| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 406 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 404 Guest(s)
Bing, Google
|
| Latest Threads |
Dom Prosper Guéranger: Th...
Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:50 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 6,934
|
The Feast of the Most Pre...
Forum: Pentecost
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:49 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 77
|
Prayers to the Precious B...
Forum: In Honor of Our Lord
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:32 AM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 14,293
|
The Catholic Trumpet: Wit...
Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
Last Post: Stone
06-30-2025, 09:03 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 113
|
Apologia pro Marcel Lefeb...
Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Last Post: Stone
06-30-2025, 08:51 AM
» Replies: 21
» Views: 5,550
|
Louis Veuillot: The Liber...
Forum: Uncompromising Fighters for the Faith
Last Post: Stone
06-30-2025, 08:28 AM
» Replies: 28
» Views: 5,258
|
Vatican announces new vot...
Forum: New Rite Sacraments
Last Post: Stone
06-30-2025, 08:24 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 90
|
Fr. Ruiz Sermons: Saints ...
Forum: Fr. Ruiz's Sermons June 2025
Last Post: Deus Vult
06-29-2025, 01:28 PM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 106
|
Fundraiser For The Orator...
Forum: Rev. Father David Hewko
Last Post: Stone
06-29-2025, 08:25 AM
» Replies: 2
» Views: 508
|
Third Sunday after Pentec...
Forum: Pentecost
Last Post: Stone
06-29-2025, 08:19 AM
» Replies: 5
» Views: 14,994
|
|
|
| UK Is "Likely" To Need Digital Currency, Says BoE & Treasury |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-07-2023, 09:29 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
 |
UK Is "Likely" To Need Digital Currency, Says BoE & Treasury
ZH | FEB 07, 2023
Authored by Ana Paula Pereira via CoinTelegraph.com,
The Bank of England (BoE) and His Majesty’s Treasury believe the United Kingdom is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2030, according to a Daily Telegraph report on Feb. 4.
The “digital pound” roadmap is set to be introduced next week, a government source told the newspaper. Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe is scheduled to give an update on the BoE’s work on the CBDC on Feb. 7
Quote:“On the basis of our work to date, the Bank of England and HM Treasury judge that it is likely a digital pound will be needed in the future,” BoE Governor Andrew Bailey and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt told the Telegraph.
The BoE declined to comment on the article but announced that a joint consultation on the digital pound would be released soon.
The U.K. reportedly experienced a 35% drop in cash and coin payments in 2020. Cash accounts for approximately one in six payments; debit and credit cards account for the other five. A central bank digital currency is a digital version of government-issued currency tied to fiat reserves at a 1:1 ratio.
The news comes just a few days after HM Treasury posted an open position on LinkedIn for a head of central bank digital currency. The job description presented the role as “important, complex, and cross-cutting”, requiring an “extensive engagement across and beyond the HM Treasury.”
The digital pound is one of many CBDCs expected to be introduced across the world in the years ahead. The European Central Bank has been discussing the future of a digital euro, with several countries, including Sweden and Denmark, also exploring the concept of digital currencies.
Last year, China’s digital yuan was launched in beta for iOS and Android local app stores. Recent developments include upgrades to smart contract functionality alongside a series of use cases, Cointelegraph reported.
|
|
|
| World Is Walking Into WW3 With "Eyes Wide Open" - UN Chief Tells General Assembly |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-07-2023, 09:24 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
World Is Walking Into WW3 With "Eyes Wide Open" - UN Chief Tells General Assembly
![[Image: unchieffile.jpg?itok=be_FErq-]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/unchieffile.jpg?itok=be_FErq-)
ZH | FEB 07, 2023
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday in a speech delivered before the 193-member UN General Assembly that the world is headed toward a "wider war" in Ukraine due to the ever-increasing risk of escalation.
"The prospects for peace keep diminishing," Guterres said. "The chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing." He then sounded the alarm that "I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open."
His starkly negative outlook for the crisis comes as Ukraine is warning that the Kremlin's largest offensive since the opening weeks of the war is looming, according to The New York Times, which further wrote:
Quote:The Ukrainian General Staff, which is responsible for military strategy, said in its daily battlefield update that the Russians fired on some two dozen towns and villages around Bakhmut, the ruined city that has become the focal point of Moscow’s campaign to seize all of the eastern area known as Donbas.
By many recent accounts the changes of Ukrainian forces holding on the Bakbmut look bleaker by the day, as Russian troops are busy encircling the strategic city in Donetsk.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Monday that the battle for the east is rapidly "heating up" as the Russian side throws "new units into the battle and eradicating our towns and villages."
Last month Ukrainian leaders began warning their Western backers that Putin has ordered hundreds of thousands more troops to muster along the border for a major new offensive; but such a potential escalation has failed to materialize thus far.
Also of note is something President Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News days ago...
While discussing the broader war, the Ukrainian leader said "If Ukraine falls, it would be the start of World War 3" - given that this would trigger major Western powers jumping in to back Kyiv directly in a bigger collective effort to defeat Russia.
|
|
|
|
| New Zealand: Fire at Waikato farm kills 50,000 chickens |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-06-2023, 12:28 PM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
Fire at Waikato farm kills 50,000 chickens
NZ Herald | 6 Feb, 2023
Thousands gathered for the Waitangi Day dawn service, more heavy rain and winds are expected in parts of the country, and China respond after the US shoot down a suspected spy balloon in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
A fire at a chicken farm in Orini has killed 50,000 egg-laying hens.
Zeagold Nutrition chief executive John McKay confirmed there was a fire at its egg-laying farm in Waikato.
“A supervisor on-site at our farm called the fire department at 7.40am today. All 12 staff members on site are safe and unharmed,” McKay said earlier today.
“Ten emergency vehicles are currently on site to contain the spread of the fire.”
McKay said the cause of the fire had not been determined and the focus was on the welfare of their hens.
McKay confirmed about 1pm that the fire had been contained.
“We’re pleased to report the fire has been contained, with Fire and Emergency NZ remaining on site to monitor any hot spots. At this stage, we still have to assess the full extent of the damage, but it was not as extensive as initially reported, with only two sheds affected.”
Initially, McKay said it had involved four sheds and had killed 75,000 hens. He later said 50,000 chickens died.
This evening he said “we have a specialist avian vet at Orini currently assessing and caring for the birds in the remaining sheds.
“His initial report is that the birds seem to be in good health. They will continue to be closely monitored in the coming days.
“It’s expected the onsite packing facility will be operational from this evening to ensure all the eggs unaffected by the fire can be packed and delivered to customers.”
It would take time to rebuild the sheds and restore flock numbers. In the meantime, the business would be “working hard to continue to supply eggs and get back to full capacity as soon as possible”.
“I know New Zealanders will be worried about what this means when eggs are in short supply. The reality is the losses at Orini, represent only 1.4 percent of the layer hen population nationally so while it’s a tragic loss it won’t have a significant impact on egg supply.”
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman said they received a report about 7.45am this morning of a fire at the farm on Old Rd.
“When we arrived the shed was well-involved with fire. We sent five fire trucks and three water tankers.”
There have been no injuries reported and a fire investigator was at the scene.
Read More
50,000 chickens dead as West Auckland poultry farm ...
Firefighters race to save farmhouse, douse hedge fire ...
Matanaka Farm homestead destroyed by fire...
Fire strikes major Wairarapa farm
Last month, New Zealand supermarket chains told customers to only buy what they need over the coming weeks, as a national shortage of eggs continues.
Those popping into local supermarkets have noticed a distinct lack of packaged eggs on the shelves and, in some cases, stores have gone completely without.
Egg Producers Federation executive director Michael Brooks said more than 75 per cent of chicken farmers were impacted due to a ban on battery-caged hens.
The ban was announced in 2012, when 84 per cent of all the country’s eggs were from battery farms.
The rules came into effect at the turn of 2023.
“The supermarkets’ announcement to refuse colony cage eggs, the end of the cage system, plus Covid, plus the grain cost rising because of the Ukraine war have all come together,” Brooks said.
Foodstuffs’ Emma Wooster echoed the federation’s reasoning behind the egg shortage.
The Foodstuffs brand oversees major supermarket brands Pak’nSave and New World. Wooster agreed the 2012 legislation has seen a “temporary decrease” in overall egg supply.
“It’s a significant change for the egg supply industry.
“To help support the transition and to make sure customers get a fair shake when they shop, Foodstuffs have put temporary limits on eggs.”
|
|
|
|
| Canada: Seafood Processing Plant Goes Up in Violent Blaze - It's a Total Loss |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-06-2023, 12:16 PM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
Seafood Processing Plant Goes Up in Violent Blaze - It's a Total Loss
WJ | February 5, 2023
A food processing plant in the Canadian province of New Brunswick went up in flames Friday.
Jim LeBlanc, owner of W.E. Acres Crabmeal Ltd., said the structure was a “total loss,” according to the Canadian Television Network.
The fire erupted at about 2 p.m.
LeBlanc told CTV News the fire was started by an explosion in an oil drum.
However, Ronald Cormier, fire chief of the village of Cap-Pelé, said the cause of the fire is still unknown, but that it did not appear to have been arson, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Although Cormier was quoted as saying no one was in the building when the fire started and no one was injured, LeBlanc said four people were inside and that he and one worker suffered minor injuries.
“Myself and one of my co-workers were injured, like burnt… first and second-degree burns. We’ll heal,” he told CTV.
LeBlanc told CTV his co-worker who was injured went to the hospital for treatment of second-degree burns.
The building produces fertilizer and animal feed, LeBlanc said.
Cormier told the CBC six fire departments spent more than four hours fighting the blaze.
According to the CBC, the fire was the fourth fish plant fire in the region including two fires that took place in 2021 and one from 2019.
After the second of the 2021 fires, which took place on two successive weekends, Louise Landry, mayor of the village of Beaubassin-est, said the incidents were unusual, according to CBC.
“We’re quite concerned,” she said at the time.
“The authorities will have to do the inquiries and we don’t want to jump to any conclusions. It’s also a loss of businesses, of jobs as well. And of course, all the residents that had to be evacuated today, [it] was quite scary for them also,” she said.
|
|
|
|
| Departing from Africa, Pope Francis renews call to end anti-sodomy laws |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-06-2023, 11:17 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
|
|
Departing from Africa, Pope Francis renews call to end anti-sodomy laws
The pontiff repeated his January 25 assertion that 'the criminalization of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored.'
![[Image: Screenshot-2023-02-06-111827-e1675682438868-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-06-111827-e1675682438868-810x500.jpg)
Pope Francis speaks aboard the papal plane as he departs Africa on February 5, 2023
YouTube/Screenshot
Feb 5, 2023
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (LifeSiteNews) — In a novel in-air press conference with the head of the Church of England and the head of the Church of Scotland, Pope Francis repeated his remarks first made on January 25 about the need for an end to anti-sodomy laws.
Noting that some 50 countries have anti-sodomy laws, Francis said as he was returning from a six-day trip to Africa, “The criminalization of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored.”
While the laws criminalize behaviors and not inclinations, Pope Francis conflated the two concepts in his remarks, saying of the anti-sodomy laws: “Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them… condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”
Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, which permits homosexual “marriage” in their churches, praised Francis for his remarks, as did the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the lead bishop of the Church of England, which permits homosexual blessings in their churches. “I entirely agree with every word he said there… I shall certainly quote the Holy Father. He said it so beautifully and accurately,” Welby said.
In his January 25 remarks, Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church needs to be involved in the dismantling of laws that criminalize homosexuality and that the Catholic bishops of Africa and other places that have such laws need a “conversion.”
The Pope’s mounting pressure on Africa in particular comes at the same time as a heavy push from the West to have Africa embrace homosexuality. The pressure has come in the form of loans and grants being contingent on such moves.
African Catholic bishops, however, remain firmly in support of anti-sodomy laws that protect school children form LGBT indoctrination in classrooms and also protect society from pedophilia, bestiality, pornography, adultery, prostitution and other sexual perversions that destabilize society.
|
|
|
|
| UK inks 10-year deal with Moderna to produce 250m vaccines in event of another pandemic |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-06-2023, 11:10 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- No Replies
|
|
UK inks 10-year deal with Moderna to produce 250m vaccines in event of another pandemic
![[Image: Moderna-pic.jpg?resize=742,495]](https://www.cityam.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Moderna-pic.jpg?resize=742,495)
Health Secretary Steve Barclay meets with Moderna’s UK General Manager Darius Hughes after finalising a partnership to protect the UK against global health threats. Picture by Lauren Hurley / Department of Health and Social Care
City AM | December 23, 2022
The UK government has signed a 10-year deal with Moderna to produce upwards of 250m vaccines a year in the event of a pandemic.
The investment will give NHS patients access to UK-made mRNA vaccines while a new innovation and technology centre will be created, with 150 highly skilled jobs.
In a major boost for the UK as a life sciences superpower, it will also boost health research and lead to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) working with Moderna in vaccine development.
The partnership, led by the Vaccine Taskforce , was announced in June of this year.
By producing vaccines in the UK, it will allow production to be massively scaled up in the event of a major health emergency, such as another pandemic or new covid variant.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Steve Barclay, said: “This time 2 years ago, the UK was the first country in the world to administer a COVID vaccine outside of a clinical trial. Since then, countless lives have been saved across the world and more than 150 million doses have been given in the UK alone.”
“It is vital we invest in fighting future variants of this disease as well as other deadly viruses that are circulating, such as seasonal flu and RSV, and this partnership with Moderna will also strengthen our ability to respond to any future pandemics.
“By boosting our onshore vaccine manufacturing capability, we are a step closer to becoming the leading global hub for life sciences. This partnership will support our crucial mission to protect the people of the UK and across the world through the development of revolutionary vaccines and research.”
The deal was heralded by Dr Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of UKHSA, who said it “will now be taking this forward as a vital part of our preparedness against future respiratory virus threats, including COVID-19.”
“Our scientists have been monitoring the evolution of the virus throughout the pandemic, and assuring continued protection for the population. This partnership will take the winning ways of working with industry and build the nation’s resilience, giving us rapid access to vaccines. We look forward to working closely with Moderna and playing a key role in supporting the government’s ambitious life sciences strategy.”
Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said: “Our new state-of-the-art facility will bring mRNA manufacturing to UK shores, providing the UK public with access to pandemic response capabilities through Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and future respiratory virus vaccine candidates.”
Richard Torbett, Chief Executive, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said: “This partnership is fantastic news for British manufacturing and UK-based science and research. It is an important reminder that the Life Sciences Industry has the potential to be a key growth driver for the UK economy.”
|
|
|
|
| St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Septuagesima Week |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-06-2023, 10:59 AM - Forum: Lent
- Replies (7)
|
|
I. - THE LOVE AND GOODNESS OF GOD TOWARDS US
As long as God has been God He has loved us. As long as He has loved Himself He has loved us. Let us, therefore, love God, because God hath first loved us (1 Jo. iv. 10).
I.
Consider that God deserves your love, because He loved you before you loved Him, and because He has been the first of all to love you. I have loved thee with an everlasting love (Jer. xxxi. 3). Your parents have been the first to love you on this earth; but they have loved you only since they have known you. Before your father or your mother came into this world, God loved you: even before the world was created, He loved you. And how long before the creation of the world did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years, or a thousand ages? It is useless to count years or ages; God has loved you from eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee (Jer. xxxi. 3). In a word, as long as He has been God, He has loved you; as long as He has loved Himself, He has loved you. Hence the holy virgin, St. Agnes, had reason to say: "I am prevented by another Lover." When the world and creatures sought her love, she answered: No, I cannot love you. My God has been the first to love me; it is but just, then, that I should consecrate all my love to Him alone.
Thus God has loved you from eternity, and through pure love has taken you from among so many men whom He could create; He has given you existence, and has placed you in the world. For the love of you God has created so many other beautiful creatures, that they might serve you, and remind you of the love He has borne to you, and of the love you owe to Him. "Heaven and earth," says St. Augustine, "tell me to love Thee." When the Saint looked at the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rivers, they appeared to him to speak, and say: "Augustine, love your God; for He has created us for you, that you might love Him." The Abbot de Rance, Founder of La Trappe, when he saw a hill, a fountain, or a flower, would say that all these creatures upbraided him with ingratitude to God. In holding a flower or fruit in her hand, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi felt her heart wounded as it were by a dart of Divine love, and would say within herself: "Then, my God has from eternity thought of creating this flower or fruit, that I might love Him."
O sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth, infinite Good, infinite Majesty, Who hast loved men so tenderly, how does it happen that Thou art so much despised by them? But among these men, Thou, O my God, hast loved me in a particular manner, and hast bestowed on me special graces which Thou hast not given to so many others. And I have despised Thee more than others. I prostrate myself at Thy feet; O Jesus, my Saviour, Cast me not away from thy face! (Ps.1. 13). I should deserve to be cast off on account of my ingratitude to Thee. But Thou hast said that Thou wilt not reject a penitent soul that returns to Thee. Him that cometh to me, I will not cast out (Jo. vi. 37).
II.
Consider, moreover, the special love God has shown to you in allowing you to be born in a Christian country, and in the bosom of the true Church. How many are born among idolaters, Jews, Mohammedans, or heretics, and are all lost! The number of those who have the happiness of being born in a country where the true Faith prevails, is small, compared with the rest of mankind; and He has chosen you to be one of that small number. Oh, what an infinite gift is the gift of Faith! How many millions are deprived of the Sacraments, of sermons, of the examples of good companions, and of all the other helps to salvation which are found in the true Church! And God is resolved to give all these great helps to you without any merit on your part, and even with a foreknowledge of your demerits; for when He thought of creating you, and bestowing these graces upon you, He foresaw the insults you would offer to Him.
My Jesus, I am sorry for having offended Thee. Hitherto I have not known Thee. I now acknowledge Thee for my Lord and Redeemer, Who hast died to save me and to be loved by me. When, O my Jesus, shall I cease to be ungrateful to Thee? When shall I begin truly to love Thee with a true love? Behold, I this day resolve to love Thee with my whole heart, and to love nothing but Thee. O infinite Goodness, I adore Thee for all those who do not adore Thee, and I love Thee for all who do not love Thee. I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee, and offer my whole being to Thee. Assist me by Thy grace; Thou knowest my weakness. But if Thou didst bestow so many graces upon me when I neither loved nor desired to love Thee, how much greater graces should I hope for from Thy mercy now that I love Thee and desire only to love Thee! My Lord, give me Thy love, but a fervent love which will make me forget all creatures: a strong love, which will make me conquer all difficulties in order to please Thee; a constant love, which will never be dissolved between me and Thee. I hope for all graces through Thy merits, O my Jesus. And I hope for them through thy intercession, O my Mother, Mary.
Spiritual Reading
THE PRACTICE OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES
V. - PATIENCE
St. James says that Patience is the perfect work of a soul: Patience hath a perfect work (James i. 4). It is by Patience that we are to obtain Heaven. This world is the place for meriting, and hence not a place of repose, but of labour and suffering. For this end God has given us life, that by patience we may obtain the glory of Heaven. In this world all must have their sufferings: he who suffers with patience suffers less, and is saved; he who suffers with impatience, suffers more and is lost. Our Lord does not send us crosses that we may be lost, as certain impatient souls would tell us, but that we may be saved and merit greater glory in Heaven. Sorrows, adversities, and all other tribulations received with patience, become the most beautiful jewels in our heavenly crown. When, therefore, we are in affliction, let us take comfort and thank God for them, for it is a sign that God desires to save us. He chastises us in this life, in which chastisements are light and short, that He may spare us in the next, in which chastisements are grievous and eternal. Unhappy the sinner who is prosperous in this life! It is a sign that God reserves for him an eternal chastisement.
St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi says: "Pain, however great, becomes sweet when we look upon Jesus Christ on the Cross." St. Joseph Calasantius adds: "He gains not Jesus Christ who suffers not for Jesus Christ." He, then, who loves Jesus Christ, supports with patience all external crosses, infirmities, pains, poverty, dishonour, loss of parents and friends; and all interior crosses, anguish, weariness, temptations, and desolation of spirit; and suffers all in peace. On the contrary, what does he gain, who, in tribulations, becomes impatient and angry? He does but increase his sufferings, and lays up for himself greater sufferings for another life. St. Teresa writes: "The cross is felt by those who drag it by compulsion: but not by those who embrace it with a good will." Hence, St. Philip Neri says: "In this world there is no purgatory, but a heaven or a hell: heaven for those who patiently support tribulations, and hell for those who do not." To proceed to the practice.
First -- Patience must be practised in sickness. The time of illness tests the spirit of a man whether it be gold or lead. Some are all devotion and happiness when in good health; but when visited by some illness they lose patience, complain of everything, and give themselves up to melancholy, and commit a thousand other faults. The gold turns out to be lead! St. Joseph Calasantius said: "If the sick were patient, we should hear no more complaints." Some complain and say: "But as long as I am in this state, I cannot go to church, nor to Communion, nor to Mass; in short, I can do nothing." You say you can do nothing. You do everything when you do the will of God. Tell me, why do you want to do those things you mention? Is it to give pleasure to God? This is the pleasure of God, that you should embrace with patience all you have to endure, and should leave alone everything else that you wish to do. "God is served," writes St. Francis de Sales, "more by suffering for Him than by working for Him."
If in our sickness there be danger of death, then especially must we accept it with all patience, being willing to die should the end of our life be really at hand. Neither let us speak thus: "But I am not now prepared; I should like to live a little longer to do penance for my sins." And how do you know that if you were to live longer, you would do penance and not fall into greater sins? How many there are who, after recovering from some mortal illness, became worse than they were before, and were lost; while, perhaps, if they had died then, they would have been saved! If it is the will of God that you should leave this world, unite yourself to His holy will, and thank Him for giving you the help of the holy Sacraments, and accept death with tranquillity, abandoning yourself into the arms of His mercy. This compliance with the Divine will, by accepting death, will be sufficient to insure your eternal salvation.
In the second place, we must accept also with patience the death of relations and friends. Some on the death of a relation are so inconsolable, that they leave off saying their prayers, frequenting the Sacraments, and all their devotions. Such a one goes so far as even to be angry with God and to say: "Lord, why hast Thou done it!" What rashness this is! Tell me, what does all your grief profit you? Do you perhaps think to give pleasure to the dead friend? No. You displease both him and God. He desires that through his death you become more united to God, and pray for him if he be in Purgatory.
Evening Meditation
PRAYER
II. - ITS NECESSITY
I.
Let us reflect on the necessity of prayer. St. Chrysostom says that as the body without the soul is dead, so the soul without prayer is dead. He also teaches that as water is necessary for plants, so is prayer necessary to save us from perdition. God wills that all men should be saved (1 Tim. ii. 4) -- and wills not that any one be lost. The Lord... dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any one should perish, but that all should return to penance (2 Pet. iii. 9). But He also wishes that we ask Him for the graces necessary for salvation. For on the one hand, it is impossible for us to observe the Divine commands and save our souls without the actual assistance of God; and on the other, God will not, ordinarily speaking, give us His graces unless we ask them from Him. Hence the Holy Council of Trent has declared that God has not commanded impossibilities; because He either gives us the proximate and actual grace to fulfil His precepts, or He gives us the grace to ask Him for this actual assistance. St. Augustine teaches that God gives without prayer the first graces, such as vocation to the Faith and to repentance; but all other graces, and particularly the gift of perseverance, He gives only to those who ask them. Hence theologians teach, that for adults prayer is necessary as a means of salvation; so that, without prayers, it is impossible to be saved.
Ah, my Redeemer, how have I been able hitherto to live in such forgetfulness of Thee! Thou wert prepared to grant me all the graces I should ask of Thee; Thou didst only wait for me to ask them. But I have thought only of indulging my passions, and have been indifferent to the privation and loss of Thy love and Thy graces. Lord, forget my ingratitude, and have mercy on me. Pardon me all the displeasure I have given Thee, and grant me perseverance.
II.
The Scriptures are clear. For we read: We ought always to pray (Luke xviii. 1). Pray, lest ye enter into temptation (Luke xxii. 40). Ask and you shall receive (Jo. xvi. 24). Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. v. 17). The words we ought, pray, ask, according to St. Thomas and theologians generally, imply a strict precept which binds under grievous sin, particularly in three cases. First, when a person is in a state of sin; secondly, when he is in danger of death; and thirdly, when he is in great danger of falling into sin. Theologians teach that, ordinarily, he who neglects prayer for a month, or at most for two months, is guilty of a mortal sin. The reason is, because prayer is a means without which we cannot obtain the helps necessary for salvation.
Ask and you shall receive. He who asks receives: then, says St. Teresa, he who does not ask does not receive. And before, St. James said the same. You have not, because you ask not (James iv. 2). Prayer is particularly necessary to obtain the virtue of continence. And, said the Wise Man, as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent except God gave it... I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis. viii. 21). Let us conclude that he who prays is certainly saved; he who does not pray is certainly lost. All the elect are saved by prayer; all the damned are lost by neglect of prayer. And their greatest despair is, and shall be for ever, caused by the conviction, that they had it in their power to save their souls so easily by prayer, and that now the time of salvation is no more.
O God of my soul, give me the grace always to ask Thy aid not to offend Thee. Do not permit me to be, as I have hitherto been, negligent in the performance of this duty. Grant me light and strength always to recommend myself to Thee, and particularly when my enemies tempt me to offend Thee again. Grant, O my God, this grace through the merits of Jesus Christ, and through the love which Thou bearest to Him. O Lord, I have offended Thee enough. I wish to love Thee during the remainder of my life. Give me Thy love; and may this love remind me to ask Thy aid whenever I am in danger of losing Thee by sin. Mary, my hope after Jesus, through thy intercession I hope for the grace to recommend myself in all my temptations to thee and to thy Son. Hear me, O my Queen, through the love which thou bearest to Jesus Christ.
|
|
|
|
| LIVESTOCK mRNA |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-05-2023, 06:46 AM - Forum: Health
- No Replies
|
|
LIVESTOCK mRNA
Lunatic Farmer blog | February 4, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s DEFENDER has done us all a wonderful service by shining the light on the plethora of pharmaceutical efforts to create mRNA vaccines for livestock. I won’t reiterate all the companies and initiatives outlined in that report.
The important thing to realize is that the popular backlash against off-the-shelf livestock antibiotic use came to a halt in 2021; these medications now require a veterinarian’s prescription. Of course, plenty of unscrupulous veterinarians, working for industrial corporate companies, can write these in-house. And within the industry, almost nobody believes rampant antibiotic use posed any threats to humans. Their silo is simple: make cows grow faster. Or chickens or pigs or whatever. Plenty of livestock is still getting antibiotics.
When Bill Clinton was elected president and hired a French chef who promised “free range chicken” the conservative talk-show and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan interviewed me for his show. His first question: “What is different between your pastured chickens and the ones in regular industry houses?”
My quick reply: “Mine don’t do drugs.”
Pat: “Why do they use drugs?”
Me: “To make them grow faster . . .”
He interrupted (as talk radio hosts are wont to do): “What could possibly be wrong with making something grow faster?”
Folks, cancer is a fast growth. This idea that nature has no balance, that no ecological boundaries exist, that life manipulation and re-arrangement has no limiting protocols, is endemic in food-as-machine thinking. While consumer advocates celebrated a great victory by supposedly reducing antibiotic use in livestock, it fired up the vaccine industry. Have we traded the devil for the witch?
Post-covid, we now know that perhaps mRNA injections have more negative side effects than antibiotics. Like a lot of things, the higher the tech and the less accessible for the average person, the more catastrophic the side affects if things go awry. In other words, herbal remedies for covid would never cause myocardial infarction—heart attacks for most of us.
The livestock vaccine industry is exploding, much of it financed by taxpayer money through government initiatives. In other words, without taxpayer subsidies, these things would develop much slower. But as it is, public money stolen from you and me through confiscatory taxes is like throwing rum at a pirate. It makes them go wild.
Will the unintended consequences of mRNA injections in livestock be worse than MRSA and Cdiff, the most prominent superbugs created by antibiotic resistance? Nobody knows. Nature often doesn’t issue its progress report immediately. It takes awhile. Just like it takes awhile to know whether your parenting skills yielded kids that don’t go to jail.
Delayed reaction is baked into a lot of things, including technology and certainly including manipulative instruments below the cellular level. We’re not talking here about salves and ointments. How about instead of creating a $30 billion per year livestock mRNA industry, we create a livestock sector that’s fundamentally healthy, with a robust immune system? Doesn’t that sound like a better investment?
What we need is every fan of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to refuse to take their grandchildren to McDonald’s. Surely we can suffer a bit of inconvenience by refusing to patronize entities that think health comes out of an mRNA jab. If the 37 percent of the U.S. population that refused the covid jab would boycott all industrial food, it would completely collapse the industrial food complex. That’s certainly not as big a sacrifice as facing a death squad.
If you had $30 billion a year to invest in healthy livestock each year, how would you spend it?
|
|
|
|
| Report: Pope Francis to Rigorously Ban Roman Rite Priestly Ordinations |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-05-2023, 06:42 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
|
|
Good Luck: Francis to Rigorously Ban Roman Rite Priestly Ordinations
gloria.tv | February 4, 2023
Francis' looming document to further combat the Roman Liturgy contains an explicit "ban" on the administration of the sacraments and sacramentals according to the Pontificale Romanum, reports Summorum-Pontificum.de (4 February) with reference to Roman sources.
This means that baptism, marriage, confirmation and priestly ordination may only be performed in the Novus Ordo. The publication date is 3 April, the Monday of Holy Week and anniversary of the Constitution Missale Romanum, with which Paul VI invented the failed Eucharist.
The ban on priestly ordination also applies to Roman Rite communities, including the Fraternity of St Peter. Lower ordinations such as subdeacon ordination, which are abolished in the New Rite, are henceforth "forbidden".
Priests of the Roman Rite communities may now celebrate Mass without special permission only within their "canonically established" houses.
Summorum-Pontificum.de calls the decree an "undoubtedly 'unconstitutional' legislation of the Bergoglio Pope".
|
|
|
|
| Pope Francis Preaches Cheap Absolution |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-05-2023, 06:36 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
|
|
Francis Preaches Cheap Absolution
![[Image: x3kppluxy8kmos1vfk8585k6750655h7i1hikvq....ormat=webp]](https://assistant.gloria.tv/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/x3kppluxy8kmos1vfk8585k6750655h7i1hikvq.webp?secure=j_qLxF4m6C-6zBL-5TCwNg&expires=1676605508&format=webp)
gloria.tv | February 3, 2023
In a February 3 speech to the bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Francis made a mockery of the sacrament of confession.
He urged the bishops to “be merciful” and to “always forgive” [only politically correct sins]. Francis never forgives when someone is a Catholic.
“When a member of the faithful goes to confession, he or she comes to seek forgiveness, to ask for the Father’s caress," he romanticised the faithful and accused the priests, "We, pointing an accusing finger, say: ‘How many times? And how did you do it?’ No, not that."
According to this advice, confessions would become an empty ritual and the priest a machine who produces cheap "absolutions."
Falling prey to his usual confusion, Francis insisted that we must observe Canon Law, "because it is important, BUT the shepherd's heart goes beyond that! Take a risk. Take a risk on the side of forgiveness. Always. Always forgive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
Cheap absolutions are not a risk but clerical laziness.
|
|
|
|
| Abp. Viganò: Our Lady’s humility is an intolerable affront to the ‘pride and disobedience’ of Satan |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-03-2023, 11:23 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
- Replies (1)
|
|
Abp. Viganò: Our Lady’s humility is an intolerable affront to the ‘pride and disobedience’ of Satan
Catholics know well that giving the veneration of hyperdulia to the Virgin does not detract from the worship of latria owed to the Divine Majesty,
but rather favors the Son through His most august Mother, in whom He has worked wonders.
(LifeSiteNews) — The following is Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s sermon on the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
LUMEN AD REVELATIONEM
Homily of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
On the Feast of the Purification of Mary Most Holy
Tu es qui restitues hæreditatem meam mihi.
It is you who will restore my inheritance to me. Ps 15: 5
My Eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people. With these words, the aged Simeon praises the Lord for having granted him the privilege of being able to witness the fulfillment of the Prophecies, being able to hold in his arms the Infant Messiah, brought to the Temple to be circumcised according to the prescriptions of the Old Law. That short but profound canticle is repeated every night at Compline, because the prayer that the Church recites at the end of each day prepares us for the end of our earthly exile with our faces turned towards Our Lord.
Today’s feast was dedicated, up until the reform of 1962, to the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, and it was therefore a Marian recurrence of a penitential nature, as evidenced by violet-colored vestments; just as the rite of Purification which all Jewish mothers had to undergo forty days after giving birth was penitential (Lev 12:2). Holy Church also preserves in the Rituale Romanum the special Blessing for Mothers who have given birth, which has now fallen into disuse but which it would be a pious practice to restore in its spiritual significance. Just as for the rite of the Baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan, so also the rite of Purification did not strictly have sense or utility for Mary Most Holy, since she is Most Pure and without sin in virtue of her Immaculate Conception. By her submission to the Law then in force, Our Lady gives us an example of obedience to religious precepts, so that we may not forget that we are children of wrath and that we merit Grace only because of the infinite merits that Our Savior acquired for us through His Passion and Death on the Cross.
The reform of Roncalli – which was worked on by many of the same experts who worked on the reform of Holy Week under Pius XII and then on the entire corpus liturgicum with the Montinian rite – changed the name of the feast from the Purification of the Blessed Virgin to the Presentation in the Temple of Our Lord. The motivation was to set the celebration in a Christocentric light – something in itself licit and which was therefore welcomed by parish priests. In reality, the purpose of the authors of the 1962 reform was to open the conciliar Overton window, inaugurated with the Ordo Hebdomadæ Sanctæ instauratus. The unmentionable purpose, which for this reason was to be kept strictly concealed so as not to compromise future developments, consisted in weakening the cult of the Virgin and the Saints – as can be seen, for example, from the reclassification of the feasts of the Sanctoral Cycle – in a pro-Protestant mode. We understand then how, under the guise of a harmless and doctrinally acceptable change, the desire was not so much to emphasize the centrality of Our Lord in the liturgical cycle as to use it as a pretext to exclude the Mother of God, who was considered an obstacle to ecumenical dialogue. Thus, by small steps, the innovators succeeded in making the doctrine of the Mediation and Co-redemption of Mary Most Holy be forgotten, without explicitly denying it.
Catholics know well that giving the veneration of hyperdulia to the Virgin does not detract from the worship of latria owed to the Divine Majesty, but rather favors the Son through His most august Mother, in whom He has worked wonders: quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est. Instead, heretics show their horror even at simply naming Our Lady, because Her humility and obedience constitute an intolerable affront to the pride and disobedience of Satan, their father. And if in His infinite wisdom the Lord wanted the Immaculate Virgin to trample on the head of the ancient Serpent, why should we pretend – as Protestants do – to deal directly with Him, despising the powerful Mediatrix that He gave us at the foot of the Cross as Mother and Advocate? Would we not offend the Lord by treating with little regard and distrust the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people?
Let us leave aside these observations and meditate on the Mysteries of this feast, in which the true Religion triumphs over superstition, replacing the previous pagan feasts with the Rite of the Blessing of Candles. Pope Saint Gelasius wanted to institute this feast because at the end of the 5th century there were still people in Rome given over to the worship of idols, carrying torches through the city. Christ, Lux Mundi, therefore reappropriates the symbol of light which the pagans had usurped from Him. In this sense, it is significant to recall the mystical interpretation of Saint Anselm: the wax, he says, the work of bees, is the flesh of Christ; the wick, which is within, is the soul; and the flame, which shines in the upper part, is the divinity. Flesh, soul, divinity: the union of these elements permitted Our Lord to redeem us as the Head of the human race, expiating the infinite offense of Adam thanks to the infinite value of His Sacrifice, the very Sacrifice of the Man-God, offered to the Majesty of the Father in reparation for Original Sin and for all the faults committed by men until the end of time.
Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum, quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum, says Simeon. Salvation is an event extended to all and, unlike the Chosen People, the Christian people are not distinguished by race, but by adoption. It is in fact by our Baptism that we are constituted children of God, His heirs and joint heirs with Christ, as Saint Paul says (Rom 8:14-19) and as the Psalmist sings: The Lord is my inheritance and my cup (Ps 15:5). This is why salvation has been prepared in the sight all peoples; this is why all peoples are called to know, worship and serve the true God. Laudate Dominum omnes gentes (Ps 116:1), et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae; omnes gentes servient ei (Ps 71:11).
Lumen ad revelationem gentium, et gloriam plebis tuæ Israël. The revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of the People of God – which is the Holy Church – are intimately linked: without preaching there is no revelation; and without revelation there is no glory for the heavenly Jerusalem, for the new Israel. But if the infidelities of the Synagogue in recognizing the light of Christ have caused its fall and the dispersion of its children, how much greater will be the dishonor for those who live under the New and Eternal Covenant, are reborn in Christ and resurrected with Him, but do not preach the salvation that God has accomplished through the Passion of His divine Son?
When Our Lord encountered the scribes in the Temple, explaining to them the meaning of the Scriptures and in particular showing them how the prophecies were fulfilled in Him, the Synagogue was still faithful to the Covenant with God. But when He was denounced by the Sanhedrin to Pontius Pilate with the accusation of blasphemy – having proclaimed Himself as God – so that he would be put to death, the High Priests had denied the Faith, blinded by the fear of losing their prestige with the coming of the Messiah, whom the Jews considered not only as a spiritual Savior, but also and above all a temporal and political one. Their apostasy led them to silence those truths contained in the Old Testament which disavowed their attempt to adapt religion to the convenience of time and circumstances, and which so many stern admonitions had merited from the last Prophets of Israel. The Jewish people, held in ignorance by the religious authority of the time, were certainly disoriented and scandalized, since their simple Faith taught them that the time had come for the birth of the Messiah in the city of Bethlehem. This is why an entire priestly caste – the tribe of Levi – was dispersed with the destruction of the Temple by Emperor Titus: even today the children of the Synagogue are scattered throughout the world without a place of worship, and also without being able to reconstruct the genealogy of the Levites to celebrate the sacrifices. A terrible destiny of a people, because of the betrayal of its priests!
And yet, faced with the evidence of the severity with which the Lord judges His Ministers, especially when they fail in their sacred duties and deceive the faithful, the clerics of the New Covenant seem to consider all too lightly their own shortcomings, their own infidelities, and their own silence before those who proclaim error and deny or remain silent about the Truth. In them we find the same hybris, the same foolish presumption to defy Heaven, which is irremissibly punished with nemesis, the fatal punisher of the abuse of authority and pride. May the tyrants of this world, invested with civil and ecclesiastical offices, and those who pay them servile homage for fear of appearing to go against the tide or of being pointed out as “rigid,” “fundamentalist,” not “inclusive” and “divisive” remember this well, and also those who, fraudulently using an authority for the opposite purpose to that which legitimizes it, believe they can lord it over their subjects: dies nil inultum remanebit.
Let us therefore approach the Holy Sacrifice with the holy Fear of God, purifying ourselves from sin through frequent recourse to Confession and reciting the Act of Contrition with repentant hearts as soon as we commit any fault. May our spiritual disposition to amend ourselves and make ourselves less unworthy of the Divine Mysteries help us to welcome the Blessed Sacrament with recollection and fervor in Eucharistic Communion: may the Light of Christ illumine our minds in these moments of trial and inflame our hearts with the love of Charity, so that we may in turn be a light to illuminate the peoples. May our lives be a daily testimony of being true children of God, so that we may be able to exclaim with the Psalmist: the Lord is my inheritance and my cup.
And so may it be.
|
|
|
|
| Latest anti-Christian attack in Jerusalem’s Church of the Flagellation |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-03-2023, 08:54 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
- Replies (1)
|
|
Custody bemoans latest anti-Christian attack in Jerusalem’s Church of the Flagellation
![[Image: IMG_0892.jpg]](https://www.asianews.it/files/img//IMG_0892.jpg)
asianews.it - adapted | February 2, 2023
This morning, a 40-year-old American Jew slammed with a hammer a statue of Jesus in the Chapel of Condemnation at the first stop on the Via Dolorosa. Arrested by police, he remains under observation pending psychiatric evaluation. Custody releases a statement lamenting a series of attacks against Christians in a climate of widespread sectarian hate.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – The Custody of the Holy Land issued a statement signed by Custos Fr Francesco Patton and Secretary Fr Alberto Joan Pari following an attack this morning at 8.30 am in the Chapel of the Condemnation, Church of the Flagellation, in the Old City of Jerusalem, the first stop of the "Via Dolorosa".
“We follow with concern and strongly condemn this growing succession of serious acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community in Israel,” reads the statement.
The latest act of vandalism was carried out by an American Jewish tourist, who was stopped by a church employee after damaging with a hammer a statue of Christ. Handed over to the police, he is being held pending a psychiatric evaluation.
This hate crime follows a series of attacks directed against Christians in Israel in the last month.
According to the police, the culprit, a 40-year-old man, entered the church, tore down a statue of Jesus and defaced it. The church’s door keeper immediately immobilised him until police arrived.
A group of Jewish extremists was initially blamed, but in the end only one person was involved. Still, this does not mean that what happened today is less serious as it is linked to a broader climate.
“It is no coincidence that the legitimization of discrimination and violence in public opinion and in the current Israeli political environment also translates into acts of hatred and violence against the Christian community,” the Custody’s statement goes on to say.
In light of this, “We expect and demand that the Israeli government and law enforcement agencies act decisively to guarantee security for all communities, to guarantee the protection of religious minorities and to eradicate religious fanaticism. We specifically refer to these serious incidents of intolerance, crimes of hatred, and vandalism directed against Christians in Israel.”
Recently, religiously motivated incidents have been growing, not to mention violence between Israelis and Palestinians (fuelled by acts like Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's walk at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound).
At least five incidents involve Christians. As the Custody noted, religious Jews attacked tourists last week, “death to Christians” was scribbled on the walls of a monastery, and a Maronite centre in the northern city of Ma'alot was vandalised.
Today's incident in the Old City of Jerusalem is thus but the latest in a long series, some marked “price tags”, ostensibly by Jewish settlers or extremists.
Earlier this year, Jewish extremists desecrated a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion, before that they struck several other targets, including the church near the Upper Room (Cenacle), the basilica in Nazareth as well as other Catholic and Greek Orthodox buildings. Mosques and other Muslim places of worship have also been targeted.
“Price tag” refers to the practice by Israeli extremists to exact a “price” from Christians and Muslims for "taking their land”. It began in areas bordering the West Bank and Jerusalem, but now has spread to much of the country.
|
|
|
|
| The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent |
|
Posted by: Stone - 02-02-2023, 08:44 AM - Forum: Lent
- Replies (5)
|
|
The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent
Part 1
NLM - adapted | February 10, 2017
This article by Henri de Villiers was originally published in French on the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile in 2014. It will be reproduced here in my English translation in a few parts, since it is fairly long, and definitely worth a careful read. In it, Henri examines the universal Christian tradition of the preparatory period before Lent in the various forms in which it is practiced by the Eastern and Western churches.
In all ancient Christian liturgies, one finds a period of preparation for the great fast of Lent, during which the faithful are informed of the arrival of this major season of the liturgical year, so that they can slowly begin the ascetical exercises that will accompany them until Easter. This preparatory period before Lent generally lasts for three weeks. In the Roman Rite, these three Sundays are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, names which derive from a system used in antiquity, counting the periods of ten days within which each of these Sundays falls. They precede the first Sunday of Lent, which is called Quadragesima in Latin.
The churches of the Syriac and Coptic tradition have preserved an older state of things, comprising shorter periods of fasting, the fast of the Ninevites, and the fast of Heraclius, which are probably the starting point for the presence of Fore-Lent in the other rites.
The reminder of human fragility, the meditation on the last things, and consequently, prayer for the dead, are recurrent elements of this liturgical season.
Inexplicably, the modern rite of Paul VI suppressed Fore-Lent from its liturgical year, notwithstanding its antiquity and universality.
The Origins of Fore-Lent: The Fast of the Ninevites
“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: ‘Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord: now Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. And the men of Nineveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Nineveh from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying, ‘Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?’ And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.” (Jonah 3)
To commemorate the fast of the Ninevites, the churches of Syria instituted a fast which runs from Monday of the third week before the beginning of Lent (the Monday after the Roman Septuagesima). These days are called “Baʻūṯá d-Ninwáyé” in Syriac, which can be translated as the Rogation (or Supplication) of the Ninevites. It seems that this fast initially lasted the whole week, more precisely, from Monday to Friday, since fasting on Saturday and Sunday are unknown to the Orient. (However, abstinence without fast may continue through these days.) The fast of Nineveh was eventually reduced to three days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while Thursday became a “day of thanksgiving of the Ninevites” in the Assyro-Chaldean rite. Traditionally, the number of these three days of fasting is explained by the three days passed by Jonah in the whale. This fast of Nineveh, which is very strict, is still kept by the various Syriac churches of both the Eastern tradition (the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syro-malabar churches) and of the Western (Syriac churches). The book of Jonah is read, among the Assyro-Chaldeans, at the Divine Liturgy of the third day. This fast remains very popular; some of the faithful drink and eat nothing at all for the three days. Alone among the church of the Syriac tradition, the Maronite Church no longer has the fast of the Ninevites properly so- called, but has adopted the arrangement which we will discuss later on of the three weeks of preparation for Great Lent.
The Egyptian Coptic Church, and likewise the Ethiopian, received from the Syrian churches this custom of the Supplication of the Ninevites. In the Coptic liturgy, these three day of rogation in memory of the Fast of Nineveh, also called “the fast of Jonah,” strictly follow the liturgical uses of Lent: the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated after Vespers, the hymns are sung in the Lenten tone, without cymbals, and the readings are taken from the lectionary of Lent. The fast of Nineveh was adopted by the Coptic Church under the 62nd Patriarch of Alexandria, Abraham (or Ephrem, 975-78), who was of Syrian origin. It is possible that it was adopted more anciently in Ethiopia; the first bishop of Axum, St Frumentius, was of Syrian origin, and the Church of Ethiopia was reorganized in the 6th century by a group of nine Syrian Saints, who contributed enormously to the evangelization of the Ethiopiam countryside. The fast of Nineveh (Soma Nanawe) is very strict for them, and no one is dispensed from it.
To what period does the fast of the Ninevites belong among the Syrians? Certain things indicate that it was probably practiced very anciently. Saint Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, composed hymns on the fast of the Ninevites; it seems that it lasted a week in that period, and not three days as it does today. The Armenian church has a fast of Nineveh that lasts for five days, beginning on the same Monday as the Syrians, and ends on the following Friday, on which the appeal of Jonah to the Ninevites is mentioned. This is also a full week of fasting, since the Armenians also do not fast on Saturday or Sunday, a constant in the East. These days have a fast and strict abstinence like that of Lent, and Armenian writers claim that it was established by St Gregory the Illuminator at the time of the general conversion of the Armenians in 301. It is likely that St Gregory simply continued a custom already in use among the neighboring Syrian Christians. The institution of this fast, which seems to be ancient among the Assyro-Chaldeans, may then have passed (or been reestablished) in the 6th century among their Syrian Jacobite cousins at the behest of St Maruthua, the Jacobite Catholicos of Tagrit, during a plague in the region of Nineveh. It is possible that its reduction to a fast of three days instead of a week also dates to this period.
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: IMG_0893.jpg]](https://www.asianews.it/files/img/size2/IMG_0893.jpg)
![[Image: IMG_0894.JPG]](https://www.asianews.it/files/img/size2/IMG_0894.JPG)
![[Image: 01%2BJonah.png]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hob_FT_FGNo/WJ4S-bQOLvI/AAAAAAAAKtI/a09DqlJ76ykOJiRB9OfUxKCkKYYy6M3XACLcB/s400/01%2BJonah.png)
![[Image: 02%2BNine%2BSaints.png]](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hs9z0ss7Dlg/WJ4TInJ_JnI/AAAAAAAAKtM/aFcAMKQpRpkfy24O321L1UMOEgQgdGeegCLcB/s400/02%2BNine%2BSaints.png)
![[Image: 03%2BSt%2BGregory%2Bthe%2BIlluminator.png]](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zw7QLrifg6I/WJ4TZucCg6I/AAAAAAAAKtQ/JwQRXEoBapYblcEP4QN1Nhcc6rC7fa1tgCLcB/s400/03%2BSt%2BGregory%2Bthe%2BIlluminator.png)
