modernism. Because it accepted the proposition which was intrinsic to modernism: that of substituting, as if it were illusory, the traditional definition of truth: aequatio rei et intellectus (the adequation of intellect and reality), for the subjective definition: adequatio realis mentis et vitae (the adequation of intellect and life). That was more explicitly stated in the already cited proposition, which emerged from the philosophy of action, and was condemned by the Holy Office, December 1, 1924: “Truth is not found in any particular act of the intellect wherein conformity with the object would be had, as the Scholastics say, but rather truth is always in a state of becoming, and consists in a progressive alignment of the understanding with life, indeed a certain perpetual process, by which the intellect strives to develop and explain that which experience presents or action requires: by which principle, moreover, as in all progression, nothing is ever determined or fixed.”

The truth is no longer the conformity of judgment to intuitive reality and its immutable laws, but the conformity of judgment to the exigencies of action, and of human life which continues to evolve. The philosophy of being or ontology is substituted by the philosophy of action which defines truth as no longer a function of being but of action.

Thus is modernism reprised: “Truth is no more immutable than man himself, inasmuch as it is evolved with him, in him and through him. As well, Pius X said of the modernists, “they pervert the eternal concept of truth.”

Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Where is the New Theology Leading Us?

The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity

On the Inerrancy of Sacred Scripture

Vatican preparatory document for the October Synod of Bishops (2008) Teaches:

In summary, the following can be said with certainty … — with regards to what might be inspired in the many parts of Sacred Scripture, inerrancy applies only to ‘that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation’.

Instrumentum laboris, The Word of God in the Life and the Mission of the Church, article 15, a “working document” for the upcoming October Synod of Bishops; released from the Vatican June 12^th; emphasis added.

The Catholic Church Teaches:

The Old and New Testaments, “whole and with all their parts … [have] been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost [and] have God as their author.”

Vatican I

For all the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost; and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church, solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent, and finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. These are the words of the last: ‘The Books of the Old and New Testament, whole and entire, with all their parts, as enumerated in the decree of the same Council (Trent) and in the ancient Latin Vulgate, are to be received as sacred and canonical. And the Church holds them as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed by human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority; nor only because they contain revelation without error; but because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author.’ Hence, because the Holy Ghost employed men as His instruments, we cannot therefore say that it was these inspired instruments who, perchance, have fallen into error…

Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus

Divine inspiration does not extend to all of Sacred Scripture so that it renders its parts, each and every one free from every error.

Pope Saint Pius X’s Syllabus of Errors against the Modernists, condemned proposition

It is absolutely forbidden to pretend that the sacred writer himself has fallen into error, since Divine inspiration not only excludes any and all possible error in itself, but even loathes and excludes it, since God, Who is sovereign truth, cannot be the author of any possible error…. This doctrine which was so forcefully explained by our predecessor Leo XIII, We also propose with our pontifical authority, and We insist that it be held rigorously by all. Pope Pius XII, Divini Afflante Spiritu

Some boldly pervert the meaning of the definition of the Vatican Council, with respect to God as the author of Sacred Scripture and they revive the opinion, many times condemned, according to which the immunity of the Sacred Writings from error extends only to those matters which are handed down regarding God and moral and religious subjects.

Pius XII, Humani Generis

The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity, or,

From the “Kingship of Christ” to the Humanistic One World Government with “Teeth.”

There is a strongly felt need... for a reform of the United Nations Organisation, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth... there is urgent need of a true world political authority.

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate

“All public power must proceed from God. For God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world.”
No society can hold together unless some one be over all, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good, every body politic must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and has, consequently, God for its Author. Hence, it follows that all public power must proceed from God. For God alone is the true and supreme Lord of the world. Everything, without exception, must be subject to Him, and must serve him, so that whosoever holds the right to govern holds it from one sole and single source, namely, God, the sovereign Ruler of all. "There is no power but from God" (Rom 12:1)

Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei

“Whole human race is most truly under the power of Jesus Christ.”
This world-wide and solemn testimony of allegiance and piety is especially appropriate to Jesus Christ, who is the Head and Supreme Lord of the race. His empire extends not only over Catholic nations and those who, having been duly washed in the waters of holy baptism, belong of right to the Church, although erroneous opinions keep them astray, or dissent from her teaching cuts them off from her care; it comprises also all those who are deprived of the Christian faith, so that the whole human race is most truly under the power of Jesus Christ.

Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum

"Christ has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence nor usurped, but His by essence and by nature."

This same doctrine of the Kingship of Christ which we have found in the Old Testament is even more clearly taught and confirmed in the New. The Archangel, announcing to the Virgin that she should bear a Son, says that "the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end."

Moreover, Christ Himself speaks of His Own kingly authority: in His last discourse, speaking of the rewards and punishments that will be the eternal lot of the just and the damned; in His reply to the Roman magistrate, who asked Him publicly whether He were a king or not; after His resurrection, when giving to His Apostles the mission of teaching and Baptizing all nations, He took the opportunity to call Himself king, confirming the title publicly, and solemnly proclaimed that all power was given Him in Heaven and on earth. These words can only be taken to indicate the greatness of his power, the infinite extent of His kingdom. What wonder, then, that He Whom St. John calls the "prince of the kings of the earth" appears in the Apostle's vision of the future as He Who "hath on His garment and on His thigh written 'King of kings and Lord of lords!’” It is Christ Whom the Father "hath appointed heir of all things"; "for He must reign until at the end of the world He hath put all his enemies under the feet of God and the Father." …………. The foundation of this power and dignity of Our Lord is rightly indicated by Cyril of Alexandria. His kingship is founded upon the ineffable hypostatic union. From this it follows not only that Christ is to be adored by Angels and men, but that to Him as man Angels and men are subject, and must recognize His empire; by reason of the hypostatic union Christ has power over all creatures. But a thought that must give us even greater joy and consolation is this that Christ is our King by acquired, as well as by natural right, for He is our Redeemer. Would that they who forget what they have cost their Savior might recall the words: "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the Precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." We are no longer our own property, for Christ has purchased us "with a great price"; our very bodies are the "members of Christ."

Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas

Why the Modern Clerics Lack “Counsel, Reason, and Inspiration”?

They have been “gathering from strange and unwholesome streams”!

But the chief and special glory of St. Thomas, one which he has shared with none of the Catholic Doctors, is that the Fathers of Trent made it part of the order of conclave to lay upon the altar, together with sacred Scripture and the decrees of the supreme Pontiffs, the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, whence to seek counsel, reason, and inspiration. Our first and most cherished idea is that you should all furnish to studious youth a generous and copious supply of those purest streams of wisdom flowing inexhaustibly from the precious fountainhead of the Angelic Doctor…. be careful to guard the minds of youth from those which are said to flow thence (from St Thomas), but in reality are gathered from strange and unwholesome streams. Pope Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris (1879)

Again, if we are to avoid the errors which are the source and fountain-head of all the miseries of our time, the teaching of Aquinas must be adhered to more religiously than ever. For Thomas refutes the theories propounded by Modernists in every sphere:

in philosophy, by protecting, as We have reminded you, the force and power of the human mind and by demonstrating the existence of God by the most cogent arguments;

in dogmatic theology, by distinguishing the supernatural from the natural order and explaining the reasons for belief and the dogmas themselves;

in theology, by showing that the articles of faith are not based upon mere opinion but upon truth and therefore cannot possibly change;

in exegesis, by transmitting the true conception of divine inspiration;

in the science of morals, in sociology and law, by laying down sound principles of legal and social, commutative and distributive, justice and explaining the relations between justice and charity;

in the theory of asceticism, by his precepts concerning the perfection of the Christian life and his confutation of the enemies of the religious orders in his own day.

Lastly, against the much vaunted liberty of the human reason and its independence in regard to God he asserts the rights of primary Truth and the authority over us of the Supreme Master.

Pope Pius X, Doctoris Angelici (1914)

Ecumenism of St. Francis of Assisi

So great was the faith of men and women, so deep their reverence toward the Saint of God that whoever touched but the hem of his habit deemed himself indeed blessed. Whenever he entered a city, the clergy rejoiced and rang bells, men and women became jubilant, children gleefully clapped their hands, broke branches from the trees and met him with songs of joy. The damnable heresies were routed, the faith of the Church strengthened and while the faithful rejoiced, the heretics were put to flight… He declared most strongly that in all things and above all things, the Faith of the Holy Roman Church should be maintained, revered and observed, that in this Faith alone was salvation and by this Faith alone all could be saved.

Thomas of Celano on St. Francis of Assisi. Thomas of Celano was a Franciscan contemporary of St. Francis and his first biographer. He is also the author of the Dies Irae.

Ecumenism of St. Paul, Apostle

Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who cause dissensions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and to avoid them; for they that are such serve not Our Lord Christ, but their own belly, and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent (Rom. 16:17).

Ecumenism of St. John, Apostle

And this is charity, that we walk according to his commandments. For this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same: For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward. Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you. For he that saith unto him, God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works. (2 John 1, 6-11)

Ecumenism of Pope Pius XI

Meanwhile they (the heretics and schismatics) affirm that they would willingly treat with the Church of Rome, but on equal terms, that is as equals with an equal: but even if they could so act. it does not seem open to doubt that any pact into which they might enter would not compel them to turn from those opinions which are still the reason why they err and stray from the one fold of Christ. This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Mortalium Animos

and, the Ecumenism of Pope Benedict XVI

In our troubled world, so frequently marked by poverty, violence and exploitation, dialogue between cultures and religions must more and more be seen as a sacred duty incumbent upon all those who are committed to building a world worthy of man. The ability to accept and respect one another, and to speak the truth in love, is essential for overcoming differences, preventing misunderstandings and avoiding needless confrontations…. A sincere dialogue needs both openness and a firm sense of identity on both sides, in order for each to be enriched by the gifts of the other. In this spirit, then, I encourage you to persevere in your important work with patience and renewed commitment.

Recent Address to the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations

...that it is necessary to obey a pope in all things as long as he does not go against the universal custom of the Church, but should he go against the universal customs of the Church, he need not be followed.

Pope Innocent III

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.

Vatican Council I, Pastor Aeternus

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THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

USEFUL LESSONS CONCERNING DEATH-BED REPENTANCE

Can a sinner rely upon his being converted at the end of his life?

What may we hope of those who are converted at the close of life?

When should we repent?

CORRESPONDENCE WITH GRACE 9^th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity, or,

From the “Kingship of Christ” to the Humanistic One World Government with “Teeth.”

Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei

Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum

Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas

SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission

P.O. Box 7352, York, PA, 17408

717-792-2789

SaintsPeterandPaulRCM.Com

SaintsPeterandPaulRCM@comcast.net

To Restore and Defend Our Ecclesiastical Traditions of the Latin Rite to the

Diocese of Harrisburg

SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Chapel

129 South Beaver Street, York PA 17401

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

USEFUL LESSONS CONCERNING DEATH-BED REPENTANCE

Can a sinner rely upon his being converted at the end of his life?

What may we hope of those who are converted at the close of life?

When should we repent?

CORRESPONDENCE WITH GRACE 9th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The Hermeneutics of Continuity/Discontinuity, or,

From the “Kingship of Christ” to the Humanistic One World Government with “Teeth.”

Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei

Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum

Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas

CORRESPONDENCE WITH GRACE 9^th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST